A Shepherd's Song

2010-06-19T20:02:00.001-06:00

2010-06-19T20:00:00.000-06:00

That's Love

2010-04-02T11:10:00.001-06:00

Another 'Friday' video...

Produced by Central Christian Church in Las Vegas

It's Friday...But Sunday's Comin

2010-04-02T09:49:00.000-06:00

Once again, it's Friday...

A Civil Discourse on Healthcare Reform

2009-08-15T15:07:00.010-06:00

I have posted a couple of notes on Facebook that reflect my belief that Christians are called to a high standard of integrity in discussion and debate of divisive issues - Health Care Reform being the current issue - and my disgust at at the propaganda and disregard of the truth that characterizes much of the current debate. At the end of this post are some links to nonpartisan sites that attempt to present balanced and accurate information. If you are still reading this, I hope that you will take the time to visit some or all of these sites to inform or reinforce your own opinions on the topic.

A few of my own observations on Health Care Reform...

Any definitive statement on what is or is not included in the bill is pure conjecture at this point. When Congress recessed, there were a number of bills and proposals in various stages of the process, but as of now, there is no voteable bill in either house.
I do not believe that there is any question that some form of reform is needed. There are parts of our system that are the best in the world, but there are also millions of working Americans who cannot afford to fully access the system. (Not to mention the millions of God's other children within our borders that are somehow undeserving of access to basic health care)
I'm probably not the most politically astute observer, but this is an issue that should transcend partisan politics. It seems to me that President Obama, in trying to get something done while he still has/had the momentum that comes with being newly elected has attempted to get something done too quickly to be the quality reform that is needed; it also seems to me that much of the conservative opposition stems more from the motivation of derailing Obama's presidency than from actual disagreement on the issues.
President Obama outlined eight principles for health care reform in his FY 2010 Budget overview. I can't find much among these to disagree with....

Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government.
Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs.
Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans.
Invest in prevention and wellness.
Improve patient safety and quality care.
Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans.
Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job.
End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Of course, the devil is in the details, and when the details are being defined by congress the resulting sausage may not be edible to anyone. But if the prevailing shouting continues to obscure the details, we will never know.

Below are the links to the sites mentioned earlier...I hope they provide some clarity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/health/policy/10facts.html

“A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform” from The New York Times, published August 9, 2009.

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm

This regularly-updated site from the Kaiser Family Foundation compares the different reform proposals on the table.

http://factcheck.org/

Factcheck.org is devoted to nonpartisan myth-busting and truth-telling.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/07/14/20090714gan-healthcare-spin14-ON.html

A summary of factcheck.org’s research into several of the arguments surrounding health-care reform, published July 14, 2009.

http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/8_myths_about_health_care_reform.html

8 Myths about Health Care Reform from the AARP Magazine, published July/August 2009.

Living in the Kingdom

2009-08-08T22:22:00.002-06:00

John Mark Hicks writes more prolifically than I can read and keep up with, but has a way of explaining some complex theological issues in a way that makes sense. Here is a sample from a post he wrote on 'Eschatology'...

The new age has already begun. We do not merely receive this gift, but we become participants in it. Just as in the beginning God created us as co-rulers (or, vice-regents) and co-creators, so even now we reign with Christ and are invited to pursue our original vocation. We are called to be instruments of the kingdom of God in the present as we anticipate the fullness of the future reality.

This vocation is more than pastors, shepherds, evangelists or deacons. This vocation is more than functioning as a “church member.” This vocation is our identity as imagers of Christ, co-rulers with Christ.

Through this vocation we become instruments of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. As environmental scientists, we protect and care for the creation. As medical personnel, we heal the brokenness in the world. As lawyers, we pursue justice. As economists, we work toward the elimination of poverty. As farmers, we feed the hungry. As debt collectors, we protect the debtor from abuse but seek justice for the creditor. As IT workers, we bring order to chaos and increase effectiveness. This is practicing the kingdom of God.

D Day

2009-06-06T13:38:00.002-06:00

Thank You.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T11:33:00.002-06:00

Reposted from Memorial Day, 2006 - A speech given by my grandfather at a Memorial Day service in Cameron, WVa, on Memorial Day in 1953.
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Mr. Chairman, Beloved and respected defenders of our America in the struggles of the past and in the present bloody war. Ladies and gentlemen - It is not necessary that I explain the object of our service today. Its purpose is engrafted on your memory as one of our most cherished privileges. The privilege of a free people, scattering the tokens of undying love upon the graves of those who made the supreme sacrifice and honoring the memories of those whose bodies are in the embrace of mother earth in foreign lands or sleeping in the bosom of the mighty deep.

And although it is not possible to erase from our memories the terrible realities of war, yet we can raise our hearts in thanksgiving and appreciation. And as we bow our heads in honor of our brave boys and girls, we feel at the same time the tenderest sentiment of a great sorrow. And the gladness of a greatful heart.

We mourn and yet we rejoice. We uncover our heads as a token of true solemnity, and yet we bless the courage of these defenders of the Grandest Nation on earth America.

Who can point to a more noble purpose than to meet as we meet today?

And as I look over this audience I see the same true spirit outlined in your countenance as they manifest in their service. I see the same sentiment of loyalty. I see in the flush of the cheek your willingness to do and to dare in defence of the flag we love.

We are all endowed with the same loyalty to our government, the same determination to protect it and the same courage to defend it. As a people we are grand in government, grand in prosperity, and grand in achievement. Alone we stand upon the foundation of our greatness. But it is not enough that we proclaim our greatness. There is more for all of us to do. And as we meet together on this Memorial Day, let us renew our devotion to our government and so educate our people that our American form of government will never decay.

May we ever appreciate the heritage bequeathed to us on the altar of sacrifice. And may we realize the sacredness of that loyalty which binds us together up on the plain of equal rights. We know our greatness and let us, by a just and righteous conduct, cherish it.

The strength of true greatness depends upon the basic principles of honesty and justice. It was these principles that won for us the glorious independence of this nation. It was these that governed the makers of our constitution, and it is these same principles which must govern our future acts if we would maintain the proud position we hold among other nations. Only five remain who fought in the civil war. They range in age from 105 to 110 years. But later, thirty-five years ago there went forth from their homes thousands of fine young men. They crossed the rolling deep and pitched their tents in Flanders fields and in the Valley of the Argonne.

They lived in dugouts. They marched and ate and slept in mud. They rushed into living hells. They were cold, weary and homesick, no one but Almighty God knows the length and breadth and the depth of the awful anguish and suffering of those who fought and died on those European battle fields.

Then again in world war two the call came for defenders of our sacred rights, and your boys and mine answered that call with the same undaunted courage and the same unquenchable spirit that characterized the brave lads of 76, of the Spanish American war, and the boys of world war one - They went forth, met and conquered the enemy in the skys over Europe, in the mud of Italy, in the jungled islands of the Pacific, and in the frozen north land. And today our brave boys are fighting in the jungles of Korea against the most barbarous and uncivilized enemy we can imagine.

Why do young men postpone the day of marriage, print the last long lingering kiss on the lips of a loved one and rush into war with its uncertain future? Why do fathers and mothers bid their boys and girls a fond goodbye and send them forth to the many battle fronts? I am sure they did it for a principle.

There has never been an upward movement in the history of the world for the liberation of the people of the earth that has not been achieved by the shedding of precious blood. Mans forward march from lower to higher ideals is written on the roadways of history in foot prints of blood. And today the souls of men and women are being tried all because the power seeking dictators of the world would regiment and enslave the peoples of the entire world. And turn their God ordained libery into slavery.

Religious liberty, domestic security, social welfare, and political independence are all thrown into the balance. And our boys have cast their lives in the scales to maintain these blessings. These blessings can only be enjoyed so long as we have proper regard for a divine being. God is on the ocean, on the desert, on the isles of the sea and in the frigid north land. As well as in the U.S. For the nations and kingdoms that will not serve Thee shall perish. Yea these nations shall be utterly wasted. Isa 60:12

We make the sacrifice because we love our country and her institutions. And when our eyes behold that emblem of our national existence, we feel as though we could clasp its folds in our dearest embrace, and kiss each star that bedecks its field of blue. Flag of our fathers. Flag of our Washington, our Lincoln, our Douglas, our Grant. Flag of our brave men in their present conflict. As we see it floating on the wind of Heaven we feel and know what it represents.

We stand before you in awe and admiration while in our hearts we thank God that you still float over us the emblem of liberty and freedom - God bless America.

From the Depths of My Soul

2009-05-03T12:38:00.004-06:00

From the depths of my soul I cry out.
Lord can you hear me? Have mercy O God!
From the depths of my soul I cry out.
In the midst of the sea I cry out.
Save me! The water is over my head.
In the midst of the sea I cry out.
There is a time to mourn, There is a time to weep.
There is a time for sorrow when deep calls to deep.
In my moments of grief I cry out.
Have you forgotten me? Where are you Lord?
In my moments of grief I cry out.
From the depths of my soul I cry out:
Still I will praise you, Lord!
....Randy Gill

Dennis Rine and I grew up together; his parents and my parents are friends; his daughter Micah and my daughter Lauren were the same age and knew each other from years at Camp Tahkodah. I cannnot even imagine the pain and grief that he and Terri are experiencing right now. I am helpless to do anything but pray. And so my prayer is for Dennis and Terri, for their son Casey, for Floyd and Patty, for Penny and Tim and their families; my words fail me but my spirit groans within me; my prayer is for the Pate family, and my prayer is for Thomas; my prayer is for all of their friends who are grieving and heartbroken; and my prayer is for all of the heartbroken and hopeless people in this world.

From the depths of my soul I cry out, Have mercy, O God! Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Britain's Got Talent Judges Do It Again

2009-04-19T22:53:00.007-06:00

You may or may not have heard of Paul Potts, but in 2007 he won the Britain's Got Talent contest. The judges initially treated him with a bit of disdain when he walked onto the stage, but when he began singing...

This year Susan Boyle has had a similar experience...You might think that the judges would have learned, but then you also might think that we would learn from our own bad judgments...

Tea Party Reflection #2

2009-04-19T21:13:00.006-06:00

The second image that stuck with me was that of Governor Rick Perry quoting Sam Houston. It struck me as extremely ironic that a governor whose actions and attitudes remind more of Santa Anna than those of Texas first governor, Sam Houston, should choose to quote Houston in support of the state's right to secede from the union. Houston was removed as governor for refusing to support Texas' secession during the Civil War.

Perry was re-elected as governor in 2006 with only 39% of the vote, and he has vetoed more legislation in a single session than any other governor in Texas history. His own party has drafted a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to return to override a governor's veto. Another bit of irony considering that one of the primary grievances leading to the original tea party was taxation without representation.

I would not presume to question the motives of the thousands of people who participated in 'tea parties' this past week. Concern about the federal deficit is a legitimate concern. (I am at least hopeful that President Obama's long term budget eliminates the deficit - I hope he is able to rise above the partisanship of both parties and accomplish that.) I can't help but wonder, however, where they were during the past 8 years as the deficit grew to record levels...

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Speaking of Boston (a natural leap from tea parties), Lauren, her fiance Jeremy, and Jeremy's sister Rachel are running in tomorrow's 113th Boston Marathon.

Tea Party Reflection #1

2009-04-19T20:38:00.005-06:00

In all of the news reports covering the 'tea parties' around the country this past Wednesday, there were 2 images that stuck with me. The first was of a woman being interviewed who stated that she had made a certain amount of money this past year and that she wanted to keep it - she did not want the government taking it to give to people who had not earned it.

This morning's scripture reading was from the 15th chapter of Deuteronomy, and as I heard these words I could not help but contrast in my mind the attitude described here against that of the woman on the news....

"If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, "The seventh year, the year of remission, is near," and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land."

Under the Passover Moon

2009-04-09T07:11:00.002-06:00

The following excerpt from the book Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of the Jesus can Transform Your Faith appeared in today's Daily Heartlight.

The full moon of Passover stared down at Jesus, its light filtering through the shivering leaves of the olive trees, their branches trembling in the early April breeze. Despite the evening chill, sweat glistened on his forehead. Still praying, he stood and then peered into the darkness, listening to a distant murmur of voices. One of his own talmidim, Judas, was approaching. Trailing him was a mob of soldiers, snaking up the hill.

Under a nearby tree, Peter, James, and John were lying in a heap. Twice, Jesus had pleaded with them to stay awake, asking them to keep vigil with him on this, the most difficult night of his life. Yet there they were, wrapped in their heavy woolen talits, mouths agape and snoring softly, oblivious of the approaching threat ...

They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here until I have prayed." And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch." And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will." And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him (Mark 14:32-40 NASB).

Whenever I think back to this scene from Gethsemane, I can't help but wonder about Jesus' narcoleptic disciples. How could they have fallen asleep when their beloved rabbi had implored them to stay awake and remain alert? How could they have nodded off when the climax of salvation history was about to take place? I couldn't imagine a satisfactory answer, and this was just one of many questions that filled my head whenever I thought back to that fateful week.

I remembered previous Palm Sunday services I had attended, where only minutes after the children stream down the aisles, joyously waving palm branches to celebrate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the mood shifts, turning solemn as the gospel account of the passion is read.

Why were the crowds in Jerusalem so fickle, adoring Jesus one week and then hating him the next? And why, I wondered, did Jesus choose a Passover Seder to celebrate the last meal of his life?

Fast forward two thousand years, to the fellowship hall of my church, on the afternoon of the Thursday before Easter, known as Maundy Thursday. We are setting up for a Passover Seder. As Gentile amateurs, we are doing our best to recreate the Last Supper, giving ourselves a chance to meditate on its significance. Perfect historical accuracy isn't the point. Our goal is to relive a little of Jesus' final evening with his disciples so that we can better appreciate the Maundy Thursday service.

All afternoon the church kitchen bustles with clattering pans and chitchat as we hurry about our tasks, cutting parsley, boiling eggs, and spooning horseradish onto plates. When we finally sit down, I am famished. The time ticks by as I endure the long Seder liturgy, with just a bite of parsley dipped in salt water and dry, cardboard-like matzah (unleavened bread) smeared with horseradish to tide me over.

When we finally dig into our simple meal of lamb stew, I devour my humble feast! Afterward, I hurriedly help with clean up and then slip into the back of the service, which has already begun. The liturgy is mournful and solemn. The events of the day have taken their toll on me -- the non-stop preparations, beginning the Seder feeling famished, and then overeating to compensate. I feel a crushing lethargy sweep over me. Over the next hour, the sanctuary lights gradually dim to complete darkness. I can barely see through shuttering eyelids. As the service rolls on, I rouse with a start. Did someone call my name? I can almost hear the disappointment in Jesus' voice. "Could you not watch with me just one hour?"

I had always thought the crowds unimaginably fickle. Suddenly, I understood why the disciples found it so hard to stay awake! And they had an even better excuse than I had. Traditional Passover celebrations involved a huge meal plus four cups of wine, and they started at sunset and went well past midnight. What's more, they took place after several days of exhausting travel and preparation. Certainly everybody in Jerusalem would have wanted to crawl straight into bed after their late-night feast. Aware of this perennial problem, the rabbis ruled that a person who dozed lightly could remain a part of the dinner, but anyone who fell sound asleep could not.

Our amateurish attempt at reliving the Last Supper led to other insights on the final hours of Jesus' life. I realized, for instance, why the leaders had plotted to arrest Jesus after the Passover meal. A man so wildly popular couldn't have been arrested in broad daylight. To avoid an uprising, the chief priests had to proceed in secret. So they let Judas lead them to Jesus while he was outside the city. Passover was the perfect choice, because every Jewish family would be
celebrating the feast that started at sundown.

Jesus' arrest and trial proceeded swiftly, occurring during the wee hours, when most of his supporters were in bed. Peter's denials happened as the rooster crowed, around four or five in the morning. According to Mark's Gospel, Jesus' final sentence was handed down at sunrise (Mark 15:1). One has to ask, what group of people were around at the crack of dawn on a major Jewish holiday to shout crucify him? Mostly corrupt priests and Roman soldiers who wanted to kill Jesus.

But there's more. Jesus was crucified at nine in the morning -- the time of the first Temple service of the day! The authorities knew they had to finish their secret trial before the crowds re-entered the city. And indeed, as Jesus was carrying his cross out of town, his supporters reappear, weeping out loud as they see him being led to his death (Luke 23:27). His followers had just learned of the events that had transpired the night before.

Prior to our Passover Seder, I had always thought the crowds unimaginably fickle, cheering Jesus one day and then shouting for his head the next. But Jesus' supporters never changed their minds! How could they have when they were not even present at his arrest or trial? The entire plot unfolded after the Passover festivities, while most people were sound asleep.
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(c) 2009 Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg.

Set Forth Your Case

2009-03-19T18:28:00.002-06:00

The Covenant Men's book club is currently reading The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. This quote from Clark Pinnock is a simple summary of the topic and caught my attention...

For the Scriptures then, the existence of God is both a historical truth (God acted into history), and an existential truth (God reveals himself to every soul). His existence is both objectively and subjectively evident. It is necessary logically because our assumption of order, design, and rationality rests upon it. It is necessary morally because there is no explanation for the shape of morality apart from it. It is necessary emotionally because the human experience requires an immediate and ultimate environment. It is necessary personally because the exhaustion of all material possibilities still cannot give satisfaction to the heart. The deepest proof for God's existence, apart from history, is just life itself. God has created man in his image, and men cannot elude the implications of this fact. Everywhere their identity pursues them. Ultimately, there is no escape. ... Clark H. Pinnock

Every Person We Meet

2009-03-07T15:40:00.004-06:00

One of the 5 principles that we have adopted at Skillman as part of our effort to become more missional is "Every person we meet is created and loved by God". The following is the lesson I wrote for our life groups to use as a basis of discussion.

Dwelling In the Word – Luke 7:18-22
18 The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. 19 Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?" 20 When the men came to Him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, `Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?' " 21 At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And He answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

I was in Austin a couple of years ago attending the annual Texas Association of School Administrators Midwinter Conference. Austin suffers from severe traffic congestion, and with the legislature in session, plus a thousand school superintendents and about twice that many more other administrators the problem was magnified. One afternoon it took more than twenty minutes to drive the mile from the convention center to my hotel. People were typically impatient and all seemed to be in a hurry to get where they were going.

As I pulled up to the light at my exit, there was a shabbily dressed woman walking from car to car with a sign asking for money. As she came near, I made eye contact with her and smiled. She started to pass by, then backed up and motioned for me to roll down my window. She said, "I have been standing on this corner for over two hours, and you are the first person I have seen smile. I just wanted to thank you for smiling and tell you to have a blessed day."

(Rubel Shelley tells this story about Josh Graves)
Professor Jack was a homeless man in Detroit. In better days, he played in a band, owned a restaurant, and had a family. Addiction to drugs took all those things away from Jack. When Josh first met him, Jack was taking a meal from some church members whose hearts had been convicted about their need to help the poor. And he certainly qualified.

Jack began to be a tutor and coach to my young friend as the two just sat and talked. Josh can, in fact, tick off a catalog of things he learned from Jack. One of the most important lessons came early in the course.

As with first-rate teachers from Moses to Socrates to Jesus, Jack was open to questions. So Josh dared to ask him what good-intentioned people with charitable hearts could do that would really make a difference for the poor and homeless. "Make us feel real," he said. "We want to feel like we are real people. See us. Talk to us. Be with us. Help us feel. It isn't just about feeding us or giving us clothes. It's about seeing us."

1. What does the passage from Luke imply about the way Jesus interacted with the people he encountered?

2. What do the two stories imply about the way we interact with the people we encounter? What are the similarities of our interactions with people with those of Jesus’ interactions with people? What are the differences?

3. Do we really believe that every person we meet is created and loved by God?

4. What would it look like if we took to heart this quote from Oswald Chambers?

When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ.

Skillman 2009

2009-02-28T11:30:00.011-06:00

Note: Over the past few months I have been much more focused on Facebook than on blogging. I hope to resume blogging on a fairly regular basis, and post the links on Facebook to more effectively use both venues. This is the first of (I hope) many...

A couple of years ago we began a practice where each year at Skillman, in the month of March, the congregation has the opportunity to reaffirm (or not) 1/3 of the existing elders. I am among the 1/3 that is going through the reaffirmation process this year; this week I received an email from a member of my class asking a series of questions that I think are pretty fundamental to the process. I want to take the opportunity to address those here.

"I have the following questions: What are your priorities for the Skillman missional efforts in 2009 through 2011?"
I have 3 priorities for the foreseeable future - these are both for me personally and for Skillman as a whole.

To become a more prayerful congregation. We have a number of people who I could call prayer warriors, but as a whole, we need to develop a deeper, more intentional prayer life - especially corporately.
To identify ways that we can join in with our neighborhood/community in the promotion of justice, mercy, and the growth of the kingdom.
To develop a process for identifying, grooming and preparing new leaders for Skillman on an ongoing basis.

"Ideally, how would you implement them?"

The first thing I would do is to make it a goal that at least 50% of the time spent in Elders meetings be devoted to 'prayer and the ministry of the word'. I recognize that each of the elders has a personal prayer life, but we spend much too little of our time together in prayer and discerment, and much too much in 'waiting on tables'. I would also like to see us praying more as a group with staff, with individuals, and with specific ministries and groups of people, whether in an Elders Meeting setting or through some structured used of the Prayer Room. In addition to modeling a more intentional prayer life for the congregation, I would like to have some regular structured activities for the congregation - prayer calendars, discernment meetings, periodic times where we ask everyone to pray at a specific time for some specific purpose.
There are at least 3 strategies I would like to see us implement/continue. The first is to continue and/or develop relationships with existing efforts in the community such as Central Dallas Ministries, The Bridge, the Refugee Center, the Lakewood Neighborhood Association, Robert E Lee elementary school, Habitat for Humanity, New Friends New Life, etc. and provide opportunities for involvement and relationship building. The second is to focus on a couple of specific areas of need that seem to be inadequately served and develop/build upon programs that address those such as Ministries 101, Angel Food Ministries, Celebrate Recovery, Financial Peace University. The third is to identfy those 'third places' in our neighborhood and become intentional about going into those places to develop relationships rather than expecting people to join us here in our 'third place'. (By the way, I'm wondering if there are not a large number of people for whom their 'third place' is online in some fashion)
I'm not exactly sure what this looks like, but I think that it involves spiritual development as well as leadership development. Probably some form of mentorship. I also think we have to start with a restructuring of the current situation with deacons at Skillman. I also think we may need to re-examine to some extent the qualities that we typically (at least in my experience at Skillman) seem to use as a major criterion for the eldership - namely success in the professional realm, i.e doctors and lawyers and bankers and such - which seems to result in an eldership that functions much as a corporate board or legislative body.

"How do you view your individual responsibility within the corporal eldership?"
I view my individual responsibilty as an elder to be primarily pastoral. I believe that I have a responsibility to lead by example in spiritual discipline, in active participation, in financial support, in being transparent, in teaching, in loving. Corporately, I believe there needs to be a better balance between pastoral responsibility and oversight responsibility. Within the corporal eldership I have a responsibility to trust and to be trustworthy, to listen and to exercise discernment, to pray for and pray with, to be accountable and to hold accountable.

"What do you expect of Skillman members in 2009?"
To love, to pray, to attend, to be involved in at least one outwardly focused activity on a regular basis, to support financially within their means; to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before the Lord.

"What is the purpose of the Skillman deacons in 2009? What do you envision as the role of deacons as we move forward into 2009 and beyond?"
'Deacon' seems to have become a lifetime office or title without any specific responsibility attached. That is not to say that we do not have deacons who are actively involved in serving the congregation - many of our current deacons have faithfully served in specific areas of need for a long period of time and continue to do so. There are also a number of men and women who are not officially deacons, but who serve as though they were. But we also have among the current list of deacons some who are no longer physically able to serve, some who are not currently engaged in any specific area of service, and some who are no longer members. I think we need to define what a deacon is at Skillman, provide an opportunity for those who are currently serving to re-enlist or retire, appoint additional deacons to fill the gaps, define an accountability process, and empower them to serve.
I think that we also have to address involvement in general at the same time. One of the challenges that I hear regularly from staff is the difficulty in recruiting/maintaining volunteers. At the same time I hear from members that it is difficult to know how to become involved. As we define the role of deacon, we also need to define more clearly areas of service, and perhaps even more importantly, the processes for communicating needs and for getting plugged in. We do have some existing committees that are functioning well - there is no compelling reason to change those. I don't think that a full-blown committee structure is necessary to structure processes for involvement. But some level of structure and clear communication of that structure is imperative.
One final thought concerning this topic. I don't believe that there is any reason that an elder should not be involved in a committee or whatever structure evolves, but neither do I believe that it is imperative that any committee must include an elder(s). I would further qualify that an elder should not serve on committees at the expense of 'prayer and ministry of the word'. I believe that our function in this process is to 'lay hands on and pray' for the servants carrying out the tasks of 'waiting on tables' (Acts 6 for any who may not have caught the reference).

Love Is...

2008-12-04T07:05:00.000-06:00

One of those few emails worth passing on...

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8
'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4
'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4
'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7
'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7
'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6
'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that.' Cindy - age 8
'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt.' Chris - age 7
'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4
'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' Karen - age 7
'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget. Jessica - age 8
And the winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

2008-12-01T14:46:00.002-06:00

The following is from a series on leadership that Edward Fudge has been sharing through gracemail...
We have been considering three fundamental truths of spiritual leadership.
(1) Spiritual leadership involves lowly service, not legal power. Therefore we must not confuse spiritual leadership with political position.
(2) Spiritual leaders exercise grace-gifts from God, not worldly qualifications. Therefore we dare not focus on worldly achievements when choosing spiritual leaders.
(3) The Bible identifies gifted people, not legal qualifications. Therefore we should not confuse technical qualifications with spiritual characteristics.

Scripture nowhere provides a single, uniform list of qualifications for spiritual leaders. There are two New Testament passages which people often read in that fashion, written by Paul to his co-workers Timothy (1 Tim. 3:1-7) and Titus (Titus 1:5-9). However, when we read these passages carefully, we discover that they differ in several significant ways. Paul gives Timothy a description of the individual gifted for the episkopes ("oversight," "episcopacy" or "bishopric"), the work of overseeing or watching over other believers. He sends Titus a description of the person gifted to serve as a presbyteros ("senior," "elder" or "presbyter"). Christian scholars differ as to whether elders and bishops served in one position or two in the first century.

These two passages also contain different descriptives. Of the 30-35 traits mentioned in the two lists, only five are the same in Greek. If Paul were listing official qualifications, we would expect his lists to be identical. In addition, the descriptives Paul does give are often negative in form (don't pick this kind of person). The named traits are almost always relative as to quality (no precise threshold given). And there is no attempt to define these sometimes ambiguous terms. Paul is certainly not listing formal qualifications for an office, but is rather giving informal descriptions of those who are divinely gifted for the ministry of spiritual leadership.

Copyright 2008 by Edward Fudge.

Community Code of Conduct

2008-11-15T23:12:00.003-06:00

From Jim Wallis's blog - pretty good ground rules for discourse in any setting - church, politics, work, community...

I will express myself with civility, courtesy, and respect for every member of the community, especially toward those with whom I disagree—even if I feel disrespected by them. (Romans 12:17-21)
I will express my disagreements with other community members' ideas without insulting, mocking, or slandering them personally. (Matthew 5:22)
I will not exaggerate others' beliefs nor make unfounded prejudicial assumptions based on labels, categories, or stereotypes. I will always extend the benefit of the doubt. (Ephesians 4:29)

Third Places

2008-11-12T21:20:00.002-06:00

The concept of 'Third Places' is one of the topics of conversation over on the Facebook group The Missional Conversation in Churches of Christ....

Frost suggests that people generally live out their lives between three distinct places: Home, Work and a third place. For many Christians, their third place is church and church activities. (He goes on to suggest a deep interconnectedness between this reality and the decline of the church.) While many Christians spend their free time engaged in religious activities with religious people, most everyone else has traditionally found their third place in spaces like bowling alleys, pool halls, mothers' groups, local pubs, and beauty shops.

Identifying the third places of your community will tell you a lot about the people we are seeking to reach. Furthermore, it identifies for us the places our churches must go if we are to reach them. People don't have time for a fourth place. That is what the church isn't getting.

It's a Different World

2008-11-12T20:47:00.002-06:00

Take a few minutes to watch this video, and think about the implications for how we do church, how we do school, how we do life...

Barclay on the Gospel

2008-11-07T08:13:00.004-06:00

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
-- Matthew 9:10-13 (NIV)
_________________________

The social gospel is not an addendum to the gospel; it is the gospel. If we read the Gospels, it becomes clear that it was not what Jesus said about God that got him into trouble (but) his treatment of men and women, his way of being friendly with outcasts with whom no respectable Jew would have anything to do. It has always been fairly safe to talk about God; it is when we start to talk about men that the trouble starts. And yet the fact remains that there is no conceivable way of proving that we love God other than by loving men. And there is no conceivable way of proving that we love men than by doing something for those who most need help.
... William Barclay

Occasional Quote

2008-11-03T08:31:00.001-06:00

The two great features of Protestant theology are its doctrines of justification by faith and the law as the rule of life. This is a synthesis of New Testament grace and Old Testament ethics. With this synthesis, Protestants have solved the problem of finding a gracious God, but they have not solved the problem of finding gracious neighbors. They can fellowship with God because he is gracious; but they find it difficult to fellowship with one another, because they are not so gracious.

... Robert D. Brinsmead

God's Politics...

2008-10-24T07:29:00.002-06:00

I generally do not engage much in political discussion, but with the election looming I thought that this article by Jim Wallis is worth some thoughtful consideration...

After the last election, I wrote a book titled God’s Politics. I was criticized by some for presuming to speak for God, but that wasn’t the point. I was trying to explore what issues might be closest to the heart of God and how they may be quite different from what many strident religious voices were then saying. I was also saying that "God’s Politics" will often turn our partisan politics upside down, transcend our ideological categories of Left and Right, and challenge the core values and priorities of our political culture. I was also trying to say that there is certainly no easy jump from God’s politics to either the Republicans or Democrats. God is neither. In any election we face imperfect choices, but our choices should reflect the things we believe God cares about if we are people of faith, and our own moral sensibilities if we are not people of faith. Therefore, people of faith, and all of us, should be "values voters" but vote all our values, not just a few that can be easily manipulated for the benefit of one party or another.

In 2008, the kingdom of God is not on the ballot in any of the 50 states as far as I can see. So we can’t vote for that this year. But there are important choices in this year’s election — very important choices — which will dramatically impact what many in the religious community and outside of it call "the common good," and the outcome could be very important, perhaps even more so than in many recent electoral contests.

I am in no position to tell anyone what is "non-negotiable," and neither is any bishop or megachurch pastor, but let me tell you the "faith priorities" and values I will be voting on this year:

With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about how we treat the poor and oppressed, I will examine the record, plans, policies, and promises made by the candidates on what they will do to overcome the scandal of extreme global poverty and the shame of such unnecessary domestic poverty in the richest nation in the world. Such a central theme of the Bible simply cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. And any solution to the economic crisis that simply bails out the rich, and even the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom should simply be unacceptable to people of faith.
From the biblical prophets to Jesus, there is, at least, a biblical presumption against war and the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. So I will choose the candidates who will be least likely to lead us into more disastrous wars and find better ways to resolve the inevitable conflicts in the world and make us all safer. I will choose the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people’s security (everyone having "their own vine and fig tree, so no one can make them afraid," as the prophets say) more than upon how high we can build walls or a stockpile of weapons. Christians should never expect a pacifist president, but we can insist on one who views military force only as a very last resort, when all other diplomatic and economic measures have failed, and never as a preferred or habitual response to conflict.
"Choosing life" is a constant biblical theme, so I will choose candidates who have the most consistent ethic of life, addressing all the threats to human life and dignity that we face — not just one. Thirty-thousand children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease is a life issue. The genocide in Darfur is a life issue. Health care is a life issue. War is a life issue. The death penalty is a life issue. And on abortion, I will choose candidates who have the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarized legal debates and "pro-choice" and "pro-life" mantras from either side.
God’s fragile creation is clearly under assault, and I will choose the candidates who will likely be most faithful in our care of the environment. In particular, I will choose the candidates who will most clearly take on the growing threat of climate change, and who have the strongest commitment to the conversion of our economy and way of life to a cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy future. And that choice could accomplish other key moral priorities like the redemption of a dangerous foreign policy built on Middle East oil dependence, and the great prospects of job creation and economic renewal from a new "green" economy built on more spiritual values of conservation, stewardship, sustainability, respect, responsibility, co-dependence, modesty, and even humility.
Every human being is made in the image of God, so I will choose the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. Sexual and economic slavery is on the rise around the world, and an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. As many religious leaders have now said, torture is completely morally unacceptable, under any circumstances, and I will choose the candidates who are most committed to reversing American policy on the treatment of prisoners. And I will choose the candidates who understand that the immigration system is totally broken and needs comprehensive reform, but must be changed in ways that are compassionate, fair, just, and consistent with the biblical command to "welcome the stranger."
Healthy families are the foundation of our community life, and nothing is more important than how we are raising up the next generation. As the father of two young boys, I am deeply concerned about the values our leaders model in the midst of the cultural degeneracy assaulting our children. Which candidates will best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity, strong parenting, and putting family values over economic values? And I will choose the candidates who promise to really deal with the enormous economic and cultural pressures that have made parenting such a "countercultural activity" in America today, rather than those who merely scapegoat gay people for the serious problems of heterosexual family breakdown.

To The Least of These

2008-09-10T22:44:00.002-06:00

Give us a heart for the hopeless,
The weary and wounded,
For all who are hungry, helpless, and poor.
Let us see the sorrow,
The pain and the heartache
That all the abandoned endure.

May we reach out to the broken,
the beaten, the battered,
To all who have fallen, disgraced and ashamed.
May we be a comfort, loving forgiving and
Offering grace in Your name.

To the last, to the lost, to the least of these,
Let us be Jesus today.

Randy Gill, 2007

Quotes for Today

2008-04-30T21:49:00.001-06:00

Ultimate confidence in the goodness of life cannot rest upon confidence in the goodness of man. If that is where it rests, it is an optimism which will suffer ultimate disillusionment. Romanticism will be transmuted into cynicism, as it has always been in the world's history. The faith of a Christian is something quite different from this optimism. It is trust in God, in a good God who created a good world, though the world is not now good; in a good God, powerful and good enough finally to destroy the evil that men do and redeem them of their sins. This kind of faith is not optimism. It does not, in fact, arise until optimism breaks down and men cease to trust in themselves that they are righteous. ... Reinhold Niebuhr

Certainty

2008-04-30T21:45:00.000-06:00

Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We imagine that we have to reach some end, but that is not the nature of spiritual life. The nature of spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty, consequently we do not make our nests anywhere. Common sense says - "Well, supposing I were in that condition . . ." We cannot suppose ourselves in any condition we have never been in. Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Immediately we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, He packs our life with surprises all the time. When we become advocates of a creed, something dies; we do not believe God, we only believe our belief about Him. Jesus said, "Except ye become as little children." Spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, but uncertain of what He is going to do next. If we are only certain in our beliefs, we get dignified and severe and have the ban of finality about our views; but when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy...Oswald Chambers

Quote of the Day

2008-04-17T22:00:00.001-06:00

Genuine outrage is not just a permissible reaction to the hard-pressed Christian; God himself feels it, and so should the Christian in the presence of pain, cruelty, violence, and injustice. God, who is the Father of Jesus Christ, is neither impersonal nor beyond good and evil. By the absolute immutability of His character, He is implacably opposed to evil and outraged by it. ... Os Guinness

Imagination vs Memory

2008-04-06T20:57:00.002-06:00

Charme passed this along to me a couple of days ago. A guy named Mark Batterson wrote it on April 1, and the perspective it lends to the missional discernment process is worthy of consideration...

Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don't find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the
cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."

One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool's Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren't afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren't willing to look foolish you're foolish!
I Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses foolish things to shame the wise. Nothing has changed. He still uses fools. So maybe the church should adopt April Fool's Day and make it a holy day!

Death, Be Not Proud

2008-04-01T22:21:00.001-06:00

Easter came really early this year, and I'm still reflecting on it. I came across John Donne's poem on the powerlessness of death, and thought it appropriate...

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms, can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke. Why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.
... John Donne (1573-1631), Divine Poems: Holy Sonnets, no. 17

Oswald Chambers on Prayer

2008-03-31T07:57:00.003-06:00

This year one of my daily devotional resources is Oswald Chambers' 'My Utmost for His Highest'. I must admit that some of them kind of pass over my head, but this morning's caught my attention...

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God - "I don't see how You are going to do it." This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God's throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.

Are we so worshipping God that we rouse our selves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

"But there is no one interceding properly" - then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and
remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare.

I'm Back...

2008-03-30T22:04:00.002-06:00

I didn't intend to take 2 months off from blogging - it just kind of happened. It has been an extra busy time at work and I'm in the midst of a 3-month stint as chairman of the elders. So far during this 3 month period we have gone through a reaffirmation process (for the first time ever at Skillman) of 1/3 of the current elders, have had the retirement of our senior adults minister, the resignation of our worship minister, our annual congregational business meeting (as required by Texas state law for non-profits), and the regular congregational meeting that we have on the 5th Sunday of each of the months that have 5 Sundays - and I have another month to go....

~~~~~~~~~~~

My original bracket has North Carolina beating Memphis in the finals - I am still in good shape on that half of my bracket. I won't bring up the fact that my other 2 final 4 selections were Duke and Georgetown...

Post Super Bowl Musings

2008-02-04T21:54:00.000-06:00

Being a Cowboys fan, I was ambivilant as the game began, but I found myself in the unexpected state of pulling for the division rival underdog Giants. It was fairly predictable that Tom Brady would move the Patriots efficiently down the field for the go ahead score late in the game. What was exciting was the question of whether the maligned Eli Manning would be able to respond. I wonder how many other non-Giants fans found themselves pulling for Eli in those final minutes?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not that big on all the hoopla and entertainment that surrounds the Super Bowl, and deliberately did not tune in until right before kickoff. Hence, I missed the reading of the Declaration of Independence, which was reportedly one of the highlights of the day....Jordin Sparks did one of the better performances of the National Anthem that I've heard. I hear many variations before the start of most of my basketball games - they are not always inspiring or necessarily pleasurable; this one was....I also thought the half time show was better than usual....Most of the commercials were uninspiring and unoriginal. I did think the fire breather was a little bit funny and the talking stain was more than a little funny. (It also provided a pretty good illustration of the barriers that can interfere with communication) The two Coke commercials and the Diet Pepsi Max one were pretty good. I thought the Sales Genie commercial with the Pandas stereotyped an entire culture and was in poor taste....

IRC - Barbara's Reflections

2008-02-02T23:48:00.000-06:00

One of the experiments planned as part of our second year of Partnership for Missional Church is called 5 in 5. The idea is that we will interact with and get to know 5 different cultures in our community within 5 months. There are several purposes. One is to expand our awareness of God at work in our community. Another is to develop and build relationship with our neighbors. A third is to prime the pump of our imagination as to ways that we can get out of our building and join God in His activities. Last Saturday a group of us visited with refugee children and families who have been resettled in an apartment complex a couple of miles from our building. Barbara compiled her reflections on the day...

Last Saturday, Jan. 26th, 22 Skillman people went to an apartment complex off of Greenville Avenue to host a party for some refugee children. While we were there, we learned about the IRC - International Rescue Committee. This group was founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein. The IRC is the oldest and largest non-profit nonsectarian voluntary organization that provides assistance to refugees and victims of oppression and violence in their home countries. Dallas is one of 25 resettlement communities in the U.S.

The terms “refugees” and “immigrants” are not the same. Refugees have been forced to leave their countries due to fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Immigrants voluntarily leave their countries of origin to reside in another country.

The U. S. accepts a certain number of refugees each year, determined by the President and Congress. In 2006, the U. S. admitted 70,000 refugees, although more could have been admitted – in recent years many slots have gone unfilled.

In order to qualify for resettlement in the U.S., a person must come from a country or belong to a group designated by the U.S. Department of State. They have to prove that they have a well-founded fear of persecution. Officers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service conduct interviews to identify people who are eligible for resettlement in the U.S. Once they are approved, they undergo medical and security screenings.

When they arrive in the U.S., the gov’t and non-profit agencies, such as the IRC, provides time-limited assistance, helping refugees to adapt to American society, get jobs, learn English, find housing. They are entitled to refugee status for one year after they arrive, then they are eligible to become permanent residents. Five years after their arrival in the U.S., they may apply for American citizenship.

Our group provided snacks for about 40 beautiful children from Burma and Burundi, and helped them complete an art project. We gave them the socks and scarves that the congregation provided. We also met several volunteer workers who are also refugees. They are grateful for the help they themselves have received and want to give the same help and kindness to other refugees. One of the workers told us her story about her family fleeing their home country of Burma due to persecution related to their political beliefs and how they ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand before they were relocated to the U. S. She spoke of the difficulty in adjusting to a new country with different customs, foods, and language.

We had an opportunity to spend some time with people who don’t look and sound like us, but yet a connection was made in that brief time. It made me think about God’s beautiful creation – this tapestry of people and cultures that God created. What an amazing plan He has! He is at work in the lives of people everywhere, whether they are living in an apartment complex filled with refugees or in this sanctuary of our congregation.

I have been thinking a lot recently about what it means to be “missional”. I think that I have defined being “missional” too narrowly. It’s more than providing support for mission efforts. It’s more than doing good deeds and working and picking out a particular “cause” or service project to be involved in. All of these things are good. But I think it also involves taking the time to hear the stories of people and genuinely being interested in them. Being “real” with people leads to further discussion and further opportunities to share Jesus. To be honest, this is difficult for me. But I know that this is something that I can do each day if I will only take the time to be aware of what’s going on around me.

I think this experience with the refugees raised our awareness. We became aware of issues faced by refugees and their needs. We became aware of their desire to rebuild their lives in a new country. We became aware of their spirit.

Normandy

2008-01-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

One last post on our trip to Europe (maybe...). In some ways this was very much a World War II trip. Someone had encouraged us to watch Band of Brothers before we went - an excellent suggestion and a great series. We spent a day at Dachau and got some feel for the German perspective on things. We spent several hours in the World War I and II exhibits at the Military Museum in Paris, and got some feel for the French perspective on things. (Did you realize that DeGaulle was almost single handedly responsible for the Allied victory in WW II?) And on the Friday before we left Paris we took a day trip to Normandy.

We took an early (7:15 am)train from Paris to Caen, where we were met by our tour guide. We spent the morning at the Peace Museum in Caen - an experience I would recommend to anyone who has any interest in World War II. We were served lunch at the museum and then boarded a bus with a couple of other small groups to visit a few of the significant sites in the area, including St. Mere Eglise, Omaha and Juno beaches, Pointe du Hoc, and the American Cemetary. I've seen The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan and now The Band of Brothers, and have a much greater appreciation for those depictions now than when I saw them, but none of them manage to fully convey the conditions that the American soldiers faced at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

I have been to the National Cemetaries at Gettysburg and at Arlington, and am duly appreciative of what they represent, but the American Cemetary in Normandy, at the top of the cliff overlooking Omaha Beach is something extra special. Nearly 10,000 American soldiers are buried there, and more than 1500 additional names are on the Wall of the Missing. Perhaps some of my perspective comes from visiting it with my (then) 19 year old son. Most of the bodies buried there were around his age when they gave their lives on foreign soil for the sake of freedom. It was truly an experience that I will never forget.

Paris Museums

2008-01-27T16:34:00.000-06:00

Paris was a bit overwhelming - large city, lots of people, and so many things to see. One of the difficulties was in deciding what we could reasonably do in the time that we were there. Being first time tourists, we had bought a guide book which suggested starting with a walking tour. On our first full day we began at Notre Dame, then walked across the bridge to the Left Bank and a brief tour of the Latin Quarter. Back across another bridge to the Palace of Justice, which houses the Conciergerie (the prison where those sentenced to execution were held - among them Marie Antoinette) and St. Chappelle - a cathedral where the walls of the main chapel are entirely stained glass. We ended the day at the Louvre, which needed about 4 days rather than the 4 hours we gave it.

I did not realize until we were in Paris the organization of the three 'major' art museums. The Louvre houses pieces from Antiquity and the Greek and Roman eras through the early 19th century. The Orsay picks up in the early 19th century through the early 20th century, and the Pomidou houses the modern collection. There are several other significant museums in addition to these three, including the Orangerie, the Cluny, the Picasso museum and the Rodin museum.

The next day our plan was to see Napolean's tomb and visit the Rodin museum, which is just around the corner, and then to finish our day at the Orsay. Napolean's tomb is located in what was the chapel of the former Ecole Militaire (military school), which also houses a military museum. We thought we would spend from 30 minutes to an hour at the military museum, which has an extensive collection of weapons, equipment, and uniforms from the Chaldeans all the way through World War II. There is also an extensive World Wars exhibit and our 30 minutes turned into 3 hours.

The Rodin museum is a collection of sculptures - mostly works of Rodin, but also works of several of his contemporaries. Several of his works are in a beautiful garden, with the rest in the mansion where he did most of his work. By the time we finished, we were museumed out for the day, and decided to postpone our visit to the Orsay until the Saturday before we left. That turned out to be a less than brilliant decision - we waited in line to get into the Orsay on Saturday morning for more than an hour.

The Orsay is housed in what was a train station. Although not as large as the Louvre, it houses an extensive collection of neoclassical and Impressionist paintings, and really needed several days as well. The Louvre was originally built in the 12th century as a royal fortress and palace for Philip II, and evolved over a couple of centuries into a complex of interconnected buildings. The glass pyramid entrance was built in the 1980's - I got a picture of it, but it does not come close to doing justice to the immense complex of buildings that form the Louvre.

Larry James' OpEd Piece

2008-01-26T22:12:00.000-06:00

Larry James is the conscience of Dallas, frequently challenging our complacency and comfort levels, and providing leadership in making all of Dallas a better community. He wrote the following piece that was published in Friday's Morning News.

Focusing on volunteering diminishes significance of his life
06:24 AM CST on Friday, January 25, 2008

Several years ago, lots of people got the idea that the best way to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday was to organize a special day of community service. You've likely heard it: "Not a day off, but a day on!" The idea is that the best way to honor Dr. King's memory and legacy would be discovered in organized volunteer efforts to extend compassion and aid to the less fortunate among us.

Here at Central Dallas Ministries, we manage a rather large AmeriCorps program, so we received word from the Corporation for National Service directing programs like ours all across the nation to orchestrate volunteer projects. Certainly nothing wrong with that.

I picked up on the same sentiment early this week at the Web site of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Here's part of the post: "President Bush marked the Martin Luther King Jr. King holiday by volunteering and calling on Americans to honor King's legacy by showing compassion on the holiday and throughout the year.

"The President and First Lady Laura Bush joined dozens of volunteers at the Martin Luther King Jr. library as they repaired and shelved books and taught lessons about King's life to children. More than a half-million Americans are serving in 5,000 King Day of Service projects across the country."

Here in Dallas, we enjoyed the commentary of popular Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow, who bemoaned the lack of organized community volunteer opportunities on this special day of national service ("Ready to go, nowhere to serve," Jan. 20).

I'm all for seeing folks volunteer. I believe in the value of community service. Nothing beats genuine compassion and concern for others, especially for those who are down and out, ill, mistreated, marginalized and neglected. Don't get me wrong.

But, in my opinion, the continuing and growing effort to link the memory of Dr. King to a day of volunteering diminishes the real significance of his life, to say nothing of how badly it misses the mark in understanding his personal mission.

Dr. King didn't call folks to volunteer to help the poor. He wanted to know why so many people were poor in a nation of such opulence and wealth. So far as I know, Dr. King never organized a food pantry or invited the rich to serve in soup kitchens. He asked hard questions about the meaning of hunger and homelessness to our collective, national soul.

He didn't call for mentors and volunteer projects in our public schools. No, Dr. King asked penetrating questions about the quality of education for all of our children. Dr. King didn't just invite people to visit the hospitals where soldiers were returning home with severe injuries and lifelong disabilities caused by a terrible conflict in Southeast Asia. He asked why the war needed to continue at all.

He didn't wonder why more health care professionals weren't volunteering in indigent clinics. He challenged the nation to adopt just universal health care policies to ensure that every American received adequate and routine treatment.

The kinds of volunteer opportunities that Dr. King invited people to take part in often landed them in jail, not on the front page of the society section. He asked people to march, register to vote, sit in, resist and confront systemic injustice and unfair laws. He asked people to lay down their very lives for the sorts of changes that made the American system better for everyone.

His program didn't seek to simply meet needs. His vision called for the elimination of need. To redefine Dr. King's life and legacy in those terms limits his importance and drains his message of its power. And, frankly, such an emphasis lets us all off the hook when it comes to the fundamental and sweeping public policy changes still needing our attention and the full expression of our courage as a people.

ICE

2008-01-24T16:08:00.000-06:00

I rarely even read emails that say to please forward, let alone forward them, but today I will make an exception. The following email from one of my fellow basketball officials was in my inbox this morning, and was a reminder of something that I had learned while taking a First Aid course. I think it is worth passing on...

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in the memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call.

Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but he didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE." For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc.

A great idea that will make a difference! Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!

We'll Always Have Paris...

2008-01-23T21:27:00.000-06:00

On Christmas day we took the train from Strasbourg to Paris and then a cab from the train station to our hotel. We had read reviews of our hotel that included comments about the size of the lift (elevator), but it was even smaller than we could have imagined. It was deep enough that I could stand with my back against the rear wall and barely have the door close, and wide enough that Taylor and I could squeeze in side by side.

There was a Metro (subway) stop a few blocks from our hotel, and after we got settled in we figured out how to get to the Eiffel Tower. We got there around 4 pm and there were long, winding lines. The shortest line, by far, was the one for the stairs, so after about a half hour in line we began our ascent. There are two platforms accessible by stairs - the first is about 60 meters high, and the second about 120. There are a total of 704 steps from the ground to the second level. It was beginning to get dark by the time we reached the first platform, and was completely dark by the time we got to the second platform. There is an observation tower accessible only by an elevator from the second platform, but the line was long, it was dark, and it had been a long day, so we did not go to the top.

By the time we got back to the area where our hotel was located and found a restaurant open it was nearly 9:00. Europeans eat late, and the restaurant was busy, but we had a really nice Christmas dinner. The food we ate in France and Germany was good, and the desserts in France were outstanding. More on Paris in the next post.

Words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2008-01-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Strasbourg

2008-01-20T15:39:00.000-06:00

We left Munich on December 23rd and arrived in Strasbourg mid afternoon. Strasbourg is more than 2000 years old, established during the Roman Empire, and is located in the Alsace region at the confluence of the Ill and the Rhine rivers. Strasbourg is currently in France - this section of the Rhine currently serves as the border between France and Germany - but the entire Alsace region has gone back and forth from German to French control for the past 3 centuries, depending on who came out ahead in the most recent war. The European Parliament and the European Union headquarters are in the modern part of Strasbourg.

Strasbourg is known for its Christmas market and celebration, and has a significant section where the streets are open only to pedestrians. We spent the late afternoon and evening among the crowds on the streets and in the Christmas Market area. The next day we took a boat tour of the city (covered and heated). The boat was full, and we had the option of 14 different languages to listen to the recorded commentary on the headphones provided. That evening we had an Alsatian Christmas Eve dinner at a quaint restaurant and then strolled the empty streets.

Barbara and I went to the midnight mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral. The doors opened at 11 pm; we arrived about 10 minutes after 11 and were lucky to find seats in the next to last row. By 11:30 the sides and back were full of people standing. There were easily more than 1000 people present, all of whom were bundled up to ward off the cold.

Neuschwanstein

2008-01-19T23:22:00.000-06:00

While in Munich we took a couple of day trips. The second was to Neuschwanstein - King Ludwig's castle that was the model for the castle in Disney's Magic Kingdom. Ludwig, known as The Mad King, was brilliant and creative, and spent his fortune designing and building castles. His best known was Neuschwanstein - the new castle - which overlooked the old castle that his father had built. His advisors declared him insane and removed him from his throne before the castle was finished.

We traveled by train to a small Bavarian village at the edge of the Alps. We had some cold weather in Germany and France, but this was the only real snow that we saw. We hiked along a narrow road for a mile from the village up the hill to the castle, and the view was definitely worth the climb. The scenery was magnificent and the castle was impressive.

PS - Happy Birthday little sister - I love you.

Further Reflections on Dachau

2008-01-17T22:07:00.000-06:00

May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow man.

This marker greets visitors who enter the gate at Dachau. Many memorials are established to bestow honor; this one serves more as a warning to the world to not allow such a thing to happen again. Which begs the question - how could it have ever happened in the first place? A couple of thoughts...

One common assertion is that the German people were, for the most part, unaware of what was taking place. For the extermination camps, it is possible, however unlikely it may seem, that they were not fully aware - these were built in Poland and Russia away from Germany, and the idea that an entire race of people could be systematically exterminated is fundamentally unfathomable. The same could not be said for the concentration camps. These were located throughout Germany and occupied western Europe, and were well publicized by Nazi propaganda. One of their purposes was to demonstrate the consequences of opposition or failure to cooperate with the Nazi party. It took a great deal of courage for those who did resist.

Another idea that is unfathomable is that human beings could be so deliberately and intentionally cruel to other humans. Undoubtedly evil exists in the world; there are examples throughout history. And undoubtedly, many of the camp personnel were evil, but many were average people with families, hopes, and dreams. The only way they could have acted as they did was to dehumanize - to regard as subhuman - their victims. The processes of the camps were designed to remove all dignity and any sense of humanity from the victims, and that paved the way for unimaginable treatment.

That seems to be a pattern in the justification of mistreatment of others - to regard them as less worthy of basic human consideration. It is evident today in the way immigrants are regarded, in the way people of different races are regarded, in politics and in religion. "...in respect for their fellow man" sounds a lot like "Love your neighbor as yourself".

Called of God

2008-01-15T21:03:00.000-06:00

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8

God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, "Who will go for us?" The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. "Many are called but few are chosen," that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, "Who will go for us?" It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, "Now, you go." God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, "Here am I, send me." Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men with every power wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, "Here am I; send me." --- Oswald Chambers

Happy Birthday, Taylor

2008-01-13T07:01:00.000-06:00

My son turns 20 today. Oddly, the end of his teenage years is not as much of a shock as it would have been just a few weeks ago. The confident young man who met us at the Heidelberg train station a few weeks ago displayed a degree of maturity and self-assurance that was hinted at, but not fully present in the teenager we had said goodbye to a few short months ago.

Lauren is 5 years older than Taylor, and while he has been physically bigger than her since he was in the 5th grade, she has always been the big sister. On this trip, however, he was like her big brother, taking care of and looking out for her (and us). He is a good young man and a great son, and I am proud of him.

Happy Birthday, son.

Dachau

2008-01-11T09:18:00.000-06:00

After a couple of days in Heidelberg, we took the train to Munich, which served as home base for a couple of day trips. One of the most sobering experiences I have ever had was the trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp.

Dachau is a small city - essentially a suburb - near Munich, about 20 minutes by train. The site of the concentration camp is about a 15 minute bus ride from the Dachau train station. During the Nazi years, many of the high ranking Nazi officials had homes in Dachau.

The concentration camp at Dachau was among the first built, and served as the model for hundreds of camps. The dark labels on the map in the photo show where the main concentration camp sites were throughout Germany and occupied western Europe. All of those lighter squares were subcamps built because the main camps could not hold all of the people. The map does not reflect the Extermination Camps - Auschwitz, Treblinka, and others which were located in Poland and western Russia, and were built for the express purpose of the extermination of the Jewish population.

Although Dachau was not an extermination camp, more than 60,000 people died there during the years it was in operation. Some were executed; many were literally worked to death; others underwent a variety of "medical" experiments; and many succumbed to a combination of mistreatment, disease, starvation, and loss of hope.

There were two crematoriums at Dachau for the disposal of dead bodies. The original crematorium was built in 1939, and was not large enough to handle the volume; the second, larger one was built in 1943. There was a gas chamber in the larger crematorium - there is no record of it having been used, but it was the prototype for those used in the Extermination Camps.

The majority of prisoners at Dachau were Germans. Initially, political opponents of the Nazi party, and then an increasing number of those who were deemed "unfit" - Communists, Socialists, homosexuals, mentally and physically handicapped, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Jews. I'm reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

Heidelberg Castle

2008-01-07T21:39:00.000-06:00

The Heidelberg Castle was built by Frederich IV in the 1500's, with a couple of additions over the next hundred years or so. Strategically situated on a hill above the Neckar valley, it commanded one of the key transportation routes in that part of Europe. After multiple attempts, it was mostly destroyed by Louis XIV in the 1700's. Parts of it remain and are open to visitors today.

Quote for the Day

2008-01-07T08:13:00.000-06:00

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight
of the shore.
-- Andre Gide

Heidelberg - Dec 18-20

2008-01-06T16:21:00.000-06:00

Barbara, Lauren, and I arrived at the Heidelberg train station a little before noon on the 18th. Taylor was waiting for us at the train station - he had been traveling in Hungary, Rumania, and Croatia since finishing his finals on the 7th and it was so good to see him. We checked in to our hotel, which was located in the alten stadt - the old city, and then went out to explore our surroundings.

Heidelberg is an old medieval town, more than 1000 years old. That afternoon we strolled along the narrow, cobblestoned main street, and then after resting for a couple of hours we hiked up several hundred stairs to the Moore Haus - Pepperdine's home in Heidelberg - to see where Taylor was spending his school year. We walked back down to the main part of town; it was beginning to get dark and the Christmas Markets were getting lively. We sampled the sausages, the breads, the crepes, and the gluwein - a hot, cider-like mulled wine.

Being gluttons for punishment, the next day we hiked back up the hill to tour the Heidelberg Castle. That evening we had our first sit-down German meal, and Barbara discovered Spaetzel, a small, dense noodle prepared with various sauces and/or cheeses.

Home; Quote for the day

2008-01-01T19:42:00.001-06:00

Barbara, Lauren, and I left December 17 for Germany, and arrived at the Heidelburg train station a little before noon on the 18th. Taylor was waiting for us there, having gotten in from Munich a couple of hours earlier. Over the next 2 weeks we would have a wonderful time in Heidelburg, Munich, Strasbourg, and Paris; the best part was spending 2 weeks together as a family.

We got home last night a little before midnight after having departed our hotel in Frankfurt about 24 hours earlier (7:40 am Frankfurt time) - a couple of hours in the Frankfurt airport, 9 hours across the Atlantic to Detroit, several hours waiting in Detroit for our connection to Dallas as an approaching snowstorm wreaked havoc on schedules, and after our delayed flight to Dallas, another hour at DFW waiting for our luggage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. -- Helen Keller

A New Year's Prayer

2008-01-01T18:47:00.000-06:00

From Rubel Shelly...

Holy God of Heaven and Earth, I know that a thousand years are as a day to you, but we humans are bound up in time. As a new year is beginning, please teach me to ...
* care more about people and less about money,
* enjoy my work but not let it enslave me,
* and laugh more easily than I did last year.

As I get ready for 2008, help me to remember things that are easy to forget ...
* that it might well be my last year,
* that some people are counting on me,
* and that you have things for me to do.

Lord, with the things I have accumulated over the years, please let me ...
* shake off the monotony of life,
* try some new things in this new year,
* and mend some broken fences.

And, Father of Mercies, please teach me in this new and unspoiled year to ...
* lighten up and enjoy children, sunsets, reading, and long walks,
* avoid quarrels and work at being a peacemaker in this world,
* and start next year with fewer regrets than I bring to 2008.

May we live it for your glory! I cannot know what this year will bring, and I am grateful for that! But help me ...
* eat less junk food,
* exercise and take better care of my body,
* and learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Above all other things, Father, I want to be your instrument for ...
* easing somebody's too-heavy load,
* relieving some sad person's misery,
* and introducing some lost soul to Jesus.

Come what may in the year about to begin, may we live it for your glory, within your will, and to your delight. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Gospel and Culture

2007-12-01T20:34:00.001-06:00

Race highlights the fact that in our congregational life we usually do not reflect the variety of cultures. There are Asian, West Indian, and Anglo-Saxon congregations worshiping and meeting close to each other. These groups meet at work and in school, but not always in church. If the church is middle- class and intellectual in the language of the services, in the music employed, in the life-style expected of Christians, in its leadership, and in the methods of presenting the gospel, then the whole atmosphere is such as to repel those who are not middle-class and intellectual. They feel out of place and unwanted, even if they are given a friendly greeting at the door. The life of the New Testament Church was evidence of the supernatural; God was in their midst. The power of Christ was a reality. The fellowship could not be explained in simple natural terms. A church divided on social and racial lines is not evidence for the supernatural, but for the simply human and social. ... David Bronnert, "The Gospel and Culture" in The Changing World

Boston - City of Champions

2007-10-30T20:01:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to my sister and my West Virginia friends who are serious Red Sox fans.

It looks like the Boston area is swimming in sports success this year. The Patriots are playing as well as any team in recent NFL history - they toyed with the Cowboys a couple of weeks ago, until the Cowboys took the lead in the second half. That had the effect of awakening the sleeping giant and they have been on fire ever since.... Boston College is also getting into the act, and since they are no longer in the same conference as WVU, they are in the drivers seat on the road to winning their conference championship and competing in the BCS.... The Celtics appear to be the cream of the crop in the East with the additions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.... I don't know much about the Bruins, but anything less than the Stanley Cup and the city will have forgotten them because by then the Red Sox will be well on their way to repeating.

PMC Reflections

2007-10-27T15:50:00.000-06:00

This weekend brought another of the cluster meetings for the area congregations participating in the Partnership for Missional Church. We have made a three year commitment to this process and are about 1/3 of the way through the second year.

Initially there were ten congregations; this weekend there were eight - Skillman, North Davis, South MacArthur, Preston Road, and Metro from the Dallas area, Highland and Minter Lane from Abilene, and Mineral Wells.

Each of these congregations is committed to carrying out the mission of God in its community. Several, like Skillman, are faced with changing demographics both in the neighborhoods surrounding their locations and within the congregations. More about this later, but for now three thoughts resonate...

We need, as leaders, to move from a model that is primarily focused on decision-making to one of discernment. I posted some thoughts on this about a year ago; we are comfortable taking information, making some decision, and going on about our business. We do that regularly in our professional lives, and carry those skills and practices into church leadership. The result is that we often decide and then ask God to join us, rather than trying to discern what God is already doing and joining Him.

We need to reframe our perspective of 'serving' the community. Instead of looking for ways to do for the community, we need to seek opportunities to do with the community. (This is something that Larry James figured out a long time ago.) We will not be able to enter into healthy relationship with people when we perceive them to be needy and ourselves as providers.

We must trust in the resurrection; we need to trust that if 'our' congregation as we know it should die, that God can raise it again into something greater that more closely reflects his purpose and carries out his mission. Much like Barton Stone and the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, we must be willing to give up our identity and sink into union with the body of Christ at large, trusting that God will indeed raise us up again in accordance with his purpose.

The Original Undocumented Immigrants

2007-10-25T19:25:00.000-06:00

More on Fire at Pepperdine

2007-10-24T22:51:00.001-06:00

My admiration for Pepperdine president Andy Benton is only reinforced by his calming response to the Pepperdine community...

M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Campus Community
FROM: Andrew K. Benton
DATE: October 22, 2007
RE: Fire Update

Today is a much better day. The winds are still high, but the smoke is clearing and as far as we know there are no fires burning on campus. Nevertheless we are on alert and we have a strong fire prevention/containment presence standing by.

I know this was a first-time experience for most of you. I am so proud of your calm response and your concern for each other. The worship service yesterday in the cafeteria with helicopters flying into and out of view behind the leaders is something I will never forget.

Our campus damage is limited to a portion of a pool shack near the Baxter Drive swimming pool and three cars which were parked in the Theme Tower lot. The rest is landscaping and we can fix that in time. The important thing is that you are safe.

From our position of relative safety we will have a chance to serve; indeed, some of our best work in the Malibu community has emerged from a crisis just like this one. If given the chance, please volunteer to help those who did not fare as well as we did yesterday.

Good planning is of no value without great people willing to respond. My colleagues and I were very proud of our whole campus community yesterday. You were an inspiration to us.
We will keep you informed as this new day develops.

>>>>>>>>>>>>
More info via this CNN interview of 2 Pepperdine students early Monday morning.

Fire

2007-10-24T21:26:00.000-06:00

When I first heard of the wild fires in California this week, I have to confess my sense of relief that Taylor is spending his sophmore year in Germany rather than being on campus in Malibu. While I have been following with interest, empathy, and concern, my level of concern has not been nearly as acute as it would have been had he been on campus. Especially when I saw some of these pictures from the Pepperdine campus...

Pepperdine Update

2007-10-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

Malibu Canyon Fire Update for 6:30 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24

Pacific Coast Highway is open in both directions between Santa Monica and the University and between Kanan Road and the University. While both Kanan and Topanga Road are open, Malibu Canyon Road remains closed.

Pepperdine's Malibu campus is scheduled to re-open for regularly scheduled classes and programs, today, October 24. All Pepperdine campuses outside Malibu remain open for classes. All employees who are scheduled to work today are asked to report at their regularly scheduled time.

With the personal safety of our community members in mind, Pepperdine urges faculty, staff, and students to exercise caution in commuting to the campus.

Students, faculty, and staff are requested to check Pepperdine's homepage where regular updates are posted. Messages concerning the situation are made simultaneously on Pepperdine’s Emergency Page (http://emergency.pepperdine.edu/) and on Pepperdine's toll free Emergency Information Hotline at (888) 286-5659.

Updated information about road conditions is available on the Road Condition Hotline at (310) 506-ROAD (7623).

Malibu Canyon Fire Update for 7 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23

Pepperdine officials have announced that it will not hold classes on the Malibu campus today, October 23. Events scheduled for today on the Malibu campus have also been cancelled as the University continues to work closely with local, county, and state fire officials in response to the Malibu Canyon fire. Only critical support personnel should report for work. All Pepperdine campuses outside Malibu remain open for classes.

All roads leading to the Malibu campus are closed at this time. Information about current road closures is available on the road condition hotline at (310) 506-ROAD (7623).At the present time, students, faculty, and staff on the Malibu campus remain safe and it is recommended that they not leave campus.

Conditions remain unchanged since 7 p.m. last night.

Malibu Canyon Fire Update for 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 22

Pepperdine officials have announced that it will not hold classes on the Malibu campus on Tuesday, October 23. Events scheduled for Tuesday on the Malibu campus have also been cancelled as the University continues to work closely with local, county, and state fire officials in response to the Malibu Canyon fire. Only critical support personnel should report for work.
All Pepperdine campuses outside Malibu remain open for classes.

All roads leading to the Malibu campus are closed at this time. Information about current road closures is available on the road condition hotline at (310) 506-ROAD (7623).At the present time, students, faculty, and staff on the Malibu campus remain safe and it is recommended that they not leave campus. Another update will be posted at 7 p.m.

Pepperdine Reponds to Malibu Canyon Fire - UPDATED 6:50 a.m.

All classes on the Malibu campus have been cancelled for today, Oct. 22. Only critical support personnel should report to campus via PCH south from Kanan Dume Rd. The Pepperdine graduate campuses outside of Malibu will be open and classes will be held. Only critical communication systems, such as email, Internet connectivity, and telephone services, will likely be available today.

Students, faculty, and staff members who were relocated to the Tyler Campus Center, Payson Library, and Firestone Fieldhouse were allowed to return to their dorms and on-campus residences around 2 p.m. yesterday. All have been requested not to leave campus.
All roads leading to Pepperdine University are closed.
10/22/07, 6:50 a.m.

Oswald Chambers on the Life of a Disciple

2007-10-21T07:58:00.000-06:00

We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature
and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but
it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four
hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple,
to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of
Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for
God; but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary
things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is
not learned in five minutes.....Oswald Chambers

Work As Witness

2007-10-01T11:58:00.000-06:00

From Rubel Shelley's Fax of Life today...

Title: Work as Witness
Date: For the Week of October 1, 2007

Centuries ago somebody began spreading the false idea that the Christian life is to be understood in terms of two arenas – sacred and secular. Sacred places are church buildings. Sacred events are those such as worship or baptism or weddings. Sacred people are preachers or church officers.

The remainder of life was declared secular. So farms, stores, and schools were secular places. Surgery and manufacturing, accounting and teaching, driving and watching TV - all were labeled secular. And ordinary people doing the routine and humdrum things of shopping, eating, and reading are secular.

But that is so terribly wrong. In God's plan for human existence, it makes no sense. In light of Christ's teaching, work is witness.

I can grant that there is a sense of the sacred and holy in a church assembled for worship that is missing from a crowded, noisy office. But work is sacred too. It is holy by virtue of divine presence you bring to it as a person filled with God's Spirit and participating in God's creative work.

Writing letters, hiring people, selling lumber, stocking shelves, firing someone who broke company policy again, answering phones - these and whatever other things you will be expected to do today are not secular. They're not, that is, unless you misunderstand your role in them. You and I are in the world to continue the work of God. Creating. Improving. Empowering. Doing things that we and others will look at and say are "good" or even "very good."

My appeal is not that we should become workaholics. Instead, it is that we see ourselves as God sees us. We are extensions of his presence into the nooks and crannies of the world. If Paul could tell slaves to do their chores "with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to human masters" (Ephesians 6:5-8), surely some of us could take a more elevated view of our tasks in the workplace.

Work isn't an unspiritual curse from which you should desire freedom in order to visit retreats, seminars, and workshops on spiritual life. It is your lab for turning lead to gold, humdrum to holy by the Spirit-presence you take to life.

Your spiritual life won't be on hold as you work today. It will be on display.

Final Thoughts on Tolerance (at least for now)

2007-09-24T07:06:00.000-06:00

A few final thoughts. I began talking about tolerance from the perspective of disagreement within the church, and proposed this definition: Tolerance is the subjugation of personal preference and opinion to the promotion of unity. Another way of saying that is not only do I not have to get my way, I don't resent it when I don't. I believe that this is a large part of 'loving my neighbor', and very much what it means to 'consider others better than myself'. I think these definitions work both in corporate settings and in interpersonal relationships.

As we talked about where to draw the line - what should we not tolerate, or what do we believe that God would not tolerate - it seems to me that it is our nature to draw lines where God would not, and to ignore some of the lines that God would draw. I don't know that it is our nature, but it certainly seems to be our history. Much of what we don't want to tolerate seems to come down to differences of opinion; what God seems not to tolerate is arrogance, injustice, mistreatment of the poor, the embracing of evil.

Even when dealing with with issues of justice, the line is not always clear. One obvious example in today's world is immigration, where there is a need to balance security with fairness. It seems to me - wherever one falls on a continuum from 'give me your tired, your poor' to 'send em all back where they came from' - when compassion is absent, when an entire group of people is presumed guilty until they prove their innocence, when one group of people is required to document its status to a higher standard than the ordinary population, the line has been drawn in the wrong place.

A less clear issue to me is the balance between personal freedom and corporate security. I don't have any idea of some of the things our government leadership knows about the dangers in today's world, but I have a concern when the government takes the position that it may monitor private conversations without warrant, when it can imprison people without charge, when it condones mistreatment and even torture, that the line may have been drawn in the wrong place. One of the scenes from Truth and Translation featured a former victim of torture at the hands of the police confronting the police official who had tortured him. The official's response was that if he could prevent multiple deaths from a terroristic act by torturing one individual, that he would do it again.

A little closer to home. Taylor and a group of about 50 Pepperdine students departed from LAX on September 5th, and arrived at Frankfurt International Airport on the 6th. News broke on the 4th that three German terrorists had been arrested - they had a large amount of explosives and one of their primary targets was the Frankfurt International Airport. As the news came out in bits and pieces it became apparent that their arrest had been largely enabled by American monitoring of their cell phone conversations.

I am thankful that the line was drawn where it was.

For me, the end did justify the means in this case. There are people with more knowledge than I whom I gladly trust to act appropriately. Yet, the nagging thought that 75 years ago the German people trusted a charismatic leader to act appropriately...

More Intolerance in the News

2007-09-22T16:44:00.000-06:00

The same morning that the front page chronicled the marchers gathering in Jena, the lead story in the Metro section was that local state representative Kirk England was switching from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. His reason? "I found that the Republican leadership in Austin had no tolerance for the values and priorities of the folks I represent."

The referenced leadership would be a governor who alienated his own majority party members by issuing executive orders to enact laws that the legislature wouldn't, and a Speaker of the House who survived attempts by his own party members to remove him as Speaker only by a questionable parliamentary procedural interpretation that was the basis for his refusal to hear motions from the floor for the last two weeks of the legislative session.

Descriptions of both men range from principled to obstinate to arrogant, depending on who is doing the describing, but there are few who would describe them as tolerant....

Intolerance in the News

2007-09-20T22:07:00.000-06:00

I opened my paper this morning and front and center on the front page was an article about the thousands of people gathering to march in protest in Jena, Louisana. The vast majority of what I know about that situation I have learned from the media - I have no doubt that there are details of which I am unaware. Of some details there seems to be no dispute.

There was an oak tree on the high school campus that was for whites only; A black student asked a school official if black students could gather under the tree and the next day there were three nooses in the tree; The principal recommended that the students responsible for the nooses by expelled, but was overruled by the school board - they were given 3 days of in-school suspension instead; There were multiple confrontations between black and white students; A black student was beaten by a group of white students and former students at a Friday night party; A white student was beaten unconscious by six black students the following monday; One white former student was charged with battery in the Friday incident; The six black students were charged with attempted 2nd degree murder in the Monday incident; The charges were reduced to aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery for Mychal Bell, the first black student to stand trial; Bell faced an all-white jury; The 150 people called for jury duty included black citizens, but only 50 people appeared, and none of them were black.

The obvious perception is that justice in Jena is different for blacks than for whites. As I mentioned, there may well be details that might shade that perception a little, but the overwhelming evidence is that overt racial discrimination is alive and well.

What does that have to do with tolerance? The easy answer is that a lack of tolerance fostered an environment where these things happened. The more difficult questions are how can tolerance develop in an environment of injustice and so lacking in trust? What responsibility do we have to refuse to tolerate such an environment? Perhaps more to the point, how can we justify that we continue to tolerate it?

Britain's Got Talent

2007-09-19T06:44:00.000-06:00

American Idol, America You've Got Talent, and similar shows feature judges who demonstrate varying degrees of tolerance and intolerance for the people performing on their shows. This video clip from the initial performance of the eventual winner of the Britain's Got Talent show is terrific - while enjoying the performance, watch the transformation in the judges' attitudes from a barely tolerant disdain to enthusiastic embrace...

Truth in Translation

2007-09-18T07:08:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Dad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A most vivid example of both tolerance and intolerance thrust itself into my consiousness when Barbara and I went to see Truth In Translation a week or so ago at SMU. This is a play about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as experienced by the diverse group of translaters who interpreted the testimonies of both victims and perpetrators into the 11 languages spoken in the country. The TRC was set up by South African president Nelson Mandela to help the country deal with the aftermath of the terrorism, violence, torture, and other human rights abuses that happened during the struggle to end apartheid.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission offered an opportunity for anyone who felt they had been a victim of violence to come forward and be heard. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony in exchange for amnesty from prosecution. Throughout the play, pieces of actual testimony emerged through the voices of the tranlators. Their reactions as they listened to and repeated the testimonies of both victims and perpetrators painted a vivid picture of the range of emotions the testimonies brought out. Their interactions with each other, as members of the various cultures within South Africa, portrayed a microcosm of what the country itself was going through.

One of the most striking things about the evening was when we entered the lobby prior to the play. There were dozens of poster-sized banners, each portraying the story of one of the people who testified before the TRC. What was striking was that many of the people who had been victimized or who had lost loved ones had forgiven and had even developed a relationship with the person who had victimized them. There was one particular quotation that struck me, although a couple of weeks later I can't reproduce it verbatim. The context was that a woman had developed a friendship with the man who had murdered her father. The essance of what she said was that forgiveness was a journey; there were days when it was very difficult to forgive and days when it seemed that forgiveness was not needed, but that it was an ongoing journey and not something occurred once and then was bottled up and put away.

More on Tolerance

2007-09-17T21:55:00.000-06:00

In the previous post I mentioned learning to practice tolerance in several different contexts - within a congregation, within the church at large, within interpersonal relationships, within the larger community. Over the past few weeks I have been considering some of the implications of the practice of tolerance, and have been deliberately conscious of examples and non-examples of tolerance within these contexts. Over the next few posts I will point out some of the examples that I've noticed.

There is an old saying that he who stands for nothing will fall for anything. One of the issues raised in class discussion yesterday was the potential of being too tolerant; the specific question was "Where do you draw the line?" The seemingly obvious answer would be where God draws it, but that may not be as obvious as some seem to think. The Pharisees were pretty certain that they knew what not to tolerate, but Jesus was pretty clear that they didn't get it. He seemed to tolerate people while not tolerating behavior - "Where are your accusers? Does no one condemn you? Then neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more."

It appears fairly certain that certainty is not tolerable to God, but certainty has been at the root of most of the division (which also seems to not be tolerable to God) the church has known. I would define tolerance as the subjugation of personal opinion and personal preference to the promotion of unity.

Using this definition, one recent example of tolerance at Skillman was our "Together We Worship" service a couple of weeks ago. We had a service focused on kids, with songs, a dog, and even communion geared towards children. While much of what was planned would not fall within the preference of most of the adults present, it was one of the most enthusiastically supported and participated in assemblies in recent memory.

Sadly, within this same recent timeframe we received a memo from one of the other congregations in town asking us to participate, financially and by lending our name, in an ad denouncing a decision by another of our local congregations. Regardless of one's opinion on the decision or the issue involved in the decision, the lack of tolerance exemplified here cannot contribute to the unity that Jesus prayed for.

Tolerance

2007-09-11T21:32:00.000-06:00

During the month of September we have been discussing Tolerance in the Covenant class, using Romans 14 and 15 as the primary text. We began the discussion somewhat abstractly, talking about the differences in the history and contextual backgrounds of the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians in Rome and how that impacted their views on eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. We looked at the apparent contradiction in what Paul instructed the Romans and what he told the church in Galatia - in Romans he seems to come down on the 'side' of the Jews, and in Galatians he sides with the Gentiles - and suggested a couple of principles that seem to be consistent across both letters.
The first principle seems to be to accommodate the outsider. In Rome, the Gentile Christians were the established or dominant group; in Galatia, the opposite is true. In both instances he criticizes the establishment for trying to force the outsider to conform to its brand of Christianity.
The second principle seems to be to develop a tolerance for differences in interpretation, opinion, and practice. Tolerance is a mindset to apply within the congregation and to the church at large; to interpersonal relationships and to citizenship within the larger community.
I will have quite a bit more related to this concept over the next few days, but I thought that this comic from Sunday's paper captured the essance - you can click on it to see a more readable version...

The Middle Wife

2007-09-10T08:44:00.000-06:00

I am working on a series of posts on Tolerance and Unity, but in the meantime Barbara sent this to me and I couldn't resist sharing it....

The "Middle Wife" by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday."

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."

She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.

"My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man.

They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this." Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall. "And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!

"Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, so there must be a lot of toys inside there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another "Middle Wife" comes along.

Unity

2007-09-03T09:06:00.001-06:00

The task is not, in essence, the securing of uniformity, or cooperation, or Church reunion, or any of the external forms, through which nevertheless the unity may be manifested. Within the wide bounds of the Christian Church there is abundant scope for the multiplicity of races, languages, and social conditions; room also for separate organizations with different traditions of faith and order, and much diversity of operation. But there is no room for strife or hostility, for pride or self-assertion, for exclusiveness or unkind judgments, nor for that kind of independence which leads men to ignore their fellowship with the great company of believers, the communion of saints. These things are contrary to the revealed will of God, and should be made at once to cease. As these disappear, the outward manifestation of unity will come in such ways as the Spirit of God shall guide. ... G. T. Manley, Christian Unity [1945]

The Real Worship War

2007-08-29T07:53:00.000-06:00

In the 2 1/2 years that I have been one of the Skillman shepherds, there has not been a more lightening rod topic than worship. Leadership Journal has an article this week that addresses why...

"For all of our apparent passion about God, in the end much of our worship seems to be mostly about us. We presume we can worship in a way that will find God but lose track of our neighbor. Yet it was this very pattern in Israel's worship life that brought God's judgment. Biblical worship that finds God will also find our neighbor.

What is ironic and especially pertinent is that many debates about worship are just indirect ways of talking about ourselves, not God. Our debates devolve into how we like our worship served up each week. It's worship as consumption rather than offering. (emphasis mine) It's an expression of human taste, not a longing to reflect God's glory.

If we worship Jesus Christ, then we are to live like Jesus. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 25:31-46 that our worship will be measured by how we have lived.

The heart of the battle over worship is this: our worship practices are separated from our call to justice and, worse, foster the self-indulgent tendencies of our culture rather than nurturing the self-sacrificing life of the kingdom of God."

The entire article is available here...

Jerry

2007-08-25T10:11:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday morning I was sitting in the Covenant class when one of our ladies tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I could help a gentleman who was in the lobby. I walked out to the lobby and saw a guy sitting on the couch. He appeared to be around 40 years old, and was not dressed like most people at Skillman on a Sunday morning...

I sat down next to him, told him my name, and asked how I could help him. He said his name was Jerry and that he had a job at a laundromat a couple of miles away. He had ridden to Skillman on his bicycle. He was supposed to get a better job driving a delivery van for the company that owned the laundromat, but his wallet had been stolen and he needed some money to get his drivers license replaced.

The easy thing to do would have been to give him some cash and send him 'gratefully' on his way, but it so happened that I was not carrying any cash that day. I asked him what time he had to be at work on Monday. He said he was supposed to be there at 10, so I told him that if he would meet me back here at 8 o'clock Monday morning I would take him to get his drivers license before he had to go to work.

He said he would try, but could I give him some money for food, so I took him to the grocery store and bought a couple of bags of groceries. We got back to the church building just as class was letting out. He loaded his grocery sacks onto his bicycle, thanked me, and rode off, and I went in to church. Afterwards, I arranged with one of the ministers to take him and get his license if he showed up Monday morning.

Monday morning, no Jerry. But around 8:30 Wednesday morning I got a call from the church office that he had called to see if I could pick him up at the laundromat and take him to get his license. I actually had some unscheduled time that morning, so I went and picked him up and took him to Dallas City Hall to get his license. I asked him what ID he had so that he could get his license, and he didn't have any. He had lost his birth certificate some time ago, and his social security card was in his stolen wallet along with his license. He said that a police officer had told him that it wouldn't be a problem, because he was in the computer...

It was a problem. I got a glimpse of the frustration faced by people without the resources to navigate the systems of government regulations - regulations that are in place for the common good, but often significant barriers for the poor among us.

There was a short line at the drivers license window, but a large group of people who had been through the short line and were waiting to be called. When we got to the window, the lady asked Jerry for some identification, and he told her that the officer said he wouldn't need any because he was in the compter. She handed him a sheet of paper with a list of acceptable forms of identification and asked if he had any of those. He told her his wallet and IDs had been stolen and asked what was he supposed to do. Her response was "Come back when you have one of these on the sheet".

One of the forms of ID on the sheet was a birth certificate, and there is also a birth certificate office at City Hall, so we went there next to inquire about getting a copy of his birth certificate. The lady there said it would be no problem to get a copy as long as he had a drivers license or some other valid form of identification. He told her that he didn't have any, and she said that if he had a parent or sibling with ID that they could get a copy. He told her that it would be to hard for his mother to get to City Hall, and she gave him a form that his mother could send in by mail. He said that his mother could not afford the $22 fee and I told him that I would pay for it.

Jerry was still a bit frustrated, but out of excuses at this point. We took the form, and I took him back to the laundromat. I handed him the $22 to pay for the copy of his birth certificate, and told him that as soon as he got it to call me, and we would go and get his drivers license. He hasn't called yet, but I'm hoping that he will....

Coors Field vs Fenway

2007-08-21T22:08:00.000-06:00

This morning as I was driving to work, one of the morning crew on the Ticket (sports radio station in Dallas) was describing his visit to Fenway park the previous week. I couldn't help but compare his experience at Fenway with our own experience at Coors Field in Denver last week. I've been to games at 1/2 dozen major league stadiums, and Fenway is on my list of places to visit, but so far, the closest I have been to one of the great ball parks was a snowy early March tour of Wrigley Field.

As the radio host was describing his experience at Fenway, it lived up to and even surpassed expectations. I can't really say the same about Coors Field...

The stadium is in a reviving area of downtown Denver, and it looks good in its setting. We spent our first night in Colorado in downtown Denver, and were within a free shuttle and a few blocks' walk of the stadium. Denver, while a mile above sea level, sits on the plains at the edge of the Rockies; it was 96 degrees the afternoon that we got there, but the Cubs were in town and we decided to go to the game.

Games in Colorado start at 6 pm, and having never been to the stadium before, I requested seats that were not directly in the sun. I was assured by the guy behind the window that our seats would get only indirect sun. We ended up sitting about 2/3 of the way down the right field line, facing directly into the sun, and just sat there sweating and downing bottles of water. The seats are angled slightly towards home plate, but if you sit back in your seat your line of sight reaches a point just beyond the pitchers mound. So we sat sweating and leaning forward craning our necks in an effort to see the whole field. The crowd was lethargic, the game presentation was bland, and there seemed to be more Cubs fans than Rockies fans. Overall, easily the least enjoyable major league game that I have been to, although we were treated to a very fine sunset as the sun finally sank behind the mountains in the background.

Rocky Mountain High

2007-08-19T22:00:00.000-06:00

Just back from a restful week in Colorado. I had planned to go to Colorado since my Jr High days when I heard John Denver singing Rocky Mountain High every morning on the school bus. (AM radio stations in the 70's in Wheeling, WVa were somewhat predictable in their play lists) - I just never imagined that I would be nearly 50 before I actually got there. I had been to Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy several summers ago when I was coaching Lauren's off-season basketball team, but I spent most of my time with basketball and chaperoning a dozen girls...

Barbara, Taylor, and I spent last week in Estes Park, at the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park. We white-water rafted, drove some scenic routes, did some hiking - it does not take long to become breathless at that altitude - and Taylor and I rented ATVs one afternoon. We spent one day at the Planet Bluegrass Folks Festival in Lyons. While the high temperature in Dallas topped 105, we enjoyed highs in the low 80's and lows in the 50's. We also rested to the sound of the Fall River just below our deck, and caught up on some reading.

Ironically, coincidentally, or perhaps providentially, one of the books I was reading was Daryl Tippens' Pilgrim Heart. Two of the chapters are entitled Resting: The Day Sabbath Becomes Joy and Resting: More Blessings of the Sabbath. He speaks of the rhythm of creation, the rhythm of nature, and how they reflect the nature of the creator. He talks of rest, sabbath, as being an integral part of that rhythm, and focuses on God's resting on the 7th day, of David's solitude as a shepherd, and of Jesus routinely withdrawing from and then re-engaging the crowds.

Being made in the image of God, it is within our nature to need and to benefit from regular rest. Unfortunately that's counter to the busyness in our lives. While it is not pragmatic at this point in my life to spend much time in Colorado on a regular basis, it is imperative that I 'rest' regularly.

Examen

2007-08-08T22:54:00.000-06:00

During the month of August we are meeting on Wednesday nights for a meal and a time of prayer. This evening we practiced an abreviated form of a practice called Examen. Generally attributed to Ignatius sometime in the early 16th century, Examen is a daily exercise that has been a regular practice of Jesuits ever since. The Examen is a methodical prayer designed to help you recognize and receive God’s presence and action in the routine of daily life.

In churches of Christ we have a long history of rejecting practices that originate from within other denominations, and particularly from within Catholicism. I'm becoming convinced that we have sometimes cut off our nose to spite our face. It does not necessarily imply agreement with theology to adapt practices that can be helpful in spiritual formation in either a corporate or an individual sense. The more I learn, the more I discover that I don't know...

American Catholic Update describes these five simple steps to the Examen:

Recall that you are in the presence of God.
We are always in the presence of God, but in prayer we place ourselves in God’s presence in an especially attentive way.

Look at your day with gratitude.
As you move in gratitude through the details of your day, remember that every single event has been God’s gift. As you take stock of what has been given you this day, take special care to notice what you received and what you gave. As you complete the review of your gifts and the particular gifts of this day, pause briefly to thank God for all these.

Ask help from the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit will help you understand the mystery of your human heart, and at this point you ask to learn more about your actions and motivations. This is not a “beat up on yourself” session, where you will grind at the core of your being in sadness over things you have done wrong. Rather, it is a gentle look with the Lord at how you have responded to God’s gifts.

Review your day.
Here you review your entire day, watching it like a little movie that replays in your mind. Be sure to notice the details, the context of what happened and how you acted. As you look through the day, notice especially your interior motives and feelings. Examine just how conscious you have been of God’s presence and actions in your life.

Reconcile and resolve
In the first and second steps, we ask the Spirit of God to guide us as we look at our day with gratitude. In the third and fourth steps we ask the Spirit of God to guide us as we review our actions. The final step, our heart-to-heart talk with Jesus, is the fruit of that repetition.

Tom Landry and Faith

2007-08-07T07:29:00.000-06:00

Taylor and I are going to the Cowboys' first preseason game this week. I have not been to a Cowboys game since Jerry Jones bought the team, and Taylor has never been. Since he will be spending their last season at Texas Stadium in Heidelberg, this may be the last opportunity he has to attend a game at the stadium with the hole in the roof.

While I grew up far from Texas, I have been a Cowboys fan for as long as I can remember. I think it goes back to the very first time I became aware of a football game on television, and the Cowboys were playing the Redskins. In my young mind, the cowboys represented the "good guys", and I have followed them ever since.

I have long since abandoned the notion that the Cowboys are the "good guys", but there have been some truly good Cowboys, and the best was Tom Landry. He set an example for millions by living according to his faith. This is what he had to say about faith...

I realize that a lot of people think the idea of a "personal relationship" with God sounds disturbingly exclusive, some-how presumptive, and more than a little pious. I thought the same thing before I read what the Bible said and decided to become a Christian. According to the Bible, this idea of having a personal relationship with God isn’t at all presumptive. It was God’s idea. And it’s not at all exclusive. It’s available to anyone who accepts God’s offer. It’s that belief, that faith, more than anything else that enabled me to last 29 years on the sidelines of the Dallas Cowboys. It’s that faith that has allowed me to keep my perspective and not feel devastated or bitter about being fired. And it’s that faith that gives me hope for whatever the future holds for me . . . Landry: An Autobiography

Some Quotes on Prayer

2007-08-05T22:22:00.000-06:00

Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle. ... C. S. Lewis

Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God's voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him. ... William Barclay

Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself....Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him?....Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray. ... Oswald Chambers

Old Words to Think About

2007-08-03T06:49:00.000-06:00

Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by these who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion....

The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. - Augustine

Some Gems in Blogland

2007-07-31T22:42:00.000-06:00

I've been away from the blog for a few days and this evening as I was catching up on some of the blogs I regularly read, there were several that were powerful...

Larry James has a terrific story about being a neighbor...

Craig Jones is an old friend dating back to my freshman year at Harding. His wife Jan has cancer, and he sent this article by Tony Snow to David Underwood. It provides a tremendous perspective on life, death, and disease...

Brian Mashburn's most recent post contains a link to this thought-provoking article describing the current condition of the churches of Christ by Joe Beam...

Many of you are aware of the wreck a couple of months ago that took the life of Conner Brown and severely injured his sister Bailey Brown, two of the children of Tod and Lee Ann Brown. I knew that Tod was a minister on the staff of a church in Midland, but did not realize until some time later that Lee Ann was the daughter of John and Rosalyn Bailey and the sister of Steven Bailey - a family that I have been acquainted with since my first year in the classroom. The Browns' journal is heart-wrenching and encouraging - an honest account of their struggle and faithfulness as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their family.

ZOE Coming to Arlington

2007-07-27T10:55:00.000-06:00

What would God’s kingdom look like if our individual journey into the heart of God was fully reflected in our assemblies resulting in a missional outpouring of Christ into our communities, our workplaces and our churches?

On the occasion of ZOE’s ten year anniversary, we reflected on the journey our conferences have taken from recognizing the celebrational elements of our Sunday morning assemblies, to connecting better with a post-modern world view and to understanding the missional centrality of our community of faith....

Thus, in 2007 we want to fully connect and integrate the circle of worship: formational (inward), missional (outward) and celebrational (upward). Without creating three separate, but related streams, we desire to develop a worship experience that is interrelated, integrated and intentionally unified.

We want to become infected with the Spirit of Christ and become his contagious aroma in our world. - Larry Bridgestone, The ZOE Group

The excerpts above are taken from the announcement of the 10th annual Look to the Hills conference sponsored by the ZOE Group. Held in Nashville on the first weekend of October each year, Look to the Hills has been a major source of nourishment, challenge, and encouragement to Barbara and me, to the members of the worship team at Skillman, and to thousands of pilgrims on this journey of transformation into the image of Christ. I am very excited that ZOE is bringing a regional conference to Arlington next July, and know that the Dallas/Ft Worth area will be blessed.

By the way, there is quite a bit of meat for the Worship Committee to consider within the announcement above...

Free Movie...

2007-07-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

This Sunday night, The Skillman Church of Christ will host a free screening of the movie Sophie Scholl. The movie will be shown in the church’s sanctuary at 3014 Skillman from 5-7PM and following the showing of the movie the audience will be invited to participate in a discussion about the film that will end at 8 PM. We will serve refreshments during the discussion time.

The movie set in 1943 tells the true story of Sophie Scholl, who along with her brother, is a member of the White Rose, a non-violent anti-Nazi group. At great personal risk, she, her brother and their friends distribute literature challenging Hitler and the Nazi government. Eventually, the government arrests her and her brother and tries them for crimes against the state.

The film raises many important questions such as, what do we value the most in life? Can we stand on our convictions when everything and everyone else opposes them? When is civil disobedience appropriate?

If you have any questions call the church office at 214.823.2179

It's WHO You Know...

2007-07-22T21:46:00.000-06:00

We were in Austin this weekend and visited the University Avenue church this morning. They are beginning a series on getting to know Jesus better. Mark Love (not The Mark Love of PMC) is one of their ministers and spoke this morning. He was describing a number of situations in his life where he had benefited - tickets to sporting events, cutting through red tape, etc - because he knew someone, and used that old phrase "it's not what you know, it's who you know".

The typical context for that phrase is often politics or business, or a combination of the two. It is sometimes used as sour grapes, but is often used in a fatalistic acknowledgement of reality. And in that context there may not be anywhere that it is more true than Austin, unless it's Washington...

But when it comes to our relationship with and standing before God, there is no truer statement - It really is WHO we know. And I think that the series at the University Avenue church is right on track. I believe we have settled way too often for the what we know - knowledge about the Father, about the Son, about the Spirit - and have been unable or unwilling to recognize that knowledge about is not the same as knowing God, knowing Jesus, knowing the Spirit. Brian Mashburn put it this way in a recent post, and I think he is right on target...

The great change in my life was the focus on depth, not breadth. I'm not interested in learning more stuff about the Bible as much as I am interesting in understanding and assimilating and becoming the stuff that I have already learned. I'm not as interested in more people being "in my church" as much as I am interested in the people "in my church" taking their next step into Christlikeness. I'm not as interested doing more stuff in my Christian service as I am in doing less stuff more deeply. I believe that the focus on depth can lead to breadth, if God deems it, but that the focus on breadth steals depth.

More on Missional Benevolence

2007-07-19T20:50:00.000-06:00

In timely regard to the conversation and comments to this week's earlier post, the current issue of Leadership Journal includes Missions That Heal, an article by Joel Wickre that speaks directly to the concept of doing good with the best of intentions. Here are the first few paragraphs...

In my own attempt to deal with poverty in a Christlike way, the most profound lesson I've learned is also the most obvious: Poor people are people. Those who live and die in want of basic needs are just as smart, beautiful, creative, motivated, holy, and wise as you and I. They are also just as dumb, ugly, dull, lazy, sinful, and foolish as you and I. Living in Nicaragua, Mexico, and more recently Kenya alongside people in poverty, I've seen how our inability to identify with people across the wealth divide can subvert our good intentions in missions, hurting the people we're trying to love.

Examining our blindness to the humanity and volition of poor people would reveal a deeper issue underlying poverty: broken fellowship. We show our alienation from God by toxic relationships with each other, inequality, and poverty on a local and global scale. Fellowship among believers is at the heart of God's vision of redemption, alongside his desire for us to have individual relationships with him.

Maintaining healthy relationships across the wealth divide, however, is not easy. Lack of awareness of the enormous power differential between the "servants" and the "served" has led countless well-meaning mission groups to disempower poor communities. People who are treated as helpless come to hold a lesser view of themselves. People who believe they are "blessed to be a blessing" and in no need themselves come to a lesser view of the people they serve. These victim and savior complexes create a co-dependency that perpetuates the problems of poverty and far outweighs any temporary relief such missions provide.

Reasons For Hope

2007-07-18T20:19:00.000-06:00

A couple of significant signs of hope for Skillman's future...

Sunday morning James and some of the youth gave a brief report on their recent trip to New Orleans. That our kids and sponsors have been willing the last 2 summers to spend a week in the 9th Ward serving in dirty, humid, almost unfathomable conditions is in itself a good thing. But the sign of hope is in what James said at the conclusion of the report - "As we did in New Orleans, let us do in Dallas"....

The Friends (Young Adults) class has been exploring what it means to be missional in the community, and some have begun a practice of meeting an hour early each Sunday morning to pray for Skillman's efforts in this area. Below is a copy of the email reminder sent out today...

Hey guys,Just a reminder - to those of you interested in lifting up Skillman in prayer as we seek God for direction for our church and community, we will be meeting at 8:00 am before church every Sunday in the Prayer Room. (The Prayer Room is a room in the back and to the right of the auditorium if you are standing on stage looking at pews.)Hope to see you all there!
Bethany

"Prayer and meditation have an important part to play in opening up new ways and new horizons. If your prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of lifeand not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and "safe"God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our prayer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth."- Thomas Merton

Missional Benevolence?

2007-07-17T15:51:00.000-06:00

Underlying many of our conversations at Skillman about becoming missional is a consistently voiced thought that the purpose of our participation in the Partnership for Missional Church is to attract more people and increase our numbers. I've not been articulate enough to bring about an understanding that becoming missional is about fulfilling the mission that Jesus gave us, that attracting new members may be a by-product but is not the goal. Transformed lives is the goal...

A recent conversation about reviving our Benevolence Program illustrates. A comment was made that we need to revive our food pantry because we have people who want to have a food pantry and who enjoy working in it. We need to provide that opportunity for them so we can retain them. Also, if people see that we have a benevolence program, they will find that attractive and want to be a part of it.

We may need to revive the food pantry, or we may not. If we do, it should be in partnership with our community to address a need in our community - not to provide a program to make our members happy or to be attractive to the neighborhood. The missional mindset has not yet become the norm...

The Jesus Story

2007-07-15T20:58:00.000-06:00

From the first century to the twenty-first century, stories have been a God-ordained medium for communicating truth. We would have been wiser to see the whole of Scripture as narrative carrying a single story of divine love, intervention, and redemptive work than as a law book. We would have grasped the gospel more naturally and communicated it more effectively.

More and more, I am reading and writing and telling The Jesus Story without syllogisms. Without argument. Without nuanced theology. Without mental gymnastics. It is dawning on me that a clear, compelling account of the heart, life, and words of Jesus creates a singular passion. People ache to get into the picture with him. - Rubel Shelley

Screwtape Redux

2007-07-14T21:57:00.000-06:00

In C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, a high-ranking official in the beaurocracy of Hell named Screwtape gives his nephew Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining the faith of Christians, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine. Patrick Mead has written a contemporary letter from Screwtape and posted it on his blog. Here is a sampling of it...

Full churches can mean that we are winning! If those churches are full of people there for the health, wealth, family benefits, friendship, minister, programs, worship… we win. Those kind of believers want the crown without the cross, not realizing that that isn’t the way it works.
There IS a church member who is dangerous to us. That is the one who is there because of their love for Jesus.

You can read the entire letter here.

Quote for the Day

2007-07-12T07:49:00.000-06:00

We need to forget the imaginary Christ who has been ours too long and to rediscover the real Christ, the Christ of the prophets and the martyrs and the confessors, the Christ who is not only the lover of souls but also master, a monarch with demands to make in industry, in finance, in education, in the arts, in marriage, in the home; the Christ who is teacher of a social ideology which has eternal validity; the Christ who cries aloud with convincing force, "He who would save his life will lose it; only he who is willing to lose his life, can find it."... Bernard Iddings Bell

The Priority of God

2007-07-11T22:25:00.000-06:00

We have adopted a new committee structure at Skillman - from my perspective it is an effort to move administrative tasks off the Elders' agenda to allow us to focus on more important things a la Acts 6. It will likely take some time and some adjustment, but there is hope...

One of the committees I am assigned to is the Worship Committee. As I run across articles and other resources to share with the committee, I will post some excerpts here. The following is the final paragraph from a 1998 article in Worship Leader...

The great need of the church today is neither to cling to the old or to create the new forms and formats. Our greatest need today is to recover the priority of God in our worship and in the whole of life. The wineskin issues are totally secondary to the more pressing need for the new wine of the Spirit. The crisis in worship today is not a crisis of form but of spirituality. When worship renewal comes, the congregation pursues God Himself as its ultimate objective. God Himself is treasured above any experience, any feeling or any result of worship. Love to God will be the dominant affection expressed through the various forms of worship. Fresh commitment to God is the common response of the entire worshiping community. Worship becomes an end in itself rather than the means to some other end. Worship will be experienced as a relationship with God being dynamically acted out rather than merely being a function of the church. - Bruce H. Leafblad, Worship 101: Recovering the Priority of God

Barbara Brown Taylor on Leaving Church...

2007-07-09T22:47:00.000-06:00

One of the writers that Dwight occasionally quotes from is Barbara Brown Taylor . The following is from her latest book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith...

"Gradually I remembered what I had known all along, which is that church is not a stopping place but a starting place for discerning God's presence in this world. By offering people a place where they engage the steady practice of listening to divine words and celebrating divine sacraments, church can help people gain a feel for how God shows up--not only in Holy Bibles and Holy Communion but also in near neighbors, mysterious strangers, sliced bread, and grocery store wine. That way, when they leave church, they no more leave God than God leaves them."

God Bless America

2007-07-04T20:48:00.000-06:00

The World We Live In

2007-07-03T20:05:00.000-06:00

If there was a village of 100 people representing the earth's more than 6 billion people, in the existing human ratios as they are in the world today, it would look something like the following:

61 would be from Asia

13 would be from Africa

12 would be from Europe

9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean

5 would be from North America

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

31 would be Christian
21 would be Muslim
14 would be Hindu
6 would be Buddhist
12 would believe in other religions
16 would not be religious or identify themselvesas being aligned with a particular faith

82 would be able to read and write

18 would not

1 would have a college education

1 would own a computer

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up this morning with more health than illness...I am more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

I have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...I am more blessed than 500 million people in the world.

I can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...I am more blessed than three billion people in the world.

I have food in the refrigerator, clothes on my back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...I am richer than 75% of this world.

I have been given much; much is expected of me.

Authentic Worship

2007-06-28T15:31:00.000-06:00

I thought this excerpt on worship from Leadership Journal was worth passing on...

Authenticity and integrity in worship means expressing both lament and praise. Each element completes the other. Without lament, praise is little more than shallow sentimentality and a denial of life's struggles and sin. Without praise, lament is a denial of hope and grace, both of which are central to our life of faith and to God's promises.

To value one over the other is like suggesting that breathing in is more important than breathing out.

This is not only an issue of authenticity and integrity. It cuts to the heart of hospitality and pastoral sensitivity. For those coming to a worship service immersed in pain, celebratory praise takes on a mocking tone that excludes them. They are unable to join honestly in these choruses.

By incorporating expressions of sorrow, pain, and grief into our worship, as the psalms do, the hurting are ushered into God's presence with honesty. At the same time, the rest of the congregation is reminded of the suffering community gathered in their midst. They are invited to weep with those who are weeping. By honoring their pain, we acknowledge those who are suffering and affirm them in their grief.

Yet worship is not complete without turning to praise. When pain has been acknowledged, those who suffer are invited beyond their pain to consider God's faithfulness in the midst of suffering and even to rejoice with those who are rejoicing.

I Got Mine - There's Not Enough For You...

2007-06-24T12:33:00.000-06:00

An article in the Morning News this week described the plight of two recent college graduates who are unable to legally work in the U.S. because their parents brought them across the border as infants without going through the legal immigration process. The families have been hard-working, productive members of their respective communities for twenty years. This is the only home these two girls have ever known. They have excelled in the classroom and been model student/citizens all the way from kindergarten through graduation from college. Both have teaching degrees in subject areas that are in high demand, but neither are eligible to be hired by any public school system.

Since the article ran, there have been numerous letters to the editor, almost all with a similar theme - let them go back to their own country and teach. There is a profound scarcity mentality reflected in most comments; that there is not enough America to share, and that as more immigrants come there less there is for us. The prevailing sentiment seems to be 'we got here first, we get to make the rules.'

I don't begin to claim to be able to understand, much less propose a solution for all of the issues involved with immigration and protecting our borders, but most of what I read in these letters has very little to do with those real issues and very much to do with not wanting to provide a fair opportunity to those who are different. I don't see anything that resembles these words, found at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Learning to Partner

2007-06-17T17:22:00.000-06:00

One of the adaptive challenges we are recognizing in the PMC project is getting to know and serve our community. This excerpt from a Leadership Journal article offers some insight into some of the learnings of a small historic church in Virginia...

As people outside our church realized we were really interested in the community, they opened up to us, and viewed us in a different light. An elementary school teacher has visited our church several times. She is involved in the music program and told me recently, "You know, attending your church isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
We laughed at her comment, but both of us understood what she meant: folks were seeing our church with new eyes. We were building bridges.
Fourth, we learned that when you partner with others, you give up some control. You collaborate. We collaborated with teachers, local politicians, business leaders, and artists as equal partners.
A media representative said to me one day, "It's good to see a church involved with real life." An African-American pastor expressed it this way: "Before," she said, "there were us things and them things. This is the first time we have worked together on our thing."
Finally, we had to drop our hidden agendas. We weren't doing good in our community only to get people to join our church. True, our worship attendance is up about 20 percent. New members have joined, and we have first-time visitors almost every Sunday. Not all are a result of our partnerships, but some come because they have seen what we are doing.

Wright and Newton

2007-06-16T16:38:00.000-06:00

"The early Christians, like their Jewish contemporaries, saw heaven and earth as the overlapping and interlocking spheres of God’s good creation, with the point being that heaven is the control room from which earth is run. To say that Jesus is now in heaven is to say three things. First, that he is present with his people everywhere, no longer confined to one space-time location within earth, but certainly not absent. Second, that he is now the managing director of this strange show called ‘earth’, though like many incoming chief executives he has quite a lot to do to sort it out and turn it around. Third, that he will one day bring heaven and earth together as one, becoming therefore personally present to us once more within God’s new creation. The Bible doesn’t say much about our going to heaven. It says a lot about heaven, and particularly heaven’s chief inhabitant, coming back to earth." -- N.T. Wright

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. ... John Newton

Barclay on the Gospels...

2007-06-14T07:31:00.000-06:00

The Gospels are not primarily historical documents. They are not intended to be regarded as biographies of Jesus. They are in fact the preaching material of the early church . . . They are attempts to show the mind and heart and the character of Jesus, and they make this attempt, not simply as a matter of interest, and not simply as a contribution to history, but so that those who read may see the mind of God in Jesus. The Gospels are not simply descriptions of Jesus -- they are invitations to believe in him as the Son of God.
WILLIAM BARCLAY: Introducing the Bible

Random Thoughts and Quotes

2007-06-10T20:52:00.000-06:00

The loving service which God sends His people into the world to render includes both evangelism and social action, for each is in itself an authentic expression of love, and neither needs the other to justify it. ... John R. W. Stott
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are three types of drivers out there - the idiots, the maniacs, and me. The ones who drive slowly along, "deliberately" hindering me on my important journey - those are the idiots; The ones who speed by me, disregarding my superb judgement about what is safe and my proper respect to 10 miles per hour above the speed limit - those are the maniacs; and then there is me. Unfortunately, I often view fellow travelers on the road of life the same way...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
50% of all teachers leave the profession within the first three years. - Opening screen from the terrific movie Chalk, a mockumentary following 3 teachers and a first-year assistant principal through the course of a school year. I will be recommending that this be required viewing for all of our alternative certification candidates...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. ... Abraham Lincoln

Missional: Possible

2007-06-09T22:02:00.000-06:00

The winter edition of Leadership Journal had a series of articles under the heading Going Missional. One of those, Missional Possible: Steps to Transform from a Consumer Church into a Missional Church, was distributed to the elders from each congregation at last week's PMC cluster meeting to take home, read, and discuss as a group. We haven't met to discuss it yet, but I look forward to the conversation.

This 2-page article gives one of the clearest definitions of missional that I have read. I'll let it speak for itself...

Missio Dei stems from the Triune God: the Father sends the Son, the Father and the Son send the Spirit, and the Father and Son and the Spirit send the church into the world...

A missional church lives out the church's three-dimensional calling: to be upwardly focused on God in worship that is passionate; to be inwardly focused on community among believers that is demonstrated in relationships of love and compassion; and to be outwardly focused on a world that does not yet know God...

Two main distractions often block a congregation's missional expression. The first is Self-Preservation...the church began to exist for the sake of the church...the point is not whether we can build churches that last, but whether churches can touch the world with God's love...

The other primary distraction is Church Growth. When the emphasis is on bringing the world to the church, the church's mission of going to the world can get lost...

Attracting people to the church is not necessarily wrong. In fact, it's important not to view missional as the opposite of attractional...the problem arises when attracting people becomes the mission...

Becoming missional means redirecting resources toward the world. This means that church leaders take a hard look at how money, time, and energy are allocated. Is it for the sole benefit of those in the church, or invested in God's mission to the world?

The Wisdom of Crowds

2007-06-08T13:51:00.000-06:00

This month's book for Central Dallas Ministries' Urban Engagement Book Club was James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds. I haven't quite finished it yet, but he makes a compelling argument that collectively, we are smarter than any of us individually. Like much of what I read these days, I see implications for a missional church.

He begins with a historical illustration from a 19th century county fair in England. 800 people entered a contest to guess what the weight of an ox would be when it was butchered. While some of the contestants were familiar with livestock, most were essentially ignorant. When all of the guesses were averaged together, the collective guess was that the ox would weight 1197 lbs. It's actual weight was 1198 lbs. None of the individual guesses were close.

He gives examples from a variety of fields, including the stock market, the gaming industry, google, and politics, and concludes that, given the proper conditions, the collective wisdom can generally be counted on to be better than that of individuals. Those conditions include diversity, independence, and decentralization.

The first year of the Partnership for Missional Church process is spent in learning to listen. Another way of saying that is that we have been learning to practice collective discernment. This book seems to underscore the value in the process, if the group has enough diversity and independence.

A couple of specific passages caught my attention. The first, in an illustration on the ignorance of voters (the context is that despite individual ignorance, democracy works exveptionally well)...
Polls show that Americans think that the United States spends 24% of its annual budget on foreign aid. The reality is that it spends less than 1%. (p. 266)

The second passage that caught my attention explains a little bit why diversity is critical...
If you think about intelligence as a kind of toolbox of skills, the list of skills that are the "best" is relatively small, so that people who have them tend to be alike. This is normally a good thing, but it means that as a whole the group knows less than it otherwise might. Adding a few people who know less, but have different skills, actually improves the performance of the group. (p. 30)

A Shepherd's Song

That's Love

It's Friday...But Sunday's Comin

A Civil Discourse on Healthcare Reform

Living in the Kingdom

D Day

Memorial Day

From the Depths of My Soul

Britain's Got Talent Judges Do It Again

Tea Party Reflection #2

Tea Party Reflection #1

Under the Passover Moon

Set Forth Your Case

Every Person We Meet

Skillman 2009

Love Is...

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

Community Code of Conduct

Third Places

It's a Different World

Barclay on the Gospel

Occasional Quote

God's Politics...

To The Least of These

Quotes for Today

Certainty

Quote of the Day

Imagination vs Memory

Death, Be Not Proud

Oswald Chambers on Prayer

I'm Back...

Post Super Bowl Musings

IRC - Barbara's Reflections

Normandy

Paris Museums

Larry James' OpEd Piece

ICE

We'll Always Have Paris...

Words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Strasbourg

Neuschwanstein

Further Reflections on Dachau

Called of God

Happy Birthday, Taylor

Dachau

Top 10 Posts of 2007

Heidelberg Castle

Quote for the Day

Heidelberg - Dec 18-20

Home; Quote for the day

A New Year's Prayer

The Gospel and Culture

Boston - City of Champions

PMC Reflections

The Original Undocumented Immigrants

More on Fire at Pepperdine

Fire

Pepperdine Update

Oswald Chambers on the Life of a Disciple

Work As Witness

Final Thoughts on Tolerance (at least for now)

More Intolerance in the News

Intolerance in the News

Britain's Got Talent

Truth in Translation

More on Tolerance

Tolerance

The Middle Wife

Unity

The Real Worship War

Jerry

Coors Field vs Fenway

Rocky Mountain High

Examen

Tom Landry and Faith

Some Quotes on Prayer

Old Words to Think About

Some Gems in Blogland

ZOE Coming to Arlington

Free Movie...