Worship, part 1

Worship is more than a song or a style or what the church does on Sunday.  Worship is a lifestyle.  And it’s the heartbeat of the church. The heart that beats in the community of the redeemed is a heart to know and to love God, 24/7.

Worship is at the core of the nature and the purpose of the church.  We are redeemed for worship (Exodus 20:2-3 and 1 Peter 2:9).  We are empowered by the Sprit for worship (John 4:23).  We are called to make worship our lifestyle (Romans 12:1).  We are created know and to love God forever, and worship is the way we express that life here and now.

Worship is also highly contentious.  Just about everyone has their opinion about what they like or don’t like about worship.  But worship is not foremost about what we like—it’s about God.  It’s about a community of people responding to God through adoration, praise, thanksgiving, lament, intercession, confession, repentance, trust, belief and more.  We respond to what God has done, and to what he is doing, and to what he promises to do.  That life is called worship.

In my next few blogs I hope to carry forward a conversation about worship that recently emerged at the church I serve, Redwood Covenant Church, as we sought to discern the values and vision that would guide us into a new chapter of worship.

My hope is that you will enter the conversation and that our conversation would rise above  personal preference toward a vision for worship that is biblically faithful, culturally relevant, and responsive to the mission and vision of the church.

After the Bombs

As the dust of the bombings begins to settle, a number of responses are beginning to surface.  Some reactions are positive, but some are counterproductive.  Here are two wrong ways to respond to the bombings:

Deepening Cynicism

The senseless acts of evil in our world led some to conclude that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, so, they say, “Let’s circle the wagons and insulate ourselves from an increasingly evil world.”

The problem with that response is that it’s self-reinforcing: the more we look for evil, the more we find evil.  And the less we look for goodness, the less goodness we find.  The fruit of that cycle is a deepening cynicism that is just no fun for anyone, especially for the people who are around you.

But even in the midst of the recent bombings, we saw people responding with goodness and courage.  There were marathon participants who ran past the finish line to local hospitals where they donated blood.  Another man rushed toward the explosions and ripped off his belt to create a tourniquet for a wounded victim.  One man ran in and out of the danger zone, carrying people a hundred yards to safety.  Joe Andruzzi, a retired NFL football star who won the Super Bowl three times with the New England Patriots, was seen carrying multiple victims away from the finish line. All three of the Andruzzi’s brothers were firemen who rushed into the wreckage of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Paralyzing Fear

While London was bombed during WW2, CS Lewis wrote an essay called “Living in an Atomic Age.”  Addressing the crippling fear that many lived under, especially after the development of the atom bomb, he wrote:

“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’  I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’  In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things like praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint–not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

So be at peace, my friend.  Feed your mind with whatever is good, beautiful and true.  Do not fear what you cannot control.  Love God, do what He asks, and give to God what you cannot do.  And, above all, trust God, no matter what.

More Naturally Supernatural

Donald Miller is one of my favorite pop-contemporary Christian writers.  I enjoy his brutal honesty,  his sharp insights, and I admire his ability to write well.   Donald recently posted this blog, and I’m sharing it with you, as it reflects my desire to become more naturally supernatural.  Thanks Donald!

“Whenever we spot spiritual openness in our friends and neighbors, we are then confronted with the huge internal question: How do I respond without totally messing them up?!  Faced with what feels like a high risk on any reasonable cost-benefit analysis, most of us simply bail out or, at best, do something slightly half-hearted that is merely bemusing for our friend to witness.

For a long time I struggled with sharing my faith in a way that had real meaning but didn’t risk blowing up a friendship.  Then I had a revelation moment: I need to stop treating my lost friends differently from my Christian friends.

We do that all the time.  When a Christian friend is sick or stressed, I’ll pray for them right there and then.  When they need encouraging, I’ll share with them what Jesus is saying to me this week.  When they are in need, I’ll serve them practically.  But with our lost friends, all too often we either water-down our faith, seemingly losing the Jesus from our lives (or alternatively turn into some hyper-spiritual nutcase!)

This is a failure to respect your friend enough to be who you really are – to trust that the person they know and like includes the spiritual you, and thus Jesus-in-you.  The underlying problem is that we live a dualistic life: operating one way with Christians, but another way with the lost.  Instead, we need to treat our lost friends the same way we treat our Christian friends, so that the authentic, Jesus-loving you can shine through.

How Do I Live This Out?

To take things a step further, here are 4 ways to respond to your friends – both Christian and non-Christian – in a naturally supernatural way.  These 4 questions, or tools, are always available for you to select from in any situation:

1.  ”Can I pray for you?”

If they have a need, or are sick, or are worried about something, stop right there and then to pray for your friend.  Be open to God giving you a word of encouragement, strengthening or comfort – and share it simply and naturally with them, in everyday language.  Interestingly, even if there is no directly observable answer, your non-Christian friends will be really touched by your sincere expression of love.  And when God DOES answer that simple prayer of faith… amazing conversations follow!

2.  ”Can I serve you?”

Babysit, cook a meal, make them a cup of tea (the godly response to almost all the world’s problems!), give a hug, mow their lawn.  Whatever you do, the point is to stop and help.  (And be looking to invite them to join you in serving others – as you go together, the Spirit of the Lord goes with you.)

3.  ”Can I share my story?”

Whether it is your big story of how you first met God, or (more usually) your story from this week of what Jesus is saying to you, your walk with the Lord is amazingly impactful upon others, if you have built an authentic relationship with them.  Listen to and respect their story, but also don’t be bashful to share your own story.  God has given it you for a reason.

4.  ”Can I share God’s story?”

As you pray, serve and share your story, you will find yourself in that holy moment where you can go deeper still.  There is a time and place to share the content of the Gospel, to help your friend come face-to-face with the power of the Bible as it reveals the story of God to us.  Obviously you won’t download it all in one sitting, so let the Holy Spirit lead you in selecting a relevant narrative, theme or verse.  You will point them to the One who is the ultimate expression of being naturally supernatural, so that they in turn can play their part in extending His Kingdom to others.

We are called to share the words and works of Jesus.  Let’s use these four questions to live a life that is naturally supernatural.

CONSIDER:  How can you be more naturally supernatural over the next 7 days?

Surprised by the Press

Last week I received a phone call from a reporter who wanted to interview me. I hesitated because I’ve been interviewed before and I’ve had enough comments misunderstood, misconstrued or taken out of context.  Even so, I agreed to an interview, thinking that the article would run as a small piece, buried in the religion section that only religious people read. I was way wrong.

Sean, the Press Democrat Reporter, and I enjoyed a delightful conversation.  He seemed genuinely interested about the direction Redwood was taking.  He asked informed, thoughtful questions.  I spoke openly, and our hour together flew by.

The article was scheduled for Easter Sunday.  I was a bit preoccupied that morning to make any attempt to see it.  But after the third worship service, a friend asked me if I had seen the article. “No,” I said.  “You’re on the front page,” he replied.  “It’s a lengthy, front-page feature, and it’s really good!”

I stopped at Safeway on my way home to buy a copy, and I read it after I returned home.  I liked the article’s focus about a church being mobilized to love one another and to love our neighbors in practical ways on their turf.  I felt like it captured the heart of Redwood.  And I felt that it captured my heart also.

I was a bit embarrassed about having my picture on the front page.  I never want the church to be about me.  If I were to add anything to the article, I would say: “It’s not about me.  It’s about a community, guided by God for the sake of the world.”

I am deeply thankful to God for what He is doing among us and through us at Redwood.  And I am deeply thankful to the many, many people who are doing the work of ministry and doing mission though Community Groups.  God is guiding us, and we’re all on this walk of faith-in-action together.

Blog On!

To my readers: I’ve taken a break from blogging.  I’m back

My last four months have been very full.  That’s why you haven’t heard from me.

It began with Advent/Christmas planning, and it continued with the death of John Strong, former pastor of Redwood Covenant Church and the exit of Andy Cater, our Pastor of Worship.  Add the search for the next Pastor of Worship, and my assuming a wider role in worship design, and, well, blogging took a back seat.

But I’m back, and if you’re listening, then thanks.  People who listen humble me.  Some of you have spoken or written encouraging words about words I’ve spoken.  Thanks.

It’s been quite a season, and I’m very excited about what God is doing.  More to come!

Rediscovering Jesus

For many years, Jesus was a mainstay on the covers of the three big newsweeklies: Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. Every Easter and/or Christmas they’d throw Him on the cover, usually with some cobbled-together news rationale. His face guaranteed a boost in newsstand sales, and it also reflects our enduring curiosity about the man who changed the world.

On one hand, there seems to be a growing number of Christians who are disenchanted with church fads and programs, but who are increasingly interested in knowing and following Jesus.  On the other hand, there is a growing segment of people outside the church who are uninterested in the church, but are very interested in understanding more about Jesus.  It seems that God is stirring people inside and outside the church to discover Jesus.

As we enter this New Year, I believe that God is calling me, and the church I serve, to rediscover Jesus.  To help, I’m planning a message series that will focus on the unpredictable, surprising, even shocking Jesus we find in the Gospel of Mark.   I anticipate that a fresh look at Jesus will help us renew our faith and reclaim our first love.  But several other things are vital if we are to grow as followers of Christ.

Here’s what we can do to rediscover Jesus in 2013.

▪   Let’s agree to get to know Jesus.  This year, I encourage you to wear out the Gospels; those first four books in the New Testament. Bathe yourself in Jesus, his words, his stories, his miracles, and his example. Do it on a regular basis for an extended length of time. (Matthew 11:29)

▪   Let’s agree to follow Jesus.   Rather than debate what Jesus said, or water it down, let’s obey the clear things he says for us to do. If we do, he will bless us with the gift of knowing the truth and setting us free to be who he has called us to be. (John 8:31-32)

▪   Let’s agree to invite Jesus into every area of our lives.  While many point to Jesus’ statement in Revelation 3:20 (“behold I stand at the door and knock…”) as an example for non-Christian’s to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  But a closer look indicates that this passage addresses a Christian Church.  Jesus stands at the door of the church and knocks.  Will we invite him in to take control of every area of our life?

▪     One of the most effective ways to grow as a follower of Jesus is to share him with others in word and deed.  As we share Jesus with others, his power becomes clearer in us. (Matthew 28:18-20).

As we enter a New Year, I can’t think of anything more important than for us to have Jesus as the focus of our worship, our lives, our prayers, our friendships, and our church.  Let’s make 2013 the year we rediscover Jesus, renew our faith, and return to our first love.

Let’s rediscover Jesus again for the first time!

A Better Giving of Thanks

This week, families will gather to celebrate “Thanksgiving.”   For many, this will be an opportunity to relax with family, dismiss their diet, watch some football, or enter the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, now encroaching on Thursday.  But Thanksgiving is more than a family reunion, a stuffed stomach, a football marathon or a discounted gadget.  Thanksgiving can become a better way of life when we learn to “give thanks.”

It is easy to assume that the gifts we enjoy are gifts we’ve earned and own.  But the truth is just the opposite.  Everything we have is a gift from God.  Everything.

When we think about giving thanks to God, we often think about giving to God a proportion of what is ours.  Leonard Sweet, writing in SoulSalsa, challenges this view when he writes, “Jesus discipleship entails a trustee ethic, not a stewardship ethic. The New Testament Greek words most often translated as “stewards” (epitropos and oikonomos) are better rendered as “trustees.”

Trustees are the legal entities of an institution or estate.  Technically, trustees “own” nothing, but they are legally accountable for everything.  Jesus features a trustee in His story about a king who entrusts money to his trustees to invest while he goes away (Matthew 25:14-30).  Three of the trustees invest the money, making more money for the king, and one does nothing, hiding the money.  The one who hid the money is rebuked, and the others are commended.  In each case, the king expects his trustees to release his money so that his estate might grow and prosper.

What would it mean for us to see ourselves as trustees this thanksgiving?  Would it make a difference in how we receive and give thanks?

One of our first reflexes as infants is the grasping reflex.  Place a finger in the palm of a small child, and they will grab tight.  This instinct was probably very helpful when escape from a dangerous situation was necessary for an infant, but the instinct is dangerous to our spiritual wellbeing when we carry it into adulthood.  Grabbing tight to whatever — under the illusion that it’s ours — is a sure way to shrink our soul.  God calls us out of that bondage by inviting us to release our grip, and the first step is to recognize that we are trustees.

This Thanksgiving, I invite you to consider yourself a trustee who is learning to “give thanks.” Begin to see yourself as a trustee of God’s good gifts and I bet you will find yourself receiving and giving with greater thanksgiving

Talking Politics & Religion (without getting hijacked)

I am getting increasingly nervous about the political discourse I am hearing from my Christian brothers and sisters as the Presidential Campaign enters its the final lap.  The passionate, vitriolic and divisive comments of some seem to suggest that they are in a position to definitively pronounce God’s political leanings, which just happens to correspond to their political party.

In Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which remains the high water mark in presidential theological reflection, he notes that “Both (the North and the South) read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.”

The heart of the political problem, as Lincoln recognized, is that no human system can claim to embody all of God’s will, and no political platform has the ability to extricate itself from the deceptions of the human heart.

The human race needs an administration of another kind.

Jesus announced a very different administration when He said: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe the good news.”   As scholars, like N.T. Wright remind us, Jesus intentionally used politically loaded words in His inaugural announcement.  “Kingdom of God” is a direct challenge to the Roman Empire or any political system that demands allegiance.  And “good news” is a deliberate parody of the claims of Rome that Caesar was Savior. The death of Jesus reminds us alliance to God can get one in trouble with the powers that be.

The gospel of Jesus is politically loaded, but it must never be co-opted by any political party.  Indeed, it cannot.  The politics of Jesus go higher and deeper than any political system can go.

Amidst a nation bitterly divided, followers of Jesus need to offer another way of discourse –one that is respectful, circumspect, and, at times, ambivalent about political outcomes.   Politics matters, as one theologian said, because “there is not a place where God has not said “this is mine.”  But, as Jim Wallis reminds us, “God is neither Republican or Democrat.”

Let the discussion begin, with less partisanship, please!

Faith–a solo journey?

In our day, there is a lot of talk about spirituality as a solo journey of seeking individuals on a pathway toward God.  And, we are told, there are a variety of techniques that help along the way.  From chanting to meditation, techniques abound that promise the solitary individual everything from attaining peace to transcendental bliss.

Turn to the New Testament, and it quickly becomes appairent that the “spiritual practices” of the early church were not individual, but communal.

“Those who believed were baptized and added to the church—about three thousand in all. They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.”   (Acts 2:41-42)

In this snapshot of the early church we see vital connections though shared learning (“the apostles teaching”), shared relationships (“fellowship”), shared meals (“breaking of bread”) and shared spirituality (“the prayers”).

In all this sharing, the loving connection shared within the Trinity and brought into the world by Jesus is demonstrated and experienced by disciples through community in the world.

This month at Redwood Covenant Church, we are launching mid-sized Community Groups for fellowship and mission.  In doing so, we are doing what was  obvious to the early church, namely, that our growth as individuals is inextricably connected to a community of disciples in relationship to one another because of their relationship to God through Jesus.

Life in Christ is life together.  And that communial dynamic is important not only for our growth, but also for our witness.

Each Community Groups at Redwood has a defined mission focus that works in two ways.  On one hand, each Community Group will plan and do mission adventures together.  On the other hand, each Community Group will invite people into their Community Group to give them an experience of Christian Community.

We introduced Community Groups three weeks ago at Redwood.  Since then, over 500 people are signed up for one of the 14 Community Groups at Redwood.  This is very exciting, and it’s just the beginning of a new thing, that is really an old thing that goes back to the earliest church.  By tapping the DNA of the early church we are reclaiming a simplicity of discipleship that sometimes gets lost.  Fellowship – sharing life together, and mission – sharing God’s love with others, are vitally important ways our faith is formed in and through community.

Why I’m so excited

I recently experienced a jolt of joy that has me so excited that I have to share it with you.  I was with a group of people from Redwood Covenant who will be Hosts and Guides of our newly formed Community Groups.  At the end of our gathering, after a time of teaching and communion, I sensed a level of community with God and others that struck me so much that I was at a loss for words, which, as my wife will tell you, is all too rare.

Part of what I was experiencing was what the Spirit loves to do: bind us in the unity of God’s love that Jesus models and makes possible.  I did not enjoy feeling stupid at my loss of words, but I did enjoy the love I felt.

I believe that hospitality and community are two ways that God will convert the church and reach skeptics in our day.  Did I just write, “convert the church?”  Aren’t we already converted?  Yes and no.

Christians are redeemed and made holy by God through Christ, but there is a sense in which we always need to catch up to what God has done and is doing.  Conversion is not just a one-time decision, but is also an ongoing transformation into the likeness of Jesus.  That second type of conversion takes time, the work of the Spirit, and our intent to live into the new life that Jesus offers.  And it takes others.

And that’s why I’m so excited about the potential of Community Groups.

I meet a lot of people who are burned-out, frustrated and skeptical about any institutional form of Christianity.  And those people are Christians!  And while I love the church in all her mess, I share some of their frustration.  The form that the church takes does not always look like the bride of Christ.  And while I recognize that the church is more than it’s form, it is not less than it’s form, either.  And, well, we have some re-forming to do if we are to become who God calls us to be as the living, breathing, moving body of Christ.

And that’s why I am so excited about Community Groups.

Community Groups represent a way for us to connect, share lives together, and seek to incarnate the good news to neighbors and friends who are hungry for connection, love and compassion.   It’s that simple.

Discipleship in Community doing Mission.  It seems simple.  And it is!  And it’s also challenging!!  It’s challenging to convert from a religious consumer to an apprentice of Jesus.

Two weeks ago, we introduced fourteen Community Groups, and the response was amazing.  Close to one hundred people signed up–and that’s just the first week!  Can you imagine hundreds more, gathering in homes, sharing a meal, sharing their lives and sharing the love of God in mission adventures that catch the attention of their friends and neighbors?  I can.   Like you, I am hungry to connect with others and with God and to share the gospel in practical ways to others.

That’s why I am so excited.

Community Groups are about to begin!

Church is more than a service.  It’s people living life together and helping neighbors and friends throughout our county in the name of Jesus.

This has always been at the heart of Redwood Covenant, and now we are about to begin an exciting new phase of ministry.  It’s taken a lot of time, energy and dedication by many to get here, and now Community Groups are about to begin. 

What’s a Community Group?

•  Size of an extended family.  With 20-50 people, Community Groups will be small enough to care but large enough to dare.

•  UP/IN/OUT.  Community Groups will follow the three dimensions of Jesus’ life: UPward dimension of life with the Father, INward dimension of life with the Body of Christ together, OUTward dimension of fully stepping into a broken world.

•  Fellowship with a Focus.   In a Community Group, people will enjoy a meal, connect with others, connect with God, and either plan or do a mission adventure.  Many of our Community Groups will be kid-friendly!  And yes, it will be fun!

•  Mission vision.  Each Community Group will have a vision to extend God’s love in practical ways to a specific group.  There will be Community Groups focused on the hungry, the homeless, families, and much more.

I am very excited to say that fourteen Community Groups will begin in October at Redwood Covenant.   Groups will be introduced during worship each Sunday in September.  Sign ups begin this Sunday.  Please be in prayer about which group will work for you!

God is moving!  And you are invited to catch the movement!

Imitation

One of the life-giving practices I am rediscovering is discipleship.   I love learning from others how to be and act more like Jesus, and I enjoy passing that along to others who also want to grow as disciples.  It’s thrilling for me to see people grow, change, and become more fully devoted followers of Jesus.

One of the great challenges for me is that Jesus’ way of discipleship is based on imitation.  Jesus called a few to apprentice with Him, and over the course of three years they learned how to be like Him and how to do what He did in the ebb and flow of real life.   And then, these few were commissioned and empowered to disciple others.

The Apostle Paul reflects this imitation-style of discipleship.  He writes:  “I urge you to imitate me” (1 Corinthians 4:16) and “we… offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.”

Disciples grow through a mentor in an apprentice relationship.  Discipleship is not about following a curriculum, and it’s definitely not about transferring abstract knowledge or principles.  Discipleship happens as one disciple builds onto other disciples what they have learned from others about how to be more like Jesus and how to do what Jesus taught His disciples to do.

Jesus’ way of discipleship can seem agonizingly slow, especially if one is accustomed to curriculum-based learning. It’s much easer to digest information than to facilitate real life change.   But, I am convinced that if the Church does not follow Jesus in this way, then we will continue to grow in irrelevance to emerging generations and the culture around us.

The way of discipleship is a challenge for me because I was not taught to transfer faith in that way.  I was taught in classroom settings to understand the Bible, to teach the Bible, to care for people, and to lead in a servant-like way.  I was not taught to imitate, and frankly, I find the whole nature of imitation intimidating.  Who am I to say, “Imitate me,” when there are areas in my life not worth emulating?

When I look at my life and see areas that are not worth imitating I get discouraged. But, when I see aspects of my life that are worth imitating, I am both encouraged and humbled.  Any characteristic of my life that is worth emulating is because of Jesus.  He is the redeeming stronghold in my life.  Seriously, the best I do is respond to what God is prompting, challenging and encouraging me to be and become.  And, I have also found that I need other disciples to help me process what God is saying, to challenge me to respond, and to encourage me to stay the course.

Jesus said that His sheep know His voice and they learn to listen and respond.   I do not have a hotline to God because I am a pastor.  But, I am learning to dial into the many ways that God continues to speak.  I will be dialing into the voice of the Shepherd today as I pray, meet with others, reflect about challenges, write a sermon and plan ministry initiatives.   Through it all, my hope is to hear from God, learn from others, and pass it on.

Future Sermon Series

Fredrick Buechner once wrote, “Sundays come at the pastor like telephone poles on a fast-moving train.”  The relentless pace of ministry demands that I step back from time to time for perspective, planning and prayer.  This week is one of those weeks.

For the next few days I am hibernating at home for a study-leave to map out sermon series for the next few months.  My goal is to create a balanced diet of messages that are biblically based and applicable to life.  The trick is to keep it balanced.

A balanced diet of sermons will include passages from the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Sometimes a series will offer topical treatment from the Bible.  At other times a series will offer a verse-by-verse treatment of a book in God’s Word.  Preachers tend to gravitate toward either topical or verse-by-verse, but I think a healthy diet includes both.

A balanced diet will keep an eye to the seasons of the year (fall, Christmas, the new year, Easter, etc.).  And, it will offer nourishment to a variety of ages at a variety of levels of spiritual maturity and understanding.  Like I said, this is no easy trick.  And that’s why it’s important for me to get away to map out sermon series for the upcoming year, as I am doing this week.

Please pray for me this week, if you are so inclined.  Join me in asking God for wisdom and inspiration, so the church might be built up in maturity, faith, love and hope.

Backing into the future

Last week the pastors I serve with went on a retreat to do some planning. It was a helpful time of looking back to review and looking forward to plan. I like doing work like that, because, I like to have some idea about what’s coming up down the road. Even though the future is unknown and unknowable, I still like to plan a route and predict the possible twists and turns I might encounter. That’s why I am so challenged by the world-view of the Bible that presents a different, better way of moving in the future.

In the world of the Old Testament, people did not conceive of themselves as facing the future and walking into it. Instead, they saw themselves backing into the future. This idea is so foreign, so freeing, that it deserves some explanation.

Time, for a Hebrew in the Old Testament, was not a commodity to expend as it is in our day. It was more like a stream to be experienced. The ripples left behind in the stream revealed, in various, wonderful ways, the great faithfulness of God for His people in history. This is why, for instance, the Psalms are replete with the injunction “to remember” God’s faithful actions in the past. By remembering the stories of how God was faithful, we affirm our faith in the God who was faithful, is faithful and will always be faithful.

Abraham, called the “father of faith” in the Bible, is an example of how faith helps us walk into the future. Abraham had already experienced God’s faithfulness by the time God invited Abraham to go to a distant land. That’s why Abraham could step out, not knowing the final destination. And with each step he took, he could look back to see evidence of God’s guiding hand. In that way, Abraham was able to back into the future that God was creating for him.

And that’s the key for you and me: As we look back to remember God’s faithfulness we receive courage to back into the future that is unknown to us, but is knowable to God.

Can you see yourself backing into the future? Can you see that the burden of creating the future is not yours? Of course you and I need to make decisions about our life and its direction by making plans and setting goals. But, that look into an unknown future must be done while looking backward. By looking backward we see the trail of God’s faithfulness that gives us the confidence we need to step forward in faith.

Maybe you are facing a crossroads, wondering whether to take this road or that road. Maybe you need to be reminded that the future God holds out to all of us is His responsibility to unveil. Our job is to remember how God has faithfully guided us, and to be confident that He will continue to reveal His faithfulness to us. From there, we step out, one step at a time, backing into His future.

Touch is out of touch

I’m a sucker for mind-bending novels, movies and TV shows like X-Files and Lost.  The latest show that has my attention is Touch.  The premise of Touch is that everything and everyone is connected.  And, there’s a gifted kid who gets the connections and he uses cryptic numbers to guide his father to help people avoid the painful experiences that they are unknowingly headed toward.

If you like mind-benders, then Touch is a fun ride.

It’s also a veiled attempt to explain existence within a naturalistic worldview.  In that world, patterns and systems are comprehended and orchestrated by an all-knowing kid who alters destiny by guiding his Dad to intervene and to avert impending disaster and pain.

If that story sounds familiar, it is.

The Bible reveals God as The One in whom all things are held together.  And God intervenes by God sending His angels and His Son among humans who are capable of amazing goodness and horrific destruction.

But, the similarities between Touch and the Bible end there.

In the worldview of Touch, there is no transcendent God, let alone a personal God who intervenes in history.  Within its naturalistic framework, reality is reduced to what can be comprehended empirically.  For the kid in Touch, this means apprehending the myriad of connections and patterns that mere mortals cannot grasp.

The worldview of the Bible blows that roof wide open.  In stark contrast to a closed universe, the word of the Bible conveys a God who is real, personal, and involved in, with, and for His creation.  God’s involvement is His passionate plan to put a creation careening off course back to right.  And, that plan finds expression in God taking flesh, dying, and being raised from the dead to sit at the place of highest authority.  And that plan involves us, as kings and priests, who partner with the living God in his plan to bless all people.

The worldview of Touch is ironically out of touch with reality.  But, that’s the power of a worldview.  It shapes a reality that shapes us.

The Real Home we Desire

“God has planted eternity in the human heart.” –Ecclesiastes 3:11

There is a forgotten land that we long for.   And we can’t shake off our desire.  It’s hard-wired into us.  And it is the desire to transcend this world and go back to our true home with God.

No civilization has ever been entirely able to suppress the rumors of land beyond.  These rumors of a lost Eden come to us in stories, poetry, flashes of joy, and that aching desire which C.S. Lewis recognized as “the sent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard” (Weight of Glory)

Lewis writes about this aching desire in Mere Christianity:

“If I find in myself a desire for which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world… Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it. If that is so, then I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise or be unthankful for these earthy blessings, but on the other hand never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive my desire from my true county which I shall never find until after death.”

There are realities of beauty that would burst your heart is you saw them now.  On this side, we catch hints and echoes of that glory, such as a stirring piece of music, the breathtaking beauty of mountains, or the smell of French roast coffee in the morning. These pleasures arouse within us aching desire that cannot be satisfied in this world, and this fleeting desire is a sign that we were made for another world, our true home with God.

Home is not where you grew up or even where you currently hang your hat. Home is the place we created to live from eternity and for eternity. Home is being in communion w/God—that’s our home where we belong.

But we are not yet home–we are nomads traveling home.  Like Abraham, Moses, and Noah, who:

“Died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God. They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth.  And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own.  If they had meant the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back.  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a heavenly city for them.”   Hebrews 11:13-16 (NLT)

If God has placed eternity in hearts, and if all our desires point to our home with God, then it only makes sense that best way to get there must come from heaven to earth.

The Easter good news is that Jesus is God’s son from heaven who opens that way for us by the cross and that God guarantees that way for us by rising him from the dead.

When Thomas later asked Jesus how he would find him and follow him where going, Jesus responded by saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”

All your desire finds it’s home with God.  He is our home.  It’s written on your heart, and Jesus makes it possible, because “He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed.”

God’s Perfect Pitch

Not long ago I had met a stranger on a sidewalk.  He was waiting for a ride, sipping a Starbucks, and I was sipping mine, so, having that in common, we struck up a conversation about the brew of the bean.  One topic lead to another, and before long he asked, “So, what do you do?” I hesitated telling him that I am pastor, not because I was ashamed, but because it typically makes people nervous, or they make an awkward attempt to clean up their language, or they confess their list of sins, or they suddenly remember they have to leave for an appointment.

But he asked, and I could not lie, so I told him.   “Pastor,” he said, “you don’t look like a Pastor” (thank God, I thought).  “Anyway,” he continued, “I don’t care much for organized religion.  I meet God when I walk through a forest grove.”

Then the stranger’s ride pulled up to the curb.  “See you in the forest,” I said with a smile.  But behind my smile was a heavy heart for him and others who see the church as a self-serving institution that has little to do with authentic spiritual revitalization.  If I ever see that stranger again I would like him to know that a walk through the woods is great, but it’s not enough to tune-up our soul.

The Gospel of John begins famously with these words: “In the beginning was the Logos.”  “Logos” means both “Sound” and “Word.”  Jesus is the Word of God, the Word that must be heard.  Or, as Leonard Sweet says, “Jesus is the Sound of God, the Song Made Flesh.”

If I ever see that stranger again I would like him to know that the “sound” of Jesus is our tuning fork to our Creator.  I would like him to know that as our lives get out of tune, we seek ways to tune our souls.  For some it’s a walk in the woods.  For others, it’s a walk down a fairway.  And on one level that recreation can, as the word suggests, “re-create” our soul.  But to tune our lives with God and his creation, we must dial into the frequencies of God’s Spirit and match the resonance of our actions and attitudes to Jesus who is God’s perfect pitch.

Musical instruments are tuned at 440 cycles per second for perfect pitch.  One can tune an instrument looser and achieve a “relative pitch.”  But a “relative pitch” sounds good only when it is played by itself. When played with other instruments, relative pitch creates dissonance.  In a similar way, recreation is necessary for personal renewal, but it is limited to a “relative pitch.”  After a walk in the woods or a walk down the fairway, we may sound okay to ourselves, but when we play alongside others we discover a dissonance and a need for perfect pitch so that we can play in harmony with others.

One of the great values of worship is that it helps us find “perfect pitch” as we tune the pitch of our lives to the perfect pitch of Jesus Christ.  That’s one reason why Christians through the years have guarded Sunday worship as an appointment for soul revitalization, calling it the day of resurrection–the day of new life.

This Sunday begins what Christians call “holy week.”  It begins with Palm Sunday, travels from there to Good Friday and ends at the empty tomb of Jesus.  It’s entirely Jesus-focused, and its one way we tune our lives to the perfect pitch of Jesus.

God so loved the world that he sent his son as the perfect pitch of God.   May your life, tuned to him, play the notes that bring harmony to your world.

When Growth goes Dormant

Russian scientists recently resurrected a 30,000 year-old plant from the Siberian permafrost.  Using fruit tissues, the scientists revived the ancient seed and grew Silene stenophylla, the oldest plant ever regenerated (see a picture of the real plant, below).

Like a dormant seed, sometimes the potential for new life lies hidden,  just beneath the surface.

For Christians, the potential for new life lies in their connection to Jesus, who said: “I am the vine you are the branches… stay connected to me.”

Jesus also recognized that the potential for new life is not always realized.  The seed of the gospel can get clogged by the cares of the world, or poisoned by the toxins of sin, or snatched away by destructive demonic powers.  Or the seed of new life can simply lie dormant, waiting for the right conditions to germinate the seed for the harvest that lies ahead.

At Redwood Covenant Church, there are many visible signs of life among students, Redwood Kids, men and women.  And there are other, less visible life-signs.  For instance, there are dozens of people being discipled.  And there are many more who are saying yes to help form a “Community Group” in the fall.

What’s a Community Group?

Community Groups at Redwood Covenant Church will be groups of 20-40 people, meeting in homes for fellowship and outreach.  Community Groups will be a place where fellowship happens over a meal, where people can experience Christian community, and where mission adventures will launch into neighborhoods.

Like an extended family on a mission together, Community groups will be an important way for people to find connection, have fun, grow together, and express God’s love to neighbors in practical ways.  Community groups will be a way for people to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as the arms of Jesus.

Over the past few months, we’ve been working hard to prepare the soil for this growth, and now the seeds are germinating.  People are growing as disciples.  And they are inviting others to learn how to grow as a disciple of Jesus with them.  Teams are forming to help and guide Community Groups.  A vision for community/discipleship/mission is catching hold, and new life is germinating, behind the scenes.

Churches, like people, sometimes must undergo a season of pruning, and dormancy in preparation for new growth.  I’ve seen this happen in my life, and now I’m seeing it happen in the church I serve.

When I’m in a dormant stage, God often calls me to trust and to exercise patience.  And that’s what I’m doing–I am trusting God for his provision, plans, and providence.  And I am exercising patience while the seeds of His new life germinate among God’s people.

And I am very encouraged.  After all, if scientists can coax a 30,000 year-old seed to life, don’t you think God is more than able to coax His life in us for the harvest that lies ahead?

Kindness: more than being nice

In preparation for a sermon I will deliver tomorrow, I’ve been thinking about the amazing quality of God’s kindness. Here are some snapshots of this often overlooked attribute of God…

Nehemiah addresses God’s kindness when he prayed: “You are a God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness” Nehemiah 9:17

The apostle Paul announced God’s kindness when he wrote: “God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Jesus Christ” Ephesians 2:7

And Jesus invites us into kindness of God when he said: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30

In ancient Israel, farmers trained inexperienced Oxen by tying them to experienced ones. The older Ox carried the bulk of the weight of the load. The younger Ox simply walked alongside the older Ox. That’s the image behind Jesus’ invitation to get yoked with him. We walk together, bound by love, but he carries the weight and the burden. And his burden is kind.

Jesus carries burdens we are familiar with, like sin & shame. But does he not also carry burdens that we no nothing about?

Has he lifted your fear before you felt it?

Has he carried your confusion so that you did not have to?

Are there times we you been surprised by a peace that passes understanding?

For me, the answers are: yes, yes and yes.

Those are some of my random thoughts about kindness that won’t make it into my message tomorrow, but those thoughts have shaped what I will share, and they have helped me get through a very full week with a sense of ease and pleasure.

As you go through your day, may the loving kindness of God in Christ be with you, and in you, and be manifest through you, for the glory of God, and the gladness of those around you!

Why I like sports and how competition might fit into the Kingdom of God

It’s a great season for sports, if you’re a sports fan.  The zillions of College Bowl games just ended and the NFL championships are heating up.   When I have downtime, I’ll dial in, drawn by the competition and the drama.  And in spite of having been a Seahawk fan since they hatched, I’m catching the 49er fever.

After the 49er win last Sunday (four lead changes in the final four minutes!), sports journalist Jeremy Hay wrote:

“In what was one of the most remarkable wins in the franchise’s 65-year history, the team thrust itself back into the ranks of the NFL elite on the strength and leadership of much-maligned quarterback Alex Smith, who abruptly established himself as a big-time, big-game winner.

In the process, the 49ers ended nine years of ignominy as NFL bottom feeders.”

Wow.  Seriously?  That’s not what I saw.  But I’m new around here, and I’ve lived though decades of frustration as a Seahawk fan, so my view is skewed.  But what I saw was team that was hungry to win, a team that has a lot of weapons, and a team that is well coached.

And it’s got me thinking about why I love competition, and how it might fit in the Kingdom of God.  Here’s what I think…

Great connection happens in good competition

By good competition, I mean competition that pits individuals or teams against one another in a fair battle, with clear guidelines and refs who blow the whistle when lines are crossed.  Good competitors fight hard and well, and after the game they shake hands with their opponent.  I’m not in the camp that sees Jesus as a wimp, nor do I believe that Christians have to get along at all cost.  I think great connection happens in good competition.

God loves a good fight

Think about it: God created humans knowing that His creation would stray.  And then God goes to battle to win back his beloved from the kingdom of darkness.  It seems like God loves a good fight, and if that’s true then so do we, because we’re designed in His image.  But, as one author suggests, a gradual feminization of the church has emasculated this instinct in many churches today.  (See “Why Men Hate Going to Church“).

What I’m not saying

I am not advocating dominance, imperialism, or unjust war.  Nor am I justifying the outrageous commercialization of sports.  And I’m not a proponent of a testosterone driven church that devalues the gifting of women.  I’m just suggesting that competition may have more of a place in the kingdom of God than Christians have been socialized to assume. 

Extremes Aside

When it comes to engaging in battle, Christians err on two extremes: we can be overly passive or we can be overly aggressive.  The trick is to discern what is worth fighting for, like truth, justice, peace, and loved ones and neighbors.  From there it’s all about fighting fairly, with the right weapons (see Ephesians 6:11-18).

This Sunday I’ll be glued to a TV, cheering for the 49ers.  I won’t weigh the game down with an expectation that a win will redeem years of ignominy.  That’s going too far.  But I will unabashedly enjoy the game.

What my migration from Windows to Apple is teaching me about faith.

I recently moved away from a world I’ve known for over two decades. I migrated from the world of Windows, into the world of Apple.

I migrated because I literally moved from the Seattle-Redmond area to N. Cal, which is like moving from the land that Bill G built, into the world that Steve J built.

I migrated partly out of frustration with Microsoft products, and partly out of admiration for the iPods I have enjoyed, and partly to follow the Apostle Paul’s adage to “be all things to all people.”

My migration has prompted a couple of thoughts about operating systems and my Christian faith….

Simplicity is not Simple

Following Jesus is simple.  Following Jesus is hard.  Most churches tend to get around this reality by adding layer upon layer of disconnected programing, kind of like Windows.

Windows is great for Geeks who like a lot of options and tweaks, but each option is like a one more pound of weight on a fat elephant.

And how about those updates and the systems crashes!  If I had a Twinkie for every Microsoft update or crash, then I’d be sick of Twinkies.  And I am sick of Twinkies.

Thom Rainer, in his excellent book, Simple Church, observes that Churches tend to make church-life complicated, on one hand, and churches tend to lower the bar of discipleship, on the other hand.  It’s time, he says, to raise the bar of discipleship and make church simpler.   Yes!

At Redwood, we’re moving into a more simple mode by focusing on three things: discipleship, mission and fellowship.  And yes: it’s simple and it’s hard.

Aesthetics Matter

Worship of God is not done just with the ear-gate, but also involves the eye-gate.  Christians in the sacramental traditions have known this for centuries.  Those in the evangelical tradition lean toward word-heavy worship, and we could learn a few things from Apple about creating aesthetically pleasing environments.

The world that Steve built is fun and cool, and intuitive.  And now this environment seamlessly links across my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.  This functionality isn’t much beyond what RMS or Google have offered for years.  For sure, Apple is later, but it’s way cooler.

Caveat: Sometimes faith is not cool.  Sometimes it’s hard, messy, even bloody.  But beyond the cross lies an open grave that opens an operating system not of bits and bytes, but of love and life.

That’s the world Jesus built.   And it’s still being built.

The Triumph of Christianity

Peer into a Nativity Manger and you might just see a child who grew to be  a boy who grew to become a man who changed the world.  And that’s no exaggeration.  Jesus sparked a fledging movement, outnumbered and outgunned in every way possible, that become a movement numbering over forty percent of the world’s population today.

This week I’m reading Rodney Stark’s newest book called, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement became the World’s Largest Religion.

If that title sounds big, it is.  It’s massive tour though six historical eras beginning with the religious context of the first Christmas and ending with our religious global context. It’s an audacious tour, and he pulls it off in a straightforward, factual, and readable way that busts all kinds of popular myths about Christianity.  This history is faith-bolstering stuff.

As a pastor, this time of the year is full of Christmas gatherings, decking the halls of our house for our family celebrations, and preparation for Christmas Eve and Christmas day messages.  As I prepare for five messages this week, and as I ponder the message of the manger, I’m also reading about how the Jesus movement became the world’s largest religion.  Those two rails got me thinking.

I wonder what people who don’t believe in Jesus as God think about our Christmas scenery.  Do those eyes see a winter-like scene from a Dickens’ novel adapted to movie?   The set is antiseptic, but cozy, warm, with that hay-on-floor look.  And in the center stands a crib that looks like an Ikea dish drying rack.  And there on the Ikea crib lies a sweet, white, child sleeping so soundly you can almost hear the melody:  “…sleeeeeeeep in heavvvvenleeey sleep.”

It’s deeply calming, and I think many see that serene scene.  And I plan to dive deeper into that scene on Christmas Eve at our worship celebrations.  But until that night, we have a journey to travel, like those Persian Astrologers who followed a star to the first Christmas birth scene.

As travelling followers, we journey with anticipation, to peer into a manger to see the wonder of God becoming flesh as a babe in the crib.   Look long enough at that man and you will see God’s love made visible.  Look some more and you will find the gifts of God’s presence like joy, peace, hope and love.  Then look beyond the crib to Jesus, the Christ, who changed the world.

Merry Christmas!

Finding Joy in times of economic uncertianity

We approach Christmas with news of massive layoffs, a sputtering economy, Occupiers camping out in front of City Halls, and Europe teetering on the edge of financial meltdown.  Many on this side of the pond are worried sick, in spite of the fact that we are wealthy in comparison  to the majority of the world.

Concerns about a contracting economy create a shrinking feeling.  And I wonder… could that shrinking feeling be a small, small glimpse of what Jesus felt when he squeezed into  a human body?

“When the time came,” writes Paul, Jesus “set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process.”  (Philippians 2:6, The Message).

Because I will be working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we’re going to enjoy our Christmas eve dinner on Christmas day, and open a few gifts the next morning.  The highlight will be our stocking exchange, where each gift has a written clue taped to the outside.  It’s one way we’re keeping it simple this year.

Another highlight for me will be serving at our Open Closet ministry this Saturday, during which we will give a Christmas tree and a bag of groceries to over 1000 families.  The line begins forming at the crack of dawn, and it will wrap around our church building.        I serve in a church that loves to “give it away” in response to God’s staggering generosity and abundance.

If you are feeling pinched this Christmas, then consider the degree to which God stooped low.  Allow the mystery of the incarnation to settle into your mind and heart.  Consider again God’s  a supreme act of condescension, and bow to the One who stooped low.

Bowing in adoration to the God who bent low to us means that we acknowledge that our greatest security is not found in any economy others than God’s economy, who demonstrates his love by becoming poor so that we might become rich in the ways that matter most: rich in hope, love, peace and joy.  And it is precisely those doors of a deeper reality that God will open when we feel squeezed.

What doors will God opening for you in this season of seeming scarcity?  I urge you to ask God to show you.  Is it a door of deepening trust in His provision?  A door of connection with others to find support ?  Is it a door of generosity that would activate your faith in new ways?   While news and blogs report about doors that are closing, I encourage you to seek that door that is God opening for you in His abundance.  And may God’s blessing in Christ prompt you to bow in service in someway to someone, just as he bent to serve us.

Why I quit watching the X-Factor

My wife and I like watching reality TV music shows.  I know.  It’s a guilty pleasure.  But I like watching the talent of people sharpen through the season.  And I like the learning about the humble backgrounds of the singers stories.  And I even like the entertainment of the competition.

And that’s why I won’t be watching any more episodes of X-Factor.

On the X-Factor, each judges grooms a contestant.  This dual role of producer and judge creates an inherent tension between the judges ,who prop up their protégé and dis the other judge’s choice of choreography, song choice, etc.  It’s a weird dynamic that leaves the singer in the middle of the judges and their many arrogant justifications.

I like it when people build-up people.  I don’t like people being used or torn-down.  X factor uses people, not only for big corporation, but also for the big egos of the judges.  And that’s just wrong.  Ego should not be the power that votes people off the island.

In what should be a stark contrast, The Church seeks to be a counter-culture of people being built up, not torn down or voted off the island.  And, fortunately, the talents of the least are often most esteemed by God.  And even more, the only judge is the one who welcomes all, and binds all together by their relationship to himself and God.

In Greek, the first letter of Christ is X.  Now there’s the real X-factor.

The Ministry of the Mundane

Sometimes we imagine that life with God will be filled with fireworks, drama, mountain-top experience and power-house inspiration.  But sometimes life with God is just mundane.  And that’s good news, because that’s where most of us live, most of the time.

When Jesus illustrated what life in the kingdom of God looks like, he took child in arms, and he said words to this effect: “Give yourselves to people who can bring you no status or clout—you need to help people like this because If you don’t your life will be thrown away on an idiotic contest to see who is top-dog.  But the greatest in the kingdom are those who serve without regard for acclaim.  Learn to serve people who don’t bring you status or clout and you will begin to understand how life in kingdom of God works.

 (Luke 22:22-24, my very loose, amplified paraphrase)  

In addition to addressing the upside-down nature of authority in the kingdom of God, I think Jesus is also affirming the value of the ministry of the mundane.

The ministry of the mundane knocks on our door countless times each day.  A co-worker asks for help on a project.  Someone’s car stalls on side of the road. Your child asks you to put down the remote and to play or to read a book.  You vacuum the house, feed the kids, rake the leaves, or make the bed, and it all seems so mundane that you don’t expect God to show up.  But God does show up in those acts of loving service. And he uses those acts to convey his loving ways to others.

Mundane ministry is not easy in a me-first society where celebrities and power-brokers are worshiped.  Mundane ministry is counterintuitive, but according to Jesus it’s great.  Being available to people, accepting them, bearing their burdens, and loving them in small acts of service matters a great deal.  Those acts might seem obscure, and they may not count much on world’s scale of significance, but they weigh heavy on God’s scale of significance.

Seeing Halloween through the eyes of your neighbors

What if Christians saw Halloween though the eyes of their neighbors? Jeff Vanderstelt has written a nice post about how to respond to Haloween with a missionary mindset. This is great stuff – thanks Jeff!

Posted Oct 27 by Jeff Vanderstelt

This coming Monday offers a great opportunity for many to engage in new relationships with those around us or to revisit some old relationships with new missional intentionality. Regardless of what you think of the holiday and it’s roots, the culture we have been sent by Jesus to reach is going to celebrate Halloween this Monday. We all have in front of us a wide open door for missionary engagement in our neighborhoods. I want to encourage you not to miss out on the opportunity.
If you are looking to be more intentionally engaged this year, I want to present you with a few ideas for how you can more effectively walk through the open door that Halloween presents to us as Jesus’ missionaries.

BE HOSPITABLE…Don’t just give out candy
Give out the best Candy. Please, don’t give out tracks or toothbrushes or pennies…kids are looking for the master loot of candy. Put yourself in their shoes.
Think of the Parents. Consider having some Hot Apple Cider and pumpkin bread or muffins out for the parents who are bringing their little kiddos around the block. Make your entry-way inviting so they want to come closer and hang for a bit if possible.

BE PRESENT…Don’t hide out all night.
Come out to the door or hang out on the porch and if they stop to have some cider, get to know their names and where they live in the neighborhood.

Be Encouraging.
Tell the kids you love their costumes and to have a great night. Practice building others up with words.

Party.
If you’re really into it, you may want to throw a pre-Trick or Treating party. Provide dinner and drinks. Then, send the dads out trick or treating with the kids while the moms continue hanging with some hot apple cider, coffee or tea. Then reconvene with the parents and kids together to examine all of the loot (kids love to show their parents and other kids the loot).

Learn the Stories.
If you are out T or Ting with the kiddos or staying back with the other parents, ask questions…get to know their stories. Pay attention to their hearts and their felt needs. Look for opportunities to serve them later.
…

Click the link below to continue onto the full article

http://alexabsalom.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/on-mission-this-halloween

Go! (be accepting)

If you are committed to following Jesus’ example, then it won’t be long before serving others will expose you to feet fungus and ugly warts.  And isn’t that what Jesus (the foot washer) calls us to do as we follow in his footsteps?

I live in the town where Charles Schultz penned Charlie Brown.  In one of his cartoons, Charlie Brown says: “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand”.

It’s easier to love humanity from a mile-high vista.  It’s more challenging to love people down in the valley, up close and personal.   But loving people as they are and communicating a loving acceptance to them, is one way to discover that God loves us, warts and all.

The story of Dominique illustrates what acceptance looks like.  Dominique was a lean, muscular man who learned at age of 54 that he was dying of cancer.  That year, he moved into poor neighborhood, took a job as night watchman in factory, and before work every morning he would go to the park, and sit on a bench, and hang out with homeless, drifters, alcoholics and mentally ill persons who congregated in the park

And Dominique never scolded them, criticized them, or reprimanded them.   Instead, he laughed, told stories, and shared candy.  His witness lay in accepting them, and people flocked him.  He was the most non-judgmental person they ever known.

One day, group of people asked him about his life.   He told them with a quiet conviction about how God loved them tenderly and stubbornly.  He told that Jesus came for outcasts like them.  And his words carried the weight of credibility because his words were backed by his acceptance and love.

One day Dominique failed to show up at the park.  People in the park grew concerned, and a few hours later, he was found dead on floor of his apartment.

Shortly after his funeral, they found his journal—this was his last entry:

“All that is not of love has no meaning for me.  I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God, shown in Jesus.  If God wants my life to be useful though my words and my witness, then so be it.  But the usefulness of my life is not my concern, it is his—it would be indecent of me to worry about that.”

May you become so enthralled by the limitless and unconditional love of God that you would seek ways to show your love to others.

Go and be available.  Go and be accepting.  Go in the name of Jesus.

Go! (be available)

For the next few weeks, Redwood Covenant Church is mobilizing to serve people beyond our church.  And we’re giving away 10% of all our offerings to the people we will serve.  It’s a great movement of generosity and service, involving an army of people who are willing to give generously and to roll-up their selves to show God’s unconditional love in very practical ways to our neighbors, with no strings attached.

The ministry of service is central to those who seek to follow after Jesus.  Jesus bent low to serve the world that God loves, and he calls all who would follow him to do the same.  Really, are we ever more like Jesus then when we serve others in his name?

Service is to faith what a fuel injector is to an engine.  Clog an injector, and the motor sputters.  Faith in action cleans out the gunk, and it injects vitality to our faith.  John Wesley encouraged the Christians of his day to deepen their faith and to grow in God’s grace by serving others.  And the first step toward serving others is simply to be available.

Are you available?  Would you be available to at least one person in need this week?  And, if you are a part of Redwood, are you available to join with others to love our neighbors in practical, fun ways?

“My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.”

1 John 3:18 (Message Version)

why I keep sabbath

In our hyperactive culture, it is challenging to simply pay attention to God.  Our work-weeks are getting longer and our work-load is expanding by technology that allows us 24/7 connection to our work.  That’s why we need a protected day to unplug and to let God be God.  The Bible calls this day “Sabbath” and Jesus calls this day a gift, and it may be the most neglected gift among Christians today.

The problem with ignoring the Sabbath is that it hurts us and our families and our relationship with God.  Warren Muller, a therapist, minister and author is convinced that modern society is a violent enterprise. We make war on our bodies by pushing them beyond their limits, war on our children by failing to given them our time, and war on our communities by failing to connect with our neighbors.  To bring an end to this destruction, we will have to learn to observe the Sabbath.

My Sabbath is Monday, and it’s a day I share with Amy that is quantitatively different from the work patterns that mark the other six days.  During our Sabbath we walk, talk, read, reflect, bike, hike, or enjoy a local excursion.  And I try not to answer emails or phone messages that can wait until Tuesday, unless it’s an emergency.

Regardless of the type of activity, a true Sabbath will refresh and renew you.  It will help you regain a proper perspective before God and it will create space for the Spirit to redirect your life toward what is good, and true and worthwhile.

There is much to do and there are always many needs to be met.  It’s tempting to run the performance treadmill, assuming that productivity means motion and that inactivity is unproductive.  But inactivity does not mean stagnation.  The most productive time in the cycle of many plants is the dormant season, when it appears that nothing is going on, but the plant is being prepared for new, healthy growth.

It is more than OK to unplug to recharge.  It’s more than OK to stop for a day to take a break—it’s essential for your well being and for the growth that God wants to cultivate in your life.

I encourage you to unplug to recharge.  Make Sabbath a reoccurring appointment until it becomes a habit.  You’ll honor God, your family and yourself.  God’s gift of Sabbath is not just a practice of good faith; it’s also a practice of good living.

Our New Home

For the past eight months we’ve been looking for a new home in our new community.    We looked at a zillion homes on-line, and we visited one-hundred, and we found the one.

Here’s a peek at our new home.

It’s good to be home!

Pardon the mess.

More than Hype

On Sunday, Redwood Covenant Church launches a new season of ministry with a “Kick-Off Sunday”.  It will be festive, fun, inspirational and informative.

And it will be much, much more than mere hype.

I’m skeptical about hype.  Hype breeds dissatisfaction by encouraging a quivering desire for the “next thing.”   And the relentless pursuit of the “next thing” tends to breed either a spiritual attention deficit disorder or a hardened cynicism.  Neither course is very attractive.

So why is Redwood launching a “kick-off”? 

We do this because churches–like our lives–go and grow through seasons.   The Redwood Kick-Off is recognition that God is growing us into a new season of life, ministry and mission.

When my kids return home from college, I sometimes revert to treating them like they were before they left.  It’s like I’ve frozen them in a suspended animation and projected that onto the present.  I forget that they have changed, and so have I.

Just as we tend to freeze the past, so do we forget that God is always doing a new thing, just as the prophet Isaiah announced…

See, I am doing a new thing! 
   

         Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? 


I am making a way in the wilderness

  
   and streams in the wasteland.  (Isaiah 43:19)

God’s ongoing work of renewal calls for our ongoing work of conversion.  Each day is an opportunity to embrace the “new thing” that God is always doing.    Seasons come and seasons go, but each season is new, and with God, all things are made new.

God’s doing a new thing.  Are you ready?

A Better Labor

Over the past two weeks my family took in the majestic sights of mountains and sea.   We traveled to Yosemite (our first visit) and we marveled at the giant Sequoias in old-growth forests.  We hiked beside massive granite walls.  We played games and laughed together.  From there, we traveled to Sea Ranch on the North Sonoma Coast.  it was the first time all our family had been together for eight months, and it was wonderful.

Now I’m back in the saddle at Redwood Covenant, gearing up for fall ministries.  I’m very excited about the men’s Ministry I’ll be leading, the new Women’s Ministry we are beginning and the growing momentum at Redwood Covenant.

Vacation mode is a slow mode for me, and coming back into a vibrant church with lots of movement and activity is both exhilarating and tiring, especially when coming off a two-week vacation.  Like the Tin Man, I felt a bit rusty.  I’m finally getting my sea-legs back.

It’s been said that most Americans work to rest.  The work piles up, the work-weeks cascade, and by the end, many go into their time-off exhausted.  But the invitation we hear in the Bible is not work to rest, but to rest to work.

Taking time to stop to take-in creation, worship the Creator, and to connect with friends and family should not a relief-effort for the burned-out, but should be a renewal-movement for those who seek to live into the rhythms that God has wired into creation (can you say “Sabbath”?)

On this Labor Day weekend, full of picnics, gatherings and travel, take some time to listen to Jesus, who said…

 ”Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  (Matthew 11:28-30 | The Message)

May the labor of your life become more free and more light as you learn from Jesus the unforced rhythms of grace!

Wisdom from Wonderland #3: In Thy light we see

I snapped this picture because I was captivated by sunlight filtering though the trees, surrounding my friend, Jan as he was setting up camp.  That’s what light does: it captivates.

Light draws your attention like a moth to TV.  Light creates shadow-play like a film noir mystery.  Light dispels darkness like a Rembrandt painting.

Light also discloses what is always there, but hidden, just out of sight.

For the past two weeks I’ve been enjoying the light-plays in Yosemite and on the North Coast of California.  As I write this blog, the maritime fog is rolling onto the coast like a massive down blanket.  The fog seems to both shield and refract light, creating a more subdued, almost melancholic softness light that I find inspirational.

When Jesus is announced in the Gospel of John he is called the light of life and the light of the world.  Think about it: the light of life and the light of the world.  It’s like John compresses creation with redemption in a mash of metaphors.  Just consider how John connects the light and life and Jesus in this sweeping statement:

Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.

John 1:3-5 (The Message)

There is much that can be said about this inspired identity of Jesus, but I’ll just say this: All we see is not all there is, but there is a way to see.  In and by and through the light of Christ we can see anew.

Jesus dispels the darkness and Jesus heals the blind, healing even those who think they see.

How’s your sight?

Wisdom from Wonderland #2: Hidden Wholeness

“There is a hidden wholeness in all things visible.” 

~ Thomas Merton~

Contemplation is a type of christian prayer based less on words and more on awareness.  Contemplation happens for me when I read Scripture and a word or phrase captures my attention.  If I’m awake to that clue, I’ll stop reading long enough to chew on the imagery, meaning and significance, allowing God to speak.

Contemplative prayer is responsive speech–its answering God and responding to the prompting of the Spirit as much or more than asking God a favor.

Nature also captures my attention.  In nature, I slow down enough to see the intricacies and visible design of nature that reflects the Creator.  Take a second look at the photo I shot on the Wonderland Trial.  What hidden wholeness do you see?

Jesus spoke of our eyes as “windows to the soul.”  Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, and he still does that miracle, both literally and figuratively.  The Apostle Paul prayed for the fellowship gathered in Ephesus that God would enlighten the “eyes of your heart.”   And when God sent Paul on his missionary adventure it was “to open the eyes of the blind.”  God loves to speak, and sometimes his speaking happens though the eye-gate to our soul.

May your eyes be enlightened to see what God is saying to you.

Wisdom from Wonderland #1: Deep Roots

Walking the Wonderland Trail, one finds high alpine trees like the one in this picture I took last summer.  The trunk is bent, the needles are stiff and strong, and the roots are deep.  Exposure to the elements slows the growth and causes the roots to run deep.

Exposure to the elements, pressure, trials and tribulations has a similar effect on our lives.  How many times have you heard someone who has experienced hardship say: “I would never want to go through that again, but I grew in new ways because of it.”

It’s been said that God is more interested in our character than our happiness.  What element is God using to generate new growth and deeper roots in your life?

Wisdom from Wonderland revisited

Last summer, my son and I backpacked fifty miles of the Wonderland Trail.  The Wonderland is a spectacular trail that circumnavigates the base of Mt Rainier.  Over its ninety-three miles, the trail rises over 22,000 feet, and travels through lowland old growth forests to subalpine meadows ablaze with wildflowers.  It was especially meaningful for me to see the many faces of Rainier because my son climbed to the summit of the mountain two years earlier.

The beauty I saw on the Wonderland elicited thoughts about growth, life and community that I shared in a series of Facebook posts.

Over my next few blogs, I will revisit those images and thoughts in a series I call “Wisdom from Wonderland.”  Hope you like it!

The Calling

How does one dial into God’s calling?  Every major theistic religion offers an answer to this perplexing question, and recently PBS ran a special that documented the process of call among Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

I am fascinated by the stories of people seeking to discern God’s direction , but what really caught me in the PBS special was the honest depiction of the influence of community in that search.  Each person’s story was told within the wider context of community.  The journey of each person was not depicted as a private matter of solo person on a solitary road.  Instead, the nuclear family and the family of faith of those seven people helped frame, forge and fortify the emerging faith of the seeking person.

“The Calling” caught the social dimension of faith formation.  But it missed a critical dimension.  It missed the existence and the experience of God.

Question: does God really extend invitations to people to take part in what God wants to carry out?  Or, as PBS assumed, is the discernment of call merely and matter of what the community of faith needs to self-perpetuate?

Like many depictions of faith, the PBS special presupposed a closed universe in which faith is merely a human experience of projection.  But the Bible offers another presupposition: the world is not a closed universe, but it is open to the God who created it, and this God is both invested and involved in a project of world reclamation.

In my experience, the discernment of God’s call does involve the affirmation of a faith community.  But the origin of that call, I believe, comes from a personal, God who reveals his will and invites participation.  That’s the side of the story that PBS ignored.   And that’s why is always wise to assume that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

Fruits of Retreat

Over the last ten days, I have been on a study and planning retreat, because sometimes you have to get away to see things more clearly.  What became clear to me was that God is renewing Redwood Covenant Church, and the signs of this renewal are striking: the Leadership Team is highly committed to a vision of fellowship, discipleship and mission; the Staff are working collaboratively, and people are finding new life in our church family.

The focus for my time-away was to plan the next twelve months of message series in Redding CA.  The upcoming series include the book of Nehemiah, the Gospel of Mark, an all-church Christmas experience, and more.  Each series will be Bible-based, tied to the vision that God is unfolding among us, and will be applicable to your life.

My wonderful, fun-loving wife, Amy, joined me for this retreat.  We were joined by a couple that pastors in a Covenant Church in Washington.  Our routine was to take an early morning walk, work on plans until mid-afternoon, enjoy some food and drink, and then converse under the stars late into the warm evenings.  It was wonderful.

Last week I asked you to pray for inspiration.  Someone must have prayed, because I was inspired by what God’s doing, where he’s leading, and by the Word we’ll hear in the coming months.

Breaking Away

Life, it’s said, is one thing after the other.  Ministry can be like that also.  Fredrick Buechner described the pace of Sundays “like traveling past telephone poles on a fast-moving train.”  The relentless pace of life and ministry calls for times to breakaway so you don’t come apart.

This week I’ve jumped off the train for a time of reflection, prayer and preparation.  I do this once a year, and the fruit of this time away will be a message-schedule for the next twelve months.

I’m in Redding CA, where the temperature climbs to 100 by noon, so if you’re going to play outdoors, you better do it before 10am or after 8pm.  Midday, after the asphalt absorbs the heat, it feels like you are walking in a frying pan.  The scorching sun suggests images of hell, which gives my planning a bit of urgency, if not inspiration.

I’m grateful for Redwood Covenant Church for their encouragement to take this time away.   Ministry is hard work, and a weary minister is not much help to his or her church.  Breaking away is vital for renewal and for vision—it helps us see things anew.

If you think of it, please pray for me this week and next.  Join me in asking God for His inspiration, revelation, and wisdom for the church.  Ask God to speak to me (I’m listening).  And give thanks with me for the wonderful gift of air conditioning.

Between Zones

As we travel through life there are times when we long to recapture the last chapter.  And there are other times when we can’t wait for the next chapter to emerge.   But the problem with looking backward to recapture or looking forward in anticipation is that we are likely to miss out on the gifts God gives between the zones.

Last week, I watched with pride as my son graduated from High School.  As I sat in the Key Arena along with hundreds of photo-shooting parents, I flashed through the memories of his birth, his first day of school, teaching him to ski, and climbing mountains with him.  It’s cliché, but true: the time goes very, very fast.  And there is no pause button.

Next week I will gather with the Executive Board of the Evangelical Covenant Church for my last meeting of a six-year term.   I have appreciated the opportunity to serve alongside people of deep character, focused vision, and passion to equip churches to serve Jesus.

This week, between my son’s graduation from High School and my graduation from the Executive Board, I am reminded that life is a series of transitions.  One chapter flows into the next in a never ceasing stream.  Carried by this current, we tend to look back or forward, and in doing do, miss out on the gifts given between zones.

That’s the way it was for the Israelites.  Recused by God, they left the bondage of Egypt, and wandered though a desert for forty-years, waiting anxiously and sometimes impatiently to enter the Promised Land.  After they settled, they found new forms of idolatry and bondage.  And after they were deported, the prophets pointed back to the desert wanderings as the richest time of their dependence on God.

I suspect that many of us have the illusion that life will someday settle, and then, finally, life will get better.  But the times in-between are potentially the richest times.  During those times, what we value becomes clarified, our character gets refined, and God becomes more real.

God in his wisdom created us to live in time.  We have a past and we have a future, but we live between those zones only and always in the present.  So if I’m not content now, then I’m not likely to be content later, because I never arrive–not in this life, and perhaps not in the life to come, which, I believe, will have it’s own progression on a different level.

In effect, we are always, only between the zones.  So this week I’m praying for the gift of awareness: “Lord, help me to be aware of the gifts you offer to me now, between the zones.”

Dislocation and it’s Contents

Yesterday, Amy and I closed the sale of our home in Seattle.  It took six months, three price adjustments and a lot of prayer, and now it’s sold.  For a brief moment, we are entirely debt free, but that won’t last for long.  We’re eagerly looking at homes, and we look forward to settling into a new home.  If you’ve been praying, thank you!  If you remember us, then please pray for just the right home for life, ministry and hospitality.

Speaking of getting settled, my books—twenty-two boxes of them— are now finding their home on new shelves that were just completed in my office.  Stacking them in their places makes me glad to see those familiar friends that have shaped my mind and heart.  And dragging the weight of those boxes into my office makes me glad that I sold thirty-five boxes of books before we moved.  It was hard to sell those books, but now, having the best of the bunch surrounding me, I’m beginning to feel at home.

I don’t often think about Jesus being homeless, but he was.  When a would-be disciple asked Jesus whether he might first attend to family business before attending to the business of following Jesus, Jesus responded by saying: “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.”  Even animals have homes, but Jesus was without a place to call home.

I don’t think about Jesus being homeless because he seemed at home in the world.  And maybe that’s what God is teaching me in my transition.  Houses come and go, and so do books, but some things remain.  Like the Word of God, and faith, hope, and love.  And centering on those things helps me feel settled, even when I’m living out of boxes.

The Gift of Perseverance

Last night I had the privilege of being with a group of people who showed me astonishing examples of grace under fire.  It was a group who were hurt by fellow brothers and sisters in the past.  We gathered to process the pain and to explore pathways toward health.   And as I listened, I was struck by the awesome reality of God’s healing presence.

The tough reality is that everyone is broken, and broken, hurting people break and hurt the relationships they have with others.  The good-news reality is that God restores broken relationships, and, even more, takes all that is unfair and unrighteous, and will, as my wife says “use it as compost to grow goodness.”  I love that image.

What most impressed me last night was the gift this group gave to the church in the midst of conflict in the past.  People misunderstood them, got angry with them, and hurt them.  But they stayed put, and they did not retaliate, or defend themselves against misunderstandings.  They did not bolt, but they hung in there, while suffering from the blows of the people they were called to serve.  And now their sacrifice is the soil for God’s growth and goodness in many, many ways.

Perseverance is a gift we give when the heat of conflict gets turned up.  It’s a gift spouses give in marriage, and parents give to children, and leaders give to the church.  And it’s given in the hope that God will, in God’s good time, creatively weave evil into a tapestry of grace that reveals his goodness in the most beautiful ways.

That’s more than solid, biblical theology.  That’s reality.  And I saw this played out in living color last night as people expressed their honest response to God’s healing movement.  And I continue to see it played out in the church I serve.  And it’s beautiful to behold.

Side-note:  This Sunday I’ll speak about how to offer the gift of forgiveness, and find freedom from the toxins of bitterness, anger and resentment after someone hurts us.  If you’re in the area, I hope to see you at Redwood Covenant this Sunday.

Open-Handed Planning

I am a planner.  I like to plan a course of action, list the steps, and cross-off the tasks after they are completed. But I’m learning that the best planning is a response to being led.

For instance, my wife and I recently moved to Santa Rosa.  Our home in the Seattle area is on the market (and close to being sold!).  Now we are planning to buy a home that will work for the type of ministry that God has led us into.  We’ve looked at many homes, and we trust that God will lead us to the right home.  Having been led to Santa Rosa, we are making plans, but we hold those plans with open hands, not clutching too tight, so that we might continue to be responsive to God’s ongoing leading.

This week I led a planning retreat with the pastors at Redwood Covenant Church.  We gathered in a rustic, peaceful setting under a canopy of Redwood at Mission Springs camp.  We reviewed the vision that God is leading us toward and we charted plans that will move us forward as a church.  Our planning was collaborative, engaging, even inspirational for me because it was a response to what God is doing at Redwood.

As followers of Jesus, we learn to to love God above all.   Out of this relationship, we discern, plan, and move forward by faith. This is especially important for leaders in the church.  As for me, I’m still learning this way of being led to lead, and open-handed planning as response, but I’m very encouraged to be among others who are listening, willing and ready to respond to the God who leads us for his great purposes.

All You Need is Love

Young people “love themselves more today than ever before,” says University of Kentucky psychologist Nathan DeWall, and the proof is in their music.  His team combed though Billboards top 100 songs over the past thirty-six years and found a steady increase in self-centeredness and hostility toward others.

“In the early ’80’s lyrics, love was easy and positive and about two people” study co-author Jean Twenege tells The New York Times.  “The recent songs are about what the person wants, and how she or he has been disappointed or wronged.”

What’s interesting about this study is the steady shift in words.  “I” and “me” is showing up in more lyrics and “we” and “us” is showing up less.  The study also registered a jump in angry lyrics about hating or killing and less frequency for positive words like “love” or “sweet”.  The Archie’s “Sugar, Sugar” now sounds like a relic.  Barry Manilow, Bread, and Lionel Richie, where are you now?

Is narcissism now the air we breath?  And is that why so many more people feel sad and lonely than in previous decades, in spite of a gazillion Facebook friends?

What does this suggest for the church in the future?   What do you think?

Seek the Peace

This Saturday people from across Santa Rosa will gather to do improvement projects that will save the city money and make our neighborhoods a better place to live.  I’ll be there and I’m looking forward to it.

I have plenty of jobs in my own life that need to get done.  It’s a list that never ends.  Why take time to do projects for a city when I don’t have time to do my own projects? The simple answer is that God calls us to serve and love the world he loves.

One biblical expression of this occurs after King Nebuchadnezzar forced God’s people from Jerusalem to Babylon.  Uprooted from their home, and living among people who were different, the temptation to cocoon was great.

Jeremiah saw this exile, and spoke powerful words of challenge and hope to the people he loved. And in a letter to his people living in exile he wrote these words:

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  Jeremiah 29:7.

Peace in Hebrew is shalom and shalom means blessing.  It’s a word used as greeting, but it’s more than a greeting.  It’s a word that expressed God’s intent for harmonious relationships among people, God and creation.  To “seek the peace of a city” is an act of blessing that involves an investment of time, effort, prayer and love.  And it’s a practical expression of love for one’s neighbor and the God who loves the world.

I’ve got plenty of chores and jobs I need to get done, but this Saturday I’m putting those aside to join with others for a city-wide Spring Clean, and if you’re living in or around Santa Rosa, then I hope to see you there.

Signs of life in an age of diminishing denominations

In our day, many are predicting the decline of Christian Denominations.  People cite the numerical decline of denominational participation, and point out the movement toward localism, and bemoan the irrelevance of institutions that seem out of touch with the aspirations of people at a grass-roots level.  And while I understand those concerns, I have another viewpoint based on my experience.

As you may know, I am a pastor within the Evangelical Covenant Church.  What you may not know, is what that group stands for, who we are, and where we’re going.

Gary Walter, president of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), recently articulated our commitment to “seeing more disciples among more populations in a more caring and just world.”  To this end, he spoke five themes that capture the mission of the ECC.

Develop and Deepen Disciples

The Evangelical Covenant Church is committed to reach people with the hope of Christ, and then to help them grow deep in Christ in a lifelong journey of personal transformation in Christ.

Start and Strengthen New Churches

The ECC is committed to start and strengthen healthy, missional churches.   We believe the local church is God’s basic unit to carry out God’s mission in the world.

Develop Servant Leaders

The ECC is committed to develop leaders—lay and paid—to grow in their call to serve the church and to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus.

Love Mercy, Do Justice

The ECC is committed to the call of Micah 6:8 and to the call of Jesus in Matthew 25:37-40 to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with our God.

Serve Locally

The ECC is committed to a global gospel for the whole world. We work in global partnerships to accomplish God’s mission at home, around the corner and around the globe.

One of the reasons why I am a Covenant Pastor is because I resonate with the values that inform the mission of the ECC.   Having served in a variety of local settings and having served on national boards, I have see this mission played out.  I love being a Covenant Pastor because of the ways we live out a gospel life together.

Today I attended a gathering of Covenant Pastors who serve in the Pacific Southwest.  Efrim Smith, our Superintendent, underscored the above core values, and also talked about three priorities for our Conference: To develop healthy missional churches, and to increase our capacity for reconciliation across ethic lines, and to assist in the development of innovative pastors.  As I listened, I felt grateful for the Evangelical Covenant Church, and the privilege I feel to serve in this tribe.

In an age where some question the legitimacy of denominations, the Evangelical Covenant continues to find ways to buck the trends toward decline and irrelevance by extending the mission of Christ in biblically informed and relevant ways.  If you’ve never heard about the ECC, it may be because it’s one of the best kept secretes in Christianity today.

The killing of bin Laden: A Time for Rejoicing?

Like many, I watched the news feeds, blogs and Facebook comments swell with emotions of confusion, justification, and relief.  And then came the street celebrations, streamers, and robust cheers, and that’s when I felt caught off guard.  Mixed emotions of joy and grief are natural, but is rejoicing over the death of a human appropriate?  Even a human animated by evil?

In sorting through a Christian response, I found helpful guidance in the thoughtful blog posted by Rev Andrew Zirschky, entitled Bonhoeffer and bin Laden: Why We Can’t Rejoice.  In his blog, Andrew reflects on the life and thought of German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. An avowed pacifist, Bonhoeffer found himself embroiled in an assassination plot against Adolf Hitler during WW2.  The plot was discovered; he was arrested, and hanged by the Nazi regime.

Rev Zirschky then goes on to comment on Bonhoeffer’s unfinished book, Ethics, in which Bonhoeffer reflected about the use of violence in the face of horrendous evil.  Bonhoeffer took the stand that an assassination attempt against Hitler was unrighteous but responsible, sinful and yet the best option available.  Bonhoeffer did not rejoice at the prospect of killing.   Instead, he mourned the sin behind the evil, admitted the sinfulness of the assassination attempt, and reserved all judgment of such actions for God.

The theology behind his thought comes from Luther, who taught that we are always sinners and justified at the same time.  This theology is grounded by a realistic appreciation of the prevalence of sin, which explains, on one hand, why we cry for divine salvation, and, on the other hand, explains why human action is never enough to combat the evil that persists in our world and in our own hearts.

This Lutheran  theology has real-life implications.  It led Bonhoeffer to pursue the killing of Hitler, but to do so with humility, acceptance of guilt, prayer for God’s grace, and in complete surrender to God as the only judge.

I understand the responsibility to combat evil.  But I resonate with Bonhoeffer’s balance between justice and humility and between our need to rely upon God’s grace and to recognize that God is the only worthy judge of our actions.  And I did not see those characteristics in the celebration.  And that’s why I, along with Rev Zirschky, are 
 unable to join with those who rejoiced over the death of bin Laden.

 

LIfe after Life

In the forty days after Jesus was raised from the dead, he appeared to over forty different persons in a variety of settings.  He ate fish on a beach with his disciples, spoke words of peace to anxious followers, and he even allowed a skeptic to touch the wounds in his side.

This forty-day period, called “Eastertide”  is not not as well-known as Easter.  No chocolate eggs found or eaten.  Families don’t gather for meals because of it.  But it’s just as important.

Eastertide is a season to recognize how Jesus meets us in the midst of our life in surprising ways.  It’s a time to celebrate his coordination at the right hand of his Heavenly Father.  And it’s a time to wait and pray for the Spirit that comes at Pentecost.

On Easter, Redwood Covenant participated in an epic celebration of song, video, testimony, dance and proclamation.  It was like a rich fare of fine food, and I was overjoyed by the celebration of life that Jesus makes possible.

Now comes Eastertide.  And at Redwood Covenant, our Eastertide will focus on Family Matters.  Not just Family Matters for those who are married with kids, but God’s big plan that includes every family, but it goes beyond any family.  If you’re in the area, I invite you to worship at Redwood.  After all, every Sunday is Easter for Christians.  And every day is an opportunity to live into the life Jesus invites us to receive and pursue.

From Good Friday to Saturday Vigil

I said in my earlier post that I don’t like (but need) Good Friday. And some of you responded with some great comments about why the cross just can’t be circumvented.  Thank you!  Your faith is inspirational.

But having said that I don’t like (but need) Good Friday, I have to say that I greatly appreciated the Good Friday worship at Redwood Covenant.  The words of the story, artfully told, balanced by music and buttressed by song, and the cross and it’s message, and the pounding of nails followed by the dipping of bread with my church was a powerful and loving experience for me.

But now it’s a new day.  The solemnness of Good Friday is over.  A new day, the seond day, dawns as a vigil for some.

After Jesus was crucified and breathed his last, Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus and funded a costly burial that included binding the body of Jesus in linen cloths with spices and sealing the body in a new tomb. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sat opposite the tomb watching as Jesus was prepared and then sealed in his tomb.  And the Church over the centuries has held vigil with those women at the tomb of Jesus as an act of faithfulness, even when it doesn’t make sense.

After all, it didn’t make sense that Jesus had died.  A dead messiah is a failed messiah, as NT Write says.  A dead messiah proves that his claims were false, because, well, he’s dead which proves his promises were empty because they didn’t happen, and well, now he’s dead.

On the second day, people did not reject or turn away from Jesus because they did not believe.  They turned away because it was obvious that Jesus was not the Messiah who would establish any new realm, because, well, he’s dead and now it will be business as usual.

But Mary and Mary and Joe, and probably others not revealed in Scripture, stayed by Jesus–even when it didn’t make sense.

And sometimes the best you can do is to can do is stay faithful to God when God doesn’t make sense, or after your dreams have died, or your life is in shambles, or after you’re doing great, and life is good.  Either way, staying by Jesus even when it doesn’t make sense actually makes sense when you consider that God is faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to him.

May this day be for you a vigil of faithfulness to the one who is faithful to you, even should you fail to keep watch and pray.  And then, may your Easter encounter with the Risen Christ–who, it turns out, is establishing his realm, and it’s not business as usual–may this Lord of Life surprise you with a healthy dose of new life.

Why I don’t like (but need) Good Friday

I don’t particularly like Good Friday worship services.  They make me uncomfortable, introspective and they can seem a bit morose.  I’d rather just skip straight to the Easter celebration.  After all, wouldn’t you rather go to a party than an execution?

But Redwood Covenant has wisely chosen to offer a Good Friday ‘journey to the cross” service, and I’m glad they did.  Some churches skip it, in favor of offering more Easter services.  But I think that misses something important.  If you’re going to follow Jesus, you can’t get to the celebration of “he is risen” without traveling to the cross.

Luther called this a “theology of the cross.”   And his reading of Scripture let him to conclude that a theology that bypasses the cross is a truncated theology.  And truncated theologies, while easier to swallow, make truncated Christians.

I don’t like the cross, but I need the cross.  And I need to travel to the cross of Christ to fully appreciate the depth of God’s love given in Jesus.  I also need to travel to the cross to appropriate the depth of the Easter celebration.  When I bypass the cross, I miss out.  I can kiss my wife with cellophane between our lips, but it’s just not the same.  OK, maybe that’s not the best illustration, but you get the point.

I invite you to join me for a reflective meditation on God’s amazing act of sacrificial love this Good Friday.  Join me at the cross.  Then, two-days later, let the celebration begin.

Bowing to the God who Stooped Low

Gifts are fun, but they can get out of hand, and that happened to my family one year.  We had more gifts than we had room under and around the tree.  After that excess, we decided to limit our gift giving to one-per-person, which turned out well, because gifts become pricier as kids grow up.

This year, we enter Christmas with continued news of layoffs, a looming fiscal cliff, and cutbacks.  Many are struggling to make ends meet, out of work, or just feeling pinched.

That shrinking feeling is but a small, small glimpse of what Jesus did when he squeezed into a human body.  “When the time came,” writes Paul, Jesus “set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process” (Philippians 2:6, The Message).

This Christmas, should you be feeling pinched, consider the degree to which God stooped low.  Allow the mystery of the incarnation to settle into your mind and heart.  Consider again God’s supreme act of condescension, and follow the Magi’s lead by bowing to worship the One who stooped low.

Bowing in adoration to the God who bent low to us means that we acknowledge that our ultimate security is not found in the stock market, or a new political program, but in the God who became poor so that we might become rich in the ways that matter most:  rich in hope, love, peace and joy.  These are true riches we discover as we follow Jesus, who opens doors that lead us into the riches of God.

What door is God opening up to you this Christmas?  I urge you to ask God to show you.  Is it a door that leads to a deeper trust in His provision?  A door that leads to a life-giving connection with others?  Or a door that leads to you offering a gift of extravagant generosity to God’s work?

It is my prayer for the church I serve that we will continue to grow rich the ways that matter most:  in our connection with one another, our worship of the Living God, and our service in the world.  In these ways we will become that light that Jesus envisioned us to be, bright with life and bowing in service, just as Jesus bent to serve us.