Thankful for A Place to Call Home

July 20th, 2008

I've been hearing a lot of dividing contentious grumblings from so many in my church towards its leadership which utterly breaks my heart.  I have had the unfortunate opportunity to serve under some horrific theoligical leaders who could spout one thing out of their mouth while standing boldly in front of the congregation, yet in their next breath have the audacity to tell me more personally that they didn't believe a word of what they said.  It was for this and unrelated hopes that I left a place I still dearly love. 

As Emily and I prayed for the direction of where God would lead us, we felt confidently God wanted us to look for three important things:

1. a pastor who believed in the historic faith found in the Creeds.  That when they recited with the people the foundation for our faith, their mind didn't illogically (illogically in my mind at least) say "who was concieved of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary...like that could be true."  To qoute Rich Mullins, :It IS the TRUTH of God, not the invention of any man."  We (my family) thank God we are in a place that affirms and is committed to what scripture makes so evident.

2.  We prayed for a pastor who could be a shepherd not just with sermons on Sunday morning, but would make time to disciple the leaders underneath him.  Previously, in other churches I met with my pastor maybe once a month and we'd catch up a little on family stuff and denominational stuff.  I never had a pastor passionately and openly share with me what his own personal reflections on scripture were causing him to think about. 

3.  We prayed for a pastor who would be supportive and understanding of my leadership with students and have grace enough to correct me in a loving manner if I made a mistake.  The worst thing in the world is when your standing on the hope that your pastor confidently supports you only to have that foundation destroyed by a misinterpretted conversation and a pastor unwilling to stand up for you. 

For these reasons and many more, we are thankful to be members of Church of the Apostles and under the charge of Father Rob.

 

Christian Junkies

November 28th, 2007

I've never been around any drug addicts or alcoholics, but I have a good understanding of what they are probably like.  After a conversation with my good friends last Friday, I began thinking about something that pits many contemporary Christians beside what many church goers consider to be the vilest of heathens.  As my friend John talked to us about his church and his desire to feel the nearness of God in moments of worshipful ecstacy, I couldn't help think about the cycle many Christians create through worship. 

It's no secret that many mainline Christian artists have begun to shell out "worship albums" (as if worship was defined to poorly written-lyrically and musically-overplayed songs).  Really, is it any wonder that many songs we once cherished as beautiful memories of holy moments before God have now become the "here we go again song." 

This pattern is exactly the same one I see from weekend ravers eagerly pressing through their daily monotony to find solace in a moment of temporary mind altering relief.  It starts innocently enough, but then becomes what we have to have feel and know God's presence in our lives.  I can't even count how many times I've heard students say, "camp or this retreat was so awesome, I can't wait til next year."  While in between the two experiences little change has occured in their lives.  The book of James speaks openly about this misunderstanding.  "Be doers of the word, not just hearers only."  If God speaks to us in these spiritual highs, then we must become a different person afterwards.  In fact, biblically, if we walk away the same, there is a lot of reason to doubt we actually experienced God. 

As we thought together about how God once spoke in our lives so incredibly through our emotions, I couldn't help but think that I no longer desire those moments of temporary fixes, but really want to understand what Christlikeness looks like daily.  I pray that ALL Christians could be doers and not just spiritual junkies.

Holy Discontent or a Heresy Like No Other

October 21st, 2007

I've struggled over the past few days with a conviction birthed in me by the Spirit of God. Far too many conversations and even more experiences have led me to a dissatisfied attitude towards God's earthy expression of Himself-the church. I have been observant of my recent tendencies toward books and music that harbor a similar attitude of hope for an awakening in the body of Christ.

I have learned my lesson over and over of the hope that MUST be placed in the hands of Christ's bride, but have ached for harlotry to be redeemed by those hopeless romantics such as myself. When, Lord, will you cause the church to rise up from its gluttony and isolation, its programs and indifference and love their neighbor?

I read a friend's blog and couldn't describe the situation better, so to avoid doing so, here's his accurate positions: "

I believe people are leaving the church not because they have too much required of them, but because they have so very little required of them. How can a person be inspired to follow Jesus when the greatest act the church requires of them is to sit quietly and listen? The church is now a bundle of requirements: to come to a building, to give X amount of money, to support programs, to invite others. Instead, what if the church was a beacon of inspiration to go into the community, to be hospitable to all people, to find creative ways to bless others, to meet people where they are in life and linger there with them?

Church today is seen mainly as an individual act. People come to church to get their own personal spiritual fill up, as if God were an attendant at a heavenly gas station. This mindset brings in those with totally selfish motives and justifies their assumptions about the church: Music is for me to enjoy worship and self edification, giving is for me to contribute to the expenses of the church, listening to the preaching is for me to learn about the bible and become a better person this week." (For the rest of his post, click here. I highly advise it. It's real well thought out.)

There is an unprecedented selfishness rampant in the church. While the generation that I work with says they are emphatically different, every complaint of music, every complaint of speaker, every complaint of programming echoes a different truth.

So to those I love and minister to and with, RISE UP!!! God's not about your own agenda. How consistently heartbreaking it would is to hear student after student desire God's blessing, but not His heart. Maybe it's been lost in me. Maybe I'm the one who has been fattening myself by staying inside the church. Maybe real church exists outside the pretty stained glass and stone crosses. Lord, wherever the ones who love you and love their neighbor exist, I wish to be there