the church geek

In honor of all the hours today Lori and I spent in front of our computer screens preparing for our worship services tomorrow.

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Can you tell that I was grasping for straws tonight?

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Any former Dubuquers and former students of Dr. Elizabeth Platt out there reading this blog?!?

Do you ever hear or learn something in class and say to yourself, “When am I ever going to use that?” Well, I’m eating my words and can hardly believe it, but part of my sermon on Sunday will be to preach on the suzerainty treaty!

Thank you Dr. Platt for hammering home this insight into the OT Torah that helps frame and make a whole lot of sense out of the bible!

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Today I post the Pastor’s Letter I wrote this morning that will go out in tomorrow’s church newsletter for Knox Presbyterian Church. HT to two different sources of inspiration for today’s post go to Makeesha for the brilliant list of questions and to Carol for her insightful post this morning.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and studying, some of it with fellow pastors, looking at our churches and asking the question, “How do churches today, in our society grow?”

Looking at statistics the “Church” in the US has not grown percentage wise in more than 100 years! Today, churches that think they can just implement a program, or change the way they do worship, or even attract the ‘right’ pastor are simply being pushed to the margins.

So how do churches grow? Do you want to know what I think the best and surprising answer to that question? Churches grow by not being concerned about their own growth.

You see, if a church is only concerned with its own growth, then the church is asking the wrong questions. Instead, the types of questions that churches should be asking are:

• How are you touching lives of others outside the church?

• How are you doing as a church in showing people the tangible love of Jesus?

• How often as a church have you seen Jesus in the poor, marginalized, confused, hurting, sick, and dying?

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A hot air balloon flew right over my head today.

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This is a composite of two different photos taken at different exposures so I could get the corn in the foreground and the beautiful sunset in the background. This is my first attempt at that sort of thing, so I hope I pulled it off to some affect.

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This is yesterday’s photo:

These bananas were too green to eat but not to photograph.

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The text for this sermon is Exodus 3:1-15

A couple of weeks ago, in my overview of the Bible, I encouraged you to see the Bible as the place where God’s story intersects with our own story. I also said that when you look at the bible as a whole there are a number of key themes. And one of those themes is that God calls and uses ordinary, even flawed, people to do his will and his work.

If you’ve been reading along with us in our journey through the Bible in 90 Days, I’m sure you’ve seen this particular theme first hand in the stories you’ve been reading in Genesis and Exodus.

One thing that often comes as a surprise to folks who pick up and start reading their bibles is the raw, uncut, and earthy nature of the Old Testament. The first book alone is full of more murder, gossip, backstabbing, trickery, and sexual intrigue than you’d ever find in any hour of General Hospital.

Many of you have told me over the last couple of weeks that you are finding the Bible to be fascinating, surprising, confusing, and frustrating; all of those things all at the same time. If you ask me, the Bible is kind of like real life. The scriptures don’t shy away from the complexity of human life. Instead they embrace it and help illuminate it.

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This is last week’s sermon (I got a little behind…) It is the first of a series of preachings based on a passage from the week’s readings in our Bible in 90 Days program. The text is Gen 11:27-12:9.

It had been a long time since Abram had given any thought to the hopes and dreams he and his father once held. Ever since Terah died, Abram had little interest in picking things up and moving on. Years before, the whole family left their beloved homeland of Ur in the Chaldeans. They hoped and dreamed for a new life in the land of Canaan. But for Abram, that dream died along with his father.

Far short of their original goal they settled in Haran, a little town in the middle of nowhere. They only meant to stay a short time; for a month or two of rest. They were just going to gathering a few supplies for the final push to Canaan. But, as it often does with these sorts of things, a month or two turned into a year. And then Terah got ill. At first he recovered and it looked like they might push on. But then things took a turn for the worse. He never got better and that final leg of the trip never happened.

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A now for something completely different:

The sun as seen through our front window screen and shade.

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Here is yesterday’s photo:

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Lori has been decorating around the house for fall. These little mini pumpkins aren’t what they look, they are some sort of seed that just happens to look like a pumpkin.

For some reason fall has always been my favorite season in the Midwest. Crisp air, hot apple crisp, wonderful autumnal colors. I love just about everything there is about fall.

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I was reminded that yesterday marked the 10th Anniversary of the death of Rich Mullins. A special thanks to Mark over at Jesus Manifesto for the reminder and for an opportunity to share my memories.

He also points to a good article on Rich Mullins commemorating his life and death at Relevant Magazine. Perhaps more than any other popular Christian figure, Rich Mullins was truly a hero in the faith for me.

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