Just a few items for you this week, while I have a few minutes off from Synod School:
1.) A pretty good start to a list of what a perfect church might look like. What would you add?
2.) Funny little video on how not to be a small group leader.
3.) This picture captures a sense of motion so wonderfully! Almost makes me motion sick just looking at it.
I’ve seen two movies recently, here is a brief review of them:
The Savages - This movie features stellar performances by two of Hollywood’s best actors - Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. It sensitively and, I think, pretty effectively deals with some of the issues surrounding care of an aging father in the last months of his life. The situation in this movie is further complicated by a father, who was a less than a stellar parent, and siblings who as a result have been estranged from him. The result is a movie that is funny, sad, compassionate, and moving all at the same time. I rate this 7 out of 10 stars.
The Dark Knight - As noted by just about everyone who has seen this movie, its strength is Heath Ledger who excels in his performance as the Joker. His performance is superbly maniacal, eerily wicked, and an effective personification of evil. The movie deals with both Batman’s and society’s moral dilemma of figuring out what exactly is at their disposal and how to use those means in order to combat and defeat their evil foe. For a comic book movie, this is a surprisingly effective and engaging movie (2.5 hours and only once did I look at my watch…) and a great successor to “Batman Begins.” I rate this 7 out of 10 stars.
It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks around here, so I’m afraid I don’t really have much to point you toward on this Wednesday Roundup. However, my wife is in Israel on a Pastor’s Renewal program. If you want to see some pictures and reflections from the trip head over to their trip blog.
This is the fifth sermon in a six part sermon series on discipleship. I preached this on July 20th. The text was Acts 13: 1-5
People always seem a little bit surprised when they get in our car and discover that we have not just one but several Johnny Cash CDs. They are even more surprised when they find out that Johnny is one of my all time favorite musical artists.
Now some of you here might be able to think back to Johnny’s early stuff. Classics like Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line, and Men in Black. While that old stuff is great, where Johnny really excels is in the recordings he made in the last couple of years of his life.
I’m not kidding when I say that these are some of the best albums of any recording artist out there. In his old age, Johnny found a way of connecting to the reality of life, belting out some of the most emotional and spiritual recordings out there.
One of my favorite songs is on Johnny’s album called American III. It’s called Nobody and instead of trying to sing it to and doing a really bad impression of Johnny Cash, I’m gonna play a bit of it here for you: (Click here for the song.)
Lori will tell you that I always break a smile and sing along, every time I hear that one line:
This is the fourth sermon in my six part sermon series on discipleship. I preached this on July 13th. The text was 2 Timothy 1: 1-7; 2: 1-7
I started my sermon by showing this video:
I love that video. The expression on that kid’s face at the end is priceless.
Now, I bet that most of you don’t really come to church thinking that it’s really all about “you” Or at least I hope most of you don’t do that….
But in a very real way, your average run of the mill church is really just a “meChurch.” If you take a good hard look at them, you’ll begin to notice that just about everything these churches do is focused solely on it’s members.
Their programs, worship services, and ministries are all designed to keep their members happy. But, that’s not really the way it’s supposed to be.
The famous preacher, Tony Campollo, tells the story of a visitor who tours a factory. The factory is humming along. There’s a lot of activity and all the workers are very busy. It looks like things are really efficient and the work is getting done.
The visitor is greatly impressed, but once the tour is over, the visitor says to his tour guide, “Hey, wait a minute, you never showed me the shipping department.”
In the comments to my post “This is not our Hurricane Katrina” Joe, from City Team Ministries, has asked me to provide some sort of assessment as to where Cedar Rapids is in its flood recovery efforts. I’m perhaps not the best person to provide an assessment that is thorough and factually based, but per his request I will provide a few of my personal thoughts and observations:
1.) I find this personally most disturbing: It is quite possible to go day to day without really realizing that anything has happened here. That is to say that most of the city was not affected. If the majority of your life wasn’t based out of downtown, or if you didn’t live in the “Time Check” or “Chezk Village” areas, then you can pretty much get on with your life without facing the reality of what happened.
Still the enormity of it all is huge. According to the city, over 5,000 homes and 1,000 businesses parcels were affected. Most city services have moved to the struggling Westdale Mall (a place that used to be a ghost town, but is no longer….) The Public Library lost the majority of its book collection. Lots of non-profit organizations, including public services to the under-served, lost everything. The list goes on…
2.) Things are moving slowly. People’s lives are being held in the balance as the city tries to figure out what it’s priorities are and the best way to not only rebuild but to limit the chance of a similar scenario happening again. 500 year flood plain homes are getting building permits, while many permits for homes in the 100 year flood plain are being held up.
A walk through a few city streets a week ago revealed rebuilding activity among some home owners and other homeowners who appeared to be dazed and confused. Neighbors didn’t know where the renters or home owners were for houses that appeared to be abandoned. $28,800 (apparently the most that a home-owner can qualify for under FEMA) doesn’t seem like nearly enough to get some of these homes back into shape.
3.) While Cedar Rapids has been getting all sorts of attention, there are tons of little communities scattered up and down the various rivers in Iowa that are struggling to recover. It is my impression that places such as Palo and Oakville are not receiving the same sort of attention and resources that a big city like Cedar Rapids is able to attract.
4.) Lots of congregations were significantly affected, and yet the church city-wide has banded together in order to be the hands and feet of Christ in the city. It began even before the flood with a local group called “Serve the City” that was instrumental in providing the city with volunteers to help in preparation as well as early response efforts.
On the recovery end of things, Churches United has been very involved. And now all the big denominational response organizations are on the ground helping coordinate volunteers and supporting local congregations as they respond to recovery needs.
5.) The tricky thing, I think, and something that I’m slowly coming to terms with is that while people in local congregations have a desire to help out it is just not possible for everyone. Certainly, there is the issue of time, but there is also the reality that the work of gutting a home is physically demanding and not for everyone. Also, as recovery efforts go on, it is mostly going to demand folks who possess construction skills.
As a local pastor or as a local congregation, it takes keeping your eyes and ears open for just the right opportunity to materialize, but in general the reality is that we are simply going to have to rely on groups from outside the area to come here and help us out. And that’s OK, after all, we are all a part of the body of Christ.
1.) I love some of the stuff that new faith communities are doing…they are bold challenges and proclamations to existing congregations. Internet Monk singles out one new congregation that is committed to giving 60% of their budget to mission!!…If they can do it, why can’t we?
2.) As always Jan raises good observations and questions about the nature of staffing in the established church today. I’d love for her to be a colleague in this presbytery, as we need to hear more of her voice…
3.) Tony Campolo presents what seems like a reasonable, faithful response to the problem of abortion in our country.
4.) How many of the 100 NEA Recommended books of fiction have you read? I’ve read book #6, but I’m not really sure why it’s considered a “work of fiction.”
5.) Today I’ve decided to point to a few of my recent favorite photos from my flickr contacts. I particularly love the lighting in this one and the depth of field in this one.
I’m beginning to do some preaching in my congregation that really speaks to our moving to a missional focus. Currently, I’m in the midst of a series on discipleship and yesterday spoke about the fact that the church really needs to begin to turn its focus outward. The direction of our faith and Christianity is necessarily toward the world and not toward the church as an organization.
The impetus of my sermon was that as a congregation we can no longer afford to focus on our current 94 members, instead we need to begin to focus on our next 94 members.
To me, that means a lot of things. Some of them entail 1.) no longer giving money and calling it “mission,” 2.) no longer designing worship services and other programs just with our members ‘needs’ in mind, and 3.) inviting friends to join us and having places (small groups) where people can plug in and learn about the faith from our current members.
Two comments following my sermon struck me as indicators that we have a long way to go and that I have a lot of work to do to help us get this missional focus thing down….
Last year we decided to no longer pay for our church to advertise in our local newspaper in the religion section on Saturday morning…Part of the reason? 1.) The only people who look at those ads are our church members. It makes them feel good when they see it, but that’s about the limits of their effectiveness, 2.) We decided to invest our time and money in a website.
In response to my sermon, someone said to me yesterday that we really need to put that ad back in the newspaper. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this…the underlying assumption is that spending a few bucks on advertising is what is going to grow the kingdom and bring people to visit our church. Unfortunately, I think its a way to absolve the members from having to do anything to be a part of helping the church to grow, and that’s not missional thinking…
The second comment I heard was “I don’t have any friends who don’t go to church, so I must be hanging out in the right crowds!?!” The answer is no, and again, that’s not missional thinking. You really need to have some friends in your circles who are not Christian…if this church is going to grow it’s going to be by your listening to others no matter where they are in their faith journey, inviting them to think about the faith, and asking them come join us as we explore this thing together.
I’m realizing this moving to a missional focus is a monumental change. It’s a big change for me as I begin to think about my ministry differently and as I think about what it’s going to require in my preaching and leadership within this congregation. It’s also a big change for this congregation.
But, I’m becoming more and more convinced that if we’re going to have any success together then we all have got to change our focus. That focus needs to be missional, and its direction needs to be outward, toward the world around us.
Please pray for me and for us!
This is the second sermon in a six part sermon series on discipleship questions. The text was: Ephesians 3: 7-21. This sermon was preached on June 8th.
Since coming on the stage in the mid-1960’s as the boy-struck, barefoot surfer girl in the TV series called Gidget, Sally Field, has been one of America’s favorite and most endearing actresses.
Over the years, Field won two academy awards, the first one in 1979 which she won for her work as a union organizer in the movie Norma Rae. The second one came in 1985 for her starring role in the film, Places of the Heart.
You might remember her acceptance speech for that second Academy award. It’s one of the most memorable of all time. On stage to accept the award she said:
I haven’t had an orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!
Over the years the last phrase of that speech has taken on a life of its own. In its misquoted form, “You like me, you really like me!” has become the subject of comedy skits. Even, Sally Field poked fun at herself in a commercial with that memorable line.
This the first sermon is a six part sermon series on discipleship questions. The text for this sermon was: Matthew 7: 21-29. I’m a little slow in posting it, this was preached on June 1st.
As you probably know by now, I like to read the comic strips in the Gazette. One that has quickly become my favorite is called Frazz. It follows the story of a fitness freak who is a twenty-something janitor at a local elementary school.
This week one of the young students at the school was searching for a four leaf clover, hoping to find a little luck. Well, on Friday, she finally found her lucky four leaf clover. So, she decided to show it to Mrs. Olsen, her teacher who is a bit of a curmudgeon.
As you might expect, Mrs. Olsen responds to the student’s excitement and enthusiasm over her discovery by dousing water on it. Mrs. Olsen says, “Bah, I don’t believe in luck. I believe in work.”
In the next frame, the young student and Frazz are talking about this incident and the student says to Frazz, “Apparently buying 30 lotto tickets a week is “work.”
I love it. That young student has connected the dots between what her teacher says she believes and what her teacher actually does.
She knows that Mrs. Olsen buys lottery tickets, perhaps in the hopes of being freed from her job. And while Mrs. Olsen says she believes in work, by her behavior the student can see that she really believes or hopes in luck.
Some weeks are good weeks where I find all sorts of great stuff to share and link for you, others not so much. This is a not so much week, but here are a few items I did discover and enjoy:
1.) I enjoyed this little analysis of the difference between a non-denominational worship service and a mainline worship service, which speaks well for what’s going on in some mainline churches.
2.) Seems that people are trying to sell all sorts of things these days. Tim Merrill writes about one fella decided to sell his entire life.
3.) For your photo of the week: Who says graffiti can’t be beautiful?
For three days I felt like a lab rat…
My experience as a commissioner to this year’s GA was a bit different than most. For my committee work, which is what the first part of a week at GA involves, I was assigned to the “Worship and Spiritual Renewal” Committee.
My experience was different because two different committees were given the commission to run their business in a different manner. Following the suggestion of an overture passed by the previous General Assembly to practice some different models of decision making, the GA offices decided to have two committees employ a consensus building, discernment model.
Committee work at GA is hard enough already. When you mix 50 to 60 people together in a room who don’t each other and then you consider the different theological commitments combined with personal agendas that exist in a group that size, you are waiting for a disaster to happen.
Which is why Parliamentary Procedure works so well. People get to make motions, they can put their ideas on the table and see what the rest of the group thinks, and while the minority might not get its way in the end at least they had their say.
When the idea of working with a model for discernment and consensus building was introduced to our group, people freaked. They were uncomfortable, either because they didn’t know or simply didn’t like the rules. As time went on, some felt like their voice was not being heard. Others were hurt by the process, expressed their pain, and left it all together. It took us a full two days to work through our paltry list of two items of business.
I am a pastor in a small church. To me that seems like an appropriate place to operate using models of discernment and consensus building. In fact we hardly use parliamentary procedure at all to run our session meetings. It works because people already have a relationship with one another. They know that when they speak they will be heard. No one is trying to figure out each others agendas or theological leanings.
However, based on my experience as a GA lab rat, I’m not so sure that it’s such a good idea at General Assembly.
This is the third sermon in a series of 6 questions on discipleship. The texts for this sermon were: Acts 4: 32-37; 9: 26-30; 11: 19-26.
As I was preparing my sermon this week, I discovered that June 28th marked the beginning of the “Year of Saint Paul.”
Starting this last week, the Roman Catholic Church is taking an entire year to celebrate one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament. They chose this year of all years because it’s as close as anyone can guess to the 2000th anniversary of Paul’s Birthday.
The Apostle Paul probably deserves an entire year of celebration, because when it comes to prominent figures in the New Testament, he is usually the first one who comes to mind. After all, many of the great books of the New Testament, like Romans and Galatians, were written by him. He also plays a big part of the story in the book of Acts.
In fact, a few years ago, I read an article in some magazine like Time or Newsweek that featured a list of history’s most influential people. I remember the article, because I was surprised to see that the Apostle Paul made that list while Jesus Christ did not.
The article defended its choice of Paul over Jesus saying that without Paul’s influence, the church as we know it would probably not exist today. Without the Apostle Paul, its quite possible that no one today would even know who Jesus Christ was.
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