Haiti is Not Cursed

What did it take to get me to break my blogging hiatus? Not the wonderfully entertaining insanity of the Late Night TV shuffling. And not even necessarily the tragedy in Haiti, but one Christian's response to Haiti. I understand that by even talking about this I'm giving Pat Robertson a smidge of publicity, but I also feel like I have to make a couple of things very clear.

First the comments from Robertson. "Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."

"But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle; on the one side is Haiti on the other is the Dominican Republic," he said. "Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to god and out of this tragedy I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now we are helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable."



Two responses to this.

1) The majority of Christians do not agree with this statement. I can't think of any that I know, and I'd love to say that no other Christian agrees with this, but I also know that a lot of people watch Pat Robertson's show, so there are probably many who do agree with him. But in the majority, Christians think Pat Robertson is wrong about this.

2) Even if he were right, this would not mitigate the need of Christians to act in support of the people of Haiti. That we would have a responsibility to assist in any way possible for the good of the Haitians. It seems that Robertson thinks that way as well, but it doesn't change the fact that I think not only is he wrong in his estimation, but somewhat dangerous as well.

However, even in my disgust for Robertson's comments, I have to remember that God loves him just as much as the grieving mother in Haiti, and that my love for him should not be affected by his unguarded tongue.

A couple of other pieces. One of my Facebook friends posted this about a cause of Haitian poverty. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/13/haitis-real-deal-wit.html It's well worth the read.

Also, Pat Robertson has issued a clarification on his statement. http://www.patrobertson.com/pressreleases/haiti.asp

And Donald Miller also posted a great and much more eloquent response than mine on his site. http://donmilleris.com/2010/01/13/1513/

Give It Away and a Confession

Last Saturday, Kinsey and I travelled around with Doug Sanders to deliver our old crib to a family he'd come into contact with. It was a father, mother, and young baby. The apartment was very small and in a not-great neighborhood of town. What I loved seeing was how Kinsey interacted with the couple and their baby. For one thing, Kinsey would talk to a brick wall if she thought it was listening. But she really engaged them and really got into picking stuff out at the house that Otter Creek keeps for donated furniture. It was really great to see her get that engaged.

But Doug mentioned something really thought-provoking to me on his blogpost about that day. He said:

Since my interaction was more with the father and the neighbors who were asking what all was going on, I’ll have to talk to the baby bed assembler team and see what impressions they came away with from the day. For me, I saw the potential for relationships to be built.

And that really gave me pause. Because, you see, in all this time in the last few years that I've been exploring post-modern/emergent/whatever faith, it's primarily been a theoretical exercise. Sure there have been times that Sheryl and I have engaged with people outside of our comfort zones, but the truth is that we value safety, security and comfort, and being around the poor or the homeless typically (but not always) takes us out of those areas of our lives.

It's been one of the reasons that I've been wondering if my spiritual life feels a little stagnant right now. Almost like I know what I should be doing, but not really pursuing it. And part of the reason is that I don't really WANT too. When I do something, it's almost more out a sense of duty. That because Jesus commanded to care for the least of our brothers and sisters, that if I don't do it, I'm failing Christ.

I can say that enjoyed what I did that Saturday and I enjoyed being around the couple that we helped, and while I've thought about them over the last week, I can't say that I've had a strong desire to drive back downtown and see them again. I hope they are well. I hope he finds a job and he and his wife and child can stay safe.

And it's weird. On one hand, I can feel very self-satisfied with what I did that Saturday. I didn't just give the crib to Doug and say, "I hope you find someone who can use this." I went with him myself and put it together and took my daughter with me, exposing her both to service and selflessness. But on the other, it always feels like I could do more. I guess it's one of the reasons I admire people like Doug and several of the others at Otter Creek who have devoted themselves to the service of others that I can't see myself doing yet. Maybe I'm using the kids as an excuse or my drive for comfort. I'm not sure.

So that's my confession. I want to serve the poor, but on my terms. And if I don't have to live around them, that would be great too. Pray for me, that I would seek to follow Jesus and be open to the opportunities that he provides.

Tent City Benefit with Phil Keaggy

Everyone is invited to a benefit for Tent City on Wednesday night at Otter Creek Church of Christ, 409 Franklin Road. There will be a reception for Tent City residents at 6pm, and then a concert by Phil Keaggy from 7 - 8:30. As a part of the evening as well, an art show of pictures taken of Tent City residents will be given to the Temple, a Jewish synagogue in Nashville, for display.

It will really be a great night and I hope as many of you as possible can be there.

A Night for Tent City - Ministry Moment Video from David Woodard on Vimeo.

Almsgiving

Like I said Monday, I'm crafting a couple of posts on some things and I'm waiting for them to feel right. So for today, I'm going to steal a question that was asked in the Otter Creek summer class based on Matthew 6. TJ McCloud (one of our ministers) referred to Jesus' thought that when we give to the poor we shouldn't let people see it, but do it in secret.

Matthew 6:1-4

¹"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Based on that, should a Christian claim charitable contributions as deductions on their taxes?

25 Random Things About Myself

There's a thing going around Facebook where you list 25 things about yourself. So I'm double posting it here.

1) I have lived my entire life in Nashville. I was born in the old Saint Thomas hospital and have lived my entire life in the southern and eastern part of Nashville. I love this city, the size, the general feel of the people here, just about everything about it. And as a result I've never really wanted to move. I think I could live in a big city and were I younger, I might give New York City a shot, but as it is, I love living here.

2) I have attended Otter Creek Church of Christ for 31 of my 37 years of life. Except for 6 years where I either didn't attend church or attended Belmont Church, I've gone to Otter Creek the entire time. One of the things that I really love about it is the sense of tradition that I have from going there. My great-grandfather was the first preacher in the Granny White building and my grandparents went there, as well as my parents for a time. I love how we honor tradition while still pushing the envelopes of what it means to be Church of Christ and a Christian.

3) I taught high school English for 6 years at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School for the Health Sciences and Engineering. I loved this job. I got to teach some of the best kids in one of the best schools in the city. We talked about literature, of course, but talking about that led us into discussions of race and life and politics and religion and all that other stuff you're not supposed to talk to your students about, but that's what they want to talk about. I had a great time doing it (except for grading papers) and miss it on occasion.

4) I'm married to my best friend. I know that sounds cliched but the honest truth is that Sheryl is the person that I want to spend most of my time with/person with whom I want to spend most of my time. When something good or bad happens, she's the first one I want to talk with about it. We were friends before we dated and that blossomed into the love we share today. I don't find myself missing the fluttery feelings of first love because as important as those are at the beginning of a relationship, they fade. And if that's what we lock into as love, then we're just fooling ourselves. So I love being married to my best friend.

5) I have a bad temper. When I was a teenager and adolescent, I used to lose my temper all the time. Got into fights, argued, all that stuff. As I got older, that fuse became longer and longer, but I find that it gotten shorter with my kids as I have pretty high expectations for them and their behavior. I'm working on controlling it as much as I can, but some days it's very, very hard.

6) My parents are divorced. When I was 11, my parents got divorced and 6 months later, my mom remarried. Now, my mom and dad's relationship had been over a long time before the divorce was finalized, but that was obviously a difficult time. As a result, my mom was also disfellowshipped from Otter Creek, because the divorce was not Scriptural (because of marital infidelity on my dad's part).

7) After leaving teaching, I was a technical writer. What that really means is that I helped write frequently asked questions for websites, as well as help files and such. It was a great way to get into the business world and honestly it was a place where my experience as a teacher gave me a great amount of credibility. It was also something I didn't like a lot, because it was very formalized in the writing and grammar, things that I really didn't like even when I was teaching.

8) My technical writing led to my work now as a usability engineer/user interface designer. One of the things you do as a technical writer is look for problems that people might have with software and anticipate the problems they'll have with it and write solutions around it. What I do now is design the software to not have those problems in the first place. It's a great job that feeds both my creative side and geeky side. Plus, I'm pretty good at it and enjoy it, both of which are nice bonuses.

9) I've been out of the US 3 times. Once to Canada on a brief business trip, and twice to Great Britain. The first time was in 2000 when Sheryl and I decided that we were going to do a trip like this before we had kids and just had a blast doing it. We spent 2 weeks going from London to Dover/Canterbury to Oxford to Edinburgh (Scotland) to Aberdeen (Scotland) to Inverness (Scotland) and back to London. It is literally in the top 5 memories of my entire life, behind our wedding and the births of our kids. The 2nd time to England was on a mission trip to Loughborough in 2004. We took Kinsey with us to go work with a church there, and Connor came along too, but he was in utero. This was also good, but very different in feel obviously. Through it, we came to know many people that are very close friends with us today and who are in our Life group/small group.

10) I love Jesus. Again, I know that's a cliche kind of thing to say, but I really do. Not just because of the salvation aspects in which I firmly believe, but also the example of his life. Too often it's easy for us to focus on the sacrificial atoning nature of his death and resurrection and the cute "golden fleece diapers" aspect of his birth, and forgetting that there was a life of 33 years in between those two where Jesus said some really important things. I love how Jesus tweaked the noses of the established authority while still loving people and still getting frustrated as all heck with them.

11) My favorite Old Testament verse is 1 Samuel 6:7 "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I had this one read at my baptism and it was a theme verse for me. I had horrible self-esteem as a child, and so it gave me comfort that God didn't look at my unattractive outside, but what was inside.

12) My favorite New Testament verses are Philippians 2:5-11: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:

6 Who, being in very nature [a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature [b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

13) Sheryl and I have lived in the same house for the last 12 years. We moved in just before our first anniversary and rented from my parents for the first year, then bought. Several times, I've really wanted to move and get something with just a bit more space, particularly in the master bedroom and master bath area, but it's not too bad right now.

14) I can quote about 90% of the original Star Wars movie and probably 75% of the Princess Bride. My movie-going childhood was defined by Star Wars and the original trilogy. I also had an LP called the Story of Star Wars that had most of the dialogue, music, and sound effects and I listened to that over and over. My quotability of the Princess Bride comes just from loving that movie and loving the complete over the top cheesiness of it being done with complete seriousness. "Let me esplain.... No, there is too much, let me sum up."

15) My ability to hold vast amounts of useless knowledge in my brain makes me very annoying at trivia games. I don't have a photographic memory, but I can hold weird bits of knowledge in my head for a long time. Like, I can remember that John McTiernan was the director of Die Hard 1 & 3 and the directory of Predator, while Renny Harlin directed Die Hard 2, the Long Kiss Goodnight, and Cutthroat Island, the latter two starred his wife Geena Davis with Samuel Jackson and Matthew Modine (respectively). I don't know why I know that. But I do and when I play trivia games, it can be annoying, but my competitive drive makes me want to win every time. Hence, I don't play trivia games that often.

16) I'm a gadget/electronics nut. I love grown up toys. I love the cool iPhones and big screen TVs and the whiz bag things that we can do with gadgets now that would have seemed like science fiction 20 years ago. I like those things, but that can also get expensive so I try not to indulge that often, but on occasion I'm weak and give in.

17) I love snowboarding. For the last several years, I've gone out to Colorado with my parents and Kinsey to go skiing, but 2 years ago, I was introduced to snowboarding and I don't see myself returning to skiing anytime soon. For one the boots are much more comfortable. Secondly, it's an amazing amount of fun. I was never a skateboarder, but snowboarding is an incredible amount of fun. I never had to take formal lessons. My mom and dad showed me how to heel and toe turns, but beyond that, it's just been really natural for me. And I'm looking forward to going back soon.

18) I've always wanted to write fiction. Blogging and design work feeds a certain part of my creativity, but from a very early age I wanted to write fiction. The problem again goes back to my self-esteem about what I can do. A lot of the fiction that I've written has felt trite and pedestrian and so I haven't really devoted much time or effort to it. It's a confidence issue, as well as pushing past the crap that I would have to write before I get to something that might be decent.

19) I do tech/audio-visual work at Otter Creek and occasionally for the Zoe Group. About 6 and a half years ago, I started to doing tech work for Otter Creek as a part time job. It's something that I mostly enjoy, but I get a little tired of it sometimes. It can be a little more stressful than I would like it to be, but that's because I hold myself to such a high standard when it comes to mistakes. I coordinate and run both the sound board and the MediaShout (visual) work for Otter Creek. Honestly, while I'm good at both, I enjoy running MediaShout more than sound. Running sound can still occasionally feel like I'm in someone else's shoes, while I feel right at home running MediaShout, behind a computer doing visuals.

20) I've run sound at the Ryman Auditorium. A few years back, the Zoe Group partnered with the Temple Church praise team to do a Thanksgiving service at the Ryman Auditorium and because Brandon Scott Thomas felt comfortable with me, I ended up running the sound for the night. It was a very scary, but really cool experience.

21) My favorite literature writer is William Faulkner. I discovered Faulkner in 10th grade English when we read As I Lay Dying which I didn't understand at all. Stream of consciousness... point of view... perspective... My mother is a fish... None of it made sense. Then we read The Unvanquished in 11th grade and I got him quite a bit more. Then in 12th grade, I read Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom, as well as many of his short stories, and I discovered someone who finally didn't make me feel like an idiot for claiming to be a Southern. He was honest about the racism, and unflinching in his depiction, while also not condone it, but recognized it as a part of the Southern Heritage, never to be re-enacted. As a result, I had my students read him too.

22) I love video games, particularly shooters and driving games, and most especially, music games. When I got my Xbox, I made a pact that I wouldn't play while the kids were awake. I've gotten a little bit away from that and I'll play some driving games with them, and especially Rock Band where Kinsey and Sheryl will play drums and bass as well. It's incredibly fun. Plus we play it when our Life group comes over, after we get done with the Bible study and prayer time.

23) I do the laundry in our household. When Sheryl and I got married, we divided up the household chores. I took the outside of the house (excluding the garden) and she took the inside (excluding the laundry). Now you might think, "Why the laundry, Phil?" Because I can sit on my butt and watch TV while I fold clothes. It was a pretty easy decision. Now, that of course is not to say that I don't help out with cleaning the house, or Sheryl doesn't help with the laundry, but that's where the responsibilities tend to lay.

24) I would like to preach one sermon at Otter Creek. It sounds dumb, but I almost feel this "genetic" imperative to preach a sermon at Otter Creek, because of my great-grandfather preaching there. Now, I of course would like to be asked to speak on my own merits and not as a "pity" preacher, so it's not likely to happen, but I think it would be really neat to do that.

25) I don't know for certain what the afterlife will bring. I'm placing my faith that what Jesus said is true and that my desire to be as much like him as I can will put me in a place to be with him in eternity, saved by his grace. I don't know what that means for everyone else in the world, past, present, and future. But I feel like my calling is to show love to others and allow myself to be loved by them and by God. If I can somehow pull that off here on earth, perhaps God can show a little bit through me to them.

So that's 25 things. If you've lasted this long, I'd buy you a drink (non-alcoholic) but with the economy the way it is... well, you'll just have to be happy with a hearty congratulations.

Restoring Community

In oursmall group on Sunday nights, we're studying the book of Luke. Last week we talked about a chapter that has frustrated me in understanding it and I had a flash of insight about two stories that helped them make more sense. Specifically Luke 8:26-48.

After Jesus apparently woken up very grumpy from a nap and calmed the waves, he and his followers come to a man possessed by a number of demons. When Jesus casts the demons out, the man returns to his normal self and even though he wants to follow Jesus, Jesus tells him to return home and tell people about what God has done for him. Immediately after Jesus returns to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, he's approached by Jairus a synagogue ruler about his dying daughter. On his way to heal the girl, a woman with bleeding for years touched Jesus' cloak and she is healed.

Now on hand these two stories don't appear related outside the healing aspects. But there's something deeper I think. By removing the man's demons and healing the woman, both of them have been made "clean" or rather acceptable in the sight of the community. We tend to think of healing from only the physical aspect, but there was a societal aspect of it as well. A man naked among the graves would not have been allowed to be a part of the larger community. A woman bleeding for years was so unclean that she could not be with a man or even worship God according to the Jewish customs; she was ceremonially unclean.

By healing these people, Jesus not only took care of physcial infirmities, but just as importantly helped restore them to their communities, giving them a witness of God's miraculous love. Which causes me to think about ways that I as a follower of Jesus can help in that same mission, to restore people to community.

Saved By Grace, Judged By Works

A repost from 3 years ago (Sheesh. That's pre-Connor)

OK. This may be a long post, because I’m thinking out loud on this. This is a topic that requires some explanation of my history to understand where I’m going with this. Also, I’m really hoping for dialogue with all of my 4 readers on this, so if you see holes in my thinking or think I’m on the right track, let me know.

For most of my adult life, I have fought against a works-based salvation. Growing up in the Church of Christ and becoming very angry at that due to a couple of reasons, I decided the Church of Christ was dead wrong about having to do something to earn salvation, whether baptism or going to church or whatever. Kind of an “if saved, barely saved” ideology. I started attending a charismatic church in high school and through my first two years of college, but went to a Church of Christ college (Lipscomb) with the intent of showing all the Pharasiacal hypocrites how to be a real Christian. Ah, the folly and arrogance of youth.

Well, long story short, I learned that being Church of Christ and being spiritually minded were not mutually exclusive (Thanks Doug Varnado) and even ended up back at the church I grew up at (Otter Creek). However, my views on grace and works didn’t change and I even found people who agreed with me. We all viewed the works that we did as a response to the grace we had received, but not an obligation at any time that would earn us salvation (defined as our ticket to spend an eternity with God).

And then I start reading Brian McLaren. And rereading the Gospels and the OT prophets. And I start reading this stuff in those about what we do mattering, about what we do having eternal consequence. And my brain starts to feel twisted up. Let me explain.

Matthew 25:31 - 46 is one of Jesus’ clearest statements on judgment. He’s talking about the end of the age from chapter 24 and in this section he talks about when he (the Son of Man) comes in his glory. In this section, Jesus talks about how he’ll separate the sheep from the goats. And the basis for his judgment is NOT what these people believed, what statements of faith they ascribed to, what church they attended, what acts of worship the did or didn’t do or mixed together. The standard for his judgment is how they cared for the needy among them, the sick, the imprisoned.

And as I look through the gospels, Jesus talks very little about what people believe. He is much more concerned with what they do. Now, do I think faith is unimportant? No. I think it is, but it seems that it is less important than what I do with that faith. James said this. “Faith without works is dead.” Works are important.

As I wrote about two weeks ago, being saved by grace is great. It is a wonderful gift given by God. BUT if we don’t do something about that, we will be judged. We will be held accountable for that. When we are saved by that grace, we are all given a joyful responsibility: to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. That’s the message that Jesus preaches throughout his ministry. When the gospels talk about the good news of the Kingdom, this is it.

This also begs the question of what does judgment mean. Traditionally, I’ve thought that when I die (or if Jesus comes back before that), I’ll wake up in a big room with everyone that ever lived and because I’ve got grace, I’ll be a sheep. I’m not so sure about that anymore. I do think judgment is an important part of eternity, but (and now I’m really thinking out loud, so take this or leave it) what if judgment is eternally occurring? What if my daily walk is being judged in how I help bring about the Kingdom? That can sound scary on one hand, but on another, it’s extremely hopeful. Because what if judgment and mercy are two sides of the same coin? What if the mercy that God offers is a part of his judgment? I don’t know how all of that plays out. I don’t know what all of this means, honestly.

Here’s what I think. My job as a follower of Christ, as a disciple of Jesus, is to help bring about the Kingdom of God. I’m going to try my hardest to do that every minute of every day. I’m going to find a community that will try and do that with me. And I’m going to genuinely love (no matter how hard it is) the people I come in contact with.

I think that’s the Law and the Prophets. I think that’s the message Jesus came to bring. And the grace that we receive through his death and resurrection both empowers us and makes us responsible for that mission.

So, how off base am I? What holes do you see? What resonates with you? Looking forward to the dialogue

Uninspired

Back, many moons ago, when I started to write consistently on this blog, I started out writing about spiritual things. I started out writing on Fridays only and it started with just spiritual issues I was thinking about. I was reading a ton of theology back then. Almost only theology. I was reading Brian McLaren, Donald Miller, NT Wright, Lee Camp, etc, etc. I was being exposed to a lot of new ideas that were outside of my experience and I used this blog as an outlet for a lot of that and as a result got to meet new friends (both "real life" and Web friends) and engaged in some serious dialogue with people about serious issues.

For some reason though, lately, I've felt singularly uninspired about spiritual things.

I've stopped reading a lot of theology (some manner of burnout, I suppose). Church governance and organization have become less interesting to me, even with the transition that Otter Creek is going through right now. It's almost as though in the last 3 years, this focus in my life on trying to figure out what it means to live as a follower of Jesus has been like trying to drink from a firehose and I've had to recently turn it off to catch my breath.

I've been exposed to a lot of new ideas over the last few years and it's convinced me that even seeing new ways of following Christ, I have a LONG way to go. There are calls on life that Jesus makes that, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I'm a strong enough follower or have enough faith to follow. Perhaps I love this life and the things of this world too much. What I don't want is to be one of those people who sees the way things could be in my own life and then just walks away from it, but perhaps I need to be satisfied with the "baby steps" that God is helping me through and take the ones I can.

Maybe I'm more like the rich young ruler than I want to admit. Maybe I'm more satisfied with the "ease" of Christianity than difficulty of following Jesus completely and wholly.

I don't know how much I'll be writing on Fridays right now. I might stop writing for a while. Taking breaks has often been good for me at times and this might be a good time to fast for a bit.

If you're a regular reader (I'm still not quite sure why someone would be), I appreciate you walking with me in this for however long you have. I would covet anyone's prayers as I ponder these things and take a breath from pondering them.

Pax.

Things I'm Thinking About

• If Jesus went to so many parties, how come so many of his followers go to so few?
• Has my job up the tech booth distanced me from people?
• What are the implications of how we deal with race as Jesus' followers and what does that say to the world outside our walls?
• Why do people insist on boiling down theological issues to mathematical equations?
• There are people that think "seeking to be a disciple of Jesus" is a bad thing? (As opposed to being or not being a disciple)
• Is the Dark Knight the newest expression of a glimmers of God's hope in a nihilistic society or just Christians trying to shoehorn the last soap bubble of pop culture before it pops so we can look cool and relevant?

Just some things I'm thinking.

Power

In our small group, we're studying Luke and I was responsible for Luke 1. We read through it aloud and as I read Mary's prayer in vv. 46-55 and then Zechariah's in vv. 67-79, I thought about how rarely we hear those passages read in our non-liturgical church setting. People rarely choose to read these aloud. And I wondered why.

One of the thoughts that I had was that this was referring to a specific instance. When Mary and Zechariah spoke about these things, they had their immediate context in mind: the oppression of the Jews by the Romans. And so as they spoke the had the overthrow of the Romans in mind that must take place with the arrival of God's Anointed, the Messiah. But if we extrapolate the context, we can see that the reference is not just to the Romans, but to those in power who oppress those beneath them.

Is that us? Are we the oppressors? And when I say "we," I could be talking about us as Christians, us as upper-middle class Americans; basically any place where our position could be oppressing other people, politically, economically, or otherwise. Do we not read these because we're afraid it could be talking about us?

An Interesting Poll

I know I have a lot of people who also read Scott Freeman's blog, so some of you might have already seen this, but I thought I would repost it here because it's an interesting little poll. It's a hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) quiz that asks you to think about how you interpret the Bible. And I'm curious about how people come out on it.

You can take it here. I'll post my score in the comments later today.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove at Otter Creek Church, Thursday, February 28

Hi all. A quick announcement from my home church, Otter Creek Church of Christ.

The Otter Creek Church invites you to hear from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a founding member of the Rutba House in Durham, North Carolina, on February 28, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. Jonathan, who spent time in Iraq with Shane Claiborne as part of a Christian peacemaking team, will be discussing "Signs of the Times & a New Monasticism." He will touch upon several aspects of the new monastic movement, including the contemplative tradition, service to the poor, nonviolence, and practices of intentional community.

Otter Creek is located at 409 Franklin Road, in Brentwood. You can call the church for more information at 615-373-1782.

Hope to see as many of you there as can make it.

The Bible Tells Me So

I was planning today to write a piece about reading the Bible and if there is a mature way to come to be able to take the Bible seriously, but not completely literally. And then I realized that I'd already basically done that last June.

I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with Scripture these days. If you search for Bible on my blog, you can see how much I've been struggling with it. Just in the last couple of years, I've been digging and thinking and pondering about the nature of Scripture and our relationship to it. I'm getting to the point where I believe that the Bible is part of God's work in our world, but not the only part. I'm getting to the point where I believe that the Bible is from God, but not inerrant. I've been at the point for awhile where I believe that God inspired the Bible, but that didn't preclude people's tendency to inject personal issues, foibles, and perspectives.

I guess what I'm wrestling with the most is what is the place of Scripture in the life of a Christian who believes that God inspired it, but doesn't believe that it is inerrant, infallible, or whatever other theological words we come up with. And the big question even in that is, how do we decide which parts to follow? Do we cherry pick the parts we like and ignore the parts we don't (not that most Christians don't already do that)?

I'm trying to come to a position of respect and honoring of the Scriptures, but not deifying them, not creating them as a new god to be worshipped, as I and others have probably unintentionally done. And I hope and pray that that leads me to a greater respect for them, the people that wrote them, and the God I believe inspired them.

Worship

A couple of weeks ago, Thomas+ and I got into a little bit of a conversation about worship and I decided to bring it out overall. A point I made in the post was that I didn't think churches should be worship centers, but centers for discipleship. Thomas said that the most important thing his church does is gather for worship and I expressed that because of the time I spend in the tech booth, I don't get to worship very often.

Here's what I mean by worship. To me, worship is the ability to step away from ourselves and to focus completely on God and the wondrousness of His presence. In traditional Church of Christ theology, there are five acts of worship: teaching, giving, singing, praying, and communion. And if you only count those, I do get to experience those every Sunday, but I'm not able to focus exclusively on them. If you step away from that and get into a less "finger-based" approach (tiny joke there) that thinks in a wider view of worship and experiencing God in a more experiential way, I don't get to participate in that very often either.

Am I happy to be helping in the booth? Of course. It's a talent that I have and one I'm grateful to share with the body, and one that I know facilitates worship in others. But because I have to be so focused on making sure that there aren't mistakes in what we do which would distract others from worship.

That's what I mean by worship and why I'm not able to focus on it. So, Thomas, I'm interested in hearing your take, as well as anyone else's, of course. I'm going to be out of pocket after this morning and not able to respond until Monday, but I'll be very interested in reading the responses to this.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church Part 2

Last week, I started talking about Dan Kimball's new book They Like Jesus But Not the Church. It's a very good read, but I talked about all that last week.

I wanted to touch on two areas this week. Firstly, a comment from last week. I don't typically respond to anonymous comments, but this one I think asks a question that many might have: "Since the church is the body of Christ, Eph. 1:23, how can one like Jesus but not the church?"

Here's how. When the church doesn't actually embody Jesus. It's one thing to recognize the spiritual reality that the church is the body of Christ. Unfortunately, the temporal reality can appear quite different. Yes, some congregations are acting in powerful ways to engage our culture and to care for those in need. But far too often, congregations can slip into country club mindset, where we go to be served and make sure that no one gets in that doesn't "belong," or at least no one that will rock the boat by how they appear, act, and/or think. And if I'm not a Christian why would I possibly want to be involved in that? And this is something that Kimball addresses in the book. Why would someone want to become a Christian when it appears to make you a worse person, not a better one?

Which leads me into the other point I brought up last week. I'm really afraid church leaders will use this book the wrong way. I'm afraid that church leaders who are recognizing that 20 somethings and 30 somethings are not in their church might look at this book and think that it's trying to give a checklist on how to get 20 and 30 somethings into the church building.

That's not what this book is about. This book is about recognizing the barriers that keep people from going to churches, but not solving them to get people into the building. Getting people into our church buildings shouldn't be the goal of a church. What a church should be about is creating disciples of Jesus. Churches shouldn't be worship centers. Can and should worship happen in a church building? Yes, but that's not the primary focus. The primary focus of a congregation should be forming disciples of Jesus Christ. If we're not about that, then we're an exclusive country club, rather than an inclusive family. The focus of a congregation should not be bringing people in; it should be about sending them out.

That's why I loved the Halloween posts that Brandon and Thomas did. That's what we should be about. If we focus on being Christ's disciples, the rest should fall into place. Maybe not always neatly and maybe not smoothly, but that shouldn't be our concern. We should work on being disciples.

YouTube Thursday: Nooma - Name

I know this is a little early (HT: Believing Thomas)

Nooma is a video ministry of Rob Bell. This is the newest one and it's only available today and tomorrow, Thursday November 1. Enjoy.

Brian McLaren, Churches of Christ, and Evangelicals

In the conversation with the Otter Creek staff that I referred to last week, McLaren talked about evangelicalism. And to frame this properly, it's necessary to talk a little about an idea in his new book Everything Must Change. In it, McLaren talks about 5 different framing stories that most people exist in.

1) Imperialism - the idea that to truly effect change and the good of the world, it has to be controlled and/or subjugated, or we must align with those who are in control. In Jesus' day, this would have been the Saducees.
2) Revolution - Whoever is in control must be taken out of power. This would have been the Zealots.
3) Scapegoating - It is someone else' fault that things are as bad as they are. They must be purified or set right in order for things to get back to where they need to be. This would have been the Pharisees.
4) Isolationism - Everything's gone to Hell. And we must get away from it to protect ourselves. This would have been the Essenes.
5) The Kingdom of God. This is the message of Jesus.

Ok, so in the discussion, McLaren talked about how Churches of Christ actually have a benefit in how they have been separate from the rest of the Christian world. He contends that much of the evangelical world is not caught up in the framing story of the Kingdom of God. Rather, they have bought into the Imperialism story, especially as they have associated themselves with particular political stories. He called it a "membrane" between us and the rest of the Christian world. Now, he didn't say that it's a bad thing that people like Max Lucado have been publicly associated with Churches of Christ and popular in the wider Christian world, but it does make the membrane thinner. McLaren feels that some of the more progressive Churches of Christ can speak very prophetically to the wider Christian world about the message of Jesus, rather than buying into any of the other framing stories.

Now, notice that he's not calling for isolation from the "denominations," but engagement. Rather than pull up our tents, we go out into the wider Christian world and call not for a restoration of the forms of the first century church, but for a restoration of a community of people who are seeking to become disciples of Christ.

It was an intriguing part of the conversation and I'm curious to hear other people's reactions.

YouTube Thursday: Brian McLaren on Worship

I thought this was a very interesting video, particularly coming off of the Zoe conference last weekend and hearing McLaren there.



I'll have some more McLaren-related thoughts tomorrow, particularly about the Churches of Christ and my home church, Otter Creek.

Zoe Conference 2007 debrief

I really enjoyed the conference this year. The leadership part was really good, particularly Randy Harris talking about losing his voice, spiritually, as well as his talk in the "discernment" sessions about prioritizing the areas of change in our lives.

McLaren was just great of course, especially his opening talk where he talked about the societal machine and framing stories. His talk Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon were also good, but not as memorable for me personally. I was kind of distracted by a few other things going on, tech wise. I had another close encounter with McLaren that I might talk about later, but maybe not.

Once the worship conference started, my work started. Outside of my kids making a cameo on the screens (must turn off screensaver next year) and a few lyrical and background glitches, I think that side of it went well. My judgment of how well I do tech work is how un-noticeable I am. I wasn't perfect this year, but I don't think it was too bad.

I'm always interested in how the songs are going to be congregationally received and sang. "You Never Let Go" was much better live acapella than I thought it was on the CD, so that was a pleasant surprise. "The Word is Alive" also came across very nicely. "Let God Arise" was generally ok. People seemed to REALLY want to clap on it, but the chorus gets weird with singing on off beats that it kind of died out. "You Are Good" wasn't too bad, but honestly, after hearing Zoe sing that with a Black Gospel group and their band before, this kind of paled in comparison.

Randy and Mike were very good in their talks and Zoe newbie Dean Barnam from Woodmont Hills did a nice job for his first time. I liked watching the painting of course, but I found the blacklight Jesus reveal to be a little bit cheesy. I know a lot of other people liked it, but hey, what can I say?

Probably the best part of the weekend for me was working with Doug Sanders. On Friday, he texted me asking if I would go run a couple of errands with him. I'm usually not able to do this, because of my full time job or on weekends trying to spend some time with my kids, but this time I was. Friday, we went a picked up a little girl whose family Doug has been working with and took her to school after she missed her bus, because she'd been pushed down. Then we took some sleeping bags to a Cub Scout group from the inner city who were going on a camping trip and met their Scoutmaster who is a great great guy. Saturday, he texted me again asking if I would run north of town to take some groceries to a family who got caught up in the food stamp bureaucracy and didn't get their stamps renewed and had no money. So Doug raided the church's refrigerator and went to Publix and we took some food to the hotel where this family of five is having to live right now. They weren't home, so we dropped off the groceries in the lobby with the manager, and Doug made another connection with HER and if she encounters people who need help, she has Doug's number and can call him. And that part to me was the best part of the weekend. Seeing old friends was great. Sitting at the feet of wise men and women was outstanding. Worshiping with great vigor was amazing. Working with a man with a heart for helping others was what truly touched me.

Jesus and the Atomic Bomb

Note: This post is a followup to the one I did last Friday.

As of right now in the history of the world, only one country has ever used a nuclear device in war. Us. The United States. And I have heard all the justifications about how using the devices saved American lives, and in fact, I have probably known (and still know) men whose lives were spared because we didn't launch an invasion of the Japanese islands.

I've stated before that I don't believe America is a Christian nation or ever has been, mainly because I don't believe that nations can be Christians. They can be largely comprised of Christians or even led by Christians, but nations are largely about self preservation and protection of its citizens. Whatever the cost. Basically nations believe that the lives of their citizens are inherently more valuable than the lives of people of other non-allied nations.

And that's what Harry Truman and his advisers decided in 1945. They decided that the lives of the American soldiers were of greater worth than the lives of the Japanese civilians, and so they felt that dropping two atomic weapons were the proper way to end the war.

Now from strictly a nationalistic perspective, this was the right maneuver. And it should have been an easy call for the Americans. Particularly because they felt that the Germans would have done the same thing given similar circumstances.

What it can't be called is Christian. Plain and simple. Doing something that takes the life of your enemy (especially noncombatants) is not how Christ enjoined us to follow him. Very simply put, the one time Jesus had someone fight for him (Matthew 26:50-54, Luke 22:47-53), Jesus not only chastised Peter for fighting for him, but then proceeded to heal the ear of one of the men that came to capture him. What do I think Jesus would have thought of Fat Man and Little Boy, the two atomic weapons? I can only think that he would have thought the same thing of them as he did of Peter's sword.

The only thing I can hope is that when/if our brothers and sisters 5,000 years from now (if the Lord doesn't come back and the creek don't rise, as my grandmother used to say) and wonder how God could have worked through such a people as us, that they will give us the same benefit of the doubt as we give the Israelites in the Old Testament who committed genocide on the Canaanites. That they will simply trust that God was able to work out His purposes, even through such broken vessels.

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