From My Cell

Me and my partners in crime before the wedding.

In addition to this being a cool picture I now know how to post from my cellie phone!

Kudos!

Playing Catchup

Nothing quite like a wedding to get your life behind schedule.

Should be getting back into my blogging groove in the next few days, been lucky just to be getting my daily Bible reading done.

If your want to see what I'm reading feel free to use the DBR link on your right!

Mahalo!

Are You Ready For This?

My job is funny. In a good way!

I show up for a team meeting and find out that they are doing music and no one let me know to get Easy Worship ready or schedule anyone to run it.

So I'm up in the booth and am going to do it myself. This is not a complaint... it's an example.

I will be meeting with the Tech Team and talking to them about what they do and its purpose. What better way to encourage them in serving even when it is unexpected or inconvenient than by doing it myself?

The Bible also talks about being ready in season and out of season... but I don't think they were talking about running worship slides!

Leaders lead from the front.

Citizen of the Bubble

Dan Kimball lays out the four stages of Christian life in America like this:

1: We become Christians.
2: We become part of the church life.
3: We become part of the Christian Bubble.
4: We become Jonah.

His conclusion is that we get into a "retreat mentality" where we "think of the church as a protection from the world club". In the end most Christians know few non-christians and the few they know they don't take the time to get to know on a level that would allow a real and relational sharing of our faith.

Jesus did not seem to want the church just to be a subculture... in fact he prayed for His disciples that: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one" (John 17:15).

For sure, He isn't praying here for what normally happens: We isolate ourselves from those outside the church.

And I would add here to Kimball's statement that the church also in subtle ways isolates itself from the un-churched. I've been to a few church cafes and meeting buildings and I notice something funny. There is no where for someone to comfortably step aside and smoke.

Don't get me wrong, I think the habit is gross. Extra gross really.

However, we tend to quietly support the idea that it's not OK to be a Christian and smoke (Find that for me in the Bible in any way other than a deduction please if you want to argue about it!), and if you do you dang well better hide it. So how much more does this make us look like a weird and inclusive bubble culture to the unchurched when we don't get what major restaurant's and coffee company's (you know which one I'm talking about) do. If you want them to come back, you have to make room for them... bad habits and all.

Never Gonna be as Big as Jesus

I love my daily Bible reading. It's hard for me to blog about anything else... if your not in a habit of reading to communicate with God you should start.

Not because I said so or out of guilt. But because once you get going I promise you will tell me it's worth it.

Now we are in Hebrews Chapter 3...

"So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God's house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house." (Hebrews 3:1-6, The Message, Emphasis Mine)

I have been rethinking my theology in the last few years. This blog is a channel for my thinking in that way.

Most protestant theology and practice is Pauline in nature.

The Bible is intended, by the Holy Spirit, to be taken as a whole. So when I think of this passage, which is not written to be a commentary on Bible study, I do see that Jesus is the center of our faith.

This makes me rethink how I form doctrine. My core foundation should be: What did Jesus teach about that, and then how does Pauline theology support that.

I have the feeling that the end result of that would be on the side of love and grace for the non-believer and more repent or perish for the "religious".

We will explore this more as time goes on. Peace!

My Crazy Family

From Hebrews 2:11 - "Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family" (The Message, Emphasis Mine)

More from my daily Bible reading... Isn't it a trip to think that God packed himself into a human package?

More crazy than that is to think that Jesus treats us as family. I don't know about you, but in my family everyone is crazy. I wonder if Jesus feels the same way.

I mean He would be the "head of household" for this big family of faith we have. So we have to wonder what he thinks about his children sometimes. You know that he loves us no matter what, but at the same time I know that, like any parent, He would just like us to listen to what He's telling us to do.

Much Love!

It's Messy!

In reading an article by Mark Driscoll he discusses how he planted a church and how he planned in being the next hip thing. He then goes on to realize that every generation of the church has its movements and someday will be the old thing that some young guy will want to replace!

But I love his conclusion:

"In the end, the future of the Church is much like the past and present of the Church - Messy. Churches that embrace their traditions over their children will die slow and painful deaths. Churches that embrace cultural relevance over biblical faithfulness will in time become heretics like Hymenaeus. The majority of small and struggling churches will cling on for dear life and keep reading books about the rapture in hopes that they can simply get out before they give up. And, God will put His hand on young punks who are unfit for the kingdom of heaven and fill them with a one-hundred proof shot of the Holy Spirit that transforms them from the typical Christian consumer or complainer into a co-laborer with Jesus who will remain busy building His Church just like He promised. These new pastors will plant new churches that attract new people with new questions that can only be answered by the old story that were all sick and need Jesus."

What's the Difference?

Although this is not what I am going to be writing about, here is the verse that stuck out to me in my Bible reading today. (There is a new link for daily Bible reading on the right that will take you though the whole Bible in a year... or just do the NT portion to go thorough the NT in a year)

"While here in jail, I've fathered a child, so to speak. And here he is, hand-carrying this letter—Onesimus! He was useless to you before; now he's useful to both of us. I'm sending him back to you, but it feels like I'm cutting off my right arm in doing so. I wanted in the worst way to keep him here as your stand-in to help out while I'm in jail for the Message. But I didn't want to do anything behind your back, make you do a good deed that you hadn't willingly agreed to." Philemon 1:10-14

Lets avoid doing anything "under the table". Success in the ministry of life often requires a simple rule: "Except in protecting others, keep no secrets."

Now on to what I actually wanted to write about:

I thought I would bring up a theological question from a book that I have been reading by Dan Kimball called They Like Jesus but not the Church. This is a real life situation that we have to consider... and to quote Jason French's blog... "If your theology isn't practical, it doesn't work."

"Imagine an unmarried couple who are living together and are sexually active. They enter your church and tell you they aren't Christians yet, but are interest in God and are checking out your church. They begin attending your worship gatherings, and you are happy to see them there, hoping they will come to trust in Jesus. You know they are living together, and you see them respectfully showing their affection by holding hands in church and putting their arms around one another.
But what if a gay couple did the same thing?
How would you answer the following questions?

• How are these two couples different in Jesus' eyes?
• Theologically, what is the difference between the straight couple and the homosexual couple?
• How would your reaction differ?
• How would your church react?"

(Kimball, Dan, They Like Jesus but not the Church, P. 148)

He goes on to state at the end of the chapter: "We can hold to a doctrinal position about homosexuality while moving from being known as a community that fears and even looks down on homosexuals to being know as a community that welcomes and loves them, yet doesn't affirm anything that the Scriptures don't." (Kimball, Dan, They Like Jesus but not the Church, P. 161)

An interesting thought! Your reactions?

Then after you react feel free to respond with this qualification:

I only want biblical answers to the questions posed by Kimball. Biblical answers in context to the passage you are bringing them from.

Or just reflect on this and how we treat sin and the unchurched differently that we probably should given the nature of who we were before we were saved. After all: "All have sinned and fallen short of God's Glory."

Day of Rest

"When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." Titus 3:4-5 (NLT, Emphasis Mine)

I am enjoying my one and a half hours off, on the normal day of rest. Sunday is not a sabbath for those in ministry! That's why I have Monday's off!

It's great then that I can look at this verse and know, just like it says in the book of Hebrews, that I at least have a rest from having to try to be right with God.

Thanks to Jesus, I just am. No work to be done.

Enjoy your Sunday!