It's been a while since my last post, things have been a bit on the busy side. We found out that Lindsey is pregnant with number 2 (a HUGE surprise, but awesome), I interviewed for and got a new job that I start in a few weeks, and various other asundry projects around the house (lots of painting and refinishing a floor). But with the fall season gracefully upon us, I have been biking to work a lot (due to a liscense suspension for not slowing down enough in a construction zone- as well as for the beautiful weather) and preparing for the holiday season that will too quickly arrive. The first one is this weekend.
Halloween has long had a debatable past. Lots of evangelicals have the "fall festival" which is basically Halloween with a different name. Some more "missional" churches embrace the whole thing as a way of "cultural outreach." I found this really interesting blog posting from Mars Hill Church on the history of Halloween, I recommend reading it: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/10/29/the-history-of-halloween-revisted/
While reading it, check out this new band that I am really digging lately called The Civil Wars. They have some of the most haunting vocal melodies I have ever heard.
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
five.
The other day I was pointed to a blog posting by a guy named Dustin Neely. I had never heard of this person before, but his topic was something that was very pertinent to my life, or at least my week. The post is called "5 Hard Truths for Planters" refering of course to church planting. (http://theresurgence.com/series/5-hard-truths-for-planters) This past year and especially these past 5 or 6 months have been the busiest of my life. I have gotten the least amount of sleep, given more than I can remember giving, and shifting priorities in so many different directions. And everything he says is true about church planting.
But as I read this and had some conversations with people, I soon started to see that this is not unique to church planting. The lives we live are so filled with things that these 5 truths are needed to be heard by all of us, for all of our lives. Just fill in "life" for any place you see something refering to church planting and you'll see what I mean.
For the record, at any given moment I rank very low in implementing every one of these truths. Uh, now I'm violating number 2, leading to number 4, need to go do some number 5.
But as I read this and had some conversations with people, I soon started to see that this is not unique to church planting. The lives we live are so filled with things that these 5 truths are needed to be heard by all of us, for all of our lives. Just fill in "life" for any place you see something refering to church planting and you'll see what I mean.
For the record, at any given moment I rank very low in implementing every one of these truths. Uh, now I'm violating number 2, leading to number 4, need to go do some number 5.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
towers of blocks.
Life doesn't like to fit into neat compartments. Maybe it shouldn't have taken me 29 years to realize this somewhat profound statement, but it has. Up to this point I have had this idea that there is a way "life is supposed to be." Like, if I don't live up to this certain type of life, things would be incomplete. So, what I try to do is to fill it up with everything I think needs to be in that "supposed to be" life.
I have an amazing wife who loves me no matter what, a son who makes me laugh and smile (and never sleep), a job that I like most of the time, and a church that allows me to be involved in God's work. We live relatively close to our families, we have great neighbors to share the block with, we own our own home, two cars, and have a dog that doesn't throw up when he eats things he's not supposed to. We live in a middle class neighborhood, always have enough to cover the bills, and even get to travel a good deal.
But what I have learned is that as great as all of these things are, the more great things don't neccesarily equal mental stability. Jonathan, my son, really likes to play with the oversized lego blocks. Every morning, when I wish he was still sleeping, we go to our living room, Jonathan sits by his basket of blocks, tells me to sit next to him and starts to build. He really is pretty good, but what he likes to do is build tall skinny towers. he will take the blocks with only one or two knobs and build them higher and higher and then clap for himself. (he obviously had some help with this one). The problem is, it soon falls over because it lacks stability.
That is how my life can feel sometime. I keep piling things on top until it is about to crash. But don't we all do that at some point? Either that or we don't even use the blocks that are available to us. What I have realized, is that life doesn't fit together nicely, but it doesn't stop us from building our towers too high until it's too late. The challenge of life is to figure out how to build our lives in a way that will fit together in a sustainable way. How do our faith commitments interact with what we do at work, at home, or with our neighbors? How do we spend the time with our families and friends in a way that builds them up and glorifies Jesus? How do we find the time to do what God has called us to do and to not go insane doing it? In some ways, I think we need to find where these things intersect and spend the time there. Is there a way that our church responsibilities can be done in the same place/time as our family, work, and community work is done? Maybe or maybe not.
This is obviously something I don't have the answer to, and maybe I never will; all I know is that life isn't supposed to look exactly like something, because it can't. Life is more like the tower Jonathan made, with stuff sticking out here and there. Sometimes we just have to make sure it doesn't fall over.
I have an amazing wife who loves me no matter what, a son who makes me laugh and smile (and never sleep), a job that I like most of the time, and a church that allows me to be involved in God's work. We live relatively close to our families, we have great neighbors to share the block with, we own our own home, two cars, and have a dog that doesn't throw up when he eats things he's not supposed to. We live in a middle class neighborhood, always have enough to cover the bills, and even get to travel a good deal.
But what I have learned is that as great as all of these things are, the more great things don't neccesarily equal mental stability. Jonathan, my son, really likes to play with the oversized lego blocks. Every morning, when I wish he was still sleeping, we go to our living room, Jonathan sits by his basket of blocks, tells me to sit next to him and starts to build. He really is pretty good, but what he likes to do is build tall skinny towers. he will take the blocks with only one or two knobs and build them higher and higher and then clap for himself. (he obviously had some help with this one). The problem is, it soon falls over because it lacks stability.That is how my life can feel sometime. I keep piling things on top until it is about to crash. But don't we all do that at some point? Either that or we don't even use the blocks that are available to us. What I have realized, is that life doesn't fit together nicely, but it doesn't stop us from building our towers too high until it's too late. The challenge of life is to figure out how to build our lives in a way that will fit together in a sustainable way. How do our faith commitments interact with what we do at work, at home, or with our neighbors? How do we spend the time with our families and friends in a way that builds them up and glorifies Jesus? How do we find the time to do what God has called us to do and to not go insane doing it? In some ways, I think we need to find where these things intersect and spend the time there. Is there a way that our church responsibilities can be done in the same place/time as our family, work, and community work is done? Maybe or maybe not.
This is obviously something I don't have the answer to, and maybe I never will; all I know is that life isn't supposed to look exactly like something, because it can't. Life is more like the tower Jonathan made, with stuff sticking out here and there. Sometimes we just have to make sure it doesn't fall over.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Numb3rs.
Yea, there is a TV show by that name. I have to admit I've never seen it. My understanding is that it is a crime mystery show that uses math and numbers to solve whatever the crime is on that show. I'm not really sure how one makes a show about that, but actuaries around the country are probably really excited.
Numbers can say a lot and I think that, when used correctly, they can help to at least identify problems that need to be worked on. This is true, even in the church. I ran across this interesting article from the Gallup organization (http://www.gallup.com/poll/117382/Church-Going-Among-Catholics-Slides-Tie-Protestants.aspx). In the article, it discusses how individuals who consider themselves "Christian" regularly attend church. The fascinating statistic is not that Catholics are now on par with Protestant Christians in their weekly church attendance, but rather, how on average, only 45% of all Christians say they attended church within the last week.
Now, statistics can say a lot of different things, and these numbers may be variable based on the time of year, area of the country (http://www.gallup.com/poll/122075/Religious-Identity-States-Differ-Widely.aspx), and age (only 38% of Protestant and 30% of Catholics in their 20's have attended church in the past week) of the sample, but I don't believe any of these variables hit the root of the issue. Church is losing its draw and attendance because we, as the Church, have lost sight of what Church is. For many of us, church is something we go to on Sunday's to hear a message, sing some songs, give our money, and maybe get some coffee. For others, church is the place that makes us get up early on the weekend, or miss the big game. It's something that we do on one or maybe two days of the week. We can check it off our list, put it on our schedule, and if we can't make it for a while, that's OK because our faith is personal. This idea is also unbiblical.
When we look at idea of the Church in the New Testament, it is vibrant and alive. It is a community of individuals where life is shared and individuals are urged on in the faith. Jesus did not say, "go into all the world and put on good shows and give good speeches about me." He said that we are to "go and make disciples", to help bring people into relationship with Him. This idea of community runs rampant throughout the Bible. Paul even says, "don't give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing." Church then turns into something we are, as a collective group. Really, without a community of other believers, our faith is lacking at best, and non-existent at worst.
Now the Church has not always been all that it should be, and some people have very good reasons as to why they don't go to Church. Abuse, scandals, bad doctrine, hypocrisy; there is no such thing as the perfect church. But truly living in a community of faith means that we don't go into it thinking about "what can this church do for me?" but rather, we enter into a partnership to help others seek and honor God according to the scriptures and to be helped in that process. We come together to fight against our spiritual enemies, for our world, our marriages, our faith, our communities. Our culture has lost a vital ally when the Church becomes something we do rather than something we are.
This is the great part of being involved in a new church start up. We don't have to work through the years of tradition and bad habits that have brought many churches to the point of irrelevance. Instead, we can focus our efforts on being a community where Jesus is exalted above all else and we can partner with one another to live out God's passions in the Lehigh Valley and around the world. You can check out how we are (trying) to do this at www.riverbendonline.org
Numbers can say a lot and I think that, when used correctly, they can help to at least identify problems that need to be worked on. This is true, even in the church. I ran across this interesting article from the Gallup organization (http://www.gallup.com/poll/117382/Church-Going-Among-Catholics-Slides-Tie-Protestants.aspx). In the article, it discusses how individuals who consider themselves "Christian" regularly attend church. The fascinating statistic is not that Catholics are now on par with Protestant Christians in their weekly church attendance, but rather, how on average, only 45% of all Christians say they attended church within the last week.
Now, statistics can say a lot of different things, and these numbers may be variable based on the time of year, area of the country (http://www.gallup.com/poll/122075/Religious-Identity-States-Differ-Widely.aspx), and age (only 38% of Protestant and 30% of Catholics in their 20's have attended church in the past week) of the sample, but I don't believe any of these variables hit the root of the issue. Church is losing its draw and attendance because we, as the Church, have lost sight of what Church is. For many of us, church is something we go to on Sunday's to hear a message, sing some songs, give our money, and maybe get some coffee. For others, church is the place that makes us get up early on the weekend, or miss the big game. It's something that we do on one or maybe two days of the week. We can check it off our list, put it on our schedule, and if we can't make it for a while, that's OK because our faith is personal. This idea is also unbiblical.
When we look at idea of the Church in the New Testament, it is vibrant and alive. It is a community of individuals where life is shared and individuals are urged on in the faith. Jesus did not say, "go into all the world and put on good shows and give good speeches about me." He said that we are to "go and make disciples", to help bring people into relationship with Him. This idea of community runs rampant throughout the Bible. Paul even says, "don't give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing." Church then turns into something we are, as a collective group. Really, without a community of other believers, our faith is lacking at best, and non-existent at worst.
Now the Church has not always been all that it should be, and some people have very good reasons as to why they don't go to Church. Abuse, scandals, bad doctrine, hypocrisy; there is no such thing as the perfect church. But truly living in a community of faith means that we don't go into it thinking about "what can this church do for me?" but rather, we enter into a partnership to help others seek and honor God according to the scriptures and to be helped in that process. We come together to fight against our spiritual enemies, for our world, our marriages, our faith, our communities. Our culture has lost a vital ally when the Church becomes something we do rather than something we are.
This is the great part of being involved in a new church start up. We don't have to work through the years of tradition and bad habits that have brought many churches to the point of irrelevance. Instead, we can focus our efforts on being a community where Jesus is exalted above all else and we can partner with one another to live out God's passions in the Lehigh Valley and around the world. You can check out how we are (trying) to do this at www.riverbendonline.org
Friday, March 6, 2009
i still haven't found what i'm looking for.
In honor of the new U2 album that came out this week, I plagiarized their famous song for my title. But truthfully, it's an interesting concept. Being involved in a new church start up (http://www.riverbendonline.org/), I have had the great opportunity to be a part of God's desire to see his people come together and live out his passions. It is a humbling experience. But one of the things that we always seek to guard against is transplanting Christians vs. building a new community of believers.
Our generation is one where everything is customizable. I think about all the things I have customized to me. Myspace, Facebook, Playlists, my Google Homepage, and a whole bunch of other things. This isn't necessarily bad, being that we are all individuals and we each have strengths, passions, desires and preferences. The problem comes with our societies/generation's drive for focusing on ourselves. When that is our focus, we can have a tough time coming to any decision on choices we have in life.
I was reading a really good article on this concept as it relates to the church (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/columns/church-today/16112-church-shopping) and our ideas about our "perfect" church. There isn't one that is going to match each person exactly. But the point that this article makes is that our choices of churches should not necessarily be "what can this church do for me," but rather, "what ways can I connect into this community." There are times when it is right to leave a church community (lack of scriptural teaching, immorality, etc.) but more so, churches were designed for groups of people to serve and worship God together as a community. This is the basics of this concept, but we can't go deeper until we understand that basic premise.
As we continue to move forward with Riverbend, we pray that God will bring those he desires to be a part of this community. We may do things that are different than other churches, but this is not because we want to attract a niche market of Christians, its because sometimes the lost don't or won't understand the gospel in any other way. May we never be a church that is just "another option," may we be a church that God uses to reach those who still haven't found what they are (truly) looking for.
Our generation is one where everything is customizable. I think about all the things I have customized to me. Myspace, Facebook, Playlists, my Google Homepage, and a whole bunch of other things. This isn't necessarily bad, being that we are all individuals and we each have strengths, passions, desires and preferences. The problem comes with our societies/generation's drive for focusing on ourselves. When that is our focus, we can have a tough time coming to any decision on choices we have in life.
I was reading a really good article on this concept as it relates to the church (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/columns/church-today/16112-church-shopping) and our ideas about our "perfect" church. There isn't one that is going to match each person exactly. But the point that this article makes is that our choices of churches should not necessarily be "what can this church do for me," but rather, "what ways can I connect into this community." There are times when it is right to leave a church community (lack of scriptural teaching, immorality, etc.) but more so, churches were designed for groups of people to serve and worship God together as a community. This is the basics of this concept, but we can't go deeper until we understand that basic premise.
As we continue to move forward with Riverbend, we pray that God will bring those he desires to be a part of this community. We may do things that are different than other churches, but this is not because we want to attract a niche market of Christians, its because sometimes the lost don't or won't understand the gospel in any other way. May we never be a church that is just "another option," may we be a church that God uses to reach those who still haven't found what they are (truly) looking for.
Friday, February 6, 2009
what to do with passion.
I am really a big fan of John Eldredge and his writing. If you haven't read any of his works, you really should. He promotes our relationship with Christ, the battles of spiritual warfare, and how our passions and desires fit in to this faith we call Christianity. I got an update from his blog today and it truly resonated with what I believe some of my motives have been in launching Riverbend Community Church. Take a look at it here:
http://www.ransomedheartblog.com/john/2009/02/finding-church.html
I believe that what the church is lacking, at least in America, is a passion for life itself and all it has to offer. As Eldredge states, we are called to live life to the fullest, and you can't do that by supressing your passions. One of the precepts of Riverbend, is this thing called the New Covenant. Jesus talks about this in the gospels, but in essence, it is God giving us passions and desires that match His. But sometimes it feels as if the North American church is paralyzed by this idea of "passion" and "desire" of anything that isn't a praise song or Bible reading. I am glad that Riverbend is not one of these types of Churches. God has given us his Word, his edicts, his direction to help guide us, yes, but more so, to point us in a direction of knowing Him in relationship. That is the purpose of a church- to experience life (with all the passions God has given us) with others who are pursuing a relationship with the Maker of All. What's your purpose for Church?
http://www.ransomedheartblog.com/john/2009/02/finding-church.html
I believe that what the church is lacking, at least in America, is a passion for life itself and all it has to offer. As Eldredge states, we are called to live life to the fullest, and you can't do that by supressing your passions. One of the precepts of Riverbend, is this thing called the New Covenant. Jesus talks about this in the gospels, but in essence, it is God giving us passions and desires that match His. But sometimes it feels as if the North American church is paralyzed by this idea of "passion" and "desire" of anything that isn't a praise song or Bible reading. I am glad that Riverbend is not one of these types of Churches. God has given us his Word, his edicts, his direction to help guide us, yes, but more so, to point us in a direction of knowing Him in relationship. That is the purpose of a church- to experience life (with all the passions God has given us) with others who are pursuing a relationship with the Maker of All. What's your purpose for Church?
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