Ok, I'm not going to take much time to respond to this b/c, well frankly, I don't have much time. But OH MY GOSH!! Check out this statement by Jerry Falwell...
"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate. She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't." -Jerry Falwell
Did he seriously just suggest that Hillary Clinton would be worse than Lucifer himself? It is comments like this that make me a democrat. Thank you Mr. Falwell for being an outspoken representative of the Christian community. We really need the nation to think we're a bunch of lunatics....
Here's Jim Wallis' thoughts on the matter....
Jim Wallis: There he goes again - this time Rev. Falwell compares Sen. Clinton to Lucifer
The nation is weary of the vitriolic and divisive political rhetoric that still comes from some on the Religious Right. In particular, the country is tired, truly tired, of Rev. Jerry Falwell. At the Religious Right's Values Voter Summit, Rev. Falwell said that Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency would energize the Right's base more than Lucifer. This is also the man who said the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were God's judgment on America and he specifically blamed feminists, homosexuals and the ACLU. Agreement or disagreement with Senator Clinton's politics is not the issue. Personally demonizing public figures is the issue. Such political poison isn't just bad for the Body Politic and the more civil discourse we so desperately need. It also simply isn't Christian.
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2006/09/jim-wallis-there-he-goes-again-this.html
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Yahweh and His People
My World Civ assignment this week was an interesting one. I was required to read the history of the Hebrews as well as several passages from Genesis and Judges and then write a paper answering the question: What is the nature of humanity and their relationship to Yahweh. I can't believe I found it as hard as I did. Anyway, just thought I'd post my response here too...
The ideal relationship of humankind to Yahweh is love, agape love to use the Greek term. Agape love is a selfless love. It seeks nothing for itself and everything for the object of its adoration. As human relationships demonstrate, love or even friendship cannot be required, but rather is chosen, which is why God created humanity with the ability to choose, also referred to as "free will." Yahweh knew that in order to have an agape relationship with humanity, humanity had to choose it. It is this characteristic that separates humanity from the rest of creation. As Josh C. said, God started the relationship and mankind had to choose whether or not to continue it.
By presenting Adam and Eve with a dilemma, a choice to make, God puts the relationship in their control. In Genesis 2 and 3, in the center of the Garden of Eden Yahweh places a tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and tells them not to eat from this tree. In Genesis 3, we see that much to the dismay of Yahweh, Adam and Eve make the choice to disobey by eating from the forbidden tree. The reaction of God seems as if he experiences the feelings of betrayal. This is one reason I suggest that the ideal relationship is one of love or friendship. Yahweh's response is to take away the ease of life as originally presented in the garden. Joseph H. made a great point when he suggested that perhaps the reason God dispelled Adam and Eve from the garden was less about punishment and more to keep them away from the Tree of Life. If they ate from that tree, they would no longer need Yahweh and his desire for an agape relationship with humanity would be lost.
The rest of Hebrew Scripture is about Yahweh calling humanity back into a relationship with him. Over and over God seems to put his people into situations where they must rely on him or trust him and demonstrate this trust and reliance through obedience. Yahweh asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22 is an example. In this story Abraham seems to obey without question and along the way communicates a trust that Yahweh will provide another way. Along with that God seeks to thwart humanity's ability to rely on itself as in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
Protection and provision was automatically given to Adam and Eve in the garden. It was theirs to hold on to. Through their disobedience, humanity now lives absent of the protection and provision of Yahweh unless it first chooses to accept God's covenant that puts humanity in a servant role to Yahweh. If humanity will choose to serve God and will demonstrate that with unswerving obedience, God will in turn protect and provide for, even bless as said to Abraham, humanity. Or to be more specific, prior to the coming of the Messiah, God offers this covenant to the Hebrews, God's chosen people.
The ideal relationship of humankind to Yahweh is love, agape love to use the Greek term. Agape love is a selfless love. It seeks nothing for itself and everything for the object of its adoration. As human relationships demonstrate, love or even friendship cannot be required, but rather is chosen, which is why God created humanity with the ability to choose, also referred to as "free will." Yahweh knew that in order to have an agape relationship with humanity, humanity had to choose it. It is this characteristic that separates humanity from the rest of creation. As Josh C. said, God started the relationship and mankind had to choose whether or not to continue it.
By presenting Adam and Eve with a dilemma, a choice to make, God puts the relationship in their control. In Genesis 2 and 3, in the center of the Garden of Eden Yahweh places a tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and tells them not to eat from this tree. In Genesis 3, we see that much to the dismay of Yahweh, Adam and Eve make the choice to disobey by eating from the forbidden tree. The reaction of God seems as if he experiences the feelings of betrayal. This is one reason I suggest that the ideal relationship is one of love or friendship. Yahweh's response is to take away the ease of life as originally presented in the garden. Joseph H. made a great point when he suggested that perhaps the reason God dispelled Adam and Eve from the garden was less about punishment and more to keep them away from the Tree of Life. If they ate from that tree, they would no longer need Yahweh and his desire for an agape relationship with humanity would be lost.
The rest of Hebrew Scripture is about Yahweh calling humanity back into a relationship with him. Over and over God seems to put his people into situations where they must rely on him or trust him and demonstrate this trust and reliance through obedience. Yahweh asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22 is an example. In this story Abraham seems to obey without question and along the way communicates a trust that Yahweh will provide another way. Along with that God seeks to thwart humanity's ability to rely on itself as in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
Protection and provision was automatically given to Adam and Eve in the garden. It was theirs to hold on to. Through their disobedience, humanity now lives absent of the protection and provision of Yahweh unless it first chooses to accept God's covenant that puts humanity in a servant role to Yahweh. If humanity will choose to serve God and will demonstrate that with unswerving obedience, God will in turn protect and provide for, even bless as said to Abraham, humanity. Or to be more specific, prior to the coming of the Messiah, God offers this covenant to the Hebrews, God's chosen people.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Missional Living
Just thought I'd put up my next "work for hire" that I just wrote for CVC (www.churchvolunteercentral.com). It should be coming out in their October e-newsletter. If you lead volunteers in a church setting, this is by far the best resource I've found. There's a $99 yearly membership fee but that covers everyone in your church and trust me, it's worth it. Plus it's run by Group Publishing, which in my opinion is one of the best Christian publishers. Anyway, here's the article in it's form before reaching the editor....
Developing an equipping culture isn’t just about the church and its activities. It means believing that each person in your church body has been strategically gifted and placed by God in their life situations to make an impact for His Kingdom. It means that when your small group leader comes to you and says, “My child just decided to start playing t-ball and I’m going to have to miss our next small group leader’s meeting because of a game,” you don’t fear that you are losing a leader, you cheer that God has given that family another opportunity to be a minister to a whole new set of people.
In 2005 I started wondering if “professional” ministry was where God wanted me. I had been serving in full-time ministry for about 3 years at that point and had faced some things that left me questioning. I spoke to a person who was in leadership over our church at the time and he told me that I would be letting God down and that he was sure that I didn’t want to be like the many men and women in the Bible who failed. Thankfully God’s voice in my head was louder. A few weeks after that conversation I really felt like God told me, “April, it’s not about being a “professional” minister, it’s about ministering wherever I place you.” I think my eyes were opened that day not only in regards to my own situation but also in regards to how we value or don’t value the lives of our church family members outside the church walls.
I have a friend who works at Target. He hates it. He feels like it’s a worthless job where all he does is help a big corporation make more money. That’s one of the reasons I went into full-time ministry in the first place: to do something worthwhile. But the truth is, God has strategically placed each of us where we are to make a great impact for His kingdom. The problem is that most of us miss our calling and just earn a paycheck.
I believe the church has a responsibility to help people discover their calling, not just as it relates to their service to the church but as it relates to who God calls them to be in their everyday situations. Developing an equipping culture is about preparing people to “go into all the world and make disciples.” Often times, however, fear causes the church to hold on tightly to its servants. They wonder, “If I release people to live in the world, how will I run the ministries in my church?”
Here’s what I believe with all my heart: If a church is committed to equipping people and releasing them to be ministers in their circles of influence, there will be no need to stress about the lack of volunteers because the church will grow and overflow with the lives that have been touched by the ministers who have been sent out. Jesus says to seek God’s Kingdom first, and everything else will fall into place.
What exactly does it look like to equip people to minister in their worlds? I don’t really think it’s an exact science. I don’t think you can write it into three easy steps. I do, however, want to give you a few ideas that I’ve thought of in hopes to get your minds thinking in that direction.
First of all, it’s important to consider what you communicate. How do you respond when conflicts of scheduling arise like the example I mentioned in the beginning? You could throw a fit and demand that your small group leader attend the meeting. In that case you’re very likely to lose that leader’s service to the church and you’ve missed a great opportunity to equip them to go out. What if instead of responding negatively you say, “Well we’ll really miss you at our meeting, but that’s great that you’re getting to interact with some new families. Have you thought about ways you can use your God-given gifts to love the people you are meeting?” Your leader may miss the training you wanted to give to them on small groups, but in just a quick sentence you’ve trained them to think strategically about the relationships they have. Take this example a step forward by offering a suggestion. “Susie, you are so great at hosting your small group. Have you thought about opening your home to the families on your child’s t-ball team? A meal might be a fantastic way to get to know them and show them God’s love.” In that one sentence you’ve helped them to see that God has gifted them not only to serve the church but also to reach out to the people around them.
What does your church value and how do you express it? Equipping people to live out God’s mission in their world has to be at the core of who you are as a church body. Many churches are developing mission statements and core values to help their church family clearly understand the vision God has given for their particular church. My church has a set of core values, one of which is “Missional Living.” We define this as: Meeting people's needs through acts of compassion and sharing with them the truth about God's love. We also have a list of goals that we’ve given our church members as it relates to this value.
Personal Goals:
I will do spontaneous acts of compassion daily.
I will spend time building quality relationships with my neighbors.
I will regularly pray for people in my circle of influence and be available to respond to their needs and to talk with them about their faith questions.
There are probably many more personal goals you can give people as it relates to this but these are just a few we’ve come up with to help our church family get started.
What are you teaching on Sunday mornings when the church gathers together for worship? Do your church members feel like it is a safe place to bring their friends? Do you make visitors stand up to be recognized and in my opinion, feel uncomfortable? Are you preaching about spiritual gifts only as they relate to service within the church or do you talk about how people can use their spiritual gifts outside the church?
Take a quick look at your church calendar for the next couple of months. How many days a week do you have “church stuff” planned – (i.e. small groups, Wednesday night church, Sunday night church, Sunday morning church, Men’s breakfast, Ladies lunch, Women’s Craft Night, Men’s Golf Night, Singles Events, etc…)? Stop over scheduling your church families and leave them room in their schedules to develop relationships outside the church.
Lastly, start to value the informal. What does that mean exactly? As pastors, we like to be able to measure our success. “Look, 75% of our Sunday morning attendance is in a small group! Look we have started 3 new ministries in the last six months and are touching the lives of 40 new families as a result of those ministries.” I’m not suggesting that it is bad to look at those things. It’s important to make sure the ministries you do have are actually being effective. However, don’t underestimate informal gatherings of people. Dan might have a hard time making it to a small group on week nights because of his work schedule but what you don’t know is that he’s growing spiritually with a group of Christian and non-Christian friends who meet on Saturday mornings for a bike ride and breakfast and then just happen to talk about spiritual things in the context of real life. Sharon might not be serving in one of your official ministries but what you don’t know about her is that on Wednesday mornings she invites some of the ladies in her neighborhood over so the kids can play together and she can share God’s love with them.
Ministry isn’t always measurable. We need to encourage and value ministry that happens outside our walls. We need to equip people to reach out to the people they interact with everyday at work and at their kids schools and at their gyms and in their classes. We need to instill in our church family the truth that they are ministers, not just within the church but everywhere they go and to everyone they meet.
Developing an equipping culture isn’t just about the church and its activities. It means believing that each person in your church body has been strategically gifted and placed by God in their life situations to make an impact for His Kingdom. It means that when your small group leader comes to you and says, “My child just decided to start playing t-ball and I’m going to have to miss our next small group leader’s meeting because of a game,” you don’t fear that you are losing a leader, you cheer that God has given that family another opportunity to be a minister to a whole new set of people.
In 2005 I started wondering if “professional” ministry was where God wanted me. I had been serving in full-time ministry for about 3 years at that point and had faced some things that left me questioning. I spoke to a person who was in leadership over our church at the time and he told me that I would be letting God down and that he was sure that I didn’t want to be like the many men and women in the Bible who failed. Thankfully God’s voice in my head was louder. A few weeks after that conversation I really felt like God told me, “April, it’s not about being a “professional” minister, it’s about ministering wherever I place you.” I think my eyes were opened that day not only in regards to my own situation but also in regards to how we value or don’t value the lives of our church family members outside the church walls.
I have a friend who works at Target. He hates it. He feels like it’s a worthless job where all he does is help a big corporation make more money. That’s one of the reasons I went into full-time ministry in the first place: to do something worthwhile. But the truth is, God has strategically placed each of us where we are to make a great impact for His kingdom. The problem is that most of us miss our calling and just earn a paycheck.
I believe the church has a responsibility to help people discover their calling, not just as it relates to their service to the church but as it relates to who God calls them to be in their everyday situations. Developing an equipping culture is about preparing people to “go into all the world and make disciples.” Often times, however, fear causes the church to hold on tightly to its servants. They wonder, “If I release people to live in the world, how will I run the ministries in my church?”
Here’s what I believe with all my heart: If a church is committed to equipping people and releasing them to be ministers in their circles of influence, there will be no need to stress about the lack of volunteers because the church will grow and overflow with the lives that have been touched by the ministers who have been sent out. Jesus says to seek God’s Kingdom first, and everything else will fall into place.
What exactly does it look like to equip people to minister in their worlds? I don’t really think it’s an exact science. I don’t think you can write it into three easy steps. I do, however, want to give you a few ideas that I’ve thought of in hopes to get your minds thinking in that direction.
First of all, it’s important to consider what you communicate. How do you respond when conflicts of scheduling arise like the example I mentioned in the beginning? You could throw a fit and demand that your small group leader attend the meeting. In that case you’re very likely to lose that leader’s service to the church and you’ve missed a great opportunity to equip them to go out. What if instead of responding negatively you say, “Well we’ll really miss you at our meeting, but that’s great that you’re getting to interact with some new families. Have you thought about ways you can use your God-given gifts to love the people you are meeting?” Your leader may miss the training you wanted to give to them on small groups, but in just a quick sentence you’ve trained them to think strategically about the relationships they have. Take this example a step forward by offering a suggestion. “Susie, you are so great at hosting your small group. Have you thought about opening your home to the families on your child’s t-ball team? A meal might be a fantastic way to get to know them and show them God’s love.” In that one sentence you’ve helped them to see that God has gifted them not only to serve the church but also to reach out to the people around them.
What does your church value and how do you express it? Equipping people to live out God’s mission in their world has to be at the core of who you are as a church body. Many churches are developing mission statements and core values to help their church family clearly understand the vision God has given for their particular church. My church has a set of core values, one of which is “Missional Living.” We define this as: Meeting people's needs through acts of compassion and sharing with them the truth about God's love. We also have a list of goals that we’ve given our church members as it relates to this value.
Personal Goals:
I will do spontaneous acts of compassion daily.
I will spend time building quality relationships with my neighbors.
I will regularly pray for people in my circle of influence and be available to respond to their needs and to talk with them about their faith questions.
There are probably many more personal goals you can give people as it relates to this but these are just a few we’ve come up with to help our church family get started.
What are you teaching on Sunday mornings when the church gathers together for worship? Do your church members feel like it is a safe place to bring their friends? Do you make visitors stand up to be recognized and in my opinion, feel uncomfortable? Are you preaching about spiritual gifts only as they relate to service within the church or do you talk about how people can use their spiritual gifts outside the church?
Take a quick look at your church calendar for the next couple of months. How many days a week do you have “church stuff” planned – (i.e. small groups, Wednesday night church, Sunday night church, Sunday morning church, Men’s breakfast, Ladies lunch, Women’s Craft Night, Men’s Golf Night, Singles Events, etc…)? Stop over scheduling your church families and leave them room in their schedules to develop relationships outside the church.
Lastly, start to value the informal. What does that mean exactly? As pastors, we like to be able to measure our success. “Look, 75% of our Sunday morning attendance is in a small group! Look we have started 3 new ministries in the last six months and are touching the lives of 40 new families as a result of those ministries.” I’m not suggesting that it is bad to look at those things. It’s important to make sure the ministries you do have are actually being effective. However, don’t underestimate informal gatherings of people. Dan might have a hard time making it to a small group on week nights because of his work schedule but what you don’t know is that he’s growing spiritually with a group of Christian and non-Christian friends who meet on Saturday mornings for a bike ride and breakfast and then just happen to talk about spiritual things in the context of real life. Sharon might not be serving in one of your official ministries but what you don’t know about her is that on Wednesday mornings she invites some of the ladies in her neighborhood over so the kids can play together and she can share God’s love with them.
Ministry isn’t always measurable. We need to encourage and value ministry that happens outside our walls. We need to equip people to reach out to the people they interact with everyday at work and at their kids schools and at their gyms and in their classes. We need to instill in our church family the truth that they are ministers, not just within the church but everywhere they go and to everyone they meet.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The Evolution of Man
I just finished a unit in my World Civ class on the evolution of the human species that made me think of some things....
Just so we understand each other on this term, "evolution," and because it seems to be a word that is feared by Christians, let me quickly define it:
1 : one of a set of prescribed movements
2 : a process of change in a certain direction
3 : the process of working out or developing
4 : the historical development of a biological group (as a race or species)
5 : the extraction of a mathematical root
6 : a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena (www.m-w.com)
First I'll state my opinion on the big picture: Yes, I think at some point there has probably been some sort of "evolution of mankind," that is unless the Bible isn't literally true and perhaps God created several different types of people in various parts of the world at the same time. If that's the case, people didn't have to evolve, they simply were as God created them originally. Either way, whatever. God created the world and everything in it and he saw that it was good.
There is at least one thing in reality that cannot be ignored. People are different, VERY differnent. Take for example, European Americans and African Americans. Our skin colors are different, our hair textures are different and I'm sure we are biologically different in many other ways as well but those are the most obvious. So if you are going to believe in a literal interpretation of the creation story, you have to believe in some type of evolution. If we all came from the same two people, we have to evolve or develop into the different people that we are today.
Now here's the reason I have to question the literal interpretation of the Bible. In Genesis 4 it states, "Now Adam slept with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When the time came, she gave birth to Cain, and she said, "With the Lord's help, I have brought forth a man!" (Like she had never done this before and was amazed by it.) Later she gave birth to a second son and named him Abel." (My words are in italics - obviously.)
My interpretation of this is that Cain was Eve's first son and Abel her second. The story goes on to say that Cain and Abel fought and Cain killed Abel so God banished him from the land. The weird part comes in when Cain states his fear of the people "out there" who might kill him. WHAT PEOPLE??? If Adam and Eve are the only people and we all came from them and Cain and Abel were their first sons, where the hell did all these other people come from? And even if Cain and Abel weren't her first sons, seriously, she had that many babies and sent them off around the area to start new cultures? It's weird.
So herein lies our dilema. How do we interpret the Bible? Are we afraid of things we cannot know and understand fully? What role does faith play and what role does doubt play? Can we have faith in God while doubting our full understanding of truth? Can you believe that there is a God who created the world even though you don't fully understand how it came about?
I've heard Christians act like people who struggle to believe the creation story are stupid because it's just so simple. But it's not. And the more we try to explain it away and break the mystery of the Bible down into chewable pieces, the more difficult I find it. We try to put every Biblical truth into three easy to understand points and we destroy the mystery. Their is doubt and faith in everything. Even science. With the amount of discrepencies between various scientists hypotheses and discoveries and the constant changing of opinions, you have to have some amount of faith and doubt to believe in the truth of science. It's the same with Christianity. To try and take away the doubt and faith elements by explaining everything in simple, digestible nuggets, isn't helpful because it isn't real.
Anyway, I'm enjoying learning and thinking about these things. It's important to remember that learning isn't always about finding answers. Education isn't about being able to pass a test (don't get me started on The NCLB Act). Sometimes it's just about the process of growing your ability to fully think through and question things rather than just accepting easy answers. To memorize answers to pass a test (literally speaking or theologically speaking) isn't education and really isn't helpful. Information isn't the point. Transformation is (educationally and theologically speaking).
Just so we understand each other on this term, "evolution," and because it seems to be a word that is feared by Christians, let me quickly define it:
1 : one of a set of prescribed movements
2 : a process of change in a certain direction
3 : the process of working out or developing
4 : the historical development of a biological group (as a race or species)
5 : the extraction of a mathematical root
6 : a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena (www.m-w.com)
First I'll state my opinion on the big picture: Yes, I think at some point there has probably been some sort of "evolution of mankind," that is unless the Bible isn't literally true and perhaps God created several different types of people in various parts of the world at the same time. If that's the case, people didn't have to evolve, they simply were as God created them originally. Either way, whatever. God created the world and everything in it and he saw that it was good.
There is at least one thing in reality that cannot be ignored. People are different, VERY differnent. Take for example, European Americans and African Americans. Our skin colors are different, our hair textures are different and I'm sure we are biologically different in many other ways as well but those are the most obvious. So if you are going to believe in a literal interpretation of the creation story, you have to believe in some type of evolution. If we all came from the same two people, we have to evolve or develop into the different people that we are today.
Now here's the reason I have to question the literal interpretation of the Bible. In Genesis 4 it states, "Now Adam slept with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When the time came, she gave birth to Cain, and she said, "With the Lord's help, I have brought forth a man!" (Like she had never done this before and was amazed by it.) Later she gave birth to a second son and named him Abel." (My words are in italics - obviously.)
My interpretation of this is that Cain was Eve's first son and Abel her second. The story goes on to say that Cain and Abel fought and Cain killed Abel so God banished him from the land. The weird part comes in when Cain states his fear of the people "out there" who might kill him. WHAT PEOPLE??? If Adam and Eve are the only people and we all came from them and Cain and Abel were their first sons, where the hell did all these other people come from? And even if Cain and Abel weren't her first sons, seriously, she had that many babies and sent them off around the area to start new cultures? It's weird.
So herein lies our dilema. How do we interpret the Bible? Are we afraid of things we cannot know and understand fully? What role does faith play and what role does doubt play? Can we have faith in God while doubting our full understanding of truth? Can you believe that there is a God who created the world even though you don't fully understand how it came about?
I've heard Christians act like people who struggle to believe the creation story are stupid because it's just so simple. But it's not. And the more we try to explain it away and break the mystery of the Bible down into chewable pieces, the more difficult I find it. We try to put every Biblical truth into three easy to understand points and we destroy the mystery. Their is doubt and faith in everything. Even science. With the amount of discrepencies between various scientists hypotheses and discoveries and the constant changing of opinions, you have to have some amount of faith and doubt to believe in the truth of science. It's the same with Christianity. To try and take away the doubt and faith elements by explaining everything in simple, digestible nuggets, isn't helpful because it isn't real.
Anyway, I'm enjoying learning and thinking about these things. It's important to remember that learning isn't always about finding answers. Education isn't about being able to pass a test (don't get me started on The NCLB Act). Sometimes it's just about the process of growing your ability to fully think through and question things rather than just accepting easy answers. To memorize answers to pass a test (literally speaking or theologically speaking) isn't education and really isn't helpful. Information isn't the point. Transformation is (educationally and theologically speaking).
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