Ready for the New Year

Sadly, it looks like 2014 might be remembered mostly for its combination of painful events: Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson MO and Eric Garner’s death in NY, plus the ensuing riots/peaceful protests that followed their Grand Jury decisions.  We won’t easily forget the multiple beheadings of innocent people by ISIS, or the continued unrest in the Middle East.  The full repercussions from the recently released “Torture report” remain yet to be seen.  And, who will ever forget the frightful Ebola epidemic?  As we wrap up 2014, the New Year couldn’t come any sooner; we are all ready for a fresh start.  

As we contemplate the bleakness of this past year, we shouldn’t be too surprised.  Scripture teaches the world is presently in the clutches of satan, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19 ESV).  But, we also know the end of the story as well.  God will one day, in His timing, bring all evil to an end and, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  (Revelation 21:4 ESV).  We have good reason to be hopeful -- even in the midst of despair.  But, in the meanwhile, we need to do more than just hope for better days.

This year we’ve experienced a lot of darkness, yet we also saw many people collaborating to fight against the darkness.  This was a year of ice water bucket ALS challenges and we made great strides in fundraising for medical research.  Yes we lost the brilliant and talented Robin Williams to suicide, but think of how many lives have been saved since, by lowering the stigma and raising the of awareness of depression and mental illness.  And, this year ushered in the new “Tennessee Promise.” This amazing program gives high school graduates two years of free tuition to a community college or technical school.

If you want to make the world a better place in 2015, it starts at home.  Taking good care of yourself by finding time for plenty of rest, eating right, getting plenty of exercise, and caring for your family too is a good place to begin.  Being active in your church and your neighborhood is vital too.  Give blood if you are eligible, and regularly volunteer your time by serving in a Food bank or with some other worthwhile community need.   This month we volunteered for a second year for the Salvation Army, ringing bells.  Sadly, they had to hire about 80 bell ringers -- I think we as a community can do better than that, please consider calling them and pitch in too.  

Also, learning to see the good in people who are different than you makes a big difference; much of the turmoil we witness or experience in the world is based in prejudice and racism.  We need to really embrace the Biblical truth we are all created equally in God’s image.  The events that cast a shadow over 2014 were basically ones involving people.  People count.  People matter.  It’s time for us globally and as a culture to honestly assess how well we are doing when it comes to the way we are treating each other.  We do not always treat all people as well as we could and then we all suffer the consequences when people are mistreated.  There are ripple effects in this life that go far beyond just the people in the center of any conflict.  

Certainly, with the many tragedies of this year, we all have a better appreciation of life.  

Thankfully, ebola seems containable and it will not be front page news for a while.  While I disagree theologically with the religion of Islam, I know not all Muslims are bloodthirsty killers.  Similarly, not all protesters stoop to looting, there were many more respectful people who peacefully expressed their views over the deaths of Brown & Garner, don’t let that fact escape your notice.  And remember, not all police officers make poor judgments either.  I happen to know a few outstanding officers here in Kingsport who regularly take risks to ensure the safety and peace in our town; they deserve our respect and appreciation.  

We have a lot to be thankful for, and with the blessings of a New Year to look forward to we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic.  Finish this year as strongly as possible and pray for God’s blessings on 2015 like you’ve never prayed before!   

Waiting for the next big controversial topic...

When I was a student at Harding in the late 90's, our Bible professors were certain "women's roles" would usher in the next big split in the churches of Christ -- before the turn of the century they predicted.  It would be like 1906, and the census report by David Lipscomb.  Only now, they said, there's going to be another branch, one that allowed women to be active in the worship service.

It seems like there's always something doctrinal people are upset about.  Hand clapping.  Instrumental music.  Women's roles.  Too much ecumenical participation.  Really, there are probably more issues Christians have belabored and grieved over, but those cyclical hot button issues seem to be pretty popular.

I think Facebook and other social media sites help spread the fury faster than ever now.  This isn't a critique of social media, just an observation that these squabbles travel faster thanks to Youtube and other ways we share our vastly different opinions.

We are blessed to be part of a church that has studied through the "hot topics," and has moved forward.  The things that people are celebrating or lamenting are non-issues for us these days, and it surprises me often how people still fight some of the old battles.  I guess as long as legalism and hard core traditionalism hold sway, people will want to be champions of the truth regardless of the cost.  The reality is, you might win the battle, and then lose the war.

We don't have "Church of Christ" anywhere on our website or in any of our bylaws.  The major reason?  We didn't want the people we were reaching to say, "Church of Christ?  You are the ones who think you are the only ones going to heaven."  Or, the other reaction, "Church of Christ? Which one, you guys fight all the time, don't ya?" So, we at New Song dropped the name, but celebrate the rich Biblical heritage of the churches of Christ.

The infighting that happens over the grey areas kills the church.  Young people, rightly so, become disenchanted with the church when they see their adults fighting over non-essential doctrines.  If they stay in the church through their teen years, they won't in college.  And, how about the message that non-believers hear?  As everyone spreads these in house fights all over Facebook, their unchurched friends only comprehend one thing, not who is right in church, but that all of us in church are wrong.

For Christians, one of the most liberating things people can do is to get past the fighting and draw your own conclusions, and then move on.  And, to not worry about what other churches or groups are doing.  That is true freedom, to not worry about others are up to and to celebrate what Jesus is doing in your congregation.  I hope that whatever the next big topic is to fight over, it's really worth arguing over, because the collateral damage we have suffered tells me our priorities have been in the wrong place.

Are we alone in the Cosmos...?

Religion column for Timesnews 11/21/14

Have you seen the recent youtube video featuring Boyd Bushman?  Bushman supposedly was a retired Lockheed Martin research engineer with insider access to the infamous Area 51.  His “deathbed” confession exposes intimate details of aliens from the planet Quintonia.  According to Bushman, a handful of these intergalactic travelers (who live for about 200 years) are among us, helping us learn about UFOs, anti-gravity, and space travel.  Sadly, the pictured aliens Bushman holds up as evidence can be purchased at Walmart.  Shucks.  

I don’t know when we started asking about aliens from outer space.  For thousands of years, people thought the earth was flat and it was the center of the universe.  The brilliant Renaissance thinkers Copernicus and Galileo enlightened humanity, teaching us the universe does not revolve around our planet.  Through Galileo’s telescope, we would learn other planets in our solar system have moons too, and the sun has spots.  Less than 100 years ago, Hubble would peer into the night’s sky and discover our Milky Way wasn’t the only galaxy.  

It’s an awfully big universe after all, and it’s hard to imagine we are all alone.  Our galaxy has 300 billion stars, and there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe.  Suddenly, asking, “Are we alone in this extremely vast Cosmos?” seems more legitimate.  What’s at stake if we aren’t alone?  

On the one hand, it seems like God should create other life forms on other planets, since it would be a big waste of space otherwise.  Then again, if we are alone in such an enormous ever-expanding universe, wouldn’t that make us extremely special?  We’d be like God’s crowning achievement in creation then.  And of course, some evolutionists think extraterrestrial life would instantly disprove God’s existence.  But, life on other planets would not disprove God, you still need a Creator for a creation.

I don’t see any Biblical evidence claiming there is or isn’t life elsewhere.  In other words, I think the Bible is silent on this subject.  The Bible isn’t a science textbook and it would be hard to prove the existence or the absence of extraterrestrial life from the Bible -- though some people try to force space alien allusions on Ezekiel chapter one’s wheels of fire and strange looking humanoid creatures.

So, is God wasteful with His universe or does He highlight His love for us, reserving us as His sole created creatures in the Cosmos?  Let’s just say for the sake of this discussion that God has created life elsewhere.  I’m not promoting this as reality, I’m just saying let’s momentarily allow the possibility of extraterrestrial life.  After suspending doubt and imagining there are other intelligent life forms “out there,” I wonder, why on earth would God introduce us to each other?  

What am I talking about? There’s Isis in Syria/Iraq, Russia bullying the Ukraine, even here in America we have residual resentments from our Civil War, plus think about all the bombastic/divisive ads going into this month’s Midterm elections, there are inter/intradenominational squabbles, people have neighbors they can’t tolerate, and too many families languish in dysfunction.  

Thanksgiving is next week and while the pictures of the Pilgrims eating with Squanto are dreamy, decades later how did the story eventually end?  It’s shameful the way Native Americans suffer to this day.  So..., why would God introduce us to other planetary beings when we can’t even get along with ourselves?

Of all the many disappointments we carry as mankind, I can’t believe in this day & age ignorant people still judge others based on the color of their skin.  We are all equally created in God’s image (Gen 1:26-27) and we need to respect everyone,  “With it [our tongues] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”  (James 3:9-10 ESV)  I doubt any racist will be able to stand justified before a Holy God.

So, if you grew up like me with a wild imagination, dreaming of meeting ET and hoping for a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, let’s start in our own backyard.  Maybe when we get these two passages down, we just might...   “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9 ESV)  “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10 ESV)

Getting up to speed on the book "Slow Church"

"Slow Church" IVP publishing, 2014

I had never heard of either C. Christopher Smith or John Pattison, the coauthors of "Slow Church," and I'm guessing you haven't either.  They aren't Seminary professors or famous church growth gurus. Yet, they are insightful writers with a timely message.  As the title suggests, this isn't a book with a recipe for microwaving your church on the fast track to becoming a mega-church... and that's quite okay, because Slow Church is not licence for mediocrity either. 

The book would certainly be useful in a seminary classroom, but I think it's written by "laymen" so well, every member of the body would be blessed by it.  You can look up the table of contents on Amazon or browse through a copy in your local bookstore to see for yourself the breakdown of the book; I'm more interested in sharing with you my impression of the book from my perspective as a Restoration Movement minister.  But, I will add here, each chapter stays on track, most of the book is filled with ample quotes from dozens of helpful books, and they conclude their chapters with "Conversation starters" that you could use in a small group study.

We are in our 3rd year of a church plant, and most weeks I feel tremendous pressure to be growing our church faster and bigger.  I've tried to read half a dozen church growth books with titles you'd more than likely recognize, and frankly I couldn't get through them.  I tried to read a few of the "organic" and "simple" church books from the last decade, and I had a hard time plowing through them as well.  With Slow Church, I had to pace myself, I wanted to savor each morsel.  It was so good, I didn't want to rush through it like a storm that washes away the topsoil, I wanted to let it soak in.  

As I read Slow Church, I thought of the people I personally minister to, and I wondered how they would respond to the material I was reading.  Instead of hawking the book, I mentioned I was reading it, and I did use some of its topics as I preached.  I wove in some of Slow Church over a couple of months (in my sermons as I preached & in several tweets on Twitter), and so far I haven't had to nail the back door shut.

Slow Church helped me relax my anxieties and it helped me to refocus my priorities.  Slow church isn't about giving you permission to forget about growth, it helps you to understand what real growth entails.  Slow Church defuses the toxic idea that has infiltrated many congregations, namely Slow Church refutes the accepted ideas that efficiency, consumerism, and control are what works best.  

We are disconnected from our neighbors, our communities, and mostly from the people we worship with Sunday mornings.  Slow Church reflects on the need to say no to the hyperactivity and slick ways of the world, and to slow down long enough to experience Christianity the way God intended us to, in community, in peace, and unrushed.  Slow Church calls us to reconnect with each other, and to reject the materialistic methodology that drives the fast food industry and most of today's culture. 

Slow Church challenges our craving for quantity over quality, and it gives us fresh ways to envision the Kingdom of God -- to not just measure success, but to aim for significance.  God wants us to partner with Him in His creation, and to expand His Kingdom, and for Slow Church this means we give up our narrow view of staking claim to the pitiful little empires we cling to.  And, Slow Church calls us to share life together.  We are not in competition with the world around us, and you can't stockpile manna, so be compassionate and connect with what counts most, people.

The heart of Slow Church is about having the right rhythm which brings true Shalom peace, and Slow church reveals our need to be intentional -- to realize our identities as disciples of Christ.  The industrialized culture of speed that we are immersed in has fragmented and warped us; it's caused tremendous relationship deficits.  Slow Church is a worthwhile read to help us reconnect with the heart of Jesus' message, to value people, and to see that nickels and noses are not the only or the best marks for faithfulness.  

Take a stand

My own standing desk

After reading a few good posts on the health benefits of using a standing desk, and the dangers of sitting for several hours at a desk, I build my own standing desk.  It took me less than a 1/2 hour to put together.  I found a piece of shelving board out in the garage we hadn't used, it was nothing more than a one by ten inch pine board, about 8 feet long, one that might've cost us $6.00 or $8.00 at Lowes.

I measured the board and divided the length up roughly into equal dimensions so I knew how much I had to work with, and after measuring the height from my desk up to where my hands rested comfortably, I had my starting point for the vertical sides.  With a little dab of carpenter's glue and a handful of drywall screws, I build my own standing desk and I've been using it for almost a year now.  I will add, after a few days of using it, I felt the need to buy an antifatigue mat to stand on... 

I like the space in between the sides of my standing desk, because this has given me a place to store my composition books.  Most of my 1st drafts for all I write, columns, sermons, articles, etc., I initially write out by hand.

I'm sharing this because for one, I hope you'll consider using a standing desk for health reasons.  Someone online said, "sitting is the smoking of our day."  Second, I'm sharing this to help people see that you don't have to spend an arm & a leg to have your own standing desk.   

Was the movie Interstellar "Out of this world"? or did it rest on solid ground?

(No plot spoilers planned here)

Few trailers get me choked up, but the trailer for Interstellar did; that's why I had to see Interstellar.  I'm not really a huge Matthew McConaughey fan, but that might be changing.   Last night Tammy and I arrived at the theater about 30 minutes early so we could get good seats, and as Tammy said afterward, the movie kept us on the edge of our seats.  It was long, nearly 3 hours.   

From the previews you already know that planet earth is turning into a dust bowl.  Our days on earth are limited, and so farmer, former engineer "Cooper" (McConaughey) will trade in his tractor for a spaceship to find a habitable planet to save mankind.  How do you get a good plot line out of that?  You add in he's leaving his family behind, the theory of relativity that indicates time passes differently for space-travelers and earth dwellers (so if he ever returns his family could all be long dead) and, you add the uncertainly the crew could end up like the 80's song "Major Tom."  Will they succeed, what's driving them, and can they cooperate, all make for a great plot.  

The movie is filled with popular level Newtonian and Quantum physics.  Several terms and concepts hold the plot together, but don't worry, you don't have to be a nerd to keep up with the science of the plot.  Still, I think at some level we all find space travel, wormholes connecting galaxies, and black holes interesting.  

Most movies along these plot lines have love stories built in, in the case of Interstellar love is the story.  Not romance or cheesy nostalgia, but a love that transcends space and time, and can't be explained away by the scientific method.  The strength of love is teased out from start to finish, and by one of the astronauts love is attributed to "evolutionary" instincts.  Though the movie doesn't try to pit love, humanity, evolution and faith against themselves, these topics certainly come center stage.  There are great subplot themes of loyalty, sacrifice,  and dedication that truly brings value to the story.

The plot is great, and the movie well worth seeing.  Without the typical Hollywood shallow use of sex & violence or extreme foul language to carry a plot, Interstellar puts together great acting and a very good story, it's so clean you could take an adolescent or grandparent to it and not be embarrassed, unless a shedding a few tears embarrass you. 

Why kids leave church: our dirty little secret

It's hard to estimate how many articles, books, and blog posts I've read concerning the topic of "why" children abandon church as they transition into adulthood.  People blame culture/peer-pressure, lack of quality youth programs, and the irrelevance of the modern consumer-driven church.  I have a sneaking suspicion the real reason is closer to home.

Each person is unique, and everyone has their own set of circumstances that shapes them.  This brief post cannot be exhaustive, nor can it claim to pinpoint everyone.  My opinions here are shaped by what I've observed in 20 + years of ministry, and may not coincide with your views.  My hope is, we can turn things around and make changes that will nurture the faith of future generations.

The first observation I will make has to do with Attitude.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to adults when their children have a bad taste in their mouths over church, when these same adults complain & criticize their local church.  I've seen second and third generation Christians nitpick every aspect of their church family, and then act frustrated when their children walk out the back door of the church.  Regardless of how nostalgic you are about your youth rallies and the glory days of church camp, you can't send mixed messages and expect your children to escape from your negativity.

My next observation has to do with Activity.
It's immature to expect our young people to be more involved or engaged than the adults.  I've taught Wednesday night classes, Sunday morning classes and everything in between at church.  Watching adults chit-chat and skip class or the worship service, while they expected their children to attend, used to irritate me.  Now it concerns me.  I see now the damage from the adults who "loved" their church, but felt too mature or important to attend the events they forced on their children.

Then, somewhere between Attitude and Activity, there are the adults who "take their toys" and go home when they don't get their way.  What message does this send home...?

But what about the mature believers who had great attitudes, were healthy, and were very active but still their children leave church?  Again, everyone has unique circumstances, so this post can't possibly explain what happens to everyone.  I will say, there are people whom I love and respect, but their children didn't embrace their parent's faith.  What went wrong?  Sadly, even when we do all we can as parents, there are always church squabbles and unhealthy leaders our children are exposed to, situations beyond our control that can do more harm than good.    

My guess is, more children become disillusioned with church because of what they see at home... if they overhear unhealthy conversations lambasting their church, if they witness hypocrisy in their parents, and if they see a disconnect in their parent's behaviors and the message.

We don't live in a perfect world, and we aren't perfect.  So what can we do?

For starters, show some grace to those you worship with.  Be more tolerant, and extend ample forgiveness to those you disagree with.  Guard your tongue and be careful in what you say about others.

Next, be honest about your inconsistencies.  Be vulnerable with your children.  Share your struggles, and take responsibility for your shortcomings without blaming others.

Finally, focus more on Jesus & imitating Him.  Sounds too simplistic, I'm sure.  I'm open to hearing your suggestions.