Safety and Comfort (lyrics)

A church of believers it is…

Not one of servants, although there may be some.

Not one of teachers, no students come.

Not one of seekers, as they are barred from the door.

The verse of the lukewarm seems oh so relevant.

———— Chorus ——–

I had high hopes, yet things move so slowly.

I really thought this was the call.

Yet, I found no sacrifice, no service, no danger at all.

Escape and family tradition reign.

They put up barriers to Christ, and lock the door.

———— Chorus ——–

I honestly thought I could make a difference…

Instead, they demand it safe and comfortable

The cost of discipleship is too objectionable.

No leading required, they just need the pulpit full.

What signs did I miss, where is the door.

————  Chorus ——–

The sandles are shaken, a new call awaits

Lord Jesus, prepare the path, and heal my soul

The Gospel is preached, the bell tolls

Its not safe, its not comfortable, Jesus is here

He set me free, I am no longer captive.

—————–

 Chorus…

Safety and comfort are paramount.

Where is ministry, when ears only want tickling?

Can the Gospel still be heard, despite the bickering?

Shall I shake my sandals at the door?

Safety and comfort are paramount.

******************

Not exactly the type of tune one would use in worship, but sadly the tune often felt by recent seminary grads sent to dysfunctional congregations.

To some extent, such can be self fullfilling prophecy. Ie, if one views ones congregation as dysfunctional, it likely will be, and a look in the mirror is needed. Yet, to deny the fact that there are congregations from hell is a serious dis-service as well. There has to be an element of realism… and hopefully one will identify such, well before the newbie pastor ends up either so disillusioned and shredded, they quit ministry entirely, or worse.

Concepts for this came from a kazillion pastor’s I’ve know over the years, and as of late Pastor Joelle’s and Father A’s blogs.

Filed under : Christian Media

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Dwight, over at Center for Renewal had a cool entry on the coffeehouse phenomena, where he noted the activity, and wished for the same at Maundy Thursday services. It got me thinking quite a bit, and rather than hog his comments, here goes a few thoughts.

The allure of the coffee house.

What the coffee house provides beyond coffee and free wifi is the following:

• A calm, and reflective environment, ideal for creative work.

• A sense of social connectivity, in an ultra non-threatening environment. No interaction is assumed, but casual interaction may occur. This human desire for connectedness, but not interaction per se is fascinating.

• Overtime, relationships may or may not build. Being that’s not really a primary goal, coffeehouses foster a very organic relationship building process. Its vastly different than the traditional restaurant that has a coffee clique crowd so to speak. I don’t know whether this is intentional by design, but it might be. Ie, the tables for 2-4, the sofas, comfy chairs, free wifi, etc, encourage folks to linger and as such purchase more $5 coffees. A restaurant on the other hand, wants to get people in and out, and at $0.50 for coffee it makes sense. (not a coffee drinker so unsure on prices, but do cherish the coffee house environment for work and meetings)

• There is much collective wisdom. If one is bold enough to ask, many will step in to help, but its often facilitated more so by location tools like brightkite/twitter than 3d. Ie, I will jump in to help anyone on twitter, offer opinions, comments, etc. I might do so in 3d, but if not directly asked, I wont.

The church is sort of there, but not quite:

• The church has collective wisdom, but few will ask.

• The church has the capability of organic relationship building, but often its forced, or worse clique driven.

• The church has a problem with the threatening aspect. Ie how many of us would pull up to an unknown church and go and crash them? (when I traveled a lot, I did this, and its cool, but its a seemingly bold thing to do, and failure is common, ie doors locked, no one around). Imagine what would happen, if churches opened their doors, physically, as well as spiritually?

• The church often forces interaction, rather than a passive; ok if you do, fine if you dont, approach at the coffee house.

• Many sanctuaries are ideal for contemplation. Back in my CCM days, egads, the amount of writing, contemplation, and I must admit naps also  occurred in the upper balcony in churches all across the US. The thing is… it would sort of be odd, to grab a laptop and hang out in the upper balcony, even if it had free wifi, also the nature of a sanctuary doesnt align itself with collaboration either.  As a traveling musician, despite a janitor, or pastor being surprised to see one or more of us sleeping in a balcony pew, knowing our travel schedule, it was seemed to be acceptable to them, albeit likely a bit weird.

• Fellowship halls, are often seriously lacking in environment, ie they foster eating together, not so much socializing. In many cases they are pretty sterile, and the existence of sofas, reading chairs, or tables for 2 or 3 is exceedingly rare.

Filed under : Ecclesiology

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I was asked recently if labeling something anything other than Christian was misleading (if it has a Christian focus). I dont think it is, in part due to my study, but also, the head banging of being behind the scenes when www.christianforums.com changed to www.foru.ms. It was not a trivial, nor easy call, and although the name changed back when the site was sold, I still firmly believe the name change was the right one at the time. The Godtube folks likely also struggled with this, when they changed to their name to Tangle.

3 reasons why Christian may not be an appropriate title/label:

1. The title Christian creates expectations, ie orthodoxy, but usually as defined by individual members, and that does cause conflict, as very few folks agree. In another case, member expectations, ie how can a Christian message board not allow me to use scripture anyway I want, including to bash and flame others? How can anything other than sugar coated G family friendly topics be discussed? How can you allow crude or sometimes explicit language to be used? How can you allow folks to express anger at God? How can you allow a Jewish person or a Muslim to share their faith, and why they believe what they believe?

2. The title Christian for hurting individuals often carries negative connotations, ie bashing and hypocrisy are the most common, but in some cases, there is so much focus on politics, guns, flags, homosexuality and abortion, that Jesus and the Gospel gets missed almost entirely.There is also the issue of outreach. Ie In talking with folks who outreach to Muslim’s, if you say you are Christian, they often will ignore you and walk away, if you talk about following Jesus, there is a bridge to the Qur’an.

3. The title Christian can be a marketing hijack… Ie, folks come, because its Christian… not because it necessarily exhibits the fruits of the spirit, or even that the Gospel is present.  Sadly, the label far too often results in putting a lampshade over ones faith, and hiding away from the world, rather than engaging the world. In other ways, its preaching to the choir. (not that there isn’t room for that, nor that such is improper, it can be a good thing). One of the concepts of foru.ms was that google was indexing topics… you want to know of redemption, google would bring you to foru.ms. You are looking for a recovery group for those previously in the sex industry, google would bring you to foru,ms. And if you were looking for Christian, there would be so much of a Christ focus, that google would bring you to foru.ms. The intent in part was foru.ms would exhibit the fruits of the spirit, and rely on the love of its members to bring folks, not the title.

To counter this…
The use of a Christian title upholds us to higher standards. Ie, if its Bobs forum, and it goes south, its just Bobs reputation. If its named after or includes Jesus…. pretty much bad stuff tends to make Jesus not look so good. From a pragmatic pov… using the word Christian is not cool. From an idealistic pov… using the word Christian, and upholding Him in all things is pretty cool.

Filed under : Social Ministry

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If one searches the scriptures, are there any places where saying no to God ended with a favorable outcome? I have yet to find any, and I have tried. I have said no to God hundreds, if not thousands of times… the outcome, well as a general rule, I have yet to be eaten by a fish, but hindsight leads me to believe had I said yes, the individual outcomes would have been positive, or at a minimum neutral… and there are some lingering after effects… ranging from man was I stupid or what, to egads, I really blew that with God big time.

A distinction must be made, is it God, or is it man trying to get his own way?

Whenever I hear someone say, God told me that you should do X, the warning sirens come on. It almost always seems to be the desire of the person speaking, which does make me suspect. Otoh, when I hear someone state “God told me you should do X”, or “scripture says you should do X”, and the person speaking goes on to state they personally think doing X would be a bad idea, the light bulbs come on. God’s ways are often not mans it seems. Ultimately though, after a review of the scriptures, listening for the still small voice is key.

What if its the church who is asking?

“Churches will eat you alive, if you let them…” is what a friend told me some years back. I’ll go one further, the ministry needs of a church will expand to consume all available time, plus another 20%. Many secular folks say boundaries are the key to success. Boundary teaching is so prevalent, it is even preached in many churches and schools. Let me throw a wrench in the works…. What if one comes upon an injured church member alongside the road, and our family needs are in conflict? Should we pass by on the other side in our hurry to fullfill our families needs, and hope some dude from Samaria happens by? 

What about picking up ones cross?

A recurrent theme throughout the Bible is not to take the easy way out, but to pick up ones cross and follow Jesus. Man on the other hand, has a very very difficult time with this… what about the yard, what about the children, what about my day job, what about where I will sleep, what about what I will wear tomorrow…. but Jesus calls. The young ruler, the dude who wanted to go take care of his families burial…. Jesus had some hard to hear words about that.

Burnout is real, consequences are real

Burnout however is real, depression in ministry is real, even look at Elijah, the dude was fixing to sit under a tree and die, the work was just too great. When you have scripture telling us the burden will be easy… and one has been up for 72 hours straight, its not so easy…. its not so easy to stay awake in the garden, when Jesus is right there, its not so easy, when Jesus asked the disciples to remain awake and to watch, and they crashed and burned. Its not so easy, when you are a young kid hanging out in an upstairs window to hear Paul preach the Gospel, that you fall asleep, slide out the window, and crash to the ground to your death. Suicide exists, moral crash and burn failure exists, families get shredded, churches implode… there are real brick walls, these are real problems.

Thus, even if though the recurrent theme of scripture is to pick up ones cross, scripture also provides examples of situations where folks have run into brick walls. Society and history also show that brick walls can and do happen. 

Its not a total deal

The problem imho, is we are looking at this as a total deal… Individualistic theology has hosed over many a fine brother or sister in Christ, its wrong thinking. Obviously there are times, when we are called to act and no one else is around to help, but if one considers the big picture, short of 3AM, in the middle of nowhere and without any means of communication, those situations are exceedingly rare. Even the church organist who gets interrupted at late night practice has huge resources at hand, but more likely than not, is unaware of them. The primary difficulty of the individualistic approach, is one doesnt see all of the capabilities, gifts, skills, and help available. Even Paul traveled with a group… The second issue is a failure to make the call early on that problems exist, and that more help is needed. Acts 6, where a set of dudes were chosen to serve the widows is a prime example of this. It shows not only the problem of being spread too thin, but utilizing the resources at hand, and the power of a group… they didnt just dump the problem on one guy, and say here you go.

If God is asking us, who are we to say no? Who are we, to think we can do it all by ourselves?

Filed under : Growth and Discipleship

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During my blogging absence, I’ve been doing some reading, both online and off, as well as bugging folks. It seems the fear of meat is a huge thing, and imho a real disservice to the body of Christ. I don’t have the atonement deal wrapped up by any-means, but the backlog of writing ideas is expanding, so its time to roll. First some observations which lead to the fear of meat deal:

How do we keep Christianity safe?

A partner in ministry from a ways back asked me this, and its been bugging me to no end. Sure, no one wants to have heretical beliefs flying all over the place… but by putting safety on a pedestal, and not providing an outlet for “messy faith”, hard questions, or even anger at God, eek, talk about a disservice!!! The focus on leadership perfection, questions limited to only those with pre-ordained answers, and horrors that one would ever be angry at God ends up for some a major barrier. This is especially the case when folks run up against the unanswerable questions, where the milk wont cut it, and for some purposes, the meat may not either. Is the pursuit of “safe and isolated Christianity” really worth it? Is such just secular escapism with a Christian label? No doubt, there should be some times and places for safety, but in all due respect for my friend, I think he is asking the wrong questions. 

My cats like milk and the status quo

Mikey is 3 years old and is a massive, albeit neutered and laid-back Tomcat. He really likes milk, but his digestive system hates even the idea. As a kitten it was needed, as an adult, he needs meat to thrive. I think its an appropriate analogy for the Christian life. Milk may bring us back to an earlier time, a place of safety, happiness, and joy. Yet, just as Mikey will upchuck if he gets too much milk, a steady diet of milk for the growing Christian is also unhealthy.

I really liked what @tg24 on @jonestony’s blog had to say.

It seems to me that we underestimate our congregations’ faith. They can be stretched, they can be challenged, and if we continue to treat them as fragile infants whose understanding of Christianity can never change, as shepherds, (leaders, lay or vocational, or as worshippers who love the church), we are not guarding it, we are weakening it.

What about the children?

If I hear this one more time….

I’m no fan of separation in worship. Sure,children may not grasp everything, and some of it could be too intense… imho the fear is likely not so much for the children themselves, but for the parents having to answer the resultant questions. Read the whole of Matthew 19… divorce, the rich young man, the camel in the needle, leaving the children for His sake. In light of “what about the children” I can understand why the disciples rebuked those who brought the children… yet, Jesus had something else to say.

Seminary-Congregation disconnect

A common thread amongst many seminarians is “I thought I knew the Bible back then, now I realize how much I really dont know”. Why is this? Egads, since I’ve started hanging out with a facebook group of seminary guys, I haven’t been challenged like that in years. The thing is… why should I have to seek out seminarians to get challenged?

Even look at living together faithfully in the ELCA, or the opinions of 135 ELCA theologicans. There is often a major disconnect between academia and the pew, with vastly different lenses of interpretation. It doesn’t have to be this way. The meat does exist, why must we venture from the congregation to find it? Why does it take congregational change to even search it out?

Some leaders are afraid of meat (faith crisis and stumbling)

Granted, the concern about causing another to stumble is a serious matter, yet to lead another to stagnate and regress is also a form causing one to stumble. 

The relevance of meat to a wide audience

Way back when I asked my pastor, how on earth can one preach to 5000 members, as it seems guaranteed you would miss the mark for some. He had a very wise answer… how can you preach to 5? Its not just the sermon of the pastor, its the word of God and the Holy Spirit acting on folks hearts. Meat will always be relevant, and it may be someone new in their walk would be confused, but where the Gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.

Leadership uncertainty

Yep, I know this one… we did a major major rip up and redo some years back. We expected we might loose thousands of members. Yet, we knew scripture was clear, we had 99% peace with the decision… but, an underlying question kept coming back, what if we are wrong? When meat is involved, there is greater uncertainty. Yet, if scripture, prayer, and discussions amongst the leadership team and others indicate a go… to not proceed where God is calling, not cool at all.

Backing up the plumbing and its affect on the status quo

As one grow in Christ, it can’t just be a matter of head knowledge, or even heart knowledge, but further works must start to go forth, or things will start to back up often leading to congregational disfuction. A commitment to meat, also means a commitment to running with it… that is very scary to the status quo. Feral Pastor has an analogy called an L-pipe, there are many parallels.

Filed under : Growth and Discipleship

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Doggone it, this would have been cool to attend, or even crash as a vistor :), but alas other commitments will keep me away. Its too bad someone isnt live tweeting or blogging it, but the news updates will suffice. If someone has a time expansion machine and an extra couple hundred bucks-25, and wants me to live blog, I’d jump at the chance

If I do get some spare time, as I understand it, visitors can attend the plenaries for no charge, so I might try to catch one or two of them (the advantage of being local) I’d really like to hear Stephen Bouman, being I bugged him back when he was the Bishop for the Metro NY synod.

The workshops sounded cool too.. but alas too many irons, too little money, and not enough time.

Some useful links:

The agenda: http://www.semnsynod.org/assembly/2009/agenda.html

The resolutions:  http://www.semnsynod.org/assembly/2009/resolutions.html

As expected, many are focused on the homosexuality debate, although world hunger, environment, and clergy/staff resolutions are included as well. Teaching intelligent design set me back a bit, but I guess its presence shows the diversity of the synod, and thats cool, but its also quite ironic that the discussion of such is at the Mayo civic center.

The workshops are super cool… I campaigned for Jack Nelson Pallmeyer when he was running for senate, his workshop on the Just War Doctrine would be great to hear… but thats where the $$$$ enter in.

I also think Islam-People of the Book  by Dr. Charles Amjad-Ali would have been cool. It was one of the long term leadership discussions that our leadership team often had, but it was a real bear to move forward with. Whether I ever end up in such a role again is unlikely, but greater knowledge in the arena is cool no matter what.

Lastly, the LIRS workshop would be interesting to attend, especially since I had fairly close ties to Postville, IA years ago.

It would be a blast to be there, but alas, I dont have a time expander, nor even a DMC-12 to pull it off in its entirety. Hopefully I can catch a plenary session or two.

Filed under : ELCA

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I took off blogging for Holy Week, and a bit more. I’m trying to get a handle on atonement theories, and the more I dig, the more it seems like the onion becomes larger, and there is more grey all the time. Of course part of this is that I’m approaching it in an ecumenical fashion, and of course no one can agree but it still is pretty cool.

Now, some might say atonement theory, why… its not like it has a lot of relevance, and on the surface I’d have to agree. However, entire worldviews seem to proceed from specific views on atonement, so there is a whole lot of things which are likely unseen.

One thing i do know, is dont go and present the ransom theory in the midst of a group of penal substitution advocates, unless you enjoy controvery city. I’m actually debating with a fellow at Dallas Theological Seminary, and on a 1:1 basis, its pretty cool. I dont need 123 commenters or whatever number it was where it seemed half of them came down hard on a fellow from twiiter named Tony Jones.

I also found, that few share the excitement I have over atonement theories… but thats ok. I do get accused of not speaking English quite a bit anyhow in scientific matters, I guess the same might well apply in theology as well.

An offshoot of this, is that third use of the law thing again, and the controversy over it. I’ll need to do some more digging, maybe even find a recent seminary grad to bug, as discrepancies in that area could have a huge impact at the upcoming convention.

Filed under : Growth and Discipleship

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A friend in ministry was concerned about why she had so much more worry in her life now than when she was a child. Beyond the obvious issues of greater awareness, knowledge, and family responsibilites, there is also the aspect of worry based upon different phases of ministry. That led to this small book response, which is something I’ve been thinking through for a bit.

Moses Mode

Initially many of us start out going what on earth did I get into with this… God, why did you put me here… or as I used to tell folks, call me Moses, I am the least qualified, get someone else, and then finding myself going ok God, I’m stuck here, now what? In Moses mode, everything is new, and its as if a firehose is coming at you in a different direction daily where no matter how much prior education or somewhat related experience, its like HELP!!!! For me, I found there really was little worry at such times. Its overload city, but God provides a way, provides the words, provides the direction. Talk about dependance and having to trust in Him.

I got it, but what about God’s role

As experience grows, there is a tendency to have less dependance on God. One knows things to say, not to say, when to just listen etc…The personal freakout factor decreases. Then one starts second guessing a bit… did I get the theology right on the money, did I do everything right in counseling, or when an outcome turns out badly,what did I do wrong. Or really second guessing and being gun shy after a recent bad outcome, where it was obvious I blew it. Worry will build… the solution of course is taking it to the cross, leaving it there, and returning to that dependence on God. Yep, I know easier said than done.

Oh shoot, there are personal issues, and they are mine!

There is also the aspect that with experience comes greater personal accountability as exemplified in Luke 12. It could be the little things in our lives that initially we fail to see, or gloss over, that over time are brought to light and become a bigger and bigger deal. We are all broken, we will remain so throughout our lifetime on earth… but issues we may not have even been aware of early on get illuminated and we have to work through them as experience builds. That can add to worry. Ie am I being a hypocrite in this, how do I fix this, man, it was so simple before, why is it so hard now etc. Where is God in this? Bishop Mike Rinehart wrote something a while back where he talked about pain causing spiritual growth. At first I went huh… that’s a tad narrow, now I go, um… yep. Some of those things can be a real bear and a half to work through, and it can take some time, more than a lifetime if one really thinks it through. I think the issue is, whether its worry of being found out, ie the proverbial broadcast to the mountain tops deal or worry as part of identifying and resolving said issues. The former is a big problem, the later is part of spiritual growth.

Talents, much is required

And likewise in Luke 12 where much is given, much is required… yep, with the increasing experience God grants to us, more is required. I remember back to my days at Imago Dei, where in I’d be up working all night doing the maintenance thing, and then get a early AM knock at my door to find out, whoa, I need to haul a load of canoes and a youth group to an offsite location, followed up by Bible orienteering that evening etc It be like, ok, a freezing cold shower, a quick load up of the gear, and lets roll, no worries, we’ll get it done one way or another. Today, I’d hit the brakes on that sort of deal, and go ok… we have a problem here, what do we do, instead of jumping in pedal to the metal and not thinking through the potential problems. Of course, their is a balance point… worrying for the sake of worrying, albeit common, is vastly different than prudent analysis based upon prior experience.

Great Expectations

Also in Luke 12 there is the issue of greater expections, and this can lead to worry… People can come up with some pretty unreasonable expectations. Ie you’ve done this before, you can do it again… and then when it doesnt work out, one starts second guessing in a huge way. During my tenure, we nearly doubled in size, albeit the second derivative of active participation went negative (in other words, acceleration towards death) early on, and we had two major losses of members. I had no real worries over the 2 mass exodus periods, as they were expected, and in reality, were less than we figured (policy changes causing a split). The negative second derivative… I spent months worrying over that. What did we do wrong, what were we missing, and even today, I wonder, what did I miss,what could I have done differently, what could I have done better… Granted, we are called to preach the Gospel, and then leave the rest up to God, ie faith comes by hearing. But also we are not to put up stumbling blocks, and I sure rang up more than a few millstones. I guess in this case, its my own expectations more so than others, but it still tanks. And there in lies some of my own reticence to get back in the saddle. Yet, with experience comes further calling, to sit on that experience would be way uncool. I guess I need to take my own advice and take it to the cross and leave it there.

Is it time to move on?

And lastly is worrying over when its time to move on… How many times can one take their head and slam it into the wall. When does the spillover becomg problematic. Granted adversity is a given, and to add insult to injury worrying in and of itself can be self fullfilling and lead to a downward spiral, yet there often comes a point where one has to consider something different. Obviously dwelling on such is not cool, but then again neither is being oblivious to the situation at hand. Overstaying can result in a multitude of unintended consequences, just as bailing out too soon, and this too can lead to worry. My Baptist pastor friend says he uses effectiveness as a general guide, as it reduces the worry factor, and as such may make it easier to hear the still small voice. Ie, less me, more God as to when it is time. It seemed to work out pretty well for me last go round, so its a tool I likely will carry for a long time.

Filed under : Growth and Discipleship

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I came across this blog entry tonight, and was blown away. This fellow observes great opportunties ahead, and I think he is right on the mark. This is the time to step up to the plate, and throughout his post he mirrors a common theme, dont be safe, dont be timid, dont be fearful, step forward and get going!

The following final quote from him is pretty powerful

Most of all seek God’s Word for his loving example and the ways that Jesus expressed his love to us. Take a risk, give something up. Stop being so safe and get out there and get your hands dirty for Jesus.

Filed under : Giants of the Faith

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expensive, is what the librarian told me, when I picked it up as an interlibrary loan. She told me the replacement cost was listed as $900.00!!! Ouch, I will protect it as if it was gold LOL

My guess is, someone messed up data entry, as Amazon has it for $9.99 and google books has a version one can read online.

Either/or: The Gospel or Neopaganism

I’m looking forward to reading Either/Or: The Gospel or Neopaganism, albeit I am more than a bit concerned with what the solitary reviewer on Amazon has to say.  If the book were not from Braaten and Jenson, I’d almost expect as much, but then again, their stature raises the bar quite a bit. I guess once I get through it, I’ll make my own judgement.

Either way, I’ll handle it very very carefully. No way can I afford $900 to replace it.

Filed under : Humor

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