This is a response to the CNN article on Teens Becoming Fake Christians, and the multitude of folks who shared the link to such on FB. I looked at a number of comments, and while there was not a ton of angry finger pointing, pretty much the common thread was… its other folks problem. I think the answer is different… kids have been set up to crash and burn, and its everyones problem. Its also everyones problem, as it doesn’t just affect kids, but whole families and congregations.

The difficulty is so many in US society want MTD(moral therapeutic deism) in a huge way and likely they dont even know it. It parallels the sin management approaches of many churches. It doesn’t require thought or a whole lot of action, its denominationally neutral. No sacrifice is needed, nor is their any financial cost. It can easily become a 24/7 deal, unlike just a Sunday morning thing. As its a darkness masquerading as an angel of light, few if any are going to see it as a problem… and by the same token, there likely will be no evil darts thrown towards its practitioners.

So, what is it? Christian Smith and his fellow researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion describe its attributes as the following.

1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.”
2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”
3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”
4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.”
5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”

Dr Al Mohler Jr of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote a good article on it some years back as well. I think its an exceedingly well done piece… and Dr Mohler and I are about as theologically opposed as can be on many issues, but I’m nearly 100% behind him on this one.

Here are some symptons I’ve been able to gather.

Pastors are frustrated, as they have the meat, and the congregation only wants milk, and perhaps milk diluted with a good dose of MTD as well.

Parents are frustrated, when their teen embraces any number of offshoots of MTD. The kids see a direct connection of numerous ABCDEF belief systems with MTD, they dont see a connection between Christ and MTD.

Kids then are frustrated, that parents dont see the disconnect between MTD and what the church teaches… and more so that parents dont see the same direct connection between alternative belief system ABCDEF and MTD.

Young adults are frustrated, as they want to pursue Christ, and yet MTD keeps rearing its ugly head to serve as a distraction.

So, whats the answer? Kid’s and others passion needs to be gently guided, and then the fan flamed… no program, church deal of the month, or hard core parenting can replace passion from the heart. It can start out with small steps too… simply not killing the passion of youth is a good starting point. Discernment as to when MTD shows up and discussions surrounding such is another… and it doesnt take a whole lot to see examples daily. Gently guide the kids, they will uncover more and more, and likely a lot of it is going to be pretty uncomfortable. Simply not killing their passion can go a very long way.

Some selected quotes from the CNN articles make for some good counters to MTD as well.

“If teenagers lack an articulate faith, it may be because the faith we show them is too spineless to merit much in the way of conversation,” wrote Dean, a professor of youth and church culture at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Teens want to be challenged; they want their tough questions taken on, she says.
“We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake,” Corrie says.

“If you don’t say you’re doing it because of your faith, kids are going to say my parents are really nice people,” Dean says. “It doesn’t register that faith is supposed to make you live differently unless parents help their kids connect the dots.”

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When I was reviewing todays Gospel reading last week. I was going whoa, how does this jibe with Minnesotans who consider it majorly uncool to sit at a place of honor… The whole proud but not too proud thing leans a whole lot more towards the “not too proud” side, and thus said scripture could end up counterproductive fast.

Pastor Steve took this on pretty hard and fast last Wednesday, in that humility can go too far, that gifts can be buried, that a certain boldness for Christ is needed. For sure, there is a lack of humility in regards to jockeying for position and power, even amongst Minnesotan’s, even amongst seminary students jockeying for first calls, and the scripture hits home on such pretty hard. Yet, such could also be used as a way to justify hiding ones lamp, to go behind the scenes when one is needed out front, which would likewise be in error.

This hit home for me, when I started reviewing the ELCA draft statement on genetics. The concept of pride is a big deal on the surface… the whole “man can play God” with these tools things scares many, likely far too many in Christian society. Of course, resignation and running from things is not cool either. Negligence of what God has gifted us and complacency about matters of human and environmental health is also a sin. Case in point, it would be way beyond cruel to withhold morphine from a terminal cancer patient due to anti-drug societal mores, fear of addiction, or fear of what we dont really understand pharmacologically wise. Obviously a balance needs to be maintained between “playing God” and being so humble as to play dead and be totally ineffective.

I’ll be blogging more on the genetics statement as I plow through it. A 60+ page document is not something one understands in a first pass.. but I though it was cool how todays Gospel played right into the genetics discussion. It will be interesting!

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Some months ago*, nearly everywhere I turned ideology triumphed scripture, its insanity^6. Interesting issues were marriage, a kingdom of God excluding the earth, capitalism, and unicorns.

As far as what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 7 on marriage, a fellow decided to look at his admonishment to be single if possible… Well marriage is huge massive idol for a ton of folks, and I was thinking, we’re going to have another one of these “I love Church, Jesus, not so much” moments, except in this case Paul.

Sure enough, nearly as if one turned on a switch, the responses were… well Paul didnt really mean that, or Paul wanted folks to marry as teens so as to avoid temptation, or any number of pretty strange and unusual attempts to not take to heart what Paul said. The problem is… if folks take such esiegesis to heart, well no wonder divorce rates amongst Christians are equal to, or even higher than non Christians in some areas.

Pastor Justo happened to set off the creation museum guy… but something cool did pop up. I’m no creationist by any means, but the museum guy did bring up one cool point as concerns folks leaving the church.

….what they meant by “hypocrisy,” and found that it was basically because they were told by the church that they believe the Bible, when in reality the people didn’t believe it as written—this was seen as hypocrisy.

As much as I’m opposed to the Creation museum stuff, the creation guy made a good point. That being said, just as I wrote before, we all pick and choose… but where I think the hyporacy issue lies, is preaching one thing, and then acting completely counter to it. Its not creation/evolution literal/metaphor stuff thats the issue… Its things like denying healthcare for undocumented immigrant, all the while reading the parable of the good Samaritan. Its telling the poor they will be prayed for, all the while ignoring their need for food and shelter. Its using Paul’s writings in 1 Cor 7 on marriage to somehow justify questionable marriage practices, and many other related issues. I wrote on other inconsistancies/hypocracies like this a ways back http://mnphysicist.posterous.com/if-enough-people-were-brought-to-christ-outla

Another screwball deal is splitting the kingdom of God in two, and then ignoring one half. In other words, viewing at the kingdom of God as only concerned with eternal matters. I sort of like how @edstetzer explained things, that dispensationalism’s exclusionary emphasis on eternity was a response to the social Gospel’s near exclusionary emphasis on temporal issues… it likely made sense 100 years ago. Now, its like some believers dont even believe that the Kingdom of God exist’s on earth, right here, right now, despite Jesus clear words to the contrary.

*Yep, this is an old post… found in my queue after bringing an old laptop drive back alive.

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Wow, talk about diversity of opinions within Christian society as concerns whether the Mosque should be built in proximity to the WTC site. It is a good thing that most Christian’s on both sides of the debate agree that constitutionally its ok for it to be built there. Its also a very good thing that much of Christian society wants to show mercy and compassion to the victims of 911, of all faiths. The disconnect exists as to how best to go about doing so, ie is advocating building a Mosque at that location or not building one there the most appropriate and compassionate response . At least, thats what I’ve been able to sort through as really the bottom line as concerns Christian society.

Had it been about the constitutionality of building it or not… yes, then I would be up in arms and making a fuss. Absolutely they do have a constitutional right to build it there… subject to appropriate zoning codes etc.

Had it been about vengeance, ie, by prohibiting it from being built, Christian society would be exacting revenge against Muslims as a whole, I again would have been up in arms. Vengeance advocated by Christians is clearly in error, even more so, when its done against an entire faith based upon the actions of a few extremists who hijacked the faith label. Even an eye for an eye justice system is better than justice against an entire group based upon the actions of a few. The hard words of Christ dispensing with eye for an eye most assuredly would come down hard against such a course of action taken against an entire group, even if said group were in opposition to Him.

Some in secular society have suggested building it may be an assault on our patriotism, we may be laughed at for being weak, for loosing our status, for “having our noses” rubbed in Islam’s growing influence. Of course, if that is the case… aren’t we pretty weak in ourselves for deriving such a meaning? Have we, as US citizens become so lame, we dont set the tone ourselves, and rather let others do it for us? For Christians, isn’t our power based upon Christ, rather than the principalities and powers of this world?

Thus, ultimately, advocating to build it, or not build it does come down to Christian compassion and mercy… and such often become a tricky deal, when multiple groups are involved. Ie when one exercises compassion towards one group, it can offend, or at a minimum be counterproductive towards another group. @hikerrev looks to Jesus and his relationship with the Samaritans as a model in which we set aside our power and influence, and I think he is right…

I’m 1 degree of separation from folks who died on 911, I know Muslim’s who have suffered much discrimination and harassment post 911. I hear differing opinions on both sides as to how things should progress. Some see the construction as a way to help healing, and others not so much, a few vehemently so.

The end result, its a no win deal either way if one looks at this at an individual level. Otoh Jesus short of railing on the Pharisee’s didnt approach his ministry so much as to groups, but more so as to individuals. Perhaps this is where compassion and mercy really need to be focused, the individual, and thats hard, really hard, as it means letting our guard down, getting our own hands dirty, and admitting there is a whole lot more grey than we really thought there was.

Going individual likely means greater effectiveness too. While no doubt, group awareness through the net and other media is a huge positive, and it can and does direct change… when it comes to compassion and mercy, the affect of a 1:1 contact on anothers heart is magnitudes greater than any legislative or judicial change.

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Cardinal Keith O’Brien stated “”there still exists in very many parts of the USA, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice, which can only be described as a ‘culture of vengeance’.” I think he is right on the mark, not just within the justice system, but within much of US Christian society as well. For some reason, we seem to have a real problem giving such over to God.

He further goes on to state:

“The desire for justice and even vengeance after such an “unbelievable horror and gratuitous barbarity,” is “completely natural” for those most directly affected….

“It is in the midst of such inhuman barbarism, however, that we must act to affirm our own humanity, it is in these moments of grief and despair that we must show the world that the standards of the murderer and his disdain for human life are not our standards,” he said.

“They may plunge to the depths of human conduct but we will not follow them.”

His statements very much parallel Romans 12:19

19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d]says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Its interesting to note a recurrent theme throughout scripture is compassion and mercy for ones enemy, for the perpetrator, for the one who sinned. On the other hand, it is also a very common theme to have mercy on those injured, on those who are victims; the hard words from scripture presented in the above verse from Romans pretty much means, do not connect mercy and compassion for the victims in anyway with vengeance.

This is where the rubber hits the road so to speak, and where things often crash and burn. First, they crash and burn, as our sin nature is to blow off Roman’s 12:19 as unobtainium. Secondly, they crash and burn, in that when we try to take on the unobtainium in Romans 12:19, far too often, the victim ends up ignored along side the road waiting for some Samaritan to pass by.

What can make things even trickier, is how best to approach such in secular society especially within the wheels of the legislative and judicial process. Just the mere mention of such will result in howls of outrage over following scripture … this is whacked view of mercy and justice… its absolute foolishness… revenge is justifiable, what about the victims, they deserve to see the perpetrators suffer… we are not a Christian nation, such foolishness described in an ancient book has no place in politics… victims need compassion, the best way is to fry the perpetrators. On the other hand, Jesus didnt say if we love him to blow off his words as society thinks them foolish either.

I sort of like how St Augustine presented this issue with secular society in his Just War doctrine:

“When these things are read in their own authors, they are received with loud applause; they are regarded as the record and recommendation of virtues in the practice of which the Republic deserved to hold sway over so many nations, because its citizens preferred to pardon rather than punish those who wronged them. But when the precept, “Render to no man evil for evil,” is read as given by divine authority, and when, from the pulpits in our churches, this wholesome counsel is published in the midst of our congregations, or, as we might say, in places of instruction open to all, of both sexes and of all ages and ranks, our religion is accused as an enemy to the Republic!

Apart from justice system, often the victims can be oneself, or ones relative… and no such justice is even possible. The Washington Post had an interesting article after the death of Ken Lay back in 2006 entitled Ken Lay’s Last Evasion To Some, CEO Is Cheating Them One More Time

….people may well have responded to the news of Lay’s untimely death by feeling cheated, by saying that death wasn’t good enough for him, by sensing a frustrated craving for revenge burning in their backbrains like a fire in a tire dump.

Is it possible that a micron below the surface of our liberal and enlightened beliefs lurks savagery? Was the French Enlightenment wrong about our essential goodness, and were the medieval churchmen right about our innate depravity?

We should consider these things in days to come, so that Ken Lay may not have died in vain.

The thing is… Ken Lay didnt kill anyone, it was just money… perhaps a lot of money for some people, but then isnt all money God’s to start with and to end with, and we just use it for a time? Of course, such is easy in abstraction, but far from easy when its ones entire life savings and one is on a fixed income, and staring down near poverty until death. Vengeance in the above situation is not going to bring any increase in good men… in a lot of ways, it goes back to St Augustine’s writings where we need to be careful not to add ourselves to the number of wicked men.

Wherefore a righteous and pious man ought to be prepared to endure with patience injury from those whom he desires to make good, so that the number of good men may be increased, instead of himself being added, by retaliation of injury, to the number of wicked men.

Our need for vengeance needs to go to the dung hill… we need to exercise compassion and mercy, for both the perpetrator, AND the victim, but must be very careful to totally keep vengeance off the table.

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The concept, rethinking the believe, behave, belong model.

First of all, lets take a look at Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. I’m doing this, not to examine gender, but more so how they acted, and some underlying traits.

Luke 10:38-42

38Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

John 11: 17-27

17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Bethany was less than two miles[a] from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”"Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

John 12:1-3

1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

One of the things thats interesting about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, is their basic approach to life.

Martha is an active fixer, if there is task at hand, she jumps in and gets in done, she is not one to mess around. She may miss the forest for the trees a bit initially, but she will come around once she hears the word of Christ.

Mary is a contemplator, she listens, she takes it all in, she is not afraid to respond with emotion or take action, but listening is a major gift which she has been granted.

We dont know a whole lot about Lazarus, he appears pretty passive, albeit his getting sick, dieing, and then coming back to life no doubt gave him a much different approach to life than most. Yet, he too was reclining at the table with Jesus.

In todays society, a lot of folks are fixers, including ministry staff. Ie, need help with something, fixers will jump in, it could be physical, ie helping someone move, fixing a car, putting a new roof on the church, or it may be spiritual, or it may even be artistic. If something needs to be fixed, or worked on, you can be sure a fixer will volunteer, just as Mary did throughout scripture. She was always serving, even if to a fault as when Jesus initially called her out. Its interesting to note, when it comes to a church work project, guys will come out of the woodwork, but not so much when it comes to small groups men’s ministry.

By the same token, many are contemplators. Some can run circles around fixers when it comes to listening, and making sure the proper order of things is maintained. Ie when to sit quietly and listen, when to take action. Its interesting to note how active and how pervasive women’s small groups can be whether it be for Bible study or for prayer are in contrast with mens.

A lot of folks of both genders are pretty passive like Lazarus was as well. They come to Christ not so much by actively getting involved either by fixing, or contemplation, but more so I think the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. They dont need a task, they dont need contemplation and listening, they dont even need fancy programs. God calls them, and things happen.

So here is the deal… in todays soceity, the church for the most part is set up for folks to believe, behave, and then finally belong/participate. If one is a contemplator or passively interested, this works out pretty well, each step is a logical progression, and there really isnt much of a discontinuity between steps. For example, @mikifili asked if folks were interested in small groups. If one is a contemplator or passively interested type, there is a medium to high probability of interest. He had 88 out of 122 women express interest in his groups.

If one is a fixer… my guess is the thinking is along the line of “well, where is my time best spent, hmmm, probably not in a small group, they are lame. Much more can be accomplished by being out in the world, and by individual prayer, devotion, and study. Besides, that, we have Sunday for common worship.” The belong/participate functionality beyond Sunday AM has a pretty low priority. In many ways, it parallels the “I love Jesus, but not the church” thing and is the counter to “I love the church, but not Jesus” thing, which sadly has invaded many churches.

If we rethink the framing, why not put out a survey asking for help to put on a new roof on a Bible camp’s chapel, or serving in any number of other ways. Fixers are drawn to solve problems, despite a disdain for church outside a specific window. It can be an incredible draw. I look at myself… ask me to a dominionist, semi-pelagian, or non trin Bible study, and the answer will likely be no, or maybe a one shot deal for curiousities sake. Ask me to physicially help out a dominionist, semi-pelagian, or non trin church with a service project, and by all means I’d jump in. In many ways, this approach to fixers in the church membership, is similar to the inversion of the believe, behave, belong/participate model for those outside the church… but just as the inversion model is difficult to implement to reach those outside, its also a lot harder to implement for those inside.

Its very easy to do service, without edification, relationship building, or growth of those serving… and while the outcome is a good thing, ie new roofs, hungry fed, the poor served, far too much ends up left on the table. The key with the fold over or inversion model, is to use service as an entry point, not an end in and of itself.

If approached with a goal/game plan beyond direct service to others, such can be a pretty powerful tool whether used for outreach, or for building up ones own internal groups. The key I think is putting a plan in place to foster, but not force the issue. Ie forcing things through is likely to become counter productive pretty fast.

No doubt there are a multitude of ways to approach men’s ministry. Some work within a given construct, some crash and burn. Ultimately, one size does not fit all, and the key I think is to be open to what ones hears within their own group. All I’ve provided here, is a potential launch point to foster greater initial involvement. If one then follows up with some type of canned deal “The Fonz jumping a shark”which is out of sync with the specific mens intrinsic motivators, no matter how many show up on day 1, future attendence is likely to drop like a rock. This is one area where organic growth is absolutely critical.

The concept above was inspired by the writings of @adiaphora, and @feralpastor, but also a response I made over at #luthermergent a ways back. The whole deal had sort of slipped my mind, until I came across a post by @mikefili entitled THE CHURCH’S DEADLY RATIO PART I: THE PROBLEM

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Ask just about any men in church for an honest answer about men’s ministry, and they will say it sucks (albeit, for the most, the language will be less direct, but sadly the thinking is much the same). Its not that the leader is bad, or the program is lame, or that they are going off in lala land theologically, its that hardly any guys show up.

Ask church leaders, about gender ratios of active Christians, and they will say women outnumber men multifold. When Rich and I were leaders, we used to say, “we’re drowning here…” (paraphrasing Jack Nicholson) I think we were outnumbered 6:1 at one point.

Two questions then come to mind. First, does mens ministry really matter, and second is there something we are doing, or not doing which is contributing to its lacking.

As one who ascribes to egalitarian theology, I’ve traditionally viewed this as a “well, if God isnt calling these folks at this time, ok, I will deal with what God has placed before me”. If it means I’m the only guy, ok. If it means its a evenly mixed group, ok. If its even leaning the other way, ok. Its Gods call, not mine.

I also must fess up a bit. I’ve been critical of some whose calling is in mens ministry. Some appear to spend so much time with ratio balancing, programming, and other ministry models to reach men, they seemingly fail to serve the folks right in front of them. I have to remind myself, we all have different callings, and if a person has a heart for men’s ministry, they need encouragement, not criticism, albeit one must bear in mind, not to get sidetracked so much with working with strategies and models of ministry, one forgets to minister.

By the same token, I feel badly for the lack of men’s engagement and participation. Its not so much the lack of men’s ministry programs that bugs me, but more so these guys are missing out. As such, I’ve tried try to rally the guys over the years, but I have to admit, success has been pretty limited. Its often a lot easier to rally a bunch of guys to put a roof on a church, or even for a mens choir, than it is to build a men’s small group.

One thing I did a few years back was to ask guys what was wrong, and why they didnt participate. I added in a caveat that I wanted total honestly, nothing was too brutal.

Ultimately, the overall answer I got back was inconclusive. There were just as many this is the problem answers, to nearly 180 degree opposed answers. Its not feminization, relevance, schedule, lack of manliness, lack of relationships, nor is it even the hypocritcal nature of many churches. Not a single apparent answer could pass muster against other answers, albeit all of the above have been proposed as the reasons for failures in mens ministries. This does not mean they are not barriers for some, but even if all of the above were addressed, its unlikely to have much of an impact.

Being the obvious solutions are off the table, perhaps we might choose to go against common wisdom, and throw out all the things commonly done to make it easier.

Case in point, what if one were to have an event… do not advertise, make it near impossible to get to, charge ~$300, do not have air conditioning, electricity, water, or any conveniences beyond what one can haul in, put it out in the middle of the desert, where folks can be burned by the sun, scrubbed raw by the wind, parched by the lack of water subject to what one brought, and throw in a few days of 24 hour loud music, such that sleep is near impossible, and then make it mandatory when folks leave, they must not leave a trace…. and if the pursuit of art, self expression, and a host of other innate human needs can turn a small part of the desert into Black Rock City, a city of ~50,000 people for a mere 8 days a year, imagine what the pursuit of Jesus could do?

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Think about it… what did your pastor preach on last Sunday? What were the highpoints, what scripture was used to back them up? If you are like many folks, you will scratch your head. I’ll go a bit further, some months back, on the way back from church, I was thinking “wowzers, that was really cool”… and then going, “ok doggone it, I dont remember what pastor said, but I know it was cool”. Thus, other than by osmosis/related absorption, how do we act upon what we hear, if we dont remember it? Granted, I think osmotic retention does work on our hearts to some extent, even when we dont remember, so not all is lost, but such is only a fraction of what likely could occur.

Here is a list of things which I’ve found helpful over the years.

• Read the scriptures ahead of time
• Take notes during the sermon
• Reread the scriptures after church
• Meditate on the text, tie it to the sermon
• Make a point to act on the text within 2 weeks
• After 2 weeks, review what happened

Pre-reading

Pre-reading the scriptures is a huge deal, and I think its something that somehow has been lost over the years. I remember as a youngster, the local newspaper would have a list of the upcoming scriptures for the next Sunday in the church section. Being the Catholic Church and the mainline protestant churches all use a lectionary, and ~95% of the time, the USCCB and the RCL lectionary are identical, such was pretty cool, irrespective of denomination. Today, while its unlikely to see such in a newspaper anymore, www.lectionary.com exists and it breaks down the lectionary for the week 3 ways, the USCCB, RCL, and Episcopal versions. It has links for the Psalm, the Old Testament Lesson, the New Testament Lesson, and the Gospel. For folks whose church doesn’t follow a lectionary… almost always, the pastor will clue you in as to what scriptures will be talking about ahead of time if you ask, or even check his blog/website.

Note taking

Note taking during the sermon is pretty cool. I dont remember the pastor at NLCC, an Assembly of God church from way back when, but he was really hard core on sermon note-taking. He walked the talk, in that when he wasnt himself preaching, he was there with a little notepad too. Its not dictation, as much as it is picking up high points. Since the era of the Palm device… thats pretty much been my main approach, albeit I use a scribble type app, rather than OCR. One of the cool things I picked up from Faith, is right next to the bulletin in the entry way, they had sermon notes sheets, with some preprinted headings. I’ve also been known to take a bulletin, and fill nearly every white space with notes at times as well.

Rereading the scriptures

A few hours after the sermon, I reread the scriptures… its not a detailed read, but more so a review of what I;ve heard. This is something likely I picked up Grace Bible Church, a non-denominational, dispensational church, and my primary flight instructor from way back when. He’d bring his Bible out to the FBO, and in between lessons on Sunday afternoon, he’d be poking through it, so I asked him what the deal was. He said a review shortly after the sermon helped him remember what was said, such that he could act on it.

Meditate on the text

This could be formal, such as Lecto Divina, or just a matter of pondering the text, reading it, and praying as one feels is needed. After such, consider how it ties into the sermon of homily.

Act on the text/sermon

Jesus said something to the tune of, “if you love me, you will keep my commands”… he didn’t say, “you will ponder them, and then do nothing” or that “you will blow them off as too hard, too much a culture of 2000 yrs ago, or too unrealistic”, or “if you have time, you will do them” he said something more like “you will keep them in your heart and you will do them”. For me… the dude with 10 pt lists and time frames, typical goal setting stuff works. For others, likely something more formal like a schedule, or less formal, like yep, I will do this would work. Its not the how part that matters, it is the doing part.

Review

Review what goes down as you walk with Christ. How has the scripture, how as the sermon impacted your life? Has it made a change, if so cool. Has it done nothing, if not, why not? This is a time for reflection… and for those who do accountability circles and the like, perhaps included in such types of activities, both from an individual walk point of view, but also such that others would be edified.

My response:

Ultimately, what I do is hose up much of the above. At different times, I’ve taken on different parts, and when it all comes together, its like wowzers… Its the sort of thing that doesn’t come natural per se, but it is something I find I am continuously working on as part of my walk. Likely my biggest issue is the meditation aspect… its just not something I get into, possibly a ramification of the five solas… but it is something i am working on.

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Neil Ellis Orts hit on something huge this week. Blackholes… and while I plunge in to such, its not without fear, having experienced the backlash a whole multitude of times. Each time, I wonder, if things are going to crash and burn again, and while I believe seeds are being planted, this whole *”leaving the canned answers behind, and jumping on for a wild ride with God” deal is a scary one indeed.

Some time ago, I remember being taken aback by a fellow Christian’s attitude. They stated “we dont want those folks around here” in reference to a bunch of dudes, either on drugs, or perhaps having too good a time with CH3CH2OH cruising through. I was so offended, I didnt know what to say, and thus said nothing and then the subject changed, and safety returned. When I read Neal’s blog, it was like whoa… I am offended at myself, as I too can ignore voices, and avoid eye contact with the best of them. In my head, “yep we want radical inclusion”… in my heart, “oh noes, here we go again”.

So when I do jump into the fray… yep, emotional blackholes, or as a friend so eloguently stated, emotional vampires, happen, whether it be the homeless, the mentally ill, or I guess just folks we run into as well. I wonder what actually went on in the minds of Jesus and the disciples as I think Neal is right when he stated.

….a reference was made to the crowds that followed Jesus. Now, I don’t know about everyone else, I admit that I’ve generally pictured these crowds as being fairly ordinary, middle class, sane people. Sure, I know there were some oddballs in the group. Prostitutes, demoniacs, whatever. I guess I pictured a sort of Hollywood hooker with a heart of gold. And the demoniacs were healed, so they became nice people, pillars of their communities, people who knew how to act in public and only answered voices everyone else could hear (and politely at that—no screeching or yelling).

Reflecting on my own fear of “emotional black holes” and hearing of the crowds following Jesus, I suddenly realized that nice, middle-class, comfortable, polite, sane people don’t go around following a preacher and his band of merry men. (For one thing, they’re all busy with their nice, polite, middle class, sane, careers.)…

So I’m pondering this… how did Jesus and the apostles respond? What happens when the resources at hand drop to nil, and nothing more is left? What happens when the followers start acting real crazy when such happens. Yep, been there, done that, and it can get ugly fast.

Neil goes and presents the following.

And what if we’re called to risk that gravitational pull to help find a light that resists the black hole? More than resist, but turns the black hole inside out, so that it no longer pulls in and crushes, but reaches out and heals?

Granted, I’ve been privileged to see such happen, but it takes time, and often there are a whole lot of rough patches along the way. Doing the “listening and being there” thing is about all that I can think of… but then I also realize, not all are going to be do such or even for those who can, not all the time, as such often takes a very long time… thus the normal suspicions of abandonment that those burdened with blackhole characteristics have are not unwarranted. The above sort of turns the table compassion wise… on the other hand, its still not easy, or at least I dont find it easy by any means.

How do others respond (blog comments invited)

*A super cool quote I picked up from Pastor Steve McGinley’s sermon last Wednesday.

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Talk radio and tv in a lot of ways of hijacked family values such that the really important stuff gets missed. Family values become sin avoidance, which is not a bad thing… but without Christ they become much like a business management book of the month thing. Mostly show, and when the first big crisis hits which challenges them, things practiced without a solid foundation are often the first to go.

For Christians, there is no underlying substance in “walking right” if Christ is not at the center, and walking right without a center… if one gets poked along the way, its pretty easy to veer off into the ditch. This is not to say non-believers dont walk right, many hold to a higher moral standard than many Christians… but how they center and such is the topic for another blog post.

Leon Blodder a Presbyterian pastor is blogging his sermon series texts on family values. I think he nails it in a huge way, its not the typical FoF, or AFA type dont do this, or that, but a hugely Christocentric approach. Really the big deal stuff, where upon everything else is derived from. While the time is short, I think such is especially key for families who are sending a young person away from home for the first time.

Five family values he presents are:

The Morality of Calendars and keeping the Sabbath
Sacred Space for Quality Family Time
Living Simply
Caring for the Earth
Practicing Hospitality

While I’m writing this today, Leon’s only covered the first aspect, but I think the entire series will be very worthwhile.

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