Mr Locke blogs about a missed oppurtunity, when a fellow drove up and asked where a prayer meeting was, and then finding non, asked Mr Locke to pray, where upon he didnt really have time, but he did sort of, and ending up nicely walking away. Such a situation no doubt has happed to all of us, multiple times in my case (see blog subtitle). There are a couple things to look at, first, the other guy, and then the me part.

Looking at the other guy….

Wow, to probably make a special trip to pray, finding no prayer meeting, and then finding Mr Locke didnt have time, no doubt hurt… perhaps quite a lot. The fellow likely drove off, and prayed as he drove, or maybe went to a special place and prayed. God heard him. Since Mr Locked blogged about it, chances are a ton of other folks prayed online for this other guy too, much more so than he would likely have met in a prayer meeting. It likely doesnt help calm Mr Lockes heartache, but it does seem that God has these amazing ways of dealing with our failures and working them for good.

Focusing on the ‘me’ part.

Um yeh… well gosh, how many times have I have done something similiar. It always ends up coming back to an argh type deal usually after just a few minutes have passed, and its no longer possible, and it hurts.

In some ways, Peter’s denail comes to mind… and the 3 times it occurred. It would be easy to retreat after such bad behavior, yet, I remind myself of Peter, and he went forth with even more vigor. In some ways, such situations serve as hard core wakeup calls.

What I find happening, is I resolve not to do the same thing again, and surprisingly, I find that I dont… its like being whacked upside the head leaving a huge scar, resulting in major behaviorial changes. The problem being… the same situations dont repeat very often, and I end up making the similar stupid mistakes, although when situation does repeat… see the blog subtitle.

On both…

Yep, it really does impact both parties, God’s children, as well as God’s servant, thus I dont think it incorrect to look at the other guy, or the me part exclusively. The difficult ones, are when it really does come down to a timing/resource issue. Something has to give, and that returns back to the 99 vs 1 thing again. How many times can you let down the 99 for the 1, before getting in a jam from a worldly pov. Scripture doesnt address this though, the focus is on the one… Jesus words are so very hard to hear.

That being said, I am working on some tech solutions, and hope to roll those out in the next day or so for beta testing. In addition, I resigned my position at CF in order to devote more time bringing this live and focusing more on small group ministry. As far as I know, no one else does an online version of Compline which is interactive, nor one that runs 5 days a week. It is a challenging schedule for sure,  but having seen the results from our earlier run, I very much saw God at work. It is a good way to end the day in corporate worship and prayer, even if it is online instead of 3D.

Be that as it may… what we designed is ecumenical in scope, and it brings liturgy to many who may never have experienced such. We did take some liberties, its not an EO, Catholic, or Lutheran service, but carries bits and pieces of each. Its not always contemporary music, some nights we use hymns, some nights we use rock and roll. It can get crazy at times, when one combines liturgical prayer, with the spontaneity of a Baptist or Assembly of God service, where folks jump in with praise Jesus or Amen, but it really is a cool type of crazy.

One of the other things, apart from the tech side, is the timing and scheduling issues… we found that if we say 9, folks show up between 9 and 10. Thus, the start time will be 9:00PM CDT for fellowship, and the service starts at 9:45PM CDT sharp… too many times we blew the start time, and folks had to bug out. I think I got a tech fix for that one too

More later as I get the bugs out…. no sense letting the cat out of the bag until I know things are going to work… but video will be attempted this week.

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about^[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Interesting parable, this is… and it hit pretty close to home this week, as I was discussing the discipleship website I’m building with a friend of mine.

One of the issues with internet evangelism, is that things can take a real header in a hurry, if brothers and sisters in Christ start arguing with one another over righteiousness, when a seeker asks an honest question. Usually the underlying issue is one of judgementalism… so the question was, how can this best be constrained. And then the discussion morphed a bit, and it was, thank goodness we see eye to eye, and we aren’t judgemental like those other folks. (light bulb moment) Yep, as soon as the second part of that sentence was stated it was like egads, we’re not being humble at all here, and are sharing the same sin, as those who would exalt themselves over others.

I think its fine to thank God for wisdom, insight, even righteous living etc. We are blessed to be granted the privilege of studying His word, edification, and Church. These are all good and proper things. Where the line crosses, is when we add in comparison factors and become cocky. Not everyone is at the same place, or has the same understanding, some more so, some less so. However, I do think we should be thankful for what God has granted us, we should not however, elevate ourselves or make comparisons. Certainly, a teacher is under greater judgement than a student, yet, the teacher should feel fine to thank God, for those who have taught him or her, but not condemn a student in the same sentence. It comes down to the last verse.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted

Often times, good teachers, will use experience the humbling experience of role reversal. Ie, the student brings things to light, not previously considered by the teacher. This, the roles are reversed. That is another cause for thanksgiving.

The problem is ultimately exhaltation of oneself over another. The proactive solution, humility.

Today was a bit of a zoo. Everything from a php coding issue, to metallurgy, to people management issues, to assisting with a suicide prevention. Go figure, the life of a tech dude.

And this, is why your church needs a website. It might well have saved a life this evening.

In the online world, it is rare that one ever crosses the line into 3D activities. Terroristic threads, and suicides are 2 subjects that do result in crossing that line. And this is why your church needs a website. Time is of the essence in such matters as one might expect, and 3D, not virtual intervention is key. The problem of course is connecting the two to make it possible. This is where your church enters in.

People, even the most careful individuals do leave cyber trails, and often times under pressure give other clues. They may not want to involve others in their situation, yet suicide is often times a call for help. It doesn’t matter if its for real or not. All such threats need to be followed up on if indeed possible. And no, its not always possible as sometimes, there just isn’t enough info to work with, and generally, unless its a terroristic threat and a call from the FBI, most ISP’s won’t assist.

Thus, in this case we did have information to work off of, and we found a church website, and found a pastors contact info. We no doubt ended up waking him up, but the end result, is a young person is now in a hospital rather than dieing in their bedroom, all the while his parents were asleep. (for all you parents out there, this can happen… and I can only imagine the heartache involved, had this youngster succeeded).

As a result, please do make sure your church has a website, make sure it has a contact number, as well as your pastors name. (I don’t know that posting the emergency number online is wise to avoid prank calls and such), but the main number, and an answering machine which directs folks to an after hours emergency number is certainly a viable option.

Now, some readers might think such a situation is a rarity. Sadly, online suicide threats occur somewhere in the world 24/7/365. Most webmasters and administrators are not well equipped to deal with such issues, but more and more are finding it is a critical need, as virtual communities become more and more life like.

This of course doesn’t mean that every situation will have a successful outcome. In many cases, the person is too hard to track, the net tools, dont work, or we end up chasing evidence that goes no where. And of course, there are always the situations where its someone just out for a thrill to see what a fuss can be made by crying wolf. And in other cases, the person succeeds, or in others, they never travel over the same cyber path for months if ever. Thus, there is no way to really know that such plans are effective in many cases. Yet, if one life is spared, it makes it all worthwhile.

Praise God, the youngster got to the ER, praise God, we reached the pastor, praise God, the church had a website, praise God, all the right people were at the right place at the right time.

As a administrator of a fairly large ecumenical ministry, who reaches out to all, I’ve often kept the cards held pretty close when it comes to the political issues of abortion and homosexuality. I always felt in picking a specific side, I’d end up polarizing things more than they already were. Thus, other than to state the facts, the disagreements, and background, I kept my opinions to myself. Granted, part of it is due to not really having a solid theological  opinion I guess, but more so, my role is to facilitate and guide, not to direct.

I’ve studied a multitude of studies others have created, including the ELCA’s Journey Together Faithfully. I’ve read almost every Bible translation in English, and although my Biblical Greek course work occured nearly 20 years ago, I dug into the Greek as well. Hebrew, I’m too paranoid to dig into. I’ve read Dr Jenson’s works, I’ve read Bishop Bouman’s responses, I’ve even checked the goodsoil website, as well as others such as the ECP. I’ve prayed a lot. And I come to the conclusion, I really don’t have much more of a theological opinion than when I started. And it would be easy to remain publicly neutral.

Yet, I have to ponder this a bit. I know folks on the ECP candidate list, some who would make a mighty fine pastor. I also know conservative folks who are just itching to leave, yet are staying due to church family, Lutheran tradition, location and super cool things they really like about the ELCA.

I know there were folks fussing over the unauthorized handouts and such at the CWA. In some regards due to them being unauthorized, in others, due to the fact there were not theological, but instead were more personal in nature. I can understand the issue of being unauthorized, but as far as the personal aspect goes…. it make sense. Anyone who has been down this path, knows the wealth of theological arguments on both sides. Thus to restate them for the CWA just doesn’t make a lot of sense. On the other hand, once you put real people in the picture who are deeply affected by the outcome of policy, it very much gives one pause to seriously thing things through, rather than a somewhat isolated academic theological study. Likewise, it also makes me think of whether I should formalize an opinion, and more so, whether to have such opinion public.

Granted, to some of my more literalistic oriented readers of my blog, they probably say, whoa, you have an opinion, as scripture is obvious. In all seriousness, I just don’t see it. And to some of my LGBT readers, my lack of opinion, is probably just as dead to them as a negative opinion.

What I keep returning to, is something I think Dr Jenson said at one point, what if you are wrong, in responding to another with a counter opinion. Egads, I don’t want to go there. Yet, what if we are wrong the other way……

I saw this myself upfront and personal in the very recent past within the  ecumenical ministry I’m involved with as its undergoing huge changes. I remember a dear pastor friends comment. “I believe this is right, I am praying this is right, what if we are wrong…..” I really wonder if Dr Jenson’s writings are that wide spread. I don’t think this statement is in any of his texts…..

Despite all the turmoil, I have never seen God moving as much. It may well be that staff and our members dug into scripture and prayed like they never had before.. on both sides of the issues.

And getting back to the ELCA in closing, one of the super cool things going on is similar to my much smaller, but much more personal experiences. Be sure to check out the photo, as well as the blog entry on Pastor Zips blog. It is pretty powerful.

Book of Faith, Bible Study Initiative

Full Communion with the Moravian Church

Concern for Genocide in Darfur

Opposition of escalation of Iraq War

Support for World Hunger Appeal

Pondering Pastor blogged many of the events, his blog is a must read.

Also voting results are located at the assembly website.

I also debated whether to discuss the relatively controversial Landahl substitution concerning pastors in same gender relationships. On the one hand, its pretty newsworthy, on the other, it has the potential to be pretty polarizing. Even more so, that the news media seems to be confusing this as a change in standards, rather than interim guidance for Bishops.

Sadly though, depending upon how it comes across, it has the potential to cause significant division. This morning is going to be a tough one in some pulpits, thus prayer for our leaders and pastors is critical. No doubt much midnight oil is being burned rewritting sermons and in prayer as to what to say tomorrow.

Be encouraged and trust God

Martin Luther

commentary on Galations 5:11

Contrast this with what Jesus said:

1 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent

And then, lets think about contemporary Christianity and its excuses

1. We can’t go there… last time we were there, the offering only covered half our expenses.

2. We need to watch our resources, we are spread too thin, homeless ministry is too expensive, we need to cut back.

3. We are to be separate from the world, we are to be safe, we are to be pure, we are to strive for righteousness. Can dark and light co-exist. We need to take care of our own and protect them.

4. They don’t repent, they won’t ever be like us, we can’t waste anymore time on them. They only say they will change, but we know its just a game with them.

Many years ago, I heard of a young preacher with a heart for the homeless, the drug users, and the downtrodden. He was making a difference, yet folks were critical. He ministered and gave shelter, food, and money to those in need. No one was left out. Folks were critical, he’s wasting his time they said, he’s waisting our money they said, those folks will never change.

The thing was, is that for the most part, those critical of the young preacher were correct. Folks didn’t change, despite his preaching, and his showing the love of Christ. Yet, a few did, and there was much rejoicing by the preacher, but not from the rest of the flock.

Over time, the young preacher changed, he still head a heart for the lost, but he saw the worlds wisdom in being careful with his limited resources. He started restricting to whom he would minister too, and who he would give shelter too. If folks resisted change, well, they were out of luck. People applauded the change. Donations increased, his success grew. By the worlds standards, he had done great things, and people applauded. Folks were getting saved, folks were getting ministered too, and getting food and shelter. Yet, the 1 lost sheep was left out in the cold, no food, no shelter, and an admonition: change, and I will let you in the door. This is the worlds way, the ministry grew and grew, many people liked the pop psychology of anti-enabling……

What about the 1 lost sheep?

1. To recognize All Christians are grounded in Christ

2. The core is Christ, despite congregational, doctrinal, social, geographical, moral, age, and language differences.

3. Differences should not be glossed over, but acknowledged. A means to foster understanding is key. It may be that the differences are irreconcilable, and that is ok.

4. Corrective witness to one another should not be squashed, but should be allowed if expressed through love for one another, never condemnation.

Ways to achieve it:

1. Significant differences should be open for honest discussion and mutual growth.
2. Varying congregational and/or doctrinal points of view must never be compromised for unity.
3. Varying congregational and/or doctrinal points of view should never be silenced.
4. Persecution and pain should be expected, this could create a negative impact on new believers, and possibly fatiqued older ones. Therefore a place of relaxation, rest, and recharge of like minded individuals in a safe haven can be a good thing, but it should definitely not be the only thing as it is counter to the mission.
5. Levels of separation nor exclusion should never be made, but the goal should be to find a common language, such that the truth of the Gospel overshines all.
6. Partipants should be sensitive to social, geograpical, political, moral and language differences. What is considered Christian in one sector, may be anethema in another as well as the revese. Rather than absolute censorship or favor granted to one side over the other, such subjects should dealt with in Christian love and sensitivity on all sides.
7. Recreation and play build relationships, which lead to dialog, which is a stepping stone.

8. It is likely that there will be some disagreements, where in the disagreement is so sharp, that no reconciliation is possible, and much ill will can result. Thus, the path chosen by Paul and Barnabus in Acts may be a good option, ie to separate for a while as long as both paths are leading towards unity, and rejoin at a future date.

9. The Gospel overshines all