Archive for December, 2004

God and Minister Selection

Published
by
Mike
on December 14, 2004
in faith and scripture
. 37 Comments

“God has already selected our new minister.”

I’ve read something like that several times recently from churches who are looking for ministers in various ministries.

I know what’s behind it: an eagerness to recognize that God is still working in this world — which, of course he is! Part of what this implies is that we aren’t on our own, left with our own smarts and resources. In that sense, it’s a reaction against a semi-deism that many of us grew up with.

And yet . . . I wonder if we’ve really thought through the implication of saying that God has already selected the person, and we’re just trying to figure out who it is.

First, if that’s true, couldn’t God do a better job of communicating WHO that person is? And when the search committee is so sure, couldn’t he also make it plain to the person whom they’re sure of? Why would God withhold the info if this is a win/lose decision (which it would be if a church didn’t “call” the person God had chosen).

Second, let me just note that sometimes this becomes almost a tool wielded by churches — even if it’s unintentional. “We believe God has chosen someone, and after months of praying we’re convinced it is YOU.”

Third, my main objection is that it seems to misunderstand the divine-human relationship God desires. He has chosen in his sovereign will to make us partners rather than puppets. He has given us free will; he’s blessed us with the challenge of making decisions.

Could it be that God hasn’t “chosen the person”? Maybe there are any number of people who might please God in a certain ministry. Perhaps much of what he wants is for us to think spiritually, to use discernment, and to ask for his quiet guidance. As this happens, a deepening of our relationship with God takes place.

Eventually, after much discernment and prayer, a “call” is issued and accepted. Couldn’t we then say that this is the person God chose? Just not in some deterministic way that diminishes our partnership with him!

Two Christmas Programs

Published
by
Mike
on December 13, 2004
in Church and General
. 3 Comments

Two wonderful Christmas programs yesterday.

The first was “The Good News Christmas Cruise,” with lots of Highland kids. As of this year, we are no longer “children’s ministry parents,” so we got to go as just supportive members! (Actually, that’s not entirely true. I did have two nieces in the play. So we went as supportive aunt, uncle, and cousin.)

The second was children from the Highland neighborhood–especially those who participate in the Colonial Apartments ministry. There aren’t adequate words to describe the emotions of watching these children tell the story of Jesus’ birth. Afterward, Highland was blessed to serve a meal for them, their families, and lots of others from our neighborhood.

Two special moments from that second Christmas program.

First, I loved hearing Joe Almanza welcome everyone in English and then in Spanish. Joe’s our new ministry of community outreach, and he’s having an amazing impact. He came here at just the right time. We’re using all this language about being a “missional church.” Joe is missional. His interest isn’t in being the biggest church or the best-known church. He just wants to live for the sake of the world.

Second, I heard Diane gasp a bit when the angels walked in. There was a girl in her second grade class last year who wasn’t back at Thomas Elementary this year. She didn’t know where she went, but knew her life had been very challenging. So she’s been praying for her. And then there she was, singing in the Christmas musical in our auditorium!

I want to pass along Rubel’s “fax of life” for today. Good words about Christmas:

USA Today reports that a 25-year-old Memphian has declared his intention to renounce the Christmas rush. He and his wife have told their family and friends not to expect gifts from them this year. “We don’t feel any obligation to buy gifts,” he says. “I felt odd getting things I didn’t need.

“The Washington Post carries a similar story that broadens the indictment. It quotes psychologist Patricia Dalton who says that she and her colleagues see hosts of unhappy people whose lives have been hollowed out by “runaway consumerism” – the compulsion to buy clothes they don’t need, expensive accessories they can’t afford, and high-end trinkets they have come to regard as essentials to life. The stress of paying for all these things drives people to work so hard that they’re ruining their marriages, their family life, and their health.

Yet we know the American economy could collapse if everybody suddenly quit buying gifts, new things, and only the things we truly need! So what is a responsible person to do? What should a spiritual person do? Is there a middle ground between being a sour-faced Scrooge and a ravenous spendthrift?

My own opinion is that Christmas is one of the most joyous times of the year. I’m not for abolishing gift-giving as part of the season. Can’t we see the gifting we do for one another at Christmas as a reminder of heaven’s great gift to us in the birth of Jesus? Is the choice really so extreme as frugality versus greed?

Some of us do behave irresponsibly around Christmastime. We seem to forget that debt enslaves. We shower children with an excess that leaves many of them both greedy and ungrateful. Christians too often wind up their year feeling spiritually empty – drained by a holiday that should have been a holy day.

So give appropriate gifts to the people you love. As a testimony to grace received, shower grace on others. But set sensible boundaries about the money you can pay for those gifts, so pride and greed don’t drive your spending. If things are tight for your family this year, draw names and radically minimize the buying.

Whether flush or finite in your giving potential, build generosity and sharing into your family scheme. If you can’t make a donation or supply a gift, help at a homeless shelter. Visit a nursing home. Attend free Christmas Eve worship.

Don’t gripe that everyone has “forgotten the true meaning” of Christmas. Just embrace it for yourself and your family. And model it for those who may have gotten caught up in the hijacking of what can still be a holy season for you.

The Head Actually Does NOT Fit on the Butt — Who Knew?

Published
by
Mike
on December 11, 2004
in General
. 7 Comments

I guess if GPAs and standardized tests are any true indication, there are some areas of life where I’m relatively smart.

But there are whole other areas where I’m a nincompoop. Like FIXING THINGS and PUTTING THINGS TOGETHER.

We have about fifty people coming over tonight–a young adult Bible class from Highland–so I’m getting to some of the things I have put off. Plus, I finally cracked down and bought a reindeer/sleigh exhibit that Chris has been wanting for a couple years. Of course, the box said it would need minor assembling. Liars! To me, “minor assembling” should mean plugging stuff together.

Actually, Chris and I are a pretty good team. He seems to have the ability to see how stuff goes together. So we worked together for a while on the sleigh. He came in for a few minutes while I tried to assemble the first reindeer. But it just would not go!

Christopher came out, shook his head a bit and said, “Dad his head won’t fit on his butt no matter how hard you push.” I backed up and looked. He was right. That was, indeed, a tail I was trying to force the head on rather than a neck. When I tried it on the other end, it fit rather nicely.

Vaya Con Dios, Judy

Published
by
Mike
on December 10, 2004
in General
. 3 Comments

It was a bittersweet moment Wednesday night to have Judy Thomas join me one last time during the Oasis prayer time before her move to Nashville. For nine years we’ve sat side-by-side at worship committee meetings. It’s been a huge blessing in my life. And for the past couple years, she’s joined me to pray for people in Oasis. (Diane teaches 6th grade girls on Wednesday evenings.) What a joy for Brandon and Sheryl — and just in time, as they are expecting their third child.

Maybe this is true everywhere, but it especially seems true in Abilene. People you love move away. Our covenant group began with four families long ago. We’re the only one remaining in town. Lynn Anderson talked last Sunday about 400 people (or was it families?) who left Highland in the late 1980s because they had to find jobs in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Ft. Worth.

Each time, I try to be a good sport about it. I really do have a kingdom perspective on this — most of the time! — and I envision the blessing people will be wherever they are going. My goal isn’t to build a huge church, but to prepare people to live in authentic community for the sake of the world to the glory of God.

Still, it’s hard. Vaya con Dios, Judy.

Let Everything That Has Breasts Praise the Lord

Published
by
Mike
on December 9, 2004
in General
. 27 Comments

All right. Let’s suppose you’re in my shoes. You’re about to co-teach Acts-Revelation again with Randy Harris for eightysomething freshmen Bible majors. You’re about to negotiate who teaches which books. Immediately I grab Romans and Colossians, two of my favs.

But which ones would you insist that Randy teach? Or narrow it down. Which one would you say, “I refuse to deprive our students of the opportunity to hear you explain THIS!!”

If that stumps you, try this (and maybe it will lead us there): what’s the hardest passage in Acts-Revelation to understand? What’s a baffling bit of text that someday you’d like to ask, “Paul (or Peter or James, etc.), . . . what the heck was THAT about?”

- - - -

A unique call to worship (from John Ortberg):

“The church where I work videotapes most of the services, so I have hundreds of message on tape. Only one of them gets shown repeatedly.

This video is a clip from the beginning of one of our services. A high school worship dance team had just brought the house down to get things started, and I was supposed to transition us into some high-energy worship by reading Psalm 150. This was a last-second decision, so I had to read it cold, but with great passion: ‘Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament!‘ The psalm consists of one command after another to praise, working its way through each instrument of the orchestra. My voice is building in a steady crescendo; by the end of the psalm I practically shout the final line, only mispronouncing one word slightly: ‘Let everything that has breasts, praise the Lord.’

A moment of silence. The same thought passes through four thousand brains: Did he just say what I think he did? In church? Is this some exciting new translation I can get at the bookstore?

Then everybody in the place just lost it. They laughed so hard for so long, I couldn’t say a thing. . . . I finally just walked off the stage, and we went on with the next part of the service.

I have been teaching at that church for eight years. Of all the passages I have exegeted and all the messages I have preached, that is the one moment that gets replayed before conferences and workshops. Over and over.”

Kingdom Business, Church Business

Published
by
Mike
on December 8, 2004
in General
. 34 Comments

From Howard Snyder:

“The church gets in trouble whenever it thinks it is in the church business rather than the Kingdom business. In the church business, people are concerned with church activities, religious behavior and spiritual things. In the Kingdom business, people are concerned with Kingdom activities, all human behavior and everything God has made, visible and invisible. Kingdom people see human affairs as saturated with spiritual meaning and Kingdom significance. Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world…If the church has one great need, it is this: To be set free for the Kingdom of God, to be liberated from itself as it has become in order to be itself as God intends. The church must be freed to participate fully in the economy of God.”

Divorce . . . and Divorced People

Published
by
Mike
on December 7, 2004
in Church and family
. 19 Comments

I’ve said this before here, but I think churches have often made two mistakes concerning divorce.

First, they’ve been too easy on divorce. Homosexuality is singled out as the #1 enemy of the family. Wrong! Divorce is the #1 enemy of the family and a major contributor to poverty. Yesterday I pointed out that Barna’s research indicates that one’s (professed) Christian faith seems to make little difference as to whether or not marriage commitments are kept. (My guess as to why the so-called “blue states” have a lower divorce rate is that they tend to be states with more Catholics. The Catholic Church has continued to treat marriage as a big deal. I’d at least say that’s probably a major factor.) My biggest concern here isn’t that Christians are disobeying a specific command (as disconcerting as that is), but that the WAY OF CHRIST–a way of honesty, compassion, submission, service, love, and forgiveness–would seem to make it more likely that marriages would survive. And more than survive–actually be a mutual blessing. So even beyond marriage and divorce, the question has to be asked: Does walking with Christ make our people more gentle, more humble, more compassionate, more forgiving? Can you tell who the Christians are at the little league field?

Second, they’ve been too hard on divorced people. We recently had a couple in our elders’ meeting for a time of blessing. The husband told us that at a former church he’d been told that he could attend and sit on the back row but that he couldn’t participate in communion or be a member because he was divorced. That’s extreme, I know. But in how many ways have we communicated through our language and programs that divorced people are second class citizens of the community?

This is delicate, I know. But my plea is that the church continue to be hard on divorce and gentle, accepting, and (when necessary) forgiving with those whose lives have suffered from broken relationships.

Massachusetts and Divorce

Published
by
Mike
on December 6, 2004
in marriage
. 19 Comments

The state with the lowest divorce rate in the most recent statistics? Massachusetts. Nine of the ten states with the lowest divorce rates are blue states. Of the states with the highest divorce stats, all ten are red states. Add to this the findings of George Barna, a “born-again Christian,” who found that “born-again Christians” have about the highest divorce rates in the USA.

What’s that about?

“It Always Seems Long”

Published
by
Mike
on December 5, 2004
in General
. 11 Comments

An amazing day of remembering and celebrating today for Highland’s 75th anniversary. What a blessing to have John Allen Chalk and Lynn Anderson back–along with lots of other people who came back for the day.

The church started in December 1929 when Abilene Christian College moved from its former campus (Sayles and N. 1st) to its current location. The College Church moved with it, and some people decided there needed to be a church that remained there near downtown. So two months after the stock market crash, the Highland Church was launched.

The worship assembly this morning was two hours and ten minutes. Afterward I asked my sixth grader if it seemed long. He replied, “It always seems long.”

Perspective.

110176004155080915

Published
by
Mike
on December 3, 2004
in General
. 9 Comments

Loved being in MO for a few days for Thanksgiving. I especially was glad to see my nieces and nephew on that side: Kari, Crista, Maddie, Van, Tatum, and Hunter. Tatum, my niece from Vietnam, warmed up to me when I sat down and played Barbies with her. She was disappointed that I didn’t know the difference between a blouse and a shirt, but otherwise she seemed to enjoy the playtime.

My brother and his wife have a new house on fourteen acres just outside Neosho. When I walk around there, I realize the Ozarks are still in my blood. The hills and the trees (walnuts, pecans, oaks, etc.) stay in the system.

The local paper carried a great story while we were there. There is a dispute in an area school system concerning a kindergartener who got in trouble. His mother is defending him, saying: “Alex picked up acorns and he accidentally threw one at a teacher.”

You’ve got to love that.

I’ve written about this before. Children whose parents constantly side with them against teachers, coaches, and other authority figures are children headed for trouble. Of course, there are times, when parents have to step in to defend. But all you have to do is hang around an elementary school or a little league field or even the children’s wing at church to realize that it’s gotten way out of whack with some parents.