Archive for March, 2005

Toe-to-Toe Without Eye-for-Eye

Published
by
Mike
on March 31, 2005
in Church
. 30 Comments

My picks:
Carolina over Michigan State
Illinois over Louisville
Carolina over Illinois

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Tuesday was Randy Harris’s day to teach in our class. Supposed to be on Ephesians. Right before we walked into the classroom I suggested he hold off on Ephesians until Thursday (today) and instead engage the students in a discussion about Terry Schiavo, encouraging them to learn to think Christianly about our interaction with the broader culture and to learn to talk with one another about issues where they strongly disagree without getting ugly.

It was great. I’m so encouraged that these 80 freshmen Bible majors were able to do just that.

For some reason the generation or two above them often haven’t modeled that very well. We’ve demonized opponents, often assuming the worst about them and their motives.

Wouldn’t it be a tremendous step forward if we could learn to talk without having to agree? I’m not saying we should adopt a “whatever” philosophy where we no longer hold to convictions. But can’t we recognize the humanity of others? Can’t we assume better motives (unless they’ve proved us otherwise)? Can’t we go toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose without being eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth?

Stream in the Desert

Published
by
Mike
on March 30, 2005
in General
. 1 Comment

Anyone upset about yesterday’s post? As if you didn’t waste enough time already checking out other blogs! :) If you tried to post a link, but ran into the blogger afternoon traffic jam, try today — either on yesterday’s comments or today’s. Thanks so much. After “Stream in the Desert” this weekend, I’d like to pop by and visit some of the sites.

Want one more blog to check out? Jon Westin Bennett, one of Chris’s buddies who was in the wreck (and one of Los Tres Amigos who were in ICU together at Cook’s), has spent most of the last couple months back in the hospital. They just can’t get the infection in one of his legs to go away.

This is one amazing kid, and he’s started a blog — written from his room in the hospital — to catch people up and to let them know what to pray for.

Think about this: a sixth grader writing on his laptop from a children’s hospital to encourage others and to ask for prayer. www.wesbennett.blogspot.com.

The last time I spoke at “Stream in the Desert” was in 2000. It was vintage Ken Young. Way too many people were coming to get into Golf Course Road’s building and the Midland College arena wasn’t available. So he checked into renting an abandoned Builder’s Square facility. Of course, he was told there was no way. But Ken just couldn’t believe that was the FINAL answer. Well, the next thing we knew, it was available, and the “Stream” folks turned it into a desert sanctuary. About 5800 attended that years, crammed into that former shopping center.

The last couple years there haven’t been quite as many people (2800 last year, I think I heard), but that’s still pretty amazing. Thousands of people heading to Midland for a spiritual retreat. I’m looking forward to it. I need a really productive couple days to finish getting ready.

Your Blogs

Published
by
Mike
on March 29, 2005
in General
. 140 Comments

There are so many people who visit here regularly who have your own blogs. Several of them I’ve checked out before. But I know you sometimes feel embarrassed to post your site.

So today, here’s my invitation: please sign in at the comments and leave us the link to your blog. Even if you’ve left it before.

And keep writing, friends!

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Published
by
Mike
on March 28, 2005
in General
. 10 Comments

I didn’t really go out on a limb with my pick this year. I have the Tar Heels. But at least I’m in the final four. It goes back to my first preaching ministry in Wilmington, NC. The state is hoops crazy. But when you have UNC, NC State, Duke, and Wake Forest (all of whom got in the 64 this year . . . along with UNC-Charlotte), there is good reason to be unreasonable about college basketball. Plus, there was that time we met Michael Jordan in the parking lot of the mall in Wilmington . . . . When was the last time there were so many incredible games in the quarterfinals? I had nothing at stake in the Michigan State/Kentucky game — not particularly liking either of them (probably knowing they’d be playing UNC), but that was a great game.

Had a good, exhausting time at the Tulsa Workshop this weekend. The nice thing about the Friday night keynote is that you could bomb and people would think it was a great night. They’ve already been worked into a frenzy by Keith Lancaster and Jerome Williams! Met lots of people from this blog community there. So glad you came up to visit.

Back to Megan’s grave yesterday morning. Our 11th Easter to be there, but only the second time with snow on the ground. This year we were joined by the Bourland family and afterward went to Brody’s grave. I hurt for them as I think of the long journey of grief ahead. But they are amazing people with a strong extended family.

Later today, time to start cranking up for “Stream in the Desert.”

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Published
by
Mike
on March 26, 2005
in General
. 9 Comments

Is this a blog no-no? (And if so, who writes the rules?) This is an entry I wrote September 7. As I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes, I’ve returned to those thoughts from six months ago.

Years ago when I was speaking at Northeastern Christian Junior College, Tony Campolo was also on campus to address a luncheon crowd on the topic: “A Sociologist Looks at Churches of Christ.” Among the profound things he said was, “YOU GUYS ARE THE RELIGIOUS EQUIVALENT OF THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY.” (You have to put Tony’s words in bold and caps.)

He wasn’t mad at us. In fact, there is a lot about the restoration heritage that really resonated with him. But he couldn’t believe the naivity it took to talk about “the church” and “the Lord’s church” as code phrases for the denomination known as Churches of Christ.

It does take a pretty good dose of blindness and/or pride to make that kind of assumption. We are surrounded by Christ-seeking people.

But there are other ways in which people can be part of the spiritual flat earth society. Some have lost a sense of wonder and mystery as they plow through life getting tasks done. They don’t have time or the inclination to stop in amazement at the bursts of joy and hope around them.

With busy lives and with low-level exhaustion, it’s easy to miss out on the wonders of grace leaking in from all sides: from spouses, from children, from friends, from prayers, from movies, from books, from W TX sunsets.

Try this for an experiment. The next time you go to church, open your eyes to everything and everyone God puts in your path. For once ignore the expected; forget your routine. Pray as you walk in for everyone you see. Shake the hands of people you would normally walk right past because you don’t know them. Pretend you’ve been appointed DEACON(ESS) IN CHARGE OF GREETING. Instead of looking through the worship schedule to see whether you’ll like it or not, imagine every possible source of amazement and wonder. Jump into the songs with everything you have. Look at the people around you. (Some did that at Highland this past year and saw a fortysomething woman who was losing a battle with cancer but who was so full of life and love that she drew them into the upside down world of the kingdom.) Absorb every icon, every picture, every facial expression. Be amazed at the body of Christ and the blood of Christ that is shared with you in communion. Imagine brothers and sisters in Christ who are sitting in huts or gathering under trees or huddled in rented public buildings from around the world.

This is the art of spiritual imagination. It is apocalyptic. It sees the hope amid the suffering, the joy amid the routine, the love amid the bitterness, and the shalom amid the wars.

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Published
by
Mike
on March 24, 2005
in General
. 8 Comments

Here, for Holy Week, is Highland’s Foundations of Faith statement:

We believe in one all-powerful God of love,
who made the world good
and made humankind in His image,
to enjoy fellowship with Him and with one another,
and to care for His creation as imitators of Him.
He deserves all our worship and praise.
But we sin against God;
disbelieving Him, disobeying Him, hiding from Him,
we strive to become our own gods;
ruining our relationships with Him, with our neighbors, and with nature,
we are lost in death and deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet in His justice and mercy God has acted to redeem His creation,
choosing a covenant people to bless all peoples of the earth.
In His grace and faithfulness, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.

We believe in God’s only Son, Jesus Christ,
fully human, fully God,
the Word through whom all things were made.
Jesus came to the earth to teach the Truth and to proclaim the reign of God,
preaching good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
healing for the sick,
and forgiveness of sins.
He called all people to repent and believe the Gospel,
the Good News that salvation is found in Him alone.
He was crucified for us,
and on the third day God raised Him from the dead,
defeating the powers of evil and death
and securing for humankind forgiveness of sins
by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.
He instructed us to observe the Lord’s Supper in His memory
so that by participating in His body and blood
we regularly commune with Him and with one another.
He ascended to the Father, where He is now our priest and advocate in whose name we pray.
He is Head of the Church under which our congregation governs itself.
He will return to judge the living and the dead
and to deliver us from death to life eternal with God in heaven.
He invited us to join Him as his obedient disciples
in the work of His ministry, the proclamation of the Gospel,
and the forming of disciples.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the gift of God promised through Christ for His children and for the Church.
The Spirit convicts the world of sin,
and is the pledge of our adoption as God’s children.
The Spirit intercedes for us in prayer;
and claims us in the waters of baptism,
in which believers are immersed for the forgiveness of sins
to be united with Christ in His Body.
The Spirit of holiness and freedom liberates us from sin,
and claims us as servants of purity,
conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ in our attitudes and conduct.
The Spirit binds us together with believers of all times and places
in the one Body of Christ, the Church;
and calls and empowers men and women for various ministries
for building up the Body
and carrying out Jesus’ ministry in the world.
The Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles to speak God’s Word,
guiding the preservation, study, and proclamation of Scripture,
both Old and New Testaments,
the unique revelation of God under which we stand,
our authoritative guide for faith and life.

To God be the glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ
throughout all generations,
for ever and ever! Amen.

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Published
by
Mike
on March 23, 2005
in General
. 39 Comments

Here’s a great piece on the sad story of Terri Schiavo by Rubel Shelly, who’s spent lots of time and research looking into Christian faith and medical ethics. (He has a longer version that I hope will soon be on the Wineskins website.)

Death isn’t always The Enemy

Terri Schiavo suffered massive brain damage 15 years ago when, at the age of 26, her heart stopped beating. That event left her brain deprived of oxygen for an extended period. Since 1990, she has been in what medical literature calls a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS). She is no longer in contact – either by intellect or by will – with the world around her.

As with most people in their twenties, Mrs. Schiavo had not documented her wishes as to whether she wanted to be kept alive under such an unlikely set of circumstances. Her husband, Michael, says she communicated her wishes to him more than once. But her parents refuse to accept his account. Seven years and 19 judges into their bitter family wrangling, the judicial system said it is acceptable to discontinue life support and to remove a feeding tube that has been keeping Mrs. Schiavo’s body functioning.

But the Florida legislature substituted its judgment for the process that has been playing out, and now the U.S. Congress has acted in similar fashion. Ironically, a coalition of conservative religio-political groups has pushed for this intervention – after howling for years about the dangers inherent when lawmakers take it on themselves to intervene on organ donation, abortion rights, or what constitutes appropriate medical treatment for a terminally ill child.

Not only physicians but the rest of us are smart enough to know the difference between protecting, enhancing, and empowering a human life with reasonable hope of recovery and merely prolonging the process of dying. Skill and technology that do the former are admirable and ethical; the same skill and technology used for the latter are unnecessary and ill-advised.

Maybe a key issue here is our common insensitivity which fails to see that what is best possible treatment for a person lacking higher brain function is not always the most treatment possible. The idea that an emotional observer’s faint hope of another’s recovery can trump peer-reviewed medical judgment under extensive court scrutiny over years is simply irresponsible.

Death is sometimes an ally instead of an enemy. Perhaps death itself needs to be reconsidered by all of us. It is not an absolute evil. It is sometimes an instrumental good for those without reasonable hope of recovery. Sometimes the real evil lies in forcing someone to endure existence that is no longer really life.

Regardless of your take on this controversial case, your most responsible personal reaction to it is to document your own wishes about end-of-life decisions and then to share it with those closest to you.

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Published
by
Mike
on March 22, 2005
in General
. 17 Comments

There’s a time to relax and a time to cram. (Been in Eccl. 3 too much this past week.) And it’s a time to cram.

I speak three times this weekend at Tulsa: 2:00 and 7:00 on Friday and 10:00 on Saturday. I was assigned all three topics. The most unusual one is “College Students Are People Too.” What’s that mean? Got any helpful hints? Should I assume I’m talking to college students or those who minister to college students? I’m just now putting the “final touches” on that message. (Translation: I’m thinking about it for the first time today.)

Next weekend (April 1-3) is “Stream in the Desert.” This year we’re using my theme from the Gospel of John, “More Than Thunder.” > Almost a year ago I told Ken I’d like him to write a song with that theme, and I just heard it for the first time. Very nice. (Of course, I think anything Cole sings is great!)

I would appreciate your prayers as I prepare for these events.

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Published
by
Mike
on March 21, 2005
in General
. 2 Comments

From Eugene Peterson:

The term “Soul” works like a magnet, pulling all the pieces of our lives into a unity, a totality. The human person is a vast totality; “soul” names it as such. . . . When we say “soul” we are calling attention to the God-origins, God-intentions, God-operations that make us what we are. It is the most personal and most comprehensive term for who we are–man, woman, and child.

But in our current culture, “soul” has given way to “self” as the term of choice to designate who and what we are. Self is the soul minus God. Self is what is left of soul with all the transcendence and intimacy squeezed out, the self with little or no reference to God (transcendence) or others (intimacy).

“Self” is a threadbare word, a scarecrow word.

“Soul” is a word reverberating with relationships: God-relationships, human-relationships, earth-relationships.

“Self” in both common speech and scientific discourse is mostly an isolating term: the individual.

“Soul” gets beneath the fragmentary surface appearances and experiences and affirms an at-homeness, an affinity with whoever and whatever is at hand.

When “soul” and “self” are turned into adjectives in colloquial speech, the contrast becomes even clearer: “soulish” gives a sense of something inherent and relational, entering the depths, plumbing the underlying sources of motive and meaning, as in soul food, soul music, the soulful eyes of a spaniel, and, negatively, “that poor lost soul”; “selfish,” on the other hand, refers to the self-absorbed, uncaring, and unrelational–a life that is all surface and image.

(from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places)

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Published
by
Mike
on March 20, 2005
in General
. 5 Comments

Palm Sunday.

It is hard to preach as I look out at my son in a wheelchair. I shudder with thanksgiving as I think of what might have been (and as I continue to think of Bret and Jennifer Bourland); but it’s still hard to see.

Today as all the children bring their palm branches down to the front, I’ll be reminded again that there is one who was and is the victorious King — not a king like they or we might have thought. But a King, nevertheless.

As out-of-control as life seems, it isn’t. Not completely. There is One who is moving everything inexorably to a grand conclusion.