Archive for January, 2006

Tuesday, January 31

Published
by
Mike
on January 31, 2006
in Church of Christ
. 65 Comments

One of the talented women of our church has been asked several times to write for a magazine owned by the Gospel Advocate. She was invited to write again for a spring issue, which she did. But then word came back that her articles were no longer welcome because she’s a member of Highland.

The Gospel Advocate has the right to do that, of course. They can decide which churches meet their standards and which don’t. But honestly, Highland isn’t exactly the whacky church they might think. (Besides, what happened to congregational autonomy?)

The funny thing is that the Gospel Advocate was my original publisher. An editor from there heard some of my sermons at the College Church in 1985 and asked if they could put them in a book. So a couple books came out that sold quite well.

My thinking has changed a lot through the years, and I hope it continues to as God keeps shaping me, but the things that might offend the Advocate are things I thought the whole time I preached in Searcy: that there is a much wider communion of saints than Churches of Christ, that women have been called to share fully in their talents and gifts, that a cappella music is an amazing gift but not necessarily “God’s way.”

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We had a great planning session in Nashville Sunday evening and yesterday morning to get started for next fall’s Zoe conference. What a creative bunch I get to hang around!

Monday, January 30

Published
by
Mike
on January 30, 2006
in faith
. 55 Comments

Here are five words I like: ambiguity, mystery, complexity, paradox, and nuance. Am I totally goofed up?

How about you? What words speak from your soul?

My Five Suits

Published
by
Mike
on January 27, 2006
in General
. 55 Comments

My Five Suits

I don’t usually preach with a coat and tie now. Coats make me hot, and I’ve never liked ties. I still wear them at times, but not often. Not trying to be cool, just prefer that, and it seems to fit our changing church.

But there was a time when I preached in suits: the College Church in the 1980s.

When I went to try out there in March of 1984, I didn’t own a suit. One reason is that I was fashion-challenged. But another reason is that we were budget-challenged. I was being paid $18K at our congregation, Diane didn’t work outside the home, and we had two kids. I don’t resent that a bit; I would guess that probably fit right into the church’s membership.

But my dad pointed out that I should probably preach in a suit at the College Church. I was just 27, and he knew I shouldn’t dress like a university student. So he bought me two suits. I wore one in the morning and one in the evening the Sunday I tried out.

When I arrived in Searcy, I needed another suit or two. So Dirk Smith, a Harding student and the son of our campus ministers, drove me to Horn’s in Little Rock. Anyone ever heard of Horn’s (or remember those frightening commercials)? I paid either fifty bucks each, or maybe it was fifty for both. (Dirk, are you out there? Do you remember?)

So now I had four suits. All right, two of them may not have been exactly Hickey Freeman quality. But they worked.

My fifth suit came from an older man whom I’ve always admired named Virgil Lawyer. Virgil spent his life preaching and teaching history at Harding. His students felt like they were there for the actual battles when they heard Virgil talk about the Civil War. He and Lou are one of my favorite couples ever.

He called me one day and said he’d like to take me shopping. I didn’t know what that meant, but I loved the idea of a day with Virgil. We drove over to North Little Rock, and he picked out a nice suit that he bought me. He told me that when he was a young minister an older man bought him a suit when he couldn’t afford one, simply asking him to do the same for another young minister later in life.

Of those five suits I had in the mid-eighties, four are long gone. But the one Virgil bought me still hangs in my closet. I just can’t turn loose of it.

Thursday, January 26

Published
by
Mike
on January 26, 2006
in General
. 25 Comments

Update (added at 9:00 a.m.): Jim Morrison is out of Zambia, thanks to the American embassy. He’s very thankful for all your prayers. Hopefully he’ll be back by Sunday. Of course, as you can imagine, there is much difficult emotional work ahead. Thanks for your concern for this good family.

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I’ve pointed you a couple times to the stuff Steve Holt, Jr., is writing here. Check out yesterday’s great post on friendship houses.

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Also, cruise over to this thought-provoking piece that my buddy Jeff Childers told me about.

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As we seek to turn the ship from the direction of consumer-marketing to missional living, we must somehow not make this another “we’re-doing-it-righter-than-you” endeavor. We must try to continue to move the church into the world that God loves without a game of “I’m-more-missional-than-you.”

This won’t be sudden. It’s engrained in who we are. But it’s an essential move to recapture the identity of the people of God. Still, pride has no place. We must call one another into the mission of Christ, commission each other to be ministers in our spheres of influence (and even outside those spheres), and re-imagine how church might look if it sought to live as a blessing for the world.

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(I understand that some are having a hard time accessing the comments section today. Not sure why. I just tried republishing.)

Wednesday, January 25

Published
by
Mike
on January 25, 2006
in General
. 84 Comments

My last e-mail yesterday from Jim indicated that he thinks he’s going to be allowed to leave Zambia. Thanks for your prayers. Please let them continue for Dr. Jim, his family, and the Zambian family. (I’ll update as soon as I hear something.)

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I just finished oiling Chris’s glove. It’s the one that’s been in our family since Matt was 10. I still love the smell of a freshly oiled baseball glove.

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“I want worship to be directed to God and to express the thoughts of the whole community of faith. BUT, if I got to pick my favorite three worship songs to sing this Sunday morning, they would be . . . .”

Finish the sentence. I’ll give you mine later.

Dr. Jim - Monday, January 23

Published
by
Mike
on January 23, 2006
in General
. 39 Comments

Many of you have read a few things I’ve written about Dr. Jim (Morrison) before. He’s a good friend of mine, a man who’s always thinking and praying about missional living — and then acting on those thoughts and prayers. (The same could be said for his wife, Tracy.) He’s the ER physician who camped out in the ICU unit at Cook’s right after the wreck so he could be with the families of the three boys.

In the past, Jim has made several medical mission trips to Haiti. Right now he’s in Zambia.

Unfortunately, yesterday he accidentally hit a child while driving, and the boy–about four or five years old–died in his arms. This is a man who gladly give his life for such a child. He’s heart-broken. (By the way, stories like this are not uncommon in Africa. I’ve heard many stories of missionaries who had the same kind of tragic experience.)

Everyone around the site of the accident agrees that it was absolutely not his fault. The child darted out suddenly without looking. Still, he’s in the middle of Africa waiting to see if the case will be dropped as it should be.

Jim tells me that the American embassy in Lusaka has been very helpful. He said he’s so thankful for their assistance.

But he would certainly love to have the prayers of everyone in the blog world. There is a hearing tomorrow. Please join me in prayer that the authorities will dismiss the case, recognizing that it was an accident that didn’t stem from wreckless driving, that Jim will feel the love and support of his family and friends in the midst of his grief, and that the Zambian family will be comforted.

Church-hopping

Published
by
Mike
on January 22, 2006
in Church and missional
. 29 Comments

Thanks, thanks to our gracious hosts, the College Church in Fresno. Lee and Bill, the world’s greatest chefs, you and your gang outdid yourselves! As Leonard Sweet said after Friday evening’s meal, “If steak were a religion, this place would be a cathedral!”

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It’s not necessarily wrong to switch churches. There are several good reasons someone might decide they need to do so.

But I’m through catering to church-hoppers. These are the religious consumers who hop from place-to-place, seeking the congregation that best serves THEM. Worship like they like it. Change only when they approve. Children’s ministry the way they think it should be done. Ditto with youth ministry. A class or small group where they are the center of attention.

God bless the Church-hoppers, for theirs is the eternal quest of self-fulfillment.

Here’s my growing conviction: let’s live missional lives–lives poured out for the world. Let’s seep and leak into the crevices of society; let’s offer our lives for God’s purposes of mercy and justice; let’s be poured out like wine upon the altar. If people aren’t happy with that, let’s love them and bless them as they leapfrog to another place. But let’s not get off task in order to keep them. It isn’t the way of Christ.

All things in love. But the mission of Christ must guide us.

Saturday, January 21

Published
by
Mike
on January 21, 2006
in General and sports
. 8 Comments

What a treat to be at the Fresno Zoe Conference — especially since I had to cancel at the last minute last year because we were at Cook’s Children’s hospital following the wreck. These are incredible folks here at College Church who host the conference each January.

When I agreed to come, I didn’t know this would be the weekend of the 7th grade “A” team tournament. Apparently last night I missed seeing Chris, our point guard, make a 3-point shot just before the buzzer to send us into OT against Clack. We won in double OT and play at noon today (presumably against Mann Middle School) for the championship. I can’t believe I wasn’t there for that moment. I haven’t missed many big sports moments with the boys, but this was one.

Nevertheless, no one in my family resents my being here. We love the Zoe ministry, and I’m glad to be in Fresno.

Just wish ESPN 2 would carry that 7th grade championship game at noon!

Standardized Tests

Published
by
Mike
on January 20, 2006
in justice, missional and politics
. 30 Comments

The idea behind merit pay scales for teachers is that we want the very best teaching possible for our students. We’ve all known teachers (though, truthfully, I haven’t known many) who were failing their children.

However, when the pay increases are tied to students’ performance on standardized tests, there is a huge problem. It encourages teachers to gravitate toward classrooms with fewer kids who are challenged–challenged socially, culturally, emotionally, and intellectually. In other words, if you can find a classroom full of kids from gated communities, your chances for increased pay skyrocket.

I like what Denver is doing: tying pay scales to teachers’ willingness to teach in classrooms with students who from the poorest families and those who are English-language learners.

Another possibility is to base the performance NOT on standardized tests but on the attainment of goals that have been agreed upon by teachers, parents, and school district representatives.

Having said that, I’m so thankful today for the (mostly) wonderful teachers my three children have had here in Abilene. It was very important to us that our kids go to school with students from other races and other economic situations.

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From Ben Witherington III, one of my favorite NT scholars:

We are not owners of this world; we are only stewards and caretakers of it, for God’s sake. The Bible does not support either a godless communistic philosophy of property and use of the world’s resources, nor does it support a godless capitalistic vision of the same. The Bible suggests there is neither private nor public property, only God’s property, of which we are all stewards. The whole modern theory of ownership is faulty, for we brought nothing with us into this world, and we will take none of it with us. It also follows from this theology of stewardship that since it belongs to God, we have an obligation to use and dispose of it all in a way that glorifies God and helps humankind. The theory of charity too often has as its essential premise “what’s mine is mine, but I may choose to share it with you.” The problem with this thesis is that the earth is the Lord’s and all that is therein. We have simply been entrusted with a small portion of it to tend and use for the good of God’s dominion while we are here.

Thursday, January 19

Published
by
Mike
on January 19, 2006
in General
. 35 Comments

The mayor of New Orleans said that God sent the hurricane because he’s mad about the war in Iraq and racism. Pat Robertson said that God struck Prime Minister Sharon to punish him for his policies with Israel. I’m continually hearing from people who know what God wants.

How do people know? Wouldn’t it be better to admit that we don’t have a direct line to the mind of the Almighty (other than through scripture–which still must be interpreted)?

We need to practice the disciplines of spiritual discernment: reading scripture, praying, listening, living in community, seeking wisdom, etc.

But like a wise, loving parent, God wants us to actually make choices. He isn’t just waiting to be joyful or disappointed, depending on whether or not we figured out what he wanted. He has invited us into the journey.