Time and Place

I don't usually give direct advice, and when I do it usually comes from someone who has given me direct advice that I have found helpful. This is one of those occasions.

Recently I was speaking with some friends about a daily rhythm of intentionally spending time with God. I shared how it's often difficult to do this with any routine or intention mostly due to the fact that I often find it hard to find quiet.

My friend Steven shared that he had dissevered that intentional time with God is not only about setting time aside but also finding a place. Several months ago I found that place (pictured above).

It's quiet, out of the way, and offers up the space to make the most of my time with God. It has been a gift and brought greater consistency. Many people speak about wanting to find more time with God, but we should also find a place.

U2 & Davy Jones - Daydream Believer

My favorite band singing a classic Monkees song with none other than Davy Jones.

The Church: A Definition

I was reading A Glimpse of Jesus by Brennan Manning last week. In it, he reflects on these words from Hans Küng. They are moving, inviting and challenging.

"The Church of Jesus Christ is a home not only for the morally upright but for the moral failures and for those who, for a variety of reasons, have not been able to honor denominational teaching. The Church is a healing community proclaiming the Father's indiscriminate love and unconditional grace, offering pardon, reconciliation and salvation to the down-trodden and leaving the judgment to God.

"A Church that will not accept the fact that it consists of sinful men and exists for sinful men will become hard-hearted, self-righteous, inhuman. It deserves neither God's mercy nor men's trust. But if a Church with a history of fidelity and infidelity, of knowledge and error, takes seriously the fact that it is only in God's Kingdom that the wheat is separated from the tares, good fish from bad, sheep from goats, a holiness will be acknowledged in it by grace which it cannot create for itself.

"Such a Church is then aware that it has no need to present a spectacle of higher morality to society, as if everything in it were ordered to the best. It is aware that its faith is weak, its knowledge dim, its profession of faith halting, that there is not a single sin or failing which it has not, in one way or another, been guilty of. And though it is true that the Church must always dissociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping any sinners at a distance. If the church self-righteously remains aloof from failures, irreligious and immoral people, it cannot enter justified into God's kingdom. But if it is constantly aware of its guilt and sin, it can live in joyous awareness of forgiveness. The promise has been given to it that anyone who humbles himself will be exalted."

An Apology

Last week I blogged about Franklin Graham's interview on MSNBC in which he made ill-advised judgment calls about the Christianity of the President and potential candidates. You can read that blog by clicking here. Yesterday, Franklin Graham apologized to President Obama for his comments.

+Continue Reading

Off the Grid or Blazing a Trail?

I often speak with pastors who are tentative and nervous about the future of the church in America. Some blame a “liberal agenda” for attacking and attempting to dismantle our Christian foundation. Others point to the absence of God in education and other public places. Criticism of the media and entertainment industry abound.

Whatever the cause, the fear is realized when Christian leaders consider the beliefs and lifestyles of the “twenty-somethings.”

Recently I read a three-part blog by Brandon J. O’Brien on the Out of Ur blog. He wrote about the religious views of the twenty-somethings in the U.S. While many are concerned about them, feeling like they are off the grid when it comes to religion - I wonder if it’s more a case of blazing a new trail.

All pioneers have a sense of where they are going, but don't always know what they will find. At times it seems as though they are completely lost, and other times like they are leading the way. Either way, they forge new territory and discover new things.

Perhaps it's a bit of both. What are your thoughts?

+ Continue Reading, Part One, Part Two, Part Three

You Don't Have To Parent Alone

When it comes to being a parent I am pretty confident. This is not because I think that I am an amazing person or that I have read (or authored) parenting books or that I am just arrogant and have a high opinion of myself.

I am confident as a parent because I know that I am not going at it alone. My wife and I live with a community of people, all of whom love my children and are committed to nurturing them. We believe that it does, in fact, take a “village to raise a child.”

My wife and I don’t think we can abdicate our roles as “mom” and “dad,” but we do realize that we cannot do this alone. It has only been in recent history, largely in the west that people have come to believe that a set of parents can raise children on their own. (and considering our current cultural climate, I ask, "How is that working out?")

Many Evangelicals have spoken passionately about defending the family and preached family values. Most of their focus has been the modern nuclear family. They deeply believe their passion is rooted firmly in Scripture.

The problem is that the Bible never speaks of mothers, brothers, sisters, or fathers in terms of a modern nuclear family. In fact, “Hebrew, like Greek, has no word for the small social unit which we call family” (Colin Brown, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, p 247). Any mention of family is always talking about the larger household or extended family and friends.

This should not scare us, but encourage us. It is the presumption in the biblical narrative that the people of God would live together as a community. As a parent there are moments of tremendous beauty and frustration. At times the task can feel overwhelming. This can even be worse when you as a family are isolated. Perhaps, the answer lies in the formation of an “extended family.”

Sally Breen has recently written a beautiful blog about rearing children in such a way. It is a beautiful vision for what a family should be. + Continue Reading

If you're looking for a sign of our troubled times … look no further.

Where Are You Going?

For many “church” has become an event. We can say we do not believe that “church” is an event, but the way we live and function would suggest otherwise. Much of our time, focus, energy, and money goes toward the our Sunday event that we call “church.”

Several years ago three local congregations spent a combined $250 million-plus on their facilities that house their Sunday worship services.

Many churches pay large teams to prepare, plan, and execute Sunday services. The staff structure in these churches is weighted toward making Sunday work flawlessly.

Congregations have an “attractional” model. They spend time, effort, and money on creating an appealing visual spectacle on Sunday morning, and encourage their participants to invite their friends to attend “church.”

Seminaries train their students who wish to be pastors toward being effective at communicating to a large group through sermons delivered at worship services.

This way of living only reinforces that while “church” may be people, what’s really important is the event. It does not matter what we say, for whatever we spend the most time doing is what we value the most.

We are so oriented toward “event” that one pastor told me, “People in the church today will only give you one or two time slots every week, and Sunday is one of them.” We have trained people to think about church – even away from Sunday – as an event to be scheduled.

Perhaps this is why so many struggle with “living out their faith.” Not only is church an event, but it is unlike anything else we experience in our normal week. It’s no wonder that so many have a seemingly impassable gap between their faith and their life.

The truth of the matter is Jesus told his disciples to make disciples. This is was not a scheduled event in a classroom. This was about learning a lifestyle.

He told his disciples, “As you go, make disciples …” Our question should not be, “Do I have the time to do this?” Rather we should ask, “Where am I going?” Because, if you are a follower of Jesus, then wherever you go your call is to impart the life of Jesus to others.

Teaching others - by the way you live - to see the world with new eyes and live our lives with the heart of Jesus. It’s not an event; it’s way of living. At DCC we believe this is possible. This last week we spoke at length about this through teaching and question and response.

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