Just In Case….

Just in case you are among the few readers who visit this blog but don’t check the website, let me call your attention to two recently published articles.

It’s Not Working! asks how the church must reinvent its ministry model and methods to stem the recent decline and refresh the spirit of evangelism and mission.

Missions and Money–Again renews the question of how missions will be done in a future that appears to face diminishing monetary resources for missions.

Church: Where the Gifts of God Come into View

[Today, I share my ‘bits from bob’ article from last week’s church bulletin.]

In the church of Jesus Christ, the gifts of God are in glorious view. The church is made up of many members. In the church is made obvious that every Christian has gifts. These gifts are to be used for the wellbeing and edification of the body of Christ, the church. Every member of the body has some gift, but not all the same gifts, so the power of the body is in the sum of the gifts.

First, every Christian has a gift. All have some gift. God has given gifts, and the differing gifts provide power for the differing roles and responsibilities of the members of the body. Every Christian should identify and know his or her gifts. What gifts has God given you for the strengthening of the body? How does your unique place in the body help the body? And by the way, how are you doing in building up the body according to your gift? (Read Eph. 4:7-16; 1 Cor. 12:12-29; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:8-11.)

Not all have the same gift (1 Cor. 12:14). The body would be largely incapable of functioning as God intends if every body part had the same gift. Believe it or not, no local congregation needs 200 preachers! The differing gifts give the body interest and capacity. The body can function in outreach, evangelism, fellowship, missions, and worship more effectively because not everyone has the same gift.

The spiritual gifts of God are given for a purpose (Eph. 4:11-16). The body functions as God intends when the sum of the gifts is at work. Christians do not have the right to withhold their gifts from blessing the rest of the body. Every Christian has the responsibility to be involved in the work of the body according to the gifts and abilities God provides.

Church Website Update

Several readers have commented on the need for a website upgrade at the church.  I am glad to report that the upgrade is almost complete, with a new design and fresh (and constantly updated) information.

If you have not dropped by recently, I encourage you to click the link below, visit us again, and take another look at the church I call home–where I am blessed to serve, with lots of opportunities for growth, ministry, and mission work, and a ‘mini-lab’ where some of my (wildest?) ideas first germinate and take shape. Check out the “resources” page if you would like to see some of what we are doing in adult education and small groups.

McAlester Church of Christ

What is happening to Christianity?

Are you carefully watching the spiritual elements in our world? Have you seen the way Christianity is shifting and spreading, morphing into something that we have never seen before? Have you considered what is happening in our world spiritually? Are you observing of what God is doing? If so, it will come as no surprise that wonderful conversations are occurring about what God is calling the church to be and to do. People are asking afresh about how God is glorified and how God’s kingdom advances. Even better, these are global conversations involving folks from different religious groups. (They are global in the sense that they are occurring around the world; they are global in the sense that they are crossing typical religious lines.) One can personally find and join such conversations in virtually every part of the world. One can join such conversations online. Whether these conversations are centered on certain concepts (for example, SIMPLE church, small groups, or leadership), or simply represent people who are trying to hear God afresh, the conversations are almost always lively and challenging.

Around the world, ministers, church leaders, and Christians from all walks of life are discussing and rethinking the way we do church, the ways we talk about the gospel, and the ways that we partner with God in God’s work in the world. If you have not talked recently with someone with whom you disagree religiously, I challenge you to see if you can strike up a conversation somewhere. Be willing to share; be willing to listen. Listen and seek God. You might be surprised!

My Mother

Today is my day to write about my mother.  Through the first 23 years of my full-time ministry, I wrote about mother around Mother’s Day–a bulletin article, another sermon, even a poem or two.  All of that changed with my mother’s death over 15 years ago.

Now I write about my mother on Groundhog’s Day.  Not because it is Groundhog’s Day, but because it is her birthday.  She would have been 87 today.  I have reconciled myself to the fact that even if she had not been taken prematurely in an auto accident, the chances of her yet being alive today are slim.  I hope it doesn’t seem morbid that I share my heart.

Death is a part of life, life is part of death.  Some are dead while they live, other live beyond their death.  In the grand scheme of the things of men, I suppose my mother’s life does not seem terrible significant.  Significance is fleeting.  Significance is not the same as name recognition.  What seems to matter often doesn’t.  What doesn’t seem to matter does.  Mothers are always significant to someone.  Fathers less so.  That’s sad.

 My mother was a pioneer–in lots of ways.  She was my hero.  She was the only person I knew (except my grandmother and my aunts and uncles) who had moved across three states in a covered wagon.  The single-parent home she headed in the 1950s was for my sister and me security and belonging and fun.

As I reached adulthood, I tried to tell her in many ways that she mattered to me.  For several years while my family and I lived in Michigan I phoned her every Sunday morning.  I think she was proud of me–significance is a two-way street.  She taught me valuable lessons, I still have folders filled with her wit and wisdom.  I read some of those things from time to time.  Today, tell someone who is important to  you that they are.  

Roe v. Wade–36 Years and Counting

One event of last week that passed almost unnoticed in the U.S. as a whole was the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade. Incredibly, most of the population cannot personally remember that day (generally those under about 40 years of age). That historic day is history. It is distant. It is increasing irrelevant in our society. It is impersonal.

According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center last year (August 2008), a slim majority of the public (54%) says abortion should be legal in all (17%) or most (37%) cases, while 41 percent say abortion should be illegal in all (15%) or most (26%) cases.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by Pew Research in 2007, shows how religious affiliation influences views on abortion. The results show what percentage of members of selected demographic or religious groups believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases:

Jewish, 88 %
Mainline Protestant, 62 %
Catholic, 48 %
Muslim, 48 %
African American, 47 %
Evangelical, 33 %
Mormon, 27 %
Jehovah’s Witness, 16 %

For further details about these and other studies, go to pewforum.org.

When You Pray….

Today concludes a week overflowing with special days (Martin Luther King Day, Inauguration Tuesday, Roe v. Wade Anniversary).  Certainly, the biggest news event was the inauguration of a new president (our 44th) in the United States. Not only was the inauguration itself covered in great detail by the news media, but the details of the first days of President Obama’s term have been analyzed, written about, photographed, broadcast, and discussed.

For the Christian community (and many outside the Christian community), Rick Warren’s invocation was the buzz leading up to the inauguration. What would he say? How would he indicate, if at all, his belief that prayer is in the name of (by the authority of) Jesus? How does a Christian say an “inclusive” prayer in a public setting? The answer is more and more difficult in our pluralistic society.

The text of Rick Warren’s invocation is available from a variety of sources. Here are some excerpts:

Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.
The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
….We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility….
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.
…And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.

Warren concluded by including the text of the “Lord’s Prayer” (some call it the “Model Prayer”, recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11) in the invocation. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Matthew 6, he instructed his followers: be yourself (not like the hypocrites), be by yourself (go to your closet), become aware of God himself (eliminate distractions). Be brief, be dependent, be sincere. If we are not careful, public prayers can be said more to impress man than to get God’s attention. The words of Jesus deserve a rereading. When you pray….

Spiritual Formation and Missionality

[Today I am sharing a comment I recently posted on Missional Outreach Network in the Missional Spiritual Formation Group. If this is an area of interest, I invite you to visit the Missional Outreach Network and join the conversation.]

The spiritual body of Christ (in my observation) spends a lot of time in basic bodily functions (parallel breathing, eating, sleeping, drinking, etc.) and in this misdirection fails to fulfill the real purpose of the body. If spiritual formation does not enable the body (yes, the individual members, but in a missional context, the corporate body) toward the purposes of God, we may have misidentified the components, purposes, or results of spiritual formation.

Some recent literature suggests that spiritual formation occurs best (only?) in the context of the community. Such may provide a connection between the sentness of the body (exhibited in the sentness of individual members) and spiritual formation.