The Drawing Board

Human sinfulness is messy. Reinhold Niebuhr once said that “the doctrine of original sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith.” What he meant is that you don’t have to look far to notice that the world is helplessly broken. Don’t believe me? Look at the recent Tiger Woods “scandal” and tell me how a guy with virtually limitless money, terrific reputation all around the world, a BEAUTIFUL wife and children gets caught up in an elaborate lifestyle of sexual encounters. The answer: he is sinful, just like you, just like me. No one is immune.

Yesterday I received an email from a woman in my church with a recommendation that we should have a dress code for our church. She wanted some kind of policy that said what was and was not appropriate to wear at church. Apparently, she was *shocked* when someone came into church wearing something she felt was objectionable. Now, let me say, I don’t think church should be a free for all. Obviously, there is some propriety that needs to come with being part of a community. But, let’s be even more honest when we say that things like dress codes in church would be virtually unenforceable, and even more concerning possibly ungraceful.

DON’T ACCUSE ME OF BEING LAX ON APPROPRIATE DRESS. We can’t have people coming in tube tops and miniskirts, etc. I get it. I know. BUT….are we really going to turn people away at the door because of what they are wearing? ”Sorry, your outfit tells me that you are not worthy or ready to hear of the grace God gives you in Jesus Christ. Please go home and dress more fittingly and then come back.” Please.

What am I saying? Life is not tidy. It’s messy, and ministry even more so, sometimes. More and more I am coming to believe that we must set aside certain things that we think are objectionable so that those who need to hear about and see Jesus in our actions become more important than our own desire to be comfortable while we sit in our padded pews.

Basically, Christians need to get over themselves and quit expecting non-Christians to act like they are Christians.

Shalom!

In the city of Buffalo this week there has been a buzz about the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s project in the West Side of Buffalo. This has started many good conversations about God’s kingdom, and the service of his people in the world. At the same time though it has sparked other thoughts (not least of which is the obvious question, Why did we have to wait for a television show to do what God has been calling us to do for 2,000 years?).

When we see Christians using their hands to love people and serve them, a light comes on and we think, ‘Now thats following Jesus… There is a disciple.” But what I find interesting is the number of non-Christians who are just as eager to see God’s kingdom come to a place like the West Side.

You see in the past we have assume that you start off with right beliefs, and then these right beliefs will lead you to right living. You believe in your head, maybe you believe in your heart, and then finally it results in action. In “Purpose Driven Church” by Rick Warren he shows his Churches plan for engaging and bringing seekers from the outside in. He does so through a series of concentric circles that go from people on the outside, to attenders, and further in, finishing at fully committed followers who are serving in God’s kingdom.

Now this system is orderly, logical, and has worked for many churches and many people. And yet, it doesn’t seem to fit in our increasingly unchurched culture. More and more people are unwilling to even come to a church service. It doesn’t fit for people who are passionate and ready to join a cause, even if they don’t know the roots of why it is happening, or the eternal significance of  their service. Or for others, they may not be ready to accept Christ but they are dying for community, what do we say to them? “Come back when you’ve logically accepted the risen Lord?”

Another way of looking at peoples engagement with Christianity moves beyond the movement from Sunday morning services, to classes, then to service and missions. Instead it forms a triangle where God’s people can engage with people where they are at. These areas are Christ, Community, and Cause. In the past we have forced people to accept Christ before they can experience community, and before they can jump into a cause. But more and more people are becoming open to the gospel after they experience the community of God, and after they see the kingdom by joining a cause.

So… are we to say no? Should we stop people outside our faith from helping to do good in the world? Or  what about a non-Christian serving on a Sunday morning? Is it offensive to God to see people who struggle to have faith in his presence on a Sunday morning and actually serving Him? Should we only share community with people inside the walls of our church?

The New Disciples are much like the old. Many begin begin following Jesus before they accept his identity as the Risen Christ. The question is, will Christians embrace this paradigm shift. Are we okay with people coming in on the different points of the triangle other than Christ?

A question that I hear a lot is “how do I know if it is God’s will?”. This is a good question to be asking, but the answer is not as cut and dried in as many circumstances as we would like it to be. I have dealt with my own questions of knowing what God wants me to do in certain situations, as we all have.

Does God want us to do something very specific in every situation we encounter? Or, are there several options, so to speak, that are presented to us, each with its own specific outcome?

Also, how does God speak to people about what to do? In scripture (only)? Prayer? Other Godly people? Through supernatural means? Through spiritualists and mediums? In the clouds? Through a fleece placed on the ground? A combination of many things?

I think one of the most important things to remember about discernment is that it is a process and not something that can be forced or done under our own time table. Every time I have tried to jump ahead of where God was leading me I ended up failing. For this reason I would suggest that patience is a key step in the process of discernment.

Thoughts?

Shalom!

True story. I suck at blogging. The thing is, I have great aspirations….AND, a ton of stuff that I think of everyday that I want to write about. Without sounding too self-absorbed, I think I am a good writer. I don’t think or say this because I want to be puffed up, but rather to have some kind of internal motivation towards continuing to write and reflect. I think God has given me a gift of communication…both orally and written. Part of my problem is that I always feel like I need to write paragraph upon paragraph. So, I will write more, albeit it brief in magnitude. Almost more funny is the fact that no one reads this blog….at all.

There are some times when the reality of what I live to proclaim (the gospel) comes crashing down upon my own personal life in a way that cannot be explained.

This past weekend I preached from Acts 20 where Paul was giving his farewell message to the elders in Ephesus. This message was part of a series that I have been doing through the book of Acts for the past several months. Anyways, the basis for this sermon was the need for Christians, like Paul, to have an almost frantic urgency to “testify to the gospel of God’s grace”(20:24). Paul goes so far to say, “therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all people. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.” (20:26-27)

The implication is that Paul, understanding the urgency of the message of the gospel and its consequences, did not hold back any part of the message. Should he have done so, his hands would have been covered in the “blood” of the person under his spiritual care that did not hear the full gospel of God’s grace for them. Paul’s conscience was clear, and he was making sure that they knew that.

The main point of my sermon is that we must excercise some urgency with our proclamation of the gospel. We cannot play patty-cake with the message, we cannot fool around. The stakes are high, the consequences are immense. We must not waste anymore time. It was a powerful message that I felt very good about.

They day after I preached this message I received word that a couple I married about 11 months ago was experiencing a major tradegy. The husband had fallen out of a boat during the night and was never found. He was 26. He was 2 weeks shy of his one year anniversary. This young couple sat in my office, talked about their relationship with me, planned the details of their wedding, and talked of their future plans. Now, he was gone. Forever. And I have blood on my hands.

I didn’t share the gospel with them. And not because I thought he already knew the Lord. I knew he didn’t. It was glaringly obvious. I have no real good reason why I didn’t. It was one of those periods in ministry where I was swamped with work, just coming off of vacation, and just getting ready to start school. I just plain didn’t do it.

I cannot begin to describe the guilt that I feel in this situation. God had placed me in the perfect place to share the gospel with them, to tell them my story of how Jesus transformed my life, gave me eternal life, and how they could experience that too. Maybe some of it was fear (yes, I do still get afraid of sharing the message), maybe it was laziness, maybe it was a host of things….who knows. All I know is that I failed them. I failed him, and I failed the good news.

Don’t ever wait to share that message. It’s urgent.

Here is a great article that I read concerning church leadership, pastoral care, and the debate between whether or not we want large or small churches.

http://blog.harvestbiblefellowship.org/?p=2924

-Cameron

This blog has been on a small summer vacation But now that I’m ramping back up for school in a couple of weeks I thought I’d update everyone on my “summer” so far.

I took a summer class with Dr. Ben Witherington III titled “The Jesus of Fantasy, Film, and Faith”. It was a good class. Dr. W is arguably the most prolific NT scholar today. He’s also one of those guys that you want to disagree with, but are not sure how or about what. All in all, I learned some good stuff, had some interesting conversations, and got to rub elbows with some amazing academic research.

I’ve decided that I don’t like church in the summer. No one comes. Everyone is grumpy. Everyone is busy. Why do people take summer’s off? I don’t get it.

I’ve been trying to get some pleasure reading done while I’m not in the midst of classes. I haven’t got as much done as I would have hoped, but so far I’ve read In Real Time by Mike Glenn (great book!) and The Power of Multisensory Preaching and Teachingby Rick Blackwood (also good). I’m taking a dive into writing a little bit myself, and I’m trying to produce a curriculum that is suitable for church membership and/or confirmation classes. This comes out of a practical need that our church has, but it also is a product of not being able to find any material already published that I am really happy with. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably sell 2 copies. One to me, and one to my wife (if I’m lucky).

Sheri and I have been growing in God’s word this summer. It has come at tremendous personal sacrifice, however. Both of our families have experienced some really difficult trials and we have come to realize how forunate we are to live by faith and not by sight. We have drawn closer to one another and the Lord through these trials. We’ve also come to realize that if all else was destroyed and all we had was our relationship with God that we’d be alright. The great thing about all this is that I make my living telling people the very same things. It becomes so much more real though when you are forced to experience the same realities that you preach about every week. It is good to know that even though it is a difficult struggle that the truth of God’s presence is as real for me as for anyone else.

Here is a song I’ve been enjoying and worshipping with all summer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6J5TzSE_18&feature=related

SHALOM!!