Author: Frank

Furious about Radical

Frank

(I need to keep this short as I suffered an injury to my hand which makes it really hard to type. I originally wasn’t going to post this week, but a couple quotes from the book jumped out at me which will help me kill two birds with one stone- or two subjects with one blog post.)

David Platt is no stranger to making waves. From stirring up trouble at the Southern Baptist Convention by calling into question the merits of the Sinners’ Prayer, to the critical reaction to his first book Radical. He didn’t shy away then, and he’s not shying away now with his newest book, Follow Me. Since reading Radical, I have had several conversations covering the same ground as some of his critics- in general the question boils down to “how radical is radical enough?” Doctrinally, this question could be taken further asking if Platt is advocating sanctification by works. His call to “radical discipleship” makes people uncomfortable, as it should. In the most recent issue of Christianity Today, Matthew Lee Anderson brings these questions to the fore. Over at The High Calling, they have been having a weekly discussion on the book, and based on the comments alone many are squirming in their seats as they read Follow Me. Other blogs hitting on this point include Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum and Skye Jethani at Out of Ur from a couple of years ago.

Wait, I thought this post was supposed to be about Brennan Manning’s book The Furious Longing of God?

Well, it is. As he closes the chapter titled ‘fire’ Manning states, “It is natural to feel fear and insecurity when confronted with the radical demands of the Christian commitment. But enveloped in the lived truth of God’s furious love, insecurity is swallowed up in the solidity of agape, and anguish and fear give way to hope and desire. The Christian becomes aware that God’s appeal for unlimited generosity from His people has been preceded from His side by a limitless love, a love so intent upon a response that He has empowered us to respond through the gift of His own Spirit.” (pg 119, emphasis added)

In his closing questions Manning quotes Henri Nouwen driving the point further, “When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian.” (pg 121)

And on that point, I believe Platt and his critics would agree.

This post continues discussion on Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God. Please check out Jason Sasyzsen’s and Sarah Salter’s blogs for more discussion.

Courage to be a Big Mouth

Frank
Chutzpah – supreme self-confidence, boldness, nerve, sometimes an obnoxious aggressiveness

In the eighth chapter of Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God titled ‘boldness’, Manning follows up this definition with a couple of examples from the book of Hebrews:

Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (4:16, NASB, emphasis added)

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. (10:19-22, NASB, emphasis added)

Although the Hebrew word ‘huspah‘, from where we get today’s word chutzpah, is not the word used here (the Orthodox Jewish Bible uses the word ‘bitachon‘) these verses do uncover an interesting word in the Greek: parresia. This word shows up a few other times in the New Testament. A sampling:

  • When they saw the courage of Peter and John… –Acts 4:13
  • …enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. –Acts 4:28
  • …were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. -Acts 4:31
  • …in Christ I could be bold and order you… – Philemon 1:8
  • I have spoken to you with great frankness… -2 Corinthians 7:4
  • In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. –Ephesians 3:12
  • …if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. –Hebrews 3:6
  • Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. -2 Corinthians 3:12
  • He spoke plainly about this… –Mark 8:32

What is interesting is how most of these verses are about speaking out. Note the last definition of chutzpah above- obnoxious aggressiveness; in other words, having a big mouth.

Do you have a big mouth when it comes to God?

Recently in our recovery ministry someone was sharing about a business opportunity and how unnatural it was to be assertive. (Our group is as much a counseling session, if not more, as it is a sobriety program. Recovering addicts often don’t have the tools to function ‘normally’ and confidently, so we counsel one another on life issues just as much as we help each other with addiction.) This opportunity was everything this brother had been praying for, but there was still this nagging feeling that there was a catch.

For many of us, being assertive- having chutzpah- just doesn’t come naturally. In some church environments we are even made to feel guilty for not being “bold”. We want to speak up, but there always seems to be an underlying fear- that there is a catch, that we won’t be accepted, that maybe we just aren’t good enough.

Remember Moses’ whining (yes, I said whining) about not being able to speak? He lacked chutzpah.

Now me saying, “be bold!” isn’t likely to change your character. In fact, this is something I continue to pray about regularly because I struggle with it as well. But there is a biblical basis for such a change in attitude: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV)

Brennan Manning closes his chapter by asking, “What do you want? Today, right now? Boldly ask.” This is a hard challenge for me. Is it for you?

Consider this:

If Jesus were to ask you, right now- what do you want?- what would you say? Seriously, what would your answer be?

Bartimaeus had to drop his security blanket. What represents security for you? How is Jesus asking you to drop it?

This post continues discussion on Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God. Please check out Jason Sasyzsen’s and Sarah Salter’s blogs for more discussion. The “consider this” questions come straight from the book- use them as a springboard for your own thoughts and feel free to share them here.

Church or Stock Photo?

Frank

My kids are due for a checkup from the dentist. Because of changes to our insurance, this means finding a new one. Word of mouth only goes so far when many offices aren’t “in network” so we have resorted to listings and reviews online.

Naturally every website has pictures of happy children flashing their whites. (Why did you have to bring race into it? Well I was talking about their teeth, but now that you mention it nearly every picture is of a perfectly groomed white child- contrary to the real demographics of our community.)Unfortunately online reviews aren’t much help- one bad review out of two doesn’t really tell a whole lot. So we have to rely on the flash and glam of their websites. My wife was the brave one to first make calls, ask about services, and schedule appointments so I can only speak to what she described to me. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but as my wife described it- the customer service on the other end of the line seldom matched the happy faces on the websites.

So why bring up the oral hygiene of my children here on this blog? Because the experience reminds me of the extent some churches will go in order to be attractive to “customers”. Currently my church is undergoing a transformation, embracing and pursuing social media. The “model” we are following is another church, admired for its size and social media ministry. And although I am excited for this new direction, I’m not all that impressed by the church we are attempting to model.

A couple of Sundays ago I watched their online service. It was flashy and polished- they literally thought of everything. No doubt we have a long way to go to match their production value, and we recognize that. But it wasn’t the production or its quality that left me cold- it was the lack of authenticity. The person welcoming viewers to the online service might as well have been the model for the stock photos from the dentist office. The video playlist of announcements and events could have been an infomercial. The pastor welcoming “all of you tuning in from the Eastside campus!” acted as though he was leading a pep rally, not a church service. So by the time the actual sermon started, I wasn’t interested.

There is a risk to making oneself too polished, to glossy, to the extent that you come across as unauthentic. Picture your church as the supermodel that has every imperfection airbrushed before the photo ever sees print.

James Nored, over at the Missional Outreach Network wrote a post a few weeks ago making the argument that one reason the Churches of Christ are shrinking is because our fellowship offers a “right brained service to a left brained world.” His post went viral in Restoration Movement circles. I don’t think he’s necessarily wrong, and he admits that the Gospel can never be sacrificed for the sake of image, but there are risks. Glynn Young posted recently about his experience trying to tune in to his congregation’s online service and was left disappointed, wondering what the future holds for authentic community. Not long ago my wife and I woke up early to catch an east coast feed of a sermon series covering a book we were reading. It was streamed from the camera on someone’s laptop. I could barely hear the lesson, but I could hear every cough and paper rustle coming from those sitting nearby.

I don’t want the airbrushed stock photo. If one of my kids needs oral surgery, the reality is that it is going to hurt. On the other hand, I want someone who is honest and gentle when doing their examinations. A glossy picture of a staff that doesn’t exist cannot provide that.

The same is true of church. Jesus drew crowds because he walked among the people rather than confining himself to the pulpit. He calls us to be real with one another, to love one another, to be authentic. Online services and social media only go so far- eventually we need to interact with someone physically, to carry each others’ burdens, to sharpen one another. And no matter how pretty a picture, most churches are made up of people who are real, broken, and sometimes ugly. The internet might not, but Jesus loves us that way.

The Rich Fool

Frank

This wasn’t really the point of yesterday’s sermon, and it doesn’t really tie in with this week’s discussion at The High Calling on David Platt’s Follow Me, but as is par for the course with my mind going a hundred different directions at once this jumped out at me and I wanted to share.

Yesterday’s sermon was on greed and used the “Parable of the Rich Fool” taken from Luke 12:16-22. Reflecting back on David Platt’s other books, and how we often relate to evangelism as a harvest, consider this paraphrase:

Then he told them this parable: “The church of a certain pastor yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place for all these people to meet.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my church and build a bigger one, and there everyone can meet. And I’ll say to myself, “Your church is plenty big, enough to pay for itself for many years. Take it easy- make church comfortable- eat, drink, and be merry.”‘

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will take care of your church that you prepared for yourself? Who will take care of the fruit of your harvest?’

“This is how it will be with whoever builds a kingdom for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Flashback Friday: The Three Prongs of Evangelism

Frank

Originally posted last December, I’m reposting now inspired by recent posts over at The High Calling discussing David Platt’s new book ‘Follow Me‘ and thoughts on teaching vs grace by both James Nored at the Missional Outreach Network and K Rex Butts at Kingdom Seeking. I encourage you to check out those posts and let me know what you think as they relate to what I write about below.

***

The Great Commission can be divided into two parts: “make disciples” and “teaching everything [Jesus] commanded.” In other words, sharing your faith and discipling– the two pillars on which my fellowship of churches are built. Most definitions of evangelism can be summed up by these two acts of faith. However, focusing only on these two parts of the Great Commission leave out what I believe to be a third “prong” of evangelism.

In John 13 Jesus instructs his disciples, “A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (v 34-35) If our “great” commission is to make disciples, shouldn’t we be living consistent with the primary calling card of discipleship? You could extend this thought to argue that sharing your faith and discipling another are acting out in love. Of course, concern for the eternal destiny of another should be rooted in love. And discipling without love is at best legalism, at worst abuse. But love goes beyond this as John (same author, mind you) argues later: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) Later in the same letter John continues, “This is love for God: to obey his commands.” (v 5:3a)

Which takes us right back to the second half of the Great Commission, to teach everything Jesus commanded. But I fear when we do so, we often restrict ourselves to Jesus’ words, unintentionally neglecting his actions. In Matthew 4, setting up the famous Sermon on the Mount, Matthew introduces Jesus’ ministry writing, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23) We are familiar with the call to evangelism that comes later in Matthew 9: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.’” (v 36-37) Yet we easily overlook the “bridge” verse that precedes it. “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” (v 35) Between these identical verses in chapters 4 and 9 is a sampling of “the day in the life…” showing Jesus doing just that- teaching, preaching, healing; the “three prongs” of evangelism.

Preaching and teaching are explicit in the Great Commission, but healing is not. Yet it is clear in the ministry of Jesus and in the example of the earliest accounts of the Church in Acts. Extending the definition of healing to include meeting material needs, we see the Peter preaching the first sermon, the fellowship of believers being “devoted… to the apostles’ teaching” and “[giving] to anyone as he had need.” The result? “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (vs 14-36, 42, 45, 47) implying that these actions were, in fact, forms of evangelism even if it doesn’t follow our traditional view.

Preaching, teaching, healing- three prongs of evangelism. If we focus solely on preaching, we may grow in number but not in spiritual maturity. If we over emphasize teaching then we create a culture of academic and religious snobbery that does not grow. If all we concern ourselves with is the poor, then we are nothing more than a charity devoid of the Gospel. All three ingredients are crucial to the spiritual health and growth of the Church.

How has your approach to evangelism reflected either of these three prongs?

Crazy Radical Following

Frank

There was a brother in my fraternity in college who had a signature move. During a meeting, he’d set his chair in front of him, place one foot up on the chair, and lean over his knee shaking his head saying, “Bros, this guy just doesn’t get it.” Sometimes he’d affirm the positive, that someone actually did get it. And more than a dozen years later, whenever I think of someone “getting it” or not, I picture him, arms rested on his knees, serious as a heart attack.

When I first started checking out these newfangled things called “blogs” and this new website called YouTube, I encountered Paul Washer. Missionary, evangelist, status-quo shaker-upper. His videos condemning the American church (TM) floored me. And I pictured my friend saying “he gets it.”

That was several years ago, and few authors/pastors/preachers have made my eyes pop out like he has since. And then I read Crazy Love. Without catching a breath, I read Radical. And again I picture my friend saying, “they get it.” Roughly the same time, Francis Chan stepped down from leading his megachurch because it had become more about him and less about Jesus (how many Christian celebrities are willing to do that!?) and David Platt upset the whole Southern Baptist Convention by calling the Sinner’s Prayer “witchcraft“.

Trouble makers. Making the rest of us nominal Christians look bad.

Last night I was talking with a brother about how our fellowship of churches have been leapfrogged by other churches in online media, social networking, and even doctrine. This weekend I watched the live stream of the Verge Conference where Chan, Platt, and others spoke on the theme of “making disciples” and I put my foot up on a chair, leaned over my knee and told my friend that there are a lot of voices out there that get it. They are ringing a bell that we have stopped hearing because we’ve been ringing it so long.

I mentioned in my last post that I’m not able to get around to Platt’s Follow Me or Chan’s Multiply; there’s just too much on my plate right now. But that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it. I encourage you to head over to The High Calling and follow the discussion Laura Boggess is leading this week. These books might tell you what you already know, or you might disagree with them completely, but I believe the discussion needs to be had.

Judging the Author by the Book

Frank

A while back I was blogging through a book and someone took offense because of the author’s lifestyle. The argument was that his call to discipleship was hypocritical because of the size of his house. I can’t cast any stones because I don’t personally know either the author nor the commenter. But it points out a fundamental challenge for any author- you become known by the words committed to the page even though there is much more to you than those words. That’s one reason why blogs are so great, because you are able to catch the author in the moment, not limited to a specific subject or committed to the title of a book.

If you follow the advice to not judge a book by its cover, then do not judge the author by the book.

I humbly and regrettably admit, I’m not going to get around to reviewing either Francis Chan’s Multiply or David Platt’s Follow Me (which are intentionally complimentary works). There are many great reviews out there already (BibleDude for Multiply and Tim Challies for Follow Me for just a couple). But there is one review, actually a couple reviews by a single reviewer, that I want to address.

I am a big fan of Frank Viola; his teaching on the Organic Church and the Centrality of Jesus I believe are must-reads to break out of the Americanized Church. So I don’t blame him for the stances he takes on both of these books. His review of Multiply is followed by a series of questions directed at Fancis Chan, warning against the legalism of the shepherding movement that is read between the lines. His review of Follow Me sounds some of the same alarms adding that the book misses the Eternal Purpose of God.

I’m not intending this to debate Frank, only to emphasize the point made above- a single book is only a limited snapshot of who the author is and just a sliver of his or her doctrine and theology.

If you read Multiply without reading Crazy Love, then you won’t get an accurate measure of Chan’s overwhelming love of the Almighty God. If you read Follow Me (or Radical for that matter) without listening to David Platt’s sermons online, then you miss how much he is motivated by his love of the resurrected Jesus.

I just spent the last two hours listening to both Platt and Chan at the Verge Conference. Platt spent most of his time on the centrality of Jesus, and I believe Chan’s Crazy Love addresses God’s eternal purpose to reconcile his creation back to him. (Chan’s talk expanded on Jesus’ command “by this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another”- John 13:34, by noting that they saw firsthand a resurrected Jesus and how could they not have been changed by such an experience.)

If you listen to a song that you really like, you will likely check out the artist’s other work- maybe log onto iTunes to listen to other songs on that album. If you like enough of them, you might buy it. If you really like the album, you might go watch them live or buy another album. You might follow them on Twitter and sign up for their fanclub.

Why should we treat the books we read any differently? Just as there’s more to a band than a single song or album, there is more to an author than a single book.

When He Returns

Frank
“The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” (Revelation 8:5)

What will it be like when Jesus returns? What will we see when we gaze up into the sky? (“why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” -Acts 1:11)

I remember reading the book Joshua when I was in High School. The story, if you’re not familiar, is about Jesus returning as a nondescript carpenter named Joshua. Basically, Jesus blends in and few recognize him as the come-again savior.

Differences in end-times theology, the rapture, and eschatology aside, I wonder: would we really notice when Jesus returns? Currently the Southern Hemisphere can see Comet Wainscoat (or Pans-STARRS or C/2011-L4 if you want to get really technical) but the same comet won’t be visible in the Northern Hemisphere for another week. Even the brightest object in the sky can only be seen by half the Earth at a time.

When the meteor exploded over Russia a couple of weeks ago, a friend was eager to tell me about it (me being a space-nerd after all). “No, the asteroid doesn’t pass by until tonight,” I insisted. Without cable, and not having yet logged on to the Internet, I hadn’t seen the news. Despite my ignorance, videos of the blast soon went viral, news services scrambled to explain what happened, and science committees stood up to warn of the dangers of something larger colliding with the Earth.

But to the people there, who saw it firsthand, how did they respond? Check out the fascinating video below taken from cell phones, security cameras, and dash cams. The reactions are what you’d expect. Is this real? Are we under attack? What is that? Now imagine the scene as Revelation describes above and ask yourself, when Jesus comes back will anyone believe it?

One Person at a Time

Frank

The driver’s license- symbol of freedom and instant status symbol for a teenager. And once we obtain one, we go and do the most foolish things like volunteering to go grocery shopping for the family. Of course that’s just an excuse to get out on our own, listen to our own music, drive how we want where we want. Naturally when I was a teenager I would take advantage of that as much as I could. I look back on the freedom, the independence, the… selfishness.

I remember distinctly one such outing making a simple grocery run. I was minding my own business, doing my own thing. In and out. I didn’t have to slow down; I didn’t have to talk to anyone. And I probably didn’t. But as I was leaving the store an older woman was coming in. Instinctively I stopped and held the door for her. “Thank you so much, that’s the nicest thing someone has done for me all day.” I was speechless. Holding a door? Remember, she was on her way in, so it wasn’t as if her hands were full. And as I recall it was a typical day- it wasn’t raining or cold. It didn’t mean anything. But it meant something to her.

The reaction to this “random act of kindness” has stuck with me in the 20-ish years since. And it came to mind as I was reading the seventh chapter of Brennan Manning’s The Furious Longing of God, titled ‘healing’.

Manning shares several stories of random (and not so random) acts of kindness- some positive, some negative- but each impacting on my heart. Hearkening back to Jesus’ “new command” Manning writes,

“If we as a Christian community took seriously that the sign of our love for Jesus is our love for one another, I am convinced it would change the world.” (pg 88)

And how to you change the world? One person at a time.

I like how Chip Ingram describes love: “Love is giving someone what they need the most, when they deserve it least, at great personal cost.”

We can all probably come up with a story serving one of the “least of these“. Religiously we may go out of our way to serve the most visible needs in our community. We might even pat ourselves on the back for going above and beyond.

But service- truly loving others- shouldn’t be limited to those opportunities most likely to get our picture in the paper. There was nothing special about the woman I held the door for. She wasn’t in any visible physical need, she wasn’t in a hurry. It was just the nice thing to do. No, scratch that. There was something special about her. She, just like you and I, just like the most wealthy and the most impoverished, just like the most beautiful and the most despicable, was created in God’s image and is worthy of His love.

Manning concludes his chapter asking:

“The question is not can we heal? The question, the only question, is will we let the healing power of the risen Jesus flow through us to reach and touch others, so that they may dream and fight and bear and run where the brave dare not go?” (pg 104)

Consider This

Ask the Father to bring to your mind one person in your life who has administered the healing touch of Jesus to you. Spend a few minutes in gratitude.

Now ask the Father to bring to your mind one person in your life who needs that same healing touch. Take some time and decide on a tangible way you can return the favor.

(Addendum: I wanted to add these links about our inherent value and preconceived perceptions but didn’t have the links handy this morning. The first is a great summary of our identity in Christ by Frank Viola, and the other is an observation on how our perspectives change by Wade Hodges.)

This post continues discussion on Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God. Please check out Jason Sasyzsen’s and Sarah Salter’s blogs for more discussion. The “consider this” questions come straight from the book- use them as a springboard for your own thoughts and feel free to share them here.

Gospel Gone Viral

Frank

Saint Francis of Assisi is believed to have said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.” Whether or not he actually said it, it remains a good point. Call it lifestyle evangelism if you will, but the life of a disciple of Jesus should look different from the rest of the world and that difference should be attractive. I’m not saying that God owes the Christian any special blessing, but we are promised a “peace that surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7) as we are called to live a life separate from the world.

Sometimes we see the fruit of living out the Gospel in our lives as family members become Christians or as a coworker or friend reaches out for Jesus in a time of need. (Sadly, the converse is also true- it is possible for our lives to actually make the Gospel unattractive) Other times the seeds are planted, but fruit won’t been seen in our lifetimes. And then there is the rare time when one’s lifestyle makes such an impact that it literally makes headlines and goes viral.

This post comes a couple of weeks late, but there were some headlines that caught my attention (and much of the world’s) that hit right around the same time.

First (ranked because of the number of YouTube views) is the story of Robbie Novak, also known as Kid President. This 8 year-old hit it big with his ‘Pep Talk’ video (not cool, Robert Frost!), a light-hearted call for hope against the cynicism of the world that has been viewed just over 11 million times (as of this posting). While his videos may not explicitly contain the Gospel message, his roots appear to be planted in good soil as the videos are the brainchild of his brother-in-law who is the social media director for Freed-Hardeman University.

Next, ranked by level of social uproar, is Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-Fil-A. You might remember not too long ago when he was asked (by a Baptist publication, it is important to note) about his support of traditional marriage. Although his company’s charitable contributions to “pro-family” groups was not a secret and he was asked the question by a religious publication, his answer created a firestorm in the LGBTQ community nonetheless. Soon after, prominent mayors would say that his company would not be welcome in their communities, protests would begin, and of course counter-protests would organize in support. At first glance you might think Cathy was living out the Gospel by standing up for what he believes in both in his personal life and professionally. But it is what he’s done away from the spotlight that I want to highlight.

If you follow college football you know there’s a postseason bowl game sponsored by just about every product under the sun; Chick-Fil-A is no exception. Dan Cathy’s guest of honor for the game his company sponsored was Shane Windmeyer, director of the LGBT group Campus Pride. Shrewd political move? According to Windmeyer, Dan Cathy actually reached out to him to reconcile and through several conversations the two become friends. Cathy wanted to hear the other side of the debate at a personal level and hoped that they could reach the point to agree to disagree. If this act surprises you, or even possibly offends you, we need to remember that Jesus was routinely criticized by the religious elite for hanging out with sinners.

In a similar vein is the story of the defection of Megan Phelps-Roper from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church which is led by her grandfather, Fred Phelps; you might have heard of him. Jeff Chu got the scoop on the story as he encountered Megan at his congregation, Old First Reformed Church in New York. Jeff, it is important to note, like Windmeyer is gay. What is curious, and not addressed in his article, is why she went to a gay-friendly congregation in Brooklyn, a thousand miles (physically and spiritually) from her home church in Kansas. Jeff, it turns out, knew Megan from spending time with her as he was writing his book, Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. Despite your opinion on his sexuality, his life (not limited to his lifestyle) must have made enough of an impact that one of Megan’s first church services away from everything she grew up believing was at this congregation. Regardless of your convictions regarding homosexuality, I strongly encourage you to read this story. Hers is a terrific example of God’s word convicting in spite of religion.

Finally, as a bookend with Kid President, are the stars of A&E’s hit show ‘Duck Dynasty’. To be honest, I’ve only watched this once to see what all the hype was about. I wasn’t really a fan, only because those types of shows don’t typically appeal to me. But I am a fan of the Robertson’s lifestyle and family as it is portrayed in the show. They are unashamedly Christian, shown gathering at the end of every show for a family meal which begins with a prayer of thanksgiving (and although the standard line “in Jesus’ name, Amen” is typically edited out, it was included in their season finale in November). Brandon Hooks, a fan of the show, did a Google search on the Robinsons and found this testimony by Willie Robertson, speaking at Harding University. Hooks made the decision to follow Jesus and his wife arranged for him to be baptized by the family. While this could be written off as a case of celebrity worship, it is important to point out that his wife is a Christian and they have been attending church together as long as they’ve been married- since 2007. It wasn’t until he saw Duck Dynasty and heard Willie’s testimony that the Gospel began to move in his heart which just goes to show you never know how, when, or by whom the Gospel will impact another.

You and I are unlikely to become stars in a reality TV show or get a million hits on YouTube. But you never know who is watching how we live- children, enemies, the hyper-religious, or the unbeliever. And sometimes, our lives preach the Gospel louder than words ever could.