Author: Frank

Tool Shed

Frank
It is that time of year to dust off your Sunday best, wake up a little earlier, and go to church for maybe the second time of the year (the first being Easter). You go to hear Christmas carols, watch a performance, or to satisfy your parents that you’re home visiting. You wish people Marry Christmas and probably have your house decorated with a tree up. You may even be done shopping using the guise of Santa. Why do you go? What do you hope to get from it?

That may sound cynical, but in a country where roughly 80% of Americans call themselves Christians “only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings (31%) attend church in a typical week, compared to 4 out of 10 of those in their 30s (42%) and nearly half of all adults age 40 and older (49%).” (from a 2003 Barna survey) A more frightening way of looking at it is that Barna considers those who only attend church at “Christmas or Easter, or for special events such as a wedding or a funeral” unchurched. This number of adults is a striking 34%. (from a 2004 survey)

So I don’t buy the label “Christian”. Which makes it hard to define “church” in a traditional way. We often define our religion based on how we were raised, and not necessarily our personal doctrine. In fact, doctrine is often secondary as we become a culture where “church shopping” is becoming more and more prevalent. So what is your church and why there? Is it the people you meet (look at how homogeneous your congregation likely is- income level, race, age)? Is it the worship (how relevant are you)? Is it the dynamic preaching (aren’t Jesus’ words the “same yesterday and today and tomorrow“)? Is it the parachurch ministries/activities (are you salt and light)?

But it is usually one of the above that motivates us to attend the church that we do. It should be all the above. But we need to check our expectations at the door. Perhaps you’ve heard the cliche “church isn’t about what you get out of it but what you give to it.” Instead of doctrine, theology, or polity; worship, relevance, or relatability; church is not what it looks like or what it does, but what we do as Christians in its name. For me, church is not a place of worship, it is a tool shed. Full of different tools to suit our different talents for us to use to the glory of God.

It’s too easy to rely on church leaders and think only of what we get out of church. But the Bible does not call us to just show up every weekend (or when it’s convenient). Instead we are called to use the talents we’ve been given to grow Christ’s Church. “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b]faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” (Romans 12:4-8) and “It was [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Note the ends and the means. God gives us talents and Christ appoints us to roles so that the Church may be united and mature. The goal is not church attendance, spirit-filled worship, or dynamic leadership. It is attaining the fullness of Christ.

You can read a diversity of definitions of church through this week’s blog carnival. To each who post, they are using the tools they get through their church to use the internet to bring unity to the Church. Let this motivate you to rummage through the shed and find the tool that fits you.

War on Christmas

Frank

With two weeks to go before Christmas, the infamous ‘War on Christmas’ is heating up. This probably won’t be my only post on the subject, though I find following this subject in the media tiresome. I even tried to tackle this last year, but got derailed by Newsweek taking advantage of the holiday season to pontificate about gay-marriage. You can check those posts out here if you so desire.

I read this article the other day and I agree with most of it. It’s hard to argue about “keeping Christ in Christmas” when our biggest concern is having the best decorations on the block or making sure our kids have the latest-greatest toys (or is it we who want the latest-greatest gadget?). At the same time our culture does us no favors and the politics that have worked their way into this debate are frustrating.

So if you really want to keep Christ in Christmas, wear a t-shirt. That’s all it takes!

Does it Matter Where our Taxes Go?

Frank

The big political debate yesterday was over restricting federal funds for abortions in the latest iteration of the Health Care overhaul. Never mind that there is already a statute that prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions, though I agree with the argument that it’s only a shell game of moving lines on a ledger.

This morning coincidentally, I read Matthew 22:15-22 where the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus by asking him about taxes. The question seemed to be a slam dunk for the Pharisees since any good Jew would agree that the Romans were oppressors and that these taxes went to a government that supported infanticide, homosexuality, and pagan worship. Jesus replied channeling Lee Corso, “not so fast, my friends! Who does this coin belong to? Then that’s who has a say of where it goes.” In other words, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Mt 22:21)

We let ourselves get into such a fuss over what our government does with our money, but we’ll gladly accept grants for our abstinence-only education program. Relating the two, the onus to reduce the number of abortions is not on the federal government, but on the individuals who choose to be irresponsible sexually. In our hyper-sexualized culture, we need to fight this front of the culture war not through politics, but by our own example of purity. The coin bore the image of Caesar, so it was his. We bear the image of God Almighty, and we are his.

Not The Smallest Letter

Frank

The title is taken from Matthew 5:18 which reads, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (The smallest letter is a translation of “not one iota”, which is a figure in Hebrew that looks like an accent or apostrophe.) A lot of people point to wars, famine, natural disasters, and our increasing wickedness to claim that we are in the “end times”. I’m not one of those, but you could add all the hand-wringing over Bible translations to push personal agendas. I read about this before, but showing up in the headlines yesterday motivated me to write about it today: there is an effort to re-translate the Bible to remove “liberal bias”. As if the Main Stream Media wasn’t enough of a strawman enemy of the Right, you can now add “professors [who] are the most liberal group of people in the world, and… who are doing the popular modern translations of the Bible.” Riiight.

They want to remove, or at least re-translate such controversial passages as “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” from Luke 23:34 even though my Bible contains the footnote that “some early manuscripts do not have this sentence.” There’s no mention if they also want to take out the last several versus of Mark or the story of the woman caught in adultery which are also not found in the earliest manuscripts. If we’re not smart enough to make note of these footnotes, then maybe they should call this translation “The Bible for Dummies.” Oh wait, nevermind, that’s already taken.

There’s more to this though than trying to reflect the original intent of the Biblical authors. There is an admitted political agenda.”The phrase ‘theological conservative’ does not mean that someone is politically conservative,” says Andy Schlafy, the person behind this. I hate to break it to Andy, but Christian does not mean Republican either.

This is nothing new. There was a big fuss a while back over translations trying to make references to God more gender neutral. The Jesus Seminar color-codes quotes of Jesus by how likely they think it was he actually said it. Thomas Jefferson re-wrote his own version of the Gospels taking out anything “supernatural” like all of his miracles and the resurrection. And Martin Luther wanted to remove the entire book of James because it didn’t agree with his theology.

So I don’t take offense to this, but I would advise Mr. Schlafy and everyone else contributing to this (they’re editing it like a wiki) to consider the following passages (pick your favorite translation if you must, these are all NIV):

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19) While this specifically applies to John’s personal vision recorded in Revelation, it shows how serious God takes his Word.

“This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.” (John 21:24) A “testimony” is more than just writing a biography and is even more than being a witness in a legal case. The author, in this case John, was admitting here that if anything he wrote wasn’t true he should be put to death by being stoned. I wonder if Mr. Schlafy would take a similar stand for his truth?

“As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

God’s Word has a purpose and I’ve already demonstrated how seriously he takes it. I would not want to be one who stands in the way of God’s Word not accomplishing what he desires.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17) The Bible is used for “teaching” making translators therefore “teachers.” And there’s specific warning against aspiring to teach: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Ironically, taken from the book of James.

Grief… and Hope

Frank

I’ve written before regarding the tragic loss of Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter. Here’s a recent article on how he’s been doing since, and on his most recent album.

This is an area where I cannot relate. I lost my dad before my 21st birthday and have lost grandparents, aunts and uncles, but never anyone so “premature” as a sibling or a child. Yet I am still moved to tears when I read or hear about parents having to bury one of their own children.

Recently a brother was out visiting our church. He used to live here, but moved away before I moved in. But he kept in regular contact with the congregation, so we were all up to speed on the goings on of his life. Specifically, he shared about the health of his daughter. Regrettably, I don’t remember all the specifics, but she was diagnosed with a rare condition that gave her an expected life span of less than five years. I’ve lived here for nine years, so she made it to at least 8. He shared with us about his daughter’s joy despite her affliction, about the times they treasured together as a family not knowing if it would be their last. And as he fought back tears, he shared how he held her as she took her last breath earlier this year.

I cannot imagine. Tears well up watching Finding Nemo when I think about losing my son and not knowing where he is or how he is doing. The fear of not knowing is what breaks my heart most. But this brother shared that he found encouragement in knowing where his daughter was and how she was doing. It feels like a cliché, “they’re with Jesus in heaven,” and it almost sounds too good to be true. But we have reason for such faith:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

If the empty tomb is a lie, a cliché, too good to be true, then we should be pitied above anyone. Our faith is useless and our lives meaningless. So the resurrection of Christ is what we need to turn to in time of grief.

Oh, the name of this brother’s daughter, chosen before she was even born?
Hope.

x’s and o’s

Frank

I’m a sports nut. My fandom unfortunately is not matched by my skill. When I played sports in high school, I may not have been able to hit the open three, but I could dissect the defense like no other. When playing in the secondary in football, I could read the quarterback’s eyes, the way the line was formed, and the direction the backs were leaning and I could tell you exactly what play was coming. But if the play was a hand off to a big bruising fullback, I’d be lucky to get him down if he made it that far.

This problem also stretches to other areas of my life: my mind races faster than any of my natural abilities. When it comes to ministry, I’m always thinking of the whats and hows and seldom am able to put everything on my mind into practice. Part of it is a desire to have the perfect plan, the perfect results and a paralyzing insecurity that keeps me from acting out of fear of being imperfect.

One of the ways I try to overcome this is by digging deeply into things and learning as much as I can. I figure if I have enough tools in my toolbox, I can fix anything. The latest such obsession is in small groups. I’ve gone through a couple of iterations this year, have had schedules and focus changed, had people come and go, and am facing the new year hoping to chart out a course for my own spiritual growth and the growth of those in my group.

I’ve used study series from Living on the Edge, study notes from the Serendipity Bible, and my own Bible knowledge to come up with lessons. I just finished Sticky Church by Larry Osborne and my Evangelist gave me a copy of Purpose Driven Church by you-know-who as a follow-up. An elder in Atlanta is looking into doing lessons online, while Living on the Edge offers their R12 curriculum online as well. Now I just found this book from a post on Michael Hyatt’s blog. All that, and I’m still open to suggestions.

Is there a perfect model for small groups and discipleship? As long as we’re still imperfect people, the answer is no. I like the illustration my Evangelist recently gave during a lesson. “[with respect to church functions/activities] following the direction of the Holy Spirit is like surfing. You go out on the water and wait and wait for the perfect wave. You can’t get up too soon and you can’t wait too long or you won’t be able to ride it. You can’t ride just any wave either. So sometimes you wait for what seems like forever while other times it seems you don’t have to wait at all. And when you finally do get on that perfect wave, you can only ride it so long before you reach shore and then you have to go back out and wait some more.” I’m waiting for my perfect wave, so to speak, but I need the wisdom to not ride it too long.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)

Attitude of Gratitude

Frank

Inspired by the most recent Coffee Break from Living on the Edge that referenced Psalm 103 and a desire to get at least one post up while on vacation. I’ll focus on this part: “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps 103:2, emphasis added) I want to take this time and remember his benefits over the last year.

Work related: I’m grateful for the job that I’ve been praying to get for the last few years. I’m grateful for the recognition I’ve received from my peers for the work I’ve done. I’m grateful to be able to pursue some of the things I have a passion for- even though that hos so far been fruitless. And I’m grateful that have the opportunity, and the trust from my boss, to pursue them.

Family related: I’m grateful for my son’s improvement in every possible area- his discipline, his speech, his writing. I’m grateful for his interest in God and Jesus. I’m grateful for his health after his struggles breathing and sleeping. I’m grateful for my daughter growing up too fast and being too smart. I’m grateful for the relationship she has with her brother. I’m grateful for the joy she shows me ever day when I come home from work. I’m grateful for my wife finishing her teaching credential and having new opportunities at work. I’m grateful for her active attitude to always be out running and the friends she’s made (or friends she’s grown deeper with) doing so. I’m grateful for our relationship and that despite a 4 and a 2 year old, we still are able to have quality time. I’m grateful for my mom’s move and the extra chances I’ve had to visit her because of it. I’m grateful for my sister and her encouragement and support.

Ministry related: I’m grateful God still considers me worth of leading others to deeper relationships with Christ- after two small groups dissolved, somehow I’m still at it. I’m grateful for my recovery ministry keeping me grounded and my continued sobriety. I’m grateful for the families we’ve grown closer to through our small groups and the battles we’ve fought together. I’m grateful for the continued inspiration through God’s word to instruct and encourage. I’m grateful for the writer’s conference I went to where I met Peter and the encouragement to pursue writing. I’m grateful for others that I’ve met blogging and the fresh insight they all provide. I’m grateful for the teen I mentor- his patience with me and his open heart for God. And I’m grateful for the leadership of my church, the relationship I have with our Evangelist, and the men in my life that call me higher.

None of these things would be possible without God. Without him, I wouldn’t have the character to have these blessings in my job. Without him, I wouldn’t have the good relationship with my children or my wife. And without him, I would have no purpose with an eternal significance.

I am often asked why I have the faith I do. These are just some of the reasons. There are more, but those will have to wait until after I finish the turkey leftovers.

Such as These

Frank

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

I’ve heard many interpretations of these passages on what qualities in children we should imitate: children are innocent in their hearts, children are mold-able, children need their father, and so on. I’ve always leaned most towards the need of a child for his or her father.

My son and I battle every night at bedtime. As I walk away he tells me that he’s scared. When I try and reassure him that his mom and I are right there on the other side of the wall he tells me, “but I can’t see you!” I started to relate that to our faith in God. We believe in him and trust in him even though we can’t see him. But that hasn’t worked.

So a couple of nights ago, we’re going through the usual routine and ensuing battle. Exasperated, I walk away as he cries about being afraid. Then he says something profound, “come hold my hand and pray.” I couldn’t resist.

My dad passed away 13 years ago. My son tells me I need to get a new one. I tell him that I have a perfect Father in heaven. I try and explain that God is like a Father to us. In fact, he’s the best Father there ever was.

He doesn’t yet buy it. And he is still scared when I turn away. He needs the comfort of knowing I am there. Like God, we can’t see him but there is comfort he is there. Yet he will hear us when we cry out to him.

Clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
-Plumb, In My Arms

Sins of Our Fathers

Frank

“Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.” (Ezekiel 18:19-20)

This scripture refutes the commonly held theology of ‘Original Sin’. But that does not absolve the son from suffering the consequences of his father’s sin. I’ve pointed out before that often single and teenage parenthood are cycles that repeat themselves in the children of these families.

My Evangelist described it to his teenage daughter this way, “When I made the decision to follow Christ, I broke a long cycle of insanity in my family.” The insanity he’s referring to is a history of physical abuse and drug/alcohol addiction. He continues, “by choosing to follow Jesus, I don’t have to subject my children to the same insanity. I can now live by a higher standard. I am no longer defined by my history, but by my relationship with Christ.”

When children are raised in a home without active addiction present (the keyword: active) then they are less likely to either take up the same addiction or be driven to co-dependency. But that requires not only thorough repentance and a commitment to the higher standard of Christ. Without that, the cycle continues more subtly. The addiction may not be ‘active’ but the character remains.

I have to be conscious of this in my own life and my relationship with my children. At only 4 and 2, my children have already learned that my emotional reaction to their behavior is unpredictable. Will I respond with a fatherly sternness, appropriate and proportional? Or will I fly off the handle and let my emotions determine my response? Sadly, it depends.

At the same time, even though there is no ‘active’ usage in my home, I worry about the decisions my children will ultimately make as they grow older. I know they will let me down with their decisions. That doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be addicts, but it also doesn’t guarantee they’ll remain abstinent until marriage. How will I respond to that? Bottom line, I need to trust God over my own parenting.

Serving in an addiction ministry helps keep this in perspective. I was very moved a couple of years ago when a friend shared about the regret he had in putting his kids through literal hell because of his alcoholism. Last night I heard the other perspective, from a son expressing the regret in putting his father through the same hell. My experience as a son falls somewhere in between each of these accounts, but the book hasn’t been written of the legacy I will leave as a father.

Praise God we have a Father in Heaven that can be the example to which I strive.