question of the week

Saturday Afternoon Evangelism

Frank

Last week, Brigham Young University, the flagship school of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, announced plans to go independent in football. With the BCS shell game that has gone on this summer, this isn’t necessarily earth-shattering news. There is a tangible financial benefit in being able to negotiate your own TV deal and schedule your own opponents to maximize viewership. And all evidence this summer has shown us that television revenue is more important that winning or losing.

But this isn’t about that. Based on comments made by BYU’s administration and coaches, eyes on the game don’t translate into dollars but into potential souls to be saved. Dan Wetzel at Yahoo sports seems to be the only one in the national media to take that angle on this story.

At the same time last week, Glen Coffee decided that the best way to reach souls is to NOT play football as he gave up his NFL career. Tim Tebow, college sensation and evangelical poster-boy, thinks differently. And of course I could list many more on both sides of the argument across different sports.

Idividuals aside, you could also look at this as fulfilling the stated mission of a church-affiliated university. Yet Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Baylor, or TCU don’t approach their mission the same way (and I could fill this entire space with a ‘did you know?’ list of religiously affiliated schools).

So my question this week is this,

Is football, or any other competitive event, an effective means if spreading the Gospel?

(and please refrain from debating the theology of the Mormon religion)

Are you investing your talents?

Frank

Yesterday I taught my last 3rd/4th grade Kid’s Kingdom (Sunday School) class. At least for a little while. Based on the curriculum, I’ve been teaching this class for four years and I know I was teaching for a while before we changed up our schedule. So I figure I’ve been at this for roughly five years with intermittent “rotations” before that. I’m ready for a break, though I am sad to give this up for a while.

This is just a season, like many others before, where either I don’t feel my needs being met or I don’t feel my spiritual gifts are being put to their best use. This time, it’s both. Between this class and my travel schedule due to work, I’ve been sorely missing out on fellowship and worship. I also don’t feel like my lessons are being received by the latest crop of kids like they have in the past.

Of course I’m not hanging it up for good, and I’m not going to go hide in a corner on Sundays and not be involved. One of my strongest convictions is based on Ephesians 4:1-16,

“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it… It was he 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.” (Eph 4:7,11-13, emphasis added)

I strongly believe that the Body of Christ can only grow as “each part does its work” (v 16). I have the talent to bring lessons from the Bible to life in practical, applicable ways. I exercise this talent through this class, in my small group, and on this blog. I don’t say this to boast; I’m just one part of the body and this is what my part does. But as I step away from my kids’ class, I need to continue to apply this talent, or at least become more invested in the other ways I’m presently involved. I’m leaning toward the latter as I want to venture into some new territory with my small group and focus more on my writing. I felt as though I was being spread too thin, so my prayer is this move will make me more effective in these other areas.

But this decision, and my looking ahead, brings these questions to mind:

What are the talents God has given you?

How are you applying those talents to build the Body of Christ?

For reference, I think it is worth checking out the lesson Your Divine Design from Living on the Edge. That lesson has really helped me to focus my talents where I believe God has led me.

Who’s fighting by your side?

Frank

Saturday, my family attended the wedding of a young couple in my church. The groom was the first person I met here when I moved out. At the time he was a young teen with a serving heart, seeing an unfamiliar face looking around not sure if he was at the right place. He took me under his wing and made sure to introduce me to those who would later become some of my “closest” friends. He didn’t know it at the time, but he left a life-long impression on me. Now, eight years later he enters into marriage, a new kind of relationship, a new kind of battle.

Coincidentally, Sunday was the going away party for the Best Man at my wedding. I was also his Best Man. After I moved out here, I stayed with him while looking for a place to live. We led our Singles Ministry together. We stayed up late most nights. We studied together. We led people to Christ together. But I wasn’t at his party. Instead I was on a plane, on yet another business trip. He will be moving overseas, on to his next adventure. I’m not sure if I’m ever going to see him again in this life.

That, sadly, is typical. I’m not close to many people. Not as many as I should. While I’d lay down my life for just about anyone, I’m not sure many would for me simply for the fact that I’ve let few others in. My best friend and I started to grow apart after we were married, further apart after he divorced, and even further apart when my children were born. I found out he was moving second-hand, though he did tell me it was coming. Honestly, these words are hard to put on the page. I’m on the verge of tears just sitting here.

But this wasn’t (entirely) meant to be a confessional. Recently, Jay Cookingham has posted a series based on the documentary Band of Brothers. In his first post, he measured his life by adding up the years he has been friends with his BoB. He counted them up to 313 years. Sure, he’s got a few more years on me. And I could make the excuse of only living where I am for eight years. But even with those excuses, I couldn’t even name 13 of my closest friends. This point was also made in the sermon a week ago. But that challenge was simpler. I couldn’t name three. Like I said, this isn’t meant to be a confessional. Instead I am convicted. I am intentionally going after friendships I take for granted- recognizing that by standing side-by-side in the fight is what bonds brotherhood, not simply being part of some arbitrary group.

Friday night we were over at a friends house for their daughter’s birthday party. While there a brother confronted me about hanging out. Something we’ve been talking about doing for far too long. We had a good conversation that night. It won’t be the last. In fact, I’m picking up my phone right now.

My question of the week this week has three parts:

Who is your closest friend and how long have you been friends?


Do you have at least three close friends that you can turn to when your back is against the wall?


Can you name 13 in your Band of Brothers (or Sisters)/Mighty Men/or whatever you wish to call it?

What would you take with you?

Frank
Last week a blazing fire came perilously close to my community, momentarily displacing many of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Though I was still a few miles away, the reality of losing it all hit home. Upon receiving the notice of evacuation, this is what one of my friends posted on Facebook:
For some reason,the desire for a bigger,nicer home was always a desire deep within my heart..after the events of the last two days, reading Matthew 6:19-20 has burned that desire into an ash heap, especially upon the realization that the most important things we took with us were each other, visual memories with our family and friends (pics), and some “important” papers (wouldn’t have cared if those burned actually).
One of my friends from campus ministry always used to say about things, “well, it’s all going to burn anyway” in response to everything from losing a CD to giving more on Sundays. Yes, it will all burn someday. So what’s important?
If a fire was bearing down on your home, and you had little time to choose, what would you take with you?
(And thankfully, only four homes were lost. Praise God too that no one was hurt.)

Are you uncomfortable?

Frank

Yesterday’s sermon was preached out of Matthew 8 relating to Jesus’ authority. But like most Sundays, the subject in the foreground was overtaken by my wheels turning in the background. I couldn’t stop thinking about the leper at the beginning of the chapter. If you’ve ever heard a sermon involving one of the many lepers Jesus encountered, no doubt the minister spent some time describing the situation: how leprosy was very contagious and spread via touch, so the leper had to stay out of town and announce his presence to anyone who approached. You’ve also likely heard that a leper is ceremonially unclean, so Jesus’ healing touch carried additional weight.

Now put yourself in the leper’s shoes (or sandals). You are outcast from the rest of society. You have to humiliate yourself if anyone even walks by so that everyone knows your condition. And worst of all, you are unclean, unable to participate in the religion of your forefathers. There are several ways you could react, but I think of two extremes. On one end you could be malicious, not caring about the health (spiritual and physical) of others and intermingle with the community as you spread your disease to unwitting victims. On the other end, you willingly accept your fate and you take seriously the severity of your affliction. You shout “Unclean! Unclean!” to every passer-by, not because you’re supposed to, but because you genuinely care about that person’s health- spiritual and physical. But you cannot avoid feeling humiliated. You cannot avoid feeling uncomfortable.

Last week, Sarah Salter returned from a missions trip to Sudan (no, I’m not calling her a leper!). Recently Duane Scott described one of his experiences as a missionary in Ghana. Me? I’ve been to Wal-Mart after 10pm. Seriously though, I’ve never made myself uncomfortable for the sake of the physical and spiritual health of another to the same extent as a missionary. Not saying that missionaries are some sort of uber-Christian, rather that God leads each of us uniquely to places where we are uncomfortable for His sake. Which leads me to my question of the week:

Where has God led you that you have been most uncomfortable for the sake of another?

And did you follow because you were supposed to, or because you sincerely cared about the needs being met?

What are you studying?

Frank

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Hebrews 5:11-12)

This came up during my small group last week and is a regular dilemma. When you wake up in the morning, how do you decide what to study from the Word of God? Do you go with a “verse of the day” calendar? Do you have a study plan (Bible in a year)? Have you just picked up a great book that’s challenging and inspiring you? (Then what do you do when you’re done?)

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (v 13-14)

I liken it to training. An athlete has specific training plans. A basketball player struggling with free throws will be practicing free throws. A football player may be practicing pass-blocking. All of their training revolves around improving in that specific area: hands-on training, weight training, even diet are intentionally geared towards getting better.

In the passage above, our own Bible study is training us to distinguish good from evil. But our diet needs to compliment our exercise. We cannot grow on milk alone, we need solid food. In fact, we should be teaching one another, but cannot because we are so immature. So we need to identify our weaknesses and focus our training.

In what area of growth do you need focused training?

What does your diet consist of?

Does your blogging/blog-reading consist of milk or solid food?

What are your summer plans?

Frank

It’s time for another Virtual Small Group. In case you weren’t around, last time we went through the book, Living on the Edge, Dare to Experience True Spirituality by Chip Ingram, aka R12 The Book. I’m not going to share a book this time around (though that’s coming) and I’m going to follow a more traditional small group schedule of “meeting” once a week (versus daily for R12). The subject this time around is to share our summer together: vacations, barbecues, times sitting by the pool. Whatever your plans may be, my prayer is to come out of summer refreshed and one step closer to God. I plan on the group “meeting” every Tuesday to give most of the week for any discussion. That means we kick off tomorrow in Bridget Chumbley’s Blog Carnival. This week’s topic? Summer. Coincidence? I think not! So to get us in the spirit of summer (as if you’re not already!), I offer these questions:

What are your plans this summer?

How do you plan on drawing closer to God in the next 3-ish months?

Please leave a comment and please come back tomorrow as we kick off our virtual small group.

Is Patriotism an Idol?

Frank

My “question of the week” is late coming, just getting back into routine after a weekend spent camping. But the question in the title has been resonating in the back of my mind since I read these blogs from Relevant and Sojourners before I left on Friday. A counter-argument, so to speak, was posted at SoJo this morning.

So I’m throwing the question out to you, the reader. Is patriotism an idol?

Some additional thoughts from past blog posts can be found here, here, and here. And for some humor, check out JesusNeedsNewPR’s Jesus Pictures of the Day.

Please keep the debate respectful.

There’s an App for that!

Frank

The last couple of weeks have asked the Christian blogger community about motivation and inspiration and about their reading habits. Call it market research if you will, but Duane Scott picked up on where this is going in last week’s comments. Not to rush ahead, there’s still a question I want to ask.

When you are away from the desktop and aren’t immersed in the blogosphere, what do you use to take your ministry mobile?

I received an iPhone for my birthday/Christmas. I sat on the fence forever about getting one. I don’t have coverage at work and AT&T coverage is spotty locally also. I don’t have any playlist built up on iTunes so the advantage of a phone + iPod is lost on me. I’m also not really a gamer, so the thousands of game apps weren’t a motivator for buying either. But I was still drawn to this gadget if for no other reason than I that I was consumed with the hype.

My wife understood that I would never get one for myself; I would always argue my way out of it. So I’m grateful she went ahead and got me one anyway. Right off the bat, I committed myself to not become an iZombie (though she frequently has to remind me to “engage” in casual conversation around the house), that this wasn’t just a portable gaming device, and that I would use it primarily for ministry. Now I have to admit that my iMinistry (this is fun, you can put i in front of just about anything! iParanthetical) frequently takes a backseat to checking sport scores, especially during baseball season, but I think I’m still holding firm to this conviction.

Not only does the seemingly limitless possibilities of the iPhone capture my imagination, but I’m also intrigued by how ministries are using this new interactive tool. Church apps are springing up left and right. You can fill your memory with countless books and Bible studies . You can do fancy things with your contact list, emphasising members of your church, your small group or your prayer circle. You can even track your prayer list! So I frequently find myself browsing the App Store to see what is the latest ministry tool that I have to have.

An article in this spring’s iPhone Life featured Kevin Purcell, a minister and contributor to Christian Computing Magazine. Titled “A Day in the Life of an iPastor“, the article listed his favorite apps for ministry. In addition to the obvious Bible apps and GPS/maps, there are other ministry-specific apps he describes like iDevotional and GNT and BHS for BibleReader. (sorry, can’t see a way to link to the iTunes store for these) To add to those, and to help Peter Pollock with his new iPhone 4G find an app other than Words With Friends, here are some of my favorites:

  • Holy Bible by LifeChurch.tv. This app not only has several translations of the Bible (and the only free NIV I’ve found), but you can also highlight any passage and see what other people have written about it. Often during church, I’ll be checking out other people’s devotionals/studies/commentaries for the passage being discussed from the pulpit. It’s like getting two sermons in one.
  • Read It Later by Idea Shower. This app allows me to save webpages (ie blogs) to view when I don’t have a connection. This is especially useful for me when I fly and also for at work where I don’t have a connection. This is how I keep up on the many blogs I follow. One problem, however: since their last update, I cannot read WordPress blogs! I only get an index of every post that shows on that blog’s front page that I can access via links. But since I don’t have a connection, that doesn’t do me any good. Which leads me to…
  • An RSS Feed. This doesn’t fit on this list, but I need one! Ideally with the same features as Read It Later so I can read without a connection.
  • Urban Ministry (now called Sermons on Christian Social Justice) by TechMission. This has an archive of sermons in audio, video, and podcast formats from a diverse range of ministers. This isn’t too handy since downloading sermons requires WiFi access and I am often without any access at all. But I still like the format and the selection of topics.
  • Finally, TweetDeck by TweetDeck is what I use to access and manage my Twitter account. I’m not often at the computer, so having this on my iPhone allows me to keep in touch with everyone while on the run.

So, what apps do you have for your mobile ministry (doesn’t have to be limited to iPhones, any mobile app applies)? What other apps do you recommend (besides Words With Friends)?

There’s an App for that!

Frank

The last couple of weeks have asked the Christian blogger community about motivation and inspiration and about their reading habits. Call it market research if you will, but Duane Scott picked up on where this is going in last week’s comments. Not to rush ahead, there’s still a question I want to ask.

When you are away from the desktop and aren’t immersed in the blogosphere, what do you use to take your ministry mobile?

I received an iPhone for my birthday/Christmas. I sat on the fence forever about getting one. I don’t have coverage at work and AT&T coverage is spotty locally also. I don’t have any playlist built up on iTunes so the advantage of a phone + iPod is lost on me. I’m also not really a gamer, so the thousands of game apps weren’t a motivator for buying either. But I was still drawn to this gadget if for no other reason than I that I was consumed with the hype.

My wife understood that I would never get one for myself; I would always argue my way out of it. So I’m grateful she went ahead and got me one anyway. Right off the bat, I committed myself to not become an iZombie (though she frequently has to remind me to “engage” in casual conversation around the house), that this wasn’t just a portable gaming device, and that I would use it primarily for ministry. Now I have to admit that my iMinistry (this is fun, you can put i in front of just about anything! iParanthetical) frequently takes a backseat to checking sport scores, especially during baseball season, but I think I’m still holding firm to this conviction.

Not only does the seemingly limitless possibilities of the iPhone capture my imagination, but I’m also intrigued by how ministries are using this new interactive tool. Church apps are springing up left and right. You can fill your memory with countless books and Bible studies . You can do fancy things with your contact list, emphasising members of your church, your small group or your prayer circle. You can even track your prayer list! So I frequently find myself browsing the App Store to see what is the latest ministry tool that I have to have.

An article in this spring’s iPhone Life featured Kevin Purcell, a minister and contributor to Christian Computing Magazine. Titled “A Day in the Life of an iPastor“, the article listed his favorite apps for ministry. In addition to the obvious Bible apps and GPS/maps, there are other ministry-specific apps he describes like iDevotional and GNT and BHS for BibleReader. (sorry, can’t see a way to link to the iTunes store for these) To add to those, and to help Peter Pollock with his new iPhone 4G find an app other than Words With Friends, here are some of my favorites:

  • Holy Bible by LifeChurch.tv. This app not only has several translations of the Bible (and the only free NIV I’ve found), but you can also highlight any passage and see what other people have written about it. Often during church, I’ll be checking out other people’s devotionals/studies/commentaries for the passage being discussed from the pulpit. It’s like getting two sermons in one.
  • Read It Later by Idea Shower. This app allows me to save webpages (ie blogs) to view when I don’t have a connection. This is especially useful for me when I fly and also for at work where I don’t have a connection. This is how I keep up on the many blogs I follow. One problem, however: since their last update, I cannot read WordPress blogs! I only get an index of every post that shows on that blog’s front page that I can access via links. But since I don’t have a connection, that doesn’t do me any good. Which leads me to…
  • An RSS Feed. This doesn’t fit on this list, but I need one! Ideally with the same features as Read It Later so I can read without a connection.
  • Urban Ministry (now called Sermons on Christian Social Justice) by TechMission. This has an archive of sermons in audio, video, and podcast formats from a diverse range of ministers. This isn’t too handy since downloading sermons requires WiFi access and I am often without any access at all. But I still like the format and the selection of topics.
  • Finally, TweetDeck by TweetDeck is what I use to access and manage my Twitter account. I’m not often at the computer, so having this on my iPhone allows me to keep in touch with everyone while on the run.

So, what apps do you have for your mobile ministry (doesn’t have to be limited to iPhones, any mobile app applies)? What other apps do you recommend (besides Words With Friends)?