Acts 4:32-35 (TNIV) -
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
My thoughts -
I was speaking to a friend last night who proclaimed that if the church did it's job the government wouldn't have to care for the needs of the poor. I'm not sure I completely agree with that. I'm not sure our churches have the resources to do that and I'm not sure that, even if they did, that would get the government off the hook in caring for the needs of its citizens.
That said, if our churches acted like the early church here we'd stand a chance. The church wants to have a prophetic voice. The church wants to speak on issues of cultural sin. We seem to have a special interest in sexual matters. But our we doing our job? Are we caring for the needy? Are we being the hands and feet of Jesus or merely the mouth of conservatism?
At our best I'd say we genuinely care for the souls of people. But do we care for the body? Can we separate the two?
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Everyone is a minister
I've been thinking a little bit about what I posted earlier. I think a big key to a successful ministry is empowering the laity. If our churches are not empowering laity they are conditioning them to consume ministry rather than to minister.
When I started attending Trinity Hill they had a slogan (maybe we still do, I haven't checked in a while). It went something like: "Trinity Hill: Where Everyone is a Minister". I liked that. Still do. It may not be true in practice but it is a nice ideal.
As I reflect on the church I grew up in and how I came to know Christ I think fondly of the staff persons that ministered to me. We had some wonderful pastors and I was blessed by the ministry of two great youth pastors. But the people I remember most fondly and have the closest relationships with even to this day were laity. They volunteered their time to build relationships with us as teenagers and to help us develop into young Christian men and women. They were the life blood of those ministries. They still are.
Staff people can come and go but the lay leadership is the life blood of the church. Without lay leaders we're just throwing money at our problems and hoping someone can come in and solve them for us.
When I started attending Trinity Hill they had a slogan (maybe we still do, I haven't checked in a while). It went something like: "Trinity Hill: Where Everyone is a Minister". I liked that. Still do. It may not be true in practice but it is a nice ideal.
As I reflect on the church I grew up in and how I came to know Christ I think fondly of the staff persons that ministered to me. We had some wonderful pastors and I was blessed by the ministry of two great youth pastors. But the people I remember most fondly and have the closest relationships with even to this day were laity. They volunteered their time to build relationships with us as teenagers and to help us develop into young Christian men and women. They were the life blood of those ministries. They still are.
Staff people can come and go but the lay leadership is the life blood of the church. Without lay leaders we're just throwing money at our problems and hoping someone can come in and solve them for us.
Everything in common
Acts 2:44-47 (TNIV) -
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
My thoughts -
"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Sounds pretty good. So does the "enjoying the favor of all people" bit. How do we get in on this action? We won't have to "sell property and possessions" to do it, will we?
Maybe this model is crazy and outdated by a couple thousand years but the lack of stuff didn't hurt the church in this passage.
Would we have more credibility if we had less stuff? I've posed these questions to myself often of late. We have an awful lot of stuff. It's nice stuff, too. Beautiful buildings, stained glass, grand pianos, organs, projectors, sound systems, computer systems, guitars, drums, multi-purpose rooms, TVs, DVD players, and so much more. We have youth pastors and senior pastors and children's pastors and music ministers. Could we still be the church without these? Could we still reach people for Jesus if we couldn't financially support our programs and staff positions.
Would we have a more prophetic voice about caring for the needs of the poor if we spent less on our buildings and programs and more on caring for the poor?
I hear all the time that attendance and giving is down pretty much everywhere. Is there a new reality we're going to have to face? I hear the church is dying. Do we need a new way of being the church?
Do we need a really old way of being the church?
I don't have the answers. We're humming along okay for now, at least where I am. At least as far as I know. But most of what we do at church, while good, is not essential. We don't need multiple services in various styles to reach people. We need to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our communities. I am certain that, if we do our mission to the best of our ability with God's help we will continue to reach people. Even if that means we have to do it with less stuff. Even, and especially if that's what it means.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
My thoughts -
"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Sounds pretty good. So does the "enjoying the favor of all people" bit. How do we get in on this action? We won't have to "sell property and possessions" to do it, will we?
Maybe this model is crazy and outdated by a couple thousand years but the lack of stuff didn't hurt the church in this passage.
Would we have more credibility if we had less stuff? I've posed these questions to myself often of late. We have an awful lot of stuff. It's nice stuff, too. Beautiful buildings, stained glass, grand pianos, organs, projectors, sound systems, computer systems, guitars, drums, multi-purpose rooms, TVs, DVD players, and so much more. We have youth pastors and senior pastors and children's pastors and music ministers. Could we still be the church without these? Could we still reach people for Jesus if we couldn't financially support our programs and staff positions.
Would we have a more prophetic voice about caring for the needs of the poor if we spent less on our buildings and programs and more on caring for the poor?
I hear all the time that attendance and giving is down pretty much everywhere. Is there a new reality we're going to have to face? I hear the church is dying. Do we need a new way of being the church?
Do we need a really old way of being the church?
I don't have the answers. We're humming along okay for now, at least where I am. At least as far as I know. But most of what we do at church, while good, is not essential. We don't need multiple services in various styles to reach people. We need to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our communities. I am certain that, if we do our mission to the best of our ability with God's help we will continue to reach people. Even if that means we have to do it with less stuff. Even, and especially if that's what it means.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Existential musings from the seat of a bicycle
I passed a Coroner's van on the bike ride to work this morning. Normally, on bicycle, I am acutely aware of my own mortality. The presence of the Coroner did not diminish this any.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say that I fear death necessarily. I have accepted it as inevitable, a consequence of living, and I price I must pay for the privilege of existing here. I certainly respect death's power and, at present, am in no hurry to experience it. I enjoy living. I enjoy my life. I like it here. Job, in his suffering, longed for death as an end to his pain, both physical and spiritual. I accept that some day, on balance, death may feel preferable to life. There are some pains that are so great you don't know how you can survive them or why you would want to. I am not in that place now. I am here now and happy to be so. There's no sense dreading some future suffering. I can only live in the present. That's the blessing and the curse of time. I've only got access to now. The past exists only in memories that have been tainted, degrade and corrupted by my own biases and the passage of time. The future exists only as speculation. All I've got is right now.
It is difficult to believe in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus without having some belief in eternity. I don't necessarily belief that belief in God demands belief in eternity, or the human participation in it. I certainly, as a mortal, don't have a firm grasp on the concept of eternity. I believe in the possibility, even the probability of life after death. Paul states in Romans 8 that he is convinced that not even death can separate us from the love of God. I may not "know" this in an academic sense, but I too am convinced. I just have no real concept of what life after death, if it makes sense to call it life at all, looks like. What does, in its own way, make sense to me is the absence of time in eternity.
Time, to the mortal, is an oppressive force. At least it is to me. As I age I feel it passing by more quickly, tainting my enjoyment of every precious moment. Time declares the presence of mortality. It says, in every enjoyable moment, that this cannot last. Maybe in suffering time would be considered a friend. Unfortunately time is not experienced as constant, but seems to pass quickly in pleasurable moments but slowly in pain causing you to experience that pain far longer than you experience joy. Eternal existence with the presence of time doesn't feel like an existence I want any part of. Even absent mortality could you imagine how boring it would be to exist in time interminably? Talk about getting into a rut! No thanks, time.
Maybe I'm not thinking this through well enough. I'm not God. Maybe time is necessary and without it existence would be too chaotic for us to process in any kind of meaningful way. Thank God these decisions on how to run eternity are not up to me!
In dealing with concepts of eternity we have to deal with our concepts of heaven and hell. Hell as a place of eternal torment created by God to punish infinitely those who did not make the correct choices in this finite life doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. If you believe in a fair and just God it becomes very difficult to account for hell in the way we traditionally describe it. Heaven as a family reunion in the sky has a nice appeal to it but it I have a hard time with that, as well. I don't dispute the possibility that heaven is what we hope for as a continuation of all of the good and none of the bad things from this life into the next. If it is, though, why not just start there? Why exist here at all? Why would God create a world with suffering in it, test us all in that world, and the if we pass promote us to a much better one? This is a loving God? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Job, in his suffering, experienced what I think of as hell. He experienced a very real absence of God in his life. Where he once had a good relationship with God that relationship was fractured and he longed for its repair. To me that it hell. It is readily available in this life. We don't need to go looking into the next for it. The reconciliation with God and restoration of his relationship with God was heaven. His understanding of God and the universe and his place within it changed, he accepted things as they were and was relieved of his suffering. He felt the presence of God in his life once again. The material blessings that followed were a bonus.
I don't know that it makes sense to look for heaven and hell in eternity when both are right here. I trust God with eternity and our place, if any in it. I believe the roll of Christians is to find those that are in hell now and bring them into heaven. The help alleviate physical, mental, and spiritual anguish and restore relationships with God. What the consequences of this in eternity are is solely up to God.
That I believe any of this now doesn't mean I'm right. There's so much I need to learn. There's so much I don't understand. I think that goes for all of us. I just wanted to share a little bit about what I was thinking. I'm just rambling here and I apologize for that, but I'm trying to refine my thoughts on the matter. Thank you for enduring this.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say that I fear death necessarily. I have accepted it as inevitable, a consequence of living, and I price I must pay for the privilege of existing here. I certainly respect death's power and, at present, am in no hurry to experience it. I enjoy living. I enjoy my life. I like it here. Job, in his suffering, longed for death as an end to his pain, both physical and spiritual. I accept that some day, on balance, death may feel preferable to life. There are some pains that are so great you don't know how you can survive them or why you would want to. I am not in that place now. I am here now and happy to be so. There's no sense dreading some future suffering. I can only live in the present. That's the blessing and the curse of time. I've only got access to now. The past exists only in memories that have been tainted, degrade and corrupted by my own biases and the passage of time. The future exists only as speculation. All I've got is right now.
It is difficult to believe in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus without having some belief in eternity. I don't necessarily belief that belief in God demands belief in eternity, or the human participation in it. I certainly, as a mortal, don't have a firm grasp on the concept of eternity. I believe in the possibility, even the probability of life after death. Paul states in Romans 8 that he is convinced that not even death can separate us from the love of God. I may not "know" this in an academic sense, but I too am convinced. I just have no real concept of what life after death, if it makes sense to call it life at all, looks like. What does, in its own way, make sense to me is the absence of time in eternity.
Time, to the mortal, is an oppressive force. At least it is to me. As I age I feel it passing by more quickly, tainting my enjoyment of every precious moment. Time declares the presence of mortality. It says, in every enjoyable moment, that this cannot last. Maybe in suffering time would be considered a friend. Unfortunately time is not experienced as constant, but seems to pass quickly in pleasurable moments but slowly in pain causing you to experience that pain far longer than you experience joy. Eternal existence with the presence of time doesn't feel like an existence I want any part of. Even absent mortality could you imagine how boring it would be to exist in time interminably? Talk about getting into a rut! No thanks, time.
Maybe I'm not thinking this through well enough. I'm not God. Maybe time is necessary and without it existence would be too chaotic for us to process in any kind of meaningful way. Thank God these decisions on how to run eternity are not up to me!
In dealing with concepts of eternity we have to deal with our concepts of heaven and hell. Hell as a place of eternal torment created by God to punish infinitely those who did not make the correct choices in this finite life doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. If you believe in a fair and just God it becomes very difficult to account for hell in the way we traditionally describe it. Heaven as a family reunion in the sky has a nice appeal to it but it I have a hard time with that, as well. I don't dispute the possibility that heaven is what we hope for as a continuation of all of the good and none of the bad things from this life into the next. If it is, though, why not just start there? Why exist here at all? Why would God create a world with suffering in it, test us all in that world, and the if we pass promote us to a much better one? This is a loving God? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Job, in his suffering, experienced what I think of as hell. He experienced a very real absence of God in his life. Where he once had a good relationship with God that relationship was fractured and he longed for its repair. To me that it hell. It is readily available in this life. We don't need to go looking into the next for it. The reconciliation with God and restoration of his relationship with God was heaven. His understanding of God and the universe and his place within it changed, he accepted things as they were and was relieved of his suffering. He felt the presence of God in his life once again. The material blessings that followed were a bonus.
I don't know that it makes sense to look for heaven and hell in eternity when both are right here. I trust God with eternity and our place, if any in it. I believe the roll of Christians is to find those that are in hell now and bring them into heaven. The help alleviate physical, mental, and spiritual anguish and restore relationships with God. What the consequences of this in eternity are is solely up to God.
That I believe any of this now doesn't mean I'm right. There's so much I need to learn. There's so much I don't understand. I think that goes for all of us. I just wanted to share a little bit about what I was thinking. I'm just rambling here and I apologize for that, but I'm trying to refine my thoughts on the matter. Thank you for enduring this.
My servant Job will pray for you
Job 42:7-8 (TNIV) -
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
My thoughts -
How humbling it must have been for Job's friends to have to sacrifice a burnt offering and have Job pray for them after they spent all of this time lecturing Job on his supposed sin.
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”
My thoughts -
How humbling it must have been for Job's friends to have to sacrifice a burnt offering and have Job pray for them after they spent all of this time lecturing Job on his supposed sin.
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