7.10.11--Wrestling with God (Genesis 32)

Let us pray.

One of the most meaningful moments of biblical revelation of my life was during one of Mr. Hobbs’ lectures in my high school AP World History class my junior year. We were talking about ancient history, specifically in the Middle East in what was ancient Mesopotamia and Sumeria, an area known as the Fertile Crescent. Mr. Hobbs lectured that religion saturated every aspect of life back then, and how every culture had its own gods that each ruled over all of the land visible from that god’s temple. It was very Lion King-esque, except instead of a god’s dominion being everything that light touches, the god’s dominion was everything within sight of the temple. Priests and other worshipers would face toward the temples for prayer, and any supernatural revelations from the gods came from their dwelling places.

And then along cam Abraham, who messed up the status quo. You see, when God spoke to Abraham, God didn’t speak from a temple. The story goes that God spoke… and Abraham looked up. God’s temple was not a building; God’s dwelling place was the very sky, and therefore God’s dominion included everything under the sky.

Everything that the light touches and the elephant graveyard.

7.3.11--Creation: Our First Impression of God (Genesis 1:1-2:3)

I read an article on Yahoo!News a while back that stated that my generation is the worst generation at changing a first impression. Once we have our minds made up about something or someone, we cannot break out of it. That impression is forever locked in our heads. That means that in a world driven by instant gratification and in a world where the average person sees and hears thousands of advertisements a day, we make up our minds of who and what we like and don’t like within a matter of seconds, disregarding everything else.

The first impression is crucial. I read once that almost 80% of first-time church visitors have already made up their minds on whether or not they will come back for a second visit simply by their impression of the outside of the church. Heck, most people won’t even wait to hear me preach before they’ve decided if they like my pastoral style. It will be determined by whether or not I greeted them, how strong my handshake was, and whether or not I said “um” during the greeting and opening prayer. Some people are even worse. They will judge me based on my age or even how I dress.

6.26.2011--Breaking the Ice

My little sister just returned home from her last children’s church camp. Next year, she’ll attend the Jr. High camps that I first attended and then worked as a councilor at while I was in high school and college. On her way home from camp, she called me, as she has every time she’s come home from camp, to tell me about the week and to share with me the stories still imprinted in her mind.

I asked her, as I always do, what her favorite part of the week was. Her answer threw me. I was expecting her to say something like “the worship” or “small groups” or “making this new friend who I can’t wait to see again soon.” Instead, she said that her favorite was the first day when they placed the icebreaker games and she got to know her fellow campers. This wasn’t at all what I was ready for. I mean, sure those games can be fun, but you go to church camp for the God experience, that moment during a specific song or conversation or walk through the woods where the presence of God is overwhelming and God speaks to you in a way He never has before. Icebreakers? I hated those games when I was her age. I thought they were a waste of time. Let’s get to the worship, the small groups, even the rec time when we can play ultimate Frisbee! I don’t want to play get-to-know-you games; I want to do camp!

6.18.11--Homily for Dunker-Matlack Wedding

I think it says a lot about Chris and Karin that they asked the pastor with the least amount of marriage experience to give the homily. I’m not sure what exactly it says about them, but it says a lot.

I don’t know if I have ever told y’all this, but I love the way you met each other. I think that every Christian couple should have the blessing of meeting while building a church! Most of you know that Chris works every summer as a mission builder, going wherever he is needed in the country and helping churches build new places of worship. Karin and Chris met while they were building this very church we are in today! What better way is there to lay a foundation for Christian fellowship and love than by literally laying a foundation for a place of Christian fellowship and love!

Transitioning from Milk to Solid Food

"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! 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." -Hebrews 5:11-14

I've been thinking a lot lately about our spiritual transition from the milk of faith to the meat of theological truth. Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews all speak about this development that happens within the life of the Christian and the life of the church, this movement from the basic understandings of our beliefs to the complex issues that take some chewing and some struggling to deal with. And I've seen this development within myself as I look back on my life and at some of the conversations with others that I have had.

6.5--Dirty Feet Evangelism: Belong

During the summer of 2007, I had the amazing opportunity to take part in a month-long immersion experience in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to go check out a different part of the world, and I was going with a small group full of some of the friends I had made during the first year of college. I could not have been more psyched, and the city lived up to all of the hype that I had placed upon it. The architecture was beautiful, daunting, and old. The people talked funny and had interesting quirks. The food was amazing.

Now, when my wife, Jessica studied abroad, she went to Argentina with the hopes of bettering her Spanish. I went to Prague because it sounded like a neat experience. This led to a number of culture shocks and cultural barriers. First, I did not know a lick of the language. I was completely dependent on the native speakers who also happened to know English, which is about a third of the population. Second, this was my first time outside of the country. I had no idea how loud we Americans are in pretty much every situation! We would go into a restaurant to eat and people would move tables to get away from the “loud Americans.” We stuck out like a sore thumb those first few outings. The thing that shocked me the most, though, was the outlook that most people had on what was and was not acceptable in public. Now, it is not a rare or outrageous sight around here to see a couple walking down the street holding hands. One might even witness a quick kiss now and then. Anything more than that, though, and the barriers that are in place between private and public come crashing down. In Prague, this was definitely the case.

These are just three examples from a long list of why I felt like I stuck out in Prague. I did not know anything about this city’s culture or her people, and even though I loved being there and would absolutely go back in a heartbeat, I never really felt like I belonged there.

5.29--Dirty Feet Evangelism Part 2: Welcome

Two weeks ago, we talked about how we are called to be dirty feet evangelists. We talked about how we are called to go out into the world and share the Good News of Christ’s victory over sin and death with everyone we meet. We talked about how this is the true work of the church in the world, a work that was commissioned by Jesus Christ Himself as Saint Matthew records at the end of his Gospel. We talked about how the church is defined by this and should be known by this—that true work of the church is not found in the budgets, or membership, or style of worship, or the building, but is instead found in the authentic outpouring of God’s love and grace into the world. And we talked about how this call means that we must get up out of our pews and into the world, where we cannot be afraid to get our feet a little dirty.

This week, we are going to continue the conversation. We’re going to talk about what happens once we have gone out into the world and have invited people to the church.