its a boy, again

Yesterday, Cherie and I went to the Dr. for an ultrasound to determine, among other things, the sex of baby #3. We were hoping for a girl this time.
On my way to pick Cherie up I thought about changing my shirt, makng my id as pastor less conspicuous. I was wearing a black clerical shirt. Sometimes wearing it to the hospital makes you the local chaplain on call.
We arrived on time for the appointment. On the way in I was stopped by a woman in tears who asked me if I was a minister and if I could come immediately and pray with her daughter and son-in-law, who received bad news. In an ultrasound at 16 weeks, they were told the fetus died. They were devastated. They were there to find out the sex of the baby.
I told her that I was there with my wife for the same reasonand would find them after we were done.
When we came out, they were gone. For us, the perspective quickly evolved from caring about the sex of the baby to the health and vitality of our baby.
I don't know why encounters happen when and how they do. It was not a foregone conclusion that I would be called upon just because I was in uniform, but I was.
I took their names. I can pray for them, maybe I can find them...Are they believers? And what consolation can be offered parents of such a loss? We lost a baby at 16 weeks once. It was hard. Should I have left Cherie to minister to them? What if that experience opened them for a Word from God that they hadn't been open to before? What if I had missed our ultrasound to minister to them? Will God reach them, comfort them, love them in some other way? I have good guilt about this. It will motivate me to seek them out. How many others are facing this kind of crisis without a community of hope, faith, and love surrounding them? I suspect many.
We're having another boy.

via vita/way of life

What is the via vita? For the Christian it consists in a devotion to the ways of Jesus and His disciples. Christians are called to live a new life, a way of life consistent with the life of Jesus and His Spirit-filled followers. What does that life look like?
The Acts community, as it emerged in the 1st century, was a community of Baptized believers. They were converted by the gospel message through the bold proclamation of the Apostles.
The emergent community devoted themselves to the apostles' teachign and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers.
Today, in postmodernity, in a post-Christian or non-Christian context, how do we get apostolic? And how do we encourage devotion to these four spiritual habits?
We eat together, sharing what we have. We pray and listen.
Taking a benedictine approach to these habits, we will begin lectio continua. We will also pray a psalm, the Lord's prayer, and intercessory prayer. But the center of the fellowship will be a meal. Potluck. Or eat out.
The life of Jesus, as embodied by the community, is an inclusive, compassionate, mission-driven life focused on meeting the complete needs of the other. Healing, forgiving, walking with, loving, laughing with, sharing, inviting, encouraging, and giving are consistent with the ministry of Jesus. So is rebuking and rejecting evil, speaking truth to power, advocating for the child and the widow.
A Christian community seeks to embody this via vita in the midst of a host community largely unfamiliar with this way. It is often counter cultural, even as it understands and speaks the language of the culture.
How does one engage a community in the via vita? Personal invitation.
On that note, I have to go.

Wine of Joy

I have come to believe that the expressions or emotions of a worshiping community should revolve around joy. Joy and Awe. Joy and Awe. Somethig like mythree-year-old at the zoo or at the ocean for the first time. When something happens and you can't help but smile or even laugh, maybe even get a tear in the eye from it? That kind of joy. Like going down hill too fast on a bike sort of thing. Or a great party. Jesus uses the analogy of the wedding more than once to describe the presence of the kingdom of God. And the gospel of John offers up the weding at Cana as the first sign of resurrection life, long before Jesus' death and resurrection happen in the narrative. Old ritual is replaced by new wine! And the best wine at that! Shouldn't the Christian life reflect that kind of joy and awe? I'm not saying that false joy in the face of suffering is a virtue. I'm saying that Jesus reveals to us that joy is the way of life of the suffering one. Eternal life is full of joy. And I mean eternal meaning the fullest life in abundance possible now for those who follow and believe Jesus.
So why does so little of the Christian life in community seem like joy these days? I'm waiting for joy to break out here, Lord. Give us joy, Lord. Give us joy. In worship let our songs be joyful. IN serving, let our attituide be one of joy. Why? Because a joyful Christian is a sign of God's grace and life.
maybe if I drink a little more wine...

PM devotions

Saturday nights 5:00 pm

Everyone has a Spirit.
God is accesible to us.
Life seeks peace.
Love requires community.
Join us. We welcome everyone.
Come and be quiet with us.
Join the prayers, listen for God.
Eat a simple meal in community.
The Spirit needs exercise too.
There are four spiritual habits for life;
Study,pray, share, and eat.
See a devoted community live a spiritual life.
Become part of it.
Saturday nights at 5:00 pm.
Zion Lutheran
435 Main St.
Akron

Four habits

It strikes me that people's lives are so harried, including my own, that we often neglect the cultivation of good habits. I rarely exercise or take my vitamin. Why?

"They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers." Acts 2:41.

Megachurches around us have figured out how to attract people. And they do it well, put all their energy behind it. With relative success. But I wonder. Are people learning how to pray, how to listen, how to serve humbly? how does one experience family in a megachurch setting? Where does relationshipand community happen and when?

I believe that the 1st century church emerged in a culture that was generally religious in nature and that some of the religious were exclusive in their attitude toward non-adherents. Some greco-Romans were following secular philosophies. And many people were skeptical or even negative toward monotheistic religion.
The early church emerged when followers of Jesus, the crucified Rabbi, were inspired to share the story of His death and resurrection as a sign of God's reign over all of life that transcended the power of death.
In a single scene, people were inspired by the initial speech from Peter and the spiritual fervor of the small community. 3,000 were baptized. People were converted from whatever beliefs they espoused to belief in the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
Then, this fledgling community attended to four spiritual habits. Always together. This was not a private faith, but a community way of life. They listened to the story of Jesus and those who were called to interpret it for them, they prayed (Psalms, the prayer of Jesus, intecessory prayer). They shared (meeting each other's needs); and they broke bread (eating together, feeding others).
The results of their practicing these habits in community? Inspired lives, joyful worship, generous giving, and organic growth. (See Acts 2:44-47).

Cultivating these four habits is the church's main task. We are called to Study, pray, share, and eat in commuity. What might this look like today?

We gather weekly. We serve a meal. We read a New testament writing, like Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. We let it speak to us like Lectio Divina. Lectio is an ancient prayer practice where one dwells on the Word, letting it teach you. As you read, you simply pause at words or phrases or texts that strike you or engage you or challenge you and you identify them.
After lectio, we pray like this: We read a psalm in unison. We offer intecessory prayer. We pray the Lord's prayer in unison.
As we eat, we talk about what God has entrusted to us for His use in mission. We discern a better stewardship of our lives in community.

The important part of this for me is to cultivate a radically inclusive hospitality. Everyone eats. A lot of people pray. Many people seek spiritual guidance or a word of counsel from above. These practices are, like Benedictine spirituality, open and accessible. One might come and experience them without intimidation or fear. The idea is to let people become accustomed to a spirit-led way of life. I am reading "The Cloister Walk" by Kathleen Norris, which is a spiritual journal of her time among benedictines. A good read.

To make a spiritual oasis in which people can come in contact with the richest parts of Christian tradition without the baggage attached to church. I hope to invite people to become devoted to Jesus through the practice of these four habits.

the middle face?

Last night at bed time we told our 3 year old to follow his sleep rules. We have a chart for him. he is supposed to stay in bed, close his eyes, be quiet, and go to sleep. If he doesn't follow the rules, we put a sad face on the chart. If he does, he gets a happy face. When he gets a sad face he is denied PBS kids shows in the morning. Nobig loss, but he likes to watch "Clifford the Big Red Dog." Admittedly so do I. Its a funny show with dogs. John Ritter is the voice of Clifford.
Anyway, he hasn't been following the sleep rules.We were giving him a three strike deal, until we realized he knew that he could get to two strikes and still get a happy face. So we went to the one-strike rule or the one time tuck-in. We reminded him that obedience earns a happy face and disobedience a sad face. To which he replied, "What happens if I get a middle face?" A third option? Never mentioned before? Creative. I laughed. I immediately thought, "a middle face reminds me of ambivalence. maybe he's talking about Lutherans!" :I

pm prayers

When life is hard, people often pray. Some people pray more than others. Some people pray beter than others. Some people don't pray. But if you do, and you would like to experience a praying community join us on Saturday night at 5:00 pm for prayer, conversation, friendship, and dinner. We meet at Zion Lutheran, 435 Main St. , Akron, PA.(near Ephrata). Prayer is one of the four spiritual practices of the emerging Acts community in the New testament. I think it is because most humans pray. There's something almost natural to it. Almost.
But there is nothinglike praying in a community. We're trying. We're learning. We're not experts. We're not monks or nuns. We're just people who believe that God listens and that if we listen we might hear GOD. (Explain that to your three-year-old, who asks,"How can we hear Jesus' voice, daddy?)
So come and pray with us on Saturday at 5:00 pm.

Dishonesty, wealth, and Jesus

I'm not ready to comment on Luke 16:1-13. I don't know what Jesus is saying, except that maybe GOD doesn't punish people for shrewdly dealing with worldly matters by being more gracious than one is supposed to be. The bad manager decides to cook the books by offering borrowers a reduction in debt payments. He is commended by the boss for being shrewd. By being gracious toward customers, he put himself in good relations with debtors as he will likely become one himself in unemployment. And he kep the boss happy by collecting some of what was owed. Perhaps partial repayment is better than none? So he was gracious to clients and able to secure some liquid funds for the lender. What does that mena for us?
Being gracious is not a practice accepted by our culture. We expect to have to pay full price. One houses, cars, etc...there's no real discount or deal, is there? But Christians are supposed to give omre than they receive. Generosity, howver, doesn't have to mean becoming overly vulnerable. In fact, being generous can lead to a greater communal security. Quite the opposite of what we might think would happen.
Of course, the lender could have been angry with him for having reduced the debts, having expected to be repaid in full. But he wasn't. Perhaps God is that way with us. We don't get the job done. We aren't good trustees of what God has given us. But at least we can be foolishly gracious with what isn't really ours to be gracious with. God seems to like that in an odd twist.
I still don't know how this works into a message for others. Maybe somethig will stir in the next couple of days or in pryer on Saturday.

Lost and found

You know how things sort of get misplaced? Not really lost, but just missing. Somewhere in this house or office or car or closet is that missing...you fill in the blank.
I have so many stories this week about lost things being found. Last weekend we heard the two parables from Luke chapter 15 that Jesus tells about lost things and the obsessive ones who stop at nothing to seek them. Jesus says the Kingdom is like the party that is thrown when lost things are found by obsessive searchers. God is like the shepherd who abandons the rest of the flock for the rest of the day in order to find one lost sheep. Why didnt he chalk it up to dead? 99% alive and present. 1 % missing. he goes for the 1%. Bad math. And the woman who turns the house upside-down looking for a lousy coin. A coin. I gave away a "lost" sacajewiya dollar this weekend. But it wasn;t worth celebrating. Its a dollar.
But here's the real thing: I lost my watch a while ago. My wife had given it to me and I knew it as somewhere in my stuff, but I didn;t know where. She didn;t know I'd lost it, because I was ashamed to tell her. Then, I opened my golf bag to golf in a church event with my father-in-law and found it! Alleluia.
Then, I had lost a few things at the church office. Namely, and importantly, some church checks from another church that I was resonsible for as treasurer of our confirmation camp program. I had a big bill to pay yet from the summer and needed those checks. Well, they appeared today. And not an hour after I told the story of my watch to my secretary and asked my sexton to help me find my missing bag and coffee mug from children's sermon. he found that too.
Here;s the thing: None of these things that were found were a huge deal either. Like a single lost sheep or a single lost coin. Replaceable. Not necessary. BUT, I actually prayed to the LORD last night that I would find what had been lost! I've rarely in my life had such immediate satisfaction from prayer. I connect my spiritual conversation with God and the finding of these objects. Not because they were so precious, but precisely because they weren't.
Isn't that what Jesus meant? people might not care about certain lost creatures. People might abandon each other. People might write others off. people might prefer certain of us remained in the dark, hidden, missing but not missed. But GOD is not like that. God leaps for joy and yells "hurray" when someone is found. When someone repents, recognizes, sees, becomes aware of GOD and of the self that is humbly and truly not GOD, the party begins. It begins in our own hearts. When you are found by GOD, you weep and laugh and dance and sing and play and jump around. I know I;'ve been lost and found more than once.
All I know is that no matter how insignificant you think you are or others claim you are, GOD seeks you because GOD is willing to stake it all on you're being returned to HIM. I'm not exactly sure why GOD is like this, but I'm fairly certain He is. Jesus says so. And, I'm wearing my watch.

Politics in the toilet

Ethics is tricky business. Postmodern Americans struggle with ethical questions. People with conservative ethics, moralists or uninversal ethicists, are denounced as narrow-minded or intolerant. Liberal ethicists, relativists, are viewed as immoral weaklings. In the end the old question of whose right and whose wrong seems to go unanswered. Is nobody right if everybody's wrong? Is anyone right? What is right or wrong? Is it wrong to harm a neighbor? What about war then? Is there such a thing as just war? Are we fighting in one? Is sexuality private or public? Who's sexuality is right? Can one's sexuality be wrong? Can one's gender be wrong? What is the basis for sexual identity and practice? Is it nature or nurture or both? Does anyone know? Is TV good, bad, indifferent? What about technology in general? Does technology that makes a phone a gps, a tv, a dvd player, and an email/internet device really necessary? What if the genius of Steve Jobs went to work to find better ways to fuel vehicles or get clean water to remote African villages or get malaria vaccines to dying children? What if the quality of everyone's life was more important than the next $600.00 gadget?
And then we have the case of the Senator from Idaho caught making odd gestures in a bathroom stall. He pleads guilty to some minor indecency charges, and later regrets the plea. He is being denounced as a sexual criminal and his career may be over. We've seen this story before, haven't we? Middle age white professional with sexual issues of some kind? Happily married with kids. And a salary. And responsibilities to others.
Why do we welcome the sexual exploits of our celebrity entertainers; but deplore the sexual lives of political leaders? Why are moral standards applied differently to different people?
Might it have something to do with a lack of wisdom about the human condition? Are we so unreflective as a human comunity that we cannot understand why we do what we do?
I think the best example of human reflection is in Paul's letter to the Romans in the 7th chapter. he writes, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do." Paul has stumbled on the mystery of the human condition. And he is honest. he doesn't get himself. What is wrong with me? I know the difference and choose to ignore my own mind. I believe that smokers must suspend better, healthier judgment everytime they light up. We know cancer is caused by smoking. Nobody wants to get lung cancer or give it to a loved one. The risk is highly reduced if you quit. So why do people smoke? I don;t understand. All of us are tempted. The world is full of temptation. Why is health less tempting than the ting that cuold kill us, even though it might feel good. Humans.
We are good but not so good. We are lovers who crave the love of others, but can hate with passion. We demand much from life and give little of our own away to improve the lives of others. We are sexual but long to be spiritual. If secular modernity hadn't abandoned the concept of sin as a category, we might be okay. I appreciate the apologetic work of Paul Tillich whose second volume Systematics delves into human nature. Brokenness is the category he uses to describe the state we are in. Maybe if we all got humble enough to know that all of us are in the toilet, then we'd have a new starting ground for conversation. Does a Senator need loving community or God less than Britney Spears. And why do we care if she "rehabs" but hope he goes to hell? is Michael Vick news? ONly because he is a celebrity. Reprehensible behavior knows no bounds. Nor does God's reconciling grace.

dan

I had lunch with a young artist--a philosopher/scholar. He is no scientist. He is no mathematician. he is no businessman. he likes Bach and death metal. he is opinionated and open to other opinions. He is smart and needs to learn a lot more. he is 20. i like remembering 20. I met my wife when I was 20. i spent days reading and discussing religion or history. I spent my nights at Perkins or courting my future wife. A productive day consisted of study, writing, eating, praying, and enjoying friends. Work? Money? Bills? Not on the radar screen. That our western culture tolerates this behavior from young adults is quite bizarre. Maybe that is why colleg eis becoming elite again. a pendulum swing is occuring. It is unhealthy for a society to create a caste of young adults---or mature adolescents. Why? because the one's who might drive culture forward are marginalized by the adult world. a youth culture that is perpetuated a decade beyond what has been normatively accepted as child/adult transition creates a dangerous pattern of irresponsible and overly responsible people. 22 year olds are adults. They ought to be granted adult status. They ought to be taken seriously. dan is serious. and passionate. and ready to take on the world. who am i to prevent that? who are you? baby boomers have inherited responsibility from the last generation of adults who realized adult responsibility at 18. wwII and depression assured that. baby boomers are trying to keep hold of this place of control and power. how? By developing a cultural model that rejects the power of the elder and the passion of youth. why have nursing homes and retirement facilities become such a major industry? why hav child cares and colleges become accepted norms for families? is it not every genrations duty to learn from their elders with humility and respect and to graciously channel the passionate energies of youth in order to build a better world?

vacation and Jesus

There is no such thing as a vacation. At the Jersey Shore, Ocean City, rent one of those surreys with the fringe on top to ride around on the boardwalk. We rented a six seater. Four pedaling adults and two basket-riding children makes for a hilarious photo.
Beach rule # 487: A one-year-old will find ways to retain sand on his small body which cannot be removed, even after several baths. Its easier to picj fleas off a poodle. Trust me.
Beach rule #97: Americans will shamelessly don swimwear made for much smaller bodies. Obesity is an epidemic and so is indecency.
Beach rule #5511: Teenagers are spacially challenged. My wife was beaned with a small, hard plastic ball during a game of paddle ball she was not playing. try reading calmly on the beach while small projectiles are flying toward you. Did it even occur to them that the large, uninhabited area of sand 25 yards to our imemdiate south would have made for much safer paddle ball? Apparently, standing behind my wife and aiming for the area generally recognized as the back of her head seemed like a fine location.

I found it difficult to relax. There was no rest. I do not easily downshift. I think my brain craves stimulation.Or maybe I'm thinking that because I didn't have coffee today. I've been drinking too much coffee, especially in chicago. more about Chicago later...
I did, however, read a great book. Vacation Rule #7: Read a good book, even if yuo have to stay up late. "Rabbi Jesus" by Bruce chilton was the most readable 'historical Jesus' book I've ever read. I appreciated the way he described first century rabbinic life; halakah and khabbalah. The idea that Jesus was a Jewish Kabbalist, a spiritual mystic of sorts, was compelling. Although a stretch biblically. I accept the connection between John the Baptist and Jesus. I think Jesus was a student of John, somehow. I also believe that Jesus' Galilean roots and the nature of his conception/birth/illegitimacy would have contributed to his theology and radical inclusionary practice. Sort of like Moses---send a Hebrew who was raised by Egyptian royalty to talk of political liberation. Jesus would have had a place in both worlds---that of the outcast and that of the accepted community/family system.
Here's the thing: Vacation is a false reality created by workaholic americans to jusify unhealthy work habits.Its a way to avoid Sabbath by lumping it together in an annual contracted amount of leavetime. besides everyone knows that taking vacation means making more work. Better that we actually get sensible about work and productivity. A weekly Sabbath makes for a better balance. And does not force you to try to check out for two weeks in August.
Don't get me wrong. I think vacation is necessary. But is work more important?

singing bee

there is a new reality show on tv this sumemr called "singing bee", in which ocntestants are asked to karaoke with a variety of pop music over the past fifty years. Part of the song will be left blank and the inger must fill-in-the-blanks to move on to the next round. I hate this show.

there is another reality show on another network that is basically the same thing, but the contesatant is playing against herself, gets to choose music categories each round, and only has to fill in four missing words with each song. I could win this game. it is funny.

both of these shows reveal my love for pop tunes and my ability to remember lyrics, artists, albums and all manner of pop music trivia spanning four decades. thing is...the talent I have for this is fruitless and pointless. It serves no purpose. If I cuold rememebr othre things as well as I remember pop song lyrics...

why is the human brain wired this way? Why cuoldn't I have been given the brains to accomplish something? I think I'm a fairly intellingent guy, but my most natural thought process involves remembering all the lyrics to the 10cc hit "The Things we do for love". Why is that? Not a mathematic, scientific, economic, psychiatric, philosophic brain for me. Nope. Just pop songs.

Vatican diplomacy

The Vatican released a statement summarizing misunderstood eccelesiology that has developed as a result of both Vtican II and the ecumenical movement. That the church is defined by its sacramental character and apostolic succession. So, protestant churches cannot purely be defined as churches in that sense since they are not in succession, nor retain a true sense of the sacrament. Any church not under papal authority is not precisely a church.

I like this. Clarity. Since the Lutheran church is not really a church, we don't really have to act like one. Good. Because we don't most of the time anyway. So the only hypocrites left are the Romans, who claim to be the church and yet are not. In their very claim, they separate, divide, and exclude others who share faith in the God who raised jesus from the dead. By so doing, they build intellectual walls instead of relational bridges. When I read the Gospels, I see Jesus crossing cultural barriers and dismantling the religious walls of temple Judaism in order to broaden the scope of His mission. The Kingdom of God is bigger than Jerusalem or Vatican city or Geneva or Sweden or New York, NY.

So if the Roman Catholics and the Protestants are not the church, where is the church? The Orthodox? In their inability to contextualize beyond the early middle ages, they do not incarnate the gospel. So its not the orthodox. The evangelicals? In their basic rejection of the cruciform life, coupled with a personal salvation plan and a fundamentalist worldview that divides sacred and secular, they limit the power of God. So its not the evangelicals.
So where is the church? is it visible? Is it here? If there is no church on earth, where is Jesus incarnated today? If there is no church, what are Christians doing?
is church a human corruption?

Jesus never spoke about the church. He was never part of the church. His followers were church. When did church stop being church? When did it start being what it has become? Pentecost? Constantine? Council of Nicea? Great Schism? Reformation? When?
is it possible to receive the good news and articulate the Kingdom message of Jesus afresh? is it possible for the church to be reborn? Is it possible that the church will emerge or is emerging in this post-modern world?

I hope.

daily bible readings

Monday: Isaiah 66:10-14
Tuesday: Psalm 66:1-8
Wednesday: Galatians 6:1-16
Thursday: Luke 10:1-11,16-20
Friday: Pray for an opportunity to learn more about the way of Jesus

apostolic community

“After this the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.”
After what? After Jesus healed and taught and called followers. After the twelve were with him and women supported him. After Pharisees confronted him and teachers of the law questioned his authority. After he traveled from town to town and house to house sharing the good news that God was in their midst overcoming evil with good, through the compassionate love of this man from Nazareth. After he set his face toward Jerusalem.
Before the church can be the church, Jesus teaches. Jesus’ life, his words and actions, are they not the raw materials for what it means to be the church? Nobody practiced apostolic ministry until Jesus showed them what it meant to enflesh the love of God in human relationship. 70 people. Sent ahead with a mission and a practice. Notice that the church’s mission is carried out by an entire community! What if every Sunday morning worshipper at Zion had a real sense that what they were about to become and do on Monday was apostolic ministry---the ministry of Jesus? Bring peace and healing to a house, a town, a village. Reside there. Live among “the wolves”, aka the spiritually hungry. Whenever you serve generously, say “the kingdom of God has come near to you.” Essentially, be the church where you are everyday! Because your actions on behalf of others point to God’s incarnate love for all people. People will experience God, as we live like Jesus. We live like Jesus when we embrace the missio dei, the mission of God as a kind of corporate sent-ness. We are apostles, sent out by Jesus, to teach what He taught. Followers of Jesus are not pew sitters. They are disciples and apostles and workers.

To whom are we sent?
How do we begin to embody Jesus’ message and mission?
Who needs healed? Who needs peace? Who needs our compassion? Who needs our presence? Who needs our help?
If you are not already part of a learning experience that will prepare you to be sent, then get into one. 7 am on Wednesdays and 9 am on Sundays are two such learning times. A church that is not apostolic, sending out workers to make Christ known, is not a disciple-making church. A church that is not making disciples is not following Jesus. A church that is not following Jesus is not the church.

ramble on

i'm exploring again. i just picked up 'emerging churches' by eddie gibbs and ryan bolger. i haven't yet finished 'shaping of things to come" by Alan Hirsch and michael frost. i am well aware that postmodernity is a massive cultural shift ans that modern churches are not responding to the shift in ways that actually cross cultures with the hope message of the gospel. i am well aware that the last generation to be satisfied with modern institutional church are the baby boomers. i am sensitive to the spiritual needs of people udner the age of forty who seek a connection to an authentic, Jesus-centered, kingdom-building, missional community of friends. i am one of them. maybe part of the struggle is that i am not exactly a part of a friendship circle that embraces the cross cultural missional stance of church in postmodernity. i have found some guys in lancaster. and we talk monthly. it seems to be yielding some fruit.

i'm wondering how to get connected with the non-church community. is there some project or place i should be connecting with here? i spent an hour at barnes and noble sort of watching people and browsing books. where is community-making happening here? what i need to offer is some kind of a book club or something. or find my own. what might the library have to offer?
why am i wondering these things? why can;t i be satisfied doing what i'm doing. what am i doing? i guess that's just it. i'm not sure what to do with myself. i should be meeting with people and asking them questions about thier spiritual lives, their journeys, their hopes and needs. i guess i could do that.
what if i identified a few people with whom i could do that...and just did it. in whatever venue they saw fit. i think i'll do that now.

Pastor as Physician

Say you go to a doctor, a specialist, for diagnosis and treatment for something you can't understand that won't go away on its own.The doctor offers a diagnosis that is hard for you to hear, because it means you will have a lifestyle change. The doctor prescribes a course of meds and lifestyle changes that will increase your health. What do you do? Do you embrace the diagnosis and the treatment in order to get healthy or do you forget what the doctor said?

I sometimes feel like that. Like the diagnosis and treatment I prescribe is being rejected. Am I not convincing enough? Or are people unwilling to get healthy? Sometimes getting healthy means giving up something you love, like alcohol or cigarettes or basketball. Sometimes it means taking up some new habit like walking or drinking water or yoga. One thing it never means is stay where you are...unless terminal, most doctors I suspect will treat an illness by attempting to affect some change in the unhealthy system. By introducing a drug, a new body part, or a lifestyle change, the unhealthy system can sometimes be treated. The same is true of church life---the body of Christ---change in the system is sometimes needed for health and vitality. Maintenance is not an option when you are sick. A treatment that guarantees you will remain unhealthy is not treatment.

Now I am aware that when it comes to spirituality and faith people do not like to be judged or criticized. They like to be left alone, especially church people. They like to believe, "It is well with my soul." They don't like to realize the brokenness within and its fruit. Without a healthy connection to the root, the branch will bear no fruit. Unceasing Prayer, inspiring worship, active serving---these are the things that promote health.

creation music fest

I'm going to experience a few hours at the Creation Music Fest in Mt. UNion, PA tomorrow. Its an annual event drawing thousands of contemporary gospel music fans. CCM is really gospel music within a postmodern music context. So the gospel is packaged in rap, rock, fringe sounds, metal, whatever. Maybe even reggae! I would dig that. I'm going with three teens who have never been either. We will join the group from Holy Trinity when we arrive. But we will also leave earlier in the afternoon too. I pray for no rain, thunderstorms.
I know a lot of people attend this gathering as a regular part of their annual Christian life, like a pilgrimage to a sacred worship site. I'm interested to see what it is like there. Woodstock for Christians...hmmmmm.

confirmation camp

When i was a kid, my parents and pastor made me go. It was torture. And yet, part of it was fun. I still rememember the dance on the last night. Hormones were thicker than the late June humidity. It was itself a rite of passage, having gone to confirmation camp. When I told my school friends what I did in June, they said "What's that?" I had the same question and I still do.
I love outdoor ministry. I love camping. My three-year old son loves it now too. He's been sold on it because of the bugs and the little cabin we get to sleep in.
But the content of the experience is not what it ought to be. We have a week with middle schoolers in the woods without cell phones, tvs, or parents to interfere.
Why teach them in a classroom? They need to experiment, to practice the best possible Christian practices...
I will get the 7th graders to make Lutheran rosaries. I had the 8th graders involved in a silent, experiential walk through the Passion of Jesus. Group Publishing puts out these dvds with slides and mood music that walk a group through a prayerful meditation. Tomorrow, we will reenact parables of Jesus and make rosaries. And we will pray.
When i was 14 the last thing I wanted to do at summer camp was take notes in a classroom about the gospels or Lutheranism. I wanted to have fun. And I wanted a girlfriend...Jesus had nothing on Tammy!