Disaster in Fla.

Central Florida was hit by several tornadoes this weekend, killing as many as 20 people, and destroying a lot of property. To assist in the recovery and restoration efforts go to www.ldr.org. Lutheran Disaster response is on the ground and will be for a long time. Anyone want to go help?

weddings?

Say you're 20 something and you haven't gone to your traditional family church in a couple of years---you've been a Christmas/Easter person. Your parents don't get you. You were raised as a "churchgoer" in a church going family. Your parents go religiously. You have never been given a relevant alternative in which to be faithful. Its always been 'church' or nothing. In or out. After so long, being out wasn't so bad. And you were busy enough living life. But something was missing.
But then, a crisis! You want to get married. In church. You believe in GOD. Maybe even in Jesus. You pray. You want to live a life that is meaningful, spiritual, and hopeful. You want to help people in your community. You have no church affiliation, but you want to be married before God and faithful Christian witnesses. You call around. You pick the Lutherans because they're sort of catholic protestants. Fewer rules, but still sacramental and generously biblical. Yet not pretentious or judgmental like some bible churches might be. But every Lutheran church, every Catholic, everyone you call gives you the old church rule: Non-members cannot be married here! Membership gives one access to a Christian practice you expected. What do you do? Do you dance and "join" in order to meet the requirements? Or do you go to the justice of the peace and get legal without the blessing of God's Word, community prayers, and the unity of the Sacrament? What do you do? Membership has its privileges. Non-membership can have painful, unexpected consequences.
Gen xers are facing this reality. Some are feeling it more seriously than others. They want to be in, but they're not connected. They are prodigal, lost. And it ain't all their fault. maybe if the church found a way to really welcome them. maybe if the church wasn;t so concerned about worship attendance and membership. Maybe if the church was concerned about daily spiritual Christian formation---how to follow Jesus on the ground, in your home and work place. maybe if an alternative community was born for these people.
What if gen xers just revolted and formed a community of believers outside of 'church', who can become church for each other. A new fellowship of believers with all of the gifts and dreams of GOD within.
I, for one, do not reject anyone who calls seeking to be married in the church. I know that it's code word, sometimes, for people of faith living outside of Christian community, seeking a way in. Sometimes its not. Sometimes its people who just want to get married with no strings. But often its people who want the strings, the community, the spirit-filled life, the hope and love of God, the Word, the sacrament, the meaningful missional life to care for the world. When it is, I want to help them be faithful!

Missional acts

Become a big brother or big sister.
Help a neighbor. Paint, cook, clean, etc...
Babysit.
Share your stuff.
Swing a hammer with habitat for humanity.
Make a meal for someone who is sick.
Listen to someone's sad story.
Visit elderly folks at a nursing home.
Give time at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
become a compeer friend (Lancster Co. organization dedicated to mentoring people with mental illness).
serve at a youth center.
pray for people.
buy fairly traded goods.
sponsor a World Vision child. (www.worldvision.org)
collect school supplies, health supplies for World relief. (www.lwr.org)
Make a quilt for LWR.
Give a blanket or a coat to someone who is cold.

Whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus.

worship and mission

i made a kind of discovery reading the gospel this past week. i believe that the church (ecclesiology) is not the church apart from mission (missiology). Its not really a discovery so much as a reminder or a revision of thought. Here's what that means:
We've been taught that the way people come to know Jesus or to be made part of the church is through/in worship. Getting people to "come to church" and "go to church" is the entry way to Christian life. We talk about inviting people to worship. I've been guilty of this way of thinking too---that worship is the Christian life. There is no church without worship. Worship has been the central, and sometimes exclusive, practice of the church. Chruch is defined by us as what we do in worship. We exaggerate the place of worship/liturgy within the Christian believer's life. So we say, Where does one find church? In that building on sunday morning where people are sitting or standing in pews worshiping God.
But what if that assumption about worship being primary is false? What if Jesus and His followers were not primarily worshipers, but primarily missionaries? Jesus calls and sends His disciples before anything remotely like worship occurs in the gospels. And Pentecost? When the Holy Spirit comes, are they driven together to worship? No! Actually, they are scattered by various tongues and languages to share the gospel news. When the church is persecuted, do they huddle together for worship? No. They are scattered outside of the city as witnesses. When Jesus sends the 12 or the 72, does he equip them to be worshipers or worship leaders? No. He equips them to bring peace, hope, healing, justice, food---for people. The early church was primarily a church in mission---A church in action on behalf of the poor, the outcast, the least, the marginalized.

Worship was a result of mission! They gathered for worship to refuel, to rebuild,to revive, for the gifts of faith, hope, and love found in the koinonia--the shared fellowship of believers. Worship doesn't beget mission; Mission begets worship.

Here's the thing. The big machine of Christendom taught us that worship is the heart of what Christians do. Mission is a result of what happens in worship. We think worship comes first for people. Then we are sent out. but what if the Christian life were primarily missional and, out of necessity, worshipful? Its no wonder the early church pieced together worship practice from synagogue practices; Baptism and Eucharist deriving from Jesus' own missional life of cleansing rebirth and sarificial eating and drinking. The church didn;t have time to be overtly creative. They were too busy living out the gospel.
Implications: What if we were called to invite people to live differently first? To live counterculturally, generously, sacrificially, spiritually, marginally? And as a result of it, we are drawn together to worship the GOD who called us and sent us to live in these ways? What if worship is necesary for the Christian who is out there living it because mission-living is spiritually hard? We are drawn together for spiritual food, in order to endure. Word/Sacrament becomes food for missionaries.