Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Moving
Now ladies, I know you guys sometimes get a bad rap for the number of shoes you have, you know, one for every outfit. It seems that baseball is getting to the point where there is a glove for each position. But then there are Grand-parents. Steven loves to eat with his (pardon the “southern-eese” here) Maw-maw and Paw-paw. When they “rustle up a mess” of boiled cabbage and pinto beans, the boy thinks he has died and gone to Heaven.
He ate with my in-laws this past Monday. During the course of dinner he mentioned the possible move and his impending need. He also mentioned that he had a plan to buy this glove which included working part time for a local Delivery Company during the Holidays. This is the part that reminds me of Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby once witnessed his parents who he described as being extremely frugal when he was a kid, openly and generously giving his kids, their Grand-kids money. Bill’s quote was, “These people are not my parents. They’re old people trying to get into Heaven!” You can probably guess what happened next.
My in-laws were proud of Steven’s work ethic but they would hear nothing of their Grand-son going without this coveted “short-stop” glove. They gave Steven the money with their blessing. I look forward to the time when I can be a Grand-parent. Greg, what’s it like? Will Jackson be getting that new glove when he comes to eat dinner with you?
Have a good day family.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wishes
Rubel like many of us has a pet peeve about cell phones going off during church and funerals. I’m sure there is no connection by the way. Any way, he said he was giving a Eulogy at a funeral when, yes, you guessed it, his cell phone went off as he had forgotten to turn it off.
Being mortified (no pun intended – yes there was!) he later apologized to the Funeral Home Director. The Director appreciated his apology but told him there are worse things that can happen at a funeral. The Director relayed how they had held the funeral of a prominent woman in Nashville a few days earlier at their Funeral Home. She was a fan of the “Wizard of Oz” so she had requested that “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” be played at her funeral. Be careful what you wish for, right?
The Director told Rubel that when it came time to play the C.D. of songs from “Oz,” instead of selecting “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” the assistant (lets take a poll to see how man of you believe Greg would do this) selected another song – “Ding Dong The Wicked Witch is Dead!” Can I get a witness or at least a “rut-row?”
As good as that story is the inspiration for this post came from a little blurb in the October 2007 edition of Reader’s Digest. Recently Robert Adler passed away. O.K. guys, this guy was our best friend and a woman’s worst enemy. Mr. Adler was the inventor of – what is it that guys love to “control” and women hate – you guessed it, Robert was the inventor of the T.V. Remote! He died at the age of 93 and because of his “wondrous” invention he had a special wish for his funeral or in this case, his burial. What do you think it was? I’ll give you a visual clue:
Maybe not. For some reason blogger would not allow me to download my picture. How about some clues:
You can sit or lay on it. Again, it's mostly a guy thing, and you can sometimes find spare change in it.
Give up? Mr. Adler, the inventor of the T.V. Remote specified that at his funeral he wanted to be buried between 2 enormous sofa cushions. My touch would be that his burial site would be lost at times.
There you go, a nice Tuesday post to think about.
Have a good day Family.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Last week (or 2 weeks ago) Steven went to Homecoming and didn’t get home till late, too late for my taste. Nevertheless, he dragged himself out of bed and went to Sunday School and Worship the next day. Priorities.
Today Don spoke on the “Nature of God.” One of his points he made was the aspect of God, the Creator of “Matter,” loving us so much that He feels we matter enough to have a relationship with us. 3 people responded to the invitation because the felt that being in a relationship with God mattered. Priorities.
In my class we read Hebrews 1:1 – 2.
1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but (emphasis mine) in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
We talked about how the life of Jesus wasn’t just some insignificant prelude to his all important death, burial and resurrection. Rather, the life of Jesus gives us a real time picture of how God thinks and acts. Moreover, it gives us an idea of what are priorities to God and what isn’t.
In church it is so easy to get bogged down in minutia like the color of the carpet, who is singing on the Praise Team, you took the wine before the bread, I like it when we clap, I hate it when we clap, and so on. We need only look at the Gospels to gain 2 all important priorities that all other things should be filtered through:
1. Jesus took the life changing Gospel out of the Temple and in to the streets.
2. Jesus was relevant to his world by being personal and with them.
May I strive to keep that in mind this week.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Hitting the Wall
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel like you’ve “hit the wall?” “Hitting the wall” is a term used in the NBA to describe the feeling rookies get when they get to the 50th game of the year. At most in High School and College they might have played a 35 game schedule including playoffs. As these rookies get over the hump of an eighty-something game season their bodies and minds can begin to drag when they come to the realization that they’re going to play
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Gimmick Theology
This may sound shallow but my initial answer was “Church softball.” It was the invitation to play softball that started me on the path that I currently find myself on at the tender age of 49. Nevertheless most of the other “church programs” that I have been a part of not only had no lasting effect but I can’t remember most of their names.
Is this news to most of you? Probably not. I remember Greg in the mid to late 80’s espousing the benefits of “Body ministry” over various programs that a church could attempt to use on it’s members.
Two years ago at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, Bob Russell, the now retired minister of the 20,000 member Southeast Christian in Louisville, KY, made an interesting statement. He said someone asked him what his approach / gimmick was in growing a 20,000-member church. He said he had no gimmicks or programs other than the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
My good friend Curt sent me the following link to an article on the Willow Creek Church. (http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html)
Here is an exert:
Hybels confesses:
“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”
In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the (emphasis mine) age-old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.”
Any of you guys feel vindicated out there? You should. It seems that if we are to provide a conduit for our people to be transformed into the image of Christ, we need to teach, challenge, and expect our people to be in prayer, to study their Bibles, and to be in relationship with God and each other in the spirit of John 4:23 –
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Optimistic Weekend Update
In the process we also witnessed a motorcycle accident. The front of our church faces U.S. 1. As several of us were standing outside working the Garage Sale, an Expedition pulling a boat ran a red light. This caused a small white car to hit her brakes which resulted in a guy on a motorcycle laying his bike down and rolling about 100 feet. By the time we were able to cross the north and then the south bound lanes of U.S.1; he had gotten up and walked off the road! Praise God he was wearing a helmet, long pants, and a long sleeve shirt. His roll had resulted in a broken finger and some deep cuts on both his hand.
His roll also resulted in some interesting witnesses in the guise of 5 members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang. They had been sitting at the light and witnessed the entire event. To say that they were hot would be an understatement. They first surrounded the driver who ran the red light to let him know what they thought of his failure to yield due caution. Then they proceeded to surround the Officer that showed up on the scene to give them their eye-witness account.
My contribution to the scene to was to bring the victim a bottle of water and sit with him until the EMS folks arrived on the scene. His biggest worry seemed to be about his cuts. He told me he was diabetic. Here’s the ironic thing, as all of this was taking place people kept pulling into our parking lot to check out the junk I mean our merchandise.
I’ll end this weekend update with a statement about “optimism.” One of our members announced that his 101 year old Grand Father had under gone knee replacement surgery on this right knee. His game plan was to wait unto he turned 102 to get the other knee done!
Have a good day family.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Update
First for Steve – there’s still baseball to play or at least here in
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Autonomous or Denomination?
Second, as to the question of which goal we would be talking about today, you will find it around the ninth paragraph. Let me know (as you always do) what you think.
Have you ever heard the old saying, “If you don’t have goals you’re “goal-ing” no where?” Individuals and organizations should always have goals, yes? I remember my days as a Middle School Basketball Coach. I had a goal of having to just raise a certain number of fingers or yell out a certain number, have my point-guard see or hear me, and tell the rest of the team what defense, press, or offense to get into without me having to yell, “1-3-1 halfcourt press, 1-3-1 halfcourt press!”
The last year I coached Steven in Juniors, I had a particular young man whose goal from my stand point was to recognize the signs I was flashing from the third base coaching box when ever he got on base. There was one game where he drew a walk. The catcher for the other team was terrible and virtually had no hope to throw out someone trying to steal second. It seemed like I had the right combinations of balls, foul tips, and fall balls to have given him the “steal sign” several times. Finally I yelled across the field, “Johnny, I want you to steal on this pitch! If the pitcher throws the ball home, you run to second!” I could hear the coaches from the other team’s dugout having a good laugh. Of course, I had the last laugh as he stole the base anyway despite the “head’s up” I gave them.
In church leadership we have many goals for our members and our church collectively and although I knew of the one I’m going to mention I never actually thought of actively working towards achieving it. We were discussing the events of the early part of this year with respect to our attempted merger with the local Conservative Christian Church.
Despite our 2 churches being unable to consummate our efforts, we were more than pleased with the results of such an effort. We spoke of how our members had been freed from any last vestiges of believing that the use of instruments in worship was wrong or was an offense capable of sending one to Hell. Moreover, they embraced having a second instrumental service to go with an a-capella worship service.
Our members have embraced the fact that the members of the Conservative Christian Churches are our brother and sisters in Christ. They came to find out that they think like us and they act like us or in other words, they are “us.”
From a personal standpoint, the reaction of being “un-invited” from the camp that we had served for many years was at first viewed as a negative of the whole merger experience. God being God knew better and turned it into such a positive experience. God opened the door to a new camp with a truly non-denominational attitude. We were able to have Pat Pugh at our week and as I’ve said in the past, we are still reaping the rewards of his lessons through our youth group.
Despite all of the above there was one thing, one goal, a goal that every church should strive for that had escaped my notice until this past Wednesday night. In talking about all of the above my good friend Curt said, “Our church has truly become autonomous.” I want you to let that thought settle for a moment.
After thinking about Curt’s statement I have come to the conclusion that our movement has been hijacked. What started as a unity / non-denominational movement deteriorated into a “denominational group.” There are many “distinctives” of being in a denomination. One of them is that each church is controlled by a “para-organization” that can assign and fire ministers and in essence, make each of it’s member churches hold to the “party line.”
Some will say that we in the churches of Christ do not have any type of “Home Office” calling the shots. True but in my opinion we have something more subversive and devious. In many ways it acts like Al Qaeda in that the “leaders” remain behind the lines and invisible. Yet in our form, these men wield great power holding camps, youth rallies, workshops, Christian Homes and Bible Schools, and churches hostage to their beliefs and whims with the threats of boycotts, financial blackmail, and un-invitations in the name of “keeping the church pure.”
In some ways I don’t blame or hold any ill will towards these “invisible leaders” for what seems to be an increasing amount of “un-invitations, boycotts, and acts of exile.” They themselves are victims of denominationalism. They have been handed down a tradition of denominationalism in the guise of “keeping the church pure.” Their intentions are an attempt to "keep the church pure" but like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, they have become paralyzed by not being autonomous in their thinking, actions, and beliefs and allowing others to practice the same Biblical concepts.
Now, I have no doubt there will be some of those wonderful “anonymous readers” who will take exception with the above. They will espouse and beat their bully-pulpits saying, “We have no creeds! We only follow the Bible.” The only problem with such a belief is that it is fantasy. One need only be aware of how many variations of Churches of Christ exist from “one-cuppers,” “no located preacher,” “AD 70,” “non-institutional,” and so on to realize that “following only the Bible” will not produce a “one model fits all” of doing church. If it does, then we’ve failed by virtue of the above.
A quote from Barton Stone on Bobby Valentine’s blog (http://stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/) shows that our early Restoration Fathers understood the fallacy of that thinking. Read for yourself - “In those days there were but a few terms of communion among Christians. All were admitted to fellowship who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and obeyed him; and their obedience was considered the best evidence of their faith … If opinions of truth were to be made terms of fellowship, it is much questioned whether (emphasis mine) any two men on earth could so perfectly agree in all points, as ever to unite; there could be no union or fellowship on earth” (Barton W. Stone, “Objections to Christian Union Calmly Considered,” Christian Messenger 1 {December 1826}, 27)
Did you catch the date? 1826! Here is “pure” as it gets non-denominational / autonomous thinking and it “was” us! I know, some will say, “They were “just men” and again, we follow the just the Bible.” Really? Lets go back to Jesus –
Mark 9:
Mk 9:38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” Mk 9:39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 I tell you the truth; anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
Jesus himself tries to get his Disciples to understand and embrace the concept of autonomy. He speaks with a loud voice to us today. To put it in our movement’s vernacular, if there is a fellow church of Christ doing good works in the name of Jesus, don’t stop or un-invite them. To go “southern” with it, Jesus is trying to say that “them” are “you.” Why would you want to stop or un-invite them? Autonomy allows us to be somewhat different as long as we are being Jesus to our respective communities.
Oh, what did I hear out there – that was before “the Church” was established. Lets see, I wonder what Paul would say about “autonomy?” Remember the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15? Some I’m sure, well meaning / trying to keep the church pure men stand up and say:
Acts 15:5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
Does that sound familiar? I believe you could take out “circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses” and insert must be: “non – clappers,” “single song leaders,” “churches who don’t invite or listen to ___________.” (fill in the blank) The infiltration of denominationalism had already started to creep in to the church.
Our man Paul knew this would kill his efforts to reach and save the Gentiles. As we all know he prevails upon the gathered leaders of the church to not give in to denominationalism, requiring everyone to fit the same model of church / Christianity or not be accepted.
So, here we find ourselves in the beginning of the 21st Century dealing with the same problem Jesus and Paul faced in the first century. What are we to do?
I’m not saying that our church has “arrived” but I think we are truly on a journey towards Biblical / Christ-like autonomy. It is my prayer that in my lifetime that I will live to see the Movement that I’ve grown to love throw off the chains of denominationalism and truly return to the old paths of autonomy.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Homecoming Pics #2
Steven and Joy.
The proud Mama and Papa.
Steven with his Aunt Karen.
Funny group picture of the Homecoming Court.
Steven and Joy facing the Indian River.
Steven with his friend Kim. Another picture of the family taken at 6pm at the Indian River Park in Cocoa.Steven on the far right along with some of his Senior Class friends.Thursday, October 11, 2007
Homecoming
We’ll be there with the cameras clicking and the video camera rolling. Monday’s blog will be about a goal. I believe it’s a long lost goal for our movement and individual churches. Want to take a guess?
Steven’s car or so he and I wish. Of course I would be on the wrong side of the road. Steven is the one sitting. Joy is the pretty girl riding above him. Just wanted to make sure I clarified that.
“Steven, look this way!” The baseball field is in the background.
There’s the boy! A close-up finally seated at the game with Joy.
Long shot – as they walk through the “Homecoming Bridge.”
After half-time; Steven with the best-man from our wedding, Buzz and his wife Jackie.
Steven was voted "Best Dressed" for the Senior Class and this is his "Best Dressed" counter part for the girls, Linda.
More pictures to come after today.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Flashing Theology
We had a thunderstorm here the other day. No big deal you say since we do live in the “thunder and lightening capitol of the world.” True except for the timing of this particular storm. Don was wrapping up his series on Heaven with sermon on being baptized into Christ. There were 2 different occasions where he was making a point and a flash of white light filled our auditorium followed by extremely loud thunder. What better way to emphasize a point in a sermon.
2. It is necessary because it’s part of what you do in response to God’s grace through Jesus.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Head Down
This week I had one of those encounters with a seventh grader that makes teaching interesting. I’m teaching a split schedule this year with three seventh grade Pre-Algebra classes and three 8th grade Algebra classes. This past week I observed one of my students in my 7th grade class put up his supplies, close his Math Book, and lay his head on his desk with 10 minutes left to go in the class. The following is the exchange I had with him:
Johnny: Yes.
Me: Great, I love it when a young man can finish their work in an expeditious manner. May I see it please?
Johnny: Oh, you mean my homework?
Me: No, I mean the memoir you’re writing about your encounter with the “second gunman” on the “grassy knoll.” Of course I mean your homework!
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Dirty Feet
I’m teaching a Sunday School Class entitled “Vision.” My goal in the class is to come to a realization that casting a vision for ourselves and our church must involve Jesus into every aspect of our lives and the church’s life. Our very name, “Church of Christ” indicates that is a given but we know through experience that there are times when “Christ” is far away from out attitudes, debates, theological positions, and so on.