Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Moving

Steven came home the other day and informed us that the Head Baseball Coach told him the coaching staff was considering moving the boy who played short-stop last year to third and moving him from second to short. Now, unlike in the MLB, in High School ball there is no option to veto the decision and Steven would never do so anyway. He is excited about the chance to start at short in his senior season for the Varsity. So excited in fact that he said he needed a new glove.

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

Have you ever thought about your own funeral? I know, how could we avoid the subject with the advent of Greg’s new vocation. Yea, even I could be the cause of such morbid thoughts with pictures like the one below taken last year just before the Pepperdine Bible Lectures at the England Family Mortuary:
Today’s subject is indeed, “What would be your “wishes” at your funeral?” A couple of years ago, Rubel Shelly shared this story:
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

The word “priority” has been coming to my mind as of late. Yesterday (Saturday) I had the privilege of picking up a group (17 of them) of folks from the Belpre Church in West Virginia who had decided to take a cruise together out of Port Canaveral. The Belpre folks were on the ship on the right which belongs to Carnival Cruise Lines. I asked them how 17 of them decided to take a cruise (and not kill each other) together. They told me that originally it was going to be 2 couples but as we word got out their group grew to 17. The concept of “priority” struck me when I informed them that I had lived in the Cocoa / Cocoa Beach area since the mid-60s and I had never taken a cruise. There was something wrong about me being a local picking up a group of folks from West Virginia but they had chosen to make going on a cruise with each other a priority and they made it happen.

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 two to three seasons worth of games in one season.

My hitting the wall may be due to the recent rash of busy Saturdays coupled with teaching an extended (an extra class) day as well the activity Sundays bring. It reminds me of the time when I officiated my first basketball game with Greg. I think we were at Rockledge High School and I was both nervous and excited. In one of the first transitions down the court, I went from being the trail official to the lead official on a break-away. Now, no blog laughter from the blog gallery – I’m sure I was trying to “impress” Greg with my athleticism, grace, and devotion to the fine art of officiating basketball. I was determined to beat the boys down to the other end of the court, be in position, and make a great call! I could hear it now from the stands, “Wow, that guy is a great official!” Am I right? Come on, show me some blog love. However, despite the facts that all my “fur” was flying down the court, I had a love for the game, and I wanted to (be nice) impress Greg, I forgot one important thing.

Can you guess what it was? I’ll wait and please cover your answer.

If you thought I was having a “ball” you’re close.

Yes, I forgot about the WALL that was just a short distance past the basket. If I remember right and please forgive me if I have to struggle through my “post-traumatic wall syndrome,” any way, I believe I hit the wall at a full sprint, bounced off, went down to my rear, performed a backwards roll, and popped up to my feet. Oh, and I stuck “the landing.”

I can remember Greg’s smile as I came to the vertical position. He might have been the only one to witness me hitting the wall because after all, if the officials are doing their job they’re supposed to be somewhat “invisible.”

So, I need this “Saturday!” My only tasks – be at Carnival Cruise Lines at Port Canaveral at 11am to pick up 17 people from the Belpre Church in Ohio that will be coming off a cruise in our bus. What could go wrong?

At 5pm we’re going over to our “Deacon of Fun” (Fellowship) for a church wide “Cat Fish Fry.” Anybody want a hush-puppy?

Have a good and “wall free” weekend.


Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Gimmick Theology

Do gimmicks or programs guarantee success within a church? I guess another blog article might be the subject of just what is “success” within a church? Considering my years of being involved with different communities of faith I asked myself if there had been a “program” that had an impact on my life?

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

I want to thank all of you for your kind remarks concerning our weekend. We survived! The Garage Sale was a success for our Youth Group raising over $3,000. I’m looking forward to “tabling” the next one until Spring seeing as I had the privileged of moving virtually every table in our building to accommodate all the junk, I mean merchandise that people had donated for our sale.

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 Central Florida there is. We had our first Fall Ball game last night. Steven didn’t do too well at the plate going 0 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base. I pray that he can find the hitting groove he was in when we went to Lipscomb. His play at 2nd was outstanding with no errors and several put-outs. We ended up beating Space Coast Jr./Sr. High 15 to 0 in five innings. Steven can easily be an every game / every inning player but he has to have that bat come around as it did when we traveled to Lipscomb a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow (Friday) night we’re having our monthly social get-together with my fellow elders. Being a “relationship church” it’s important for us as leaders to be connected with each other. Don is hosting us at his place.

Saturday morning will find me at our building at 6:30am! Ugh! I’m helping set up for our youth group garage sale. Too bad Greg’s wife Janice isn’t here as we could possibly raise half our operating budget with her purchases. What do you say Greg, how about a quick Southwest flight to Orlando, rent a U-Haul, make purchases at our garage sale, and then take your lovely bride and your “new treasure” home to So-Cal.”

We also are having a church wide fish fry in the afternoon at our Fellowship Deacon’s home. He has a fish pond in his yard stocked with too many huge catfish. So the church is going to help him out by harvesting or rather eating some of his fish to make room in his pond. Aren’t we nice?

Our Head Coach also wants the ball field cleaned up a bit before our first home Fall Ball game Monday. I might try to sneak away from the garage sale around 8:30am to do a little weed-whacking around the field.

Of course Sunday finds me teaching an Adult Sunday School Class as well as facilitating our lifegroup later that day. So, what is in your wallet or rather, what is on your plate for the weekend? What ever it is, have a great one.


Sunday, October 14, 2007

Autonomous or Denomination?

First, if you haven’t had a chance to check out my 2 previous posts from the weekend, please do so. There are copious amounts of pictures from Steven’s Homecoming.

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 with the Cocoa High Quarterback who is also a "Steven." This is down by the Indian River Park.
Steven with his date, Joy along with the Homecoming Queen, Hannah and the other Steven.

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.
Steven with his friend Sam. You can see some of the other parents in the background taking copius amounts of pictures of their kiddos.


How far we've come! We have a picture of Carly and Steven when they were babies taking a bath in the sink of one of the Cabins at the Central Florida Bible Camp.


Steven with his friend from the baseball team, Ryan.
Final group picture as rain was trying to push in from the Ocean. Steven is in the back row, 5th from the left.





















































































Thursday, October 11, 2007

Homecoming

My son has never been to Homecoming or at least the dance variety. This has not caused me any angst since usually going to the Homecoming Dance involves being boyfriend and girlfriend. To his credit he has avoided this pitfall and has been “just friends” to many girls.
Now as we swing in to his senior year he’s going to Homecoming and then some. Steven was asked by one of the girls on the Homecoming Court to be her escort. He assures us they are just friends. So, my son who hasn’t been to one Homecoming Dance will be riding in the Homecoming Parade, in a Corvette, wearing a tuxedo, escorting a pretty girl, and then walking her out onto the field at tomorrow night’s game. Kind of like going from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds.

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?

Have a good weekend family.
We made it through one-fourth of Homecoming. Nah, make that two-fifths of Homecoming. We were on time for the Parade and we made the game last night. As Greg said in his comments, the boy is becoming a young man.

Serendipity of attending last night’s game was running into and sitting with 2 guys I went to High School with and both of whom were in our wedding, Buzz and Jeptha. I just had a thought; there aren’t too many common names in that bunch of yours (Cecil) truly, Buzz, and Jeptha. I bet our hearts were broken every time we went to the Toy Store to look for the little license tags for bikes with the name printed on the front. I bet there wasn’t a production backlog for license tags with Cecil or Jeptha on the them!

Any way, we had a great time hanging out with them and my in-laws who came to the game as well. Now – on to some pictures.
The beginning of the parade down Tiger Trail with Brevard Community College on the left.

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.

We used this opportunity to “borrow” something I heard Bob Russell from Southeast Christian mention 2 years ago at the Pepperdine Lectures. Bob is the retired preacher for the 20,000 member conservative Christian Church in Louisville, KY. During his lecture he spoke about making a decision at Southeast to “clean up the rolls” so to speak. He mentioned how they knew they had a number of people who had been attending faithfully at Southeast who had not been baptized into Christ. Like Don, he did a sermon on the need to be baptized into Christ and then told the church the Ministerial Staff would be at their church the following Saturday if anyone felt during the week the need to be baptized into Christ. He said they expected perhaps 20 people at best. Over 200 showed up that Saturday.

We’re a much smaller church and we decided to do the same thing but offer our services on the following Monday. Don did a masterful job of outlining the 2 positions most people take on baptism:

1. It isn’t necessary because to say so makes it a “work.”

2. It is necessary because it’s part of what you do in response to God’s grace through Jesus.

Don said both stances are wrong and where the disconnect occurs are the concepts of faith and baptism. When you emphasize one over the other you lose track of the full meaning of being baptized into Christ and will fall into one of the categories above. Faith and baptism are both equal in their necessity and meaning to see that being baptized into Christ is the way I respond to what Jesus did for me at the Cross, by faith.

We had a sweet couple come by the building last night and were baptized into Christ. Their faith response to what Jesus did on the Cross made being at church on a Monday night very meaningful.

Have a good day family.


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:

Me: Are you done with your assignment Johnny?

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!

To my “un-surprise” his assignment wasn’t even close to being completed. This young man whom I’m sure will be a great leader in Congress one day, heard the instruction, practiced the instruction, but decided to take the easy way out and not complete his assignment.

All of this made me think of our Movement in light of the recent “advertisement” that appeared recently (you can see a version of it at http://www.foracappella.org/chroniclearticle.php) in the Christian Chronicle. It was signed by a bunch of men who said they fully supported a-capella music and were against instrumental music calling instrumental music a sin that could send you to Hell.

The Restoration Movement started as a “unity movement.” One of their mottos that the early Restoration Fathers felt was backed by the Bible was “Just Christians but not the only Christians.” You need only think of Jesus’ admonition to his Disciples to not stop the man who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus to see the Biblical validity of such a stance.

David Lipscomb accepted and preached in what the signers of this document would call “denominational churches” regularly. A quote by him that I used to carry around in my Bible stated that he looked forward to those opportunities and always taught “the truth in love.”

When I read of a “creedal statement” being signed by so many men of our fellowship, I can’t help but think that we are like my 7th grader in my Pre-Algebra class. We have heard and have the teachings of Jesus. We have and know how the early Restoration Fathers attempted to live out those teachings in their lives and in the lives / churches of our movement. Yet, it seems we’ve stopped early, closed our “book” or at least to the Gospels, and we’ve put our heads down.

I’m reminded that when we think our movement has made head-way to truly be the Church of CHRIST, we’re only a short distance away from putting our heads down and becoming something that I’m sure Paul would look at in astonishment.


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.

During one part of my class, we were discussing the aspect of how we can read of a direct example in Scripture but not be required to carry out the direct example but rather embody that principle in a 21st Century form. The example I used was Jesus (John 13) washing the Disciples feet.

Here we have a direct example of Jesus doing something and hanging some heavy significance to it. In John 13:1 the text states that he was now “showing them the full extent of his love.” I then asked the class, “How many of you have had your feet washed lately, by someone else than you?” Nobody raised their hand. We then went on to indicate that although we don’t wash feet to the extent or frequency that was done in the First Century, we have a powerful example that we as individuals and as a collective church are to model – serving our fellowman.

An older gentleman at this point raised his hand and said, “You didn’t ask the other part of the question? You forgot to ask how many of us have washed someone else’s feet?” He then relayed how he washes (she wasn’t in the class) his wife’s feet due to her severe back problems. As he talked he smiled and relayed how it brought them closer together. Another gentleman talked about how his Grandmother when he was a child had him wash her feet as she was unable to do so as well.

Their comments put a “face” on a class that is mostly face-less as we talk about some of these guiding principles. I felt honored by them and God that he had allowed our Sunday School Class to be a venue that gave us a window into some lives that we would have otherwise known less.

Do we have any other foot-washers out there? Have a good day family.


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