the journey

An e-mail from D.C.

The following e-mail comes from our CSM host, Brooke (via Drew):

Hey! I have only emailed a few of you, because I lost the rest of the email addresses, so Drew you can email this to everyone else or put it up on the website! Anyway - I was just thinking about all of you and wanted to say hello. It's been about a month since you were here, and don't worry I have not forgot about you! I've had several other groups since you left, and actually next week is my last group to host for the summer and then I'm back in the great state of Texas! I pray that since you have been home for a while, God has used your experiences in D.C. to make a lasting impact on your life and your journey with Him. I pray that you have not forgotten about the people you served, and that you are seeking the Lord with all of your heart each day. I also pray for return back to school in a few weeks, that you might seek out the lonely, friendless, and forgotten peers and share Christ with them. I wanted to thank you all for a wonderful week, and letting me be a part of your group. I had an amazing time with you all, and I hope that you will all keep in touch. Email me back and let me know how things are going and share any cool God stories! Pray for the wrap up of the summer of CSM Washington D.C. God is doing amazing things here, walls are being broken, hearts are burdened, and love is being shared. I love you all and miss you.

Be Blessed!
Brooke Barber
(Hidden)@hotmail.com

A paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13

During an evening debriefing session in downtown DC, one of our hosts read the following paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 (the famous passage on God’s Love). And Brooke was kind enough go give us a copy so we could share it with others.

Unfortunately, the document bears no name so I can only assume it was written anonymously.

“If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask about your needs and help you, then I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.

If I graduate from a theological seminary and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it, and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but if I fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m nothing.

If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God’s serve and burn out after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people– the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting– if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.

Here is what love is like, genuine love; God’s kind of love. It’s patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just god rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t.

Love doesn’t act in loose, immoral ways. It doesn’t seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose it’s cool. It doesn’t turn on and off.

Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over the evil in this work, but it rejoices over truth.

Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down and finds out what’s wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way.

Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish, or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love exceeds 100 percent of the time. That, my friend, is what REAL love is!"

Is 100% FedEx advisable?

Several of you have commented on yesterday's sermon dealing with Club Med vs. Fed Ex. I'm glad that it stirred up some reflection and meaningful discussion.

Listed below are a few random thoughts on this subject:

1) I'm not sure that being a 100% FedEx church is advisable or even attainable, especially if members have been exposed to Club Med thinking for any length of time.
2) By saying that we're FedEx, that does NOT mean we've overlooked the importantce of self-care, vacations, personal/spiritual renewal, etc. (i.e., a few of ClubMed's best traits!). Because personal renewal and self-care are essential to healthy (whole) lives.
3) I'm NOT suggesting a condescending "we're better than them," us vs. them, mean-spirited mentality either. Because most of us have ClubMed blood flowing through our veins & an "I'm better than you" mentality would be wrong and sinful, not to mention hypocrital.
4) One of the dangers of giving something a descriptive label is that labels can stick forever, and we end up giving up on people (because we've pigeonholed/stereotyped them), stop praying for them, and ultimately think we’re better than they are. And that’s definately NOT my intent. My intent is to present a trend that current writers are seeing– a trend I’m seeing too. And I sense it's a trend you've experienced.
5) Maybe it’s better to look at it this way: What DOMINANT trait do we want to have? The trait of pampering entitled, card-carrying members? Or the trait of sending missionaries into Cleburne (yes, missionaries in our own community!) and into the world?

Who is this for?

This whole Club Med vs. FedEx church thing has grabbed my attention. I guess because it hits home in many different ways.

Henderson isn't the only one writing about his phenomenon. Reggie McNeal is observing this needed shift in world views (and practice) too.

So, here's another thought-provoking quote from McNeal's "The Present Future."

"When I finished speaking, a man approached me as a deacon in his church. He said, ‘From now on, when some idea comes up for something to do at our church, I am going to ask the question, Who is this for?’

Who is this for? may be a good way for you to begin your own journey from member (hear *Club Med*) to missionary (hear *FedEx*). Think about your life, your money, your time, your talent, and your commitments. Who is this for? Is the answer club members or people who do not yet know Jesus?” (page 68).

Let's talk about Club Med & FedEx tomorrow morning.

Emerging church

When you hear the phrase "emerging church," please think several things (this is not a complete list): 1) Churches that are in tune to the needs of 18-35 year olds, 2) Churches that are well aware of the postmodern shifts that have taken place and are making course corrections accordingly, and 3) Churches that are generally small, new and doing unconventional things to reach pre-Christian, anti-Christian and pseudo-Christians in our world (instead of spending the majority of their time catering to disgruntled or inactive Christians, engaging in "sheep stealing," etc.).

While visiting Doug Pagitt's Weblog (the pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minnesota of all places), he introduced me to a guy (Roger Sellers) who's visiting emerging churches around the U.S. One of the churches he's visited is in Dallas. Interesting. Oh well, thought you might enjoy this link.

Click here to learn more.

Cowards for Jesus

Many of us (hear *boomers*) grew up with the "hit them over the head with a bible" and "you're going to hell without Jesus" type of evangelism being used. Hmmm.

As a result, a ton of people are cowards for Jesus today. Oh, they love Jesus alright, but they're afraid of doing anything that remotely resembles the hard-sell, in-your-face approach to sharing their faith. So, they don't. They've (we've) become cowards for Jesus. :-(

What if cowards for Jesus could be faithful to Jesus and faithful to their conscience (and friends) as well? Would that be something worth considering?

Well, the following article is definatley not a cure-all for this problem, but it made me think today. So, I share it with you because I hope you'll discover something new, and helpful too.

Click here for a very brief (but helful) article written by Jim Henderson (see photo) of Off-the-Map.

Afraid

I ran across an interesting prayer on the Relevant web site. Use it for personal renewal, to reexamine "life stuff" & to return to the One who truly matters in life.

Link to article here.

Club Med or Fed Ex?

I tend to hover around (and read) about a dozen different web sites including: Relevant, Next-Wave, Easum/Bandy, etc., because they force me to be creative and to view church (and the world) through the eyes of post-modernity (and Jesus).

Today, I landed on Off-the-Map's site and found the following article. Interesting stuff. To whet your appetite, I've included their opening paragraph below, and concluded with a link to the complete story. I hope it challenges your thinking, and actions!

Jim Henderson, co-founder of this site, asks:

"Club Med are destination resorts located in exotic places around the world. They exist to pamper the lucky tourists who can afford their services. Fed Ex is a delivery system of trucks and planes. Their sole purpose is to deliver stuff on time and intact. At Fed Ex, the only time they’re happy is when the parking lot is empty.

My Question: Church -- Club Med or Fed Ex?"

Click here for the complete article

Late-night reading

Lately, I have been reading a chapter or two of Reggie McNeal’s “The Present Future” at bedtime. Wow! At times, McNeal fires away with a scathing critique of the institutional Christianity all of us have known and experienced on one or more occasion in our lifetime. Rather than do any disservice to his ideas, I have chosen to present three quotes that jumped off the pages as I read them (with no commentary):

Quote #1
“The North American church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself.” (Page 15)

Quote #2
“That’s the church’s mission: to join God in his redemptive efforts to save the world. People all around us are in darkness. They are going to die unless someone finds a way to save them. Trouble is, the church is sleeping on the job. To many of us have forgotten why we showed up for work. Even worse, many of us never have known.” (Page 19)

Quote #3
“Hitting the streets with the gospel means adopting a new way of thinking on several levels. Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking. Kingdom thinking does not force people into the church to hear about Jesus or maintain that church membership is the same thing as kingdom membership.” (Page 34)

I have a funny feeling that I’ll be sharing more of his ideas with you. ;-)

DreamTeam suggestions

The process known as DreamTeam is new enough that a few suggestions seemed appropriate. Therefore, I have posted a set of suggestions (hopefully helpful ones) to help make the DreamTeam process run more smoothly. A special word of thanks to: Robert Barnaby for the front-side (page 1) wording and format, the HUB for their relentless work on the mission/vision statements, and to everyone who responded to my plea for proofreaders. Thanks!