Category: Church (Page 19 of 61)

Holy Spirit Community

November 25, 2015 / Allan / 1 Comment

How do we do this? Community. Family in a congregational setting. It doesn’t matter the size of your church, you have many different opinions and viewpoints, different ways of receiving and responding, competing ways of experiencing and expressing the Christian faith within your congregation. There are different values and priorities. And a whole lot of that breaks along the lines of generation.

The Builders generation constructs an auditorium, installs carpet and pews, and calls it God’s House. They show up every Sunday in their suits and ties and nice dresses. And when they’re in church, they show respect.

The Baby Boomers have all the money. They pay for everything (thank you). And they want more: more programs, more buildings, more ministries; bigger and better and louder. When they’re in church, everything had better run smoothly.

The Gen Xers are the consumers. They wear blue jeans to church and bring their coffee with them. And that makes the Builders shudder. Their kids are loud. And that makes the Boomers cringe. When the Gen Xers are in church, they’re comfortable.

The Millennials and Generation Y and Generation Z and whoever is sitting with the youth group want experiences. They want action. They think saving whales is just as important as saving souls. They come to church wearing whatever they had on last night. And when they’re in church, they’re looking for something to do.

Bringing all these people together under one roof, together as one body, is hard. Because we think differently. We behave differently.

If we’re in the middle of a worship service and the electricity goes out and everything goes dark:

The Builders would sit in their pews and shake their heads. “Why aren’t we taking care of our building?” They’re embarrassed. Ashamed. And they sit there in the dark until 11:30, because that’s when church is over.

The Boomers would get on their phones and call an electrician and pay him the quadruple-overtime it would take to come over and get this power turned back on immediately. “Nobody move!”

The Gen Xers would call Home Depot and rent a generator. “That’s all we need.”

The Millennials would get up and leave. But they’d feed 94 homeless people and adopt twelve children on the way home.

Generations Y and Z would grab a guitar and head over to the park, sit under a shade tree, and sing a worship song they wrote at Taco Bueno the night before. They’d take a picture, post it on Instagram, and call it the best worship experience they’ve ever had.

There are differences between us every Sunday on every pew. How do we do this?

God’s Spirit tears down all the walls and brings us together and keeps us together. I can’t explain it; I don’t know how he does it. But he holds us together by his Spirit.

“You who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity…thus making peace… For through him we all have access to the Father by one Spirit.” ~Ephesians 2:13-22

Paul goes on to write in this chapter of Ephesians that we are all fellow citizens with God’s people and members together of God’s household. We belong to God and we belong to one another. We are being “built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

We are joined together. We do life together. We rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn together. We bear one another’s burdens together. We consider the needs of others more important than our own together. God has brought us together and he’s not finished with us yet. He’s still working on us, changing us, transforming us, and empowering us by his Spirit to proclaim his Kingdom and the lordship of his Son by the ways we love each other and get along.

So, younger people, sing the older, slower songs you hate for the sake of the community. Pay attention to the Scripture readings, shake hands with the older guy in the back in order to bless others in the family. Older people, sing the newer songs you hate and, maybe, clap your hands for the sake of the community. Smile during the skit or the video clip, ask the younger guy down front about his car or his soccer team in order to bless others in the family.

Peace,

Allan

On Offense

November 2, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not stand against it!” ~Matthew 16:18

Somehow, we’ve developed this idea that Jesus’ Church is about forming close little safe communities where we protect our innocence and ourselves from the ugliness of the devil and the horrible ways he works in the world. And we hide ourselves in our churches until the second coming. Or until we die. And our Lord says, “No!”

Jesus claims to be building his Church in the middle of all the sin and sickness, the evil and desperation. “My Church attacks it,” he says. “My Church destroys it.”

You ever thought about that? Are gates an offensive or defensive weapon? If Jesus says the gates of Hades won’t stand against Christ’s Church, who is attacking whom?

We don’t build a fort to keep Satan out; that’s backward. Christ has established his Church, his disciples, his body, to take on Satan himself. Jesus says he’s going to build his Church, and the gates of Hades, the gates of hell, the gates of death and evil and sin, everything that distorts God’s creation, everything that separates the Father from his beloved children, all the forces that oppose the Messiah and God’s Kingdom — none of that can stop it! By his Church, through his Church, through us, Jesus Christ storms the gates of Hades and he wins! Big time!

The Church is on offense, not defense.

Jesus is making a bold, radical, dramatic, world-changing, overthrow statement here. Peter makes the inspired confession — “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” — but Jesus tells him what that means.

It means we did not establish the Church, we did not build it; our Lord Jesus did. And his Church is not weak. It is not fragile or frail. It’s not irrelevant or insignificant. Christ’s Church is an extension of Christ’s power. His power! And the Church is on offense, not defense.

The power of the Church does not come from us; we don’t have to generate it or produce it. The power belongs to the Messiah and he has given it to us.

God’s purposes have already been accomplished in Jesus. What remains is an unfolding of what’s already been established. And our Lord is using his Church to do it. (And we think the Church is a place that puts on services!) The Church is created by and infused with God’s power. We live and we act in that power. We need to be aware of that power. We need to acknowledge it and feel it. The Church — your home congregation, my home congregation, each of Jesus’ congregations individually, all of God’s congregations corporately — is the means by which the glory and power of God beams out into all the world. Through the Church, your city and my city and the whole world is learning that God is sovereign, that Jesus is Lord, that the Holy Spirit is with us, and that the forces of darkness are in big trouble!

We’re on offense, not defense.

Peace,

Allan

Wake Up!

October 29, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

There’s a scene in the first Vacation movie (the original 1983 version with Chevy Chase, Beverly D’ Angelo, Randy Quaid, and John Candy) to which everybody with a drivers license can relate. The Griswolds are driving in the Family Truckster from Chicago to California to visit Wally World. They’re driving super late at night. It’s dark. Super quiet in the car. The moving shadows caused by the street lights and the glow from the dash board is about it. All you can hear is the Fleetwoods’ “Mr. Blue” on the car radio. The camera shows the kids in the back seat, sound asleep. Rusty: sound asleep. Audrey: sound asleep. Aunt Edna: sound asleep. Ellen in the passenger seat: sound asleep. The camera moves to the driver’s seat where we see Clark Griswold behind the wheel: sound asleep!

As God’s children and recipients of his eternal salvation, we have a divine purpose. We play a critical part in all of God’s new creation plans. We are his vital agents. But I think, sometimes, a lot of us are missing it. Some of us are dozing right through it. Sleeping. Maybe you’re in a full-on coma.

And we need a wake-up call.

“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”
~Ephesians 4:14

Paul says it’s time to wake up. Living at the level of the non-heavenly world around you, living like everybody else, is like being asleep. Or, worse, it’s like what sleep is the metaphor for: death. When our daily and hourly lives do not reflect the glory of God and his eternal purposes for his world, we’re sleepwalking. We’re just going through the motions. And we’re really missing out.

Paul says it’s time to wake up. Come alive to the real world, the world where Jesus is Lord, the world to which your baptism calls you, your new creation, the world you claim to belong to when you say Jesus is Lord and that, yes, God has raised him from the dead! What we all need from time to time is a friend, or even a stranger, somebody to remind us. We all need a sermon or a verse of Scripture, something to wake us up. You’ve been asleep long enough. We need to be told the sun is shining, it’s a wonderful day out there. Wake up and get involved in it!

If God really is fixing everything that’s broken, if he really is repairing everything and making everything new, then our purpose as his children is to live like it. To really live like it. To join him, even, in repairing and restoring and renewing. That’s the goal. That’s what God is doing.

So many of us, though, see the Church as the goal instead of as the means to the goal. So many of us, when we talk about fixing and repairing and restoring and renewing, we’re talking about fixing and repairing and restoring and renewing the Church. As if that’s the mission. We get so wrapped up in what happens inside our church walls, we spend so much of our time and energy and money and passion on what happens in the church, we don’t have any time or energy or money or passion for what God is doing out in the world!

Wake up!

Now, hear me clearly: God’s Church is important. It’s vital. Christ died for his Church. The Church of God is paramount to the mission of God — as a means to that mission end, never as the end itself. The Church is not Wally World. The Church is the Family Truckster. The Church is the imperfect, beat-up, unbeautiful, sputtering, backfiring vehicle God uses to take his creation to its intended destination. And a lot of us are asleep at the wheel!

The Church is not a retreat from the world. It’s not a safe place to hide from the world. No! Shades of reason, neighbor! The Church is a vehicle into the world. But we’re not supposed to be asleep while God buckles us in and takes us to our destination. God saves us, he redeems us, and he brings us together as a church in order to work through us to save others. Our purpose as a church is to live and give and sacrifice and serve for the sake of others.

“Be very careful how you live — not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.” ~Ephesians 4:15-16.

Peace,

Allan

It’s a Big Church and That’s OK

June 4, 2015 / Allan / 1 Comment

Summer seems to be a time of year when we’re more likely to interact with new people in our church building: more visitors, more vacationers, more of our community, more people who’ve just moved to our city, more folks looking for a church home.

We can be tempted to not personally welcome visitors in our church building for fear that visitor may actually turn out to be a 15-year member. We’re embarrassed when we ask an unfamiliar face if they’re visiting and they inform us they’ve been at this church longer than we have. It’s awkward. So we’re paralyzed and we don’t do anything. And an hour later we’ve got twenty visitors at Cracker Barrel saying, “That’s not a very friendly church.”

Long time members don’t help when we become offended if another member doesn’t know our name. The way to respond to another member who mistakes you for a visitor is not, “I’ve been coming here for 27 years! How long have you been here?”

If we’re going to be a welcoming church in the name and manner of Jesus, we’ve got to first get over ourselves. This is a big church; and that’s OK.

You can’t be embarrassed about not knowing someone’s name. How could you possibly know everybody? It’s unrealistic. And you can’t be offended if somebody doesn’t know your name. How could everybody know you? Why should everybody know you? It’s sinful, really. This is a not a 200-member church. It’s a big church; and that’s OK.

In fact, here at Central, we’re trying to make that something we say when we find ourselves in that awkward position of mistaking a member for a visitor. Both people in the awkward situation need to look at each other with love in their eyes and patience in their hearts and say, “It’s a big church; and that’s OK.”

We did it together this past Sunday and we’re going to do it again this coming Sunday. We want to be a friendly and welcoming church this summer. And it’s going to take all of us to pull it off.

Peace,

Allan

Everybody is Welcome

June 2, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

Jesus welcomed everybody and he made everybody feel welcome. Everybody. He didn’t reject anyone. He ate and drank with tax collectors and teachers of the law. He dined with prostitutes and Pharisees. Men and women. Rich and poor. Jew and Gentile. The powerful and the weak. Part of the huge scandal with Jesus is that, with him, everybody is welcome. No discrimination. No pre-judgment. He opened up his arms and said, “Come on! Everybody!”

And that’s not normal.

You’re only supposed to share meals and show hospitality to people just like you. Before you go to someone’s house or before you invite someone to your house, make sure they’re just like you. Check their voting record. Read their bumper stickers. Find out where their kids go to school.

Jesus refused. Everybody is welcome.

You realize Jesus was in a small group with a tree-hugging liberal tax collector and a right-wing tea-party Zealot? He hung out with poor fishermen and a couple of guys with horrible anger issues and a betrayer (I see Judas as that person in the small group who goes home every Sunday night and gets on Facebook: “You can’t believe what Thaddeus is going through!).

A temptation for us is to worry about who’s going to sit by us at church. Some of us won’t join a small group or commit to a Bible class because we’re worried: “Who am I going to wind up with in there?” There’s a temptation not to lead for that very reason: “I can’t control who’s going to show up.”

Instead of trying to control that, why not give it up to God?

“God, please bring people to our church I can minister to. Lord, please put people in our class you can reach with your love and hope through me. God, please put somebody next to me who needs me.”

And then no matter who sits next to you or who shows up in your class or small group, they were delivered there by God. That’s a person God brought to you for his purposes. It takes all the pressure off. God, this is your class. Lord, this is your church. When you pray that prayer and when you show up with that mind of Christ, everybody is welcome.

Peace,

Allan

Eating and Drinking with Losers

January 26, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” ~Luke 14:13

“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ~Matthew 9:11

“Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame!” ~Luke 14:21

“Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” ~Matthew 11:19

The gospels show us that the Kingdom of God is a big party with a bunch of losers. Jesus wants us to see that God’s idea of a great time is a huge feast with a bunch of people you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night. Or any other time of the week. Jesus came eating and drinking with losers.

And you are one of those losers. So am I. We are all losers together at the table of our King.

We’re all coming to the table with a limp. We’ve all got a wound or a chronic pain. We come to the table with a horrible story or a distorted view or a serious issue. All of us are maimed. Or dysfunctional. Or disabled. And broken. All of us.

The Pharisees at these dinner parties — the ones “watching closely,” the ones criticizing Jesus and complaining — are so self-righteous and smug with their nice and tidy lives in their pressed and flowing robes. They set themselves apart from and above the losers. “They’re sinners; but we’re saved. Their lives are a mess; but we’ve got it all together. They need a whole bunch of God’s grace and forgiveness; we just need a little grace to get us over the top.”

No! In Luke 14, Jesus says, at these dinner parties, don’t choose a place of honor for yourself. You’re not as great as you think you are. And these people you categorize as losers are my cherished children.

We are all sinners, every one of us. We have all sinned and fallen terribly short of the glory of God. And we are all being saved together by the lavish grace of our Father. Yes, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And, yes, all the seats are the same around the table of our Lord.

Scripture says we’re all going to eat and drink together with Jesus forever. We’re all going to take our places with him around the table at the wedding feast of the Lamb. And I think Sundays are the warm-up. I think Sunday mornings are party practice. Sunday mornings together are like the chips and hot sauce to the fajitas and enchiladas. Eating and drinking with sinners, sharing a meal with broken losers, with each other, together on Sundays, teaches us how to live together. It’s one of the places we learn to bear one another’s burdens. We learn to help each other, to encourage each other, to challenge each other.

We look at all the faces around the Lord’s Table on Sundays and they’re all looking back at us. No doubt, seeing very clearly our messes, knowing fully our sins. And, yet, still choosing to eat and drink with us. And we know at that moment that Jesus was crucified for the lousy company he kept. And he still is.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Church (Page 19 of 61)

Holy Spirit Community

On Offense

Wake Up!

It’s a Big Church and That’s OK

Everybody is Welcome

Eating and Drinking with Losers

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