ramblings

The End

2010-12-30T13:15:00.002-06:00

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot." Ecc 3:1-2

After four years and 303 posts it's time to say goodbye to the blog. It started as one of my New Year' Resolutions for 2007 and its ending as one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2011. The first was about forcing myself to do more writing and having a way to share ideas that didn't fit neatly into other forums. The latter is about simplifying.

It's been fun, burdensome, enjoyable, controversial, interesting and quiet. I'll keep the old posts up for a while but won't be adding anything new. Thanks for reading.

A Crazy Idea

2010-12-15T10:22:00.006-06:00

A couple of months ago I added an item to the agenda of our shepherd's meeting titled "crazy idea." As usual, I emailed the agenda to everyone ahead of time and I have to give credit to our shepherds. Not a one of them called for an explanation in advance! I love a church that welcomes "crazy ideas."

At the meeting I laid out the specifics of the idea and sought approval. I wanted to close out the Holy Spirit series with a rather unique message. Instead of asking people to listen to another sermon I wanted to challenge them to be the sermon. The idea was to contact the Family Center (a local non-profit that serves needy families) and ask them for a list of items they needed. Then we'd organize the lists and have them ready for Sunday. I would stand up at the normal time of the sermon, give a few instructions, pass out the lists and then we'd dismiss church. The challenge to our families was to take the lists and go shopping right then! Don't eat lunch. Don't fellowship in the hallways. Go be the sermon! We would then arrange three drop-off locations around Columbia, take collections until 12:30 pm and take everything over to the Family Center. So far, so good. I love a church that gives "crazy ideas" a fair hearing.

Of course, all that sounded cool but it wasn't crazy. Here's the crazy part. I proposed that we forgo the contribution on Sunday and explain that whatever they planned to give to church that morning was to be their "budget" for the shopping trip. Have you ever been to a church where the preacher said, "We're not taking up a collection today?"Our giving had exceeded budget in 2010 so this was good way to share the blessing with our community. Plus, it would really raise the stakes in terms of our purchasing power. Our average contribution is around $12,000 a week so ideally we'd be able to unleash a major blessing on the Family Center. The shepherd's unanimously approved the idea. I love a church that approves "crazy ideas."

So we arranged all the details with the Family Center and set a date. We kept it all a big secret outside of notifying a few volunteers to man the trucks. Everyone else showed up expecting a normal Sunday. As the message got closer, I started to get nervous. How would they respond? Would they like this idea? Would they participate? The answer was a resounding "Yes!" From the moment I started explaining the idea there was an immediate spark in the room. I could sense excitement and there was even a little cheering in both services. Within 5 minutes the Worship Center was empty and there was a line of cars trying to get out of the parking lot. I love a church that gets excited about "crazy ideas."

Still, one big worry remained. Would we fill the trucks? I had a feeling that it could be big and I explained to Lolly Watson, the director of the Family Center, that were were talking about a lot of people here but I just didn't know. Would everyone participate? Would they really give their entire contribution to the Family Center? Would we fully embrace the idea? Again, the answer was "Yes!" By the time the second service started I was already hearing stories from around town. Sav-a-lot had to open two more check-out lines. A cashier at Dollar General asked "who are all these people coming in with shopping lists?" Someone said there were so many Maury Hills people in Wal-Mart that all we had to do was start a hymn and we'd had church. The manager at Big Lots said he'd work out a donation for us if we do it again. Then after second service dismissed I went out to check on the trucks. Jim Webb parked his SUV at Sav-a-lot and it was already full. He'd called in a second truck and they were loading it. I stopped by Wal-Mart and was absolutely floored. We had one of those huge box trucks and it was already 75% full. As I stood there, families would come up with 2-3 buggies filled to rim and by 12:30 the truck was completely stuffed from top to bottom. Way more than I expected! I love a church that implements "crazy ideas."

Finally, we headed over to the Family Center to put everything up. Lolly Watson had several six foot tables laid out in a small room to organize the goods. The first two trucks arrived and it filled up all the tables. She said thanks and they replied, "Oh no, this is just the start of it. There's much more on the way!" When we pulled in with the box trucks and threw open the doors the response was amazing. Speechless. She started calling in staff and board members to help them get everything sorted. We quickly overwhelmed the sorting room and starting stacking items in the hallway and another room. The coolest thing was that we didn't ask for volunteers to unload because we didn't know what to expect, but 25-30 members showed up unannounced and started unloading. I love a church that not only implements "crazy ideas" but embraces them.

That's about it. It was a great Sunday and I'm glad to have been a part of it. Thanks to our leaders for having the boldness, our ministry staff for having the skills to organize and make it happen, our volunteers for having the heart of a servant and our congregation for agreeing to do something "crazy." Here's to more in the future!

Game Changer

2010-11-12T13:08:00.004-06:00

Last Sunday we explored the words of Jesus in John 14:15-27 where he promises his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that he's preparing to leave them but when he does the Father will send "another Counselor" to be with them forever--the Holy Spirit. There are two key truths in this passage. One, the Spirit is God. We're not talking about God Jr. here or some lessor representation of God. The Spirit IS God!! Two, the Spirit "lives with you and will be in you." This means that the God of the universe doesn't live in some far off place. Instead, he lives in you. Let that sink in a minute.

It's not an easy concept to get your head around. We're so used to the idea of "God living in heaven looking down on us from afar" that it's hard to transition to the idea that "God is much closer than you think!" So close, in face, that he actually lives in your life. That's tough to comprehend. I mean I get the Old Testament concept of God dwelling in a building (tabernacle/temple) and the Gospel concept of God dwelling in a man (Jesus), but now through the Holy Spirit, God chooses to dwell in the hearts of every believer. Wow! The all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving holy God has taken up residence in your life! I don’t know about you, but that’s a game-changer.

To hear the rest of the message, visit my podcast page.

Ask and It Will Be Given?

2010-11-01T09:29:00.003-06:00

Luke 11:9-10 reads "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (NIV)

This passage has always been a little troublesome for me. I love the promise. Ask and you will receive! That's powerful. I'm just not sure it's true. Because I’ve been there, done that and it didn’t work. In other words, I prayed for really hard for something and didn't get the answer I wanted. I doubt I'm alone in that. How many of you have ever prayed really hard for something and didn’t get it? A job, a relationship, a healing, freedom from a particular sin? You asked but didn't receive, sought but didn't find, knocked but the door never opened. So how do you reconcile the promise of this passage with the reality of life?

Keep reading! Jesus continues in v. 11-13…"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (NIV)

Notice those two words in bold. When Jesus says "ask and you'll receive" what's he talking about? How much more will your Father in heaven give you what? The Holy Spirit! Ah-ha!! This promise of answered prayer isn't a generic one, it's a specific one. If you ask for the Holy Spirit, you will receive him. Perhaps the reason I've struggled to understand this passage is I've been asking for the wrong things. I've been asking for more of God's presents rather than more of God's presence.

So I'm working on changing up my prayer life. Instead of asking for more health, safety, wealth, blessings, success, etc. I'm starting with asking for more of God's presence. I'm asking for more of the Holy Spirit in my life. More of God. Less of me. And that's a prayer he's always going to answer!

The full sermon is here.

Not-So-Scary Time

2010-10-08T09:17:00.003-06:00

Since we're ramping up promotion for our annual Not-S0-Scary Halloween Party I thought it might be a good time to revisit this post. This is why we do the way we do it...Not-S0-Scary Thoughts.

5 Things Every Child Needs

2010-10-04T13:51:00.002-06:00

Here's the video we showed at the beginning of yesterday's message. This explains the urgency and strategy of our children's ministry...

To listen to the message go here.

Dream 514

2010-09-29T07:58:00.002-06:00

To learn more about this ministr see www.dream514.com

To hear the story behind this ministry listen to http://mauryhills.podomatic.com

People Helping People

2010-09-24T13:36:00.002-06:00

To find out more about this ministry visit www.phptn.org.

To hear the history of this ministry listen to http://mauryhills.podomatic.com

Resources

2010-09-14T07:28:00.003-06:00

Last week I concluded the women's study with some Q&A. You can listen here. I also provided a list of some resources for further study. Throughout the series I tried to read across all perspectives from the most progressive egalitarians to the most conservative complementarians. The following are some of the resources that I found most helpful and they represent conclusions similar to the ones we reached.

Books:
Two Views on Women in Ministry, James R. Beck (editor), 2001
Presents both sides of the issue but the essay “Women in Ministry: A Complementarian Perspective” by Craig Bloomberg most closely resembles our conclusions.

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How Your Read the Bible, Scot McKnight, 2008
Presents a more egalitarian view but has some good information on how to read and apply the Bible in today’s world.

Women in the Church: Reclaiming the Ideal, Carroll Osburn, 2001
A tough read but if you really want to dig into some scholarly research here’s your book.

Articles/Studies:
Role of Women in Ministry, Rubel Shelly, Woodmont Hills Church of Christ

Women in the Church, John Mark Hicks, Lipscomb University

Women in the Assembly: Issues and Options, John Mark Hicks, Lipscomb University

The Role of Women in the Church (13 week study by Dan Blazer), Brooks Ave Church of Christ

Sermons:
A Community Without Barriers, presented by Thomas Robinson at Manhattan Church of Christ (1999)

Women in God’s Service, 4 part sermon series presented by Rubel Shelly, John York and Wes Crawford at Woodmont Hills Church of Christ (2004)

Sermon presented by Mike Cope (audio only) at Highland Church of Christ (2005)

I Permit Not a Woman...

2010-09-07T07:52:00.004-06:00

"But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." 1st Timothy 2:12

At issue are the words “to teach” and “exercise authority.” That’s the only two things Paul addresses in this passage. That's an important distinction because many have used this verse to also prohibit women from leading prayer, reading Scripture, serving communion, leading worship, etc. None of those activities are addressed in 1st Timothy 2:12. The only way you can apply it to them is by saying that they somehow constitute exercising authority, but I don't see it. When someone leads prayer at our church they are not usurping anyone’s authority. The act of standing on stage and speaking words doesn’t equate to authority. When our men pass the communion trays I don't see that as some type of leadership role. It's an act of service. They're simply passing trays. The rest of the congregation does that as well it's just they are seated an pass them side to side instead of standing and passing them front to back. Again, I don't see anything here in 1st Timothy 2:12 that prohibits a woman from doing any those things. The only area of debate surrounds "to teach or exercise authority."

What exactly does Paul mean by that phrase? A lot of the discussion here centers around the question of what constitutes authority. The Greek word is authenteō. This is the only time that word is used in the New Testament and it can be taken either positively or negatively. In the negative sense it means “to domineer over.” Some believe that Paul is addressing a specific problem in Ephesus that relates to women domineering over men in their teaching. They point back to the immediate context of false teachers and say that women were obviously operating as false teachers and teaching in a domineering way and that’s what Paul is trying to address. That would make the command occasional and therefor not binding on all times. The problem is there's nothing in the context that suggests the false teachers were only women or that all of the women were teaching in this way. So how could silencing all women and only women solve the problem? Also, there’s good evidence that the word “authority” here is used in the positive sense where it simply means "to govern."

In that sense, Paul is not addressing the specific situation of “women teaching in a domineering way” (although that would certainly be forbidden of both men and women). Nor is Paul prohibiting women from any and all forms of teaching. What he’s addressing is “authoritative teaching.” Which means what? What constitutes “authoritative teaching” in the New Testament church? Or better yet, who provides that kind of teaching? You don’t have to look far to find your answer. Immediately after Paul gives his instructions to women he addresses the qualifications for elders or overseers. Again, the context is combating false teaching so the qualifications for those who will provide authority in the church is really important.

If you read those qualifications you’ll see that one of them is that an elder must be “able to teach” (3:2). That’s a qualification that’s not given for deacons. Then later in 1st Timothy 5:17 it says "The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." Thus you see that preaching and teaching is one of the primary functions of an elder in the New Testament church. Then in Titus 1:9 he writes that elders must be "holding fast to the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict." Another primary function of elders, closely related to teaching, it to protect the doctrinal purity of the church. Why is that an important qualification for church leadership? Read Titus 1:10-16. Once again the context is false teaching. Thus, I see the activities of "teaching” and “exercising authority” in 1st Timothy 2:12 as being directly related to the role of an elder. That’s what I think Paul is restricting here. I also see this as a binding command for all times because of v. 13-14 where he appeals back to the created order of things and the principle of male headship.

In short, I still come out on the complmentarian side of the debate but I don't think the passage prohibits women from teaching in any and all circumstances. As long as the teaching is done under the authority of the church's eldership and in the proper manner then I think she would be free to speak. I realize there are other complmentarians who've come to a different conclusion (i.e. women can't teach at all) and I respect their viewpoint. However, I think we can both agree that this passage does not prohibit women from participating in many of the other activities that they are often prohibiting from leading.

Women Must Be Silent?

2010-08-30T08:46:00.012-06:00

1st Corinthians 14:34-35 reads "The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church."

The easiest and most oft-made mistake of Scripture is to read it out of context. If you do that with the above verse and treat it as a stand-alone command then it's message is clear. Women are to be silent in church. Period. Of course, I've never seen a church that consistently applied that passage, but that's for another post. The point here is if you take 14:34-35 at face value, without any qualification of any sort, it means exactly what it says. Women are to keep quiet. But is that a proper way to interpret the Bible?

We can't pull two verses out of hundreds of verses and say "Well, that's what the Bible says!" Instead we must read the Bible within context. We have to dig in and ask what was going on in that day and time that prompted Paul to write the things he did? What was his original intent? What was he trying to say to that church in that day and time? Only then can we ask how it applies to today's church in today's day and time.

So what’s the context of 14:34-35? It's found in chapters 11-14 where Paul addresses order in the assembly. He rebukes the Corinthian church because their assemblies are in chaos and their meetings actually "do more harm than good." He then addresses several areas in which there was disorder in the assembly (head coverings, the Lord’s Supper, the practice of spiritual gifts, etc). In each case, he gives instructions that will bring order to the assembly. It’s within that context that he tells women to be silent suggesting to us that perhaps the Corinthian women, or more accurately, the Corinthian wives were being disruptive in some way. Maybe they were asking unlearned questions (which explains v. 35) or they were speaking out of turn or practicing tongues improperly or gossiping. We don’t really know, but something must have prompted him to tell them to be quiet. Carroll Osborn takes this view and says…

"The real issue is not the extent to which a woman may participate in the work and worship of the church, but the manner. Paul's corrective does not ban women from speaking in worship, but stops the disruptive verbal misconduct of certain wives who are giving free rein to 'irresistible impulses' to 'pipe up' at will with questions in the assembly by redirecting these questions to another setting where they can gain access to information without causing chaos. Referring, as it does, to a very specific problem of disruptive questions by these women, 1st Cor 14:34-35 teaches that these particular wives, like the uncontrolled tongue speakers and prophets at Corinth, must defer to the assembly by voluntarily yielding to orderliness. The general principle that is to be applied to contemporary church life is that decorum is mandatory for all in the public assembly without regard to gender."

That’s a good point and the larger context supports it, but look at the more immediate context. Read the verses immediately preceding and following Paul's instructions to women (14:26-33, 36-40). Here you discover that women weren't the only ones Paul silenced. He also silenced tongue speakers when an interpreter wasn't present and prophets who spoke out of turn. Again, his primary concern is order in the assembly (v. 40) but perhaps there's more here than just silencing disruptive Corinthian wives.

The instructions on women fall within the immediate context of spiritual gifts, specifically the interpretation and evaluation of those gifts. Perhaps Paul is silencing women in regards to these activities. In other words, women are not allowed to evaluate or pass judgment on prophecies because this brings disorder to the assembly. Instead they must remain silent and yield to the authority of church leadership. This interpretation makes the passage fit a little more logically with chapter 11 where women are allowed to pray and prophesy in the assembly as long as they wore a symbol of authority on their head. This is the conclusion of Rubel Shelly who writes...

"The immediate context for the order about female silence comes three chapters later when Paul refers to the discernment of the churches leaders in making authoritative evaluation of and pronouncement about what the various speakers had offered the body. In order for these services to be orderly, the rule was "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (11:29). Finally, the apostles or elders-who were the acknowledged leaders,overseers, and spiritual shepherds to the flock would sum up. They would verify this message and negate that one, validate this prophet and reject that one. These male leaders were to make a final judgement for the church in that city. In these situations of pronouncing an authoritative word that would guide the whole church, women were commanded to defer to the apostles or elders, the church's Spirit-appointed male leaders."

Which one is correct? Was Paul trying to silence disruptive wives or was he prohibiting women from making authoritative judgements? I'm not sure but those seem to be the two most plausible explanations I've read. Since we're so far removed from the original setting it’s hard to determine exactly what was going on and exactly what Paul meant to say. Regardless, in either case, the command to be silent seems to be cultural or occasional in nature and therefore not binding on the church today. As long as things are done in a orderly manner and under the authority of the church's elders then I believe women should be free to speak or pray in the assembly.

Women in the Early Church

2010-08-23T15:36:00.008-06:00

What was the role of women in the New Testament church? That's a particularly important question for the church of today, especially those shaped by the Restoration Movement. It's also the exact question I tackled last Sunday. If you have 40 minutes, here's the audio. If not, here's a quick run down of the Scriptures used.

Acts 1:14-2:18. Both men and women were gathered together on the Day of Pentecost. Both were among the earliest disciples. Both received the gift of the Spirit and it appears that both spoke in tongues (i.e. publicly proclaimed the gospel in an unlearned language). See Peter's explanation in 2:17-18.

Acts 9:36. In the ministry of Peter, Tabitha is described as a "disciple" who is "abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did."

Acts 16:14. In the ministry of Paul, his first convert in Macedonia is a woman named Lydia. She influenced her entire household to be baptized and was an encouragement to Paul.

Acts 17:4, 12. Many of the "leading women" in Thessalonica joined Paul and a number of "prominent Greek women" in Berea came to believe.

Acts 18:24-26. Priscilla and Acquila taught Apollos (a man described as "mighty in the Scriptures"). They explained the way of God more accurately to him. This is at least one example of a woman instructing/ministering to a man.

Acts 21:8-9. Philip, the evangelist, had four daughters who were prophetesses.

Romans 16:1-2. Pheobe is called a "deacon" in the church of Cenchrea and the churches in Rome are instructed to assist her in whatever area she has need.

Romans 16:3-5. Priscilla and Acquila are referenced again. This time Paul calls them "fellow workers." A term he also applies to Timothy in v. 21. It indicates that they weren't just friends or converts of Paul but they worked alongside him in his evangelistic and missionary activities. It also mentions that they had a church that met in their house.

Romans 16:6-7. Andronicus and Junia are called "outstanding among the apostles." This doesn't refer to apostles in the sense of one of the twelve, but simply as one "sent by God." It's probably more similar to a missionary in today's context.

1st Corinthians 11:1-16. The instructions here concern head coverings but within them Paul tells us that women were praying and prophesying in the Christian assembly. Neither were silent activities. Prophesy is simply "speaking a word from the Lord." It could be spontaneous or planned and it was spoken for the edification of the church. Apparently both men and women engaged in this activity within the assembly.

Philippians 4:2-3. Here Paul mentions two women who were in a dispute with one another. They are described as having "shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel" and are referred to as "fellow workers" along with Clement.

Colossians 4:15. Nympha has a church that meets in her house. Many think that those who hosted churches in their homes didn't just serve as hostesses but also provided some level of leadership in the church.

1st Timothy 3:11. Within the qualifications for deacons Paul addresses "women." The exact meaning of this verse is in dispute because some think it should be translated as "wives" (the Greek can go either way). I lean towards the translation of "women" because I find it odd that Paul would give qualifications for deacon's wives but not elder's wives and there's at least one example of a woman deacon in the New Testament church (Pheobe).

From these texts I think you see many examples of women contributing to the establishment of the early church and the spread of the gospel. There are a couple of texts that seem to restrict their participation in church leadership and I'll be addressing them in the next two weeks.

Footnote: If you like Restoration history you might find this old post (What Happened to All the Deaconesses?) interesting as well.

But I Never Heard of Her at VBS!

2010-08-16T08:09:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we looked at the role of women in the life of Israel. We learned that within the pages of the Old Testament there are several examples of women who played pivotal roles in the history of our faith. There were also some who served in prominent leadership capacities. It’s just that we didn’t hear much about them in Vacation Bible School.

VBS was a week long feast of red fruit punch, vanilla creme cookies, puppets, crafts, silly songs and flannelboard Jesus. It was the one time of the year where shouting, stomping, clapping and maybe a little dancing (ala "Father Abraham") was allowed in the auditorium. By the time I reached puberty I was the veteran of many a VBS. I still have fond memories of Cordell Hull moving the cars in the great "attendance race" or Yogie Spears falling off the stage during "Only A Little Boy David." But I digress.

In VBS we learned all about the great Bible characters and heros of our faith. Almost all of them were male. Granted, most of the characters mentioned in the Old Testament are male. It was a patriarchal society and men filled the majority of leadership roles. However, there were some notable exceptions...

Miriam. In Exodus 15:20ff it tells how Miriam led God's people in worship after the parting of the Red Sea. She was the sister of Moses and Aaron and served as a prophetess. Micah 6:4 refers to her as a leader alongside her brothers. Of course, Moses was the primary leader of God's people during that time but Miriam still played a significant role.

Deborah. She was a prophetess and judge (the only female judge in Israel's history). Her story is found in Judges 4:4ff. It tells of how she sat under a palm tree and people came to her for judgements. There's also an interesting story about the military leader Barak who wouldn't go into battle without Deborah by his side.

Huldah. She played a pivotal role in King Josiah's reforms. You can read about her in 2nd Kings 22:14ff. Huldah was a prophetess who was consulted by King Josiah's men after they found the Book of Law. She pronounced judgements and prophecies concerning the book and sent a word from God to the King.

There are was also Sarah, the wife of Abraham, who was mentioned as an example of faith in Hebrews 11 alongside men like Abraham, Moses, Joseph, etc. Then there was Ruth and Esther who have entire books dedicated to their stories. At birth of Jesus there was a prophetess named Anna who prayed over Jesus at the temple and Luke 2:38 says she “continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

What are we to make of all these examples? Why haven't we heard more about these women? What, if any, effect has that had on our views of women's roles in the church? Those are all questions that have been rumbling around in my mind. Apparently there was significant freedom for Israel's daughters in regards to leadership roles. Have things now changed? Does the New Testament put tighter restrictions on women or does it provide more freedom? What exactly can women do and not do within the New Testament church?

Those are some of the questions I'm preparing to tackle in the coming weeks. If you live in Columbia, we'd love to you have you join us!

A footnote...in the sermon I concluded that women were free to serve in any of the leadership roles within Israel save one. Women were not allowed to serve as priests. This was the central leadership post within the faith community and it was reserved for Aaron and his male descendents. Is that significant? I think so. I think it points back to the created order and the principle of male headship. That still leaves me squarely in the complementarian camp, but I'm not sure we've applied that principle very consistently in the modern church. More later.

What Does Creation Teach Us About Women's Role?

2010-08-10T21:10:00.001-06:00

That was the topic I tackled last Sunday. In my opinion, Genesis is foundational to the whole question of women's role in the church. Many are tempted to skip over the Old Testament stuff and jump straight into the New Testament. That's a mistake. How we understand the creation account of the Old Testament has significant bearing on how we understand the so-called "restrictive passages" of the New Testament. Therefore, we dedicated a lot of time to Genesis 1-3 last week asking this question: "Does creation establish male headship or does it point to gender equality?" I won't try to repeat the entire 35 minute lesson, but here's my conclusion.

Looking at Genesis as a stand alone text, I find the egalitarian arguments [gender equality] very compelling. I don’t think there’s anything in the text that suggests male headship and female submission prior to the Fall. Both genders are created in the image of God and both are told to rule over the earth. The imagery of the "helpmate" and the "two becoming one" do not point to subordination but rather partnership and equality. The only thing that would hint at male headship is the fact that Adam was created first. Of course, to someone reading the Bible from a Western culture and mindset (like me) that means very little.

I'm the firstborn in my family but that doesn't give me any more authority or superiority over my siblings. We're all seen as equal. No one looks to me as the leader simply because of our birth order. However, that was not the case in ancient Eastern culture. The birth order meant something, and thus, it's logical that the created order meant something too. Perhaps a Jewish audience would have understood the creation accounts differently and seen a distinction between genders from the very outset.

Which brings me over to the complementarian side [male headship]. The "created order" points to differences between male and female and those differences existed prior to the Fall. They certainly didn’t look like what they look like now. Instead they existed in harmony and partnership. Male and female complemented each other without the power struggles and abuses we see in a fallen world, but the differences still existed. So ultimately I line up with the complementarians and say that male headship is a Biblical principle. That's not necessarily because of my interpretation of Genesis.

From the text alone I would not conclude that man was over woman simply based on the order of creation. However, that is exactly how the apostle Paul understood it (1st Cor 11:8-9, 1st Tim 2:13) and thus, how the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. In which case, I yield to the New Testament and Paul's understanding of Genesis as the correct interpretation. For one, the Bible has to be understood and interpreted in its entirety. Two, Paul's inspired and I'm not.

However, I would add that men have abused and misapplied the principle of headship in the past. We have not always exhibited Christ-like leadership as taught in Ephesians 4. Christ's authority was not used for power and domination, but sacrifice and service. I would also add that we've extended the principle of headship into areas that we shouldn't and we've denied certain freedoms to women that are not denied them in Scripture. We'll start looking at those in the next couple of weeks as we explore the role of women in the life of Israel, the ministry of Jesus and the early church.

Times Have Changed

2010-08-03T09:29:00.004-06:00

I kicked off a new series on "women's role" last Sunday. Here's the video I started with...

If Ward was to say that about June today she'd probably clock him upside the head with those asbestos gloves. I think we all can agree that times have changed. 150 years ago in this country a woman couldn't vote or hold elected office. If she was married she couldn't own property, make legal contracts or seek a divorce from an abusive husband. There were very limited opportunities for higher education or working outside of the home and public speaking would get you branded a prostitute.

Things begin to change in the abolitionist movement of the mid-1800s. Many of the abolitionists were women and they began to realize that the things they were campaigning for were many of the same freedoms denied women. Things slowly began to change. In the early 1900s universities begin to see higher enrollments of female students (some began accepting females for the first time). The suffrage movement of the 1920s gained women the right to vote, World War II in the 1940s created the demand for women to enter the workforce and the Civil Rights era of the 1960s brought laws that protected against gender discrimination.

Things have continued to change in the last few decades as well. In today's society women have equal rights and opportunities as men. They are seen as equally intelligent and capable leaders and you'll find women serving as CEOs, doctors, lawyer, professors, soldiers, presidents, governers, senators, etc. All professions once off limits. There has also been a significant attitude shift in terms of how we treat women and view their role within society. To say that a "women's place is in the home" or to label them as the "weaker sex" is considered sexist and discriminatory. Try arguing that women are intellectually inferior to men or less qualified for leadership and see how far that gets you in today's culture. Regardless of how you feel about "women's role" we all have to acknowledge that times have changed. These changes have forced the church to deal with the issue as well.

As Rubel Shelly puts it..."It is an undeniable fact that changes in our culture raise questions for the church to address. It is neither practical nor right to pretend that these questions are unworthy of consideration. There is no virtue in a closed mind, and the world will never take a religion seriously that cannot address it's current concerns."

I wholeheartedly agree and that's one of the reasons that we've chosen to tackle the topic at Maury Hills. I know it's a highly controversial and emotionally charged topic but we can't shy away from issues simply because they're difficult. We have to take the questions of culture seriously and do our best to answer them honestly. Of course, that doesn't mean that we allow culture to dictate our answers to those questions.

To quote Rubel Shelly again, "As people who live under the authority of the Word of God, we must explore issues with a view to discerning and embracing the will of God. If prevailing sentiment and Scripture agree, we may move with the culture; if they disagree, we must stand with our best understanding of the Word of God and against culture."

It should be an interesting journey and it starts this week in Genesis 1-3. You can join us live or via podcast. Bring a Bible and a willingness to learn.

What Happened to the Blog?

2010-07-22T14:33:00.006-06:00

That's a really good question. It's incredibly hard to find time to write these days. The growth of the church, the increase of our ministry staff, the family, the garden, summer, my habit of using all my excess free time to fish, etc, etc. I have all kinds of excuses. Of course, I know that if I really wanted to write I could make the time. I just don't.

I've even toyed with the future of the blog. I've questioned whether or not it's really worth keeping up. With Facebook and Twitter who has the attention span to read an entire article these days? And who reads anyway? Is it mostly folks from outside Maury Hills? If so, I thought about using the blog to post thoughts from my messages. I've already put all the thought and work in writing them so it would be easy to post excerpts online, but reading a sermon is different than hearing one. For that matter, writing one to be heard is different from writing one to be read so I'm not sure I'd save myself much time. Or is it primarily folks from Maury Hills? If so, they don't want another repeat of Sunday and if they want to keep up with my thoughts and activities most of them use Facebook. They also get that weekly email about what's happening at church so do they really need a blog article as well?

So I just don't know and while I'm pondering it I thought I'd write down what I'm pondering. I tend to think best when I think aloud. Or maybe it's that thinking aloud forces me to think best. I can't really remember.

Another Belize Reflection

2010-07-02T10:31:00.003-06:00

The best part of the trip was deciding to sponsor a child through Dream 514. While clinic was amazing and God's hand was truly in it the moments that will stick with me the longest will be the times I spent with Sherlene.

Sherlene attends St. Martin's school which was in walking distance of the church where clinic was held. On Wednesday afternoon Lauren, Russ, Vic, and I walked down there in search of Sherelene. We found her in the school yard. I think it might have scared her a little that some random Americans at her school knew her name.

You see Sherlene and her brothers were recent applicants because their father passed about two weeks ago. I didn't know this when I chose her because I just wanted to sponsor a little girl and Jenny paired us together. While in the school yard I asked her if it would be okay if I sponsored her to go to school. She said yes and was very shy, which most of the kids are when you first meet them. We spent about fifteen minutes talking about what her favorite things are and telling each other about our brothers. She showed me her classroom, I gave her my address and told her how we could be pen pals. I invited her to come by the clinic the next day if her mom said it was okay. We said our goodbyes and the four of us walked back to the church.

The next morning I piggy backed on Abby's idea to buy some goodies for our kids. We went to Brodie's and I bought some toothpaste, a tooth brush, Disney princess pencils, hair accessories and a picture of us from the day before. It was my goal to make it back to St. Martin's sometime during the day to see her one more time. Thursday afternoon the clinic was slow so several of us went on a home visit where some baby girl twins, who stole the hearts of our group, lived. While we were gone Sherlene and her mom and two brothers came to the clinic looking for me. I didn't know this at the time.

After we visited the family, we were going by St. Martin's so I asked to stop to look for Sherlene. She wasn't at school. In fact the place looked pretty vacant because it was report card day. As we got back to the van and were about to leave I saw a little girl from far down the road that had on shoes like Sherlene's. I squinted but I wasn't sure if it was her. Then as we were about to leave I realized it was her and at the same time she saw our van and ran to greet me. She wasn't shy at all this time and we had another great visit. I gave her her goodie bag. I could see the thankfulness in her mother's eyes when she asked if I was Amber. Sherelene showed me her report card and she is a B student. It made me so proud of her to know she's a hard worker and to know that through this great program she has hope to take that hard work as far as she wants to.

It was the perfect way to end the trip. By the time we got back to the church the group was on the bus ready to leave. Those few minutes spent with Sherlene were the icing on the cake to so many wonderful Belize stories. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard planning this trip and those who contributed financially. Without y'all this wonderful memory would not be possible!

Amber Markham

One more thing...I see God's hand in pairing Sherlene and I together. I have been around those who are grieving a lot more than your average twenty year old and I feel that I can be an encouragement to her through this difficult time in her life.

Belize Reflections

2010-06-28T15:34:00.003-06:00

I was just getting ready to summarize our Belize trip when I got this email from Mom. She does a pretty good job of wrapping everything up so I'll let her speak for the group. Also, I just posted all my pictures on Facebook. Go to www.facebook.com/russadcox. If you have pictures, post them on there and tag me! Here is Mom's final email to our team members...

Team!!!

Yea, we all made it home safe and sound!!! I know everyone's family was glad to see each of you. I just wanted to say thanks for all of your hard work. The team work was amazing. Each of you did jobs, some of which was way out of your comfort zones, and did them with a smile on your face.

Please give Jenny a big hug when you see her. She worked hours before, during and after our trip. She visited all of the schools and made many contacts while she was in Belize. I cannot put into words what she means to me and Dream 514.

We saw around 1,000 people in our clinic including the prison visit. Our construction crew framed a house and built projects for the Burrell Boom Church. The prison workers gave out 500 pair of shoes. Jenny and I visited around 27 schools and paid for applications for 160 (or more) children. The team members made home visits and school visits. We survived losing our hotel accommodations and rode out Tropical Storm Alex. What a TEAM!

I know each of you came in contact with someone who you will remember forever. Our last devo was to be devoted to those stories, but Alex roared in and the devo was called off. My story was a little boy who will forever remain in my memory. I had so many children request a sponsor and each time I had to say, "We could not do that this year, but maybe next." My last little boy came up without a parent and said, "Miss, will you be my sponsor?" I gave my little speech and he just stood and looked at me with hugh brown eyes. He said, "I will tell my grandmother and thanks anyway Miss." I watched him walk away and he looked back at one of our sponsored children holding his backpack and he had tears in his eyes. I will never forget that face or me having to say "I am sorry." I only hope that next year I will see him again and will sponsor him!!!!!

Remember Lincoln and Maggie will be in Columbia on July 7th. I have not received a time, but Russ will be forwarding you the info. Please try to join us with a visit. It will be their first and perhaps only visit to our area and they are so excited to see each of you. They will be giving us a report on the Dream 514 children and the work in Burrell Boom. Come and bring your families to meet them.

Thanks for a week of service to our friends in Belize!!!!

Love,
Connie

Day Six

2010-06-24T20:57:00.002-06:00

Everybody is tired tonight. A full week of work. Lots was accomplished. Lots of stories to tell but I just don't have words right now. At devo we asked all the local ministers who hosted us this week to speak. They expressed gratitude for the trip but I really felt that we should be one thanking them. They are the ones who minister here year-round. And they are the reason that Dream 514 is getting off the ground. I really appreciate what they do and wish that I could spend more time with them discussing church and ministry. I also wish that I could get them to Maury Hills and we're one step closer!!

Lincoln and Margarita (Burrell Boom) will be coming through Columbia on July 7th. We're inviting everyone who has ever been on a trip, packed pills, served on a committee or sponsored a child. They'll speak to us about the work in Belize and talk about how our church is partnering with them! Spread the word to Hohenwald, Carmack or any of the other churches who've been involved in this work. Also, I just discovered that Lincoln Jr. is coming Heritage University this fall to begin studies for ministry. We just looked it up on the Internet together and it's in Florence (only 75 miles from our house). Jenny told him he needs to do a preaching internship at Maury Hills. He's already a good preacher and he'll be a great benefit to this country. That's about it. Pics are on Facebook.

Belize, Day Four & Five

2010-06-23T20:00:00.004-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. Our Wi-Fi at the Yim Sann Hotel is spotty.

The last two days have been busy. We've seen over 500 at the clinic and Dr. Fann has pulled closed to 200 teeth. That's a lot of patients (mainly kids). It's unbelievable how hard he works down here. Of course, the rest of the team has worked hard as well. I think of Rick Richardson. He has to see every patient that comes through the clinic and explain the meds to them. He also got to go on a home visit today and he'll probably have to give another testimony sometime. It's a life-changing experience.

The other projects we've been working on are the school visits. Jenny has spent every day here driving around to all the schools. We have 27 schools and she has to meet the principals, pay for the students, etc. Every day I have 5-6 kids come up to me and ask to be sponsored by "Mrs. Jenny." It's heartbreaking. We need more sponsors!! Yesterday I had a 5 year old whose mother couldn't speak English ask me to please sponsor him for school. Then there was the 14 year old today who wants to go to high school but can't afford it. If you been thinking about Dream 514 but haven't taken any action, it's time to step up to the plate.

We also framed and roofed a "house" today. The word "house" is in quotes because I'm not sure that a single room 10'x12' building qualifies as a house. Especially since it will house a family of eight. It's hard to imagine. They have an existing house that's about the same size but the government is making them move one lot over. He asks us to help him move the house but we figured it would be easier to frame a new one and then let him add on to it. I actually got to hammer a few nails and it was a very rewarding experience. I put some pics on Facebook. They were clearing the land with machetes when we got there and five hours later they had a house.
Is it awesome? Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Belize, Day Three

2010-06-21T21:36:00.002-06:00

Sorry there's no "Day Two" report. It was on here somewhere but got lost. The team worshipped at three churches on Sunday. Burrell Boom, Belize City and Ladyville. Several of the team members preached, taught classes or lead singing. It was encouraging to worship with our brothers/sisters in Belize.

Today was an eventful day with a few unexpected turns. The clinic got off to a good start. A little slow but things will pick up as the word gets out. We also delivered 500 shoes to the prison and fitted the inmates. A little un-nerving because it's just an open courtyard and everybody's in there together. Also because I stick out like a sore thumb. Light-skinned redheads are rare in Belize. The unexpected turn happened in Belmopan.

Mom went to check on our hotel reservations at the Bullfrog and discovered that they didn't have any rooms for us. They'd double-booked them and we were out. The trouble is that's not only where we were going to stay the next four days but also where we planned to eat most of our meals. A slight problem. Mom drove around looking for another hotel and found a Chinese hotel outside of Belmopan. That's were we are. The rooms are really nice and we had some good Chinese food tonight. The other unexpected turn was for those of us working the prison. We got word that the Bullfrog gave away our rooms and that we were checking on a Chinese hotel. That's it. We drove to Belmopan with no way to get in contact with the team. We spotted the Chinese hotel and it was empty but they told us two Americans reserved 15 rooms earlier in the day so we figured we were in the right place. Everybody is settled now and everything's back on track. The adventures of traveling in a foreign country with no cell phones!

The most memorable moment of the day for me was the ride to the prison with Lincoln Jones. Lincoln is the preacher at the Burrell Boom Church and his family (Margita, Lincoln Jr., Jovannie, Crystal) has been instrumental in getting Dream 514 off the ground (as have Jason & Isela Garay and Melony Davis). Lincoln and I talked about ministry and how things were going in our perspective churches. He started talking about Dream 514 and how it was growing the church and making a huge impact on the community. I told him of the impact it was having on our church and how many in the congregation were involved. He said it was a "huge deal" and it's changing lives in Belize. I knew that but hearing it from him was very humbling to me. Those of you sponsoring kids don't know how big of a positive impact you are having here. Kids are getting an education and Lincoln's church is also using it as an opportunity to reach people for Christ. It reminded me of our church's vision to "serve the community in which we live." That's what the Burrell Boom church is doing. It also reminded me of how a single ministry (Dream 514) can bring two churches closer together. I sense a kindred spirit in Lincoln and the Burrell Boom Church. By the way, he's coming to Columbia soon!

That's about it. Tomorrow is the second day of the clinic and Jenny plans on visiting more schools. Awesome to see Dream 514 take root here!!!

Russ

Belize, Day One

2010-06-19T20:57:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that the team entire team arrived safely to Belize. Connie and I went this morning and bought all the supplies we lacked for the backpacks and the team members helped us all afternoon with the greatly unorganized task(each grade level requiring something different) of packing them all...it got done. I'm not sure how, but it got done.

After some fried chicken at Friendship and an organizational mtg we are free until the a.m.

So, time for me to hang out!
Later,
Jenny

Belize, Pre-trip Report

2010-06-19T06:35:00.003-06:00

Greetings from Belize,

Connie and I arrived here on Thursday about 10:30am and haven’t stopped since. We have had 2 great days. Each day we visited some of the schools in the Belize City and Burrell Boom Areas. We really enjoyed meeting more of our Dream514 sponsored kids! If you are a sponsor, you would absolutely love seeing your child in person (in their environment.) They are so excited to see you, yet they don’t even know you. Today, we went to one of the worst schools – Flowers Bank. They only have 36 students and we were able to sponsor all the students in the entire school – paying for their books and tuition! This was a real treat for us to help them so much! The principal was thrilled. One of our April team members is paying to feed these children on Thursdays (I have several pictures of this on our facebook page). They live quite a long walk from school and they go home for lunch. Usually, there is nothing at home to eat. There is opportunity here to feed them additional days in the next school year. A couple of the students live in a bus with their family…

We probably went to about 20 student’s homes and this was so wonderful to see where they live – with their entire family – mom, dad, brother, sister, cousin, grandma, etc. As we passed one home, we got out and talked to the kiddos. They were all hungry so we gave them everything we had – yes, even my precious almonds and mango.

We (maybe I should say YOU) are successfully making a lasting impact in the communities here. It really takes such a little amount of money/time to make a difference.

Some of our medical team members have arrived and most will arrive tomorrow. Then go to Burrell Boom Church on Sunday to worship with Lincoln and Margarita.

I also wanted to let you know that Lincoln did successfully back up into a very massive telephone pole. We thought someone hit us! It just scared us to death!

Thanks to everyone at home for your support and prayers.
Jenny

Belize Blog

2010-06-17T15:16:00.002-06:00

Once again this blog will turn into the "Belize Blog" for a week. I do this to keep family and friends of the team updated during the trip. It just costs way too much money to call and not everyone has access to email.

Two of our team members (my Mom & Jenny) left this morning around 4:00 AM. They should be in the country by now, but I haven't heard from them yet. They are delivering all the resources for our Dream 514 students. They have to visit 27 different schools in the next three days so pray for energy and safety. The rest of the team will leave on Saturday and I'll post something on here as soon as I hear from them. I leave on Monday. Here's the schedule for the week:

Saturday and Sunday we'll be in Belize City. We'll worship with one of three local congregations on Sunday and then spend the afternoon resting and preparing for the clinic.

Monday everyone will move to Belmopan and we'll operate our our medical/dental clinic through Thursday at the Garden City Church of Christ. We also have some plans to build an additional room on to a home, do some medical work in the prison and whatever other needs arise while we're there.

Friday we'll travel back to Belize City with a possible stopover in Burrell Boom. Hopefully we can because this church and it's ministers (Lincoln and his family) are so vital to the success of Dream 514. Then we'll head on to Ambergris Caye for a little relaxation before returning home.

That's about it. You're prayers are appreciated.

A Lesson in Grace

2010-06-04T06:08:00.006-06:00

I'm not a baseball fan but this story caught my attention: Robbed! Blown call costs Armando Galarraga a perfect game. In case you missed it, Detroit's Armando Galarraga was one out away from becoming only the 21st pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game. It was the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Jason Donald hit a little blooper between first and second base. The ball was cleanly fielded by Miguel Cabera and thrown to Galarraga who was covering first. It was an easy out. Game over. Let the celebration begin. But veteran umpire Jim Joyce stretched out his arms and called him safe. It was clearly a blown call. Galarraga knew it, Donald knew it, I even get the sense from watching the replay that Joyce knew it.

However, there's no instant reply in baseball and a call like that can't be reversed. The hit counted and Galarraga's perfect game was gone. The record books won't record his feat. So how did he respond? He just smiled and went back to the mound. What?! No kicking dirt on the ump's feet? No cussing him out? No cries of injustice? After the game, when Galarraga had a chance to review the play it was clear that he ump blew it. Joyce himself admitted it and even apologized to Galarraga for the mistake. So how did he respond then? He accepted the apology and said "nobody's perfect." What?! No appeal to the commissioner? No demands that the federal government come down and fix the problem? No bashing Joyce in the media?

Nope. He forgave him of the mistake and went on. And it's for that reason Galarraga will go down as a name I actually remember. I can't tell you the name of any of the other 21 pitchers who threw a perfect game. Two of them happened this year and I have no idea who pitched them or even what team they pitched for, but I can tell you about a Detroit Tigers' pitcher named Armando Galarraga who took a tough situation and handled it with absolute class. In an age of entitlement and selfishness he reminds us what sportsmanship looks like. Thanks for the lesson in grace.

Questions About God & Natural Disasters

2010-05-11T08:24:00.012-06:00

If what I wrote in the previous post is true, then why do natural disasters occur? Why would God cause these things to happen? Well, I'm not sure he does. I realize the insurance company labels them an "act of God" but I'm not sure that's a fair description. I don't think God is up there spinning his finger and directing the tornado to hit this house and spare that one or commanding the waters to flood this neighborhood and spare that one. It just happens. The laws of nature determine the path of destruction more than divine guidance. I realize I'm running the risk of getting some nasty comments about how I don't believe in the omnipotence of God, just hang with me a minute.

Why did the flood occur? I've heard quite a few answers to that question and many include God. Either he was punishing us for past wrongdoing or he was teaching us a lesson. Some have even said that it was all for his glory. I don't think that's it. Yes, lessons can be learned and God can be glorified, but he doesn't need a flood to show that he's good. So why did it happen? Because it rained 17 inches in 36 hours. Our drainage systems and waterways can't hold that kind of run-off so they overflowed their banks and flooded homes and roads that were built too close to them. I'm not trying to be facetious here. I'm just saying that there are certain laws of nature that God set in place and I believe he allows those laws to govern the natural world. I don't think he specifically wills tornadoes to strike or rivers to flood.

A much better question, theologically speaking, is why did he allow it happen? If we believe that God is sovereign over creation (and I do) then why doesn't he stop storms from occurring in the first place? Why set the laws of nature in such a way that they have the potential to end life and destroy property? That's a much bigger question and it gets into a much larger debate about good and evil, the role of suffering and how God operates in the world. I can't really explore all of that in a single post but here's a few thoughts.

There are two types of disasters: moral disasters and natural disasters. Moral disasters include things like terrorist attacks, war, violence, environmental pollution, etc. These things occur as the result of freewill and human immorality. God has given us the ability to freely choose good or evil, meaning that he essentially gave us the ability to destroy ourselves if we so choose (and we often do). You can't blame God for terrorism or war atrocities. These are the result of human evil.

Natural disasters include things like floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, etc. These things seemingly occur at random. However, humans play a role here as well. Just weeks after the flood there were questions about the the mis-management of flood control dams or mis-calculations in the weather forecast. You also have to consider things like inadequate drainage systems or the allowance of new home construction within 100 year flood plains. Human error contributes more to disaster than we might realize. A neighborhood near my house flooded because the bridge was old and outdated. It allowed debris to build up underneath and prevent the flow of water. Did God flood that neighborhood or was it a poorly designed bridge that should have been already been replaced?

Of course, these explanations (freewill and human error) only take you so far. Eventually you have to acknowledge that there are disasters that occur for no rhyme or reason. They are tragedies that are completely random and unexplainable. What about these? How do you explain God in such instances? How could a benevolent God allow it to happen? Well, I have thought a lot about that question the last few weeks and here's my best, most theologically honest answer.

I don't know.

God is God and I’m not. I can’t explain why things happen the way they do. I trust God and I believe that he is in control and that ultimately good will come from every bad and hope from every tragedy, but I don’t know why it happens. I simply can't answer that question. It's too big for me. And believe it or not, I think that’s a very Biblical answer. More on that next week...

Are Natural Disasters Divine Retribution?

2010-05-11T07:37:00.000-06:00

In trying to rationalize a benevolent God with natural disasters we often jump to the conclusion that it must be our fault. Surely we've done something wrong because God wouldn't send these events without good reason. Thus, we start to view natural disasters as some sort of divine payback for past sins.

No!

This is not something you deserve. God didn't cause a disaster to occur because of something you did or something someone else did. You hear this sort of nonsense all the time. Some said the Haiti earthquake was the result of God's anger with that country because they had made a pact with the devil or 9/11 was divine retribution for the immorality of America or Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment on the city of New Orleans for their sins.

Hogwash.

The idea that natural disasters or terrorist attacks are some sort of divine payback is simply not true. The Bible says that God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Mt 5:45). In other words, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. There’s no correlation. As John Piper says, "there is no morality in a flood or a hurricane." They kill indiscriminately. They don't decide who or what they're going to destroy. They just do it. That's why they're called natural disasters and not a moral disasters.

However, we still try to make the connection. Whenever one house is spared amidst a neighborhood full of destruction we observe that "they must be living right." Or when the storm hits our home we immediately start thinking "what have I done to deserve this?" The answer is nothing. You've done nothing to deserve this! It wasn't the result of your sin or anyone else's. It just happened.

In John 9, Jesus' disciples brought him a man who was blind from birth. They asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Like most of the world at that time, they automatically assumed that tragedy equaled divine retribution. Jesus corrected their faulty logic by explaining that "neither this man nor his parents sinned." In other words, he didn’t do anything to bring this upon himself and neither did you.

So why do bad things happen then? Next post...

Why Does God Allow Natural Disasters?

2010-05-06T17:43:00.004-06:00

I've been working all week cleaning up my brother's house. It was flooded last weekend in the Nashville flood. Also, my sermon topic this week just happened to be about overcoming the "fear of global calamity." So this topic has been on my mind a lot this week.

Today I got to spend a little time in the office and ran across this article from the BBC. It raises lots of questions about God and natural disasters. As a believer, how do you answer them?

By the way, I'm not just curious. You can actually help me write my sermon! I've been too busy cleaning up a natural disaster to do much study about natural disasters!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8467755.stm

Belize, Day Six

2010-04-16T07:20:00.001-06:00

Another great day at the clinics. We have had a great trip and have really enjoyed getting to know our partners here in Belize - students, families, preachers, church family and friends. Many lasting relationships being built - which is really cool to see.

In the morning, we are going by the Orphanage as well as two schools in Belize City.

Very busy week - very, very busy week.

Looking forward to getting home. Braindead for now.

Belize, Day Five

2010-04-15T10:02:00.008-06:00

Had another good day at the clinic. Our team has made so many lasting relationships on this trip. They have been touched by Andrea, Manuel, Norvel, Dannica, Pedro, Jordi, and many others...

Here are a few comments from the team:

I saw the bottoms of a little girls feet today and it really upset me. I have been looking at their faces all week, but to see their feet...
Eddie

We were visiting an organization that also helps children in Belize. The gates were locked and there was a lady with 3 small children and a smaller child that she was holding. That baby had something wrong and she had walked up a long hill to get where she was going. It was so overwhelming to see what she was going through...on this one single day.
Connie

Matthew 5:13 Our Incredible God who sent me with some incredible brothers and sisters in Christ to serve some incredible people in an incredible country. I am blessed to have been given the chance!
Kay

This has been one of the most eye opening trips I have ever had the pleasure of going on. I found the people of Belize to be very pleasant and thankful that someone was there to help with their health needs. This trip has been a great experience and I hope to do it again.
Jim

I took a little girl shopping for some 2 pairs of shoes, hairbows, panties, nailpolish, clippers, and toiletries. She said "I have never been on a shopping trip before." She touched me.
Revrey

This is my first mission trip. This experience has had a profound effect on me and has changed me to my very core. I thank God for the opportunity to use me to make an impact in the lives of others.
Jami

Belize, Day Four

2010-04-14T18:51:00.010-06:00

Tuesday Clinic was great. We all rotated going out on a school visit today as well as going to some houses of students. It was a very emotional experience for many of us. We went to one of the most poverty stricken schools we have ever seen. We set up for our June team to work at the school for a one day clinic with the students. One teacher, Rosa, immediately showed me a student who had a medical problem and we cared for him. It was overwhelming to see conditions the families lived in...and they were perfectly happy.

Saw the family where the team built a floor - and saw the little girl who lived there. She is in our sponsor brochure - with the toys lined up on the dirt floor. She saw us coming. I opened the car door and she jumped in the car and hugged me. I had never met her before.

It was a good day.

Here's some pics...

Dream 514 sponsored kids sleep on this bed...six of them

This is the house--quite big

Crew456 at Maury Hills sponsored child being seen by Dr. Chaney

TeenyTime at Maury Hills sponsored child being seen by Dr. Chaney

Girl on our brochure - she has grown!<>

Belize, Day Three

2010-04-13T09:09:00.006-06:00

Well...this always happens...you just have to be here. The first day of clinic is difficult because you don't know what to expect. We saw a steady stream of patients all day. Many highlights from our team members but the overall sadness comes when you quickly realize a lot of the issues are things that could easily be taken care of in the US. Then there are other patients that need so much more care than just our one clinic - they need more meds than what will last a month. They need a permanant medical clinic that would support their needs. This is one of our visions as Dream514. A big vision.

Clinic will grow tomorrow as the word spreads that we are here.

Loved seeing all the kids riding to school on their cute little bikes and in their sweet uniforms. Smiling faces - first day back from Easter Break. Will try to video this tomorrow. You would like seeing this. It's so cute.

Connie Adcox also toured and visited all the principals in the Burrell Boom area. They were so glad we were there trying to help their children gain hope for a future. One specific school, Flowers Bank, Connie saw such extreme poverty. The kids were hungry. They had no lunches or snacks. One crew walked five miles to school and crossed the river to get there. Most lived in an 8x8 one room house on stilts. Maybe two hammocks and one twin mattress for four or five kids and two adults. 36 kids in this specific school - small school - and we all want to know what we can do to make this better, for the kids and for the community.

Met with Jason and Isela Garay, minister of Garden City Church here in Belmopan. They are our community partners here in Belmopan. We enjoyed sharing our lives together and getting to know them better. They are instrumental in helping us work our education program in this area. One of the best things was getting to meet many of the children and families of our Dream514 sponsorships. Finally, we get to put everyone together - brothers, sisters, moms, aunts, cousins, grandmother. Yes, we are totally confused, but that's ok. If you've been here, you totally understand. Family reunion every day. I went up to a little girl who had just gotten out of school. She was with her Mom. I asked her what her name was and she said Dannica - she is Lilly and Halle Jane's sponsored child. She caught me so offguard. I didn't cry - at that point. She was so shy and cute. She didn't like to smile showing her teeth because she lost both of her front teeth recently. Her birthday is next week and the girls sent her a little gift and she was so excited. She could read Lilly's note with her Mom's help. It was so cute. That was worth all of this!

If you don't have a sponsored child, you need to do it. That's all I can say.

Well, there was one thing I did know today - we needed a dentist. Wished we had one when people asked for it. Wished I had looked high and low for that before stopping.

To wrap it up - all our team worked so hard today as they always do. It was a great day.
I included some Dream514 students pic at church and the Mayan Ruin we climbed as well as Revrey, which I'm sure you will enjoy. I will upload todays pics later, maybe. Hopefully.

-Jenny

Belize, Day Two

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000-06:00

We have had a great adventure today. We started out the day visiting with the Burrell Boom church and we had a great worship service with the crew there. We met so many of the people who attend the church and many of the students we have as Dream514 students were there. They put on a special program for us and it was so sweet - they had prepared 3 songs and several of the kids prayed and one had written a poem about Dream514. We were all so touched and everyone had a simple smile on their face. It is so nice to make the lasting connection with the people of Burrell Boom.

This year, we decided to do a few different things on the trip and one of the side trips was a trip to the Lamani Mayan Ruins. Let me tell you (as Revrey would say) this was an adventure...monkeys jumping on our boat, stealing Revrey's Cheetos, Beautiful birds, crocodile, and a huge climb up a Mayan Ruin to overlook the entire rainforest. It was unbelievably beautiful - and scary. Very High and steep. Our guide did have to get some of us down! When Revrey and Connie got to the top (after I told them not to come) they couldn't breathe or barely open their eyes to look. We saw a tear out of Revrey. But, it was one of the best moments.

After all this fun, we are heading to Belmopan in the morning to start the clinics. Everyone here is doing great and they told me to tell you "we love you."

Belize, Day One

2010-04-12T07:44:00.004-06:00

At least once a year this blog turns into the Belize blog. It's usually during June when our mission trip heads down to Belize to set up free medical/dental clinics. However, this year we're stepping it up a notch. With our Dream 514 plans we decided to take two trips (spring & summer). My wife is leading the team that's there this week. They are conducting a week-long medical clinic and working with our partnering schools/churches on the education sponsorships. They are also scouting out a site for a permanent medical clinic. Big plans and big dreams require big prayers. So to get you praying I thought I'd include their daily reports. Here's day one with day two coming soon...

Greetings from Belize,
We made it after only a slight delay in Dallas yesterday afternoon. We arrived at the Black Orchid, which we have never stayed here before and we couldn't be more pleased. It is so nice and it sits right along the Belize river. The food last night was excellent and Deborah is cooking us up a fine breakfast as we speak.

We had plans to meet with two of our community partners here in Belize last night, Margarita Jones and Melony Gordon. Margarita is the partner in Burrell Boom and Melony is the partner in Ladyville and Belize City. These ladies have worked so hard to help us get our education program up and running. So far we have about 85 students approved for school sponsorships and about half of those are sponsored by US families. We are working to get sponsors for the remaining children. We expect to meet many of these children today at the Burrell Boom church service, where Maggie's husband, Lincoln, is the preacher. We hear they have a little program planned for us!

We hope to also meet many of the other students this week at the Clinic site in Belmopan, where we are working with Isela Garay as a community partner.

Even though all of these details seem petty to us sometimes, we could see last night how important it is to help each family. Most of them live on little and they have to pay a lot health bills as well as their children's (many usually) schooling bills. Education is not free here. Many quit to go to work before 6th grade.

We hope to have a good day today at Burrell Boom church. They are so excited because they have a new building (which we are looking at for a possible site of our permanent medical clinic), and today is their first day in the new building!

Then, we will come back and take a Mayan ruin tour on the river - which we have heard is fantastic. All of these things are new to us and we are excited to check them out! The weather is looking pretty good - 87 degrees and humid. That's good. In the summer, it gets in the upper 90's with the added humidity.

Pray for a good day here. We head to the clinic site in the morning.

With a small team, everyone should be very busy! Hopefully, I can send some pics later.

Jenny

New Testament Feedback

2010-03-17T13:09:00.007-06:00

At the beginning of this year, our church tackled the New Testament Challenge. The challenge was to read through the New Testament in 9 weeks (63 days). The reason was two-fold. One, as Christians we base their faith on the teachings of the NT, but ironically many of us never read it (at least not in it's entirety). Two, whenever we do read it we tend to "study" the text more than "read" it. In other words, we get so hung up on issues of contention or confusion that we end up missing the main point! I wanted to challenge our folks to read the New Testament as a story and look for its major themes.

The challenge ended last Sunday and I asked everyone to let me know how they did and what kind of impact it had on their spiritual life. I was encouraged at the number of people who completed the challenge (or were very close to completing it). I was even more encouraged by the comments they shared. Here's a few of them...

Even though I have read the NT several times, this time is different. I believe the Spirit is actually accepted into my life and has given me a totally new perspective toward God, but maybe even more toward people. It has never been so plain to me that not only the love of God is important, but that love can never be what God desires and commands if I can not love those around me. Thank you for challenging me.

Praise the Lord! I finished it this morning. It brought peace to my life, which was much needed. I was able to reconnect with God in very special way.

I have never been one to read the Bible on a daily basis, choosing instead to use it more as a reference book. However, I have enjoyed reading through the New Testament and towards the end of the challenge preferred reading my Bible to my usual mystery novels. I feel the challenge has led me closer to God and has given me a new appetite for the Word. I may even try to tackle the Old Testament next!

Almost finished! It is helping me so much in walk with Jesus & God! It's helping me become a better Christian.

I have finished it and have had some unexpected results. First, I noticed that I have had more help overcoming temptations. I know I should have not been surprised, but I am! Second, I have had less of a problem forgiving myself and others. In a general way, I feel happier and more encouraged to exercise my Christianity with others.

Still struggling half way through my mourning process when I started, I didn't realize how uplifting the story of Jesus was to be for me in my time of need. I found myself looking forward to each days reading assignment. I kept finding things that I had either forgotten or overlooked from previous readings. Overall, the challenge has made me a stronger Christian by giving me hope. Hope, not only for my present day life, but hope for my eternal life with Jesus.

Thanks so much for the encouragement to read through. Even more for the easy plan to get a schedule and make it happen...I was surprised with how many times during this period I would think of something that related to what was recently read. Applications are everywhere if the text is close to the surface. You have challenged me in a good way and I plan to continue the reading...I'm sure that filling more of my time and mind with scripture has allowed me to starve wayward thoughts without a conscious effort to do so. Sin is easier to overcome if simply replaced with something wholesome instead of just saying no.

NT Challenge completed! Thank you for the challenge of setting up a routine for Bible reading every day. It has helped me a lot.

Conclusion: reading God's Word is powerful and beneficial to the life of a Christian! Keep reading!!

Another Branch of the Restoration Movement?

2010-03-12T08:27:00.003-06:00

This is an excerpt from a statement of beliefs I pulled off a church website. Care to venture which denomination?

From its beginning, the Church of __________ has based its beliefs on the "whole Bible rightly divided." We accept the Bible as God's Holy Word, inspired, inerrant, and infallible. We believe the Bible to be God's written revelation of Himself to mankind and our guide in all matters of faith; therefore, we look to the Bible as our highest authority for doctrine, practice, organization, and discipline.

It was a strong desire to rely solely on the Bible that led the early pioneers of the church to declare their willingness to be free from all man-made creeds and traditions, to take the New Testament as their only rule of faith and practice, and to give each other equal rights and privileges to read and interpret the Bible as their consciences might dictate.

It sounds like something you'd find on the website of any Church of Christ, but it's actually from the Church of God of Prophecy. Apparently we're not the only ones with a little Restoration history.

Love and Obedience

2010-03-05T09:48:00.002-06:00

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." Jn 14:15

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." Jn 14:21

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching." Jn 14:23

"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love." Jn 15:10

All of those quotes come from Jesus's teaching to his disciples just before his death. They show us an undeniable connection between obedience and love. You can't have one without the other. To practice love without obedience produces worldliness, but to practice obedience without love produces legalism. There must be balance.

I gave a lot of thought to these passages last week while preparing a message on obedience. Those who love Christ naturally seek to obey Him. This is an expression of our love. It's not an effort to earn something or get something from Him, it's simply reciporcating the love he's already shown us. God showed us his love through sacrifice (Rom 5:8, Jn 3:16). We return that love through obedience (see above).

Yet, the connection goes even deeper than that. Look at what Jesus says later in the chapter. After repeatedly explaining that those who love him will obey his commands, he then clarifies what he means by "his commands."

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." Jn 15:12

"This is my command: Love each other." Jn 15:17

Or as John explains it..."And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." 2nd Jn 1:6

Get it? Those who love Jesus obey His command, and what's His command? To love!! Love leads to obedience and obedience leads to love. Don't you love that?!

Sticky Church

2010-02-25T10:53:00.004-06:00

If the back door of a church is left wide open, it doesn't matter how many people are coaxed to come in the front door--or the side door, for that matter.

Yet most churches give the back door scant attention.

We've discovered lots of ways to reach people. We've offered the high-powered programs and slick marketing of attractional churches, the cultural savvy of missional churches, and the relational intimacy of small churches. But we've often become so focused on reaching people that we've forgotten the importance of keeping people.

And that's the thesis of this book: Our churches need to be stickier.

Stickier churches are healthier churches. They not only draw in spiritual window-shoppers and lead them to Christ; they also grow them up in maturity.

And that, after all, is what Jesus called us to do. He didn't tell us to go into the all the world and sign people up. He didn't tell us to draw big crowds. He told us to make disciples--a task that includes baptizing people and teaching them to obey everything he commanded.

Frankly, that's a task that takes some significant time. To pull it off, we need to be sticky.

That's the introduction to Larry Osborne's book, Sticky Church, and it's the focus of our Shepherd's retreat this weekend. What are your thoughts? What does it take for a church be sticky? How do we close the back door and help people mature as disciples?

Don't Quit!

2010-02-18T09:10:00.008-06:00

Our student minister, Todd Loyd, filled in for me last Sunday. He talked about perseverance and it was a great message! (you can listen here) Early in the talk he explained how whenever the going gets tough we're tempted to quit. We want to quit our marriages, jobs, friends, churches, etc. We have a strong urge to bail whenever things don't turn out like we thought they would. Of course, quitting seems like the most logical choice at the time, but it's one we usually come to regret. It reminded me of a time in my life when I quit and later wished I hadn't.

It was my Junior year of high school during the Christmas break. The basketball coach had just resumed daily practices and I was lacking motivation. I much preferred to stay on break. Besides, I wasn't all that good at basketball. I was a 5' 10" post player with mediocre shooting skills and even worse ball-handling. I could knock a few people around and grab some rebounds, but most of my opponents were a good half foot taller than me. I was much better at football and tennis so who needed basketball?

A couple of days after the practices started I walked in the coach's office and told him "I quit." He asked me to sit down and took a long look at me, trying to size up my determination. Then he asked, "Why?" I said, "I'm not that good and don't really like it." He told me I was better than I thought and encouraged me to stick with it. I explained that "I'd rather just concentrate on my other two sports right now." That wasn't the entire truth.

The truth was I quit because our coach was really tough and we had brutal practices. The year before we'd had a coach who would throw out a ball for practice and say "Ya'll scrimmage for a while." This one was different. He came from the Don Meyer school of basketball (the man who scared me to death as a 12 yr old at summer bball camp). Like Meyer, this coach was a stickler for fundamentals and a stern disciplinarian. I remember running drills over and over until we got them right, running laps for screw-ups and excruciatingly long wall sits while he lectured us on benefits of mental toughness. Truth is, I couldn't stand him. I thought he was way too strict and hard-nosed.

Looking back, I have much more appreciation for his coaching style and discipline. I was wrong about him. He was teaching us more than basketball but I couldn't see it at the time. So I quit. I gave up and threw myself into football and tennis. I told everyone that I was happy with that. It was a good decision. I was glad I did it. That wasn't the entire truth either.

Not long after quitting the team, I wished I hadn't. My senior year I even volunteered to keep statistics so I could stay involved, but I would have rather played. The entire year I kept thinking, "I ought to be on the floor right now." Nineteen years later I think I can finally admit it...I shouldn't have quit the team. It was the wrong decision and I regretted it. I should have stuck it out. Persevered. Endured. I would have been a better person for it.

I think that's generally true in most situations, whether we're talking about our relationships or our faith or whatever. We're better off to stick it out. To work through our problems. Endure the rough patches. Persevere. In the long run, it strengthens us and forms our character. Perseverance teaches us something that quitting never can.

"...we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:4

Two Great Ministries!

2010-02-09T13:37:00.002-06:00

The last couple of years Maury Hills has placed a big emphasis on serving others. It all started with Rick Atchley's message on our 7th anniversary called The Church Has Left the Building. I followed that up with a short series six months later called Do Something Big. Some of our folks have taken those ideas literally! Here's two of the major projects that our church has begun within the last year. Both have grown beyond belief and are already recruiting partner churches!

People Helping People (home renovation ministry). Completed three homes in 2009, just started the fourth and secured funding to do 11 more in 2010. Has established an ecumenical board of directors with representatives from several area churches and community leaders. Are striving to pull together local churches, businesses and government agencies to revitalize our community.

Dream 514 (Belize). Have 40+ sponsors who are providing funds for children to attend school. Are sponsoring two medical mission trips this year and have long-term plans to establish a permanent medical clinic and plant a church. Are led by a very dedicated team of Maury Hills volunteers and are working with other churches (both in the states and Belize) to expand the ministry.

Both websites are under development but they'll give you an idea of what's happening. I can't wait to see what God does with these two efforts! Your prayers are appreciated.

New Testament Musings

2010-02-03T14:17:00.018-06:00

I'm reading through the New Testament in conjunction with the New Testament Challenge. It's been really interesting. The idea is to read through the entire New Testament in a short period of time. This helps us see the "big picture" and resists the temptation to put too much emphasis on specific verses or issues. I've really enjoyed reading the Bible in this way because some of the major themes start to jump off the page. Things like the gospel, faith and love are present in almost every reading. These themes are often discussed in modern Christian circles as well. However, there are a few themes that are prevalent in the ancient writings but not quite as prevalent today. For example...

Sin. The New Testament has a lot to say about sin. The teachings of Jesus and Paul contain constant exhortations to avoid sin and live righteously. Yet, many believers today don't like to use the "s" word. I think that's partly due to recent history. Many of them grew up with a good dose of teaching on sin (along with extra helpings of guilt, shame and fear). The assumption being that fear was proper motivation for obedience and that guilt and shame produce righteousness. They didn't. The New Testament uses a different motivation for avoiding sin. The gospel. As I read through Paul's letters I was struck by how he usually began with the gospel and ended with encouragement to live morally upright lives. The gospel is our motivation for obedience and the love of Christ produces righteousness. Sometimes in the past we've gotten that backwards. The New Testament sets things straight.

The Resurrection of the Dead. We hardly ever talk about this one. As I matter of fact, I know of no modern Christians (aside one) who regularly use this language when describing eternity. Yet, if you read the New Testament this phrase keeps coming up. It's also present in many of the earliest creeds of the Christian faith. The Bible teaches that the dead in Christ we will be resurrected at the second coming. What does this mean? I'm not exactly sure, but I take it to mean that the dead will be resurrected in much the same way that Jesus was resurrected! That's a powerful thought but you won't hear it preached in many churches today. We tend to think of eternity more in terms of formless souls floating above the clouds. I'm not so sure of that anymore. Read 1st Corinthians and 1st Thessalonians and see what you think.

The Second Coming. We don't mention this one much either. Of course, I'm excluding all those who mention it in a pre-tribulation rapture sort of way. They talk about it a lot, but that's mostly because of the Left Behind series. I'm simply talking about the fact that Jesus is coming back and our time on earth is limited. We don't know when its going to happen or exactly how its going to happen, but we do know that its going to happen. The teaching of Scripture is clear in this regard. Jesus is coming back so you better get ready! Repent and prepare for the Day of Lord! I don't think you hear that as much in the 21st century church as you would have in the 1st century church. Maybe its just that too many years have passed and he hasn't come back yet. Of course, he has a good reason. God is patient and wants everyone to to come to repentance (2nd Peter). But his delay is no reason for silence. If anything it's all the more reason to emphasize this important teaching.

That's a few of my observations thus far and I'm only halfway through. More later.

Serious Truth from a Funny Guy

2010-01-27T13:36:00.009-06:00

Last week my wife set the DVR to record the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'brien. I watched primarily because I wanted to see O'brien rip the NBC execs. Which he did (at first), but later in the show he turned serious and thanked NBC for the opportunity they gave him. He also spoke of his blessings and how he leaves the network with no regrets. Then he had these profound words for his viewers...

...all I ask is one thing. And I'm asking this particularly of young people that watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality. It doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen...

There's a lot of truth in those words and we'd all do well to heed his advice. I can to be bit cynical myself. I think many of us Gen Xers struggle with it. We're cynical about the news, government, church, you name it. It's one of our self-proctection mechanisms. But Conan is right. It doesn't get you anywhere. Cynics rarely succeed in life. That's because they spend too much time criticizing the way things are and not enough contributing to positive solutions. It's time to replace cynicism with kindness and hard work. When we do, I think amazing things will happen.

More Than Enough

2010-01-21T15:42:00.022-06:00

Warning! Don't read this blog if you've just eaten a big meal or are about to eat a big meal. It will induce guilt. Otherwise, watch the clip then read the post.

There's a lot of truth in that cartoon. Our tables have become altars and the raccoon is right, when it comes to food, "enough is never enough." Americans throw away an embarrassing amount of food every day. And this is not one of those "clean your plate because there are starving children" talks. It's an encouragement to stop cleaning your plate and to stop piling it so high to begin with! In the last couple of decades portion sizes in America have grown out of control, along with the sizes of our grocery stores. Just think of how much access we have to food. It's literally unlimited. I would guess that right now you're within 5 miles of a super-sized value meal or a warehouse-sized grocery store, but you don't even have to get out of your house. I bet your pantry has enough food in it right now to survive two weeks without dining out or hitting the grocery store (and yet we still panic when it snows).

The point is we can basically eat whatever we want, whenever we want. That's not a good thing. Just take a look around. Almost all of us are carrying some extra weight on our frames (including myself). In fact, obesity is quickly becoming the number one health problem in America and it's a self-inflicted problem. It's not caused by contagions or disease, but by overabundance and overindulgence. I often catch myself overeating to the point of sickness and then medicating or exercising so I can do it all again. It's got to stop. Sometimes while running on the treadmill at the YMCA I think about how ridiculous it is. All of us running on our little machines to burn off the extra calories that we didn't need in the first place.

So what started this little rant you ask? Well, actually it was a humbling quote that I read from Wess Stafford (the director of Compassion International). He was writing about child poverty and how the lack of adequate nutrition was a major contributing factor, even though research has revealed that we have more than enough capacity to produce enough food for everybody! According the UN Food and Agriculture Organization the planet could produce food for every one of us to have a daily diet of 2,720 calories. The average 6 year old only needs 1,800 calories a day and the average 14 year old only needs about 2,350. Which prompts Stafford to ask this very sobering question...

"So why is a third of our world battling obesity and spending huge sums to burn off excess calories, while the other two-thirds yearn to get more of them?"

Good question.

Blog Plans for 2010

2010-01-11T09:42:00.004-06:00

For the last couple of months I've been wrestling with what to do with the blog. I enjoy writing it, when I have the time, but more and more it seems like I don't have the time. Plus, some of the stuff that I used to post on here (pictures of dead animals, cute stories about my kids and stuff MH is doing) has been replaced by Twitter/Facebook. So here's my game plan for the blog in 2010.

I plan to use this site primarily for articles about faith and culture, with a dose of church strategy every now and then. I'm reducing the posts to just one a week (usually on Thursday or Friday) and I hope that most are original articles. I've also deleted many of the older posts that were no longer relevant and plan to reclassify the tags as soon as I get a chance. That should make it easier for new readers to sort through the posts.

I'm finding that I have few faithful followers (thank you), but most are people new to Maury Hills who just want to stop in a time or two and find out what I think on a few issues. These changes should make the site a little more user-friendly for them. It should also help my regular readers because you'll at least have some idea of when I'll add new articles. You won't have to check in every day wondering when I'll post something new, just check in on Thursday or Friday (or better yet, subscribe to the email feed). If you still want to see all the other stuff then I'd encourage you to send me a friend request on Facebook. You can find me at www.facebook.com/russadcox.

Thanks for reading!

2010 Reading List

2010-01-03T23:22:00.014-06:00

The New Testament: New International Version (Zondervan Publishing)
The Battle of Franklin: When the Devil Had Full Possession of the Earth (James R. Knight)
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (Jim Belcher)
A Seperate Country (Robert Hicks)
Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully Engaged Members (Nelson Searcy)
Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together (Ron Hall, Denver Moore)
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Christopher McDougall)
Sticky Church (Larry Osborne)
My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom and Insights of a Road Racing Icon (Bart Yasso)
Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity (Mark Batterson)
The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (Kevin Roose)
A History of Belize: Nation in the Making (textbook)
Two Views of Women in Ministry (James Beck, editor)
The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
Taking Your Church to the Next Level: What Got You Here Won't Get you There (Gary McIntosh)
Women in the Church: Reclaiming the Ideal (Carroll Osborn)
Russka: The Novel of Russia (Edward Rutherfurd)
Ricochet (P.M. Terrell)
Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs (Bill Hybels)
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (Francis Chan)
Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church (Nelson Searcy)
The Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (Francis Chan)
Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page (Larry Osborne)
The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (Stephen Lovell)
For Cause & For Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin (Eric Jacobson)
The Fog of Gettysburg: The Myths and Msyteries of the Battle (Ken Allers Jr.)

A Few Rules for Facebook Users

2009-12-31T09:06:00.007-06:00

_
First let me say, I'm a fan of Facebook. I enjoy connecting with old friends, reading status updates, making comments, etc. It's a great site for communicating, networking and just keeping up with people in general. In fact, there are some members at our church who only communicate with me via Facebook. Email is way too out of date.

But not everything about Facebook is good, and I'm not just talking about the game updates and quiz results that clog my news feed. I'm talking about the fact that many people don't know how to use it appropriately (including many believers). They use the status updates to badmouth other people or discuss the intimate details of family feuds. They post entirely inappropriate pictures of them drunk at a party or wearing next to nothing. They assume that virtual connections are the same as real connections, so while they pile up online friends they further isolate themselves from any real relationships. And, worst of all, they waste entirely too much time on it (I'm guilty). So in light of all these problems I decided that it was time for a few Facebook rules. Here's my list thus far...

1. Watch what you post. No one really wants to hear the gory details of your divorce or how your ex treats you unfairly or that your boss is a jerk. This is not the Jerry Springer show, it's the world wide web. It's where potential employers go to find out more about you or where prospective customers or new friends go to do a little research on your character. Have some restraint and be careful what you post. This includes pictures! I know you think that you look really cute in that picture where you're hammered at a party, but is that really the public image you want to project? Here's a good rule of thumb for pictures and status updates. If I pulled them off your Facebook page and threw them up on the big screen at church this Sunday would you be embarrassed? If so, then take them down.

2. Share your password. More and more research is coming out about Facebook affairs. The site makes it incredibly easy to reconnect with old boyfriends/girlfriends. You start chatting online and reminiscing about the good times you had together (conveniently forgetting all reasons you broke up with them in the first place). Maybe you even start to think that life was better back then and you fantasize about rekindling the flame. Be very careful here. If you catch yourself hiding your online conversations from your spouse or having conversations with people that you would never have face to face, then your heading down a dangerous path. My suggestion is that spouses should share their passwords with each another. My wife knows my Facebook password and can get on my account anytime to read my messages, check my inbox, etc. I can do the same with hers. There's no good reason to keep your password secret from one another. Remember that whole idea about the two becoming one?

3. Set a time limit. OK, I admit to utter failure in this area and I'm preaching something I don't practice, but I do know better. I sometimes think to myself that life is what happens while I'm on Facebook. Then I hit refresh and keep going. It's really silly because virtual relationships are no substitute for real relationships. Just because we read someone's status updates and look at their pictures we feel connected to them, but we're not. It's pseudo-connection. In some ways our relationship is more like that of a stalker than a friend (ouch!). Anonymously combing profiles and reading wall posts does not constitute friendship. Close the computer and pick up the phone or go to the coffee shop or go to church. Get out and talk with people. Remember how to do that?

So there's a few rules that I've been thinking about. I'm wondering. What have I missed? What are some other rules I need to add to the list?

Christmas Bells

2009-12-21T10:49:00.008-06:00

My message from yesterday's worship...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving I gave a message called Surviving the Holidays and we heard a testimony from Rick Richardson. Rick had lost his wife several years ago and one of the things he talked about was the difficultly of the holidays. It was a topic that touched to a lot of people. Christmas is supposed to be a joyous season, but for many it’s also a painful season. Rick’s testimony unearthed some of those hurts and opened my eyes to the pain people experience around this time of year. That lead me back to a story that I discovered last year about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow was one of the most famous American poets and he wrote a poem that's pretty popular around this time of year.

The poem was written on Christmas of 1864 during a period of great difficulty. If you’re familiar with your history then you know that our nation was in the fourth year of a long, bloody civil war. The war had a devastating effect on our country and there was not a single family unaffected by its misery. It was a dark period and a time of despair and hopelessness. The same year the war began, 1861, was also a year of personal tragedy for Longfellow. His wife and the mother of his five children, Frances, had died in a house fire.

Longfellow kept a journal and his entry on Christmas Day of 1861 said "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year later on December 25th of 1862, Longfellow’s journal entry reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." A year after that, in 1863, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded in battle and would be crippled for life. On Christmas Day of that year he couldn’t find the words and his journal was silent.

Then, on December 25th of 1864 his journal entry contained the words to a poem titled "Christmas Bells." It originally contained seven stanzas, two of which were taken out later. The rest were slightly re-arranged in 1872 by John Baptiste Calkin who put the words to a song that we know today as the Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” As you read through the stanzas of the song you can follow the story. It’s a very dark period in Longfellow’s life. He had suffered personal tragedies and there was no end in sight to the lingering war. But as he walked out in the streets that Christmas morning he heard the bells. And despite his despair, they told of a coming peace and reminded him of the words the angels spoke to the shepherds on that first Christmas. He writes in the first stanza…

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

The bells remind him of the promise of Christ. That the arrival of the Messiah brings peace and hope. But then the reality of his situation sinks in and he writes in another stanza...

But in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

And then in the midst of his hopelessness the bells ring out again. The song continues on, the bells keep playing and he discovers that the message remains. So he proclaims in the final stanza…

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

I don’t know where you are today. I don’t know what wars rage in your life. I don’t know what personal tragedies you’ve endured or what despair you’re fighting to overcome. I know that sometimes it seems that the holidays just pile on top of the already pressing burdens. But if you’ll look past the material aspect of this season and look to its spiritual meaning, you’ll hear that the bells are still ringing and they carry the same song of peace and hope. The message of the angels to the shepherds in the field is still the same to us today...

”Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy, for all people. For unto us is born, in the town of David, a Savior which is Christ is the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill to men.”

Our worship today is designed to carry that message forth. Through familiar carols and hymns we'll proclaim the message of Christmas. Regardless of where you are today spiritually, we invite you to reflect on that message. Jesus has come and there is now hope in the midst of despair and peace in the midst of turmoil!

Acappella Memories (and Opinions)

2009-12-16T08:39:00.023-06:00

Last night I caught a bit of The Sing-Off. It's an American Idol knock-off featuring a cappella singing groups who compete for a Sony recording contract (to play on all the a cappella radio stations I presume). During the show I commented about how I was having flashbacks to Acappella concerts from Church of Christ youth rallies in the 80's. For the uninformed, they were similar style performances with a little less dance and Christian lyrics of course. I would show you an example from YouTube, but it was the 80s. The Internet didn't exist and video cameras were still VHS.

At the time I thought Acappella was the coolest group ever. They were cutting edge. They would use beatboxing and vocal synthesizers to make their voices sound like drums or bass guitars (for example). Coming from a denomination where those kinds of things were frowned upon, it was an exciting (and slightly rebellious) new form of Christian music. I bought all the cassette tapes and to this day can still rip off a good chorus of More than Conquerors or John the Revelator. I really thought they were on to something. Instruments were a big no-no, but if we could make our voices sound like instruments then we could enjoy the music and still play it safe. Thus, I was an immediate fan of the beatbox a cappella style...but not for very long.

There are two reasons for that: One, it gradually wore on my nerves. I much prefer a good harmony to a good beatbox. Two, Joe Selby. Joe was one of my elders when I was the youth minister at the Southwest Church of Christ. While I was there we hosted a big youth rally every year called Youth In Action. I even had Acappella come and perform one year (my pre-teen dreams come true). Joe was a huge supporter of YIA and a good mentor to me. Yes, he could be a little cantankerous from time to time and could strike fear into the heart of a 20-something year old youth minister, but he had a huge heart and great love for God. One Sunday morning at YIA, Willie Sandlin was speaking on the resurrection. At the end of his message he played an Acappella song called Arise My Love that had a part in it that sounded exactly like a piano. It wasn't really a piano, it was all vocally produced, but you couldn't tell the difference. Willie asked me if it was OK before he played it and I said "As long as its Acappella brother we're good to go!"

Joe was sitting on the third row on the right hand side of the stage. I was standing in the back of the auditorium. Within about 30 seconds of the song playing I saw Joe slowly rise from his pew. He was not a small man and I looked up to him (both literally and figuratively). He turned around, scanned the room, found me and slowly started walking my way. I knew what was coming. He walked within inches of my face and asked, "Is that a piano?" Gulp. "No sir, it's a cappella. I promise! Pulled it straight off the Acappella CD." He eyed me for a while in silence thinking over what I'd just said. He leaned in even closer and said, "Son, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck then it must be a duck." Then he smiled, turned around and went back to his seat. That was all he ever said about it. I thought, "You know, he's right." So next year I brought in a real piano. (No, just kidding, but he was right).

Joe got me to thinking. What's the point of insisting on a cappella if the a cappella is designed to sound like instruments? If you want to use an instrument, then use one. If you want to be a cappella, then leave out all the percussion stuff. I've pretty much had that viewpoint ever since Joe's comment. I have no problem with a cappella music, or instrumental music for that matter. But I do have a bit of a problem (personal, not theological) with a cappella music that tries to sound like instrumental music. I'd rather just pull out the drums and piano then trying to use the voice to sound like the drums and piano.

Which brings me back to "The Sing-Off." It's novel, but novelty wears off. There's only so many times you can say, "Wow! And just think this is all done by the human voice alone!" I don't really see it surviving for a second season, but in the meantime I'll watch and reminisce. Thinking back on all those Acappella concerts and how "we were country, when country wasn't cool."

The Earlier the Better

2009-11-30T16:11:00.006-06:00

Here's another reason for early involvement in a good children's ministry or student ministry. This is from Andy Stanley in The Principle of the Path in a chapter called "Attention Retention."

What about the spiritual development of your kids? If you've got kids, this is something you've got to pay attention to. Seemingly few parents do. And the earlier the better. I know too many parents who treat their kids like their automobiles. They wait for the red light on the dashboard to light up before giving them any attention. Preventive maintenance will help you avoid emergencies with your kids and your cars. But in both instances, it is something you have to pay attention to. (Not to turn this into a chapter on parenting, but if you're waiting until your kids are fourteen or fifteen to get them in an environment that will engage them in the development of their faith, you are going to be sorely disappointed in the results. Spiritual development operates like the principle of the harvest. You sow early and reap later. You can't cram for a harvest like you cram for a test. Adolescence is when parents began to reap what they have sown. It is not the time to begin sowing. Unfortunately, too many parents don't pay attention to this aspect of their children's lives until they have missed the opportunity to do it right. A good student ministry will not make up for years of spiritual neglect. Parental guidance is definitely required.

Five Things I Need to Change

2009-11-16T14:46:00.001-06:00

I know, I know. It's only November and I really shouldn't be talking about resolutions until January, but I have to start somewhere. It seems like I'm always waiting until the next Monday or the next month or the next year to get started on something good. So here we go. There are some things in my life that I need to change. Some bad habits that aren't helping me much (physically, mentally or emotionally). These are five things I need to change...

1. Stop wasting so much time on the computer. Can you say Facebook? or Yahoo Sports? or Fox News? or any of the other websites that I tend to frequent. Sometimes I'll surf the net for so long that I actually run out of stuff to read. I catch myself staring at the Google search bar wondering what to type in next or re-reading FB status updates just to see if anyone commented on the ones I read 15 minutes ago. Sad. Even sadder is when I open the computer just to check the weather and find myself still sitting there two hours later reading blogs. It's time to cut back.

2. Stop checking email so often. I blame the iPhone for this one. Before this little gadget came into my life I had to be near a computer, open it, wait for it to load, type in an address, type in a user name/password, etc. Still, even with all that hassle, I probably checked email 7-8 times a day. I would be embarrassed to venture a guess at how often I check it now. I've checked it three times in the writing of this post. Of course the problem with checking email is that I can't just read'em and ignore'em. I have to respond, reply, find a file, look up an answer, etc. I need to set aside a block of time each day to respond to email and let them sit the rest of the time. And I plan on doing so if this phone would ever stop buzzing.

3. Stop overeating! This one has been around for a long time. My relationship with over-eating goes back to high school when I could do it without gaining weight. Of course, that ended somewhere around the first year of college when I stopped having high school coaches forcing me to work-out. When you overeat and don't exercise, things add up fast. Literally. And it hurts. Literally. What I mean is that sometimes I overeat to the point of nausea and that's just sick. Literally. I need to stop. Literally.

4. Get off the couch. This problem has a strong correlation with the previous problem. When I overeat, I don't feel like exercising. Thus, I sit on the couch and continue to eat which makes me feel even less like exercising. But the cycle works in the reverse as well. When I exercise, I don't feel like overeating. If I know I've got a run or a workout scheduled later in the day then I'm careful about what I eat beforehand because I've paid the price of running on a full stomach before. Bottom line is I need to get moving. Besides taking care of the overeating problem it also gives me more energy and helps me feel better.

5. Turn off the TV. Two reasons. One, it really gets in the way of my reading. Two, it really gets in the way of my sleeping. The first one makes me dull and the second one makes me cranky. Typically, I prefer reading or sleeping to watching TV (assuming that football season is over), but there's a little invention that's really messed things up. It's called a Digital Video Recorder or DVR for short. This little invention allows me to tape shows and watch them whenever I want, which is usually late at night when I ought to be reading or sleeping.

So that's the list. I wouldn't call them resolutions just yet because I'm heading out on a hunting trip this week and I'm fairly confident that #3 and #4 will be put on hold. I guess I'm hoping that my writing about them with somehow lead to greater action on my part. And perhaps it will help you get started as well. Of course, if you're going to do that then you really need to stop reading this blog (see #1).

Evangelism Primer

2009-10-29T13:38:00.002-06:00

This Sunday I'm beginning a new series on evangelism called Just Walk Across the Room. The study is written by Bill Hybels and our small groups will be using the DVD study as well. In preparing for the first message I revisited some of the older stuff I'd read on the topic including Brian McClaren's More Ready Than You Realize. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed that book and I recommend it to anyone who's tired of the outdated 20th century methods (evangelism as sales pitch, conquest, warfare, threat, argument, monologue, etc) and ready for something more retro. Something say 1st centuryish in the style of Jesus (evangelism as conversation, friendship, influence, invitation, opportunity, etc).

In chapter 17 he offers a summary of what he learned about evangelism through a on-going conversation with a girl named April. The book is basically the story of those conversations and how she moved towards faith throughout the process. McClaren describes these as "factors--not easy steps, not formulae, but elements, factors, parts of a bigger whole that cannot easily be nailed down." Many of them fit within what I'll be sharing over the next four weeks so hopefully they'll get us thinking in that direction. Here they are (without commentary)...

1. The Relational Factor: Count conversations, not just conversions.

2. The Narrative Factor: Listen to their story, share your story, and share God's story, not just propositions or formulas.

3. The Communal Factor: Expect conversation to normally occur in the context of authentic Christian community, not just in the context of information.

4. The Journey Factor: See disciple-making as a holistic process and unending journey, not just a conversion event.

5. The Holy Spirit Factor: Believe that God is at work "out there" in everyone (either working from the outside to get in or from the inside to get out), not just "in here" in the church.

6. The Learning Factor: See evangelism as part of your own discipleship-not just the other person's!

7. The Missional Factor: See evangelism as recruiting people for God's mission on earth, not just people for heaven.

8. The Service Factor: See evangelism as one facet of our identity as servants to all.

Not-So-Scary Thoughts

2009-10-26T09:12:00.012-06:00

I'm still recovering from last night's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Maury Hills! I'm not recovering from the work (Todd did most of that), just recovering from the fun. What an awesome night!! We had 400+ and I met several new families. It's always fun to meet new families while dressed as a zombie (many said that was the first time they've ever seen me in a suit). On the way home Jenny and I talked about how we think this event has successfully made the transition from church-event to community-event. Allow me to explain...

Two years ago after completing another successful Trunk-or-Treat several of us got to talking. It was a good event, but it could be so much more! Todd, our student minister, pulled together the children's ministry team and they started dreaming about something bigger and better. Then they made the decision to move the event from a fellowship-orientated church event to an outreach-orientated community event. There were several reasons why.

One, we want people who are not connected with God or a church family to find both! Therefore, we need opportunities to interact with them, meet their families and introduce them to ours. Halloween gives us a chance to do that in a really fun way. Two, Halloween is a holiday geared directly towards kids and we love kids at MH. This gives us our community a chance to see that first-hand and it provides families with a fun, safe place to bring their kids. Three, Halloween has quickly become the 2nd biggest holiday in America. Did you know that? It's inching up on Christmas in terms of participation. Granted, it's not a religious holiday, but we're not trying to attract religious folk anyway. We just want people who are far from God to rub elbows with a few of his followers (costumes and all).

But to move an established event from "church-orientated" to "community-orientated" can be a daunting task. If you plan with only the church folk in mind then you run the risk of scaring away your target audience (no pun intended). For example, say you decide to encourage everyone to dress up as their favorite Bible character. That's cute and fun but only for those who have some familiarity with the Bible. On the other hand, if you plan the event with only the community in mind then you run the risk of offending some church folk. For example, how many churches do you know who advertise "Halloween" in their Sunday bulletin? We decided to risk the latter and here's a few of the changes we've made over the last couple of years.

1) The Name. We actually call it a "Halloween" party. That's a little unique among churches. I see lots of "Festivals" and "Trunk-or-Treats" but very few incorporate the H word. That's because some believers find the term offensive due to its pagan history, but if we're going to attract the community are we going to appeal to them or us? We figured most people outside of the church didn't know what "trunk-or-treat" meant, but almost everyone understood the concept of "Halloween." After all that's what we call it whenever people dress up in costumes and go around getting candy. If we're going to reach the community then let's speak the language.

2) The Music. We traditionally had live music at our Trunk-or-Treat but it was always Christian music. I love Christian music and it's great for church events, but when you invite the unchurched do you expect them to know your songs? Last year we asked the band to "go secular" and play some stuff that everyone knows. They now play classic rock (and they are awesome by the way).

3) The Registration. We used to completely ignore this. Just show up, we already know who you are. But again, if the community is coming, then you better have some way to find out who they are so you can invite them back for a Sunday or another special event. So we started registering everyone. The cost is still free and we don't force anyone to register. As a matter of fact, we don't even call it registration. We just put up a big sign that says "Sign up for Door Prizes!" At the end of the night we draw a name (church members are excluded) for a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart.

4) The Event. We had to expand. You can't just trunk-or-treat because that only takes 30 minutes or so to walk through all the cars, so we added a bit more (actually a lot more). We added a parade, dinner, hay maze, hayride, games, pumpkin decorating, inflatables, not-so-spooky stories, etc. We also asked a Maury County Sheriff's deputy to come out and provide security. All of that adds to the "safe and fun" goals of the event.

5) The Feel. While we don't hide the fact that this event is hosted by a church, we also don't want it to have a "churchy" feel. Therefore, we don't spend a lot of time talking church stuff. We don't preach at anyone, stop and have a devo, put a high-pressure invite on them to come back on Sunday, etc. It's all pretty low-key. We're just a church hosting a party for our community. Come and enjoy yourself and if you decide to come back on Sundays that's great. If not, we still want you to come and enjoy the party.

So that's some of the philosophy behind what we do. I know that some of you could care less about the strategy (but I suspect you've already stopped reading by now) and some of you will disagree with our approach (you're still reading but you're not happy about it). For the rest, I hope this gives you a little insight. I just thought you might be interested in some of the strategy behind the event.

Breaking the Silence

2009-10-19T08:25:00.005-06:00

I've been on vacation the last seven days and also took a little break from twittering, facebooking and blogging. I have to confess that I still read few tweets and scanned the status updates from time to time, but I didn't post anything new. It was actually kind of refreshing. It reminded me of what the world was like before all this social media pseudo interconnectedness. I even thought about how these sites are stunting our interpersonal skills and making us all a little Heene-like in our search for celebrity and self-promotion (Heene is the ballon-boy's Dad, in case your wondering). I even pondered the idea of taking a permanent break and perhaps having a real-live conversation with a friend or writing something down in an actual journal with pen and paper. Then I thought, "Hey that would be a great blog post!" Apparently I'm too far gone. The pull was just too great and I'm back in the game. At least for now.

The vacation was good. We were back in Destin for the umpteenth time in my life. Seriously, I've logged well over 20 vacations there, but I love it because my favorite thing to do on vacation is nothing and the beach is a very good place for that. On Sunday we found ourselves back in Columbia a day earlier than expected and since it was my day off, we decided to worship with the Zion Presbyterian Church. What a great congregation! Folks have been worshipping there continuously for 200+ years and the more formal liturgy was a nice change of pace. I found the entire service to be very Christ-centered and Paul Joiner did an excellent job preaching the Word.

While I was out Tom Eddins filled in for me at Maury Hills. I just listened to his sermon online and "WOW!" He did an outstanding job (and I'm not just saying that because he bragged on me at the beginning). I thought the last ten minutes of his message were particularly powerful and applicable. He preached from Romans 14 and used women's role as a contemporary example of an area where we have differing opinions but still have to get along. The key question is not "what do you think?" but "do you have to have your way?" Give it a listen!

This week I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things and working on our new series called Just Walk Across the Room. It's a study of outreach from Bill Hybels and it officially kicks off the first Sunday in November. This Sunday, October 25th, I'm doing a little intro and we're gearing up for the Maury Hills' Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (formerly known as Trunk or Treat). We'll have live music, inflatables, hayrides, pumpkin-carving, food and tons of candy. We're encouraging everyone to dress up and we need lots of folks to decorate their cars and hand out candy. We also need parking attendants, folks to help with registration, security, etc. Contact Todd at greenlawler@bellsouth.net if you can help. Also don't forget to invite your friends and neighbors!

A Wildly Ambitious Goal

2009-10-11T20:28:00.003-06:00

As I was running out the door to church this morning I quickly scanned the headlines of our local paper. I saw this headline for the editorial on page 3--Saving Columbia: Making a Difference, One House at a Time. That last phrase sounded a lot like the slogan we've been throwing around with our People Helping People ministry and to my surprise, that's what the article was about! I had two immediate thoughts..."That's cool" and "Uh-oh, we better get to work."

People Helping People is a ministry that focuses on providing home repair and renovation for those in need. Our dream is to transform entire neighborhoods and communities by focusing on one house at a time. I've written about it here and here. It's a vision that's slowly taking root. We've done our first two homes and now are in the process of getting organizing. We also have our first two partner churches...St. Peter's Episcopal Church and Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. They have been tremendous in terms of support, counsel and help.

I loved the line in the article that described the vision as a "wildly ambitious goal." Yes!! Isn't that what the church is supposed to be about! Wildly ambitious goals. I love it!! The editorial is very well written and it's a clarion call to the church community of Maury Country. Here it is...

A caller to Sound Off, The Daily Herald’s anonymous comment line, suggested recently that churches should pay for the medical treatment of uninsured citizens.

Reforming America’s health care system is a job far too massive to be accomplished by any one segment of our society alone — even church congregations. But the caller’s idea isn’t without merit.

Individually and as denominations, churches already contribute to the nation’s welfare on a massive scale. How much more might they achieve if they united for a common cause?

Here at home, we’ve seen how effective churches can be when they work together to attack social problems. An excellent example is The People’s Table, a collaborative of about a dozen churches that feeds the homeless and poor twice a week.

We’ve also been shown a picture of what might be. Maury Hills Church of Christ recently launched a ministry called “People Helping People” that has paid for new roofs and other important repairs on the homes of two local families that were physically or financially unable to make the repairs themselves.

The program’s vision, according to Maury Hills Minister Russ Adcox, is to partner with other churches and non-profit organizations to revitalize the community through home renovations — to “transform entire neighborhoods by renovating one house at a time.”

The organizers of People Helping People plan to focus initially on the east side of Columbia and eventually spread out to other areas of the city and even the state.

It’s a wildly ambitious goal. But it’s not impossible. By tackling one home at a time, and recruiting one partner at a time, this group could rack up enough successes to inspire the rest of our community to get on board. They could start a movement.

Columbia needs just such a victory. Our economy is still on the ropes from the national recession, our local governments are running in the red and our unemployment is high. Things may get worse as the county’s auto assembly plant — its biggest industry — is shuttered next month.

Many of our neighborhoods were already showing the strain of decades of neglect. A few are simply slums. In times such as these, people look for leaders to step up and give them some hope. To show them the way forward. To lead by example.

Our local churches could provide that leadership.

What if every church in Maury County agreed to “adopt” just a three-block radius around its property? What if church members volunteered their time and efforts to improve those neighborhoods, by collecting litter, painting dilapidated homes, mowing vacant lots or doing whatever is needed?

Those churches fortunate enough to be located in affluent areas could adopt another neighborhood or join People Helping People.

What might be the cumulative affect of all these efforts? Clean, attractive communities attract new residents, new businesses, new jobs.

Our churches, if they answered this challenge, could be the catalyst that turns Columbia’s fortunes around.

The Daily Herald would help generate support for this effort by sharing the stories of reclamation and rejuvenation with our readers.Historically churches have been a lighthouse for the community, helping citizens navigate their way through waters both rocky and smooth.

Can our churches pull off another miracle in Columbia?

Five Years Later...

2009-09-30T12:45:00.013-06:00

This Sunday, October 4th, not only marks the 8 year anniversary of Maury Hills, it's also my 5 year anniversary with the church. And since I was feeling a little nostalgic yesterday, I looked up the first sermon I preached here as the minister. It was on October 3rd of 2004 and it was titled Reaching for the Future. There were 15 points in the message (scary huh?) and they represented the vision of the church. Five years later, I'm wondering where we stand? What did we hit? What did we miss? What's changed? What hasn't changed? And most importantly, what's next?

Worship (Matthew 22:27)
·A time of shared worship that engages both the heart and the mind.
·Offer a contemporary style of worship that is relevant to today’s culture.
·Encourage individual worship through a life of humility, prayer, and sacrifice.

Service (Matthew 22:39)
·Meet the spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical needs of others.
·Be known as a church that serves the community in which we live.
·Equip and empower every member to be a minister.

Outreach (Matthew 28:19)
·Have a open door” attitude in everything we do.
·Experience continued growth by sharing the good news with others.
·Provide a safe place for people who are searching for God, especially those struggling to free themselves from legalism.

Discipleship (Matthew 28:20)
·Help believers develop a life-long relationship with Christ.
·Help everyone have an understanding of the core teachings of the Bible.
·Provide an atmosphere that allows for difficult questions.

Fellowship (John 17:22)
·Be a place where all feel accepted regardless of social status, race, or religious background.
·Be a church that doesn’t just practice surface-level fellowship.
·Be a church that is fiercely united through our common belief in Jesus, yet open enough to allow for differences of opinion or style.

Confessions of a Preacher

2009-09-28T08:37:00.000-06:00

I'm skipping Sunday Reflections today because I want share this article with you. It was written by a preacher friend of mine. I've left off his name because because I'd rather not involve him in the backlash that sometimes comes with this blog. I appreciate his boldness, humility and respect for God's Word. For those of us studying Galatians together, I thought you would appreciate the candor of his confession.

I want you to please understand that this is not a rash decision. I don't feel like I am rushing into anything, as this issue has been running around in my mind for quite some time. Truth be known, this is something that I have pondered regularly for the last few years. I have especially been thinking about it a lot lately as a result of much prayer, Bible study and various life circumstances. As with any major decision, I have tried to objectively examine this from every angle and determine what the long-range effects might be on myself and as well as on others around me. So, after much deliberation with myself and God ..... for better or for worse ..... I have finally made the decision.

As of today, Tuesday, September 22, I no longer want to be a “Church of Christ” preacher. Does this mean that I am resigning as pulpit minister of the Church of Christ at [...]? Absolutely, positively not. I hope to be here for many years to come. Does it mean that I don't want to be associated with God's people and worship with them on a regular basis any more? Certainly not. The happiest moments of my life are spent around Christians. Please allow me to explain in the following way.

I understand that my statement may come as a shock to some and a relief to others. Some might question the fact as to whether I was truly a preacher to begin with anyway ..... a thought that has even crossed my mind a time or two ..... or thousand. I want you to understand that I speak of-and-for myself only. There are certainly many talented and loving ministers within the Churches of Christ who do a remarkable job at spreading the Good News. I, though, must take this opportunity to repent of my own ignorance and error in times past. I beg forgiveness for the times that I have stood in judgment of someone while at the same time having a two-by-four sticking out of my own eye. I apologize for all the times that I preached certain issues as being Biblical doctrine and matters of salvation when in actuality I was foolishly trying to defend the commandments and traditions of men. I humbly request pardon for all the times that my attitude was haughty, arrogant, rude, mean-spirited, and down right hateful. I'm sorry for any occasion where I assisted someone in feeling beat down, unlovable and unforgivable. I fall on my knees in repentance both to God and my brothers and sisters in Christ and hope and pray that trust can soon be restored in me once again.

Please take time to read what the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia, especially Galatians 1:6-10. I think Paul was thinking about me when he penned that passage, for I believe I have been guilty of “perverting the gospel of Christ” (vs 7). I have taken part in trying to uphold the traditional aspects of my beliefs while all the while shunning the true message of what the gospel actually is ..... the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of God's perfect Son. I have spent far too much time embracing “foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law” (Titus 3:9), while my time could have been much better spent on the “greatest commandment in the Law ..... Loving God with all my heart, soul, and mind and loving my neighbor as myself” (Matthew 22:36-40). But alas, all that is in the past, and God willing, I will be given time to change only that which I can ..... the future.

It is my Biblical, heartfelt belief that God desires for me to be no other kind of preacher than a “Gospel preacher” ..... no more and no less. Fact of the matter is, I think he desires that for us all as we “go into the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). I believe it is God's desire that we plainly preach the doctrine of Christ rather than “Church of Christ” doctrine. Can the two of those things be different as night and day? You bet 'cha. But could they also be synonymous with one another? Absolutely. God has left it up to us to decide which way it will be.

What If?

2009-09-22T07:31:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I attended a luncheon at F&M Bank about the People Helping People ministry. A couple of weeks before one of our members had run into Tim Pettus, the bank president, and told him about the ministry. Tim serves on the board of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency and wanted to get us together with their director. He felt like they may have some grants that could help us fund the ministry. So I put it on the calender.

A week before the event Jim Kitchen called and said I needed to share a few words at the luncheon. No problem. I'll just wing it. It will only be a handful of people and a fairly informal setting. When I arrived at the bank yesterday there were lots of suits in the room and about 30-35 folks gathered. Tim met me at the door and handed me a program. He said I would be speaking first. I took the program and scanned the list below my name. There was the City Mayor, Director of the Columbia Housing Authority, Past President of Habitat for Humanity, County Mayor, City Councilwoman, Chief of Police, Maury County Sheriff and the Executive Director for the THDA. Gulp. Maybe I should have prepared a little something.

I just told them a little about the ministry and what our vision was for the east side of Columbia...to partner with other churches and non-profit organizations to revitalize our community through home renovations. I explained our vision of being a church that "serves the community in which we live" and how we wanted to "transform entire neighborhoods by renovating one house at a time." I'm sure I didn't say it that concisely off the cuff but that was the gist.

Then the leaders of these various organizations and government agencies talked about how they had the same goal. They want to see the neighborhoods revitalized so that it would be safe for residents to walk the streets again, children could play in the yards and people could take pride in their community. Turns out that was the point of the luncheon. Tim's motivation was to get all the groups together to show that we share a similar vision and that within us are the resources to make it happen. He proposed a "what if" scenario. What if the local government, police departments, non-profits, banks, businesses and churches could actually come together and work toward a common goal? What could we accomplish in our community if we all pulled together and no one cared who got the credit? I think we'd be surprised.

So he challenged us to get more banks involved, more community leaders involved and more churches involved and let's become an example to the nation of how one community pulled together and transformed their city. Is that an idealistic dream? Certainly. But what if?

Sunday Reflections

2009-09-20T19:37:00.003-06:00

Another big day for the children's ministry. Had nearly 175 in there (including the volunteers). This ministry continues to explode. Looking to hire a Children's Minister if you know anyone.

We've had a "bring your Bible" push with the children's ministry and this morning it looked like about 75% of them had Bibles. In the upper grades they are being challenged to read the Bible every day.

Had another powerful time of response. I only meant to use the "respond in the back" format for a couple of Sundays but so many are taking advantage of this time that it will continue. Our shepherds want to pray for member's needs and this a simple way to do it.

Spoke on "I Am Free" and got to talk about what's (in my opinion) the most powerful words in Galatians..."For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love." (5:6)

Gearing up for Anniversary Weekend. We're hosting Don McLaughlin this year. Don is one of my favorites and I can't wait for everyone at MH to hear him. Read about the weekend here if you want to join us!

Dynamic Marriage began tonight. This is a powerful 8 week marriage enrichment course. A big thanks to Brad & Peggy Lewis for leading this ministry. Lynn Spivey is also starting up another Divorce Care class in October. She's also asked Sandra McCarthy to lead the Divorce Care for Kids. Contact the church for info.

That's about it. This afternoon I went to Hampshire to settle up on the hunting lease, watched my yard flood and had a great time with my small group.

Sunday Reflections

2009-09-13T18:31:00.006-06:00

If I keep dragging my feet I'll have the change the name of these posts to "Tuesday Reflections." I had busy day yesterday prepping for our monthly shepherd's meeting and following up with stuff from Sunday. Today is a little more routine (if there's such a thing in ministry).

We had a great day last Sunday at MH! I spoke on the allegory of Hagar and Sarah from Galatians 4 asking "do you want to be slaves or sons?" It was a message of freedom for the many of us who've been in bondage to legalism! During the first service when I quoted Galatians 5:1 (...do not let yourselves be burdened again with the yoke of slavery) they broke out in spontaneous applause. Then at the end of the second service after we sang the words My chains are gone, I've been set free! the guy offering the closing prayer couldn't contain a shout of joy!

However, the most powerful part of the service was our response time. We moved it up before the message and explained that many times people come to church with hurts or fears that the sermon doesn't address. So we're not waiting on a sermon or a preacher's invitation to respond to God, if you need prayers you can come right now. Our shepherds went to the back and people came to pray with them during the next few songs. We had several people respond and it opened some great doors for further ministry!

Beach Club was amazing as always. I only wish I could be in there with them. This is our family experience for kids and parents. We try to do it once a month and use it to introduce the month's virtue. This month they're learning about "wisdom" and how to "make the wise choice." They had over 170 attend, which was more than we had in the Worship Center. Wow! We may have to swap locations with them next time.

Finally, we showed before and after pictures from our latest project with People Helping People. F&M Bank funded the materials and MH members volunteered the labor. Look at the transformation of this home!!

Leadership Summit Notes

2009-09-09T11:23:00.008-06:00

Meant to do this long before now, but I wanted to post some of my notes from Willow Creek's Leadership Summit. This was first year at the conference and it was great! Good variety of speakers and interesting insights to leadership and Christianity. Here's some of the highlights...

Bill Hybels (Leading in a New Reality)

How prepared is your church for rogue waves (i.e. the current economic downturn)?
In times like this churches have to be the church (Acts 2) and practice kingdom economics.

Gary Hamel (Manage Differently Now)

Are you changing as fast as the world around you?
When the internal change lags behind the external change, you're ineffective.
Success is a self-correcting phenomena (think about that one!)

Tim Keller (Leading People to the Prodigal God)

The parable is targeted towards older brothers.
Both sons miss the Father, one because of his rebellion, one because of his obedience.
In the end, it's the "bad" son who is restored to a relationship with the Father while the "good" son is still outside.

Harvey Carey (Against All Odds)

Do you want to be a "holy huddle" or are you going to "get in the game?"
Plan service projects on Sunday. Cancel services and go serve!
Many churches suffer from paralysis by analysis (they think too much).

David Gergen (Eyewitness to Power

Leaders read and reflect.
There are three parts to communicating (ethos-credibility, logos-logic, pathos-emotion).
Good speakers start with ethos (if they are unknown to the audience), introduce pathos, spend the body of the message on logos and close with pathos.
When speaking give people mental breaks. Think of it like lifting weights. You do a set, take a break, do another set, etc.

Chip & Dan Heath (Switch)

Big problems are rarely solved with big solutions, they are solved by a series of small solutions.
When you encounter problems ask "Is this a people problem or a situation problem?"

Steer Clear of Legalism

2009-09-05T14:18:00.003-06:00

I'm still thinking on Philippians 3 for Sunday. Talking about leaving legalism and I almost feel like I could just read this Sunday morning and sit down. This is Peterson's paraphase of the passage...

Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials.

You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

Phil 3:2-11 (The Message)

Leaving Legalism

2009-09-01T08:16:00.006-06:00

Today God took me to these familiar words from Paul in Philippians 3:4-9. I've read these verses dozens of times, but Galatians has shed a whole new light on them. They spoke to me with such clarity. Once you discover the way of liberty through faith in Christ, the way of legalism becomes powerless and meaningless.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Wow!! My paraphrase..."You want to talk legalistic righteousness...I was the best of the best. A spiritual performer. A zealous Pharisee. I had all the credentials and followed all the rules. But it was meaningless compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus as my Lord. The religious pedigree, the self-righteousness, the spiritual pride. It's rubbish compared to Jesus! I've given up on trying to earn my own righteousness through the law and desire a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ--one the comes from God, not me. I'm leaving legalism and turning to Jesus!"

Baptism

2009-08-27T09:29:00.009-06:00

I'm preparing for a message Sunday on the connection between faith and baptism. I'd planned on using some of these thoughts from Cecil Hook but they're not going to make the cut so I decided to share them here. These are the beginning paragraphs from an article entitled "Sectarian Baptism."

After fifty years of observation in the Church of Christ as both a listener and a preacher, I am forced to admit that we have emphasized baptism above all other points of teaching. Hardly a lesson comes from our pulpits that does not mention baptism and it has been the theme of countless other lessons.

Baptism is a necessary part of our obedience. Can we overemphasize that which is necessary? Yes. Vitamin C is necessary to our physical health but, if we make it our chief claim to health, then things are out of proportion, and health can be lost. So it is with baptism or any other over-stressed doctrine or practice. Overemphasis of baptism puts us out of balance, develops into a credal test, and becomes a sectarian device. Because our teachings on baptism have seemed so solidly scriptural, it has been no easy matter for me to arrive at this conclusion.

By the Catholic theologians who have developed the sacramental system, a sacrament is defined as a visible rite or ceremony instituted by Christ to give grace. The scriptures give no such designation, definition, or description. Yet most of us have accepted that concept of baptism - that it is a ceremony by which grace is conferred upon us. Thus, though denying it, we have accepted the concept of baptismal regeneration.

You can read the rest here.

People Helping People

2009-08-20T07:37:00.007-06:00

The Daily Herald ran an article today titled "Group helps with home repairs." It was about a new ministry that's getting started at Maury Hills called "People Helping People." The focus is on providing home repairs for those who are physically or financially unable to do themselves. The first home is 95% complete and the second home is in progress now. So how does something like this get started? Let me share the story...

In October of last year, Rick Atchley spoke at our Anniversary Weekend. He challenged us with a message called "The Church Without Walls." It was about serving others and the idea that its past time for the church to get out of the building and into the community. Some of our folks took that challenge to heart. About a week after the message, Christopher Taylor (our worship leader) ran into Suzy Pruitt (one of our members) at McDonald's. Suzy was on her way to a friend's home to help her do some minor home repairs. Christopher went with her and they ended up tearing out carpet and doing some cleaning. While there they discovered that the home was in need of a new roof, overgrown trees/bushes we're causing drainage problems and the siding and trim was rotting. They called me and I put them in contact with Jan Wright (our Servant Leader for Habitat for Humanity). Jan went over to the home and her heart went out to the homeowner. She went ahead and secured a bid to replace the roof, started organizing volunteers, and had a small group go over to clean out all the overgrown trees/bushes. The only holdup then was funding.

A few months later I show the church some pictures of the home, tell the story and explain that we have a roofing contractor and volunteers ready to go, we just need the funds. I told them that the bid for the roof is $800 and as soon as we get that in hand we'll replace the roof. The rest we'll just do as the funds come in. After worship I was flooded with people giving me small bills or checks. They ended up giving me about $3,000 that Sunday. Within two days of that we had new roof on the house. Then volunteers beginning replacing the siding, window trim and painting. The home looks completely different now!

The first day of the project, Daryl Compton (an electrician and MH member) came by the house and brought Jan a handwritten note of a vision he had to expand this project. He was thinking of a "extreme makeover" type ministry where we provide this service for as many homes as we can. Jan brought that vision by my office and said "let's do this!" Being the more analytical one, I said something about "let's think about it and put together a plan."

So while we were putting together a plan, two more people are converged on this vision. One was Diana Bray. She was sitting in church the Sunday we announced the first house and she couldn't help thinking of a friend of hers who needed the same kind of help. She sent me an email and explained that her friend was a hard working single Mom trying to put her kid through college and she just couldn't afford to keep up the home repairs. Her roof was leaking and every time it rained she was putting out buckets to catch water. I forwarded the email to Jan. She went out and surveyed the home and called me to say "we need to do this one too."

Then Jim Kitchen (another MH member) came to see me. He'd been following all the news stories about the east side of Columbia and how the local government was trying to revitalize the area. He asks, "What's the church doing to help?" I honestly didn't know. His vision was that the church (not just ours, but the kingdom) needed to take the lead in rebuilding our community. So he casted a vision for us to go into neighborhoods on the east side and provide home repairs for those who can't afford it. Hey, this sounds familiar! I had him hook up with Eddie Miller (our ministry coordinator) and Jan Wright. Turns out the second home we're doing is on the east side and things just start falling in place. Jim dedicates himself to finding funding from a local business and Jan starts coordinating volunteers and supplies. Jim speaks with the councilwoman for that area, other local officials and ministers and asks F&M Bank if they will fund the project. They graciously agree to this and provide the ministry with a grant of $5,500. So the second home was underway! The new roof was completed yesterday and the siding is going up today.

That's where we are currently. I'm sure that there are other people working quietly behind the scenes whom I failed to mention because God has given this vision to more than one. My role thus far as just been a cheerleader. The great majority of the work is being done by people who are volunteering their time, skills and hard work. The plan is to complete these two homes, see what we learn and put together a team for expanding the ministry. Next year we're thinking about doing one home per quarter (two paid for by the church and two by sponsoring businesses). Then we'd like to expand the opportunity to other churches. See if some other churches would partner with us by sponsoring a home. The dream is for this not to be a "ministry of Maury Hills" but a "ministry of the Christian community in Columbia." Be praying.

Gospel & Doctrine

2009-08-17T13:31:00.006-06:00

From Cecil Hook...

Although we garnish the tomb of Alexander Campbell, if he were here today, he would be unwelcome in most pulpits of the Church of Christ. Certainly, the guardians of the faith would denounce him for this statement:

"There was teaching, there was singing, there was praying, there was exhortation in the Christian church, but preaching in the church or to the church is not once mentioned in the Christian scriptures!

"Paul once, in his first letter to the church in Corinth, said he would declare to the Corinthians that gospel which he had preached to them, which also they had received and wherein they stood. We preach, or report, or proclaim news. But who teaches news? Who exhorts news? We preach the gospel to unbelievers, to aliens, but never to Christians, or those who have received it." (Millennial Harbinger, April 1862; copied from The Twisted Scriptures, p. 43, by Carl Ketcherside; other thoughts are adapted from that source also.)

The revealed word of God in the New Testament writings contains two kinds of messages to accomplish two different purposes. Campbell recognized this, but the distinction has been obscured to most of us in this century. That lack of understanding has added to our confusion and led us away from any practical basis for unity among those who believe in Christ. If the entire New Testament is the gospel, since a person but know, believe and obey the gospel in order to be saved, one must know, believe and obey everything within the New Testament to be saved. Every point of teaching becomes a life-or-death matter. Belief in any error would be damning. If all are not in exact conformity, then someone is lost.

So, in view of our list of difference in Chapter One, it looks hopeless for all of us, for who can be sure that he knows, believes, understands and obeys all that is taught in the word of God? For example, such instructions as, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph 4:30), "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 5:18), and "Pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20) become frightening, for I don't really know whether I am understanding or doing those things or not.

Then too, if I can know and obey all, I don't need grace; hence, I would make void the grace of Christ by my perfect obedience.

Although these two kinds of messages are not isolated into different paragraphs, books or epistles, there is a valid distinction to be made. There is the gospel which brings us into life and the teachings guide us on to ultimate rescue. The gospel gets us on the Lord's work force and the doctrine directs our work on the job. The gospel brings us into fellowship while the doctrine/teaching guides those in the fellowship.

The gospel is the good news, but, as Campbell asks, who teaches good news? The gospel was fully preached on Pentecost but all the epistles came later. The gospel was preached - heralded, proclaimed, evangelized - while the doctrine was imparted by teaching, instruction, reproof, rebuke, and exhortation. The gospel message was conveyed through evangelists, but prophets, pastors, and teachers edified through teaching.

The gospel is "the faith" which was already delivered (Jude 3), to which they were obedient (Acts 6:7), which Elymas resisted (Acts 13:8), in which the disciples should continue (Acts 14:22), which was the basis of unity (Eph 4:13). The faith is the basis of our salvation.

Some of the argument is a little convoluted, but you get the gist...the gospel (the death, burial and resurrection) is the message of salvation and the basis for unity! Read the full article here.

Controversial or Orthodox?

2009-08-13T09:30:00.004-06:00

The last few weeks I've been preaching through Galatians and I've made some bold claims. Some might even say controversial claims.

The gospel is not the entire New Testament. It's the the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Nothing more and nothing less. The gospel is what saves us and brings us into a right relationship with God, not our own endeavors or goodness. Grace is a free gift of God. It's not something we earn through perfect obedience or human effort. We are justified freely by faith in Christ and not through good works or observance of the law.

I've been pondering these statements today and wondering what makes them controversial? Would Paul see them in this way or would he see them as orthodox? And if Paul sees them as orthodox, which I suspect he would, then why do some Christians today see them as unorthodox?

Tebow's Gospel

2009-07-27T13:49:00.005-06:00

Someone sent me this tidbit from an SI article on Tim Tebow's faith. Say what you want about his choice of colleges, Tebow is the real deal. The more I read about him, the more I'm impressed. The part of the article that caught my friend's attention was something Tebow's Dad said about the gospel.

We've been talking about the gospel the last couple of weeks at Maury Hills. Specifically asking, what is the gospel? Many define it in broad terms, mixing the story of Jesus with doctrinal positions or church traditions. The Bible defines it simply as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Nothing more and nothing less. To take anything away from that or to add anything to it is to preach a different gospel. Tebow's Dad gets it...

Founded in 1985, the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association boasts a staff of 45 Filipino pastors who have preached the Gospel to more than 15 million. The ministry has also helped start 10,000 churches and opened an orphanage that houses more than 50 children.

Under the heading What We Believe, the BTEA's website details the conservative brand of Christianity it is spreading. The ministry espouses a literal interpretation of the Bible ("This is to say the written Word of God is totally without error of any kind"), supports the teaching of Creationism ("We believe God created the heavens and the earth ... out of nothing in six 24-hour days") and is convinced of the inevitability of the Rapture followed by a seven-year tribulation period. "During this time the antichrist will appear," says the BTEA. Some will be saved, but "many will be martyred."

Asked if there is any wiggle room for people nagged by doubts about, say, the creation of the world in six days or the imminence of the Rapture, Bob strikes a warm, inclusive note. "You don't have to believe everything I believe to be saved," he says. "You just need to believe in the Lord Jesus and trust him to give you the free gift of eternal life, and you can figure out Genesis and all that other stuff later."

The List

2009-07-14T13:11:00.004-06:00

Someone called today and wanted a copy of "the list" from Sunday. I thought I'd go ahead and post it here as well. This is from my introduction to our study of Galatians...

How would you finish this sentence? If I want to be a really good Christian then I must _________. What would you put in that blank? I’m sure a few of you have some answers swimming around in your head that might fit, but I’m guessing that many of you are thinking right now, “I can’t answer that question....there’s not enough blanks!” That's because many of us here at this church grew up in churches or a religious environment where the answer to this statement is endless.

To be a really good Christian you must…attend every time the doors are open, three times a week preferably, don’t swear, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t associate with people who do, don’t listen to rock and roll music, don’t go to R-rated movies, don’t play cards, don’t use music in worship, take the Lord’s Supper every week, have a daily quiet time, pray, memorize Scripture, give regularly, men-wear a coat and tie to church and kept your hair short, women-don’t wear slacks to church and be modest, neither of you can wear shorts on Sunday, no mixed swimming, no dancing, only use the KJV, go to a church that’s sound in the faith, don’t clap, don’t raise your hands, don’t show excessive emotion in worship, do everything decent and in order, no eating in the church building, no women praying, no women teaching boys over the age of 13, be baptized in the right way at the right time in the right church by the right person, go to a church that has the right name on the sign, don’t mess up, read your Bible and pray to God you make it!

That's just to name a few. I’m sure you could come up with more and the answers vary depending on which fellowship you were raised in. Yours may include things like you must speak in tongues, show evidence of baptism of the Holy Spirit, believe in predestination or once saved/always saved. The list is literally endless and it’s no respecter of denominations.

Would it shock you for me to tell you that it’s also dead wrong? That there’s really only one answer to the question of what it takes to be a really good Christian. And I hear the objections now, “But what a minute! There are some good things in that list you rattled off, sure some of its traditions that we don’t fool with anymore, but you mentioned some really good practices for Christians!” I agree. But anytime we start using our practices to define our acceptability before God or our righteousness or justification, then we’ve gotten off message. And it’s wrong. Paul would say we’re teaching a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.

Waddling On

2009-07-08T08:14:00.003-06:00

The nineteenth-century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once told a story about a village inhabited by ducks. On Sundays the ducks would waddle out their doors to the church down the street. They waddled into the sanctuary and squatted on their favorite pews. The duck choir would waddle in, and the duck pastor would waddle up to the pulpit and open the Bible. And he would read, "Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fence can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds." Excitedly, all the ducks shouted "AMEN!"--and then they all waddled home.

An accurate depiction of today's church?

Declaration of Independence

2009-07-02T08:53:00.006-06:00

Some Americans celebrate the 4th by reading the Declaration of Independence. I read it this morning, but not because of the holiday. I was doing a little research for my upcoming series on Galatians. It got me thinking of another Declaration of Independence. This one from the Springfield Presbytery. I appreciate the ideals expressed here. It's one of the reasons I still answer "non-denominational" when people ask "What kind of church is Maury Hills?" (note...to keep the length of this post reasonable I only included select items, you can read the entire document here )

Last Will and Testament of Springfield Presbytery

The Presbytery of Springfield sitting at Cane Ridge, in the county of Bourbon, being, through a gracious Providence, in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in strength and size daily; and in perfect soundness and composure of mind; but knowing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies once to die; and considering that the life of every such body is very uncertain, do make and ordain this our last Will and Testament, in manner and form following, viz:

Imprimis. We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.

Item. We will that our name of distinction, with its Reverend title, be forgotten, that there be but one Lord over God's heritage, and his name one.

Item. We will, that our power of making laws for the government of the church, and executing them by delegated authority, forever cease; that the people may have free course to the Bible, and adopt the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Item. We will, that each particular church, as a body, actuated by the same spirit, choose her own preacher, and support him by a free-will offering, without a written call or subscription--admit members--remove offenses; and never henceforth delegate her right of government to any man or set of men whatever.

Item. We will, that preachers and people cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance; pray more and dispute less; and while they behold the signs of the times, look up, and confidently expect that redemption draweth nigh.

Item. We will, that our weak brethren, who may have been wishing to make the Presbytery of Springfield their king, and wot not what is now become of it, betake themselves to the Rock of Ages, and follow Jesus for the future.

Item. We will, the Synod of Kentucky examine every member who may be suspected of having departed from the Confession of Faith, and suspend every such suspected heretic immediately, in order that the oppressed may go free, and taste the sweets of Gospel liberty.

Springfield Presbytery, June 28th, 1804

Did You Believe That I Loved You?

2009-06-30T09:20:00.001-06:00

Day Four

2009-06-25T22:31:00.004-06:00

Blogging live here from a bar in Belize City watching Micheal Jackson tributes on TV. It's taking me back to my childhood years (the Jackson tributes, not the bar).

Last day of the clinic and it was a little hectic. Not really that crowded but we had a lot of places to go and the schedule kept changing. A team went to Los Flores, another to Burrell Boom, another to the orphanage and another back to the prison.

I stayed behind at Burrell Boom for the morning. They were very happy to have us. Check out the sign they posted in front of the clinic (www.facebook.com/russadcox). Lincoln, the preacher there and one of my favorite Belizeans, has been talking the "Grand Muppet Show" for months! The team did a clinic there and then had the VBS around 2:00 pm.

Brian, Tiffany, Doug & Julie went back to the prison for a clinic. They set up dental and medical. The needs are great there. Doug ended up giving a guy the shoes off his feet. Literally. He went back to the hotel in his sock feet. Fann also took some money a guy named Anthony who I promised a phone card to on Monday. He got it and gave me and Fann some of his orginial writings. I might share them in a later post.

I dedicated today to exploring options for future plans here. First my Mom and I met with Bill Amason and Lincoln Jones about the work in Burrell Boom. We then had a chance to meet with Anna, the nurse at the local health clinic. Dr. Chaney joined us for that one. Anna is the only medical professional in a community of 3,000. She sutures wounds, delivers babies, diagnoses illnesses, etc. She does it all. If she refers someone to a doctor in Belize City only about half can afford to go. We toured the clinic and talked about how we could arrange for help. Also got to talk briefly with Dawn Flowers, one of the teachers at the school there.

Next, we headed back to the Liberty Learning Center in Ladyville to meet again with the principal (Ms. Tillet). Max & Marsha Boren went with me. We met for about an hour and then held an impromptu meeting with the Director of the orphanage (the school is located on their grounds). There's a lot of info to share. Too much for this post. We'll meet with everybody when we get back and come up with some options. There's some opportunity here!

Oh yeah...the home building team stayed behind in Belmopan today and finished the house! They put a roof on the house and prepared it for siding. The young couple they built it for are very appreciative. Several neighbors came up and asked "How do you get on the home building list?"

Overall, I would guess we treated well over 1,000 patients in the medical clinics and pulled over 300 teeth. Now we head to the island for a little rest. I probably won't blog after tonight. Just some Twitter updates to keep you informed. Check out the pics on Facebook and thanks for reading my ramblings.

In closing I would encourage you to consider that no message could have been any clearer, if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.

Day Three

2009-06-24T21:04:00.004-06:00

Another day in Belmopan. We cut off registrations for the dental clinic after only 45 minutes and we still didn't get to all of them. There is so much need here. We could bring as many dentists as we want and pull teeth all day! Fann works hard while he's here.

The team went in several different directions today. A group went into the village to build a new floor for a young family. When they got there they found out that they were rented the home (I use the term "home" loosely. It was a 10x10 shack with a dirt floor). It was $45 a month. Long story short. They discovered that her sister owned a home nearby and they agreed to build them a room off of her home. They got the floor and posts in today. Tomorrow they'll add a roof and purchase the siding for the family to put up. Pictures are on facebook. www.facebook.com/russdcox (friend me).

Jenna and a small medical team did a home visit for a 90 year old lady who could not walk to the clinic. It was several miles into the village and they took the van as far as they could (until the road ran out). Then it was two miles through the jungle on a small path. The family lived on a farm that grew sugar cane. Sounded like an interesting trip.

Several "God's Twenty" stories are coming in. It's amazing to see what God can do with something as small as $20. Some real blessings (both for the giver and the receiver).

We had a VBS after the clinic today with a huge turnout. Tomorrow it's too the prison, the orphanage and the Burrell Boom community. By the way, last night, Anthony & Ira Booker led Bible studies at the church. Forgot to mention that.

The weather has been great here. It's in the mid-90s but there's a bit of a breeze and its much better than years past. Cooler than Tennessee from what I can tell.

That's about all I got for now. I need to let one of the newcomers blog one night. My observations aren't quite the same as someone who's seeing it for the first time.

Day Two

2009-06-23T20:19:00.002-06:00

We had a busy day at Belmopan today. There were about 100 people lined up outside when we arrived. Within minutes of opening the clinic was packed with folks! Organized chaos.

We cut off registrations for the dentist after about an hour. By then we already had more than we could see. Dr. Fann pulled teeth from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM straight. Very hard work. Dr. Adcox (myself) and Dr. Kinnard (Doug) were allowed to pull a few. That's a big deal for me because the last time I worked in the dental clinic I passed out.

I'm really in the dark about a lot of what happened in the rest of the clinic because I was couped up with the dental team. I know that it was really busy.

The electricity just went out at our hotel. Nothing like sitting in the dark in the middle of a city in Central America. I'm reminded of that travel warning from the Embassy about now.

Tonight the team went to eat at the Banana Bank. Enchiladas and rice. Awesome! Then we had a devo and planned out the VBS for tomorrow.

Meet briefly today with Jason, the minister of the church in Belmopan. He also happens to be a school teacher at the high school. He said there is a great need for school sponsorships. It costs $15 a month for families to send their kids to school and many cannot afford it. He'd be willing to send us pics of the kids, bios, even their report cards. This idea is starting to take root.

Turns out I'm not going to the preschool graduation tomorrow. I'm staying in the dental clinic because things are really busy there, plus I didn't have a shirt and tie for the program (they don't know about my aversion to ties). Rick Tribby is taking my place.

Things are going well. You're prayers are appreciated. We expect another busy day tomorrow. Check out my facebook page for pictures (www.facebook.com/russadcox). If you're not a member then sign up (it's free) and send me a friend request.

Belize Day One

2009-06-22T20:26:00.003-06:00

Well, it's actually day three for everyone else, but it's my first day. I'll do this "Sunday reflection" style because I don't have a lot of time. Here's what's happened thus far...

Sunday the team worshipped with the Belize City Church of Christ. Anthony Booker preached in his normal energetic style. That evening several returned to worship with the church and some of the team worshipped in a home with the Burrell Boom congregation. The rest had a devo with a jaguar in the hotel.

Monday was the first day of clinics. The majority of the team set up a medical clinic in the Belmopan church. We'll be there the next two days. I wasn't there so I don't have a lot of info about it. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Another team went to the prison. I ended up there after arriving. That was my first experience with the prison. A little unnerving, but once you get to work you kind of forget where you are. Dr. Fann pulled teeth, did a little field surgery on someone's face and found a man with twelve fingers. Seriously. We have pictures.

Tiffany saw patients at the prison and I was her assistant, after two minutes of training on how to check blood pressure. She is really good with the patients. Great spirit and a lot of fun!

Before I got to the prison I went with Rick Tribby (Indiana), Bill Amason (Florida) and Bill M. (Illinois) to the Liberty School. We met with the principal about the possibility of funding the school and sponsoring the children who attend. A really encouraging meeting in light of the things we talked about Sunday. She asked me to say a prayer at thier graduation on Wednesday and we'll have more chances to talk.

Then I spoke with Lincoln Jones, the preacher at Burrell Boom. He has some property for a clinic that he wants us to look at on Thursday and we have a meeting set up with the principal there. Do something big! Dangerous prayer.

We ate at the Banana Bank tonight. One of my favorite places in the country. Saw the jaguar, the monkey and the birds. Pictures will be on Facebook shortly. www.facebook.com/russadcox

I challenged the team with "God's Twenty." We gave everyone on the team a $20 bill and told them this was not their money, it was God's. They received this gift from Him and they were to regift it to someone in need. So for the next three days everyone be looking for someone to bless with their twenty. The rules...1) You have to give it away, 2) You have to do it secretly, 3) You have to explain why you're giving them the money, 4) You can't take credit. Thanks goes to God.

That's about it. Very busy day for my first day. I'm pumped about the possibilities here!!

The Secrets of Lasting Love

2009-06-11T14:48:00.005-06:00

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century. --Mark Twain

In the seven weeks following Easter our congregation participated in a church-wide study of love. It's one of the best studies we've done in a while. We asked everyone to commit to coming each Sunday, attend a small group and participate in daily readings. We covered themes like kindness, honesty and forgiveness. The last message of the series focused on what it takes to have lasting love. Building off Mark Twain's thoughts on the subject, I asked everyone who'd been married 25 years or more to give us the answer on a 3x5 index card. I read their answers at the end my message. A little risky because I had no idea what to expect, but we received nearly 100 cards and they contained over 2,000 years of relationship wisdom.

Some reflected humor. One man married 38 years wrote "I always get the last word--Yes, Ma'am." Another who'd been married equally as long wrote "Don't ask questions, just do what she says." Then there was the one married 43 years who wrote "patience, love and ear plugs."

Some contained deep reflections. A couple married for more than four decades explained (via a Ravi Zacharia quote) that "love is more a matter of will, than emotion."

Some gave advice..."kiss each other goodnight," "don't take your problems home to Mama," "say 'I love you'," "spend time together," "give more than you take."

Some were honest..."it's only by the grace of God that we made it."

And some were embarrassing (at least from the pulpit on a Sunday morning)..."the secret to lasting love is great sex!"

My favorite was from a couple who'd been married 56 years. While most cards contained long answers, they both only wrote one word. One wrote "commitment" and the other wrote "endurance."

I'm now working on compiling the information into themes and thinking about what to do with it from there. The most oft repeated themes were patience, forgiveness, commitment, faith and humility (putting their needs before yours). All good practices. All easier said than done. All essential to lasting relationships.

Numbers

2009-06-08T09:20:00.007-06:00

Some interesting stats from Scot McKnight (circa 2004)...

In the Christian world today, 1.06 billion are Roman Catholic, 286 million are Independent-Pentecostal, 342 million are Protestant, 215 million are Orthodox and 79 million are Anglican. There are more non-white Christans than white, more in the Southern Hemisphere than the Northern, and the center of gravity is shifting to the South and to the East. By the year 2050 only about one-fifth of the world's Christians will be non-Hispanic whites; the vast majority will be conservative and charismatic.

And we thought the Bible-Belt was the center of world-wide Christianity?

The Resurrection of Believers

2009-05-20T10:06:00.005-06:00

I'm working on a funeral message today and was reading through the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. The resurrection of the dead seems to be a much-neglected topic in our churches today. You may not even know what I mean by that term. I'm not referring to just the resurrection of Jesus, but to the eventual resurrection of all believers. I've been in church my entire life and I've heard plenty talk of heaven, but little talk of resurrection. Not sure why, especially after reading words like this...

Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.

If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ wasn’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

If there’s no chance of resurrection for a corpse, if God’s power stops at the cemetery gates, why do we keep doing things that suggest he’s going to clean the place out someday, pulling everyone up on their feet alive? And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn’t be the end of me? Not on your life! It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there’s no resurrection, “We eat, we drink, the next day we die,” and that’s all there is to it. But don’t fool yourselves. Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection loose talk.

Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you can’t afford in times like these. Aren’t you embarrassed that you’ve let this kind of thing go on as long as you have? Some skeptic is sure to ask, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.

This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality! [selected readings from 1st Cor 15 MSG]

I'm not saying I fully understand it, but I do believe it! The grave is not the end!! Resurrection awaits!!

Marriage Counseling

2009-05-12T09:04:00.003-06:00

Read this from Rick Warren this morning...

Let me give you a whole lot of marriage counseling in two words: grow up! The number one cause for marriage incompatibility is not incompatibility. I don't even believe in incompatibility. It is a myth made up by divorce lawyers. Any two people can become compatible if they're willing to grow up. If they're willing to be unselfish. The root cause of every single marriage problem is selfishness. I want what I want when I want it and you want what you want when you want it. My will and ego faces your ego and we're going to fight.

It's all about I. It's all about me. It's not about we. It's about me. Even when one person wants to do the we if the other person want to be an I you're going to have problems. It really comes down to just grow up.

What is incompatibility? It is immaturity. Any two people can learn to get along with each other if they're willing to grow, if they're willing to be loving, if they're willing to think of more than themselves, if they're willing to compromise and willing to think of the other person.

This should really reduce the amount of time I spend counseling couples. I'll just sit them down and say in a really kind voice, "You both really need to grow up. I'll see you next week."

A Prayer for the Media

2009-05-07T12:06:00.002-06:00

Today is the National Day of Prayer and Columbia had a ceremony at the courthouse. Pete Tackett, First Baptist's pastor, called me at 8:30 this morning and asked if I'd fill in for a last minute cancellation. My topic was the media. Here's what a wrote after this call and this was my prayer today...

Father,

Right now we want to lift up a prayer for our media. In today’s world, they hold one of the greatest positions of influence. Those who write the stories and those who tell the news have the power to influence and direct the opinions and attitudes of our culture. Father, remind them that with great power comes great responsibility. I pray that those who work in the newspapers and TV stations and cable news and the Internet would love and respect the truth. That they would be fair in their presentation of the facts and avoid any temptation to push agendas or skew things towards a particular bias. May they report the truth with accuracy and honesty and fairness. Be with them and strengthen them in this endeavor. Help them to recognize the tremendous power of influence they possess and give them the courage to use it for good.

And Father, sometimes we as believers don't always feel that we are treated kindly by the media, but the fact it, we have not always been kind in our treatment of the media. Forgive us for our negative attitudes and unloving actions or words towards the men and women who work in this arena. Forgive us for the criticism and cynicism from our pulpits and churches. As a people of the light, we’re called to a higher standard. The standard of love. So grant us patience, kindness, understanding, humility, gentleness and respect as we deal with the media. May we always stand for the truth and may we always defend the truth, but may we do so in the spirit of love. We pray this prayer in the name of the very one who taught us to love, your son Jesus,

Amen.

Before He Speaks

2009-05-05T11:32:00.005-06:00

Ok, so I might have talked about the wife a little too much in Sunday's message. The topic was "love with your words" and every illustration that I could come up with included her. I sometimes get into an illustration rut in a sermon. Like a couple of weeks ago where every illustration was about death (a real feel-good message). So I was in a rut with marriage stories this Sunday, but this whole series is about relationships and it's kind of hard to avoid that one.

Anyway, a couple of people cautioned me on saying too much for fear that she might not appreciate it. She might not, but I always try to make sure that the stories I use are the ones that make me look bad and her look good. Plus, I like talking about real life and sharing personal stories vs. stock sermon illustrations. So whatever happens during the week is bound to be in there somewhere on Sunday. My wife isn't the only victim. My parents, my kids, my co-ministers, former church members and current church members have all played starring roles.

Still, no one wants to be included in the sermon every week so no stories about my wife this Sunday (hopefully). And in honor of last week, a little video I found on YouTube. Some of you pastor's wives might appreciate this one...

Not Much To Say

2009-05-01T12:01:00.005-06:00

Sorry for the blog silence this week. Jen's out of town so I've been playing Mr. Mom and its been a busy week at church. Yet, the silence may be a good thing. This week my message is "Loving with Your Words." Something that doesn't come easy for any of us, especially me. Just think about how often your words get you trouble! Either you say the wrong thing or you say the right thing at the wrong time or you just say way too much. Here's some advice from Proverbs...

If you keep your mouth shut, you'll stay out of trouble. 21:23

Even fools are thought to be wise when they keep silent; when they keep their mouths shut, they seem intelligent. 17:28

Don't talk too much, for it fosters sins. Be sensible and turn off the flow! 10:19

Those who control their tongue will have a long life; a quick retort can ruin everything. 13:3

The godly think before speaking; the wicked spout evil words. 15:28

One Life to Love

2009-04-22T21:39:00.002-06:00

Preaching What I Don't Practice

2009-04-21T07:59:00.000-06:00

Sunday's message was a little tough. It was week one of our 40 Days of Love study and I was talking about the fact that there is nothing in our life more important than relationships. I spent the first twenty minutes establishing that principle with Scripture and end-of-life illustrations. After all, when we contemplate funerals (our own or those we love) we quickly realize that the most important thing in life is relationships. As Rick Warren puts it, when someone is on their deathbed they don't asked to be surrounded by their diplomas or their trophies, they want to be surrounded by those they love. In the end, relationships are the only thing that matter.

So after establishing the principle, I asked the tough question....If that's true, and we know it is, then why do our relationships tend to get the short end of the stick? Why do we short-change the relationships most important to us or neglect the ones we love the most? The answer is usually that we're just too busy. Deep down we sincerely believe that our relationships are the most important thing in our life, but we're so busy and distracted with things of lesser importance that we don't give them the attention they deserve. To quote Warren again, "most of us have first class allegiances to second class causes." Ouch.

At the end of the sermon I went "off notes" and started talking about how if you asked us to rank what's most important in our life we would put God and family first, way ahead of work or hobbies or sports or anything else. But if you ranked those things according to time spent or attention given, the rankings would look very different. The reality is that our time and attention speaks louder than our words and promises. If our relationships are truly the most important thing in our life, then shouldn't we give them more attention that we do?

I don't think I said it exactly like that, but it was something along those lines. It wasn't part of the original sermon because I didn't really want to preach that part. Not because I don't believe it's true, I just didn't want to be guilty of preaching something I don't practice. In other words, my time doesn't always communicate my values. I wish it did and I wish I could have stood up there and said, "You all need to be like me and get your priorities straight." But I couldn't. I've been guilty of neglecting relationships for things of lesser importance. We all have. It's crazy and stupid and one day we'll regret it, but we're all guilty.

So the big question is "what are we going to do about it?" Are we going to wait until our deathbeds to make relationships a priority or are we going to start now? That's the challenge of this study our church is doing together. Do we really believe what God tells us about love and are we willing to make relationships our top priority? I can already see that its not going to be easy and they'll be plenty of things in the study that step on my toes. They're still stinging a bit from Sunday. As one member emailed me after worship..."I'm not sure I can handle another 39 days of love."

Love Defined

2009-04-16T10:10:00.004-06:00

Love never gives up.
Lover cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

1st Corinthians 13:4-7 from The Message.

Love

2009-04-14T11:29:00.006-06:00

Last Sunday we kicked off our 40 Days of Love study and I've been thinking on our theme verse (1st Corinthians 14:1). Here it is in its various translations...

Follow after love (ASV)

Pursue love (ESV)

You should seek after love (NCV)

Follow the way of love (NIV)

Love should be your guide (CEV)

Let love be your highest goal (NLT)

Love is the thing you should want more than anything else (Worldwide)

Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire love. Make it your aim, your great quest (Amplified)

Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it, because it does (Message)

Easter

2009-04-10T09:47:00.005-06:00

About three or four years ago our church decided to start making Easter a really big deal. We hadn't before primarily because of our background. Many of us we're raised with the notion that the church shouldn't really celebrate special Sundays because every Sunday is special. We should remember the resurrection every time we gather for worship. And we should, but we usually don't. We decided that it would be good a thing for us to recapture the importance of this event by placing a special emphasis on Easter Sunday and celebrating the resurrection together!

The reason is simple. The resurrection is one of central tenets of our faith, if not the central tenet. Take away the resurrection and you take away Christianity. It's the underpinning of everything we believe. The sacrifice of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, the hope of eternal life--all are held up and supported by the truth of the resurrection. Without it, Jesus was just a martyr and we are still dead in our sins. I know that sounds a little strong to those of us who've grown up with a more cross-centered understanding of Christianity, but this doesn't take anything away from the importance of the cross. It just reminds us that the story of Jesus doesn't end in death and neither do ours.

Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there's no resurrection, there's no living Christ. And face it--if there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ--sheer fabrications, if there's no resurrection.

If corpses can't be raised, then Christ wasn't, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ wasn't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries. (1st Cor 15:12-19 MSG)

Have a great Easter!

Green Street

2009-04-02T19:06:00.008-06:00

On Wednesday nights a couple of our members (Bob & Suzanne Derryberry) have started "skipping" church and going to Nashville to work with a homeless ministry. Last Wednesday, our small group decided to skip ourselves and see what it's all about. The ministry is with the Green Street Church of Christ. It's a small congregation on the east side of downtown. Here's their story as best I can recall from the conversation I had with one of their Shepherds.

The church is 117 years old. It was once a fairly good sized congregation in a thriving community, but the Interstate came through (literally 60 ft in front the church) and changed things. The traffic patterns changed and the community deteriorated. Most of the members moved to the suburbs. The church lost 200+ members over the course of time, but it didn't move. It stayed put. Right in the place God originally planted it. Then they did something that a lot of churches don't have the courage to do (although we should), they opened their doors to the disenfranchised, the homeless, the outcasts, etc. They offered them a place of worship, a hot meal and some basic necessities.

It all started seven years ago. There was a ministry group feeding the homeless once a week on the streets near the church. One winter night it was particularly cold and they asked the church if they could use their fellowship hall. The leadership said "Yes." Then some of homeless began asking if they could sleep in the building during the really cold nights. Again, the leadership said "Yes." It didn't last long because Metro Codes shut it down, but how many churches do you know that would say "yes" to that request? Anyway, the meals continued and the church now handles everything on their own (with the help of a few supporting churches).

Every Wednesday night they open their doors to anywhere from 75 to 150 people. They worship together, share a message from the Bible, offer everyone a hot meal and a visit to the clothes closet. They also have some toys, diapers and other odds and ends (whatever anyone donates). They run two vans back and forth to different locations in the city, including "tent city." A handful of students from Lipscomb help out and some young families have recently joined the church to help out. The minister is bi-vocational. He doesn't take a salary and he has the heart of a servant. The Shepherd I met also had the heart of a servant and the heart of a shepherd. He stayed after the meal to listen to prayer requests and pray for any needs. He explained, "We figured that we could either close the doors or we could become a mission. This is what church is all about!"

The service was not your typical service. There were about 100 or so in the auditorium. A cloud of cigarette smoke from the front steps drifted in whenever someone opened the doors. The rich and poor sat intermingled on old worn out pews. People from the suburbs sang together with people from the streets. The worship was spirited and heart-felt. The message was a simple talk from a selected passage. Folks got up and wondered in and out as they pleased. If they agreed, they said "Amen." If they had a question, they asked it. If there was an announcement, the floor was open. I would consider them to be a fairly traditional church, and yet there were several things that happened that a traditional church might frown upon. As I worshipped, the thought crossed my mind..."Apparently they don't have time to fuss over all the issues we fuss about in the suburbs. They're just too busy helping people."

The most moving part of the night for me was when they lead the song "You're the God of the City." I've always loved the lyrics to that song, but it took on a whole new meaning in that context.

You're the God of the city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the light in this darkness
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the peace to the restless
You are

For greater things are yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city

Greater things are still to be done and many of them will be thanks to the good folks at the Green St. Church of Christ. May God bless their work.

A Promise Kept

2009-03-27T10:18:00.003-06:00

If you plan to be at Maury Hills this Sunday then stop reading. This story and video will be in there somewhere, it's just too powerful not to share...

Robertson McQuilken was the president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary (now Columbia International University) from 1968 to 1990. He was a renown NT scholar, author and speaker. He was married to his wife, Muriel for 53 years. In the 1980s, during the middle of his tenure as president, Muriel’s health begin to decline and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Over the course of the next few months and years things got progressively worse and her health deteriorated to the point that she couldn’t speak, reason, clothe herself, feed herself or bathe herself. So in 1990, Robertson stood before the student body and resigned his position as president in order to go home and care for his wife of then 40 years. I couldn't find the entire speech, but here's a clip...

Apparently Robertson McQuilkon wasn’t just a student of the Bible, he was a follower. The two most powerful statements to me were "I'm a man of my word" and "I don’t have to do this. I get to do this.”

Doing What You Know

2009-03-23T14:30:00.007-06:00

I heard this quote on the radio today...

"It's not that we don't know what to do, it's that we don't do what we know."

There's a lot of truth in that. The reason I sometimes struggle with being a good husband or a good father has little to do with knowledge. I know what to do. I just don't always do it. That's because doing it usually requires more effort, more time and more commitment.

The same is true with churches. The reason some churches thrive while others languish has little to do with knowledge. They know what to do. They just don't always do it. That's because doing it usually requires more effort, more time and more commitment.

The same is true with business. The reason some businesses achieve excellence while others remain average has little to do with knowledge. They know what to do. They just don't always do it. That's because doing it usually requires more effort, more time and more commitment.

Are you sensing a pattern here? When things aren't going well it's usually not due to a lack of knowledge, but a lack of implementation. We usually don't need more information. We need more action! Yet almost all of our training, conferences, seminars, classes, sermons, books, etc., are geared to distribute information rather than inspire action. Granted, education is valuable but only when coupled with action.

I used to think about this whenever I attended business conferences. I'd sit in a room full of competitors listening to ideas about how to better market our products or improve our business. I'd think "This is great stuff, but what good is it if all my competitors get the same information? If everyone learns the same 'secret of success' then it's not much of a secret." But the secret wasn't in the idea, the secret was in who would go home and actually implement the idea. The answer was very few.

I read somewhere that Peter Drucker said there are very few high achievers within any organization (maybe 10%). I think he's right. I also think that there are very few high achieving organizations (be it schools, churches, businesses or non-profits). The reason? It's not that we don't know what to do, it's that we don't do what we know.

The Bible says that listening, but not doing "is like looking at your face in the mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like." (James 1:23-24 NLT). When you put like that it doesn't make a lot of sense to seek knowledge, but never implement it. Yet how many times have I read a book, attended a conference, listened to a sermon or heard a great idea and then walked away, forgetting what I learned?

Church Growth (The Old Fashioned Way)

2009-03-19T20:36:00.000-06:00

Churches are always thinking of new ways to spur grow within their congregations, yet new statistics show that most aren't working. A couple of Sundays ago the Tennessean reported that almost every major Christian denomination is either in decline or pleateued. The handful that are growing aren't even keeping pace with the population growth. It used to be a problem that mostly affected mainline Protestant denominations (ala Episcopalians or Methodists), but now it's also affecting more conservative denominations (ala Southern Baptists or Assemblies of God). The reason, according to Conrad Hackett, a postdoctral fellow in the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin:

"...most of the decline of mainline churches can be linked to declining fertility rates. As early as the 1930s, women in more progressive or liberal denominations had fewer children than women in conservative churches. Now conservative Christian women are having fewer children as well."

"The fact of the matter is that there are demographic trends that hit the liberal or progressive denominations earlier," Hackett said, "and some of these trends are now catching up with the more conservative denominations."

The article goes on to detail some of the ways churches are trying to stop the bleeding, including more emphasis on outreach and church planting. But Hackett says...

"Those efforts will help...but not as much as having more babies."

Sociologists of religion like Rodney Stark argue that the early Christian church grew from a small group of followers to the dominant religion in the Roman Empire by having more kids than non-Christians.

Churches might want to try that approach again, Hackett said.

"The fact is that one of the most reliable predictors of growth is fertility," Hackett said. "In the long term, for denominations, having members who have more children is one of the most likely means of growing denominations."

Do We Have a History?

2009-03-16T09:59:00.008-06:00

I thought this piece was relevant in regards to some of the conversation in the comments of this post. It's from the introduction of a book on the history of the Churches of Christ by Gary Holloway and Douglas A. Foster. I think the authors do a good job explaining the value of church history within the specific context of the Restoration Movement. Perhaps it will give some perspective.

He came into a course in Restoration History and announced, "I don't care what Barton Stone or Alexander Campbell said. All I care about is what the Bible says."

We thought of several appropriate responses. What we did say was, "At least one reason you care only for what the Bible says is that Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell influenced you."

Or take another example. An undergraduate Bible major goes home to visit. At church on Sunday a good deacon asks him, "What are you studying this semester?" The student replies, "The Gospel of Luke, Youth Ministry, Speech Communication, English Composition and Restoration History." "Restoration History?" the deacon replies. "What good will that do you?"

These stories illustrate the mixed feelings in Churches of Christ about our history. Indeed, some would deny that we have a history. Aren't we the church of the first century? Isn't all history after the first century just a record of apostasy and corruption? Shouldn't we leap over those years to the purity of the early church? Don't we undercut our plea to be biblical by admitting we have a history?

We understand those who want to deny our history. On the side of the church building where one of us grew up were the words: "Church of Christ, Established A.D. 33." The idea was that we wanted to be the church of the New Testament, the one established at Pentecost. That ideal still burns brightly in our hearts. We do not want to restore everything about the early church (no one wants to be exactly like the Corinthians), but we do want to be the kind of church that the first century churches should have been. In a real sense, we can trace our existence to that first church at Pentecost.

But do we have a history after Pentecost? Honesty requires that we answer, "Yes." The whole history of the church, as messy and fallen as it has been, is in some sense our history. Although we want to be like the early church, we must admit that we are not the first Christians. Two thousand years have passed. Previous generations have passed the faith on to us. We would not have the Bible itself were it not for the faithful labors of copyists and translators who lived long after Pentecost. One reason for studying church history is to honor these spiritual fathers and mothers.

Studying church history also helps us experience how faithful Christians in the past struggled to follow God in their own context. If we can see how the church in the past often conformed to much of its culture, then perhaps we can see how much our culture threatens to subvert the current church. Studying church history also shows how the church has positively affected the culture around it.

Studying history can also help us understand the Bible. We prize the authority of the Bible because those who went before us taught us to respect it. By seeing how previous generations understood (and misunderstood) the Bible, we gain perspective on its meaning for our time.

This book focuses on our history in the context of America. While it is true in one sense that Pentecost A.D. 33 (or more likely, A.D. 30) is our birthday, there are other dates we can point to as the beginning points of the existence of the Churches of Christ in America. The first "founding document" in our history is The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery written in 1804. The ministers who wrote these words began the first group of independent churches in this movement. Although many before him called Christians back to the Bible for the sake of Christian unity, Thomas Campbell's publication of The Declaration and Address in 1809 marked a significant intellectual beginning to our movement. The Disciples of Christ in particular see that date as their starting point, celebrating a centennial in 1909 and anticipating a bicentennial in 2009.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the movement divided with the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) and the Churches of Christ becoming separate groups. Some place that division in 1889, when Daniel Sommer and others called for a break of fellowship in the "Declaration and Address" at Sand Creek, Illinois. The "official" date of that division is 1906 [when David Lipscomb confirmed that the Churches of Christ had split from the Christian Church]. Thus, in one sense, the Churches of Christ in America had our centennial in 2006.

So what is our birthday? All and none of the above. We do want to be the church founded at the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus. Yet, we must admit that we are the church in an American context. We owe our identity to Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone in the 19th century. We also owe a debt to those in the 20th century who shaped what we now are as Churches of Christ.

I also highly recommend the book itself. It's a concise history and offers a great overview.

One Hour a Week

2009-03-13T09:17:00.006-06:00

We're preparing to open our new children's wing this weekend so my mind has been on children's ministry lately. Typically, a church gets one hour a week to influence the life of a child. Just one hour. Over a year that translates to maybe 45 hours (assuming they miss a few Sundays). That's less than 1% of their time. Compare that with amount of time they are influenced by school, sports, media, internet, friends, etc. It's staggering. That's why we've been working hard at Maury Hills to do two things:

1) Make that hour the absolute best hour of their week.
2) Partner with the home (where lasting spiritual formation happens in the first place).

Here's what we're trying to do in each of those areas. On Sundays we invest a tremendous amount of time and energy into our children's ministry. It takes up more space, more staff and more volunteers than anything else we do. We truly want it to be the best hour of their week! We want our kids to engage in worship, learn Bible truths and spend time applying those truths to their lives. This happens because of dedicated volunteers who are willing to share their lives with the kids. The registration volunteers make sure that they receive a warm welcome and parents feel comfortable. The hosts and worship leaders help them learn how to praise God and sing from their heart. The storytellers teach them that the Bible is not boring and make it come alive in unbelievably creative ways. The small group shepherds nurture and guide the kids in applying the principles of the Bible to everyday situations. I'm continually amazed at what my kids learn and love to see them "making the wise choice" or "trusting God no matter what." Two of the core values that are taught each week.

With our new building we're adding an entirely new element to Sunday mornings. It's called an "immersive environment." All week long our kids spend time in their rooms or classrooms which are typically full of kid stuff. They watch TV, play video games, listen to their ipods or surf the Internet. Then they come to church and sit in a room with blank walls and watch flannel-graph figures. If church is going to be the best hour of the week, then it also has to the most kid-friendly place in town. Of course we're not going to compete with Disney, but we are going to work hard to create an atmosphere that's inviting, fun and cool (or whatever word the kids are using these days). Our children's area has been transformed from blank walls to a Coney Island boardwalk complete with a ticket booth, surf shop, funhouse, captian's room and pier. It's one of the most amazing things I've seen. I wish I was back in 2nd grade so I could go to Bible class in there.

The idea of partnering with the home is still a work in progress. It's something we've been trying to gradually incorporate into our church. We realize that parents have the greatest potential to impact their kids spiritually. Therefore, we need to include parents in every step of the process. What happens in the one hour on Sunday is only valuable if its carried home and repeated throughout the week. So we're trying to do a few things differently. One is information. We've tried to provide more info to parents about what their kids are learning and how they can help reinforce those truths. We've done that through classes for parents and handouts that go home with the kids. One of the coolest things was the For Heaven's Sake class where we shared the gospel with both parents and kids, then challenged them to go home and discuss it as a family. I know of some great discussions (and decisions for Christ) coming out of that event.

Two is family experiences. We want to create some intentional events where the parents and kids learn or serve together. This allows the parents to see first-hand what their kids are doing and to model Christ for them. Two examples of this are Kidstuf and Summer Surge. Kidstuf is a family worship experience that's geared towards both parents and kids. With storytelling and drama we hope to spark conversations that extend beyond Sundays. Summer Surge is when we cancel all our classes on Wednesday nights and do something as a family each week. It may be fellowship (Concert in the Park) or service (King's Daughter's Party) or spiritual (Prayer Walk). It's something the entire family can do together.

Of course, I'm making it sound like we have all this down to a science. We don't. There's still plenty of gaps left to fill and we're constantly evaluating and re-adjusting. And very little of this is original with us. The folks over at Orange have been influential in shaping our thinking. A wise youth minister once told me the key to implementing effective ideas in ministry is knowing "what to steal and when to steal it." So what about your church? What are you doing for kids? Any good ideas we could steal?

Repealing Conscience

2009-03-06T08:41:00.005-06:00

From Cal Thomas' column yesterday...

A rule approved in the waning days of the Bush administration established broad protections for health-care workers whose religious faith, conscience or moral misgivings forbid them from participating in an abortion. Last Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services, which is still without a confirmed secretary, announced its intention to rescind the regulation. There will be a 30-day period of public comment before the rule is overturned. Here is mine.

No politician can be found who admits to favoring abortion. To acknowledge moral misgivings means that you are at least acknowledging that the beating heart and brain waves extinguished during an abortion are of greater significance than, say, the removal of an appendix or a tumor. Infected appendices can burst, killing the individual. A tumor can grow, become malignant and cause death. A growing unborn child can be born and contribute not only to the betterment of the country, but if you’re utilitarian about it, increase the tax base. Abortion kills a potential taxpayer, which ought to override every other consideration for liberal politicians who are constantly looking for new sources of revenue.

Why do social liberals say they want to make abortion “safe, legal and rare,” but then spend all their time on the first two and none on the third? It is relatively simple to reduce the number of abortions, even while keeping them “safe” and “legal.” Show the abortion-minded woman a sonogram of the fetus she is about to destroy. A 2005 survey by Care Net, a network of about 1,000 antiabortion pregnancy centers in the United States and Canada, based in Sterling, Va., found that “72 percent of women who were initially ‘strong leaning’ toward abortion decided to carry their pregnancies to term after seeing a sonogram.” That isn’t depriving a woman of her “choice.” It is providing more information so that her choice will be fully informed.

Carried to its logical conclusion, repealing the “conscience rule” would allow hospitals to require pro-life doctors and nurses to participate in abortions. The Catholic Church teaches that elective abortion is a mortal sin, so the government is considering a requirement that would place a Catholic in the position of risking excommunication and the eternal damnation of his or her soul. Evangelical Christians regard abortion as equally offensive. Where is the separation of church and state when you really need it? [read the entire article here]

Although he takes a little political jab with the taxpayer comment, he otherwise makes some great points. I think a "woman's right to chose" is here to stay, but shouldn't we at least help them make an informed choice? Before you undergo any medical procedure wouldn't you want your doctor to present you with all the facts? And we certainly shouldn't force medical professionals to violate their conscience or the moral teachings of their faith in order to perform an elective procedure. That should be the decision of the doctor, not the government. Where is the separation of church and state when you really need it? Well said Cal.

What Happened to All the Deaconesses?

2009-03-03T08:47:00.000-06:00

A little background info for those not familiar with the history. The Churches of Christ, along with the Independent Christian Churches and Disciples of Christ, were birthed by the American Restoration Movement. The primary concern of this movement was the desire to restore the practices of the early church and there was much emphasis on the idea of restoring the "ancient order of things." An important part of this was the establishment of proper church structure. Each congregation was to be governed independently by a plurality of elders (or overseers) and deacons were to be appointed to carry out the specific works of the church. As you can tell from the title, this post deals with the latter role.

In Romans 16:1 Paul writes "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me." The Greek word translated "servant" is the same word translated "deacon" or "minister" in other places. It's also the same word used by Paul to denote other servants/deacons/ministers in the church such as Apollos, Eprahas, Timothy, etc. Many believe that Phoebe was a deacon in the early church in the same sense as these men.

Then in 1st Timothy 3:11, while listing the qualities of a deacon, Paul writes "In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything." The Greek word translated "wives" in the NIV or KJV can also be translated "women" as in the ASV or RSV. There is some debate among scholars as to whether Paul was referring to the "wives of deacons" or simply "women deacons." Those saying it's wives point to the immediate context believing that it would be awkward to address deacons in vs. 8-10, deaconesses in v. 11, and then back to deacons in v. 12-13. Those saying it's women deacons point to the immediate context as well, saying that there are no similar instructions for the wives of elders in vs. 1-7 and it would be odd include qualifications for deacon's wives but not for overseer's wives.

At any rate, from Romans 16:1 (more so) and from 1st Tim 3:11 (less so) you can make the argument that deaconesses were a part of the early church. So it would stand to reason that a movement primarily concerned with restoring the practices of the early church would include the role of deaconesses in its church structure. That's the exact argument made by some of the early Restoration Movement leaders. Take a look...

In 1827, Alexander Campbell, the most prominent leader of the movement, wrote that early Christians in Jerusalem "appointed female deacons, or deaconesses, to visit and wait upon the sisters. Of this sort was Phoebe of Cenchrea, and other persons mentioned in the New Testament, who labored in the Gospel." Later in 1835 he wrote, "it appears that females were constituted deaconesses in the primitive church. Duties to females, as well as to males, demand this."

Tolbert Fanning, founding editor of the Gospel Advocate said that "the sisters, beyond all question, were as legitimately deacons as the brethren. Paul said 'I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a deacon/servant of the church at Cenchrea.' The Apostle, not only recommended the brethren at Rome receive her as a deacon of her church, but to 'assist her in whatsoever business she had need of them.'"

W.K. Pendleton, another early leader, wrote in 1848 that it was "generally regarded among our brethren, as an essential element in the restoration of primitive order, to ordain, in every church, both deacons and deaconesses." Later in 1870 he said, "Besides deacons, every church should have deaconesses, whose duty it is to perform such offices as cannot be so well performed by deacons, and especially such to females, as could not with delicacy and propriety be laid upon the deacons."

Moses E. Lard, a well-known evangelist, was initially opposed to the idea but by the mid 1870s wrote, "Phoebe was a deaconess in the official sense of the word." Therefore he urged present-day churches to have them too: "whenever the necessities of the churches are such to demand it, the order of deaconess should be re-established. They are often of as much importance to a church as the deacons, if not even more."

There's also evidence that some of the churches actually established the office. In 1833 the Baltimore church reported that the congregation had 60 members and "was set in order with three Elders, three Deacons and three Deaconesses." Some other churches followed suit but eventually the office of deaconess vanished from most Restoration churches. Today most churches in our movement do not recognize women as deacons, although we would readily admit that women do a great deal of serving in church and often end up carrying out its work. Sometimes essentially doing the work of a deacon, but in an unoffical sense. So, what happened?

P.S. This is not part of some evil sub-plot to overthrow male leadership of the church and subvert the established doctrines of religion. It's just a question.

Lent

2009-02-23T09:57:00.006-06:00

I grew up in a denomination that didn't practice Lent, or any other liturgical season for that matter. I'd never even heard of the word liturgical until sometime after college. Instead we emphasized that the important events of Christ's life should be remembered during every season of the year. Each Sunday was of equal importance. We remembered the birth every Sunday, not just on Christmas. We celebrated the resurrection every Sunday, not just on Easter. Of course that wasn't always true, but I still appreciate the effort.

In practical terms it meant that I never heard a Christmas sermon on Christmas or an Easter sermon on Easter. Good Friday was just another holiday and Lent was something the Catholics did. Gradually we began to recognize Christmas and Easter (in a religious sense that is, we always recognized them in a secular sense). Yet, we still stressed the importance of remembering these events throughout the year and not just on special Sundays. I still agree with that idea but I'm also finding significance in the practice of setting aside special days to intensely focus on these events. That's one of the reasons our church began having a Good Friday service and a Christmas service. It's why I now preach the resurrection every Easter (or "Resurrection Sunday" as my friend at the Christian Church likes to call it).

I say all that, to say this...last night my small group decided to observe Lent. I've never done anything like this so I don't really know what to expect and I'm sure our observance will be much less formalized than most. From what we can tell Lent primarily consists of three activities: prayer, serving the poor and fasting (or abstaining from specific foods). The prayers are up to each one of us individually. I'm going to try getting up 10 minutes earlier each day and devoting that to prayer. To serve the poor we're going to collect diapers for a homeless ministry in Nashville and then our families will go up there the first of April to deliver them and serve meals. These things were decided fairly quickly.

It was the question of what to "give up" for Lent that we wrestled with for a while. It had to be something that was a legitimate sacrifice. Preferably something we ate/drank every day so that giving it up would be a bit of a struggle. For example, I drink two to three Diet Cokes every day. It's my standard order at lunch and most dinners. So guess what I'm giving up for Lent? Actually, I'm giving up all sodas. That may sound easy to you, but I'm already preparing for my afternoon headaches and caffeine withdrawals. Others in the group are giving up Sun Drop, soft drinks, sweets, cereal, bread, ice-cream, french fries and eating between meals. We even got the kids involved. They're giving up chocolate, cakes, cookies and Nintendo DS. We wanted everyone to share what they were giving up so we'd have a little accountability and shared sacrifice.

It all begins tomorrow on "Ash Wednesday" so I've been drinking as much soda as I can today. I finally understand what "Fat Tuesday" is all about.

The Fuel of Judgmental Attitudes

2009-02-20T10:39:00.007-06:00

I ran across this bit from the Unchristian book on the topic of being judgmental...

Let's face it. Outsiders have a legitimate beef. We are, more than we realize, too anxious to judge others. We deserve the label judgmental.

But why is that? Jesus gives us a clear example of pursuing people, of accepting people at face value. Often he scandalized others by hanging out with the least desirable people in the culture, and his teaching is unambiguous: do not judge others or you'll face the same yardstick; remove the log from your eye before pulling a splinter from your friend's eye; and you do not have the right to condemn others, unless you are sinless (see Matthew 7:1-5). How have Christians gotten so far from this?

Some people explain it simply--even Christians make mistakes. Believers do not always express Christ perfectly because they are imperfect. This is accurate, but it also misses the point.

Pride fuels judgmental attitudes. Arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today. In this culture of abundance, one of the only ways Satan can keep Christians neutralized is to wrap us up in pride. Conceit slips in like drafts of cold air in the winter. We don't see it, but outsiders can sense it. One outsider make this observation: "Christians talk about love, but it doesn't feel like love. I get the sense they believe they are better than me, even though their life seems about the same as mine."

The phrase that jumped off the page for me was "arrogance is perhaps the most socially acceptable form of sin in the church today." Ouch.

A Different Kind of Kingdom

2009-02-16T21:35:00.004-06:00

Here's my follow-up thoughts on politics, especially in light of John 18:36...

The president is not our king and this country is not our kingdom. We are citizens of another kingdom. That’s what Jesus was explaining to Pilate, although he didn’t understand. Jesus was saying that if my kingdom was of this world then we would use the tactics of this world, but my kingdom is from another place. Sometimes Christians try to establish the kingdom of God using the principles and tactics of earthly kingdoms. We utilize political power or military might, assuming it's the best course of action, but it rarely works. That's because God's kingdom is a different kind of kingdom. In his kingdom everything is turned on its head…the meek rule, the poor have the seat of honor, the humble prevail, the servants are greatest, the first are the last.

To implement a kingdom like that we have to use alternative methods. As Shane Claiborne argues, we don’t need political views as much as we need political alternatives. We have to become the change we want in the world. We don’t just lobby politicians and wait on them to change things for us. Instead, we take the responsibility of engaging our values in real and meaningful ways.

The example he gives is Mother Teresa. She made a difference in the world, not because of her political clout or position, but because she embodied her politics. She became the change she desired in the world. She didn’t just lobby for the poor, she lived among them and cared for them. She didn’t wear T-shirts that said “abortion is murder,” she told young mothers, with all sincerity, “if you don’t want your baby, I’ll take them.”

That's the kind of political engagement in which Christians need to be involved. We belong to another kingdom and we serve another king, so we need to act like it. That's a tough message for me to hear because it steps squarely on my toes. It's a whole lot easier to hold political views and just go on with our lives, but not nearly as effective. Transformation comes through action more than ideology.

Christians and Politics

2009-02-10T09:27:00.008-06:00

That was the topic I tackled last Sunday. It wasn't easy. The Unchristian series has been full of difficult subjects and frankly, I'm ready for something a little easier. I'd rather preach on grace or love or anything but politics. So why did I do it? Well, one of the dominant perceptions among 16-29 year olds is that Christians are "too invovled in politics." They find our political activitism to be a cause for concern and for many it's increased their mistrust of Christians. In short, our political engagement has thrown up barriers to the Christian faith.

That bothers me. I don't want people rejecting Christ because of the political involvment of his followers. So what's the answer? That's the big question I wrestled with and have been wrestling with for a while now. Should Chrisitans just be apolitical and have no involvement with politics or do we have a right (even an obligation) to be involved in the political process?

Although I find the apolitical approach very appealing, I can't quite get there completely. I do think that we need to be careful not to put too much trust in politics and remember that we're part of another kingdom that's "not of this world." Yet, I don't think we can completely disengage. We're called to be salt and light to the world around us. How do we do that if we're uninvolved with the issues facing our world? So I do think Christians need to engage the political process, but maybe not in the same old ways.

One of the most intriguing discussions in Scripture (relating to this topic) is the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate. Jesus was brought before Pilate on political charges. He was accused of "subverting the nation, opposing payment of taxes to Ceaser and claiming to be a King." Pilate is trying to sort all this out and John records the following conversation in 18:33-38...

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

"Is that you're own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief preists who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked.

So what does this tell us?

My Least Favorite Parable

2009-01-28T22:03:00.004-06:00

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Why is it my least favorite? For obvious reasons...it steps all over my toes, it convicts me, it challenges me, it calls me out of my comfortable version of Christianity. Oh, and it also challenges what I think I know about salvation. If we all kept that phrase "the least of these" on our minds throughout the day how differently would we treat people? How much positive change would we enact? How much more would we engage the world around us?