African Friends and Money Matters: 1-5

ToddMay 8, 2008

As I stated recently, I am reading the book African Friends and Money Matters in preparation for my trip to Zambia. This book is broken up into 90 general observations about the differences between African and Western cultures. The author appropriately states that these are general observations and, like in any culture, there are exceptions to them. I am basically going to try and read about 5 of these observations every day or so until I leave. We’ll see how my plan goes.

I’ve found these observations really, really fascinating.

Here are the first five:

• The financial need that occurs first as the first claim on the available resources.
• Resources are to be used, not hoarded.
• Money is to be spent before friends or relatives ask to “borrow” it.
• If something is not being actively used, it is considered to be “available.”
• Africans are very sensitive and alert to the needs of others and are quite ready to share their resources.

All of these are very different from Western society where everything is individualized instead of communal and we hold independence more important than interdepedence.

I think its important to understand that the author is not saying these are necessarily right or wrong, but that they just “are.”  There are positives and negatives to each of them.

Here is an example, “Africans perfer to take risks in allowing themselves to be decieved, rather than risk failing to help someone who is in need.”

I’ll be honest, as read this so far, I am really drawn to the African way of life that I read about here.  I love the focus on community and sharing.  Of course, I am also not so drawn to it because I like my “stuff.”

My trip to Zambia is from June 15-27. Read more here.

As of today I need to raise another $3000 for this trip. If you would like to help with that you can use paypal:

Posted in Africa, Book Reviews, Culture, General, Leadership, Zambia 2008 |
1 Comment »

Four Missional Movements for the Suburban Church

ToddMay 7, 2008

At The Well, we’ve been studying the book of Acts. Its been a very, very formative and challenging book for us to work through. For me, there have been four ways that my life, and I think our life, has been challenged so far.

Here are four movements that I’ve seen:

From Individual to Communal
As individuals we are important, very, very important. But we need to continually celebrate the individual but we must do it within the context of community. Our world is so individualized that we’ve lost a sense that there is something greater than ourselves. In our culture, this is a challenge because we are so good at isolating ourselves and disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world. Our priorities can easily become very selfish and insulated.

From Consumptive to Cooperative
When you live in a world that holds individualism as a god you naturally going to find that consuming is a higher priority than cooperative. If the most important thing is me, than I am going to do my best to take care of me. But, if the most important thing is me, in the context of community than we can start thinking about cooperation together for a common goal.

Event to Family
We need to rethink our definition of “church.” When we come to “church” as an individual who is primarily a consumer we begin to view church as an “event” where we can consume spirituality or religion to meet our own personal needs. The alternative here is to move from church as event to church as family. When we approach “church” as individuals in a community where we are cooperating together for a common goal its almost impossible to think of church as an event. Instead a better metaphor for church, as we have talked about at The Well a lot recently, is “family.” A family cooperating together to care together for the individual needs, all for a common goal.

From Sucking in to Sending out
The idea of a common goal then leads us to the final movement. The challenge of the family metaphor in the church setting is to not become all cliquish and even worse cultish. But, when you take a group of individuals, who are here to consume and think of the “church” as a event, you end up with a “church” that is sucking in rather than sending out. We’re all drawn into a Sunday event and leave behind our primary mission field. But, when we view the “church” as a community that is dependent on each other and cooperates together, it is not naturally seen as something that sucks in but instead sends out.

Refread Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is the mission that drives the early church (and should drive our churches as well!).

This cannot be done if the church is an random collection of individuals who are coming to an event to consume christianity. But, this mission can be accomplished if “church is defined as a family that cooperates together for a greater purpose.

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church, The Well |
1 Comment »

Personal Financial Accountability In the Church, A Way Forward

ToddMay 6, 2008

For the first three years of our marriage my wife and I didn’t have any outstanding credit card debt. Then the crap hit the fan. Between some unnecessary purchases, not making enough money, hospital bills, and a string of car repairs, we amassed ourselves some significant credit card debt.

Over the last two years we’ve been trying to be more conscious of how we spend and how we save. We’re finally starting to show some signs of progress. Of course, our adoption set us back this past year and we’re in the midst of paying that down. But the good news is that this week we finally paid off my outstanding seminary bill and due to the kindness of some friend we made some significant progress on that adoption debt.

I have become convinced that being in debt is not a necessary “part of being American.” At least, it shouldn’t be. I have talked with a number of people who have pretty much resigned themselves to always being the debt. This is too bad. While I think you could argue that in some instances, its unavoidable, its certainly not something we should settle on. In fact, we’ve got to get aggressive after debt! It’s a terrible thing that so many people in the church are strapped financially by debt payments that we can’t give our money away like we really want to.

If you didn’t make any credit card, debt payments each month, how much would you be able to give away to those in need? Kind of depressing isn’t it? Of course, this number should also be motivating! Imagine those you could help and the good you could do if you got serious (or kept on being serious) about paying down your debt?

But how?

For Melanie and I we’ve made progress but we’ve not done it alone. We’ve actually been meeting with two friends (another married couple in our church) for the past year. They’ve been holding us accountable in our finances and we’ve been doing the same for them. The problem with most accountability however is that its easy to lie and keep things back. This is always tempting. Especially with your finances, its really hard to be fully transparent. Not only is it hard to admit when you don’t spend your money well, but its just hard to keep track of and show someone else.

Opening your checkbook

I am a big, big fan of opening your checkbook to someone you trust. I mean literally. This means that they would have full access to every penny you spend. I’m convinced that one of the greatest lies that our culture teaches us is that money is a totally private matter that is between me and God. Jesus didn’t talk about money that way. For something that can be so threatening to the Christian faith, we need to be intentionally counter-cultural and “open our checkbook” to someone that we trust and give them the freedom to speak into this area of our lives.

Enter Mint.

Mint is a described as “fresh, intelligent online money management.” Basically, you pull all your accounts (including credit cards!) into your secure account and it gives you up to date balances on all these accounts.

That’s nice. But, the best part is that you categorize your transactions and it gives you a beautiful pie chart of your spending per category for a time period of your choosing. The categories are really “smart” so that once you use it for a few weeks the program gets really good at auto categorizing your transactions for you. So, you can easily get a quick glance of how much money you spent on coffee, how much you overspent on fast food and if you have any more money left in your budget to go out to the movies.

The best part about Mint is that you can access it from anywhere. This means that you can give your accountability partner your username and password and they can go on anytime and see where all your money has been going. Scary eh? Yes, its scary. But I’m convinced that is what it just might take for some of us to become better at managing our money.

Now, like any accountability situation, we can’t get legalistic about every penny and spend all our time trying to catch each other doing something wrong. The idea isn’t to control each other and second guess every single purchase. Rather the goal is to have someone to speak grace and encouragement and be able to ask you honest questions about the way you are spending your money.

I think the best accountability asks questions like, “was that a good decision?” and “are you happy you made that purchase” and “do you regret anything here?” Its not about keeping record of wrongs, its about helping us live more and more free.

So, open up your checkbook. One good way is to use Mint.

Why? So you can live in freedom. When we live in freedom, we’re not strapped to a job we hate because we have to pay our bills. When we live in freedom we are not giving all our money to debtors instead of those in need.

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Money & The Church, My Family, Suburbia, The Church |
6 Comments »

Why and How I Use Twitter

ToddMay 1, 2008

I’ve been using Twitter for quite a while now.  I, like most people, signed up and then didn’t use it for a few months but a while back I started using it more and more.  For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, its essentially a micro blog.  Essentially write short 140 character updates which people can then view.  The best part about Twitter is its social networking feature. You can have friends that you follow their updates and they follow yours.  For someone like me who spends a lot of time along in my office on the computer, this is a helpful because it keeps me in some kind of community with others.

Here are some of my thoughts about Twitter:

Twitterrific is essential for Twitter
This little application allows me to publish updates and see my friends’ updates from my desktop.  This means I don’t need to visit the Twitter website in order to use it. If i did, I probably wouldn’t use it as it would be a big waste of time.   There are other apps out there for PC users but I think Twitterrific is the best of the bunch.

Twitter + Facebook + AIM
With the use of Twitterrific & the twitter sync facebook app I am able to update all three of my status messages at the same time.   I am on AIM almost all day long and I used to always say stupid stuff on my status message.  I also use Facebook, albeit my use of it is very limited.  I mainly use it to keep in touch with people in my church but this allows them to see all my stupid updates too.

Updates or Stupid Thoughts?
Twitter posts are meant to be updates that answer the question, “What are you doing.”  I often post that but I also like to use it to just say stupid stuff.  I am not sure that people really need to know what I am doing all the time.

Twitter and my blog
With the use of a plug-in for Wordpress called Twitter Tools I am able to put my latest update on the header of my blog.  This plug-in also allows me to notify my twitter friends when I write a new blog post.  This has really helped drive traffic to my blog and has increased the amount of interaction I’ve had in the comments (which, by the way, I really like!)

Twitter Friends
It’s interesting how I have made some new friends/acquaintances by using Twitter.  There are also a few long distance friends who I am able to be in in contact with more via AIM and Twitter than some of the people in my church.

Privacy & Twitter
Now, you might be thinking that you don’t really want people everywhere knowing what you are doing all the time.  That’s why is nice that Twitter allows you to protect your updates.  This means that only people who you let follow your updates can do so.  This is especially good when I am out of town and I don’t want the whole world knowing my family is home alone.

Twitter & Church
I first started using Twitter because I thought it would be cool to have a bunch of people from church on there.  I thought it would be a cool way to stay in touch and share prayer requests and stuff like that.  As of now, there are only about 4 people from my church using Twitter so that has not really worked.  But, if you are interested, The Well has a twitter account. I haven’t posted to it for a while because The Well doesn’t have any friends.  Maybe if it had friends, I would update it more…

So, there it is.  That’s most of why and how I use twitter.  Feel free to go ahead and ask to follow me if you already use twitter.  Unless you follow 1000 people I’ll likely accept your request.  If you don’t use twitter, sign up and give it a try (no, I don’t get any referral money for that suggestion!)

Posted in Blogging, Culture, General, Life, Site Updates, Web Design |
6 Comments »

Pastoring Like It’s 1989…kind of

ToddMarch 18, 2008

For the last two days I’ve been with out a computer. My MacBook Pro is on a little vacation for some R&R. Okay, it actually had a bunch of problems all at once and I finally broke down and sent it off to get fixed. I should have it back on Thursday. I am writing this post from my wife’s 12″ Powerbook.

Now, if you know me you’re probably wondering if I am breaking into a cold sweat or something but I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed not having my computer with me all the time. Here’s why…

I’ve spent more time thinking and reflecting.
The thing with having my computer around all the time is that it makes it hard to just sit and be still and reflect and do some critical thinking about the church and our mission. When sitting at a desk or table, I usually have my computer open and it is often distracting me. Not having it has allowed me the opportunity to not be so distracted and really get some critical thinking and reflecting done.

I’ve read longer and more.
This follows the same logic as the last one. Again, this shouldn’t be rocket science to me but it’s amazing how hard it is to get reading done with a computer on in front of you. Duh eh? I can read for longer periods of time and retain more when the computer isn’t around.

I’m spending more time with people.
This is another “duh” and a really good reason to keep the computer in my bag more often. It’s a lot easier to set up time with people when the computer isn’t calling my name.

Not having a computer makes me think critically about what it means to be a pastor and leader
Let’s face it, all of us, no matter what our job is, can find reasonable and legitimate things to do on the computer that fit our job description but keep us from doing the most important parts of our job. This is especially true for pastors. A small example: Since I didn’t have my computer to distract me today I was planning my day and ended up stopping by to visit one of our community members at work. We ended up having a conversation about a fantastic new idea / experiment around reaching out to the local hispanic population in the area. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn’t have done that randomly if I was sitting in front of my computer all day.

What Now?
Like I said this stuff isn’t rocket science, but it seems fairly obvious that I need to learn to keep my computer in my bag more often. I mean, my grandpa, a pastor who I respect as much as anyone never really had a computer to use like I do. I am guessing ministry looked a lot different for him than me. I am fairly sure that us pastors have become far too dependent on and distracted by the computer for our ministry.

I think we would all do well to leave our laptops at home a few times a week.

So, that’s just what I am going to do when I get it back. I’ll be taking at least one day a week where I just leave it at home. Now, since I am not only a pastor but a web designer I’ll likely have to spend an hour in the morning and afternoon of those days taking care of things I need to do on the computer. But, most all the time those things can wait a few hours.

Now, granted, I’ve been using the iPhone that I got for Christmas. They didn’t have iPhones in 1989 so hence the reason for the “kind of” in the title of this post. The iPhone has worked well for me because its not near as distracting as my lap top. When it all comes down to it, its really hard to spend more than a minute or two checking e-mail and surfing the web on the iPhone. Its more of a quick task type device, so its actually been a great companion while I’ve been out and about the last two days.

Now, perhaps many of you reading this post will be like, “wow, this dude has problems. Its sad he’s so addicted to his computer.” So, maybe I am showing some unfortunate true colors here. But, I am guessing I am not the only pastor / person out there who needs to hear this. Right?

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Suburbia, The Church |
3 Comments »

Inspired by the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr

ToddFebruary 27, 2008

I’ve always been fascinated by the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I just never imagined I would be able stand behind the pulpit where he began his ministry as a 26 year old young man.

Today my dad, Gary and I took the afternoon off from our conference here in Pine Mountain, GA and took a little trip down to Montgomery, AL. Honestly, there is not much in this fine town. In the downtown, most of the store fronts are empty and the place was fairly deserted while we were there. But, despite the presence of current stores and people, the place is filled with the amazing history of the Civil Rights Movement. We all know about Rosa Parks and here famous bus ride that began the 13 month non-violent boycott of the Montgomery Bus System. We all know of Martin Luther King, Jr and his leadership in this movement. That is why it was such a blessing to walk through the Rosa Parks Museum and learn a little more about the setting and details behind this amazing act of courage.

After visiting this museam, we walked over to Dexter Ave King Memorial Baptist Church. This is the church where Dr. King first pastored and it was where he was serving during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. When we arrived at the church the tours were closed for the day. It looked like we missed our opportunity to see the church. But, the doors were open and as we walked in we were greeted by the current Pastor, Rev. Michael F. Thurman. We chatted for a few minutes and when he learned that we were pastors we found a quick connection and talked for quite some time about life and ministry. Even though the tours were closed for the day he took us up to the sanctuary were we talked about MLK Jr. and ministry and life.

In the process we learned that Rev. Thurman was a church planter with the SBC and did his Seminary work at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. Turns out that he knows of a friend of mine named Alberto Rivera who I met randomly two years ago.

Of course, we took the opportunity to stand behind the pulpit where Dr. King stood many years ago as he led the beginnings of a movement that would change the history of our country and the world. It was humbling and inspiring to simply be in the city where this movement was started. It was simply unbelievable to stand in the same place as this great man. As a pastor, and well, as a Christian, I pray that God would use my life and ministry in a mere fraction of the way that he used this great man.

The thing that topped off this visit was the fact that the tours were closed because Rev. Thurman and another volunteer were in the midst of building relationships with and teaching some young children from the inner city how to read and how to use build websites. You see, this church is not merely a historical site, it is a site where God is still very much at work. I think it is interesting that the pastor that was hired for this church has a ton of experience in church planting. This tells me that this church is not only interested in maintenance and what they used to be, but they are passionate about seeing God work in the future as well.

Oh, on the lighter side, at the end of our discussion with Rev. Thurman Gary asked if he had any advice for a couple young church planters. To this question he said, “Keep your hands off the money, stay away from women and stay passionate about ministry.” That seems like some solid advice!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I’ve always been fascinated about the life and ministry of this great man. I’ve talked for some time about reading more about him but didn’t really know the best books to read first. He suggested a few and I am looking forward to adding them to my reading list.

Posted in Culture, General, The Church |
4 Comments »

Community: Stop Making Excuses

ToddFebruary 10, 2008

I was at the bank last July to send a large sum of money to Guatemala as the last part of our payment for the adoption. As I was waiting in line the man in front of me, in somewhat of a panic, was pleading with the bank tellers to help him with his situation. He had apparently deposited a check earlier in the day for a client that he wasn’t supposed to deposit, and he needed that check back. From the way he was talking, he needed it back badly. He wasn’t being rude. He was just very intensely trying to plead with the tellers and let them how know big of a deal this really was. The tellers, while trying to help, were responding to him with reasons as to why they couldn’t get the check back. All the reasons made sense. It was right after one of these reasons that the man said something that I will never forget.

He said, “It would help me if you didn’t keep telling me why you can’t get this done and begin sharing with me how you can get this done. Let’s be proactive please.”

Wow. What a great statement. Admittedly, I am a very good excuse maker. Perhaps one of the best that I know. This is crippling. Its admitting defeat with little effort at changing the outcome. Honestly, it’s fairly lazy. I am good at that too.

I was thinking about my frustration with the suburban life again this week and specifically how it relates to how busy we are and how little my family and I are able to be with our closest friends. It seems as if we go by week after week saying how we want to “do life together” and “be in community.” Bla. bla. bla.

The problem is that we continually find reasons why we can’t do this. Busy here. Busy there. Something came up here. Something came up there. We are all guilty. Not one of us is innocent.

So, taking this guy’s advice my wife and I decided to start thinking about how we can be with our community more often. We decided we would be a little proactive and see what happens. On Monday I sent an e-mail out to some people from our church who lived in the general vicinity to us and invited them all over for an open dinner on Friday nights for the month of February (We’re starting with Feb and seeing what happens - I’ve learned that trying little experiments are better than acting like this will be the one thing that will work for all time). The idea here is that our house is open to anyone starting at 5:30pm. If no one shows up, we’ll be okay we’re eating anyways. Of course, we ask people to let us know they are coming so we can prepare enough food and so that they can bring something to contribute if possible.

Now, Melanie and I live in a small apartment. We don’t have enough room for everyone. It’s not easy to have a house ready for people and to make dinner for a large group like that. But, those are reasons we can’t do this. Reasons we can? We love to. We have a roof over our heads. We have food. We love to host people in our homes. I can get working earlier on Friday mornings so that I can get home earlier in the afternoon to help Melanie get ready.

Last Friday night was awesome. We had seven people in our home. One family who we rarely get to see. We ate together in our small kitchen and then sat in our living room till midnight talking and telling stories. For some reason I found it profound and really awesome that at one time during the night, I was cutting our friend’s daughters’ smily face mashed potatoes for her. That’s how it should be. Will this last? We’ll see how the next month goes and then we’ll figure out where to go from there. But, I think Friday night was a breakthrough for us.

Doing something like this isn’t really that complicated. But you have to make a decision to stop making excuses and start figuring it out. Honestly, it’s not even that radical. It’s actually somewhat laughable that it took us this long to try something like this…

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
7 Comments »

Books of 2007: Business / Fiction Books

ToddDecember 23, 2007

I was looking at my bookshelf the other day and realized that this year was a fairly good reading year for me. So, I started trying to remember what I read and how I liked what I read. So, I’ve decided to share that here. I was going to post my thoughts all at once, but when i was done writing I had six pages of text! That’s way too much to read so I am going to post them one section at a time.

Book Reviews to come in the next few days:

• Missional Theology
• General Theology
• Church Leadership
• Pastoral Leadership
• General Leadership (Business Books & Fiction)

Change or Die by Alan Deutschman
This book was simply awesome. He addresses the question, “Why do people change?” He gives a well-researched answer and uses a lot of great case studies to prove his point. So, what is the answer? Its simple. “Hope.” The book is important because so often we use fear and challenge and commitment to get people to change. But, the greatest motivator to a human being is hope. Hmm… seems like a pretty pertinent topic for our churches eh? (This book goes great with Ken Callahan’s discussions of motivations for giving in his book Giving an Steweardship in an Effective Church).

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder–How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson & David H. Freedman
I love this book because I am a mess. He basically defends the idea that disorder can sometimes actually be more beneficial than order. I personally think he takes it a little far, but I found his argument to be helpful as it comes to my life. If nothing else, it freed me up to be a little disorganized and yet I still don’t want to get out of control unorganzied. But, when it comes down to it, there are honest to goodness benefits to disorder that order can’t give.

The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
A very very important book. Deals with the power of organizations that are leaderless (i.e. the starfish) and the limits of organiatins taht are have a central command center (i.e. the spider). Lots of missional guys have given a better review than I could so go and search for their wise words. Or just buy the book.

The Imperfect Leader by Davis Taylor
Davis is a friend of mine. In fact, he’s on the leadership team at The Well. That being said, I’ll recommend this book with confidence. Davis is a leadership consultant that gets it. This book is a fictional account of an executive and his mentor (think: A New Kind of Christian). Worth a read and I think his website is really amazing!

Historical Books:

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
Wow. This book was intense. It chronicles the story of the Bataan Death march in WWII and what followed after it. It’s books like this that makes me think that war pretty much sucks and we should avoid it at all costs. But, this book also had a redemptive side. It was amazing to see the moments of redemption that happened in the midst of such tragedy. If you are into reading about our world’s wars, you should pick this up. But, be prepared to vomit in your mouth a few times, its fairly graphic to what really happened.

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
This is the historical fiction account of the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. Its amazing. I read it in two days. It was amazing. If you are fascinated like I am by the lives of people during the Civil War and the emotions of war, this is quite recommended.

Posted in Books of 07, Culture, General, Leadership |
2 Comments »

Last Minute Gift Giving

ToddDecember 19, 2007

If you are looking for some last minute gifts, let me encourage you to head over to One Village Coffee and get some of their Kenya AA (It’s half way down the store page). I am drinking it right now and its fantastic. OVC is a great roaster that’s doing some great things with their profits.

By the way, I took a pound of their coffee into Starbucks (I worked there for 2 years) and let the manager of the store try some. He was very, very impressed.

And no, I don’t get anything if you buy from them. Other than the satisfaction that I’ve helped you get some great coffee.

Posted in Culture, General, Life |
No Comments »

New Christmas Music?

ToddDecember 4, 2007

My wife enjoys Christmas music. I’m not quite as nuts about it but I don’t mind it so much. The problem is that its the same thing over and over and over again every year. I want some new Christmas music!

Well, some guys from our worship band did me (and all of us) a solid and wrote one! And, by gosh, its really stinking good! They entered it into the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Song contest. Hopefully they win!

They call themselves the Collaborate and you can listen to their new tune on their VIRB page. So go check it out!

They will be performing this song and some other, overplayed, christmas music at our Christmas art show in two weeks. Come and check it out, all the cool kids are doing it!

Posted in Culture, General |
3 Comments »

Jesus Wept. A Funeral Sermon.

ToddNovember 29, 2007

Tonight I stood in front of 300 people, about 290 of whom I had never met before and did my best to deal with the reality that their 26 year old brother, son, nephew, friend took his own life. This was perhaps one of the most overwhelming experiences of my entire life. Its a pretty good bet that most of them aren’t regular church goers and I realized that tonight I had the opportunity to introduce (perhaps not for the first time but at least in a fresh way) them to my God and my friend Jesus. This is where the rubber meets the road is it not? This is where you find out if your theology really does speak of “Good news.”

So tonight I shared the following (or at least a something like this, i never really follow my manuscript perfectly) with these new friends… By the way, thanks to all of you who prayed for me and The Well during this time. It was clear that in the midst of the pain, God was present and active.

What do you say in a time like this? How do you respond in a time like this? Two days ago when I received Matt’s e-mail about Phil, my heart sunk. I didn’t know Phil but my heart broke for him, for his family, for each and everyone of you who knew him.

So I stand here as a Pastor, a minister and I realize that for some of you, you expect me to give some answers. Some of you might actually expect me to have no answers. I expect myself to have some answers. What now pastor? How do you explain this?

But, one of the things that his family shared with me was that Phil love to read, he was introspective, he love to ask questions and his mom described him as the “ultimate seeker.” One thing that seems clear was that for Phil, God was not something you could put in a nice little box, wrap up with a nice bow and say “here is God, he makes perfect sense.” I am told he asked lots of questions about life and faith and God.

I believe, today more than ever, that Phil was on to something. We are all witnesses today that you can’t put God in a nice tidy box, stick a bow on it and put him on your mantle. God’s ways are indescribable. God is often confusing.

Often we look at the world doesn’t make sense and we wonder what’s going on. Today, we obviously find ourselves in one of life’s darkest times.

And so the question that you might be asking yourself and I am certainly asking myself, “Where is God in all of this?”

I believe with God, there are no questions that are out of bounds. So, when we ask “where is God in all of this” its a valid question.

Where IS God in all of this? What IS going on? Why?

I don’t think that its possible or even wise to try and present to you this evening a God that fits into some preconceived, nice little tidy box. I can’t shape him into a little box that you can fit on your mantle. I think if I did do that, I’m pretty sure Phil would have been one of the first ones to stand up and call my bluff. (and yell, well you know what he would yell).

In the midst of these questions that don’t have easy answers I do believe a few things. I do believe that God has not abandoned us. I do believe that in the midst of all the pain, confusion and tragedy, God is still here. And I do believe that there is hope.

There is a story in the bible in the book of John about Jesus. Actually there are lots of stories about Jesus in the book of John but one in particular sticks out to me every time I have to process something like this.

This story is about two women and their dealing with their brother’s death. Their brother’s name is Lazarus and he becomes ill and passes away. Most obviously, like us here today, they are desperately distraught. There is nothing they can do. And so they do the only thing that makes sense, they call for Jesus.

In this story we see, what I believe, is a beautiful picture of Jesus. In the narrative it says the following, “When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews that had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him’ Jesus asked. ‘Come and See Lord’ they replied.

Then comes two of the most beautiful words in the entire Bible…

“Jesus Wept.”

As a kid I always thought this verse was great because it was so short. But, as I have experienced more and more of life I have come to see the richness and depth of this verse. The profound sense of hope that comes in the form of these two words.

“Jesus wept.”

and the words before it.

“Jesus was deeply troubled”

Why? Why did Jesus weep? Why was he troubled?

It think its clear from the passage that Jesus was weeping because he saw and understood the desperate brokenness of these two women who had just lost their beloved brother.

Jesus’ tears and pain came from the fact that this is not the way its supposed to be. This is not what he, God, intended for humanity. He made us for something else. He didn’t make us for death, he made us for life. But, like I said, he understands, its not the way its supposed to be.

That’s why we revolt against death, because its not natural. I believe the Scriptures teach us that God created man to be in a loving relationship with God, with our world, with ourselves and with each other. And we see clearly over and over again, that those relationships are broken.

The book of Romans talks about how all of creation, along with us, groans and eagerly awaits the day that it will be healed. Today we feel the full effect of this longing. It is moments like these that I long for creation to be as it was meant to be.

The wonderful, good news is that I believe that is exactly why Jesus came to die on the cross and raise again form the dead. He came to fix this world. The scriptures allude to the day, because he conquered death on the cross, all things will be made new. All of creation will be healed. One day, there will be no more mourning. There will be no more pain. There will be no more death. The world will finally be as its supposed to be.

So, I believe that tonight and in the days ahead we can find hope in two things.

First, we have a God who weeps with us. We have a God who is deeply troubled that the world is the way it is. He’s not a God who sits up on a throne unattached and unmoved by the flight of humanity.

But, like he did with Mary and Martha, he sits with us in our darkest hour and weeps along side of us.
The second hope we have is that he’s doing something about it. One might ask, “How do you believe in a God that would allow something like this to happen?” I believe there is another way to look at this, “I am so thankful that God sees this world and has decided to do something about it.”

So tonight, instead of giving you a God that wraps this tragedy in a tidy box that makes sense and allows no questions. I invite you to a sit with the God who mourns along with you. Knowing that Jesus weeps because this is not the way its supposed to be.

If you can remember two words tonight, let them be “Jesus Wept.”

In a few moments we will spend some time in silence. I invite you to share with God, speak to him freely. If you are angry, tell him that. He can handle it. If you need him to sit in weep with you, invite him to do so.

Please join me as I pray…

Posted in Culture, General, Life |
11 Comments »

A Holy (Suburban) discontent

ToddNovember 14, 2007

Tim Keel, author of the new book Intuitive Leadership, must be reading my mind. Or, it might be more accurate to say that I have been reading his mind. Or I could just say that I’ve been reading his book…

Anyways, I’m about 60 pages into his new book and he is basically telling his faith story. He is reflecting on how he had an intense and authentic experience of spiritual community in college. Then, post-college he entered into the world of suburban america. he writes,

“I was able to see a number of friends with whom I had live so intimately begin to lose their faith following college. That sounds dramatic, and i don’t mean it in the way you might initially read it: I don’t mean they lost the content of their belief system or became apostate doctrinally. I mean that upon leaving college and entering the world of twentieth-century suburban Christianity, they lost their way of life. They entered a way of life that was compartmentalized, disintegrated, individualistic, sub-cultured, ghettoized, programmed and purpose-driven.”

This morning I am sitting in a local Starbucks because I met with a friend, Mark, for coffee. We just spent about an hour discussing how our lives are enslaved to something other than the gospel. We are enslaved to jobs. We are enslaved to schedules. We are enslaved to debt. We lamented that its just too darned hard to be in community together because of all these things. For us, more than we really even realize it, the culture is calling the shots on our lives.

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of it.

I continually have what I call a holy (suburban) discontent with my way of life. I can’t really put my finger on it. But, I am realizing more and more that my life is still so controlled and governed by the culture rather than by the call of discipleship (and I feel as if I’ve made some good strides in this!). See this holy discontent is good. If I didn’t have a discontent with my way of life, I would be worried. I think that if you live suburban america and don’t have some kind of discontent with your way of life and how it corresponds to the gospel you are either missing the gospel or you are much more mature in your faith than I am. Hopefully its the second reason.

I feel at a moment of crisis. Not a bad crisis. But a good crisis. We can’t keep on living this way. I must personally make some changes. My family must make some changes.

I’ve learned it begins with the little things.

It begins with making my weekly schedule submit to me and not the other way around. For example, Since I work on Saturday some and Sunday, I don’t work on Thursday. I spend the day with my wife and kids. You can’t believe how freeing this is to all of us (or maybe you can).

• It begins with me wrapping my day in the prayers of the Psalter instead of my to do list.
• It begins with Melanie and I dealing with our financial situations. We are meeting once a month with a couple from church who are helping us aggressively attack our debt. She and I are also paying very close attention to how we spend our money.
• It begins with something as simple as me being a servant doing the dishes every night.
• It begins with me being intentional about connecting with one or two other good friends at least once a week and letting them speak into my life. Confessing my sins to them. Encouraging them. Receiving encouraging. Making bad jokes.
• It begins with finding a way for my family to stepping outside of ourselves and regularly serve those who are in need.
• I begins with a lot more things I have yet to process…

Do you feel this same discontent?

Posted in Culture, General, Missional, Suburbia, The Church |
15 Comments »

Being Countercultural with the Workday

ToddNovember 1, 2007

Eugene Peterson writes in his book Working the Angles:

“In short, the Psalms provide the language, the aspirations, the energy for the community as it comes together in prayer, and they then call into being and are formative for the activities of prophets, wise men and historians. The Psalms initiate; the prophets follow.  The inner action of prayer takes precedence over the outer action of proclamation. 

The implication of this for pastoral work is plain: it begins in prayer.   Anything creative, anything powerful, anything biblical, inso far as we are participants in it, originates in prayer. Pastors who imitate the preaching and moral action of the prophets without also imitating the prophets’ deep praying and worship so evident in the Psalms are an embarassment to the faith and an encumbrance to the church.“

Woah, what do you really think Eugene?  I’ve started taking about an hour of personal time meditating on the scriptures and writing in my journal in my day off. This week, as I was spending some time thinking and praying I realized that I need to be much, much more intentional about setting aside “little sabbaths” in my work day.  

Throughout the course of a day I can get really focused on work and often I’ll work straight through lunch without even thinking about it.  Some might call this fasting.  But last time I checked, fasting had to be intentional, not accidental.

Anyways, after reading the book, Praying with the Church (my thoughts on it here) about a year ago I have constantly felt like some kind of prayer rhythm would be really healthy for my overbooked life.   I love the idea of praying the hours because it is just so counter-cultural.   (Praying the hours basically means stopping at set times of the day to follow liturgical prayers which are mostly built off the Psalms.  One such guide that I highly recommend is The Divine Hours compiled by Phillis Tickle).  

In such a fast paced world where we are constantly on the run, I feel as if one of the ways we can be “in the world and not of the world” is for us to stop what we are doing at set times and pray.  Sit. Be still. Regather our life, and in a sense, remind ourselves what we are living for.  This would allow us intentionally to fashion our work day around God, rather than God around our work day.

Now, to be honest, I’ve not been so good at “keeping the hours.”  I am not suprised though.  If you think about it, it’s a fairly big change to make.  One of my problems is that I have always started with great ambitions.  So, on Tuesday I felt called to try something new.  Something a little more simple.  Something doable, yet hard at the same time.  

I need to share it publically so that I can’t just give up too quickly.

Here’s what I am going to do: For one week, starting yesterday, I am going to live a new rhythm to my day.  
My goal is to read three psalms a day. 

• One when I first sit down to work in the morning. 
• One when I break for lunch.  
• One before I end work for the day.  

This is doable, but not easy. I’ve already learned that to be true. Yesterday I read my morning Psalm.  Then proceeded to outright forget the other two.  It wasn’t till I was laying in bed falling asleep that I remembered my forgetfulness.  

Taking a fresh start today.  

So far I’m 1 for 1.

Anyone else want to join me?  I’m only on Psalm 2… 

Posted in Culture, General, Life, Missional, Prayers, Suburbia |
2 Comments »

Guatemala Adoptions in Trouble…

ToddSeptember 27, 2007

Most of you know, we have recently adopted our son from Guatemala. It was an amazing experience. We are excited to have our son home. Unless you have adopted, you can’t even imagine what its like.

While we were down in Guatemala we met many families who were still in the process and were only visiting their children. They were still waiting for the process to finish so they bring them home. I can’t imagine how hard it is to hold your child in your arms and know that you still have to wait and come back another time before they can officially be part of your family.

We chose not to visit Mason for our adoption which means that the first time we met him was three days before we brought him home. Visiting has its advantages for sure. It gives some amazing time to bond with your child. Of course, it also has its emotional challenges due to the fact that you get to hold your baby and get to know him or her but then have to wait again. Its not hard to imagine that the waiting after the visit even harder.

The reason I am writing all of this is because some of those families we got to know in Guatemala have a potential heartbreak waiting for them. This is a heartbreak the size of, well, you can’t even measure it. Drew Moser (a friend and now one of those families I am speaking of) wrote on his blog today that there are some major issues with Guatemala adoptions as of Jan 2008. You can read the details on his blog but the basic story is this:

Families like Drew’s, who’s adoptions aren’t completed yet, may have their adoptions canceled. As I sit here and think of Drew’s family and those we met in Guatemala, I am heartbroken at the possibility. Can you imagine meeting your child and then having it taken away? Our miscarriage was hard, real hard… but this, this is unthinkable.

As Drew says, the injustice in all of this are hard to count. He writes,

• The prospect of thousands of orphans suddenly becoming un-adoptable is unjust. These babies deserve loving families.
• The prospect of thousands of American families being barred from adopting the orphans they’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars and waited months and months for is unjust.
• The prospect of NOT being grandfathered in under current adoption law is unjust.
• The fact that the U.S. DOS is doing nothing right now to help families in limbo is unjust. They are taking no steps presently to ensure that our case will be processed and completed.

What can you do? Drew offers some ideas near the end of his blog post here. If encourage you to go over to his site and help in one of the ways he presents.

UPDATE: SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION HERE

Posted in Adoption, Culture, General, In the News |
4 Comments »