Friday's Quotation: Eleazar S. Fernandez

"Liberation from want is a fundamental necessity in the restoration of one's humanity.  No one can be fully human in a situation in which one's basic needs are not being met....as Robert McAfee Brown argues, 'as long as children are growing up in a society where their parents cannot get jobs, so that children grow up undernourished, as long as people cannot get decent housing or education and health care for their children, human rights are being violated.'"

-Eleazar S. Fernandez
Reimagining The Human: Theological Anthropology in Response to Systemic Evil

In light of Pelosi's health care bill, what do you think of this quote?  Would you go as far as Fernandez to say that a person's human rights are violated when they cannot provide the necessities for their families?  What does it mean to be fully human?  Talk it out below. 

Going Beyond Discipleship

In our weekly staff meeting this past Monday, one of our staff people raised an interesting question.  She asked why we are so caught up in Discipleship but not in making Apostles.  A disciple, according to the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, is a learner, an apprentice, a pupil.  An apostle is someone "who has been sent out," a person commissioned to transmit a message.  I'm not writing to debate whether or not there should be an official office of the church called Apostle, but rather how do we get people from being learners to leaders?

When one examines the Gospels, we see the various accounts of the disciples.  They followed Jesus around for three years.  The disciples learned by watching, observing, sitting at Jesus' feet, and by doing.  The disciples were prone to mistakes and misunderstanding what Jesus was talking about.  But then something happened.  When we leave the Gospels and come to the book of Acts, the disciples are filled with the Spirit and begin carrying on the ministry of Jesus.  They have become Apostles.  They have graduated their internship and commissioned to move out from Jerusalem to Judea and the ends of the earth.  They face persecution where they previously fled (when Jesus was arrested).  They are now even willing to die for their faith.  These uneducated men have moved from disciples to apostles- from learners to leaders of a movement that is alive and well today.

I'm guessing that our church is like many churches around the country and world.  We value discipleship.  We value growing in our relationship with God.  We value learning.  We value learning so much that many who are in our pews have no desire to move out into leadership.  Our church, like many other churches, offers a large selection of Bible Studies and small groups to help our members grow in their faith. Yet I think there is sometimes still a struggle to put our faith into action...to move from the classroom and into the world. 

How can the church move members from being learners to leaders?  It takes an intentional effort to disciple in a systematic way.  Just as Jesus gathered 12 men around him, I believe that one of the roles of the pastor is that of a mentor who should gather people around them to encourage them in their faith and help them move from learners to leaders.  When the time is right, those the pastor mentor will disciple a new group of learners with the hope of developing a group of Christians who will get caught up in the movement of Jesus Christ.

Does your church wrestle with moving from learners to leaders?  How does your church approach discipleship?  What are you doing to intentionally move from learner to leader?  Talk it out below!

Fernandez on Economy

"Econmics is not simply a matter of production, but one of care: care for the overall well-being of both human beings and the rest of creation.  Care is a basic element in the oldest definition of the Greek word oikonomia or economy.  Our conception of economics must recover this dimension."

                                 -Eleazar S. Fernandez
                                Reimagining the Human: Theological Anthropology in Repsonse to Systemic Evil

Lessons Learned from Trick or Treating

Where I grew up in Pennsylvania, there were no neighborhoods to go trick or treating at.  Mom and Dad drove us in a car for 5-6 houses of people that we knew out in the country.  Even driving, this took quite a long time.  When Andrea and I moved to Delaware and purchased our home, we live in a large neighborhood.  In those first few years, we would see close to 250 kids come to our door.  This year, with Abbie being 2, we met up with a group of friends and went trick or treating together.  These are some lessons I have learned from the last six years that you should keep in mind.

1.  Trick or Treating With Friends is More Fun:  Like almost any other activity, a large group makes the evening more enjoyable. 

2.  Trick or Treating is not socialism:  While our group was fun- there was (a joking) suggestion of pooling all the loot and dividing it equally.  Trick or Treating is a winner takes all sport.  If you can get the better candy- more power to you. 

3.  Find the Young, Wealthy Neighborhood:  This may sound like social profiling, and it is.  Our neighborhood used to be the exciting neighborhood to visit on Halloween night.  But our numbers have continually decreased the last two years.  We found out why tonight.  The neighborhood behind us has bigger homes, and bigger candy.  I'm all for stopping in someone else's neighborhood, especially if you can get in 5 houses what normally takes 10 houses in your own neighborhood. 

4.  Shake the dust of your feet at those who don't participate:  Yeah, you could egg their home or toilet paper their trees...but shaking the dust of your feet as you leave their yard is the proper Biblical response.  These are the same people who say Ba-humbug at Christmas.

5.  No Double-Dipping Unless You Change Costumes:  Hitting up the same house twice (or three or four times) is just wrong.  but if you have the ingenuity to change costumes and hit the same houses again, I will gladly reward you with more candy.  I think all kids should be encouraged to think outside the box when it comes to Halloween.

6.  Speaking of Costumes- No Costumes, No Candy:  This is a hard and fast rule.  I was amazed in our neighborhood the amount of kids who would come up to the house without a costume.  Where is the creativity?  Even if money is tight, certainly there are things around the house that can be used for a costume.  One year, it was so bad that I told Andrea that I was going to put up a sign that said "No Costume, No Candy."  Lucky for some kids, I never did.

7.  Shame on Parents who collect candy for the baby in the "car."  Or maybe the baby is back home.  At least let me see the baby dressed up in some sort of costume.  You and I both know that you are the one who is going to eat the candy.  At least let me see your kids so I can give you the candy with a slightly clear conscience. 

What are some of your rules or lessons that you've learned from Halloween past?  What would you add to the list?

Book Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (Don Miller)

One of the more captivating and surprising books that I have read in the last eight years is Donald Miller's best seller, Blue Like Jazz.  I really enjoyed Miller's style of writing and his fresh take on grace and faith.  I have read two other of his books, Searching for God Knows What and Through Painted Deserts, yet neither of them reach the critical acclaim that Blue Like Jazz did.  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years comes close to matching the rhythm and excitment of Jazz.

A quick synopsis of A Million Miles from the back cover:

"After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller's life stalled.  During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwillingn to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even quiestioning the meaning of life.  But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning."

Miller's encounter with the movie producers is the main thrust of the book as he learns what makes a great story.  It would be a little disheartening to find that parts of your life are too boring for a movie and that they would end up of the editing room floor.  So the author sets out to find out what makes a great story- and in turn what makes a great life. 

Among the elements of a great story, Miller is aware of the role of conflict and tragedy in our lives- and the possibilities that arise out of both.  When it comes to conflict, we spend so much time avoiding conflict that we rarely embrace how conflict (when handled properly) can mold and shape our character.  Even in the midst of tragedy there can be a beautiful story.  Miller tells the story of his friend Jim, and his wife Janice who ultimately dies of cancer.  When Janice dies, there is a gathering after the funeral where her husband, Miller, and other friends gather to tell stories and each other's comfort.  Here Miller realizes that even in the midst of tragedy and great story, a great life can be lived.

I also appreciated that Miller is aware and communicates that our lives really never come to a resolve.  We have grown up on stories where "everyone lived happily ever after," and if we're honest we know that doesn't happen in real life.   But we want it to.  Instead, he says that we experience lots of little "resolutions" to the various scenes in our lives.  Some of us even put our faith in Jesus thinking that this will make our life complete, or bring resolution to our problems.  This doesn't happen- although Jesus does offer us hope that one day we will be made complete.  One day we will have resolution.  One day, there will be no suffering, sickness, or death.  Until then, we will not have perfectly put together lives.  As Miller writes,

"When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.  And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions.  And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you'd be surprised at how much you like spending time with God."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is an inspiring book on living a great life.  Don Miller does a great job of capturing his own struggle to live a great life and being transparent on sharing it with the reader. 

This Is Only A Test

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, we were on the eastern most edge of the famed "Tornado Alley."  Each spring, in school, we went through tornado drills and were reminded of the dangers of severe weather.  In 1985, there was a huge tornado outbreak in our area with 26 of tornadoes throughout Western Pennsylvania.  The tornado that hit Atlantic, PA was an F-4 and was about five-ten miles from our home.  It was certainly an unnerving day.  Because tornadoes were frequent enough, we learned the signs of bad weather.  I began to learn to see thunderheads forming off in the distant and know that later that evening we would have a storm somewhere in the area.

John wrote something simliar to his church in 1 John.  There had been false teachers throughout the area, and because of that a storm was brewing as his church was facing a split because of these "anti-christ."  Here in 1 John 4:1-3, John encourages his congregation to be aware of the signs of a false teacher.  He writes:   

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,  but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

                                                                                                        1 John 4:1-3 (TNIV)

John is writing to his church who is in the midst of a division that has been caused by some "antichrist" or false prophets who are teaching something other than what John has seen, heard, experienced and then taught this early Christian community.  He encourages them to test every spirit and that every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from God.  John encourages his congregation that they must keep in mind what they know about Jesus.  Jesus is God-in-Flesh and anything contrary is a false teaching.

In recent history, the Nazi Party used scripture to back the idea of Arayan supremecy.  The Ku Klux Klan uses Scripture to support their hatred and bigotry towards African-Americans.  We only have to turn the TV on to hear various teachings that claim to be Christian- some are various TV preachers and others are like Oprah who people listen to more than that Word of God. 

It is a struggle that, as a Pastor, that we have lost our knowledge of God's Word.  It is our anchor that helps to give us assurance in the storms that we face in faith and in life.  We live in a biblically illiterate society- and the Church must wrestle with the best ways to teach this members how to read God's word for themselves and to be able to "test the spirits" of all the teaching we receive- whether from the pulpit, television, or a book.  It is a little disheartening to me that many of our "Bible Studies" have become book studies by Christian celebrity authors where the Bible is never even opened up.  For the Church to move in power, we must ground all we do on God's Word.

How is your church teaching/studying God's Word?  Do you have Bible studies or Book Studies? 

A Lot of Hot Air

Photo: Reuters/KUSA TV

I was in my office on Thursday when our church secretary called me in the see this story about a boy who was trapped inside of a run away helium filled ballon.  Yes, I tuned in on my computer just a few minutes before the balloon landed safely in a fied somewhere in Colorado.  Since then, the police involved in the investigation believe this to be a hoax- a publicity stunt with the hope of "better marketing themselves for a reality television show at some point in the future."  There will be a lot of talk about this in the days to come about how this happened, and who/what is to blame for this situation.  Let me add to the noise some thoughts on this instance.

1. Shame on parents who use their children to pursue their goals of celebrity and fame (Jon and Kate- are you listening?).  The Heenes put their children in a position where they would have to lie in order to keep up the hoax.  Falcon- the boy supposedly in the balloon, was so nervous/sick during interviews on Friday morning, that he threw up several times off camera.  What does say about parenting when children are used as a means to reach our goals?  What kind of emotional scarring might occuring in this case- and in the case of Jon and Kate's children?  Is not the job of parents to raise and protect their children so that they can grow into adulthood with the tools they need for life?
2. Shame on the media for continuing to air shows like Jon and Kate Plus 8 (or whatever it's called now), Wifeswap, and the other shows that invade families lives.  To me, Jon and Kate Plus 8 and TLC are the biggest violators here.  Why has TLC continued to air the shows while Jon and Kate headed to divorce?  If the executives cared about the people rather than the bottom line, they would have pulled the plug on this series.  What will happen to the children of the show once the cameras stop rolling?  What will happen to Jon and Kate once the show ends, the complimentary trips end, and money dries up?  For the Henne family- is it too hard to believe that a network would give them a series? (Sci-Fi Network??).  Network executives need to remember that the people in their reality shows are, in fact, people- not property.
3. Shame on you and me for continuing to watch shows like Jon and Kate Plus 8, 18 Kids and Counting, Table for 12, Wife Swap, Nannie911, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, etc.  Let's be honest here, we watch some of these shows because we are interested in the train wreck that often happens.  We want to see carnage.  We don't want to see a family that has it all together.  We want to see someone who is a mess and makes us feel better about ourselves. If we continue to watch these shows that the networks put on, the networks will continue to roll out family after family or person after person for us to watch implode. We are not that far from being the Hennes' ourselves as we want to feel connected with celebrities and the life they live.  That's why we tune in each week on the TV.  That's why we read US Weekly, Star Magazine, and Ok! Magazine rather than being engaged in what is happening in our own country and around the world.   

I have no clue what will happen to the Hennes' this week.  The authorities are talking about filing criminal charges of some sort.  Let's hope that no network will show up on their doorstep, and that the this incident can be put behind them as they continue life in the real world.