Translated Part two

Part 2

I mentioned earlier this week that Stuart Delony (above) had asked me some questions as a way to keep his blog active while he is away on a training trip. He broke mine into two posts (he did that with lots of other folks too!) and here are my answers (in my usual rather smart a$$ fashion) to the second two questions.

Part 1

Confession time

It's time for me to confront an ongoing struggle in my life. It's a serious problem and one that is causing significant trouble for me. This has grown into a point of contention between my lady wife and me. My understanding is that sin is that which separates us from our proper relationship with God. I believe that this problem is rising, if it hasn't already risen, to the level of sin. It can be expressed quite simply.

I am not content.

In our American culture the proper response to that is "Good, you'll never get ahead if you're content". Our culture has come to believe that contentment comes only from the constant forward movement in pursuit of the next, the bigger or the better. But this pursuit is robbing my life of joy.

The reality is that my financial situation means that some gratification must inevitably be delayed for at least a while. It means that some dreams may remain only that. Even modest dreams may remain elusive, just beyond my grasp. Thus my pursuit is hobbled. Which means I'm not getting better, I'm not getting ahead. And so I'm certain that I can not be happy.

My eyes are focused on everything I don't have. I fail to see what I do have.

Family.
Friends.
Health.
Food.
Shelter.
Disposable income (not as much as perhaps I want but it's there and I use it)
Love.
Laughter.
I am employed.
I am employed at a job I enjoy.
My life is filled with luxuries (multiple cars, TVs, computers, more clothes than I can wear in two weeks time, specialty food and drinks, the list goes on and on and on...)

But I am not content. I fuss and worry. I'm angry. I'm overwhelmed. I'm depressed.

My lady wife just shakes her head. You see she has the gift of contentment. That's not say that she has everything she desires in the world. But she is content with what she has. A husband she loves. A daughter she loves and of whom she is quite proud. She has clothes and food and satellite TV and two pussy cats and a nice place to live. She works with people that she likes. And she is content. She wishes I could be content as well.

On Sunday at church our adult forum was about God and money and the relationship between the two. On the handout set in front of me I found this:

12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13 NIV

It was like a bolt to my brain. I can't explain it any other way.

So I begin my journey to find contentment. To glory in the gifts and opportunities that have already been given to me. To remain open to the chance for something new to enter my life but to no longer be driven only by the pursuit of it.

In plenty or in want I shall be content. I shall live in that place where my lady resides and I shall honor her for her gift.

And I will thank God for it all.


The image is from UK artist Andrew Vaccari

Who Am I - Faith/Ministry version

You should never encourage people who like to talk about themselves to talk about themselves.

I promise I'll keep this short and I'll be done after this one.

For a while at least.

It occurred to me that I'd given rather short shrift to my life in faith and my ministry in my last post. That would not be an accurate view of who I am at the moment. So a few thoughts:

I am a product of the late 60's - early 70's in the church. I can hear the eyes rolling in certain sections of the peanut gallery! Say what you will about that time in the church but those "hippie priests" as I like to call them (not that many of them would really qualify) made a deep and abiding imprint on me. They served God well in at least one young life. As a youth minister today I know what a victory that is.

While I hate the "numbers game" I must admit that I'm trapped by it. Part of how my success is gauged is by how many "butts there are in the pews" at youth events. I understand why some people do that, they need some way of quantifying what is done for financial reasons. I absolutely can not abide it in other youth ministers. It is ego pure and simple. How many kids do I get at youth events? As many as God sends me. Period. This is something of a hot button for me.

I don't read many "Christian" books and I listen to virtually no "Christian" music. I don't much like reading youth ministry books for that matter (but I am this year as a way of better serving others). To be honest they bore me by and large. I've enjoyed "Blue Like Jazz" and "Speaking of Faith" but they are not the norm in my experience. My wife loves praise music. I have a limited appreciation of it. Too much of the music reminds me of the love poetry of 13 year old girls. Rather treacly and swoony. On the other hand unlike a fair number of others who don't like this stuff I don't disparage those who do like it. If it brings you closer to God, if it helps you on your walk do it with my deepest, most heartfelt blessings. Most youth ministry books strike me as overly earnest and very much in the "Here's the magic bullet" mode. This year may teach me differently. My plan is to read around 25 youth ministry books and review them. (And yes if you publish youth ministry books and are willing to accept a completely honest review, send me your book and I'll put it in the queue)

I am moderately liberal in my theology. But my theological spectrum changes a little based on the issues. I have no trouble repeating the Nicene creed even though I know my understanding of some of the tenets aren't quite the historic understandings. What does that mean? It means I don't know if Mary was a Virgin or not but that I acknowledge that we have historically referred to her in that way. More importantly I believe that whatever characteristics God required of her, she had. And I believe THAT is all that matters. I have leanings both high church (I like icons and some chanting) and low (I could live without incense and my attitudes toward the clergy are really rather protestant).

I find the Bible to be a constant source of wonder and challenge and inspiration. It's also troubling and puzzling.
I don't read it as often I think I should.
I care far more about what the Bible means than what it says.

I am astounded that God called me to minister to young people.
I am astounded that young people seem to agree that this is what I should be doing.
I am further astounded that my heart of heart agrees.

I don't wear my religion on my sleeve. I don't wear a cross usually unless I'm serving as lector or chalice bearer. I don't invoke God's name very often. Normally if you sneeze or if I'm very angry. I understand that one of those is probably not a good habit to have. I take the direction to not flaunt my religious practice very seriously. At the same time I am finally comfortable admitting that I am a person of faith, a Christian even! That's a big change.

Church politics annoy (nay anger me!) even more than office politics. Yes, I honestly expect us to be better behaved than that.

My faith has made a difference in my life. I do not believe that I am a finished product or that I can rest easy. Faith is a journey, one that lasts every minute of every day for all of my life. I'm doing the best I can.

My hope for the next world (believe in it, yep) is that I'll earn a "Well done, thou good and faithful servant". They can give me the cheesiest robe, the most out of tune harp and a tarnished halo. Stick me in the back row of the heavenly choir. All I need is that.

I'm not as good a person of faith as most people think. I'm not as bad a person of faith as I think.

God isn't done with me yet.

But I need to be done with this post.

Peace

The Lunch that conquered defeat

When I woke up this morning I knew it wasn't any better.

My lady wife has been asking me for days if something was wrong and I kept telling her no, I was fine. I knew that wasn't true but I couldn't put my finger on what the problem was either. So there was no good answer.

I felt sad. I felt tired. Mentally, physically and especially spiritually. I felt defeated.

Yes, there at last was the word I'd searched for.

Defeated.

Defeated in my life. Defeated in my ministry. Defeated in my marriage (through my failings no one else's). Defeated in my career.

I work hard. I do good work. But it just wasn't enough.

I wasn't living anything close to the dreams I'd had. I wasn't providing what I wanted to provide for my family. I wasn't producing what I thought I should be able to produce in my work and ministry.

Defeated. Not incompetent just not competent enough. Not untalented just not talented enough. Not unintelligent just not intelligent enough.

I stopped by my rector's office to follow up on some work and we chatted. I admitted that I was deeply into a bout of the (pardon the language) "I just don't give a shit anymores". Nice that I can say that to my rector. No other words would quite carry the emotional content as well. I just didn't give a shit anymore.

Why bother? I've been the guy who says "Good enough, isn't". I've been the guy who said "The company has given us all the tools we need. If we can't perform under these circumstances they ought to fire us". I've been that idealistic, eyes shining as they gaze at the glorious future idiot. And what did it get me? Fired from my last job because I wouldn't play those stupid office politics and focused on doing my job.

And my rector said "Can I buy you lunch?"

So we went to lunch. And he never told me that I was wrong. In fact he told me that I had a right to feel that way. Then he told me that I wasn't seeing the whole picture.

We talked about a bunch of stuff and I remembered that I've done a lot of things of which I'm justifiably (I think) proud. I've made tough decisions and put myself second to care for my family. There's not one of those decisions, looking back, that I regret. They were right. Then and now.

There are plenty of folks who would look at my life and see a steady stream of success. I've had jobs where I've made an honest to God difference in people's lives. And yes people like me, they really, really like me. Some of them even respect me and pay attention to what I say.

I've made sacrifices. I've put my career on hold several times to make sure my family was OK. My life isn't perfect but it's still pretty darn good. The bad parts can still be worked on even at my "advanced age" (He really said that to me. Terrible thing to have a rector younger than yourself).

An hour, two chicken fajitas and some refried beans later and I no longer felt defeated. It's at least the second time my rector has gotten me turned around when things seemed pretty dark. There are still things to work on but at least it's not quite so dark in my heart any more


He's pretty sharp, my rector.

That's him right here, Fr. Eric Williams.

You should all be as lucky as I am.

Peace

Are we cowards of faith?

In the world of faith we've spent a lot of my lifetime wringing our hands about the decline of influence we have on culture. We rail about the shortcomings of the common morality. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and something should be done about it. We're certain that we should play a role in solving the problems.

And at that point our faith fails us. We screw up. We become cowards of faith.

If we believe that we are bearers of the light of the Divine, bearers of the wish of God for the world shouldn't it be enough for us simply to release that into the world? Live out our faith. Certainly if you are a follower of any of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity,Islam or Judaism) you are called to care for the world and everyone in it.

So get to it.

But we don't. We spend lots of time fighting over power and control. We demand that the secular government pass laws to achieve those ends for us. That's what has really been frosting me. This decision that a lived out faith isn't enough. We need to legislate! We can make the world behave the way we want by how we live so we're going to FORCE them to behave themselves through the power of the secular government. And maybe along the way we can get rid of that nasty "s" word soon and make the government religious!

Of course it'll have to be my religion. And my understanding of my religion.

And I can't help but think that when religious people start thinking that way they're telling us an awful lot about what they really believe in.

Laws not God.
The power of the government not the power of the Body of Christ.

Government has certain abilities. Governing morals isn't one of them. It's track record down through history is wretched.

When are we gonna believe in the power of belief?

Peace

Election Day 2008

I do not care for whom you vote.

Just vote.

Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green.

Just vote.

Don't vote your fears.
Vote your hopes.
Don't vote your anger.
Vote your dreams.

Vote for the future. Whatever that may be to you.


This is the collect for an election from the Book of Common Prayer(1979) p.822:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I find that first statement most challenging - "...to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges...". We are given more than anyone in the history of the world. The accounting will be likewise massive. Suddenly the childish play of party politics becomes so much less important. In fact it disappears. What defense can be mounted before the creator of worlds that begins with "I was a good Democrat/Republican"?

Think of the parable of the talents.
Think of the command to "Feed My Sheep"
Think of the question "Who was the better neighbor?"

Enable our nation to fulfill God's purpose.

Vote.

Well this is cool!

Here's a much better way to start the day.

Someone quoted me (favorably) on their blog.

Cool!

Andrew, over at justinfatica.net, liked my "Thoughts On the Cart and Horse" sermon and has been thinking about it since. It led him to offer a couple more scripture passages for youth ministry. Good stuff.

Don't know much about Justin except he's a local boy (just over the state line in Erie) originally. I like that the site encourages young people to post as well. We have an awful lot of us old folk talking about youth and faith and not nearly enough youth doing it.

I must have done an especially good job with that sermon. RevRef even said he might steal an idea from it!

All My Friends Have Flaws

(This is my column from our diocesan newspaper for the month of May)

When I was growing up I was in awe of all the perfect people. Well, maybe they weren't really “perfect”, even back then I knew how impossible that was, but they were really, really good. Had their lives in order, did things they way there were supposed to, treated everyone fairly all the time. I saw those people in a lot of places but I really saw a lot of them in church. And not just right then but all those apostles and disciples too. They had this whole saint thing going on.

Then there was me. I was constantly getting things wrong. And I was constantly getting into trouble. Mostly little stuff but I just couldn't seem to keep my feet on the straight and narrow. In the middle of church service instead of thinking about God and praying and all that stuff everyone else seemed to be doing I'd be thinking about baseball. Or riding my bike. Or that cute girl I knew (that came a little later). I was a total flop at being a good Episcopalian. As far as living up to the Disciples (I always saw that word with a capital letter in my head. They were that good) I could just forget it. Clearly they were on a whole other plane from me. I was never going to get there. It really made the whole church thing a bummer.

As I got older and read the Gospels some more I realized that there was something very wrong with my thinking. Jesus was surrounded by a truly amazing group of screw-ups. He had people who didn't listen, or didn't do as they were told. They got caught up in power struggles and argued with each other (even with Jesus sometimes). They were scared when they should be brave.


The other thing that jumped out at me was that Jesus clearly didn't care. Yes, he corrected them when they were wrong. But he never bailed on them. It didn't matter if you had some nasty illness, if you were someone that “nice people didn't associate with”, even if you held a job where you treated people badly for your own profit. He talked and taught and loved old people and young people and rich people and poor people. In fact Jesus goes so far as to say it's the people in trouble, the people who are messed up, the people with flaws that he came to help.

The great thing about understanding this is it takes the pressure off of everybody. It's OK that I have flaws. It's OK that my friends have flaws. Because Jesus loves us and is here to talk with us and teach us. That's to help us deal with the flaws. In fact now I'm suspicious of people who try to pretend that they're too perfect, that they don't have any flaws. The very best, finest, most spiritual people I've ever met have flaws. A few less than I do probably but they still have flaws. Now I can see them as people just like me working on dealing with those flaws. Now I don't have to feel like I'm some failure because I didn't make perfection.

Then and now the followers of Jesus are real live human beings. Which means we have our stupid days and our clumsy days and our selfish days and our mean days. With a little help from God, and a little help from our friends we get over them. If we keep working at them maybe we don't have those bad times quite so often, or they don't last quite so long. Along the way we get the chance to help our friends and everyone else we meet work on their flaws too.

All my friends have flaws.

Thank you God!

Peace

The questions of our young people

Click image to enlarge. Courtesy of "The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus"

For our youth these are the normal questions of their age. I grow increasingly worried about how we are failing in our job in helping them answer those questions.

I see two major reasons for our failure:

We Want To Tell Them the Answers - We know who you are and where you should go! So just do as you're told and all will be well. That hasn't worked for several generations now so I'm amazed that some folks insist on trying it. We do it through badly done teaching styles where to goal is to impart knowledge/wisdom/tradition rather than share in an exploration of them.

We Want Them to Find Out For Themselves - Here's the deal. I'm going to drop you into the middle of someplace you've never been and have no referents for. You don't really understand what's going on, if you ask for help people will tell you to figure it out for yourself and you'll be entirely on your own. Do this where the language is kinda strange to you and with your perceptions changing very quickly of yourself and everyone else. The concept is idiotic but we're trying this one as well.

Is there a didactic portion to what we must do? Yes but we must guard zealously against pedantry(def. -a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules). We must allow our young people to question and to search, to even take the lead in that exploration. But we must also be there with them, prepared when asked to help them find the right direction.

This method of faith sharing is harder. It requires us allowing them to make decisions that will turn out to be wrong, to explore paths that have already been tried and found wanting. It means shutting up sometimes, waiting to be asked, walking next to them rather than leading them. Unless we do that we will share with them a faith that is not intrinsically theirs. It will be a shallow, thin veneer that will peel away under the least of stress. We must teach by how we live, how we make decisions, how we treat them and each other. It's always fascinated me that in one of the epistles the greatest burden, the greatest penalty for failure is placed on the teacher.

How we choose to answer those questions above is important not only for our young friends but for ourselves as well.

BOGO Jesus

This is my column from the April issue of our diocesan newspaper

Sometimes I lean back in my chair and close my eyes (just to rest for minute) and I have the strangest dreams:

The Marketing Man burst into my office, filled with great ideas.

“I've got some great ideas about getting out your message about faith and ministry and all that other stuff”.
He seemed really excited as he paced back and forth across my office. His eyes were focused on some far distant place and his hands cut great swathes through the air as he gestured grandly.

“You gotta grab their attention. Hit 'em where they live, really slide right into what they're already thinking about. I'm thinking we make this whole church thing sexier. Some hot models in church shaking their...”

“Whoa”, I cried, “We really try to avoid the whole 'shaking' thing. Faith is about the fruits of the spirit, not being bootilicious”.

He paused a moment to ponder that idea. With a shrug of his shoulders he went on.

“Well if you insist. Then maybe we need to go high tech. Yeah, that's it. Lasers and big screens and speakers pumping out the 'bompa-bompa-bom-bom' till the windows rattle.”

“Well,” I responded, shaking my head , “I love the high tech toys as much as anyone. But lasers and big screens don't translate well into everyday life. We need to make sure they can carry their faith with them everywhere.”

A smile appeared on the Marketing Man's face.

“You're a tough one my friend. You're tough. OK, I've got it the perfect pitch for today. It's all about the price point. We go with a buy one get one offer. It can't miss!”

I almost felt like I was letting him down. The Marketing Man was trying so hard, working up all these ideas just for me. I stood up and putting my hands on his shoulders I looked the Marketing Man straight in the eye.

“I know you want to help but you don't seem to get the concept. A life in faith is about treating other with respect, caring for the individuals around you. Sometimes it happens alone, sometimes it happens in big groups. Sometimes it's flashy and colorful and sometimes it's just you all by yourself. It's not about some marketable event or product. It's about how you live your entire life. And the buy one get one thing? There is only one. And we give it away.”

The Marketing Man looked stunned and then he looked sad.

“I'm not the one who doesn't get it my friend. Taking care of OTHER people? Being respectful? Long term thinking over short term gratification? And giving it away?!?!?! That'll never fly”

He muttered sadly to himself as he gathered his briefcase and walked out the door.

I opened my eyes with a realization.

It's not about what program or curriculum we use. It's not about the latest music or video or podcast. It's not about being “hot” or “relevant” or “high tech”. It's about the love of God that surrounds us and warms us. It's about how we share that love with everyone around us. It's about how we live our lives as an expression of that love.

And then I turned to my computer and I began to write.

Peace

Thoughts on the Cart and the Horse

Periodically I'm invited to preach/speak at the time of the sermon. It's something I truly enjoy and for which I believe God has given me some gifts. The challenging part is that I'm restricted to a single subject - youth ministry. Finding a way to connect the readings to the subject is sometimes difficult!

I've never shared a sermon before because I'm not sure how interested anyone would be in what a diocesan youth missioner in a small diocese has to say. I've recorded several of them mostly as a check on how I did just like the old days on the radio.

With this one from earlier this month I think I pulled together some ideas that have been rattling around for some time. The worst that can happen is that no one listens (and unless you tell me I'll never know). My hope is that folks will feel free to let me know what they think so I can continue to refine my thoughts and ideas. This one is a little long by my standards. I try to keep in the 12-15 minute range and this one is just shy of 20.

I'm trained as an actor and have 19.5 years experience as a radio personality so I'm fairly confident in telling you that I'm not a bad speaker by most standards. Whether or not I know what I'm talking about is something else.

Listen to sermon

If you'd prefer to read the copy it can be found here.

Peace

Are You Ready?

This is my column from the March issue of our diocesan newspaper

When I was in college a group of us discussed “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. There was one answer that puzzled me. A young lady in the group said she wanted to be a “star”. That puzzled me then and it puzzles me now. Based on the lives of some of our current generation of “stars” the concept looks greatly overrated. Then and now what I hope for IF I ever grow up is that I'll be good enough at what I do to earn the respect of the people around me. Maybe someday I'll get a shot at being a star (I'd do it right of course) but if I don't that's OK too. I want to be ready to do the right thing when the moment arrives.
I was thinking about that concept after this year's Super Bowl. Going into the game we knew who the “stars” were. Brady, Moss, Manning, Strahan. We expected them to do their star thing, to lead the way, to be the “story” of the Super Bowl. Instead we got David Tyree. Caught the first of the two Giants' touchdowns and made that incredible, holding-the-ball-against-his-helmet catch. David Tyree is going to be on NFL highlight films for the next 20 years.

Coming into that game David Tyree was about as far from a “star” as you can get.

For the season Tyree was the 12th most productive receiver on the team. He caught 4 passes. Four. None of them for touchdowns. He played in 12 games out 16 in the regular season and caught four passes. Two rookies caught more passes than he did.

But at the moment when he was needed, David Tyree was ready.

Sometimes it feels like the “star” game works its way into Christianity. We hear Christians who talk about being “Prayer warriors”, how strong in the faith they are, about what great mission work they're doing, how many souls they brought to Jesus. I'll admit that I even buy into sometimes. I look at them and think “Wow, I can't do that. They're accomplishing so much more.” It makes me feel bad. On really bad days it makes me wonder if I shouldn't just pack it in. I can never be a “star”. Sainthood is beyond my grasp. Besides St. Jay of Jamestown just sounds silly.

When I stop and think about it I realize I don't need to be a star. I need to work on being the best possible me I can. David Tyree showed up for practice every day. He worked hard. Most days no one other than his teammates looked at him twice. Until Super Bowl Sunday.

I don't know when my Super Bowl Sunday of faith may arrive. So I have to prepare every day, work on being the best child of God I can be at the moment. It's possible I'll never be a “star”. The day may come when I get the chance to show what a life in faith should look like. The day may come when I need to be a vehicle for Christ in the world. In fact those days probably come a lot more often than we realize.

Are you ready?

Peace.

Leaving MySpace

This is my opinion and mine only.

I'm deleting my MySpace account later today.

To be honest I've always been a little iffy about MySpace. The glut of tacky ads, the regular porn spams in my mailbox, the poor security have all made me feel uncomfortable with this online social site. But I knew that some of our youth were to be found there and I need to be where they are.

Not any more. And I'm urging all our young people, adult leaders and groups to depart MySpace. Here's why:

MySpace Deletes Atheists

An online group with almost 35,000 members was deleted. For no apparent reason other than a group of alleged Christians who put an online "hit" on a group that they disliked.

They hacked the site, destroyed forums, deleted members, banned them (which apparently is a permanent, non-repairable action)and re-named the site "Jesus is Love". (The story from the former moderator of the group is HERE.)

I detest and reject all the actions of these supposed Christians but that last one makes me want to vomit. A more un-loving, un-Christ like act on the web is hard to imagine. It is deeply, profoundly repulsive to me.

These actions are profoundly un-American in my opinion. They are a blow against one of our most cherished concepts. A "Freedom of Religion" must necessarily also be a "Freedom From Religion".

Don't get me wrong. I AM a theist. I AM a believer. I DO believe that they are wrong. Deeply, sadly wrong. But that does not give me the right to attempt this kind of persecution and oppression. The Gospel does not support that in any way.

These actions are also in my opinion deeply un-Christian. Jesus is shown to regularly speak and reach out to the outsider. His harshest words, over and over and over again, are directed at those INSIDE the faith community of his time. Those people who oppress and reject their fellow man and woman. Certainly he calls all to a life in faith. How on earth anyone expects actions like these to lead anyone into a life in faith is beyond me. They are perfect exemplars of why so many people have rejected the church.

Because we can be judgmental,dictatorial and unwilling to allow any thought process not perfectly in line with whatever arbitrary standards are chosen.

I looked into the Episcopal groups at MySpace. The largest I found was under 1,000. Given the opinion of many folks out there about The Episcopal Church (you will find many who believe we are apostate at best, heretic or atheist at "worst")I am concerned that we could very easily be next. I do not believe that such a thought is particularly hysterical at all.

I have sent a bulletin to all my friends on MySpace outlining my concerns, directing them towards this blog, and urging them to delete their membership with MySpace. Some may see this as retreat in the face of the enemy. I see no way to confront the enemy directly but do see a way to bring pressure on MySpace to live up to its earlier commitment to protect this community. And by extension all communities.

It's funny how often this phrase of Martin Luther's has popped up for me over the last couple years. I have looked at my alternatives and I have decided:

"Here I stand. I can do no other".

Peace

Parking lot politics

As I walked back to my car outside the Wal of Marts the other day I saw this bumper sticker:

Do you want Politicians legislating morality?

And I thought "Hell no. I don't want ANYONE legislating morality"

The history of morality legislation stinks. The biggest example, and likewise the biggest failure, was the Volstead Act otherwise known as the National Prohibition Act of 1919. Prohibition was a complete flop as is virtually all morality legislation. You can make all the laws you want and man will still act immorally. In fact there's one school of thought that says banning something out right makes it more attractive.

Curiously, Jesus seems to have known this. But his church manages to forget it.

Which leads me to another thought that has wandered across my mind recently. I remember distinctly being taught that Emperor Constantine's conversion and adoption of Christianity as the state religion of Rome was a great thing. A pivotal, important moment in western history.

As the years have passed I've come to completely disagree with that teaching. The connection of the church with the state is important but in a completely negative way. It was and is a catastrophe for the church.

First of all because it gave the church pretensions. It made us believe that we are entitled to rule in this world, that it is right for the church to rule in this world. Clearly this is what many of Jesus' followers expected and what Jesus himself rejected. Again that amazing ability to not listen to what the Savior taught.

Second, it has weakened the church's belief that it can change the world on its own. Instead of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, fighting for justice and peace and living out a Christ-like life we try to make the law in our own image. Why do we need the law when we have Christ? Because we've stopped believing in the power of Christ in the world.

This is not to say that people of faith shouldn't be involved in politics. But we should be involved in politics to achieve the ends of faith, not power. We should live out our political lives doing everything we can to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and fighting for justice and peace.

THAT would result in a more moral world.
THAT would result in our Lord being held in honor and praise.
THAT would result in people seeing Christianity as wise and loving and respected.

Constantine screwed up.

But it's not too late to fix it.

Peace

A theological moment on my way to lunch

I decided to walk down a couple blocks from my office to grab a sandwich for lunch. The walk makes me feel virtuous enough to get away eating a half sub for lunch, LOL.

On my way I was approached by two young men wearing identical dark winter jackets. They were well groomed, bright eyed and I knew they were Mormons before I saw their name tags reading Elder so and so.

I must admit I'm conflicted on the subject of Mormons. In my experience they are some of the nicest, politest, hardest working folk I've ever known. They seem to have a commitment to their faith that goes beyond what most Christians seem to have. By and large they are just likable folks. Back in the day when they were the hot pop stars I'll even admit to a small crush on Marie Osmond.

But I think their theology is rubbish. I feel bad saying that. There's enough trash talking and slagging on one another's theology in the Episcopal church over the last 5-10 years to make me never want to be around it again. But the fact remains. I know enough about LDS theology to know that it doesn't work for me at all. As a Christian I believe in a bunch of stuff that is just so obviously delusional to the secular world view that I avoid mocking other folks for believing in things that I just can't wrap my mind around. In the end I'm still left with my complete rejection of the basis of their faith.

No doubt some will point out that I should be "counter-evangelizing" them. To save them from this incorrect theological stance. Sorry can't go there. It would waste my time and theirs. That's my personal decision and I can live with it.

But it doesn't relieve me of the tension I feel between my personal like of them as people and my theological dislike of what they teach. And that's the tension of the moment standing on a cold, breezy corner in January, all of hunched against the cold.

So I do what I always do. Tell them I've spoken with LDS missionaries before (true), that I'm familiar with their beliefs (true), and that I own a copy of the Book of Mormon (true). I tell them that I'm a youth minister in the Episcopal church nearby and that I'm on my way somewhere (all true). Then I chat with them for a moment. Ask how long they've been in town, how they're bearing up with the weather (without going into details these guys were obviously from warmer parts of the country). I listened to a little bit of their pitch, made it clear I wasn't interested in a longer conversation on the subject, shook hands with them both and said good bye.

That's probably more time than most folks gave them this afternoon as they wandered through downtown. I hope it's at least as polite or more so than average. In that I think I responded in a Christ like manner.

Should I have done a little theological wrestling to try and turn them? I don't know but there wasn't a call in my heart to do so in that time and moment. They're so very serious and I don't feel the need to open up a new frontier of serious religious issues. I have enough of my own. Maybe being greeted cordially by a person of a different faith (yes, I think the LDS understanding of Christ is different enough to warrant calling it a different faith)on a cold wintry corner is what was needed at that moment. I don't know. In the moment I went with what felt right.

They were a nice couple of guys and I wish them well on their journey in faith. My prayer is that God will continue to work on their hearts and bring them to where it is He has planned for them.

And the sub was really good!

Peace

On being passionate

For any of you who found the title titillating I'm afraid you're in for a disappointment. I'm talking about being passionate about faith and ministry.

My last post was a rant about folks who, if I'm being honest, I thought gored my ox. As it turned out it was mostly mis-communication with one of them(but not the other). A wise lady friend and former youth minister sent me a long but profound note about youth ministry. It got me thinking.

And here's what I thought:

I've known for years that I'm really only interested in things that I can dive fully into. That's when I'm fully engaged and I tend to throw myself into it. I was that way for a long time in my previous career in radio. It's how I am about youth ministry. One of my catch phrases is "Good enough isn't good enough". I have a perfectionist streak in me. When things aren't perfect I tend to get down about it. I could have done more, I could have done it better.

You can not imagine how many times my lady wife has watched me beat myself up this way. It's what I do.

But it's also what makes me good at what I do. I can get fully engaged because I BELIEVE in what I'm doing. And it bugs the heck out of me when I see people who aren't willing to go that far. I used to drive people crazy in my last career because I'd say "I only expect you to work as hard as I do. I accept that you may be better at some things than I am and that I'm better at somethings than you are. Final results are whatever they turn out to be. But I expect you to work as hard as I do. And I work very hard".

I expect that when a diocese or congregation tells me that youth ministry is important that they are going to WORK HARD at it. Too often youth programs are just that, programs designed to keep the kids busy and out of the adults hair. It's about the lecture hall vision of teaching and the "We have relationship with our youth for two hours every Sunday". It's "Oh that Bob and Mary's daughter" instead of learning the kid's name.

I have a confession (you're going to think I'm nuts). I hate what I'm about to do. It feels like cheating, like I can't do my own thinking and writing. It feels like I'm slacking.

I told you, I'm nuts. But it's how I feel.

I'm going to quote somebody else (see, see!!!! Nuts!). Martin Saunders is the Editor of Youthwork Magazine and Chair of Youthwork the Partnership, a huge youth ministry movement in the UK. I saw this interview at a great website run by the amazing Len Evans (Youth Ministry Interviews) and it just spoke to me. Len asked him "How would you like to see youth ministry change":

"I’d like to see every member of our churches start to take responsibility for young people – starting with the ‘adult’ leaders. The biggest problem for youth workers here is that many churches employ them to ‘take care of the problem’ of young people, instead of trying to understand and engage with them at every level. Unless young people get integrated into the hearts of our churches, then our churches are not long for this world. And of course, it’s the adult church leaders who hold the keys. So I’d love to see us move towards a model where the whole church takes some responsibility for young people – even if that just means praying for and mentoring them."

(Lazy. Slacker. You disgust me.)(I'm JOKING people!)

Martin got it exactly right. This is my hope for youth ministry as well. I don't care if we do great programs, or any program at all. I don't care if we do Youth Sundays or whatever.

We need to stop taking care of our youth and begin caring about our youth.

And now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to work.

Peace

Are We Willing to Listen?

One of my favorite TV shows involves small companies that find themselves in terrible financial shape. If things don't change very soon they will have to close their doors. So they invite an internationally known expert in to help. He's run their kind of business successfully on two continents, has written books and starred on TV. The expert tells them what they need to do to survive and seems to really want them to succeed.
What amazes me week after week is how much resistance he gets from the people he's trying to help. Remember these are businesses that are on their last legs. If doing things their way had been a good idea they wouldn't have to call in this guy. But they stubbornly stick to what they “know” about how to run the businesses.
As I watched the show the other day I started to laugh because it struck me how much the situation is like our relationship with Christ. (I laughed because this is probably the ONLY time this expert will ever be compared to Christ. He's abrupt, he's insulting and he needs to be “bleeped” about every fourth word.) We may not be on our “last legs” spiritually (but maybe we are) but we aren't operating under ideal circumstances either. In church speak you hear the words sinful, fallen, broken, imperfect or even dysfunctional. Whatever term you choose it means we're not functioning at our best. We're not getting the maximum amount of joy out of our existence. (Quick note I believe there's a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness comes and goes with the winds of this world. Joy comes from much deeper and isn't as easily swayed by what goes on in the world. I believe that joy is what God wants for us.) Our outside expert is Jesus. He knows what it means to live this life, he understands what needs to be done and has some simple, straightforward answers on what needs to be done. Better yet he's willing to take the time to work it out, and he doesn't suffer from the potty mouth syndrome of the guy on TV!
Unfortunately all too often we act like the people on TV. Yes, we understand what we need to be doing. Yes, we understand that we'd be better off doing some parts of our lives differently. Yes, yes, yes. BUT. But I'm really more comfortable doing it this way. But it's not really hurting anyone. But no one else is doing THAT, everyone is doing THIS. As illogical as it seems from the outside once we start dealing with what goes on inside ourselves suddenly we find things that we just can't/won't/don't want to change. We will fight to cling to ideas and behaviors that will make us not only unhappy but that keep us from being joyful.
The funny thing is that Jesus managed to sum up everything pretty neatly. He points out (Matthew 22:36-40) that everything grows out of just two concepts. It's not a long shopping list of dozens of things to do, it's just two ideas long.
Love God completely, and love your neighbors the way you'd like to be loved. Simple. Not easy mind you but not all that complicated.
So let's make our goal to not live our lives like those people on TV. Let's listen to the expert and see what our lives could look like.

Peace

Introducing Jesus

Interesting question. If you had Jesus physically here and wanted to introduce him to a friend of yours how would you do it? Steve Harvey (yeah, the comedian and TV star) offers this option (h/t to Stuart Delony):



Little flashy for day to day (I mean how often do you really get together with a couple thousand of your closest friends in a major auditorium?) This is just off the top of my head but I think I'd go much simpler.

I want you to meet someone who has really changed how I think and work and approach the world. And I can't even tell you how much of a comfort he's been when things have really gone in the dumper. He's laid back, never in your face but never plays games either. You'll always get the straight stuff from him. Just really comfortable to be around even when he's letting me know that he disagrees with me. He's cool, I really think you'll like him.

Peace

No I won't

Seems like I see this question every so often on Facebook or on a forum somewhere. Someone comes in with some variation of this question:

Can You Give Me One Logical Reason to Believe In God?

And then the fight is on. Lots of well meaning brothers and sisters in Christ who will try and show this poor lost soul why they should believe in Jesus. The original poster will keep asking for a more rational, logical reason. Something that avoids the circular logic of using our own scriptures as the "proof". The believers will get offended that Holy Writ isn't taken seriously as an "independent source", shortly thereafter the name calling begins.

Every time.

So this time I'd like to take a shot at answering the question. And I think I've come up with something short and to the point. My answer to the original question is this:

No, I can't.

Thanks for coming.

Can I give you one rational, logical, reasonable reason for believing in God? Nope, not one. No some folks will read that and their blood pressure will start to rise and they'll want to protest. I can't imagine why. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (1:21-23) warns us that people are going to think this stuff is foolishness. If you're not willing to take the Bible as authoritative (and if you take it as authoritative then you've already made up your mind on the subject, haven't you?) then I've got nothing.

Ok, I slipped over the edge right at the end. In fact I do have something. But it's anecdotal. So you'll have to take it for what it's worth.

To me it's worth my whole life. Cause that's what I've got.

I can't prove the existence of God. For me that falls into the old category of why you should never try to teach a pig to sing (It wastes your time and it annoys the pig). I can do my best to tell you why I believe. And that's going to be a story (or stories) about the effect that a life in faith has had on me. When my daughter was born two and a half month premature, when my wife has been very, very sick in the hospital, when I've lost my job(s), when folks very dear to me have passed away. The joy of reaching out and helping someone else. The great relief of losing the burden of so much of our cultural expectations. I can tell you about the positive effect a belief in God has had in the lives of people I know.

But one good, logical, rational reason to believe in God?

Sorry, not in stock.

Peace

The Golden Compass

And so it begins again. The furor that we saw some Christians making over the Harry Potter books and movies has resurfaced with Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" and the other books of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

The books have won some of the highest honors out there in the publishing industry (the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread award among others). They are also part of his deep seated disdain of Christianity. I've read them and thought they were well written. But they also offer a challenge to my deeply held belief system. To be honest I have to admit that my enjoyment of the books declined with each volume, as his attacks on God and belief became more violent. As a youth minister novels and movies like this are fertile ground for questions and study. I do not believe we best serve our young people by either ignoring or attempting to ban these stories. Much better we confront them (the stories,not the youth!) and discuss what we see as wrong rather than screaming "Heretic" and "Blasphemy" from the steeples.

The best answer to this comes from Jeffrey Overstreet who served "Christianity Today" as their film critic for a long time. As with any critic I don't always agree with Jeff but I respect his knowledge of film and the depth of his faith. He offers a great response to most of the common questions in his column:
"Questions I've been asked, Answers I've given"

In the best of all possible worlds there would not be books that attack and demean ideas and institutions about which we care deeply. You may have noticed that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds. My great concern is how often we as people of faith do far MORE damage to our beloved institutions and beliefs when we lash out wildly. I have no respect or time for people who will condemn a book or a movie while proudly announcing that they've never read/seen it. We are all allowed to decline to view something because we don't believe we'll like it. There's a difference between an opinion and an intelligent opinion.

Peace