Update on Mission Trip to Bangladesh

I wanted to let everyone know that the stew was a huge success and to thank everyone who helped and bought stew.  As I write this I only have about 15 quarts left to sell. 

At the moment I'm still in need of about $400 for the mission trip.  So I wanted to let everyone know that there is still time to make a donation and to be entered into the drawing for the Kindle Fire HD.  Remember you get 1 chance for $2; 5 chances for $5; or 20 chances for $10. 

Finally, I wanted to share the following video to give you an idea of the life of my own sponsored child in Bangladesh.  I can't wait to be able to meet him face to face.  Thank you all for your support!

Meeting Munna...Win a Kindle Fire HD

 

I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to Munna. He is a 14 year old boy living in Bangladesh. He is also a part of our family. You see for several years now our family has sponsored Munna through Compassion International.  We have had the privileged of watching Munna grow up, learn, and share his dreams of being a teacher to help others achieve their dreams.

Now I have the chance to go on a mission trip with Compassion International to see first hand the work that Compassion does and just what our sponsorship provides for the children.  Most importantly, I'll have the opportunity to meet Munna face to face. 

Of course, like most mission trips there is quite a bit of cost in flying half way around the world.  The trip must be paid for by Nov. 1st.  Although we've been able to pay a little over half the amount needed, I'm currently $1500.00 short.  Therefore, I'm asking for your help.  You'll notice that there is a donation button on here that allows for donations through Paypal.  Of course, checks can be sent directly to me at 2388 River Rd., Stoneville, NC 27048. 

Oh and you can WIN something too.  Just to make this a little interesting we are giving away chances to win a Kindle Fire HD with donations.  Here is the break down: 1 chance for $2; 5 chances for $5; or 20 chances for $10. 

Thank you for helping me with this wonderful opportunity to meet this special young man and to serve the people of Bangladesh. 

What Does Success Look Like?

In light of yesterday's post on heroes and "Why We Wanted Tebow to Succeed" I thought today I'd simply share a video from Compassion International on success and what it looks like.  Enjoy and have a wonderful day.
  
                  

Why We Wanted Tebow To Succeed

Several weeks ago I received a phone call from a friend (a self professed agnostic) who was driving in his car, listening to a preacher, and had a question for me (his Christian friend).  He wanted to know, "Why do Christians insist on the Founding Fathers being heroes of Christianity?"  I initially did not have an answer but later that evening I texted him, "We want the founding fathers to be Christian heroes for the same reason we want Tebow to succeed." It's the same reason that if someone brings up the Christian musician and world renowned guitarist Phil Keaggy, then someone else will bring up the story of how Jimi Hendrix was once asked how he felt about being the world's greatest guitarist and he replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Phil Keaggy."  This false story has been around for over 20 years and has been repeatedly denied by Phil but Christians still tell it.  We went insane for Jeremy Lin and had Lin-sanity.  We had Randy Travis on every Christian radio and TV show when he came out with his gospel albums (of course, we have conveniently forgotten all that now).  And we are crazy for Christian rapper and mainstream crossover Lacrae.

The question still remains, why?  Why do we want Tebow to succeed?  Why is it that Tebow being cut this past week by the Patriots feels like a punch in the gut to so many Christians (many of whom care very little about football)?  Why do we want Jimmy Hendrix to say that Phil Keaggy is the best guitarist?  Why did we go circle around (and have since removed ourselves) from Randy Travis?  Why did we have Lin-sanity and why do we care about a rapper being a Christian?

We want someone like Tebow who is smart, good looking, charismatic, and even if he doesn't succeed in the NFL, is still one of the greatest college football players ever.  Tebow is cool.  If Tebow was not a Christian, Tebow would still be cool.  And that's why we want him to succeed.  That's why we want our Founding Fathers to be Christian heroes and why we want Lacrae to sell millions of albums and for Phil to be the best guitar player.  Being a great musician or a great athlete is cool and we want be at the cool table.  We want people to think our music is cool and our films our cool (oh how we went gaga over "Fireproof").  We want athletes that we can point to and say, "Yea, that guy is in my camp, my tribe. See you can make fun of Christians and call us out of touch with society but we have Tebow and he is one of the cool kids." 

Of course if this is true we must ask ourselves, why do we want someone cool at the Christian table?  I believe the answer lies in a possible inferiority complex and this complex manifests itself in a couple of possible ways.

One possible manifestation of this inferiority complex could be seen in an underlying embarrassment of Christ. Now it could be that we do think Christ is cool.  After all, he died, rose again, and secured our eternal salvation - that's pretty cool.  But then again, he was born a poor baby, rumored to be the bastard child of an unchaste Mary and and a carpenter named Joseph.  He was from the town of Nazareth and "nothing good comes from Nazareth."  He spent years wondering the streets, preaching to nobodies, had no home, no official title, and died a criminal's death leaving behind a small band of followers made up of fishermen, terrorists, unscrupulous businessmen and some women who held no position in society.  He isn't flashy.  As far as we know, he was no great musician, no great literary works attributed to Him (and no smart Alec needs to say, "um, the Bible"), no grand athletic feats, no great military conquest, nor was he a great political leader.  In the end, he was a homeless preacher who washed feet. Not exactly the cool hero.

A second manifestation of this inferiority complex could be that we are embarrassed by the fact that we simply are not really like Christ.  As odd as it maybe, Christ is highly regarded even among non-Christians.  Unfortunately, the followers of Christ are not always so highly regarded.  Perhaps it is the case that we are simply ashamed that we know who Christ is and yet we as His followers often seem to barely resemble Him.  Perhaps we are embarrassed that for as much as we want to look like Christ, we also very much want to look like our neighbor.  We want the cool house, the cool car, and the cool clothes.  We want to shop at the cool stores and eat at the cool restaurants.  So we look to those who appear to maintain a strong Christian lifestyle but also appear to have worldly success. We look to those who are cool in both their Christianity and in the world.  We hope that by association the world will see that just because we don't live up to the standards of Christ there is Tebow who is able to excel in what the world thinks is cool while also maintaining a high degree of Christianity.  He's cool and he is one of us.  So you see, Christians can be cool athletes, cool musicians, cool political leaders, cool businessmen, cool actors, and cool writers.  We can be cool and be Christian, just see Tebow.

Now however it may manifest itself, the root cause of this inferiority complex may simply be that we as Christians have yet to really understand that Christ not only is the hero but that He literally turned upside-down the definition of hero.  Jesus showed us that the real hero is the servant. Beyond that a hero is a servant to the most vulnerable and the most socially outcast.  The hero is the one who quietly serves the food at the soup kitchen.  The hero is the one who gives up everything to work in the slums of Calcutta.  The hero is the one who week after week strives to minister to a congregation and to deliver faithful sermons to those congregations regardless of size (this is here for us ministers who have inferiority complexes toward the "famous" ministers like Platt, Chan, Piper, and Warren).  The hero is the parent who stays up all night with their sick child.  The hero is the neighbor who anonymously provides toys for their neighbors' children at Christmas knowing that the parents have been out of work.  Now before anyone asks how do I not know that Tebow does do these things, let me just say that I don't. However, I am pretty sure that the reason thousands of Tebow jerseys sold was not because the guy worked in a soup kitchen.  And to be honest they weren't sold because he was a great NFL quarterback.  They were sold because he was a great college quarterback, who played in the NFL and who also proudly Tebowed after every touchdown. 

We look to Tebow to save us from this feeling of inferiority.  We need the Founding Fathers to not only be brilliant political minds but Christian politicians.  We need mainstream accepted musicians and we pray for more miniseries like The Bible so we can hold up our heads high and say, "Wow, that was the highest rated show on TV.  The Bible is cool and so are we."  Can you just imagine, how cuckoo we would be if LeBron James came out and said he is a Christian.  Oh sure we would be happy that he was saved but we also couldn't wait until his new Nike's came out with a Jesus fish right above the swoosh!

P.S. Just for the record. I like Tebow.  I think he is a stand up guy. I don't own a Tebow jersey.

Say a Prayer for the Ways of Men...An Answer(?) to the Syrian Situation

I'll be honest, I don't really understand the complexities of the situation in Syria.  I also feel a huge lack of trust in the government (all branches - all parties) as well as a huge lack of trust in the media (whether CNN, NBC, FOX, CBS, etc.) to really believe much of what any of them are saying.  All I really know is that there are people suffering. Unfortunately I don't know what the answer is to ending this and I'm not sure if anyone else does either.  If we intervene, will we really help or make things worse?  If we don't intervene though, the suffering of the people of Syria is sure to continue.  I'm not going to pretend to have an answer.  What I am going to do is to offer this song by the late Mark Heard that has been on my mind the past couple of days.  Perhaps in it we find the only real answer: "Say a prayer for the ways of men..."
   
                    
                 

I wish that the ways of men were the same as the ways of God,
How is it so our thick little hearts leave the narrow path for the broad?
Leave the narrow path for the broad?

We could fly on the wings of eagles, we could see with the eyes of love,
We could laugh with a childlike lack of concern, for the world would have nothing to fear of.

But fear, we have plenty, and countless are the ways that we deceive,
A peace can be heard on the breath of each morning, by evening the widows will grieve,
By evening the widows will grieve.

So, sing…sing a song for the ones who mourn,
Light a candle for the world war torn,
Find hope in the Lord if your soul is worn,
And say a prayer for the ways of men,
Say a prayer for the ways of the men.

Oh, you wandering souls that are huddled against the harsh wind,
It does no good railing at the evil gale,
Men have died while the devil grin,
Men have died while the devil grin.

So take courage, you pilgrim kind, when the good that you do is mocked,
For the day, it will come when the proud will fall and the ground that they walk on will be rocked,
And the ground that they stand on will be rocked.

Sing…sing a song for the ones who mourn,
Light a candle for the world war torn,
Find hope in the Lord if your soul is worn,
And say a prayer for the ways of men,
Say a prayer for the ways of the men.

Sing…sing a song for the ones who mourn,
And say a prayer for the ways of men,
Say a prayer for the ways of men,
Say a prayer for the ways of men,
Say a prayer for the ways of men.

A Picture is Worth...

Just another quick little quiz: Which of these pictures most speaks to you as church?

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A Church Picture

Here is just a little experiment: When you look at the following pictures, which one says to you, "Church?" Please post your answer in the comments.  Thanks.

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Grace, Sin, and Balance

Often in life we seek and desire some sort of balance.  We neither want to be too hot or too cold.  We don't want to be hungry but we also don't like the feeling that we have when we have eaten too much.  We recognize that often being in the extremes of a given situation is not the best place to be.  Never the less, balance is something we seldom achieve.  It is rare, if ever true, that you find someone who is truly moderate in politics.  Do you know anyone that is always emotionally even keel?  Everyone has some sort of imbalance.  We drink too much, spend too much, get too angry, get too loud, get too quiet.  We talk too much or not talk enough.  We exercise too much or we don't exercise at all.  Balance is not something we easily find.


Now, I've been in the Church for 40 years and in that time I've heard a lot about grace and a lot about sin.  It seems that there are those in the church who spend the majority of their time talking about sin, fighting sin, and condemning sin.  Virtually everything is about homosexuality, adultery, pornography, drinking, drugs, liberals, Hollywood, and just this week the MTV VMAs and Miley Cyrus.  Then there are those that spend a majority of their time talking about grace, showing grace, and experiencing grace.  Virtually everything here is about love, respect, no exclusion, openness, relevance, social justice, and just this week about showing Miley Cyrus that we care.  Now perhaps their should be a balance to these.  After all, one cannot really know grace without knowing sin. However, as we've noted balance is not something we are particularly good at finding.  That being the case, if one is to ere on focusing more on grace or more on sin than where should one ere?  All things not being equal, what should be weighed more in our conversations and our teachings: grace or sin?

The Church - A Zac Brown Band "Chicken Fried" Party?

On my last post I wrote about looking at the church as a teaching hospital.  Today, I thought I’d share another way in which I often think about the church.  

Sometimes I look at the church as a big backyard party.  Specifically, I think of it as one of those parties best captured by the Zac Brown Band in “Chicken Fried.”  If you don’t know that reference or you'd just like to hear the song again you can see the video here: Zac Brown Band "Chicken Fried".  Yep, that’s how I see the church.  Good friends just hanging out, eating some chicken, enjoying a cold beer, and giving thanks to God for this wonderful life.  Now, this is not an exclusive event.  Everyone is invited.  To be sure, no one at this party has “it all” and even if they did no one would really care.  Everyone here knows that everyone else has baggage, has a background, and has heartache.  Everyone here also knows that this is a safe place where all that is expected of you is to enjoy the GRACE and hospitality of the host.  Come Monday morning the party might be over and people will be heading back to work but they’ll be smiling as they remember the party and their friends.  They’ll want to invite their co-workers to join them for the next one.  The joy of that party, the fellowship and the friendships, they will carry with them throughout the week.  And the grace that was offered to them by the host of the party will be shared by all to all who has need.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go get some fried chicken. In the meantime, I'd still love to hear your own little illustrations and metaphors for the church.  

Thank you and God bless.

The Church - A Teaching Hospital

Often when I think about the church, I think of her like a teaching hospital.  Here is a place where patients who are hurting, sick, and even dying come to seek comfort from their pain and healing from their illness.  Often times, these patience come in through the emergency room where they have been severely injured or are experiencing some sort of trauma.  When the patients arrive a doctor sees them, tries to diagnose the problem, and presents a course of action to relieve the pain and to bring healing.  It is here in the emergency room that the church often finds things to be difficult to handle.  The emergency room is where the sterile environment of the hospital meets the unsterile environment of the rest of the world.  The patients in the emergency room are often scared, belligerent, hurting, and could really care less about anyone else at the moment.  They certainly don't care about the hospital procedures or regulations.  They are not interested in fitting in with the hospital culture or staff.  They simply want to find relief and healing.  The emergency room is chaotic, frightening, and often stained with blood.  The patients know they need to be there but don't really want to be and frankly, other than a few really dedicated individuals, most of the hospital staff would rather not be there either.

Now then, remember that I said this is a teaching hospital.  You see the church cannot be a place where patients come, get healed, and just leave.  Therefore at this teaching hospital once the patient is recovering then they will begin to learn how to run the hospital and to offer the same healing to others.  Now not every patient is going to learn how to be a doctor.  In fact this would be devastating to the hospital.  What in fact will occur is that every patient will be allowed to exercise their gifts and talents for the overall good of the hospital.  The patients will become the caregivers who will act in a variety of functions.  Some will be doctors, some nurses, some social workers, maintenance, IT, human resources, counselors, lab techs, researchers, etc.  Each patient will be trained, and each worker will be a former patient. - Oh, and there will always be new patients.

Anyway, that's just one of the ways I often think about the church.  What ways do you often think of the church?  What illustration would you use?

A Little Black and Blue

Black and Blue, a sermon on Galatians 3:6-14.