Friday, August 30, 2013

A Picture is Worth...

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








Thursday, August 29, 2013

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.





Wednesday, August 28, 2013

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?

Monday, August 26, 2013

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.

Friday, August 23, 2013

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?