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.

Don't Mess With the Shoes!

I know this is going to step on a few toes but I just wanted to share this as something to consider.  A quick search online and a little math reveals that between shoes, hair, and cosmetics the average woman will spend around $112 a month.  Now sure hair, makeup, and shoes are important but just consider that for less than half of that amount ($38 a month) the life of a child can be rescued from the grips of extreme poverty.

Just something to think about...

       While you're thinking head on over to Compassion to see the children you give hope to.

My Life Was Changed

Now that you have seen the video go to Sponsor a Child and see the children whose lives you can change.

What do I say?

When faced with the task of trying to get others to sponsor a child through Compassion International the task can seem rather daunting.  After all, you are asking people to do something that they are not generally inclined to do - part with their money.  More specifically you are asking them to part with their money for what may seem to be no return.  At the end of this transaction you want be handed a plastic bag full of stuff for you to take home and watch, listen to, wear, or eat.  The most tangible item that you will receive are letters from your child. 

So then when it comes to asking people to sponsor a child the question becomes, what exactly do I say that will convince someone to, at the very least, look at the children who need sponsored? This is then followed by more questions:  Do I appeal to your desire to help one less fortunate?  Do I try the ol' guilt trip?  Perhaps I should offer stories of the lives that have been changed by sponsorship?  Do I speak about Compassion's integrity and their consistently high ranking as a charitable organization?  Do I begin to quote the many scriptures that speak to helping the poor?  Do I talk about the change it will make in your life as you form a relationship with your child and watch them grow?  Maybe I should talk about the opportunity sponsorship gives for you to teach your children the values of caring for others, sacrifice, and of sharing Christ?  Maybe I need to speak to all of these issues.  But right now all I can really think to do is to beg for you to change the life of a child in poverty and to plead with you to at least go and take a look at some of the children in need.

Please go to Sponsor a Child and read about the children who need your help.  Take time to pray for them and allow for God to direct your heart to sponsor one of these precious children.

Thank you and God bless.
- John

Help a Child

The What and Why of Sponsorship

In my last post I explained that Compassion International has declared the month of September to be "Blog Month!"  During this time Compassion is seeking to have over 3000 children sponsored.  This begs the question of just what is sponsorship?

From Compassion's website the following information can be found:

"The hallmark of Compassion's work is one-to-one child sponsorship. A sponsor is someone who has made the decision to personally invest in the life of a child in need. Through sponsorship, children are able to participate in a church-based program that offers life-changing benefits that range from educational opportunities to health care.

The children Compassion serves receive, among other things: the opportunity to hear the gospel and learn about Jesus; regular Christian training; educational opportunities and help; health care, hygiene training and supplementary food if necessary; a caring and safe Christian environment to grow in self-confidence and social skills; personal attention, guidance and love."

However, if you ask me what sponsorship is I'd have to say that it is hope.  A child in the grips of extreme poverty is inside an ever turning cycle of struggling to survive with little to no hope of anything ever changing.  When a child is sponsored that child and the child's family is given hope that the child has a future with choices.  A future in which one can go from merely surviving day to day to thriving.  Most importantly they now have hope in that God is at work and that He is working through His Church.

The question now is will you be willing to give a child HOPE?

Click on Sponsor a Child to sponsor a child today.

Compassion Blog Month!

As I write this it is now exactly 50 minutes away from September 1st.  Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal but this year it is a little different.  This year Compassion International has designated September as Blog Month.  Throughout the month they have asked bloggers to help spread the word about the work of Compassion International and most importantly to work at getting a record of 3,108 children sponsored this month.

So this month I'll be regularly writing about child sponsorship and how you can change the life of a child (as well as that child's family, village, perhaps country, and yourself).  But for now I would just like to invite you to click on the Compassion badge on the right of this blog to learn more about Compassion.  Also, if you have a blog of your own you can join in on Blog Month by going to the following link: Compassion Bloggers.  Just to make it a little more exciting for you, everyone who blogs for Compassion is also entered to win some great prizes and giveaways.  Honestly though, blogging to release "children from poverty in Jesus' name" is all the reward you need.

Use Your Voice to Save the Adoption Tax Credit

I'd like to encourage you to watch this short video about the Adoption Tax Credit and then to ask you to act on behalf of not only the families who wish to adopt but also on behalf of the over 140 million orphans who need a home.

I know that from a personal perspective if it had not been for the adoption tax credit it would have been very unlikely that we would have been able to adopt.  Please use this video and the information provide at http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/ to contact your Representatives/Senators and to ask them to support this very important tax credit.

Thank you.

Ready to Suffer?

This is a tremendous opportunity to share the Gospel to unreached people groups.

Grace's Story

Please take the time to watch this and consider supporting the work of International Justice Mission (IJM). Thank you.

What is CSP? from Compassion International on Vimeo.

Taking a Stand Against Racist Churches

So it has been quite a long time since my last post but somethings just have to be addressed.  I do hesitate to write about this because I admittedly don't know all the facts.  However, if what this article says is true about a church refusing to allow a couple to marry in their building because the couple is black then something must be done.

Now I said that I don't have all of the facts and one fact that I don't have is whether this is a Southern Baptist (Great Commission) church.  However, they are listed on the Mississippi Baptist Convention website and the Executive Director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, Rev. Jim Futral is quoted in the article as saying, "It's not reflective of the spirit of the Lord and Mississippi Baptists."  So believing that this is a SBC church I would like to address this issue as a SBC church member and pastor.

This is one of those great occasions where the whole idea of autonomy of the local church has to be addressed.  We as Southern Baptist cannot, nor should we, stand by and allow a church to so blatantly stand in the grips of the egregious sin of racism.  The article states that the church is now "holding internal meetings to decide out how it should respond to future wedding requests by black couples."  Well, that is just wonderful.  Meanwhile, the Mississippi Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention should be holding their own meetings to rebuke this church, seek repentance and if that does not take place then to move to remove this church from SBC fellowship.

How can we as a convention who just loudly proclaimed to the world a new era in SBC life with the election of Fred Luter to being the first black president of our convention allow for such things to stand.  Rev. Jim Frutal's words that this is not reflective of Baptist were surely right but I pray they there is some action behind those words.  I pray that we as Southern Baptist will not hide behind the cloak of local autonomy to allow this church to go undisciplined.

A Lesson to my younger self: learn Romans, THEN be ordained.

For several months now I have been preaching through the book of Romans.  This Sunday we will be looking at Romans 3:21-26.  At the present moment I'm thinking we will be spending the next 4 weeks on these verses alone.  Now I don't write this to show how slowly we are going through Romans.  I write this to say that I have been in ministry in one form or another for nearly 20 years.  I have preached well over a 1000 sermons and this is my first time thoroughly preaching through what has to be one of the greatest letters ever written. What I find to be even more remarkable is that even through years of education in Biblical studies this is the first time I have thoroughly studied this book.  In my study of Romans I can easily see how it has had such a profound impact on such men such as Augustine and Luther. 

I write this now to make this proposal:  That no person should be allowed to be ordained to the Gospel ministry without a thorough knowledge of this book. 

I, of course, make this recommendation in hindsight to my own ordination.  As I look back now I realize it was probably given in haste and it was certainly something that I was woefully unprepared for.  Sure, when I was ordained I had gone to college and had recieved a degree in religion.  This essentially meant that I was able to articulate myself well enough that I could feasible write a decent enough paper that the professors would take great mercy on me.  Also, at the time of my ordination I was interning for a pastor at a substantially large church.  This meant I knew how to stage a large scale contemporary worship service and was listening to a lot of John Maxwell leadership tapes.  Of course, I was also going to seminary.  This meant that I was learning how to, among other things, make a church budget, have proper table manners (something I have yet to perfect), and how to counsel people with marriage issues.  All such things that I was told my church would expect me to know as a minister.  However, if I honestly look back and ask that young man if he could explain the doctrine of justification by faith, I doubt he could give a clear answer. 

Perhaps, I am saying all of this to say that if I could go back to my earlier years of ministry I would want someone to say to me: "Son, the most important thing you need to know about ministry is not table manners, church growth, church budgets, or even evangelism techniques.  The most important thing you need to know and do right now is to study the Word and stay in the Word.  Learn the Scriptures. Learn the Gospels and learn the book of Romans.  Know the Scriptures and know that they are the authoritative Word of God that are 'profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (II Timothy 3:16-17).'"