People or Churches

Too many times we get more impassioned about what happens to our building, which we call church, than we do about the people we are called to minister to. Here is a good story taken from July 09 Sojourners magazine by Alexis Torres-Fleming

We organized a march (around drug dealers and crack houses) one beautiful Sunday afternoon in November. A couple of hundred people showed up, and two weeks later drug dealers, in retaliation, torched our church. I went to the site and found a sea of people in the church weeping over a broken statue of the Blessed Mother, and weeping over the church. There were many more people there than had shown up for the march, and suddenly God said to me, “Why are you crying over this? I don’t live here. My real sanctuary is burnt every single day, desecrated in the bodies and minds and spirits of the poorest of the poor who live right outside these doors. When are you going to cry about that?”

What is more important to us our building or the people we are called to minister to?
Where do we invest our money, in building or in reaching the people we are called to?
Where do we invest our time, in the building or with the people?

sex, gays and Miss California

David Fitch at www.reclaimingthemission.com has some good thoughts on the recent Miss California thing

The essence is that with Miss California appearing before thousands in a skimpy bikini, having had a sexually-enhancing cosmetic surgery, and taking a revealing photo shoot , she hardly stands as a Christian example of someone who should be saying that homosexual marriage is “biblically” wrong
We have elevated the homosexual issue to get attention off of our own sins. For the bible also says something about modesty, lust, pornography and divorce. We have no room to say a whole lot about the gay issue until we get our own issues resolved and our own house put back in order.
That old cliché fits well here, we need to be careful of throwing rocks when we live in a glass house.

Cataracts

For over a year now my vision had gone from good to poor. My reading had even slowed down because it was just too hard to focus on the words. I went to the ophthalmologist in January and was told that I had a cataract. A cataract is where the lens in your eye becomes foggy. It is like looking out a dirty car window. Thank God for living in the USA and because of our technology, they are able to remove the old lens and put in a new one. I had the surgery on Monday and all went well…I can see clearly again. (though now I need a new glasses prescription).

Where once was a fog, the sun has now shone through and the fog has lifted. A lot of people, spiritually speaking, see life through cataracts, everything is foggy and not real clear. They need to allow the Holy Spirit to correct their vision.

I thought of this passage in Hebrews
5:12-14 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Many who should be farther up the road than they are now, aren’t because of their foggy vision. Lord, give us clear vision.

What about Work?

We are losing a Christian (Biblical) view of work. Long before the sin in the garden God instituted work. God created, then he told man to take care of what He had created. There is a certain dignity related with work (yes, even hard work).

I say that, because there is too much of a discouragement anymore for people to work.
If you are looking for a job, many people instead of encouraging you in your pursuit try to dampen your interest by saying things like, “Oh. You don’t want to do that, that is hard work” or “don’t apply there they work you long hours” or “that job has a lot of heavy lifting” etc.

Lord willing in a few weeks I would like to get a message together regarding the dignity of work…Stay tuned.

Michael Jackson

There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age - and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.

I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again.

taken from
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/thinking-about-michael.html

ONE---Sign Up

Hi,

I've just signed the ONE Declaration committing myself to help fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty.

I'm asking you to make that commitment, too, by adding your voice.

I think your name belongs on that declaration, too. You can put it there by visiting:

http://www.one.org/declare/

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - one by one. So far, over two million have signed the declaration in support of a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world.

Together as ONE we can make a difference!

Thanks!

InNOvation

My wife and I were watching TV and a commercial for Post Shredded Wheat came on. While I am not an avid commercial watcher, every now and then an advertisement, or its tag line, will grab my attention. This was the case for this commercial as they stated the tagline: “We put the ‘NO’ in innovation!” (I.e. inNOvation)

I laughed out loud. What a great line! They were attempting to communicate they are a company of tradition, wholesomeness and dependability in these unstable times…at least I think that was the attempt....

I believe churches and people can learn to be innovative. In his book, The Truth About Innovation, author Max Mckeown states, “A distinction is typically made between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied successfully.” Understanding this will hopefully motivate us to be innovative people and churches. Meaning, we can take existing ideas and apply them to our context. Doing this can move us from inNOvation to INnovation. That is, move us from saying “no” to ideas to working “in” ideas we uncover.

I offer the following to develop an INnovation mindset:

1. Increase your “IA” (idea awareness) quotient: Look in a variety of places for ideas. Do not limit yourselves to what other churches do, but see what businesses are finding effective. An example would be Craig’s list. Many churches are finding this to be an effective tool.
2. Know your context: It is difficult to apply ideas to your situation if you don’t fully understand the situation. Not every idea is for you, nor is it adaptable to your context.
3. Sit in a different chair: When I sit in a different chair I gain a different perspective of the room in which it is placed. View ideas from a variety of perspectives. Look at them from various angles. An idea that doesn’t look good from the top may look completely different from the side.

4. Try stuff: We get too tentative when it comes to trying an idea. An idea that doesn’t work is not an indication of our failure. It does indicate that the idea was not the best, or didn’t fit our situation. Melinda Gates when asked about ideas her and husband Bill’s Foundation comes up with said, “We will get out there and try something. If it doesn’t work, we will try something else. And we will keep trying until we find something that works” (Fast Company, June 09, p62).

What is it for you? InNOvation or INnovation? The choice is yours.


Taken from, "Expanding Wave" www.wesleyan.org/ecg

Graduation

We had a celebrative dinner this past Sunday for our tw0 high school graduates in the church.
Emily Boyle and Andrew Johnson. Our prayers are with them both. God Bless and congratulations

Malaria-Mosquito nets

We collected over $200.oo (222.00) today to help buy mosquito nets for those in Africa, who suffer from malaria, because of mosquito bites. There are over 2,000 people who die everyday because of Malaria. There are a number of organizations that send out nets for the people. We sent ours to www.worldvision.com

Some Malaria facts
Malaria kills nearly one million people each year; eighty-percent are children under-five.
Malaria results in 8 percent of total under-five deaths worldwide, or approximately 776,000 under-five child deaths from malaria each year.

Malaria infects 350-500 million people each year.
More than 2,000 children under-five years of age die from malaria each day.

Malaria is a prime cause of low birth weight in newborns, anemia and infant deaths.
The protective effect of insecticide-treated bed nets has the potential to prevent as many as 1 million deaths from all causes for children under five years old in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than US$ 12 billion every year in lost GDP, even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.

Approximately, 40 percent of the world's populations, mostly those living in the world’s poorest countries, are at risk of malaria.

In some countries with a very heavy malaria burden, malaria may account for as much as 40 percent of public health expenditure, 30-50 percent of inpatient admissions and up to 60 percent of outpatient visits.

An estimated 57 percent of malaria deaths are attributable to undernutrition.

The Hole.... part 2

Richard Stearns in his book. “The Hole in Our Gospel” shows why God required the tithe (10% of our income) in the Old Testament.
1. It provided for the work of God’s kingdom by supporting the levitical temple worship system as well as taking care for the aliens, orphans and widows (Deut. 14:29)
2. By giving the 10% it helped Gods people realize that they depended upon God not their own resources to get by.

He then shares a personal story.
In 1987 when the stock market had its largest crash since 1929, he and his wife lost over a third of their savings along with money they had put aside for their children’s education. He became obsessed staying up at nights worrying about the money they had lost.One night as he was stewing his wife came in and said,“Honey this thing is consuming you in an unhealthy way. It’s only money. We have our marriage, our health, our friends, our children and a good income-so much to be thankful for. You need to let go of this and trust God.”She then suggested that they pray about it, but Richard felt it was his responsibility and that worrying would work better. After prayer his wife then said, “Now I think we need to get out the checkbook and write some big checks to our church and the ministries we support. We need to show God that we know this is His money and not ours.”After the initial shock of such a suggestion, and following the dictates of his heart, they sat down and began writing checks. He shares that as they wrote those checks “…I felt the wave of relief. We had broken the spell that money had cast over me. It freed me from the worries that had consumed me. I actually felt reckless and giddy…”

There are to many people who say they cannot afford to tithe, personally I have always felt that I could not afford not to tithe.We have to realize that what we own is not ours but Gods and then we need to show God that we believe that by giving minimally a tithe (10% of our income).God blesses a cheerful giver.

The Hole in Our Gospel

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, argues in his book, “The Hole in our Gospel” that the church is missing something. Through his own testimony of how God led him from being the CEO of a profitable company, to being the president of World Vision. Through bible verses, stories, quotes and statistics he makes the argument that the church has a hole in its message. The hole is seen in our sins of omission, specifically in dealing with social justice and righteousness around the world. He states that, “God wants to see the authenticity of our faith put into action, not the emptiness of a faith without deeds.”

With the awareness, access and ability available to us in our technological age we have no excuses, nor can we plead ignorance, not to be helping those around the world in need.

He wraps up the book saying that we all have something to offer: either time, talent or treasure. It may not be the best or the most but we can all do something. I like the quote that he ascribes to Henry Van Dyke, “Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

This was a good book and I am going to share some more thoughts from the book on this blog

Malaria

We are collecting funds to help by mosquito nets to send to Africa. The following is some information regarding malaria. It is unreal how much these nets can do to save lives. If you are interested in helping out, please get in touch with us.

Malaria fact sheet
Malaria kills nearly one million people each year; eighty-percent are children under-five.

Malaria results in 8 percent of total under-five deaths worldwide, or approximately 776,000 under-five child deaths from malaria each year.
Malaria infects 350-500 million people each year.

More than 2,000 children under-five years of age die from malaria each day.

The most common malaria species in Africa, Plasmodium falciparum, is estimated to cause as many as 10,000 maternal deaths each year and 8 percent to 14 percent of all low birth weight babies.

Malaria is a prime cause of low birth weight in newborns, anemia and infant deaths.

The protective effect of insecticide-treated bed nets has the potential to prevent as many as 1 million deaths from all causes for children under five years old in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than US$ 12 billion every year in lost GDP, even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.

Approximately, 40 percent of the world's populations, mostly those living in the world’s poorest countries, are at risk of malaria.

Crazy Love

We will be using the DVD "Crazy Love", which is a companion study resource for the book by the same title written by Francis Chan ( a pastor in California). Our study time begins at 7:00pm on Wednesday nights. Everyone is welcome.

Taken from www.experienceshift.blogspot.com

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Churches These Days
A lot of churches are building these great beautiful sanctuaries, multi-purpose spaces, fellowship halls and youth centers. That is awesome! These buildings often have great things like railings, ramps, stairs, smooth pavement, and benches...perfect for skate boarding! However, these same churches that claim they are trying to reach these people prohibit them from skating there, they post threatening signs, or special "security" personnel. They claim it is because of liability/insurance issues, or they do not want to mess up their new facility.

Consider this story from Mark Yaconelli's, Contemplative Youth Ministry:First United Methodist Church in Valparaiso, Indiana was just such a church. They were getting tired of the kids being there, destroying their steps, and messing up their facility. So, the elders decided to rebuild the steps and install counter-measures to prevent the skater situation. However, the youth workers were able to persuade the elders (after much prayer) to reconsider. Instead, the elders left the steps, opened up the church facility, gave the kids a tour, allowed them to use the bathrooms, and fellowship areas, and the church staff could be seen fellowshiping with them."If you want to know what it means to share the presence of Jesus with young people, if you want to know more than I can tell you in this book, then drive an hour east of Chicago to Valparaiso, Indiana. Go spend an afternoon sittin on the curb across the street from the Methodist church. Then watch as kids come skating up to the steps, leaping and twirling, crashing their boards against the concrete in acrobatic feats of life and energy. Sit and watch as the church secretaries, the bookkeeper, the maintanance and pastoral staff walk up the crumbling steps. Watch as they stop to say hello. Watch as they converse with the scruffy street skaters. Watch as they take time from their work schedule to applaud as a boy shows off an especially difficult spin on his board. Sit and don't say a word. Just listen to the whir of the wheels on the pavement. Watch the young people running in and out of the church to get water and use the bathroom and then see. See if you don't find those crumbling steps beautiful."

(from the closing paragraph of, Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus (Youth Specialties) )

Book Review

“The Noticer” Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective by Andy Andrews is a series of fictional stories of people during different seasons of life. When a mysterious man named ‘Jones’ (not ‘Mr. Jones just Jones’) unexpectedly appears to give new perspective to their unique situation. Some of those areas of life include new perspectives on circumstances for a homeless man, to love, worry, wisdom, dating and marriage, choices, getting older and death for a man who is dying. Each perspective given was able to change the persons life and circumstances from that point on.
2 of the things I particularly enjoyed was 1) the writer’s emphasis on how little things matter using the story of Napoleans defeat at the battle of Waterloo, where things could have been different for Napoleans army if they only had brought with them a handful of nails. 2) I liked how he made a difference between a choice and a mistake
The book closes with a Readers Guide of questions that we may ask ourselves that relates to the chapters in the book.It was a nice easy read which I would give a 4 out of 5 stars

BACK TO BROADWAY

On Saturday, May 2, 7:00pm at the Intercession City Civic Center we will be inviting Fred and Sharon Moore to present "Back to Broadway". A musical, comedy, hitorical program for the whole family.
Snacks will be served and the best part is that it is FREE ADMISSION.

Everyone is Welcome

You can find out more about Fred and Sharon at www.unlimitedprograms.org

GOOD FRIDAY

On Good Friday, April 10, we will be viewing the "Passion of the Christ" over at the church. All are welcome. We will begin at 6:45pm. This film is a good reminder of what Christ suffered for us. (not that the film is totally accurate, but it gives us a good indication of some of the suffering he went through)

SHARING?

We have been talking about how God has blessed us (materially and financially) and that we in turn ought to be blessing others (materially and financially).
That sharing of blessing invovles helping those on the margins of society, the homeless, poor, sick etc. And whenever we talk about such things there are those who become upset and very defensive....I was trying to figure out why that is (beyond the obvious fact that we highly value money. It along with our kids are the closet things to our heart) and maybe it is the fact that we just dont want to share.

One of the first things we try to teach our kids as they begin to play with others is that they need to share. But it seems the older we get someone needs to teach us to share.

"The Gift of Psalms" book review

“The Gift of Psalms” (published by Thomas Nelson) is a devotional book from 50 of the best known Psalms. Along with a devotion for 50 Psalms it comes with a CD. The book itself is beautifully put together, nicely laid out with glossy pages.
The devotions as, stated in the title, cover some of the best known Psalms. At that point the book takes on a big challenge. With a plethora of devotional books on the market, to try to come up with some new and original devotionals from the Psalms, the book falls short. The devotionals themselves are somewhat boring to read, though they tend to be a little more interesting hearing them read from the CD
I always have problems with authors who feel they have to correct the scriptures because it does not quite fit their theology.
Eg. On the 24th Psalm where David says “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” (referring to heaven) David answers, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” The writer then says, “Not one of us can say that he or she has ‘clean hands and a pure heart…’ If that is the case then I suppose none of us will go to heaven and thus we are doomed to a life of trials and temptations without any hope of a happy hereafter.
Out of a possible 5 stars I would give the book 2.

YOU GOT TO SEE THIS

This is a commercial that was to air during the superbowl, but NBC rejected it. Since then it has been seen by over a million people on youtube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyfmtUjNJEk