Stop Preaching At Me!

"It is not enough for Christians to preach the gospel at people; we must share the gospel with people."

40 Minutes of Religion

"this call from many different denominations and faiths"
"bearing false witness"
"I want to repeat it so that every member of your congregations understands"
"core ethical and moral obligation"
"I am my brother’s keeper and my sister’s keeper"
"speak the truth".
"Time and again, men and women of faith have helped to show us what’s possible when we’re guided by our hopes and not our fears"
"the way that our religious faith instructs us"
"God bless you."
These are phrases you might expect to hear in a church service, however these were the troubling words spoken by President Obama in his address "40 Minutes for Health Reform."

Jesus the Humanist

Jesus is possibly the greatest humanist to every walk this earth. He came not to burden people with rules and laws, but to free us to be truly human. While Humanism rejects anything supernatural, it is impossible to be complete as a human without the supernatural. It is Jesus who looks to all humans, no matter what their condition, class, or culture and affirms them as worthy of salvation. It is only through the cross that one can become fully human, something which would not be possible without Christ.

Imagine

Imagine is without a doubt John Lennon's most successful song. It has been sung by people all over the world from Iranian protesters to the President of the United States (Bill Clinton). The song, with its mellow music asks us to imagine a Utopian existence with no heaven, no countries, no religion, and no need for greed or possessions. It concludes that if these things are removed there will be people only living for today, peace, and worldwide unity where everyone is fed and has all they need. At first this song may present something desirable. When in reality if Lennon's dream were to come true and there were no religion this world would be in a heap of hurt and trouble.

Gospel Invitation

He told us, as disciples, to make disciples. Not converts to Christianity, nor to some particular "faith and practice." --Dallas Willard
When the gospel is presented what is being presented? So often, in hopes of seeing people enter the Kingdom of God, "altar calls" simply present a decision to get out of hell. Or, to look at it from a more positive perspective, people are given the chance to "accept Jesus" so that they can go to heaven.

God IS Bigger than Systematic Theology

A friend tipped me off to a blog posting which had the following sentence as an introduction. One of the really dumb ideas floating around Post-Modern "Christian" circles is this idea that "God is Bigger Than Your Systematic Theology". . . The post goes on to quote from Philip Melancthon to support the claim that "Post-Modern 'Christian(s)'" are dumb in saying that God is bigger than Systematic Theology. I do not know if my friend agreed or disagreed with the post, however, I found this post to be rather, well, dumb. How can anyone claim that any theology, I don't care if it is Systematic, Piratical or even Biblical Theology, is as big as God. All forms of theology are the study of God, not God himself.

Married and Celibate

Sorry, for those of you who thought I was taking a vow of celibacy. Although with having four kids under the age of five, some of you may think it would be a good idea. I wanted to bring up a new prospective I have on celibacy and abstinence.

Reflections on The Shack

Well, I have finally finished reading "The Shack . I could take the rest of this post discussing the theological genius or heresy one might believe exists in this story, however this would not do justice to the creative wonder Young has pieced together. This book took me quite some time to read, simply because I got bored about a third of the way into it and put it down. Although, after many people coming up to me and asking my thoughts on the book, I decided to pick it back up and finish it. I am truly grateful for those questioning people for getting me to finish this book.

What to Pray For?

As a pastor I am often asked to pray for people. People come to me with requests to pray for illnesses of themselves and their family, financial hardships, difficulty with family, spiritual guidance and the list could go on . . . and on. As you can imagine I spend a lot of time praying, not just for other's prayer requests, but also for my own. All this praying is good, however while teaching on the Trinity at a youth conference recently it occurred to me that one of the most important things to pray for is often overlooked.

Taboo

Christians, as the people of God who should be assisting in the redemption of creation in Christ, have some difficulties to face. One of those is cultural taboos. There are many things which are considered taboo which we as Christians need to participate in. Our culture tells us that the homeless are on the streets for a reason which they caused and that we should not acknowledge their existence. Yeah, it is o.k. to give to the Salvation Army or volunteer at a soup kitchen around Thanksgiving. But actually acknowledging the homeless as people, that is something different.

The Healing Game

Here I am again

Back on the corner again

Back where I belong

Where I've always been. . .

I'm back on the corner again

In the healing game

Van Morrison's song The Healing Game is a heartfelt tale of an Irish singer returning to the streets to sing the long lost songs of oral tradition. As I was listening to this song the lyrics really began to resonate with me and I felt as if God was speaking to me through this song, and possible speaking to the entire Church through this song.

Bringing Religion Back

For about the last ten or fifteen years it has been popular among evangelical Christians to deny "religion." Many who have grown up in the evangelical church if asked what religion they were might answer something like, "I don't have any religion, just a relationship," or something else catchy like that. I hear this response, in one form or another, all over the place, from people in almost every denomination among the evangelical churches. This response has made me to ask two questions, which are the basis for this post. Why is it that the religious have turned their back on religion? And, Is it possible to be a Christian and not be religious?

Is Jesus a Polygamist?

When the Church is wedded to Jesus will Jesus become a polygamist? Is he going to be wedded to one body or to separate bodies? Many Christians live as if Jesus is a polygamist. They do not see the Bride of Christ as one but as many. Think about it at a macro level we have the Catholics, the Orthodox Church and the Protestants. At a micro level each of these can be divided into many other groups, the Protestants the worst. Some might argue that these are just different expressions of the same Body of Christ, while others consider all who are outside of their tradition as heretics. I lean more toward the former. However, these divisive groups do not act as different expressions of the same Body. They ridicule each other, they condemn each other, they refuse to work with each other.