This will come as no surprise to those who know me. I'm reading a Eugene Peterson book. This is the latest in his series on Practical Theology and is entitled, The Jesus Way. I'm only part way through, but already I'm having to think once again about this life God has called us to. Here are some passages I've underlined that are causing me to look again at "church."
"A Christian congregation, the church in your neighborhood, has always been the primary location for getting this way and truth and life of Jesus believed and embodied in the places and among the people with whom we most have to do day in and day out.
A Christian congregation is a company of praying men and women who gather, usually on Sundays, for worship, who then go into the world as salt and light...God means to do something with us, and he means to do it in community. We are in on what God is doing, and we are in on it together.
The great American innovation in congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise...If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them...this is the best and most effective way that has ever been devised for gathering large and prosperous congregations...There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus' salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more. This is not the way in which our sacrificed lives become available to others in justice and service.
Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life."
Friday, April 27, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Fridays are the new Monday...Sorta
For many years, while serving the Santa Margarita Community Church, I took Mondays as a day of rest. Not a day off, as we Americans think of it (running errands, mowing lawns, doing chores, etc.) No, this was a day of disconnecting from the normal everyday experiences of life in order to connect with God and my family.
Since the move to Orange County, this has been difficult to duplicate because of the two part-time ministries. The demands and unique schedules of each are such that it has been difficult to carve out an entire day.
I still haven't found an entire day, but I've found a half day. Friday mornings. I read. I pray. I listen to music. I blog. I unplug from the usual demands of life in the twenty-first century. To some it may seem a "waste" of time. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, wrote:
"Rest time is not waste. It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower in the summer’s day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labor — is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe, with a rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink. Is that idle music? Is he wasting precious moments? How much might he have mowed while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe! But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives strength to those sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Nor can the fisherman always be fishing; he must mend his nets. So even our vacation can be one of the duties laid upon us by thekingdom of God
Eventually I hope to have an entire day again. But for now I'll take what I can get. It brings new meaning to "Thank God it's Friday."
Since the move to Orange County, this has been difficult to duplicate because of the two part-time ministries. The demands and unique schedules of each are such that it has been difficult to carve out an entire day.
I still haven't found an entire day, but I've found a half day. Friday mornings. I read. I pray. I listen to music. I blog. I unplug from the usual demands of life in the twenty-first century. To some it may seem a "waste" of time. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, wrote:
"Rest time is not waste. It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower in the summer’s day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labor — is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe, with a rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink. Is that idle music? Is he wasting precious moments? How much might he have mowed while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe! But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives strength to those sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Nor can the fisherman always be fishing; he must mend his nets. So even our vacation can be one of the duties laid upon us by the
Eventually I hope to have an entire day again. But for now I'll take what I can get. It brings new meaning to "Thank God it's Friday."
Friday, April 06, 2007
Why...
Some of my friends wonder why I would leave a 16 year ministry where I have great friends and supporters to move to Orange County to work with a local church as interim pastor and with my denomination's District ministries. The primary motivation for the move was to be close to my mother-in-law who turns 90 next week. The reason for taking the two positions is found in the following statistic.
Residing between San Diego and the LA metropolitan area, there are over 20 million people, and only 15% (www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/8.htm) claim to attend a church on any given Sunday.
Both of my positions allow me to be part of the bigger thing God is doing. Missions used to be what we did outside the borders of our country. Now missions is what we do within our own zip code.
In both positions my primary responsibility is to ask "Why?" "Why do we do what we do?" "Why do we do what we do the way we do it?" "Why do we not do what we don't do?" These questions, among others, help us to keep the Kingdom priorities in view. God never changes. The way we relate to our culture changes daily.
Residing between San Diego and the LA metropolitan area, there are over 20 million people, and only 15% (www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/8.htm) claim to attend a church on any given Sunday.
Both of my positions allow me to be part of the bigger thing God is doing. Missions used to be what we did outside the borders of our country. Now missions is what we do within our own zip code.
In both positions my primary responsibility is to ask "Why?" "Why do we do what we do?" "Why do we do what we do the way we do it?" "Why do we not do what we don't do?" These questions, among others, help us to keep the Kingdom priorities in view. God never changes. The way we relate to our culture changes daily.
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