Jesus is What...?

It’s funny, just this past weekend, I saw a church sign board that made that very statement, “Jesus is Lord!”. I guess they were trying to really say something… to take some kind of confessional stand. But, I began to ask how the “Average Joe” would understand that statement. I dare say that most people would not even notice it. Of those who did, I’d guess that most would just say, “Duh… of course” (thinking that that is simply his churchy title… You know, Lord Jesus Christ…). It would be like saying George Bush is President.

So, what does that mean to the “man on the street”? We might be able to describe to them the requirements of the Lordship of Christ (Take his yoke… take our cross… walk the narrow road… lose our life… etc.). But, first (for this seemed to be what Jesus proclaimed first), how will the Lordship of Jesus make a real difference in his or her life (If we notice, as Jesus went about proclaiming the Kingdom it made a real life difference… demons were exorcised, people were healed, sins were forgiven, Sabbath was proclaimed and good news was preached to the poor.)?

We do need to proclaim the clear testimony, “Jesus is Lord!”. But we need to proclaim that testimony in living ways. Any thoughts??

The Hunger is Out There...

I spent the past two days at a conference on Spiritual Formation sponsored by my old seminary, Gordon-Conwell. Here are some observations:

*There were probably 250 participants.*I'd guess that the median age of those attending was around 47.

*There seemed to be more women than men.*They seemed to come from a broad range of evangelical expressions (Liturgical, Charismatic, Non-Denominational, Baptistic, etc.).

*They seemed to come from a pretty broad spectrum of socio-economic places geographic locales.

*And here is my number one observation... the hunger for something real and deep and true and living was burning in the hearts of those present!

Now, here is my less than scientific data. I had lunch with two different pastors (one whom I have known for a while and one whom I just met). Both are from New England (and you can't get much more traditional than this region of mine). They both expressed that what they were hearing about the contemplative life, spiritual disciplines, sabbath-keeping, spiritual formation, spiritual direction, et al. was striking a major chord in them. No, that's too lame a description. The spark in their otherwise drawn faces said something like, "Didn't our hearts burn within us...".
One said, "I'm candidating at a church. I'm going to tell them that my ministry will be a contemplative ministry." Now that's quite a risk. The other said, "I don't know how I can do this but we (his congregation) need this." Another big risk (trying to introduce the deeper life to a bunch of comfortable New Englanders).
God is up to something. He is bringing many to the liminal edge. They feel the pain and see the hope of something new... they are just not sure how to get there. Join the club.

Blessings, Mark

No Business Like Church Business

OK... now I'm probably going to irritate some folks.

Here's my take on an old song, "There's no business like church business..."

Let's get real for a second. Search your heart and answer thefollowing question, "What is the main concern for most churches?" OK... Here is the answer (IMHO): survival.

We seem to assume that the items high on God's eternal "to-do" list go a little something like this:

#1... Rescue the First Church of Bluffington... (they're my favorites... what would I do without them?)
#2... Love my Creation (even the humans),
#3... Offer salvation to each and every person on earth.

And, to survive we need to keep our focus squarely on the business of church. We need revenue for the upkeep of our physical plant (church building),
for upper management salaries (pastoral staff/ CE Director/ etc.) and for marketing (the Sunday Service aka the Sunday Matinee, clever outreach, etc.). In the end, we will hopefully have sufficient numbers of "giving units" secured that we will be able to... let's see... love more people and offer the Savior to them? In your dreams... but not in the day light. No, our hope is to be able to have a bigger building, a larger staff and a more "attractive" show.

Sadly, it seems, God's actual concerns (#s 2 and 3 above) get over shadowed. Afterall, we don't want to do anything that might jeopardize our prime objective... which is survival. And loving people and serving them and respectfully and graciously offering them the salvation of the Savior is... well, it is messy... and risky... and may in fact jeopardize our very survival (just take a look at the book of Acts).

May the Father enable us to make the structures and processes that we use in our churches servants of God and of people... and not God and people servants of those same structures and processes.

Barnabas

Another Progress Report

Just wanted to keep things somewhat updated. I say "somewhat" because it is clear that I have already broken my previous "promise" to be more diligent with my posting ("Oh, yeah... do bettah nes time."). All I can say is... "Sorry". As I continue, I think that it may become clear why I have not been a very faithful blogster these days.

OK... so what's the story? Well, things are nutty at our house. Our second daughter, Joanna, is going to be married on June 2nd (yes, of this year...). This will mean that, since our oldest daughter (Rachel) was wed last July, we have had the "pleasure" of hosting two weddings in the span of one year ("pleasure" is in quotes because it IS a pleasure to celebrate these wonderful weddings... it is also very stressful and time consuming... and expensive...).
You'd think that wedding preparations would be enough to make us all pretty whacked-out... but, oh no... we needed more. You see, since our daughter and her new husband, Dan, will be living in the third floor apartment of our triple- decker, we have been doing alot of renovating. Actually, my hard working wife has been renovating that apartment (along with the soon to be newly weds)... demo-ing, spackling, sanding, painting, etc., etc., ad infinitum!
And what have I been doing? Well, because the newly weds will be residing on the third floor that means that our baby (19 year old, Andrew) has moved into our guest room on the second floor... and his music rehearsal space will be relocated to the cellar. So, I have been "enjoying" my own remodelling projects (a loft bed and shelves in the new bedroom... and partitioning-off, "sound proofing" and creating a raised floor in the cellar).
Enough already, you say? Not nearly. Joanna will be receiving her Bachelor's degree this month and I have been asked to offer a prayer at the Bacalaureate service the evening before. AND... our oldest, Rachel, will be singing at Carnegy Hall (as part of a choir debuting some composers new work) which will mean a weekend in NYC (Yes, I will proudly wear my Red Sox hat all around "The Big Apple"... OK, not at Carnegie Hall... but everywhere else!). That's it... I'm exhausted, already. Do you see why I have not had time to post anything?
Nor have we had time to really act on the dreams and visions that are always present in our hearts and minds. We've taken a few baby steps... I am currently reading a book on how to create and run a Bed and Breakfast (Oh yeah... did I mention that a B and B is how we see God bringing this to fruition? I'll add more about this later...). I am also going to be attending a conference at Gordon-Conwell Seminary on Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction. Small steps but important, I think.
So, please keep us in prayer. No, really... I mean it. God is so great to us! He is so patient. He is working in all our circumstances and He is working deep within us to prepare us for the work to which He has called us. It's all good!!
Love, Mark (Barnabas)