Blue Chairs at Church

We had a lot of blue chairs out this morning at church.  The only problem is – our chairs are supposed to be tan!  We’ve run out of the tan!  Another 110 chairs are on order and are supposed to be shipped the week of February 7-15th (we’ll see – I’m not holding my breath).  I’m about to petition other churches to let us borrow 50 chairs or so until our order comes in.  We’ve run out of chairs and need more.  Thus we had to bring in the blue chairs.  They are smaller and not near as comfortable as the tan chairs.  While I don’t like them, it is a good sign to see them.  It means there is continued growth.  That is always a good thing.  It means, as a church, you are doing what God has called you to do.

 Bigger is better.  I heard Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan say that once.  They weren’t saying that a big church is better than a small church.  They were making the point that a church that is getting “bigger” is always better than one that isn’t because it is reaching people and fulfilling a commission that Jesus gave them.  It isn’t about size, but about direction.  A church of 1000 that is stagnate or declining isn’t as exciting as a church of 50 but is getting bigger because it is being faithful to Jesus’ calling. 

Therefore, growth is inevitable.  Small will be replaced with bigger.  The numbers may vary from place to place, but there is only one alternative to consistent growth – to stop growing.  To say to those who need to know about Jesus, “We’re sorry, you’re not welcome here – nothing personal – but we just like that ‘small’ feeling.”  The moment a church circles wagons to preserve a preferred and comfortable size – it no longer becomes a church interested in reaching out in the name of Jesus.  It may say it does.  But it really doesn’t.  It is really interested in preserving a particular comfort level.  Actions speak far more than words.  It is nothing more than a “family-sized” church with a cute story of what they “would like to do” but isn’t really serious about doing it. 

As uncomfortable as it might be; as many blue chairs that need to come out; as many faces in whom you no longer know their name – in the end – it means we are doing what God has called us to.  And that ought to be celebrated!  For there is only one other alternative…and that, at least in regards to faithfulness, is not an option!

P.S.  The early bird to church gets the “tan” chair!!!

Dieting Stinks Pass Me the Alfredo

It has been three weeks now since I’ve gone back to the old “eating right and exercising” routine.  It usually takes me three weeks to get over the “I hate this and want to throw up” stage.  I think I’m close.  Although right now my wife is in the kitchen making an Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo recipe with garlic bread!!!  Blasted woman…temptress of diet intentions!

Tonight I will be eating a chicken breast with broccoli.  My mouth is watering even as I type.  Yummy chicken…green broccoli… that when cooked in the microwave seems to emit a foul odor all over the house.  It serves the rest of my family right.  Gag on the foul broccoli odor you fettuccine alfredo/garlic bread eating tempters…

Detecting the Counterfeit

I got to witness some drama at the Speedway on Ireland Rd. yesterday at noon (yes – the Speedway that supplies Jim Counts with all of his 345 ounce soft drinks!).  I walked in at the same time a police officer was responding to a call about a woman who was trying to pass off a counterfeit $20.  Of course the woman claimed she had “no idea” and would never have tried to pass off a counterfeit.  I don’t think anyone at the counter - the police officer, the attendant…and honestly even myself believed her (although – maybe she didn’t know – what do I know).  What was interesting was that it wasn’t even a good counterfeit.  From what I could see it had the right patterns and colors – but it was on normal typing paper!

It reminded me of what I heard one time about criminal investigators who are involved in counterfeit schemes.  It is my understanding that they train, not by learning all of the techniques or secrets of counterfeiting, but rather by immersing themselves in real money.  They become so familiar with real money – its texture, feel, look, pattern, color, distinguishing marks, etc. that they would be able to spot a fake in a second; not by having to know about the fakes, but only because they know the real that well.

I couldn’t help but wonder if that same principle couldn’t apply to faith in Jesus.  There seems to be so many counterfeits of the real Jesus out there – from culture, secular scholars, T.V. evangelists, different religious groups, cults, etc. that “different” Jesus’ abound!  They are counterfeit Jesus’.  In response, to combat these fakes, some have immersed themselves in knowing all of the fakes, the cults, the frauds, the scandals, etc.  There might be some value in that, but I’m wondering if, like the criminal investigators, the better way wouldn’t be to so immerse ourselves in the real Jesus, to know everything about him – his personality, his heart, his values, his purpose, his voice, his tone, his expectations, etc. that we would never be fooled by a counterfeit.  In a second we would spot a counterfeit Jesus as a fake; not because we were experts in all that was fraudulent, but because we knew Jesus and truth that well!  I think it is time for me to recommit to knowing the real Jesus better than I have in the past.

Faith vs. Atheism

I had a conversation the other day with one of my good friends, Curt Lynn, about a new book published by Richards Dawkins entitled The God Delusion.  I mentioned it in my message Sunday morning.  I haven’t read the book, so I have no idea what all it entails but Curt was wondering about reading it.  I thought it would be a good idea to read the book, after all, Christianity ought not be afraid of intellectual scrutiny (nor should any faith that is worth its salt).  What I have heard is that much of Dawkins’ arguments are based on the historical record of wars and killings done in the name of “Christianity“ (e.g., the crusades, inquisition, etc.).

The church throughout history has acted in ways that are utterly indefensible.  The church should acknowledge her failings, apologize, and make restitution when she can.  Having said that, I do know that sometimes the “killings in the name of Christianity” argument against Christianity can take on a life of its own and become either exaggerated, or not countered by another truth - ”good in the name of Christianity” (e.g., look at the names of hospitals, charities, and orphanages, etc.).  Maybe that evil exists isn’t necessarily because of “Christians” or “Atheists” but simply because of the condition of the human heart.  If that were true, out of the two – Christianity or atheism, it seems Christianity has the most to offer.  The following is an article I found on PreachingNow online that addressed this very issue and seemed to be a feasible counter-weight to the arguments I understand Dawkins (as well as others) to be making.  This piece is authored, I believe by Dinesh D’Souza.

Atheism, not religion, is real source of conflict

Author Dinesh D’Souza wrote in a recent commentary: A spate of atheist books have argued that religion represents, as End of Faithauthor Sam Harris puts it, “the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.” Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany: “The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three centuries.” In his bestseller The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins contends that most of the world’s recent conflicts — in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in Northern Ireland, in Kashmir, and in Sri Lanka — show the vitality of religion’s murderous impulse.

The problem with this critique is that it exaggerates the crimes attributed to religion, while ignoring the greater crimes of secular fanaticism. The best example of religious persecution in America is the Salem witch trials. How many people were killed in those trials? Thousands? Hundreds? Actually, fewer than 25. Yet the event still haunts the liberal imagination.

It is strange to witness the passion with which some secular figures rail against the misdeeds of the Crusaders and Inquisitors more than 500 years ago. The number sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition appears to be about 10,000. Some historians contend that an additional 100,000 died in jail due to malnutrition or illness.

These figures are tragic, and of course population levels were much lower at the time. But even so, they are minuscule compared with the death tolls produced by the atheist despotisms of the 20th century. In the name of creating their version of a religion-free utopia, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong produced the kind of mass slaughter that no Inquisitor could possibly match. Collectively these atheist tyrants murdered more than 100 million people.

Moreover, many of the conflicts that are counted as “religious wars” were not fought over religion. They were mainly fought over rival claims to territory and power. Can the wars between England and France be called religious wars because the English were Protestants and the French were Catholics? Hardly.

The same is true today. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not, at its core, a religious one. It arises out of a dispute over self-determination and land. Hamas and the extreme orthodox parties in Israel may advance theological claims — “God gave us this land” and so forth — but the conflict would remain essentially the same even without these religious motives. Ethnic rivalry, not religion, is the source of the tension in Northern Ireland and the Balkans.

Yet today’s atheists insist on making religion the culprit. Consider Mr. Harris’s analysis of the conflict in Sri Lanka. “While the motivations of the Tamil Tigers are not explicitly religious,” he informs us, “they are Hindus who undoubtedly believe many improbable things about the nature of life and death.” In other words, while the Tigers see themselves as combatants in a secular political struggle, Harris detects a religious motive because these people happen to be Hindu and surely there must be some underlying religious craziness that explains their fanaticism.

Harris can go on forever in this vein. Seeking to exonerate secularism and atheism from the horrors perpetrated in their name, he argues that Stalinism and Maoism were in reality “little more than a political religion.” As for Nazism, “while the hatred of Jews in Germany expressed itself in a predominantly secular way, it was a direct inheritance from medieval Christianity.” Indeed, “The holocaust marked the culmination of . . . two thousand years of Christian fulminating against the Jews.”

One finds the same inanities in Mr. Dawkins’s work. Don’t be fooled by this rhetorical legerdemain. Dawkins and Harris cannot explain why, if Nazism was directly descended from medieval Christianity, medieval Christianity did not produce a Hitler. How can a self-proclaimed atheist ideology, advanced by Hitler as a repudiation of Christianity, be a “culmination” of 2,000 years of Christianity? Dawkins and Harris are employing a transparent sleight of hand that holds Christianity responsible for the crimes committed in its name, while exonerating secularism and atheism for the greater crimes committed in their name.

Religious fanatics have done things that are impossible to defend, and some of them, mostly in the Muslim world, are still performing horrors in the name of their creed. But if religion sometimes disposes people to self-righteousness and absolutism, it also provides a moral code that condemns the slaughter of innocents. In particular, the moral teachings of Jesus provide no support for — indeed they stand as a stern rebuke to — the historical injustices perpetrated in the name of Christianity.

The crimes of atheism have generally been perpetrated through a hubristic ideology that sees man, not God, as the creator of values. Using the latest techniques of science and technology, man seeks to displace God and create a secular utopia here on earth. Of course if some people — the Jews, the landowners, the unfit, or the handicapped — have to be eliminated in order to achieve this utopia, this is a price the atheist tyrants and their apologists have shown themselves quite willing to pay. Thus they confirm the truth of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s dictum, “If God is not, everything is permitted.”

Whatever the motives for atheist bloodthirstiness, the indisputable fact is that all the religions of the world put together have in 2,000 years not managed to kill as many people as have been killed in the name of atheism in the past few decades. It’s time to abandon the mindlessly repeated mantra that religious belief has been the greatest source of human conflict and violence. Atheism, not religion, is the real force behind the mass murders of history.

Isaac and Upward Bounds

Isaac had his first Upward Bounds basketball practice last night.  Man that kid is tall…he didn’t get that from me.  Fortunately, his mother has some height genes she was good enough to pass on to him.  As I watched him practice I couldn’t help but remember that he used to be my little baby boy and now … he is getting so much older!  Wasn’t it just the other day I was holding him in his little “onesy” outfit?  Everyone who has walked this journey ahead of me has warned me that my children will grow up and be out of the house and it will feel like “15 minutes.”  If all goes as normal, I’ll have eight more years with Isaac in my home!  Eight years!!  Everything I want to teach him in regards to being a man, a husband, a father, a disciple of Jesus…eight years before he will venture out and do it on his own.  I don’t have time to waste getting distracted by trivial and non-consequential things.  Those “good” ideas I’ve always wanted to do with Isaac…now is the time!  I’m afraid if I blink it will be too late…and he’ll be gone, and all those “good” ideas will just be bullet-points on a “wish-I-would-have” list.

P.S.  Isaac’s basketball skills also came from Kelly as well.  She was a Missouri free-throw champion in her age division one year as well as a starter for her high school basketball team.  Isaac already understands the rules and strategy of the game far more than I do.  He soaks it up like a sponge.  One day (during the NBA finals with the San Antonio Spurs) he just decided he liked basketball, and he has been a student ever since.  He’s a great kid!  He has a pastor’s heart…not that he isn’t free to choose his own course in life…but Pastor Isaac has a good ring to it!

Shawn Hornbeck Found

Late afternoon yesterday we got a call from my mother-in-law, Fran.  “We have fabulous news!” she exclaimed, “They found Shawn!”  We couldn’t believe it.  After four years Shawn has been found…alive?!?! 

My in-laws live south of St. Louis close to where Shawn lives.  Shawn’s grandmother, Doris, goes to the same small church as my in-laws so we had been familiar with the story since his disappearance.  I had on ocassion seen Shawn at church prior to his abduction.  And now he is back.  And alive!  Praise God.  So many questions, so many concerns, so many emotions…but what was lost has now been found.  Truly amazing!

A Pictorial Tribute to My Mother

My mother called this morning to inform me that I had left her out of my “Ode to 2006″ blog where I mentioned how grateful I am to be working with the best people in the world…and then I go on to list several people.  Well…my mother wasn’t mentioned!  She called to let me know about my “little” oversight.  Everyone, including my mother can now rest assured, I have gone back and reedited my post to now include my mother – Diane Barrington!

I mean really – what kind of a son forgets to mention his own mother?!  What kind of an ingrate of an offspring neglects to mention the very one who was responsible for giving me life; who endured 174 hours of labor to push out a 5 lb. 5 oz. little squirt of a kid?!  What kind of delinquent fails to give credit to a mother who ranks up there with one of the best mothers in the world!  A mother who is generous beyond comparison, compassionate, loving – a fantastic grandmother to my children!!  My greatest attributes, from nagging persistence to obsessive compulsive disorder, I OWE TO ME DEAR SWEET MOTHER!  To remedy my obvious familial fau paux – I offer this pictorial tribute – to my mother; the greatest mother ever!!!

 

 

 

 

With Love,

Your Son

Great Expectations

Expectations are a very powerful thing.  I believe they actually have the power to create realities.  I find that either in myself, or in others, most people live up to expectations. 

Of course this cuts both ways.  Sometimes I achieve great things in which I expected for myself.  And at other times I live up to low expectations I have set for myself.  For example, if I don’t expect that I will make it past the second week of January in my New Year’s Resolutions, I usually don’t. 

Whether it is teachers to students, parents to children, employers to employees, etc. expectations are a powerful thing that usually sets standards, goals, and even realities into motion. 

  As a defensive mechanism to keep from being disappointed in life there are some people that always set their expectations low.  Granted, there might be less disappointment – then again – maybe not – especially at the end of life when one examines the totality of life from the perspective of the end - but the problem is that when good things do happen we are typically “caught off guard,” “unprepared,” “shocked,” etc.  Sometimes this leads to squandering or losing the ability to take advantage of great things or seeing them become normative for our lives. 

The power of expectation is also true for churches.  Churches that have low expectations for growth or God’s blessing typically live up to those low expectations.  In fact, I believe God will honor our expectations whether low or high.  If you pray for healing with low expectations, I believe He honors that.  If we pray in faith and great expectancy, He honors that. 

What has been exciting to me over the past week as I have entered into different conversations with a variety of leaders at the Living Stones Church is their great expectations for what God is going to do (and has done) in regards to growth and blessing.  It is no longer, “if God…” or “maybe God…” but “Of course God is going to…” and then the work of getting prepared to receive growth and blessing is set in motion.  I love it!  I love the confidence and reality that God wants us to grow and he wants to bless us – if for nothing else than because His own name is at stake.  Such great expectations foster a powerful spirit!  It is contagious – and it is awesome to be a part of.  Most of the time we live up to our expectations.  They are powerful enough to set realities in motion.  Therefore, let us, as the Living Stones Church have great expectations! 

Caleb’s Turn

After taking Alex to Build-A-Bear yesterday, Caleb was upset because he also received a gift certificate (thanks to Memaw) and wanted to go.  So I promised him today I would take him.  So, we did…

I found out that the genius who started Build-A-Bear is Maxine Clark.  She wrote a book entitled, “The Bear Necessities of Business.”  I think it would be a good book for a church’s leadership to read.  Some of the things about Build-A-Bear that I think the church should reflect on is:

• It is simple.  They do one thing, and they do it well. 

• They have created an experience.  You don’t just enter and purchase, the child experiences every aspect of building the bear.

• The process wins the hearts of parents.  What parent wouldn’t gush a little at watching their child close their eyes and make a wish while holding a stuffed heart.

• It is clear and well-directed.  You know where to begin, and you know where to end.  Along the way, everything is clearly marked and well-directed.

• It reflects a child’s individuality.  While the whole experience in thematically the same (stuffing a bear, etc.) each bear is different and reflects the child’s preference in regards to type of doll, sounds, clothes, accessories, etc.

It would be great if kids love church as much as they do Build-A-Bear…

Build a Bear with Baby Girl

One of my goals for the New Year (one of about 1000) is to make Mondays the best Sabbath/family day I can.  It feels like most Mondays (my day off) I work harder than I do if I were in the office with yard work, bills, chores, everything I have put off doing for the week.  I’m hoping this year to squeeze some of those activities earlier in the week so when Monday comes I can just rest, spend time with the family, and do things like read, etc.  I don’t plan on being legalistic about it – if I have to do something – that is the way it is – but I’m just going to try.

Today I took Alex to spend her Christmas gift certificate to Build-a-Bear.  I don’t know who the genius is who thought of the Build-a-Bear concept but I’m sure they are very rich!  It is a little girl paradise.  I have to admit, I was impressed with the process.  You rub a little stuffed heart (teddy bear part) in your hand to warm the heart, then you hold it in your hands and close your eyes to make a wish.  Then you rub it on your heart, your tummy, your head and then put it in the teddy bear.  I was so moved I almost bought a bear for myself…excuse me, I have to get a tissue…

Anyhow, it was sweet.  The picture is of Alex’s bear, ”Mary” (she said she likes the name, but I think she named it after our worship leader’s daughter).  She picked out the outfit and purchased a cell phone for her bear (I wonder what that reflects – am I on my phone too much).  It was a good day.

Now – time to sit down with Isaac, my ten year old and watch the BCS championship game.  I’ll let him stay up for the whole game.  He is the only one of my kids whose behavior never seems to be negatively affected by sleep deprivation.