Under the Acacia Tree

Practical Programming

2006-01-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

Today’s blog includes Don Durham’s ideas about how we can effectively educate people about stewardship. Don is president of the CBF Foundation.

“This conversation only matters because we believe we have an all important mission as followers of Jesus—to live passionately and faithfully in the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of a church budget or the kingdom of personal indulgence. I actually got a phone call from a pastor once who said, ‘We just finished our strategic plan for our ministry as a church. Our members are sure they’ve identified the direction God wants us to go as a church, but they’ve asked me for help with their personal finances because they realize that they can’t give as much as they want to, or need to according to their plan, if they keep living as they currently are.’ That’s a church that is coming to understand the connection between personal stewardship and giving out of love in the missional church.

In responding to the idea of special studies focused on stewardship, Don said:

“I think special studies on stewardship do help. Stewardship will rarely be more important to the members of a church than it appears to be in the programming of a church. The catch is that it has to be practical. Even in this interview I’ve talked about stewardship in fairly broad, global terms. In churches, members want help with practical monetary aspects of stewardship: family budgeting, when/how to use credit responsibly, investing responsibly in responsible companies. Or they want practical help with the larger aspects of holistic stewardship: teaching children, discovering and nurturing spiritual gifts and finding a specific, tangible place to invest their time and energy in hands-on ministry. This is not about giving. However, generous giving of all kinds is a natural act for missional followers of Jesus living passionately and faithfully in the Kingdom of God.”

One Tenth to Jesus?

2006-01-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

In today’s blog, Don Durham, president of the CBF Foundation, identifies some common misconceptions about stewardship. A pervasive one, he says, is “the idea that stewardship is about how much we give away, rather than how we live and work, and what we do with the resources that we keep for ourselves. Or, that giving away a prescribed amount of money (10%) somehow makes it OK to do whatever we want with the rest of our resources.”

“In any given year Americans consume roughly half of the world’s energy (25-30% of all natural resources combined) and create roughly half of the world’s solid waste, yet we only represent about 5% of the world’s population. We consume at a rate roughly five times greater than our numerical significance on the planet. Much of this consumption is productive and results in good things; however much of it is just for comfort or convenience. For those of us who believe Jesus when he says that all of the law and prophets comes down to loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, or that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us, we have some hard questions to ask about how we might hope a neighbor with plenty would act if we had little. Our love of neighbor will urge us to live in ways that create and encourage access to resources for those who have limited access.

“Giving away $100 doesn’t make it OK to sustain a selfish lifestyle with the other $900. We don’t merely strain at gnats (giving) and swallow camels (personal spending). In comparison to the rest of the world, where over 3 billion people live on less than $2 per day according to the World Bank; most of us belly up to an all-you-can-eat camel buffet daily.

“Focusing the stewardship conversation on how much, or little, we give away helps us avoid a thoughtful evaluation of our levels of consumption in some big ticket areas like housing, transportation, energy, food, clothing and entertainment.

“I love one of Tony Campolo’s related comments. He says, in essence, that if we are going to insist on tithing as the primary measure of stewardship, we must re-write the hymnbook—sing along to the tune of “All to Jesus I Surrender”:

“One tenth to Jesus, I surrender. One tenth to him I freely give. I surrender one tenth. I surrender one tenth…”

Tomorrow Don will offer suggestions for effectively educating people about stewardship.

Doing the Hard Work

2006-01-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

More of my interview with Don Durham, president of the CBF Foundation. Here Don responds to this question: What level of understanding about stewardship do you find in the average church?

“Nearly all of the churches and individuals I encounter are trying to do the best they can when it comes to stewardship, but most of them have only been asked to apply “stewardship” to giving. One of the most frequent requests I get is for recommendations of “stewardship materials” for churches. What most people mean by ‘stewardship materials’ is actually budget promotion.

“Budget promotion is important, but it is the trailing end of stewardship. By the time the budget gets promoted, the really hard work of stewardship has already been done both by individuals and families within the church and by the church as a whole.

“It happened when the individuals and families decided how much money to tie up in a house or an additional vehicle. Or, when the church budget was put together and decisions were made about how to allocate the resources of the church for ministry: How much should we keep spending on building upkeep, utilities and maintenance if numbers are dropping and less and less of our building is being used for the church’s ministry? What if numbers are up and we truly need additional space to conduct ministry or equip our members to minister? What creature comforts do we really need, and what is excessive? Should we build additional space of our own, or rent it nearby as needed? Should we buy or lease vehicles? Do we pay our custodial workers a living wage?”

In tomorrow’s post, Don will address some common misconceptions about stewardship.

The Last Taboo

2006-01-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Is anything taboo in the American church today?

Only one thing, according to Don Durham.

It’s money.

“We are no longer shocked by violence, sex, drugs or rock-n-roll,” he says. “But when we get to church, we still tend to collude with one another in silence about money. One thing we can do to educate people about stewardship is to break that silence. We have to talk about the complex, embarrassing and difficult challenges we face as relatively wealthy Christians surrounded by very poor neighbors.”

Don is president of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Foundation, where he helps people provide permanent financial support for moderate Baptist causes related to CBF and also provides endowment investment and administrative services for CBF churches and ministry partners.

In this and several successive blogs, I’ll post portions of my interview with Don. When I asked him how he defines “stewardship,” here’s what he said:

“For now, it goes something like this: Stewardship is the faithful management and careful use of all the resources within our control as we participate in the kingdom and mission of God. Notice I didn’t say anything about giving, or investing, or percentages. Basically, I believe that we are responsible to God for how we use or manage all that comes within our sphere of control as individuals, families and churches. The more complex the definition of stewardship, the less it encompasses. For me the definition keeps getting simpler. As it does, it encompasses more and more of life—all of life."

In tomorrow's blog, Don talks about the levels of understanding about stewardship among church members.

Walking Discipleship

2006-01-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

Ed Hogan is pastor of Jersey Village Baptist Church in Houston. Earlier this month, he committed to walk 1,000 miles in 100 days. The physical benefits are secondary. His goal is to walk with God.

“Imagine what a better place the world would be if everyone got up and walked with God this morning,” he wrote. “What a better life I would have if I got up and walked with God every morning. I would be a different person.”

He’s making himself accountable to the whole world through his blog, The Lenten Walk. Each day, he records not only how many miles he walks that day but also his thoughts and reflections. It’s worth a visit.

As Ed noted, “Discipleship is not achieved in a morning or in a mile. It takes time... and energy... and work... and patience.”

It’s a deliberate walk, not a race or a sprint. One step at a time.

Worth a Read

2005-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

Great column today on EthicsDaily.com from Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanuel in Birmingham, Alabama. He demonstrates an understanding of Jesus and the way he lived that, unfortunately, some Christians do not seem to have, especially this year.

While he acknowledges up front that he doesn’t “celebrate” Christmas, he shows an amazing appreciation for this Christian holy day. He even admits that he likes Christmas—the lights, the food, “the return of hope and promise that permeates our society.”

Too bad many Christians have caused people like Rabbi Miller to feel like the “Grinch” who stole Christmas. He really doesn’t want to be perceived that way.

“The non-Christians I know are rooting for Christmas,” he says. “Deck your halls, by all means. Put up your lights and your mistletoe, enjoy your hats and stuff your stockings, be generous to the people you love and to the poor among us. Open your hearts to the joy and the hope that your belief brings you, and let some of that joy and hope permeate your lives all year long. What a blessing you will be as good Christians to all of us. Only don’t make me your Grinch.”

Miller even admits to joining the concern many Christians have that there’s not enough Jesus in Christmas. But he also adds, “I am also concerned that there is not enough Jesus in Christianity. I am concerned this year that non-Christians are made to be society’s enemies. I can’t believe that Jesus would endorse this view. I am concerned that some Christians see their numerical majority as the right to bully the rest of us. I can’t believe that Jesus would endorse this view.”

He understands Jesus as “kind” and “open” and “generous in spirit. At least that’s the way I have experienced him through the eyes of many Christians who have shared their faith with me.”

Those Christians, he says, “don’t need a megaphone to make their faith known.”

And his best line for all the “media bullies” who continue to rant and rave about “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” from store clerks: “Let them call to task those who buy for themselves and take for themselves, but who do not share enough from their bounty with those in need. Let them emulate Jesus’ generosity of spirit, which, curiously, they seem to lack this year.”

City Lights

2005-12-09T13:56:00.000-08:00

Along with soft drinks and clothes, the huge screens in New York City’s Times Square flash appeals from various churches to 1.5 million daily pedestrians.

Commercials with slogans like “Everybody matters” and “Where to go when you don’t know where to go” hope to draw those looking for a spiritual home.

Among groups utilizing the bright lights 60 feet above the crowds are the Unitarian Universalist Association, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, which spent $1.89 million of the church’s annual $500 million budget on these holiday Astrovision and cable TV ads.

Rev. Larry Hollon, head of the UMC’s communications agency, believes the expensive ads are worth it because “they offer an alternative way to see the world and your place in it, and that’s a valuable form of ministry.”

About Those Words . . .

2005-12-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious advisor for the American Jewish Committee, has a great column this week about his family’s Thanksgiving observance.

Their family’s tradition is for everyone to tell something for which they are thankful. Rudin acknowledges that “rabbis, pastors and priests like to talk and talk, then talk some more.”

Apparently the “thanks talks” went on for quite some time, but finally it was Rudin’s five-year-old granddaughter’s turn. Instead of Emma mentioning her growing gymnastic or swimming skills, as the adults expected, the little girl spoke these seven brief sentences, which her mother wisely wrote down:

“I am thankful for God.
I am thankful for the world.
I am thankful for the darkness.
I am thankful for the lightness.
I am thankful for my stores.
I am thankful for my pets.
I am thankful for my family.”

“We were all rendered mute,” Rudin says.

Rudin’s daughter Eve, Emma’s mother, is also a rabbi. She couldn’t pass up the opportunity to provide the little girl “with an important rabbinic commentary on the word ‘stores,’” reminding her that many children around the world do not have nearly the wealth of material possessions she enjoys.

But the family for the most part was spellbound by a five-year-old’s wisdom.

“I am sure many other families have also been blessed by a child’s wise perception of reality that in its simplicity, clarity and honesty easily trumps the heavy verbiage adults frequently use to describe the world.

“Clergy, indeed all teachers, parents and grandparents, would do well to remember that young children are not like little geese simply waiting to be stuffed with ‘adult talk and knowledge,’” Rudin reminds us. They in fact “often have an excellent sense of who and what they are, and they also possess an authentic spirituality that is minimized or blocked by the tedious educational rote present in too many classrooms and houses of worship.

“Pity the adult with a tin ear who does not listen to the words spoken by small children. This is especially true of clergypersons who have lost the talent to learn from the youngest among us. And saddest of all are the youngsters whose freshness of spirit and spontaneity of expression have been crushed by adults.”

Finally, Rudin says he can hardly wait to hear what Emma will say next year at Thanksgiving.

A year older, and a year wiser I’m sure.

“God Speaks to me in Gullah”

2005-11-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

Imagine never having had a New Testament in your primary, or "heart," language. Then imagine hearing that one is being translated, and waiting 26 years for the translation to become available.

That’s the case for Gullah speakers, who celebrated this week the arrival of De Nyew Testament, a translation over a quarter of a century in the making.

Gullah is a creole language derived from indigenous African languages and English, created by slaves.

Here’s an example:

“Fo God mek de wol, de Wod been dey. De Wod been dey wid God, and de Wod been God” (Jn 1:1, De Nyew Testament).

The King James English translation of John 1:1 reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Utilizing the skills of Gullah speakers and translation experts, a portion of the New Testament in Gullah was published in 1994. The complete New Testament translation was a joint effort of the American Bible Society, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Wycliffe Bible Translators, the United Bible Societies and the Penn Center, an institution that helps preserve Gullah history and culture.

“The Gullah New Testament raises the Gullah language and culture to a new level by enshrining the Scriptures in a creole language once denigrated as a second class version of English,” said Dr. Robert Hodgson, dean of the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship at the American Bible Society.

“African American churches around the country will celebrate this new translation for its lively tone and musical rhythms, reminiscent of today’s Hip-Hop vernacular, but also for its recovery of an almost forgotten chapter in the history of African Americans.”

Ardell Greene, one of the members of the Gullah translation team, said, “The Word of God speaks to your heart and, as a Gullah speaker, God speaks to me in Gullah.”

Another, Vernetta Canteen, who worked on the translation for 26 years, said that she was “excited to actually feel it and touch it. That’s the first time I heard God talk the way I talk.”

Thanks to them for reminding us that we are made in God’s image, not the other way around.

A New Talk Show

2005-11-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

A new one-hour weekly Sunday morning talk show hosted by Naomi Judd premieres on Hallmark Channel November 27 at 9 a.m. (CT). “Naomi’s New Morning” will deal with faith’s intersection with a broad spectrum life experiences and will feature celebrity profiles, lifestyle segments, music, commentary and other elements.

Judd says, “I have been in training all of my life for this kind of talk show experience.” She calls the show “a thought-provoking sojourn. The show has the potential to transform viewers by illustrating how harmony, balance and equilibrium are essential for a happy, healthy human experience.”

Judd, along with her daughter Wynona, ruled country music in the 1980s before chronic hepatitis forced her to retire. She’s since written a number of books, including a best-selling autobiography, “Love Can Build a Bridge.”

Faith & Values Media President and CEO Edward J. Murray says that Judd “beautifully translates faith and values, humor, common sense, and belief in the mind-body-spirit connection into a powerful and unforgettable program.”

Sign Up

2005-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

End-of-life matters and one’s personal wishes about such things usually don’t make for the most popular family conversation topics. But every family needs to have these discussions, and if the holidays are the only time your family is all together, seize the moment.

If you’re not an organ donor, consider becoming one. If you’re not convinced that you should be, read Michael Helms’ article on EthicsDaily.com today.

Becoming an organ donor is a great way to show gratitude for having had the opportunity to live and to give others that same opportunity.

As Helms says, “Signing donor cards and letting our families know we want to be organ donors is really thinking about life.” It’s the opportunity help save the lives of “people who still have lots to contribute to this world, people who still have lots of love to give to family, friends, community, church and students, if their bodies will allow them to do so.”

Ethical Blogging

2005-11-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

EthicsDaily.com has a good article today by Jerrod Hugenot called “Ethics of Blogging.” In it, he reasons that clergy who post blogs should maintain in them the same pastoral integrity they do when they preach, teach and lead.

I’d broaden that reasoning beyond clergy to include all people of faith. “Whatever you do,” 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “do everything for the glory of God.”

Hugunot suggests that “an ethics of blogging” might be in order, and he offers some guidelines. It’s not a bad idea, he says, to let your thoughts simmer awhile, and it ought to go without saying that if we’re going to represent something as factual in a blog posting, we need to make sure we have our facts straight.

“Blogs can be seductive for the ego,” he says, and suggests that “blogging be provisional and humble.” Good point.

He also advises that we remember our “ethical necessity to be collegial. Some bloggers just want to take cheap shots. I would challenge these bloggers to try their best to avoid caricaturing those who differ.”

Turning Toward Redemption

2005-11-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Interesting comments are coming from author Anne Rice, best known for Interview with the Vampire and other books about vampires, witches and ghosts.

“I will never write those kind of books again—never,” she says in an article posted on beliefnet.com. Those books “were reflections of a world that didn’t include redemption. In 2002 I made up my mind that I would not write anything that wasn’t for Christ.”

Rice’s latest novel (key word here: novel) is called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and tells the story of the 7-year-old Jesus discovering his identity. She drew from a number of scholarly Christian sources and the Gospel of Luke in preparation for writing.

Raised as a Catholic in her native New Orleans, Rice left the church and her faith behind at age 18. Her return to faith is fairly recent but seems sincere.

“My life is committed to Christ the Lord,” she says. “My books will be a reflection of that commitment.”

A Pin, or a Lifestyle?

2005-11-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

An organization called the Ten Commandments Commission has formed to “facilitate a broad-based, unified expression of our national commitment to God’s Commandments and His eternal authority,” according to an email from the group.

As part of their effort, they are calling “for Christians and Jews from around this nation and world” to celebrate Ten Commandments Day on February 6, “a day in which all who are concerned about maintaining God’s righteous standard join together in a massive and unified show of support.”

And for just $14.95, we can purchase “an attractive, dignified expression” of our “devotion to God’s standard of righteousness,” a gold-colored lapel pin. “God’s hand was on” the artist who designed this pin, according to one of the organization’s leaders, “because what he designed truly represents the glory and holiness of these divine laws.”

“Our vision,” says another organization leader, “is for everyone who honors God’s law and His righteous standard to proudly wear the Ten Commandments Pin and be a part of the Ten Commandments Day observance.”

This is no doubt a well-intentioned effort. But honoring the Ten Commandments involves a lot more than wearing a pin and attending a rally.

It requires changing how we think, speak and act.

Scripture Goes iPod

2005-10-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Come February, the complete Bible in Today’s New International Version will be available for iPod users in both text and audio formats.

Zondervan, the world’s largest Bible publisher, has partnered with Talking Panda, the leading developer of IPod software, in this effort.

Apple stores, Christian bookstores and other booksellers will offer the TNIV Audio Bible for iPod at a suggested retail price of $49.99. It will come on a single DVD that allows users to install both audio and text files onto their iPods. Once installed, users can select scriptures by book, chapter and verse and both listen to the text and read it on the iPod screen.

“To be able to carry and access the entire text of the Bible in a device that fits in the palm of your hand will be a great convenience to allow time-staved people to read or listen to the Bible whenever it suits them,” according to Mark Hunt, Zondervan’s vice president and publisher of new media.

It’s Not About Control

2005-10-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

In a commentary this week titled “For Christians, It’s Usually About Control and It Shouldn’t Be,” Tom Ehrich eloquently and thoughtfully said:

“I yearn for the day when we Christians stop fighting about control issues, and start doing what Jesus called us to do. We are so concerned about controlling how people behave that we forget to love them as they are. We are so concerned about doctrinal cleansing, ethical cleansing and political cleansing that we fail to see the logs in our own eyes, and even more, we fail to give what God gives, namely mercy. We are so concerned about whom to keep out that we fail to let hope and forgiveness in.

“In our concern for fiscal tidiness, denominational victory, ordination privileges and liturgical correctness, we wear ourselves out and have too little energy for serving. In our sniping and snapping, we shred the bonds of trust. In our warring and wariness, we tend to see categories, not persons; we see threats, not needs; we wonder how harshly to judge, not how lavishly to love. In our zeal for safety and comfort, we refuse to die to self.

“We need to get out of our heads, out of our safe places, out of our concern for winning, out of our propriety and self-righteousness, and we need to hear a fellow pilgrim say, I once was lost, but now am found, and what we do here makes all the difference in the world.

“I yearn for the day when we care more about making that difference than about getting our way. More about listening than speaking. More about being one than being right.”

This Is Education

2005-10-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

“What’s brought more violence into the world: openness, understanding and tolerance or fundamentalism and fanaticism?” asks Tony Moyers, a professor in the Center for Religious Studies and Ethics at Athens State University, a public school in Athens, Alabama.

“Tolerance doesn’t necessarily mean that we all agree,” he asserts.

Dr. Robby White, the center’s director, concurs, saying that it “doesn’t mean we don’t have our own convictions. But we’re living through days when we’re reaping a whirlwind of fanaticism. If teaching religious studies can help a little way to create a space for a little more openness, respect and tolerance, I’m willing to dedicate myself to that.”

Kay Campbell, a religion writer for the Huntsville, Alabama, Times, interviewed Moyers and White in a recent feature picked up by Religion News Service.

Both the Bible and the Quran are textbooks in the Athens State program.

White, who’s also a Baptist pastor, does not find it difficult to separate his classroom and pulpit roles. “As a pastor, I’m saying, ‘This is our story.’ As a teacher, I’m saying, ‘This is the story.’ I’m trying to promote understanding and goodwill among religions—not indoctrination, but education. If we offer just one perspective, Baptist, Episcopal, or even strictly Christian, it would violate church and state separation.”

“Hopefully,” White says, “education is about learning new ideas, being stretched, then reaching one’s own conclusion.”

How refreshing.

A Lesson from the Seashore

2005-10-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

“Why are all those birds standing on one leg?” my friend asked me as we walked on the beach beside the Atlantic Ocean last week.

I had no idea. It looked strange—a little circle of 5-6 birds standing together, all of them on one leg. As we watched them, another bird hopped up to join the group.

When we got closer, we realized they were standing on one leg because it was the only leg they had.

Our questions soon followed. “What happened to their other legs?” and “How did all of those one-legged birds find each other?”

Meanwhile, two-legged birds darted all around us, seeming almost deliberately to ostracize the one-legged creatures.

Somehow, the wounded birds found each other and formed a community. And maybe, like us, they discovered that adversity can make us stronger, and it’s bearable when we allow others to share in it with us.

On our good days, when we have two legs to stand on and feel fairly confident and secure, I hope we people of faith are not so smug that we overlook and shut out those among us who struggle to stand on one leg. And on those days when even our one leg is shaky, I hope we’re honest enough to admit that we need community and brave enough to call out to others to join us.

A Model for Ministry

2005-10-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

If you want a successful congregational model for collegiate ministry, rather than look to the nearest mega-church, I’d recommend First Baptist Church of Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

Rhonda Gailes, the minister of education there who also has responsibilities for students, focuses not on big-budget entertainment and recreation but on solid discipleship. Her ministry is profiled in a newsletter column by Rick Jordan, church resources coordinator for North Carolina CBF.

Even though the closest college is a 30-45 minute drive from her church, Rhonda’s collegiate group now averages 40-50 students each Sunday morning.

“We started with our own high school graduates who went to ASU (Appalachian State University, located in Boone),” she explains. “Eighteen to twenty-five year-olds have the highest church drop-out rate. Why is that? I realized that these were Christians, but we hadn’t been training them to be really good church members. In the children’s ministries, it was all about taking care of them and the same for the youth ministries. It was all focused on what we could give them. So why should we be surprised when they get a year older that they feel no responsibility to give to others or to the church? What we were doing was developing really poor adult church members.”

Gailes’s collegiate group started small, with about 8 members, but she gave them responsibilities in the church and had expectations of them. She says, “I could care less about the numbers. I just want long-term, day-after-day Christians. College students have been taught by society that success is measured by what you can get rather than what you can give. Where will the church be in 15 years with that kind of leadership coming into it? God’s plan is to reach the world through the local church, but most of us are in small churches, so we can’t depend on the mega-churches to do the outreach and discipling. We in the typical-sized churches are responsible for doing that.”

Jordan’s article points out that in the 12 years of Rhonda’s ministry, five youth from the church and twenty college students have gone in to full-time Christian ministry.

Education from a School of Fish

2005-10-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

The youth ministry at a church in Florence, Alabama, includes an imitation of the TV reality show “Fear Factor.”

In the church’s version last week, contestants swallowed live goldfish. A number they drew from a bowl indicated the number of fish they had to swallow—between one and three.

According to newspaper reports, the church’s youth minister said, “We need to be realistic about what the Bible says about fear and not be afraid to share our faith in school. We can’t let that fear rule our lives.”

He also was quoted as saying, “Through this ministry, kids are surrendering their lives to Jesus and developing a deeper relationship with Jesus. The method of the ministry that we use to bring people is going to change, but the message is going to stay consistent.”

Other activities in the contest have included undoing chains and getting out of a real coffin. The four youth who advance to the final round will compete for $250.

Youth who participate must have their parents sign a waiver, and the youth minister claims that no peer pressure is involved, and no one is forced to participate.

I’m at a loss to conclude what this actually teaches these kids about faith or anything else.

If your church’s youth minister refuses to sink to this level of sensationalism disguised as spiritual formation, express your gratitude for his or her leadership and vision, and be supportive of the youth ministry with your time, prayers and resources.

Do we really want our next generation of church leaders to consist of people who think swallowing goldfish reveals a faith commitment, and the reward for faithful living is monetary?

A Little Too Virtuous

2005-10-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

Even though his now-infamous racist comments continue to draw criticism, former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett refuses to apologize. Jim Evans has a related column today on EthicsDaily.com. He says in part:

“Bennett’s remarks reveal a deeply embedded racism. He believes that crime in America has a black face. And he apparently believes it in such a matter of fact way that he does not seem to understand why his words were offensive.

“A soul aflame with the fire of virtue does not think this way. A mind that revolves around issues of moral excellence, righteousness and goodness does not relegate a whole segment of America’s population to the status of criminal before they are even born.”

Evans identifies “a sort of moral arrogance at work” in the lives of people like Bennett that “allows many of these folks to harshly judge the failings of others while quietly excusing their own flawed behavior. … Seriously, if there is a heart of virtue beating in your chest, do you ever think about genocide, even hypothetically? Bennett’s willingness to strip certain human beings of their dignity and humanity reveals a gaping virtue vacuum.”

Evans rightfully decries a kind of wrong-headed thinking that quickly identifies personal goodness while refusing to admit the common human quality of sinfulness.

Extolling personal virtues to the point that you become known as “America’s guru of virtue” can quickly descend to the dangerous sin of pride. It’s a temptation to which we’re all vulnerable.

No Throw-Aways

2005-10-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Britt Towery has a column on EthicsDaily.com today that challenges our society’s tendency to throw away things rather than repair, repurpose or recycle them. He highlights MedShare International, a non-profit organization that recycles surplus from U.S. healthcare providers and suppliers and delivers them to economically developing countries like Ethiopia, Angola, Zambia and Honduras.

“The supplies are valuable and useful, the equipment outdated but still operable. Each could mean life or death for someone, somewhere,” he writes.

Unfortunately, we throw away more than just things. We sometimes discard people, too.

For one reason or another, individuals even within faith communities occasionally find themselves hovering around the edges of the fellowship but somehow never finding their way completely inside the circle.

Exclusive commitment to Christ engenders an inclusive fellowship where everyone, regardless of how broken, damaged or scarred, can find new value and purpose.

Faith and Community

2005-09-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

A friend and fellow blogger and I have talked a good bit recently about faith and community. He passed along the following quote from M. Scott Peck, author of the bestseller The Road Less Traveled, who died earlier this week:

“How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others ... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.”

Church, the body of Christ, is the place this should happen most naturally and authentically. I wonder why it doesn’t more often.

Combining the Best of People, Information and Technology

2005-09-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Nacogdoches, Texas and Gandhinagar, India aren’t worlds apart after all.

When it became apparent that Hurricane Rita would roar through east Texas, Sue Kennedy, county judge who also acts as emergency coordinator, decided to set up a phone bank to provide area residents with necessary information.

She contacted Effective Teleservices, a Nacogdoches-based firm that runs call centers. They had the backup equipment they would need during a massive power outage but didn’t want to place employees in harm’s way by asking them to work during the storm.

No problem. The company’s operating officer proposed to Kennedy that they redirect calls to the site in India. Kennedy and her staff quickly prepared a script containing vital information: locations of shelters, what people should take when they left home and answers to other specific questions.

Meanwhile at the call center site in Gandhinagar, operations director Jim Iyoob pulled together 15 of his customer service representatives and specifically trained them to work this emergency hotline. Iyoob had lived and worked in the Nacogdoches area for three years, so he could supply information in addition to the prepared script and give his coworkers a good idea of what to expect from callers.

Over the course of about 30 hours, representatives 7,000 miles away averaged 25 calls an hour. Information, technology and people combined to create a seamless process. Kennedy reports no problems.

Ineffective leadership is in good supply, and I’m prone to notice it and call attention to it. It can serve as an excellent teacher for those who are willing to watch, listen and make applications. So for a change, here’s an example of effective leadership.

Kennedy and others showed wisdom, skilled decision-making, grace under pressure and a willingness to explore an unusual solution to a pressing problem. She didn’t wait for state or federal government to come up with a plan or a solution. She worked with available resources and embraced the proposed solution when she easily could’ve said, “We’ve never done it like that before.”

Imagine that.

A Reliable Voice

2005-09-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

Of particular interest to educators in moderate Baptist churches is a new booklet scheduled for release in December titled An Introduction to Baptist Principles.

Written by Dr. Bill J. Leonard, dean and professor of church history at Wake Forest University Divinity School, it promises to identify Baptist ideals and values clearly at a time when many people struggle with what it means to “be Baptist.”

The Baptist History and Heritage Society is producing the 24-page booklet, which will sell for $2.50. For more information, contact Charles W. Deweese, executive director-treasurer, at cdeweese@TNBaptist.org.

“The Abyss of Our Ignorance”

2005-09-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

The Christian Century Magazine has published an essay from the upcoming book by Wendell Berry titled The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays. The essay, “The burden of the Gospels: An unconfident reader,” and no doubt the entire book, are must-reads for those with responsibilities for helping others understand the message of scripture.

Berry captured me with his opening paragraph:

“Anybody half awake these days will be aware that there are many Christians who are exceedingly confident in their understanding of the Gospels, and who are exceedingly self-confident in their understanding of themselves in their faith. They appear to know precisely the purposes of God, and they appear to be perfectly assured that they are now doing, and in every circumstance will continue to do, precisely God's will as it applies specifically to themselves. They are confident, moreover, that God hates people whose faith differs from their own, and they are happy to concur in that hatred.”

And he held me through to his conclusion:

“If we take the Gospels seriously, we are left, in our dire predicament, facing an utterly humbling question: How must we live and work so as not to be estranged from God's presence in his work and in all his creatures? The answer, we may say, is given in Jesus' teaching about love. But that answer raises another question that plunges us into the abyss of our ignorance, which is both human and peculiarly modern: How are we to make of that love an economic practice?

“That question calls for many answers, and we don't know most of them. It is a question that those humans who want to answer it will be living and working with for a long time—if they are allowed a long time. Meanwhile, may heaven guard us from those who think they already have the answers.”*

Between the beginning and the end, he offers enough to keep us thinking, talking and questioning for weeks. And that’s just one essay from the book.

How healthy and honest to acknowledge we have more questions than answers, and how arrogant and deceptive to say that we don’t.

*Copyright 2005 CHRISTIAN CENTURY. Reproduced by permission from the September 20, 2005 issue of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY. Subscriptions: $49/year from P.O. Box 378, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. 1-800-208-4097

The Difference Between Kids and Adults

2005-09-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow afternoon in a local park, hundreds of people will gather for cultural games and activities from Africa, a performance by the contemporary Christian group Jars of Clay and the main event: Ellie’s Run for Africa.

“There are five people dying every single minute of AIDS in Africa,” says Ellie Ambrose, the brains and name behind the event. Now in its second year, last year it raised nearly $20,000 to benefit health clinics in Cape Town, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya, and a Kenyan school.

Ellie was inspired to do something to help people in Africa, especially children, after hearing a speaker at her church and watching a video presentation. She was particularly haunted by the images of malnourished young children.

She went home and prayed about what she could do, and God gave her this idea.

Ellie Ambrose is a 12-year-old sixth-grader.

She was even younger a little more than a year ago when she began making initial plans. That didn’t matter. She was convinced that people in Africa needed help. She believed could make a difference. And she was confident that she could inspire others to help, too.

A fellow church member agreed to head up the first event, and Ellie has kept the momentum going ever since, speaking to local students from elementary-age to college and appearing in radio and television public service announcements to promote the event.

“It just goes to show that kids don’t know what they can’t do,” said Tres Scheibe, chief executive officer of Thrift-Smart, an event sponsor. “An adult would think of why it wouldn’t work. She didn’t think about that. She just went for it.”

Leaders who inspire compassionate actions come in all ages. One thing they have in common are arms long enough to embrace the world. Another is faith that believes and acts. Period.

“The Levees Have Been Broken,” Gaddy Says

2005-09-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Few government programs can claim the success of Head Start. Begun in 1965, it has provided early childhood education and development programs for children of low-income families. Thanks to Head Start, millions of children have begun school on a more level playing field than they otherwise would have.

Now Congress is considering some changes to the program that will deepen the cracks in the wall dividing church and state. The Reverend Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, briefed some congressional members and their staffs earlier this week about the wrong-headed thinking behind the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123).

The bill would allow government-funded Head Start providers to exercise religious discrimination in selecting teachers and volunteers for their programs. Tax dollars would, in effect, subsidize religious discrimination.

The amendment “is just one example of political opportunists taking advantage of a national tragedy to institute policies that have not found enough support for passage in more normal times,” Gaddy said.

“Religious organizations have had a long and proud history in their active participation in Head Start programs. For years, houses of worship have made substantial contributions to their communities with the existing workplace protections in place. If those in Congress who seek to repeal these employment safeguards are successful, thousands of children, teachers and parent volunteers who have dedicated themselves to this program could find themselves no longer welcome at religiously affiliated Head Start programs because they are of a different faith than the sponsoring organization.”

Something We Can Do Without

2005-09-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve somehow missed the flurry of media activity surrounding the talking Jesus dolls, which debuted in August. Until now.

Religion News Service reports today that doll maker One2believe is unhappy with Scholastic Parent and Child magazine’s decision to refuse advertising for the dolls, foot-high figures that spout Bible verses. The magazine cites the need to respect preschool students of all faiths.

Scholastic’s Kyle Good said that the magazine does not “accept any kind of religious advertisement” and “has a long-standing credo that promotes tolerance and diversity.” Since the magazine is often distributed in public classrooms, advertising the Jesus dolls would be inappropriate.

Good for Scholastic.

And as far as the doll, I see little difference between it and the analogy a Southern Baptist seminary president recently used in which he compared the love of God to the Energizer Bunny.

Some things not only are poor education; they’re also in very poor taste and trivialize matters of faith.

Facilitating Relevance

2005-09-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Following is the third and final part of my conversation with Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc. See “One of Our Greatest Challenges” and “It Takes More Than a Name Change” below, for the first two parts.

Dr. Galindo has studied and observed congregational Christian education for years. Here he talks about challenges Christian educators face today as we plan for and provide Bible study for adults.

I don't think the challenges are unique or need be defined by contemporary conditions. The fact is that in terms of spiritually, people today learn the same way people have always learned. The most critical issue today, I think, is relevance. Bible study needs to be perceived as, and in effect be, relevant to the lives of people—and they are less tolerant or patient when it is not.

While we may wish that Bible study for the sake of Bible study would be enough for most believers, the fact is that unless the message and the MANNER in which they study the Bible is relevant to their lives—that is, actually makes a difference in the way they live, the way they think, the choices that they make, and the relationships they have—then Bible study in and of itself is no different than any other activity one could choose from. And if it makes no difference, then why would they not choose something else?

The challenge for Christian educators, then, is to facilitate those "ways of knowing" and those approaches to Bible study, corporate and as an individual discipline, that makes the message of the Bible relevant in the lives of the believers and which makes a difference in their lives.

Preaching, Teaching and PDAs

2005-09-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

A Georgia pastor has begun preaching entirely off of notes and text from his PDA. He says, “I am a mover when I preach or teach, so I may be on stage or out among the crowd. Were I to be constantly linked to the pulpit, much of this (mobility) would be impossible.”

Two frustrations he’s encountered: pulling out the stylus and the PDA itself becoming a distraction, more of a focal point than the message itself.

“Nothing frustrates me like seeing a mouse pointer or Windows menu system during a ministry or business screen presentation. It is a huge distraction from the message. The hearer’s destiny is on the line here, so I wanted to make certain that the message got delivered whether my geek factor got shown-off or not.”

The pastor, Pat Horne, offers more detailed tips, in case you’re interested.

He might well be onto something. In 10 years, Sunday schools might be completely paperless, with teachers and students alike holding PDAs to search scripture.

It’s Not Just What We Say

2005-09-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, my mouth occasionally got me into trouble. Sometimes it was because of something I said when I knew better than to say it. Other times it was a tone or verbal attitude that spewed out in a derogatory, sarcastic or hurtful way. Fairly regularly, my mother would tell me, “It’s not just what you say; it’s also how you say it.”

Though the process took years, I developed a certain degree of personal responsibility for my speech. Since my career path has led me to work with words a significant part of every day, it’s been an invaluable lesson.

The more I hear and read, though, the more I encounter instances of conversation that cuts and writing that stings. And it’s intentional. Civility in language is often, in fact, viewed as weakness instead of strength.

Our spoken and written words offer the world a picture of our faith. They can do a great deal of good, but they can also inflict tremendous harm and pain.

Each day, people of faith have the opportunity to help frame conversations and written communication positively and proactively. We can do that when we better understand what’s behind our words, learn to listen, choose our speech carefully, encourage healthy dialogue, respect differences, adhere to the facts, avoid manipulation and apply biblical teachings.

It would be easier, of course, just to keep quiet. Easier, but not at all helpful.

Neutrality: Not an Option

2005-09-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Beginning November 1, passport authorities in Germany will accept only pictures taken from the front showing “the most neutral facial expression possible.”

That’s so biometric scanners can pick up people’s facial features. The systems that recognize and match key features on passport holders’ faces work best when the faces in the pictures have neutral expressions and closed mouths. “A broad smile, however nice it may be, is therefore unacceptable,” according to Germany's Interior Ministry.

The new passports are part of wider security measures the German government passed following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Neutrality might be desirable when it comes to passport pictures, but it’s not an option for the Christian. We’ve see far too many results in the last couple of weeks of what happens when we’re unwilling to take stands on behalf and in defense of our nation’s poor and disenfranchised.

A mature faith lives the word; it doesn’t just talk about it. It presses for impartiality, speaks wisely and thoughtfully to exert influence on key leaders and pursues justice diligently.

Long after the donations of money, food and clothes stop, people of faith must continue to do the work of faith. That will inevitably mean taking some counter-cultural stands.

Neutrality’s not an option.

One to Watch

2005-09-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

Delia Gallagher has been chosen as the first full-time faith and values reporter for CNN, according to Religion News Service. She will cover the religious angle of breaking news and will also produce some more in-depth features on subjects of interest to people of faith.

"It's going to be a great experience, because it's the first time that CNN is putting itself out there, realizing there is a religious voice that needs to be brought into the mainstream," she said.

She’s already been on the job, covering the efforts of Catholic schools to teach children who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Gallagher, who is Catholic, worked five years covering the Vatican as a contributing editor to the news magazine Inside the Vatican. Since 2002, she’s worked as CNN’s Vatican analyst.

She believes her experience in Rome will help her report on all religions: "To cover any religion, you've got to already be imbued with one of them."

It will be interesting to follow Gallagher’s reports and see how they are similar to and different from straight news reports.

Purposefully Paperless

2005-09-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

It always distressed me as a minister of education to walk through the educational building and see piles of unused literature stacked in corners of rooms. My distress grew when I later became an editor of Christian educational materials and would discover the publication I edited, along with many others, tossed aside in dark classroom corners.

That’s not a problem in my present Sunday school class, which seems to reinforce some recently-released statistics from The Barna Group related to churches’ use of technology. We’re practically paperless. We receive our Bible study resources via email, and it’s a preference for class members who’ve expressed an opinion.

At the present time we’re following the lectionary, and our teacher emailed each of us a file containing the readings we’ll consider. We recently completed a study of Real Baptists, and after a time of lessons from the lectionary, we’ll turn to another study in PDF format. We save the study guides to our laptops or desktops, and we’ve got everything we need to engage in thoughtful reflection and dialogue.

It’s fast, simple, inexpensive and environmentally friendly.

It Takes More Than a Name Change

2005-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Following is the second part of my conversation with Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc. See “One of Our Greatest Challenges,” below, for the first part.

Dr. Galindo has studied and observed congregational Christian education for a number of years. Here he talks about some things that have not changed, and a few things that have.

In the congregational context, there seems not to have been too much change in terms of Bible study, though some factors can be identified. Things that have not changed include:
the appalling level of biblically illiteracy among the members of the congregation (arguably, it's even worse now);
the lack of effective teaching methodology due to the poor job congregations do in training their dedicated volunteer teachers;
the lack of support given to the educational enterprises in congregations in terms of staff and budget;
the overdependence on curricular resource products;
and the reality that much of what passes for "Bible study" is non-transformational in the lives of most members.
At the same time, we do see some changes in the landscape, some of which are positive. These include:
the willingness of churches to seek out more effective resources regardless of which denomination produces them;
the continuing awareness in some congregations about the power of small group Bible study;
the influence of more responsible (less doctrinaire and uncritical) Bible study interpretation resources for the laypersons.
While the recent emphases on "spiritual formation" as the new catchphrase for "Christian education" may be a positive step, the reality is that in most congregations, it's been merely a change of name without a change of understanding or educational approaches. Few seem able to define what "spiritual formation" is, or know how to go about shaping an educational enterprise that actually facilitates spiritual formation.

Heart Transplant

2005-09-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

If we follow lectionary texts long enough—or any comprehensive Bible study, for that matter—sooner or later we’re going to have to deal with some of the more uncomfortable biblical teachings. Sunday’s Matthew passage is one of them. It includes the parable Jesus told when Peter asked him how often he should forgive.

Gracia Grindal, professor of rhetoric at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, offers some good insights into dealing with this passage in an online column from The Christian Century Magazine.

“The church has quit talking about sin and forgiveness, and ‘plays’ at community without getting to the depths of the heart where the forgiveness must start,” she says. “The Lord’s Supper has degenerated—it cannot be a rite of community without true forgiveness. We should not be taking the cup until we have made things right with our neighbors. Forgiveness is necessary for us to be one in Christ.”

Some of what she says ought to make us uncomfortable, just as we should become uncomfortable when we read some of what Jesus said and realize he’s got a better understanding of us than we have of ourselves.

“We have mainlined grace so cheaply that we no longer understand the disconnect in our own spiritual lives. As Bonhoeffer argued, we have begun to justify sins instead of sinners. We insist on a superficial forgiveness and judge people who are judgmental and unforgiving. Here is where Jesus gets us again. It needs to be from the heart.”

If we’re honest, we’ll admit, as Grindal does, that we do not always have it in our hearts to forgive like this. “For many of us,” she says, “the only solution is to get a new heart.”

Her column is worthy of your consideration if you will teach or preach from this Matthew text on Sunday.

For the Price of a Cup of Coffee

2005-09-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Some of what churches call Bible study is simply not that at all. Some of it is designed not to explore and apply what the Bible says but instead to tell people what they want to hear.

As a result, our world is paying an appalling price.

A case in point: if churches had historically done a better job examining everything the Bible says—not just the “feel-good” passages—global poverty would not have reached its current, frightening levels. Had we Christians been personally transformed and motivated to action by the Bible’s clear call to take care of the poor, our world would look much different.

The United Nations released a major report yesterday that ought to shame not just world leaders for their failure to act but all of us for our failure to hold them accountable and for our own greed and selfishness.

In 2000, members of the U.N. set the year 2015 as a target for halving extreme poverty, reducing child deaths by two-thirds and achieving universal primary education.

Kevin Watkins, chief author of the 2005 Human Development Report, called those goals “a promissory note, written by 189 governments to the world’s poor people. That note falls due in less than 10 years time,” he said, “and without the required investment and political will, it will come back stamped ‘insufficient funds.’”

The lives of millions of people are literally at risk if we do not act and act quickly, the report warns. While some progress has been made, some things we could have long ago changed have worsened:

In spite of growing global prosperity, more than 1 billion people still survive on less than $1 a day.
10.7 million children die before their fifth birthday.
115 million children are not in school.

One-fifth of us live in countries where many people regularly spend $2 or more every day for a cup of fancy coffee. Another one-fifth of humanity survives on less than $1 per day.

A careful study of scripture will cause us to battle inequalities, advocate for human rights and take unpopular stands against greed and corruption that fill the wallets of the wealthy on the backs of the poor. It will push us to demand that wealthy nations give greater aid to poorer nations with no strings attached because it is the right thing to do.

“As a global community, we have the means to eradicate poverty,” the report said. “If ever there was a moment for decisive political leadership to advance the shared interests of humanity, that moment is now.”

If ever there was a moment for decisive Christian leadership to advocate for policies that help end global poverty, that moment is now.

A Bible study on poverty and God’s expectations for our response to it might not be the feel-good Bible study our groups think they want.

All the more indication it’s exactly the kind of study we need.

One of Our Greatest Challenges

2005-09-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

Israel Galindo, professor of Christian education at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (BTSR) and executive director of Educational Consultants, Inc., graciously responded to a series of questions he’s uniquely qualified to answer. The questions and his answers will appear here over the next several weeks and offer numerous entry points for thought and dialogue.

When asked about areas in which congregational Christian educators have excelled, as well about areas of weakness, here’s what he said:

This is one of the areas of greatest challenge. The function of Christian education is critical in the life of every congregation—it is the single most important force, in its potential, for helping people mature, grow spiritually, and for making them true disciples of Jesus Christ. And so, the role and function of the congregational educator is critical. The pragmatic reality is that most congregations go a long time before they can call, and financially support, a paid educator to develop and lead the educational enterprises needed.

Too many congregational educators, for a number of possible reasons, seem to not be "real educators." That is, they are too dependent on programmatic approaches, lack training and education in theology and educational theory and philosophy to help them do what an effective educator actually needs to do. To say this is not to disparage their calling, their passion or their good intent. It just seems that what passes for "Christian education" in most congregations is not educational at all, and that it is uniquely Christian is suspect. The potential and importance of effective Christian education is too critical for us to be content with this state of affairs.

I'll provide two specific examples. I visit many churches and spend time with many congregational educators (both clergy and lay) across the country. It has become my habit for the past several years to ask two questions of the "resident educator" in the church. First, I ask, "What is your philosophy of Christian education?" The typical response is a blank stare. Having asked this question for over ten years, I've not had one single congregational Christian educator able to answer that question.

The second question I ask is about programming. Specifically, I ask about the retreats that the congregation offers for its adult members. Most Baptist congregations do not offer spirituality retreats for their members. For the few that have offered retreats, they tend to be no more than glorified workshops, for the men, or for the women, or things like a "marriage retreat"; or they restrict retreats as an activity for the youth (which involves more hours in recreation than anything else). The reason this is telling is that if you're in the business of "spiritual formation" then practicing spiritual disciplines, like retreats, is necessary. Yet most churches do not program or offer this formative experience (emphasis on "experience") for their members.

Bridled Talk, Loving Actions

2005-09-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

Ideas flew out of people’s mouths yesterday in my Sunday school class more quickly than my mind could process them.

Our dialogue centered largely on ways we could respond to help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. According to local news reports, as many as 13,000 evacuees have already made their way to our area and have begun looking for jobs, enrolling their children in schools and piecing their lives back together.

Within minutes, our class identified several options for offering immediate and practical help. We developed a plan for gathering much-needed items like towels and bed linens and decided how we would get them to area shelters.

We quickly collected some money to buy diapers for a young mother who found herself here unexpectedly and with a negative bank balance. Someone volunteered to buy the supplies she needed and deliver them that afternoon.

We talked about ways to provide children with what they would need to start the new school year—again.

No one speculated about why this disaster happened, and thankfully, no one offered a quick and simple explanation that somehow attached it to “God’s will.”

As we concluded, our teacher wisely reminded us to be careful about how we speak about this tragedy.

Good advice. Rhetoric is not in short supply these days. Much of it is not helpful; some of it suggests a completely distorted and unbiblical picture of God’s will.

Scripture reminds us to control our speech and warns us against speaking foolishly and carelessly. The writer of Proverbs champions speech that flows out of critical thinking and is uplifting, redemptive and truthful.

James advocates for love-filled speech that reflects the presence of God in our lives.

Our words will add brush strokes to the picture of Christianity many people have. The biblical witness about speech has never been more important.

A New Teaching Tool

2005-09-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

The new NBC show “Three Wishes,” premiering later this month, is “a teaching tool,” according to host Amy Grant.

The one-hour reality show moves to a new town each week where its hosts listen to residents describe their deepest wishes. By each show’s end, three of them will have had their wishes granted.

Grant believes the show is important because it reminds people to care for each other, something a lot of us may have forgotten how to do.

“We live in an age when people are not connecting the way they used to, not meeting each other’s needs on a basic level,” she said.

From all accounts, the show appears to be quite different from standard reality show fare. Andrew Glassman, one of the producers, says that the people whose wishes are granted “are caught in an emotional crossroads in their lives” and “genuinely are asking for a little help.”

Isn’t that one of our purposes as communities of faith—to give help to those who need it?

This show might well be a new teaching tool, but it’s only a place to start. We can continue through creating genuine fellowship, pursuing justice, giving generously and loving unconditionally.

Stemming the Tide of Hopelessness

2005-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Stunning images of destruction and devastation have filled our television screens this week. The pictures of terrified people revealed horrors for which words proved insufficient: some fighting the surge of rushing water down normally dry streets; others clinging desperately to each other on rooftops; still others heartbroken as they surveyed piles of rubble that was once their home.

Television film crews captured the image of a woman leaving a store to wade through a flooded New Orleans street, her face shamefully covered with the package of diapers she had taken for the infant she carried on her hip. Also in full view, faces uncovered and jubilant, were packs of people carrying away things like cigarettes and beer.

At first I thought that these scenes revealed two distinct faces of humanity. One, I thought, was desperation, with hands that grabbed for and clutched life’s essentials. The other, I decided, must surely be the face of greed: out-of-control people tightly clutching things that were of no use to them.

But then I realized how desperate they all were, grabbing and clutching anything they could because it was all they had access to. And I also realized that the face I most needed to study was my own—our own—the faces of people who don’t have to struggle and fight just to get life’s essentials and in fact enjoy more luxuries than we should.

What does it say about us that we have created a culture in which people are so disenfranchised and impoverished that they quickly dissolve into chaos and lawlessness? Their behaviors reflect in part our own: our greed, our gluttony, our lack of compassion, our inaction and our unwillingness to pursue justice for all.

We are not without fault here. We must do what we can to help now, but we must also work to correct a society that keeps some people so squashed and hopeless that they resort to violence to get what they need.

They didn’t need televisions and computers. They have no electricity. What they need is long-term attention to the plight of their poverty and unemployment. They have our attention now. I hope they still have it in the months and years to come.

Take the I-10 Challenge

2005-08-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday’s rant was in part response to some of the nonsense on various Weblogs that interprets disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God’s punishment, this ought to provide both helpful balance and healthy response. It also serves as a good example of how Christians can use technology quickly to inform, inspire and initiate positive actions.

Barry Howard, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pensacola, Florida, sent me and numerous others on his email list what he calls “The I-10 Challenge.” In it, he reminds us that Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina have in less than one year devastated coastal communities from Florida to Louisiana. Katrina will, by most estimates now, be the worst disaster in US history.

Howard has challenged his congregation to do one, two or all three of the following things:

· Make a monetary donation to disaster relief equal to 10 hours of your wages.
· Volunteer 10 hours time on a disaster relief team or in a shelter assisting victims.
· Devote 10 hours to prayer for those affected by the storm over the course of the next 90 days.

FBC Pensacola quickly devised a strategy to enable its members to participate in each of these ways. In addition, they are in the process of adopting a Mississippi congregation affected by the storm so that they can provide resources, prayer support and volunteers during the rebuilding process.

Howard is encouraging other individuals and congregations to accept the I-10 challenge. It’s a simple but worthwhile plan entire families can do together that will produce long-term results.

And if you’re around a television at the time, tune into Scarborough Country on MSNBC tonight. Joe Scarborough plans to feature this initiative.

Grateful for the Silence

2005-08-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

The self-appointed spokespeople for the entire Christian community who are usually quick to declare disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God’s punishment have so far remained thankfully silent, at least to my knowledge. I’ve not heard that one of them has proclaimed this unfolding disaster as “God’s will” or God’s response to various sins they associate with the hardest-hit areas.

But some mostly anonymous bloggers have quickly stepped into the prophetic, voice-of-doom role. Replying to questions like “Is God in the hurricane?” and “Did God send the hurricane?,” their responses reveal just about every possible notch on the theological spectrum. While they’re interesting to read, most are not that helpful.

One particularly confident but grossly misguided blogger called this just another sign of the end times and said Bible prophecy was being fulfilled before our very eyes. “Remember Ninevah?” this blogger asked. God is trying to get people’s attention and wake them up, he or she declared.

I agree with the blogger who wrote that if we hear God’s voice speaking through this hurricane, what we will hear is God telling us to get up and do something to help.

Both history and personal experience suggest that God’s probably not going to shout to get our attention. More than likely, God will speak in a whisper, or in the silence.

If we don't hear, it's probably because we're creating too much noisy theological babble.

Hold On

2005-08-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina has already pounded my home state of Louisiana and is, as I write this, making her way northeast through Mississippi.

Being from central Louisiana, we were generally spared the most direct hits from hurricanes, but we had our share of rising waters and high winds anytime one came ashore. I can recall at least one occasion when my father got in his fishing boat, started the motor and road up and down the streets in our neighborhood to check on people. We had around 6-8 inches of water inside our house at the time, and the rain was still coming down.

The people who today most need to read pastor Heather Entrekin’s sermon, “A Brief Walk on Water,” probably don’t have electricity. I wish they did. Her sermon deals with the Matthew account of the disciples and Jesus in a boat when a storm came up.

“We know that faith does not eliminate all fear,” she says. “Here is a boat full of disciples full of fear. … When things got really rough in the boat, the passengers drenched, exhausted, blisters on their hands from bailing and rowing, Jesus came to them, walking on the water. It doesn’t say they prayed, or yelled for help. Maybe they did. But this we know—they were in distress and Jesus came right through all that terrified them the most.”

She goes on to say, “Jesus doesn’t say much—only ‘It is I.’ … We would appreciate details along the lines of the Global Positioning System, The Weather Channel, a contingency plan, but apparently this is all we are going to get. ‘I am.’ The storm is not all there is. Storms will come and storms will go, but the Lord is Lord of wild winds and crashing seas and Jesus can and will stroll right through them to show you.”

Sometimes when people face personal storms and struggles, she says, they step out of their boats. Other times, they fall out. “With tears, prayers, vulnerability, fear, endurance, confidence, uncertainty, hope, they step into the storm and walk. … Jesus is the only one who never sinks. He alone has already declared the storm conquered. But what matters is, we know him because he comes to us and he calls to us.”

No matter what kind of storms we face, her closing challenge applies: “Hold on.”

Individually Generous, Nationally Not

2005-08-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

This week’s Foreign Policy magazine and its “Commitment to Development Index” reveal that nations in which fewer people attend church are more generous in their support for development in poor countries than nations in which people attend church more frequently.

Americans tend to be quite generous in terms of their private giving, but US official development assistance is remarkably low compared to countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Norway, where church attendance rates are very low. In Denmark, for example, only three percent of the population attends church at least once a week. As a nation, however, it is the most helpful to poor countries.

Like some other virtues, generosity is not limited to Christians.

Neither is the ability to influence political and cultural systems limited only to those outside the church.

While those within the church ought to be known for our selflessness, generosity, bridge-building and risk-taking, we ought also to be known for our willingness to challenge governmental policies that continue to plunge the world’s poorest people farther into poverty.

Hand Signals

2005-08-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

The woman who offered me a most offensive hand gesture in traffic yesterday was, I noticed, driving a car complete with a fish decal, a W sticker and some kind of God-related bumper sticker. In her signaling hand, which she conveniently displayed through the open window, she held a burning cigarette. Nice touch.

I found her car adornments to be no different from the statements of the TV evangelist who has regularly denounced abortion on the one hand but earlier this week called for the assassination of another country’s president on the other. He first said he was misunderstood; then he apologized. Too late.

It really doesn’t matter what we say we believe, what monuments we insist be displayed in public or what labels we apply to ourselves or our cars. Living faith acts purely out of love.

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20-21).

And in case we’re in doubt about who our brothers and sisters are, there’s always that nice story Jesus told in answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Monumental Figures

2005-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

ChristianityToday.com posted some recent statistics today related to Americans’ views on public displays and prayer in public schools, among other things.

Seventy percent of those polled support posting the Ten Commandments in government buildings. Eighty-five percent would support such a posting if the commandments were included as “one document among many historical documents.”

Thirty-six percent of those responding to this poll said that a display of the Ten Commandments in a public building is primarily an acknowledgement of God. Fifty-two percent believe it is primarily a statement about the roots of our laws.

Seventy-one percent of Americans polled believe that the Pledge of Allegiance phrase “one nation, under God” is primarily related to political, instead of religious, tradition.

Fifty-two percent in this survey believe that teachers and other public school officials should be allowed to lead prayers in public schools.

The Back of the Bus Is a Step Back

2005-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Islam’s strict legal code of sharia strikes again, this time sending women in Kano, Nigeria, to the back of the bus.

According to a recent article on washingtonpost.com, government officials there are requiring that women sit in the back of public minibuses. In addition, women are banned from all but a few motorcycle taxis.

Moves such as this one grow out of concern that life in Nigeria’s northern cities is changing too fast. Authorities want to reestablish traditional sharia rules that regulate behavior strictly and limit contact between men and women.

Within the next few weeks, motorcycle drivers who are caught carrying women who are not related to them will be ticketed. They may also have their drivers licenses suspended.

As a result of these changes, women will have far fewer transportation options. Their daily commutes to work, school and other necessary stops will be terribly compromised. While the government has purchased some motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles specially designed to transport only women, these will hardly make up the deficit. Many women will be left not only frustrated and powerless but also unable to carry out their daily responsibilities.

What’s so interesting is that polygamy is common in this culture, but the incidental contact a man and woman might have when they ride the same motorcycle is considered alarming.

And forget allowing women to work as drivers to transport other women. According to washingtonpost.com, every bus and motorcycle, and practically every private car, is driven by a man, something that is not likely to change.

One bus driver dismissed the idea of female drivers, saying that women could “hardly cope.”

The situation may not be likely to change, but we can work to educate ourselves and others to become advocates for voiceless, powerless women worldwide. One organization that can help is Global Women. Check them out, and join with others to make a difference in the lives of women around the world.

There Is Something Wrong

2005-08-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

“Our experience—historically as Baptists, and today as Christians—should lead us to stand up for all those who suffer for being who they are, no matter how they are defined,” wrote Mark Woods, the UK’s Baptist Times editor, in an editorial.

He was writing in response to the racially motivated murder of a black teenager in Liverpool, England in late July. He said that the death of 18-year-old Anthony Walker serves as “a tragic and shocking reminder that the crudest forms of racism are still very much with us—there is something wrong.”

Wade Hudson-Roberts, the racial justice coordinator of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, believes that race relations are “in a precarious place” in the UK. “The reality is that young innocent black and Asian people are still subject to the horrors of societal racism and its legacy,” he said.

There is something wrong not just in the UK, but everywhere, and churches can help fix it. Hudson-Roberts believes churches should educate their congregants that racism is repugnant to God.

“Not to do so is to fail to be Christ, because Christ is all-inclusive and all-embracing,” he said.

Whether it is in England, Iraq, your town or mine, there is something wrong when people are tortured, abused and even killed simply because they are who they are.

Will the church speak up and speak out?

Will Christian educators equip it?

Not to do so is to deny our calling.

What’s In a Name?

2005-08-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

First he was Sean Combs. Then he was known as Puff Daddy, Puffy and Puff, not necessarily in that order. Somewhere along the way he became P. Diddy.

News flash: Now he wants to be known only as Diddy.

“We had to move the P,” the rap entertainer said in a recent interview. “We had to simplify it. Diddy is more personal. We are entering into the age of Diddy. It’s a new era.”

I am not making this up.

“I felt like the ‘P’ was getting between me and my fans, and now we’re closer,” he said. “During concerts, half the crowd is saying ‘P. Diddy,’ half the crowd is chanting ‘Diddy’—now everybody can just chant ‘Diddy.’”

He claims even he was getting confused and it took him too long to identify himself to others. Now, he says, “One word. Five letters. Period.”

Unfortunately, I know how he feels. I’ve carried the label Baptist all my life and have spent way too much time trying to explain what kind of Baptist I am.

I know what I mean by Baptist, but I’m pretty sure my definition doesn’t always mesh with that of some other folks.

One word. Seven letters. Question mark?

A Complete Workout

2005-08-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

“I really hate this part,” a woman said to me as we stood side by side at the exercise bar following our workout. “By this point, I’m just ready to go home.”

I smiled to acknowledge that I understood, but then I realized I really didn’t agree with her. I might not enjoy the post-exercise stretching while I’m doing it, but I really am glad I’ve done it once I’m finished.

Most exercise experts stress the importance of stretching immediately following aerobic and strength-training workouts, because warm muscles are more receptive to stretching then. They cite benefits like increased flexibility, better range of motion, improved circulation, better posture, relief from stress and greater coordination.

A complete Christian education experience ought also to include a certain amount of stretching. The same benefits we find in physical exercise seem to apply here as well.

When we fail to mentally and spiritually stretch, do we run the risk of becoming inflexible, less mobile, slow, slouchy, stressed and uncoordinated?

Uncomfortable Compassion

2005-08-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Tom Ehrich is once again right on target in his column today titled “The Wrongness of Right Opinion.” He says, in part:

“Religious high horses are pleasing to ride. Tussles over right-opinion build crowds, fund movements, sell books, amass power and enable us to avoid the inconvenience of what Jesus actually said and did. Institutional maintenance keeps the Gospel at a safe distance. Dividing and labeling people makes it unnecessary to actually deal with people.

“If only our right-opinions and institutional orderliness fed the poor, healed the sick, clothed the naked, sheltered the homeless, caused enemies to become friends and nurtured oneness in the body of Christ, we could relax and consider our work done. Unfortunately, right opinion adds little to human welfare. The travails of life rarely yield to doctrine or order.”

It’s pretty clear that Jesus invested his time not spouting the right opinion but performing acts of compassion. If we follow him, that’s what we’ll do too. We’ll know we’re on the right path when carry the hurts of the world so closely that we’re somehow always a little uncomfortable.

Lingering Questions

2005-08-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Before we get started on today’s lesson, a woman in my Sunday school class said yesterday, I have a question left over from last week. It’s about mutual submission.

And then she proceeded to ask her very astute question. Lots of healthy dialogue followed. It was quite some time before we got around to yesterday’s lesson on servant leadership.

A few observations:

We teach people, not lessons. Because our group’s facilitators know this, we didn’t rush past the woman’s question in order to “start the lesson.”
Confident teachers are unafraid of tough questions. They also allow other people to suggest answers.
Quality education often results in lingering questions and allows more than one route to find answers.

Ask Politely and Don’t Forget to Say “Please”

2005-08-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Melodie Davis, staff writer for Mennonite Media, writes a weekly column on family life, values and spirituality called “Another Way.”

In this week’s column, she writes about some of the things kids at a youth convention wrote in response to this question: How do you ask your parents for something you really want, but aren’t sure they’ll give you?

Here are some of their actual responses:

“Say, ‘I’m a good kid and I do things for you.’”

“Give them good news first about you, suck up to them, and then ask and don’t forget please.”

“Tell them it will further your Christian growth.”

“Hey Mom, you know that I love you.”

“Practice good behavior for a week and then ask.”

Their answers are not that different from some of things I’ve occasionally prayed or heard others pray and remind me of our shortsightedness and limited understanding about prayer.

Davis writes that her column is “intended more as advice to parents (beware when they try this on you) than as advice for kids (please don’t try this at home).”

I don’t think God needs a reminder to beware when we try this. God’s been onto us a long time.

Life Lessons from Unexpected Places

2005-08-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, I usually spent the week with my grandparents when their small, country church had its Vacation Bible School. I heard the same stories, sang the same songs, made the same crafts and ate the same snacks as at my own church’s Bible school. In spite of all that familiarity, though, and in ways that I still can’t completely identify, it was somehow different.

Rural churches have for decades been the glue that holds many communities together, but they rarely get any large-scale attention. That’s why I’m glad people like Gary Farley see to it that we don’t forget about them.

In an article on EthicsDaily.com today, Farley says:

“Every couple of generations, due to changes in the cultural and social environment, rural churches have had to re-invent themselves. Typically, there have been some who have resisted the process of re-invention. Many that have resisted successfully have since died.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to New Hope Baptist Church. It’s changed a lot, from what I understand, but not so much that it’s no longer the church. I know that I could drive right up to it, walk in and experience a familiar feeling.

I think that’s similar to what God has in mind for us as individuals: a constant re-invention that transforms us and makes us useful in our culture but retains our uniqueness as God’s people.

Signed by God

2005-08-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you’ve seen them—those clever billboards “signed” by God.

“If you must curse, use your own name!” one says, followed by “God.”

Another one: “Loved the wedding. Invite me to the marriage,” also signed by “God.”

Cliff Vaughn has an article on EthicsDaily.com today about this anonymously-funded ad campaign. A related Web site, www.GodSpeaks.com, exists to provide more information not only about the billboards but also about a relationship with God.

“The Web site provides a forum for someone to read a lot more information about the God of the Bible and that is its primary purpose,” according to Mark DeMoss, president of the PR firm recently commissioned to launch nine new sayings.

While it may be a circuitous route—billboard to Web site to Bible—if it happens, then I’d say it’s worth it. Especially if people move beyond the billboards to a personal realization that God still speaks.

Living Biblically

2005-08-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

A.J. Jacobs, senior editor at Esquire magazine, is going to obey the Bible literally for a full year and chronicle his results in a book titled The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Obey the Bible as Literally as Possible.

Simon & Schuster plans to publish the book in fall 2006, and Paramount Pictures has acquired film rights.

I’m not sure why Jacobs is doing this. My understanding of the Bible tells me he has completely missed the point.

Living biblically means not following the letter of the law but following the example of the one who fulfilled it. It means living with purpose and with faith's perspective, practicing impartiality, speaking thoughtfully, acting in love, showing mercy, pursuing justice.

Honest Christianity

2005-08-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

A sad but potentially motivating article for people of Christian faith appears today on beliefnet.com—“I Shopped for a Church … and Found Spirituality Instead.”

A woman raised in the Catholic tradition writes about the personal spiritual journey that led her to renounce that faith, visit a number of other Christian churches and finally embrace New Thought philosophy. She has decided that the Christian perspective is no longer positive and makes no sense to her.

Her story is, of course, not sad to her. She says that she has found what she was looking for: “Thought that does not ask me to discriminate, feel guilty, dwell on suffering, judge, worship a punishing God or be anyone I’m not.”

The portraits of Christianity she viewed and the experiences of church she tasted sent her running away, rather than toward them. “I definitely didn’t want to frequent a place run by flakes or spiritual snobs,” she writes.

This woman’s journey can remind us of several things, and perhaps teach us something new about how we can effectively be the church:

People are searching. They often don’t know what they are looking for, but they are not closed to the idea that faith holds meaning and some answers. They want authenticity and warmth and can spot hypocrisy immediately.
Many people are fed up with dogmatic, linear, narrow thinking that focuses on two or three hot-button issues to the exclusion of the other things that are important to God that we clearly find throughout the biblical witness.
People are unafraid to ask questions and pursue their own answers. This should neither frighten nor discourage us, even when the answers they find do not match our own. People who ask questions are thinking people. Thinking people tend to have open minds.
People often stop their spiritual search prematurely when they find something that “feels good.” The reality of the Christian faith is that in order to experience God’s salvation, we must come face to face with our own sinfulness. This is unpleasant. It does not feel good. We are dishonest with people when we paint Christianity as a spiritual amusement park and prayer as a vending machine. We are also dishonest with them when we make love, community and fellowship conditional. These, rather than guilt and doom, should be the first things they experience among us.
Many people in our culture insist on a cafeteria-style approach to faith, and shop for it much like they do when purchasing other goods and services. They pick and choose ideas from a number of religious traditions that may or may not be biblically based.

Jesus never had any trouble drawing a crowd when he lived on earth. When we as his followers and his church do, we ought to wonder why. And we ought to be courageous enough to take corrective actions.

The Message: Marketing It or Living It?

2005-08-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

A group of teenagers from my hometown that included a nephew and a niece as chaperones came here last week for a missions camp, so I met them for dinner one night. We weren’t the only ones who had this idea, as I was greeted by scores of church vans and buses in the mall parking lot. Neither malls nor crowds hold great appeal for me, so my stomach sank a notch or two.

Since I arrived ahead of my group, I went inside to wait, where I quickly identified the van and bus riders by their colorful and uniquely designed “Christian” T-shirts. Some of the messages were clever; others were edgy; a few bordered on offensive, at least to me.

The sea of T-shirts got me to thinking about all the ways people now try to market the Christian message and wondering just how effective these things really are. Golf balls, coffee mugs, packages of mints, belt buckles, caps, hats, jewelry, even diets promote messages for which Christians—particularly younger ones—pay large sums of money.

It’s one thing to market the Christian message, but quite another thing to live it. It’s possible to do both, so I hope that’s what’s happening with the sale and profits of all these products.

Notable Quotes

2005-08-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Two thoughtful insights appear below.

The first reminds us of what can happen when people allow the Bible to reshape their thinking, their speaking and their living.

The next reminds those of us concerned with Bible study of why we must never give up.

Lauran Bethell works as a global consultant with American Baptist International Ministries to aid women trapped in prostitution. She received the Human Rights Award from BWA during its centenary congress in Birmingham, England and was quoted as saying:

"What everyone can do is to see those in prostitution--see anyone we'd rather not see--with new eyes, whether they be the homeless, the outcast, the terrorist, those who irritate us, our enemies. And each time we see them, repeat to ourselves that we are seeing a precious child of God. ..."

This week’s Sojo mail quotes Bill McKibben in an essay titled “The Christian Paradox” that appeared in Harper’s magazine:

"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God helps those who help themselves.' That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor."

Leadership in the Hard Places

2005-08-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Human rights groups, particularly the women among them, will be closely watching what happens in Iraq August 15 when the Iraqi National Assembly receives the draft constitution for debate and approval.

While the draft is not a perfect constitution, it does contain a provision granting Iraqi women a certain number of seats in parliament. It fails, however, to guarantee women equal rights in the family and in society.

Janet Walsh, acting Women’s Rights director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Members of the drafting committee will have to decide whether to protect women’s rights or erode them for political gain. We strongly urge them to make the right choice and to advance basic rights for women.”

The permanent constitution needs to go well beyond the broad strokes in the draft and guarantee specific rights for women in all aspects of life—marriage and family, citizenship, politics, business, etc. Only when women benefit equally to men from the new constitution will human rights truly exist in Iraq.

It all hinges on leadership. Scripture and current events are filled with examples of both successful and failed attempts at leadership, and we can learn lessons from each of them.

For the sake of human rights everywhere, I hope those leaders debating and deciding Iraq’s new constitution will avoid the temptation to look only to themselves for wisdom and instead listen to the people they represent. I hope they will set aside personal agendas and ignore the opportunities they may have to abuse their positions and power.

I hope history will be able to accurately portray these leaders as wise and courageous people who genuinely pursued justice and peace for all Iraqi citizens. And I hope from their decisions some key Iraqi women will emerge as leaders who can help shape their country’s future.

Part of the Band

2005-08-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

EthicsDaily.com columnist Michael Helms compares the actions of the SBC in withdrawing its membership from the BWA to the woman watching a marching band on the field. She pointed out that her son was the only band member marching in step.

The SBC claimed that Baptists throughout the world and consequently BWA had become too liberal. They particularly objected to the fact that BWA had accepted CBF as a member.

“In leaving the BWA,” Helms wrote, “the SBC clearly said they had no intention of promoting Christian fellowship and cooperation among Baptists who did not agree with them on all theological issues, especially among their own brothers and sisters in the United States.”

Maybe they have a point about that liberal thing. Another word for liberal is generous. BWA is unashamedly generous in promoting fellowship, cooperation, understanding, reconciliation, historic Baptist principles and practices, human rights, religious liberty, social concern and relief and mission efforts.

The SBC seems to have forgotten that all kinds of instruments make up a band. Unity and respect allow individual band members to play the same song at the same time. It doesn’t mean they can’t occasionally go solo or play a different song with someone else sometimes.

I’m glad global Baptists realize that the message of the song is what’s important, and equally sorry that so many US Baptists don’t.

A Place for Everyone

2005-08-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

Could a woman become the pastor of our church?

Our discussion didn’t start there, but that’s ultimately where it landed.

Using the Real Baptists curriculum, my Sunday school class has for several weeks now been grappling with historic Baptist beliefs and practices related to, among other things, the Bible, soul competency, priesthood of believers, local church autonomy, religious liberty and separation of church and state.

Dialogue has been interesting and engaging at every turn, but yesterday’s was particularly—dare I say it—encouraging. The subject was women in ministry.

We looked at a couple of scripture references and talked about the importance of understanding them within their context. We also discussed the relationship between scripture and culture and the difference between scripture’s culturally-based instructions and its timeless commandments.

Though we were unaware at the time that he had said it, most people in the group expressed an opinion similar to that of former President Jimmy Carter during his Bible study this weekend at the Baptist World Congress in Birmingham, England:

“Despite the fact that Jesus Christ was the greatest liberator of women, some male leaders of the Christian faith have continued the unwarranted practice of sexual discrimination, derogating women and depriving them of their equal rights to serve God,” he said.

In summary, Carter said that he understands the Bible to teach that women ought to be treated as equals to men in their right to serve God.

It’s no coincidence that my Sunday school class in Nashville, Tennessee and a group of global Baptists led by Jimmy Carter halfway around the world would read scripture and come to the same conclusion about this important but often divisive issue.

That’s what happens when we remove our blinders, eliminate our prejudices and allow God’s Spirit room to speak and work.

Hope from the Long View

2005-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ed, the guy who cuts my hair, is an interesting fellow. He quit high school to join the Navy and quickly learned how to smoke, drink, cuss and fight (his words). Based on my conversations with him, I think he’s given up only the fighting. He earned his high school diploma while he was in the Navy, was eventually discharged and then trained to do what he now does.

He knows I am a person of faith, and he occasionally makes references to God and to things he believes. He loves to talk, so I mostly listen.

Yesterday he took off on how, once we reach a certain age, life seems to develop a certain sameness, “Haven’t you ever noticed that?” he asked me. “The seasons are the same; the holidays are the same. Nothing is really ever exciting any more.”

August is just around the corner, he said, and then it will be Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then we’ll start all over again next year. He seemed pretty disappointed about the whole arrangement.

“Oh, I find that quite comforting,” I replied, in one of my rare comebacks. “I like knowing that there is order behind the universe, and I really enjoy the changing seasons.”

He quickly changed the subject. I guess my reply was a more philosophical one than he wanted to hear. While I believe this guy lives with some degree of spiritual awareness, his attitude about life and its “sameness” reflects that of many people.

I wish for all of them a faith perspective that enables them to see goodness and purpose and meaning in life, even when present circumstances seem to suggest otherwise.

Barbara Cawthorne Crafton is an Episcopal priest and writer whose insights I’ve come to appreciate. She offers an archived collection of meditations on her Web site that sometimes come in handy when I need a good illustration, and she sends out fresh meditations by email several times each week. You might want to check her out.

She writes fairly often about working among the plants in her yard and naturally connects those experiences to spiritual life. In writing about Jesus’ teaching that he is the true vine and God is the vine grower who must prune the branches (see John 15:1-2), she notes how painful but essential it is to sometimes cut off branches that are perfectly good.

“You have to decide which one you want to keep and which one will go, based on what you think the plant will do with the one you leave,” she says.

When we prune a plant, it usually produces new branches farther down that will soon become like the ones we cut off. “A plant always gives us a second chance, and a third and a fourth—it is full of hope for life until it's dead,” she says.

“Our lives are not really our own. We are being cultivated, raised, by a wise gardener. The gardener takes a long view. One season of want prepares for another of plenty; one sacrifice paves the way for a later gift. It's the whole life, not just this one uncomfortable moment of it, that grows up toward the sun of God's creating love.”

So that’s what I wish my friend Ed could develop—the hope-filled and long view of life that dynamic faith provides.

Vision Check

2005-07-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Imagine my utter disbelief when yesterday I learned that either (1) I have not been following the biblical formula for life, or (2) I am not an adult.

That’s according to the Baptist seminary president who said, “The church should insist that the biblical formula calls for adulthood to mean marriage and marriage to mean children.”

Oh really?

Families are indeed a crucial part of God’s divine plan. And God places the special, unique gift of children within families for a reason. I’m grateful for both of these truths.

But the kind of dogmatic, narrow interpretation of scripture that tells unmarried and childless people that they have somehow fallen short of the biblical formula for living is misleading and harmful.

As Amparo de Medina of Colombia told those gathered at the Women’s Leadership Conference preceding the 2005 Baptist World Congress in Birmingham, England, earlier this week, the Bible’s message has not marginalized women. Instead, “the prejudiced reading of its message” has done so.

She reminded those attending the conference to seek the truths of scripture beyond the lens of a culture that has been “influenced by sin.”

We all tend read and understand scripture through lenses influenced by family, culture, marital status, economic background, political persuasion, race, ethnicity and other factors. The danger comes when we assume our vision is perfect and everyone else’s is flawed.

Another speaker at the conference, Ksenija Magda of Croatia, encouraged participants to read the Bible through the paradigm of redemption.

If I had to pick one word to summarize the Bible’s overall theme, redemption would be it.

Thank God for redeemed people who can see clearly, speak truthfully and live faithfully. Sometimes they come in families and have children. Sometimes they don’t. For additional insights, see Bruce Prescott's blog, "SBC Empowering Kingdom Growth -- Biologically."

Highlights and Sound Bites versus Counting the Cost

2005-07-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Every week, Religion News Service carries a column by Tom Ehrich, and I dare not miss it. Ehrich always makes me think.

This week’s column, “Religion Must Go Beyond Sound Bites to Tell the Fuller Story,” deals with our culture’s tendency to reduce just about everything to slogans, sound bites and code words. Politicians are famous for this, but people of faith are guilty of it too. Ehrich is right on target with his strong warnings against it.

“Religion should be leading the way deeper but, in its own distractions, tends to reduce the salvation drama to a few shibboleths and hot-button issues,” he writes. He mentions the debate over public displays of the Ten Commandments that fail to consider “the full depth of the Torah.” Faith is often reduced to a few litmus tests, he says, and ethics “to a few attacks on someone else’s morality.”

Ehrich challenges us to tell the full story, avoid the easy explanations and encourage people to do what Jesus told his followers to do: count the cost.

“In my opinion, faith communities should raise the bar on truth-telling,” he concludes. “We should ratchet down our culture-war rhetoric, step away from over-simplified issues, stop shouting slogans as an easy way to gain power, and take the time and effort to engage with God’s full story.”

That’s what effective and legitimate Bible study does. People might want the condensed version and a few happy slogans, but that trivializes the full message of scripture and misleads them about what a faith commitment involves.

Synergy, Courage and Strategic Action

2005-07-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Terry Maples, associate pastor for education and discipleship at Huguenot Road Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, offers an excellent example of the synergistic relationship between education and worship. He writes:

I made the recommendation and Huguenot Road Baptist Church decided to use the Courageous Churches curriculum from Acacia Resources. In addition, our pastor, Dr. Bert Browning, agreed to preach from the same texts.

I have been guiding Christian education at HRBC for almost 15 years, and I have never seen our people so engaged. Not only did each of our Bible study classes study the curriculum materials on Sunday mornings, participants began to wrestle with what it meant for them (as individuals) and their classes to become courageous for the kingdom. In addition, the entire congregation was impacted as we began to talk openly what it means for our church to become courageous.

We completed the journey in March of 2004, and I continue to hear language that emerged during our study of Courageous Churches. The energy flowing from the journey was incredible. Right now we are engaged in a spiritual strategic journey to help us live into what we learned from that study.

Christian education and worship produce far-reaching effects when they emerge from a synergistic relationship.

Take the Back Seat

2005-07-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

“Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Remember to lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president. Be sure not to get too fat, because you’ll have to sit three in the back seat.”

That’s the advice the late Eleanor Roosevelt gave regarding campaign behavior for first ladies.

The stifling temperatures and unbearably high humidity today may be affecting my ability to reason clearly, but I see some parallels here for Christian educators.

The first one is obvious, unpopular though it seems to be, so I’ll move on.

Parallel #2: The more teachers talk, the less opportunity everyone else has to dialogue, debate and discuss. They probably think and learn less, too.

#3: The teacher is not the most important thing in the Bible study parade. We might disagree over what is most important, but if engaging the people and connecting them to biblical truths are not at the top of our lists, we’re missing the point.

#4: Teachers who fail to realize #3 very quickly become uncomfortable in the back seat. Ego takes up a lot of room.

When it comes to evaluating Bible study dynamics, the view from the back seat is usually the best and most complete of all.

Successful, or Faithful?

2005-07-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

When the Professional Association of Teachers gathers for its annual meeting next week in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, it will consider an interesting motion by Liz Beattie, a retired teacher.

Beattie wants the association to stop using the word ‘fail’ in its educational vocabulary and replace it with the concept of “deferred success.” She believes that repeated failure can squelch students’ interest in learning.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has already given the idea “nought out of 10.” People “have to deal with success and failure” as they grow up, she argues.

Beattie said on a BBC radio program that her motion was deliberately provocative, designed to encourage a good debate, but also acknowledged that it reflects recent developments in the education system.

Another supporter of the motion was quoted as saying, “Elsewhere we applaud those who persevere, like marathon contestants who take days to complete. It’s time we made the word ‘fail’ redundant and replace it with ‘please do a bit more.’”

Do some of our Christian education efforts carry only a “pass or fail” feeling for those who participate?

In reality, much of our “success” is deferred. The seeds we plant often stay underground a very long time before showing any evidence of growth. That doesn’t mean we or those who learn with us have failed.

If “success” is one of our goals, we need to be very careful how we define it. We can find a lot more scriptural support for perseverance and faithfulness.

We’ve All Got the Power

2005-07-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

The power’s in our hands. That’s what the special 1000th issue of Reader’s Digest (August 2005) says.

It identifies “14 amazing trends” that will change our lives, and one of them it calls “Me me media,” or the “iMedia craze.” It’s referring to technologies including iPods, blogs, DVRs, podcasts, customized online newspapers and satellite radio that allow us to control what we read, hear and see.

One size does not fit all when it comes to what people want from media. These technologies not only allow us to pick, choose and customize, they also allow us to have a voice that can influence others. We are no longer simply media consumers; we are media creators. Pros and cons abound, and the RD article deals with both.

Few people believe this trend will abate. Perhaps we’ve been reluctant to acknowledge it, but its implications for Christian education are huge.

Choice is positive in so many ways. But Christian education’s gate-keepers need to guard against a self-centered, self-serving and imbalanced approach to Bible study that this trend might encourage.

Grounded in Reality

2005-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Anything advertised as “reality television” is automatically catalogued in my mind as quite the opposite. Seriously, how many people ever in their lifetimes are plopped down in a remote location with a group of strangers to do things they would not otherwise do for the outside chance of winning a million dollars? What is real-life about that?

And who do these celebrities think they are fooling when they parade their marriages and family lives in front of television cameras week after week? Most people I know are way too busy trying to nurture their own relationships to listen to mindless chatter between Nick and Jessica over whether a particular brand of tuna fish is in fact chicken or tuna.

Clearly, I’m not a fan of this genre of television programming and probably never will be. I am intrigued, however, about a new “reality” series scheduled to premiere August 2 on NBC.

In each episode of “Meet Mr. Mom,” two families compete for scholarship money. The mother of each household is snatched away for a week of rest and relaxation, while the two fathers stay behind to manage households, children, cooking, schedules, etc. How well these dads manage determines who wins the scholarship money.

This is reality for those who are single parents, a fact some of the show’s contestants readily acknowledge.

So much of popular television programming is grounded far from reality, yet it is a powerful force in shaping how people think and act. People come to expect that their own lives should somehow mirror the “real life” they see on television.

No wonder we in Christian education sometimes struggle in helping people connect scripture to reality. All some people know of reality is what they see on TV.

But that which often creates such dilemmas for us can also become a tool in our hands.

A Healthy Balance

2005-07-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

“You’re doing great! You’re eating healthfully, getting plenty of exercise and resting well. Keep up the good work!”

Words we all like to hear from our physicians following a physical exam. But they can easily apply to our Christian education programs too, particularly Bible study.

Some groups or teachers become so comfortable with a particular book, study series or teaching format that they never leave it. It’s based on the Bible, they think, so it must be just what our group needs.

Week after week, they return to the same scriptures, resurface the same thoughts and hear the same people give their opinions. Weeks turn into months, and before long, people in the group grow restless, disinterested and bored. Their minds grow dull from lack of use; dialogue that was once lively and inspiring has disappeared. Guilt or obligation, rather than interest and commitment, motivates attendance. Physical presence in no way equals true participation or guarantees learning.

What these groups lack is a healthy balance. Sure, it’s a lot easier to stick with the familiar scriptures, the easy lessons, the “safe” subjects. But it doesn’t offer a healthy diet, and it doesn’t result in new insights that lead to changed attitudes and behaviors.

Motivated by Love

2005-07-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Eric Robert Rudolph, the man sentenced today to two life terms without parole for the 1998 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic, has consistently portrayed himself as a devout Christian. His actions, motivated by his hatred of abortion, killed an off-duty police officer and seriously and permanently injured a nurse.

He is the same man who is expected next month to receive two more life sentences for the 1996 Olympic bombing and other attacks in Atlanta. Those attacks killed one woman and injured more than 100 others.

He’s not the first person who has used religion to justify violence, and he won’t be the last. People in London, New York City and Washington, D.C. know first-hand the horror of this reality, as do people in Iraq, the Middle East and literally around the world.

We can’t predict where such misguided and hate-filled souls will strike again, and we can’t completely protect those we love from their attacks.

One thing we can do—a very powerful thing—is to educate those in our churches and others within our spheres of influence about the true nature of doing the will of God. We can help them develop a worldview that is consistent with scripture—all of scripture—not just bits and pieces taken out of context. And we can guide them to examine their motives, attitudes and actions in light of the example of Jesus, who thought, spoke and acted purely out of love.

Quick, reactionary violence is always easier than the long-term investment redemptive love requires. But God expects redemptive love. Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, had a related and thoughtful posting on his blog yesterday. It’s worth reading.

What do you think?

2005-07-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

When was the last time someone asked you that question? How long has it been since someone genuinely sought your opinion about something?

And how often does that happen in your church’s Bible study groups?

It ought to happen all the time. Encouraging people to ask questions and think for themselves is central to genuine education. Faith grows best when individuals personally struggle with scripture’s teachings, not when they are spoon-fed simplistic answers to questions they may not even be asking.

When people stop asking questions, they essentially give up their right to think for themselves. And that quickly leads to people whose only responses to issues are to spout words they’ve heard from someone else and react in protest instead of responding thoughtfully and proactively.

Perhaps worst of all, when Christians don’t ask and answer the hard questions, ethical decisions become relative and moral witness is dim, fuzzy or non-existent. Indifference is just a step away.

Solid biblical understanding arises from an educational environment that embraces and encourages tough questions, which in turn fuel not only sound thinking but also constructive living.

Teach Your Parents Well

2005-07-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

Because I’m not a parent, I’m in no position to tell people how to raise their children. And unlike the Southern Seminary professor who wants to “raise up violent sons,” I do not hold a doctorate in theology degree.

My theological education is complete enough, however, that I know pursuing violence is completely contrary to my understanding of Jesus and how he wants us to live. And to aspire to pass along that misguided understanding of scripture to children—4-year-olds in this case—is just plain scary.

Lots of folks are sounding off on this professor’s views, each from his or her own perspective. Those of us concerned with Christian education certainly ought to take this incident as an opportunity to examine closely what we are teaching in our churches and how, what resources we are using and what additional helps we are offering parents to help them reinforce biblical principles in the home.

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he meant it. In my mind, I can hear him emphasizing the second syllable in the word “peacemakers.”

Violence is a choice; so is peace. My understanding of the Sermon on the Mount leads me to conclude that Jesus called us to live radically, counter-culturally. When the Christian community looks clearly out of step with those around them and responds in completely unexpected and loving ways, Jesus said, then things are as they should be.

Jesus also said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44).

In writing about the new life people live in Christ, Paul said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).

Some things about the Bible are difficult to understand. This particular teaching is not one of them.

We go a long way toward understanding the more complicated parts of scripture (those that deal with violence, for example) when we first begin to live the parts we already understand.

Save a Slot in Your Wallet for This

2005-07-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

Coming soon to your favorite Christian bookstore: pocket-sized cards displaying the Ten Commandments.

Religion News Service reported yesterday that the American Tract Society, a nondenominational Christian organization, has undertaken a nationwide campaign to put the Ten Commandments into the hands of Americans.

Apparently the public displays just aren’t doing the job.

The organization, which has produced religious literature since 1825, calls them Core Value Cards. Its vice-president for marketing claims that while many people attend church today, they have forgotten these basic tenets. In addition to the Ten Commandments, he says the cards will also feature evangelistic messages.

People will purchase them not only for personal use, he says, but will also give them away on occasions such as Halloween.

Huh?

God’s intention in giving the Ten Commandments had little to do with displaying some words on a monument or a pocket card. God was more concerned with how people live.

If we are really concerned about keeping the Ten Commandments, perhaps we should study them more carefully and determine exactly what they mean. This resource can help: Honoring the Ten Commandments: Monument or Movement?

As if the pocket cards are not enough, the American Tract Society also plans to expand its product line to include cards with things like the Nicene Creed. Just what my wallet has been missing all these years.

A portable version of the Sermon on the Mount might not be a bad idea, though. Maybe if we carried that around with us, we’d come closer to what Jesus had in mind.

Cracks in our Foundation

2005-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

When U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings addressed the National Parent Teacher Association’s Annual Convention last month, she reminded them of their responsibility to those children who have “slipped through the cracks,” not just in their school system, but in school systems everywhere.

What would happen if our churches seriously accepted Spellings’ challenge as it applies to Christian education?

Seems to me that we’ve become more or less satisfied and think we’re doing an adequate job when we can confirm that roughly half of our church members are involved in regular Bible study.

That leaves another 50% who’ve somehow fallen through the cracks in our churches’ educational foundations. That’s far from a passing grade on any scale.

What are we doing to ensure that ‘no church member is left behind’ in terms of quality Christian education?

Spellings said that our country’s long-term health and well-being, its economy and our quality of life depend upon how well we care about every single child and provide them with a first-class education.

How much more effective might our churches be if we raised the bar for Christian education? How might our world change?

“Every child deserves an advocate,” Spellings told the national PTA gathering. “And those advocates are you and me. All of us.”

Who are the Christian education advocates and activists, and what are we doing to provide a first-class education for those in our churches who’ve somehow been left behind?

So Many Mouse-Clicks, So Little Time

2005-07-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the very things that open our minds have the potential to cause them to close, or at least become blocked.

Take books, for example.

I love books. I love holding them, reading them, thinking about them, collecting them and sharing them. I even like the way books smell, both old ones and new ones. My mother has a couple of old textbooks that belonged to my grandfather, who was born in 1889. Holding one of those books connects me to him in ways I can’t explain.

I was a book editor for five years, and the process of working with authors and seeing an idea become a book never ceased to amaze and excite me. From concept to outline to chapter titles to manuscript, to selecting font and paper and cover design, I wanted to be a part of it all, sometimes to the chagrin of graphic designers and marketing specialists.

“So many books, so little time,” proclaims a phrase on coffee mugs and t-shirts in many bookstores. That fits me perfectly. It thrills me to know that as long as I live, bookstores will encourage me to browse, books will invite me to explore different worlds and authors will challenge me to think new thoughts.

That being said, you’d think I’d be less than enthusiastic about online bookstores, newspapers, books and articles. Instead, my list of favorite bookstores has expanded, my choice of titles has lengthened, my exposure to new authors has broadened and my world has grown richer. Best of all, my mind has opened even wider.

Associated Press reports that this fall, a high school in Vail, Arizona will become that state’s first all-wireless, all-laptop public school. Instead of traditional textbooks, the 350 students will use electronic and online articles they access through school-district-issued laptops that cost $850 each. A set of textbooks generally costs between $500-600. I’d say the difference in cost is more than worth it, and school officials seem to think so too.

Experts say this decision by the Vail Unified School District’s decision is rare. They cite cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints as factors that most often prevent schools from going paperless.

Calvin Baker, the school district’s superintendent, said that this decision breaks the habit some teachers have of simply “marching through a textbook each year.” He admits that there will be some adjustments, but said that “we visited other schools using laptops. And at the schools with laptops, students were just more engaged than at non-laptop schools.”

Three cheers for the Vail Unified School District.

Now what might this teach us about providing Christian education?

Creative Chaos

2005-06-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Think of chaos, and images of bedlam, disorder, confusion and disarray probably come to mind—all things that make me want to run in the opposite direction.

But there’s another way to look at chaos. We find it when we take the time to dig deeper into the word’s origins, where we discover that chaos can mean the formless matter that existed prior to creation.

Instead of mayhem and madness, in chaos we can also find promise and potential: the very good idea that something can come from nothing. “Good” is, in fact, what God declared creation to be. As part and extension of God’s creation, we can through eyes of faith see potential where others may see only formless matter. In creative chaos, possibility becomes reality.

The people of Pelham Road Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, like chaos so much that they recently undertook an intense and intentional period called 30 Days of Chaos.

It all started with a sermon. Pastor John Roy talked about Celtic worship and the Celts’ use of the wild goose instead of the traditional dove to symbolize the Holy Spirit.

“A wild goose is hard to catch,” he said. “Basically you can only follow a wild goose.”

The congregation subsequently invested 30 days in listening, watching and praying for God’s spirit to lead them to unique ministry opportunities among people in their community who might otherwise be overlooked. The effort was both individual and collective and had everyone involved in what probably resembled a wild goose chase at times.

For example, Beverly Helton, a real estate agent, searched online for names of people in the area who had overpaid their property taxes. She then personally visited as many of them as possible and explained how they could get their money back. One family stands to receive nearly $4,000.

Choir members assembled gift baskets for a restaurant’s dishwashers. Church staff members took firefighters out to lunch. A Sunday school class collected gifts for a children’s shelter and is helping finance their summer field trips. One individual is mentoring a struggling parent in her neighborhood; another is leading an effort to assist firefighters and families whose houses burn.

Associate pastor Sam Coates said, “We are intentionally creating chaos in the routine of everyday life by discovering people who may need an extra measure of encouragement and the good news that God loves them.”

The neighborhood where I used to live in Birmingham included a lake that was inhabited by more than its fair share of geese. Every year I watched them arrive, make nests, hatch eggs and raise their babies, then head south when the weather began to get cold. Occasionally the mother geese would pick unusual places in the neighborhood to make their nests and wait for their babies to hatch.

One spring, Mother Goose made her nest in the boulevard of one of the neighborhood’s busy streets, which also happened to be my standard walking path. Every day as I and others passed, on foot and bicycles and in cars, she wouldn’t just stare; she would glare, daring us to get too close to her nest. A couple of times when I walked by—always from a safe distance on the other side of the street—she hissed at me. I considered myself duly warned.

I’m not sure what set her off this particular day, but I suddenly found myself being chased by a wild goose. It was not a pretty sight. People passing in cars pointed and laughed. One guy stopped to say something to tease me but was laughing so hard he couldn’t get the words out. Or maybe he finally did; I was too busy trying to evade a very angry goose to find out.

All that to say: I’ve never followed a wild goose. The idea somehow just never appealed to me.

Until now.

Following a wild goose must certainly be more interesting—and a lot safer—than being chased by one.

Sounds like just the kind of creative chaos our world needs.

Let’s Hear It for the Girls

2005-05-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, May 14, an 11-year-old Little Leaguer in New York pitched a perfect game, facing and striking out the minimum 18 batters through six innings.

The pitcher was Katie Brownell, the lone female in the Oakfield-Alabama Little League program in western New York. League officials say they don’t remember anyone ever pitching a perfect game before. And it almost didn’t happen.

Katie’s coach was about to pull her from the game, until the scorekeeper reminded him that she had a no-hitter going.

In Katie’s two pitching performances including that game, she had struck out 32 of the 33 batters she had faced. She’s not a bad hitter either, with a .714 batting average through three games.

The Associated Press report I read didn’t indicate why the coach almost took Katie out of the game before she completed it. Maybe few of his pitchers ever toss complete games, and he didn’t think Katie would either. Maybe it’s an unwritten rule he has in place to insure against over-use of and potential injury to his players. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he ended up letting her complete the game.

But I think Katie’s nearly-missed opportunity has something to say for those who teach. Sometimes the people we least expect will come through in ways we never imagined. In order for that to happen, though, we’ve got to have the patience to leave them in the game.

That means letting people wrestle and engage with scripture and matters of faith at their own pace. It means offering a variety of entry points to scripture exploration to accommodate different learning styles.

It means asking questions in more than one way and waiting in long silence if necessary for someone to suggest an answer. It means noticing the quiet people who look like they might have something to say and figuring out a comfortable and non-threatening way to encourage them to speak.

And it means acknowledging that gender very definitely affects how we hear, understand and personally apply scripture.

So let’s hear it for—and hear from—the girls. And the guys. Let’s make sure everyone stays in the game.

Hold Onto the Three D’s

2005-05-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

In the days leading up to the death of Pope John Paul II and the subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI, Tom Reese appeared regularly in television interviews. As the highly respected editor of the Jesuit magazine America, he provided the U.S. audience in particular with insightful commentary and assessment on these historic developments within the Catholic Church.

As of Friday, May 6, Reese is out of a job. Apparently some Vatican officials and U.S. bishops were more than unhappy with his insistence on what reporter and analyst Kevin Eckstrom calls the three D’s: debate, dialogue and discussion.

Reese’s policy as an editor was to grant equal space in the magazine to all sides of an issue, including things the Catholic Church vehemently opposes. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict XVI—had for years complained about Reese’s editorial policy and the magazine’s content.

Whether debate, dialogue and discussion are being squashed within the Catholic Church depends upon whom you ask. One conservative Catholic editor says that the new Pope has no intention of stifling debate and discussion, while many other Catholics disagree and point to Reese’s departure as clear evidence.

In speaking about his authority as leader of the world’s Catholics, Pope Benedict said that the “power of teaching” is essential to the papacy. “This power of teaching frightens many people within and without the church. They ask themselves if it does not threaten freedom of conscience, if it is not a presumption opposed to freedom of thought. It is not,” he said.

I agree with the Pope that teaching is powerful, although we probably do not define teaching or learning in the same way. Even more powerful is the learning that happens when we encourage debate, dialogue and discussion.

The best teachers run toward, not away from, the three D’s.

The Newest Testament

2005-05-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

Suppose you could write The Newest Testament—a contemporary edition of the New Testament.

Whose encounters with Jesus would you record? What stories would you tell about how Jesus changed people’s lives?

What would those who read your testament conclude about repentance, forgiveness and grace?

Well, sharpen your pencil or boot up your computer, because the church is The Newest Testament, and we’re all helping to write the ongoing story.

One of the ways we do this is by acknowledging and affirming the faith stories of other people and allowing them to place their stories alongside ours.

We don’t always do such a good job at this because, quite frankly, we don’t like some of their stories. We sometimes act like a health insurance company that delays coverage pending a 90-day waiting period or denies it completely due to pre-existing conditions. We want some people to prove themselves to us before we grant them our salvation “seal of approval.”

While we continue to bask in God’s grace and forgiveness, we think certain others don’t deserve these gifts because their pasts are too disreputable, their sins too grievous and their lives too messy.

Problem is, the spiritual hole that sin creates is the same size and shape for everyone. None of us deserves God’s grace or forgiveness. Without a life-changing encounter with Jesus, we’re all disreputable messes, regardless of how nicely we clean up on the outside or how tame our stories are.

Part of faith’s journey involves the realization that we don’t set the conditions for forgiveness and repentance. God does.

Thanks to Dr. Keith D. Herron, senior pastor of Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Missouri, for the suggestion to pursue the “newest testament” idea.

Welcome Home, Jane

2005-04-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Though she respects it, she says she was not attracted to Buddhism. Same for Islam and Judaism.

“I’m attracted to Jesus,” she says.

She’d never before lived in an environment where people attended church or “had a living faith.” Then she found herself regularly in the company of people like Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, and she was “utterly fascinated because they were smart people.”

They and other Christians she met seemed to have something that might fill the emptiness she says she had felt since adolescence. When a hostile and aggressive stranger approached her and asked her if she was saved, she wasn’t sure what that meant, so she asked a friend, who encouraged her to read the Gospel of John.

As a result, she says, “I was saved.”

She began attending Bible study class, and unfortunately went away feeling that she’d somehow made a mistake. She could relate to the grace she’d experienced as she read John’s Gospel, but not the linear, hierarchal, fundamentalist dogma she encountered in the teachings of some churches.

She stayed away from Bible study for awhile, although it left her feeling “bereft” and “really very sad.” She began reading some Christian writings on her own and discovered that “I am on the right path. Christianity is my spiritual home. This is where I’m meant to be.” And, she believes, “I have to discover for myself what that means.”

Reports of Jane Fonda’s conversion to Christianity began to surface several years ago, before she was ready for them to. “It was too new,” she says. It still is, but now, several years into the journey, she describes herself as “riveted.… I can’t get enough. This is a very real journey for me.”

Jane Fonda has a fascinating interview on beliefnet.com, complete with audio that allows us to hear the passion with which she has embraced Christian faith.

Her comments are instructive on many levels for those involved in Christian education.

For one thing, the Bible can speak for itself. Our interpretations and explanations often don’t add a thing and sometimes do much more harm than good.

For another, each person’s Christian experience is unique, and each must take many small steps along the path of figuring out how to live out this faith. Sometimes what those older in the faith say (people like us) can knock them off the path and even scare them away.

Still, those who are new to the journey of faith can greatly benefit from those who’ve traveled it a bit longer: teachers, mentors, accountability partners, guides. What we generally find is that learning happens for both, not just the newest pilgrim.

Those who have the responsibility for leading others to understand and apply scripture would do well to remember what James wrote: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (Jas 3:1).

Welcome home, Jane. Glad you’re part of the family. I hope you find a local faith community that welcomes you warmly, encourages your questions, challenges your faith to grow, leads you to worship God and equips you to serve others.

We’ll try not to do anything to scare you away again.

Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

2005-04-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

My theories about movies and books are synonymous: so many, so little time. Since I genuinely prefer the film that plays in my head as I read a good book to whatever a director manufactures on a screen, my tendency is to spend what little leisure time I have reading instead of watching movies.

But I also believe that creative expressions like films both reflect and help shape our culture, ideas and views, so I think it’s important to know what’s out there. While some movies seem to lack any redeeming qualities whatsoever, in many of them we can find connections to spiritual truths. This both intrigues and motivates me on a fairly regular basis to put aside my book of choice, look, listen and learn.

Now that we can rent or purchase just about any movie ever made and watch it whenever we want, things are looking up for me. I’ve found it’s possible for me both to watch a movie and read a book all in the same 24-hour period without having some kind of mental meltdown.

Talking about movies is a good way to unfreeze those blank faces that often stare back at you when you lead adults in Bible study. Even the most reticent person will sometimes express an opinion when it can be attached to a movie. Consider these current or recent films to get the conversation going this Sunday:

Frankie Dunn, the Clint Eastwood character in “Million Dollar Baby,” is unafraid to ask faith’s hard questions. Unfortunately, his parish priest is ill-equipped to help him find answers and sees Frankie as little more than an annoying insect that won’t go away. Frankie can’t seem to find in his faith the resolution to the guilt that has plagued him for more than 20 years. How sad that his minister either didn’t bother or couldn’t help him.

The title character in “Ray” begs the question: What might have happened had Ray Charles found a faith community in his adulthood like the one he experienced as a child? What difference might that support and accountability have made in his choices? Ray’s mother is also a good example of courage, strength and sacrifice.

Finally, “The Upside of Anger” offers opportunities for exploring not only family dynamics but also the idea that we have choices when life blindsides us with things for which we’re totally unprepared. As people of faith, we have to wonder: What difference would a solid spiritual base have made in the lives of each of these characters?

Christian education is like Frankie Dunn: unafraid to ask the hard questions.

Block by Block We Build a Life

2005-04-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Certain learning blocks are foundational, essential for building a life. Without them and opportunities to build alongside and upon them, we lack the skills necessary to weigh issues, evaluate options and make decisions.

Consider the following two examples.

Earlier this month Larry Hoffman, a retired Wisconsin man, purchased a shirt from a Goodwill store. When he got home, he discovered $2,000 in cash in the shirt’s pocket. He quickly returned the cash to the store’s manager, who turned it over to local police.

“The money certainly wasn’t mine,” Hoffman said. “It belonged to somebody else, obviously. … If there’s a one-tenth of 1 percent chance that somebody’s going to claim it, they should have that opportunity.”

A client of accountant Stanley Foodman once identified her occupation as “prostitute” on her tax return.

“She wanted to declare all her income and set up a retirement plan,” Foodman said. “She was very up front about how she earned her money.”

Both Hoffman and the woman had learned what it means to be honest. In the woman’s case, we’re left to wonder what might have been had someone helped her add to her learning block of honesty and establish a solid foundation for living.

Teach Them How to Think

2005-04-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, a survey by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that each day, more than 3 million people get religious or spiritual material from the Internet. Today’s numbers are no doubt much higher.

Other statistics around that same time indicated that more people had gotten religious or spiritual information online than had gambled online, used Web auction sites, traded stocks online, placed phone calls on the Internet, done online banking or used Internet-based dating services.

“Religious or spiritual information,” of course, can mean just about anything and can encompass all kinds of doctrine, some of it sound, much of it probably questionable.

The point is that people are exposed to mountains of ideas, issues and information every day. What better place than church for them to process all of that and evaluate it in light of biblical teaching?

That’s possible if our churches are places that encourage people to ask questions and think for themselves. It’s not when our goal is indoctrination instead of education.

It’s easier, of course, when someone in authority—usually the pastor—tells everyone what they are supposed to believe. But this is neither biblical nor historically Baptist.

Healthy churches equip people not only to know Bible facts but also to know how to read, understand and apply Bible truths for themselves.

Which does your church do: tell people what to think, or teach them how to think?

Both Weak and Strong

2005-04-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

The world has kept a death watch the past couple of weeks, first for Terri Schiavo, then for Pope John Paul II.

Thanks to technology, we knew about both deaths almost immediately. Every store and other place of business I visited last Saturday had televisions tuned to live coverage of the last hours of the Pope’s earthly life.

These days have most certainly held some teachable moments, although I’ve struggled to articulate them. Besides, what could I or anyone else possibly add to what has already been said? Still, it seems irreverent not to acknowledge that these lives, and these deaths, have left us all somehow changed.

And maybe that is part of the lesson: every life is significant and important, and with every death, each of us is in some way diminished.

We don’t have to wait for someone to die to affirm this truth. We can do so also by the way we live, the choices we make, the priorities we hold.

We can become, as Pope John Paul II did, voices for the poor and disenfranchised. We can work for social justice and human rights. We can build bridges of understanding by advancing interfaith dialogue. We can invest ourselves in future generations. We can care for all of God’s creation by exercising good stewardship of the environment. We can model forgiveness. We can love unconditionally.

We can prove both by how we live and how we die that weakness and strength are not mutually exclusive. They can, in fact, peacefully and productively coexist in people of faith and good will.

And to Christ and the divine plan we can say, Totus Tuus. Totally Yours.

And Away We Go!

2005-04-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

In my first job as a curriculum editor many years ago, my primary piece of equipment was a no-frills electric typewriter. I received a more enhanced model with a correcting key only after I had been in the job five years. Until that time, I used either that gooey white liquid or those powdery correction strips.

It’s not that typewriters with correcting keys didn’t exist before then. I guess the organization I worked for wanted to make sure I would stick around before they invested in “higher technology” for me.

The organization ultimately made the transition to computers, a shift that has transformed not only the entire publishing world but just about everything else. While my five-year wait for a newer-model typewriter seemed much longer, today the time between changes in technology passes at lightning speed. There’s no such thing as “the latest technology.” Once someone claims that achievement, someone else introduces something even better, faster or sleeker.

Thanks to technology, today I have at my fingertips access to more information than I will ever be able to comprehend, information compounded with each passing minute. Email, the Internet and a number of clever computer programs have totally revolutionized how I work and regularly leave me either amazed or bewildered.

Technology has changed not only how we transmit and receive information but also how we process it and learn from it. The implications for those of us involved in developing, producing and using educational resources are many.

Future postings to this blog will deal with this and other factors influencing Christian education. I invite your insights and comments and look forward to learning with you.