Archive for the ‘religion and culture’ Category
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
I shared Sunday that one of the core values of actionchurch is to be a place that doesn’t “lecture you , bore you, or waste your time” I think of those three values every week as I prepare to speak.
The difficult thing is that all three values are in constant (and I think healthy) tension.
No Lectures: As a society we are over-run with information. Very few of us would willingly choose to attend a lecture on Sunday morning about the history of some long-dead “Bible charactor”. Besides, Bible information without application is just Bible Trivia. However, it’s impossible to share the life-changing principles and stories of Scripture without sharing information.
Don’t Be Boring: I’m pretty sure that making the Bible boring is a sin. It’s filled with the most amazing stories ever written. However, it’s also filled with mind-numbing lists, geneologies, and detailed policies. Because it is set in cultures from thousands of years ago it’s easy to miss it’s relevance for our lives today. On Sunday mornings we attempt every week to tie ancient scripture to things in our lives today. We use music, movies, news events, television clips, and the occasional awkward story from my life.
Don’t waste anyone’s time: No one HAS TO come to church. We don’t live in a society that enforces church attendance (either by legislation or culturally shaming non-attenders). The last thing I want to do on a Sunday morning is to waste the time of someone who has voluntarily chosen to get up and come to church. Here’s where the tension comes in: since we never want to lecture anyone, it would be tempting to not talk about the difficult areas and ideas of Scripture. Since we don’t want to bore anyone it’s tempting to just play an episode of the office and laugh together when we’re not listening to the band. That would be entertaining. However, since I never want to waste anyone’s time I know the most important thing I can do is to share the Good News that God gifts us with in scripture. The biggest “waste of time” I can think of on Sunday morning would be to simply try to entertain everyone without engaging and challenging them to consider the eternally important consequences of missing God’s plan for their life. (Besides, let’s be honest…at it’s most “entertaining”…Church is not exactly going to “compete” with the entertainment options most of us have available to us at home on Sunday morning).
“What if there was a place that would never lecture you, bore you, or waste your time? What if that place turned out to be a Church?”
Those words will always bring “tension” as we plan and prepare for Sunday morning each week…and I think that’s a very healthy thing.
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Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
For I am the LORD, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you. Isaiah 41:13
I love the image this scripture paints. God is not a “help” button. God is not a faceless customer support worker who (in theory at least) offers us “how-to” instruction when we find ourself in a jam. God does not serve us. God loves us.
God does not promise to fix our problems. God does not promise that we will never experience “scary” situations. God says that when we call out to him he will be there…like a Father…ready to take our hand and offer his help.
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Monday, August 30th, 2010
Sunday was all about one idea from scripture. “Big things start with small acts of faith”. Throughout the Bible, the most epic and miraculous stories begin with a small act of faith. God first spoke to Moses by asking him to take off his shoes. God “introduced himself” to Abraham (then Abram) by asking him to move away from his relatives to a place he had never seen. Jesus repeated the “process” over and over during his time with his followers. Jesus asked fishermen to leave their nets and become “fishers of men”. He asked a tax collector to leave his table in the market place and follow him. In the passage we talked about Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11 ) Jesus asked his followers to “hot-wire” a donkey and bring it back to him…and if the owner asked why they were taking his property…Jesus told them to simply say that “the Lord needs it”.
Big things start with small acts of Faith. Retrieving a donkey can set off the “triumphal entry”…and the Crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. I think we often miss the voice of God because we ignore the small and often odd requests the Spirit makes of us. Perhaps we think that when God speaks he asks for “Big” actions. Perhaps our embarrassment or self-consciousness about the often odd things God’s spirit prompts us to do holds us back from obeying “whispers from God”.
I shared Sunday how embarrassing it felt to “admit” that we thought we should start actionchurch. It seemed so ridiculous to say that we were starting a church when there are plenty of great churches in York County and we had absolutely no training or backing that would seem to make starting a church a “good idea”. I am so thankful today that I made a small step of faith…I’m so glad I did not ignore God and miss out on being a small part of the Big things God is doing at actionchurch.
REALLY excited for the folks that are taking the next step in their Journey with God by being obedient in “small acts of faith”. We’ll be be having a Baptism on 9/12 for them. Want to go public with your faith through baptism? info@actionchurch.com or talk to me Sunday.
Thanks so much to all the great actionchurch crew for all your individual acts of faith that have made this thing possible. YOU are responsible for what is coming for our church and county. Thanks to all of you who generously share your time, talents and money each week.
Special thanks to the guys from ionia. The reason why we were sound-checking at 10:45 is because they took a wrong turn on the way from New York City and arrived 20 minutes before the service started. In spite of their late arrival they were onstage and ready to rock by 11am…and the fact that they donated their fee back to actionchurch to help finance our move was beyond generous.
I really can not wait to kick off the “So Help me God!” series next week…
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