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Podcast: Living Life at the Kids Table

Living Life at the Kid’s Table

As adults, we don’t want to be at the “kids table” – do we?

Have you ever went to a wedding reception or a fundraiser dinner only to find that your seats are way in the back away from the head table? You can’t really see or hear what’s going on at the head table and you miss all “the action” of what the important people are doing. Maybe you get your food last! You don’t get to brush shoulders with the hosts or people you’d really like to interact with. Jesus once addressed this type of situation: when you are invited to a big dinner, don’t go out of your way to get the best seats. In fact, when you host a banquet, don’t invite the upstanding important people who are the “in-crowd”, instead invite the lowly. To Jesus, this makes God’s kingdom real and visible – but why? Why do this? Why should we be eating at the reception equivalent of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving?

Christianity

Podcast: Seeking Unity, Healing Wounds

Podcast: “Seeking Unity, Healing Wounds” – John 17:20-26

“Seeking Unity, Healing Wounds” Rev. Alan R. Rudnick

In the midst of the conflict of politics, economics, and culture, the idea of unity in American life might seem impossible to many. We watch television as pundits argue and clash over ideology and policy. We think our country and community is divided. Unity is impossible. However, in Jesus’ high priestly prayer he prayers for his disciples and for us – the believers who are not yet born! Jesus prayed that we all may be one. The misconception is that unity is when we all agree. Jesus shows us that unity is truly a community – a people called by God to be faithful to God and to one another despite conflict, disappointment, and fear. True unity is community lived out. The Christian community is one when we join in the work of loving, caring, and serving one another in Christ and not agreeing on every point of ideology. Differences will abound but it is the love of God and neighbor that makes us one.

T“The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, In Good Company: The Church as Polis

blog, Christianity

What Christians get wrong about Kingdom theology

We live in a world that is obsessed with duality and dualism. Our culture is narrated by opposing forces such as Democrat and Republican, poor and rich, the winners and losers, and saved and unsaved. Dramatic attention of such opposing viewpoints creates tension and unnecessary anxiety in cultural and family systems. When religious people create a hyper-focus on dualism, it bifurcates the love of Christ and basic Bible comprehension.

When Liberty University president and Evangelical leader, Jerry Falwell Jr. spoke to The Washington Post about politics, Christianity, poverty, and culture he made several critical theological, hermeneutical, and exegetical mistakes. Among his comments… (read the rest of my article at The Christian Citizen)

blog, trauma

Why this Parkland shooting photo is so painful

Another shooting, another community in grief. I’m not going to repeat the shooter’s name because that what people who do this stuff want. A shooter walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL and killed 17 people and injured many others.

Of the many images of the Parkland shooting that emerged, one brought tears to my eyes instantly.

The Associated Press photographer Joel Auerbach took a picture that was truly painful. I saw this picture shared on social media dozens of times on Facebook and Twitter. The photo came up on the news on television. It is being shared over and over.

Why are so many people sharing it?

confession

Confession gone wrong?

As a non-Catholic, going to confession is not within my religious framework. Richard Foster reminds us that confession has spiritual and cathartic value. This weekend I stumbled on a confession note that just didn’t seem right. Instead of commenting on the note, I did the most ecumenical thing possible: I shared the note with the monks of Unvirtuous Abbey. The results were… well, expected:

blog, election

Post-election prayer

The post-election reality is here: Donald Trump won the election for President over Hillary Clinton. I have friends who voted for both candidates. Looking at my Facebook and Twitter feeds, it is clear that many are troubled by the divided nature of this political season and the results of the election. What shall we do?

This is a time for prayer. What shall we pray for?

Four years ago, I posted this to Facebook after the last presidential election:

No matter if your candidate won or lost last night, remember that what makes this nation great should not be about the loudest political rancor. What makes our nation great is our history of shared resolve to advance the common good.

May you pray this post-election prayer: Continue Reading…

Churches

10 most helpful comments as a pastor

Several weeks ago, I published “10 most painful comments as a pastor” and said I would follow up with “10 most helpful comments as a pastor.” After 10 years of full-time ordained ministry, I can say that I’ve been encouraged by some incredible people.

With pastor appreciation month coming up here in October, it’s important to realize that clergy need lifting up. As people who work serving others, the calling pastoral ministry requires long hours, late nights, and weekends. It can be exhausting work. As I wrote in my book, The Work of the Associate Pastor, clergy need to be affirmed and thanked for their service. Helpful comments or information on behalf of lay people are found from a source of love and not from frustration:

Evangelicals

Evangelicals, admit racism is real

News broke recently that South Carolina deputy Ben Fields, who brutally abused a student in school – WWE-styled – was fired. The abuse was caught on tape. This incident was the latest in a series of police related violence. Many have called the act racially motivated. As these events have transpired many Evangelicals have either turned their head or flat out rejected racism was involved.

Evangelicals, popular on television and radio have sparked a debate by refusing to begin a conversation on racism or by rejecting that racism has a part in recent violence. Former presidential candidate and Evangelical pastor Mike Huckabee once remarked that Jay Z had pimped out his wife Beyoncé. Oblivious to the obvious to the racial stereotypes and cultural references, Huckabee did not retract his statement. Calls for Evangelicals to abandon their tone-deff cultural views have largely gone unnoticed. In 2012, speaking on the death of Trayvon Martin, Southern Baptist Convention Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said black leaders were use Martin’s death to“gin up the black vote” and that black man is “statistically more likely to do you harm than a white man.” Land learned he was living in a different world when he lost radio show and resigned his Southern Baptist leadership position because of his comments.

The Public Religion Research Institute asked if violence and killings in Ferguson were racially motivated and 59% of white Evangelical Protestants said the police killings were isolated events. In contrast, with a minority of 39% of all Americans who said recent violence was not racially motivated. Perhaps the most damning evidence that racism is alive and well is a 2015 Department of Justice study that found that police are searching black drivers more often, but finding more illegal contraband among white drivers.

Evangelicals have to wake up to the reality before them: racism is still a part of American culture. Evangelicals have been been fighting against a narrative of American racism since the founding of this country. My own denomination, the American Baptist Churches split with Southern Baptists mainly on the issue of slavery. Segregation was codified by white Evangelicals in the South. Evangelical pastor and author Billy Graham addressed this issue in 1993 when he wrote,

Church Leadership

The church is not Cheers

“Is that we are called to do? Create a place where everyone knows your name? Did Jesus call us to build a Christian version of Cheers?”

Those are the words of Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist Church in America. Hamilton, speaking to the 2015 Leadership Institute, recalled the decision to add a second worship service over 20 years ago. His leaders pushed back, “Then we will not know everyone. We love this sized church. We know everyone.”

When churches are faced with a change or a decision that will impact the comfort zone of people there will always be a push back. There is security in keeping things stable. There is comfort in knowing everyone. There is confidence in leadership knowing that they only have to work with 100 people instead of 200 people.

When I led a vision process in a former church there was push back:

Christianity

The myth of the elite young athlete

I recently received an email from my brother-in-law that contained several video links.

“Tell me what you think.” My brother-in-law wrote.

I clicked and opened each link and watched my 8-year-old nephew goaltending a lacrosse goal. The video contained the coach’s commentary, superimposed video drawings, and slow motion point-by-point breakdown of his form.

“Wow! When I played that type of analysis and video work was only on ESPN,” I wrote back. I was shocked at the level of sophistication of the coaching analysis.

In the last 10-15 years, there has been an explosion in youth sports training, travel teams, artificial turf fields, video production, websites, private coaches, and “elite” sports teams. According to the news channel CNBC, youth sport travel is a $7 billion dollar industry. With the recent interest in forming “elite” youth athletes, parents are left paying for additional training and sacrificing family time to “elite” sports.

Growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s, we kids played football, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, street hockey, and basketball. Some of us were on recreation teams and others were not. We tried all sorts of sports and leagues. We played because it was fun.

Now, as a father of three children, I cannot believe how much youth sports culture has changed. What was once a time of fun, team building, and exercise is now a billion dollar industry. Families spend the whole weekend carting around their kids to sport games or leagues. They spend 2-4 nights a week at practices. Their kid’s sports are their life.

It is not supposed to be this way.

blog

Time for a new adventure

I have some big news to share… well, it’s not “big” as in world changing, but big to me. After three years of searching, praying, and considering, I decided to go on a new adventure.

drum roll please

I’ve applied and was accepted into the Doctor of Theology program at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA!

blog, Christianity

Robin Williams and the church

As most everyone has heard, Robin Williams died on Tuesday from an apparent suicide. The reaction on Facebook and Twitter was one of shock. How could someone who brought so much joy and humor to the world be so troubled? Robin Williams brought us a diversity of characters in his movies and television shows.

I remember as a child watching reruns of “Mork and Mindy” and wondering, “Who is this guy? He’s so funny!” His films such as “Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Good Will Hunting”, “Mrs. Doubtfire”, and “Hook” are now classics running regularly on TV. His long filmography on IMDb yields several scrolls from the mouse. As reports surfaced of his drug and alcohol abuse, we began to learn of a troubled man. Robin Williams apparent depression most likely led him down the path of suicide.

Unfortunately, some have made hurtful comments. Fox News anchor, Shepherd Smith gave his own unhelpful perspective of the nature of suicide:

“One of the children he so loved, one of the children grieving tonight. Because their father killed himself in a fit of depression… You could love three little things so much, watch them grow, they’re in their mid-20s, and they’re inspiring you… And yet, something inside you is so horrible or you’re such a coward or whatever the reason that you decide that you have to end it. Robin Williams, at 63, did that today.

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