Browsing Tag

theology

christians

My $150 Mistake: 5 Steps to Wisdom

Running late to meet a fellow pastor, I decided to finish writing a sermon thought instead of leaving on time.    I got into my car and believed I could save time by driving fast, really fast, on the New York State Northway (I-87).  Driving on the six lane highway provided for an opportunity to pass a lot other drivers.  I looked at my watch and saw that I was running 15 minutes late for my lunch meeting.

As I came close to my exit, I foolishly increased my speed.  Sure enough, a New York State trooper was sitting there waiting for someone just like me to stupidly speed faster than the speed limit.  As I saw the red and blue lights flash behind me, I thought about how my license was going to be taken away (I was going at least 25 m.p.h. over the speed limit), huge fines, and the loss of self-respect:  telling my congregation why my wife drives me to work everyday.   I very quickly moved to the right shoulder.  The state trooper did the usual license and registration.  He returned to a sweaty and nervous (also very tardy) speeder.  He asked me why I was driving so fast.  I replied, “I made an idiotic choice of going too fast.  I am new to the area and I am late for a meeting.  I am very sorry that I was speeding.”

The state trooper walked back to his car and began the process of writing a ticket.  He came to the window and he said, “I’m not going to give you a ticket for speeding today.  Instead, I am giving you a ticket for an unsafe lane change and failure to register your license in NY state in 30 days (I was overdue by two weeks).  If I gave you a speeding ticket you would be getting 8 points on your license (a major car insurance cost increase) and you would be paying a $300 fine.  You just got to make the wise decision and slow down.”  Months later, I went to the town court where the speeding occurred to try to plead down the tickets (on the trooper’s suggestion).

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christians

NYT: "Bad Boys" Who Are Good

Normally, you do not see the words “Christian” and “bad boy” in the same sentence, but the The New York Times did just that when the newspaper wrote an article about Brian Deegan.  Deegan is a freestyle motocross rider, and he and his friends were involved in a group called the Metal Mulisha.  Deegan and his crew covered themselves in tattoos and their lifestyle labeled them as trouble makers and bad boys.  After years of drugs and destructive lifestyle choices, Deegan had a conversion:

After a near-fatal crash in 2005 while attempting a back flip during filming for a television show, he lost a kidney and four pints of blood, and found religion. When a surgeon told him he might not survive, Deegan, 34, who has won more freestyle motocross medals at the X Games than any other rider, made a pact with God. If he lived, he would mend his ways. When he finally pulled through, he sought a pastor, began reading the Bible and “gave his life to Christ,” he said.

This article underlines an on going misconception about Christianity, which is that you cannot do anything cool, rebellious, or extreme when you become a Christian.  By rebellious I mean anything that breaks the stereotype and not anything illegal.  Christianity is often branded by television and movies as being out of touch or old fashioned.

The  NYT article goes on to list other Christian extreme sports athletes:

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theology

A Theology Of Failure

Have you ever gone back to your home town after being away for years?  Did things change?  Did they remain the same?  I remember going back to my home church to be ordained in 2006.  I was excited.  I just finished seminary, got my first job as a pastor, and all my family came into town to attend my ordination.  A lot of the people from my home church who guided me through my spiritual life were there: Sunday school teachers, youth workers, pastors, family, and friends.  The ordination service was beautiful and touching for everyone.  It was the culmination of years of preparation for ministry.

As the excitement continued on into the reception afterward, one of my Sunday school teachers came up to me and said: “Boy, what a day!  I remember when you used to be in my Sunday School class.  You were such a little trouble maker!”  Wow.  I hope that Sunday school teacher remembers my ordination day more than the day I poured glue on someone.

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Churches

Young People Don't Go To Church, or Do They?

There is a common misconception that young people are fleeing churches.   So many churches ask, “Where are all the young people?”   My friend Rev. Elizabeth Hagen on her blog discussed a similar topic a few weeks ago and gave some great thoughts on understanding young adults.  Christianity Today published an article discussing the ministry of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City.   Most of the article is geared toward Keller’s ministry and his bio.  The whole article is great, but the article begins with:

His church, Redeemer Presbyterian, has five crowded Sunday services in three rented locations—Keller dashes between them—with an average total attendance of 5,000. The service at Hunter is the largest, the “tourist service.” (For many years, Redeemer deliberately avoided publicity, but word has spread lately, and Keller estimates that hundreds of out-of-towners show up each Sunday.) Well over 2,000 people—mainly young whites and Asians you would expect to be sleeping off a late Saturday night—have come to this morning’s service.

Wow, “young people” in church… on Sunday morning no less.  What is due to this great success?  It has got to be a young hip preacher and cool band leading worship.  Nope.

Redeemer’s worship is seemly traditional. Instead of using video monitors, casually dressed worshipers follow a 20-page bulletin that includes hymns, prayers, and Bible texts. Organ and a brass quartet lead the music. For evening services, jazz musicians play contemporary Christian songs.

Standing 6’4″, with a bald head, glasses, and a coat and tie, Keller, 58, does not look hip. Nor is his sermon funny, charming, or daring. He preaches from the first chapter of Genesis, on the doctrine of Creation.  Keller speaks like a college professor, absorbed in his content, of which there is a lot

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trinity

The Trinity: 3 = 1 and 1 = 3

Math has never been a strong subject for me.  I remember dreading  algebra, geometry (not that bad), and algebra II (got C’s and past, barely).  I took at practical math class my senior year in high school where I learn to balance a check book, learned about mortgages, understood the stock market, and all sorts of practical  mathematical concepts.  I got A’s in that class!  The issue I found with mathematics is that the vast majority of equations and problems you have to solve have one answer.  For some reason, my mind was more suited to the humanities like government, history, art, and english (sort of).  In those classes, the answer was usually subjective.   In the humanity classes, thinking and discussing were at the center of learning.  Memorizing math formulas and the rules of math was difficult.  Every time I got a concept in math class we would move on to another concept.  I could not keep up!

Theologically, there is a mathematical concept that has confused scholars, thinkers, and Christians for centuries.  The Triune God: 3 = 1 and 1 = 3.  We Christians are not polytheistic in our beliefs, but many non-Christians are confused by our math.  Many non-Christians see three separate Gods: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.  How can Christians be monotheistic?

Well, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, Christians were  struggling with their monotheistic concepts with the unity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Without getting into the history of the Trinitarian debate there were a few guys who seemed to solve the problem.  The Cappadocian Fathers gave us the understanding of “three hypostases and one ousia.”  This means that there are three substances, but one essence of God.  The Cappadocian Fathers stated that the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) exists simultaneously in three modes of being, but are one in essence and unity. They have one nature and one is not subordinate to another.

Confused?  Think about it this one.  The properties of water have three modes or states.  Water can be a liquid, a gas, or a solid.  Water flows as a liquid, can be a vapor as gas, or can be frozen as a solid.  No matter what you do with water it is still water.  The properties change, but water remains as water even though it takes three different modes.  The same can be said of the Trinity.  God is still God, but just in three forms that share similar properties made up of one substance.  It’s crazy, I know.  Similes and metaphors get us close to an idea, but never fully explain it.   Trying to explain God is like trying to explain an emotion.  Words that can fully describe it.  How do you describe the Divine?  How do you describe something greater than ourselves?   We have some pretty good ways of describing God, but nothing can fully explain God.  There is a certain mystery there that we are meant to be in awe of.

In John 3, Jesus is trying to explain to Nicodemus the relationship of the Triune God and how he must be “born of water and Spirit”.  (John 3:5)  As a Jew, Nicodemus was under the covenant of Abraham and was “saved”.  Jesus seeks to introduce the new covenant of Christ’s sacrifice as the Son, the need to be born of the Holy Spirit through baptism, and understanding how the Father sent the Son out of love.  These were all new concepts to Nicodemus and that is why he asks, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?”  (John 3:4)   We, like Nicodemus, sometimes are confused by all the theology.  We need help to understand it.   Though we may struggle, Jesus made one thing clear: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

As we gather on this Trinity Sunday, I pray you will think about how the Trinity is an important understanding as a Christian.  We should seek to understand how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God.  They are all unified, but each has distinct roles.  How have you connected with the Triune God?  Do you tend to focus on one and not the other?  How do you incorporate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your worship, devotional time, and your life?   Last Sunday was Pentecost.  How does the Holy Spirit (often the ignored member of the Trinity) work in my life?

For more information regarding the Christian Calendar go here and here.  For information on Trinity Sunday go here.

For more information on the Trinity check out these books:

worship

Church Warehouse Part 2: Theology of Wood and Concrete

I wanted to follow up on my last post about worship and ministry space with another article from Christianity Today, entitled “Theology in Wood and Concrete.”  The article is about 6 churches and their brief stories about building their ministry space:

If churches then had seen what they had in common with modernism, they could have allied their sense of responsibility with cutting-edge design. Instead, churches, which were the architectural focal points of early American settlements, left the conversation of progressive architecture. But in the past few years, missions-minded Protestant churches have begun to rediscover architecture.

The following churches decided that their buildings were an important part of their ministry, not merely afterthoughts. And while many churches are moving toward traditional design, these churches believe there is still something to be said for a contemporary approach. They believe that buildings can express the values of congregations, bringing new meaning to the act of stewardship in architecture.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/may/35.33.html

worship

Does My Church Look Like a Warehouse?

For the last 20 or 25 years, it has become popular a church to build their worship and ministry space to look like a warehouse or storehouse (or use an actual warehouse).  After being a part of three capital improvement projects at three different churches, I have found there is a whole theology to church buildings.

The “Emergent” or “Emerging Church” and ultra contemporary church movement has found that many people are attracted to buildings that do not include religious symbols.  And, church buildings  should be more utilitarian than religious. Most of the time, building a church in a warehouse is an economical way to do church.   Aside from the  “store front” church, churches who desire to tone down a worship space do so for marketing reasons.  Mega and ultra contemporary churches try to draw in burned out Christians or seekers (the unchurched) who want church to be different than the traditional church service (3 hymns, sermon, and altar call).

Christianity Today wrote an intriguing article about how there is now a reverse trend in trying to attract seekers to churches.  The trend seems to be that now seekers and churches are reconsidering what they thought they wanted in a church building.  The article cites a survey which states that seekers  prefer a church to look like, well… a church.   The article reads:

….unchurched adults prefer Gothic church buildings to utilitarian ones, challenging the conventional wisdom that medieval-looking churches feel out-of-touch and stuffy to seekers.  LifeWay showed over 1,600 unchurched adults four pictures of church buildings, ranging from mall-like to Gothic. The majority preferred the most ornate church.

Not exactly scientific, but this survey shows that deep down inside, a church’s building says a lot about how the church sees itself regarding theology, evangelism, and Christ.  This study came out of  LifeWay, the publishing and ministry arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is my firm belief that people want to seek the Divine in church community and in worship.  Based on anecdotal evidence, I have found that there is a segment of the church going population, who after several years at a ultra contemporary/mega church, desire to recapture the essence of what it means to worship, learn, live in faith, and fellowship in a congregation that seeks to be more dynamic and deeper in their approach.  Over the years, I have been a big fan of Robert Webber, who died recently.  Webber who began life as a Baptist and then switched denominations to become an Episcopalian, rediscovered liturgical worship with a contemporary twist.  In his book, Ancient-Future Faith he states:

Worship Renewal, then, is not a matter of gimmicks, but the recovery of the Christian vision of reality enacted by the community of God.  pg. 32

Then, Webber goes on to say:

In the 1980’s evangelicals sought to neutralize space to make the seeker more comfortable.  This worked in the 1980’s but is not the way to go in the postmodern world.  The inquirer needs to be immersed within a space that bespeaks the Christian faith.  The very narrative of faith which we seek to know and live is symbolically expressed in our space… Space becomes the visual image of the connection between the known and unknown. pg. 108

For Webber, and I agree, worship and our church buildings communicate who God is.  Symbols are important.  Symbols point to a great reality.  The cross is a symbol.  The communion table is a symbol.  The church is a symbol.  If we neutralize a church space, then are we neutralizing the symbol of the church?   Postmodernity has indeed reshaped our understanding.  Webber addresses the church within postmodernity:

In a postmodern world that has become increasingly interested in communication and space, it will be necessary to feature the relational seating of God people around the symbols of water, the pulpit, and the Table.  These are the primary visual images of God’s work in the history of salvation. pg. 108

I have a number of engaged couples who come from other churches looking for a church to get married in because their church does not “look” like a church.  They do not worship in a traditional looking church, but they want to get married in one.  That just shows how our culture is evolving and how Christians view worship space.

Churches and pastors should resist the empty showy gimmicks and trendy ideas about church and worship.  Instead, we must seek to put a theology behind our church and church buildings instead of only relying on marketing tactics.  There is a richness contained in the 2,000 years of worship, teaching, and theology that the church mothers and fathers have given to us.   There is nothing “wrong” with a contemporary church that meets in a warehouse, but the trend of the lack of Christian symbols and lack of focus upon theologically centered worship space is troubling.   When churches are able, they should think about building or obtaining a worship space that reflects Christian theology.  I should make it clear that many people have come to Christ in these trendy churches and these churches are meeting a need.   But, at some point, people are going to want more than flashy lights, loud bands, and Starbucks.

What do you think?

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