time

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson should not give marriage advice

Oh… here he goes again.Pat Robertson made more conversational remarks on The 700 Club program that were sexist in nature.

Robertson told viewers that women should fix themselves up in order to maintain their marriages.

Pat Robertson gave advice to a daughter asking for help. The 17-year-old daughter was looking for ideas to aid her parent’s marriage. Her father spent his time playing video games and her parent’s marriage was in danger. The talk show preacher turned the situation into blaming women for martial trouble.

Robertson said,

“A woman came to a preacher I know — it’s so funny… She was awful-looking. Her hair was all torn up, she was overweight and looked terrible, clothes bad and everything, and she said, “Oh Reverend, what can I do? My husband has started to drink. ‘And the preacher looked at her and he said: ‘Madam, if I were married to you, I’d start to drink too.'”

At about :58 seconds we find the conversation going down hill fast.

His female co-host gasped in shock at his comments and shook her head in disagreement.

Robertson went on to say that would should “fix [themselves] up, look pretty, look alert” in order to keep the attraction active from a husband. If that wasn’t enough, Robertson inserted his own information as he theorized about the 17-year-old’s mother:

“It may be your mom isn’t as sweet as you think she is, she may be kind of hard-nosed…”

As he ended his remarks, he proudly proclaimed that he “knows” what works after his 50+ years in marriage.

This isn’t the first time Robertson made headlines for ugly comments.

In 2001, he said that Haiti made a pact with the Devil and that homosexuality was a cause of 9/11. Last year, Robertson remarked on his program that if a spouse has Alzheimer’s it constitutes grounds for divorce because the evangelist said the disease is “a kind of death”.

This type of talk only alienates Christians from non-Christians. Robertson’s advice is a back eye upon Christian, which is already struggling with an image problem.

Why do you think Pat Robertson continues to make comments like this? Respond below.

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Church Leadership

Robert Griffin III, the Redskins, and dying churches

It was awful. It was embarrassing. I couldn’t watch it anymore.

My team, the Washington Redskins had started a good fight against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night football. The Redskins came out strong and scored 14 points quickly. My team was looking like they were a sure win to continue into the NFL playoffs with strong momentum. I was hopefully that my Redskins were going to taste a Super Bowl after 20 years.

And then, a Redskins fans greatest fear came to reality.

Robert Griffin III our star rookie quarterback, who was not 100% healthy, sustained hit after hit and injury after injury. Mean while, the Seahawks put together a multi-quarter drive to put points on the score board. As it happened, RG3, became weaker and weaker. His passes were ineffective and his signature running game was just a limb jog to the sideline.

Ugh. It was like watching a train wreck slowly.

“Is anyone going to do anything about RG3!?!” I yelled at the TV.

Passes were misfired, plays were broken up, and interceptions occurred. The play-maker for the Redskins was hurt and no one seemed to do anything about it. Finally, the game was lost.

Immediately, fingers start to point as to who was responsible for RG3’s unhealthy play. It was the coach. It was RG3. It was the team doctor. The list went on. It seems that the team leadership was simply concerned about winning and not about the long term health of the quarterback

How could this happen?

Church Leadership, clergy burnout, Leadership

Underestimating staff burnout

You don’t think your staff are stretched thin? Don’t think you are above burning out? Have you checked the health of your organizational staff? Perhaps you underestimate the power of staff burnout in your congregation or organization. It’s real and it can hurt not just your organization, but families.

Recently, a high-profile Baptist pastor in North Carolina became the latest ministry burnout case. Rev. Steve Shoemaker, who leads a 2,200-member Baptist church in Charlotte, entered a 30-day treatment program. In a rather quick move, Shoemaker sent a letter to his congregation outlining his need to step away. He wrote, “I’m physically, psychologically and spiritually depleted and must get help.”

What leads to such powerful emotional wounds?

Pastors and church staff often succumb to burnout. Long hours, high expectations, lower pay, being “on” 24/7, and stress all bring a higher work load to staff. This is often an under reported story in mainstream media, but in 2010 the New York Times wrote a story on clergy burnout. The first two paragraphs were striking and left no room for doubt of the power of burnout:

Israel Trip

Israel Day 8: Saving Children, Israeli General, & Suffering

Wolfson Medical Center

There are those who think health care in this country is poor, but what about billions of people who have no health care?

In the morning, we arrived at the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv. We met Tamar and she shared with us about To Save a Child’s Heart. To Save a Child’s Heart works with communities around the world who have children that need serious heart surgeries. The surgeries cost around $10,000. These children come from countries where there is no medical expertise in heart surgery. Surgeons are Jews and Muslims working side by side with their patients, some of which are Christians. These surgeries take place in Israel.

A doctor with To Save a Child’s Heart

The medical team travels abroad to diagnose and treat children with these heart conditions. Many travel hundreds of miles to be seen by the doctors of To Save a Child’s Heart. Around 40% of patients come from Arab counties. After the surgery, children are able to live a full and vibrant life. Since 1996, more than 3,000 children have been saved from 44 different countries around the world. And, many of these children are Palestinians. There are over 70 Wolfson staff and doctors that work with the To Save a Child’s Heart organization. The organization raises money from private and public (including the European Union) funds to cover the cost of the evaluations and surgeries.

Medical team

Next, we traveled to the port city of Jaffa, where St. Peter received the vision that he should eat unclean food from God , as recorded in Acts. This marina area provided great views of the sea. Lunch was curbside at a great bakery.

In Jaffa.

Israel Retired General

Israel Trip

Israel Trip Day 7: Mass, Sderot & Kibbutz Visit

St. George’s

Sunday morning, we walked to nearby St. George’s Church (Anglican) in Jerusalem for a mass in a side chapel. It was a delight to experience worship in Jerusalem with liturgy. The priest gave an excellent reflection on John the Baptist in the midst of Advent. As we were exiting the church I noticed a large baptistry for immersion baptisms. I have heard of some Anglo-Catholic congregations returning to the ancient practice of immersion and even seen baptistries in Catholic churches.

Sderot & Sderot Media Center

We started our morning in one of the most dangerous locations in Israeli. Near Gaza, on the Israeli side of the boarder, is a small city named Sderot. The location of the town puts it right in the line of rocket fire over head. These rocked attacks started in 2001. Homemade rockets are fired from Gaza over into Israeli controlled land. The city lives in constant fear. If there is a rocket attack there is a 15 second siren warning the public to get to a bomb shelter immediately. Public bomb shelters are above ground at all bus stops.

Our group watching the video that shows how extremists in Gaza build rockets.

Our first stop was the Sderot Media Center. At the media center, we were shown a video describing the struggle in the community. It included a video that featured rebels making shoulder fire rockets. The part of the video showed many children during a community gathering and a rocket attack interrupted the gathering. Children and adults ran in panic to shelters. The footage that followed was disturbing. During the video, the power went out in the media center. This results from damage that the power grid sustains during attacks. The damage is lasting beyond rocket attacks in the form of instability in the power grid. The media center helps share the story and struggle of the people in the city because these stories do not reach many mainstream news outs locally and internationally.

A bomb shelter. Notice the vents. This most likely means there is an underground section in this shelter.

We took a short walk to the police station in the city. As we walked, the local leaders told us that every house in the city has a safe room that can sustain a directed rocket. These rooms costs over $26,000 to construct. In addition, every bus stop (there were many) has an above ground bomb shelter. As we walked. we saw random bomb shelters/safe rooms that dotted the street. It wasn’t clear if these were private or public. Some houses that are two and three stories have safe rooms/bomb shelters on each floor. You can tell what part of the house is a safe room because of shape and yellowish color.

Spent rockets. Notice the different sizes and shapes. The rockets are just made from plumbing pipe.

We walked around to the back of the station to a parking lot of police cars. Against the back wall of the police station, there was a small display of rockets. These rockets were sent from Gaza over the boarder into the city. The rockets were in different states of damage. Some small and some larger. I picked up an early version of these homemade rockets which was small and thin. The display showed that as time went on, the rockets became larger. I couldn’t believe that the rockets were made out of plumbing pipes. Regular pipe. The tail fins of the rockets are welded on and the entire construction is very basic.

Spent rocket.

We took a short trip to the boarder of the city that overlooks Gaza. It became very clear why this city is hit hardest by rocket attacks. The city is the closest population to Gaza.

Looking across the valley into the Gaza Strip.

Later, we rode over the only protected playground in the world, or so we were told. The playground is similar to what you would see in the States. However, there is a large concrete tube shaped and painted to look like a giant worm. This giant worm is a protected bomb shelter. This way, if the alarm goes off children can quickly be protected from rocket attacks. In 2004, during a rocket attack, a rocket killed children walking to school. Since then, play grounds are bright and decorated order to make the spirit of children more hopeful. Because of rocket attacks, there are no windows for early elementary school buildings. This is a protection measure for younger children.

That giant worm is really a bomb shelter.

Kibbutz Nir Am

Later in the day, we traveled to a kibbtuz in Nir Am and met with Avi Kadosh, the Director. The community was found in 1943, by his wife’s family. The complex was destroyed in the war of independence. He joined the kibbutz during his army service. He was born from Hollywood, CA and was called into the draft but left to live and serve in Israel with the army. He met Nina, who he later married.

The kibbutz was on the leading edge of independence because it is so close to Egypt. After the British Mandate, Egypt invaded from the west. Recently, rockets fell on the community during different Gaza conflicts causing damage to buildings and structures. In 2009, the community built safe rooms that can withstand bombardment. The kibbutz is seeing more frequent cycles of engagement between Gaza and the Israeli military.

The buildings and structures on the kibbutz were very nice and modern. We sat in a common café space. They provided refreshments for us and there was an espresso maker behind the counter. I so wanted to ask for a mocha, but I didn’t want to push my luck! The coffee in Israel is spicy. I just wanted an in fashion Italian espresso.

After a long day, we travel to Tel Aviv for the night to rest.

Israel Trip Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 part I – Day 5 part II – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8

Israel Trip

Israel Day Five (part 1): Tent of Nations

IMAG0768 We started our fifth day driving to the Tent of Nations, an organization that brings all people together to live and work on land that is disputed. Daoud Nassar, a Christian, is the owner of the disputed land. It was his grandfather’s land. However, his grandfather did something unusual. He received deeds from all the occupying powers that invaded Palestine. The grandfather obtained deeds from Ottomans and British. However, since last 12 years, the Israeli government is trying to prove it is public land.

As we traveled down a stony dirt road, we had to stop the bus and walk the way by foot. Several years ago, the Israeli government placed huge boulders on road so that it would make it difficult for Daoud to travel on his own road. He has to take another road to leave the farm which takes three times as long by car. Why is it important enough for a government to want to make life difficult for one 100 acre farm? What is so great about this land?

Israel Trip

Israel Day Three: Jerusalem

Travel from Nazareth to Jerusalem

We left Nazareth this morning as the sun was rising in the sky. Perhaps something I didn’t convey in my last post is the culture and nature of Nazareth. Nazareth is in the mountains. Houses are built on the sides of hills. Rain and water are in low supply and the locals have holding tanks above their house and apartments. Most dress in very trendy and modern. There are some funny signs around here such as “Lady Clinic”. I’m guessing that’s a health clinic for women.

It was explained to us that many of the buildings and homes are built illegally. Many are Palestinians and as such, do not have permission to build. So, many buildings are left unfinished. Many of the dwellings would fail Western code standards. Our hotel was generally very modern, but no clothing irons or wash cloths.

We traveled from Nazareth to Jerusalem, we drove through many farms. Olive trees, lime or lemon trees, banana trees, and other agriculture. One the interesting things about Galilee is that many of the people around the area do not fish! Commercial fishing is not allowed in Galilee because the lake supplies much of Israel with water. They don’t want pollution. Most of the people in the time of Jesus, around Galilee were not fishermen but farmers.

Israel Trip

Israel Day Two: Nazareth & Galilee

Our first meeting of the day was with Bader Mansour at the Nazareth Baptist School. Bader is the General Secretary of Baptist Churches in Israel. Also, Badar is an alum of the school and shared that he came to Christ through one of his teachers. His Bible teacher was kind and loving and he wanted to know more about his teacher. Bader found that only Jesus Christ could make someone truly loving and kind.

Ruth Clark (President of ABC-USA, Badar, & Roy Medley (General Secretary of ABC-USA)

The school is the only Baptist school in Israel and evangelical school of its kind. Chapel is every morning and the school has close to 1000 children. The school founded in 1930s by Southern Baptist missionaries but now the school is privately run.It is one of the best schools in Israel as people register kids 3 years early to make sure their children get into this quality grade school. The school is made of 75% Christian and 25% Muslims.

Bader shared with us some important facts. As an Arab Palestinian Christian, he faces some challenges with the nature of his work. As a minority, Arabs are often treated as second class citizens. Bader enjoys citizenship but there are cultural hurdles.

There are about 3,000 Baptists in Nazareth. Of the 100,000 people in and around Nazareth, most Christians are Orthodox Christian. There are about 25,000 Christians total but it is mainly a Muslim city. One third Christian and two-thirds Muslim.

Israel has about 10 million people total and about 200,000 are Christians. Many churches are a part of the Arab Evangelical Convention. These groups include Baptists, Assembly of God, Brethren, Nazarene, and Christian Alliance. This convention is not official, but rather a defacto recognized group based on verbal agreements. The last recognized church groups were the Anglicans. Many Southern Baptists wanted independent churches but in Israel can’t do that. Churches need to be apart of a large group in order to be recognized to do weddings, funeral.

Mary’s Well.

Next, we went to Mary’s Well. Lots of beautiful icons. This site is the Greek Orthodox site of the Annunciation, that is the angel’s visit to Mary telling her that she was going to bear the savior of the world. There was a large icon where a woman was kissing Mary’s image. A worn spot from people kissing the icon can be seen in the picture. One embarrassing note: There was an American who approached the chancel steps and rather disrespectfully looked into the chancel. A guard came and closed a curtain thereby ending anyone’s view.

Later in the morning, we drove through Cana to the Sea of Tiberius, also called the Sea of Galilee . It is only a 45 minute trip but would have been a 4 day journey if we walked! Check out the picture of the ads in Cana. The region is very mountainous. We pass through olive groves and other agricultural land. We arrived at Tiberius, which sits on the lake. It is mainly a resort town. We took a boat out on the Sea of Galilee and a storm came upon us very quickly. It made me think of the story of the disciples on a boat and a storm came up on them quickly on the same lake. This is of course the famous story of Jesus walking on water. This is also near the area of Capernium

Then, we traveled to nearby Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount address. The top of the mount is a Catholic site and it is very peaceful and lush. In 2000, John Paul II held mass there and there were over two million in attendance. We sat down under a pavilion and the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 were read. It was a moving experience. This is also the area that Jesus would go and pray privately. No wonder Jesus came here often, it’s an awesome place to be. You can see for miles.

Just down the hill, we went to the site of Peter’s Primacy. This is the site that is said to be where Jesus told Peter that was the Rock (Petras) and upon the rock, he would build his church. There is a small chapel there where people can pray and sit. There is a large rock that is inside and the church is built around it. Pilgrims left prayers there, mostly Catholic and Orthodox Christians. We walked down about 100 yards to a small beach. There, I read the group John 21, which is the scripture that tells of Jesus’ post resurrection appearance to the disciples. The disicples were in a boat fishing but caught nothing. Jesus called to them to fish on the other side of the boat and caught a huge load of fish. Afterwards, Jesus feed them fish and bread for breakfast.

Our last stop was Capernaum. Capernaum is an interesting place. Jesus spent a lot of time in and around this area. There are still ruins there from the 5th century. In addition, there is a church built on top of Peter’s house, the traditional site where it is said where Peter lived. Remains of a Byzantine church is below the current church. Next to this church, is a synagogue from the 5th century. The structure was at some point razed and it appears that the remains where reconstructed as the building had modern concrete in spots. This synagogue was likely a place that existed in the time of Jesus. The Gospels mention that Jesus was confronted by a demoniac while teaching there.

It was amazing to walk around where Jesus walked. To think about his journeys around the Sea of Galilee. He looked out the same area we visited. It makes you feel just a little closer to the Gospels then just sitting back home in the States.

Israel Trip Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 part I – Day 5 part II – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8

: Ruth Clark (President of ABC-USA, Badar, & Roy Medley (General Secretary of ABC-USA)

: Mary’s Well.

Israel Trip

Israel Day 1: The Travel

I started on my trip to Israel on Sunday night, which for a time, it was uncertain that I would even get to Israel. If you have not read about the nature of my Israel trip, please read here.

At Albany Airport, there was mass confusion concerning the flights that were going to Newark, NJ. One flight was the 11:00 AM flight and the other was my flight at 5:50 PM. Both flights were showing delayed on the board but the gate agent couldn’t give a forward answer why there was a delay. Long story short, my flight was delayed an hour but that wasn’t a big deal to me as I had a 3 hour lay over.

I arrived in Newark without any problems. Newark is a busy and crowded airport so I headed to the United club with a free pass I acquired. After relaxing for a bit, I started to my gate. Amazingly, after going through Albany security, we had to go through gate security. Our passports were checked and our bags searched. Then, we all had to again go to the gate agent to have our passport looked at again. We loaded plane and started our journey.

Evangelicals

How Evangelicals can lead the way now

After the 2012 elections, Franklin Graham stated on CNN that our nation is on a “path of destruction” due to the 2012 election results. In addition Graham said, “If we are allowed to go down this road in the path that this president wants us to go down, I think it will be to our peril end to the destruction of this nation.”

This is troubling talk from one of the most powerful Evangelicals. Millions of Christians regularly take Graham’s lead on matters of politics and moral issues.

This is not the way to lead Christians to reach out and bring about the Kingdom of God. Let me explain.

Graham’s comments on CNN were noble, but there is a better way to change the future of America. His ministry organizations actively block movements in states that try to legalize same sex marriage, fight for prayer to return to schools, and encourage legislation that forbids abortions. Graham’s ministry and organizations regularly court politicians to enact his biblical interpretation on certain issues as civil law. By doing this, Graham only alienates the very people we Christians are trying to reach.

Franklin Graham and I are fellow ministers, evangelicals, and preachers of the Gospel. I thank Graham for his service to our nation and to other nations around the world. His relief organizations continuing give aid to developing nations. I support a number of these organizations. Graham’s heart is for God’s and I commend him for that. He wants to see the world and our nation to come to know Jesus Christ. I agree. Graham wants for Christians to carry out the message of the Bible. I agree. He wants the world to know God. I agree.

However, Graham and I disagree about how to go about making these common Kingdom goals realities. The only way to turn others to Christ is not through our political process, but through a Kingdom Process.

Jesus did not come to lobby Rome, Paul didn’t appeal to political leaders in Athens, and Peter didn’t hold political fundraisers for kings. Christian leaders in the New Testament did not use a political system as a means to achieve moral and societal change. Instead, they ate, sat, discussed, lived, and created space for their detractors. They didn’t alienate those who they were preaching to with hateful speech or disdain. People loved Jesus because he was the only rabbi that would give them to time of day and listen to them.

Tom McCrossan, another fellow minister, and life long Republican to add, provided a helpful perspective of what is occurring with Christians who want change through politics:

Leadership

Change: 12 Guidelines for Deciding When to Persist, When to Quit

Kanter’s Law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.”

Navigating change or transformation within an organization or church is a challenge, but when it time for a new ideas to hit the road? What is a good yard stick to measure a new program, ministry, or initiative? How can organizations and churches evaluate success? Often, there is a messy middle where the future is uncertain and evaluation is difficult.

The Harvard Business Review has an excellent piece on how to evaluate the effectiveness of new plans or ideas.What I like best about these guidelines is that they ask the right questions instead of using a specific school of thought through a per-packaged paradigm:

Culture, Jesus

Did Jesus really have a wife?

What you are looking at above is a 1,600 year-old piece of papyrus that was written in Coptic. A New York Times’ article on it set off speculation on whether or not Jesus was married:

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’”The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”

Hold on there all you Dan Brown fans, don’t get too excited. There’s more to the story.

The Smithsonian Magazine has a lengthy back story on the papyrus and the scholar who discovered it. I highly suggest you read it when you have the time. The papyrus looks to be authentic, meaning that it is not a modern forgery. And, the Smithsonian Channel will premiere a special documentary about the discovery on September 30 at 8 p.m. ET

So the question remains, could have Jesus been married? Sure. Is it likely he was married?

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