The documentary by that title is pretty fascinating. Basically, this buff guy follows around these other buff guys and tries to figure out why everyone hates Barry Bonds.
Well, that's not exactly it, but it is about steroids. And it is about everyone's reaction to steroids. And it's about the myths of steroids. Basically, the guy making the documentary comes to the conclusion that 'roids are a great way to get much bigger, strong and faster without too much risk, as long as they are done correctly.
And I think in our churches we have subscribed to the same notion. We have started to believe it possible to build our churches bigger, stronger and faster. We are shocked if our numbers stay in double digits much more than a month or two. We expect giving to increase annually and if it doesn't something is wrong. We want larger buildings, better fleets, faster sermons and bigger communities.
Basically, we want it all supersized.
And that really pisses me off.
Churches should be built person by person, brick by brick. If you told someone building a house that they should be able to get more than one brick going at a time, they would think you probably hadn't built a house. And if you told Jesus that 12 disciples were good, but 200 are better, he probably wouldn't care much. He would know what the bricklayer knows. And that is that quality takes time. Quality takes care and it takes patience.
And if we want to build a better kind of church, if we are looking to build a better kind of community, then it should take time. Lives don't change overnight, at least not on average. Lives change step by step, hour by hour. They change one relationship at a time. And people come to right relationship with Jesus over time, one step at a time, one tough decision at a time.
So while the temptation is to fill the doors in any way possible, I think we have to eschew that for the slow, difficult process of helping each person that comes our way. We have to help them so that hopefully soon, they can start helping someone too. And then, we have two helping hands instead of one. Then people are able to multiply, and then we have a strong foundation of a church slowly built. And I believe the original 12 would say we were on to something. But we can't take too much credit, Jesus was onto it first.
7.27.2010
7.26.2010
Why I am (usually) overwhelmed by God's goodness
Now, I have to throw in the (usually) in the title because, unfortunately I am sometimes so focused on my own personal wants or whatever that I forget the overwhelming goodness of God. But often at or before or after church I can't help but remember.
In an ideal world, I would only be employed by our church, I would be able to devote all my time to dreaming and thinking and studying and working on all those things. But this world is not that world. I don't have all kinds of time to devote to those things, notice my conspicuous absence from the blog scene all too frequently.
But even though I am not usually confident heading into church, somehow God regularly uses the words that I speak. It would be nice if it was due to some latent talent or incredible wit on my part, but truly neither of those things could change anyone. If I was the most talented speaker in the world, and if I had days and weeks to dream up clever and insightful things to say, at the end of it all only God can help people in the ways that they need. At the end, only God can effectively speak into people's hearts and minds.
None of that is to say that I am completely left out of the process. Not at all. The goodness of God is that he lets me help. He lets me be a coworker, albeit a vastly inferior one. I firmly believe that God, at his heart, is trinity. Because of that, God values community above all because he was community before everything else. He has invited us to take part in that community and that includes community work. In the community work, we labor to speak truth, to call to repentance, to laugh, cry and love well.
Sometimes I wish we would grow numerically more quickly, that God would bless us with hundreds, thousands overnight. But then I remember that my standards are not his, and my idea of success is a Porsche or a book deal. But God's kingdom is invisible, and his standard of success is simply: Did you love well?
Did you? Did we?
In an ideal world, I would only be employed by our church, I would be able to devote all my time to dreaming and thinking and studying and working on all those things. But this world is not that world. I don't have all kinds of time to devote to those things, notice my conspicuous absence from the blog scene all too frequently.
But even though I am not usually confident heading into church, somehow God regularly uses the words that I speak. It would be nice if it was due to some latent talent or incredible wit on my part, but truly neither of those things could change anyone. If I was the most talented speaker in the world, and if I had days and weeks to dream up clever and insightful things to say, at the end of it all only God can help people in the ways that they need. At the end, only God can effectively speak into people's hearts and minds.
None of that is to say that I am completely left out of the process. Not at all. The goodness of God is that he lets me help. He lets me be a coworker, albeit a vastly inferior one. I firmly believe that God, at his heart, is trinity. Because of that, God values community above all because he was community before everything else. He has invited us to take part in that community and that includes community work. In the community work, we labor to speak truth, to call to repentance, to laugh, cry and love well.
Sometimes I wish we would grow numerically more quickly, that God would bless us with hundreds, thousands overnight. But then I remember that my standards are not his, and my idea of success is a Porsche or a book deal. But God's kingdom is invisible, and his standard of success is simply: Did you love well?
Did you? Did we?
7.17.2010
Family
The other night at church we talked about family. Specifically, the new family of God. I think that our blood family, our flesh and blood, are usually meant to be temporary measures (other than marriage). I think parents are only called to be parents for enough time to get their kids out into the world. Then, those kids are responsible to God.
Now, this topic is both easy and difficult for me for the same reasons. It is easy because my dad gave up on parenting pretty early. I honestly didn't have much of a relationship with him. My mom kind of gave up the ghost on parenting because she could only focus on making enough to get us by. My sisters are both great people, and my grandma may be the kindest person I have ever known, but ultimately none of them could fulfill the role that I would need. And I think that is true for all of us. It was probably easier for me to grasp because of the unavoidable observation that my family fell pretty short, specifically my dad and mom.
But because of that, I filled the void with friends, and with Christian community. While I am still very poor at community, I have been blessed to recognize the ultimate importance of it. God himself is community, God exists in three persons in one, God created us for community, so it is in our very DNA. And though our DNA family may seem like an end, it is, in my opinion, there to serve a temporary role of teaching us that we belong with others. Idiotic shows like the Bachelorette exist because at their deepest, most vulnerable, people long to be in community. So much that they will attempt to marry people they met a few months ago.
And while it is easy for me to point out idiocy there, it exists in sports teams, nerd conventions (like comic-con) and watching dumb movies. I don't think we should give up all those things, but I do think we should recognize the underlying need that they are manifesting. We all want to be part of the team, we all want someone to love us, we all want someone to share our interests, because we are, in some strange way, an extension of the eternal trinity.
Now, this topic is both easy and difficult for me for the same reasons. It is easy because my dad gave up on parenting pretty early. I honestly didn't have much of a relationship with him. My mom kind of gave up the ghost on parenting because she could only focus on making enough to get us by. My sisters are both great people, and my grandma may be the kindest person I have ever known, but ultimately none of them could fulfill the role that I would need. And I think that is true for all of us. It was probably easier for me to grasp because of the unavoidable observation that my family fell pretty short, specifically my dad and mom.
But because of that, I filled the void with friends, and with Christian community. While I am still very poor at community, I have been blessed to recognize the ultimate importance of it. God himself is community, God exists in three persons in one, God created us for community, so it is in our very DNA. And though our DNA family may seem like an end, it is, in my opinion, there to serve a temporary role of teaching us that we belong with others. Idiotic shows like the Bachelorette exist because at their deepest, most vulnerable, people long to be in community. So much that they will attempt to marry people they met a few months ago.
And while it is easy for me to point out idiocy there, it exists in sports teams, nerd conventions (like comic-con) and watching dumb movies. I don't think we should give up all those things, but I do think we should recognize the underlying need that they are manifesting. We all want to be part of the team, we all want someone to love us, we all want someone to share our interests, because we are, in some strange way, an extension of the eternal trinity.
6.30.2010
Toy Story
So Robin and I went to watch Toy Story 3 the other night. It was, as Pixar usually is, excellent. Not too many laughs, but quite a few "frog in your throat" moments. I don't know if any Pixar will ever live up to Up in my mind, but I can still enjoy them quite a bit.
The statements that the movie made about community and togetherness were by far the strongest part, to me. There is a part when it looks like they are all about to be incinerated. As they are slowly moving toward this huge ball of fire, one by one they begin to reach out to eachother. One by one they join hands and turn to face their inevitable death. The poignancy of the moment is clearly that, though they will soon die, they will at least face it bravely with those that they love and hold dear.
From that point of the movie on, it seems clear that the characters have learned an important lesson. It doesn't matter what happens in life, what matters is who they are surrounded by. It matters more whose hand you are holding than where you are holding it. For life to be good, the community must exist. It is always my hope that I won't care so much where I am in life, or what I am doing or how much money sits in my bank account, but that I enjoy those around me, and that I choose to hold onto them rather than anything else. See, the toys didn't start to regret what kind of car they drove, or what kind of vacation they took or house they lived in. All they cared about was embracing community for that last five minutes.
Sometimes I think life would be more fully lived if it was always in the direct threat of death. But the problem is that it might be a little less genuine then. The real question comes into our lives when they are good. Will we choose to hold those people close, or will we choose to build up our 401k for a rainy day? On that rainy day, will we really care as much how much we have, or who we have it with?
The statements that the movie made about community and togetherness were by far the strongest part, to me. There is a part when it looks like they are all about to be incinerated. As they are slowly moving toward this huge ball of fire, one by one they begin to reach out to eachother. One by one they join hands and turn to face their inevitable death. The poignancy of the moment is clearly that, though they will soon die, they will at least face it bravely with those that they love and hold dear.
From that point of the movie on, it seems clear that the characters have learned an important lesson. It doesn't matter what happens in life, what matters is who they are surrounded by. It matters more whose hand you are holding than where you are holding it. For life to be good, the community must exist. It is always my hope that I won't care so much where I am in life, or what I am doing or how much money sits in my bank account, but that I enjoy those around me, and that I choose to hold onto them rather than anything else. See, the toys didn't start to regret what kind of car they drove, or what kind of vacation they took or house they lived in. All they cared about was embracing community for that last five minutes.
Sometimes I think life would be more fully lived if it was always in the direct threat of death. But the problem is that it might be a little less genuine then. The real question comes into our lives when they are good. Will we choose to hold those people close, or will we choose to build up our 401k for a rainy day? On that rainy day, will we really care as much how much we have, or who we have it with?
6.29.2010
Cuss words
I can't think of too many taboos in our society more commonly and voraciously held than that of the cuss word. I get a small pleasure from breaking that taboo from time to time, by either surprising Robin with a curse or uttering them under my breath at Grant in church. It is a childish pleasure, but nonetheless it is one I enjoy. And as I do it I feel the gratification of bucking the system and rejecting the absolute that I treasured as a child.
But there are times and places where I still would rather say anything than a cussword. In front of my boss, or in the middle of a sermon for instance.
So the struggle for me is that I do not think words themselves are good or bad, clean or unclean. I think 'shit' in english could very well mean 'you are beautiful' in some undiscovered dialect deep in the heart of China. Sometimes 'damn' and 'hell' are the only words that truly express whatever state or place you want to describe.
As I read over Romans 14, I see that Paul is talking mostly about eating and drinking (two things that lead to an excessive amount of judgement and stumbling in our society too...). But I can just as easily see him speaking it about cuss words. I see that I need to sometimes keep my mouth shut, and lots of times keep my cusswords unspoken, for the sake of "peace and mutual edification." (Rom 14.19) I see that sometimes my license with my mouth can lead to destruction, and it is wrong for me to cause others to stumble. If I am truly strong, I need to bear with the weak, because ultimately I am really weak, and need those that are strong to bear with me.
But there are times and places where I still would rather say anything than a cussword. In front of my boss, or in the middle of a sermon for instance.
So the struggle for me is that I do not think words themselves are good or bad, clean or unclean. I think 'shit' in english could very well mean 'you are beautiful' in some undiscovered dialect deep in the heart of China. Sometimes 'damn' and 'hell' are the only words that truly express whatever state or place you want to describe.
As I read over Romans 14, I see that Paul is talking mostly about eating and drinking (two things that lead to an excessive amount of judgement and stumbling in our society too...). But I can just as easily see him speaking it about cuss words. I see that I need to sometimes keep my mouth shut, and lots of times keep my cusswords unspoken, for the sake of "peace and mutual edification." (Rom 14.19) I see that sometimes my license with my mouth can lead to destruction, and it is wrong for me to cause others to stumble. If I am truly strong, I need to bear with the weak, because ultimately I am really weak, and need those that are strong to bear with me.
6.28.2010
Critique and Courage
I have some lost time I need to make up for, so my goal is to try to blog each of the last few days of June. We'll see.
I watched part of an interview the other day on one of those news shows. They were interviewing some fo the Christian leaders of the younger generations. One of them was Gabe Lyons (I believe) and he said something that I have been kind of dwelling on for the past few days.
He said that part of the current movement is that they don't see it as a critique of the old guard. They just want to be thought of as a new movement in Christianity and that it is for others to decide if it is a critique.
I honestly have a few issues with that. Clearly Lyons didn't want to come across as a jerk or overly critical, but I think for us to actually make progress we need to admit that much of what we do is a reaction to previous screw ups. I think we should be a critique to those that have gone before us, just as they should critique us in some ways! If we don't then we are all just affirming how awesome we are all the time and probably won't make too much progress.
Our goal is to be a better kind of church. We must recognize that old models (and maybe having a model at all) are wrong or at least seriously flawed and that we can do better. We have to do this, not out of spite or frustration, but out of a deep desire/need to give Jesus the kind of body he wants us to be. Jesus wasn't afraid to make people feel like crap sometimes because that is one way to spur change. We should emulate that. Of course there is a good way to do that, we can be gracious in our rebukes, but the rebukes must come nonetheless.
It takes courage to offend, especially if we care what the others think or if we care about them in general. But "trusted are the scars from a friend" or something on those lines. We have to shout to the church the ways we have gone wrong, or we are just giving it up for dead. And it is certainly close to life-support now...
I watched part of an interview the other day on one of those news shows. They were interviewing some fo the Christian leaders of the younger generations. One of them was Gabe Lyons (I believe) and he said something that I have been kind of dwelling on for the past few days.
He said that part of the current movement is that they don't see it as a critique of the old guard. They just want to be thought of as a new movement in Christianity and that it is for others to decide if it is a critique.
I honestly have a few issues with that. Clearly Lyons didn't want to come across as a jerk or overly critical, but I think for us to actually make progress we need to admit that much of what we do is a reaction to previous screw ups. I think we should be a critique to those that have gone before us, just as they should critique us in some ways! If we don't then we are all just affirming how awesome we are all the time and probably won't make too much progress.
Our goal is to be a better kind of church. We must recognize that old models (and maybe having a model at all) are wrong or at least seriously flawed and that we can do better. We have to do this, not out of spite or frustration, but out of a deep desire/need to give Jesus the kind of body he wants us to be. Jesus wasn't afraid to make people feel like crap sometimes because that is one way to spur change. We should emulate that. Of course there is a good way to do that, we can be gracious in our rebukes, but the rebukes must come nonetheless.
It takes courage to offend, especially if we care what the others think or if we care about them in general. But "trusted are the scars from a friend" or something on those lines. We have to shout to the church the ways we have gone wrong, or we are just giving it up for dead. And it is certainly close to life-support now...
6.27.2010
Worry
I don't really sit up at night fretting about paying bills or wondering why BP can't get their crap together. I haven't felt "stressed" in some time, to be honest. But there are tons of things that worry me. Things I wish for that may not materialize, things I want to see happen at church that are slow to materialize, things that, in all honesty, I can't control and would probably screw up if I could.
I wish we could have a child, but sometimes it seems like God doesn't hear our cry. I wish we could pay off debt, but every time it seems like we are about to make progress we have to do something like get tires or something like that. But when I am completely honest, I only worry when I focus on things that are seen versus the things that are unseen.
It is always honest when I look at Robin that she isn't pregnant, but what I can't see is the way that God is moving in our hearts and forcing us to wait on him. It is easy to look at my situation and know that I am basically working two jobs, but the unseen is that God is showing me that he will grow our church on his schedule (and some of that is contingent on others, but I have to see that not much of it is based on what I do). If our church does ever grow to a decent size and I can pastor full-time, I won't be able to pretend that I was the key element and hopefully I will be able to resist the easy pride. It's very easy to focus on the tangible fact that we rent our home and have decent sized student loan payments, but the unseen is that we are working for a kingdom that doesn't even possess currency because everything is given.
I have lots of hopes and wishes and dreams, but when I evaluate them closely, a good deal of the time they are fairly short-sighted and shallow. Those that aren't I just have to hope that God knows more than I do (and if he doesn't I'm screwed anyway).
I wish we could have a child, but sometimes it seems like God doesn't hear our cry. I wish we could pay off debt, but every time it seems like we are about to make progress we have to do something like get tires or something like that. But when I am completely honest, I only worry when I focus on things that are seen versus the things that are unseen.
It is always honest when I look at Robin that she isn't pregnant, but what I can't see is the way that God is moving in our hearts and forcing us to wait on him. It is easy to look at my situation and know that I am basically working two jobs, but the unseen is that God is showing me that he will grow our church on his schedule (and some of that is contingent on others, but I have to see that not much of it is based on what I do). If our church does ever grow to a decent size and I can pastor full-time, I won't be able to pretend that I was the key element and hopefully I will be able to resist the easy pride. It's very easy to focus on the tangible fact that we rent our home and have decent sized student loan payments, but the unseen is that we are working for a kingdom that doesn't even possess currency because everything is given.
I have lots of hopes and wishes and dreams, but when I evaluate them closely, a good deal of the time they are fairly short-sighted and shallow. Those that aren't I just have to hope that God knows more than I do (and if he doesn't I'm screwed anyway).
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