Prayer

Sometimes God places things on my heart that don't go away until I have responded. This was the case in 2007 when he began placing upon my heart the conviction to go back to Russia and adopt children one more time which came to happen in 2009. Well... God has been placing something upon my heart for a number of months, a conviction that we as the Sugar Grove church need to be praying far more than we are. He has placed upon my heart that we need to be praying about where we are going as a church as well as praying about one another. 

Often when God is trying to get my attention he does so by giving me an unsettled feeling and I have had this feeling for a number of months now. What is frustrating is that I recognize God is up to something but I still don't completely understand what it is that God is trying to tell me. All I know is that it has been strongly upon my heart that we need to pray. 

We need to pray for one another because members at Sugar Grove are facing a seemingly unprecedented number of challenges. In fact I have been startled how it has seemed for the last 18 or so months that our members have been facing far more than the normal level of unforeseen problems. It is as if a spiritual battle has been unleashed against us. We need to be praying for and over and with each other. 

We need to pray for the church as a whole and where God is taking us. God has been leading a portion of the Sugar Grove leadership to begin to recognize that church is more than just attendance at an event on a Sunday morning.  

A few weeks ago it popped in my head that it would be cool to reverse how we do an invitation on a Sunday morning. Instead of having a few people wait down front for anyone that might decide to come down for prayers we ought to have teams of people that allow the Holy Spirit to guide them during the 'invitation' to seek out people to pray with. 

I understand that before my time Wednesday nights were prayer meetings- times that the church would get together simply to pray. Maybe we need times together where in an unplanned fashion we simply pray allowing whomever the Spirit leads to lift up prayers to God and pray over people and pray for God's guidance as a church. 

The bottom line is that we (I, you, us) are not spending enough time in prayer!

What Is Church?

We tend to live a significantly compartmentalized life. We have school, family, recreation, work, and church. We don't bring work home. We do our homework so we can go play. When we go play we leave everything else behind. Where does church fall in all of this? It's what we do when we aren't in school, with family, playing, or working. 

To be a better Christian we go to church every Sunday and find something the church is doing to participate in. Many of us grew up learning that the highlight of what the church does is focused on Sunday morning where we worship and learn about God. We have been taught that to be a good Christian we show up and participate in a worship service or a class or a potluck. If we really want to be a super good Christian we will lead in a worship service or teach or organize a potluck. Every so often we will even go out on mission to serve or tell others about Jesus or to be the ultimate Christian we will lead a mission effort. 

We have figured out ways to be more focused in worship and to increase the depth of our learning. In fact some churches have so highly perfected their worship services and learning about God that people flock from all around to go to church there. 

We have even spent the last few years perfecting small groups meeting over the hills and through the woods learning to care for one another. These have provided Christ centered relationships that have sustained us through life. We have learned to care and connect with one another.

But... something seems to be missing. 

We thought for a while that if we would simply do more and more church things we would achieve perfection but we realized this was simply our American addiction to activity and action being interpreted as spirituality. 

We have thought that if we would build it they would come, if we develop the most amazing programs and get our name out in the community the crowds of people would come, and they did, but something is still missing. 

Could it be that church is more and different than we have imagined? Could it be that church is not simply a place you go to participate? Could it be that church is not simply about us and we? Could it be that church is not supposed to be religious? Could it be that the focus of church is not simply to worship God and learn more about him?  Could it be that church is not supposed to match a specific pattern and look the same everywhere you go? 

Could it be that church should be associated with radical life transformation- discipleship? 

Could it be that church should be dynamically led by the Holy Spirit so that it played itself out differently in every community and people group around the globe? Could it be that church should be about being the light of God in every community and people group around the globe? 

Could it be that church should be going to people instead of waiting for people to come to church? Could it be that the mission of the church involves every moment of every person's life? Could it be that church and Christianity one in the same simply describe people living the entirety of their ever changing life led by the Holy Spirit to be an ambassador for God in all that they do and say? Could it be that it is far more important to connect with the people around us on a daily basis for God instead of organizing special occasional events to reach out to people? 

What would happen if we weighed every encounter with another human being by asking God if this is a person He led us to be a light toward? How might that change how we treat our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends, and the other people we interact with every day? 

What would happen if instead of assuming we know what we are supposed to do and say to be a messenger for God when we encounter another human being we started by asking the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and actions and feelings? 

One of the things that weighs heavy upon my heart is how arrogant we are. We think we have figured out God, we think have figured out church, and we think we have figured out the Bible. Instead of teaching people to be reliant upon God and the leading of His Holy Spirit we teach people to be confident that we know what to and what to say and what to think and how to act. We plan and act and speak and think and feel without seeking God's counsel. 

Perhaps being church and a Christian means we quiet down and humbly seek God's guidance and stay quiet so we can hear the gentle voice of His Holy Spirit. 

Church is without a doubt changing, that is good, because maybe we are learning, again, to let God be in charge by ceding power on our part. 

Church is a group of people on a journey together toward a promised land reaching out along the way to help as many as possible to join this journey toward the land God has promised. 

Racism

I grew up with an awesome grandfather. He could build anything. He could solve any problem. He could tell stories like no other. It was just a minor wrinkle that he smoked so much that he died from emphysema, he drank so much that he permanently smelled of alcohol, and he never saw a black person who he did not call the n word.

I grew up in a world quiet different from the world my grandfather grew up in. He was born just around the time of  World War 1 and grew up in a very segregated society. I grew up in an inner city neighborhood in Fort Worth and attended schools that were racially diverse. My friends at school were white, latino, black, asian, middle eastern, and who knows what else.

I remember the first time I began to realize that my world view was significantly different than my grandfather's when he picked me up from middle school when I was in 6th grade. I jumped up into his '73 orange and white Chevy truck and he began to go on and on about how many n...'s there were at my school and making sure I knew how worthless they were. I remember not knowing what to say because I loved my grandfather but I was also shocked he was assigning a stereotypical value to everyone with dark skin at my school when I knew for a fact that some of the black kids were awesome while some of them were bad news just as was the case with my white, latino, asian, and middle eastern friends.  

Racism is assigning a stereotypical value to an entire group of people which typically denigrates that group allowing justification for inferior and inappropriate treatment. Traditionally we have associated racism as something done by a white person toward a black person as I observed at a church I served with in  in 2002 when an elder of that church told me how wonderful it was that my youth group had experienced dramatic growth but I needed to make sure the black teens didn't come to 'our' church but went to church across town because that's where 'their kind' went.

However we often forget that racism can flow in any direction.

My father was a public employee with the city of Fort Worth when I was growing up. We were dirt poor because of his job with the city. The goal within the city of Fort Worth at that time was to hire people based upon the color of their skin and the preferred color was black. Since my father was white he was bounced lower and lower within the ranks of city employees with consequent pay decreases. The only reason he stayed on his job was because he didn't have enough confidence to go find another job and he knew he would have good retirement benefits if he stuck it out. Consequently I have had an intuitive sense for most of my life that racism is something that can flow any direction.

But racism does not stop at the color of skin.

I have been shocked the last few years at the aggressive stance people are taking toward Christians and Christianity. I was reading a news story earlier this week and the comments at the end of the story contained people ranting about how Christianity needs to be stamped out because all it has brought us is the Crusades and Nazi killings. Let's not kid ourselves, coming to believe that all Christians are lunatic killers like the Nazi's is racism. In the same way belief that all Muslims are terrorists is also racism. We supposedly live in an enlightened culture but in reality all that is occurring is that we are switching racism from one group to another. It's a most confusing and challenging proposition to keep from becoming mired in the muck of racism or from allowing the pendulum to swing so far that in order to avoid racism we throw out all rational thought and discernment.

Racism is now no longer limited to beliefs but also behaviors.

Our culture has begun to view sexual issues as something in which discrimination can occur in ways that it did not do in previous generations. This stretches the idea of racism to be more than simply stereotyping people based upon race but upon behaviors as well.

The Christian response to sexual issues has traditionally been to reject any behavior that was understood as sinful and consequently to reject anyone who continued to engage in this sinful sexual activity. This stance in the past was accepted and/or tolerated by society but we are rapidly moving into a time period in which our society no longer is willing to allow Christians to reject someone based upon their behavior.

What is funny to me about the issue of the acceptance or rejection of sexual behaviors by Christianity is the manner in which it has been applied. There seems to be a different set of rules based upon whether something is public or private. Through the years I have observed that anyone in the church who publicly proclaims they are engaging in sexual behaviors that are not Biblically acceptable are condemned while anyone who privately engaged in these behaviors without public proclamation are viewed with an attitude that says we don't like it but it's ultimately between you and God. To illustrate, two of the churches I have worked with in the past knew of sexual behavior of a member that violated Biblical standards but was not publicly known. The response of the leaders of those churches was to take aggressive steps to keep that behavior secret (primarily to protect their own reputation), not to exclude that person or to work to bring about transformation in their behavior.

My hypothesis is that the tension being created in the Christian community today about accepting certain sexual behaviors/lifestyles are actually centered around the desire for these lifestyles to be known in the public arena instead of being held in the private arena. In that sense nothing has changed because people, Christians and non Christians alike, have always engaged in behavior that was not accepted or acceptable. The reality is people, Christians and non Christians alike, will do what they want to do regardless of  what anyone says. Do we then exclude everyone except those who are living 'right'? Hmmm... If we reject everyone who is not living perfectly then ultimately every single person, both in the Christian community and outside the Christian community, would be excluded because none of us live perfectly. That is why Jesus Christ did what he did- we can't be good enough to redeem ourselves from sin, that's his job.

Perhaps there is no need for the Christian community to panic about the possibility of being accused of being  racist toward someone based upon their sexual orientation or practices. Perhaps instead of condemning people because they want to live a certain lifestyle publicly we treat them the same way we did when they lived that lifestyle privately- we offer them grace and mercy acknowledging their life is ultimately something that is between them and God. Perhaps we should stop thinking we are god and allow God to be God by trusting that the Holy Spirit will work in and through the lives of those that seek Him. Perhaps the Christian community should work to privately connect one one one with people, both Christian and non Christian alike,  allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and actions and words to that person instead of speaking publicly a message of condemnation.  Perhaps racism in all of its various forms is a profoundly confusing problem indicating the evil one is actively at work bringing confusion to everyone- Christian and non Christian alike.
 

How I've Figured Out To Be An Introverted Christian

I am an introvert. On the Meyers Briggs I am an INFP.   My mother tells stories from when I was 3 or 4 of company coming to our house and I would turn up missing only to be found behind a chair hiding. From elementary school through college I would get so apprehensive about speaking in front of a group of people that I would get light headed and almost pass out. About 18 years ago I had a performance review as a youth minister which required me to say Hi to people in the church hallways on Sunday mornings. I am without a doubt an introvert.

As an introvert I relate very well to other introverts, I completely understand the pressure of living as an introvert in an extroverted world. I recently had an introverted friend recommend a book to me about introverts. It was an awesome book that explored how our culture has spent the last 100 years setting up the extrovert as the ideal person and the introvert as almost having a handicap. The book challenges the perception that introversion is a handicap by pointing out all that introverts have added to our culture. I loved the book!

However just as our culture has embraced an extrovert as the ideal person so too have our Christian churches embraced the idea that the ideal Christian is an extrovert. Perhaps a John the Baptist or Paul type who are gregarious and bold and into everything. In my first few years of youth ministry I worked around alot of other youth ministers who were the classic high energy pied piper style of extroverted youth minister while I was the quieter relational type of youth minister. I always felt as if I were a failure because of my quieter style. I would attempt to imitate the extroverted youth ministers but it would end with me becoming frustrated and angry.

However as time moved along I began to observe some startling things. A surprising number of the extroverted youth ministers crashed and burned emotionally, spiritually, and morally. For some their high energy was something that they were not able to maintain in the long run. For others their ego was stoked by the admiration of those they worked with which led a number of them to crash and burn. There were still others whose relationship with God was dependent upon things such as those around them and the energy of the Sunday morning worship. This group began to crash and burn spiritually as they were let down by those around them and/or the Sunday worship at their church was too dull and lifeless. While these extroverted youth ministers were deeply impacted by the people and events around them I was able to stick in there and continue to minister because my strength and spirituality did not derive from external stimuli.

As I continued year after year in ministry I began to crave time alone with God which became a primary foundation for my spiritual life. For me, an introverted minister, I gain emotional and spiritual renewal from time alone when it is just God and I.  Consequently the ups and downs of the churches and the members I have served with have not sent my own spiritual life on a roller coaster which is likely why I am still in ministry 23 years later after so many others I have served with are no longer in ministry.

For years some extroverted people have seen my introversion as a handicap but the older I get the more I realize that this world and the church could not exist without introverts. Look at this web site showing personality types for various people from history. Life would not be the same without the talents brought to bear by the introverts of the world.

Here are some ways I allow my introversion to play itself out as a Christian:

• I spend alot of time in prayer. I pray for myself, the church, and people. I always find time to pray no matter when or where I am. I pray when I'm at work, when I drive, when I'm in bed at night, and when I ride my bicycle. Occasionally I will find time to spend the day or multiple days committed to prayer. What is wild is that some amazing interactions with God have occurred when I commit to an extended time in prayer with God. 
• I seek out ways to interact with people one on one or in small groups. One of my current ministries is working with Sugar Grove's new members where I discovered it worked much better when I sat down to talk with our new members one family at a time. This allows me to get to know each family and specifically address the new member orientation process to personally fit each person. It might seem more efficient to conduct new member orientations in a large group but I have discovered incredible benefit in giving focused attention to each family. 

For those of you who are introverts... Jump in and let God use you! Allow God to leverage your strengths to bring glory to His name. Just because your renewal and strength does not come from other people does not mean you don't need people in your life. Instead recognize that God brings people into your life for specific reasons and in turn he will lead you into other people's lives for very specific reasons. Don't try to be an extrovert. Be the person God made you to be realizing our society has been down on introverts for a good while now- in fact alot of people think Jesus was an introvert! Now that's awesome!!

The Radical Change of the Foundations of Our Culture

When I was down in bed earlier this year unable to walk as a result of a horrendous side effect to a round of Cipro antibiotics I ended up watching lots of video on You Tube. For some reason I was drawn to watch anything I could find about Detroit, Michigan and its incredible decline. I watched all types of documentaries focused on Detroit that included fires, drugs, gangs, the car industry, the bankrupt city, racial issues, vacant homes, and public schools. One documentary that was produced by Ford Motor Company around 1961 extolled the virtues of Detroit and had one scene that has stuck in my mind. It was a young boy staring intently with his eyes squinted so he could take in a statue on a bright sunny day in downtown Detroit in 1961. The documentary panned from the boy to the statue as the narrator on the documentary told about the statue that represented the foundations of our society- family and God. The narrator explained that these 2 things are the foundation upon which all other things in our society are built.

After the narrator spoke these words I stared at the video in disbelief for a few moments thinking about how dramatically our society has changed since that day in 1961 because so much of our culture is now focused upon undoing family and God as that upon which all other things in our society are built. We live in a society that is in the midst of dramatic change. We live in a society that ridicules anyone who encourages sexual purity or sexual standards based upon the Bible. We live in a society that views as suspect a large family, and especially if that family goes to church. We live in a society that says it is enlightened to have no religious beliefs and it is weak minded to believe in God.

The world as it existed some years back does not exist now. And to make it worse many Christians believe if we would simply reintroduce prayer into schools, outlaw abortion, or require creation to be taught in schools everything would be solved. The problem is that the Christians who hold these views are a small vocal fringe element of Christianity just as those who believe we should eradicate religion and God are a small vocal fringe element of our American culture.

Prayer cannot and should not be introduced into public schools because in our multicultural mindset we would require all students to pray to whatever god anyone believes in- that would not be productive. We can make abortion illegal but it will become a time bomb if we don't do anything to address the hyper sexual culture that is producing lots of unwanted babies. Teaching six literal days of creation will come back to harm Christianity just as teaching that the earth was flat has done immense harm over the centuries.

The solution to where Christianity finds itself in 2013 is not to go back to life as it was in 1961. Do we really want to go back to a time period in which discrimination of people based upon the color of their skin was justified by Christians? Do we really want to once again advocate for a legalistic Christianity that teaches that we are saved because we accomplish a specific task in a certain way and our brand of Christianity is better than the other brands because we _______ (you can fill in the blank!)___?

The solution to the radical transformation of the foundations of our culture lies in seeking the wisdom and power and grace and mercy of the God who created us. (...and yes, he might have taken billions and billions of years to create us or he might have done it a single microsecond!) If there is a God and if this God really did preserve the record of His work in this world for us to read today then perhaps we should take comfort in the possibility that this God is powerful enough to get us through a confusing time in the history of this country and our world just as He did when He sustained and guided countless numbers of people through the millenia.

So... What Is Church?...

In the last few weeks I have some fascinating conversations with a number of different people.

• I have spoken with someone who is thinking about coming to church but whose life has been imperfect so they felt that they could not come to church and would not be accepted until they got their life nice and presentable. 
• I have spoken with a church member who thinks the only thing the church should be doing when it comes together is doing Bible Studies and Worship Services, nothing else. 
• I accidentally entered into a conversation with a woman in New York City who hosts a cable talk show, writes for the newspaper, acts on Broadway, does voice overs for commercials, and does motivational seminars. Her email address was one letter off from an email address of a Sugar Grove guest which lead to the accidental conversation. In the email I offered an invitation to get together and talk and pray for a few minutes on a Sunday morning. This person in New York City responded back to me as if I were a creepy stalker making it very clear that they were not religious and don't do 'the pray thing'. This person very quickly became hostile and wanted me to leave them alone. 

All three of these people have a significant misunderstanding of what church is and is not. What has caused the misunderstanding toward what church is or should be? Is it a world that is bent on damaging or destroying the church? I don't think so. I have reason to suspect the views all three of these people have been influenced by churches themselves, not by some outside influence. 

The guest who believed they needed to get their life in order identified that previous churches they had been connected to had made it very clear that things like baptism and membership could not happen unless you got your life in order first. The fallacy of this logic lies in the role of the Holy Spirit in our life. It is ultimately the power of the Spirit in our lives that gives us the strength to live a Godly life. Forcing someone to get their life in order without the strength of the Spirit in their life teaches a person to pull themselves up by their own boot straps. It teaches that we are made perfect by our own efforts, not by the work of God in our life. We can by sheer will do the right thing for a while but true change comes because we have allowed the Spirit of God to indwell our heart and guide our lives and convict us of our own sin. 

At an even deeper level the fallacy of this 'do the right thing through your own power' logic is that salvation comes because of what we have done, not because of what Jesus has done. This logic says that we are saved if we do what God says correctly placing the power of salvation on our obedience through our own strength of will. This type of 'religion' has no need for God or the Holy Spirit because it is up to us. In fact my encounters with leaders in churches like this have literally told me that God does not actively work in the world today and that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the printed word of God. These people have gutted the power of the Bible and have instead turned it into a 'To Do' manual.

The consequence of this view is a humanistic religion that creates either arrogance because of the 'look what I've done' attitude or a hopelessness because of the realization that you can never on your own do all that you are supposed to do. A secondary problem that is created is a bizarre set of tacit rules that identify which sins are unacceptable and which sins will be overlooked. 

The member who thought the church should only be studying the Bible or in a worship service when they come together is influenced by a similar pattern view of church that has been taught by many people through the years. This view places limits on what the church can and cannot do so that the church as a whole will be acceptable to God. The problem is that the list of what the church can and cannot do is not agreed upon even though each group has been taught to believe that their view is correct and should be applied and adopted by everyone around them. 

In the first century the church was a market place church meaning the life of the church was carried out daily in the lives of the believers led by the Holy Spirit as they worked, lived, and played. The Holy Spirit led each believer to share the message of the joy of salvation with those they were around. When the church came together it was to celebrate the savior, be convicted by the work of the Spirit in their midst, and renew their commitment to the journey of faith. In this atmosphere the idea of going to church was foreign because all that they did was church. God was powerfully active in their midst whether they were the believers meeting together or the believers living out their life. The idea of a compartmentalized religion such as we have today would have been foreign to first century Christians. 

In later centuries the church developed into a cathedral religion meaning faith was primarily expressed when the church came together in a specific place for a specific purpose. In this type of environment there was less need for the power of the Spirit to work in their midst because what they did was planned out- the expression of religion became something to do and believe instead of something to live. This cathedral religion model has dramatically impacted our view of church today. This can be seen when we say we are going to go to church because church is what we do when we come together, not who we are. 

The cathedral view of religion has a number of downfalls. It allows us to compartmentalize our life- we can live for God in one part of our life while disallowing God from another part of our life with very little realization that this is a problem.  We can easily fulfill our religious duty by learning more about the Bible or participating in a worship service which takes away any significant sense of  need to allow God to infiltrate our life outside the 'cathedral'.  

The cathedral view has very little need for the Holy Spirit to work in our life because our religious duties are boiled down to planned activities and events which fits very nicely into a scientific and logical world view. When we go about our daily life with our heart, mind, soul, and strength open and available to be used by God we will be amazed at the never ending way in which the Holy Spirit desires to use us as a witness for God. But this thought process becomes foreign to us when we only do religious things that do not require the Holy Spirit to guide and help us. Consequently we end up with a religion that begins to shape and form around planned events that will work just fine even if God does not show up. 

The person in New York City who had a panic attack and felt as if they had been violated when I offered to pray with them demonstrates something that has happened to view God, church, and Christianity as an incredible danger. I may never know what happened to this person but it has brought them onto my radar and I have been praying for God to work in their life, I'm just not going to send an email telling them! But this person brings to light how deep the damage can go in a person's life when 'religion' is allowed to become a set of rules to be followed. 

I know of someone whose coworker is in the LGBT community. When this person in the LGBT community found out their co worker was a Christian they became defensive, rude, and sarcastic. This went on for a few years until one day the LGBT person told the Christian that God and all Christians hate them. The Christian asked questions and found out the LGBT's mother's church told this person that God hated them and would never accept them. This person loved God but knew the feelings and emotions they had in regard to their own sexuality that did not go away so they were left feeling abandoned by God, the church, and all Christians which left bitterness and pain. When this Christian told them God loves them tears flowed. This conversation and relationship has developed for a number of years to the point that the Christian says this person would probably be willing to be a part of a church that was willing to show God's love to this person. 

All of these stories point toward a commonality... If the Church wants to be The Church it is going to have to let the Holy Spirit work and intentionally put itself and it's members in positions where it ain't gonna' work unless God shows up bringing His gifts of guidance, leading, power, strength, and healing.   

Fort Bend County Ethnic Diversity

I recently attended a seminar presented by Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce featuring Rice University Demographer Stephen Klineberg. He discussed the demographics of the Houston metro area and the many areas of relevance to what he has discovered in his 30 years of researching the social demographics of the Houston area. Toward the end of his presentation he began discussing Fort Bend County and the amazing demographic mix it is. He told us that Fort Bend County, Texas is the most ethnically diverse county in the country. Period.

He said other metropolitan areas that have a large percentage of non white residents do not have a wide diversity but simply a large population of one ethnicity. What makes Fort Bend County unique is the fact that it has a diversity of ethnicity's that essentially comes out to be 25% asian, 25% latino, 25% black, and 25% white. Klineberg went on to point out that the even spread of ethnic diversity in Fort Bend County is even more remarkable when you realize the amazing vibrancy of the community and culture. He said that the entire country could learn a great deal from Houston and in particular Fort Bend County because this community is figuring out how to live successfully in a diversity that the rest of the country will experience 50 years from now.

Taking Klineberg's work a step farther would be to explore how Christianity is spread among a culture as diverse as Fort Bend County and realize that what is learned here could help Christians around the country in the future. However Klineberg is quick to point out when talking informally that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week referring to the reality that people will bunch up by ethnicity for religious experiences. So the question for Christians in Fort Bend County becomes do we follow the pattern of gathering by ethnicity or do we make some concerted effort to cross culturally spread Jesus Christ in our own back yard?

Each ethnic group brings its own bias of religion to the table. The white culture brings a European bred Christianity that has morphed over time in the united states. The black culture came to know Christ in the context of rescue from oppression. The Hispanic culture has a strong background in Catholicism. And everyone demographically marked as Asian represents a wide range of religions. The process to reach each of these backgrounds differs dramatically because political and social elements have intertwined themselves into each culture in very unique ways.

So the question is this: Do we stay segregated religiously while living integrated or do we figure out how to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to spread the message of Jesus Christ (not our version of political and social elements related to Jesus Christ...)?