Author: Matt

Hitting the Ground Running

I’m settling into my new position, but I’m also still learning something new everday.  Right I’ve taken over several of the major teaching duties that I’ll do each week.  For instance every Tuesday morning I am teaching through Romans.  It’s interesting because I took on this mid-stream, so I am starting with the men’s group in chapter 14, and the women’s group in chapter 10.  I’m spending quite a bit of time each week immersed in Romans getting prepared to teach these classes.

Another large chunk of my time is spent preparing to teach Sunday School classes.  However, I have yet to step foot in a classroom.  How, you might ask?   Each week I prepare a teaching vdeo and then meet with a group who gathers to study and discuss the scripture that corresponds with the Sunday morning sermon (right now we’re in Luke).  They then help me go deeper into the passage and prepare a series of questions to go along with the lesson.

One thing I’ve learned in all of this is how difficult it is to do high quality video teaching.  It looks so easy to see Rob Bell doing Nooma or when I’ve watched other folks doing video teaching, but in reality it’s ridiculously hard to look natural and deliver high quality content at the same time.  It also takes quite a bit of time to do this.  I’m definitely blessed to have tons of help from people who know far more about video and editing than I ever will, so that makes a difference.  However, I really think that this is a great means of being in several places at once to teach on a Sunday morning.  In fact, last week I printed off over 200 lessons for people using this curriculum.

There’s a lot going on with missions at our church too, but I’ll save that post for another time!

Know Your Strengths

I just picked Emma up from Warm World, and once again, we have exciting news.  She’s going to be in her first play!  The conversation went a little like this:

“We’re gonna have a play and I’m gonna to be in it.” “Cool,” I said,  “what are you going to be?” “I get to be the horse!!”  “That’s great, is that what you wanted to be?”  “Of course,” she said, “at first I wanted to be the black cat, but I didn’t know there was a horse.  So, after I knew there was a horse, I asked to be the horse, and my teacher said I could be the horse.”  “You’ll make a good horse…”  “Yep, ’cause I neigh good.”

It’s a great thing to know your strengths and work with them!

Science and Theology

Last night, our church hosted a discussion on Science and Theology as the final installment of our Living Faithfully series.  As I listened to the talk, I thought it might be interesting to provide some of the resources that have shaped my own thinking in this area.  To make a long story short, I entered the ministry after six years studying Biology and Molecular Biology, so it has been an important thing in my faith to integrate these two fields that are sometimes seen as polar opposites.

Here are a few books and a resource that have been helpful to me:

There are many more, and some that are much more specific and in depth.  If there’s a field you’re curious about specifically, either leave a comment or contact me and I can give you more detail.

Minister of Discipleship

My official title is “Minister of Discipleship,” and when I share this with friends, family, and colleagues I am often asked, “So what do you do?”  I try to explain by saying I’m sort of like a teaching pastor crossed with a missions pastor.

As a staff, we are reading Len Sweet’s Aquachurch 2.0: Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture. This morning, as I was reading, I came across an insight that helps me define my position.  Len reminded me, “…the very word disciple means “learner.”  In Greek, mathetes (which we translate as disciple) comes from mathano, which literally means “student” or “learner.”

In a sense then, I’m the Minister of “Learners.”  That means that I’m not only responsibile for sharing information or knowledge in the teaching aspect of my position, but for helping people integrate that into concrete acts of mission and love of neighbor.  In other words, I think the multiple aspects of my position will help me remember that true knowledge is not just a “head thing,” but a “whole life thing.”

Mega-misconceptions

Over the years I have often heard about the virtues of small churches.  On top of that, over the years I’ve experienced the virtues of small churches!  I am deeply indebted in my faith to the small churches I’ve attended and helped lead as a pastor.  Often, with appreciation for smaller congregations, megachurches get a bad rap in popular comparison.  People say they are shallow, they are impersonal, they are shrines to consumerism, and so on, and so forth.

Most of you know I’m beginning a new part of my journey as the new Minister of Discipleship at Church of the Servant United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.  Church of the Servant is a church of the mega variety.  On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of nine people who gathered to reflect on a passage of scripture and collaborate on a Sunday School lesson for this coming Sunday.  The discussion was riveting.  I was blown away, and even given chills at some of the deep insights from this group.  In one short hour, I saw nine contradictions to the assumption that megachurches create shallow, impersonal, consumeristic disciples.  Instead, I met nine folks who I found to be deeply faithful, incredibly personable, sacrificially committed disciples.

Don’t get me wrong, I have met these same committed folks in small churches too.  I just think it’s important to remind everyone that there isn’t a particular size of congregation that has a monopoly on producing faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.  Needless to say, I’ve had a great first week.

Settling In

Things are still going well after our move, even though it’s hard to get my mind wrapped around the fact that we’re not going to be traveling back to finish anything up in Quinton or Canadian.

Emma is still loving her new Kindergarten at Warm World, and Caleb is excited to have had me at home for a few days.  This morning he went with me to the bank and to get haircuts.  One thing I never missed about the city is paying fourteen bucks for a haircut!!  I think I’m going to buy clippers or a flowbee (to my surprise they still exist!) and do Caleb’s hair myself!

Nanci has been working hard to finish getting the house together, and we’re really pretty much moved in at this point.  We still need to do a few minor things, but it’s definitely coming together.  Before you think I’ve just been sitting in my chair drinking Diet Coke, I’ve been doing whatever has been asked of me!  I’m thinking about heading in and trying to get my office arranged a bit this afternoon, but I may just do it first thing in the morning.  We’ll see what happens.  Tonight is the big Hot Dog Happening at Warm World, so we’ll be going to that too.

OK, the girls are home with groceries and an office chair.  Caleb and I have been at home cleaning the garage and breaking down boxes.  I’ve got to run.

Whirlwind Week

This has been a crazy time in the Judkins house.  A week ago Thursday, we packed up the big Penske truck with the help of some great friends.  A week ago today we drove about 150 miles to our new home here in Edmond/Oklahoma City.  Last Sunday was Charge Conference at my two churches.  That’s right, Charge Conference a week before my move!!  I’m not complaining because I have a new saying.  If we pastors spent as much time working on Charge Conference as we spend griping about it, we’d be finished in no time!

Monday I spent packing up my office.  Tuesday, my brother and I moved my kids swingset.  Wednesday, I went to our Wednesday after-school program and then had a farewell dinner at one of my churches.  It was really special, and they made us this incredible scrapbook of my time there.  Many of the kids we minister to each week wrote personal notes to me.  That was really cool.  We came up here that night since all I had left to do for work this week was writing my final sermon for Sunday.  It’s coming along, but may be the hardest message I’ve written in all of my time as a pastor.  I want a good balance of closure, appreciation, encouragement, and preparation for a great future.  I’ve had some really good advice from friends, so that has been helpful.  However, it’s still been a real challenge.

We’re slowly getting unpacked, but my wife is incredible at turning a house quickly into a home.  Emma had her first day at Warm World, the kindergarten at my new Church.  We asked her if she had a good day and she said, “Uh yeah…the best day EVER.”  That’s a great sign, I think!

This afternoon after we ate, we walked around the new neighborhood and met a bunch of our neighbors.  There are tons of kids, some cool dogs, and some really nice people here, which makes it feel like it will be a great place to live.  Our neighbors across the street have a cat that left us a dead mouse on the steps too.  Talk about feeling welcome!

Now I’m watching the Tampa Bay Rays play the Red Sox and admiring Joe Madden’s cool black glasses.  I’m not a big fan of expansion teams in baseball, and I’m not really a fan of the American league either, so I don’t care who wins this series.  I guess I’m rooting for the Phillies to win it all.  Since Oklahoma doesn’t have a MLB team, I sort of root for players and Jimmy Rollins is one of my favorite players still playing.

OK, I think that’s it for now.  Take care and God bless!

Conflicting Moral Imaginations: Job, His Friends, and Suffering, Part 6

So then, what is our response in a world where suffering is often met with a disinterested look and the idea that it is generally, “for your own good?” How can we challenge the common moral imagination which suggests an utterly teleological approach to suffering? It is my belief that it can only happen by truly listening and fully hearing the testimony of those who suffer for nothing. We can only be jolted out of our complacency by hearing the stories of those who have seen the brutality and injustice firsthand.

The book of Job has challenged me. It has made me question whether or not I’ve been complicit in the suffering of the world. It has forced me to ask whether or not my own “theodicy,” is a way of enforcing the status quo, and it has challenged my own moral imagination. Perhaps then, that is the “point” of the book. Perhaps, we are all called to move from an easy embrace of mystery to an uneasy embrace of social rectification as we encounter and experience the full witness of suffering in our world.

Conflicting Moral Imaginations: Job, His Friends, and Suffering, Part 5

In response to this understanding, then, we must think about how the book of Job might challenge and transform our cultural and social structures in response to suffering. Walter Brueggemann becomes a very helpful conversation partner exactly at this point. If Job’s experience of suffering and moral response is carried out in our world, we will need to be attentive to the cries and laments of those who suffer all around us.

As those who are oppressed under brutal dictatorships share their testimonies, we as Christians are called to listen. As those who have experienced traumatic attacks begin to bear witness to the brutality, we who have some measure of power are called to respond.

Brueggemann suggests, that we often use theodicy as a tool of those with a vested interest in the status quo.[1] However, when we truly hear the testimonies and cries of those who are suffering, we will also hear the not-so-subtle voice of God calling us to alleviate suffering.

If we take suffering to be something that confers wisdom, strength, or character on those who are suffering, we are tempted to see ourselves as free us from having to respond. However, if like Job we see come to understand suffering as meaningless, our moral imagination won’t be able to accept any amount of suffering as acceptable. This does not necessarily lead to the disregard for life caricatured in the popular figure of the “Joker.” Combined with an interest in hearing the witness and testimony of the sufferer, it leads to an appropriate response to act.

[1] Walter Brueggemann, “Theodicy in a Social Dimension,” JSOT 33 (1985): p. 7