God’s Mission & Preaching

Brian Russell has a great post on Missional Preaching. I especially like the way he deals with distinctions between insider and outsider. It seems that truly missional preaching is inclusive in the way it invites those outside the community to participate in the ongoing narrative of God’s work in the world. Now, that’s a description of inclusivity that I really resonate with!

I think my preaching is less faithful when I stray from some of the key commitments Brian talks about here. To be honest, when I preach a sermon series I tend to violate some of these commitments far more often than when I stick with the lectionary. While I’m sure this isn’t necessarily the case for everyone, when I preach a sermon series it’s easier to start with a concept and find scripture to support it rather than letting the message be formed, shaped, and driven by the scriptural narrative. I think when I’m finished with the series on prayer that I’m preaching now, I’m going to stick with the lectionary for the rest of this Season after Pentecost.

A Few Tips for Preachers

If you’re like me, you’re always trying to be a better communicator. Preaching is definitely an art, and I sometimes think we neglect ways to improve ourselves. I know most pastors spend a lot of time thinking about and preparing our message – shouldn’t we spend some time reading and thinking about the way we present it? This link: Speaking as a Performing Art (h/t Jedi Pastor Ken) will give you a few ideas to improve your communication skills.

1957 Plymouth Belvedere

Fifty years ago a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was buried in a concrete vault in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The vault was even designed to withstand a nuclear blast. Yesterday, people came from around the country as the car was unveiled after 50 years only to see this:

Rust Bucket Belvedere

Apparently the bomb-proof vault wasn’t exactly water-proof. Strangely enough, when asked for a quote, Jesus had a few things to say about the event:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Praying with the Church

Praying w/the Church I just received Scot McKnight’s book, Praying with the Church, in the mail yesterday. Scot writes simply and with great clarity, so I finished it over the course of the day. I would highly recommend this for anyone who is considering fixed-hour prayer. McKnight gives a helpful biblical foundation for this practice, and suggests that Jesus himself was a practitioner. The book seems to have been written for a fairly conservative evangelical audience, given the time spent explaining the reasons that this kind of prayer isn’t “vain repetition,” but it is a profitable read for persons of all theological stripes.

The most helpful part for me was McKnight’s approach to the large variety of prayer books and recommendations for where and how to begin this practice. All of this is cast alongside his and his wife’s experience working out the practices of fixed-hour prayer in their own lives.As I said before, this book is written with great simplicity and clarity, so it is laudably approachable by anyone. If you want to tap into this ancient practice and begin a journey into a life of prayer, this book is a terrific place to start.

While I read, I kept thinking and dreaming about instituting these practices in a local Church. What if a large church staff gathered each morning and evening anchoring their lives in common prayer? What if a downtown United Methodist Church offered the morning office for the faithful few who would attend? How could pastors encourage one another in fixed-hour prayer rhythms? Would a bi-yearly retreat where the entire office was prayed communally make a difference? What would district conferences look like if they were determined by prayer rhythms instead of the clock? Could our business meetings come to a halt when the time for prayer rolled around?

Anyone else out there read this or practice fixed-hour prayer? How can you see this implemented in the life of your church?

Broken Down on the Roman Road

Many of us who live in the Bible Belt have had a lot of experience with the Roman Road to Salvation. This is a set of scriptures from Romans that some people have used in their attempts at evangelism (Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10, & 10:13). Although this is used as a convenient way to summarize salvation, there are those of us who are uncomfortable with how simplistic it seems to be. In one of his letters to emerging Christians over at the Jesus Creed blog, Scot McKnight shares one of the best takes on the limits of the Roman Road that I have ever heard. If you’ve ever experienced this evangelism technique from either side of the equation, or if you simply want to read a terrific exposition on the difference between “salvation” as laid out in this distillation and a biblical understanding of entering the Kingdom, go check this out. Great stuff.

Rest in Peace…

One of the people I was honored to know and work with while at Asbury Theological Seminary was a man from Kenya named David Gichuru. I learned just this morning that he died while rescuing his son from a riptide in Newport Beach, CA.

Please pray for David’s wife Grace and their two sons. Our world has lost a true friend of the Kingdom and follower of Christ.

I had the privilege of doing CPE at The University of Kentucky Medical Center during the time that David worked there as a contract chaplain. One of my favorite stories of David happened as he provided pastoral care to one of the patients in ICU. This patient was dying while surrounded by many family members. When David went in the room, he immediately connected with the family and led them in hymns as they said goodbye to their loved one. There was no cultural gap between this rural Kentucky family and him because as they joined together singing the songs of God, they were part of one family.

Our family has lost a great brother.

At a time like this, I can only pray one of the great prayers of the Church at the time of death from the Book of Common Prayer.

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world; In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you; In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you; In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. May your rest be this day in peace, and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

Update: Here is a eulogy from one of David’s close friends. It is a much better portrait of the man than the very limited sketch I can provide.

Interesting Happenings with the Southern Baptists

I stumbled across the blog of a fellow Oklahoman at some point in the last few weeks. Although I’m no longer a Southern Baptist, I still care about that denomination. So, for the last few days I’ve been following this blog and keeping in touch with the larger trends taking place in that body.

It seems that there are some very interesting debates happening right now (including the doctrinal stance the denomination is considering regarding speaking in tongues) that will shape the future of the SBs once again. You may want to check in from time to time and see what’s going on.

Did Jesus Want to be Liked? Redux

I posted this back in February, but it is a question that I still think about from time to time. So, I thought I’d repost this and see if some of my newer readers have any thoughts on it.

Did Jesus Want to be Liked?

A friend and I have been carrying on an interesting conversation about whether or not Jesus wanted to be liked. So, with his permission and a few slight edits, here is some of that email exchange.

Friend: “So today while I was visiting my counselor, who also happens to be a Christian, he asked me a philosophical question and I’ll pass it along to you for your response. He asked, “Do you think Jesus wanted to be liked?” I answered no, that while it would be nice for Him to be liked, He was more interested in telling the truth which He knew would be counter-cultural and eventually lead to His death. He didn’t court favor with people…He simply told the first disciples to follow him…there was no wooing of them to His service outside His divine nature. And I also pointed out the many who supported Him while He was meeting their needs and then turned their back on Him afterwards. Then there were the crowds who were fickle calling Him king and Messiah on the way into Jerusalem and Crucify Him a week later. Was Jesus seeking popularity? No. I think He was seeking to reveal the truth about man’s need for a relationship with God and knew what His eventual fate would be. He appreciated those close to Him, but that wasn’t a “need”. The counselor was surprised by my answer. Do you think it’s not orthodox or am I just totally off the wall here?”

Me: “Let me think about this some more, but my first response would be that the gospels are primarily written to suggest that Jesus is the Risen Messiah of God rather than any kind of expose as we find in modern psychological biography.

I do think we have clues that point to Jesus’ needs (which I do believe is a very orthodox position, since we consider him fully human as well as fully divine – to take away his human needs would either be docetic and deny his humanity or gnostic and hate his humanity: remember human comes from humus or earthiness). John 21 suggests Jesus wants Peter to love him, John 11:35-36 seems to suggest a deep friendship with Lazarus. We make a fine point between being liked and loved, but I believe Jesus did want to be loved. Presumably we like those we love.

Let me think some more, and I’ll get back to you. However, feel free to press back on any of these points! God bless!”

Friend: “There is a basic human need to be loved. Evidence the scientific experiments where apes were raised with wireframe and cloth mothers as opposed to an actual ape female mother. When the love wasn’t able to be returned, the apes exposed to the non-ape mothers became anti-social and withdrawn. So given that Jesus was fully human, you almost have to assume that he too wished to be loved. However would the close relationship with his Father account for the love that he needed so therefore he didn’t seek the human companionship enough. He is described as a friend of tax collectors and sinners in Matthew 11:19, but he also referred to the guard who came to seize him in the garden as friend. So it could be describing a relationship or simply an acquaintance. I’ll let you handle the Greek exegesis on that. As for liking those you love, there are times when the people you love are very unlikable. Take for example when your kids are driving you nuts. You still love them, but you don’t necessarily like them at all times. Or when dealing with the poor or sinners, you love because you are commanded to love, but they can be quite unlikable at times.

I think ultimately, to take away the docetic or Gnostic aspects that would be implied, there probably is a need to be liked, but solitary monastics could live without the company and be quite content, so why not Christ?”

Me: “OK, maybe God’s love is “enough,” but then why would the great commandment be the twofold love of God and neighbor? God’s inner-triune love is complete, yes. However, it is an effusive love that spills over and receives loving worship from humanity too.

I don’t know that solitary monastics are the best example either. Monasticism at its finest is a hospitable community of love, rather than a bunch of ascetic “navel gazers.” Christians haven’t always been exempt from gnostic and docetic tendencies, monastics included.”

Friend: Is the love of neighbor as yourself an agape love or a phileo love and can you have that kind of phileo love without liking someone?

Me: I think we make far too fine distinctions between the two. Semantically, especially in John 21, they are more similar than many amateur exegetes have suggested over the years. Check out this link for a discussion of that.

Friend: What about a serial killer….could you love Charles Manson? Moving beyond disapproving of what he’s done and really liking him? I realize the extreme nature of this example, but could if someone hurt your daughter and you found it in your heart to forgive as we are commanded and even to love him or her because they are created in the image of God, could you ever “like” them? I don’t think it’s amateur exegetes who make a fine distinction…the Greeks did…which is why there are three words to identify different kinds of love. You also might want to follow this link to read C.S. Lewis’ thoughts on this topic from Mere Christianity.

Me: I think we’re talking about a different question now than whether Jesus wanted people to like him. But who’s counting?!

We’ll see where this goes from here…any thoughts out there in the blogosphere?

She Really Knows the Bible

Big Bible Have you heard statements like this before: “I just love my pastor, she really knows the bible.” Well, I have, and I wonder what this means. Does it mean you can quote lots of scripture to prove your point? Does it mean you are a quality exegete? Does it mean you can talk for hours on theories of Pauline authorship? Maybe it means you’ve memorized lots of Scripture.

What would it take for you to say your pastor “really knows the bible?”

Bush Library @ SMU

The Dallas Morning News reports the Bush Library at SMU is practically a done deal. United Methodists on the local level seem to be divided on this. There are those who vehemently oppose having the library at SMU, there are those who fervently support the proposal, and there are many who couldn’t care less either way. I have a few thoughts on the subject, but as I’ve said before in private correspondence with some of you, I’m waiting until I’m a full elder to take any major stands on the blog!