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?

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.

Rest in Peace…

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.

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.

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.

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!

Is Technology Exclusive?

My last post led me to ask this question within the comments discussion. What do you think?

Are ministries that emphasize or take advantage of technological advances exclusive (i.e. They might not include those unable to afford or understand the technologies.) or inclusive (i.e. Are we simply ministering relevantly and including those on the ‘cutting edge’ technologically?)?

Is there a more nuanced way to look at this?

Wesley 2.0

Lately, I’ve been reading several things on the flattening of the world and the technological revolution that has taken place over the last few years. The two I’ve read most recently are The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman and Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. All of this has me thinking about possibilities for the Church. How can we faithfully use the latest techno-cultural developments to help make disciples of Jesus Christ?

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, because there are some really smart folks who have discussed these issues (eg. Tall Skinny Kiwi’s post on Church 2.0). There are several others within this link that have some good thoughts as well.

So, how could this work for we United Methodists? What about Wesley’s small group accountability systems? Could we use technology to form groups of like-minded clergy and laity into accountability groups via the web? Privacy might be the biggest issue here, but it would allow methodists from all over the world who take discipleship seriously to take part in a group.

What about communication? Could districts communicate more effectively through blogging? A recent communication through my district has made me think about this. Our district superintendent recently sent out an email on an important social issue (torture, to be more specific) with some of his thoughts on a resolution that was voted on at Annual Conference. Some people have carried on an ongoing debate by replying to all of the people on the email list. If this communication took place via blog, it would probably encourage more effective debate and interactivity on all things communicated through our district office. In a rural geographically spread out district like ours, this could be an excellent source of community as well.

What else can we think of? On this note, I know our youth are far more cutting edge than we are with their involvement in interactive relational networks, something Gavin Richardson has spoke about in the past.

OK, what about our conferences? How should our communications departments be handling Web 2.0? What about web visionaries for each conference who could lead the way for our congregations?

Let’s think about this – where can we be on the edge of technology instead of catching up?

Explaining This Holy Mystery

Yesterday we celebrated Holy Communion, as both of my churches are official members of the communion-once-a-month tribe. At one congregation we had several visitors, which is quite a feat in a small town that has relatively few newcomers.

We had one couple who was very curious about the service and the United Methodist understanding of communion. I want to honor their privacy, so I won’t give too many details, but they were delightful. After the service they wanted to have a conversation about United Methodist beliefs regarding the sacrament.

I’m not sure exactly where their understanding of communion was formed, but it became clear that it is very important to them that the place they worship not hold an understanding of communion that resembles transubstantiation. In fact, if I understood them correctly, they weren’t too fired up about consubstantiation either.

I pointed them to This Holy Mystery and tried to explain my understanding of the real presence of Jesus in the sacrament, worked through a Wesleyan understanding of the various means of grace, and then applauded their concern for sacramental theology. Over and over, they used the word symbolic. In contrast, my buzzphrase was “Christ is truly and really present, but it is a great mystery metaphysically speaking” (OK, I didn’t use the word metaphysically, but I tried to get at that in less philosophical language).

They seem like great folks, and my primary concern was to make sure I didn’t mislead them in any way concerning the United methodist views of the Eucharist while honoring their search for a Church home. Next time I see them, I’ve got two copies of This Holy Mystery workbook by Gayle Carlton Felton that I’m going to give them. Thank God for good resources!

Vote on My Stole

Allright…I’m one of those rare commissioned elders who hasn’t worn a stole during my probationary period. I simply feel that it is a mark of full ordination, and I want my ordination service to be special. It seems to me that wearing a stole on the Sunday following my ordination will carry a lot of deep symbolism and meaning both for me and my congregation. Some people argue that the congregation “deserves” to have someone who wears a stole, thereby not feeling short-changed by not having a “real” elder, but I haven’t bought that argument.

However, I am already collecting stoles to wear once I am ordained next year (unless something weird derails the process). The first two are gifts from my mother-in-law, and I’m trying to decide which green stole to start out with. Right now, I’m stuck between two really nice plain green stoles. So what could be more fun than an interactive informal blog vote. Pick your favorite and tell me in a comment. I’ll try to post something a little more intellectually stimulating some other time!

#1. Stole #1. #2. Stole #2.