Al-Zarqawi & Bin Laden: Same Story

I'm copying a blog post I wrote June 9, 2006 - almost 5 years ago.

These words are just as relevant as they were then. Substitute Al-Zarqawi's name for Osama bin Laden and I think I'd write the same words today.

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Which Terrorists?

As I walked into class today, I was informed of something that made the class cheer in approval. As I turned on the radio, I heard that it was a good day. As I turned on the tv, I was forced to look at the face of a man who was supposed to bring me joy.

Normally a seminary class cheers when God has answered a long awaited prayer request. Usually my radio makes me feel good when my sports team wins or when one of my favorite songs comes on. Most of the time I rejoice when I look at the tv and see the hopes of the homeless being answered on Sunday nights on ABC.

However, today was not such a day. In fact, I might sound un-American, but that is not my biggest worry right now. Today a man was killed and millions rejoiced for that reason alone. Al-Zarqawi, the second greatest threat in the Eastern World, expired. No, I take that back, he died by means of two 500 pound bombs. Pardon me if I don't rejoice. Pardon me if I don't feel like singing praises to my God right now for upholding the cause of America. My veins don't bleed red, white and blue when my country's best news this year is found on a tv screen showing a dead man's face.

I have to admit that my ideas have changed in the past few years. Four years ago I would have thought this was a great thing, but as I am mastered more and more by Scripture and God's Kingdom, it becomes more difficult for war and fatalities to bring a smile to my face. The Kingdom of God asks different questions than how can we preserve our lives best in America. I have stopped pretending that God favors America any more than anyone else. I have stopped praying for God to bless America and start blessing the world.

Call it pacifism if you want. Call me a coward, but I don't think justice is served in retaliation and I don't think this endless string of violence will end with one more assassination of an Arab person (or Arab target as many call it). I don't have many answers, but I have a model to follow in all of this. Christ has taught me to follow his path down the road to the cross. I am called to turn the other cheek and pray for my enemies.

Sure, we need to uphold the cause of the oppressed and there may be justification somewhere in all of this, but surely we can hold our cheers when we hear of the loss of a person's life. We must mourn for those the terrorists murder, our troops and our enemies. I can't quite see Christ rejoicing in this news today.

The best news I heard tonight was from a father whose son was beheaded by al-Zarqawi a couple of years ago. Larry King interviewed him and asked him some volatile questions. He asked him if al-Zarqawi's death brought any closure. The father said (paraphrase), "No, any loss of life is a loss for all of humanity." King went on and on trying to get the father to admit some joy or relief in this death, but the father obstinately denied feeling any relief or vindication. Al-Zarqawi's death would not bring his son back and vengeance wasn't the answer.

Wow! What a testament. Perhaps we can learn from this father. I'm not sure what I really believe. I don't condone terror or rejoicing in the death of another person, but what do I do with with the murder of an unrepentant sinner? Is it ever right to condone and rejoice in the death of another? I need more time to reflect and think, but I'm not sure I can do this.

It was sickening to hear the applause of classmates today. It was gross to hear a radio personality claim victory in the death of another. It was appalling to continually see the face of a dead man on tv tonight. I am a part of the Kingdom of God. My goal is for all people to be transformed by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We must lay down our lives for the sake of others. We must share the good news with those easy to love and those difficult to love. In short, we must be Christ to a world in the midst of suffering, terror and murder. We must proclaim, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!" not only to the Arabs but to ourselves when we condone acts of terror abroad and among our friends and relatives.

Father,
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.

My Mentor - Pt. 3 The Most Threatening Virtue

One of the huge missed opportunities in our churches is intergenerational connection. So many of our churches spread five generations, yet we only seem to experience the pain of those differences rather than the joy.

In fact, I've argued in the past that the church's current struggles are the fault of modern medical science with its increased life expectancy. Paul likely never had to deal with bringing a congregation of 5 generations together. Yet, I wonder if there are hidden benefits we miss.

Which leads me to a story...

In 8th grade, my family began attending the Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. I was a leader in the youth group and after leaving for college, I served as a summer preaching intern there as well. My dad serves as an elder there. It's my home church when I return home.

However, I never met my mentor who shared the same church home with me all of those years until about three years ago. We'll call him Jim (I changed his name to protect the guilty.) After I entered ministry, Jim pursued me and invited me to lunch.

Now, Jim was a preacher in Churches of Christ until he was divorced, which was the end of his professional ministry career. But since then, he has served as a beloved teacher and mentor of other young ministers. I've been blessed to receive his love, prayers, and advice. Every time I've returned to Dallas since then, we've caught up over lunch and I've shared my musings from ministry. Unfortunately, in the last few months, the doctors told them he only had a few months left due to an aggressive form of cancer. He has handled this announcement with so much grace and love.

I remember our first encounter over lunch vividly three years ago. With a stomach full of excellent pizza, we returned back to his house for hours of swapping stories about ministry. He listened as I (the young, naive minister) shared my struggles, concerns, and questions.

Finally, I shared with him my struggle over how to deal with judging people in their sin. I shared with him my desire to love people while acknowledging the need to judge them "so as not to let sin get a stranglehold" or some bizarre reason I can't currently recall.

Jim smiled and asked me a piercing question that will roll through my head for years to come. He said, "And what role do you feel God has called you play in this matter?"

I told him, "I'm called to love the person."

He responded, "Is there any other role you play?"

And I thought and responded, "Well, as the preacher, it must also be my role to judge the person. I can't allow sin to go unchecked. I must let them know the truth."

He said, "Is that your role?"

Our continuing discussion that day changed me forever. What is our role as Christians when it comes to judging others?

Well, in the past, as one with the truth, I've been confident in my ability to judge others. When you know you're right, it's easy to commence with the judging. Having colonized God and knowing he's on our side,it's an easy and inevitable next step to arrogantly judge others who struggle with greater sins, which often brings alienation rather than restoration. Interestingly enough, I even judged non-Christians by a standard they had not themselves committed to living out (bizarre really).

But today, I sit in my office with Jim's question still rattling around my brain. What is my role? What is the role of a Christian in bringing about the restoration of God's prodigal children?

First, I think of Jesus' statement in Matthew 7:1-2. He says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." And then he goes on in a humorous way about planks and specks in people's eyes. Interesting!

Second, I think about Paul's words in Galatians 6:1. He says, "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently." I don't recall too many attempted interventions with sinners that could be described best by the word "gentle." Important distinction.

Third, I think about Paul's words to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3. Guess who brings growth in people's lives. Not us; it's God! We plant the seeds and water them, but God brings the growth.

Which allows us to define our role a bit better. God brings the growth. The Holy Spirit's role is to convict.

Our job is simple. Guess what it is? I bet you could guess.

Our Job: Love.

We are called to love. Love sums up Torah. Love shows that we are connected to the father. Love brings the possibility of restoration.

Shane Claiborne says it well, "I've learned that people can be right and still be mean!"

What we believe is important. But just as important is how we believe what we believe.

Because love wins.

I appreciate my mentor's words. They'll remain with me for a long time.

I'll preach the truth (at least the truth as I perceive it), but no amount of truth that I preach will make up for a unloving Spirit.

But know this: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8

Cranky Church Members - Pt. 2 The Most Threatening Virtue

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:7-8

It's that simple! If you love, you know God. If you don't love, you don't know God.

So, the world should know the church by what characteristic most? Well, I'll throw a suggestion out there. Perhaps, love.

But surveys show that the first thing unbelievers say about us isn't "You know what bothers me most about Christians? They're just too loving!"

Now, I know, I know. I can just hear some Christians begging me to define love before this gets out of hand. I can just hear some saying, "But love means loving people enough to tell them the truth! It's not loving to let someone perish without letting them know they are in error."

True, but can we just admit that's not exactly the gospel's best definition of love? 1 Corinthians 13 doesn't harp on love being a trait of judging people's eternal destiny. It's more about patience, kindness, and humility...words that rarely get thrown out in discussions about truth. (Save your breath. I know some of you want me to point out that love rejoices in the truth...I'm way ahead of you.)

I'm concerned about the church. But not for our lack of truth...for our lack of love.

Let's face it: In some churches, the longer you go to church, the crankier you get. Ask any of your preachers. I don't have a desk full of angry letters from people under the age of fifty (now I've created more hate because I've defined what it means to be old).

It seems to me that if our churches are spiritually forming people into the image of Jesus, then people who had been in church longest would be the most loving. Let me be honest, that's not always the case.

And I'm not really pointing the finger at our members. I think it's the fault of our leaders. Christians certainly bear some responsibility. But our churches must not exactly be love factories partly because our focus has been on perfect doctrine to the detriment of our loving lives.

The moment one is baptized ought to be the moment a Christian loved least. The love chart ought to be a quick upward trend following that moment.

Perhaps we ought to check the water for more than its temperature because it's not bring the desired outcome when it comes to love.

In the past three weeks, I've had three conversations with people who are upset because of my recent preaching and blogging. All three of those conversations have to do with the dialectic between love and truth.

I get it, we need to pursue truth. But not at the cost of love.

They will know we are Christians by our love. Love is the name on our jersey. It's the name we go by.

I'm just not so sure the world knows it yet?

Jesus and Love - Pt. 1 The Most Threatening Virtue

God is love.

And Jesus seems to think love is important as well.

One day, one of the teachers of the Law tested Jesus with a question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Tough question. To be honest, I'd be a bit reluctant to answer a question like that. Like most preachers, I've become quite adept at sidestepping tough questions by answering the question I want to answer. For me to make such a pronouncement about the Law, I'd have to more proficient in the Law. I was taught growing up all of that "Jewish rulebook stuff" was unimportant. So, I have to admit I don't know the Law well enough to even give a guess.

But notice, Jesus doesn't answer the question like we would expect him to. As Post-Reformation Christians, we would expect him to say, "The Law? Why are you so concerned about the Law? I've not come to fulfill the Law. I've come to abolish the Law with a new covenant." However, it would be tough to get there if you pay close attention to Matthew 5:17-20.

Jesus never skips a beat. He quickly wades through 613 Old Testament Laws that he has certainly studied quite often (he was a Jew by the way, which we seem to forget), and he replies, "Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18." Well, not exactly. He actually says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (OK, he still answers the question in his own way by giving two laws instead of one).

Basically Jesus says, "613 laws are commentary on these two. Just love God and others and you've got it covered."

Now, this response didn't work for the Pharisees. And unfortunately, we're still trying to put caveats on Jesus' simple response. It's like we want to remind Jesus, "I think you forgot a few important things Jesus." But I'm sure if Jesus was here to defend himself he'd reply, "I didn't leave anything out. That's it. That's your job. Leave the rest to the Father."

Jesus loves the strangest people. He loves prostitutes, Samaritans, tax collectors, lepers, a rich young ruler who can't leave his idol of wealth, and women caught in adultery. And his love separates him from the Pharisees. And his love threatened all of the religious leaders of his day.

We want to say, "Yes, Jesus love is important. But aren't there other things that are important too."

It's almost as if we want to pat Jesus on the head and let him know that he's naive about the world. But I'm not sure he's all that naive. He preached a message of love and was sincere enough about his message to die for it. That doesn't sound too naive.

For some reason, Jesus' boundless love was threatening to people in his day.

And as we'll see in this blog series (and possibly the blog comments as well), I think love is still quite threatening today.

The Most Threatening Virtue of All

Lately, I've noticed that people are threatened by the strangest thing. We're threatened by love.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Collin, you must be paranoid if love is so threatening to you."

My response: I bet if you take a closer look, you might just be threatened by love as well.

Look around and you'll notice how threatening love really is:

-When you look at the gospels, the most unloving people aren't the Romans or the pagans. The Romans kill Jesus and they come off appearing even more loving than the Pharisees and religious people of Jesus' day. The religious elites seemed to be threatened by a Jesus who loves people at all the wrong times (on the Sabbath, at the well, on the cross, etc.).

-Church leaders know the truth about Christians perhaps more than any other group of people. But I must admit, love isn't the first characteristic I would use to describe church members. Unfortunately, it doesn't even make the top 10 characteristics I would use to describe church members.

-Three years ago, I had a conversation with a mentor who forever challenged the way I thought about our task as Christians. It all had to do with how threatening it can be to find love as our primary duty as Christians (and I still remember that conversation vividly).

-Rob Bell writes a book called Love Wins and the Twitter world and blogosphere go nuts. And it's not because so many non-Christians commented on Bell's book. Bell's name lit up the internet because Christians were bickering with one another over how literal hell really is. The conversation wasn't about love. The conversation became about whether Bell was a heretic or not. And love didn't win.

And the world looks on wondering what in the world Christianity is really about. Or perhaps they've stopped wondering because we've confirmed their suspicions all too often.

Over the next few weeks, I want to develop these four experiences and express why love seems to be so threatening to Christians.

So, come back for my thoughts and for conversation. My hope is that love might not just be the topic of these blogs to come. Perhaps it might even characterize our conversation.

Perhaps this time, Love might win.

Why My Unborn Baby Girl Has Rocked My World

The good news is that Holly and I are expecting a baby girl in early June. Everything looks healthy. We've even given her a name. She will be called Addison Grace Packer.

I'm so excited! Yet, this is new territory for me. Growing up, it was just my brother and me. So, as I continue to see the pink outfits and bows already going on the credit card, it's becoming a bit more real.

But while our bundle of sugar and spice and everything that's nice is growing in Holly's belly, I'm becoming a wreck. Not just in the knowledge of fending off our pretty girl from those obnoxious teenage boys, but from the theological problems this causes me.

Because now, the discussion of women's role in Churches of Christ isn't an issue. It involves my own flesh and blood (Although, Holly has often reminded me that I've always had a wife who's been affected). It's now about my daughter. It's now about me. And if I'm honest our position on women's role has always affected more than the women. It's affected all of us and diminished all of us.

On my blog, I've been careful not to rock the boat too much. Perhaps I write so infrequently because most of what I want to say I'm afraid might make too many waves (or perhaps too few because I'll finally find out how few actually read my blog). Perhaps the echo of my professors' voices warning us as students not to publish things on blogs that will cause us trouble when looking for future jobs still rings in my ear.

But there comes a time that silence must give way to words and action. And the arrival of my baby girl has created just that space for me.

So, here it goes: Our churches must begin to talk about the role of our women in leadership and in our public assemblies. We must make space for these discussions. We cannot allow our fear of some unknown enemy to keep us from engaging in a conversation that should have already happened.

I wonder how many of our members are as dumbfounded as many of our ministers about our current practices with women in our churches, but have allowed fear and caution to keep them silent as our practices remain the same.

Is it groupthink? Do we have well thought out theologies supporting our current practices? Do most of us realize the oddity of our male dominated services in 21st century society? Perhaps there are more who want to ask these questions than we sometimes imagine.

Last year at ACU Summit, Stephen Johnson and several women in the Graduate School of Theology at ACU began a conversation entitled "Half the Church." There was a great deal of discussion at the end of last year surrounding their studies and dialogue about women in Churches of Christ.

If you are not yet aware of this ongoing conversation, be sure to check out www.halfthechurch.wordpress.com. Listen to the podcast, "She Is Called." It's a moving piece. Also, subscribe to the "Half the Church" podcast on iTunes.

But my baby girl has rocked my world far more than she will ever know before Holly's third trimester has started. And I'm sure I will never be the same again. Thanks be to God!

Year in Review: 2010

2010 has been a wonderful year in the Packer household. Here are some of the memories of 2010.

-I trained and finished in the Dallas White Rock Marathon! I beat my goal running a time of 4 hours and 37 minutes. Finally, a New Year's Resolution that I actually kept.

-Holly and I kept another New Year's Resolution by not drinking any carbonated beverages all year long! We are Dr. Pepper addicts. But we're proud to say, we did it! (If we can hold out a few more hours) Maddox actually thinks we're healthy by choice at this point in his life. By the way, we've stocked up on about 10 liters of cokes for 12:01 AM.

-Because I kept the first two resolutions, I lost 25 pounds in 2010. Let's see if I can keep up the healthy habits.

-Our family continues to grow. 2010 was a year of tremendous growth for Maddox. He went from being unable to crawl to running in 2010. We also found out that we're expecting our second child in June of 2011. We find out the gender in just over a week.

-Holly and I celebrated 6 years of marriage this year! (Yes, we were only 20 when we got married). We also celebrated a decade since our first date. I love you Holly and look forward to the next 10!

-Our sports teams were up and down this year. Football was miserable. The year started with Colt McCoy going down with an injury and the Longhorns losing the National Championship. And this fall, our Horns and Cowboys were pitiful. Baseball was a brighter spot. We had a 10-game season ticket package to the Colorado Rockies, which was a lot of fun. Also, the Texas Rangers won the ALCS!

-I was invited to teach classes at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures and ACU Summit this year!

-We took our first vacation with Holly's family to Hawaii!

-I had another great year of growth as a minister serving the Littleton Church of Christ. We are blessed to live in such a great city and imagine and dream with God about the future of his kingdom here. We're excited to see what God will do in the coming year!

I've got some great plans for 2011!

The Packers wish you grace and peace in the coming year! Happy New Year!

White Rock Marathon

Well, I finished the marathon. It was an incredible experience! It's interesting to hear what people want to know about my experience. Some want to know if it was hard. The answer is: yes. Others want to know if I enjoyed it. The answer is: Yes, immensely. The following is my attempt to document the race for future reference and let you in on how it went.

My goal for the race was 5 hours. An 11-minute pace would have ensured me beating my race goal. I knew I could keep that up for 20 miles, but I wasn't sure about the last 6.2.

Here's my experience from race day:

5:30-Wake up and rub on tons of Body Glide (no chafing for me on race day).

6:00-I pulled into the parking lot at Fair Park south of the Cotton Bowl. The parking lot filled in less than 30 minutes. As I entered the coliseum, I saw hundreds of runners prepping for their run. The room was full of excitement. Everyone was trying to find a bathroom, so they wouldn't have to stop during the race.

7:50-A nice prayer by a man who did everything he could to leave Jesus out of it (a perfect display of civil religion really lit a fire within my body to run the race as fast as possible).

7:55-Military Fly-Over (Again, pumped up!)

8:10-The elite runners started the race. FYI: I was not apart of the elite runners, but they said I could try to qualify again next year. I think I failed to win the race because I wasn't able to pace myself with the Kenyans. 5 Kenyans ended up placing 1st-5th place.

8:45-I crossed the starting line. I can't explain the feeling of crossing the starting line on your first marathon. Nerves are pumping. Heart is pounding. My training gave me confidence, but I had no idea what might go wrong in the next 26.2 miles. Wind chill was about 25 degrees at the beginning of the race. The weather was perfect for the runners, but not so much for the spectators.

Mile 3-Left hamstring was a bit tight, but I kept running hoping it would loosen up.

Mile 6-1st sighting of my family. Holly, Maddox, Clark (brother), Lara (sister-in-law), Dad, Mom, and Ganna (Grandmother) were all present to show their support. They gave me a real boost.

Mile 8.5-Marathoners split off to the left while the half-marathoners made a turn to the right to head back to Fair Park. Believe me I was happy for them...not! It was tough to turn left and know I had 17.2 more miles to go.

Mile 9-I was surprised to see more family. Morgan (sister-in-law) and Cathy (mother-in-law) were there to greet me!

Mile 13.1-Halfway to the finish. I was feeling great. At this point, my pace was under 10 minutes per mile. And around the halfway point, I was running in the low 9s. I felt great, but I was concerned that I might be launching out too fast. I would tell by the end of White Rock Lake if my pace had been too quick.

Mile 14-I saw my family again at mile 14. My knee was beginning to hurt a bit at this point, but I was feeling great otherwise.

Mile 18-Holly's family and my family greeted me again on the east side of White Rock Lake. I was beginning to get more tired and sore at this time, but I was beginning to think a 4 1/2 hour marathon might just be possible.

Mile 20-One last sighting of my family as they passed me in a car. Mile 20 was a scary point because 20 miles was the most I had ever run before in my training. All of the miles ahead were new territory for my body. It was an unknown, but I still felt pretty good at mile 20.

Mile 21-This is where the race got tough. At mile 21-22, I met what is known as the Dolly Parton Hills. I won't tell you why they are named after Dolly Parton. I'll just let you guess. These hills killed me. It was only about a 100-foot climb, which is nothing in Colorado. But when you've already run 21 miles, a 100-foot climb isn't too fun.

Mile 24-My pace is falling, but I knew I was going to be able to finish. My IT-band injury in my right knee began to cause more pain. My goal was not to walk during the race and the temptation was pretty strong to stop, but I'm proud to say that I finished the race without walking (other than at water stations, eating my "jelly beans," and short stretches for my lower back).

Mile 25-At this point in the race, I headed south toward the Cotton Bowl. The finish line is almost in sight. I was passing a great number at this point because many were walking.

Mile 26-The crowds began to get thicker. As I turned the corner to see the finish line, I began to pick up my stride and run with all I had left to the finish.

The Finish Line-I can't describe the feeling of crossing the finish line. It was actually a very emotional moment. Tears came to my eyes and I got chills. And as I crossed the finish line, it was as if I had a warp-speed movie of my training quickly run through my brain. All of that work paid off as I met my goal. What an incredible feeling!

My time was 4:37:50. I had run 26.2 miles in a per minute pace of about 10 minutes and 35 seconds. I was so pleased with my time. Seeing my family after the race was one of the best moments of the race. Their cheering along the way helped me so much.

I want to dedicate my race to Holly and Maddox. Without their help, I wouldn't have been able to do the training. Holly spent countless Saturday mornings without me in order to let me do my long runs. I can't thank you enough Holly. You and Maddox were my inspiration in the moments I wanted to quit! I love you and Maddox so much!

Day Before the Marathon

Well, it's less than 24 hours before the marathon. I can't believe it's here.

I vividly remember stepping on the track at Rock Canyon High School the first week of this year and running one mile. One mile was all I could muster. My lungs hurt! More than anything my ego was hurt. Although, I was in the Mile High city, so my bruised ego was less hurt than it would've been at sea level. Whether that made any effect, I made the excuse anyway. I truly couldn't imagine running 26.2 miles. It was a dream that likely wouldn't come true.

I don't really have a runner's body. I know that might surprise you based on my chiseled physique, but it's true. Though I was athletic, I was the kid with the worst flexibility and the lower mile times in elementary school and junior high. Teachers said I was blessed with brains, but it was probably just to ensure I never pursued a career in athletics.

But here I am the day before the race and I actually feel prepared. So many things could go wrong tomorrow. My injury to my right IT band worries me. The vision in my head of me crossing the finish line looks more like a fatigued Olympian more than a maimed rabbit hobbling to the finish. All kinds of things could go wrong tomorrow. I've rarely cramped in my training, but that could be the situation tomorrow. Who knows? It's not worth worrying about really.

But I must say I'm excited. I'll drink lots of water today and consume many carbohydrates, but most of all I'll enjoy the fact that I have done everything I could to train well for this event. I can actually say "I'm ready" just as I could say in the next sentence, "I'm not sure if I've prepared enough."

Sounds like a story a preacher could use in a sermon. But don't go stealing my story...I've copyrighted this one with my own sweat.

I'll update you soon on the race!

The Preaching Event

We don't come to expect much as the preacher walks onstage, do we? We don't expect a life changing encounter. We don't expect a riot to ensue. We don't expect the powers and principalities to come in and shut down the service because something too revolutionary has been spoken.

The truth is: We don't expect much of anything!!

Our young people don't dream of becoming preachers. What excitement is there in that kind of life? How will I see concrete evidence of success as a preacher? It's just a 30 minute speech!

Our best and brightest are not studying to become preachers. They're challenged to become doctors, lawyers, politicians, professors, and teachers. And let me just say, we need Godly people in all of these positions. Everyone is a minister. Everyone is a missionary. But we also need preachers and the well is drying up.

Regardless of what many believe, I believe the world needs more better sermons. I don't think the sermon should be boring. It should be an electric moment of anticipation. I don't think people should have to sit through a sermon so they can go to lunch.

Just a 30 minute speech?!?

Hardly.

The sermon should be an event that rattles your cage, disturbs you, comforts you, inspires you, and provokes you. When the prophets and Jesus spoke, you didn't just sit back and evaluate the sermon. You were caught up in something because the communicator was caught up something.

Now, we might not want a preacher who rattles our cage. I know of people who come to church to be creatively reminded of what they already know. There are people in our churches who believe it's the job of a preacher to say what they already believe better than they can say it themselves.

That's pandering, not preaching! That's itching ears, not prodding hearts!

Some have pronounced the death of preaching. But I'm not ready to preach the sermon's eulogy yet.

We need more young people who can imagine a new kind of preaching. Not a preaching that confirms old traditions. Not a preaching that will ensure a larger auditorium in the next five years. We need preachers who are so wooed by the story of God in Scripture that they can't help but paint a vivid picture of God's burden for humanity to a congregation parched for the living water.

Thoughts?

Marathoning

Less than 5 weeks from my marathon. It's scary and exciting all at the same time. Perhaps any good thing in our life is scary and exciting at the same time.

Initially, Holly baited me into running a marathon because "If the Biggest Loser contestants could do it, then I could do it." I'm not sure of the motivation behind her cunning challenge, but I have my guesses.

The road has been long and difficult.
-Injured foot (stress fracture or tendonitis)
-Hundreds of Miles
-Mental Battles (The left side of my brain still tells me I'm crazy)
-Wild coyotes and dogs to dodge on the running trail
-Running when I don't feel like it
-Saturdays filled with running instead of watching college football
-Sermons filled with running imagery (my congregation is tired of it)

When I stepped on the track in January, I could barely run a mile. As of last Saturday, I ran 18 miles in just over 3 hours. The transformation has been incredible and the discipline has carried over to other areas of my life.

It seems crazy, but I can honestly say that the half marathon race coming up in a week and half seems like an easy race.

Now, the journey is not finished. I've still got time for injuries or sickness to knock me out of the race. But at this point, I think I've learned something important. It's not just about the destination. It's about the journey! (Who am I kidding? If I don't finish the marathon next month, I will not be a happy person to be around.)

Lord willing (I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I think it means something like "Bless your heart!"), I'll have crossed one more item off the bucket list on December 5th. But I'm not so sure I can shake this running thing. It's like a drug. Once you start, you can only up the dosage to keep your high.

If only the habits of my spiritual life were as addictive.

Perhaps that will be the challenge for 2011.

Reflecting on the VMA's

Last night, Holly and I sat in front of the television for a couple of hours watching the VMA's. For those of you who aren't familiar with what the VMA's are for one reason or another (I can't imagine why not?), they are the Video Music Awards on MTV. (If you aren't familiar with MTV, it's the music station that no longer plays music. Confusing I know!)

I'm sure there are many Christians who would look down on me for watching such foolishness. If you feel that way, hear me out before you ditch the blog forever.

10 years ago, I consumed pop culture like most high schoolers. What MTV was selling, I was buying. (Sorry mom and dad)

I have to admit I don't connect with MTV much anymore. I don't get Lady Gaga, Eminem, or Justin Bieber. Ke$ha's songs are just plain annoying. And the guy who sings about wanting to become a millionaire badly needs a new lyricist. I guess I'm already admitting the beginning of my cultural descent at age 26 away from what everyone else thinks is cool. Confession is good for the soul.

But for those of you who dismiss MTV out of hand, you might need to pay more attention before you lose your kids.

While there's much about MTV that I'd like to argue with, I learned something about our kids last night in a major way.

MTV is giving our kids a narrative to live in that we're failing to give them with the gospel. Their vulgar, absurd story with their even stranger cast of characters is speaking to our kids in ways our flannel graph characters aren't quite doing. Each of the characters in MTV's world (Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Kanye West, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, etc.) are playing a role in a story that our kids are connecting with.

To pick on Lady Gaga for a moment, so many are connecting with her bizarre antics and role. She plays the role of an outcast, which many of our kids can connect with. She's this generation's Marilyn Manson only a bit more mainstream. She's the outcast from high school who preaches a message of acceptance and tolerance for every group that's despised by mainstream media. And for the teens who find themselves in those awkward years struggling for acceptance, they connect with her character and live into her story.

And with this postmodern generation, if the gospel isn't a big enough and compelling story to live into, our teens will find other stories to live into.

Donald Miller tells the story about a set of parents who are struggling with their daughter's downward spiral. She was experimenting with drugs and was dating the guy every parents prays their daughter will never choose to date. And as the father and mother sit around the breakfast table, the dad interjects, "Why would she date this guy? Didn't we raise her better than this?" And the mother responded, "She's living the best story she knows. We haven't offered her a better story. She has drama, intrigue, chaos, love, and emotion in this story. It's a better story than we've offered her. So, of course she's going to choose this guy."

The next morning the father gathers the family around the kitchen table and tells the family, "I have failed you as a father. I am not offering a good enough story for our family to live by. Here's what we're going to do over the next two years: We're going to raise money to build orphanages for children in West Africa." And within three weeks, the daughter had dumped her jerk of a boyfriend.

No girl who plays the hero in her story chooses to date the loser. That girl wasn't in need of more rules or boundaries as much as many parents might think. She's in need of a larger, more beautiful story to live into.

I believe the gospel can become that story if we begin to share it with our kids in all of its boldness, danger, and wonder. We've domesticated the gospel and the kingdom so much that the culture is selling better stories than we are. And it's got to stop if we're going to see a vibrant church in the next generation.

Perhaps the church should watch more MTV. Not so that we can tell a more relevant story, but so we can understand what story our kids are buying into. The gospel is more compelling than Lady Gaga. But MTV's doing a better job than the church of telling its story.

It's time for the church to tell it's story again in compelling ways. Christianity and church are only boring when we domesticate the untamable message of the kingdom. So, let's take the shrink wrap off of our Bibles and allow our kids a chance to experience Jesus' untamed radical message.

Thoughts?

Creativity

For those of you who haven't subscribed to Littleton's podcast, we've been on an eternal journey through the book of Exodus. There are only 3 more Sundays in the series, which will end up being a 6 month process.

I love the book of Exodus. It's message must be heard by the church today. Our God is a God who stands with the poor and oppressed and frees his people. But as we've found out during the series, God doesn't free people to become autonomous. He frees them from taskmasters in order to serve the best master possible. As Paul says in Romans 1, we're going to be slaves to something. We might as well choose a loving God rather than an abusive overlord.

Anyway, this past Sunday was one of the best Sundays we've had during the series. It was awesome! The sermon was entitled "Creative Arks" (sometimes brilliant titles just come to me) out of Exodus 31:1-11 & 35:30-36:7.

In these passages, Bezalel is the first person in Scripture who is described as being filled with the Spirit of God. Now, why would God choose to give the Spirit first to a creative man who works with his hands?

Well, that leads me to another question. If we serve a creative God and have creative members created in the image of God, then why is church not considered the most creative place on earth?

The church has always been a bit leery of art. Christians certainly weren't encouraged to go to the theater in the early centuries. And then there was that whole thing about mutilating the nude statues all over Europe. For some reason, we've launched our creative people to do their creative projects in the secular world, but we can't imagine that has anything to do with our sacred rituals on Sunday morning. But God never separated the sacred and secular. That was our project.

And then there's those of us who don't think we have a creative bone in our body. Many of us don't think of ourselves as creative, but that's because we've conceived of creativity all wrong. We've confused creativity with artistry.

But let me assure you, not all artists are creative. Just because you're not artistic, doesn't mean you're not creative. And just because you are artistic doesn't mean you are creative. There are many artists out there who only imitate others because their fear of failing to step out and create on their own is so great that they never create the beautiful picture that God has born within them.

The interesting thing about creativity is that if you don't create what you were intended to create, it will never be created. You have a unique creation within you that won't be born if you don't create it. If Bheetoven wouldn't have written his 5th, it wouldn't have been written. If Leonaro da Vinci hadn't birthed the Mona Lisa, we wouldn't have her. If Michelangelo hadn't carved The David out of stone, it wouldn't exist. If Michael Jordan hadn't committed to basketball, we'd still hail another as the greatest to have ever played the game. If Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dieterich Bonhoeffer hadn't stood against oppression, the kingdom would have never been unleashed to the same degree.

God created you to create. Don't let fear keep you from birthing the beautiful gift has born within you.

Sunday was the kind of service you pray will come together. We displayed quilts, photographs, paintings, books, stamps, and cross stitches that were each original creations from people within our congregation. Two youth group girls painted a picture as I was preaching. And the Spirit of God filled the room on Sunday.

The question is: Will the Spirit of God breathe life into dry bones Monday through Saturday?

Look around...You might just get your answer.

A Message For Those Waiting By the Phone

We all want to stand out. We all want to be known for something. We all want to be remembered when we die.

Perhaps that's why tattoos are so popular.

It's one of the main questions that people ask at the end of their lives. Did I make an impact? Will I be remembered? Did my life count for something?

Ministers happen to ask these questions as well. I don't think it matters what size church you find yourself in. You ask certain questions.

Am I making an impact on people's lives?
Would they even miss me if I were no longer at this church?
Why aren't we growing like we should?
We're growing in numbers, but is anyone looking more like Christ?

Perhaps our Children's Minister search process is prompting these questions right now. Currently, there are about at least 10 Churches of Christ larger than Littleton looking for Children's Ministers. However, there are very few candidates out there. You might say, "Good job security!" And you'd be right!

As I've reflected on this situation, I think there are several reasons why this is the case.
1) Most of the Children's Ministry degrees at our universities are quite new.
2) Many Children's Ministers were inside hires who were members before they were ministers. (They chose to attend the church before they worked there)
3) Many Children's Ministers' spouses make more than they do.
4) Many Children's Ministers' are there for the kids rather than waiting on the next big church to call.

Now, several of these items look like criticisms of ministers in other areas of church ministry. And unfortunately, too often they are. While many ministers find great satisfaction in the church they currently serve, there are also many ministers who are positioning themselves (by the phone) for the next phone call from the next big church.

Which is sad. If all you do in a church is preach sermons in order to be heard well by congregations that might be listening in, you shouldn't consider yourself a preacher. The point is not to climb the ladder. The point is to serve God's people. Ultimately, it's not about you. It's about God. But we often mistake the main character in our stories anyway.

Maybe we can learn something from our Children's Ministers. They aren't up front all of the time. They don't get the "atta boys" and "atta girls" that some of us in the more public roles receive. They go about their business loving kids and making an eternal impact.

It's easy to spend your time playing "Pity Party." It's a party that not that much fun and the food's not that good anyway.

So, hear this as an encouragement fellow ministers. You're making an impact. The size of your pulpit has nothing to do with God's power at work within you.

Jesus said, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." But perhaps as ministers we need to hear this word, "Unless you become like Children's Ministers, you will never find joy in your ministry."

Discharge the duties of your ministry and you can be assured that you are making an impact. Serve your people well and you can be assured they will miss you if God ever calls you elsewhere. Lead people in the way of Christ with your teaching and example

There's always going to be a bigger church you can wait on (unless you're Joel Osteen). There will never be a more important group of people to minister to than the people God has put in your church!

Maddox's First Birthday

I want to start out by encouraging you to visit my wife's blog to see pictures from Maddox's first birthday party. She is the picture-taker, premier family blogger, and blog designer in my family. If pictures are what you're looking for, her website it the place to find it. www.hnpacker.blogspot.com

Being the preacher, I provide the prose and words to describe our lives through the lens of word pictures (Which is another way of saying I'm a lazy blogger who can type but lacks the skill to make this an incredible website, but I digress.)

I know every parent is proud of their child. I know every parent thinks he/or she is the best child that has ever lived. I get that. But it's important to sketch out these thoughts through a theological lens or we remain unaffected by the divine in special moments like this.

Today, is Maddox's first birthday. Just that fact brings back a flood of memories. The montage going on in my head goes something like this: Chili's on June 28th with our families, hospital for induction, waiting on Maddox, painful labor (What! It was tough for me too!), beautiful boy, tears, dreams, love, leaving the hospital scared to death, learning to be a father (physically), learning to be a father (in every other way), sleepless nights, swings, prayers, smiles, sitting up, crawling, standing, coos, giggles, cries, "dadda."

All of these words represent pictures in my mind. They're not just black letters on a screen. As I type them, emotion follows these words and pictures. Tears stream to my eyes as I think about this first year of fatherhood.

Let me just say, I'm crazy about Maddox. I love him so much and would do ANYTHING for him.

We want him to live a happy childhood, but more than that, we cannot wait until he confesses Jesus as his Lord in baptism. We cannot wait until he chooses servanthood over selfishness. We cannot wait until he dreams up kingdom dreams that scare us to death. We cannot wait until the world receives the gift that God has given to us in ways that will change the world forever. One year later, we still smile, love on him, and dream of what he will be. There will be a time when our dreams will shatter or become reality, but for now we dream and pray.

Our life has been changed forever by Maddox. My life has been changed forever by Maddox. My actions now impact him in more ways that I want to think. But that provides an incredible opportunity as well. Just as I've told my congregation, so I want Maddox to know the same thing. I want him to follow me as I follow Christ. And as humbling as that statement is, it's also the truth that I want to live out.

Our children don't just pick up God and follow him. They hear about God. They experience God. They see God in us. And eventually, they make their own choices. My prayer this morning is that through all five senses, Maddox would experience God through me. May he see Jesus in me. May he feel Jesus in me. May he hear Jesus in me. May he taste Jesus in me. May he smell Jesus in me.

Because ultimately, spirituality is not a disembodied experience. It's so natural. It finds itself in all of our senses. Our faith is an embodied faith. It's an earthy faith. And if Maddox is to ever pick up a kingdom lifestyle, it will be because of people in his life who choose to embody faith in real ways.

Maddox, your mother and I love you. We would do anything for you. We'll keep giving you bottles and keep you well fed. You might receive a toy or two in the future as well. But our most important gift we can give to you is to aid your five senses. God has given you those senses for a reason. Taste and see that the Lord is good!

Update On Life

I'm regularly reminded by my sweet wife that theology is incredibly boring on a blog and family life is much more interesting. Judging by our hit counts on our blogs, I believe she's right. If you want to check out her blog, you can find it at: www.hnpacker.blogspot.com. She does a much better job of updating people on our family.

But I do want to say that we are so blessed to be in the place we are in right now. We're at a stage in life where you just want to hit the slow motion and make sure life doesn't pass by so quickly.

Maddox will turn one on June 29th. It's hard to believe it's already been a year, but he's an incredible boy (I'm aware no parent has ever said that about their child). I love hearing his belly laughs and watching him grow into his personality. It's been a great 11 1/2 months and I'm so excited to watch him continue to grow. It's been a blast to be his father!

Holly and I are so glad to be in Colorado. We miss our families at times, but we're blessed to be in such a great area. Yes, God blessed Texas, but it's a little more obvious the ways he has blessed Colorado when I drive to work looking at the mountains every morning. We will be celebrating our 6th anniversary next month. I'm so blessed to be married to a woman who is a wonderful mother, an incredible spouse, and most importantly a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

The church work is going well. We're in the midst of a lot of staff transition right now, which is never easy, but I know God is at work in creating the staff he will work through at Littleton. God is doing great things and the people in our congregation are such a blessing in our lives!

All in all, life is good. We're training for a marathon, which is a big commitment, but we're well on our way. I have some book ideas I hope will become a reality some day. And preaching is the best possible profession God could have called me too!

Reflections on 26 Years

I turned 26 in March, which has got me doing some thinking (I know, what's new?). In the past 10 years, everything in my life has changed. I guess most people should expect things to change over a decade. But in my last decade, there is almost nothing that has stayed the same.

10 years ago, in March of 2000:
-I was a junior in high school (reunion is coming up)
-I was single (I started dating Holly in December 2000)
-Tiger Woods was my idol (with a squeaky clean image)
-9/11 hadn't changed the world yet

It was a different world. We weren't afraid of terrorism. Golf was my life. I wondered if I'd ever find a girl who would date me.

Today, I can honestly say, I only agree with a handful of the things I believed when I was 16. My beliefs about everything have changed because of my encounter with Jesus Christ. In fact, if I were to have a debate with my 16 year old self, I think I would disagree on almost everything except my belief in Jesus Christ.

10 years ago:
-I was basically a dualist (everything was black and white)
-I believed heaven was where my disembodied soul would go
-I thought my money had little to do with my discipleship
-I was a Christian American caught up in nationalism
-I was a Church of Christ apologist
-I was a fundamentalist
-I was a homophobe
-I was solely concerned with my individual salvation

Today:
-I see many more shades of grey on many topics
-I believe God will restore all of creation and put the world to rights
-I struggle with how to best utilize the blessings God has given me
-I am a Christian who happens to live in America
-I am a committed to the Jesus story more than institutional religion
-I read Scripture as a story to live into
-I leave judgment to God and fulfill my role as a lover of people
-I am committed to the message of the kingdom of God and social justice

The list could go on, but that's enough to show the changes within me. I'm proud that I've come to a more holistic view of the Jesus story. I'm so glad I've found the message of the kingdom of God. Most of all, I'm glad I've found the story of Jesus compelling enough to give my life to.

But I've been thinking, the thoughts in my head have changed over the past 10 years, but how much has my behavior changed. The goal of the Jesus story is not just a perfected intellectual understanding of the Christian faith. We're called to live into this story in radical ways that change our actions and behavior. God wants to use the church, as his tool to put the world to rights. He's asked us to join him in his kingdom project.

So, I hope my thinking continues to grow and shift over the next decade of my life, but even more I hope my behavior catches up to my thinking about the kingdom. Because I know a lot more Bible than I do.

For the next decade, I'm committed to the message of Micah 6:8: "He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

I don't want to be a Christian who knows what to do, but fails to do it. The wise man in the Sermon on the Mount is the man who hears Jesus' words and puts them into practice, not the man who memorized and understood the Sermon on the Mount better than anyone else. The man who knows the Sermon on the Mount backwards and forwards, but does none of it, is actually the foolish man.

When I look back at my 36th birthday, I hope I can say that justice, mercy, and walking humbly with God are ways I have grown.

I hope my life is a pursuit of justice for the poor and oppressed in significant ways. I hope my children will look at my life and know that I care deeply about social justice (regardless of what Glenn Beck might say about me). I hope this quest changes my standard of living and improves the standard for others. I want to break down systems of injustice in this world.

And I hope my kids will see mercy in my life. After all, if I've received mercy after mercy from my God, how can I be a harsh man with the people around me?

And I hope my kids see my humble relationship with God. I cannot lead them well if I'm not following God well.

So, here's to the next 10 years. May I continue to grow in knowledge, but may I most of all grow in my pursuit of justice, mercy, and relationship with my God.

Pepperdine Bible Lectures

Holly and I are making final preparations for our Pepperdine Lectures class. For anyone who will be out there, we will be teaching Wednesday morning at 8:30 in the Kresge Reading Room in Payson Library.

Our class topic is Let Freedom Ring (The Exodus: Good News or Bad News?). It will be interesting to teach with Holly because this is the first time we've ever taught together. And even for people at Littleton who have been listening to my sermon series, hearing Holly's thoughts on the Exodus will be well worth the price of admission. And if you get a chance, come to hear Littleton's praise team lead worship. I'll be leading communion for one of their worship times.

The Pepperdine Lectures are one of the great events in Churches of Christ. It's a highlight to my ministry year. Great location, incredible preaching, and needed fellowship! And this year, one of my favorite preachers, Jonathan Storment, gets a shot to address our movement. God's got great things in store!

We're very excited (and maybe a little nervous). Malibu, CA is a tough place to go to a conference, but somebody's got to do it!

Of God's Kingdom

OK, OK, I know. A blog is meant for blogging. I plan to do a better job. Here is the last post of my series on Littleton's vision. I've got some things on the horizon, so check back.

Of God's Kingdom.

I've grown up in a world of practical atheism. No, my parents didn't brainwash to believe God wasn't active in the world! No, my private school education was not a surreptitious attempt to steal faith from the next generation. No, our Church of Christ was not a radical group with deistic tendencies.

What I mean is, I was slowly, through the use of propaganda, brought to the place where I believed God didn't interact in the world. Sure, I prayed and was taught to pray. But when it really (and I mean REALLY) came down to it, I believed God didn't interact in the world. More on that in a minute.

In the first century, there were four main groups of Jews. The Pharisees, the Herodians, the Essenes, and the Zealots. Each of these groups lived during a time when the Roman Empire had its boot on their necks. They were all asking one major question: How is God going to liberate us? They all had different answers to that question.

The Pharisees believed that a recommitment to the morality of God's law would secure their freedom. They thought, "If we could perfect our lives in concert with Torah, God will send a liberator to free us from the Romans."

The Herodians took a different viewpoint. They were the political realists of their day. They thought, "No one can defeat the Romans, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." So they bowed down to Caesar and tried to use the political system to bring change.

The Essenes were the Amish of a previous time. They sought to leave the evil of the city by moving out into the wilderness to create a "holy ghetto" away from the world.

The Zealots were violent revolutionaries who hoped God would support them in their zealous attempt to overthrow Rome. They got their guns, tanks, and planes and were ready to go to war. Their hero was King David and they were ready to go slay Goliath (Rome).

Today, we can still see similarities between these groups and current day attempts to ask the question, "How will God liberate us?" We, in Churches of Christ, know about the Pharisees. We know all too well about those who seek to use politics in order to make God's kingdom tangible among us today. "Holy ghettos" still pop up on our religious landscape. And violence is still a means some religious people think of using to advance God's kingdom.

But one look at the life of Jesus shows that he doesn't join any of these ideologies. Instead of joining the Pharisees, Herodians, Essenes, or Zealots, he came declaring a new kingdom that has nothing to do with any of these groups. He announces the kingdom of God on the earth. He prays for the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The kingdom has been misinterpreted so many times throughout history. It's been equated with the church. We've seen it as something that we build. At times, it's even been an earthly political kingdom (which is so antithetical to the life of Jesus).

But the kingdom of God that Jesus announced rejects the ways of the world. It lays down power rather than taking it up. It lays down the sword rather than using it to advance itself. Through the kingdom, Jesus is inviting us into a better way of being human than we've lived out before. The kingdom of God is an alternative to the ways of the Empire.

Now, what does this kingdom business have to do with growing up in a world of practical atheism? I'm glad you asked.

I'm amazed how much of my life and ministry could be done without God. Have you ever asked yourself the question, "What huge kingdom dreams am I currently a part of that I couldn't possibly do without God stepping in?" What plans are you making that are so big that God would have to step in to make those plans a reality? We live such puny lives because many of us have become practical atheists who don't even need God in order to live our lives.

Other than your salvation, how would your life be any different if God wasn't actually in your life?

I'm amazed how often my thinking is so small because I don't believe God is going to do anything. It's all on my shoulders, so I get desperate and act in ways that are inconsistent with the way of Jesus.

Every sin is an act committed (or omitted) because we don't believe God can step in and give us a better life. We're practical atheists. Every act of violence occurs because we've lost the imagination that God might step into our world.

At Littleton, we want to pattern our lives after the kingdom of God rather than the kingdoms of this world. So, we're building an imagination again about what God can do. We're trusting in the ways of the kingdom found in Matthew 5-7. It's a journey, but it's better than practical atheism.

The kingdom of God is about radical trust and belief in a God who inaugurated his reign in Jesus Christ and who will bring his reign to fullness in the new heavens and the new earth. Come, Lord Jesus.

May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

In Pursuit

In Pursuit.

It's seems like a strange phrase to strain out of our vision statement. At first, I wondered how I could preach a sermon on such a small, seemingly insignificant phrase, but I've found it to be crucial to what it means to be the people of God.

We believe that God has called this church to more than just settling down without a vision. We believe that God is calling this church to pursue something larger than ourselves. We're called to love God and go love people.

The word "pursuit" reminds me of the language of journey and movement. It's not stagnant. Pursuit means we are after something. But pursuit also means risk.

When you pursue a degree, you risk wasting money and failing.
When you pursue a career, you risk the many other options of careers that might be more comfortable.
When you pursue a spouse, you risk your heart in the process.

But anything worth pursuing implies the risk of losing what we had before.

In Hebrews 11, we find what we've always called the "Hall of Faith." We read name after name of people who have followed God faithfully no matter the circumstances. But when I begin to read this chapter closely, I notice that the chapter has a lot of language related to "pursuit, journey, and camping."

I think this principle can be tested: God's people at their most faithful have been people who are on the move who realize they have not arrived. The times we are most unfaithful are the times we begin to build our hopes, dreams, and realities in a city that does not last that we do not call home.

When the Israelites set their tent pegs in the ground tightly, they begin to want to look like their neighbors. They follow after foreign gods. And in 1 Samuel 8, they want a king just like all of the other nations. Yahweh was their king, but that wasn't good enough because the other nations had kings. In that chapter, God warns Israel what will happen with a king, but they settle for a human king anyway.

Over and over again, the people of God have settled in a city and God has had to "put them on the journey" again to get them moving. They settle in Egypt because there's a famine, and God's boots them out through Moses. They settle in the Promised Land and God has to use a time of exile in Babylon to get them moving again. The church settles in Jerusalem despite the Great Commission, which command them to go into all the world, and it takes the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD before they move out again.

And today in North America, we're facing another time of unsettledness. For 1600 years, since the days of Emperor Constantine, the church has enjoyed a time in Christendom when the church and state have gotten along well in the West. For over a millennium and a half, the church enjoyed its place at the center of culture, with its tent pegs tightly in the ground. But I think we're beginning to see signs that God is loosening our tent pegs.

So the question is: Will we fight God's "hint to us" and fight our way back to the center of culture or will we choose to journey with God again in the wilderness as we become faithful on the journey again.

We, as a church, desire to be on the journey of God. Wherever he wants to take us is the place we desire to dwell.

And then there's this incredible verse at the end of Hebrews 11:

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only with us would THEY be made perfect."

Now, that's a verse you've got to sit with for a minute. All of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 are waiting on us to receive what was promised.

We have a part in their story! In Scripture, we don't just read about past times when God worked through people. Somehow, he's planning to use us to finish the stories we read about in Scripture. Through the power of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit, God is continuing to journey with us.

So, yes...we're in pursuit!

For Missional Living

For Missional Living.

One of the first questions I asked in my interview with Littleton was, "If Littleton was to close its doors, would your immediate neighborhood be impacted at all?"

This question haunts me at night. We're mainly a regional church. So much of our growth over the years has come from transfer growth from the South. But what kind of impact are we making on our neighborhood?

The Message (Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible) says it so well in John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." God, himself, who created all things moved into a specific location on the earth. He lived, moved, and ministered in a neighborhood. God understood, in Jesus Christ, that no ministry is one-size-fits-all. It's specific to culture, language, and location. So, Jesus was born a poor Jew in the first century during the reign of Herod and Caesar, which should be important to us.

For years, ministers have gone to conferences and tried to implement the next great fad to help their church grow. We've thought, "If one church (Saddleback, Willow Creek, etc.) grew in this way, then we, too, can grow in the same way. So, ministers tirelessly go to conferences to stay current on the next great "church growth" strategy. And I believe churches have grown tired of following fad after fad trying to grow.

But God has called us, as the body of Christ, to move into the neighborhood again. We're not looking for the next great parcel of land in the spreading suburbs that will multiply our numbers and make us look great. At the Littleton Church, we're committed to our neighborhood and seeing that God's kingdom will come and his will be done in this neighborhood as it is in heaven. We've moved into the neighborhood and we're not going anywhere.

Now, that decision means that we will have to get to know our neighborhood better. Demographic studies aren't going to help us impact our neighborhood. What will change our neighborhood is when our people get to know our neighbors. Change will happen when we enter our neighbor's lives, sit at their tables, and listen to the way the Spirit is inviting a new imagination about being church in this context.

In their book "Introducing the Missional Church," Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren, have talked about the church's mission like this:

"The task of the local church in our present situation is to reenter our neighborhoods, to dwell with and to listen to the narratives and the stories of the people. We are to do this not as a strategy for getting people to church but because that is how God comes to us in Jesus, loving us without putting strings on the relationship. It will be in these kinds of relationships that we will hear all the clues about what the Spirit is calling us to do as the church in that place. But this is not a strategy we take to a context; it is a way of life we cultivate in a place where we belong."

Now, wouldn't that change your church! Imagine that! What if the church stopped worrying about growth at any cost and starting thinking about impacting the neighborhood.

Have you ever thought about Jesus' impact on the earth. He could have had a greater impact by traveling all over the world in a jet sharing his message of good news with those in the Western Roman Empire and the Far East, but instead, he chose to stay in an area about the size of New Jersey. It's not the large-scale mission plan we might have thought up.

Christ moved into the neighborhood and eventually changed the world. Perhaps the church needs to take its cues from Jesus. It's time for us to move into the neighborhood and perhaps God will change the world again!

Lamenting For Haiti

Today, was an incredible day at church. It was one of the best in the year and a half I've been at Littleton.

We had a lament service.

I know. I know. It's not what you would expect would be my favorite Sunday. More than anything, it felt good to be honest and relevant with our feelings today. Today the masks came off.

While there are many benefits to worshipping with the lectionary, today provided the opportunity to stop and lament for the tragedies going on in our own lives and across the Gulf of Mexico in Haiti. It's inauthentic to worship God blindly in the midst of such tragedy and we resisted the opportunity to go on with our lives as if we didn't even notice the pain around us.

So, today we started with a reading of Psalm 42, a lament psalm. There are more lament psalms than any other genre of psalms. Yet, for some reason, we don't know how to do lament. After reading Psalm 42, we spent a congregational time in prayer together.

After the silence, I preached on theodicy, the problem of evil. Some of the questions I sought to deal with were:
-If God is so good, why is his world so bad?
-If an all-loving, all-powerful God is running the show, why does he seem to be doing such a poor job of it?
-Why do bad things happen to bad people.

These questions have plagued me at several points on my journey.

After 9/11, I wondered how God could cause/allow such evil to go on in New York. When my grandmother died, I wondered how God could fail to listen to the faithful prayers of my mother. And when Stevie (a boy in our youth group) died, I wondered how God could bring any good out of such a young death.

Today, I think the problem wasn't God's faithfulness. I think the problem was my skewed expectations of God. I'm now convinced that one of the most fatal flaws to faith is bad theology.

There are some competing religious voices that try to explain how God works in the midst of suffering and chaos in our lives:
1) Deism says that "God does nothing in the world." He created the world, but since that act, he's just waiting for it to stop spinning.

2) Calvinism is a very popular view that is gaining a lot of ground in certain circles. (While I consider Calvinists to be my brothers and sisters, I am very uncomfortable with their view of God's action in the world when it comes to suffering.) Calvinism says that "God does everything in the world." Somehow, in the end, you have to trust that the blessings and tragedies with make sense in the end. But make no mistake, God creates hurricanes and heals diseases. The atheists are having a hay-day with this view right now. The problem of evil is especially a problem if evil comes directly from God.

I'm suspicious of both of these views because this God has no appreciation for what he has created and this God isn't worth trusting.

But I think Jesus offers a third way of looking at how God deals with suffering. He admits that pain and suffering are real (In this world you will have trouble), and the genius of Christianity is not that God omits suffering from the baptized, but that God comes near and suffers with us. He's not the God who causes suffering, he's the God who hears the cries of the oppressed and mourns with them. He's the God who sent his only Son into the world to suffer for the sake of the world, so that he could redeem it.

Romans 8:28 has it right. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Now, this is one of the most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture. It doesn't mean God is changing circumstances in order to bless his people. It's saying that God can crawl into any situation, no matter how hopeless it looks, and do his work of redemption. God will work IN ALL THINGS (good or bad) to reconcile the world to himself.

God isn't doing everything in the world. He's doing something WITH everything in the world! And that's good news, Amen!

Tragedy is still tragedy. Only time will tell what God will do with Haiti, but I still believe one thing. Nothing is beyond the scope of God's redemption. Nothing!

Committed to Being Formed

Our church is committed to being formed.

Now, that's not how our original vision statement read. It originally read "A Christ-centered community committed to forming disciples..." That's good, but it misses a good deal of the point.

You might ask, "Why is transformation important? I thought we were in the business of "saving souls." Well, we certainly believe conversion important, but more and more, I'm beginning to see conversion as more of a process than an event.

In Scripture, salvation is bigger than baptism. There are three important emphases of salvation in Scripture:
1) We have been saved at the cross and the resurrection.
2) We will be saved when Christ returns to the earth.
3) But there's a third emphasis we rarely focus on. We are being saved!

Acts 2:46-47: "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number those who were BEING SAVED."

1 Corinthians 1:18: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are BEING SAVED it is the power of God."

Salvation has a past, present, and future sense to it. It's rooted in an historical event, waiting on a second coming, and in process in those who have chosen Jesus as their Lord. It's this present sense that spiritual formation focuses on.

The Western Church has thought in either/or terms for so long. And when it comes to spiritual formation there are basically two camps:

One camp says that we are the main actors in our transformation. It's as if we're saved by what we do and changed by the actions we take. You have to do more, work more, and become perfect on your own. Have you ever heard this message before?

The other camp says we can do nothing to jump start our transformation because it's all the work of God. He's elected and predestined certain individuals for salvation and transformation.

I'd like to take a both/and approach. Transformation is the work of God. As much as we want to think we can "pull ourselves up by our own spiritual bootstraps," it takes the fruit of the Spirit to develop an authentic life of faith. God is certainly involved in the process. A caterpillar can’t become a butterfly by behaving like one. Nor can butterflies give butterfly lessons to caterpillars. People cannot change themselves, and spiritual leaders cannot do it for them.

But on the other hand, it's also not a passive process. Christian history is full of people who have submitted themselves to the spiritual disciplines and have seen God's grace at work through them. We have to be committed to spiritual formation as a process or we won't be changed.

In other words, “Only God can bring about change, but he never chooses to do it alone!”

So, I like our statement now much better. At the Littleton Church of Christ, we are committed to being formed.

A Christ-Centered Community

The first phrase in our vision statement declares that we want to be a Christ-centered community.

The Copernican Revolution truly changed the world.

For most of history, humans believed the earth was the center of the universe and the sun rotated around the earth. But in the 1500s, that idea began to change. Copernicus released his hypothesis in the year that he died that the earth rotated around the sun.

At or around 1610, Galileo began to publically support the idea that the earth was not the center of the universe. This idea did not suit the church very well. It was around the time of the Roman Inquisition and the church denounced Galileo’s premise as heresy. After all in Joshua 10, the sun stood still in the sky, so Galileo’s premise couldn't be correct. Galileo was warned to stop his heresy, which he agreed to do, but 16 years later he published a book that argued that the earth wasn’t the center of everything. He was then tried in the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” and spent the rest of his life (8 years) under house arrest. But as we’ve come to find out, Galileo was absolutely right and the church was wrong.

But the Catholic church of the 1500s wasn't the only one to put itself at the center of history. It's a common problem we all have, isn't it?

We've been told a lie. We’ve been told that we are the main actors in our lives. Culture tells us this, but even scarier, Christianity has also assumed the same plot.

It’s all about having “your best life now.” We’ve somehow believed the lie that everything is about us. Salvation is about us. Grace is a reward for our works. The church service is about us. We’ve made Jesus out to be a means to our best possible life on earth. Somehow we’ve been led to believe that we are the main actors and that God sent Jesus in order to help our story. Almost as if Jesus is our life coach.

Our church is trying to proclaim another story. We want to acknowledge that God is at the center of God's story and we are not. Too often, churches make individuals the center of the story. We think that God's grace is given to us because of our faithfulness. We mistakenly place ourselves at the center of the universe, which makes us into consumers who are take the place of God at the center of the story. But we are beginning to understand more and more that God is the writer and director and somehow he has graciously written us into his script of redemption. For some reason, God has chosen to use his broken church to redeem the brokenness within all of humanity.

We want to be a Christ-centered church. God is the subject and he enacts the verbs.

In addition, we want to be an authentic community of people.

So many of us live in a world of pseudo-community. We ask how each other are doing each Sunday, and we're shocked when anyone would tell us anything other than "Great!" We've resigne ourselves to seeing church as a masquerade ball. Many of us wear masks to church in order to hide the pain of our lives.

Through connection groups and other ministries, we are striving to become a more authentic church. A church that seeks to find a place for everyone in our community. We, at the Littleton Church, desire for community to break out in more ways in the future.

The Copernican Revolution changed many things. And with God as the central character in our story, we hope he will change many things in our community as well.

Love God. Go Love People.

Love God. Go Love People.

Many churches have taken Jesus' two great commandments to be their church's vision. We want to be a church that loves God with everything we have and a church that loves others as ourselves.

Too many churches today are known for the number of people who go to their church and for their church's distinctives, but we want to be known for our love. For years, the Littleton Church of Christ has been known as a place where anyone is welcome. No matter your history or the mess you find yourself in, Littleton is a place where you can find acceptance and help to get your life back on track. Often, that has looked like accepting divorced people before other Churches of Christ were ready to do so, but in the coming years it will mean finding our pews filled with couples that live together, people of different social backgrounds, and homosexual couples.

I know, I know...How could a faithful church find such people in their pews? Because Jesus found tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners as followers around his table. And like Jesus, we don't invite these people to continue their broken lives. We invite these people to join with us (fellow broken people) to find ourselves again in the Jesus story. We invite them with us on the journey because we can't think of a more hypocritical way of life than to define our brokenness as more socially appropriate and less serious than "those" kind of people.

But more than anything, we join other broken people on this journey because we know that God wants to bring healing in all of our lives. So...we'll love God and love people.

But there's another word in our vision statement that can't be missed. GO!!! The call of the church doesn't stop with loving God and loving people. We can do that in the safe confines of our church building. We also believe the Great Commission calls us to leave the doors of our building each week and find ourselves again on God's mission in the world.

This charge is intended to be a short statement to describe what we are called to do every time we leave our doors. In fact, every week at the benediction, I end our service with this phrase (Love God. Go Love People). It's a reminder that we are called to live our the Great Commandments and the Great Commission in all that we do. While this statement, if taken seriously, would change the future of our church in major ways, these are two of Jesus' most fundamental messages. We want to be identified by our love more than any other distinctive we might want to hold up.

Littleton's Vision

Well, it's been 12 months in the working, but the Littleton Church has committed itself to a new vision that the Holy Spirit has led us to. The whole idea of vision is difficult at times. I'm much less concerned that our church has a vision and I'm much more concerned that God's vision has our church. But I feel like the words we have put together will guide us as we seek to be a community of faith that reaches the community around us.

Our new charge is: Love God. Go Love People.
Our new vision is: A Christ-centered community committed to being formed for missional living in pursuit of God's kingdom.

These two statements are packed full of dreams and imagination for what God might want us to become. Over the past six weeks I have unpacked that vision during my sermons. It was a challenging set of lessons focused on calling our people to a more positive vision. Over the next few weeks, I'll unpack more of what this vision is all about on my blog.

I'm excited about what God is currently doing in our body. We are becoming a much less self-obsessed church as we seek to find ourselves again in God's story of mission and redemption.

For a long time the Littleton Church has been a regional church that has reached out to people throughout the city of Denver, but we are beginning to focus more and more on our surrounding neighborhood.

The question that has been on my mind most over the 16 months I've preached at Littleton is this: If the Littleton Church of Christ were to close our doors, would our neighborhood miss us or shed a tear over our absence? More than anything, I want the answer to that question to be YES!!!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have walked our surrounding neighborhood with three other guys from our church. We have been knocking our neighbors doors, but this is not traditional door-knocking. Instead of handing them a tract and inviting them to church, our first words to our neighbors have been: "We're members at the Littleton Church of Christ across the street and our church has been here for over thirty years. We've been terrible neighbors for not getting to know you, so we're knocking on your door so we can get to know you better and know if there's anything we can do for you or pray for you about."

The response has been pretty amazing so far. People are shocked in a very positive way. We're not selling them anything or expecting them to show up at church. We're just trying to be better neighbors and for some reason they're finding that to be revolutionary.

Churches have to begin to reach their neighborhoods again, but not in the traditional ways we have in the past. We need to imagine new ways that we can get rid of any negative perceptions that might exist when we encounter our neighborhood.

What are some ways your churches are reaching their communities?

Maddox: That's a Wrap

Well, I've got so much more to share with my little buddy and fortunately I've got many more years to share my advice. I hope these words will be a blessing to him years down the road. In summary, I love my son and can't wait to see him grow in his love for the Lord. I'll be excited to watch him grow into a radical follower of Jesus Christ. I can't wait to see him do so many new things.

Fatherhood is a great challenge and a great joy! Life has certainly changed. I love his smiles and sounds. There will be many challenges ahead, but they will all be worth it in the end.

Maddox, in closing, I want you to live into a story that is bigger than most people live into. Many people settle for small dreams like the "American Dream." Most of our dreams are selfish. We want to become something big.

But God is begging for you to take on his story. He wants you to find your story within the pages of Scripture and join the heroes of faith on their journey with God.

Just this week I was preaching on Hebrews 11 & 12. We often call this passage the "Hall of Faith." We focus on the idea that all of the people in Hebrews 11 had great faith. And at the end of chapter 11, the passage conludes with this statement,

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Wow! I've always read Hebrews 12:1-3, as a passage focusing on the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us and cheers us on our journey, but the end of chapter 11 says something entirely different. Somehow, we are actually the ones who are making their story perfect. Only together with us, can God's story be completed as he desires it. God has graciously written us into his unfolding narrative and we are there alongside Abraham, Moses, and all of the rest of the heroes in Hebrews 11.

Maddox, don't accept a plotline that is too small. God has given you to this world for greatness. He desires to write you into his incredible story. So, dream big, get to know Scripture well, jump into the Bible's story and live like there's no tomorrow (knowing that there is an eternal city that will one day wait on you.)

I love you son!