Wireless?

I love all the wireless technology that is out there. Portland is wireless, McMenamins is wireless, Starbucks is wireless (not free of course), our house is wireless, most hotels are wireless, and airports are wireless. I hear that God is the original pioneer in wireless cdommunication. It is great being able to get a connection anywhere without wires, cords, or cables.

Yet for all the wireless technology we have in the 21st Century, those Little People play sets have more wires than the rest of the country. Oh yeah, at first I liked it. “Hey,” I thought, “plastic coated wires—I can use these to tie up cables rather than those bread twist ties that break easily. These are eve better than rubber bands.” So I thought until last Christmas when every toy was “Little People.” Fortunately I was given a pair of wire cutters for Christmas, which I opened first, and was able to easily disassemble the wires that held each people, part, and object in the package. I remember mentioning this in my sermon last year and wondering why Fisher Price worried about people stealing each part of the product. Were they thinking someone would steal a “Little Person” out of each package?

Someone came up after the sermon and claimed that the product was made in Taiwan and they wanted to make sure that everything stayed in exactly the same position in the overseas shipment. Sounded good to me.

So here we are in Kansas City at the Plaza staying in a hotel. Lori’s dad has been in ICU for 5 days and Santa had to find us at a hotel in the Plaza. Here I was without my wire cutters. Even worse, now they put glue on the end of the wires, after they twist tie them 150 times, so that my fingers are raw from pulling the glue off. Don’t tell me they do this to keep the people in the same position in the package. It’s a toy; for crying out loud. Pablo and Uniqua stand in an imaginary boat, and all they do is go in for a snack when the ship sinks.

My solution—I think they do this to mess with us. Sure they are not charging a lot for the toy and I give them that. So how do they get even, they make parents rub their fingers raw while the kids are saying—“Is it ready yet?” Then we go to the next toy and work that one. Sadly, most of our kids play with them for 5 minutes and then spend the next hour playing with the wrapping paper or the cardboard box. I think I am ready for a nap by the end of the day, not them.

Next year—Fisher Price—please be like the rest of the world and go “wireless”!

Merry Christmas to all the frustrated parents out there. Be glad we have fingers, wires, and each other.

John the Baptist

A lot of Christians, according to the Advent calendar, talk about John the Baptist this week.

I remember the day John the Baptist showed up in Dewey Church of Christ when I was a teenager. We joked about it after he'd left, that we thought he'd gotten beheaded and where was the scar?

As I reflect on that weird experience of standing in the lobby talking to "John the Baptist," I wonder how many odd people remind us of Jesus. Even in his day John the Baptist was a quack in the eyes of many. He alienated the religious leaders, called them snakes. He stuck his nose in Herod's allies-and-additional-wife program, suggesting his allegiances and indulgences were far from God's desire. Still, soldiers, the crowds, and tax collectors asked him, "What should we do?" For each he had practical spiritual answers. Have two coats, give away one. Stop extorting money from civilians. Be satisfied with your pay and don't charge ursury and exorbitant fees.

John the Baptist dressed weird: camel skins. He ate weird: locus and honey. Although, I've eaten handfuls of locus in Uganda, honey is a beautiful food, and mohair is still popular today.

Yet for all his off-the-wall prophetic oddness, John the Baptist got it, and he knew Jesus was the one who should be washing him in the Jordan River. It was John who witnessed one of the most beautiful moments in the story and life of Jesus, when the Spirit came down on them and God the Father said, "I'm proud of you, my son." And when John got discouraged in prison and sent messengers to ask Jesus, was he really the one, Jesus sent loving assurance that what John had preached was indeed the truth, that Jesus was the One and that the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, the poor have good news preached to them, and then he added a blessing for him and all who would not reject God in this moment (Matthew 11:5-6).

So all this gets me thinking about that guy who came to church one day years ago. I don't remember what time of year it was, but maybe it was this week of that year. Maybe John the Baptist had come to visit, and maybe we just didn't have ears to hear.

I'm filling in the high school class in my church on Wednesday nights for a while. Last night I challenged the students to have ears to hear those who are a bit odd or uncool or wearing mohair, sucking on a bit-o-honey who might be announcing the arrival of Jesus in their lives, calling them to make their path straight. Some have closed their ears to their out-of-touch parents, others are seized by bitterness, others may be listening but have hearts that, like those snakes John shouted at by the river, need to be softened.

What do I need to repent of today? What's John the Baptist calling me to prepare for, to make straight, to right in my life? How would John the Baptist respond to your question, "What should we do?"

Perhaps it's to make it through this season without going into debt. Then keep track of your money you spend on Christmas. Next year you tithe that to a charity or just give $100 or $500 to people you know in need. And perhaps you need to spend 2007 getting to know someone in need. If you don't know someone you can help who is need, you are blind and avoiding the realities around you. You need to repent and open your eyes and ears. Christmas is a good season to start.

Wisdom, Jesus says (Matthew 11:19), is proved right by what it does.

Disciples of Christ elect chairman

Disciples of Christ Historical Society announced today that its Board of Trustees has elected Dr. Raymond Brown to serve as Chair of the Board for 2007-08. He becomes the first African-American to hold that position in the 65 year history of DCHS.

Dr. Brown studied at Jarvis Christian College and Drake University. Now retired, he and his wife Suzanne are members of Downey Avenue Christian Church (DOC) in Indianapolis.

Over a long and fruitful career, Dr. Brown served in numerous posts, but has always remained a pastor at heart. Among his many ministries were his leadership role at Church Extension (Senior Vice President) and an interim at the helm of Disciples Home Missions.

Already a member of the DCHS Board, as Chair, Dr. Brown will oversee new programming and initial stages of restoration to the historic T.W. Phillips Memorial, home of the Society in Nashville, Tennessee.

Disciples of Christ Historical Society is a general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and also serves Churches of Christ and Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. Glenn Thomas Carson is president.

Are Babies Sinners?

This news article hit close to home. When I went to church as a child it was one that believed infants should be baptized because they were born with "original sin" (the sin of Adam). I was sprinkled as an infant but questioned the teaching in college. I was baptized at 21 because I was convinced that sin was a choice I made--and believe me I did a lot of it. I remember studying with my old minister back in Marshall, MO. We studied Ezekiel 18:20 which suggests that children will not be punished for their parent's sin--but for their own. He said, "Wow, that's the first time I really looked at this verse that way. However I am too old to change but will pray about it."

While we were not Catholic I wonder if he is thinking what I'm thinking while reading this article.Isn't it great that we can change our views, no matter how old they or we are?What do you all think?

New Book Review Editor Search

The best part of my job as editor is working with writers and the thrill of seeing someone get published the first time and giving people opportunities to write authentically and coaxing new writers to dig deeper. Giving new editors the chance to work with writers is another joy of my work . . .

Today I'm announcing a search for a new book review editor for Wineskins.

If you are interested, please answer the following questions and send to my email: gtaylor@garnettchurch.org

1. Have you written or published reviews before?
2. If so, include one of your best here . . .
3. Do you have any editing/literature teaching experience?
4. What about your desire, reading and writing life, would lead Wineskins to give you a shot at this?
5. How do you handle deadlines and how would you feel about managing several writers and editing their work for publication?

Can you handle this compensation? Free books sent directly to you for the life of the job from all the best publishers related to types of books Wineskins reviews: Brazos/Baker, Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, Leafwood/ACU Press, Westminster, Bethany House, Jossey-Bass, Paraclete, Eerdmanns, Waterbrook, IVP, NavPress

I'd like to put someone in place before the end of the year, so please answer the questions and send to gtaylor@garnettchurch.org by November 1, 2006.

Who really cares what media is legal to use in church services?

Many churches have a maverick attitude about the resources they use in public worship. They grab photos from the internet, rent a movie from Blockbuster, and with little thought to the legalities, boom, Sunday showtime!

For years churches have needed wisdom and advice about how to properly use internet, video, sound, and music media. ZOE has done sessions over the years on this, and we have brought in various resource people.

Now here is a biggie: many churches--some with developed praise teams and paid leaders--use whatever songs they want, tape them, copy sheet music, do whatever they want, and never think very much about the paperwork that is required to present songs in a church when using copyrighted songs that are owed royalties through CCLI and other songwriting organizations.

How does your church rate? Let's start today with music.

Here is one resource I'd like for you to check out. Come back and comment on what you've learned, what your church practices, and let's learn together what we can about church copyrighting. Let's do the right thing, even if it's not the easy thing.

ZOE Conference and Lauren Winner

We start planning the ZOE "Look to the Hills" Leadership and Worship Conferences in the Spring and the first one is in Nashville the first weekend in October each year.

This year the theme is "Closer," not to be confused with the homonym name for a popular TV show. This is closer as in intimacy and drawing near to God. I'll let the cat out of the bag here a little bit because I'll be happy to have input as we put some finishing touches on the sub-themes.

In the last two years I've invited my friend and co-worker, Wade Hodges, who Mark Riddle calls one of the greatest thinkers in Tulsa. Yeah, that's about right, but once you get out of Tulsa, he's about par with guys like N.T. Wright and McLaren and they could probably outwit him on a given day, if not outpublish him, though not digitally, because like Riddle I've used my own superlatives for Wade, one of the best bloggers "we" have, the "we" meaning Christian progressives I guess, and Wade is currently my favorite preacher, and he's also in good company there, where some of my favorites and friends have been Mike Cope, Rubel Shelly, John York, John Barton, Mark Moore, Deron Smith, not to leave out prominent other friends and family of mine who I've worked with but these are guys out there preaching regularly or semi-regularly.

Back to subthemes for ZOE leadership part of the conference . . .

Wade had the idea for breaking the Closer theme into these four subthemes: we draw near to God through Heart, Head, Hands, Home. So we'll have "discerning communities" led by four people who I'll announce in a few days. Our keynote speaker who will deal with the main theme that leads to these breakout discerning communities (everyone will go to each of the four subtheme breakouts), is Lauren Winner. If you haven't read Lauren Winner's writing, you are missing one of the great, authentic and engaging writers of our day. Her first breakaway book was Girl Meets God and her most recent is Real Sex. I'll be featuring excerpts from her writing in Wineskins in the parallel universe Wineskins issue also called "Closer."

I primarily draw near to God through home: right now I experience God with, in, and through my wife and children and how we are drawing near to God and being shaped into Christ's image together. I have exchanged much of my "personal" time with God for family Scripture reading, storytelling, and prayer.

Where do you most often draw near to God? Through head (study, Bible), heart (emotion, prayer, spirit), home (shared experiences in family), or hands (service experiences)? What stories can you tell about that?

Who will stand with Ron Clark against sexual violence?

Ron Clark is living where Wineskins right now is calling us to live . . . he is a church planter and one who meets people in the messiness of life. For twelve years they have been ministering to those suffering quietly in houses of sexual violence and abuse.

I want to encourage you to read Ron's article on the Rape of Dinah (Genesis 34) that was published in the Swiss journal for feminist Biblical studies. He was recently asked to join the Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force.

Who will pray for Ron? Who will pray for the violence to end in their communities? And will we pray for the dark secrets to slowly edge out of the shadows or to be thrown out like a drunk through a window?

Beginning in September Wineskins looks unblinkingly at intimacy of God and his people, and we will not be silent where the Bible is not silent, where God is not silent. Ron says,

In my experience with ministry in abuse and sexual assault, I have noticed that people tend to blame abuse on alcohol, drug addiction, race, or economic status. Domestic violence affects all races, social groups, and sexes. My clergy trainings with Communities Against Domestic Violence (CADV); a non-profit organization committed to creating awareness in our communities, have focused on faith communities and leadership. Faith communities are viewed as being slow to respond to abuse and sexual assault. Faith communities do not teach and preach texts such as Genesis 34. Is this silence similar to Jacob’s?

I'd like to publish Ron's article in our Intimacy issue of Wineskins because we need to show more than the beautiful side of relationship with God and with one another. We need to expose and speak out against the injustices going on among us.

Read Ron Clark's article. The introduction is in German and some computers may not render the Hebrew terms correctly, but don't let those things distract you from a moving article and application to today's violence and injustices.

Beyond the Rituals:Letting God Reign in Our Lives

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you’ll not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”—Jesus

In a culture being lulled to sleep by mediocrity, passivity, acceptance, political correctness, moderation and tolerance Jesus would be considered an intolerant radical fanatic:

He ran the money changers out with a whip – "Intolerant, rage-aholic!"
In essence, He told the rich ruler, “My way or the highway.” – "Narrow. Extremist."
“I am THE way, THE truth, THE life..” – "Who does He think He is!? God?"
“You have sins and I’ll forgive them.” – "Holier-than-thou. Judgemental."
“If you don’t repent ,you’ll not be forgiven” – "Militant, hateful bigot!"
“If anyone wants to follow me he must deny himself” – "Radical right-wing conservative."
“You preachers are in it for yourselves.” (Matthew 11:45ff) – "Meddler!"
“Don’t worry about the bills, refuse to cook the books and trust God.” (Matthew 12) – "Naïve. Idealistic."
He said, “God gave one man 5 talents and another he only gave 1 talent.” – "Republican!"
He said, “God gave talents.” – "Democrat!"
He said, “God.” – "Christian!!"

If not literally, then essentially, Jesus would have been “nailed” today for his positions.

Watching over 6000 Christians come through our place during the past ten years, I’ve been saddened and actually become somewhat worried. I'm especially worried about the youth.

The majority lack the independent spirit of Jesus. They follow the crowd, stay in the pack, do what everyone else is doing, take their bottles of spiritual milk and go play church. They lack holy defiance. They lack vision. There is little or no personal motivation, much conformity.

They’ve settled for goodness when they should have sought fire. They have a fondness for Christ, not passion. Though spiritually well-fed they have no strength. They are surrounded with God-stuff yet self remains at the center. They are polite, but not pure. They are acceptable not radical. There is knowledge, but no resolve; an eagerness to serve the poor, but little sense of man’s lostness. I do not see Christ formed or forming in them; instead, I see the righteousness of the Pharisees. I wish I saw more of that intolerant, fanatical, raging Meddler who went against the tide, died for it, and shook the world awake.

Is Anybody Listening?

I was completely blown away when a Swiss journal for feminist Biblical studies asked me to submit my article on the Rape of Dinah (Genesis 34) this Spring. I was also struck when a representative of the Attourney General's Sexual Assault Task Force asked me Thursday to join the committee. God pushes, but I never knew it would be this hard.

Ever since my first sermon on domestic violence (in 1995) my wife and I have been on a roller-coaster ride. We have both been immersed in ministry to a dark world of pain, injustice, suffering, and fear. Yet God shines in the darkness and has brought healing to many women and children suffering alone. We see the power of God in the lives of many, only to be proded to tell others about the secret things of the dark world of abuse, sexual violence, and human trafficking. Then God sends us back not only to listen but to tell those in the darkness that their voices and screams are heard.

It makes me wonder, and you can wonder too, if God is the only one listening. How often have we been silent on this issue? How often have we heard a sermon or class on sexual violence? Even worse, since we have about 5 Biblical texts that address this, how often have we heard them taught? In Genesis 34 Dinah never says a word. Neither does her father Jacob (at least not until the end). Why doesn't she scream? Why doesn't he call for justice?

What do you think?

Jesus Among Us

In the Gospel of John he tells us that the word became flesh and dwelt/tabernacled among us. Instead of living in a tent, building, or reconstructed temple, God came to live in flesh. Jesus is God in the flesh. Have we ever really contemplated what that means.

This picture was done by one of our artists at Metro Church of Christ, in Portland, OR. It reminds me of what this incarnation really meant. Can we see the creator of the world holding children, talking to women, healing the sick and lame, and patiently listening to the poor (Luke 7)? Is it too much for us to imagine that God became vulnerable and open to abuse? Is it hard to imagine God taking the time to be with the "insignificant people" of the ancient world? The Talmud says it is a waste of time to teach or spend time with children. The disciples tried to keep children away from Jesus. But Jesus held children in his arms, even the ones with messy diapers and snotty noses. While this may have offended ancient people does it offend us?

It reminds me of Joan Osborne's song, "What if God was one of us".

How do you think God would do this today?

Praying With The Church: A Book Review

Scot McKnight of The Jesus Creed fame brings us another treat with Praying With The Church. In this highly accessible book, McKnight draws the reader into the world of prayers from the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions in such a way that makes entering into foreign ecclesial turf a comfortable experience. In a sense, he gives us permission to wander outside of our zone of prayer comfort without the seeming requirement of weirdness.

McKnight, a master teacher, provides early on a metaphor which makes understanding the differences between praying in the church and praying with the church. It is a metaphor that reappears in just about every chapter at just the right times. After using this metaphor to set the stage, he goes on to make a convincing case that Jesus prayed many of his prayers at regular times, mostly from the Psalms, the prayer book of his day, and that we should do the same.

The gift of this book is threefold:
1. Dismantles (gently) most objections to praying prayers other people have written. For people who have grown up praying spontaneously in public and private, there are usually reasons why they don’t pray their prayers from books or any pre-written prayers. Whether it is skepticism about the sincerity of praying someone else’s prayer or discomfort in reading a prayer or fear of being "too Catholic," McKnight enters into those objections gently, but fearlessly. Another objection people have to pre-written prayers is their concern that it is meaningless repetition. Not only does he make a great case for these prayers not being meaningless repetition, he makes a case that our spontaneous prayers become the very same thing. In this part of the book I felt like he had been spying on me. It is not the repeating that becomes meaningless, but rather what we invest into the pray that make it meaningless. Another fear people have is that they might feel they have to give up their current way of praying in order to pray with the church. Not so. McKnight anticipates all of these potential objections and loosens up the reader to consider trying a new way of praying.

2. Introduces prayer resources from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions – and Phyllis Tickle. By the time the reader gets through this book, he or she will know right where to go next in order to enter into praying with the church on a regular basis. Although McKnight does not go into deep detail about any of the prayerbooks from these traditions, he gives enough to get a feel for what direction one might want to take as a first step.

3. Provides clear and simple tips for getting started. The final chapter outlines nine needs we have in praying with the church. These nine needs free the reader to begin praying with the church without fear of failure or like they are giving up the good things they have going on already in their prayer world.

Finally, Praying With The Church honors Christianity in its various expressions without blurring lines between denominations. There is a very generous tone in the book toward all forms of Christian practice, privileging each of them for their meaningful contributions to the Christian discipline of prayer.

The Submerging Church?

I have enjoyed the book The Greying of the Flock by James Knapp. We used this in my class at George Fox Seminary and my students did presentations on it last week. The ones over 55 had some great insights about their futures, the future of aged Christians, and the futures of churches. I also had one of the staff say, "We have spent a lot of time targeting the 'Emerging church' (young people) but what about the 'Submerging church' (those older folks who have been in church for years)?

Knapp brings a great message for the church and church leaders. He points out that by 2010 Baby Boomers will be reaching retirement age. There will be a huge number of retired folks due to the Baby Boom in the early 1940s. Will the progressive generation of the 20th Century be willing to accept retirement? What will we do with this large body of Christians in our churches?Knapp suggests that in the past we have tried to minister to retired Christians and become caretakers. Yet, he writes, this has always been a powerful force for the kingdom that we have neglected in our ministries, outreach, and missions. Will we continue to neglect them or will we empower them to continue to lead and finish life as active servants of God?I guess this hits home for me.

First, I am at the end of the Baby Boom and will be "retirement age" in over 20 years. Second, I have been reading "The Emerging Church" and reading the research for planting churches. Third, I too have been asking "what about the 'submerging church'?" (those who may be neglected in future ministries). Fourth, I have seen senior saints hit retirement and instead of giving back to God with full time service (retirement is a blessing from God and one worthy of honor to God) they retire from church ministry. Finally, I have spent years blessed by senior saints who help in our abuse and ESL ministry, yet find that most churches try to minister to them rather than empower them to ministry.

I think Knapp's book should be read by all of us, not because we ought to feel guilty, but it helps us to be appreciative of how we need older brothers and sisters in the church to mentor, guide, and serve Jesus and us.

Ron Clark
Portland, OR

2006 New Wineskins Retreat

Male & Female: Made in God’s Image (Genesis 1:27)

The 2006 New Wineskins Retreat will be held on the campus of Pepperdine University on Friday & Saturday, July 14 & 15, 2006. This year’s theme is “Male & Female: Made in God’s Image (Genesis 1:27).”

Our 2006 featured speakers include Dr. Jeanene Reese (Abilene, Texas); Sylvia Rose (Detriot, Michigan); D’Esta Love (Malibu, California); and Irie Session (Dallas, Texas). Each of these women has experience serving in various roles in the church and as Christian leaders throughout the United States. They will lead us in thoughtful and intelligent discussion on our theme.

The $150 New Wineskins Retreat conference fee includes meals and two nights lodging on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Attendees can register and pay by mail. Send contact information and conference fee to Emancipation Fellowship Ministries, c/o Al Jumper, 8117 W. Manchester #221; Playa Del Rey, CA 90293.

The New Wineskins Retreat is not affiliated with New Wineskins magazine. It began as predominantly African American men in 2000. The retreat provides a non-threatening environment wherein church leaders in our fellowship can experience spiritual formation as well as intellectual stimulation.

“We believe the New Wineskins Retreat is a national event that serves as a good starting point for leaders within churches of Christ to experience at a spiritual and intuitive level a small community given to the practice of authentic racial and gender harmony,” says Dr. Jerry Taylor, coordinator of the New Wineskins Retreat and assistant professor of Bible, missions & ministry at Abilene Christian University.

The mission of the New Wineskins Retreat is to provide a spiritually healthy environment for growth, refreshment and healing, while promoting a resourceful national support network for ministers and leaders, and preserving an open atmosphere conducive for honest dialogue and strategic planning.

The 2005 retreat was held at the Richland Hills Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas. Over 75 church leaders attended to discuss the theme “Undoing Racism in churches of Christ and beyond.”

(repeated from posts at gal328.org and Christian Standard)

Guilt-Free Pleasures

I don't read nearly as many books as I used to read (though I am really looking forward to reading Darryl Tippens' Pilgrim Heart very soon). But I do read, pretty voraciously - through copies of old Wineskins.

So I won't be misunderstood, I'm talking about the magazine in its first incarnation before the good folks at The ZOE Group became its caretakers.

On and off for about three years, I've been keying in the articles from these archive editions so that they could be added to the New Wineskins Web site, and it has become one of my few guilt-free pleasures. The articles are like a trip on Mr. Peabody's Not-Too-Wayback Machine ... though many of the topics and thoughts are just as fresh as if they had been written for the current issue.

I've had to key in these articles because the VERY expensive OCR (optical character recognition) software I bought for my old Mac worked only a few times when I purchased it some years ago, then it refused to re-install, and then the software company's name disappeared from the web.

A few weeks ago, the renamed company made the mistake of sending me an e-mail to offer me the same software at a discounted price. After discovering that the discounted software was only the Windows version, I began the process of trying to file a service request online ... long story short: The serial number they sent me with the paid version years ago was apparently good only for the trial version, and it expired. The permanent one was never sent, but still available on a site called "www.findmyorder.com" - and if you've ever ordered software online through Digital River, yours is probably still there, too!

Today I was able to reactivate my OCR software, and breezed through more than half of one issue in one afternoon, rather than a couple of hours a night for a couple of weeks. Though I'm not laboriously keying in each word anymore, I still enjoy getting to (proof)read every article to correct the 0.1 or 0.2% error rate - and that's much faster.

So I'm hoping to accelerate the posting of archive issues for those of you who subscribe - I just added the July-August 1998 issue "A Life Beautiful" on Saturday. Look forward to the May-June 1998 issue very soon.

Feel free to indulge your own guilt-free pleasure!

Pepperdine Lectures

I'll have to leave tomorrow; leave the sunshine, cool breezes and coastal views of the Pepperdine University campus to go home and be a part of my daughter's 10th birthday celebration.

It's a fair trade.

I've never been to a lectureship before. I'm certain that I will try to again. But if it's not in God's will, hopefully it will be within it for me to remember these things for the rest of my life:

• Being there with three elder couples from my church - and one retired elder couple. Seeing many friends ... some of whom I met for the first time face-to-face (like fellow blogger John Dobbs and James Wiser); others for the first time ever.


• The companionship and encouragement of good folks like David Underwood and Keith Riley, the former of whom has long encouraged me to attend these lectures, and the latter of whom encourages me to collect some thoughts in a book. Maybe I will.


• Hearing the grandson of a dear family friend - Philippe Dauner - deliver an outstanding keynote address in the fieldhouse, with his grandmother Colette Daugherty proudly watching.


• Telling him that the mother he tried not to be like and look like was once a teenage girl I had a crush on, and the qualities he has indeed inherited from her endeared me to her then.


• Getting an excellent overview of the causes of the rift between independent Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ a century ago from both Rick Atchley and Victor Knowles (by whom I was privileged to sit on the plane from Dallas).


• Hearing Bob Russell speak about the fundamental concepts that the two church fellowships hold dear.


• Attending excellent workshops like Jeff Childers' on the different "quadrants" of spiritual perception among Christians (a kind of JoHari Window analysis) and Dwight Robarts' ponderings on preaching about politics ... all the great reasons why we shouldn't; and all the biblical reasons why we must.


• Being shocked out of my reason to receive an award from the good folks at New Wineskins at the ZOE Group devotional Wednesday morning. I was totally humbled. I will keep the gargantuan plaque as a reminder of God's grace, for it is certainly not a merited award ... especially in view of the lifelong achievements of others honored at the lectures. (I was led to believe they were flying me out here to work at the ZOE table and talk about New Wineskins since Greg couldn't come.) And I will forgive Mike Cope, Larry Bridgesmith, Eric Noah-Wilson, Greg Taylor and anyone else who recruited my wife Angi to join the conspiracy to keep this truth from me.


• A moment early this morning when a young doe paused in the parking lot to let me take her photograph ... and emerged from behind the Science Hall again at noon when I was by myself to snap a few closer ones.


• Fellowship. The theme of the lectureship, all drawn from the first epistle of John. It could not have been better chosen, nor better lived out by the hosts and participants.

I'd better go, or I won't be able to find a seat to discover what Mike Cope has to say about sex and baptism.

That ought to be memorable, too.

PostScript: Missed Mike's session; it was full by the time I got there. Victor Knowles' second session was an excellent replacement. Check out his POE Ministries site.

New Wine in Old Wineskins

This picture was taken on a 7 hour layover in Vienna, Austria on my way to Albania. It was on a Sunday afternoon while the cathedral was having worship. Notice the scaffolding. They are trying to revive, renovate this ancient church building. Notice, also, the people milling around the square oblivious to the renovation on the outside and the spiritual renovation on the inside. Can the church reach them?

Rick Warren, minister for the Saddleback Church in Orange County and author of the Purpose Driven Life, said this about the resignation of a national leader and the state of the church in America:

"You can't put new wine in old wineskins. When you try to do that, the skin bursts, and somebody gets blamed. The sad symptoms we see in so many Christian organizations, churches, and denominations today are caused by a number of theological, cultural, and structural problems that are deeper than just personality issues. The causes are both systemic and endemic, and should surprise no one who has been watching the past 25 years. We will either have another genuine Reformation, or the American church will eventually go the way of Europe. Nothing less will solve the problem, so I'm praying and working as hard as I can for the first option."

As a minister of 20 years, college instructor, and now a future church planter; I have wrestled with the following question. "Are our resources best used to plant new churches to reach new people or to revive declining congregations (many which resist change)?" While I understand that the answer to this is yes and yes I am still drawn to have conversation about what is working. While I understand that one life is worth saving, I wonder how many lives are lost (or could be won) because we are trying to convince that one person to do what they should already be doing? Is the Great Commission a suggestion or a command?

What Think Ye?

Morning Coffee: Cup of Wonder, Cup of Grace

Some cups hold coffee; others hold meaning.

Coffee cups come in all sizes, some are silly, some plain. There are cups received for service, in remembrance of events, in celebration of happenings.

My children have given me cups. I keep them on bookshelves, on my desk, and store in boxes with other treasures.

We use our metal cups from Kenya when we drink our hot African Chai. Someone gave us a dozen ceramic promotional mugs which help us serve large groups of guests. My most used cup is a plain white one with a crack in it. I like the crack. It is my favorite.

Cups hold coffee, tea, or even cold drinks, but for some of us they hold meaning.

My wife once bought a cup-decorating kit. The kids used it to make a personal cup for Grandpa. It became his instant favorite because is reminded him of them. A few years later, they gave him a different one with the phrase “We love you!” written along the inside lip so he’d see it every time he took a sip. A new favorite had arrived.

What’s incredibly important to one person may hold little value to another. I once had a cup that my children gave me. I loved it. It felt good in my hands and to my heart. A visitor to our home dropped it and it shattered. They apologized, but they didn’t share my sense of loss. That cup has special meaning for me; it didn’t for them. Some cups are that way—they have special significance.

This past Easter Sunday we celebrated a cup with special significance and meaning.

Jesus said, “Take this cup and drink it.” It was wine. It was a token – a symbol.

Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant.” It sounded….it still sounds…bazaar! What did He mean?

Later, that same evening, he talked about that cup again. His second conversation added to the understanding of the first. He prayed “May this cup pass from me.”. He was praying about his death that would occur that night….that hour!

Pain. Shame. Ridicule. Rejection. Suffering. They were in His cup. Bitter stuff to swallow.

“Let it pass—if possible, but, if not, then let it be.”

“This is my blood of the covenant” meant, “This is the extent of my commitment to the covenant. This is the level to which I’ll go for God’s will. Shame. Ridicule. Loss. Death…even a bloody one. If that’s what it takes, it’s what I’ll give.”

“And when ever you drink this cup” —your personal cup of suffering, loss, scary dose of walking on faith – “remember me.” Recall what I’ve done. Everything is not too much…when necessary.

Truly, some cups hold meaning.

Life on the Farm: Spiritual Insights from Rural Living

“Make straight the way for the Lord.” Jn 1:23b

Mowing on mountains is dangerous. Two autumns ago I borrowed a neighbor’s tractor—a big four-wheel drive orange Kuboto monster tractor...with a lift on the front! Men who ride such beasts develop muscles (mostly around the mid-section). What phone booths do for Superman, big powerful machines, like the one I borrowed, do for farming men. “Arrrggggh!”.

Well, first, I drove it across my pasture dragging a bush hog attachment-- a heavy mower deck with two steel blades--each about 3 feet long and ½ an inch thick—able to take out two inch sapling trees like your Murray mower snips off lawn grass! I was feeling pretty “Arrrggggh!”.

After a manicure of these relatively flat fields my confidence had risen above my intelligence and I determined to take on the hill behind my house. The hill is steep. Very steep. Too steep in fact for safety, but Superman was wearing fourwheel drive orange cape with plenty of horsepower and well, the old saying about men climbing mountains nudged out a win over safety and wisdom.

A friend--who owned his own orange cape--advised me to mow up the hill in reverse and then, without turning around, mow down in forward. I cautiously backed up nearly one hundred yards on a 45 degree - at some points more!- angle. I prayed the brakes would hold. They did. I shifted back into a low forward gear and slowly crept back to the foot of the mountain. Whew. I had to lean back hard into the seat or be tossed overboard. It was nerve racking, but I became more relaxed with each completed pass.

The mowing went well. The mountainside was looking very nice and the tractor wasn’t overheating or staggering under the steady push and pull. I stopped for lunch, taking time to admire my now neatly trimmed fields and half a mountainside. I was feeling pretty satisfied and very “Arrrggggh!”.

I should have remembered that pride goes before a great ‘fall’. I didn’t, or maybe I did but disregarded it. I don’t recall exactly. I do however recall the leap of my heart into my throat. On literally the very last run up the mountain, the hill had begun to slope away steeply to one side in addition to the up and down sloping. I didn’t allow for this when I turned the tires just a little to one side so as to reach a last small area. That’s when the right rear tire lifted off the ground!

I hung in midair as my heart smacked the roof of my head. I shifted my body weight to compensate, but immediately realized it had no effect. My mind raced through a dozen escape scenarios in less than a second while the 5 ton steel death trap decided my fate.

I swore-- I mean, I promised-- I’d never try it again. Proof that the tire returned to earth before the tractor rolled is that you're getting the story via blog rather than eulogy. Had the tractor tipped I'm sure I'd have been crushed.

Level ground is much easier work than hill sides or ditches (which also produce accounts of getting stuck, breaking equipment, and bucking riders off seats).

John the baptizer appreciated the difficulties of working unleveled ground. He came proclaiming that men should make way...level paths...for the arrival of Jesus. Hard, unrepentant hearts are hillsides and ditches that impede the easy arrival of Jesus. Not that Jesus can’t climb hillsides or jump gullies. He can. It’s just that progress is difficult and ill prepared hearts are constantly at risk of falling, loosing their grip, making a faith-crushing misstep, getting stuck or being tossed. Trying to live in Christ with a divided heart is dangerous, even foolish, business-- like mowing on mountains.

When faith seems an uphill climb, it may be that you’re not leveling with the Lord in some area of your life. Be honest with yourself, and with Him. Is there sin? Sin easily entangles progress in Christ. Put it aside. Make level the way for the Lord. Your faith walk will be more secure and you'll experience true “Arrrrggggh!”

Preachers Wife Syndrome?

I guess many of you have been following the news concerning the minister who was shot by his wife recently. Here at Metro there are folks who are suggesting that maybe the wife was abused or that we don't know all that went on behind closed doors. Others suggest depression, PPD, or something else. Maybe it is one of those rare cases of domestic violence where the woman has been controlling (and this killing may be an incidence of abuse). I know that we will find out more as the story unfolds. In any case it is a tragedy.

What caught my attention was the story in People magazine about the "role and pressure" of preachers' wives. Lori and I had a great discussion about that. She indicated that she had never felt the pressures described in the article. Interesting. Have we been lucky in our 18 years of ministry together (21 for me) or have we not fallen into the "trap"? Is it possible that ministry is complex enough that the couple need to draw lines of expectations? I hear at times that ministers and wives make the statement, "my wife is (I am) not a traditional preachers' wife" but what does this mean. Is it possible that the congregation is a black hole that sets the expectations of the wife so high that our response is to be different and proud of it? Or is it the couple's responsibility to serve, work hard, and clarify the role of ministry?

I once visited a widowed preachers' wife with my baby one afternoon. After a few minutes of talking she mentioned how important it was that I spent time with my family and it was nice that I took my son visiting. She then began to talk about how her husband (who was a powerful preacher in the church while alive) had put tGod and the church above her family and their children. As I listened I began to ask myself if "traditional roles" are actually the result of preachers who have neglected the most important people in their lives. Is it possible that the pressure on the "preachers' wife" is actually neglect from her husband? Is it possible that PKs and their struggles are actually actions of neglected children?

I love Lori and feel she is my best friend and partner. She works hard and loves the ministry that we do together. Yet, I have to sacrifice (I hate to use that term) and make sure I have the kids and she gets to fulfill her giftedness in ministry. I also know that she gets neglected from the congregation at times, but for me to neglect her is a greater sin. Its hard taking the kids visiting but it gives her a break and them time to see what we do. It frees her up to meet with women and counsel them. I think that 1 Cor. 9 tells us that Peter was accompanied with his wife and no greater joy can there be than when husbands and wives do ministry together.

Are there pressures or neglect? Thanks Lori--I couldn't imagine doing this without you. You help me to see things and understand people's feelings that bring glory and honor to Jesus.

I love you!

Let's Go:Thoughts on Missional Living from the Center

Let’s go!
Let’s go to the store.
Let’s go to the mall.
Let’s go eat, watch TV, hang out.
Let’s go for a drive, see a movie or some friends.
Let’s go to work.
Let’s go to school.
Let’s go home.
Let’s go to sleep….let’s go, let’s go, let’s go…..
Go.Go.Go. Constantly, “On the Go.”
….and
….and making
….and making nothing.
Living in motion, in a circle, insignificantly.
Going nowhere. Making nothing.
…Going
….Going
….and gone, without significance.

Still, there is more "going"?

Let’s go to church.
Let’s go to devo.
Let’s go to youth camp.
Let's go join that class.
Let's go read that book.
Let’s go hear that Speaker.
Let’s go listen to that Band.
Let’s go to help over there.
Let’s go to see that work.
Let’s go to experience that blessing.
Let’s go serve those people.
Let’s go!
Let’s go!
Let’s hurry and go……
Going….
Going….
Doing…
Doing…
Going and Doing….

Will no one ask, "Why? Why go?"..............
or, "How shall we go?"...
or, "With what shall we do?"

Oh no! Go! Just Go.
and Do. Just Do!
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Just Hurry!

STOOOOOOOP!!!!”

"Stop it!"

Stop.
Listen.
Stop your "going".
Stop your meaningless motion.
Stop your empty prayers.
Stop your revolving door of events.
Stop the endless moving about.
Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!!!!!!
Just Stop.……please…..
Please, stop.

Think

Slow down…and consider.

Why are you going? Why?
How shall you go?
Consider, "With what shall you do?"

Stop going; start considering.
Stop doing; begin being.

Be with Him.
Be still.
Be quiet.
Be deep.
Be filled.
Be absorbed.
Be nothing.
Be different.
Be alone with God.
Be God's alone.
Just Be.
Be. Be. Be!!
and then….
and then with God...
and then with God and with great humility.....Go.

then...by all means...Go!!! Go!Go!Go! Run!! Charge!!!

Go with purpose!
Go with preparation!
Go with plans!
Go with passion!
Go with Power!

“Oh, Yes! Go!!”, pleads Jesus.

Go, love without condition.
Go, give without reservation.
Go, serve without prejudice.
Go, save my lambs.
Go, feed my sheep.
Go, tend my flocks.
Go, find my coins.
Go, rescue my children.
Go, change the world.
Go, shape the future.
Go, topple kingdoms.
Go usher in Righteousness.
Go…Go…Go!!!!

"Oh, Yes! Yes! Yes!!! A thousand times….YES! Go make disciples…
…and
…and I….
I, personally,….
will be with you."

Now let's go to the store,
to the mall,
to the church,
to them all.

A Tale of Two Little Brown Churches in the Dell

Actually, there was only one ... to begin with. And it was white; white frame, though some of the paint had faded and chipped off to reveal the brown wood beneath.

I went to church there my freshman year in college with some friends who were older and had cars - since this church was more than twenty miles away in a tiny town across the river.

The name isn't important.

What happened there is, and is the sad story I'm telling. This little church was so small - maybe 30 souls on a Sunday morning - that our visits made quite an impact on attendance. Most of those members were older ladies, a few teen girls, a minister, and the two elders.

The two of them are at the heart of the story, you see.

One of them said something about the other in a barber shop in a town so small that you can't even mutter to yourself without everyone knowing what's on your heart.

I don't know what it was that he said. I didn't live there, you see.

And it's not important to the story.

So the elder who was spoken of by the other pulled up roots and moved about half of the souls in that church with him, over to the abandoned, faded white concrete block building that the Baptists used to use. And in a town too small to have a second stop sign, there were two churches with the same name on their signs.

In the years since then I've told myself that, at 19, I was too young to interfere. Too young to know what to do. But, truth is, I knew what to say. I had read Matthew 18. I had read the letters to Timothy. I could have gently entreated those two church fathers to go to each other and iron out the wrinkles in their relationship; to demonstrate the power of penitence and forgiveness; to show their small community how important is the unity that Christ died to establish among His brothers and sisters.

But I didn't. And neither did anyone else.

It's an intimidating prospect. It's not something you would feel confident about doing. It's not something in which very many people have experience and expertise.

There are a few.

I can recommend a couple of excellent resources for churches - large or small - which need help dealing with conflicts - whether those are large or small. For the ones with problems that might be solved internally, there are outstanding materials available through Peacemaker Ministries. For churches who need help from an outside party (interested, rather than disinterested, in the unity of the saints), I recommend the Center for Conflict Resolution at Abilene Christian University. (My wife Angi had a hand in helping establish it, and some genuinely gifted people like its director Joey Cope and Jerry Strader and Charles Siburt and many others put their very hearts into its mission.)

I've never gone back to that little town in Arkansas with the two little brown churches ... maybe because I still feel a bit guilty about my silence.

I'd like to hope that in the 30+ years since, the rift has healed; that there is still one and only one church there; and that on one or the other of those two miniature buildings a fresh coat of glistening white is applied from time to time.

Beyond the Rituals:Letting God Reign in Your Life

Laughing at God

There is a temptation is to laugh at God’s requests, “Surely, God, you don’t mean it!”


"Osaiywa!" (Pray for me). Yelled a babbling crazy man.

Two hundred Africans packed into a mud and wattle building intended for a quarter that number; every chair, bench, and spot on the dirt floor occupied. The crazy man sat near the rear of our packed crowd. His eyes, smoky windows into a hollow room, his mind, clouded by years, yet he persisted, "Osaiywa!".

"Pray for me!" An appropriate request in such an assembly, but the timing was off. We were in the midst of the sermon. Prayer requests were for later. We ignored his first interruption, stared in annoyance at his second, and finally, on his third tirade we hushed him with the promise of our prayers, later, at the appropriate time. This satisfied him, and he sat silently through the next two hours of preaching.

Then, when we were ready, prayer requests were taken. We noted each, then sang another song, prayed a general prayer, listened to a guest youth chorus, and asked for announcements. Instructions were given to visitors regarding a special lunch for them, and someone was selected to lead the closing prayer. That’s when some thinking soul interrupted and sheepishly mentioned the crazy man -- we had almost forgotten his request.

He rose with effort and crept forward with the groping gait of one moving through a dense fog. Carefully, slowly, haltingly, he navigated through an obstacle course of legs and small children who littered the path between his seat and the front. The eyes of the crowd were on him; not compassionate eyes, but sarcastic, rolling eyes that saw absurdity and humor in the old man's manner.

When he reached the front, three of our elders circled around the hunched Patriarch and placing their hands on his trembling shoulders, bowed their heads to petition in his behalf before God. Being good men, they earnestly sought Divine intervention for the old fellow.

I noticed several teenage girls exchanging glances from beneath bowed heads (Yes. I have an amazing ability to close both eyes, bow my head and still see what’s happening in the room.). They labored to hide their amusement, but the continued trade of glances and smiles brought them to the verge of uncontrolled giggles. They obviously felt that the number of "crazies" was now up to four.

Perhaps their assessment of the situation had to do with youth -- when everything serious is silly. Perhaps, it was a bit humorous -- that old man, in the throws of senility, shuffling up before our crowd. Before the prayer concluded they recomposed themselves, donned the costume of religious solemnity, and closed their eyes just ahead of the "Amen".

Laughing at God’s isn’t something new--

-- A frantic father’s daughter is dying. Before reaching home news arrives that she is dead. Catching the words before they crush him, Jesus assures, "The little girl is not dead but asleep." The Scriptures say, "But they laughed at him."

-- "Jesus! Jesus! Heal me!" Pleading words of a beggar man rose from the streets of Jericho. "It's old blind Bartimaeus," Someone snickered, "Someone shut him up!".

-- An ailing woman, weakened from blood loss and penniless from years of paying doctors, convinces herself that if only she can touch Jesus' shirt she can be healed-- though the experts tell her she is being ridiculous and should accept her situation. She tracks him down anyway. Ever so reverently, she tugs on His sleeve. Her touch stops the Healer in his tracks. "Who touched me?" Snickers sputter and embarrassed smirks crisscross the faces of the pushing, jarring crowd, betraying their thoughts; "Is he nuts? Everyone is touching him! Ha. Ha."

-- "Roll away the stone!" Jesus commands. In the rear, smiles flare. The hired mourners catch themselves sharing the crowd's amusement, but quickly recompose and regain their professional sorrow. Even Mary questions his sanity, "Why, Lord, it's been four days. I mean by now he's..."

-- "But Lord, we've fished here all night!" Peter looks back over his shoulder and under his breath cracks a joke to his angling buddies about folks who think they know all about fishing. "All right Lord, we'll try it one more time, just for you. OK fellas, let's humor the Teacher. Pitch your end on the count of three."

-- A room bursts into panic. Those seated fall backward in startled retreat. Those standing duck low. The roof collapses; and when the dust settles, a paraplegic and his blushing friends stare straight into the face of an amused crowd and an angry homeowner. "What idiots!"

Like getting the giggles at church -- inappropriate, but uncontrollable -- the roll of awkward moments continues, when Jesus, on the brink of Divine demonstration, is heckled by snickering sinners and doubting devotees. Listen to their words:

 "But how far will so little go among so many?"
 "Never Lord! This shall never happen to you."
 "When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind!'"

But the old adage applies that, "He who laughs last, laughs longest." Can't you imagine Bartimaeus giggling like a kid as he leapt and ran for the first time in
his life? Or can you see the little girl's flushed lips breaking into a wide grin when she opened her eyes and looked up into her Mother's face? Can't you envision a tidal wave of wrinkles rippling across the healed woman's face every time she cornered one of her former physicians and reminded him, "See, I told you so!"? Mary must have fairly soared with delight as she peeled away the linen strips from Lazarus' face, revealing that familiar lopsided grin of his. How many times do you guess Peter entertained audiences over the years with the retelling of his whale-of-a-tale fishing story? Or, in all history's laboring, can you imagine any job that may have been done with more exuberance than the re-roofing of that house by the former paraplegic?

The crowds were amazed, and we have to wonder what other rib-tickling marvels Jesus was poised to perform, but couldn't, because folks were too preoccupied giggling.

Would you laugh if someone suggested there are things, wonderful things, miraculous things, new things, world changing things God may desire to do in our own time? For the times I have laughed let me request, "Osaiywa".

"Faith is confidence -- founded upon the unfailing almighty character of God -- that the possibilities are limitless" --O. Michel

"Believe me when I say that anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these...." Jn 14:12

Morning Coffee:Gourmet thoughts for your day.

SUNRISE

It's early. Coffee is brewing. Our mountain's hem is glowing in faint silver. The sun will rise soon.

When’s the last time you watched the sun rise? Yesterday? Been awhile? Watching this one with me?

Maybe I should clarify, because I may be asking a different question than you think. I’m not asking when you last saw a risen sun—which is also a beautiful thing. I’m asking, “When was the last time you watched the sun’s rising?"

To witness that fiery ball rupture the horizon and gradually climb into full view you have to stop and focus. Although the earth is spinning at terrific speed, the sun’s rising is almost imperceptible. In fact, without careful observance, little appears to be happening. One second the first bright edge bursts from below the horizon, the next it’s fully launched into the sky’s blue. Silently, steadily, quickly the whole thing transpires with our without our notice.

Other life events can slip by without our notice. Aging, for example. One day we want to be sixteen, then, in no time, we wonder how we got to sixty!

Our children’s growing up is like our own—here and then gone. They break in like bright rays on a steady horizon. Newborns spark a twinkle in a Dad’s eye and spread a warm glow across Mom’s face. Then, before we know it, they’ve launched out on their own...into the blue.

We miss the sun’s rising because we’re too tired, too busy, and too preoccupied. We miss our children’s growing up for the same reasons.

While it’s unfortunate to miss a morning sunrise, it’s a tragedy to miss our children’s childhood. The sun will rise again tomorrow, but their childhood is once.

Today, notice your children. Hold them. Talk to them. Read them a story, or even better, tell them one. Instead of watching T.V., throw the ball. Turn off the phone and tune into their day. Tell them how wonderful they are.

Stop! Look into their eyes. Read their posture. Search their hearts. Sit at their bedside and watch them sleep, listen to them breathe, pray over them. Cherish them.

Many of life’s most beautiful and most precious things pass silently by us unless we resolve not to miss them. No matter their age or distance pause today and enjoy your children. Go ahead. Do what’s brewing in your heart. It’s still early.

It's Preacher Feature Time!

Some weeks back I begged my preaching minister, Chuck Monan, to submit a fine message he had delivered on the subject of unity as an article for New Wineskins - and the guy consented! On top of that, managing editor Greg Taylor accepted it, and it went live Monday. You can read it (or listen to it) and see if my risk of sycophanting up to the boss was worth the ribbing I'll get in the church office.

(Though, as I told Chuck when I accepted the communications job there last fall, he's not technically the Boss. That'd be Springsteen.)

Evidently spurred on by my dauntless courage in the face of merciless taunting, Greg Taylor lost no time asking his preaching minister Wade Hodges to contribute an article on the subject of unity and the table, which should appear in a couple of weeks.

And if Greg gets any teasing as a result, I think you'll find the article will be well worth it to him.

Bono preaches at National Prayer Breakfast

President George W. Bush asked Bono to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast today. See and hear it here.

Life on the Farm:Spiritual Insights from Rural Living

Goatee: Untangling and Untying from Sin

I was apprehensive when my ‘friend’ offered us a goat, but Benjamin’s face grew a grin. Ten year old boys don’t understand what’s involved in caring for goats, and Dad’s can’t forget when they were ten. We took the goat.

He was medium size, a long beard, long brown and black hair, and a pair of well developed horns, but his temperament was calm and he ate everything. This eating thing was my personal ambition for our new “pet”. We have lots hillsides growing briers, vines, poison ivy and such that are too steep for a tractor or mower and too large for a weed eater, unless it is a four legged weed eater.

Josh named him, Goatee.

We don’t have goat-proof fencing and Goatee doesn’t realize that I only want him to eat in certain areas. So, Goatee wears a long leash. Each morning we locate him on those steep banks or in other areas where he’ll enjoy eating all day tethered to a tree, an old tire, a post or some item that he can’t drag away. He gulps the most amazing stuff: thorny briers, vines, leaves, berries, bark, pine needles, almost everything. He’s a real eating machine, which I like very much. And so, this is an almost perfect arrangement. Almost.

The problem is Goatee’s leash. It gets tangled. He goes round and round trees, brier, vines, gets hooked under rocks or stumps. When he’s stuck he starts bleating. When Benjamin sees Goatee is tangled he has to untangle him and re-tether him again. Without that leash on his neck he’d roam those steep banks freely. That would be perfect.

Yesterday, a lady called me in distress. Her electric bill was overdue and the electric company was threatening to cut off service. She’d called before on several occasions, always with a catastrophe. So, I listened to her story. Her daughter is in jail for drug use, she and her current husband are separated, but he is living with her because his black lung check was stopped due to “someone else’s mistake”, She doesn’t get along with her ex-husband either. She is on disability for her back. All her family is estranged from her and ….. You see the situation.

I know this lady. Her real problem is that she is tethered to Sin. Sin keeps her life in a tangle of troubles. So, I clearly told her, “You know. I’ll help on your electric bill. I don’t mind that, but (her name) you need God in your life, or things like this are going to continue to plague your life.”

She replied, “Oh. I’ve been saved. I go to Church-- when I go-- to the XYZ Church.”

I interrupted her, “I not saying you need to go to church. I’m saying you need God in your life.” She didn’t understand.

What she thinks she needs is someone-- like Goatee needs Benjamin -- to come along ever so often and straighten things out. It is flawed thinking. She doesn’t need someone to untangle her messes; she needs someone to remove her leash.

All of us need is our yoke removed. We need freedom from our addictions; freedom from guilt; freedom from the power of sin in our life; freedom from that which ‘so easily entangles’. (Hebrews 12:1f) People need to be set free.

Yes, we serve those around us. We feed, we clothe, we comfort, we pay their bills, we listen to their stories, we hold their hand, we do all of this and more. What ‘more’? We go beyond their felt needs and address their ultimate one: we boldly, lovingly, courageously tell people, “You have a leash. You need to take it off.”

Satan leashes and tethers people. Helping our neighbor’s hurts, without addressing the tether is dishonest, short sighted and cheap. Christians who only love the body are either ignorant or cowardly. Certainly, we feed mouths, like our Lord did, but we also, like our Lord, seek and save the lost. We untangle their messes, but we also take them to Jesus who said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has …has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…to release the oppressed...” Luke 4:18-19

The Body of Christ has done a fair job of untangling messes, but too often, we’ve left the people tethered. Let’s resolve afresh to set the captives free, knowing that whatever we loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.

Unity (part 5)

Is diversity a necessary part of the kingdom come on earth? Is the longing I have to worship and be in community and serve with people different from me as well as similar to me part of the divine nature within me?

I want to live in a community of faith in Christ that includes both pacifists and military heroes. I enjoy seeing a cowboy elder hugging a hip-hop baggy pants wearing teenager. Give me the young reaching up to take a stick of gum from an older lady of the church over the rigorously segregated by age "assemblies" many churches have.

Diversity comes not only in a racial sense. Diversity in our churches may mean age, social, economic, denominational, vocational, beliefs, pratices.

No discussion of unity touches reality without dealing with how ready we are to have diversity.

We cannot quote one of the best Restoration pleas quite enough: in matters of faith we have unity, in matters of opinion we have diversity, and in all things charity. What we ought to be vigilant about, however, is to not allow this plea to go undiscussed, as if it's self-evident and a mantra that settles all disputes. It doesn't.

We still must understand what constitutes a faith matter, an opinion matter. For that we do well to understand what was important to Jesus, what was a faith matter to God throughout the witness of Scripture. When the Lord addresses Israel directly or through prophets, here is an example of what He says through the prophet Micah (6:8):

He has showed you, O man, 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.

And when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, he sets the course of history on its ear when he 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" (Matthew 22:37-40).

In order to know what is opinion and what is a matter of faith, we must understand what the heart of God says, what Jesus said when he was on earth, and determine from those words, from those actions, what is truly a matter of faith. We tend to gravitate toward this being a list of what we believe, and certainly we have every reason to have as matters of faith a set of beliefs about God, the creator who sent Jesus who was not created into the world, who lived a while among us, taught, loved and healed and was betrayed and given by his own people to be crucified yet he rose on the third day and lives now through us and in us by his Holy Spirit and we wait expectantly for the day of his appearing again.

Yet even to believe all the right things is not the heart of what Jesus seems to be saying to us when he says all the Law and the Prophets hang on the practice of loving God with every stem-cell of our being, and to love our neighbors as if we were loving ourselves. The way we treat our neighbors is a matter of faith. It's time we start taking what Jesus said the Law and the Prophets hang on literally. When will we truly start acting like we say we believe?

This applies to every area of endeavor, be it within churches as we discuss our own practices, in our outreach, in our families, in our neighborhoods, friendships, and extended family relationships, and yes even how we treat the stranger.

Christ still longs for us to be one, to be gathered and unified under his wings. Christ says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

The Hope of Glory

Well, I might as well get into it. I got started thinking about it in my last post at my blog. I wondered how seriously we take the idea that God is in us.

Because it's obvious to me that His Spirit is intimately involved in preservation of unity.

When Paul wrote to Colossae, Christ was in the saints - though it was a mystery.

His Spirit was in the prophets before He was born among men, when they sought the details of that incarnation to serve those who would follow them.

His Spirit was in David, who begged that the Spirit not be taken away from him when he sinned against God.

It was His prayer to be in us.

If His Spirit isn't in us, we aren't His.

His Spirit is how He seals us as His own, and guarantees what He has promised later.

His Spirit is how He strengthens us from within.

His Spirit is how God pours out His love into our hearts.

Our bodies are His temple.

So it's a question more important than whether the Spirit works apart from the Word or how He works or whether He still works today. Because if He dwells in followers of the Word throughout Christians' lives, it's inconceivable that He could be a freeloading parasite, sponging off of the prophets of His book. It's a question more important than how can we know He is in us, because He said He would be and when God says He'll do something, it's as good as done. It's more important than any question raised by the advertisers of GatorAde because it has to do with the water of life, the Spirit of God, the hope of glory:

Is He in you?

Beyond the Rituals:Letting God Reign in Our Lives

...true stories intended to touch your heart and change your life...

The Testing of Our Faith

…for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in prise, glory and honor… 1 Peter 1:6-7


Jackson Arap Rono, our first convert among the Kalenjin, has tasted the cup of testing many times. One of the most memorable came on a Sunday morning in 1987.

African praise rose from the ruins of what was once the home of an English Lord named Wellwood. The mansion must have been impressive in its prime, but time and weather had taken their toll and the large ballroom with its parquet floors laid in herring bone style were weathered and drab. On the lawn, beneath towering eucalyptus trees, orchids clustered too tightly and roses, gone wild, choked the front entrance with branches.

As worship neared its conclusion, this tranquil country scene erupted. The local chief and four police officers in a Land Rover roared their way onto the lawn. They demanded to see Jackson. He went out to meet them. They delivered a clear message, "Stop these services immediately, or else you and all your followers will be put in jail. This Church has been declared illegal!" That's it. No explanation. No options. Just the bitter cup.

Jackson stepped back inside and quelled everyone's curiosity by passing on the message. They quickly dismissed with a prayer and everyone hurried home. Jackson went home too, puzzled, dumbfounded, debating over what he should do. Obeying the police meant forsaking God's will. Obeying God meant imprisonment. At that moment Jackson had two difficult options, or, from another perspective, one whale of an opportunity.

For times of such trials and testings God has given us cheerleaders. Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Mary and Joseph, and others surround us and shout, "Do not be afraid! Believe!" They encourage and assure that just beyond our sight, God is waiting in hopes that we will clear the way for Him to act, overtly, in our life. Obedience, faith, risking it for the sake of what is right in God's eyes, puts nails in the coffin of a sermonized God and rolls the stone from the tomb of ritualized religion.

Perseverance in trial. Trust in Truth. Obedience at any/all cost. These are multiples more than mere acquiescence to religious dogma and constitute what it means to live by faith. Only, those who swallow hard and proceed as God prescribes experience Him in this bold, tangible and living way.

Jackson, being a man of faith, didn't debate long. By the time the sun had slipped beyond the African horizon, he had visited every member of the congregation and informed them that he planned to meet next Sunday to worship God, and that he hoped they would join him. Taking the cup of testing into his hands, he drank deeply.

Wellwood -- a serene picture. Breezy and cool. Romantic. Comfortable. Proud. Stable. Established. Historic. To this list a new descriptive was to be added the following gloriously beautiful Sunday morning -- Holy.

The day began apprehensively, shrouded in mist, hidden beyond the clouds. The members arrived in like manner -- quietly, singly, circling cautiously before entry. Then, gaining confidence, they increased until finally a record attendance filled the building! Jackson was there. His family was there. All the members were there. Villagers' children were there. Even one of the well-known drunkards was there. But the chief never came. The police never arrived. It was Sunday, but no one went to jail, because God was there -- Holy.

It seems that God doesn’t prefer to provide easy ways out. Instead, He delights in allowing withered women to bear babies, tumble weeds to sprout rams, desert wildernesses to house angels, and old mansions to produce faith -- Holy.

PS. The Church at Wellwood continues to worship every Sunday and now has its own building. The Chief still hasn't visited.

Editing Wineskins

One of the great joys of editing Wineskins is getting to research foundational work on a particular theme and also read contemporary "takes" on that theme by sometimes up to 50-60 different author submissions. From those submissions, with the help of our editing staff, I peel off layers of the theme and communicate with writers, informing them whether we can use or cannot use their article.

From there, we vigorously edit the articles. In the current stack I've asked for a completely different lead on one article. A review was completely reworked by the author and me. Yet another article was left alone--it was good, written by an English teacher. Even so, she and most writers are willing to allow shaping to their article. And we shape . . .

Many articles are turned upside down and inside out. I want to give you an example of what I enjoy most in working with writers. In many articles submitted, I can see a glimmer of a story that is trying to come out. One of the most common "mistakes" I see in submissions is that the real story doesn't get told. It's not that what is submitted is not a good sermon or good spiritual or biblical point, but submissions often miss the mark on how telling a personal story.

So here's what I'll often do. I ask a writer to tell me more about a particular sub-theme in the piece. That's when I see that glimmer of hope of a deeper story. In several cases, this has totally changed the piece, driven a writer deeper, to the heart of the matter, changed it into more of a story form, more biographical. It matches more of what Wineskins has come to be for readers: a forum for telling our stories of life on the journey with Christ. Stories that are messy and uncertain yet they are authentic, full of hope and restoration and revival and redemption and irony and vitality and when we least expect it God's mercy and grace and forgiveness and love and joy breaks out in the deep middle of our pain, heartache, suffering, anxiety, and grief.

That's why we have whole issues on themes such as "Desperate" and "A Great Grief." And this is at the heart of what drives us to the issue on Unity that we're working on now that pushes the edges, calls us to tell our stories with authenticity and honesty. After all, that's what makes a good sermon, book, article, movie: honest telling of what life is yet also what it ought to be.

Unity (part 4)

This morning Sacred Space introduces the start of the Octave, the prayer for unity. This is from the site, a powerful call to pray for unity of all humanity.

This week sees the start of the Octave of prayer for church unity. It has taken us centuries of misunderstandings to reach the point where Christian churches can dare to do that most obvious thing: pray together.

Images like those of John Paul II praying in Canterbury with its Archbishop, or gathering the faith-leaders of the world in Assisi, have taught us so much. When we come close to those of other traditions, and know something of their riches, we can be grateful for the extraordinary fullness of Catholic tradition, and at the same time marvel at the uprightness of Presbyterians, the Friends' passion for peace, the openness of Hindus, the devotion of Moslems.

This is the week when we ask our God to warm our hearts to take in all his children. If the chance arises, it is the week when we should pray with strangers, remembering St Peter's words (Acts 10:34): "The truth I have come to realise is that God does not have favourites, but that anyone of any nationality who does what is right and fears God is acceptable to him."

Jesus is truly for all. This is not a plea for univeralism. This is a plea and prayer for all people to arise and be drawn to the saving grace of the God who loves people of all nations. Do we dare pray this prayer for unity?

The Face of Unity (Pt 3 on Unity)

What if unity requires face to face contact?

Unity of any branch of humanity--religious, political, familial, otherwise--cannot be fully realized on earth. Fully knowing and being fully known, having no cross purposes with God, and being one with creation is a promise of the end times. Then we will fully know unity.

We can, however, taste unity in that tart green apple form on earth but not without meeting face to face. The dream of WIRED magazine seems to be that economic equity, political unity and equality can come from the internet and technology as the great equalizer. Meanwhile, one billion people today simply want clean water to drink--the technology they want is industrial, as in a drill for water wells.

The way some of us have perceived unity is very narrow, only in terms of church or in religious terms. This waters down and eventually wrecks the whole notion of unity for us, causing us to live a less than missional understanding of what it means to be unified with our creator, with Father, Son, Spirit, with humanity, with creation, with people unlike us. Therefore, we cannot and must not settle for some lofty and unattainable or untouchable, on the one hand, or cheesy and fluffy, on the other hand, version of unity.

Unity is multi-faceted, multi-faced, and we must come face to face with one another to achieve it in the now.

A story in Genesis about a face to face meeting illustrates the intensity of this kind of contact.

Jacob had been away from his brother Esau and his homeland for twenty years when God told him to return (Genesis 31:3). Jacob was terrified to meet his brother face to face. But he didn't have email, and even if he did, that wouldn't have (and still usually isn't) sufficient, adequate, preferred, or even appropriate for the kind of communication that needed to happen.

Jacob was rightly terrified, because he had bilked Esau out of his birthright and his blessing. Jacob acknowledged God had been with him in all his travels, even away from his homeland (with a world view of parochial gods, this was extraordinary). Still, Jacob hedged his bets and put his people in rows, beginning with the slaves, maids, their children, then Rachel and Joseph last.

Even ahead of those companies of his family he sent several messenger companies with gifts to give Esau, and he instructed them to say, "By the way, Jacob is behind us."

Meanwhile, Jacob wrestles with a man in the night--who seems very adversarial yet Jacob says he had met God face to face there. He even calls the place Peniel, meaning "the face of God."

Genesis 33 starts abruptly after that night wrestling and Jacob sees Esau coming with four hundred men. That's when he divided up his family into companies, a hedge against the possibility that Esau was coming to do them harm. Jacob went ahead. Can you see him limping from the man's strange form of blessing the night before--wrenching your hip.

So Jacob is leading the companies, bowing, taking a few steps, bowing again--seven times--dust no doubt on his face. Here we get an image that Jesus brings back in the Prodigal Son story: Esau runs to his brother, falls on him in Jacob's prostrate position, and kisses him.

And then Jacob and Esau wept together.

After some discussion about the gifts, why Jacob had sent them, whether Esau would accept them, Jacob had enough, Esau didn't need them, take them anyway, then Jacob drops the ultimate declaration that causes Esau to accept the gifts.

"No, please! said Jacob. "If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that youhave received me favorably . . . please accept, for God has been gracious to me, and I have all I need."

And because Jacob insisted with this plea, Esau accepted.

Still, they didn't live together. Jacob went near Shechem. Esau lived in Seir.

In preparation for see his brother, Jacob wrestled with God. We was afraid, but before he met his brother face to face, he met God face to face.

The divine reversal in this story is amazing. Esau reflects the image of God to Jacob.

Whose face do we show to our brothers and sisters? To those who come home after long periods away, what is the face we show them? Can they say, "to see you is to see the face of God"?

Unity requires face to face meeting, first with God, then with one another. But this doesn't always mean we will live together in some supposed blissful unity. Our hips will be broken, and awkward speech will pour from our lips, and life will mute our tongues, and we might choose to live in another land from our brothers.

Yet, to see face to face, even for a day--to see the face of God in our brother or sister--is part of what it means to reach out and touch authentic unity.

Lessons from the Farm:Spiritual Insights from Rural Life.

Snow on the Mountain:Transforming Moments with The Transformer

My children have been watching, dreaming, wishing, even singing about snow for two months now. Finally, last night, it arrived, and this morning our mountain is carpeted in white.

One morning, about five years ago, I saw the most beautiful snow I have ever witnessed. It came as a total surprise. I suppose the weather experts had been predicting it, but I hadn’t been listening, and waking to the drama of that bright white blanket across our farm caught me unsuspecting. Literally, I gasped when I looked out the window.

It was deeper than the one of last night. Five to six inches layered the ground. Not all snow is the same. This was "fluffy" snow that stacked high but lightly upon the branches. There was no wind. Motionless. Silent. Magical.

The kids and I pulled plastic trash can lids, a toboggan and a disk-sleigh up the hill behind the house. The neighbor kids came too. That hill is short, but steep so what we loose in distance is more than made up for in speed. Yeah baby!

For half the morning we slid and tumbled, laughed and climbed up again and again. So fun.

Our runway began to wear thin so, I walked around the hill in search of a fresh spot. That’s when I happened on the most incredible sight in all my life. The sun lifting over the mountain across from me, the gently rocking wind, the temperature striking some precisely perfect point, and the snow balancing on the brink of transformation merged. For what could not have been more than a few seconds, millions upon millions of icy prisms lit in multi-colored unison. The entire mountain flashed and shimmered. Everything: the rocks, the trees, the rooftops, even the ground, twinkled!

I stopped and stared, gripped in awe.

Honestly, it was too amazing to be described. Even in my memory it is difficult to fully recapture that moment. However, I clearly recall the words which-- though coming from my mouth I cannot claim them as my own-- voluntarily rose as a whisper across my lips, “Ohh. God, you are so amazing.”

I worshipped on that mountain. I think it was to some tiny degree like what Moses experienced on Sinai or what Peter felt on the mount of transfiguration--an almost involuntary response to a sudden glimpse of the majesty of God.

All too quickly, however, the sun shifted its angle, the temperature passed its point of perfection, the beauty dimmed and I was returned to my mountain with kids squealing and sleds scooting. Today’s snow isn’t even in the same league as that one, but snow on the mountain has ever since jogged my memory and revived that special experience.

Scripture says that though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). I think the Scriptures must be referring (and if not, then at least for me personally it is the case) to snow more akin to that special moment on my mountain than to today’s thin blanket. For He does make my life (anyone’s life) glisten, shimmer, radiate, and worship a God who is so amazing.

From now on, maybe we should all be as anxious for snow as our kids. Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it SNOW!

End of the Spear review needed

I need reviews of two movies: Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and End of the Spear. Narnia review can be sent anytime to Greg Taylor.

End of the Spear comes out January 20. I'll need a review for Wineskins January 21 asap.

If you are planning to go on opening night and can write a review quickly, please contact me and send in a review to Greg Taylor.

What do you want to review?

Thought I'd mention a few of the books on my desk, some as invitation for you to receive to review for Wineskins and others as recommendations or just to let you know what passes for reading material around here.

Books for review you may be interested in reviewing
Marva Dawn, Talking the walk
Donald Miller, Through painted deserts
David E. Fitch, The great giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church
Chris Tiegreen, Why a suffering world makes sense
Chuck Smith Jr., Matt Whitlock, Frequently avoided questions
Siang-Yang Tan, Full service: moving from self-serve Christianity to total servanthood
Richard L. Reising, Church marketing 101: preparing your church for greater growth
Steven James, Story: recapture the mystery
Michael Dauphinais, Matthew Levering, Holy people, holy land: a theological introduction to the Bible

If you want any of the above books, send a send addressed and stamped (about $2) envelope to Greg Taylor 12000 E. 31st St. Tulsa, OK 74146 and I'll do my best to get you the book you request, and I do have many other review copies--so if you have a particular book you're interested, ask.

Unity (part 2)

Here's an important quote by Gene Shelburne, whose book we're planning to excerpt for our newest issue on Unity to launch Friday, January 13:

To the generations who have come after those faithful men (Restoration Movement of 200 years ago), their dream seems too small. Because their dream came true, today we are able to dream nobler dreams. Now, instead of trying to unite the squabbling heirs of a single sect of Christianity, we can dare to re-dream the dream of our father's grandfathers. We envision a day when all those who honor Christ--"all the Christians in every sect"--will unite to serve him and to praise him, and we strive with all that is within us to realize this noble dream.--Gene Shelburne in The Quest for Unity: An Appeal for oneness among all believers

I want to say here that as we work on this issue, we are helping stretch the world view of a movement of people who are having unity meetings this year--some of which I'm a part--that will celebrate and encourage unity within a fellowship of Churches of Christ and Christian Churches, but Wineskins wants to take the conversation further, and Gene Shelburne is one of those who has stepped out into that wider conversation on unity of all believers in Christ, not only those who have similar Christian practices.

We're working right now on dozens of articles and anticipate that these will spark great discussion and thought in our readership. So we're moving forward with discovering and publishing articles by those with imaginations for, and who are practicing in, a world that is truly unified not in some ethereal way alone but in earthly, real, and truly lived out in families, between races, among Christians with different doctrines and practices, in neighborhoods, and as much in eye to eye contact as in nation to nation relations.

Does visual media erode our faith?

I think it's vitally important what our home page is, because it sets the tone for our interaction on the web. Sure, I can choose to ignore my home page and often I skip right over Sacred Space on my way to news or other information. We're working toward making Wineskinsa great option for your home page, too.

MSN.com or other news and pop culture sites I've tried as home pages have not set the tone I want for my day. Consider this from Operation World Introduction:

The visual media have eroded the faith of believers in God's sovereignty in the world. Television cameramen . . . swoop on the wars, famines, disasters and tragedies of this world. The beautiful, wholesome and good is less photogenic, so what God does and what God's servants are achieving are rarely noticed. Like Elisha's servant (2 Kings 6) we need our eyes opened to see reality.

I removed a editorial simile from the Operation World quote because it unfairly caricatures media, and if you want to read the full quote, go to this page. While caveats and disclaimers ought to accompany such critique of media, there is a lot of truth to this, and it's a point about which few of us are aware.

Does visual media erode our faith in the sovereignty of God, of the goodness of what happens in the world? Or does it more appropriately make us aware and able to act on the injustices in the world?

Unity (part 1)

January 2006 we begin a double issue on the theme of unity. We're going to cover this in ways you perhaps have never experienced. Some of the articles will rock all of our worlds.

One hundred years ago, the church that this magazine owes much of its heritage--churches of Christ--split with the Christian Churches and eventually and today there are three churches with Stone-Campbell or Restoration heritage: Independent Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ, and Church of Christ.

Several meetings are planned this year to reunite brothers in the various Stone-Campbell branches of the fellowship. The intent of most of these gatherings is not to try and melt all the churches back into one but to acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and both lament our lack of unity and celebrate our common desire to work alongside one another for the "good of the world, to the glory of God," to quote the theme for the Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop, one of these meetings.

Wineskins wants to help prepare minds and hearts for these meetings. Further, we want to challenge the notion that we are only to be unified with people like us in the Restoration Movement. The idea that we are unified because of outward signs of our religious practice is problematic at best and awfully flawed and sinful at worst.

So we will explore the idea of being unified with people who are different from us but united under one God and one journey toward Jesus Christ.