Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Why is radical so rare?



As many of you probably know by now, our church is joining forces with another congregation in our community to become one, united church family this Sunday.  It’s a pretty amazing thing to see all that God has done in and through both congregations throughout the entire process.  God has clearly been at work from beginning to end. 

Over and over again, as we have gone through this process, I have spoken to other pastor-friends and Christians from all different backgrounds.  One thing that most everyone has in common is this question:  How did something like this happen? 

People seem to be genuinely amazed that two churches – especially two churches that are not dying, in great financial trouble or with some other big problem – would ever think of a move like this.

At one level questions like this make sense, but at another level I wonder if they reveal something really disappointing at the core of our Christian and church experience.  How often do we simply miss taking steps in our personal and corporate lives that would honor God and expand the Kingdom simply because they are too radical or too others-centered that they never even get on our radar?

I have always been moved by the attitude of John the Baptist when Jesus came on the scene and many people, including his own disciples, were leaving him to join Jesus.  His disciples raised the alarm bell to him.  Jesus was taking market share and his ministry spotlight was fading.  That NEVER concerned John.  He knew what his purpose was and he never forgot it.  In the Gospel of John, his words are recorded this way, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.  He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28-30).

I think that kind of selfless and sold out attitude should be the mark of every follower of Jesus and ever church that bears His name.  If it was, I think things would be markedly different in our personal lives and in churches across the world.  Would more mergers happen?  Probably.  Would more ministry partnerships occur?  Yes.  Would the spirit of self-centeredness and competition die off for good?  Absolutely!

Yes . . . a John the Baptist spirit is radical.  So is following Jesus.  It is also rare.  And maybe that's the problem we need to address.  A radical discipleship to Jesus is just too rare!

What do you think?  What tends to keep Christians and churches from thinking, speaking and acting in the spirit of John the Baptist?  What can be done – by us and by local churches – to change this norm into the exception rather than the rule?

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Why "Edits" Don't Work



Our staff had our pictures taken today for the website.  Being married to a photographer, I have learned a few things about photography.  Of course, getting good shots is critical.  You can’t have a good picture without having someone know how to position people to take good photos.  However, even though the shoot took about 30 minutes for all of us the photographer still has a lot of work to do.

You see, there is this wonderful computer program called Photoshop.  They load all the images they take into the computer and then edit them with Photoshop.  You know what that means?  It means they can do some edits and make us look better.  Have some hair not right?  They can smooth that out.  Have some skin blemishes?  That can be softened too!  All kinds of things can be made to look so much better though some well done and strategically placed edits! 

Don’t you wish you could do some strategic edits on your day sometimes!  I sure do.

That thought I wish didn’t enter my mind.  That anger that got the best of me.  Those words I wish I could take back.  That time wasted on unimportant things.  That things I wish I didn’t do.  You get the point.  It would be nice if we could edit those things out at the end of the day.  But we can’t.  Life doesn’t work that way.

Do you know one of the reasons I wish I could edit things?  I would never say this and I am probably not even conscious when I think it, but here it is.  I think there is a part of me that wishes I could edit my life because then I would still be in control and I wouldn’t have to admit how dependent I continue to be on God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness. 

In other words, if I can edit out the bad then I can somehow make myself good on my own power.  But life doesn’t work that we either.  There are no edits we can do to clean ourselves up, but there is an inexhaustible amount of grace, mercy and forgiveness we have access to!

Here are two pivotal scriptures we need to latch onto:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. – James 5:16

It’s not easy.  In fact, sometimes it’s quite hard.  However, this is God’s way to really and truly be made clean in Him.  Edits don’t work, but the good news is you don’t need them.  Instead, through the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God you can be remade new.  What a blessing!

How about you?  What tempts you to try and edit things out instead of trusting in the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God?