How NOT to Do Small Groups -- Very Funny

I'm Humbled to Be a Piece of Clay

Image by roboM8 via Flickr

I am a piece of clay trying to tell other pieces of clay what the Potter is like.

--Francis Chan

"Daddy, Look At Me!" -- Showing Children They Are Important

"Daddy look at me." 

Those words were shouted time and time again as we went down to the tennis courts to practice riding bikes again today.  Our youngest girls just got "big girl" bikes in the past couple weeks or so.  They must be just about the smallest two-wheeled bikes one can have.  They were hand-me-downs and are now complete with training wheels.

Learning to ride a bike for the first time is an adventure…one I'm ten years removed from with our older girls.  Yes, there are falls every once in a while.  Yes, there are tears.  Yes, it can be be frustrating. And, yes, it can be scary for both parent and child.

But it's NOT boring.

Within the last few days our girls have gotten comfortable enough on their bikes that they feel up to doing "tricks."  So, as they ride they take their hands off the handlebars…or they stand up on the pedals…or they put their feet off to the side. 

Each new move is met with "Daddy, look at me."  And I look.  And I smile.  Riding a bike may be old hat to me, but I need to remember that it's completely "new hat" to them.  Even with the training wheels on, it's an exciting moment for them when they take their feet off or make a sharp turn or go around in circles or go real fast.  As far as they are concerned, they are being very brave and adventurous.  They are testing the limits.  They are pushing the boundaries.  And they want me to look at them and acknowledge their wonderful accomplishments.

I confess that sometimes they have to yell at me more than once…and sometimes more than twice.  Sometimes it's hard for me to have quite the same excitement as they do…although I try.   Sometimes, I'm busy talking with someone or trying to get some work done.  And, sometimes, just because they are twins, I'm busy giving my attention to the other sister.   It can be hard to give attention to both at the same time.  I've yet to master the art of "bi-location."

And, yet, attention is what they crave.  And, it's what they need.  It lets them know that I'm invested in them.  It lets them know that I love and care for them.  It lets them know that they are important to me.  And, hey, these really are big steps for a 4 year old.

So often our kids just want us to "look" at them.  They want us to recognize their accomplishments and also their pains.  They want us to, not make them FEEL as if they are important, but to recognize that they ARE important as well.

This can be a problem in the church, where, often, children are to be seen and not heard…if they are to be seen at all.  We spend so much time an energy trying to keep them quiet or remove them from the "big people" worship that it can be easy for them to think that no one is looking at them and no one is hearing what it is that they have to say…or have to offer.

At Girdwood Chapel, I've tried to make it so kids feel like they are involved in worship.  It does come through during communion and the prominent role they can play there, with kids participating fully with the adults.  But, more, I think it comes through during our prayer time, our "Joys and Concerns."  For it's here that kids really are on the same playing field as their parents and the other adults in the congregation.  They get to offer up their joys and concerns amongst the gathered body.  This is not a special "Children's Time" set aside for them. It's not "Children's Church" or their own Sunday School.    And so we'll hear about the usual joys and concerns that adults bring each week, peppered with prayers for "sick goldfish" or "4th Birthdays" or "boo boos on fingers."  And yet, those are the real joys and concerns of some of our younger attendees.  And by lifting them up and having them recognized by the larger church body, we let them know that they are important and loved and that we recognize that their hurts and happiness are real.

What are other ways our congregation could "look at" and recognize the children we know and care about?

Defining Christianity

Image by netmonkey via Flickr

“Christianity, defined in very simplistic terms, can be summarized as ‘me moving out, God moving in.’”

- Eric Ludy | When God Writes Your Love Story

Defining Christianity

Image by netmonkey via Flickr

“Christianity, defined in very simplistic terms, can be summarized as ‘me moving out, God moving in.’”

- Eric Ludy | When God Writes Your Love Story

Forgotten Missional Impulse of the Methodists

Image via WikipediaGreat quote from missional leader, Alan Hirsch, when talking to Steve Manskar of the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church:

“I love the Methodists! Of all the denominations you have the best missional impulse. But you’ve forgotten it.” 

See the whole article (It's a good one) HERE.

Difficult Scriptures in Light of the Celebration Over Bin Laden's Death

Image via Wikipedia

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Ezekiel 18:32




Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice
Proverbs 24:17



But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 
Matthew 5:44-45

(That really is an icon of Ezekiel.)

More Rob Bell, Universalism, Heaven & Hell

Image by feyip via FlickrAhh...the conversation about Rob Bell and Universalism.  The conversation continued yesterday in Sunday School with "Hey, did you hear about Rob Bell?"  It was a question asked in a soft tone with a head shake. 

Implied in that question and head shake was a whole lot.  What was really asked was, "Did you hear about Rob Bell, the one whose videos we used and loved, and how he's a heretical teacher and we really need to pray for his salvation and wash our hands of all that we heard from him?  It's just too bad.  He seemed like such a nice guy."

You know, I really need to read the book, the Love Wins book at the heart of the controversy.  I've been asked too many questions to keep prefacing any discussion with "I didn't actually read the book yet.  I've only read reaction to it." 

Sunday School was on a different topic and it was hard to address this bombshell with any depth.  One of the problems is that asking the question about whether hell will be full or empty is a deeply theological one.  It's not as simple as "good people" go to heaven and "bad people" go to hell.  And it's a conversation that talks about extremes in order to make points.  If love wins, is Hitler in heaven?  If one must be a Christian to go to heaven, is Gandhi in hell?  I don't think that part of the discussion is particularly helpful.

Anyway, as I was once again thrust into the discussion, I found a blog post I had started on over a month ago and thought I'd finish it up here.  It's more information for the debate discussion. 

Chris LaTondresse over at Sojourners has a blog post about Rob Bell and universalism that gets at a lot of stuff.  Chris puts out a few principles to guide the debate that I think are helpful.  Here's a snippet of each.  Please check out the original post for more.

1. Christians should hope that all people can be (and will be) saved.
Those who believe God modeled the ultimate example of true love in the person of Jesus — and who, therefore, aspire to love their fellow humans as they love themselves — should also believe that, in the end, God’s love will win the day. So is it really that radical to suggest that this belief should accompany the earnest hope that it is actually within the scope of God’s sovereign power and unrelenting grace to reconcile all things to himself?

He includes two great quotes from Richard John Newhaus from 2001:

The hope that all will be saved is precisely that, a hope. It is not a doctrine, never mind a dogma. But some respond that we cannot even hold the hope, since it clearly contradicts the revealed truth that many, if not most, will be eternally damned. A different and much more troubling objection is that it makes no sense to be a Christian if, in fact, one can be saved without being a Christian. In this view, the damnation of others, maybe of most others, is essentially related to the reason for being a Christian. The joy of our salvation is contingent upon the misery of their damnation. If it is possible that all will be saved, it is asked, why not eat, drink, and be merry?

Such a perverse view is also more than a little like that of the laborers in the vineyard who complained that those who came at the last hour received the same reward as those who had worked all day. The master replies, “Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20). Some of the critics of the hope for universal salvation do indeed seem to begrudge the generosity of God entailed in that outcome. Theirs is a position of resentment dressed up as a claim of justice. “What was the point of my working so hard and so long if God is going to let in the riffraff on equal terms? It’s unfair!” The eschatological upsetting of such attitudes (the last will be first and first last) is a constant in the teaching of Jesus.

Then on to the other two points:

2. Jesus draws dividing lines, but his lines are different than our own.
Anyone reading the gospels will see that Jesus not only responds to the “lines” drawn by the religious leaders of his day; he draws lines of his own. But Jesus’ lines are almost always different than the lines drawn by the religious leaders, and even more startlingly, his lines are different than the lines Christians draw today.

We pick our favorite biblical passage, where Jesus’ vision for “who’s in” includes people like us, and excludes people who aren’t, meanwhile, we ignore other passages that redraw the boundaries that would force us to change in order to be included in Jesus’ “in-group.”

3. Millennials don’t resonate with the stupid battles Christians fight.
For a generation harboring increasingly negative perceptions about (and is distancing itself from) Christianity, there’s no question that controversies like these have played a big role in making these trends worse. When asked to describe present-day Christianity, the second most reported description of young people (ages 16 to 29) was that it is “too-judgmental”, with 87 percent of young non-churchgoers and 52 percent of churchgoers holding this view

....people in the real world who are struggling to negotiate their relationship with God in light of the brokenness of the world (and too often the brokenness within Christianity) are put-off by these debates. That’s not necessarily a reason not to debate, but we can’t ignore basic virtues like love, charity and empathy in the process — at least not while following the biblical call to be salt-and-light and ministers of reconciliation.