Jordon Cooper excerpted an Op-Ed piece entitled American's Are The Chosen People, yesterday. Matt Drudge links to an article wherein Deepak Chopra is inviting the Pope, and the Dalai Lama to join him in being human shields in Iraq. Hmmmm. That would be interesting.
posted by Steve 4:45 PM
People are IDIOTS! That's my new philosophy. And when I say that, it may sound as if I'm an outside observer, but no, I'm people too. It's just amazing to see, hear and watch the choices people make that lead to perfectly predictable "natural" consequences that no human being would otherwise sign up for. I wish I could give you a list of the humanity I've been observing lately, but that would be uncouth. (I'm not sure if anyone uses that word anymore. I think my Mom does.) Plus, then I'd have to tell you about some idiotic choices I've made. My personal favorite involves poison ivy. I'll tell it to you some time if you want to hear it. But I'm talking about actual moral choices -- and even how that relates to common sense, which seems to be in short supply when the entire practical theology (that which is practiced vs. that which is espoused) of humanity revolves around personal convenience. There...I think I remained sufficiently vague while at the same time proving my thesis that people are idiots.
I just got back from a conference prayer retreat. It was really good. Can I just say that I'm really glad that when we get together for a prayer retreat in our conference, we actually spend the majority of our time in prayer? I throw that out there just because I have friends in other parts of the world where prayer gatherings become yet another forum to relay information from the Bishops or the conference leadership and discuss issues, etc. But not in East Michigan. We use the Pastor/Spouse retreat for that kind of exciting dialogue. I think it just says a lot about the leadership to take several days off from church business (whatever that is) and get down to doing something that actually makes a difference...prayer. In other words, it's one of the few occasions where the espoused belief is carried out into the practical belief.
ANNOUNCEMENT: I am officially white trash! I now have a red hatch door on our white escort wagon. And a missing hub cap. And a huge hole in my muffler so that the dog now knows when to greet me at the door.
posted by Steve 4:29 PM
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Geez, it's been a week!
Quick run down...thanks everyone who encouraged me and checked out my blog. I can't tell you how much it means to me to know that people actually like what's going through my head and took the time to let me know. There was concern that I was just wasting time. But it's definitely not if I've been able to be a part of the discussions like the ones I've been in this past week!
I had the privilege to give a new Hindu friend his first Bible last Thursday. How cool is that?! It was just awesome to see how grateful he was and how respectfully he handled it. We also had the privilege of seeing him in church on Sunday and to get around him and pray for him. He's been married now for several months. He went to India and married her literally "sight unseen." He spent four days with her before returning to the US. He's been working in NY while she's been facing delay after delay with her visa thanks to the INS's new scrutiny. She gets her H-4 and his project ends, so he's now living here in Auburn Hills, waiting for another job, growing increasingly restless and concerned. Father, may he know you and experience you in the most undeniable and unique way. May he know you as Hagar did, the God who sees me, God my provider.
A good friend of mine is making another run at sobriety and he's letting me back into his life. His divorce is now finalized and he's crushed by the loss of his wife and his kids. Do you think God can even reconcile these kind of broken relationships? Did Jesus really mean it when he said, "if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed"? I'm so thankful for how Jesus sees the religious man who thanks God publicly that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he has, while the other guy with a decidedly dishonest and exploitative job sat at the back of the church (stood at a distance in the Temple) and couldn’t even look up to say “God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Guess which one Jesus said the Father found more acceptable?
We had a great time with Mark and Sarah on Sunday. Sorry for crushing you guys at Cranium! I’m pretty sure Jess and I have never done so well as a team. Just ask whomever it was that we played Compatibility with.
We got at least 6” of snow Saturday night, we spent a lot of time sledding Sunday afternoon on the hill in our backyard. The kids from the neighborhood have already sled it all off. Bring on the snow!!
posted by Steve 12:00 PM
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
No Zeller, we are not going to have any webcams on this site. Although if we did, I'd like to attach to our cat's head and charge $29.99 per year. That'd be some entertaining web tv.
Here are some thoughts exerpted from my journal from last night.
“You are as close to God as you chose to be!” That’s the theme of my month. Yet, all of my good intentions have produced little in the way of life change.
Philippians 3:10 from the Amplified Version -- “My determined purpose is that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly.”
Jeremiah 29:13 from the Message – “When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” So the question is, “Do you really want it – more than anything? What is it worth to you? Is it worth giving up other things? Is it worth the effort of developing the habits and skills required?” That’s the $100k question. The $1m question is “What practical choices will I make today in order to grow closer to God?” And then, of course, I must ask that and answer it every day of my life.
“Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.” James 4:8a (NLT)
Did anybody in metro Detroit catch our church in the news yesterday? It was a brief mention. They shut down Avondale High School just down the road, because of a kid who called the police and said he had a gun at school and was planning on committing suicide. It turned out to be a hoax, but they evacuated students to our church to be picked up by parents. They had everything shut down and all the TV helicopters were flying around for a couple of hours. And every one of our well funded police officers were there.
Of course, that was nowhere near as exciting as watching the police mow down two thieves in front of our house in Brazil. But that's another story altogether. Suffice it to say, they don't have any of that presumption of innocence garbage or Miranda rights red tape down there.
posted by Steve 9:05 PM
I was just encouraged yesterday by recognizing how relational Jesus was. I know it's obvious. I know everyone knows this. But in the face of making disciples the American way -- with programs, courses, organizations, etc. that are so resource intensive -- it seems refreshing to see Jesus again, just hanging out with people. I know, he was doing a lot of teaching to large crowds and of course the healings and other miracles were a constant. But he didn't initiate a program. He didn't create an organization. He lived life with people and showed them an incredibly new way of doing it. Of course this appeals to me because I'm a relational leader. I'm not an organizational leader. "And that's, O-K," in the words of Stewart Smalley (Al Franken), "cuz I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and dog-gone-it, people like me."
Changing gears slightly [sound of massive grinding in the background] we caught the last five minute of Joe Millionaire last night. That's about all we needed to see. The huge surprise that everyone expected was that they won money! Oh, and she said "yes" to the underwear model. I like Dave Barry's synopsis of the show.
posted by Steve 8:38 PM
Monday, February 17, 2003
Madonna weighs in with a statement regarding all the press she's getting on her soon to be released new video. I like what she has to say.
"I feel lucky to be an American citizen for many reasons - one of which is the right to express myself freely, especially in my work. I understand that there have been reports about my upcoming video "American Life" in the media - much of which is inaccurate. I am not Anti-Bush. I am not pro-Iraq. I am pro Peace. I have written a song and created a video which expresses my feelings about our culture and values and the illusions of what many people believe is the American dream - the perfect life. As an artist, I hope that this provokes thought and dialogue. I don't expect everyone to agree with my point of view. I am grateful to have the freedom to express these feelings and that's how I honor my country."
I'm interested to see what she has to say about "American Life."
OK, I'm going to dive into this whole Iraq thing. But I don't want to write a book! But I'm really curious as to the motivations for people on both sides of the issue of war vs. peace, as the discussion is apparently and not quite accurately framed.
First of all, I am a citizen of the Kingdom (of Heaven, of God, etc.). I also happen to have citizenship in the U.S. of A. But I readily embrace my Biblical status as alien, foreigner, sojourner, etc. in this world and even in this particular country. Meaning, my sole allegiance is to One, I bristle at American Civil Religion or the "idol of nationalism" as Kingdom Now articulates it, and I vote but with little deference to political party and more for people with discernable integrity, leadership and visible passion for Jesus. I have become a pacifist. And I struggle with the role of nations and states and their duty to order, organize and maintain a civil society with all of the rights and responsibilities inherent in that function as related to the Kingdom. I think a Theocratic state is impossible and no longer even necessary, the only true theocracy having been Israel, and even they didn’t get it right.
Anywho, that being my theological background, I look at the predicament that the United States is in and try to figure out what is the “right” stance to take. In terms of Kingdom values, I don’t believe that any war can be right or moral or just. So I am in fact opposed to this war as to any.
However, I try to look at this from President Bush’s position. I do believe that this man has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and I believe him when he tells us that he seeks God and his wisdom daily in prayer. That doesn’t mean he makes only right decisions, but it does mean that I have a great deal of respect for the man as a fellow Jesus follower and as an obviously gifted leader (which does not always include being a gifted orator). It would be naïve of me to think that the U.S. would enter this war with purely good motives, even with the sole stated motive of enforcing a UN resolution. It would be equally naïve to state that the purpose of a war would be solely economic, or about oil, or even about revenge. All that may in fact play a part, but motives are always complex especially when dealing with nations.
That being said, the UN does in fact face a credibility problem as many have stated. As I understand it, resolution 1441 demands for full and complete compliance with inspectors as well as full disclosure of all programs and weapons. The countries calling for more time and inspections claim that there is no proof of material breach. Yet point 4 of the resolution “Decides that false statements or omissions in the declarations submitted by Iraq pursuant to this resolution and failure by Iraq at any time to comply with, and cooperate fully in the implementation of, this resolution shall constitute a further material breach of Iraq’s obligations….” I think Colon Powell’s presentation to the UN back on 2/5 was precisely a clear revelation that there have been false statements, omissions, and a continued attempt to monitor, deceive, and hide things from inspectors. So, by definition of the above statement, Iraq in fact IS in material breach, therefore in violation of 1441, and clearly in violation of the previous resolution 687 well past all deadlines given.
To me this looks ironically similar to parents everywhere who have trouble controlling their children. Because they have been inconsistent at following through on discipline they no longer command any respect and have forfeited all decision making power to the child. I understand it’s a little different between nations, but the principle is the same. So the UN faces the same credibility problem as the parent. From a purely pragmatic approach, either they follow through on their “threats” or forfeit all decision making and influencing power. That may be fine. Maybe the UN is an impossible pipe dream anyway. But at least all the nations clamouring for war are far from war mongering, they’re simply being consistent in the face of blatant disregard and disobedience.
Again, this is not an apologetic for war. It’s rather a recognition that this is an extremely complex situation. And I think most of the sentiment I’ve read on the internet tends to trivialize the issues, bash the United States and the President. I don’t understand that… especially from Canadians. What’s that all about?
Sorry I don’t have answers or solutions. But I’m not going to be overly critical of well meaning people who are trying to deal morally and justly with the reality of evil and it’s effects on “innocent” people. That’s an incredibly daunting task in a relativistic/pluralistic world.
But for the sake of throwing out a good idea, here’s an article from Sojourners Magazine. You’ll find lots of good thought provoking articles there.
That's about as succinctly as I can put it. It definitely could have been a lot longer.
Just got back from a monthly church planter's roundtable at Kensington Community Church in Troy. They have purposely transformed this roundtable into a forum to network and foster church plants in the Detroit and metro Detroit area. It's become a great place to network with a lot of people in a too often lonely, draining, frustrating position of planting churches.
Today we had a special focus on Detroit, and for the first time we had black brothers to add to our conversation. Of course, you had to be there. But it was rich. Here's just a couple of random thoughts. According to a poll statistic given, 60% of Detroiters do not claim and denominational/religious affiliation. Talk about a post Christian context! 91% of the students in the Detroit public school system are African American. Talk about white flight! There are 1 million people living in the city of Detroit. There are around 5 million people in metro Detroit. Guess where all the white people are. Metro Detroit is basically a "tri-county" area. Detroit is in Wayne County. Auburn Hills is in Oakland County just to the north of Wayne. Oakland County, the last I heard, was in the top 5 wealthiest counties in the nation. Guess where all the money is. It just brought back a flood of thinking about the urban plight and all the time I spent thinking about while on an internship in Chicago. My favorite book from the experience, by the way, is called Return Flight by Robert Lupton. I won't go into detail on it.
I got to talk to Kevin Butcher who's a pastor of a racially mixed (which usually means black and white) congregation in Detroit. Suffice it to say that he was a huge encouragement to me today. He's a leader who has visibly matured through heart breaking and humiliating circumstances. And he shared a little about the challenges of leading a "non-segregated" church. It was excellent.
When I first got here to Gateway, that was a priority of mine and is in fact a core value listed in various places for people to see -- we will be a multi-racial congregation. At first, that meant black and white. But after doing a demographic study of our area (something you have to do to develop a target and become appropriately seeker sensitive or relevant or whatever), it became apparent that the largest and fastest growing minority group in Auburn Hills was Asian (primarily Indian). So while my passion is to have a community of Jesus followers who look like the Kingdom in all of it's color and diversity, it also needs to represent the diversity of the community in which we live. The dilemma is, and will continue to be for every church in the US in my opinion, is that in our traditional program driven/Sunday service driven church you have to address the "worship style" issue. And that, my friends, is a cultural and preference issue. So from my perspective, I think you'd be lucky to at least to get two ethnicities under one roof. But to have something that would appeal to White, Black, Hispanic, Asian (Oriental), Indian, European and whatever other cultural group living in this tossed salad culture (NOT a melting pot!) sensitivities would be nothing short of a miracle. A miracle that I have no doubt our God can bring about, but one I have yet to see anywhere.
Which leaves me personally with a couple of options. Either the model, structure, modus operandi, etc. of the American church needs to change to something that can appeal, accomodate and disciple all of these groups. Or just allow for the diversity of worship styles and practicing traditions to peacefully coexist yet seperately operate as a mosaic of the Body. The former may well be impossible in American society. The latter is definitely the easiest way, but still not satisfying.
I could go on and on about this, but I can't. I have to go home now. What do you think?
posted by Steve 5:26 PM
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
I had a great breakfast with my friend Mark Knuth this morning. We're going through The Purpose Driven Life together. He's making some huge growth steps.
Last Sunday we went up to visit Wildwind in Grand Blanc. Since it was a short "work week" for me, it was a good one to take Sunday off and go check out what they're doing up there. They've got things together and I love their band. It was fun just to get together with Dave and Christy and the girls again.
OK, installment 2 of the National Prayer Breakfast. This was the second pamphelet in our little packet consisting of exerpts from Elton Trueblood:
"There is no person in history who has impacted all of mankind more than Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus was deeply concerned for the continuation of his redemptive, reconciling work after the close of his earthly existence, and his chosen method was the formation of a small band of committed friends. He did not form an army, establish a headquarters, or even write a book. What he did was to collect a few very common men and women, inspire them with the sense of his spirit and vision, and build their lives into an intensive fellowship of affection, worship and work.
One of the truly shocking passages of the gospel is that in which Jesus indicates that there is absolutely no substitute for the tiny, loving, caring, reconciling society. If this fails, he suggests, all is failure; there is no other way. He told the little bedraggled fellowship that they were actually the salt of the earth and that if this salt should fail there would be no adequate preservative at all. He was staking all on one throw.
What we need is not intellectual theorizing or even preaching, but a demonstration. One of the most powerful ways of turning people's loyalty to Christ is by loving others with the great love of God. We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be forced to respect it. If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without artificiality and free from the dead hand of the past, it would be an exciting event of momentous importance. A society of genuine loving friends, set free from the self-seeking struggle for personal prestige and from all unreality, would be something unutterably priceless and powerful. A wise person would travel any distance to join it."
Isn't that what we all want? That's my desire! Jesus, send your Spirit to make it so!
Does this sound like some American Civil Religion thinly veiled with a layer of Christianity? Does this sound like an impotent pluralistic attempt at unification and universalization? You can see why it was such a great experience to be a part of this. Jesus of Nazareth is totally at the center, the means, the ends and the all encompassing reality. Again, you can't go wrong with the earliest and simplest of creeds: Jesus is Lord!
I'm sorry to my two faithful readers for not posting anything in a while. We got back from Washington DC this past weekend after attending the National Prayer Breakfast. And for the next couple of days, I'll probably just be processing all of that. But a thought and a story to kick it all off...
First of all, I was very pessimistic about what I might find in DC at this event as I've already noted. Wary of all attempts at covering a conservative political nationalism with a white American Jesus kind of Christianity, I've been prepared to resign our nation's capital to the category of "going to Hell in a hand basket." But what I found was exciting. Believe it or not, there is salt and light active in that city and in it's politics, and believe it or not, there are people who follow Jesus first and foremost and allow the rest of their lives and priorities to fall in line with that value and passion. But it was fairly evident who those people were against the backdrop of the alternative.
Upon landing at Dulles International Airport, we immediately taxied out to a huge open area where we were immediately flanked by all sorts of police and security vehicles. The pilot told us that there was a security problem and that we were diverted to Dulles away from Reagan National and would return as soon as we were cleared. So for the next 45 minutes I'm sure many of the passangers like me fantasized about exactly what we would do in the event of the unnamed terrorist standing up and trying to take control of the plane. But then we all simply moved on to conversation or a book to divert our thoughts from thinking that these may be our last thoughts as a bomb underneath suddenly exploded. To make an excruciatingly long wait into a short story, nothing happened, we refueled, flew the five miles back to Reagan in 30 minutes, disembarked and left the airport uneventfully except for the lone tv camera filming us at the luggage pick up. It was on the 11:00 news that we found out there was some kind of miscommunication with the pilot not giving the correct password for them to allow us to land. I can only imagine we had a couple of F-16s immediately tailing us, ready to shoot us down at the slightest miscue because our pilot forgot the password had just been change from "I'll have a martini, please" to "password." But we're alive, and my brother's pants were soaked because of the orange juice he spilled on himself, not because he was rendered incontinent in case you ever hear otherwise.
I'm going to include some printed material that we were given at the NPB. The first little blurb in a small packet they gave us was entitled Jesus Transcends All and was writte by Dr. Richard C. Halverson. I'll check on who that was and get back to you. But here's what he said and was the unifying theme behind the NPB.
"Jesus Christ transcends all religions! Judaism -- Islam -- Buddhism -- Hinduism.... He is greater than all these -- including Christianity. Religions are the inventions of men. They may begin with a great leader in mind -- Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha.... But human tradition soon reduces the original to a mere set of ethical standards and a dead letter of the law which no one can follow. The original sin was not murder, adultery or any other action we call sin. The original sin was, and still is, the human choice to be one's own god -- to control one's own life -- to be in charge -- to be religious. Rising out of this choice evolved religion: mankind's attempt to please God.
Jesus transcends religion because he is the incarnation of all that is true, good, loving, gentle, tender, thoughtful, caring, courteous and selfless. Jesus does not want you to become a Christian. He wants you to become a new creation! There is a great diference between the two."
Exactly! I am not a religious person. I am not a Christian. I am not a Free Methodist. I am a follower of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth.
E. Stanley Jones makes a case for the earliest and most elementary creed found in the New Testament being all we really need. "Jesus is Lord!"
posted by Steve 4:24 PM
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
The Lions have officially signed Mooch! I guess that's his nickname, and of course we're all on a nickname basis with any beloved sports hero. Well, here comes the Lions' next savior. Steve Mariucci. He's a home state boy. Although, I think he's from Ironwood, MI, or something -- which is in the UP and might as well be Wisconsin. Everyone up there's a Green Bay fan anyway. But, hey, the Lions just keep giving us reason to be optimistic. It's always interesting to see how they dash those hopes. GO LIONS! WINGS! PISTONS!
posted by Steve 9:52 PM
We leave for Washington D.C. in a couple of hours. We’re supposed to meet my parents at 4:00am and they’re about 20 minutes north of here. That’s truly an ungodly hour. God designed it so that people would never have to see that time of day because they should be SLEEPING!
But we’re going to the National Prayer Breakfast. An annual event sponsored by “The Fellowship,” which is a group of Christian statespersons who are basically committed to being primarily ambassadors of Jesus through their positions. They represent no denomination, and they don’t even refer to Christianity as a label. The simply talk about Jesus of Nazareth. It’s an incredibly secretive organization – not that you can’t find out about it – they just try and keep out of any spot light.
At any rate, we’ll be hob-nobbing with the “important people.” Ever since college and taking classes in the Psychology and Sociology of religion, I’ve become aware of civil religion. Which has opened my eyes to this complex syncretism of Christianity and western culture, specifically democratic capitalism. At any rate, we’re attending a prayer breakfast that’s not sponsored by the State as such, but every President has attended since its inception, and a great number of our elected officials feel it’s an important event to attend. And I just wonder what the spiritual climate will be like. To me it seems like a weird mix of those who truly seek God, and this impotent, religious ceremony addressing some pluralistic notion of a deity that doesn’t really exist except as a creation of our politically correct, upwardly mobile society. I’ll be sure to include details here.
Here’s a good articleabout Bush and his faith coming through in a lot of his speeches, particularly his most recent Sate of the Union address. I agree with her conclusion.
