Welcoming All With Grace

Posted February 4, 2010 by Greg
Categories: My Church

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As part of our visioning process, our church has worked on naming our core values. There are lots of values any church can name about what they believe to be important, but the point of the process is to find the values that best define the reality and the aspirations of our particular church. And so through months of tough work we came up with five values that define us here at Duneland Community Church.

The value I preached on this past week is: Welcoming All With Grace

DCC has always been a welcoming church. You can sit down and hear the stories of our people and you will hear about people who had never stepped foot in a church before and yet found a home here. You will hear about people rescued from addiction and from heartbreak and from divorce. You will see that we are a congregation that has a diverse socio-economic range. You will see that we are a congregation that is ready to welcome all who walk through our doors. You will also find that we really enjoy our hospitality. People come to our church and they will always be well fed, especially on potluck Sunday!

But welcoming all isn’t the end of the story. We believe that our embracing of all who we encounter, inside our church or outside in everyday living, involves transforming grace. We don’t simply embrace people and call it a day, we embrace all people with God’s grace and the hope that they too with experience the transformation that comes from being embraced by grace and mercy. It is the embrace of someone who accepts you just as you are and dreams and hopes for you to be all that you can be. That is our value as a church and we aspire to make it a reality not just inside the four walls of our building, but in the everyday reality in which we live.

My 500th Post!

Posted February 3, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Books, Culture, Emerging Church, Links, Missional Church, Movies, My Life, Ramblings, TV/Movies

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Do I really have this much to say?

I started blogging on February 14, 2006 and in the almost four years since I have now written 500 blog entries. That equates out to 125 a year or one about every three days. That is more discipline and consistency that my life has usually known, so for that I am celebrating. In honor of this momentous occasion here is a mega post with a massive amount of ramblings to celebrate. If you make it all the way to the end I will be impressed.

Read the rest of this post »

Groundhog’s Day Again, Groundhog’s Day Again…..

Posted February 2, 2010 by Greg
Categories: My Life

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Mondays are for February Ramblings….

Posted February 1, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Lenten Thoughts, My Church, Sports and Fanciful Pursuits

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The Christmas decorations are put away, now where did I leave that sack cloth?

Amazingly January and December are behind us and shortly we are on to Lent! Only 16 days till Ash Wednesday, have you started thinking about Lent yet? I am prayerfully considering how I will seek God’s voice during Lent. There will no doubt be fasting of some sort and I want to make sure that I find a way to open my life up even wider to allow God’s voice in. So this is your two week warning, lent is coming and without an opportunity to give your life over to God in a new way.

People Magazine Sermon Illustrations

I did something I had never done before yesterday, I used an illustration from People magazine. I never read People (I hear people say that all the time because they are embarrassed about their love of People, but I say it simply because I have too many magazines delivered to my house each week and I am always way behind in my reading) but my wife is a fan. This week, however, with the cover story of Jon and Elizabeth Edwards I had to read it. I have been fascinated with the Edwards ever since they moved to Chapel Hill. Anyone who lives in Southern Village or attends Christ Church knew they were around because their family was really involved in the community and the campaign office was visible from the front door of the church. (Did anyone else see the 20/20 footage with them walking around Southern Village? That was just bizarre.)

That being said, all of my curiosity aside, I was deeply moved by the way Elizabeth Edwards has chosen to embrace the child her husband had with his mistress. She has taken a terrible situation and poured as much of God’s mercy and grace into it as I can imagine someone doing. Her example to her children, and because of their celebrity to many others, of using a painful moment in her life to demonstrate God’s love is pretty amazing. It just surprised me and it made it into my sermon. I balanced the touchy feeliness of People magazine with the story of Grizzly Man Timothy Treadwell who was eaten by a grizzly bear, so all is well in the world.

Best Superbowl Food

With only a week left till the Superbowl the burning question of the day is, “What is the best Superbowl Food?”

For my money I have a deep abiding love for Chili Con Queso dip with some chips, that is just a family tradition. But I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

 

Web of Theology

Posted January 31, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Faith

Found this site called Web of Theology from our friends at Jesus Creed. I paid the $5 and took the test, it was really accurate as far as my theology goes, it just didn’t offer enough nuance on some positions. I am thinking about expanding this for use with my leadership teams, it is a great tool. Thought I would pass it along.

Gangsta God and a Thug Theology

Posted January 30, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Faith

Check out this video. It is an interesting look at how our context shapes our theology and how our experiences reflects our view of God. If you are any kind of pastor/rap/hip hop/poetry fan this is very interesting. How are the artists of the street reflecting our cultures struggle with the problem of evil and just God?

Third Culture Living: When the questions become the answers

Posted January 26, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Books, Missional Church

Tags: , ,

(This is the fourth installment of a series of posts reflecting on Dave Gibbons book The Monkey and the Fish. You can find early posts here, here, here, and here.)

What if the question you are asking is the answer you are looking for? What if following God is a matter of knowing the right questions and not knowing the right answers?

Dave Gibbons suggests that one of the most radical shifts that occurred in his understanding of following Christ and how to be the church came when he stopped searching for answers and found the right questions.

Third Culture living requires questions that lead to fluid answers that are shaped by our individual experiences, local context, and by God’s tendency to use surprising means to accomplish his will. Dave offers three questions that have transformed his ministry and his pursuit of God.

Where is Nazareth?

What is my pain?

What is in my hand?

Where is Nazareth? This is a question about where are the forgotten or marginalized people in your area. God chose Nazareth, of all places, to be the launching place of the Messiah. People couldn’t believe the Messiah could come from Nazareth. Who is forgotten where you are? Who is left out of leadership? Who do you dismiss off hand as having something to add to the direction of the church?

What is my pain? We want to always look at our strengths and celebrate our gifts and talents as the ways in which God will use us. But we are reminded that the gospel of Christ is foolishness to the world and that has chosen the foolishness of this world to humble the proud and the wise. It is quite often our pain that the world will respond to instead of our success. It is our moments of loss and failure that allow the broken of the world to most clearly see the love of God.

What is in my hand? When Moses was convinced of his failure as a leader, that the Israelites would never believe he had talked with God, God told him to use what was already in his hand. God took his simple shepherd staff and turned it into a symbol of God’s power and a tool for Moses’ success as a leader. Maybe everything we need we already have. Maybe it isn’t money, or staff, or a building, or some other desperately desired mark of success that is holding us back. Maybe God is ready to use what you already have to accomplish his plan.

These are three great question. What do you think? Do they provide you with any answers?

A Surefire Way to Help Haiti

Posted January 24, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Faith

Here is a great article  by Rev. Steven D. Martin, part of the newly formed group The New Evangelical Partnership For the Common Good. Martin suggests that if we really want to help Haiti, we should cancel their debt. One of the most crippling realities for many third world countries is their debt.

Martin writes -

Now is the time for the world to act.

We applaud the United States’ leadership in coming to the aid of the Haitian people. We commend the outpouring of resources from people worldwide through charities. We ask that we all join together in finding long-term ways to help rebuild Haiti, and the answer is right there in front of us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

A nation buried in rubble should not also be buried in debt.

Now that is an idea we should be able to get behind.

A Letter To My Friend Raegan

Posted January 20, 2010 by Greg
Categories: My Life

(5 years ago today I lost a dear friend, the best mentor I ever had and the pastor who has shaped my ministry more than any other. This is simply a letter of thanks to him.)

Dear Raegan,

It is nearly unfathomable to me that it has been 5 years since we last talked. I know that I talk to you all the time, but it has been a long time since we talked face to face. Five years, how is that possible? I went back and counted and you and I only spent 565 days working together. It has been more than three times longer than since you have been gone. 565 days is nothing in a lifetime of days, and yet those 565 days changed my life in immeasurable ways. So I just want to say thanks today.

I want to say thanks because you were quite simply the best pastor I have ever known. That isn’t to say that you didn’t have your faults. You loved to be a rebel among the Methodists, you really liked having things your own way, and your were just a little bit of a perfectionist. (That was understatement in case the tone was lost!) But I loved all those things about you and they never bothered me, they simply made me smile and love you more. There is nothing I do as a pastor that is not in someway shaped by the time you invested into me.

First of all you chose me to invest in. I was such a wreck before I came to Christ Church. I knew I had a calling and I knew I had gifts and ideas and I longed so badly to just have an opportunity. For whatever reason you looked at me and you saw an opportunity for me and potential in me. You let me the “liturgically ignorant” Nazarene come and serve your beautiful and wonderfully high church Methodist church. You did more than that, you gave my family and I a home that we had never had before. It was the one thing we prayed about more than anything else and you were the answer to our prayers.

Each week as I walk around my church and I straighten all the chairs, and I drape material over a table or display, and I walk the lay people through all of our transitions in the service and I try to give people something beautiful and excellent in our worship service, I do those things because of you. You had an eye for small things that make a big difference and my life has never been the same because of it. You had that eye not just for the church but also for me. You were afraid to tell me things at first because you didn’t want to come off as critical, but in time you spoke so much truth into my life  and helped me see so many areas where the details were getting lost. Those insights have had such an impact that I simply mourn the lose of your input in the rest of my life. I am so thankful for the time we had, but oh the work God still had for you to do and the need I still have today for your voice in my life.

I want to thank you Raegan because you and your family became my family. You loved us and accepted us and supported us in such a generous and hospitable way that frankly you changed my view of the world. One of the ways I try to honor you with my life is by reflecting your generosity. Thank you for teaching me about God’s love in a way I had not experienced before or have not experienced since.

I have done my best since you have been gone, to carry on your mission in this world. I gave everything I had to your church, fighting through the pain of your loss, the devastation of working next to your office every day, and the lingering disappointment of lost dreams. I didn’t always make the right choices and I made lots of mistakes, but effort and motivation were never lacking and that was because of you. I hope that repaid a small portion of the extraordinary debt of love I will feel for you the rest of my life.

You are smiling now when you see where we are, I just know it. When we were answering the call to leave your church and come out here I knew that it was a decision you would have been so proud of. We didn’t make it because of it, but I know it made you proud. Leaving a place of comfort and blessing, leaving home really, to go to a situation that would test and stretch everything about our lives, I just know you were smiling because we were starting to figure it out. We were figuring out this upside down kindgom living life that you preached about so boldly and tried to model for those you ministered to. Without you I don’t know if I make that decision, so thanks for that to.

I know that you are smiling as you look at your family now too. They are so extraordinary. Lee is simply the strongest woman I know and she has taught me as much about love as you ever did. Her love is shown not just in the incredible girls you have but also in her love for my children in her role as godmother. Your family is in very capable and amazing hands and while your place in it can’t be filled, they are still a testament to your great love for them.

So thank you my dear friend, I miss you constantly. Even when I don’t think about you I know your spirit is still connected to mine through Christ. I am thankful for our connection that transcends even death itself and for the very real hope that we will see each other again soon enough. I look for you every time I gather with our people at the Father’s Table and I know that you are present then too. So until we see each other again let me just say thanks. Thanks seems so inadequate a word, but it is all I have today. Thank you for your life, the lessons you taught me, and for the enduring presence of blessing that your family is to mine. I love you Raegan and always will.

Blessings,

Greg

Third Culture Living – Moving Beyond Sunday Mornings

Posted January 19, 2010 by Greg
Categories: Books, Emerging Church, Missional Church

Tags: ,

Should the hour people are in worship on Sunday morning be the best hour of the week? It is a really interesting question when you stop and think about it. The question isn’t should it be a wonderful hour, or a refreshing or renewing time in God’s presence, the question is whether or not it should be the best hour they experience.

How churches answer that question will tell a lot about how they do ministry and where their focus is. In my continuing reflections on The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons, he lays out what he sees as the shift from typical Western ways of doing church to a Third Culture life. Here is the list he offers.

Western                                                                                                       Third Culture

Linear Adaptive/Liquid
Orderly Steps Messy Journey
Individual Community
Categorizes Holistic
Teaches Guides
Cookie-Cutter Customized
Western Easter/Fusion
Comfort Painful
Programmed Artful
Homogeneous Multicultural

I found the list helpful in understanding the differences between how he perceives the church and how what he believes the church needs to be. The questions are whether or not he is accurate in his list and whether or not the way he is proposing is better. Any thoughts?