However, the problem with celebrity comes when we ignore the difference between being famous and being significant. If Jesus was famous, it’s because he was doing something significant. The problem in the church is that many pastors make decisions, develop personas, and define success from the lens of what will make them a famous celebrity. (Often they don’t even realize they are doing this.)

In American church culture, it’s pretty easy to become a celebrity. You just have to grow a huge church. Now all in all, it’s not terribly difficult to grow to be a giant church if you have the right tools at your disposal. But that doesn’t mean the ends justify the means of getting there. Although Jesus was a celebrity in his day, he was willing to say things that ran people off in droves. In fact, the gospel of Mark (from the middle to the end of the book) chronicles the way that people kept leaving Jesus to the point where, by the end, virtually no one was left. No one wanted to be associated with him for fear of the consequences. Being willing to say things that run people off is not something we see too often in American churches in our day.

I suspect that’s because deeply imbedded in the American psyche is the desire to be a celebrity. American pastors are very susceptible to this. Many subtle things happen with people who desire this kind of celebrity status. They can disengage community and isolate themselves, setting themselves up for moral failure. They can make decisions that are numbers driven and not always Kingdom driven. They can skew to a shallow understanding of the Gospel as opposed to a holistic one that leads people to discipleship. They can put the good of their church (their personal Kingdom) over the good of God’s Kingdom.

Think about the culture you are shaping as a leader. In what ways are your decisions influenced by a subtle undercurrent of a hope for celebrity status?

Breen, Mike (2012-05-10). Multiplying Missional Leaders (Kindle Locations 942-958).  . Kindle Edition.

That last line is the one that has gotten my attention. In what ways are your decisions influenced by a subtle undercurrent of a hope for celebrity status? I have had to ask myself that questions (or variations of it) numerous times over the years. I wish I didn’t care about being recognized. I wish that when my friends are recognized for their work and asked to write and speak at conferences it didn’t make a mostly dormant part of my soul light up with a bit of jealousy. I wish that the success of other pastors was simply and always a source of celebration for me. Instead I confess that I can feel the burden of comparison between myself and other pastors instead of the joy of celebrating what my brother or sister is doing in the name of God.

When I began blogging there was no question that it was with mixed motives. I wanted to write and wanted an outlet for my thoughts and questions. But I also new that this was a platform to get my name out there. That somehow this would offer opportunities to go further. Thankfully, 6 years and over 850 posts later, most of that is long gone. Instead it has simply become a tool to bless, a way to grow in my writing, and a way to receive input from others. I stopped caring a long time ago about how many people actually read what I write or being known because of it.

But I am guessing that I am not the only pastor facing these temptations and struggles. As a matter of fact I think I am probably the norm. The celebrity culture of our country and it infiltration into the church has affected most of us i would imagine. Some of the effects are subtle undercurrents and attitudes we might not even recognize. Other effects are pretty clear and transparent. Take time to go to a Christian bookstore. See how apparent the celebrity culture is. How many of the books have a large picture of the author on the front cover? How many Christian leaders can you find with massive sections devoted to everything they have ever published?

I am convinced that so long as I am distracted by a nagging sense of competition or comparison with other churches and pastors I will be distracted from the true enemy of the church. So long as I care about the recognition I receive I will be tempted to make choices in ministry that have my goals in mind instead of God’s. This is a humbling word for me, and I am sure for others.

Father, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and may you begin within my life and my heart. Grant me the humility to submit all of my plans to you. Grant me the courage to turn aside easy notoriety for the greater payout of seeing the harvest of your kingdom. Strip me of my attachment to the world and all the ways these attachments shape my identity. May I find my worth solely in your great love for me Father. Amen.

At least three climbers have died and two more are missing after summiting Mt. Everes

Some circumstances are so dangerous and make life so unsustainable that the conclusion of living within these circumstances seems a foregone conclusion. The only real question is can you escape before you die and what will it cost you to live in the death zone?

Many of our lives cross over into the death zone when they get dangerously unbalanced and unhealthy. For some of this the death zone is a physical reality. We have become so physically unhealthy, with what we consume, with our addictions to unhealthy food, with excess weight, and with high blood pressure etc., that the question isn’t whether or not we are killing ourselves, it is just how long until the end. For some of us the death zone is an unsustainable pace of life. Our jobs and commitments are so demanding that we can’t possibly be healthy. Like the oxygen starved air atop Everest, this pace is Spirit deprived and allows no room for God to talk to us. Our souls begin to die and are damaged by our lack of awareness and experience of God’s presence.

I keep thinking about pastors who are in charge of huge churches with massive budgets, tons of programs, large staffs and unbelievable amounts of stress and time commitments. Being the pastor of a megachurch sounds like a death zone job. Some can handle it, because they pack enough oxygen and have great Sherpas, but haven’t we lost enough men of God this way to recognize the unsustainable nature of this task for most people?

For some of us our marriages are the death zone. Starved of affection, quality time, spiritual intimacy, effective communication and a desire to serve one another, our marriages are suffocating and slowly dying. Some of them die out right and end, others die slowly and linger around lifelessly for decades. Regardless, they enter the death zone and the seldom come back out.

The hope we have as Christians, however, is that we worship a God who specializes in resurrection. He is not only big enough to resuscitate that which the death zone has injured, he has conquered death itself. So even when we have a part of our life in the death zone we believe that God can heal us with his breath of life. God can breath life into our marriages once again, no matter how dead they are. God can rescue us and repair the damage an unhealthy life style has brought upon us. Even if our bodies deteriorate God can heal our spirits and has promised us bodily resurrection in the life to come.

The people who have died on Everest have died willingly. They have put themselves intentionally into the death zone out of a passion to achieve the summit. Too often we do the same thing. Our hunger for something has driven us to an unsustainable place and it is killing us. I pray we hear the voice of God in that place and turn back that God might heal us and teach us a better way.

Your post covers good ground, but leaves unsaid where you stand. One potentially isolated and confused group you don’t address are Nazarene teens and preteens. While I 100% agree that our tone should be gracious in all settings, are you saying Christians can’t make clear public statements opposing same-sex marriage for fear of damaging the psyche of teens who self-identify as gay? This leaves our own kids without much cover in the sea of cultural relativity. As the first part of your post states: bedrock is bedrock. I think we do need to take a public but loving stance on this. My own daughters have faced some ridicule for stating their views in class. They’ve most often been in the minority and have felt attacked when they were simply stating that it’s too simplistic to say that there are no victims in a polygamous culture, for example. My girls have not taken aggressive stances and have some gay friends, with whom they are honest about their views, but still loving. The harshest treatment has been from more liberal-minded heterosexuals who want to control how everyone else thinks. It has caused some pain.

My friend is right, there is more to be said, especially to Christians who are actively trying to live out the radical optimism of the gospel in a gracious and welcoming manner. For many Christians this debate has been a source of pain for them because they are trying to do the work of God. This is especially true among the younger generations where the acceptance of homosexuality is far more prevalent than in the older generations. Here any view that does not fully embrace an individual’s sexual choices as acceptable is considered intolerant and hateful. The irony being that those who preach tolerance are often horribly intolerant of those who disagree with them.

Let’s not pretend that there are easily defined sides of right and wrong in this debate. That is not to say that there isn’t a truth about this issue. It just means that all sides of the debate are filled with broken people who do hurtful things. In my last post I expressed concern about how a negative social environment impacts homosexual teens and young adults in profound ways. Well the other side of that is the environment many Christians teens face on the other side where holding to a belief that homosexuality isn’t part of God’s plan for holy living is met with an oppressive derision and intolerance. It is simply reality that people who are holding to truth on both sides of this issue, be it in their desire for justice and grace or holding onto the standards God puts forth for holy living, behave in ways that undermine their beliefs.

For Christians this too often shows itself in behavior that is un-Christ like. We proclaim the truth of God in a manner unbefitting the children of God. On the other side, great proponents of justice and tolerance act in very intolerant ways to people with a different view point to their own. All of these acts of hypocrisy have made this debate contentious and damaging to many.

I have stated clearly my beliefs on a number of occasions. I can find no argument from scripture nor any witness within the Spirit that living out a homosexual lifestyle can be consistent with the call of God to holiness. But, this issue has become far too large of an issue. I don’t fear same sex marriage because I believe that its effects on marriage are minimal at best. Marriage is already under attack in our culture and it has nothing to do with same sex marriage. The failure of marriage in this country has to do with an ill formed understanding of the purpose of marriage and misshaped individuals who get married for primarily selfish reasons. I do see issues of injustice in our country regarding the homosexual community. My heart breaks for those who have suffered at the hands of others because of their sexual orientation.

I have gay and lesbian friends. I have gays and lesbians as part of my church. I have had very good relationship with gays and lesbians who have been my neighbors. This shouldn’t be a remarkable or difficult thing. But behaviors on both sides of the debate have made it a very difficult thing for so many. But, I have no doubt that if Jesus were walking the earth today, he would undoubtedly spend time with those in this marginalized part of society.

An issue with this much emotion attached to it simply requires a huge does of God’s grace to help us navigate the conversations and think about our actions and how they affect others. There are huge group of Christians in our country who are trying to do exactly this. In all the debates within our media let us not lose sight of this group and the difficulties they are facing as well.

Knowing at leas a little bit about both of these churches I was very impressed by how accurate both of those statements were. In a couple of times worshiping there he had identified some major characteristics of each church and their culture. So if someone walked into your church today what would they notice about your culture? Here are some questions I think about when I think about the culture we want to create at DCC.

• How are people greeted? Are they noticed when they walk in? Does anyone act like it is important that they are there?
• Is grace celebrated and offered during our worship services? Can people leave there with hope?
• Do people seem excited to be there? Does it feel like a chore or like joy to be gathered together?
• What do we celebrate? Are we celebrating numbers, money, programs? Are we celebrating stories of transformation? Are we celebrating people?
• Are people being challenged? Is there an opportunity to reimagine their life while they are there?
• Can you feel the presence of God? Is there room for the Holy Spirit to show up and do what the Spirit wants?
• Does it feel real? Do our interactions feel authentic and warm or forced and temporary?
• Did those who were leading the worship service display excellence? Was what we were doing important enough to be prepared and to do it with the best of who we are?

Those are some of the questions I ask about our worship gatherings and the language we use as a church. What other questions are important to ask about our cultures? What will people notice about your culture when they encounter it for the first time?

Worshiping Like Nazarenes

When I was a kid I remember sitting in church next to my dad, on Sunday nights especially, and listening to him worship. He never sang very loud (as he says he was asked to un-volunteer from the choir once) but he hasn’t ever been afraid to raise his voice. My dad, like many other fine Nazarenes of his and the older generations, loves to give a hearty amen and talk back to the preacher. Now the Nazarene church has nothing on some of the great African American church traditions when it comes to talking back to the preacher, but we are not a quiet bunch.

So on Sunday night as the district gathered for worship it was awesome then to sit and worship with my son. I don’t get to sit with my family during a worship service very often. And on Sunday night Logan was so engaged in the whole experience. He loved the music (impressively he knew every word to three of the songs and simply read the screens and sang along with the other two), he loved the videos, and he really enjoyed all the people talking back to the preacher. Every time someone shouted out an “Amen” or a “Hallelujah” Logan happily joined along.

At one point Dr. Warrick who was preaching said something I particularly enjoyed so I gave him a loud, “There you go!” The next time he said something Logan joined in saying, “There you go, like my dad said, there you go.” At this our friends in front of us just started laughing and I smiled with delight. It is great to see my son at 5 years old, engaging in worship and imitating those around him. This is how discipleship works. What I need to do now is to unleash Logan to teach the people in our congregation to worship. Our people at DCC engage in worship, but among many there is a spirit of timidity or hesitation in regards to expressing themselves. All we need to do to change this is put the kids throughout the congregation and give them the freedom to express themselves and respond in worship.

A few months of kids wholeheartedly singing and yelling out Hallelujah and some of our people might even start to smile.

A Connectional People

When we describe ourselves within the COTN we say we are a Christian People, a Holiness People and a Missional People. I would like to add to that list a Connectional People. It is not just that we are an organized people connected to a system. There really is a sense of connection with the COTN that expands around the globe. As we Skyped in some of our missionaries from the Western Mediterranean and from Japan during our missions convention and as we celebrated stories from around the globe about the work of our church, there was truly a sense that we are all in this together. People responded all three days with great joy at the work of God among our youth, the work of God in the churches on our district, and the work of God around the globe.

And then we laughed

One thing that our gatherings for District Assembly did not lack was laughter. Any preceding ruled by Roberts Rules of Order has the great threat to be a dull affair. But even with numerous votes to take on electing a new DS, electing delegates for next year’s General Assembly and myriads of other reports there was great energy and laughter. The leadership did a great job of adding some liveliness to the sessions and gave us permission to laugh about somethings that simply require a bit of laughter.

The best moments of laughter accompanied the most detailed and boring video I have ever seen. It was a very necessary and undeniably dull video on how to reorder missionary books and resources for the coming year. After it was done there was a moment when we could have either acted like that was a really important moment that we all were delighted to partake in or with great honesty simply laugh. Thanks be to God our leadership allowed us to laugh. That would not have been the case in other gatherings. I dig that about us.

And then the Spirit Showed Up

The most wonderful part of District Assembly, however, was the clear presence of the Spirit. Each day there were beautiful moments when God descended and it became not a business meeting but a sacred family gathering. The Spirit was there on Sunday night as the youth convention worshiped with along side the rest of the District and people responded to the call of God on their lives. It was there on Monday as we honored Dr. Lee Woolery and Alice (our retiring DS and his lovely wife) with a fantastic suprise as the district flew in their two sons, one from Japan the other from Seattle, to be there as we honored their parents. It was there during Dr. Woolery’s final DS report when he challenged us to take on the task of truly making disciples. It was there that night when we ordained two new elders and renewed our commitment to our calling as elders.

The Spirit was there on Tuesday as we elected a new district superintendent. I am sure that our friend Dave Bartley had no idea coming into this assembly that he would leave with his life forever changed. But the voting that carried him into this new calling was moved along by the Spirit of God blowing into that sanctuary. This is such and exciting moment for the future of our district as God has led us to a leader who knows our context well, who is gifted, and who has the character and Spirit necessary to lead our leaders.

The moment was made complete for me just after Dave was elected and they brought him up on the stage. The look on his face was one mixed with disbelief, terror, and amazement. And yet, filled with those wide range of motions, Dave walked forward to that podium and humbly committed to answering this call with his life. It was a beautiful moment.

So there are some thoughts about our peculiar tribe. We are far from perfect, we are strange sometimes, and we are a people of God. It is a beautiful family to be a part of.

I have been in Nazarene ministry now for 30 years; I wouldn’t change a thing if I could. I love the Church of the Nazarene more now than I ever have in my life.

But today, I am a concerned Nazarene.

Doctrinal Heritage
I am concerned that our precious Articles of Faith, those 16 grand biblical statements of doctrine based directly on Scripture, and our Wesleyan-Arminian and Holiness Movement history that have guided us well for over a century are under attack. Not from those outside our Christian faith, but from those inside.

These are people who believe we have been and desire us to be again who we never have been—a church in the Fundamentalist/Reformed tradition or at least the spirit and tactics thereof. John Wesley, Phoebe Palmer, H. Orton Wiley, and William Greathouse would blanch in concern today if they knew the insidious theological and ecclesiastical battle going on through the Internet, driven by categorization, guilt-by-association, and “gotcha” tactics that more represent radical politics than anything remotely biblical, Christian, or certainly holiness.

That is one of the primary questions that I went into our European expedition asking. It is a question I have been pondering for some time. When we began to talk to people about this trip, I kept coming back to this idea that there were really important lessons to learn from spending time with our brothers and sisters in Europe and hearing their stories. The primary passion in my desire to partner with these churches was honestly selfish. There are undoubtedly ways we can bless them and help them in their ministries, but frankly there has been a selfish desire from the start to learn from our partnership. The desire of my heart is to better understand our context here by understanding better their context.

The whirlwind immersion we experienced for 14 days began this process of learning. I am deeply thankful for the pastors and missionaries we spent time with for sharing their stories, visions, passions, and struggles. They not only taught me a great deal but inspired me as well. Here are some of the reflections from this experience, specifically about what we can learn from the European church.

We take the advantages of our context totally for granted

Almost everyone of the pastors we talked with were bi-vocational. They simply marveled at all of us being able to devote ourselves fully to ministry. Think of how much our plans for churches would differ if all of our staffing were bi-vocational. Beyond that our government actually protects (in most cases) and provides opportunities for churches as non-profit organizations. Every country we visited the government was standoffish at best and down right hostile at worst towards churches. Ministry in this context is radically different than in our own.

I kept coming back to the prophets and their words to a people in exile when talking to these pastors. They are exiles in a culture that does not desire them and is not open to them. Living as exiles is a radically different posture than our lives in North America where we can still count on a good portion of the population to respect or at least understand us as Christians.

We have so many resources. The pastors there had very few resources available for Bible study, theological education, ministry and worship. This is really true of their people resources as well. When we want to figure out lighting, technology, music, preaching, leadership development and so on there are an army of consultants and ministries competing for our attention and money. They have so little help in these regards.

One of the most difficult choices we have to make as North American Christians is which fully staffed, highly programmed church with a well trained staff, gifted preacher and beautiful facility do we wish to attend. The people we encountered there were traveling for 45-90 minutes one way, on public transportation to go and worship at these churches on a Sunday. That means that they have a very difficult time living life together or getting together beyond Sunday morning. How do you disciple people you only get to see on Sunday morning? That is a difficult reality to face.

Growing the kingdom is way harder than shuffling sheep

As the pastors I met marveled at the open ministry contexts in which we pastor I kept feeling pangs of guilt/shame/insufficiency. With all of these advantages the church in North America isn’t prevailing. It has been in decline for a generation. Most of our churches that are growing, if we are truly honest, are growing by a reshuffling of sheep far more than the conversion of the lost. As our culture has begun to shift away from the church we have gotten extremely good at getting the church people who are still left and gathering them in one highly efficient and well run location.

But when that is not an option, when there are no Christians to shuffle about, growth is slow and take really hard work. The soil of Europe is not fertile. The people are inoculated against the church. This is a totally different soil than the soil of Africa, South America and Asia where the church is exploding right now. That soil is being cultivated for the first time. The soil of Europe is having to be cultivated after many years of over use. It is stripped of its vibrancy.

Most of us in the North American context haven’t invested into the difficult and slow moving process of cultivating the soil of the difficult to reach because it is still so much easier to reach the previously churched. It is a lot more fun to reach a bunch of people who are looking for a church right now than it is to spend years working to reach a far smaller number of those for whom the church is a mystery or is seen as and adversary.

The pastors there are facing the challenges that we will increasingly face in our country over the next generation. Hopefully through a long term relationship with these pastors we will better learn together how to cultivate this difficult soil.

There really is only one Father, One Son, One Spirit that unites us all

I think it was in the worship service with the Haitian congregation in Paris that it really hit me. They had just finished a time of prayer and offering and the church broke out into the Doxology. I might not have known the words in French, but I understood clearly the voices and the Spirit involved. It is so true that we, like all versions of the church before us, tend to paint the picture of God in our minds in our own image. But standing there listening to those voices the diversity and wonder of God hit me in a different way. I just needed that reminder. I needed to hear stories about the the same God from other voices in other languages. I needed to hear the same passions from pastors in other countries. I needed to be reminded of the power of the Word of God in any language. God is so much bigger and more wonderful than we take time to notice.

The first image is from our visit yesterday to the Vatican. It was my first time in St. Peter’s Basilca and I was awed by the experience. The beauty of St. Peter’s is found in the immense power of its presence and in the intricate details in its creation. The basilica itself is huge and breathtakingly beautiful. The scale of its creation is mindboggling. You have no doubt that its designers and builders were intending to establish the kingdom of God here on earth. Every detail has purpose and excellence.

I was very moved by being there and spent several quiet moments in prayer. I simply wanted to add my voice to the chorus of God’s children who have gathere there for worship for over a millenium. They were prayers of thankfulness, humility and a deep desire to hear the voice of God. There was a spirit of humility that fell upon me being in that place. Part of that was that God seemed overwhelming in that place. His grandeur and power were brought to the present in a profound way.

A couple hours later we made our way through the Vatican museum to the Sistine Chapel. This is truly a place that pictures can’t capture. It is far different than I pictured in my mind. I so enjoyed wandering around, with my neck craned upwards, to see the story of God on display there in its images. That is a holy place. It was holy even as it was packed with tourists from around the globe, many of who were undoubtedly there just out of curiosity and with litte appreciation for the act of worship in its creation.

Those images were sharply contrasted today as we met with Joel the DS of Italy and ventured over to the Nazarene church in Rome. There we met Pastor Angela and saw the church. The building itself is a three story villa in a nice neighborhood. The COTN has owned the property since the 50s or 60s. The church was started here many years ago but then it died out. Angela restarted the church and now pastors 10-20 people there. She shared with her the story of her family and how they came to faith. It started with her grandfather who was an editor under Mussolini. His job was to read books that were being published and to check them for any dissent against the dictator. One day the book that arrived in a box for him to read was a Bible. He spent the next week reading the whole thing. At the end he simply fell to his knees and prayed to the God he had never known. He found a small address on the inside cover of the Bible and went to that home in the night.

He assured them he was there as a friend and he came in and asked them about the Bible. 6 weeks later he was secretly baptized and began to open up his home each night for churches to secretly meet during this time of religious persecution. Angela’s father became the first Italian Nazarene pastor after an encounter with a Christian at at bus stop that lead in a short time to his conversion and baptism as well.

Angela, who is in her late 50s to 60s I would guess (a very dangerous thing to do with a woman’s age) and her brother who pastors a church in Sicily are part of the remnant of the church in Italy. There are so many different forces at work making the spread of the kingdom so difficult here. There has been very little effective protestant presence in Italy. There were many years of Mussolini’s oppressive regime where the church had no freedom of expression. There is the dominant presence of Catholicism and a long history of distrust for clergy and church leaders based on their practices that run in contrast with their faith.

Yet there is still a remnant. The Kingdom of God is still working. Angela is a woman of remarkable faith and courage. She is still striving and taking great joy in her work for Christ. There have been so many battles for the COTN here in Italy but slowly and surely the church is finding traction and Christ is being displayed.

So there are two contrasting images, the Vatican and Angela and the Nazarene Church in Rome. One will stop you in your tracks and the other you would drive by without knowing its existence. And suprisingly of the two the second was the more beautiful. There in that small chapel singing hymns and praying with our newly discovered sister in Christ God wasn’t distant or overwhelming, he was close. His Spirit was in our midst.

Thanks be to God whose church will prevail.

There are some big questions that I am reflecting on and praying over before I hop across the pond with my fellow pastors. I thought I would share. (I will be blogging throughout my travels to prove to people I am doing work not just sightseeing and eating pastries at cafes as a running journal of the experience, make sure you check back over the next couple of weeks) These questions appear in no particular order

1) What do we have to learn from churches in these countries? There are only 38 Nazarene churches in these four countries. This is a testament to the difficulty in kingdom work in a post-Christendom world. Most of these churches are among immigrant populations not indigenous. What can we learn about ministry in our increasingly post-Christendom culture from these churches?

2) How do we build a partnership with churches in a different context in a mutually beneficial way? I am not heading over there with any preconceived notion that these churches need to partner with us because we have all the answers for them. I rather suspect that we have very few answers for them. What I am seeking, and what we have to offer them, is a celebratory relationship of being united in Christ. We need to be connected to Christians around the globe. That diversity helps us see the bigger picture about the work of the Kingdom of God and about God. Duneland Community Church needs to be connected to another group of Christians that are different than we are. We need a bigger view of God and the world. What I am not sure of is what that type of long term, holistic partnership looks like.

3) How does God want to use me? I am so thoroughly excited about this trip for numerous reasons. One of the reasons is that I get the privilege of preaching to some different churches while we are over there. I have been translated a couple of times when preaching, but it is not often I have the privilege of blessing with the Word of God those outside of my own context. What does God want to say through me? What message of hope does God desire me to offer my brothers and sisters in Christ? You can pray about that one with me. I have been praying about these opportunities to speak for many months. Pray that God gives me great clarity and that his Spirit will descend upon those worship services and allow his truth to transcend cultural and language barriers.

4) Are there a people God has already chosen for us? I am really trying to listen to the voice of God on this trip to discern whether or not there is a specific church that God would have us partner with. When I went to Russia on a visioning trip it was amazing to go through that process of listening and discerning and the connection God brought between Christ Church and the Slobdosky orphanage. Is there another connection like that for DCC?

5) What does it mean to be Nazarene in Europe? There are more Nazarenes outside of North American than inside of it. Yet the church has been dominated by middle class white North American culture, theology, and leadership. How does this effect our churches around the globe? What does being a Nazarene mean to them? How can these churches reshape what we are doing in North America.

Well those are some reflections today. Now I am off to finish off the ridiculously long list of things I have to do to be able to head out on Monday.

A Catholic priest in DC is taking major flack for refusing to give communion to a woman, who happens to be a lesbian, at her mother’s funeral.

This leads to a really important question for us. Should we deny communion to anyone? If so, then who? And who decides? There are very different practices within Christendom in regards to the Table of Christ. For some churches, like the Catholic Church, many Lutheran churches and plenty of others where if you are not a member of their particular denomination then you are not welcome to partake. For some lower church traditions that is more specific to being a member of their particular congregation. Other churches have a strictly open policy for the table.

So who should be welcome at the table? This is a really important question that should be informed by our theology of what takes place at the table. John Wesley, being the good Anglican that he was, believed in a table that was open to all who had been baptized. So it was an open table essentially to those recognized as professing Christians. I will plead ignorance about any specific instances he wrote about that would change this stance one way or another. Within our church we practice an open table with an invitation for all those who desire to be in relationship with God and repent of their sins to do so. We don’t discriminate according to membership or even baptismal stance. That is simply our practice. I have never denied communion to anyone who has come forward regardless of the sin in their life, being sexual in nature or otherwise.

But I do have questions about whether or not that we are supposed to be more discerning. I simply find it difficult to deny anyone who is coming as an act of worship to partake in the table and recommit themselves to God. I figure that God will sort out their worthiness the same way he does my own.

But what do you think? Should we ever deny communion to someone for any reason? Should the table be more closed off? Should it be a place where people come and make an initial response to Christ? What about children? I would love to hear your thoughts.