At first, I must admit, I wasn’t that excited about you. You felt to me like an arranged marriage. I knew that I needed you and that you were a good companion to have, but frankly you didn’t set my heart on fire. You were as average as average could be. You were vanilla to the extreme and my youthful tastes tended towards chocolate peanut butter cup. So with thankfulness but not much enthusiasm we began our life together.

Over time, however, my appreciation for you grew and grew until it was a well rounded and abiding love. You had so many qualities that I undervalued at the beginning and have grown to value far more than the passions of another day. You weren’t sexy, but you were faithful. You didn’t inspire passion but you were always there when I needed you. You didn’t serve as a muse that would inspire songs to be written about you, but you never failed me when I needed you.

You came with me to visit the sick and the dying. You carried me to bring forth message of hope to people who needed to hear. You came with me across the country, back across the country and half way back again and you did it joyfully. You came with me through school, my first full time jobs, interviews, and countless moments of serving others. You carried me to step into the midst of tragedy and to experience great joy. You have been there all the time.

But now the years have taken their toll. You simply aren’t the companion you once were. Your looks have suffered ill effects from the ravages of time and hard work. There are wrinkles where there didn’t use to be. You make noises that are unpleasant to us all. The faithfulness that has marked our relationship these 14 years has slipped and, well the writing is on the wall. It is time to put you down. It is time to stop exhausting my resources just to keep you alive. It is time for another companion.

I am so sorry my friend that we have reached this day so soon. I had such dreams of us riding into the sunset together for many more years, but our dreams don’t dictate the time we get with those we love. We have to simply learn to appreciate them as we have them. I have a new companion. I am not going to lie, she is younger, much younger. She is sexier. She can do things you have never been able to dream about doing. She is an upgrade, not a trophy wife sized upgrade, but a substantial one.

But I chose her not for the bells and whistles, those are great don’t get me wrong, but because she has so many of the same qualities that you have. She seems to be reliable, safe, and worthy of long term companionship. Without you we don’t get to this moment. Your faithfulness will never be forgotten. In fact I wish I could immortalize it with a poem or a song to reflect my love for you.

But our time has come, Ghetto Honda, and now a new chapter begins. To quote a great man who was talking to his car at their parting, “We’ve been through some things together, with trunks of memories still to come. We found things to do in stormy weather. Long may you run…”

Mike Breen’s new book is called Multiplying Missional Leaders. I just grabbed an e-copy and I am sure that there will be blog posts to follow as I read over it. But one thing that Mike and the 3DM crew have shaped my thinking on this past year is the idea of leaders vs. volunteers. The difference is really significant.

A volunteer is someone who gives their time to fulfill a specific role that supports the larger work of the church. This role has been shaped for them by someone else and their vision. In many churches there is a singular vision, cast from the senior leader, the truly shapes all volunteer positions. Every church needs volunteers. Someone needs to help clean, to greet, to usher, to sing, to teach classes, to help set up, to help tear down, to run the sound board and a host of other activities. These roles are vital and necessary. But, they can be limited in their impact on the individual.

In a volunteer role your task is handed to you. Success is simply defined by your completion of the task. They are sometimes roles that push us out of our comfort zone, but usually we volunteer in an area we are interested or already willing to serve. Most churches have systems in place to produce volunteerism among their congregants. This is very different than leadership development.

Leaders have very different tasks than volunteers. Leaders shape vision. Leaders recruit others to their vision. Leaders are forced to step outside their comfort zones into the unknown. This is where faith is stretched, the Holy Spirit empowers us and lives are reshaped. Very few churches have an effective process to produce leaders.

Our partnership with 3DM has radically changed the leadership pipeline of our church. For one, we actually have one now. The discipleship process we have in place is already paying huge dividends for us in our ability to grow leaders. Two years from now the culture of leadership development will be light years ahead of where it was when we began.

We still need volunteers, but for the first time as a pastor I can say that we are truly growing leaders in an intentional and reproducible way.  So what about you? Are you recruiting volunteers or are you developing leaders?

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.

When it comes to the President, I am confused by decision this week in numerous ways. In the last campaign he famously said, at Saddleback Church, that marriage was only between a man and a woman. Since then he has talked about his stance evolving and how he was thinking through the issue. His stance was changed, he said in his interview, through the changing climate around same sex marriage in our country. The younger generation is far more accepting of this idea and doesn’t question whether or not same sex couples should have equal rights. This was evidently very influential on the President.

Obama’s story is probably a lot like many American’s story on this issue. As soon as it became personalized and became a question of people you know and their rights it became a different issue altogether. What is confusing about the President’s stance, however, is why he made it now and what has caused his evolution.My confusion isn’t about why he believes what he believes, I have many friends on both sides of this issue, my confusion is to the why and the how. Should the changing beliefs of a new generation shift your own beliefs? Should an idea gaining popularity make it more convincing? Well if you are a politician maybe so. But when we are talking about issues of morality and justice they should be bedrocks, foundational beliefs that we hold onto despite the ever shifting opinions of our culture. It will be interesting to see if the President makes his view on this matter one that is tied to a bedrock belief that he has now newly discovered or rather if it just seems practical and politically astute.

The timing of his announcement is also rather unusual. This will galvanize some of his supporters, is fuel for most of his critics and will probably cost him some supporters. Politically I am sure he was under immense pressure from a number of donors to come out with a pro same sex marriage stance. The effects of this announcement on his presidential reelection bid are far from clear, however. This could cost Obama the election, or it could be a minor ripple. What a gamble at a time when the economy, the war, and so many other issues are making the political waters rough sailing.

In NC a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday. I still have a ton of friends in NC, almost all of them congregated in the Research Triangle (near Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and almost to a person they were opposed to this amendment. Obviously the Triangle is not representative of the rest of the state. Opponents of this amendment cited that it could actually have effects on others beside same sex partners and that it was simply a poorly constructed law. Others in favor of it, including many church leaders and even Billy Graham, praised it as an action to protect the sanctity of marriage.

I didn’t have a vote in the state of NC, but if I did I would have voted against the amendment for no other reason than because it was poorly written and potentially very harmful. The issue wasn’t even about same sex marriage, it just seems like a unnecessary and harmful action. I am especially concerned about the harmful effect that these campaigns have against our brothers and sisters in the homosexual community. There are some very disturbing studies showing the effects a negative social environment has on this community, especially among teenagers. I seldom here Christians really talk about the effects of our campaigns and policies on the individual lives of those affected by them. This is a gross oversight on our part.

At the heart of this issue for us as the church is how we are to best go about our mission of making disciples of the nations. Included in this mission is the very community so many of us are campaigning against. Even if we don’t believe in same sex marriage, how are we supposed to build in roads into the lives of our friends, neighbors, family members and fellow human beings who have a homosexual orientation when we are contributing to such a hostile environment? Where is the balance between grace and truth?

If we are going to fulfill the mission of Christ we must follow the example of Christ. Jesus was able to at the same time hold onto God’s standards of truth and holiness while embracing those who were far from God. He shared his dinner table with them. He literally touched the untouchable. Jesus welcomed into his life those whom society had shunned and made laws to isolate and dehumanize. In the midst of all these debates on policies, laws and amendments we can’t lose sight of this being our primary action to make the truth of God known. We should care about the laws of our land. We should fight for justice. We should fight for morality. But, we should first and foremost love all people with the radical grace of God and allow our holy lives of welcoming hospitality and gracious acceptance shine the light of God into the darkness of this world.

In a season of great unrest and anger in our culture, may our lives of intentionally peaceful and gracious love of all people offer a compelling alternative to the broken discourse and pain of our culture.

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?

Why was it so good?

There is usually a pretty well understood within action movies that there is a tradeoff. You can either try to take yourself seriously and have an action movie without too much action (often times war movies will fit into this category as they focus on the people in the war far more than the war itself) or you can focus on the action and have a simple or hard to follow plot line full of cliches and one liners (need I mention anything other than Transformers here or possibly Avatar).

What was really remarkable about a movie based not only on comic books, but on a story line that is pretty unknown to a larger audience, is that the acting was really well done. Now I am not going to say this was an over dramatized indie film about a girl who has to overcome being born with only one leg and three eyes, but it was well acted. The producers and director did a good job of getting skilled enough actors and actresses to make comic book heroes have some actual nuance.

Robert Downey Jr. had already proven his mettle as Iron Man over two previous films. Once again he was at the center of film with a larger than life personality. But they also gave him some interesting roles within the team dynamic of the Avengers. His interactions with the exceptional Mark Ruffalo (playing the Hulk) were really great. He seemed to have an insight into the Hulk that turned the whole Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde part of the Hulk’s story into a dynamic tension in the film.

Ruffalo was really quite excellent as Bruce Banner (the Hulk). The subtleties of his character really surprised me. Ruffalo replaced Ed Norton who had played the Hulk in a well done prequel to this movie and I thought out performed Ed. That isn’t a slight to Ed, who was good as the Hulk, it is just a celebration of how well he played the role.

Also surprising was the enjoyable interactions between Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner). Of all the characters in the Avengers these are the least known and in some ways the least important. But the story line was given enough leeway to allow them to move from peripheral add-ons to key components of the story. Johansson in particular was really dynamic in her role (far beyond being cast as necessary eye candy for the male dominated audience.)

The Avengers was so good because the whole was equal to the parts and the individual parts were outstanding. The acting was of much higher quality than you would expect from a comic book movie. The story line was given enough time and space to allow it to develop with some depth of interactions between the characters (it wasn’t Green Lantern for sure). The actual cinematography, special effects, and production value was also superb. Add into that mix humor, lots of fun, and you have a superior action movie.

The Theology of the Avengers

There were also some interesting theological pieces I grabbed from the Avengers.

I am sure people will try and turn Iron Man into a sacrificial Christ figure for his heroic efforts at the end of the movie. They dominant mythology of redemptive violence precludes that from being a very helpful connection point. The intentional transformation of Iron Man from individualized glory hog to self sacrificial team player was pretty well scripted, however. The theme of what could be accomplished through sacrifice rather than individual pursuits could definitely find itself into some sermon material.

Beyond that the most interesting spiritual examples belonged to Loki. His desire to be worshiped can be taken into a number of different theological themes. The blinding pull of wanting to be loved was present. As was the self destructive nature of this ambition. The scene that made the movie for me, (and would definitely preach) is the ridiculous way Loki talks to the Hulk before the Hulk picks him up and beats him like a rag doll. It reminded me of some of the sarcastic ways in which God responds to the questions of Job and his friends.

There were certainly some missional themes as well. The Avengers never came together as a group until they had something that unified them. It was the suffering they experienced together and the friend that they lost that pushed them to set aside their individual goals and accept their mission together. This resonates well with our talk of the Missio Dei.

At the end of the film there was also some subversive kingdom of God imagery with the reactions of the government and media to the super heroes. People were quick to blame the superheroes for their suffering and to discredit the saving work they had done. It was only in the individual testimonies of people whose lives had been saved that the true work of the heroes was recognized.

There are plenty of other things I could say about The Avengers, but I will hold the rest of my thoughts and invite yours instead.

Glorious Father, I give you thanks this day because you have lifted up Jesus Christ from the grave and you have placed him over all powers, authorities, and principalities. Jesus reigns as Lord of all and you, O God, have given him all authority to rule and to enable your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So on this day when we, the church in America, focus our prayers on our country, we do so humbling ourselves before Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. Jesus, our Lord, we praise your name because you have conquered the powers of destruction that have broken apart our lives and this world. You, the great reconciler, have defeated even death itself. There is no power that is above you. There is no person that is beyond you. There is no sin that you cannot redeem or life that you cannot transform.

So we come to you Jesus and we ask you to heal our country. We are a broken people. We love to talk about being One Nation Under God, but this is mostly just a campaign slogan or trite banner that we use to make ourselves feel better about who we are. We are a nation that is deeply broken and divided. We are a nation that is more deeply divided between the haves and the have nots than any nation that has ever existed. Forgive us Lord for our greed.

We are a nation divided along racial lines. Forgive us Lord for our committing the sin that James calls favoritism and judging people based on what is on the outside rather than what is on the inside.

We are an unjust nation. Forgive us for our systems that have created societal imbalances, have imprisoned millions of our people without hope of change, have rewarded greed and sloth alike and have neglected the call for true justice. We know so little of your justice our Father. Teach us again to see justice through your love.

We are an unmerciful people. We allow anger and bitterness to trump mercy every day. Our leaders are more concerned with proving themselves right than working for good of our people. Humble our leaders Lord. Teach them true fear of you and give them hearts filled with mercy for all.

We are also a beautiful nation Lord. There are so many things to give thanks for. We are free to worship you. There are so many who call upon your name each day in our land. We have the freedom to worship you and proclaim you. We give you thanks for this right because so many of our brothers and sisters are taking their lives in their own hands each time they gather for worship or utter your praise. Help us to see these gifts for the true blessings they are and to no longer take them for granted. Like the vast resources we waste entertaining ourselves and feeding our vanity, these freedoms you have blessed us with go to waste far too often.

We are a comfortable, fat, passive, and negligent church. But we know it doesn’t have to be this way. We know that you are the God of resurrections. You are the God who sent your breath into the Valley of Dry Bones and brought forth life again. So we pray for your Spirit to blow forth into our nation, like the four winds gathering from the corners of the earth, and for you to breath life into us again. We are desperate to see your glory reign in our land again.

So on this day we pray to you, the one true God and we renew our strength and our commitment to your will being done here in our nation and in all nations. May your kingdom come and your will be done here our Father.

Grant us your mercy and your grace this day.

Amen.

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.