Holiness Reeducation

Seven churches that left the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Mission in America are now being forced to give up their property. A judge ruled that the diocese of the Episcopal Church owned their buildings and land rather than the churches themselves. So now these congregations which left their diocese and the Episcopal church over issues regarding homosexual clergy and same sex marriage, will now have to decide if they will appeal the ruling or start making plans to find a new home.

There are some really interesting ramifications of this ruling. First there is the issue of having to vacate your church building and start over. Some of these churches have been in these locations for a very long time and have very large congregations. This isn’t just a matter of going over to someone else’s house. This is finding a space for thousands of people to worship each week. As a pastor this is a logistical nightmare that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Second there is the issue of what does the Diocese do with these buildings. They can probably put small congregations back into the existing buildings or maybe try to start new ones, but what are the long term prospects for that? The Episcopal Church is not exactly renowned for church planting, neither is it growing at this stage.

It is very easy to imagine the diocese needing to sell this property in a short period of time because they don’t want the cost to maintain it. So will the churches that are being forced to vacate try to buy the property from the diocese? Will the diocese even consider this? Would they sell the buildings back churches that have left them? Will bitterness prevent this?

There are so many interesting questions stemming from a terrible situation. This is a situation that should sadden us all. This is the Body of Christ being broken by sin. This is the unity of the Spirit being ripped apart by a battle for the heart of the church. This is sad. The pain and brokenness of this body being ripped apart is far from over. I simply pray that God will give grace to all involved and that somehow his Spirit will being able to repair the rending apart of his body, not just here but throughout our world. I pray that we will no longer need the courts to mediate our disputes as a the Body of Christ.

A bumper sticker I read when I lived in Colorado, “If God’s not a Broncos fan then why are sunsets orange?”

I am sure there will be a slew of new ones that say, “If God’s not a Broncos fan then why does Colorado run on Tebow Time?”

The hoopla around Tim Tebow, his polarizing play at quarterback and his faith is truly amazing. As soon as the Broncos stunning victory over the Steelers was complete yesterday I took to the social media world to watch the explosion of Tebow related commentary. There hasn’t really been a phenomenon in sports quite like this before, partially because of the explosion of social media.

I haven’t written about Tim Tebow much, but here are my thoughts.

On Tebow as a Professional Quarterback

He isn’t a very good quarterback, but he is a good football player. He is the type of guy you would want to play with and he is certainly a guy I root for, regardless of his faith. He is unorthodox, unpolished, and unrelenting. That is a combination I actually enjoy. He is a quarterback that struggles to make routine plays, but in the right circumstances seems to will himself to make the big plays at the biggest moments. In basketball people like Bill Simmons talk about the irrationally confident shooter. He is a player who doesn’t realize his limitations or how good he really is. He thinks he is way better than he is. And yet with the game on this line this guy will take the biggest shot of the season, instead of passing to his much better teammates, and he often makes it.

That is what Tebow reminds me of. He is the irrational confidence quarterback. He overthrows the running back on a screen pass seemingly half the time. He can’t roll right and throw the ball. He throws the ball four feet short of his receivers regularly. And yet with the game on the line he makes plays that he has no business in making. I like that about him.

On Tebow as an Evangelist

All of those thoughts about Tim as an athlete aside, I think of him as a very public Christian in very different ways. Much has been made of Tebow’s outspoken faith, which is regularly on display as he kneels down to pray after big plays or big wins. In fact Tebowing – dropping down to one knee in random public places is a silly fad these days. So what to make of Tim in regards to how he handles his faith publicly?

I have great appreciation for the way Tebow tries to work his faith into his whole life. He is not a part time Christian. He doesn’t compartmentalize his faith. He is a Christian at all times, in all places, no matter what he is doing. That is something that really should be celebrated by us as a church. There are a lot of public figures that are Christians of some ilk and yet no one knows because their faith is compartmentalized and hidden from view. No one can accuse Tim of being ashamed of his faith.

His expression of his faith, however, leaves me something to be desired. Tim Tebow’s public statements about his faith and his displays of faith in sports are very similar to how I thought about evangelism when I was 17-18 years old. I used to write Bible verses on my wrists when I taped them up before wrestling matches and I used Philippians 4:13 as my theme verse. I would chant it to myself almost as a mantra before I went out to wrestle. I felt this need to remind all people at all times that I was different than them because I was a Christan.

The NFL is full of Christian men. It is full of men who run ministries, go on mission trips, support their churches and have strong faiths. There are certainly other Christians out there that will talk about their faith and do so when given opportunity. Growing up with God’s coach, Joe Gibbs, I saw a great example of how a great coach could live out his faith in transformational ways without being renowned for it. His quiet faithfulness, integrity, and ethos have changed many lives. I head Mark Schlereth, former Redskins and Broncos All-Pro lineman tell my youth group about how Gibbs led him to faith his rookie season in the NFL. Gibbs is renowned in the NFL for the quality of who he is and his coaching acumen. But he never put his faith on display in quite the same way as Tim Tebow.

That isn’t so much a criticism of Tebow as an observation. I just think there are more effective ways of demonstrating our faith to the world than dropping to one knee after a big play. Now, if Tim began to give God credit and glory after bad plays as well as good ones, losses as well as wins, failures as well as successes, then I would be a much bigger supporter of his displays. We need not confuse the world at any time about God’s involvement in this world. God doesn’t care whether or not the Broncos win a football game. God’s kingdom is breaking into this world to redeem all of creation. I don’t question whether or not Tim Tebow is working towards that redeeming work, he just doesn’t do it on Sundays when he throws a football.

This Sunday at Duneland Community Church we are beginning a new series called A WHOLE New Life. The focus of the series is in cultivating God’s wholeness in our lives.

Coming into 2012, all of us can look at our lives and recognize that we have parts of our life that are clearly broken. Somewhere inside of us there are parts of us that simply are less than they should be. This is about our souls, our relationships, our bodies, our jobs, our families, every part of our lives.

We only find completeness in God. Only our creator can pick up the broken pieces of our life and make them whole again. Come and join us from January 8-February 19 as we seek A WHOLE New Life.

What does holiness have to do with our sex life? (Find parts 1 and 2 of this conversation here)

Here are some of the difficult questions about our sexuality that I haven’t addressed. What about sex and single people? What about celibacy? What about homsexuality? What about abuse inside of marriage? What about very different levels of sexuality or sex drive within a marriage?

There are certainly more questions than that left, but those are some of the pressing ones that I can think of. Some of those are connected and some kind of stand alone. So let me just take them one at a time and share some thoughts. Continue reading…

Having lit the fourth candle of Advent, the moments until Christmas are but few. Only a couple of days remain until we experience the climax of all our preparation. I hope mine/your preparation has been as much spiritual as holiday driven. But in these final days leading up to Christmas our lives are certainly busy and full. So here are some ramblings to help us through the week.

Arthur Christmas Rocks, of course – We took the kids out on Saturday to see Arthur Christmas. (How could we not when they name a movie after us.) It was instantly added to the Christmas movies we watch every year collection. It was really well done, funny, and had some interesting commentary that would go well in a sermon. As a matter of fact I am announcing right now that next Christmas I am using clips from this movie in my sermon.

Debating whether or not I care how unBiblical our idea of Christmas night is – The image we have of Mary and Joseph rushing to Bethlehem, finding nowhere to stay, ending up in a stable, barely getting there in time for Jesus to be born, shepherds and Wise Men crowding around to get a glimpse, is just not a terribly Biblical image. But I can’t decide whether or not I care. They were probably in a room of a house where animals also stayed. That would have been typical. The text doesn’t say that they go there and had the baby the same night. The Magi probably didn’t show up for several years. There is a part of me that wants to teach a more realistic picture of the Nativity scene, but the other part of me thinks that the image we have serves its purpose. We get the idea and that is probably enough. Thoughts?

Were there flurries in Hell yesterday? – The mighty Packers lost a game. The inept Colts won one. The Redskins played a pretty good game and won in NY. There was definitely something in the air yesterday. If Tim had Tebowed Tom Brady I might have thought that some sort of signs and wonders were being done in our midst. Regardless it was good to see the Skins do something worth watching. And it is always good to see the Giants stink. Now it is time to start scouting College QBs not named Andrew Luck and find one to replace Sexy Rexy next year.

Jesus visits Tebow – If you missed the SNL skit with Jesus visiting Tim Tebow after a Broncos game, you can catch it here or on Hulu. It is pretty funny. Some good commentary here. I could use this in a sermon.

I am totally digging Christmas on Sunday – When I realized that Christmas was on Sunday this year a part of me was bummed at first because I knew that I would then need to work on part of Christmas day. But then I thought more about it and the rhythm a worship service would add to our Christmas and I have gotten really excited about it. In the middle of opening presents and celebrating Christmas we will go to church as a family, sing carols, hear the word of God and go to the Lord’s Table together. That sounds like a perfect Christmas to me.

Those are my ramblings for today. Stay tuned this week for part three of a Holy Sex Life and my look back at 2010 2011..