Do I practice what I write?

I met with a gentleman today who flew in from San Jose to meet with me. Gordon is a retired airline pilot who is passionate about helping churches experience the power of mission. He had attended several conferences I helped lead through the leadership center at Community Church of Joy. For a lay person, he really knows his missional church stuff. I was a bit jealous of some of the conferences he was able to attend.

He basically wanted to know if I was following the model I had written about in a book published back in 1995. It was actually one of my better books, I thought. Not many others did!

Much has changed since 1995 but the essence of what I wrote back then still motivates me today--that God through Jesus wants to invite and equip each of us to follow him back into this world that he loves, bringing grace, hope and love.

The essence of that 1995 book was more programmatic. Now, philosophically I think discipleship happens more in groups and community and in missional opportunities than in programs. Rather than forcing people down certain paths to grow, we need to create environments where people can learn with others what it means to follow Jesus.

But, in the end, while the implementation may be different, the passion behind the book is the same.

That's true of most of the books I've written. At the time I think they were helpful books. But their "shelf life" is over. Guess it's time to write another one.

Tuesday musings

Tuesday is usually fast day. Some of us from Community of Grace skip a meal or two, or a dessert, or a cup of coffee, and use the fast to pray for those who are hungry. We then donate what we would have spent on the meal, etc, to the Grace Hunger Fund. I'd love to have others join us. No sign ups necessary. Simply decide what you will fast and go for it. And as the cravings hit (I skip breakfast and lunch) use that as a reminder to pray for the poor, oppressed, and hungry.

Speaking of food, last night Jan and I had dinner with Al and Kaye Cassel. Al is the new pastor at Peace Lutheran Church (one of the congregations that gave us our new land). I'm looking forward to our continued partnership in ministry with Peace.

This morning I was interviewed on a Christian radio station. The topic was anxiety and panic. (Wonder why they picked me? Is there something wrong with me? I'm starting to feel a bit anxious!) It was a very good interview. The person who interviewed me experienced his first panic attack in April and has been working through his "stuff." One doctor told him that 60% of those who go to the ER for heart attacks are actually suffering an anxiety attack! Great conversation. It will air on Thursday, August 30, sometime between 8 and 8:30 am on FM 90.9. (By the way, from 10-noon, Hilary Griffith, the former Miss Arizona, does a daily show on that station!)

This morning we started talking budget stuff for our ministry for 2008. Not the most exciting part of following Jesus but important none-the-less. We have a great team who make sure we use the gifts we receive each weekend in a way that reflects our mission, and that demonstrates financial integrity.

Sunday Musings

What happen to all the rain and the clouds we were supposed to have this weekend?

Jan and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary last night. We were married on Saturday, August 25, 1979 at 7:30 pm in Richfield, Minnesota. Jan's mom was very concerned about an August wedding in Minnesota but it ended up being a beautiful evening, matching the bride. The groom, on the other hand...

We didn't actually do much to celebrate yesterday so we'll have dinner at Carver's tonight.

It's been a good, refreshing summer (albeit hot) but I'm really ready to turn the corner and get back into the fall rhythm of life.

My brother Jeff was in a pretty serious car accident on Friday. Someone pulled out of traffic and ran into him, on the passenger side, totaling the car. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt although they put Jeff on a stretcher and took him by amubulance to the hospital just to be safe. He's pretty sore as you might imagine. Pretty freaky to see your brother lying on the stretcher, his head in a neck brace. Much worse for Diane and their kids.

As always, it was good to be with everyone for worship this morning. I've not preached on the Lord's Prayer for several years and I've really been enjoying it. I've been seeing it with a whole new filter this time around, looking at it more from the perspective of what the prayer says about God than what it says about how to pray.

My web-based weather icon says it's supposed to hit 113 on Wednesday and 111 on Thursday. Oi! Oi! Oi!

Wrestling With the Church--Part 3 (at the staff retreat)

The Grace staff was on a two-day retreat this past Wednesday and Thursday. I've been on a lot of staff retreats in my 23 years of ministry but this was probably the best. In essence, we prayerfully wrestled with what it means to be the church. Usually, in "building" a church, most of the money and time goes into building the institution. But Jesus never really asked us to do that. Instead, he calls us to "build" disciples--to invite and teach and equip people to follow Jesus.

So with that in mind we fine-tuned our mission statement: Our mission is to follow Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world.

Then we began to ask the question--what would it really look like if all of our efforts and resources went into equipping each of us to do that--to follow Jesus--in our corner of the world rather than "building" an institution filled with programs and committees and general "religious busyness?" To see our new campus, not as another place where Christians create their own subculture--but as a training center that sends us back out on that reckless mission of grace?

Imagine--learning together to follow Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of grace! That's keeping it simple, significant, and fun.

More to come.

Tuesday musings

It is really hot outside! Really hot. Those who live in the Midwest get cabin fever after a long winter. Cabin fever is definitely settling in, at least in my life, as this record breaking heat continues.

We had our first young adult free for all on Sunday. Over 20 young adults encircled Pastor Brian and me and asked some very important, yet not so easy to answer, faith questions. For our first time, it went very well. I was extremely impressed with the depth to which our young adults want to go in their faith. I was not quite as impressed with the answers Brian and I fumbled to give. But the discussion was good. It will be fun to see where this thing goes.

Today, during our Pastor Buddies meeting, we looked at a story in which Jesus interrupted his sermon to heal a woman, and the flack he took for it. We all wondered what would happen if God interrupted our sermons and worship services with something like that! And shouldn't we really expect God to do that? At least occasionally?

It's really hot here.

Our Grace staff is on retreat for the next two days. I may or may not be able to "blog-in" during that time.

It's really hot here.

Becoming Jane

That's right. I'm man enough to admit it. I took my wife and daughter to see Becoming Jane (a movie about author Jane Austin). I went willingly, by the way.

What can I say? I like English movies and English period pieces!

And I enjoyed the movie.

What it takes to put together a worship service each week

As I was sitting in the Zuni gym-acafe-torium before the first service today, watching our various staff and volunteers putting the final touches on the service, I began to think through everything it takes to make worship happen. Worship is the most highly visible thing we do each week as a family of faith. A lot of time and energy go into ensuring a service in which we can experience the grace of Jesus. Here is a partial overview of the behind the scenes of worship:

*Planning starts months in advance when I create the sermon topics.

*The staff meets every Thursday to plan out the services. We talk though the theme for the day, we brainstorm possible creative ideas like videos or special songs, we choose the worship songs for the day, and put an order together. We usually plan a service 4 weeks in advance and constantly review it until it's ready to be experienced.

*Brian or I research the sermon and write the sermon for the week on Wednesday. The message is sent to Diane so she can create the visuals for it. From Wednesday to Sunday Brian or I internalize the message for presentation on Sunday.

*If a video is used it is probably being edited in the days leading up to Sunday. Diane is also busy creating all the graphics for the service.

*Tony sends out music to the band and vocals. The vocals rehearse every Thursday evening. The instrumentalists work on their parts during the week.

*Grace Adventure Club teachers prepare their activities for the children for Sunday morning.

*Friday or Saturday the signs directing people to Grace are set out on Williams.

*On Saturday, a group of us meet at Zuni to set up for worship. Floors are swept and mopped. Chairs are wheeled in and set up. Bathrooms are cleaned and stocked. Communion tables are put up. The sound system is put in place along with the instruments. Welcome folders are prepared. The hospitality tables are set up. And this, plus much more, is usually done without air-conditioning!

*On Sunday people start arriving around 7:15. The place is opened up. Gates are unlocked. Coffee is made. The hospitality table is prepared. Grape juice is poured into the communion cups and the wafers are put into the trays, and then set out on the tables. Various information is put out on the back tables. The parking lot crew set up their stuff. The band arrives to rehearse and do a sound check and the tech team rehearse as well. Ushers are recruited. Communion servers are recruited. The nursery is set up as are the Grace Adventure Club rooms. Name tags are created by Dave (some of which he does at home during the week).

*Then worship happens.

*After worship we clean up the place--putting away the chairs, the tables, the supplies, etc. Cleaning the floors and the bathrooms so all is well for school on Monday morning. Coffee pots are scrubbed. The communion trays are washed and put away. The Grace Adventure Club rooms are cleaned up. The doors are locked up as are the gates to the parking lots.

*On Monday morning a team heads over the Grace World Headquarters to count the offering. The totals are recorded. The worship folders are gone through, pulling out prayer requests, first time visitor names, new email addresses, questions, etc. and the information is farmed out to the appropriate people.

*On Tuesday I send out thank you emails to first time visitors. Our prayer team follow up with a phone call to our guests.

*Tuesday some of the staff meet to review the past Sunday.

*And it starts all over again.

Whew! And I've missed some important stuff I'm sure. It truly takes a community of faith to prepare worship for the community of faith.

Thanks to all of our staff and volunteers who make it happen every week, and make it happen in such a way that it seems effortless, allowing us to be caught up in the moment as we enter the throne room of God's grace through worship.

Lunch with Paul

I had lunch today with my good friend, Paul Sorensen, one of the Pastors at Community Church of Joy where I also served for 22 years. Paul has now stepped into the role of Lead Pastor, overseeing the congregation of Joy while Senior Pastor Walt Kallestad oversees the greater ministry of Joy including its various other entities. Paul recently finished up a 4 month sabbatical. He did some traveling, studying, dieting, and working out. He looks great and is really excited about the new things God is up to at Joy.

We did some dreaming together about how Grace and Joy can continue to be partners in mission and ministry. One concrete way is for Paul to be a part of the Lake Pleasant Task Force. The LPTF is made up of people from American Lutheran, Peace Lutheran, and Grace. Our common vision is to start new churches together. It will be great to have Joy at the table.

It really was great to sit and chat for awhile--two midlife guys, eating salads and drinking bottled water, still excited about following Jesus and serving congregations with people excited about the same!

Elvis Musings

I remember where I was when I heard that Elvis had died--I was driving home from my summer job working for Jan's dad out in Jonathon (Chanhassen), Minnesota.

I am one degree (or is it two?) of separation from Elvis: I am close personal friends with BJ Thomas who was friends with Elvis. Or, I am friends with Dean Jones (best known for his roles in Disney movies in the 60's) who starred with Elvis in Jail House Rock.

Years ago we did a "talk show" program with Dean Jones at Community Church of Joy. As a joke we had one of our staff members come out dressed as Elvis and sit in on the show with us.

A few of my favorite Elvis songs: In the Ghetto. If I Can Dream (actually prefer the Barry Manilow version). Suspicious Minds (also covered by BJ Thomas, my close, personal friend). Burnin' Love.

Elvis was a big Gospel Music fan. He often sang Gospel music in his concerts. After shows he would sing Gospel songs with his back up singers for hours into the early morning. My sense is that Elvis was a deeply spiritual man (with pins in his underwear) who really did love Jesus.

Wrestling With the Church--Part 2

I've been challenged by a couple of things concerning the church these last few days:

The first is a statement I've heard before but for some reason I heard it differently this time: Jesus didn't invite us to join a church. He invited us to follow him.

I don't take this as a negative about the church as the Bible has such a high view of the church. But it is important to remember that the mission of the church is not to make members but to invite people to follow Jesus and equip them to follow Jesus back into the world bringing grace to those around us.

Does Community of Grace do that?

The second challenge came from our Bible reading for today. Many of us this week are focusing on Mark 6:45-56. In this passage Jesus walks on water to his distressed disciples. A great story. But a seemingly insignificant part of the story captured my attention:

As soon as they (Jesus and his disciples) got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran...to wherever they heard he was. (Mark 6:53-55)

People recognized Jesus and ran to him. Do people recognize Jesus at Grace? Is Jesus so recognizable, so present among us that people run to him there?

Do people see Jesus in us in such a way that they want to know more about him?

Divisive Grace

Every Tuesday I have lunch with some of our local Lutheran pastors to study the sermon text for the week (many pastors preach from a prescribed order of Biblical texts called a Lectionary --I don't follow it personally but enjoy the text study none-the-less). This week the text was from Luke 12:49-56 where Jesus says he came not to bring peace but division; where, because of him, dads will be against their sons and sons against their dads and moms against their daughters, etc. A difficult text, to be sure. And, as you can imagine, it stimulated a great discussion.

Some musings that came out of that study:

1) Jesus here is describing a reality--what happens between people when some follow Jesus and some do not. Often there is a conflict between them. I think of the wife whose husband doesn't believe in Jesus and the tension it causes in a marriage. Or the parent who has children who don't follow Jesus and the heartache it causes. Or the Christians who live in an atheistic country and the persecution they experience. I don't think Jesus is so much saying he came intentionally to divide people. It happens naturally when some believe and others don't.

2) There is a tendency among some of us Christians to believe that when people shun us or when we experience a conflict because of our faith it's because we follow Jesus. But often, Christians are shunned for being judgemental, arrogant, or coming across as morally superior. At that point, we are the reason for the conflict, not Jesus.

3) Jesus caused divisions not through judgmentalism but through grace. Eating with tax collectors, forgiving prostitutes, touching unclean lepers, standing up for justice--these are the things that created friction between Jesus and others.

4) Right now, Christianity is causing some conflict and divisiveness in our country, not because of our radical living out of reckless grace, but because of the moral issues some Christians believe determine who is and who is not a Christian. But imagine Christians passionately living out grace--loving their neighbors as they love themselves. That grace can cause divisiveness as Jesus demonstrated. But if we are going to be divisive, shouldn't it be for the cause of grace, not dogmatism, moralism, and judgmentalism?

Sunday Musings

Musings while living off of 4 hours of sleep:

It was great being back at worship today. Good to see everyone coming back from vacations. Brian did a superb job on the sermon and the whole worship experiece was powerful.

We had a great trip to Hawaii. We spent the week with some of my college friends--specifically my roommate and his wife and my favorite BJ Thomas stalker, Janie, who, even though she's younger than I, by a few months, was our "mom" during college, making us fantastic banana cream pies. She was joined by her family. Our daughter and one of her law school friends were also with us.

Snorkeling is a worship-full experience. I particularly enjoy swimming with the turtles!

The best part of vacation--coming home to the hugs and kisses of our dogs.

During my prayer time I sense God has been nudging me to pray this prayer for our congregation--Help us get ready! For what, I'm not sure yet. But I sense God is up to something in our community of faith.

I fully intended to come home and take a nap after worship today (we flew into Phoenix at Midnight and were in bed by 2 am!) But...I was afraid I'd sleep for hours and then not fall asleep tonight. At 3:50 pm I'm feeling pretty good. By 5 pm I should be ready to call it a day.

What Might Grace Say About the Collapse of the Minneapolis Bridge?

We professional religious types always feel a need to put a spiritual twist on the tragedies of life. And for good reason. When we go through tragedy we need to make sense of it. And sense or meaning is the business, so to speak, of faith and religion. We professional religious types also feel the need to say something about tragedy because eventually someone always asks the question, "Why did God allow this to happen?" or something similar.

I'm writing tonight because of some things I recently read from a fellow professional religious type. It is with some trepidation that I comment on his comments because it seems so downright critical. But his comments troubled me enough that I need to respond.

This pastor, in essence said, the meaning of the collapse of the bridge is this: That we are all sinners and that we need to repent. The "merciful message" of the bridge, as he put it, is that there is still time to repent, turn from unbelief, and escape eternal judgement. Another part of the message of the bridge is this--that God let the bridge fall so that people would fear God.

Now...I do believe that all of us fall short of God's glory (sin) and that God has responded to our sin not with judgement but grace and forgiveness.

But...I don't believe that God let the bridge fall. God had nothing to do with the collapse of that bridge. God is in the business of life, not death. It fell for reasons that will be discovered after the investigation--some kind of weakness in the bridge, for example. It was not God's fault. Nor did God use this incident to pound us on the head, telling us to straighten up and repent in order to escape hell. God is a God who recklessly runs to us in our hurt and pain with arms outstretched to love us, grace us, and heal us. He always uses grace to draw us to him, not condemnation, pain, or judgment.

I think that grace says this about the bridge: We live in a world where tragedies happen. And into that pain and hurt comes a Savior with nail-scarred hands, a loving, gracious Savior who enters into solidarity with us, suffers with us, absorbs the pain, and graciously brings healing and hope when all seems hopeless.

Tragedy is never God's fault. We lock people up for causing tragedies. But God can use tragedy to demonstrate to us his love, his grace, and his mercy. The bridge collapse certainly reminds us of the temporariness of life. God's grace reminds us that he makes that temporary life worth living, and that we are not alone when tragedy and even death comes our way.

I don't believe the message of the bridge is: you are a sinner. Repent. I believe it is this: You are deeply hurting. I love you. Let me help.

Tragedy in Minneapolis

I'm watching the horrific pictures of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, my birth town and growing up town. My daughter lives a block from that bridge and had driven over it a few hours prior to the collapse. Eerie after what we witnessed here last weekend with the helicopter crashes.

May God have mercy.