Blah Guy

Here is a wonderful article written by Bart Campolo. He offers a balanced approach to what I would call a dangerous “sea of salvation” confusion offered by evangelicalism today. He finds a way to see salvation through the gracious eyes of a frustratingly loving God and our own, a balance few strike well. Read and taste.

I must say it is hard to imaging a divine encounter with the Lord Jesus with a sign holding my last name (like a limo driver and the airport) to take me no where else but hell, all the while along the drive telling me he loves me. Hmmm.

But it is also hard to imaging a God who lets his children run nilly-willy with free evil with no level of eternal accountability. That would just be stupid.

Jesus cares about the people that cut us off. Don’t get me wrong. And if people don’t get simple, easy, little things they can do to make God happy, they will go to another church. But…

If my preaching little practical truths is done at the expense of the very large impractical one that nothing I can do will make God love me any more than he does through Jesus, then my preaching has left the building and gone down to the park to pee in the bushes.

“Speak the truth in love”. My problem is I do one and not the other. I once made this mistake. One time I finally spoke the truth that had convicted me for months, but saw people leave so offended they would never come back. To speak the truth in love means that I will speak the truth in such a way that the people I am speaking to know more than the truth that I am speaking, I love them. That is why the guys on the street telling everyone they are going to hell is in as much trouble of hell as the people they are preaching to. Will hell be filled with preachers? If so, I am convinced hell will be for them, a place of unending perpetual preaching, where everyone else is wrong and hell-bound, while they at the same time stand between Lava Ave. and Minion St. in downtown Hades.

Check out WingClips.com.

It is the best site I have ever found that has a wide range of helpful movie clips that are useable for preaching or communicating. Though there is a subscription for the better quality video player, there are free video clips which are of medium quality.

Read this article from Relevant Magazine.

Not only are our friends not “getting fed” in church, I would take it a little farther.

What about me? I preach every week, prepare the word for the hearts of the people, spend hours agonizing over each and every sermon. Do I get fed by my own preaching?

It absolutely disarms folks when I admit that my own preaching doesn’t feed me.

What if church’s job was never, is never, and never will be to “feed” anyone? And most of the time we throw that straw phrase around, it is Christian lingo for, “I don’t like the style” or “I get bored of the sermons”. If you aren’t getting fed then you aren’t eating. Getting fed is a function of your desire to eat.

So how do I eat?

The scriptures say that Jesus “was moved with compassion” at a number of different points.

My problem is not that I don’t have compassion, it just doesn’t move me.

I am so absolutely tired of talking about helping homeless people, and poor people, and Africa, when in reality that is all I really do. So do most of us. Compassion is nothing until it moves me.

This week, I saw some poor little ducks in a little canal that were literally trapped in some garbage bags. I walked on and thought about how sad that was. I told all my friends how poorly we take care of the world, how a poor little duck can’t even live.

Then…

I realized I didn’t do a darn thing about. So I sprung into action. I grabbed 8 of my other friends in a class I teach at our church, and we skipped church to pick up garbage at that canal. I felt like it was more church than anything I have ever done.

God is teaching me that REAL church begins as soon as our church SERVICES end. It is then that we get to be the church…but everything up to that…is just talk.

For years, I have heard Christians talk about “hearing from God” in the shower. “I was in the shower and…”, or “there was shampoo in my hair and God…”. I has frustrated and annoyed me to a certain extent because I think anyone spends a significant time in the shower, of course they are going to make up voices. There is nothing better to do than look at yourself and put soap on your body.

Then last week happened.

I got my tax return back. It was a little money, and I was excited. I went home already planning what I was going to do with it and decided to take a shower. And I have never had this happen before. God spoke to me in the shower. He said, “It’s not your money and you didn’t even ask how you are to spend it. You went off dreaming up warm tropical vacations when really I want you to use it to…” And he spoke to me.

I felt ashamed.

I have a theory!

Two things happen in the shower that make it one of the most likely candidates for a place of God-revelation.

1) We are naked…nothing else opens us up before God than vulnerability. This is that to the nth degree. Taken back the Garden we are every day in our solemn religion of cleaning our own bodies. And when we are naked, we are literally returning to our origin. Nakedness.

2) We are un-distracted…for most of us, this is the most solitude we get all day. And if God isn’t given much time, he will do the best with the little he is given. The rest of the day is filled with appointments, deadlines, and meetings. This is unhindered time, and God will use it. Usueally when we shut up, the Spirit speaks up.

I don’t know…maybe I will shower now and expect revelation. Who knows, “Church in the Suds”, we can plant a new church.

I came across an awesome idea about Preach-Texting. Read this article to see what I am talking about. During a sermon, the pastor invited folks to text him questions about prayer (which the sermon was about).

This is interesting to me for two reasons. First, it is becoming more and more clear to me that preaching, and church services in general, must be more dialogical than monological. The church seems to be returning to its roots of “interactive”. Early chapters of Acts portrays a church that, yes is full of sinners, but appears to feed off of each other in dialogue and connection.

Secondly, there appears to be an evolving world of “church services” which I would argue is a must. The set song, prayer, announcements, word formula appears to be losing its novelty. How it must change and what it will be come is unclear, but one things is sure, Christianity and its services must change to reach a different set of people.