A Labor Of Love

My husband and I participated in this last year and it was great.  Unfortunately we were not able to participate this year but plan on joining in again next year.  It is truly a labor of love.

A group of volunteers gave four Haltom City homes a makeover. In just 24 hours, some 1,600 volunteers completed home renovations for the much-deserving families.

The home makeovers come courtesy of the NorthWood Church in Keller. This is the third year that NorthWood has provided home makeovers for families in Haltom City.

The families being helped were all selected based on their need. “There’s something about the time frame and the urgency of it that makes it that much more,” said volunteer Andy Wallace.

Those involved with the project say the renovation isn’t only for the homes, but the soul as well. “God said, ‘Go out and help the needy and the poor’, so what better way to come out and serve the Lord than to help these folks out?” Wallace asked.

The makeovers include painting, replacing flooring, landscaping, decorating, new furniture and decorative items, appliance replacement or repair and other things you would expect.  This year mini-makeovers were added for the houses on the streets where the home makeovers were taking place.  The mini-makeovers included yard work, exterior painting and other small jobs.

The teams start working on Friday afternoon and work through the night and into Saturday.  The big reveal happens about 5PM that Saturday.

Be sure and click on the picture above to see CBS coverage.

A Piece Of The Puzzle Is Missing

 

 

I rarely go to church these days.  It all started about three years ago when several things happened within a short period of time.  Between dealing with some real life situations that made me begin to question a lot of what the Evangelical Christian Church typically taught and moving to a new community, I stopped going to church. 

It didn’t happen all at once.  At first I slowed down on the things I participated in.  I had taught Bible Studies for years and I stopped teaching mainly because of the questions and doubts I was dealing with.  I also scaled back on a lot of participation in other areas.  If the program wasn’t missional in nature or for the purpose of creating community I eliminated it from my roster (there were a few exceptions, but not many).  Then we moved to a new community and although we visited churches for almost two years (several for 2 or 3 months) I never got connected.  So, for the last year I have attended church very rarely.

This is unusual for me because I was one of those people that went to church “every time the doors were opened” and volunteered/served a LOT.  It seemed that when I started to scale back on some of the things I volunteered for I discovered that many (to be honest, it was probably most) of my relationships at church fizzled out – which led me to think that the relationships were sort of superficial and based more on activities than actual relating.  That was sad.

I miss the way things used to be and yet the way things used to be doesn’t work for me anymore.

The closest anything came to working for me in the last couple of years was a small group (about 10 ppl) that met every other week.  We did some service projects together, some fun things, read books and discussed them, studied scripture and prayed together, and talked with one another about our lives, faith, families, hobbies, relationships – really everything and anything.  But after a couple of years the group stopped meeting because two or three of the couples broke off from the group for various reasons.  This group had grown out of a Sunday morning Bible class from the church we had attended for years.  We continued to drive the 50 mile roundtrip every other week to meet with the group just because it was such a good fit for my husband and I, but living as far away as we did we didn’t want to start trying out other small groups at that church.  We haven’t found anything similar in the community where we now live.

There are still a few churches that I am interested in visiting but it seems that the ones that I am drawn to don’t have any teens at all and I would like my teenage son to have some peers to connect with.

It’s an odd time.  I mourn for what I have lost even though what I lost is still there.  I’ve changed and that means I don’t fit in anymore.  It’s sad.

At the same time I enjoy sleeping in a little on Sundays (which I hadn’t done since I was in my twenties) and having both Saturday and Sunday to run errands, clean house, do the laundry – it seems to make the whole weekend more leisurely.  I like the extra time that our family has together during the week when we used to be all going in a lot of different directions due to all the church activities we were involved with.  But…I feel like a piece of the puzzle is missing.

Can anyone else relate?

What makes a church a church?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether online churches qualify as real churches and even whether they are more harmful than helpful.  Many people say that a church cannot be a church unless people are gathering together in person, face to face.   Some say that online churches aren’t biblical – that in order for a church to exist it must include certain elements, such as preaching, sacraments and discipline.

It got me to thinking … what makes a church a church?

Is it the music, the preaching, the tradition, the tax exempt status, the sacraments, the programs, the elders, the building, the stain glassed windows??? 

To begin, I did a little research on the church and found that the word “church” has an interesting history.

The Greek term “ekklesia” is normally translated by the English word “church” in the New Testament. I knew that bit of information, but what I did not know is that the English word “church” did NOT originate from the word “ekklesia” or from the concept of the “ekklesia” expressed in the NT.  “Ekklesia”, a commonly used word in NT times, referred to a group of people gathering or an assembly of people.  Instead, the English word “church” originated from a Greek word that is used twice (Cor 11:20 and Rev 1:10) in the NT – the Greek word is “kuriakos”, which means “belonging to the Lord.”

What I found even more interesting is that Jesus only used the word “ekklesia” twice, never used the word “kuriakos” but spoke of the Kingdom of God/Heaven over one hundred times.

Anyway, at some point, the place where believers met together started to be called “kuriakon” or “the Lord’s house,” which is the neuter version of “kuriakos”. This word made its way into German (Kirche), Anglo Saxon (circe), and Middle English (chirche). When Luther translated the New Testament into German, he did not use the word “Kirche” to translate “ekklesia”, instead he used the German word “gemeinde”, which means something similar to the English word community. And when Tyndale translated the New Testament into English in 1536, he also did not use the word “church” to translate the Greek word “ekklesia”.  Instead, he used the word “congregacion”. But over the next century all English translations started translating “ekklesia” by using “church”.

Does all of this matter?  I think it does because when I began to substitute the words “gathering” and “congregation” and “community” and “assembly” for the word “church” I began to get a picture that the church is more about people who were connected together through a supernatural kinship and that all their resources and abilities were meant to be used to produce a continuation of the life and activity of Christ himself – instead of an event that is required to include certain traditions or practices.

So, the question was…what makes a church a church?  I think the answer is a group of people who gather together in the name of Christ, through the power of Christ, for the purpose of being Christ.  And IMHO it seems that could take a lot of different forms – even the form of an online church.

What do you think?

(Now – having said all that I think there are better ways to do church – maybe I will write a post about that soon)

Is Professional Ministry A Help Or A Hindrance To The Church?

There’s a good post and discussion going on over at Baptimergent  regarding professional ministry.  You can find the post here.  Here’s my response: 

I’ll start out with a couple of disclaimers – I am not and have never been in full time paid ministry and I do not believe that it is “wrong” for pastors to be paid a salary.

Even though I do not think it is wrong for pastors to be paid a salary I do not think that it is the best way for the church to operate. I think that it causes the church to have to be managed like a business, the congregation to have an unhealthy dependence on the paid staff of a church and tends to silent prophetic proclamation. I know many wonderful people who earn their living by being on staff at churches but I think the system needs to be dismantled.

Many of the comments I hear  talk about “all the things” that a pastor has to do. IMO all of those things should be shared by those who are members of the community. The problem is that the present system causes the members of the community to believe that the pastor should be doing those things because he is paid and the pastor to believe that he should be doing all those things because he is being compensated. Perhaps one reason most Christian’s are unaware of what spiritual gifts are bestowed upon them is because the system we have created implies that “the working body” of the church is made up of a few people who are on staff.

I know they are far and few between, but, there are groups of Christians meeting in the world without a paid staff and where the work of ministry is done by everyone in the group. So …  it is possible to do it differently.

In addition, it appears to me that a lot of “the things that have to be done” in churches today are things that have to be done to keep “the system” running and “the system” seems to resemble a country club a lot of times with all of it’s internal programs and activities.

I am always hearing that there is a problem these days getting college aged and young adults to attend/get involved in a local church but they aren’t the only ones. Many middle aged and older adults, like myself, who have devoted most of their lives to “the church” are leaving the church (if not physically, then emotionally) because it has become more of a hindrance than a help in our spiritual journey.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words – SBC kicks out gay friendly church

Love Loud: Actions Speak Louder Than Words is the Southern Baptist Convention’s theme this year.

I find the theme ironic in light of their recent decision to expel Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas from the SBC due to the fact that Broadway (in their opinion) did not put enough effort into opposing homosexuality.

Back in 2007 Broadway Baptist was preparing to celebrate its 125^th birthday and part of that celebration was to include a church pictorial directory that would include yearbook style photos of its members and families.  A problem arose when some gay couples (I think it was three gay couples) asked to have their pictures included.  It quickly became a divisive struggle as the church began to disagree as to whether allowing the gay couples’ photos to appear in the directory would be an endorsement of homosexuality.  After much debate and a vote, it was decided that no family photos would be used – instead group photos would be taken and published in the directory.  The issue led to a lot of conflict within the church and eventually to a motion before the SBC to disassociate from Broadway.

There was no evidence that the church endorsed or affirmed homosexuality but the SBC eventually decided that there was a lack of active opposition (like asking gay persons to resign from their volunteer positions and offering some sort of restorative ministry for gays) and voted to oust Broadway Baptist after a 127 year relationship with them.

I remember when I first heard about the directory issue at Broadway – I was disappointed that it was an issue, after all, they weren’t worried about including pictures of gossips, gluttons, adulterers, thieves, liars, drug users, unwed mothers, divorced people or even straight people who didn’t think homosexual relationships were sinful – they were only concerned about including pictures of gay couples, and I was disappointed that they ended up with the “no family photos” decision.  I thought it was a poor attempt in demonstrating the love of Jesus.  But now that they have been ousted by the SBC I feel a little better about their “small step for gaykind”.  I still think it is sort of lame that Christians can shock the world so easily by displaying a little tolerance – I really think we should be shocking the world with an extravagant and generous love – but I think the attention this church has received over this issue is going to help in the long run.  So, as sad as I am that there are still so many who think God’s mission is to keep openly gay people from serving in the Kingdom of God and from being recognized members of the body of Christ, I am hopeful because of those who are slowly standing up against that kind of mindset and I am thankful that Broadway Baptist did not take formal congregational action to condemn homosexuality (as some conservatives wanted to see happen).  Click here to read “Disfellowship and Dismay”, an excellent column from the interim pastor of Broadway Baptist.

No matter what the SBC says – I think their actions are loud and clear!

The Kingdom of God Is At Hand

 

This post is part of a synchroblog on The Kingdom of God.  Links to other participants can be found at the end of this post.

At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (Luke 4:42-44)

As you read through the gospel accounts you will find that the message that Jesus is always teaching, that he instructs his disciples to teach, and that his Apostle to the Gentiles teaches is about the Kingdom of God (also known as the Kingdom of Heaven).  In fact, God’s Kingdom is mentioned over 100 times throughout the four gospels and more than 25 times throughout the rest of the New Testament. 

So, what was the good news of the Kingdom of God? 

First, we find Jesus proclaiming that the good news is that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Now, we might think that means it is something that will arrive in the near future; in fact, some bibles even translate the scripture to say “the kingdom of God is near.”  But the original language referred to something that was immediately available, something that one could reach out and touch (something “at hand”).  So, it must be noted that Jesus was saying the Kingdom of God had arrived…that was the good news.

Then we find Jesus telling what the Kingdom of God is like.  According to Jesus The Kingdom of God is like many things…

a farmer sowing seed,

a man hunting treasure,

a woman kneading dough,

 fishermen casting a net,

a man forgiven a debt,

a wedding guest who forgot his jacket,

virgins waiting for a bridegroom,

a landowner being generous.

The kingdom is like a seed, pearl, fish, banquet, vineyard, yeast.  

 It’s random, hidden, surprising, disruptive and unexpected.

It begins so small that it could go unnoticed.

It’s something you receive, enter, cultivate, seek, lay hold of.

You wait for it, prepare for it and stay ready for it.

It’s something of great value and something you need to discover.

It blows up the status quo,

reverses values,

turns expectations on their head.

It’s a celebration, a party, a feast.

And you’re invited to attend. 

It’s a church that gives a fresh meaning to the words “offering plate”, a child drinking clean water for the first time, and football fans cheering for the opposing team.

The Kingdom of God is at hand.

(Note:  I hope you take the time to click on the links for the “church”  that gives a fresh meaning to the words offering plate, the “child drinking” clean water for the first time, and the “football fans” cheering for the opposing team.  I think they are all great examples of the Kingdom of God that is at hand.)

_________________________________

Check out the other participants in this synchroblog.

Susan Barnes (Christian currently attending a Baptist church) of Abooklook on My kingdom goes

Liz Dyer (follower of Jesus Christ) of Grace Rules on The Kingdom of God is at Hand

Timothy Victor (Christian) of Tim Victor’s Musings on The reign of Godde

Ronald van der Bergh (Dutch Reformed) of Ronalds Footnotes on Notes on “the Kingdom of God” in the New Testament

Nic Paton (fundamentalist, charismatic, liberationist, apophatic, heterodox) of soundandsilence on The “Kingdom”: of God?

Beth Patterson (Non churched follower of Christ) of Virtual Tea House on What it’s like rather than what it is

Jeff Goins (Non-denominational Christian) of Pilgrimage of the Heart on The Kingdom of God: Now and Not Yet

Phil Wyman (Non-denominational Christian) of Square No More on Jesus as the Archetype Shaman (Part 2): A Nostalgia for Paradise

Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on Kingdom, power and glory

Bryan Riley (Christ follower) of Charis Shalom on The Kingdom of God

Andrew Hendrikse of Fake expression of the Unknown on The Kingdom of God is…

Ellen Haroutunian of Seeking our Living Orthodoxy on thoughts on the Kingdom

The Emerging Church In North America – Past and Present

Stephen Shields has written “Ten Year Out: A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America“, a very good piece on the Emerging Church past and present.  In order to assess the state of the Emerging Church Next-Wave ezine interviewed some of the movement’s most notable leaders including Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Scot McKnight, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones and Jordon Cooper.

True Woman Manifesto – Reading The Fine Print

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pensiero/183952753/

 

 

The True Woman Manifesto is a document that was first presented at the True Woman conference in Chicago in October 2008.

 

The organizers of the conference describe True Woman as a movement.  In addition to the conference, the movement includes books, articles, a 30 day True Woman Make-Over, other resource material and the manifesto.

 

There is a three part process that women are invited to participate in when they join the movement.  1) Sign the True Woman Manifesto; 2) Start the 30 Day True Woman Make-over; and 3) Share the message.

 

I think you will be hearing a lot about this movement soon.  Women’s roles is a very hot topic in the church right now and I think we will be seeing a lot of activity on both sides of the issue in the near future.

 

Whatever side you find yourself on I encourage you to study both sides of the issue. This is an important issue that deserves a lot of discernment and wisdom.  My fear is that women will sign the document or join the movement blindly.

 

There is a good discussion about the True Woman Manifesto at the blog Evolving In Monkeytown  and a thorough three part response to the manifesto at Hevencense.

 

Let me know what you think.

What I Wish The Church Knew About Spiritual Maturity

 

This post is part of a synchroblog on “Discussing Maturity In The Light Of Our Faith”

 

 

Before I begin let me say that I have a long, active history with the local organized church.  I have led women’s ministries, worked in the nursery, planned curriculum, served on the hospitality committee, taught bible studies, helped with vacation bible schools, prepared budgets etc. – all as a lay person.

I still go to church (most of the time) and I still volunteer to do “stuff” at church (some of the time).  I am not mad at the church, I haven’t been hurt by the church (at least not much) and I haven’t left the church.  BUT, I am frustrated with the church about a few things. 

One of the things that I am frustrated with the local church about is its lack of knowledge regarding spiritual growth.  So, when I heard there was a synchroblog on discussing maturity in the light of our faith I figured I would take the opportunity to make a few wishes – three to be exact.

Here goes: 

Wish Number One

I wish the church knew that having questions, experiencing doubts and being uncertain about things that the church is teaching does not necessarily equal spiritual immaturity.  No one comes right out and says that you are spiritually immature because you are struggling with things like the concepts of heaven and hell, or substitutionary atonement, or the inerrancy of the bible, or the sovereignty of God etc … but, when they kindly offer to pray that God will make these things clear to you, what they are really saying is: they hope you settle down soon and get back to seeing things the way they do.  When I began to have questions about what I was believing, doubts about certain interpretations of scripture and uncertainty about the life of faith I was living I felt alone and afraid.  There was no safe place at church for me to embrace this experience because the thing everyone wanted me to do was to get back to where I had been before.  Sure they said things about this drawing me closer to God and God using this to reveal more to me, but when I tried to talk to them about thinking that maybe we had some stuff wrong they didn’t want to hear it.  It was so unsettling and frustrating that I might have ended up leaving the church (at least for a while) if I hadn’t had a family to think of AND if I hadn’t stumbled across “The Critical Journey” by Hagberg and Guelich.  I won’t go into a lot of detail here about “The Critical Journey” (for more info there’s a great chart at Carnival In My Head that you can check out or an indepth article at Theocentric) except to say that it helped me discover that what I was experiencing was a natural part of my spiritual growth.  From there, I have searched out and found support through groups, blogs, books and events – none of which are connected to the local church – to help me as I travel through this leg of my faith journey.

I don’t have a succinct solution to the problem but I think it would help if pastors stopped saying everything from the pulpit with so much certainty, if Christians were taught less answers and trained more in the skill of asking good questions, if the local church would be a little more humble about what they know and hold to be true, so that it would not be considered heresy to think or believe differently in their midst and if more people in the church believed that right living is more important than right doctrine. 

Wish Number Two

I wish the church didn’t think that participating in a lot of programs,ministries and or church activities equaled spiritual maturity.  I was amazed last year when the Willow Creek’s study came out.  I wasn’t amazed at what they discovered – I was amazed that before the study they had actually believed that if Christians participated in a certain set of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it would produce disciples of Christ who were maturing spiritually.  They were shocked when they discovered through a multiple year study that their programs weren’t that good at helping their people grow and develop spiritually. 

People like Dallas Willard have been saying this sort of thing for years.  Increased participation in church activities/programs/ministries does not produce disciples, it just produces people who spend more time at church instead of out in their communities where they could really have an impact in bringing God’s will to earth as it is in heaven.  I think churches would serve the mission of God better and promote spiritual growth in followers of Jesus more effectively by teaching, encouraging and inspiring their members to do the work of the church in their daily lives and jobs, in their neighborhoods and communities.  

Don’t get me wrong – I think there is a time and place for certain programs (so please don’t feel you need to defend the program that you are involved with) but I know from experience that a lot of the things that I have been involved in at church aren’t really that beneficial – mostly because I have done it before in a different format.  You know what I am talking about – it’s the same old bible study being taught, the same old class on how to handle my finances, the same old evangelistic course with a new name etc. etc. etc.  Is it wrong to do something for fun or enjoyment – no, it isn’t.  But our churches are depending on these things to be the catalyst of spiritual growth for me and you – and it ain’t working.

Wish Number Three

I wish the church would realize that presenting a watered down version of the gospel encourages christians to embrace spiritual immaturity. In other words, a gospel that revolves around humans gaining access to God’s presence leads to spiritual formation that is “me” oriented. When this individualistic facet of the gospel is taught, as if it is the whole gospel, we end up with a very self centered gospel.  This self centeredness ends up leaving us comfortable in our immature state.  

What christians, and the whole world for that matter, needs is a more robust gospel – like the one that Scot McKnight talks about (check out this article at Out Of Ur). When we begin to look at a larger, more complex, multi-faceted gospel, we begin to see that the good news of Jesus Christ is concerned with more than giving us a free ticket to heaven. We begin to see that the good news is for all of creation, throughout all time, and that as recipients of God’s great gift of grace and freedom, we are called to work with him to love and care for the world we live in now. This call on our lives spurs us on to cooperate with the spirit of God that is at work in us. This meaningful, worthy, mandate that is born of and lives in love, gives us the courage and the desire to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. We desperately need a reason to go through the rigors of maturing and I believe that a larger, more robust gospel gives us that reason.

There, I got that off my chest. I feel better.

Now if I could just remember where I put that magic lamp.

Here is a list of bloggers who are taking part in this month’s synchroblog on the topic “Maturity in the Light of our Faith”:

 

 

Phil Wyman at Square No More with “Is Maturity Really What I Want?“
Lainie Petersen at Headspace with “Watching Daddy Die“
Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head with “what’s inside the bunny?“
John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com
Erin Word at Decompressing Faith with “Long-Wearing Nail Polish and Other Stories“
Beth Patterson at The Virtual Teahouse with “the future is ours to see: crumbling like a mountain“
Bryan Riley at Charis Shalom with “Still Complaining?“
Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church with “Maturity and Education“
KW Leslie at The Evening of Kent with “Putting spiritual infants in charge“
Bethany Stedman at Coffee Klatch with “Moving Towards True Being: The Long Process of Maturity“
Adam Gonnerman at Igneous Quill with “Old Enough to Follow Christ?“
Joe Miller at More Than Cake with “Intentional Relationships for Maturity“
Jonathan Brink at JonathanBrink.com with “I Won’t Sin“
Susan Barnes at A Booklook with “Growing Up“
Tracy Simmons at The Best Parts with “Knowing Him Who is From the Beginning“
Joseph Speranzella at A Tic in the Mind’s Eye with “Spiritual Maturity And The Examination of Conscience“
Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes with “vulnerable maturity“
Liz Dyer at Grace Rules with “What I Wish The Church Knew About Spiritual Maturity“
Cobus van Wyngaard at My Contemplations with “post-enlightenment Christians in an unenlightened South Africa“
Steve Hayes at Khanya with “Adult Content“
Ryan Peter at Ryan Peter Blogs and Stuff with “The Foundation For Ministry and Leading“
Kai Schraml at Kaiblogy with “Mature Virtue“
Nic Paton at Sound and Silence with “Inclusion and maturity“
Lew Ayotte at The Pursuit with “Maturity and Preaching“