Radical: Returning to Our Roots

No matter what first pops into your head when you hear words like “emergent” or “missional,” one of the byproducts of these movements has been a major theme in many Christian books in the last decade:   We need to recapture more of Christian discipleship as it was understood by the early church.

That’s the good news.   The bad news is that this theme is much overdone in some sectors of Christian publishing.

Enter Radical by David Platt.

Beginning with the story we call “The Rich Young Ruler,” and also the story of the scribe (“Foxes have holes…”) Platt is convinced that at times, Jesus seems to be doing all he can to drive followers away, because the demands of discipleship are so high.

So high, and so removed from what we in North America and Western Europe have made Christianity into.  So removed also from Christianity as it is practiced under threat of persecution and even martyrdom.   Have we messed up all of Jesus’ priorities?

In addition to the book, the publisher has released a booklet The Radical Question (shown in foreground of the picture) for giveaway by churches, sold in packages of ten.   You can request a free copy of that at www.WaterBrookMultnomah.com/RadicalQuestion

This review is a bit sparse because we were only given the first chapter of the larger book, however, you’re invited to share in that as well by clicking here.

You can also learn more about the book, including a video clip from the author at this site:  www.RadicalTheBook.com

Click on the comments section of this post for more information about the author.

Digging a Little Deeper New!  From the creator of Thinking out Loud, check out something new:  Christianity 201.   Guaranteed distraction-free faith blogging with fresh posts every day.  www.Christianity201.wordpress.com

A Terrible, Horrible Worship Song

Bet that got your attention!

As a worship leader, I can remember arriving at a team practice with a new song about which I was personally excited.   “This is a great new song;” I might begin, perhaps adding, “A lot of churches have been adding this in the last few weeks.”

But really, while it’s good to have great songs, I should be wanting to arrive saying, “This is a great sentiment. It expresses something from our hearts back to God that I think will be unique among the songs we’re currently using.”

In fact, taken to the extreme, I could say, “Tonight we’re going to learn a new song.   It’s not particularly strong in its meter or poetic form, the chord structure is a bit awkward in a few places, and it just may be the worst new song we’ll do this year.   But I want to do it anyway, just as it was written, because of the special way it expresses the heart of the writer towards God.”

Again, it’s to say, “This isn’t a great song, but it’s a great sentiment.”   And then, while making improvements as they might suggest themselves, to otherwise leave the song with the vulnerabilities or ‘warts’ it had when the writer went public with it.

…God’s not impressed with our technical proficiency as He is with us truly wanting to be in His presence, truly wanting to give back to Him much more of the love that we owe.

Midweek Link List

It’s time for some lynx links:

• Prodigal Magazine interviews Michael Catt, pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church, creators of the films Facing the Giants and Fireproof with questions about is role as a pastor, author and film producer.
  
• The Church of England announces Monday that N. T. Wright will be stepping down from his position as Bishop of Durham. [HT: Jon Rising]
  
• Is the schedule of activities at your church somewhat frenetic?  Maybe your church is over-programmed and you ought to consider Jared Wilson’s suggestion to under-program.
  
• Lots of people linking to this piece at Resurgence, “How I Pastor My Family” by Justin Hyde.
• How about this curiosity piece?  From The Thinklings:  Good Advice From Miley Cyrus.
• The caption to this photo reads, December 1940. “Itinerant preacher from South Carolina saving souls of construction workers at Camp Livingston job near Alexandria, Louisiana.”  See the image — clickable to larger size — at Shorpy.
• This has echoes of something Francis Chan would do:  A church in Fayetteville, Georgia says, “We don’t need no stinkin’ building;” and cashes out of its facility to put the money into ministry.  Read the article at Monday Morning Insight.  (No sir, your building is not “stinkin’” – please don’t write.)
• Here in the north, we don’t get to see firsthand the vitriol dished out politically in the name of religion.   So we missed this bumper sticker entirely.   Sounds good on the surface, but Psalm 109:8-9 actually reads: “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars! May they be driven from their ruined homes…” Joe Bird discusses this at the blog Rebel Pilgrim.
• Here’s another connection to Monday Morning Insight you don’t want to miss:
  

  “Pastors don’t need to give up on adults, but if we’re good stewards, we need to be putting a lot of eggs in the kid basket. Even better, we need to target our very young leaders. The most strategic time for developing effective and ethical leaders is a 4-year threshold we call the 10-13 Window. Unfortunately, very few church staff are leadership savvy. They confuse it with discipleship and service. And preteen/middle school ministries always tend to be low on the church totem pole.”

  Start reading here and then don’t miss the link to a rather unique organization called Kid Lead.

• Congratulations to Canadian singer Matt Brouwer — pictured at right — who won this year’s Gospel/Contemporary Christian category in the Juno awards, Canada’s equivalent to the Grammy Awards.   We now have only one Christian category at the Junos and this is it.
• Speaking of music, Christianity 201 goes hunting on YouTube for classic Jesus Music from the 1980s and turns up a classic song from the normally not-so-mellow band Servant.
• Wendy Gritter of New Direction Ministries checks out the Drew Marshall show and decides that Spencer Burke and Tim Challies on the same radio interview represents a clash of pardigms.
• And speaking of Challies, I think that’s where I found the link to this very powerful 90-second short film on YouTube titled This Was Grace.
• That, in turn, is the perfect lead to this link that got squeezed out last week, from the blog otherwise known as “my competition at Christian Blog Topsites,”  the parenting/women’s blog called It’s Almost Naptime, with a powerful piece, Designer Babies, Designer God.
  
• I know you’ve already seen a lot of discussion on this, but Trevin Wax takes a look at a particular aspect of the Jennifer Knapp story, the interview on the Larry King Show.
  
• This week’s cartoon is from For Heaven’s Sake by Mike Morgan.  (Click image to link)

Kingdoms in Conflict

The world says ‘seeing is believing.’

Jesus teaches ‘believing is seeing.’

The world says attain wisdom

The Bible teaches we should be willing to become a fool

The world says ‘be a survivor’

Jesus taught we should be willing to lose our lives

The world says ‘go for the gold,’ achieve greatness

Jesus taught us to be willing to be the last, the least

The world exalts leaders

Jesus said we should make ourselves servants

The world exalts human potential and greatness

Jesus said we should humble ourselves

The world says ‘look out for number one’

The Bible teaches we should look out for the interests of others and count others better than ourselves

The world says ‘get all you can’

Jesus says ‘give all you can’

The world says we should make our good deeds known

Jesus taught we should keep our good deeds secret

The world says love is a feeling, it’s conditional and it will grow old

The Bible teaches the love is a lasting, unconditional commitment; love never fails

The world says we should hate our enemies

Jesus taught us to love our enemies

The world says ‘get even,’ retaliate

Jesus taught forgiveness

The world puts spin on events to cover up mistakes

Proverbs teaches us to confess our mistakes

The world emphasizes the great things human can accomplish

The prophets taught things happen ‘not by might, nor by power,’ but by God’s Spirit

The world says ‘drown your sorrows’

The Bible contrasts that with ‘be filled with the Spirit

The world operates on cynicism and skepticism

Jesus taught that all things are possible to those who believe

The world says you should consult your horoscope

Jesus talked about searching the scriptures

The world says the Bible was written by human agency only

The Bible itself claims that all Scripture is God breathed

The world says the Bible is old-fashioned and out-of-date

Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but not his truths

The world thinks Jesus was a good man

The early church confession was that Jesus is Lord

The world says Jesus is not coming back

Jesus promised ‘I will come and receive you to myself’

The world concludes, ‘I’ll never worship Jesus Christ’

The Bible says that someday every knee will bow and every voice will admit that Jesus Christ is Lord.

~adapted from Straightforward by Larry Tomczak, a classic book from the Jesus movement of the late 1970s; references for any italicized lines available on request

Pastor Appreciation Minute

I’m exhausted.

I don’t know why it is, but serving in any capacity in a church on Sunday morning is always draining.   And I don’t do it that often.   And this wasn’t anything close to a large crowd.  This was the third time in six months, so I’m tracking a pattern close to “once every eight weeks.”   Hardly full-time ministry.

What if I had to do this every Sunday?    Plus board meetings?   Plus counseling?    Plus visitation?

I started an outline on the subject of worship, but it just didn’t take root.   So Thursday I was back to square one.  Although I don’t believe in recycling notes, this time around I redeveloped a sermon from the files.   About ninety minutes to recopy it and update some of the scripture readings from NIV to NLT and Message.   (A daring move considering this is an older congregation.)   Then thirty minutes later on Saturday to go over it all.

And it went well, based on their comments.

I think it simply went different. Congregations need to hear a different voice now and then.

Anyway… once again I have a great respect for pastors.   Is there something you can do to drop a note of encouragement to your pastor this week?   Do it!   Don’t wait for some card company version of “Pastor Appreciation Week.”

Personal Confession

Here’s the dirt on Paul Wilkinson:  I’m a very boring person.   Although I think I can hold a “cocktail party style” conversation on a variety of topics with a variety of people, I’ve been, as Drew Marshall might say, “doin’ the Jesus thing” for a lot of years.   As conversant as I might try to be on a variety of subjects, I live and work in a world of Christian ministry.   So you can try to get me going on some things, but certain areas — import cars, domestic red wines, and just about any sport you can name — are going to be a wipeout.

As a result, I have a high regard for bloggers who are faith-focused, and little time for bloggers who ramble on about the latest tech gear, cute things their kids did this week, and pictures of their last vacation.  (The last issue having much to do with envy and covetousness.)

Anyway, that’s my confession.

It shouldn’t be.   I’m realizing that I need to cut loose and relax those standards a bit.   When Steve McCoy at Reformissionary talks about his favorite music, or Pete Wilson at Without Wax highlights those great parenting moments; these things are what make these pastors real and transparent.   I should be celebrating those blogs here.

What I am coming to be less tolerant of involves the very “faith-focused” blogs to which a few years ago I would have given the highest marks.   The problem is their passion has absolutely no relatability to their congregation.   They live in a world of doctrine, a world of theology, a world of acadæmia, a world of church leadership challenges, a world of church government issues.  Truth be told, I believe they are largely writing to other pastors, carrying on a professional conversation that will tide them over until the next conference.

Their congregational members must cringe when they read their blogs.  “Who is this guy?”  “How can he relate to what I’m going through?”

In fact, I’m not even sure I should be the one apologizing.   This blog, although somewhat narrow in its spiritual focus, at least cuts loose with some cartoons, some offbeat ‘religious’ news stories, some speculative “what if?” editorials.  Besides my family wouldn’t be all that interesting to most of you, and my hobbies are few and far between.

But by comparsion, maybe I’m not really the one who is boring.

So how’s life at your computer?  Does your pastor’s blog relate to you, or is he off in another universe? Who do you think has a good chance at the World Series this year?*

*Answer only questions one and two… please.

Christian Pickup Lines Reprise

This one first appeared here two years ago.    Rowena from Australia still blogs at  Small Steps to Glory and reported at the time that there’s a group on Facebook for the appreciation of Christian Pick-up lines. Here’s some samples she chose:

“I didn’t believe in predestination until tonight.”

“I believe one of my ribs belongs to you.”

“Hey.. i would work 7 years for your sister.. but I would work 7 more years for you.”

“Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead”

“You put the ‘cute’ back in persecution…”

“Feel free to meet me at the threshing floor.”

“You’re totally depraved but I’d still like to go out with you…”

“I’m interested in full time ministry, and not only that… I also play the guitar.”

“Look, you’re nearly 22.  Most Christians are 3 years into marriage by now… just settle for me.”

“Have you died before?   Because that looks like a resurrection body to me..”

“I would have asked you out to dinner, but I just put all my money in the offering basket.”

“Hi, I’m Calvin. You were meant to choose me.”

“All I’m looking for is a Godly woman.  I don’t care that you’re not attractive.” (That will go down well for sure)

“Can I buy you a non-alcoholic beverage?”

“My favorite species of vegetation is the church plant.”

“I have many sponsor children. one in each developing nation.”

“Who’s your favorite apostle?”

“The word says ‘Give drink to those who are thirsty, and feed the hungry’; how about dinner?”

“I have familiarized myself with all 5 love languages, in fact, I invented 4 of them.”

[check the person's shirt tag] “Just as i thought… made in heaven.”

“For you I would slay two Goliaths”

Surfing the Christianity/Faith Blogs

I thought it might be helpful to elaborate about the dozen or so links that appear in the blogroll here under the category “links.”

The ALLTOP links take you to the three related pages directly.   Church and Christianity have a great deal of overlap, while Religion is a grab bag of bloggers of various faiths, including some Christian blogs not listed in the other two categories.

The TRAKKRZ links are somewhat based on the Alltop bloggers and actually aren’t working as I type this.

Some of the other ones linked there are self explanatory.   The first one ever to appear there, SITES UNSEEN is sadly in need of an overhaul, and still refuses to list this blog after many e-mails and many promises.

It’s the WORDPRESS links I want to discuss.   The thing I like about these is the opportunity to interact with blogs just seconds after something has been posted.    If you click on the Christianity link, you’ll see all the posts in recent minutes (or hours as you scroll back) from Christian blogs.

But you can also type the word Christianity into the search field.   It will give you blogs that have simply used the word from a variety of perspectives.   However the first screen you see that way is somewhat useless, you want to click on the link that says “Show the most recent.”  (WordPress distinguishes between relevant and recent in all its searches.)

Now you’re cooking!   You’ll see every WordPress blog that is using the word Christianity.    Read the screen.   Now refresh the page.   Chances are that in the minute it took you to scan the screen, a number of other bloggers posted.

It’s mind-boggling (or should that be mind-blogging?) how many words, sentences and paragraphs are being committed to the blogosphere every second.   Is that a good thing? You can click further back to see other pages, but remember that after many minutes what you knew as page one, may now be page four or page seven, or whatever.

You can also pursue different words:  faith, God, Jesus, religion, doctrine; or you can get a lot more specific than that.   I just typed Arminian and there have only been four posts today as opposed to 20 for Calvinist, including a few where the bloggers are already on the next day’s dating.   Then again Wesleyans and Pentecostals don’t blog as much as their Reformed counterparts.   (As an added feature, WordPress will tell you its most active tags overall; just now it was Music, followed by News, Politics and Life.)

Remember that the links I’ve posted will only give results for blog which have a general theme overview.    For a specific word, you need to type it in AND click on “Show the Most Recent.”   (I forgot two days ago and got caught up in a September, 2009 discussion, posting a comment that probably no one will ever see.)

It’s also a great way to interact with people who are hostile to Christianity, since they’ll be using the word in their post.   It’s a good idea to read back through a blog’s history before you think about leaving comments.

WordPress needs to lose the “most relevant” criteria.   Blogging is all about interacting with issues in something close to real time, and being directed to September, 2009 posts just isn’t helpful no matter how good they were.

Better Than Roberts Rules of Order

You can’t expect to run a society by the rules of parliamentary debate, but it often seems like a little bit of civility and decency might be in order.   So it seems rather timely that George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation should be released by so many publishers over the last few years.

American kids grow up knowing the rules as part of a penmanship exercise, but the title is foreign to Canucks, Brits, Kiwis and Aussies.

Many different publishers have availed themselves of this public domain title with 24 editions printed since 2002 currently available.

One publisher, Applewood, has the lone currently-available pre-2000 edition in print and markets the book with this history:

“Copied out by hand as a young man aspiring to the status of Gentleman, George Washington’s 110 rules were based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. The first English edition of these rules was available in Francis Hawkins’ Youths Behavior, or Decency in Conversation Amongst Men, which appeared in 1640, and it is from work that Washington seems to have copied. The rules as Washington wrote them out are a simplified version of this text. However much he may have simplified them, these precepts had a strong influence on Washington, who aimed to always live by them. The rules focus on self-respect and respect for others through details of etiquette. The rules offer pointers on such issues as how to dress, walk, eat in public, and address one’s superiors.”

Prices vary from $5.99 US for a simple 52-page edition to $37.95 US for a 180-page edition with commentary.

However, you can actually read all 110 rules at this Wikipedia page (#91: Make no Shew of taking great Delight in your Victuals, Feed not with Greediness; cut your Bread with a Knife, lean not on the Table neither find fault with what you Eat) … though it’s in desperate need of a Eugene-Peterson-Message-style update.   Or maybe they can get James Reimann, the guy who updated My Utmost for His Highest.

On the other hand, KJV-only advocates should feel right at home with the language this title presents.

Better yet, here’s a question to end on:  Do they still teach any of this stuff to kids today?   Maybe we need this to be more than a writing exercise.

Related posts in this blog:  Don’t Blame Seniors (Aug. 2009)

Another reason you’ve heard the word civility in the last few days:  The head honcho of the Assemblies of God removes his name from The Covenant of Civility, perhaps rather missing the whole point in the process.   Read that story here.

Wednesday Think Links

Here’s the list for Wednesday the 21st: That means spring is one-third gone already!   (Or autumn for all our mates down under.)

• Gotta love the new style of church names, right?   Okay, maybe not all of them. The blog Out of Ur has put them all in this collection.
  
• What’s the worst thing a Methodist preacher can do?   Re-baptize someone, according to this piece by Talbot Davis at The Heart of the Matter.   Mind you, I can think of worse things!
  
• Cornerstone Church without Francis Chan?  Tell me he’s just testing his congregation again.  Here’s the 11-minute video at Resurgence.  Or listen to the message on 4/18 here.
  
• David Kenney went to church on Good Friday and Easter, only Jesus never died at the one, and never rose again at the other.   In this piece, he suggests that it’s all about life.
• Tom Datema sets the bar low enough on church “purpose statements” that any local church can attain, in this piece at Brain Twitch.
• Can you handle one more Jennifer Knapp post.  “…Let’s assume that it is a sin.  Then my question is: Can a sinful person love Jesus?  Oh! We’ve got to be so careful how we answer that question.  To me, the answer is an obvious “yes”.  It is obvious to me because my own life testifies to it.  In every season of my life, I have struggled with different sins. But in all of those seasons I have still loved Jesus.”  Read in full at Upwrite.
  
• All those progressive Christian radio stations can keep playing Owl City, now that Adam Young has hit the online pages of Christianity Today.
  
• Colin at the blog simply titled Words has an analogy on the subject of “constructive reconstruction” of faith with the piece, My Brother the Bike Mechanic.
• Jon Acuff from Stuff Christians Like finally gets around to doing a book promo video, but you might draw more from this CNN clip of a piece he appeared in.  (Canadian readers:  Does John Roberts hint at the end that he attends North Point?)
• Allen Flemming, who claims an intimate knowledge of the family says that Canadian David DiSabatino’s DVD documentary on Larry Norman has got it all wrong, setting up a website refuting Fallen Angel called Failed Angle.
• Pastor Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv re-establishes his church’s purposes in The Code, a series of 13 statements spread out over three blog posts at Swerve.   You’ll have to click here and then head for April 14, 15 and 16 posts; but they’re good reading.  (Or see them all in the comments section here.)
• Andrew Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi, has a balanced look at discernment ministries in 10 Ways to Keep Watchdogs from Barking.
• Jason Wert is thankful for Anne Jackson drawing attention to the issue of human trafficking in Moldova, but suggests this event has been going on for a long while, even in the United States.
• Adrienne at the blog, Contemplative Life, has a short post here introducing a piece by Ann Voskamp about Ann’s daughter’s baptism.   Start here, and then click the link to Ann’s piece.
• Bill at the blog, A New Language for Christians, puts a more modern spin on the story of the good Samaritan.
  
• This week’s cartoon is from Thom Tapp at Baptist Press:
  

Reblogging: The Lost Art of Giving

One of the downsides of regular tithing to ones local church is that we can sometimes feel that we’ve ended our obligation to do anything else in a financial sense. Don’t get me wrong, the local church where you receive teaching, fellowship and spiritual nurture should be the first priority, when you look at where your money is going. But once done, your heart should still be open to the possibility of responding to other needs you hear about or see around you.

I’ll get back to that in a minute. First I want to consider another set of possibilities.

There are many people — especially in the blogosphere — who have gotten burned out on the whole church thing. Entire shelves in Christian bookstores are devoted to this theme. Those people are not current attending anywhere, which means many are not currently making financial contributions to the work of building the Kingdom of God. If you’re one of them, it’s possible that as the income tax deadline approaches (less than two weeks in the U.S. and four weeks in Canada) you’re realizing you don’t have the charitable deductions you may have had in the past.

For the people in either of the first or third paragraphs above, I want to suggest some guidelines that I have found helpful in choosing projects to support. I came up with some of this at a time we had no money at all, but am no trying to apply these things to some situations I have been aware of and trying to become more generous in my* giving.

*”My” in this case really meaning “our;” because I don’t do this alone but in consultation with my wife.

1. How great is the need? Is this a project that one or two people can help with, or is going to take a lot of people pulling together to make this happen? Sometimes we tend to bail out if the need is huge, thinking our contribution won’t make a difference. Other times, if the need is small, we think someone else will take care of it.
2. How urgent is the need? If the organization or project needs finances now, it means people need to respond now.
   
3. How visible is the project or need? Item (1) notwithstanding, there is an organization I know of that is so very visible that I sometimes find myself looking at projects I think may be off the radar of other people.
4. How able is the constituency to support itself? Some people think that the people who most benefit from a ministry or organization should be the people who are supporting it. But that’s not the case with ministry to the poor, or to youth, or to seekers and new believers who haven’t yet learned the principle of giving.
5. How much of my gift will go directly to meeting the need? As with anything financial, we need to be shrewd; we need to be good stewards. Make sure the need is real and that someone’s plight is being exploited to maintain the organization itself. Giving in this sense may take the form of giving directly to an individual or family, bypassing the tax receipt.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you live in Canada and are looking for some practical suggestions on giving, e-mail me (see the contact-us button) and depending on the response you’ll get either a personal reply or a copy of some suggestions.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

April 20, 2010 update:  Sorry for the reblog today.  Things just got busy.   Link list for tomorrow is ready to go.

ReChurch: A Book About Healing, Restoration and Renewal

After more than a decade of writing about the lives of others, author Stephen Mansfield looks at his own experience, and in the process delivers what must certainly be his most significant book to date.

ReChurch:  Healing Your Way Back to the People of God is aimed directly at the all-too-common condition in which individuals find themselves estranged from a local church they love, and had found a place of service.   The book is also written in such a way that it functions on another level for pastors who find themselves in this identical situation.

If the book offers one thing — and it certainly offers much more — it is empathy.   Mansfield has been there personally and also offers the examples of history as well as Biblical stories of people who know what is like to be wounded, or to be outcast.

I’m reminded of an experience I had in the Syrian Desert.  I was speaking with an Arab friend of how foreign the desert is to me and how — raised as an Army brat in Germany and now living in Tennessee — lush hills and flowing rivers are more to my liking.  My friend took humorous offense and began extolling the glories of the “desert under God.”   Waving his arms in what I am sure were ancient ways, he said, “There is as much life in the desert as there is in the sea, but you must know where to find it.”

I cannot judge whether he was right about the physical desert because I have worked hard to spend as little time there as possible.   I am sure, however, that he is right about spiritual deserts.  In other words, during our dry and painful spiritual seasons, there is much life to be found, be we have to find it in places we have never considered before, digging for it in ways we have not yet tried.

Using a masterful economy of words, he allows also that sometimes we are victims of things beyond our control, while at other times we form recurring patterns in our journey.   He also avoids situations where want to lash out at those who have ambushed us, realizing that God may have had a part in all that happened; all the while recognizing that these choices may run counter to our natural instincts:

I grew to hate sermons on forgiveness, even my own.   They convicted me, true, and I did the things I was asked to do to deal with my offense and hurt.  But it seldom worked and I soon came to understand that there was a stronghold in my soul.  It seemed as though my inner life was coated with Velcro that trapped hurt and offense and held it tight.   Though I thought of myself as a fairly loving person, I could never let the impact of being wronged go.  I fed it.  I fantasized about it.  I even used it to fuel my intensity in sports or my efforts to rise in the world.  Because I could not let what offended me go, I used it as fuel and this only caused it to attach more firmly to that Velcro of my soul.

Relate?  I know I do.   The final chapter, “Coming Home,” deals with the recovery process, using covenant theology as a way of rethinking what the Church is and what should guide our decisions to reconnect.

ReChurch is available in hardcover from Tyndale under the Barna imprint, and in the foreword, George Barna shares his own personal experience with all that this book entails.   My one regret is that the book was so concise that I have liked to dwell longer in some of its subjects rather than the 166 digest-sized pages; however this work is really a pivotal, transitional title for Mansfield, and I’ll grant him a very high recommendation, on the condition he promises to write more of the same.

Seeds, Roots, Branches, Fruit

Today’s post is a simulpost with the blog,  Christianity 201.

A guy I knew locally, Paul Kern, is now pastoring the Highland Park Wesleyan Church in Ottawa, Ontario the capital city of Canada. I decided to see what he was up to by checking the church’s website and got more than I hoped for.

This chart shows their purpose as a church. The third horizontal section is about their particular ministries and won’t make a lot of sense to you and I, but I left it intact, since it shows how a theoretical purpose is played out in practical ways through their weekly programs and special events.  Here’s what it says:

“Our purpose at Highland Park Wesleyan Church is simple: We want to be disciples who go out and make disciples.

“Many people are at different places on their spiritual journey and the design of our ministry is to meet your spiritual needs where you are and help you along on your Christian path. We believe God wants us to be consistent in our growth and maturity as Christians.

“Our plan is similar to many good churches, and is taken directly from the journey Jesus invites us to in the Bible. These are the milestones of our Christian Journey that Highland Park endeavors to help us through as we hear Christ inviting us to:

The Tree in the Garden

It was a simple test.   Other than this, you can do anything you want to, just don’t touch that tree over there.   Yeah, that one.

Adam and Eve lived in less complex times.   It was a good time to be alive if you were bad at remembering peoples’ names.   Or not so good at history.   And the only moral law they had was “The One Commandments.”  Thou shalt not touch the fruit of the tree in the middle.

You know the tree.  The one that looks so inviting.  The one thing you can’t have.   The big fluffy tree that’s like a giant “Wet Paint” sign that’s just begging you to touch your finger to it.   Except they didn’t have paint back then.

Anyway, you know how that story ended.

I believe that throughout history there has always been a tree in the middle of the garden.   It’s there in the garden of our world.   In the garden of our society.   In the garden of our nation.   In the garden of our community.   In the garden of our families.   In the garden of our hearts.

There’s always a tree.

The warning not to touch its fruit is given to some by direct command, though others believe that the idea of not tasting of its bounty is written on the hearts of people; they simply know.

Some people say that everyone knows this, some people think people do need to be commanded, to have it spelled out for them; while others spend long hours drinking hot beverages wondering what then of the people who haven’t heard of the command.

In some cases, there is always one large tree to confront.   In other cases there are several trees which must be avoided.    Some reach a point where they simply lose interest in the forbidden fruit, it no longer tempts them, only to find themselves looking squarely at another tree, which holds a similar prohibition.

“Why, when I have lived my whole life never having been tempted to touch the tree in the middle of the garden, do I find myself now, at this stage of life, looking squarely at another tree in another part of the garden which is so very captivating, but apparently so equally off limits?”

Many, therefore, succumb.

Meanwhile others say there are no trees that are verboten.   The time of such restrictions has passed, and one is free to enjoy all the fruit of all the trees.   They entice others to eat, and the penalty for such as trespass doesn’t seem to befall these, though the eating of the fruit does leave a kind of stomach ache that lasts for a long, long, long, time.

At the other extreme are those who manage to transcend all of the temptations and all of the trees.   These people enjoy a kind of regret-free, stomach-ache free existence.   They are above such weaknesses.  They don’t eat the fruit.   They don’t touch the tree.   They stay away from all the trees in all the gardens that might be simply wrong to taste, touch or even look back on.

They are however, rather quick to condemn those who who do succumb.   “We warned them;” they say.   “We put up signs that pointed people to the other trees; the safe, practical trees; the open spaces free of vegetation.”

They do this, not realizing, that their response is their tree.

Their careful analysis of the condition of gardens inhabited by weak people who do in fact stumble, who do in fact fail; their commentary on the nature of human weakness; their lack of compassion for those who have been unable to resist the appeal of the tree and its fruit… somehow… in some way… that became their tree.

They have gazed at it.   They have touched its trunk, its branches and its leaves.   They have tasted its fruit.

They are really no different.

For all have missed it; coming up short in understanding of the true nature of the creator and his expectations.

They forgot to look at the tree they were standing next to all along.

What Happens Next?

A few days back I blogged an excerpt from the forthcoming book, Reborn to be Wild by Ed Underwood (David C. Cook).   Here’s another sample:

What happens when the judges have all been appointed and the lawsuits have ended?  Only faith in Christ can change a life on the inside.

When the schools have all been reoriented and the curricula have been sensitized to God’s eternal truth, what then?  Classrooms will still be full of rebellious hearts.  Only God’s Spirit can internalize the Word of God.

What happens when the wars have been been fought, the soldiers have come home, and the suffering is over?   Jesus Himself told us that peace couldn’t last.   Only in His kingdom will the world know lasting peace.

When the votes have all been counted and even if our side wins, what then?   Each and every man and woman, boy and girl who has lived in the most righteous nation in history yet has not heard and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ will, when they die, slip into the darkness of a godless eternity.