Rich's Blog

Blessings

2009-02-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

A roof
Four walls to call my own
A pillow for my head
Clothes for my children

A Wife
Two healthy children
Meaningful work
Trustworthy friends

And a bike...

Thank you God.

The Greatest Sin...

2009-01-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Adam and Eve's sin had nothing to do with fruit.

In popular culture, everything from Desperate Housewives to the Real Housewives of Orange County (or Atlanta, New York, Bismarck? - pick your spinoff) depicts an alluring fruit in the hands of a beautiful woman and suggests that being a little naughty isn't such a bad thing. Good for Adam and Eve! is the subtext - if they hadn't taken the fruit, we would have had such a boring existence.

Not exactly...

Adam and Eve had it really good before they took the fruit. God himself would come and walk with them in the cool of the evening. They had a beautiful place to live. No suffering, no excessive pain. And they had each other. Even sex BEFORE the fruit was bitten was better than sex after the fall.

They had meaningful work. They were given a day to simply rest from their work and enjoy creation. Life was good.

Their first (and really the root of all) sin was to believe that they were better at being god than God himself. The fruit was there to make sure they let God stay God, and that the creations wouldn't start to worship the creation. As soon as that order was messed up, everything got worse.

The fruit didn't open up a beautiful and naughty world of little sins. It led directly to murder - from the hand of one brother to the heart of another. Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground...

I recently had a couple of my classes design their own god and share it with the class. They tried all sorts of ideas, but they all had flawed deities - much more flawed than the alleged flaws that so many find with YHWH, the God of the Bible.

We are all tempted with the fruit - to think that God should match up to our own depiction of who God should be. We all sometimes think that God would be so much better if He would only do what I want.

But I'm a really bad deity.

I don't want God's job.

Father, I trust you.

Amen.

It's Been A While...

2009-01-30T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long. I've started a second job. Lifesong is growing in faith and numbers and things are really good. I'll post more in the coming days, but I just wanted to check in and say I'm still here, God is still good, and I've got some new ideas to share in the future...

God's peace, Rich

A Holy Discontent Part 2... Hollywood, Jesus, and the Missouri Synod

2008-06-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting on a couch in a rather warm, un-air-conditioned room at Concordia University in Irvine. I'm here with the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) for a conference on mission. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the alphabet soup of denominationalism, the LCMS is known widely as the conservative branch of Lutheranism in North America. They would point out that they are WAY to the left of the Wisconsin Synod. I'm just entertained by the fact their both named for other states and yet they have churches in California.

I got to go out to dinner last night with a few presenters and some mission-minded Pastors. Around the table was a guy who worked on a bunch of TV shows (including House!!!), a veteran producer, a guy who produced Snoop Dogg DVDs, and a couple of guys from the band The Daylights who just finished opening up for One Republic (...it's too late to apologize... - you know the song). All of them were Jesus' disciples, and all of them took their art and their faith seriously. It was an amazing conversation to witness and be a part of.

It used to be that these guys working in hollywood would have been villified for being part of the evil establishment of the "liberal" entertainment industry. Instead, this group of theologically conservative pastors embraced these young artists as brothers, fellow-pilgrims, and fellow apprentices - learning to follow Jesus and live as Jesus would in a place where Jesus and his followers are often mocked.

There is indeed a holy discontent alive and well in the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod. The pastors I got to know last night are tired of fighting the old fights. They are looking for the Church to move past knee-jerk reactions and criticisms so that the Church can be known for its love, its intelligence, and its support for good art.

In the words of Bono, "God is on the move"...

A heartfelt thanks to my friends in the Missouri Synod. Keep dreaming Jesus' dreams...

God's Peace, Rich

God's Mission in the Bible part 3 - Covenant

2008-05-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here's part 3 of our 8 part series on God's mission in the Bible. Just click on the title to download. The beginning is cut off - sorry about that. To all the good folks at La Canada's ER, email me at info@lifesongchristiancommunities.org and I'll send you an audio file of me recounting the story of your little prank in Worship last Sunday.

For everyone else, you can find parts one and two below if you'd like.

Sorry this took a few days...

God's Peace, Rich

Some Good Books...

2008-05-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of reading about the New Atheism and skepticism. There are some really great books out that question some of the basic assumptions of many of those who argue against God's existence. The Reason for God is written by a Pastor who has built a church of over 5000 people in Manhattan, many of whom are young and new to the faith. He reasons for the faith intelligently and with grace. Really good stuff.

Alister McGrath is a scientist and an Oxford theologian. He examines the conclusions presented by Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion). McGrath presents some clear arguments that make a lot of sense, but he's a little nasty about it in places - disappointing because he's a brilliant thinker and a faithful Christian. Still worth a read for sure.

Guess what happened in Communist Russia when Christianity was banned by the government? That's right, Stalin became the new deity! Within years of the destruction of the Church in Russia and the murder of many clergy, songs sprouted up that claimed that "Stalin lives in your heart". Former Time journalist David Aikman makes a great point: We are wired to worship something, and if it isn't the Christian God it will likely be something more harmful - such as (he would claim) atheism.

Why does the Church insist on meeting in large buildings? Where does the idea of a paid Pastor who is uniquely gifted to preach come from? Frank Viola is a committed Christian who claims that most of the modern Church's traditions come from assimilated pagan rituals - not from the Bible. I'm being stretched by this book, but I think he's on to something here...

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

2008-05-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/

A few years ago, every conservafundagelical church in the country advertized the greatest evangelism opportunity in the history of the world: The Passion of the Christ. I saw it. Twice. I took over ten people with me. It was perhaps the most important movie I've ever seen, and it shook me to my core.

It fell flat with just about everyone else.

As Christians, we sometimes think that if we just get the story out in a bigger venue, then people will flock to the faith. The lack of conversions caused by the Passion seems to refute that point. Before the gospel can be welcomed, we need to earn the right to be heard in the public marketplace of ideas. The Church sometimes still acts as if our neighbors are just waiting for us to shout the message in the right key or at the right volume or in the right pictures for them to flock to our doors. They are not waiting for us to say anything differently. They are waiting for (if anything) us to repent.

Before Jesus asked us to believe, he asked us to repent - to examine ourselves, confess our brokenness, and commit to a new way of living. Repenting comes before believing in Mark 1: 14.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers gets it. Dan Merchant is a believer, a committed-to-his-core disciple who understands that WE need to follow Jesus' example of repenting first (something about a splinter and a log comes to mind...) and telling others what to believe later. Perhaps even deeper, Merchant argues that it is more important to love than to get our theology right.

This is a brilliant movie. Check it out at the links above or below and click the free preview.
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/

God's Peace, Rich
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

A Holy Discontent...

2008-05-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

I recently took my Lutheran pilgrimage. Once in every Lutheran's lifetime they have to go to the holy land of the Midwest, where all things Scandinavian still prosper, where the sacraments are happily discussed on a Tuesday morning in a coffee shop. The Midwest is in many ways like an entirely different world than Southern California. Denominationalism still runs strong there. There are 29 Lutheran churches in Bismarck, North Dakota. 29!!!!

That's why I was so schocked to find such a holy discontent in many of the Pastors, worship leaders, and lay-people from Bismarck to Minneapolis. Now - let me be clear - this is a HOLY discontent because it is not negative name-calling of the church. It is a clear understanding that the world has changed but the Church has refused to speak to the world in terms it can understand. There are so many Christians who are tired of seeing the world through the eyes of the 16th century, and we are desperate for the Church to come together and find a way to BE the Church the world needs in the 21st Century.

So I am heartened to see a holy discontent is alive and well even in the heartland. One leader in a church said that this is God's refining time for the Church - letting the dead parts die off so something new can rise up in its place. We are starting to "get it". God is up to something new. Let's pray even more fervently, study with more missional eyes, and give our very lives so that we might be a part of God's ongoing mission in the world.

God's peace, Rich

God's Mission in the Bible 2: The Fall - Rich Gregory

2008-04-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Click on the title to hear the second in our 8 part sermon on God's mission in the Bible. You can download it and listen on your computer/mp3 player...

God's Mission in the Bible 1: Creation - Scott McClaury

2008-04-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Click on the title to download Scott's sermon on creation and how it applies to God's mission. You can then download it to your ipod or play it on your computer...

Life After Death (after life after death)...

2008-03-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

We slipped. We've all done it - just said the wrong thing at the wrong time. The other night while we were putting Nate to bed he asked a TOUGH question, to which we replied, "you'll have to ask God when you get to heaven"... A reasonable enough response.

"I DON'T WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN!!!"

"I WANT TO BE HERE WITH YOU!!!"

I wonder if we ever really get over that response to our own death.

Nate knew that "heaven" was the place people went after they "died" - a concept about which he knew very little except for the fact that when someone "died" and went to "heaven" he NEVER got to see, touch, talk to, cuddle, wrestle, or laugh with them again. This "heaven" was becoming the place where our loved-ones went so that we couldn't be near them again. To a 4 year old, "you'll see them one day" doesn't hold a lot of meaning...

But WE grown-ups know better, right?

What is heaven? What happens to us after we die? We know as Christians that we have the same hope that saved Jesus from a sealed tomb, but I think our models and metaphors for what that might look like are really quite inadequate, unimaginative, and often-times unbiblical.

The only time most of us ever think about "heaven" is after a friend or family member has died and we're at the funeral. Trying to cope, various people will stand at the microphone and either claim that their friend is looking down on us, or has become an angel, or is in a better place. Where do we get these ideas? Are they biblical?

The short answer is yes. And no.

The Bible does promise us that for those of us who are "in Christ" there is a hope. Those who have departed are not, as we fear so deeply, just simply gone.

For followers of Jesus, we know that we will share in His resurrection at the end of the age. But the end of the age isn't here yet, so what happens to us if we die between now and then?

The NT concept is that we are "asleep" in the Lord.

The British Priest and Physicist John Polkinghorne says that in this sleep we are conscious and cared for, but we are not yet fully and bodily resurrected. One way to look at it is that our software (our thoughts, emotions, feelings, memories - everything that makes us, us!) is downloaded onto God's harddrive until our hardware (the physical body) is renewed. After our bodies have been transformed, our "software" is then downloaded and we are - for the first time - whole.

So what we REALLY are looking forward to is not "life after death" - the state of sleep described above, but instead "life after life after death" - in which our bodies will be resurrected and transformed without the effects of sin and decay. We will be as Jesus was after his body passed through the grave clothes - remember, the wrappings were empty - it wasn't his soul that was resurrected, it was ALL of him.

We will be, like Jesus, the same, yet different.

And when we become like Jesus, God will bring heaven and Earth together in the act of new creation. War will end. Poverty will end. I won't be able to manipulate you to get what I want any more. God will save and transform everything, and we get to be a part of that "new creation" NOW, as we follow Jesus. Wow.

Unfortunately, I can't explain all this to Nate yet. I'll just tell him that heaven is a happy place where we will be together and where we'll be even closer to God. But I can't wait to one day tell him the whole story...

I owe almost all of these ideas to Polkinghorne, NT Wright, and Dr. Nancey Murphy.

Faith and works...

2008-01-30T16:11:00.001-08:00

I spent A LOT of time teaching Jr. High kids in confirmation classes about the tension between faith and works in the Christian faith. The more I read the Bible, and live my faith, the less tension I'm seeing.

Maybe it's time to put this classic debate from the reformation to rest. It has divided denominations, and it has led to many Christians having an anemic faith that is purely "spiritual" or emotional. If you have a faith that is divorced from how you live, your faith isn't worth much to your neighbors.

I think most Christians would say something like this: Our faith inspires and empowers us to live differently. There is a myth that all Christians who sin are somehow hypocrites. The truth is that becoming more like Jesus takes time. When we first say that we want to follow Jesus, God doesn't simply remove our natural desires and tendencies. He works in and through us to reveal in us what He needs to change for us to serve Him better. He is patient with us. But over time God does change us, and we are able to live for Him more and for ourselves less.

My faith is a God-given gift, and it is the greatest gift I could receive. Faith saves me. But my faith, if it is genuine, will naturally work its way out...

Wisdom.

2008-01-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

James 1: 5

"If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you."

Wisdom seems to be in short supply these days. Many of us (often myself included) seem to be living in a world that defies reality. The recent mortgage crisis is just one example; we were led to believe that home equity lines were like Monopoly money, that our homes would grow in value indefinitely, and that the measure of our worth was how beautifully and quickly we could remodel our homes.

Reality bites.

And when reality bites, we're left with the consequences of the unwise decisions we've made.

So where can we get some wisdom? The kind of wisdom that helps us to know what is sound and what is foolish; the difference between good and bad, right or wrong?

The New Testament answers this question repeatedly - for those of us who follow Jesus, we can go directly to God and ask for guidance and wisdom. The tough part is that we're all interconnected - the decisions that we make have a profound effect on our neighbors, and so even the wisdom and guidance we receive from God don't always take away the negative repurcussions from the bad decisions made either by ourselves or by our neighbors. If God is to honor the integrity of our decisions, and our dignity as creatures made in His image, His change and wisdom has to take time. And that can sometimes feel like an eternity, or like God just isn't there...

But God's promise is that He will be faithful. If we ask, He will answer. That is a truth that is too profound to really wrap my brain around...

Think about that for a second: The creator of the universe has come down to our level and told us that we can approach Him with whatever we need. We don't need a Priest or a Pastor. Because of what God has done through Jesus, God has brought us near to Himself. That is the heart of the Gospel: "...God's peace and justice has been made available to you... (Mark 1:14).

God cares.

Take a moment to tell Him what's on your mind, and ask for His thoughts to become your own. As God transforms us, His wisdom begins to inform our practical decisions, and if we'll allow Him in, He can and will change us to be more like Him.

May the God of all wisdom speak His truth into your life, and may your life be used in His service for all time.

Amen.

Two BIG Questions...

2008-01-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

1) What are the biggest problems facing our future?

2) What does Jesus have to say about them?

It seems to me that for those of us who follow God in the way of Jesus, these could be the two biggest questions of our lives.

I wonder what the world would look like if our faith began from this starting point, instead of my own personal quest to attain heaven (or escape hell)?

What would your community look like if living the answer to these questions was as mandatory for our faith as Church attendance on Sunday morning - what if every Christian took these questions seriously?

I can't take credit for coming up with these questions. Read more deeply about them in Brian McLaren's new book, Everything Must Change...

www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

I'm a little skeptical about skepticism...

2007-12-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

A few of us went down to Caltech the other day to see a debate between an Evangelical Christian (Dinesh D'Souza) and a "militant agnostic" - Micheal Shermer of the Skeptic Society.

I left the debate feeling a little more than skeptical about becoming a "skeptic", and I certainly didn't want to form or join a society of skeptics. Here's why...

I don't think we learn our most valuable lessons from being skeptical. I think the most beautiful and exciting moments in life come in the midst of balanced and reasoned expressions of faith.

When I'm flying down a mountain on my bike, for example, I may be skeptical and cautious regarding the upcoming hairpin turn - I may even dissect the turn in my head and decide to alter my course, brake harder, or speed up. But it took an awful lot of faith to even get to the turn...

I already had faith that my bike would hold up to the forces exerted against it; that my skill-level would be up to the descent at hand; that my inner tube would not blow up mid turn... Those are just the objects of faith at MY disposal. Think about the faith it takes to descend that mountain in regards to the actions and intentions of other people: Oncoming cars, drivers who may come up behind me, mistakes made by road crews, oil slicks from poorly-maintained vehicles, water in the road from badly-aimed sprinklers... That's a lot of faith! It takes a lot of faith to even get to the point of dissecting the upcoming turn, and faith is the only context in which we really learn (skepticism is a tool we use to understand what we are learning).

The Christian in the debate (Dinesh) made a great point about this faith/skepticism stuff; if I was truly a skeptic about my relationship with my Wife, we'd never have been married. Marriage should be a well-informed and intentional leap of faith. I didn't KNOW when I married my Wife that she would be a great Mom, but I had faith she would be. I didn't KNOW that I would be a supportive Husband, but I prayed God would give me the grace to be the Husband He wanted me to be. I didn't even really KNOW, when I really think about it, that Kristin loved me. I had to have the courage and the faith to believe that she meant what she said. If I had waited with a skeptical eye until marriage made rational sense, I'd have either married a robot or remained single, and Kristin would have eventually had "faith" in marrying someone less skeptical. My skepticism would have kept me from being with the love of my life.

Faith has brought me happiness, meaning, comfort, companionship, and two beautiful kids (they got Mama's good looks).

So a well-informed and reasoned faith defines my life (Kristin and I waited 3 1/2 years to get married - we looked before we leapt, but we did leap!). I would imagine it defines yours to, at least the parts of your life that bring you joy. Our relationship with God is no different.

To learn more about looking and leaping into faith in Jesus, check out www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

What Are You Reading?

2007-10-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

Scott suggested that we should share with each other what we're reading as a church.

Here's what's on my nightstand, in various states of completion:

Shane Hipps: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture

Overview: Shane is a recent Fuller grad who came and presented on this book in one of my classes while the book was being written. Wow. It was a whole new way of thinking. He focuses on Marshall McLuhen's philosophy (he's the guy who said "the medium is the message") and applies it directly to the church. Shane brings home the point that how we communicate a message is perhaps even more important than the message itself.

This is a must read.

Rob Bell: Sex. God.
Overview: Sitting on the nightstand. Ready to be opened...

God: The Bible
Overview: Hellooo... It's the BIBLE! I'm devouring John chapters 4&5 right now. Good stuff.

Alan Hirsch: The Forgotten Ways

Overview: I'll be reading this one for a LONG time... Alan goes back to the 1st century to examine the "missional DNA" of the church to find that mission is not something the church does - mission is the reason for the church to exist. Deep, good, practical stuff.

Feel free to respond with what you're reading...

God's peace, Rich

Read more at www.lifesongchristiancommuities.org

Home Church - Through a webcam????

2007-10-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Scott and Lori were in Connecticut, Paul, Ginny, Nathan and I all drove to Mike and Margaret's house in Camarillo, and we all met face to face to have Church... Sort of. A fairly new technology called "skype" allowed us to "webcam" with Scott and Lori in real time from 3000 miles away. It is a very different world...

As we work through Brian McLaren's The Church on the Other Side we've been asking a lot of TOUGH questions about what it means to be the church in the "postmodern" world. Last night was no exception...

Last night's chapter was an introduction to what "postmodern" means, and the kind of questions it presents to the Church.

The easiest way of getting into this, I think, is to just say that we are moving into the postmodern world, and it is a new and challenging place, particularly for those over 40 (Those over 40 are "immigrants" in the postmodern world - they have to work to understand and thrive in it). For those of us born in the '70s, we tend to think in a primarily "postmodern" way and see the world through that lens (Those of us under 40 are most likely "natives" - we see the world most naturally through a postmodern lens).

For those born in the '80s, '90s, and '00s, describing the postmodern world is almost impossible - it would be like you or I saying "the sky is blue", or "the grass is green". Those born in the last 20 years naturally see the world and know and understand their world in vastly new and different ways than ANY other previous generation in history. The Church has an awesome opportunity here... Generations of young people are seeing the world in a new way and they are generally more open to spirituality than their "modern" and rationalistic parents.

We'll dive into this later, but for now let's just start thinking about how we know things... Ask yourself these questions. If you have a few minutes, just copy and paste the questions into a new document or an email and type out your answers. Feel free to email them to me if you want to discuss them more deeply.

- How do I know something is true? Is it because of the experience of learning about it? The person or book or (insert other media) that informed me? The trustworthiness of the subject in question?
- Why do I follow Jesus (why am I a Christian)? How do I know that Christianity is true?

These questions are at the heart of what it means to be a Christian in the postmodern world, and those who naturally see the world through a postmodern lens naturally answer these questions very differently than those of us born over 40 years ago (unless we have forced ourselves to learn about postmodernity)...

God's Peace, Rich

Check out Lifesong's website at http://www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org/

Little Miss Sunshine and the Christian Facade...

2007-09-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

I love weird movies. I love the movies that peel away the veneer of daily life and really dig around in what we're all really like. Little Miss Sunshine is one of those movies; it's characters are multi-dimesional, it's plot is surprising and moves at a brisk pace, and when the movie is over you feel like you've learned something about life that will help you deal with it a little better. That is quite an accomplishment considering that Steve Carell's character is suicidal; "Duane", the teenage boy, reads Nietzche for fun and has taken a vow of silence; his Dad (played by Greg Kinnear) is the annoying 9-steps to self-help guy you hope to avoid at your company's convention; the Grandfather is addicted to heroine and curses like a sailor; and the Mom of the family is understandably just struggling to cope - sneaking cigarettes when no one else is looking. Everyone in this movie is struggling to get by, and there are no easy answers.

The true star of the show is Olive - a 9 year old rather, ummmm, homely-looking young lady who is convinced that she is really destined to be a beauty queen. Her belief is so pure, and her devotion so complete - including countless hours of rehearsal on a secret dance routine choreographed by her Grandfather, that the rest of her family finds hope and meaning in helping her become the beauty queen that she knows she can be.

There's a lot to say about this movie, and by the end of it I really felt like I had been blessed with a candid and truthful expression of a lot of the feelings we all feel but are either too ashamed or too committed to holding everything together to let out. More than anything, I found it refreshing that there was no one who was superhuman in this movie. They all had sins that were laid bare in front of the lens, and yet each of these people had moments in which they acted with dignity, humility, and honor - even if the outcomes of their intentions were derailed. It kind of reminds me of Luther's comment about Christians: we are both saint and sinner at the same time.

It's funny, but of all the people in the movie I most wanted to hang out with the suicidal character and the teenage boy who wouldn't talk and said (on a notepad) that he "hated everyone". In the moments when the two of them were together, there was no pretense in their conversations, and there was a genuinely human connection between them that ensured that they worked to protect each other. Upon Carell's first night "home" in Duane's house, Duane is forced to share a room with his suicidal Uncle. Before going to bed Duane scribbles on his pad, "Don't kill yourself tonight, okay?". Carell responds, "Not tonight, not on your watch", and a fast friendship is born. They were both DESPERATE for some real human interaction, and the teenager's concern for Carell, although it was masked behind pen, paper, and the implicit assumption that he only cared because he would get in trouble if something happened, shone through all his angst and led to an unlikely and much-needed friendship.

I sometimes wish "Church" people could be this free and open with each other - to reach out at the risk of exposing our sin just so that we are not alone in it. A great many people have the perception that people who go to Church are "faking it" when we're in "service" on sunday and we're really more authentic to our true nature during the rest of the week. How sad...

We all need some kind of public face to get us through the times that are just plain awful - but sometimes the facade gets worn more than our true personality. We become the "perfect Wife", or the "Jock", or the "CEO", or the "Geek", or the "Perfect Husband", or the "Coach", or the... You get the idea. My idea of Christian friendship is one where those of us who follow Jesus let our friends in to our joys and our pains, and we do so in a spirit of trust and faith. While we don't need to revel in our sin, we do need people to walk with us in our brokenness, and to be there with a real human touch and word when we are sick of ourselves, or when we feel we are becoming our facade.

My dream as a Pastor is to grow a Church that welcomes people as they are. I would love it if people partnered with Lifesong and built friendships that helped them become more like Jesus in the midst of their struggles. It is my hope that the teenage boy in the movie who wore the shirt that said, "Jesus Was Wrong" would sense that Jesus was about much more than "right or wrong" at Lifesong, and that Jesus welcomes and even beckons people like him into His Kingdom. God is given a lot of room in which to work when someone lives with their brokenness on his sleeve (or on their chest) and there is less of a facade to have to dig through (although many times black-dyed hair and depressing slogans are a thicker facade than perfectly done nails, obscenely-white teeth, and a perfectly waxed Mercedes).

In the end, the family works together, through and in spite of their faults in order to get Olive to her pageant. Her innocence is kept in tact despite some truly horrible events that they endure together, and they begin the journey home. But the audience is left with the knowledge that there would be more hard times to come, and that the beautiful ending moments would last just a few moments - and I felt hopeful anyway...

Find more hope at www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org :)

A Holy Monk and Retail Therapy...

2007-08-28T16:10:00.001-07:00

The first time I heard the term "retail therapy" I knew we were in deep trouble. I say "we" because I have been, from time to time, as guilty of feeling the rush of buying the next ___ as the next person, only to get home and realize that I really didn't need or want said widget - no matter how good it looked in the store.

What I was after was the rush. It feels good to see something, desire it, and then have the power to claim it as my own, have it put in a bag and drive it home. It really doesn't matter what "it" is. The process of consuming makes us (me) feel powerful, and as North Americans in 2007, we have a lot of power...

Retail therapy is understandable, rampant, unavoidable, and yet also horribly destructive. It causes us to think (even for a moment) that we can solve our own problems, or satisfy our own deepest yearnings.

It's quite fitting that I began to see this more clearly by reading the writings of a Monk from the middle ages. Bernard of Clairvaux knew what it was to yearn for material things. And yet he wrote about such things with such wisdom and grace. I'll leave you with a few of his words from his beautiful work, On Loving God,

(We) want to traverse creation, trying all things one by one, rather than think of coming to Him who is Lord of all. And if our utmost longing were realized, so that we should have all the world for our own, yet without possessing Him who is the Author of all being, then the same law of our desires would make us condemn what we had and restlessly seek Him whom we still lacked, that is, God Himself. Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no peace in the world; but he has no disturbance when he is with God. And so the soul says with confidence, 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. It is good for me to hold me fast by God, to put my trust in the Lord God'. Even by this way one would eventually come to God, if only he might have time to test all lesser goods in turn...

Amen.

www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

What Does God Say About That? (and other ridiculously insightful yet simple things kids say at just the right time)

2007-08-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Slithering like a snake along the ground isn't so bad if you're 3. Unless the room in which you are slithering happens to be the bathroom...

"Nathan, get up", I barked unceremoniously.

"Why, Dad?"

"Because it's not good for you to crawl around on the bathroom floor and it might make you sick sometime"

"But I don't like it when you tell me no, Dad"

"But I have to tell you when things are right and wrong or good or bad so you'll grow up good"

"HMMM... WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT THAT DAD???"

How do you answer a 3 year old slithery snake who is asking about the theological realities of passing on the faith from Father to Son and the moral and religious formation of a young life?

"God talks to us through the Bible, and the Bible says I need to keep you safe and help you to grow up good. So, you need to listen when I say no."

"Okay", he said.

I was in disbelief that I got away that easily... Then I became intrigued...

"What made you ask about what God thinks, Nate? Where did you learn that?"

"I don't know", he said, "God lives in my heart though." I almost fell over, so I sat down on the edge of the tub instead. I beckoned Nate to come closer, and I wrapped my arms around him and drew his head into my chest.

"That's right, Nate, God DOES live in your heart..."

www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

Change Has Changed...

2007-08-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

The following post is a devotion I put up on our church's website: http://www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org/...

"If you have a new world, you need a new church. You have a new world."
- Brian McLaren

Change has changed. It used to be that every few decades a new technology or idea would come about that would change the way we lived or how we viewed the world. The telegraph eventually gave way to the telephone and radio. Radio set the stage for television and cell phones. Eight tracks and vinyl records eventually gave way to the CD. Then came the iPod and now the iPhone. The dizzying truth is that the gaps between the advent of these new technologies used to be centuries, then decades, and now just a few years. It seems as if these changes are so rapid that we can't even keep up on a day to day basis.

A few of us here at Lifesong have been reading Brian McLaren's The Church On The Other Side, and we've been openly talking about some of the ways our world has changed, and about how it is literally impossible to keep up anymore. McLaren actually says that change itself has changed, and that the rate of change has sped up to the point that it is actually impossible to think about and process all the information we are confronted with each day.

So the question for us is: What does this mean for the Church? How should we live as those claimed by Christ in order to save the world if we can't even comprehend what is going on in the world?

The first thing to do, as I see it, is acknowledge that we're ALL in the same boat. No one is comfortable with the rate of change in the world, and no one can keep up with it all. Change has leveled the playing field, and we are all trying to wrestle with how to live. I propose that the Church has two options:
1) Grasp the past tightly and try to weather the storm. It seems this is the turn that the Catholic Church has recently decided to take with its recent advocacy of returning to the Latin Mass. This is also the approach of many Evangelicals/Fundamentalists who long for the glory days of religious revival or the hey-day of the American empire. I sometimes watch the more-extreme voices for these folks on channel 17 and they're usually talking about how evil the rest of the world is and how great their brand of Christianity is. As one of my professors rightly said; "the way forward is not backward".
2) Pack lightly and move forward. Change happens, and when it does, the Church needs to change too. That means that we need to discover what is essential to our faith and be willing to re-invent everything else. There are, however, many ways to go wrong with this approach. We sometimes throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to change and tradition, and some traditions speak throughout the ages. I suggest that maybe the best place to start as far as what is non-negotiable is this simple three word confession that dates back to the early church: Jesus is Lord.

If we live with this truth at the center of our lives, nothing else can claim us or distract us from our mission in the world. If Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be. We still, of course, have to figure out the practical implications of what it means to make Jesus' life the center of our lives, but at least we'll be asking all the right questions - even if the answers miss the mark (and they will)...

We're still trying to figure out how we should live in this world of rampant change, and I have to say that it's really refreshing just to stop for a minute and talk with trusted friends about some of the craziness (good and bad) in the world and take time to think about what it all means. Ultimately, we know that as His people, Jesus is present and in the center of these discussions, and we pray for the courage to continually re-invent our Church so that we might live with Jesus at the center of our lives - constantly reminding ourselves that if Jesus is Lord, nothing else can be...

Check out how our Church tries to follow Jesus through all this change at www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org

Why Blog?

2007-08-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

So here it is... I've finally made the leap into the 21st century with my first blog.

Every so often I dive into the "blogosphere" and read up on just about anything I want to learn about from some pretty entertaining and educated characters. So why, I find myself asking, am I adding to the blog noise with one more?

The answer for me is pretty simple: My church's website won't let people comment on my thoughts on daily life without a password... So here I am, posting to my own blog.

I hope that in a few years I can look back on this first post and say a few things:

1) People have learned how to live better lives from the things discussed here.
2) We will have made progress toward learning how to be more authentic Christians.
3) That this blog has been even a small part of a second major reformation of the "protestant" church.

I think that for too long those of us who call ourselves "Christians" have separated going to church from our everyday lives. We can no longer, and we never really could, GO to church. We ARE the church. It is our identity. God has claimed us, and we are no longer our own...

So how do we live differently in 2007 and beyond? That's what we've got to figure out, and I think that we're on the verge of something big. I think that we're about to be humbled in a big way. The institutional/denominational "church" is declining, and God is doing something new...

Let's talk about what this "new" thing is. And let's learn from Jesus how to live differently, as His people for the good of our neighbors in this new world...

God's Peace, Rich
www.lifesongchristiancommunities.org