What's On?

I've been pedal to the metal trying to finish up a huge Hebrew paper on the book of Ruth. I just hit "print," and realized that someone bet me lunch I wouldn't post three times to my blog this week after I promised I was back. Never one to back down from a challenge, here you go:

One of Kari and my favorite things to do together is to relax on the couch and watch TV. Since we don't get to do a lot of relaxing, and certainly don't get to relax on a routine schedule, the invention of the DVR has saved our marriage. Okay, not really, but it's a great invention that everyone needs in their home. We set it to record all the events we want to be sure not to miss, and it records them for us - even when they change nights without warning. Then, we fast-forward through the commercials and watch an hour-long show in about 45 minutes. (We don't like to waste time when we're relaxing!)

We're die-hard 24 fans. During the season, our schedules revolve around making sure we have time to watch 24 on the night it's on. In fact, it's the only show we feel like we have to watch on the night a new episode comes out because everyone and their dog is talking about it the next day. We've been known to stay up much later than normal so that we can be sure to catch a new episode of 24.

But 24 isn't on until January, so we have to have other shows to fill our time. Here's what's on in the Freeland house right now:

1. Six Degrees - This one's new this year. So far, it's a pretty good drama about six people who have random connections to each other. The story line keeps bringing them closer together, so I assume at some point they're all going to meet. It doesn't hurt that Erika Christensen is a very "likeable" character, and Kari says the same for Jay Hernandez.

2. The Nine - The jury is still out on this show. A group of nine people get stuck in a bank during a bank robbery. The relationship that they form sticks with them even after they're let out of a hostage situation. I think I would like this show better if it took place during the hostage situation. I could use a little less of the romance and a little more of the action. As it is, from episode to episode the show reveals more about what happened inside the bank to help forge the relationships these nine people now share.

3. Grey's Anatomy - I watch this show because I'm a good husband, and for no other reason. Grey's Anatomy is like a hybrid between ER and Days of Our Lives. Kari loves it, and I tolerate it. That's about the best I can say. I do question the believability of an entire hospital staff sleeping with one another, and none of them ever contracts a STD. You'd think doctors would be a little more careful about their promiscuity. But I guess that adds to the drama of the show. I'm not a big fan.

4. The Office - Kari watches this show because she's a good wife, and for no other reason. Actually, I think she secretly likes it because she always protests when I watch it without her. This is the only show on television, past or present with the exception of Seinfeld of which I can watch reruns alone in my house and still laugh hysterically. If you've ever worked in an office environment of any kind, you'll see the people you used to work with in these characters. (Is it a coincidence that Drew and Dwight start with the same letter? I think not.)

5. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - This show strikes a perfect balance for Kari and I. She loves it because of the ooey gooey story lines and the cool home accessories that Ty Pennington and crew picks out for needy families. I love it because it gets me excited about ministry. Why should secular TV networks be doing a better job of identifying needs and serving the community than the church? We can do that.

And a note for Tim Stevens who looooves NBC's Studio 60. Man, I've tried and tried to find something to like about this show, even trying it again after your recommendations, but I just can't do it. I'm a huge Matthew Perry fan, but even he isn't enough to carry the show. Maybe those of you who love this show are seeing something I'm missing. If so, I'd love to hear your perspective.

Public Debate

"Years ago when it came time for public debate, we said 'I'm right, and your position is not as good.' We don't know how to debate that way anymore. Today when we debate, we insinuate 'I'm right, and you're stupid and evil.'" - Mark Davis

Blogs are amazing things. When I first started blogging almost two years ago, it was because I thought it would be a great place for me to hone my writing skills, test-drive some ideas in the public marketplace, network with some people who were doing things on the cutting-edge of ministry, and respond to some of the things that are important to me. I made two mistakes when I started:

The first mistake I made was to include my real name. chrisfreeland.blogspot.com isn't very incognito. I'm not one to go around googling my name, but if I were, I would notice that my blog is one of the first things to show up on a google search for "Chris Freeland." So, any perspective ministry that might consider me as their future pastor will likely stumble across this blog as they search the web to make sure my name hasn't shown up in any news articles (particularly on the arrest pages).

The second mistake I made was to reference Pyromaniac (my infamous uncle) in one of my original posts. He blogrolled me, blogspotted me, and all the sudden instead of seeing 10 or 15 visitors on my blog every day, I started seeing 90 or 100 on some days.

That's intimidating. Particularly when you read some of the people who comment on Pyromaniacs on a regular basis. Some of these guys (and their homeschooling wives) have nothing better to do than nitpick words and throw rocks at each other. I've searched high and low for a job that would allow me the free-time to spend hours perusing blogs of people I don't like just for the sheer joy of catching them on a point I disagree with and using my stellar debate skills to run them into the ground... but I don't have that kind of time.

And I'm not sure that's a very God-honoring use of the blogosphere.

Now, this is by no means a defense of the Pyromaniac - he can defend himself, and he's certainly not innocent of this kind of thing (by his own admission). Lord knows I don't agree with everything Phil has ever posted. But there's a right way and wrong way to enter discussions with people in a public arena even such as the blogosphere, and that's where the quote above comes in.

There are issues that must be discussed by Christians. There are ideas that must be vigorously debated among Christians. But in those discussions, motive is everything. It is one thing to say "I am right, and your thought is not as good as mine." It's something completely different to say "I am right, and you're stupid and evil."

Ideas are not identity, but we don't separate the two very well.

When we mistake ideas for identity, we show our ignorance of the issues. (How's that for alliteration?) Instead of stopping long enough to understand the person presenting an issue contrary to ours, it's too easy to cast dispersion on their character as if to say "you can't trust this person's character - why should you listen to their ideas?" That's not fair fighting.

The Lordship debate is a great example that I've been on both sides of at various points in my life. But the issue isn't ever going to be resolved because neither side can stop calling the other side names long enough to understand the other person's actual perspective. News Flash: Everyone on the lordship side isn’t a rabid “fruit inspector” who spends his life looking for reasons why the sinners around him must not “really” be saved. And everyone on the no-lordship/free grace side isn’t an antinomian or a Bob Wilkin/Zane Hodges groupie.

Another example of this is the current controversy at Bellevue Baptist Church - the former church of the pastoral giant Adrian Rogers. They're enmeshed in a church controversy that seems destined for a church split. One of the members of a faction who opposes the elders has chosen to start a blog in order to chronicle his point of view. In poor taste, he chose to publish an email correspondence between himself and one of the church staff members. Check it out and see how long it takes for the debate to turn from ideas to identity - by my count, one paragraph by each party involved.

I fail to see how either example in any way reflects the biblical mandate to speak the truth in love, or to lovingly show another his faults in hopes that you might restore your brother. Frankly, we as Christians so busy proving someone else wrong that we fail to demonstrate one iota of good Christian conduct in our dealings. We don't care about the discussion of ideas - if we assassinate individuals, we won't have to worry about their ideas anyway.

Shame on us.

For the weekend...

It should be a busy weekend to top off a busy week. Kari and I spent the last couple of days at the home of some friends who traveled to Israel with us in June. They've got 4 kids ranging in age from 17 to 6, and Kari and I got to house/kid sit while the parents were in Chicago. It was fun to be a soccer dad for a couple of nights, but I'm not sure it could be sustained for a long period of time. The days began at 5am and ended at 11:30pm. Fortunately, these were great kids, or Kari and I might be questioning the Proverb that says "children are a blessing from the Lord."

Tonight, Drew Leaver (my boss) will be preaching at Fellowship North. Drew always does a great job, which is surprising because he always gets tossed the topics that the senior pastor doesn't want to handle. We're in the middle of a series on 1 Corinthians, and Drew "just happened" to draw Chapter 5 - the passage on church discipline. He'll do a great job though, but if not, at least people will be informed enough not to talk bad about him behind his back.

On Sunday, I'll be preaching at Fellowship Bible Church Arapaho. FBCA is the original Fellowship Bible Church where Gene Getz began his ministry as a pastor in the seventies. The church is a lot different now from when Gene was there, but it will still be fun to preach in front of live people who aren't seminary students and professors. If you're in the area, it would be fun to meet you. For service times and directions, check out Fellowship Arapaho's website.

Next week, I'll be back with a post that was provoked by my favorite radio talk show host in the world, Mark Davis. He does a local radio show in Dallas, but does a two-hour national show that you can hear on the Sirius ABC talk channel among other places. Here's the paraphrased quote - I'll relate it back to my life next week, "Years ago when it came time for public debate, we said 'I'm right, and your position is not as good.' We don't know how to debate that way anymore. Today when we debate, we insinuate 'I'm right, and you're stupid and evil.'"

Have a great weekend.

Quote Me

We are ministers but for a short time. At any moment the Master may summon us into silence or call us to the temple above. Make all of your messages count for eternity. Speak now only what you can look back on with comfort when you speak no more. Speak as a dying man to dying men."

- Robert Murray McShane

Where am I?

No, I haven't given up on the blog altogether. I have given up on ever thinking I'm going to be a super blogger who records new, engaging, thoughtful material every day - or even every other day for that matter.

You know those classes in college or graduate school where the professor thinks his or her class is the only important class you'll ever take at that institution and proves it by piling a load of work on you? I've got two of those this semester, and they're eating my lunch. On top of that, things are pretty busy at the church (I just finished putting a major project to rest, and have picked up another project to take its place), and I'm beginning to start thinking about what I'm going to do when I graduate in May of next year. With all of those things combined, I was lucky to have time for a shower this morning, much less a blog entry.

I promise to be better (but not a lot better). I think I'm about over the hump, and have a lot of things to blog about, but am just now getting to the point that I can come up for air. Look for some more from me in the next few days and weeks.

Hold Your Tongue

Friday's Fort Worth Star Telegram contains an article about Paige Patterson's (president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) reaction to a chapel sermon by an Arlington pastor who mentioned during the sermon that he sometimes speaks in tongues when he prays.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/15416086.htm

Southern Baptist leaders are sprinting to their computers to blog about whether or not tongues and other sign gifts are "for today," and whether or not Paige Patteson is acting outside his authority to delete the sermon transcript and video from online records. In fact, everything I've read centers on whether or not Paige Patterson is treating this pastor fairly. And Patterson is taking quite a bit of heat.

Patterson may very well be wrong here, but not in the way you might think. The biggest "wrong" Patterson may have committed was inviting this pastor to speak at chapel in the first place.

This pastor was knowingly and willfully diviscive in delivering this sermon, and he deserves the lion's share of the heat. This issue has been debated vigorously in Baptist circles, and it is clear where Patterson (and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary under his leadership) stands on the issue. What was this pastor hoping to prove?

If you're hopping on your computer to lambast Dr. Patterson, you might contribute a paragraph or two to the complete lack of wisdom on this pastor's part.

It's one thing to have a position contrary to the norm and speak about it in your own church circle, as Henderson Hills did recently. It's another thing to go into a place where you know you will cause conflict and division and speak out anyway. Especially on a non-essential issue.

Who of us would go to Dallas Theological Seminary and slip in a statement about how "dispensationalists are all wet?" Who would go to The Masters Seminary and make a statement about how we think "lordship salvation is silly?" Who would go to a contemporary church service and casually mention that "drums are of the devil?"

If I know my convictions on a non-essential issue are in conflict with the place where I'll be preaching, I have two choices: (1) Decline their invitation to preach, (2) Speak from one of the thousands of texts that do not force me to be diviscive. The option of being a sacrificial lamb for a splinter issue should not even cross my mind.

It seems to me that if you're going to camp out on a peripheral issue in 1 Corinthians 14, you ought to take the time to read the whole book. 1 Corinthians 8 would have been a great passage for this pastor to read before he chose to send the Southern Baptists into yet another tizzy.

How's Your Rock Collection?

If you've known Kari and I for very long, you may have heard us talk about our rock collection. No, we don't have a bucket of gravel in the garage that we gaze at from time to time. As far as I know, we don't have one single rock on display anywhere in our house. But make no mistake, we have a rock collection, and it's worth more than you could give us for it.

Allow me to explain.

In the Old Testament, when the situation was bleak, and God showed up in a big way, those who were involved had a "tradition" of setting up rocks as memorials to God's faithfulness during those times. Jacob did it after he had his famous "Jacob's ladder" dream in Genesis 28. He set up the stone pillow he had been sleeping on as a memorial so that he would always remember that God was in that place.

When God defeated the Philistine army using a thunderstorm, Samual set up a rock and called it "Ebenezer" saying "this far the Lord has helped us." (1 Samuel 7)

Joshua is another example. When the Israelite people crossed over the Jordan river on dry ground en route to the Promised Land, Joshua stacked 12 river boulders on top of each other so that when their descendants ask "What do these stones mean," the Israelites could recount the story of God's faithfulness despite difficult times (Joshua 4).

Kari and I don't own a single rock, but we've got a tremendous rock collection. You should too. There's no encouragement like the encouragement of looking back and seeing the hundreds of places God has been faithful in the past, even despite difficult circumstances.

So start your own rock collection, beginning today. Put it down on paper so that you, just like Joshua, can tell your grandkids "that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."

Someone you need to meet....

At seminary, much like at other institutions of higher learning, some courses stink; some courses are okay; some classes are good; and a very few classes change your life.

I've only had three classes that I would place in the last category without hesitation. The first was a class by Dr. Bill Lawrence called "The Spiritual Life." Basically, the class was an exposition of Romans 5-8, and I'll never be the same. He's now teaching some of the same material with an organization he founded called "Leadership Formation International."

The other two classes were both taught by Dr. Jay Quine. One was "The Gospels," and the other was "Old Testament Prophets." You've heard me talk about him before, but DTS just decided to run a profile of him on their main page. I've copied the text below, but you can find it here too. I particularly love the last paragraph, and the last sentence.



Dr. Jay Quine

Dr. Jay Quine’s purple socks give him away. He is not a typical professor, nor is he a typical lawyer. Born in Washington State, Dr. Quine married at the age of 21 and became a municipal court judge at the age of 24. He was a prosecutor, and is now a pastor, professor, and parent—and the discipline it took to become a lawyer and the faith he came to know personally in college have taught him to persevere through the toughest of trials.

A Rocky Start
After one year of marriage, Dr. Quine and his wife moved to Idaho to be close to the law school in which he was enrolled. “We lived on a wheat farm up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,” he says. The four-bedroom farmhouse had no television and barely any radio reception. No neighbors were in sight. “So it was just the two of us,” he says. “It was a really wonderful way to start a marriage.”

Twenty-seven years, five states, and two sets of twins later, Dr. Quine and his wife have come a long way from simple wheat farm living. Their twin boys, Preston and Skyler, are nine, and their twin girls, Madison and McKamie, are six. Their days are filled with everything from ballet and swim lessons, to basketball and baseball games.

So much activity, Dr. Quine admits with characteristic honesty, can strain a marriage. “You become more partners in a project than husband and wife. We just don’t get time together. We went to Israel this year as a couple without the kids and had two weeks together. It was just so wonderful to talk with my wife.”

But the joys of children outweigh the hectic schedule. He says his kids also keep him honest. “They will smell a fraud,” he says. “So [being a parent] forces you to be genuine, which is what we all need. You can’t just say you love them; you’ve got to love them. You forgive them. You accept them. You don’t hold grudges. You have to give of yourself all the time.”

One way he gives of himself is to read to his children. “When the boys were six I read through the Old Testament with them every single night. And I read from the New King James. Any question went,” including the inevitable question, “‘What does circumcision mean?’” he says. “Now I’ve decided to read the New Testament with the girls.”

Are You the Waiter?
Honesty is a valuable trait in a judge, but Dr. Quine’s foray into law began so early that no one believed he was one. At 24 he began working as a municipal court judge in Washington. “I was the youngest judge in the state,” he says. “I went to these judge conventions and I looked like the waiter. It was really funny.”

And Dr. Quine’s judicial practices were as unconventional as his age. “Fridays were traffic and small claims court. The people don’t have lawyers, so I’d come out and say, ‘One of you is going to lose and one of you is going to win. I’m not one of these guys who cuts the baby in half. You have ten minutes to see if you can resolve [your problem] without me, or the power of the law comes down on you.’ Then I would leave and come back,” he says. “Eighty percent of the time they would have figured it out.”

Although he loved practicing law and felt he was contributing to society, Dr. Quine was disturbed by a sense that he was “prostituting” his gifts. When the time came for him to petition for superior court judge, he and his wife decided instead to relocate to Dallas. He finished his Th.M. in three and a half years, something he attributes to learning how to read in law school. What are his secrets? “Focus, concentrate, know what to look for, know what to not look for, get past the fluff, zero in on the important stuff, highlight, take notes.”

From Dallas and Back
After taking all those notes Dr. Quine and his wife, moved to Lincoln Park, New Jersey, so that he could work as a singles pastor. Beginning with a small group of 17, it slowly began to grow. Soon, a few single musicians began to attend and with Quine formed a band called Just Three Things. Before they knew it the singles group was steadily increasing in attendance and the band was touring up and down the East Coast. They played venues that varied from spots in Manhattan to the rooftop of Patterson Prison. “It was absolutely incredible work,” Dr. Quine says of working with the singles group and seeing the band take shape. “So many people came to Christ because of it.”

After four years Dr. Quine went to pastor another church in central New Jersey. “They wanted to grow and build, so we started a building project seven months later.” While he was helping the church to expand, Dr. Quine was also expanding his horizons. He began teaching at Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU) and eventually became the chairman of the Bible program. Nearly three years later he was spearheading the effort to create a Master of Divinity program from scratch.

Because of that involvement, he and his wife moved their family to Yardley, Pennsylvania, to be closer to the campus. And because he’s also a pastor at heart, Dr. Quine took over pastoral roles at a little church two blocks from their new home. “We lived this idyllic life,” he says. His children walked to school and to church and could ride their bikes everywhere. The draw to Texas again was all in the timing. With the Master of Divinity program up and running at PBU, Dr. Quine felt led to return to full-time teaching at Dallas Seminary. And although the transition has been as tough as law school, he still says that “everyday is an amazing day in our house.”

And each day he earns the respect of his colleagues such as Dr. Thomas Constable, chair and senior professor of Bible Exposition. “Dr. Quine combines excellent scholarship with many years of effective pastoral and academic experience,” Dr. Constable says. “He understands well how the Scriptures bear on the situations our students and graduates face in ministry.”

He understands because he has been in each situation—whether he’s behind a judge’s bench, a podium, a pulpit, or a dinner table. And in every situation he seems to know what the music group’s name indicated: just three things matter in life—faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13). So when he is behind a dinner table with his family, Dr. Quine will occasionally raise his glass to signal the family’s traditional toast: “Jesus is coming back!” they chorus and clink glasses. What does that mean for a father who has worn everything from a judge’s robe to a professor’s purple socks? Well, in the words of one of his children: “It means the mosquitoes won’t sting anymore.”

Farewell to an Old Friend

Well, this morning I said "farewell" to an old friend. No, nobody died. Nobody moved away. Relatives, don't worry... Kari and I are still on good terms. But the separation anxiety I feel today is almost as intense as a death, departure, or divorce.

Yesterday was my last day of Summer vacation, ever.

I thought Summer and me had bid our goodbyes once before, in 2002 when I graduated from Oklahoma State University and moved to Dallas to work full-time while attending Dallas Seminary.

But I became reacquainted with my old friend when we decided to move to Plano last year so that I could serve at Fellowship Bible Church North and ramp-up my class load. I had forgotten how much I missed him.

It's a good thing though. Nine months from now, I'll be a seminary graduate - armed and dangerous. I'll have to work a "real job" at "real hours" for "real money," and summer vacation and I won't be able to be friends any more.

I'm sure gonna miss that guy.

If it wasn't for the sad goodbye to my friend summer vacation, today would be a great day. I love the first day of the fall semester at DTS because the campus is flooded with a new class of first-year students pursuing their dream of a Masters-level education in theology and the Bible. Many of them have stories you wouldn't believe, and are making sacrifices to be here that would give you a lump in your throat.

Too many seminary students lose that dream somewhere around third semester Greek, and it's a shame. Somewhere along the way too many of us learn to argue but forget how to love others. We learn how to be right but forget how to serve. We learn to be accurate but forget how to apply. And we learn how to write but forget how to dream. We begin to serve the god of knowledge above the God of the Bible.

There's hope on the campus today. Today I see a few hundred students with desire, passion, intensity, and a genuine love for Christ who haven't yet learned to forget that seminary can be an unbelievable extension of our worship, if we let it.

Starbucks Sabatoge

Top secret menu items at Starbucks? Sabatoge in the supermarket? Check out this article from the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5274352.stm

This just proves what we've all known for some time: Starbucks is a covert operation run by Satan attempting to bust the budget of millions of pastors who have no place better to meet.

(Thanks to Seth Godin for the link)

Female Sunday School Teacher Fired

Check out this story on CNN. Apparently, the First Baptist Church of Watertown, NY has a little media crisis on their hands.

I've said for a long time that one of these days I'm going to write a book of stories including some of the things I've experienced in ministry in just my short number of years serving full-time as a pastor. I've hesitated to begin the manuscript because nobody would believe it. But the more I read the news, the more I realize there are some pretty crazy things that happen in churches.

To make a long story short, the Watertown FBC sent Mary Lambert a letter in the mail from the pastor's wife telling her she would no longer be allowed to teach her Sunday School class based on 1 Timothy 1:43, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." She's now gone to local and national news sources with her story.

There are so many things wrong with this story that it's not even funny. Here are the top three:

1. The deacons/elders/pastors at this church handled the situation very poorly. Even if the lady is an old bag, you owe her the honor of a face-to-face conversation prior to a letter delivered by the postal carrier. The issue for me isn't the application of 1 Timothy 1:43, but the failure to apply wisdom in their delivery. It's one thing to deliver truth and another thing to do it with love. If the deacons/elders/pastors had elected to have the hard conversation with this lady, and to do it in love, the issue never gets wings.

2. A lot has been said against the pastor and elders in this situation, but this "sweet elderly lady" certainly isn't innocent. Surely after teaching Sunday School for 54 years she ran across a passage or two concerning how to deal with disputes inside the church. 1 Corinthians 6 comes to mind, Matthew 18... In every case, the dispute is to be handled within the church, not in the court of public opinion. When this lady called her local news to gripe, she demonstrated spiritual immaturity that should disqualify her from teaching even if her gender does not.

3. The pastor is also a city council member. That always makes me cringe. For one, I'm not sure how he finds time to shepherd his flock and lead a city at the same time. My golf game would take a serious boost from that type of ministry schedule. Additionally, I'm not sure the best place for clergy is in dictating public polity. I'm all for Christians in secular politics, don't get me wrong, but can't imagine how it would be a great thing for paid clergy to occupy those positions. I'm not worried about his Christianity infiltrating his politics, but have serious doubts about whether or not he would be able to keep his politics out of the pulpit. And that's a problem.

The Church is supposed to be salt and light in the world. That would be a lot easier if we stopped doing stupid things.

Dog Days

This is the most excruciating couple of weeks in the whole summer. It's hot in Texas (I can't remember the last time the high temperature dipped below triple-digits). I also can't remember the last time it rained.

It's a little too early to get excited about the Major League Baseball playoff hunt, and my Texas Rangers are well entrenched in their customary late-summer choke anyway. The countdown clock I've been using to gauge the time until the college football begins is below two weeks now, but watching it is like watching grass grow.

Meanwhile, the majority of the ministries at the church are ramping up toward kickoff but aren't there yet. Summer classes are over, and the Fall Session doesn't begin until the last week of August. Although this is officially my last summer ever as a full-time student, I'm ready to get cranking again.

These are truly the dog days of Summer.

The Type-A voice inside of me hates this time of year. (Admit it - you hear those voices too). I'm a visionary guy who loves to create. I love to strategize, plan, implement, and be active in the development of new things. And I'm addicted to the adrenaline rush that's attached to coming up with a new idea, implementing it, and watching it work. So these two weeks to me are like quitting crack cold-turkey.

But I also find that my Type-A voice doesn't do a very good job of governing my levels of emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Picture him as the cheerleader dressed in red sitting on my left shoulder shoulder screaming, "Go! Go! Go!"

I've got another cheerleader on my left shoulder who doesn't get much attention. She's the cheerleader sitting on my right shoulder screaming, "Rest! Rest! Rest!" I don't listen to her very often because, frankly, her constant nagging gets bothersome. How am I supposed to create, plan, and strategize with all of her screaming on my shoulder?

The Dog Days of summer let the "Rest!" cheerleader have her way. And it's probably a good thing.

I used to have a choir director who had a great philosophy I've tried to adopt. He would constantly tell us, "Let's practice hard now, have our crisis early, and we'll coast into the concert." That's wise advice.

So, I'm thinking of these two weeks as having my "crisis" early. I'm recharging, taking advantage of the chance to read some things I've been wanting to read, and trying to catch up on some of the projects I've been wanting to do.

This way, I get to rest on my own terms. If I listen to the "Go!" cheerleader for too long, I'll end up resting on someone else's terms after I've sacrificed my physical, emotional, or spiritual health, and I don't want to go there.

For today, picture me as the cheerleader on the right. "Rest!" Kick back. Read a good book. Reconnect with your family. Watch the Little League World Series. And have your crisis now. September will be here before we know it.

Oops...

Quick. What do the JonBenet Ramsay murder and the demise of the Oklahoma University football program have in common?

Stumped? I'll show you.

In case you've been lounging around under a rock for the past few days, you know that a man has confessed to the murder of JonBenet that took place almost exactly ten years ago. Although there are some serious questions as to whether John Mark Karr actually murdered JonBenet, or just needed a way to bust out of Thailand's prison system, the self-professed pedophile is being extradited to the U.S. for further questioning.

Karr's confession included these words "I was with JonBenet when she died. It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much and that her death was a mistake."

Let's shift gears to the other situation, a situation you might not know about, Oklahoma University has been embroiled in a controversy that has seen its start quarterback kicked off the team after receiving thousands of dollars from a car dealership. Rhett Bomar, a star quarterback from Grand Prairie, TX was on the payroll of the car dealership but rarely, if ever, clocked in. While you're not going to see me crying about the demise of Zero-U football, I did find Bomar's press conference following his dismissal from the team extremely interesting. "I'm not a bad kid. I made a mistake and I'm disappointed that it happened that way, because I enjoyed my time at O.U. and I wanted to continue my career there. I made a mistake and I have live with it."

What do the JonBenet Ramsay murder and the demise of the Oklahoma University football program have in common? In both cases, the alleged perpetrators claim the crime was committed by mistake.

Those aren't mistakes. Boneheaded? Yes. But not mistakes.

I made a mistake when I typed "shift" above and missed the "f" with my finger (Thank God for spell check). My sister-in-law made a mistake when she forgot to fill up her car with gas before heading home from our house last week (Now everyone knows, Sara). You make a mistake when you're swinging for a fastball and the pitcher throws a curveball.

Duct taping a six-year-old while you strangle her with a cord is not a mistake. It's premeditated, heinous, first-degree murder.

Taking paychecks from a car dealership where you don't work is not a mistake. It's also premeditated, a violation of known rules, dishonest and selfish.

Somewhere over the past several years, we've lost the ability to call evil what it is. Particularly when we're at fault. We talk about "mistakes," "accidents," "mishaps," and "inadvertent errors," but we've lost the ability to look our evil in the eye and call it what it is. And what suffers as a result?

Grace.

Think about it: rightly or wrongly, we expect forgiveness for mistakes. That's why we call them mistakes. Mistakes happen. Everyone makes mistakes. This could have happened to anyone. Mistakes deny ownership of the thing that has been done, blaming it instead on chance or bad luck. "I'm not a bad kid," says the former Oklahoma University quarterback."

Wrong Rhett. You are a bad kid. And so am I. And so is everyone else who will read this blog entry. You know what they say, "the first step is admitting you have a problem." And failing to understand that we have the problem - we are the problem - prevents us from understanding the depths of God's grace.

When I think that Christ died for my mistakes/accidents, I'm non-plussed. But to think that He paid for my evil... I don't deserve that.

You Can't Handle the Truth

I had lunch today with Jack Warren, the Executive Pastor at Fellowship. Among other things, his duties include developing and implementing strategy to help the church reach it's goal, and overseeing staff.

Jack's an extremely relational individual, and self-proclaimedly borders on ADD. We have a lot in common.

The topic of conversation was sweet-spots. If you're not familiar with the terminology, picture a golf club. Although you can advance the ball by hitting it anywhere on the club face of your nine-iron, the club was designed to produce maximum effectiveness when hit in a specific place: the sweet spot.

The theory is that all of us have sweet spots as well. We can each do life and ministry a lot of different ways. From a human standpoint we could participate in many activities and "advance the ball." But we've each been designed with a specific gift-mix and certain abilities to allow us to be maximumly effective in certain areas.

My sweet spot seems to be preaching. Jack's is helping staff members and others through the really tough situations in ministry. Often that includes hard conversations and difficult decisions, sometimes in which a staff member needs to be reassigned or terminated. Jack thrives in those situations.

I don't.

How can you be highly relational and still enjoy those conversations? Most of the people I've known in the best who were direct and confident in hard conversations were not the type of people you'd play golf with. But Jack is. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out how he balanced the two.

So I asked him.

What he said is worth repeating. He said, "Chris, when you're highly relational and analytical, you realize that the hard conversations are often the very best way to love a person, and they're almost always best for the overall health of the church. What it comes down to is this: people crave someone who will tell them the truth. I see it as a privilege to be able to be honest with people that I care about, even when that honesty means a little discomfort for me on the front end. If we aren't willing to tell them the truth, who will?"

Unbelievable...

If you didn't believe it before, here is conclusive evidence that some people will believe absolutely anything.

The First Church of Tiger Woods is up and running. Actually it's been around for several years, but just came across my radar.

Is this a joke? Not really. The self-proclaimed "pastor" of the church has an article on the site called "what is this really all about?" He's serious about his disillusionment with the Christian Church, a disbelief in the Bible, and his agnostic view of God. But if God does exist, Tiger Woods is probably him.

Even if the site contains a large amount of hyperbole, and it does, the sentiment is still sad. Check it out for yourself. Don't miss the comparisons between Jesus and Tiger. And while you're reading the site, consider this: Does the Church bear any responsibility for websites like this? Obviously they're the result of fallen human people behaving as such, but is there something else there?

I'm convinced that if the Church did its job of truly worshipping God for Who He is, the rest of the world would be scared to death to make such off-the-cuff jokes about Him.

Quote Me

"[ours is the age of simulation] For just as shopping malls simulate the great outdoors, replacing sun and trees with fluorescent lights and green plastic "plants," we simulate danger with amusement park rides, friends or enemies with talk-radio hosts, rebellion with torn jeans and black boots, sex with lewd phone conversations, revolution with improved fabric softeners, and freedom with the newest panty liner. We simulate real life by eliminating risk and commitment, and end up mistaking what is real for what is only artificial. We exist, that is, encased in a giant cultural condom.”

- Joey Earl Horstman

Edit: I've received two or three emails from people saying that they don't get the quote. One said, "I think I'm not a deep enough thinker. It could be that I can't get past the panty liners and condoms!"

It could be. It could be that you have to understand the context of the quote. It's in a chapter about the way we as a culture relate to God and others.

The idea is that most people don't know how to relate to others or to God any more because we've grown accustomed to a life of simulation. Nothing's real - everything's virtual reality. We're so used to things being fake that we don't notice when they are. Amusement park rides aren't really dangerous. Neither are talk-show hosts our "buddies." But we call in to their shows and pretend they are. Panty liners don't give girls true freedom, but the commercials on TV advertise that they do.

As a result, we're mixed up, and living lives that are sheltered from reality. We'd rather simulate real relationships with God and others because "real" relations are dangerous. (Hence the condom metaphor).

Subtleties

I just finished a summer class this morning that attempted to present a theology of worship. Much of the required reading for the course was by modern theologians with an ultra-traditional bent towards things. In contrast, the majority of my summer reading has been books by people with an ultra-contemporary bent towards theology and the church.

The experience of reading ultra-traditional theologians back-to-back with ultra-contemporary theologians has been something like taking a cold shower after you run. The initial shock is almost unbearable, but ultimately you even out somewhere in the middle and are thankful for the event once you've recovered from the shock.

I've noticed something about the authors I've been reading that is subtle, but awfully telling about the great divide that exists in theological (and church) circles today.

(As a side note, I realize the terms "traditional" and "contemporary" are loaded to the hilt with baggage, but chose them because they're decidedly less loaded with baggage than the others I could have chosen)

The majority of the authors I've read with a more traditional bent tend to write of the second Person of the Trinity as "Christ." They emphasize the "Life of Christ," the "Words of Christ," and the "Person of Christ" among other things. For the most part, what they say about "Christ" is accurate and biblical.

On the other hand, many of the authors I've read with a more contemporary flavor to their theology tend to emphasize the second Person of the Trinity as "Jesus." They emphasize "Loving Jesus," "Coming to Jesus," and "Believing in Jesus." Like their traditional counterparts, many of the things they say about "Jesus" are accurate and biblical.

What's the difference? Emphasis.

I told you it was subtle.

The term "Christ" typically points to the Deity of the second Person of the Trinity. It is a title that means "anointed," and usually speaks of His exalted state above the Universe as a unique Person of the Godhead.

The name "Jesus" is exactly that: Jesus' name. It's the name the second Person of the Trinity was called by Mary and Joseph when He was born a Man. Most clearly, the name "Jesus" reminds us of Jesus' humanity.

Is it right to call the second Person of the Trinity "Jesus?" Sure. Is it okay to call Him "Christ?" Sure. The writers of Scripture use both.

So what's in a name? More than you might think. The names and titles people use to refer to the second Person of the Trinity are awfully telling. Many of the ultra-traditional theologians emphasize Christ's deity to the detriment of His humanity. As a result, they present a "Christ" who is impersonal, cold, uncaring, and surreal. In contrast, many of the ultra-contemporary theologians emphasize the humanity of "Jesus" to the detriment of His deity. In their books, we find a personal, forgiving, "Jesus-is-my-homeboy" man, but miss His holiness, perfection, and complete sovereignty.

Both extremes are a tragedy. Jesus Christ is 100% God, and 100% man. Talking about Him as anything less is blasphemy and idolatry. It's hard to balance the two. It's impossible to understand the two.

It's a tricky business to accurately picture the Person of Jesus Christ with our words, thoughts, and ideas. But we must take great care to not speak less of Jesus Christ than is true of Him... even in the subtleties.

Proximity

My boss/mentor/friend Drew Leaver has a post today about the importance of proximity in leadership. It's certainly worth reading.

Back in July, Tony Morgan posted a top-ten list of reasons he was glad his friend Tim Stevens was blogging. I don't have a top ten list for Drew, but his blog is certainly worth checking out. Drew has a way of putting things profoundly and succinctly at the same time and will be a great blogger. I'm excited to be able to point you his way.

Look Ma, I'm Famous!

I'd like to take this moment to thank my mom for not naming me Keisha, Jamal, or Deshawn. If she had, the national weather service wouldn't be able to bestow the honor on me that I'm currently receiving. (At least, that's what one of my state representatives said a few years ago)

As tropical storm "Chris" sets his sights on the Caribbean en route to the United States, my name is being heard on newscasts all over the world. I'd like to thank all the little people who made this honor possible.

People keep telling me that there's no way this storm is actually named after me - after all, there were four kids named "Chris" in my third grade class. If it were named after me, they say, it would be "Chris F.," the name by which everyone from my childhood knew me. Have you ever noticed that in your moment of glory, people seem to line up to shoot you down?

So what am I doing now that I'm famous? Well, mostly sitting by the phone waiting for Pat Robertson to call. The 700 club will surely want to interview me about God's latest display of wrath. That's good, I've got some stuff I want to tell them.

Meanwhile, since today is the first day of the month, I get to start a new book of the Bible on my devotional plan. Last month was Lamentations, and I'm sure glad to move on. Sure, Lamentations was good. There were some good surprises throughout the month - like discovering that the book is about hope more than it is about lamentation.

If you count how many times the book refers to God's promises either directly or indirectly, you see that Jeremiah (I'm assuming he wrote the book) was convinced that even the current situation - as awful as it was - was a reflection of God's faithfulness to His promises. And throughout the book you see hope shining through that God's faithfulness in judgment was evidence that He would be faithful in restoring His people.

But beyond that, Lamentations was a whipping for me. So I'm excited to move on.

If you're taking the devotional plan journey with me, you should know that I'm going to depart from my plan this month. I've had some recent thoughts about the Sermon on the Mount, and am going to spend this month in it instead of going to 1 Peter. I'll get back on track with 1 Kings in September.

That's all for now. Watch for my namesake on television tonight, and stay tuned for updates on exactly when I'll appear on the 700 club. I'm thinking about growing a mullet so I fit in with some of the previous guests.

One Hundred B'rakhot

How did you do? Refer to last Thursday's post if you aren't sure what the assignment was.

And if you haven't already, give it a shot tomorrow - consider this a challenge.

If you attempted the excercise and listed 100 things for which you can say "blessed are You God," my guess is that you found it a little harder than you anticipated. I sure did.

It bothered me that it was so difficult - I generally think of myself as a pretty thankful person. I work hard to come at God with more than just my requests and gripes, and to be thankful for the things He's done for me. But when I try to list 100 of the things for which I can give God praise, I had a hard time.

The day started with me running late for a 7:00 o'clock meeting. As I drove through the drive-thru of our neighborhood Starbucks, I wrote on my pad "B'rakhot #1 - Thanks for the coffee." Then the Starbucks lady came to the window and handed me my cup. "Thanks for the coffee," I said.

For some reason, the fact that I said the same thing to the coffee lady that I said to God troubled me. I think that's a good thing, because it put the whole excercise of saying 100 b'rakhot in an entirely new light. The 100 b'rakhot isn't just about being thankful. It's about being thankful, but it isn't just about being thankful.

The idea of the whole excercise is to see the things that reflect God's attributes and character in the world around us - not just the stuff that God gives us.

It's hard to break out of the 10-year-old-at-Christmas mentality. You know what I mean - we say "thank you" to your parents for the gifts, but it's often rushed and insincere. After all, parents are supposed to give gifts at Christmas, aren't they? Gifts had shown up under the tree for years, so we grew to expect that they'd be there again. We were thankful, yes, but were never "awestruck" by the fact that our parents continued to give us gifts even though we really didn't deserve them.

The 100 B'rakhot excercise reminds us to be awestruck at what God does for us on a regular basis. It reminds us that even the most minute things reflect the character and attributes of the Creator God. From the minds that created the technology and innovation that make my alarm clock work every morning, to the fossil fuels that power my commute to work and school every day - God created them all. The wildflowers that spring up along the median of a metropolitan freeway reflect the creative nature of an infinite God, and the value He places on beauty and excellence. The smile of a 2-year old covered with donut crumbs reminds us of the hope God gives for tomorrow, and the wrinkled smile of a ninety-year-old bedridden saint (also covered in donut crumbs) reminds us of the hope God gives for eternity.

Blessed are You Lord, (Baruch atah Adonai), Maker of heaven and Earth, for You have done great things.

Challenge For Tomorrow:

One of the books I'm reading this Summer is titled A Royal "Waste"of Time - The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World, by Dr. Marva J. Dawn.

It's a wonderfully interesting discussion of the theology of worship. I say "wonderfully interesting" not because I agree with Dr. Dawn on everything - we end up on opposite sides when we answer several of the questions she asks. But, the questions themselves scratch some itches I've had for a long time. They're thought provoking, and challenge many of the ideas that threaten to derail worship from the way God originally intended it. It's a good read.

Dr. Dawn starts several of the chapters with sermons she's given at various lectureships and churches where she's been invited to speak. One of those sermons struck a chord with me, and challenged me to try something. I wanted to post the idea here before I give it a go. That way, I can take several of you down with me when it's harder than it seems.

The following is an excerpt that can be found on page 219 of Dawn's book, in a sermon entitled "One Hundred B'rakhot."

The habit that I want us to consider this morning is the Jewish practice of trying to say at least 100 B'rakhot a day. That word B'rakhot is the plural form of the noun B'rakha; as I mentioned earlier, it comes from the verb at the beginning of the Hebrew prayer, "Blessed are you" or "Baruch atah." Can you imagine what it would be like if you tried at least 100 times a day to say sentences like these: "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that you have created men and women with intelligent minds who have invented alarm clocks so that I woke up on time this morning"; "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that you have caused the sun to shine and the rain to fall so that the fruits of the harvest could be made into this breakfast cereal"? How might this change our attitudes?

What the Jews sought - and still seek - to accomplish by saying 100 B'rakhot a day was to find Joy in every aspect of life because of their sense that God is behind it all. Since we eat packaged food, and live in packaged houses, and have plenty of appliances and conveniences, it's quite easy to forget that God is the source of everything. The value of saying a B'rakhot is that we keep remembering that God is King of the universe after all, and therefore He's in control of all that happens. And because he is, everything will be quite all right.

So who's with me? Pick a day this weekend and see how close to 100 you can get. Write them down and report back on Monday. The gauntlet has been tossed down. Let's see how you do.

All Wet...

Henderson Hills Baptist Church is notorious for many reasons, the most notable being that two years ago on Monday they served as the hosts to a pretty infamous wedding party: mine.

But more recently, the church is entrenched in a controversy regarding baptism and church membership. Several weeks ago, the elders of the church put a proposal before the congregation requesting a bylaws change. If approved, water baptism will no longer be a requirement for membership at Henderson Hills.

Although the elders presented the proposal, senior pastor Dennis Newkirk is taking the brunt of the criticism from local and national Southern Baptists. And if the old boxing rule "he who loses his cool first loses" holds true, the critics of Henderson Hills lost this debate in the first round. They're mad. In fact, the Baptist Messenger (The Oklahoma Southern Baptist's periodical) has dedicated an entire issue to a campaign against Henderson Hills' proposed bylaw change. Add that to some search-and-destroy missiles from the blogosphere and about all that's left is vulture food.

Both arguments are arguments from silence. The Scripture doesn't explicitly link or separate water baptism and local church membership. The Southern Baptists argue that church history has linked baptism and membership from the days of the Church Fathers. True, but the church has linked a lot of other things throughout history that we're not so proud of. In fact, if we want to go there, for a good part of church history, a person was baptized in a corner room of the church so that they could be baptized completely nude. They weren't dunked backwards, but went straight down into the water with the pastor's hands on their head. If we want to point to church history to validate our arguments, let's go whole hog.

History - even hundreds of years of history is not a source of Truth. Yes, we should tread softly when it comes to rethinking ideas that have been held for hundreds of years, but the argument "we've always done it this way," does not carry water. We have to deal with the Text, and if we can't prove a belief from the Text, we must tread even more softly.

Where Scripture is silent, we have the freedom to act wisely. When we encounter an issue for which there is not an explicit principle or command in Scripture, it is perfectly acceptable to make decisions using the wisdom God gave us. That's why we have wisdom in the first place.

But when we make wise decisions about issues not covered by a principle or command in Scripture and then apply those decisions as laws for others to follow, we start to opperate in sketchy territory. In fact, over the years we've developed a term for that kind of behavior: legalism. Remember the Pharisees? They were well-meaning guys who wanted to be so Scripturally accurate that they started making their applications of the Law into laws themselves.

Now, don't miss my point... the Pharisees of Jesus' day missed God altogether. I'm not saying the critics of Henderson Hills are the same way. What I am saying is that it's entirely possible to become so convinced of our extra-biblical decisions that we impose them on everyone else. Although we don't have Jesus' words on baptism and local church membership, we do have His words on making our own decisions into laws for others, and it isn't pretty.

Should local churches require new believers to be baptized by immersion prior to being accepted as members of the local church? Scripture doesn't say.

I, for one, find it hard to believe that we should require more to be a member of the local church than God requires for membership in the Universal Church. I find it hard to believe that the physically handicapped or gravely ill should not be allowed to be members of the local church. I find it hard to believe that we would refuse membership to an immature Christian who believes that his "sprinkling" identified him with the death and resurrection of Christ just as my immersion did, although we'll let immature believers with other nasty habits and beliefs in... so long as they've been baptized. That doesn't make sense to me.

But, if your local church wants to make water baptism a membership requirement, I think Scripture gives you that freedom. If your church wants to make the completion of a membership training class a requirement for membership, go for it. If you want to catechize new believers before you admit them to membership, more power to you. But don't throw rocks at the first church who disagrees with you.

I grew up Southern Baptist, and served on the staff of a Southern Baptist Church for several years. I'm proud of my heritage as a Southern Baptist - a denomination who has been on the right side of theological issues more often than it's been wrong. But it has been wrong before. And if the SBC, on the local, state, or national level, decides to remove Henderson Hills from its fellowship for making a decision on an issue not explicitly covered in Scripture, it will be the wrong decision.

There are many theological issues and interpretations worth dividing over. An issue that has no basis in Scripture, either positively or negatively is not one of them.

One More Israel Picture

Sorry the formatting of my last post came out so weird. I tried to fix it once, and made it worse. Now I'm to the point where I've been messing with it for so long I'm ready to just be done with it. It won't win any layout awards, but I'm done caring.

This was the last picture I wanted to include for now (I have 347 more you haven't seen, but you'll have to buy me dinner if you want to see the rest).

This is an Israeli soldier praying at the wailing wall in Jerusalem. It seemed strangely appropriate today.

Israel photos.

Well, if you push enough buttons, you're liable to fix something. I've been working for the past several weeks to get some pictures posted from our trip to Israel. Somehow today it's working. So...

Here's my favorite picture of the trip. If you've ever had anything to do with Gene Getz, you'll know he's the most humble man alive. But did you know he was humble enough to smear Dead Sea mud all over himself and pose for 50 pictures? He did.






This is the Mt. of Beatitudes, taken from the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was Kari's favorite place on the trip. It remains relatively untouched by modern civilization. Only one city, Tiberius, can be seen on its banks, which gives the view a very authentic feel. One evening while we were there it got very windy, and the waves got pretty big. I could sympathize with the disciples - I would have been pretty nervous if someone had come walking to me on the water.




The Treasury Building at Petra. No, they didn't really keep money there. It was a burial cave for a king. And before you ask, yes I looked inside - I didn't see the Holy Grail.







This is me with my angel in the shepherds fields with Bethlehem in the background. I tried to get her to sing something angelic, but she was afraid she'd scare the sheep.







That's all for now. I had one more picture I wanted to post, but for some reason the upload isn't working again. So, I'll be happy for what I got uploaded, and post the other one when blogger commits.

Wow.

I'm working on figuring out how to post some of our pictures from our trip to Israel, and am having a hard time. Add that to the fact that I'm extraordinarily busy with some writing deadlines and haven't been able to post in a while.

While I'm waiting for life to calm down, you have to check this guy out. Make sure and watch the whole routine.

Over the river and through the woods...

Kari and I leave Saturday for two weeks in Israel. It's a trip we've been looking forward to for nearly six months. We'll be traveling with Gene Getz, the Pastor Emeritus here at Fellowship, and a couple of families from the Dallas area. It's truly the opportunity of a lifetime.

We were worried for some time that my health wasn't going to allow us to go, but God has been good and answered our prayers. Our prayer all along has been that God would heal me miraculously - to the point that even our doctors were amazed. Last Friday, my doctor bragged and bragged about the progress I've made, "beyond what I could have asked or imagined." Those are his words, not mine. Seems like I've read those words before...

We're excited to walk in the dust of a land that has thousands of years of history. We'll walk in the storied field where David had his showdown with Goliath. We'll stand on the mountain where Elijah asked the prophets of Baal whether their god might be too busy in the john to answer their prayers, and we'll walk through the Garden of Gethsemane. I've heard I'll never read my Bible the same way again, and certainly hope that's true. We couldn't be more excited.

My mom and grandmother, on the other hand, couldn't be less enthused. I keep trying to persuade them that it's okay - if something goes down in Israel it's only a local flight to heaven. Somehow they don't share my perspective.

While you're pining away in the absence of a blog, look for me on this wailing wall webcam. I'll try not to make a fool of myself, but we'll be there one day. If you know me, you know I'll be the guy wearing orange.

Shalom.

I don't know where I am!

Airports are the best places to meet some of the most interesting people on the planet. I always enjoy trips that require me to fly because I'm always surprised by something (or someone) that I see. It's a ripoff if you ask me - a hundred years ago people only had to pay a nickel to watch a freak show. Today you have to buy a plane ticket. Stupid inflation.

Last weekeend, Kari and I flew to Charleston, South Carolina to visit my baby brother. At the time we booked our flights, there was no direct flight to Charleston from Dallas, so I got to enjoy people watching at 3 of America's finest airports. With the exception of one lady who didn't seem to realize she was breast feeding her baby in the middle of a teeming mass of people, and two teenage girls traveling alone who reminded me why we are never having daughters, I was fairly disappointed with the number of weird things I saw in Dallas, Charlotte, and Charleston. It certainly wasn't worth the $1000 freak show ticket.

I did, however, have one rather sad encounter with a lady at the gate for our flight out of Charlotte.

A very pretty old lady, probably in her nineties, was wheeled to the gate by a sky cap, and promptly left by herself. The sky cap didn't give her further instructions or even a "thank you." She just wheeled the lady to the gate and left her. In hindsight, I think the sky cap probably realized she wouldn't be getting a tip from this elderly lady, and was ready to move to someone who would be a little more gratuitous.

Obviously confused, the elderly lady started looking around. Panicked, she looked at me and exclaimed "I don't know where I am."

I was tongue-tied. I didn't want to give her too much information, thus insulting her ("You're in a wheelchair honey."), but I didn't want to give her too little information and leave her still confused ("You're on the planet earth. Time to come back"). So, I opted for the middle-ground. "We're in Charlotte, North Carolina ma'am."

"No," she said, "I know where I am. I don't know where I'm going."

I persuaded her to show me her boarding pass so we could figure it out, and recognized that she was headed to Charleston, South Carolina on the same flight I was waiting for.

"No," she said again, "I know where I'm going. I just don't know how to get there."

With the help of another passenger who recognized the lady from an earlier flight, we got this poor woman calmed down and on the flight to Charleston where she was to attend the weddings of two of her grandsons.

Now, I realize that this poor woman was probably dealing with some senility issues coupled with the pressure of being in crowded airports all day. But as I sat down on the plane, I realized how common her quandry was to all of us. No, we're not often stranded and confused in airports, but don't we ask the same questions every day? Aren't the three statements she articulated the three things that cause uncertainty in our own lives?

Where am I? Where am I going? How am I going to get there?

Those questions are so simple, and yet they're at the heart of almost every dilemma we face today. In some sense, our spiritual life, occupational life, family life, and every other aspect of our lives demand that we consider each of these questions.

Try it out. Think about a decision you have to make today. See if it can't be answered by considering the answers to the 3 questions the woman in the Charlotte airport posed at me. You might be amazed.

You know what they say... "Out of the mouth of senile old women..."

Podcast?

I got an ipod for Christmas last year, and finally got around to installing everything a month or so ago. I've subscribed to a couple of podcasts already, but am interested in who else you guys recommend. I've got John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, and the Catalyst Podcast.

Who am I missing?

E-Church

The multi-site church philosophy has taken a turn for the cyber.

It started with the ability to have my church and my pastor in my neighborhood via various campuses throughout town. Now, I can have my church and my pastor in my room as I watch my church and my pastor in my underwear.

Like them or not, Lifechurch.tv is one of the most innovative churches in America. They're on the cutting edge of the use of technology in the worship service, and have recently launched their newest idea. Why go to church? Bring church to you.

Now, I feel the need to explain that I think these guys have hearts that genuinely seek to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who wouldn't ordinarily hear them. But I think this is a genuinely bad idea.

"Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

While I applaud the desire for creativity and innovation within the Christian culture, I fear an internet campus is a short-sighted and incomplete concept of church.

Internet church is a great concept for taking the gospel to people who would not normally step into a church building - either because of preconceived notions or because of governmental restrictions. But reaching others with the gospel is only a portion of what the church is supposed to be about. Service, encouragement, accountability, and discipleship are left with gaping holes.

Sometimes you just need people with skin on. Internet church doesn't provide it.

Hannahisms Part Deux

Someone confronted me yesterday on the fact that I haven't posted in a while. Cut me some slack... it's the end of the semester, which means two things: First, my brain is so chock full of unoriginal information that I couldn't come up with an original thought to post if I tried. Secondly, Hebrew is hard. I just walked out of an exam where the whole test demanded that I translate one of the minor prophets. Suffice it to say that Jonah wasn't the only person struggling to stay above sea level.

I'll be back around once I purge some of the material from my brain and get the opportunity to think clearly again. But for now, here are a few more Hannahisms. For the full story on Hannahisms, see my first post on Hannahisms here.

1. If God speaks to you outside the Bible, it's private conversation - stop telling me about it and keep it to yourself.

2. You can only be direct in peoples' lives to the point that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you love them.

3. The difference between philosophy and theology is that one has reason, the other has verses.

4. A saint is not a person without problems. A saint is a person who doesn't allow his problems to abort his ministry.

5. If you have a system that answers all the questions, you have a man made system and left God out.

6. You can preach a weak gospel and get converts. But weak converts attract wolves.

7. If God is not doing something, I'm going to rest, because He will start doing something soon and I want to be awake. It isn't my job to manufacture something for God.

8. I'm sick and tired of sermons that give me five ways to be a better husband. Preach Christ and in the depths of His forgiveness I'll love my wife.

9. Why do we read books? Before you can find your prince, you have to kiss a lot of frogs.

10. I can't dance. I'm an exegete. When everyone else is moving, I'm trying to discern what the meaning of "right" is, and everyone leaves me behind.

Guilty or Not?

I don't know if this is news anywhere in the world other than Dallas, but the trial of Dena Schlosser ended today. She's the sicko mom accused of killing her baby by sawing off the baby's arms with a kitchen knife.

The verdict? Not guilty.

Apparently, the judge things she's insane.

Ya think?

Of course she's insane; she killed her kid. Not only that, she did it in a grotesque, inhumane, disgusting, cruel way. After killing her child, Maggie, Schlosser calmly dialed 9-1-1 and explained what she had done.

There's no doubt that she killed her daughter; Schlosser and her family would admit as much. There's no doubt as to the manner Maggie was murdered; Schlosser's 9-1-1 testimony describes the heinous crime in detail. She's guilty. Crazy, but guilty.

How is it that we as Americans have allowed insanity to be an excuse? Further, what hard core criminal is not insane? Adolf Hitler? Insane. Sadaam Hussein? Insane. Osama Bin Laden? Insane. Timothy McVeigh? Insane. Charles Manson? Insane. Jeffrey Dahmer? Insane.

They're all absolutely crazy. And they're all guilty. Their insanity is part of them.

So we find out that Dena Schlosser had a brain tumor that might have caused hallucinations causing her to kill her baby. Thus, Dena Schlosser isn't guilty. Don't we see how inconsistent that is? Is the brain tumor guilty? Isn't the brain tumor a part of Dena? If not, I'm sure the insurance company will be happy to learn that piece of information.

In our society's haste to shift blame, we've forgotten some of the values that made our country great: liberty and justice for all. Where there's no justice, there is no liberty. Where there's no blame, there's no justice. And where there's no blame, there's insanity alright, but it isn't where we think.

Meet Fred

Meet Fred. Fred grew up in a Christian home as a preacher's kid and a military brat. His dad was both a pastor and a chaplain in the army. He had a normal childhood and, as any good preacher's kid would be, was in the church every time the doors were open. He learned the stories we all grew up with as children - Moses parting the Red Sea, Jesus turning water into wine, Samson killing thousands of Philistines by pushing down the pillars of a building - the stories that normally get young boys' blood pumping.

As Fred grew up in the church, he began to notice a problem: The passion, ferver and excitement in Christianity seemed to have disappeared. Churches that used to be bursting at the seams with those wanting to hear God's Word taught were closing their doors, while the majority of people that graced the church with their presence seemed bored and uninterested. They came to church for the same reason Fred did - it was what they had always done.

Fred also noticed that the church had lost much of what it used to stand for. People identified with Christianity because of the culture they lived in. After all if the culture is based on Christian principles, they reasoned, and I'm born into the culture, I must be Christian. Christianity wasn't unique any more. Being called a "Christian" didn't seem to mean anything any more. And the more Fred searched the more discouraged he became. Not only did the church seem to be losing ground, it didn't seem to care. It didn't seem relevant, didn't seem palatteable, and didn't seem to be effective at all.

Sound familiar?

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. Fred lived nearly three-hundred years ago.

Fredrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher isn't exactly the person you would expect a conservative Christian to quote. Those familiar with his name recognize him as one of the fathers, if not the father of modern liberalism.

Schleiermacher was fed up with what he perceived as flaws in Christianity during his day, and set out to do something to defend Christianity against people who wrote it off as culturally and intellectually irrelevant. But in doing so, he committed several fatal errors that ultimately did more harm than good.

In "defending" Christianity, Schleiermacher gave up many of the basic doctrines that had been essential to the church since its beginning. He called miracles, revelation and inspiration "fairy tales," and proposed a church that was based almost solely on feeling. Religion was not about "Knowing or Doing, but a modification of Feeling or of immediate self-consciousness. And when you give up essential ground to critics just for the sake of agreement, bad things start to happen.
Sound familiar?

There's a discussion going on within Christianity in the 21st century that mirrors almost exactly some of the ideas that started Schleiermacher on his quest in the late 18th century. The church seems to be losing influence in America. The modern culture is disengaged. A majority of those who attend show up because they always have. The majority of America tells surveyors that they are "Christian," but truth be told, the majority of them see American citizenship and Christianity as synonymous terms.

But the problem is not Christianity.

Schleiermacher goofed when he examined the problem and decided that the problem was Christianity, and that Christianity needed to be rescued from extinction. So, he changed Christianity and gave up some of the essentials in order to be more culturally relevant. His answer to the cultural problem was to adopt a "generous orthodoxy" that agreed to fudge on some issues in order to bring more people in.

Did I say "generous orthodoxy?" Those aren't Schleiermacher's words. They're the words of a 21st century theologian who is attempting to answer the same question Schleiermacher answered. I think he's a well-meaning guy, who has aptly articulated a very real problem within Christianity today. But the problem isn't with Christianity.

Christianity does not need our help. It doesn't need to be rescued from anything. And it isn't our prerogative to change Christianity so we can get more people involved. We don't need to change Christianity to make it "relevant." Christianity is already relevant. We may change what we do to show Christianity's relevance, but Christianity itself can never be changed. And that's a very important distinction.

I'm all for cultural relevance. I'm all for creativity. But we have to understand that while we have freedom to be creative in what we do, we do not have freedom to be creative in what we are.

When Fred set out, he set out to solve a very real problem. But in the end, he sacrificed more than was his to give. I fear many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are dancing dangerously close to the same slippery slope that claimed Schleiermacher's life, and fear even more greatly that the result of their concessions will be the same. We're still paying for Schleiermacher's mistakes today. Let's not do the same for those who will come after us.

Ministry and Marriage

Several weeks ago, the professors of my "Leading the Church in Effective Ministry" class brought in a panel of pastors to discuss leadership development and staff relationships with our class. In my four years at DTS this is the first class to focus solely on practical issues in ministry. I've been saturated with theology, history, Bible, and languages. I could diagram the Gospel of John in Greek, but couldn't perform a wedding, would drown the first person I tried to baptize, and would probably wear a baseball cap to the first funeral I performed. Okay, maybe that's a stretch.

Suffice it to say that this class has been a fresh air - the light at the end of the tunnel for me. We hear from pastors and ministry leaders on a regular basis who attempt to tie the theoretical with the practical so the pastors we send out on the field aren't simply educated fools.

One of the pastors on the panel on leadership development in this particular class was Gary Brandenburg, the new Senior Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church Dallas. I was so impressed with the things he had to say I offered to buy him lunch.

I bribe pastors and professors like this from time to time. They get a free lunch, and I get to pepper them with questions. It's a win-win situation.

Gary is a tremendous conversationalist, and one of those people who has tremendous insight on almost any topic you bring up. But the best came when I asked him about ministry transitions. My exact question went like this: "Gary, you've just made a transition into a church where the former Senior Pastor still attends, who built this church around his philosophy and vision for ministry. As the new senior pastor trying to build your own philosophy and vision into the ministry, how do you find the right balance between moving too slow and not moving at all."

He didn't miss a beat. "Chris, learn how to love your wife."

Huh?

I guess I must have betrayed my ignorance, because he went on to explain something that I thought was pretty profound. You see, there isn't an exhaustive checklist for how to love your wife. If someone tells you they can give you ten steps for how to love your wife, they're lying. They could give you ten steps toward better communication, but you can communicate until you're blue in the face and still not love your wife. It takes communication, but it also takes intuition, wisdom, foresight, experience, and a host of other things.

As a young husband learning to love my wife, I'm using a majority of the skills I'll need to learn to love a church. There aren't ten steps to being an effective young pastor (or an effective old pastor for that matter). You can't run down a checklist, or check a gauge, or read a book. Those things may be helpful in an area, but they're certainly not exhaustive.

I thought about his words a lot last night. They make a lot of sense. And I think the parallel goes even further. The skills I'm learning in marriage won't just help me in the first years of ministry - they'll help me throughout ministry. Maybe that's why Paul made it essential for Christian leaders to be those who "manage their households well" (1 Tim. 3:4).

Sometimes I've felt like I'm spinning my wheels in ministry, like my hands are tied. I can't be leading a staff right now. I can't preach on Sunday mornings. So many of the things I need to know to be effective are learned by experience, but I haven't felt like I'm in a place where I can get that.

But I am.

Learn how to love your wife. I can do that.

Distinct

Here's a question that has puzzled me for a while: What one tangible thing sets me apart from an unbeliever? We're called to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), but what exactly is it that the world would see in us that they won't see in someone else who doesn't believe? We're supposed to "behave properly toward outsiders" (1 Thess 4:12), but what does that look like? It has to be more than just good works, because good works in and of themselves don't set Christians apart.

The Pharisees had good works. The false prophets had good works. Unbelievers do good works all the time. The Mormon church is one of the most benevolent organizations in the world, and they're a cult that denies the Christ of the Bible. For years secular organizations have run circles around Christians when it comes to doing good works in the world. So the Christian has to have more than good works when it comes to showing the validity of Christianity to a fallen world. The world often behaves better than us.

From the world's perspective, they don't need the virtues of Christianity because they often live more virtuous lives than us. We have good works, so does the world. We have community, so does the world. We have religiosity, so does the world. We have happiness, so does the world. In a large part, for everything the Christian has, the world has developed a counterfeit.

But three things remain: faith, hope, and love.

The world doesn't have faith because faith is based on hope, and hope is absent from the fallen world system. When we really get down to it, there's not even hope for tomorrow in the fallen world.

Just today, I talked to a guy (during my daily visit to Taco Bell) who just gave up giving up smoking. The way he figures it, medicine and technology will catch up with his bad habit before his bad habit catches up with him. He's only been smoking for five years - surely by the time lung cancer comes to him science will be able to clone him a new lung. After all, when he was a kid the idea of a heart transplant was science fiction; now we do them all the time.

Hope in technology? That's not hope. My hope is based on a certainty that has been proven time after time. His hope is built on wishful thinking.

The world also doesn't have a counterfeit for love. The world talks about love a lot, but in the context of "making love," "falling in and out of love," and "finding love." Love that can be made, fallen into and out of, or found is not love. Love is something that must be done. And the only true demonstration of love is that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
The world talks about love because it doesn't understand it. The Christian has the ultimate example from which to live by.

But here's the problem: the Church does a lousy job of believing, hoping, and loving, and we're not doing anything to get better. Most churches do a pretty good job of getting their people to do good works but when those good works are done for the sake of doing good works, and apart from the overt presence of faith, hope, and love as a motivating factor, the works are useless. They fall into the same mental file with unbelievers as what the United Way or some other secular organization does. Consequently, the Church isn't a "city on a hill," but a streetlight in an already well-lit city.

Instead of thinking about how we can do more good stuff, maybe it's time for us to consider how the good stuff that we do can better reflect the things we have that nobody else does.

Let's "Converse"

If you've read my blog very long, or know me very well, you know that I completely detest being put in a box. I have a hard time identifying whole-heartedly with a particular system, fad, movement, or trend - mostly because I feel like when I jump in one of those boxes I'm going to have to identify with all the baggage that goes with it. Then, when it comes time for a discussion, I find myself having to spend all my time cleaning up all the messes someone else has created rather than explaining what I believe to be true. That's no fun.

But I still read a lot about the various ideas out there. I just finished a biography of Jonathan Edwards that had some real ministry gems in it. I followed it up with a book by Len Sweet, a newer writer who has almost nothing in common with Edwards, but had a few really great insights. I'm intrigued by a lot of the newer movements within Christianity, although I've noticed something in recent years that bothers me about some of the newer "boxes" within Christianity and the terminology they use: they all want to be called "conversations." The last four or five books I've read about newer movements in the church all refer to the ongoing "conversation" in that particular circle.

The emphasis on "conversation" is born out of necessity. The Christian culture has shifted along with the American culture in the past couple of decades. We used to be a Mars Hill type culture, where ideas were taught and received. Now, we're a discussion-oriented culture, where ideas are thrown out and hopefully discussed on their merits. You see the shift in educational philosophies, in the political arena, and even in the boom of the blogosphere. Culture has become oriented around conversation.

The problem with Christianity, is that we tend to adopt lingo before we adopt practice, and sometimes before we even know what the lingo means. The trendy "conversations" today aren't conversations at all; they're lectures with friendly titles attached to them. "If you don't buy in to our new philosophy of Christianity wholesale, you're wrong and behind the times." That's the sentiment of the "conversation" right now, which is no conversation at all.

If we really want to have a conversation about the future of the Church in America, I think that's a really good thing. But that's not what is happening. Right now we're having an old-fashioned argument with a new title, and that's goofy.

Worship In the Dr.'s Office

My aunt, wife of the pyromaniac, recently posted about the latest drama she experienced in the waiting room of a doctor's office. I don't know why drama always tends to find this family, but my wife made me add to our wedding vows that I would never vacation with them - an activity that ranks on the risk scale just under skiing slopes only reachable by helicopter. If you haven't already, read Darlene's post about her visit to the doctor's office, and search for the prequel. Then sit back and be amazed, because these are not isolated experiences for them. Wherever they are, weird people seem to show up on their most outlandish behavior.

I've had my own share of doctor appointments recently. The doctors have finally diagnosed me with what's called "Ramsay Hunt Syndrome." To put it shortly, in a very few lucky people who had chickenpox as a kid, the virus hangs around and reappears in the form of shingles later in life. For a very few of those lucky people, those shingles decide to attack the inner ear rather than the outside of the body, and eventually attack one of the major nerves in your face. The result is a paralyzed half of your face accompanied by a really fun ear ache. There's really not a treatment; the doctors just hope it will go away. And it certainly will... sometime in the eternal scheme of things. But fortunately, it's not life threatening and isn't really painful - just annoying. So life is good.

You should know that I hate doctors. I'm deathly afraid of needles - deathly afraid of needles. So I dread doctors just because I know they might recommend a shot or blood work, and I wouldn't have any choice to submit to the humiliation of asking some 20 year old nurse to let me lay down on the cot while she tries to locate a vein, and then passing out two or three times throughout the process. Nurses earn their money with me.

But this whole experience has been fascinating to me. It turns out, according to the ENT, that all my problems are due to the swelling and degeneration of the 7th cranial nerve - a teeny tiny nerve that runs along my jawbone, and governs all the muscle movement in the right side of my face including eye blinks, smiles, chewing, frowning, and everything else you can think of. That one teeny tiny nerve malfunctions, and the whole face goes limp. Pretty cool huh?

One of the neurosurgeons who looked at me attached some electrodes to my face and plugged me into a wall outlet to see what would happen to my face (If nothing else, the experience served as a deterrent for my ever committing a crime that would lead me to the electric chair). By sending an electrical shock through my face, the doctor was able to gauge the exact percent my nerve was functioning. Amazing.

If the swelling of one tiny nerve can cause me to look like a wax museum statue that got placed too close to the furnace, imagine the number of things that work perfectly in harmony every single day. Our body is perfectly designed by God, fearfully and wonderfully made. How can you reach any other conclusion? The intricasies of the body combined with its delicate balance is truly an amazing thing. We can't even begin to understand it to the point that we can fix it, but God had the infinite wisdom and skill to design it, create it, and to continue to sustain it as long as I live on the earth.

Last week, I went to the doctor. I passed out twice, but I worshipped there too.

How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!
Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity. (Psalm 139:17-18)

Out Sick...

No, I haven't totally given up on blogging. And no, I haven't been consumed by the TeamPyro megablog, which has turned out to be the bloggosphere's equivalent of a black hole threatening to suck the life out of measley blogs everywhere. I've been pretty under the weather for the past three weeks, and struggling to stay above water in Hebrew took precedence over blowing off steam on my blog. I'm still not out of the woods with the illness, or with the Hebrew, so I don't know how much I'll add over here until I get back on my feet, but I'll be back.

One of the highlights of my seminary day is my trek to a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell combination store for lunch. I've been going with some regularity for the past 3 years, and have been trying to build a bridge to Christianity with a couple of the employees there who have become my friends.

John is the guy at the counter, and he's my favorite. For 3 years we've made casual conversation in passing - usually about sports, but occasionally about politics or some other current event. I don't know why I'm surprised by his intelligence - maybe it's because he's thirty-something and still working full-time as a cashier at Taco Bell. But he's bright, articulate, and as far as I can tell, as far away from Christ as he can be. But we've never broached the topic of Christianity, until today.

He knows I'm a seminary student... I'm usually flipping through Hebrew or Greek flashcards, or reading a conspicuously Christian book as I eat. It's not tough to tell what I'm up to. But I've never pushed the issue with him... just waited for him to bring it up. Today he did.

"Hey Chris. What do you think about dispensationalism?"

Uhhhh.... Not exactly what I expected from a guy who works at Taco Bell, teaches me new curse words from time to time, and who has never touched the topic of Christianity.

Turns out, he read an article in the Dallas Observer, a fairly liberal newspaper-type publication about Dallas Seminary and some controversies about dispensationalism at DTS that are actually old news although the article came out last week. I hadn't read it, so I looked it up when I got back to school.

If you're interested in dispensationalism, or some of the current discussions within dispensationalism right now, you might be interested in reading the article here. It's a really long article, but does a fairly good job in a lot of respects. It minimizes some of the distinctions between traditional and progressive dispensationalism that I wish it had brought out more, but I was overall fairly surprised at the thorough treatment given in such a liberal publication that isn't at all committed to explaining biblical truth. Dispensationalism has some black eyes, and the article brings them out, but does a pretty good job at painting dispensationalism overall in a fairly good light.

If nothing else, the article gave me a really bizzarre starting point to lead into sharing the Gospel with a guy at Taco Bell.