Intellectual Honesty

As a part of my morning devotions, I've been reading Amazing Grace, the biography of William Wilberforce by Eric Metaxas, which was loaned to me by Ed Gorman, a dear member of our congregation. The following passage from pp. 50-51 is a description of his conversation with Isaac Milner, a literal and intellectual giant of 18th century England who engaged Wilberforce persuasively from the perspective of his evangelical faith:

"Wilberforce was through his life possessed of a rare and bracing intellectual honesty. At Cambridge he had once been asked to sign his name assenting to the articles of the Church of England. This was viewed then as a formality, one of the college's ancient requirements for receiving one's degree; everyone simply signed the document and took their degree. But Wilberforce refused. He didn't at that time agree with the official tenets of the Anglican Church, or at least wasn't sure whether he did, and therefore couldn't bring himself to sign it, which delayed his degree for several years. In an age when, just as today, most people shrugged or winked their way through such hypocrisies, Wilberforce would not.
"But now his intellectual honesty would work in the other direction. With (Isaac) Milner as his interlocutor, he examined the same tenets of orthodox Christianity to which a few years before he couldn't give his assent. He seems to have wanted to know what was true, but until now had been unable to find out to his satisfaction. He knew that if he discovered a truth to his satisfaction he would have no choice but to embrace it and act upon it. Just as he wouldn't sign the paper assenting to beliefs he didn't hold, he knew that if he held a belief he would be obliged to act upon it, and not just in small and isolated instances, as with that signature, but in all of his life. He knew that the tiniest mustard seed can grow and grow and become a tree in which the birds of the air make their nests. Ideas have far-reaching consequences, and one must be ever so careful about what one allows to lodge in one's brain. Now, as the conversation with Milner continued, Wilberforce could almost see the birds of the air looking domestically in his direction."

Red, Blue, and Purple States

If you like maps and are interested in elections and demographics, you will probably find this analysis interesting.

Human Faces

The BBC is reporting that the Bali bombers were executed today in Indonesia. To be honest, I had mostly forgotten that act of terrorism and hadn't really given its perpetrators any thought for quite some time. I suppose I'm actually a bit surprised that they were still alive until now, though it sounds like others in Indonesia also expected this to have happened more quickly.

The part of this article that made the biggest impression on me, however, was the picture of the three men at the top.



I don't know if this is a difference between the BBC and the American news sources with which I am more familiar, but I am not accustomed to seeing the photos of condemned criminals represent them in such a natural - and even happy! - state. I hadn't realized it, but I'm used to seeing mugshots of unshaven, unkempt men (and usually they are men) who are presented more as criminals than as human beings. There is nothing in these pictures that helps to distance me from their humanity, and that is somewhat arresting (no pun intended).

To be clear, I am not trying to minimize their horrible act of terrorism in any way or to pretend that they are not vicious criminals. What they did was an act of pure evil. In fact, that's what stirs me about this. To see these young men looking so normal, so engaging, so much like people I would otherwise relate to reminds me of the great capacity for good and evil that resides in the human soul.

On one hand the fullness of their humanity exacerbates the depravity of their crime against other fully human beings. On the other hand, it also makes it much harder for me to be comfortable with repaying their lethal terrorism with lethal force. Regardless of one's political position on capital punishment, the whole cycle is clearly sub-human.

It makes me long for the restoration of all humanity in the image of the Son. God speed that work, and God speed that day.

One Big Family

I simply want to celebrate publicly the wonderful event in the life of our church family yesterday morning. We had our "One in Christ" worship service, cramming all of our weekly attendance into one worship time in two electronically connected rooms. It was a technological feat for us to pull off this rapidly changing two-way simulcast, but the technology only served the deeper challenge of helping our whole church worship and connect together as one big worshiping family.

Strong Fences

I can only think of a few childhood moments that struck me as so revelatory as the time that my increasingly reclusive grandmother admonished , "Strong fences make good neighbors." My grandmother had many wonderful qualities, but a healthy balance of extroversion was not one of them.

I'm afraid that side of my grandmother would be enjoying our culture more and more with every passing year.

We have so many fences between us. Here in Minnesota we are fast approaching that time of year when physical neighbors never see one another outside of their automatic garage doors. We know each other only by our tail lights. We have lots of relational fences, inhibitions that keep us from sharing our lives with each other in any meaningful way. Just a few nights ago I was running along one of my regular routes and tried to offer a simple "Good run" to another runner passing me in the opposite direction. But even that small effort fell victim to an iPod fence.

As our vision discernment conversations at First Lutheran have attempted to assess the needs of our external community, the need for friendships, connection, and a sense of community has frequently been identified as pressing. (I can't help but wonder, of course, if those of us in the church are really much better off in this regard. We've got a long way to go.) The more I look around, the more I agree and the more I realize how much fencing we will need to break down. This is not going to be easy. For some reason, we really resist getting closely connected with other people. Even though it brings deep joy to life, we seem to avoid it.

Would any of my readers like to chime in with their comments on the barriers that keep us from establishing genuine community with other people?

Disciple making

I blogged about this same topic on Saturday, but I got fired up about it again yesterday. What if we could design a simple, clear process for helping people to grow as disciples? Wouldn't that be great? (And, yes, I have read Simple Church, in case anyone is asking...)

The thing that got me thinking about this was Sunday's annual presentation of Bibles to third graders. This year we happened to have several (infant) baptisms scheduled right before the third graders got their Bibles. This created a very interesting sequence. First I stood up front with the parents and sponsors of the baptized children, asking them about their commitment to nurture the faith of this child that we were baptizing into the Christian community. Our baptismal service gives me the opportunity to charge them specifically to bring their children to corporate worship; to teach them the Lord's Prayer, the historic creeds of the church, and the 10 commandments; and to "place in their hands" the holy Scriptures. We as a congregation also promise to work with them and support them in this commitment to their children.

Then, right after the Baptism, the 3rd graders and their parents stood up to receive Bibles that our congregation purchased for them. My colleague, Pastor Angie, explained to the parents and children what these Bibles are and how to use them. And in this juxtaposition of events, even a dunce like me could see that we were doing something right. We parents and congregation members were honoring one of the promises we had made at the baptisms of these children 7-8 years ago. -- And we are working diligently to ensure that we consistently honor the rest of them too.

All this made me think about how great it would be to act just as intentionally for our whole community, and not just for our children and students. Being a Christian in a non-Christian world is no small thing. If we expect to grow together as disciples of Jesus, we really ought to invest some careful, strategic thought in a process that facilitates exactly that result. And then we ought to invest some disciplined, strategic effort in that process.

Make Disciples. Novel idea.

Confirmation

Giving an opportunity for Christian adolescents to confirm their faith is an old tradition. Without doing some homework, I couldn't say exactly how long Lutherans and other kinds of Christians have had a rite like Confirmation, but I know it's been a very long time.

As we had rehearsal today for tomorrow's confirmation service, I was having three thoughts:
1. This is such an important time in our students' lives. I'm so glad for the excellent job that has been done especially by our student ministry staff during the years leading up to confirmation.
2. This is such an important time in our students' lives. I wonder how we could help shape students into followers of Christ even more effectively and faithfully than we already do.
3. This is such an important time in our students' lives. I wonder how we could take this faith formation process and adapt it for the life of our whole church community. Maybe we could call it "conformation," all of us being conformed to the life of Jesus - though possibly in some very non-conformist ways.

Change and...Politics?

A speech you'll never hear from a major political candidate. For all kinds of reasons.

Faith?

That's a word that gets used an awful lot, though I'm rarely sure that we know exactly what we mean by it. "Well, I guess you've just got to have faith," we say. Faith in what? Or whom? To do what?

Obviously I know that when Christians say this they mean faith in God. But I wonder how often we reflect on what we're trusting God to do? Is it something that He has promised to do? And if not, is it appropriate for us to trust God for something God has not promised?

I'm thinking about this today because of the confluence of two books I'm reading. The first "book" is the book of Galatians that we're studying carefully at First Lutheran right now. The second book is a recent publication by Christian Scharen called Faith as a Way of Life. What I'm thinking about in particular is the Christ-content that Galatians gives to the word pistis or "faith." Faith(fulness?) is first of all Christ's, and then it is ours. In this context faith is not blind trust or hopeful optimism, but it is conformity to the mind and obedience to Jesus.

I've only just begun reading Scharen's book, but even the opening pages provoke me to ask what kind of faith he proposes as a way of life. It doesn't take long to sense that he is thoughtful enough to avoid any vacuous notions of faith, but I'm eager to see how a Galatians-like Christ-faith will shape his proposal. And I'm even more eager to see such a thing shape our lives.

Sub 2:04 Marathon

2:03:59.

That's 4:46 per mile.

I once ran 1 mile that fast. Haile Gebrselassie ran 26 in a row at yesterday's Berlin marathon. Man, these guys are impressive.

For the Kingdom of God

Some good words from Daniel at Sibboleth, who is teaching at Fuller Seminary in Northern California:

Excerpt: "...one of the priests at St. Patrick's Seminary, whose space we share, gave a welcome to the students. As part of his welcome he said that what is good for the kingdom is when we get about our shared calling to proclaim the gospel, not competing with each other but working together for the furtherance of the kingdom."

Amen.

Themes Rising - Part 3 (Others)

The third theme that seems to me to have been rising in our study, conversation, and reflection is the need for First Lutheran to be a church for others. Perhaps I should find a way to say this more precisely or articulately, but let me just be plain for now.

Of the three themes that I've blogged about in this strand (including also church of substance and church of generations), this is the one that I think represents both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for us. At one level, of course, you have to ask, "Who doesn't want to be a church for others?" It sounds so obvious. But is it something that we're really ready to do?

First Lutheran has known decades of "success" and growth by being an excellent church to come to. We've had years and years of solid preaching, top-notch music, innovative children's and student ministries, and a whole plethora of other attractive programs and opportunities. Anyone looking for a good Lutheran church in the White Bear Lake area would have to think seriously about attending FLC. And, in some sense, much of this was done "for others." It was done to attract others to "our church," though one could be forgiven for wondering how often the "others" have been very other.

In 2008 much is still the same but much has also changed. Among the biggest changes is that the number of people who could be described as "anyone looking for a good Lutheran church" has gone drastically down. It is no longer enough to be a very "attractive" church when fewer and fewer people are interested in church at all - not if you want to reach non-Christians with the good news about Jesus.

Somehow we will have to grow from being a place people come to into a gathering of Christians that goes to the people. We'll need not only to speak Jesus-words in our pulpit and on our campus, but we'll need to live Jesus-lives in our communities and on our streets. In the 21st century, Christians have an awful lot of credibility to re-earn and we won't be able to do it talking to ourselves. (See also the comments, btw, on my church of substance post from a few days ago. Thanks to my readers for pushing on today's topic, and particularly on the importance of seeing this happen not just in church programming but as also as the spontaneous outworking of the lives of the Christians who call First Lutheran home.)

We have a lot to learn and probably a lot of experimenting to do as we figure out how to do this best, but I suspect that this issue is much more a matter of "how" than "if."

Themes Rising - Part 2 (Generations)

Thanks to those of you who engaged in conversation around the theme of being a "church of substance." We went off in some directions I hadn't expected on that topic in particular, but I'm really grateful for what you had to say.

The second theme that seems to me to have been rising to the surface in many of our congregations has to do with being a "church of generations." Especially in our listening groups, I heard lots of people expressing value and appreciation for the diversity of generations active in the life of First Lutheran. In recent years we've referred to this as our desire to be a "cradle to grave" Christian community.

On one hand, this almost seems like a no brainer. There's so much to be gained from the gifts of each generation, and it's a very natural fit to our past and present. On the other hand, this is also a real challenge. I'm sure at least some of my readers will know that quite a bit of current church leadership "wisdom" suggests that churches should pick a specific demographic target audience and try to reach that audience. I can think of churches I know that aim specifically for 30-somethings or younger families or boomers.

Biblically speaking, I think there's every reason in the world for us to strive to develop as a fully multi-generational community, and there are opportunities galore for growth, service and maturity that come with this kind of approach. But we should also probably acknowledge that following this road would (will?) present strategic challenges in areas such as program planning and resource deployment. Perhaps both the greatest challenge and the greatest virtue of growing as this kind of community is that all of us will have to learn to value the needs of others more highly than our own. And now that I say it that way, it sounds like a place I really want to be a part of.

Themes Rising - Part 1 (Substance)

First Lutheran is continuing to move toward greater clarity (and eventually implementation) of its calling. Our Vision Leadership Team met over the weekend to summarize our progress so far and to chart a course toward completing this discernment process. As we talked, I summarized three themes that seem to me to be rising to the top in our reading, talking, thinking, and praying. We are still intentionally refraining from any final evaluations or articulations yet, but just testing out some ideas on each other. Those of you who are following along here can test out these ideas in your comments if you'd like. In our group I suggested that we are discerning ourselves to be a church of substance, a church of generations, and a church for others.

By "church of substance," I mean many of the things that I said in our September 14 worship services. We have a long history of and a strong present commitment to spiritual depth and substance, including Biblical preaching, small group involvement, and a commitment to prayer. I don't think that many of us would want to see any of this change, except perhaps to see it grow stronger.

But "church of substance" also means something else to me. I'm also thinking about articulating and practicing this dimension of our church life in a way that is engaging to outsiders so that we offer them a substantial opportunity to engage with Jesus and his gospel. I want to see us make space and opportunity for people to ask their questions, no matter how challenging those questions might be, and trust that we can walk faithfully with them into real answers that are never glib and may rarely be quick or easy. It seems to me that First Lutheran may be uniquely equipped to share the hope of the gospel with people who have substantial reservations about the faith, and if that is true, then it is a calling from which we dare not shrink.

It would probably also be well to talk about substantial love and service to our community, but I'll save that for part 3.

Good News

That's been the theme at First Lutheran this last week. Good news. The NT book of Galatians is shaping our community life at FLC right now. It is being taught and studied in our Bible study groups and it is providing the themes for our worship and messages on Sunday morning. I don't think a day goes by right now that I'm not reading or studying this book somehow. That, in itself, is good news of a kind. It's good to be shaped deeply and consistently by the words of Scripture, and this book in particular has a history of potency in fueling the church's commitment to the Gospel and to life that is consistent with the Gospel.

One topic I'd like to think more about, however, is the relationship between "the gospel" as that term is used, for example, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke and "the gospel" as that term is used by Paul in Galatians or other letters. The audiences who heard Jesus proclaim the good news and who read Matthew's account of it had a lot of context in which to understand "the good news of the Kingdom of God." That wouldn't have meant much, at least at first, to a bunch of Greeks at Thessalonica or to the various audiences in Galatia.

We want First Lutheran to be and to speak good news to our community. I think it would be helpful to think about the ways that Paul translated this message to Mediterranean towns to which he traveled. It might help us think about faithful and applicable articulations of the gospel in 21st century, Midwestern, suburban North America.

Consequences of Clarity

"If nobody's left your church recently, then your vision is probably too broad."

I read that quotation a few years ago in a book called Simply Strategic Stuff by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan. I wasn't really comfortable with it at the time, and I probably do still have some questions about it.

But just this last week I had a conversation with a friend from our church (not officially a member, but active) who shall remain anonymous in this post, who's probably going to go look for a different church. We've been talking a lot about reaching the non-Christians in our community recently (as I preached about last weekend), and this person was worried that we would stop "feeding the believers" if we did too much of that.

I'm sympathetic to this person's concern, and I'm glad they raised it with me. First Lutheran has a history of real Biblical substance, and I certainly want that to be our future too. So, friend, if you're reading this post, thank you for prodding me on this point.

At the same time, however, we are also discerning our calling to engage our unchurched world with the good news of the Kingdom of God dawning in Jesus, and I just can't imagine shrinking back from that call. We're still in this process of discernment, but that feature seems to be rising rapidly to the front. We've got to navigate the challenge of doing this without turning Jesus into a product to be sold or simply reducing our proclamation down to whatever is easy and palatable to the greatest number of people. Certainly there are temptations to do that.

It's sad to lose a friend and ministry partner from this church, but I also know that there are lots of churches doing various pieces of God's work in the world. Not every church can be everything, and, dear friend, you will be a blessing, no doubt, to another church. And if God leads our mutual callings closer to each other again, I shall be glad for the reunion.

The site of something historic

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Amy's first day of running was an out and back on Birch Lake Boulevard. Probably 1.5 miles, alternating jogging and walking. The local running scene had better prepare itself. Here she comes!

The experience issue

I intentionally avoid blogging about politics for all kinds of reasons, but Less than the Least has some very interesting comments up about the value and types of experience held by the major presidential and VP candidates.

The comparison is between three kinds of experience: time served in the federal government, time served in an executive position, and results produced. Definitely worth a read.

Galatians Link

Thanks to TC for the blog love on this fall's Bible study series on Galatians.

Don't forget, btw, to change your subscriptions to his new address.

Anthony Famiglietti

If you're a runner, you're going to love this interview with Anthony Famiglietti, or "Fam." His description of his job as an Olympic runner: "My job is to push myself to complete physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion everyday." Man, I love this guy!

He didn't achieve his goal of winning a Bronze medal in Beijing, but true to himself, he left it all on the track.