Christmas Can Still Change Our City

At Meadowbrook, we want to do Christmas differently this year. We are bombarded by the commercialism and consumerism of our culture's Christmas, but we want to firmly remain in the Christmas we find in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The God of This City is inviting us into His story of love, compassion, and redemption.

In November, we're embarking on an adventure of sacrifice and gift-giving. In an effort to help Stewpot's Matt's House and Sims' House shelters, we are asking folks to sacrifice something this month so that we can share our resources with those in need. What can you give up? What can you share? Do you believe that Christmas Can Still Change Our City?

Happy Earth Day!

Hope you're having a great Earth Day 2009! Haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet? Think global warming is a hoax? Think taking care of the earth is a leftist political agenda?

Think again.

My view is that scripture is pretty clear that we are to steward the earth. Not abusing God's creation is pretty straightforward to me.

Moreover, why should some of God's children have better access to clean air or water than others? This is an issue of justice. Christians ought to be concerned with how the earth's limited resources are distributed.

It's a love issue too. If I love all my neighbors on earth, then I'll help take care of our environment. If I love my kids and my grandkids, then I'll help preserve the earth and make efficient use of our resources.

A few months ago I blogged about a class where we discussed Christian responsibility to the environment. Those discussions listed in reverse order here.

How are you helping use resources efficiently?

God Grew Tired of Us

Have you seen this film?



Due to the ongoing civil war in Sudan, several thousand orphan boys, known as The Lost Boys journeyed across Africa where they lived in refugee camps for over 15 years. Then, one day, the UN provided them an opportunity to go to America.

America - Land of unimaginable freedom.

America - Land of unimaginable wealth.

God Grew Tired of Us tells the story of The Lost Boys struggling to learn to live in our culture. They deal with feelings of guilt for leaving other Boys behind, and they learn to cope with the frenetic pace of American life and our endless pursuit of the dollar.

This film is really mind boggling. It's amazing to watch these guys learn to harness the magic of light switches and flushing toilets, and then be unable to cope with the lack of community in America. The juxtaposition of our wealth against the poverty of the rest of the world really gives perspective to life.

I'd encourage anyone to watch this film. It has much to say about justice, wealth, community, and faithfulness.

Penn Says I'm an Atheist

Certainly the differences between atheism and agnosticism include some gray areas. But, in short, atheism is a disbelief in a deity, while agnosticism is the belief that knowing the existence of God cannot ultimately be known. I appreciate Penn's thoughts on the matter but I hold one disagreement with his definition of the line between having faith in God and being atheist.

Penn says if one could not kill one's child in response to a deity's call to do so, then said person is an atheist. We could argue against this stance on the basis of world views and culture. That is, Penn's hypothetical situation makes allusions to Abraham following through on YHWH's call for Isaac's sacrifice.

No doubt about it, that Abraham's faith was immeasurable, as scripture suggests. But concomitant to Abe's strong faith is the fact that child sacrifice wasn't unheard of in religions of the Ancient Near East. This culture makes the seemingly despicable practice of child sacrifice seem like a possible reality when called for by a deity.

Abraham's worldview aside, my intent here is to disagree with Penn. With his extreme example, Penn says the line between faith and atheism is at "absolutely no doubt." That is, the presence of any doubt (which might cause one to balk at a deity's child sacrifice mandate) is tantamount to atheism. This is not the nature of faith.

I am in the camp of having enough doubt in my mind, that I wouldn't act on a communication from my god, YHWH, to kill a child. See, what Penn doesn't understand about faith is that faith isn't solely what I believe. Faith is how I live. I live with expectancy and hope.

In Luke 7, a sinful woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears. She asks for nothing, but Jesus offers forgiveness. He says, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." What faith? I wonder what her "religious beliefs" were.

I don't have a faith that never doubts. I can't empirically prove the existence of God. But I have faith.

John Perkins

Today I enjoyed a lunch with Jerry Neill and John Perkins. In the couple hours I spent with Dr. Perkins, I was overwhelmed by the richness of his life experience and wisdom. On the heels of Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of Barack Obama, Jerry and I were eager to hear him reflect on the week's events.

Dr. Perkins shared that he spoke to a group of African American pastors in Hazelhurst on Monday. He rallied them to the idea that with Obama in office, black America can no longer claim a victim identity. Instead, he challenged his audience to live into a new reality that had been dreamed about by so many for so long.

He reflected on the picture of heaven we glimpse in Revelation: the gathering of God's children (the church) in Revelation has no barriers of race or ethnicity. So then, if we pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, why not try to reflect that picture of God's people in heaven in our churches here on earth. Segregation in the church is an American invention, he said, which is appalling to Christians of other nations.

He shared a bit about his upcoming book, co-authored with Shane Claiborne.

He gave us insight into the work God is doing through the Perkins Center here in Jackson.

He spoke to everyone we encountered with love and gentleness. One of the male employees at the restaurant came up to him and embraced him. Dr. Perkins gracefully inquired how they knew each other. The man said that Dr. Perkins had come to preach to him while he was in prison and changed his life. Dr. Perkins congratulated him on his job and encouraged him to work hard.

What a life. This man lives out the gospel in a rare way in our world. He loves poor children. He feeds the poor. He heals the sick. He visits those in prison. He works to right the ways of an unjust society. This is a man who has much to teach about the ways of the Lord.

The Kingdom and the Church

From Howard Snyder's Liberating the Church: The Ecology of Church and Kingdom:

Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.

Aftermath Stats

Barna has released some interesting statistics on who voted for whom. The research primarily illustrates voting tendencies of different categories (evangelicals, born again, protestants, Catholics) of Christians.

It's an interesting read.

Living in a Monarchy

Dual citizenship makes for an interesting life. Though we are first and foremost citizens in the Kingdom of God, we are Americans too. Naturally, we have high hopes for our country and a deep pride in our American heritage. This Sunday at Meadowbrook we will gather to honor those in our Body of believers who have served our great country in military service and sacrifice. Each of us has a deep appreciation for the privilege of living in this great land and we are eager to express our gratitude to these service men and women!

On the heels of our recent election we would do well to remember that, although we might be hopeful for our new president and government, true peace, a loving society, and God's brand of justice can never be accomplished through a worldly kingdom. Ultimately, these things can only come through God’s Kingdom. Our faith and hope must be put squarely in King Jesus.

As God’s people, we must always remember that living in this country is a precious blessing, and we are called to use all of God’s blessings for His glory. No matter our personal political opinions, we should continually pray for our country and her leadership. In doing so, we bring the concerns of our country to the throne of God, and we submit our country to the will of God. In hopeful but uncertain times, remember that you are first called to live under the reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. He is King of kings and Lord of lords!

Voting on the Issues

Several people have wondered aloud with me how Christians should vote this election. Certainly many Christians will vote for both presidential candidates. Some Christians on both sides of the election can't understand how another Christian could see the issues differently than they do. I don't believe a Christian's preferred candidate should cast doubts on her sincerity of faith. My understanding of Scripture and current worldview lead me to choose one candidate over another, as does everyone's.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, the Kingdom of Heaven will survive. Of course, since we've survived bad leadership in the past, I'm confident that even our nation will survive, regardless of the outcome of the election, but more importantly I'm confident in the survival and continued thriving of God's Kingdom.

Nevertheless, Christians ought to desire to participate in the political discussions and processes, at least in my mind. Shouldn't we weigh each issue carefully, through our lens of knowing God and being salt and light in the world?

To that end, Sojourners has published a Christian Voters' Issue Guide, which seems to be a well thought out overview of many of the hot button issues our country is currently facing.

It's a great read to spur some thought. Of course, hopefully all Christians want to help the poor, reduce abortions, etc., ... the tough questions arise when we discuss how to go about doing those things.

Global Warming and Christian Unity

I realize there are a lot of doomsayers out there when it comes to environmental issues. I also realize we only have about 150 years or so of precise weather data which, given the length of the history of the world, isn't enough data to really predict trends. Still, the prospect that there won't be any ice at the north pole this summer is alarming to me. This could just be a blip and we might have huge increases in the north pole ice volumes in the next 50 years or so, but the current situation is alarming nonetheless.

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I'm not much of a preacher, but I whole-heartedly believe the words I preached a couple of weeks ago. Here's the sermon audio. One of the strongest reasons I stay in the Restoration Movement is because we have a heritage of unity.

In matters of faith, we have unity.
In matters of opinion, we offer liberty.
In all things, we love.

A Significant Shift

I hate to bump my last post so quickly. Hopefully some of you will scroll down to read it. While this post runs in the same vein, I thought it was appropriate to get it posted on Super Tuesday.

A significant shift has occurred among American Christians (or is it Christian Americans?). Barna's latest research indicates that a majority of Christians will likely vote democratic this year.

Here's an excerpt:

Today we have a greater proportion of faith-driven voters who are concerned about issues that are often thought of as 'liberal' social policy concerns, such as poverty and health care. Abortion and family protection remain significant issues to the faith constituency, but they are not the only issues that matter to the group - or even the driving issues.

Americans' Thoughts on Healthcare

Not that anyone looks at this blog anymore, but check out CBS' article on what Americans think about healthcare.

For those of you that live your lives according to the ways of Jesus of Nazareth, what do you think about universal health care?

Certainly universal health care would cost more, so would you accept the cost in order to have let healing of the sick be distributed more justly?

The stats CBS state are surprising to me. If the vast majority of Americans think our healthcare system needs wide sweeping change, why aren't our politicians giving more effort to such a seemingly universal desire?