Help me...help me...help me...

Sometimes it's hard to stay in that place where your focus is on God.  Pray without ceasing is not so hard for me...help me, help me, help me...floats through my head on a continuous loop.  But that place of knowing God's presence and resting in God's peace is elusive at best.  Hurry and prepare this service, this program, this devotional book.  Write this paper so you can serve the church.  Fix this meal.  Shop for Christmas.  Organize decorations.  Have a party.  Teach Sunday school. 

On top of everything today, I have a headache.  bleh.  Help me...help me...help me...I'll be focused and resting later...help me...help me...help me...I'll be energetic later...help me...help me...help me...

Seems like this story would be somewhere in the report of the ministry of Jesus--especially if he is fully human.  Probably would have been, had he been fully human female...

Help me...help me...help me...

What is Mine is Yours...

I've been looking at the story of the Prodigal Son.  Most people focus on the grace and forgiveness provided to the younger son...the one who defined the word "selfish."  That is great comfort; no matter how bad we are, we receive this incredible gift from a God who loves us.

But this time, I was really struck by the conversation between the father and the eldest son after the party starts.  As the elder brother comes in from the field--remember he is the one that has stayed home and done everything right...followed the rules...supported his father...fulfilled expectations...never disobeyed--he comes in from the field and asks (in a Greek verb tense that shows great expectation) "What's happening?"  You get the idea that perhaps he thinks the party is for him.  He has no reason to expect the younger brother has shown up.  He knows what he has been doing for God.  Finally, some recognition.

And the slave informs him...nope...not for you...for the younger son.  It's no wonder the elder son had his jockeys in a wad. 

True confession...as a teenager, I would often come home from "youth group" feeling like a total failure.  I didn't have a "testimony."  Couldn't say I was drinking/smoking/flirting/insert sin here and that I had been convicted and had rededicated my life to Christ and was so glad and grateful for God's mercy and forgiveness.  And then we had a party of tears and congratulations and "thank God's" and off we went, the saved into the arms of their  closest friends and me to my boring, sin-free life.  (OK...not sin-free, but somehow arguing with my sister didn't get the same response from the youth group.)

But I fully understand the frustration of the elder brother.  For those of us who don't squander our inheritance, where's the party?!  And, the elder brother refuses to come to the party.  For those of us who haven't been away...there's nothing.  For those of us who have done all that was expected, not even an thank you.

But it's the next verse that sturck me.  As the father stands with the elder son, he says, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.". 

All that is mine, is yours...  Here we are, those of us who are still at home, doing the right things.  We know there are expectations.  There is a to-do list.  There are rules to follow.  And if we do all that is expected, then the father will give us a party.  And we miss everything.  We forget the message, "all that is mine, is yours."  The party is for us now.  The fatted calf is ours...to celebrate with family or to invite our friends in.  This grace and celebration is already ours, always has been.  But, like the elder brother, we refuse to enter the party, to live in the grace, because we are working so very hard to earn the grace that is already ours.

It's one heck of a party.  And I'm getting the idea that I can party without having to eat pig slop.  God is good...all the time.

God or United Way...

One conversation that spins around the question of tithing (giving 10% "back" to God in gratitude for all you have been given) is "we set aside 10% for charitable giving...but we give it to several places; the church is one of those places."

The overarching question, I think, is who we are...our identity.  We are the people of God.  God chooses to be in relationship with us.  I believe God chooses to be in relationship with all people, but not everyone recognizes that.  Those of us who choose to respond to God's initiative define ourselves and are defined as the people of God.  We are chosen not to be set above the world, but to be God's servants in the world, to bring the love of God to the world, to allow God's blessings to be seen by the world. And it is our practices...how we live that defines our identity to the world.

If, for us, the people of God, giving to the church, to our community of faith, is only one in a list of competing causes, we have not responded faithfully to God's call.  Many people in this world do good things.  God is involved in all that good.  But they do not do good to point to God.  They have forgotten or refuse to acknowledge God as the author of all good.  Good is assigned to their choices or the organization which they serve.

If church is one in a list of many things, and the people of God do not support the church because they are supporting other causes, who picks up the slack?  Folks who are not the "people of God" are not going to add "church" to their lists of causes because church people contribute to the United Way.   When is the last time a church got a pledge from an unchurched neighbor because they heard the church's budget was under funded or the church needed resources for a new youth ministry. 

We are certainly called to do good in the world.  But we, the people of God, are called to first respond to God.  God is our first and highest priority.  God does not ask to be one in a list of many good causes.  God gives us undeserved grace and mercy.  We have blessings beyond measure.  God knows how God wants to partner with us.  Obedience to God's vision provides all that is needed to do God's work in the world.

First priority or one in a list of good causes?  Who are we?

Danger!!!!!

Waiting for TV weather this morning...

Man and wife sitting on couch appear...

She extols shopping at Thruway center...43 different stores...wow

He laments there are no condos available.

Because...if we could live at the store, life would be complete...

Everyday Acts...

If you didn't read yesterday's post, stop now and read it, then come back...

I did go to church this morning.  Posted in the bulletin was an announcement about my being granted "candidacy" status as a seminary student, part of the Presbyterian process of becoming an ordained minister.  A small part of me hoped I wouldn't be confirmed.  I love my job now and my church family, and don't even like to think about perhaps having to do something else.  Most of me would have been sad if I had not been confirmed.  All of me really didn't think it was a huge big deal...just another hoop to jump through--something Presbyterians are good at.

After worship, a gentleman, and gentle man, advanced in years and usually reserved, found me and gave me a big hug and the most excited "congratulations" I think I have received since giving birth.  I saw through new eyes.  Whenever any of us takes a step to commit to a practice that deliberately moves toward bringing the Kingdom of God into our world, we should be celebrating.  Ministry, sure, but also those who commit to generosity without control or payback, to service, to speaking truth to power, to teaching children's Sunday school to one or two, to singing in the choir, to prayer, to baking communion bread...the list is endless.  The one criteria, it seems, is the deliberate recognition that our gift is from God and is to be used for God...that is worthy of great celebration...

Blessed by an everyday act.  Here's hoping that some everyday act of mine will do the same...

End of the world...

I'm trying not to complain this week...but after all the political stuff...I'm having a hard time.  The latest, after blasting the dems continuously for earmarks, the headline in the NYTimes is that the republicans have informed the tea party that they will not be stopping earmarks.  What is wrong with us?

Come, Lord Jesus.  This is your world.  I'm thinking fire, flood, or rapture.  Or maybe I'll just go to work at the church tomorrow and be grateful for the saints who gifted me with faith and who bring justice into the world...one everyday act at a time...

Life

Life.

It's hot.

It's November, almost.

Political ads annoy me.

I have nothing to say.

My keyboard "O" keeps falling off.

Wonderful people grace my world.

I'm behind on homework.

Christians should tithe.

Tmrrw, cld.

Life.

Really?...

I just watched a commercial for a home healthcare business...a lovely brunette helps an elderly woman move around her apartment, vacuums, cooks, and sits and visits with her.  The tag line from the elderly woman is "It's just like having a friend."  Really?

I talked with my husband this morning about a church survey that shows that self-described "committed" churchgoers today attend worship twice a month.  Really?

Read an article in the NYTimes this morning on the popularity of "flock comedies"...a new genre of sitcom that the writer postulates is popular because of the extended time post-education and pre-children that is spent in "flocks" of friends.  He then describes parents who spend the same amount of time with their children as previous generations, but work full time.  What has to go is "friends."  So we watch TV to replace the friendships we no longer have time for.  Really?

Really. I can't help but think sometimes that it is time to reclaim our lives from this insane culture.  If we can demand healthy food options and green options as a culture, why can't we also demand sanity options.  Why do our elderly have to hire friends to care for them as they age?  Why do our lives revolve around every activity on Sunday but the one we claim is most important in our lives, or why do we let the rest of the weekend get so full that we feel we can do nothing on Sunday but "rest."  Why don't we have friends that actually can come to our homes?  Why, why, why?

My heart is a bit achy today.  I grieve youth who don't develop relationships with their peers at church because they are never there.  I grieve churches who flounder on Sunday mornings because attendance is sporadic.  I grieve community lost, disciplines not practiced, potential never reached.  I grieve the promise of abundant life that God holds out for us that we ignore because we are so distracted by demands that deplete us.

Is this the way we want to live?  Really?

Seasons...

I have spent much of my life in agricultural areas.  My husband is always pining for some big-city-life...but I am reminded again in this flat, farmland of the seasonal nature of life.

A rhythm exists here that you can't find in NYC...because you can't hurry nature.  Fields prepared in the spring hold the promise of new life...those seeds are planted...but no farmer can control whether they actually come up (despite the guarantee-to-grow on the seed packet).  The active growing season is exciting and requires hard work and daily investment in the field...though farmers tell you again that they are caregivers, not growers.  The life is still miraculous.

Now is harvest...seems pretty good this year.  Field after field transforms from busyness to fallow in about a day.  A plethora of farm workers and machines descend on the field for a short period of intense activity.  Then, nothing...quiet...sometimes regrowth...but regrowth that struggles and never really fulfills its potential.  Sometimes fields are plowed under....expanses of non-productive dirt resting under the harvest moon.

And then all is quiet.  For a full season, we rest.  Imagining for the next season happens.  Some preparation is inevitable.  Mostly rest.  Even if scurrying and planting and fertilizing was happening, nothing would grow.  It's not the right season.  Rest...pray...heal...imagine.  It's the season...

And then...resurrection...

What a gift.

Aging...

We are in McGehee, Arkansas, to celebrate the wedding of Natalie and Josh...eldest child of friends we made while Carl was serving his first church, and we were having first children and learning to be adults.  We were embraced in the arms of this tiny town in the Mississippi delta, nurtured and challenged, and then blessed as we moved into a different area of the world.
  
It's been a weird trip.  First, it's hard to believe any of us are old enough to have children ready to marry.  Natalie and Josh are about the age we were when we move to McGehee.  We are the age of those blessed saints that enveloped us with love.  Carl got a bit sloppy with the plane reservations, and instead of leaving at 8 am on Tuesday, we left at 8 pm...arriving in Little Rock at 1 am on Wednesday to rent a car and crash in a hotel.

I am not one to care what kind of car we drive.  POS cars (and if you don't know what that is, I'm not telling you on a blog...) have been par for the course and it really doesn't matter.  But at 1 am on Wednesday, I am standing in the airport parking lot looking at a wine-red Mercury Grand Marquis, feeling rather sick to my stomach and wondering if I have the spine to tell Carl he has to go back and get a different car.  I didn't tell him...but as I slid into the leather of the front seat...I know I aged 30 more  years.  The seats sit low...not helping the feeling I was some shrunken old lady tottering into the end stage of life...

Dinner tonight is with the young couple who are now pastor and wife of this lovely congregation.  They are the same age we were when we were here; we are the age of the stalwarts who kept the congregation functioning when we were the young couple.  My brain is completely rattled.

I am startlingly reminded of the march of time--the saints who came before, the saints who serve, the saints who will come after.  Natalie and Josh, Kenny and Sarah, you are blessed to be in this place that so often looks and feels God-forsaken, but provides the deepest care, feeding, and nurture of the soul--much like the rich delta land that encompasses it.  For those came before, who "raised" us...we are grateful and blessed and we lift you in prayers of gratitude every day.

And for those whose brains are rattling with mine...resisting the Grand Marquis while celebrating the ability to share the love we were given...well, all I can say is God is good...

Wayyyyy to Much

Problem:  Sadie Mae is out of dog food

Solution:  Go to the store to buy dog food.

Problem: The fish-based food she eats to control a skin condition caused probably by overbreeding (she       was an adoption for us...) is not available due to a manufacturing problem.

Solution:  Buy something else.

Problem:  Four aisles of choices...FOUR aisles...FOUR AISLES!!!

Solution: Sigh...

Problem:  Hungry people in the world.

Solution: Four aisles of dog food choices?

Problem:  Sin...

Solution:  Open for discussion...

Today, I'm walking CROP WALK to do a little something...I figure up and down four aisles will just about cover the three mile route...

Glee and God...

You know that any TV show that starts with the prayer, "Dear Grilled Cheesus" has to hold some true potential.  Jesus' image on the grilled cheese, questions raised about church and its relationship to GLTB persons, what is sacred, whether God exists...pretty heavy stuff for a pop culture show.

The joy, I suppose, is that the questions were raised.  The sadness was the only answers revealed were through pop culture songs--not that there's anything wrong with pop culture songs--but really?  we can only find secular music to express thoughts about who God is and how God works in our world?  I was actually eager to see which of the multitude of beautiful spirituals, deep hymns, gorgeous works of grief and hope, would be sung in the church.  What did we get?  Bridge Over Troubled Water...

It distresses me that while questions are asked, few will seriously consider church to seek answers.  Now, frankly, there are churches that I might walk into seeking answers--then walk out of disgusted.  But how hard is it to communicate that every church is different.  The argument that we can't get ourselves together to agree on things certainly is quoted ubiquitously when people don't want to go to church.  Why, when they hear one thing they don't agree with, do they claim we are all the same?

We have to stand up and speak the truth.  I really think it is our responsibility to talk about the existence of churches who seek answers in inclusive, humble ways--churches who welcome those seeking answers to difficult problems--churches who don't claim to be God, but seek to serve God--churches who seek to follow Jesus' example of loving neighbor and serving others.

But when judgmental/crazy/just-plain-stupid churches get the publicity (and they do because they are much more interesting in an hour show than inclusion/seeking/working-together-til-we-solve-the-issue-but-not-in-an-hour-churches), we sit silently--tacitly accepting and promoting the "wrongness" of the church.

Kurt's definition of human relationship as sacred at the end of the show holds some true appeal.  It's always compelling to define sacred in something you can touch and hold onto.  That is the fundamental power of sacraments--we can see and taste and feel the elements that point us to God.  But what happens if Kurt's father dies?  Does the sacred die too?  I think the relationship between Kurt and his father is, indeed, sacred, because it holds a connection to the divine.  It parallels/reflects what God has done with and for us--it is not sacred in its own existence between two humans.

We are God's children.  God "holds our hand."  And would Kurt have experienced the "sacred" as his father squeezed his hand if they had not had the "I accept you" conversation in the first season?  Would a human relationship maintain its sacred nature if violence or abuse was present?

But my point, if not lost in all the scattershot ways I responded to the episode, is this.  Thanks, Glee, for opening a conversation with the world.  We'll chuckle at "dear Grilled Cheeseus" and we'll think about the songs you chose to reflect faith.  But we'll answer the question not with the question "What if God was one of us?", but with the knowledge that God was one of us...God is one of us.  Step up, brothers and sisters, and speak the grace we know in Jesus Christ.

How Many Elephants??!!!...

I was listening to NPR this morning while completing mind-numbing early morning ablutions.  The question addressed was how much a hurricane weighs.  That led me to a number of follow-up questions.  Do female hurricanes have more problems with water retention weight than male hurricanes?  Do they weigh more if they have more muscle (so a category 4 is more toned than a category 2)?  Is there a healthy weight for a hurricane--one beyond which insurance rates go up or they have to buy more than one spot on the weather map?

But, seriously, this guy researched the weight of hurricanes--and here's the skinny.  Weight numbers are so large that the researcher decided to help listeners understand better by putting weight in elephant numbers.  (Weighing as much as an elephant...yeah, I can relate to that.)  One small, white, fluffy cloud--one--weighs as much as 100 elephants (that's 4000 pounds times 100).   One storm cloud which spends a good deal of time and energy "up-taking" moisture (kinda like eating chocolate or french fries)...the moisture this storm cloud takes up is 500 elephants PER SECOND (oh my), and the storm itself weighs 15 million elephants.  Hurricane Rita--100 million elephants.

We spend so much time every day in fear...worried about this and that...mostly things we can do nothing about.  I was struck this morning as I looked in the mirror and brushed my teeth with a comparatively microscopic amount of elephant moisture...this great God who holds up a cloud that weighs 100 elephants knows my name.

What do I have to worry about?

Risking our Lives for our Faith...

It's been a difficult week.  My frustration levels on some days grow like kudzu...even in one day they can overwhelm.  And most of the frustration revolves around money...money...money.... Money seems to wrap itself in a thick, sticky, impenetrable coat of fear, with a candy coating of anxiety just for good measure.  (And you thought M & M actually stood for something else!)

I know things aren't great.  10% unemployment is nothing to sneeze at.  But doesn't that also mean that 90% of us are employed?  Every church I know is panicked about budget.  Even those whose budgets are running ahead are not gratefully giving thanks, they are worrying that it won't hold.  Our collection of churches which constitute Salem Presbytery face the same issues.

So what can we cut...oh here's a good one--campus ministry.  In the midst of angst and depression about losing members...some half of our members in the last 20 years, we consider cutting campus ministry.  Is that really where we want to go?  Shouldn't we be raising those budgets?  Do we want to help our young adults stay connected with their faith journey?  Or do we mistakenly assume that we can ignore them in middle school because they are too hard and prickly to deal with, ignore them in high school because culture tells us they don't want to be involved with us, and then ignore them as they create their adult identities in college because we can't afford it?  


Mission.  Hispanic ministry really doesn't pay off.  They don't support the budget.  Never mind that Salem Presbytery's is the second fastest growing ministry in the country and a model for programs all over the country.  Never mind that we are called to minister to people and not profit from them.  Never mind that God has placed this ministry and the resources to serve in our midst.  Is our call to ministry or to fear, anxiety, and a bottom line?

New church development?  Not a chance.  We know that is not going to balance the budget and our last one didn't work, and we can't afford to risk anything right now.

Luke 17:33 challenges this stance we have taken, this choice we have made:
Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.


Things are difficult.  We are certainly not used to living in this kind of economic climate...this kind of fearful environment.  We are used to living the American dream of bigger, better, and more.  And as I see us frantically clutching anything to save our own lives, I see us also dying.  The harder we try, the worse it gets.  And so, I wonder...what if we lived as God asked.

So, here's where a wise man from Arkansas would say I'm moving from talking to meddling, but this vision is so under my skin that I need to say it.  If we were a tithing people, the PC(USA) could support mission to the poor and the weak and have money left over.  If we let go of our fear and let go of our money, God could do with us more than we can ever imagine.  The giving units just in my church, if they tithed on the median salary in this county (which most of us are well above), would be giving 3/4 of a million dollars a year to God's work through the church...triple what we pledge now.

People everywhere would give up everything to "suffer" as we here in the US are "suffering."  At our worst, we are better off than most of the world.  If I had a magic wand, which, of course, I don't...or if I could be elected dictator of the world, which, of course I'm not...or if I had any control at all, I would change things...

But, God is in charge, and God doesn't coerce like I might.  God asks--laying before us this vision...this vision of a church doing as God asks so we can do as God asks.  Are we willing to let go of what we consider "life?"  I would argue that, fundamentally, in our culture, life = money...are we willing to risk that life to let God work?

What kind of witness would that be to the world?  A tithing people would communicate a different message. We are not afraid.  We depend on God for our life, not our money or our things or our individualism.  We eagerly await and support the Kingdom in whatever form God brings.  We embrace our call to sacrifice--and God does not call us to sacrifice everything, but 10%...one dime out of 10, not very much, really.  Is that really even sacrifice?

It may not be much, but the way we think about life and money, it is risky.  It does require moving beyond fear and clutching and assuming if we don't hold tight, we won't live.  The question God continues to ask is are we willing to risk our lives for our faith.  The promise God makes is that risking death brings life.

I want the PC(USA) to be the institution that leaves behind all conventional wisdom about church.  I want people to look at us and see God at work.  I want to be part of a people who risk their lives for their faith and I want to see God at work in the trust we exhibit.

We don't need a marketing campaign to get "members."  We need to be the people of God--risking our lives for our faith.

Anyone want to take a risk?

BBQ and Sacrifice...

The Facebook post from my seminary-student daughter read: "'There is a fine line between sacrifice and bbq,' that is what I am learning in seminary."  Laugh here...but think about it some more.

Danger lurks in sacrifice as bbq...and great joy.  So on the one hand, the concept of sacrifice in the Old Testament was to be taken seriously...no fooling around.  If the sacrifice turned into an occasion for beer and brats, not a good thing.  The making holy, sanctification, of God's people was a gift not to be trifled with.

On the other hand, priests were allowed to eat the meat offered in sacrifice.  It was part of the support of the priestly class.  There were rules, but bbq was allowed.

So here's the interesting deal.  God's work to redeem us and the signs of that work are overwhelmingly significant.  Baptism is a powerful sign of God's love offered to us before we can even begin to respond.  Communion sustains us with the knowledge that God continues to work in and through us.  Scripture enables us to hear the voice of God.  Christian community gifts us with the experience of grace and forgiveness and the challenge to practice grace and forgiveness with others.  None of that is to be taken lightly.

On the other hand (again), God works in and through very ordinary people and elements to accomplish God's purposes.  The water of baptism is just plain water, communion is just plain bread and wine/juice...no magic.  God is so....well...God...that there is no way for us to know/see/relate to GOD.  But God loves us so much that God makes Godself known through the simple, the plain, the human.

So, there is a fine line between sacrifice and bbq...Thank GOD!

Seeing me...seeing thee...

Returned to classes yesterday saying goodbye to Saturdays for the next twelve weeks and hello to friends and community that is missed as the garage gets cleaned.  Luke 14:l5-24 was the peg on which the convocation speaker hung his remarks--the story of the dinner party.  A man invites many to dinner and sends his servant to tell them "all is ready."  They begin to beg off...work, family, life...all interfere with coming to the table.  So the servant is sent into the streets for misfits, homeless, wretched...all those who normally do not get invited to dinner.

Making the point in several different ways, the speaker challenged both our excuse-making and our outcast-inviting.  All are welcome in the Kingdom.  Do we respond or make excuses?  Do we bring the weakest and neediest in with us.

It was food for thought and food for nourishment because attached to the challenge was the invitation to communion...a dinner party at the Lord's table.  Elements were prepared, prayers prayed, and no one seemed to make excuses to avoid the table (OK...except me...does a wheat allergy get you in trouble not coming to the dinner? :))

BUT...the point was this.  As the row in front of me stood to go to the dinner...to be spiritually and physically fed with God's love and provision...the speaker's 8 year old remained seated.  She was not allowed by her faith tradition to participate in the meal.

I respect that there are differences interpreting these religious practices, and I know the arguments because I was a child of that religion who sat in the pew excluded from the feast for a good while.  The question kept hammering at my heart though...I hope she didn't listen too closely to her daddy's sermon.  She might have expected an invitation to the dinner...

And I wondered as I wondered about this later...what in my own practice do I not see?  It seems so clear that the child should be fed.  It's easy to "see thee."  I am looking more carefully to "see me" as the invited and as the inviting.

God, open our eyes...

Fall Cleaning...

Some people do spring cleaning.  I do fall.  Partly it is my job as we get ready to start graded Sunday school after a summer of intergenerational fun.  Partly it is necessary after being gone a lot in the summer and having loads of stuff "dumped" into my office for want of a better place.

I do it at home, too.  There is something cathartic about pulling dead plants out of the garden and detritus out of the garage.  The joke in my family is not to stand around too much or they will be out with the garbage....can't say that I'm not sometimes tempted.

I heard a radio segment yesterday about "people" who are given false information and then presented with a correction.  The overwhelming response is to "harden" their belief in the mistake rather than admit to being wrong.  Sigh...

When we believe in a God who has faced the worst possible consequence of wrongness--death--and prevailed, what are we afraid of?  My fall home and church cleaning is about half-way done. My fall faith-cleaning is going to start with not being afraid to throw out useless beliefs and open the way for light and air and Spirit to move and work in me.

Hurricane...

North Carolina is having a hurricane.  Last I saw, it was a level 4...perhaps to hit at level 3 if we were lucky.  The coast was battered most of the night and heavy wind and rain still makes its presence known.

My husband and I drank coffee on the back porch under a still, cloudless, blue sky.  The air was cool and the dogs spastic as usual.  Who would have thought a hurricane was even possible.

I am reminded this morning that the person sitting next to me on Sunday morning or standing in the check-out line at the grocery may be drinking coffee under blue skies or may be in the midst of gale force winds.  It's interesting that we can be so close and still so far away.

In the name of Christ...

To quote Anne Rice, renouncing the label "Christian" while saying she remains "committed to Christ."
In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay.  I refuse to be anti-feminist.  I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control.  I refuse to be anti-Democrat...My conversion from a pessimistic atheist...to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me.  But following Christ does not mean following his followers."


If anyone would like to quote me:
In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay.
I refuse to be anti-feminist.
I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control.
I refuse to be anti-Democrat (or Republican)
Believing in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me
     (and to the world, whether they know it yet or not.)
Following Christ means reclaiming the label "Christian"...
     not leaving the church to those who misunderstand who Jesus is and what following him means.

Growing Disciples...

Growing disciples is not some program for "children" or "youth" or a few adults who continue to come to Sunday school.  Growing in our discipleship and growing other disciples is something God expects of us 24/7/365...something we are expected to do in and with the Christian community.  The process started long before we came on the scene and will continue long after us.  It works through our participation and God's Spirit..

Craig Dykstra, professor of Christian education at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and now a vice-president for Religion at the Lilly Endowment tells a great story that explains how we teach. (Growing in the Life of Faith, p. 72, slightly paraphrased)
     This is precisely what coaches and mentors do— and work hard at doing well— when they are intentionally striving to help others learn to do something better. Often a coach will teach by demonstrating something, by making one of the essential moves and asking the learner to watch.
     Then the words begin.
           Questions: What did you see happen at the start of my swing?
           Descriptions: What I’m doing is planting my right foot and bringing my right arm close to my side to start the action of the swing properly.
           Explanations and reasons:  What that does is shift your weight and the momentum of the swing toward the target so you can hit the ball hard.
           Then, the coach suggests the learner try it…and the process starts again.

A definitive switch occurs in the ninth chapter of Luke. Up to that point, Jesus lived his faith, healing, praying, loving, serving without a lot of explanation. As he turns toward Jerusalem, we see him focus on growing his disciples, and suddenly, he is teaching at every turn. You can see the difference in the explanation/questioning/challenging when you look at the text. Jesus is not just living the way, he is teaching his disciples… using descriptions, explanations and reasons… asking them to try…and starting the process again.

That is what it means, I think, to help each other grow in the faith.  To reach our potential, we have to do more than show up and watch on Sunday mornings.  To help our children, we have to follow the same process with our faith that we do with our sports.  Participation...questioning...descriptions...explanations and reasons...challenges to try again.  To help ourselves, we have to be in relationship with fellow disciples who will follow those same steps with us...and us with them.

Often, we act like becoming a disciple is some mystery that only a few people can accomplish.  As I read the text and listen to Jesus, it seems a relatively simple process that we are never asked to master, only to faithfully follow.  I see it work with those who fully engage in the questions, the descriptions, the explanations and reasons. 

God's promises are ours already, but the potential for so much more is ready for us.  I wonder what we are waiting for.