Thursday, May 30, 2013

Coming Up Sunday, June 2

Last Sunday, we began our summer worship schedule -- but the changes were fairly small, so many probably went unnoticed.  Unlike some congregations, we do not change the time of worship in the summer, which is a good thing for those of us who would probably forget the change and show up at the wrong time.  (Or, as was the case once when I was a guest preacher, you might not even know there was a different worship time in the summer.)  Perhaps the most visible difference was that I wasn't wearing a robe or a tie -- and I don't think you'll see either on Sunday morning until after Labor Day.

This week, we begin the first of our two summer sermon series: "Faith and Devotion: Lessons from the Church in Acts."  During June and July, we'll spend some time looking at the early church, as described in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.  As should be clear from the series' title, I believe there are important lessons for Christians today from the recorded experiences of the earliest Christians.  On Sunday, we'll consider one of the main questions for the entirety of Acts: What does a church look like?  Two specific passages from Acts 1-2 offer important examples of the answer (here's a hint, neither offers much architectural description).

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

May 26 Worship: "This Is Only the Beginning"

Worship during Memorial Day weekend balanced looking back and looking ahead, which is appropriate for a holiday weekend that encourages us to honor the past sacrifices of others and that also marks the beginning of summer.  During the service we had a special moment remembering those from the Eastgate community who have passed away during the last year, and we laid roses on the Lord's Table in their memory.

The sermon looked ahead, again considering Jesus' Great Commission to his disciples, as found in the memorable conclusion to the Gospel of Matthew.  In "This Is Only the Beginning," I suggested that it is important to consider what Jesus did not include in the direction to make disciples of all nations -- Jesus did not tell us how.  I think this is because 1) Jesus trusted his followers to do this, and 2) the act of making disciples serves to deepen our our faithful discipleship.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Prayer for Mission in Colombia

This week we pray for Michael Joseph, our missionary to Colombia, who serves with the Restoration, Life and Peace Commission of the Council of Evangelical Churches, which provides support for those trying to live faithfully in a violent context.

You can read more about the mission to Colombia here, including rumors about the possibility of peace.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Book Review: "The Epistle to the Romans"

The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth, translated by Edwyn Hoskyns (Oxford University Press, USA, 1968), paperback, 576 pages

While Karl Barth would later offer a more systematic theology in his Church Dogmatics, he first gave voice to his theological vision in his commentary on The Epistle to the Romans, first published in 1918 and then expanded and reissued five more times during the following ten years.  Translated from German into English in 1933, the work provided an intellectual foundation for the theological movement that eventually was described as Barthianism or Neo-Orthodoxy.

Barth's analysis of Romans is straightforward: Paul offered God's wisdom to his age and the same lessons are applicable to contemporary times.  However, the heart of Barth's interpretation is rather counter-intuitive: the apostle is writing to a depraved and fallen humanity that cannot fathom the transcendent God, so much of what can be understood, and must be understood, is negative (humans must come to understand what things they can never understand).  Barth insists on human inability to understand divine wisdom; worse, human institutions -- including the church -- try to promote flawed wisdom in place of God's teaching.

Amazingly, Barth, responding to 18th and 19th century theologians and Biblical scholars who advocated for a progressive Christianity that imagined a constructive role for human beings in elucidating and carrying out God's teaching, insisted on a theological position about divine power more stringent than even John Calvin's notable writing about the transcendent God.  God's power and wisdom are completely different and grander than anything that people can understand or appreciate; in fact, only through direct revelation (that is, the Bible) can human beings even begin to understand anything about God.

The consequence of this thinking -- and the central delicate interpretation that Barth must provide -- is that there is barely any difference between sin and non-sin, between faith and non-faith.  Given that sinful human beings are so fallen, so limited, and so ignorant, it is difficult to describe how mortals can act with any conception of good and evil that even approximates God's ultimate good and evil.  In some ways, it appears that awareness of this human limitation is what separates faithful Christians from others, in Barth's analysis.

As a rather unabashed Calvinist on most matters of divine transcendence, I can appreciate Barth's approach in some ways, but it consistently undervalues humanity in a way that seems to diverge from the description of human beings created in God's image (Genesis 1) and the way that Jesus consistently approaches and teaches people in the Gospels.  Still, the great gift for Christians of Barth's rigorous and persistent approach is the necessary reminder that our thinking is not God's thinking and we probably do not know even what we think we know, especially when we dare to speak of God.

With this in mind, it should be noted that reading Barth is not for the faint of heart or mind.  He often approaches subjects with a density of prose, including paragraphs that can run for pages.  Frankly, I also find that Barth is best read in small doses, lest one's eyes glaze over.  Still, this influential theological approach demands understanding, assessment, and likely adaptation by modern Christians.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Coming Up Sunday, May 26

This Sunday, we will have a special moment during Memorial Day Weekend to honor loved ones who have passed away in the past year with a special "Laying of the Rose" ceremony.

The sermon will consider important lessons from Jesus' Great Commission to his disciples -- that they go into all the world to make disciples in his name.  Entitled, "This Is Only the Beginning," the sermon will consider how Jesus hoped his disciples would live out this charge and how we might also.

I'm sure that many have been praying for those affected by the terrible tornadoes this week, particularly in Moore, Oklahoma.  Here is the most recent update (from earlier today) about the response from Week of Compassion, the emergency relief ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which has already given money to church members directly affected.  You may make a donation to these efforts through the Week of Compassion website or by designating a donation through Eastgate.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

May 19 Worship: "Dreams of My Father"

There was plenty of red on display as we gathered for Pentecost worship, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit.  There even were blowing red tongues above the baptismal, in addition to the many people who wore red to the worship service.

The Pentecost sermon, "Dreams of My Father," was taken from a reference to the prophets in Peter's great sermon from the first Pentecost, described in Acts 2.  I suggested that the gift of the Holy Spirit was a radical act on God's part because the Holy Spirit could work in any person's life, regardless of age, gender, education, class, etc.  And I tried to suggest how we might glimpse the Holy Spirit at work amongst us, even sometimes through us.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone else, you can find an audio recording here.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Book Review: "Congregation: The Journey Back to Church"

Congregation: The Journey Back to Church by Gary Dorsey (Viking, 1995), hardback, 400 pages

As a pastor of a congregation, I am sometimes asked, "What does your church do?"  This has different meanings when asked by different people.  If it is another pastor or church leader, it is a question about what makes the congregation I serve unique.  If it is someone who does not have much experience with any church, it is probably rooted in curiosity about what goes on behind closed doors.  (Needless to say, if it is someone who is worried about certain churches, they are listening for certain warning signs, such as speaking in tongues, handling snakes, or, worst of all, aggressively evangelizing anyone who shows the slightest interest.  "By the way, I'm glad you asked... and I'll be by your home tonight to continue this conversation.")

Truthfully, it is a difficult question to answer honestly.  While a congregation has a straight-forward focus -- we are a community that worships/follows God -- there are almost unlimited variations of how Christians live out such communal faith.  In fact, this question seems almost like asking, "What does your family do?"

Despite the challenge, most congregations have an unspoken answer to this question.  Somewhere, in the midst of worship services, Sunday School classes, pot luck dinners, committee meetings, mission trips and annual budget campaigns, there is a subconscious list of activities and nurtured relationships that are central to the identity of a specific congregation and their understanding of what they do: what they do for God, what they do for each other, what they do for those beyond themselves.

It can be almost impossible to explain the things on these lists in their entirety.  Partially, it is because few people in any congregation are completely comfortable with the entire list; after all, one person's "cherished tradition" is another's "sacred cow."  Mostly, though, this is because the web of relationships and motivations is both shadowy and complex.

Gary Dorsey, in his 1995 book, Congregation: The Journey Back to Church, attempts to demystify and describe the unique organism that is a Christian congregation.  A journalist, Dorsey basically embeds himself in a specific congregation, First Church of Windsor, Connecticut, for a year. He attend most activities and conducts interviews with many in the congregation, including extensive ones with the three pastors on staff.

The result is a sympathetic portrait of an organization that exists to reach out to others, but is constantly fighting the resistance of those who insist that it also must serve the members.  Certain key leaders are constantly worried about money, but this congregation has the ability to hire a consultant to guide the capital campaign.  Alongside fellowship dinners, organizational meetings, spiritual programs and special services, there is also a low-level "turf war," as different individuals and groups in the congregation compete for space and time in the building, in the calendar, and in the attention of the staff and wider congregation.

There are disagreements, large and small, throughout the year, over such issues as the language used in worship, the annual stewardship campaign, and the associate minister's public campaign challenging city action on behalf of the homeless.  There is uneasiness in the fairly intellectual and straight-laced congregation over recent efforts to introduce more spirituality-centered programs into the church, such as the hiring of a spiritual director and the activities of the healing prayer circle.

Against this backdrop, Dorsey documents a year in the spiritual journeys of several in the congregation, including the ministers.  Someone who feels a call to mission work in Central America is encouraged and supported in a trip to the area for several weeks.  A young mother, who feels somewhat different from others in the congregation, finds support and even emerges as a leader in her own right.  And the pastors are a study in contrasts -- the senior minister apparently coasting toward retirement, but who also may be crazy like a fox in his approach to leadership; the older associate, a Yale-educated man who is struggling with his role in the congregation and questioning whether he should be a minister; and the younger associate, who works with outreach programs and sometimes appears to be only tangentially related to the life of the congregation.

Dorsey, despite attempts to simply be an observer, undergoes his own spiritual pilgrimage during the year -- as much due to his immersion in the life of the congregation as to personal challenges as he and his wife struggle to begin a family.  This leads to a conclusion which is a personal testimony of the congregation Dorsey himself discovered and needed -- an ending dear to the heart of any pastor.  His flowing words near the end of the book are, in many ways, a love letter to the promise and possibility of any congregation that nurtures people in their faith.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

May 12 Worship: "What's in Your Wallet?"

Many of us gathered for a spirited Mother's Day worship, with lots of family members joining their moms and grandmas on their special day.  In addition to a wonderful tribute to mothers, we also learned about the newest of our mission and outreach opportunities, partnering with other congregations to provide lunches to students who live in low income areas during the six weeks between the summer school term and the fall semester.

The sermon tackled the issue of vocation or calling -- the idea that God has given us gifts and talents and expects us to use them in various ways.  Often, calling or vocation refer to professional careers, though the Christian perspective is much broader, including relationships (such as marriage or parenting) and faith itself.  Drawing on part of the letter to the Ephesians, I suggested that we are the recipients of two gifts (both mentioned in the passage) -- an inheritance, through Christ's sacrifice, allowing our salvation and redemption, and individual talents and passions, which we are expected to give our lives purpose and to improve the lives of those around us.  The sermon, titled, "What's in Your Wallet?" attempted to inspire some thoughts about what our vocations/callings might be and how we might understand them.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Special Pentecost Offering to Support New Churches

This week and next we are collecting a special Pentecost Offering, which supports New Church Ministry.  Through this, we provide resources to pastors and congregational leaders in recently planted congregations, particularly training and coaching to strengthen their ministry.


You can read more about the Pentecost Special Offering here.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Prayer for Mission in Zimbabwe

This week we pray for Maryjane and Don Westra, our missionaries to Zimbabwe, who serve in various capacities at the Mt. Selinda Mission Hospital.

You can read more about the mission to Zimbabwe here, including a description of the health care crisis caused by the economic decline of the past 30 years in the country.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Coming Up Sunday, May 12

Sunday should be a full worship service at Eastgate.  It is Mother's Day, and their will be a tribute to mothers and women of the congregation.  We also will share information on some upcoming mission opportunities -- after talking about this summer's congregational mission trip last Sunday, Church in Society will share information about a nearby children's lunch program that we will assist during July and August.  Plus Sunday is the first of two opportunities to give money to support new congregations through the Pentecost special offering.

In this week's sermon, I will consider the ways that God gives us jobs to do in life.  Perhaps the clearest responsibility we have is to raise up the generations who come after us -- help them to discover and grow in faith, help them to appreciate freedom and opportunity -- which is why we generally have so much appreciation for mothers.  However, God gives each of us many responsibilities and jobs throughout our lives, sometimes several at the same time.  We will consider how we try to accept God's expectations and hopes for us in a sermon, based on Ephesians 4, cheekily titled, "What's in Your Wallet?"

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Book Review: "Lonely: A Memoir"

Lonely: A Memoir by Emily White (Harper, 2010), hardback, 352 pages

As a single young person who moved to a new city, I'm often asked if I'm lonely.  After all, my immediate family lives elsewhere, my closest friends live elsewhere, my classmates and professional colleagues live elsewhere.  The truth is that I'm not terribly lonely, partially because this is the third time I've moved to a new place where I didn't know anyone and partially because I quickly made friends in my new home.

However, there have been times in my life when I've been lonely, and I've known people who have been lonely.  Through the years, I may have known more lonely people than I've realized at the time; after all, it's not something most people freely share, which is a testament to the social stigma that is associated with loneliness.  After all, conventional wisdom suggests that if someone is lonely, they should make some friends and all will be well.

Emily White, in her memoir, Lonely, deliberately and firmly demonstrates that such conventional wisdom is wrong.  Looking through her own life, which has included significant periods of loneliness, and drawing upon recent scientific studies and the personal experiences others shared with her, White attempts to demystify loneliness.  In particular, she carefully draws upon recent research to show the distinctions between loneliness and depression.

On the whole, the book offers many insights into the forms of loneliness and possible avenues out of the deepest types of loneliness.  With sometimes painful honesty, White describes how her loneliness, which dates back to her adolescence, undermined her professional career and her friendships as an adult.  Sometimes these reminiscences are accompanied by subtle humor, as when she describes advertised "singles" activities in which she took part, with rather frustrating results.

The other components of the book are a bit of a mixed bag.  The scientific research, which is mostly presented in the words of the researchers that White has contacted in interviews or correspondence, is enlightening, but sometimes feels a little drawn out and boring.  The experiences of others, taken from comments they posted on White's blog where she began seeking out others who also were afflicted with loneliness, sometimes enrich the book's description of the various manifestations of loneliness, but also distract from the more complete exploration of loneliness in White's life.

Still, this is a noble effort to provide understanding of loneliness in modern life, both for those who suffer from loneliness and for those seeking to appreciate the challenges of loneliness better.  Despite occasional dry patches of scientific description, the book is an engaging read, held together by White's compelling candor about her own journey.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Book Review: "Best Advice: Wisdom on Ministry from 30 Leading Pastors and Preachers"

Best Advice: Wisdom on Ministry from 30 Leading Pastors and Preachers, edited by William J. Carl III (Westminster John Knox, 2009), paperback, 192 pages

Being pastor of a church is a difficult thing to describe or understand, complicated because the demands and expectations of a good minister can vary widely from congregation to congregation.  As such, ministry is as much an art as a science, if not more, meaning that good practice stems from both theological study and practical experience.

If ministry is indeed an art, wise counsel from thoughtful and long-time practitioners can be particularly useful, so that each pastor is not forced to learn every lesson through hard-fought personal experience.  This is the assumption of several recent books on ministry, including Best Advice: Wisdom on Ministry from 30 Leading Pastors and Preachers, edited by William J. Carl III, president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.  Gathering together noted pastors and seminary professors -- most of whom have previously served as pastors, as did Carl -- the book offers essays on ministry aimed at newer clergy serving congregations.

The subtitle reveals a particular focus of many of these essays on preaching.  Perhaps this is to be expected of a book edited by someone who also serves as a preaching professor (or, indeed, of a Presbyterian educator, given the centrality accorded to preaching in the Presbyterian tradition).  More likely, though, this is a recognition of the current state of ministry, where congregations hunger for good preaching and some pastors find preaching to be a weekly dread and almost all ministers find faithful preaching to be a continual challenge.  (To be fair, this assessment is influenced by my own beliefs about the importance of preaching for effective ministry.)

By and large, the essays in this book offer great wisdom for approaching key aspects of preaching, including an attention throughout to the challenge of preaching regularly over a period of time.  There is realistic advice on how to keep preaching when the well seems dry and also how the congregation should shape the sermons preached in that congregation over time.  The most intriguing suggestion is offered by esteemed preacher Fred Craddock, who suggests that a minister should work to develop a "signature sermon," revolving around a particular passion, that is preached -- virtually unchanged -- once every year as a sort of anchoring vision for one's ministry and congregational leadership.

A few essays provide guidance on ministry more generally, with an eye towards faithfully and humbly shouldering what might be termed the "pastoral mantle."  Despite the presence of much good advice, including a not-unexpected gem from Eugene Peterson, "Embracing the Church that God Gave Me," the essays fail to offer insights covering the breadth of congregational ministry beyond the pulpit.

This short-coming may disappoint those hungry for such comprehensive wisdom, but it is hardly a reason to dismiss this worthwhile book.  Frankly, if a pastor were to ask me what one thing he or she should focus on first to improve their ministry, I would almost certainly suggest preaching, partially because of its visibility in the congregation, but more importantly because good preaching necessitates that the pastor come to know the people and the shared ministries in a congregation better, in order to apply the wisdom of the Bible to their lives.  Best Advice provides solid counsel on how to do this and should be particularly helpful to those in the first years of their ministerial careers and those needing some encouragement in the time beyond.