Big Day Sunday...

First off, I apologize for not posting last week. Between the Winter Retreat and the death of Lorie's grandmother it got away from me. Sorry.

But for this week, we have a big game coming up on Sunday (I won't use it's proper name so I don't get sued). Many ministries, like our own FIRE & WATER, will be having parties and all sorts of other fun to celebrate this momentous occasion. So here's the thing, take advantage of the opening it provides.

Many people would never darken a church door, it's too scary. But watching a game on a big screen with free food, not so scary. Many of you may not know your neighbors, there hasn't been an opening to talk with them. What about inviting them to watch the game? Believe it or not there are even some people who don't like the 18 hours of pre-pre-pre-game coverage, what if they were invited to be a part of something else on Sunday morning?

It's funny, I've heard people say they don't talk with others about Jesus because it never comes up in conversation. Of course it doesn't, why would someone who doesn't believe in Jesus bring it up? So we should be looking for an opening to bring it up. Believe it or not, even a football game can give you that opportunity...

T

Depending On Helps

New cars are amazing. There are all these things to help you be a better driver. Rear view cameras as you back up (they even beep if you're too close to something), sensors on your mirrors that let you know if you are too close to another car (or a wall), built in GPS telling you where to go, all sorts of gadgets to help you be a better driver.

But that's the key. They are there to help you be a better driver, not make you a better driver. They are helps, nothing more. You should not be depending on side mirror sensors to let you know if you are too close to another car, you should be looking for other cars like a responsible driver. These helps are all great until we become lazy and start depending on them instead of driving properly and doing the things we should be.

When it comes to faith, are we doing the things we should be or are we depending on helps. I should read my Bible, but Jason always puts a Bible verse on his Facebook post so I'll just browse Facebook and call it devotions. I should be praying, but the church website has a place for prayer requests, I'll just put it there and let them pray. I should go to church, but Joel Osteen is on TV, I'll just watch him as my worship service.

All these things are great, but they are helps. Our faith should not depend on them, we should be living the lives we know we should and doing the hard work of getting to know God better and be who He created us to be.

After all, put yourself in the driver's seat of the other car. Would you want the guy driving next to you changing lanes depending only on the side mirror sensor or would you want them to be doing the things they need to be doing as a responsible driver?

T

How's A Christian Supposed To Act?

It's something I've been thinking about lately. What is proper etiquitte for a child of God? How are we supposed to act?

Do I tell the truth if it hurts or soften the blow because we're supposed to be nice?

Is following the rules higher more important than how you treat people? Can you treat someone badly for not following the rules?

Is it okay to fight for holiness?

Should we be teaching things that make people uncomfortable or make church a nice, safe, happy place?

Can I hang out with people who don't go to church or should we "keep to our own"? Or even worse, invite the two to get together?

How far is too far when serving someone else? What if they take advantage of me?

Are Christians allowed to get angry, even yell?

I've been looking at it, how would Jesus have measured up to what the people of God think we should act like? Oh wait, yeah, He didn't. The religious leaders were mad at Him all the time. Do we do the same to people trying to live like Him? Would we recognize it, support it, or disclaim it?

T

What's In A Date?

I always love new year's. Not because it means everything is new, but I love watching people freak out over a number. Or have we already forgotten about the end of the Mayan calendar...?

But it's funny how people go crazy for the number. We have to count down to midnight, like somehow that second is magical. It's a number we created, and it was midnight an hour ago for my family in the Atlantic Time Zone. Australians are already cooking dinner on Jan. 1st and watching Aussie Rules Football.

Here's my take on it, if you want to be a better person, be a better person. Choose to do things now, not because of a number. I do it too, sitting on the couch at 7:47, I'll take the laundry upstairs at 8:00. Why 8:00, what am I waiting for, something good to be on TV? These numbers were created to help us measure time, instead we use them to lock ourselves in routine, for good or for bad.

So let's start being who God wants us to be now. And if you didn't start your Bible reading plan on January 1, the 4th works as well...

T

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow's Christmas and I hope everyone has a good one. But before the big day I have a challenge for you, read the Christmas story.

I know, I've been on a kick lately on getting people to read things for themselves, but this is one of those stories that we have heard and seen retold so many times we have added or taken away things from the story that are so important (no one ever has Simeon and Anna in their Christmas plays).

Matthew 1-2 & Luke 1-2:40. Not even four whole chapters, maybe 5 pages of reading. I bet you'll be surprised what's actually a part of the story and what's not. You may even see parts of the story you've never heard before. They're in there for a reason.

So take some time to read the story. It's such a major part of our lives we will spend the next few days (for some weeks) celebrating this event, wouldn't it be prudent to take 5 minutes to read about why we're celebrating?

T

Blind Spot For Bishops

In my spare time I like to play chess. I'm not very good at it, but it helps me work on two things I know are important in life and help me in my ministry, planning ahead and being strategic in what I do.

What frustrates me most when I play chess is bishops. The pointy headed things that can only move diagonally. They are great pieces if you use them properly, they can move clear across the board for a strike. My problem is I never see them. Mine or my opponents. I rarely use them because I don't think diagonally. I usually get killed by them because I don't see them across the board. In all aspects of the game they are my one true blind spot.

So I can do one of two things with this information. I can ignore it and keep playing, after all it's just for fun, there's no prizes for the winner. Or I can admit it's a problem and intentionally work on it. Before entering a game I can admit my weakness to myself and consciously try to pay attention to it.

In life so often we want to ignore our weaknesses. We want to pretend they are not their, not deal with them, not put in the extra effort to fix them. We'd rather find another way to deal with them, like learning to use your rooks better and forgetting about bishops. But if we act that way we will always have that weakness and never be whole, or in my case, a complete chess player. The best way to improve, as hard as it is and as much work as it will entail, is to work on our weaknesses.

So what weaknesses have you been sweeping under the rug that need to be dealt with? It may be hard now, but in the long run it's the difference between a mediocre player and a Grand Master.

T

Stop Making Things Up!

Lorie and I just got back from vacation, it was a magical time (aren't all vacations?). Everything was great, the food, the experience, the time away, there was only one thing that really bothered us. The people.

And I don't mean that people were everywhere or they treated us badly. They were all nice people. But in our conversations with people and just hearing others talk we noticed something that began to get just comical. When someone doesn't know the answer to a question they just make one up.

I don't know if because we live in the information age we know so much more or can find out so easily that people feel that not knowing something is some sort of horrible crime, but almost all the time through our vacation when someone was asked a question they had an answer, and so often it was wrong. They really didn't know (and you could tell), but they felt the need to give an answer.

"I don't know" is a perfectly good and acceptable answer. If you want an even better answer, try "I don't know, why don't we find out". What a breath of fresh air it would have been to have people say that to us.

Making up an answer helps no one, and trust me, when someone finds our you were wrong and making things up you look way worse than if you said "I don't know".

Proverbs 24:26 ~ Giving an honest answer is a sign of true friendship. (CEV)

T

Foundation Part 2

So last week I ranted a bit about foundations being something unseen. There's also something else I realized in my staring at my house time.

When the storm hits it's too late to work on the foundation.

Too often God is an afterthought. He's nice, but I don't need Him right now, so I won't worry about it right now.

And when the time comes that you suddenly think you need God, it's probably too late to build that foundation of faith that would have seen you through the storm.

When the foundation of my house was built it was made without knowing how many people would live there, what kind of weather was coming, when another earthquake will hit Indiana, so it was built to withstand whatever storms may come before they happened, before we even knew they would happen (if ever).

If you want a faith that is true and can withstand the storms of life, you can't ride along until a storm hits and then start to work on your foundation. Instead, to be healthy and able to stand, work on your foundation now. Ask any of the people in hurricane Sandy, some foundations weren't able to stand the storm and now people are rebuilding in the snow and rain. I bet they'd give anything to have a sunny, calm, 60 degree day to build their foundation.

T

Foundation Part 1

The other day I was working in my backyard and looking at the patio we build this summer and doing my best to secure things down or put them inside for the winter. It got me thinking to another conversation I had earlier in the week with someone about things like Sunday School and Bible Study. They knew of students who were completely unengaged with these things.

The problem is for the things you learn in those places, it's a foundation. If you drive around your neighborhood and look at houses you'll notice very rarely do you see the foundation. It's hidden. It's something built first and everything else is put on top of it.

Too often we have people who want to go out and serve on mission trips, play in the worship team, do the things that are visible. Things they can look back on their life and point to and say "I did that". The problem is without the foundation those things never last. And the foundation is built on the things you probably don't remember. I don't remember every Bible Study I had in high school. But I also don't remember every meal I ate in high school either, but without them I wouldn't be healthy.

Just because you don't see the immediate effects of something doesn't mean it's not there. Foundations are like that, if you are only going for the things of God that are visible, you're missing the foundation faith is built on.

T

So Much To Be Thankful For

This week is Thanksgiving, the time of year we sit and thank God for our families and all He's given to us while we eat copious amounts of food. In a few conversations over the past few weeks, I wonder if we could be even more thankful. Next time you're about to complain about something, find a way to be thankful about it.

I have to park all the way at the end of the parking lot on Black Friday:
  I have a car
  I have working legs and can walk to the door
  I live where I can go to the store and buy something I want &
  I have the money to do it
  I can buy a drink inside, bottled, safe, many flavors and types to choose from
  I have people in my life whom I love so much I want to give them a gift
  I have stores with electricity to shop at night and be heated inside
  I can buy food while I'm shopping, prepared by someone else, I don't have to make it myself, also safe
  I am healthy enough to shop
  I can breathe clean air while shopping
  I have joy, the other people that are unhappy shopping, I don't have to have that attitude

You get the idea. Try it, every time you go to complain, think about what you can be thankful for in the situation. You'll be surprised what you find...

T

No One Does It Alone

Sunday was Veteran's Day and it reminded me of one thing:

No one does it alone.

No war is won alone. No one masters a subject alone. No one builds buildings alone. No one makes movies or music alone. No one find a true sense of who God is alone.

Thank you to all those who fought for our freedom, but thank you to all those who helped me, I couldn't do it alone.

T

Shakespeare & The Bible

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"


It is one of the most famous lines of Shakespeare and is often quoted. But here's my problem with it:   What does it mean? Who sad it? Why was it said?   Too often people pick out one line of an entire play and remember it. "To be or not to be", "All the world's a stage", these are lines we hear, we know, but if I was to ask the context most people could not tell me.   And this is what we do to Scripture waaaay too much. We know a single line, a single verse, we have it memorized and we know it backwards and forwards, but we don't know what the line is before or the line after. We don't know where Jesus was when He said the verse we're quoting, who He was talking to or what the main point of His entire conversation was. Many times we don't even know where the verse is to go back and find it to look up what it really means.   There's a danger in taking one line out of the context of the whole conversation, the whole day of events even. If we really want to know what God is saying in His Word, we need to read more and understand more than the single line.   By the way, the line at the beginning, it was used by Marc Anthony. It was also a parody of an earlier line of Brutus, making fun of him but also showing his intelligence, talking to the people about Brutus' murder of Caesar. It was a counterpoint to Brutus' speech and lead into a discussion on politics and right and wrong. When was the last time you heard that line used in context...?   T

Honest In The Little Things

What do you say you will do that you don't deliver on?

Lorie and I were talking about that today (not that she doesn't do what she says, just making that clear...). There are people in our lives who don't do what they say they will. They say what we think we want to hear and that will make us happy, but it really makes us unhappier. And usually it's really little things so people think it will go unnoticed.

Here's an example: I say to Lorie I'll be home at 5:00, but really it will be 5:30.

I say 5:00 because that's the right answer. Work's done at 5:00. It sounds nice to say I will be right home. But in reality I have some traffic to fight, a few things to do before I leave, etc. so I really get home at 5:30.

Now do this every day for a month. What happens? Lorie no longer believes me when I say I will be home.

And that will soon bleed over into other things I say. Will I be honest about other times I give her? Will I be honest with other numbers like money? And it blossoms into me not being trusted.

Jesus all the time talked about being responsible in the little things means being blessed with bigger things. I think it works with honesty too. If we fudge a few little things, eventually it leads to a lack of trust. But if we are honest in every little thing we say, even when it isn't the answer someone wants to hear, chances are they will whole-heartedly believe us in the big things.

What little things do we need to be a little more honest about...?

T

What's More Important?

A few weeks ago Apple released it's IOS6 for iPhone with all sorts of new bells and whistles and looking all pretty, and included a new app they designed called "Maps" (to replace Google Maps which was standard before). They made their own GPS app. Great. Except it flopped. It was full of bugs and errors. And as soon as that happened, they gave this announcement from CEO Tom Cook:

"While were improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.


Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard."

And they followed through, if you go to their apps app the first thing you land on are alternate gps/map apps. Their competition. There's only one reason a company would do this.

Their goal is to get you where you need to go, not make money.

For Apple it was more important their users made it safely to their destination than to use their product. In church, it should be the same. My goal is to get people to know Jesus. Better than they did before. If they come to NewSong, the worship service I'm involved in. Great. If they are going to anther service. Great. My goal isn't to get people to worship my way, use my worship app as it were, but to have people worship and grow closer to Jesus.

When it comes to sharing your faith, how important is it that people know Jesus, even if that means they don't worship the same way or at the same place you do?

T

Doing As Learning

A few weeks ago I read an article about music production and someone made a fascinating point. When it comes to learning something, say piano lessons, do we have people read all the books about how to play the piano, pass a test, fill their heads with knowledge before letting them touch a piano? Or do people learn to play the piano by actually doing and mixing in the knowledge as we learn?

I still remember my first piano lesson when I was five (kind of). I learned to play three whole notes. Three. I learned to read them and transfer that knowledge to finger movement on the keys. I played the three notes I learned to read.

What would piano lessons have looked like if I had to know how to read all music before touching a piano and making a sound? Understand music theory? The science of waves and sound and mechanics of tuning a piano? I probably would never have played...

I learned music by mixing doing and head-knowledge. And I think we need to do more of this in faith. In talking to some people it's like they are waiting to serve. When I know this much Bible I will teach a Sunday School class or when I feel this holy I will be a greeter. In reality, wouldn't learning to live as a disciple of Christ look more like piano lessons, a mix of learning and doing? After all, isn't that how Christ did it? He called fishermen, not religious scholars. And they learned about the kingdom of God while being the hands and feet of God.

If you want more from your spiritual life, dive in!

T

Waiting For Holiness

In my reading last week I came across a curious piece of history involving baptism...

It seems that around 400 AD baptism was hitting a height like never before. It was really important to people's faith. So important that many believed that you were not forgiven of your sins until you were baptized, it was the most important thing you could do in your faith.

That seems all well and good, except it caused an unexpected backlash. If you knew there was a single action you could do that would forgive your sins and you could only do it once, when would you do it? It seems the Roman people of the time decided the best thing to do was to wait for baptism. After all, what if you sin after it? You can't be baptized again so what many people would do is hold off on baptism, hold off on declaring their faith in Christ, hold off on forgiveness and living as true Christians and wait until their deathbeds to be baptized. It became such a big deal there was a division in the church, these people who were followers of Christ but waiting for baptism would be considered Christians, but not part of "the faithful".

This whole piece of history got me to wondering about how those people felt, half-Christians as it were. Do you think they still served as faithful and as much as other Christians? What about in their hearts, did they fell loved by God or a little less loved than "the faithful"? What impact did that have on them sharing their faith?

And the biggie, do we still do this today? Maybe not in the evidence of baptism, but do we hold back from doing things for God because we haven't arrived at some far off spiritual point yet? Do we not serve, give, love as much because we're not what we consider "the faithful"? What are we waiting for?

More on this next week...

T

Many Hands Make A Difference

Yesterday we did something that has never happened in my entire time at Fishers UMC and Fire & Water.

We unloaded the pumpkin truck in under 2 hours.

That may not seem like much, but after ten years and being the one in the truck, trust me, that's a big deal. We unloaded 2000 pumpkins in under 2 hours.

How? We had help.

Sunday afternoon (when the truck was here) we logged almost 100 volunteer hours. There were over 50 people helping unload the pumpkins. The most we've ever had by a long shot.

Sometimes we look at something as insurmountable because we forget that if everyone did a little it would get taken care of. We look at the task at hand as too big and think "how could we ever solve this?" and do nothing. We don't even do our part, we do nothing.

Our church is looking to raise $150,000 this month. Some people will look at that and go "it's too big" and shut down. The funny part is we have over 3500 people in our church database. If each person gave $50 we'd be above our goal.

The problem is we can't get everyone to do their little part. So other's pick up the slack. Then more drop out because the slack is now too much. And suddenly, we're at insurmountable again.

Think of any problem, and add in all the people who could/should be a part. If everyone did their part, how much work would there be?

It's kind of like a few years ago when I was talking to someone about how to get more people to visit our church. And I told them I could get our church to double in size overnight. How? Everybody invite one friend.

No problem is too big if everyone chips in...

T

Do You Really Know?

For the past few weeks we've been doing a little something at Drink Deep (our sr. high program) called "Google What You Believe". It's the idea of discovering what is true by looking it up for yourself in the Bible. There are verses all over the room about a certain topic and students look up the verses and try to figure out what those verses have to do with a certain topic.

Last week there were verses about Christ's life, His death and resurrection. And in our discussion at the end I asked a question I really hadn't planned on. Everyone knows the Easter story but before that night, who had actually read the story for themselves? Maybe 30% of students there...

It got me thinking, as in really thinking hard, do most people who call themselves disciples of Christ even know what or who they are following? Do we take what the pastor says on Sunday as good enough to learn about our loving God and that's it? How can anyone really know who God is and about His love if the only knowledge they have of His love is through a holy game of telephone (remember that game? Someone starts with a message, you relay through about 10 people and then see what it turns into at the end, usually nothing like what it started like)?

The question on my mind is do people really know who Christ is? Do they know what happened? What He taught? How He died? How He rose again? What's important to Him, especially if they aren't taking the time to read those things for themselves but instead living with just the abbreviated version I heard last Easter?

I would hope we take the time to read things in the Bible for ourselves, to see if what we believe is really true or something we picked up playing telephone...

T

Knowledge Unearned

A few weeks ago we talked about wisdom in our morning worship gatherings at Fishers UMC. And it sparked some conversations I had outside of Sunday morning, which got me to thinking a little more about where we are as a society.

It seems we have a lot of people lacking in wisdom. I always heard the definition of knowledge and wisdom and knowledge having the information and wisdom knowing how to use that information. With all of our advances in technology we know have limitless knowledge. Google has changed our lives forever, we don't have to end conversations with "I don't know" and more. We can look it up and learn. So if we have all this knowledge, why does it seem like wisdom has gone down instead of up like our knowledge?

All I can think of is this. It's unearned knowledge. Before, if I wanted to know something, I had to seek it out. I had to look it up. I had to go to the library and research. I had to earn that knowledge, I had to work for it. Now, I hit a couple buttons, wait impatiently for a few seconds and Bam, I have the knowledge. I didn't earn it. Do you notice how people treat things they have had to work to earn differently than those given?

To have true wisdom in our current state we have to make a shift. Before wisdom came as a by-product of the work for the knowledge. Now we have to be more intentional on using that knowledge wisely. For a good story to get you thinking on this, read I Kings chapter 3. It was knowledge and wisdom given, and how it was used.

Let's seek to be wise with the knowledge given to us.

T

There's A Difference Between Returning To Your Roots And Returning To Your Past

What a long title. Anyway...

I've been reading Onward by Howard Schultz. Great book. Talking a lot about the changes Starbucks made a few years ago, the thought behind them and what it took to implement them. And in this book I've noticed a theme. There is a difference between your roots and your past.

Your roots are the history that defines you. What made you into you. The things that are important in your history. Your past is what you've done. Sometimes those intersect but many times we end up fighting for our past and forgetting the roots of why we did it.

For example, say your family has the roots of a family Christmas bonding time, decorating the tree. And every year you've made a string of popcorn to go on the tree, but now you have a child who is allergic to popcorn. Some people would still fight to put popcorn on their tree, thinking that is their roots. It's not. The family bonding time over decorating the tree is your roots, and by keeping something you've done in the past you are actually losing the roots behind it. "We'll decorate while you sit over there away from the tree..."

Sometimes we have to put away the past to keep our roots, and that can be especially hard if the two get clouded together. So when it comes to your faith, what is important to you? What are your roots? And what things in your past are you holding on to that are actually stopping you from returning to your tree roots in Christ?

Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. (Colossians 2:7a, CEV)

T