Embodying Forgiveness – 1 John 1:5-10

"It is a serious thing when a relationship gets broken.
Someone you count on to be there for you is suddenly not there for you. Someone
you trust proves unworthy of your trust. Whenever it happens, however it
happens, when a relationship gets broken, your world gets broken too. There is an empty place where someone
precious once existed, and injustice where there was once harmony” (Roger Nikosha
with Judy Kuo, “Forgiveness,” in Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens,
Upper Room: 2002, page 217).

I was on retreat at Avila Retreat Center
this past week when we were invited to take a walk to observe the parables of
nature. I chose a trail that led away
from the center and immediately encountered a spider web blocking the trail. I
recoiled and tried to peel the new mask that covered my face while wondering
where the spider was. And so it is so
often in life. We are going along our
way when a comment or action brings us into a new relation with those around
us. Often times we find ourselves peeling a web away and watching for the
spiders.

Take a moment with me now in prayer to think of a
relationship with someone or something that has left an empty place in your
soul. … Now also take a moment to lift in prayer someone in whose life you left
an empty place with a harsh word, an abrupt response, a betrayal of small or
large portion, or just plain disappointed them. … Let us lift those prayers to
God who knows the desire of our heart.

Continue reading “Embodying Forgiveness – 1 John 1:5-10” →

God’s Front Porch – Acts 16:6-10

I have noticed in the political news of the past week that
we are in a quandary with regard to our war on terrorism – what shall we call
it? Is it a war on terrorism or a war
against Moslem extremists? The latter is
more accurate while the former slips easily off the tongue. The latter metaphor is an ongoing war of the
“good guys” against the “bad guys” that has existed since the beginning of
time. A war, if that is a good metaphor,
that according to our Christian faith only God can win. How are we to speak of good and evil in civil
discourse?

The conversation came home to me as I watched three young
boys play tag in the swimming pool yesterday. Two of the boys were twins that conned the third child into playing
their game. First one would swim away
and when the odd child out would tag him would immediately “tag back.” After several minutes of “tag backs” the odd
boy out swim toward the other twin who unknown to him was standing on the steps
a.k.a. home base. These two twins used
every trick in the book to wear the other kid out. When he finally got frustrated and left the
game they pleaded for him to join the action again. They even promised to change the rules. That is until the game got started
again. Well I got frustrated and just
took my son home!

On the drive home I contemplated the evil manifested in
these twins and remembered the stories of three boys who joined the Wynnewood Park Methodist Church
in 1964. The word got around the
pre-school there that picking on one boy got you into a fight with all
three. Yes, the Bingham boys were a
terror in that church.

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Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz

A friend of mine said I needed to read Blue Like Jazz.  My young colleague often hypes things to the maximum, so I put off reading the book.  Then I noticed the buzz in other circles, so I relented and wished I had been moved sooner.  Donald Miller brings a winsome wit to the page and challenges current conventional categories … is he evangelical, post-modern, left coast, etc. … it doesn't matter.

Miller writes a string of essays that recount a journey of resolution.

I never like jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxaphone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. Is as if they are showing the way.

I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened (page ix).

What a journey you take with Miller. He reveals his heart in so many dramatic ways. He also challenges us to reevaluate our assumptions. Take this quote on things he hates about churches:

First: I felt like people were trying to sell me Jesus. I was a salesman for a while, and we were taught that you were supposed to point out the benefits of a product when you are selling it. That is how I felt about some of the preachers I heard speak. They were always pointing out the benefits of Christian faith. That rubbed me wrong. It's not that there are not benefits, there are, but did they have to talk about spirituality like it's a vacuum cleaner. I never felt like Jesus was a product. I wanted Him to be a person. Not only that, but they were always pointing out how great the particular church was. The bulletin read like a brochure for Amway. They were always saying how life-changing some conference was going to be. Life-changing? What does that mean? It sounded very suspicious. I wish they would just tell it to me straight rather than trying to sell me on everything. I felt like I got bombarded with commercials all week and then I went to church and got even more.

Continue reading “Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz” →

Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz

A friend of mine said I needed to read Blue Like Jazz.  My young colleague often hypes things to the maximum, so I put off reading the book.  Then I noticed the buzz in other circles, so I relented and wished I had been moved sooner.  Donald Miller brings a winsome wit to the page and challenges current conventional categories … is he evangelical, post-modern, left coast, etc. … it doesn't matter.

Miller writes a string of essays that recount a journey of resolution.

I never like jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxaphone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. Is as if they are showing the way.

I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened (page ix).

What a journey you take with Miller. He reveals his heart in so many dramatic ways. He also challenges us to reevaluate our assumptions. Take this quote on things he hates about churches:

First: I felt like people were trying to sell me Jesus. I was a salesman for a while, and we were taught that you were supposed to point out the benefits of a product when you are selling it. That is how I felt about some of the preachers I heard speak. They were always pointing out the benefits of Christian faith. That rubbed me wrong. It's not that there are not benefits, there are, but did they have to talk about spirituality like it's a vacuum cleaner. I never felt like Jesus was a product. I wanted Him to be a person. Not only that, but they were always pointing out how great the particular church was. The bulletin read like a brochure for Amway. They were always saying how life-changing some conference was going to be. Life-changing? What does that mean? It sounded very suspicious. I wish they would just tell it to me straight rather than trying to sell me on everything. I felt like I got bombarded with commercials all week and then I went to church and got even more.

Continue reading “Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz” →

Michael Gelb – How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is recognized as one of the greatest geniuses of all time. He excelled in many areas such as the creation of the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and other classic works. Besides art, Leonardo was an architect, mathematician, philosopher, and military planner. In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Michael Gelb reviews and explains Leonardo's notebooks, inventions, and works of art. He introduces readers to the Seven da Vincian Principles, essential elements of genius that can be developed. The book is a collection of illustrations, passages and exercises designed to stimulate anyone's awareness of their own creativity.

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Timothy Tyson – Blood Done Sign My Name

In Blood Done Sign My Name the death of Henry Marrow is conveyed to the ten-year old Timothy Tyson with the words "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a n*****." Timothy Tyson tells his first-hand experience of the story of the murder of this African-American
Vietnam veteran in the late spring of 1970 in Oxford, North Carolina. Tyson tells us what happens as the small town deals with the murder, the marches, the bombings, the trial, and the acquittal of those who killed Henry Marrow.  As an eight year old growing up in the state capitol of Raleigh I was unaware of what was going on just an hour north of my universe in Granville county.  Later, my first appointment as a pastor was to two United Methodist Churches about ten miles from Oxford.  David Graybeal taught me at Drew University that a pastor has to "pay attention to the community."  I wish I had Tyson's book in hand as I cared for God's people who lived along the Vance-Granville county line.

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Searching-Listening-Embodying – Luke 24:13-27

Today’s lesson demonstrates the biblical understanding of
Truth as "non-concealment – the disclosure of the real state of
affairs."  After the crucifixion, Cleopas and another disciple are leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus when they are joined by a stranger who appears to be a rabbi.  The ensuing journey changes the disciples’
lives forever.

Robert McAfee Brown once described truth as transformed or
engaged knowledge (see “Emmaus … and Back Again: A New Way of Knowing,”
Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes, 1984, pp. 21-32). An example of
truth as transforming or engaged knowledge is the exchange between Jesus and a lawyer
that leads us to hear the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  The lawyer asks an “academic” question:
"Who is my neighbor?"  He
assumes that an “academic” discussion defining a "neighbor" will follow. Jesus transforms the "academic"
question into an engaged question:  "Which
among them proved neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?"  Then Jesus closes the deal when to the
lawyer’s answer he responds “Go and do likewise.” As Brown puts it, "We do not really know
the truth unless we are doing the truth, and only in the doing of the truth
will we finally know the truth."

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Virtual Christians or Real Followers – Philippians 2:1-18

Michael Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp  City, Ohio – an exurb of Dayton,
tells this story about his son’s high school baseball career. The winter of his senior year the youth
ministry went skiing and snow-boarding, but a scholarship stood in the balance – so to avoid injury Mike’s son sat out the snow-boarding and skiing.

That is, until later in the spring when the baseball team was playing at an out of town weekend tournament. The team had a break in the action and they
headed to the local mall’s food court for a meal. In the mall was an arcade and his son
immediately went to the snowboarding machine, strapped in, and maneuvered his
way down the mountain. And then it hit
Mike … this is just like church. We show
up on Sunday morning to worship, to risk being in God’s presence, but so often
we just strap in for an hour or so of virtual Christianity and then we return
to the safety of our homes. Paul
challenges us today to be real followers of Jesus as we navigate the slopes and
trails of the world’s mountains, not just virtual Christians hanging out at the
local religious arcade (buy Michael Slaughter’s Real Followers @ Amazon.com).

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Freedom-Responsibility-Obedience — James 2:1-13

Our nation’s Declaration of Independence makes this claim:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This week we pause as a nation to celebrate our independence
from a foreign power fought and won over two and a quarter centuries. We do well to contemplate what this freedom
means for us individually and corporately as a nation.

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Congregational Development Report to the 2005 NC Annual Conference

The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2004 states that the “mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ,” and that “local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.” The North Carolina Conference has taken seriously this charge, leading most conferences in professions of faith, new membership, and worship attendance growth.

It is the function of the Commission on Congregational Development, and the associated Office of Congregational Development, to aid congregations and their lay and clergy leaders in creating strong and effective churches. Annually, new churches, and older churches of all sizes, are assisted with vision and mission planning, staff development, lay and clergy leadership development, building committee organization, and evangelism and outreach instruction. Each year about 100 churches are assisted, most of them small membership in size, and this was again the case in 2004.

In the past decade, 35 new churches have been started within the bounds of the North Carolina Conference. These churches have been started in city settings, growing suburban communities, and rural communities. Membership in these new churches includes persons who are affluent, middle class, and poor, Anglo, Hispanic, African-American, Korean, Native American, and Asian. Although not all of the new church projects initiated have been successful, the newest churches in the North Carolina Conference continue to lead the way in membership growth.

The Office of Congregational Development continues to provide through its annual contract with Percept Group, Inc., up-to-date community demographic data, accessible on-line and without cost, to all local churches (www.link2lead.com). In 2003-04, the Congregational Development Fund, Inc., with the support of Bishops Edwards and Gwinn, and an outstanding team of laity and clergy, launched A Time to Grow funding initiative. This quiet effort is aimed at identifying laity whose generosity with their wealth, combined with their belief in the value of strong churches and effective church leaders, will advance and strengthen local church ministry and new church planting ministry in the North Carolina Conference. To date, about $1 million has been committed by members of the initiative’s steering committee members. Initially, available funding will be used to create an outstanding new church leadership academy, and to purchase land for new churches.

The Ten Dollar Club, now in its 52nd year, is administered by the Office of Congregational Development. The Club’s loyal members continue to provide funding to underwrite grants to new churches for land purchase and first building construction. Each year, one grant is made to assist in the establishment of a new church outside of the U.S. In 2004, a grant was made to a new church in Moscow, Russia, and in 2005, a new church will be aided in Zimbabwe, in cooperation with ZOE Ministry.

Allen Bingham, Chairperson