Christ Seeker

Why the call is important...

Heeding the call of God to "enter the lists" once again and contend for the Jesus Truth in our time is not simply a nice suggestion or just a good idea.  It is absolutely essential because of our propensity as a species for self-destruction.  Consider Scherer's words as he surveys the cultural landscape in the midst of WWII...(words, by the way, that could aptly describe our own time as well!)

"Mankind by exalting himself has finally become the puppet and the pawn of his own success.  The child of nature has triumphed over the child of God and has found in the triumph his own inexorable defeat.  Life in two dimensions has come off with all the garlands, and they are withered.  In its long rebellion against authority, in the violent assertion of its own mastery, it has cleared from the field both God and the human soul, to wander now among the ruins...The civilization which stemmed in Greek philosophy, and towered high in medieval cathedrals, has flowered in department stores.  The ends of life have become the goods of the body.  Existence has been turned into a continuous bank-run; and the bank is now closing.  That, I submit to you, is what crisis means.  It means that when an order has become thoroughly secularized it has committed suicide.  It means that the Kingdom of God is not a by-your-leave or an if-you-please; it is still a Kingdom, and to rebel against it is to pay the price of treason."  (11)

Now that last bit is so much a scare tactic as it is a statement of reality.  A reality without God.  Without God we spiral out of control and to our own destruction.  Without God, we fill the void with drugs, sex, money, possessions, power, you name it.  Anything to satisfy the cravings of the human heart.  And what we really, truly crave is transcendance.  We long for a purpose outside of our own appetites.  But without God we stumble in the darkness, searching in vain for a reason for living.  For something more than simply the weekend party or weekly paycheck or, as is the case for more and more people, basic survival.

Thankfully, God provides.  He doesn't leave us blind, walking in the darkness forever.  He sends us those whom he calls to guide us to the light, to show us the way back to Him.  And so when we talk about answering God's call, what we are really talking about is allowing ourselves to be used by God to bring light and life and joy and meaning and purpose into this world.  So the other day, I am having coffee with this group of men and one of them shares about his prior marriages.  Immediately, I am faced with a choice.  I can go with the flow and let the conversation spiral down into the typical ex-spouse bashing that usually takes place in such situations or I can, through a few honest, heartfelt questions, help the conversation flow in another, more healthy direction where this man can share a bit of what he's learned and how he's changed.  By simply and humbly asking him to share a bit more deeply, this man opened up in some amazing ways and the following morning thanked us for letting him talk about his past so openly.  This is why answering the call to share the love of Jesus with others is so important...

How many people truly have someone in their life with whom they can be transparent?  Someone they can share their struggles, hopes, and dreams?  One in six Americans (according to a recent Gallup poll) struggle with serious depression.  Sociologists like Robert Putnam at Harvard have charted the breakdown of community over the last several decades.  As we struggle through tough economic times, people are turning to drug or alcohol or food abuse to medicate their pain.  Or tragically, they physically take out their frustrations and fears on those closest to them.  What would happen if these people, caught up in such self-destruction, could experience the tangible, incarnated love of Jesus through us?  What a difference we can make...if we just answer God's call.

Not out of guilt.  Not because we "should".  Not because we feel obligated.  Not because "God said so".  But because we authentically want others to experience the joy we have in Jesus Christ.  Because we want those who are not yet part of God's family to trade in the world's "withered garlands" for a crown of glory.  Because we long for them to trade in their flat, two-dimensional existance and exchange it for a life of full, living color lived in three dimensions.  A life defined not by what we do or how much we make or what toys we have or the difficulty of our circumstances or the pain we have experienced but a life defined and shaped solely by God's creative and redemptive purposes.  This is life in the Kingdom of God.  And it is the life God calls us to share. 

We are all called...

Of course, "the voice of the Lord calling laborers into His harvest is as varied as human life itself, as manifold as the endless patterns of the fields and the clouds.  It comes to every living soul by every conceivable channel." (6) 

I want to reflect on two very important ideas when it comes to the issue of calling.  First, there is this myth that "being called" involves some mystical, far out experience.  To be sure, there are times when the Lord speaks very clearly but it doesn't necessarily involve the heavens opening, lightning strikes, thunder claps, and booming voices.  Yes, Damascus road experiences do happen but they are not be taken as the standard way God calls His people to His service.  Scherer points out, "Amos must not be forgotten, with his long brooding on the social injustices of his day.  Isaiah may not be forgotten, with his sudden consciousness in the midst of national catastrophe that the Great God wanted another man.  Jeremiah may not be forgotten, with his reluctant answer to that pressure which had kept growing within him until it seemed the culmination of an age-old purpose...and James and John may not be forgotten, or Matthew and Peter with the face they saw, and the presence that would not let them go, the love that haunted them down the dreary roads and set them apart for the gospel of God." (5)  Yes, God's call comes to us in the midst of life as we live it.  It comes as often as not as a still, small voice somewhere deep inside drawing us out, claiming us for something greater than ourselves.  We doubt it.  We resist it.  We thrust it aside.  We struggle with it.  But in the end, the claim God has on our lives is greater than the claim we have and so we surrender.  And in that surrender we discover life has incredible meaning and depth and purpose.

And let me hasten to add here my second point which is to say that this calling doesn't just come to full-time vocational ministers.  I think of the many teachers I know who experience the thrill of working with students who love to learn and agonize over those students who don't.  I think of the police officer I know who understands and lives the motto, "To serve and protect", to the point of offering his life on an almost daily basis to keep society safe.  I think of the heroes who ran INTO the twin towers even as every instinct for self-preservation cried, "Get out!"  I think of a physician I know who is just as concerned about the spiritual well-being of his patients as he is their physical well-being.  I think of the soldier in the field who fights for freedom and I think of the peace activist back home who is just as committed to the same ideal.  I think of the single mom who works three jobs to make ends meet so that her child can have a better life.  I think of the engineer who works so hard to to create systems and machines to make our world a better place.  I think of the business man or woman who is driven not by profit but by the desire to create jobs for people and produce a product that adds value to our lives.  I think of the relief worker who gives so much of themselves in refugee camps at home and abroad.  I think of a social worker I know who is absolutely overwhelmed by her caseload and yet finds the time to drive supplies around to families in need.  If we have the eyes to see, we begin to understand that no matter what our job title may be, our fundamental vocation is to "keep alive and cogent on this earth that awareness of Almighty God which is the soul's creaturely response to its Creator...to open minds to the splendor that shines forever on the face of human life; to the beauty and the mystery of godliness; to the horses and chariots of fire that range themselves about this beleaguered place...to throw wide the door of every narrow room and let in the mountains and the sea...to hold all hearts everywhere under the creative spell of the Infinite." (6)

So can we once and for all dispense with this notion that our lives are made up of a bunch of hermetically sealed compartments?  As if God's hand does not cross over into "work" or "recreation" or "family" but is somehow relegated to what we do for an hour or so on Sunday morning?  Do we dare to aim higher?  Dream deeper?  See farther?  Can we muster up the courage to take our stand on "the threshold of God's two worlds of sense and spirit, and there, under the quiet hand of the Master of Life, interpret for all that will hear what there is about living that is most firmly true and most deeply real?" (7)  I pray with all my heart we can!

Calling

My favorite book exploring the nature of God's call to preach is For We Have This Treasure by Paul Scherer, a compilation of the Lyman Beecher Lectures delivered in 1943 at Yale Divinity School.  In these acclaimed lectures, Dr. Scherer reflects deeply on the epistles of the Apostle Paul, what he calls "listening in to the experienced genius of a fiery little apostle..." as he unpacks what it means to be a faithful pastor in our time. 

For years now, I have made it my practice to read this book through on an annual basis.  It reminds me and calls me back to the heart of my ministry which is to "relish, this taste and tang of life, with the immemorial figure of a Galilean in the center of it, waging his hungry, stubborn hopes."  And now that I find myself again in a time of transition, of preparation, as I wait for God to move me from one post in His Kingdom to another, I find myself turning again to Dr. Scherer's work. And I offer these reflections with the hope and prayer that perhaps others might find in them the same hope, comfort, peace, and inspiration I have found.

"Our story begins with what the apostle calls my divine commission as a priest of Christ...in the service of God's gospel.  It was this sense of high appointment that undergirded him all his way along.  It sent him back to the stones at Lystra.  It filled him with a passion that turned as at a signal now into some desperate entreaty, now into a hymn of gratitude.  Here is some quick severity, there an eager tenderness.  Over and over again are sentences that pay no attention to grammar, with the words tripping on one another's heels, piling up into a kind of chaos, with the light of God on it, the gallant sunshine of His soul.  If I could only clear these windows of mine to let it through!  Wherever I go, he writes after the trouble he had had with the church at Corinth, God makes my life a constant pageant.  The whole procession of the days - peril, shipwreck, hunger, thirst - moves along some Via Sacra, brilliant and full of color.  Nothing drab about any of it!"  (pg. 4)

One thing I know.  I could not do what I do if I didn't think God Himself had called me to it.  I remember when I first was exploring my call to ministry and I approached the pastor at the church where I had grown up to ask him why he entered the ministry.  I will never forget his response.  "It's a recession proof job."  Now I am sure he said a lot more than that but these words sounded such a deeply discordant note within me that I have never forgotten them.  At the time I remember thinking to myself, "You know, I don't know much, but that can't be right!"  Thankfully, there were other people in my life, most notably my grandfather and the pastor of the church I attended during college, who pointed me to God.  A divine commission, the apostle Paul calls it.  A sense of high appointment, so says Dr. Scherer.  A deep, mysterious, almost unexplainable conviction that burns within the heart.  And this conviction is so compelling that, as one preacher famously remarked, "if you can imagine yourself doing something else...then go and do it." 

To be sure, this call is not for the faint of heart.  This life demands all that we are and more.  On the one hand, we get a front row seat to some of the most wonderful moments in a person's life.  Weddings, childbirth, answered prayers for healing, hope, and restoration.  We get to see people grow in their faith and in their relationships with others.  We get to see monumental acts of mercy and compassion and mission.  We get to see communities uplifted and strengthened as people come together to serve the least and lost in our world.  It is inspiring.  On the other hand, we also get front row seats to tragedy and despair.  Marriages that end in divorce.  Terrible accidents that claim the lives of children or young people.  Jobs lost.  Families displaced.  Cancer.  Death.  Hope turning to despair.  And through it all, we are expected to find words of comfort, words of peace, words that point people again to God. 

Then there is the pressure, because of the culture we live in, to produce.  To get the numbers. Woe be to the preacher under whom attendance lags, or dollars diminish, or buildings crumble.  It may be due to any number of factors but it is often the preacher who wears the bulls-eye during these times.  Or consider the weight of expectations that is put on the preacher personally, or their spouse, or children.  And yet...there is God.  God in the midst of all the chaos of our lives calling us, beckoning us to this grand adventure, "making our lives a constant pageant."  This call sends us back despite the failures, the shipwrecks, the peril, the hardships, the pain, the suffering.  It fills us with hope amidst the despair, turns our mourning into joy, and brings light out of darkness.  It raises us out of the muck and mire of this world so we can see the glory God is slowly, but surely, revealing in all of us.

Indeed, you might be able to say a lot of things about the life of ministry but one thing you cannot do is call it "drab!"  There is nothing mundane, drab, or dull about any of it!  If we have the eyes to see, it is LIFE in full, vibrant colors!  The Jesus LIFE.  The abundant LIFE of God that He promises to us through the Holy Spirit.    

Naked before the Lord

One of my favorite books is the Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis.  Eustace is one of the main characters and is one of the most spoiled, selfish, arrogant young boys you will ever meet.  In the course of the book, he happens to find a treasure in the cave of a dead dragon.  He excitedly begins to fill his pockets with as much of the treasure as possible, all the while scheming as to how he can get it on board the ship without having to share it with anyone.  After a bit, he ends up falling asleep in the cave.  Much to his surprise, when he awakes, he has become a dragon.  Fast forward a bit and now he has been approached by Aslan, the Christ figure in all the books.  Aslan offers a way for him to be transformed back into a young boy, but it will not be easy...

"The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. but the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I dont know if he said any words out loud or not.

I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and , instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I jsut stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.

But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

The the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

The very first tear he made was do deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.

Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was Ias smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.

After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me - (with his paws?) - Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. and then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."

It was over fifteen years ago that I first met Jesus.  And he took me, stripped me of my sin and made me new.  He laid bare my soul and invaded every corner of my being.  No more secrets.  No more hiding.  No more pretense.  And the feeling was indeed "delicious."  For the first time in my life, I felt a freedom I had never known.  I was free from my past.  Free from my sin.  Free from the self-destructive paths I had trod up until that point in my life.  Christ "undressed" and "re-dressed" me, the old Doug had passed away, the new had come. 

If I have learned anything over the past decade and a half of following Jesus, it is that this experience of being laid bare before God is not a one time thing.  It happens over and over in our lives as God takes our different experiences and uses them to make us more like His Son Jesus Christ.  It doesn't matter whether the experiences are positive or negative, full of joy or full of pain, God uses them all to undress and redress our souls. 

Recently, God took me through this process yet again.  He stripped me of my pride, my ego, and the sinful inclinations of my flesh.  He used the consolations and desolations of my life to bring me back to a place of utter dependence, utter reliance, and utter surrender to Him.  And now I am swimming in fresh water, delighting again in the joy I have just being in relationship with my Savior. 

"For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified..." (1 Cor. 2:2)

Witness is the Word...

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

The words of Jesus.  You will receive power.  You shall be my witnesses.  Witnesses in Jerusalem.  In our homes.  In our neighborhoods.  In the places we live.  Among the people we live with.  Witnesses in Judea.  In our communities.  In our cities.  Among our countrymen and women.  Witnesses in Samaria.  Among our enemies.  Those who do not look like us, believe like us, look like us, spend money like us.  Those we would rather keep at arm's length.  Witnesses in the remotest part of the earth.  In the forgotten and abandoned corners.  In the city centers and back-alleys.  Among the rich and the poor.  In the desert places and the most fruitful fields.  There is not a place we cannot go nor a person we cannot reach because the power and presence of the Holy Spirit compels us, fills us, pushes us, draws us out.  Out of ourselves.  Out of our comfortable lives.  Out of our sinful and narcissistic perspectives.  This power gets us involved.  It connects us viscerally with those around us.  This power will not let us stand on the sidelines or observe as bystanders. 

It's important to note that this power isn't ours to possess.  Rather, it possesses us.  It isn't ours to control...it controls us.  It isn't ours to command...it commands us.  The Holy Spirit pursues us relentlessly and tirelessly.  His energy never flags.  His passion to reclaim our souls, to stake claim to every part of our lives, never fails.  And it is to this amazing power, this amazing love, this amazing grace that we bear witness...in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth. 

Once the Holy Spirit blows through us, filling us, and compelling us to be his witnesses...two more questions are pressed.  What is our witness?  How should we witness?  In the second chapter of Acts we see Peter bearing his witness.  A crowd has gathered, drawn by the sound of the Holy Spirit and the disciples speaking miraculously in the different dialects/languages of the Mediterranean basin.  In what reminds me of a Mardi Gras event, the crowd can't decide if these men are just drunk of if there is really something important happening here.  Enter Peter.  Filled by the power of the Holy Spirit, he makes his witness.  And in making his witness, he clearly articulates the missio Dei.  He shares the story of God's mission to reclaim and redeem the world for his very own.  Tracing God's plan throughout the Old Testament, he now offers the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as evidence that God's plan has come to fruition.  In this man, Jesus, God's purposes are revealed and made clear.  What God did for Jesus, he will do for all humanity for the Crucified One is now Lord over all.  

What about our witness?  Like Peter, are we called to stand on street corners and preach?  Or does it look different?  How should this account inform our own witness in our lives and in our time and in our context?  First, I think it's important that we seek out where the "crowd" in our life is gathering.  The crowds were drawn to the disciples that day.  They came seeking or at least spectating.  There was something about the disciples that drew them to that place.  Where in our lives do we sense people being drawn in?  Is it our neighbors?  A co-worker who seems to be reaching out?  A classmate making friendly overtures?  A friend who keeps asking for time?  Someone new that we have met with whom we seem to have a connection?  Who is the Holy Spirit drawing to us? 

Second, we wait for the question.  "What does this mean?" The people asked the disciples.  They wanted to know what was happening.  What was the reason for all the commotion.  As we live our lives authentically before others, the question will get asked.  It will come in many forms but the gist of it all is this...why do you live the way you do?  What is it about you that is different?  And when that question comes, we must be prepared to share.  Peter spent three years walking alongside Jesus.  He was with him through the highs and the lows (though he did run at the lowest of lows...) of ministry.  He saw Jesus in many different contexts and in many different situations.  He studied Jesus' teaching, asked questions, probed for answers.  He reflected.  He doubted.  He discovered.  And when the time came for him to make his witness, he was ready.  He was prepared.  This is what informs and will ultimately determine the quality of the content of our witness.    Frankly, there are no shortcuts to this.  We must spend time with Jesus.  We must spend time reflecting, probing, doubting, and asking our questions.  Through prayer.  Through Bible study.  With other believers.  With people who don't believe as we do. And the more we wrestle with the Jesus story, the more our own story will take shape.  And as our own story takes shape, the more confident and sure our witness will become. 

A friend of mine who is involved in Allelon has been asked a lot recently about what our church believes.  So she came to me to find out if we have a mission statement or statement of faith.  We don't have either.  What we do have is the life of Jesus as revealed by Scripture.  Rather than trying to boil that life down to a series of propositional statements about Jesus, I would much rather we seek to live life alongside his as Peter did.  I would much rather we engage in the messy, painful, freeing process of conforming our lives to his life.  And so I asked this friend of mine to think about how she would describe our life together in Allelon.  What ARE we about?  What DO we believe?  Her answers to these questions will form the basis of HER witness to her friends.  This, it seems to me, will yield a much fuller and richer witness to Jesus Christ than some static mission statement. 

My Favorite Easter Sermon...

An Easter Sermon by John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.)

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!

Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!

If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!

First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!

Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.

Isaiah foretold this when he said,
“You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below.”
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Looking up!!!

One of my favorite stories in all of Scripture is one from the Old Testament in 2 Kings, chapter six where the Aramean king is trying to defeat Israel.  Over and over again he tries to attack but the king of Israel always seems to know when and where the attacks will happen.  Finally, the Aramean king asks his servants how this can be and they tell him that Elisha the prophet is the one to blame.  He is the one sending the information and so the king turns his armies towards Dothan where Elisha is staying.  They show up and the array is impressive.  So impressive that Elisha's servant is scared to death.  He cannot imagine how they will get out this trap.  But Elisha prays and asks the Lord to open the servant's eyes so he can see what is really going on.  The servant looks up and suddenly sees the chariots and horses of the Lord surrounding the Arameans! 

Look up!  See what God is really doing in the world.  Stand ready and faithful to go on mission with God. That's what this life is all about.  Last evening, I had the pleasure of hanging out with a new friend.  He and I met because he is intrigued by what God is doing through this new church in Sun Prairie.  He attends another church about forty minutes away but has been feeling God's call to be more involved locally.  So we met and I described the vision we have to equip and send out God's people to be missionaries in their workplaces, their homes, their neighborhoods, wherever God has already placed them in life.  He struggled at first but then you could almost see the tumblers fall into place.  Instinctively he knew "church" was more than a building or a worship service.  In his soul, he knew that God had a greater vision for his life than an hour on Sunday morning or a committee meeting during the week.  God wants him on mission.  God wants him reaching out to his unchurched friends with the Good News of the Gospel.  God wants him to be a part of what God is doing in our community and in the world. 

I felt a lot like Elisha last night.  It was very cool to watch the Spirit open this young man's eyes to see the glories He has prepared for us if we will just faithfully follow.  And it reminded me once again that the failure of the institutional church to inspire is my failure.  It is my failure to cast a vision that is worthy of God and worthy of God's mission in the world.  God's people long to be a part of something bigger, something grander than themselves and if we will just release them, challenge them, encourage them, SEND them out, they will surprise us with their passion! 

A Year with Calvin...

Princeton Theological Seminary has offered a reading schedule for 2008 in John Calvin's most important work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, in honor of the 500th anniversary of his birth.  You may not be a theology geek like me, but this is truly one of the most important works in Christian history.  If you are interested in following the reading schedule then go to this link and have it sent to you via Google reader or some other feed on a daily basis. 

Christmas Hope...

For all those who have lost hope this Christmas and who wonder what it's really all about...