Not Ashamed Launch

We admit it.

We believe some things that might be considered unusual. Even embarrassing.
Like we believe that the death of one man hung on two pieces of wood twenty centuries ago is at the center of God’s plan for the salvation of all people.

And we also believe that the one man who hung on two pieces of wood only stayed dead for three days.

It’s just crazy enough that you might think we’d be tempted to hide what we believe.

Think again.

We at Good Shepherd say with the ancient words of Scripture from Romans 1:16-17:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Not Ashamed. How we feel about the cross, the resurrection, and Easter 2012.


April 1: Not In Part But The Whole

April 8: How Much More?

Sunday. 8:30. 10. 11:30.

You Can Now Watch The WHOLE THING

We've recently expanded our camera system, upgraded our projection program, and increased the licensing fees we pay so that we can broadcast lyrics and music over the internet.

The result?

We can now show the whole worship gathering, not just the sermon. And . . . the quality of what we show, from image resolution to angle variety, is much improved.

You can access the service by going to www.gsumc.org and clicking on "Watch."

When A Song Means The Opposite Of What It Says

Bruce Springsteen's "We Take Care Of Our Own" has all the hallmarks of an American rock anthem: pulsing beat, churning guitar riff (with just a hint of keyboards behind it), and feel-good chorus:

We take care of our own
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag's flown
We take care of our own.

Upon first hearing, you think the song is Springsteen at his patriotic best, paying homage to the way Americans support those in their midst who have fallen on hard times.

Think again.

When you give the lyrics a close study, you see he's saying the exact opposite.

Look here:

From Chicago to New Orleans
From the muscle to the bone
From the shotgun shack to the Superdome
We yelled "help" but the cavalry stayed home
There ain't no-one hearing the bugle blown
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag's flown
We take care of our own

The "own" we take care of, according to Springsteen, is not America en masse; it is instead people just like us. Rather than celebrating American altruism, the singer laments this country's class-conscious protectionism.

For the people in charge of politics and resources, "our own" doesn't include those who ended up at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. That's why the calvary "stayed home."

Think what you want about Springsteen's understanding of what actually happened in New Orleans in 2005 -- and I have serious misgivings about his diagnosis -- but recognize what he is doing in this work of art: using the form of an upbeat rock anthem to camouflage the anger of social critique.

It's daring. It's risky. And whenever singing along with the song makes you feel proud to be an American, Lee Greenwood-sytle, it is devastatingly effective in its irony.

Here's the song itself:



This isn't Springsteen's first foray into a musical form and lyrical chorus that actually run counter to his song's intent. Remember "Born In The USA"? Remember the chorus that made you want to put the flag up in front of your house? Remember Ronald Reagan using it at campaign appearances in 1984, lauding Springsteen's patriotism?

The President probably wouldn't have done so had he heard the bitterness in the narrator's reflections about the war and its aftermath:

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my v.a. man
He said son, don't you understand

I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

Here's that one:



I believe his assessment of the Vietnam legacy has much more to offer us than his views on the Katrina rescue.

Yet his ability to capture the power of irony in modern rock and roll is beyond debate.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Signs You Know You're Jet Lagged

India time is 9 1/2 hours ahead of Charlotte time.

In other words, just when you get used to the clock over there, it's time to return home. And the return trip is pretty brutal -- 40 hours of flying, waiting, and praying.

So what are some signs that you know jet lag is real?

Here goes:

1. The middle leg of the trip home -- from Delhi, India to Paris, France was an eight hour flight in almost-complete darkness. James-Michael, Chris, and I were so out of our element upon landing that each of us left treasures behind: JM left a Kindle and an iPod, and both Chris and I left books. Only the Kindle was recovered. The sad thing about the book I left: the early pages were so good that I barely read any of it, hoping to save it for the Paris-to-Atlanta leg. Good thing Books-A-Million at Rivergate still carries it.

2. The Saturday after our Friday night return, I presided at a wedding service in the afternoon. I had it timed just right -- get a bunch of sleep (check), perform the wedding (check), and still have time for a brief Saturday workout before the Y closed at 6 (check). So I put my workout clothes in the trunk of the car, and zipped to the Y after the wedding. Upon taking my clothes to the locker room, however, I realized my still-sleeping mind had forgotten something critical for a workout: my shoes. So my choices were a) work out in loafers; b) work out in socks; or c) not work out at all but go home and crash. I chose "b" much to the curiosity of the few souls (pun intended) still at the Y at 5 p.m. on a Saturday.

3. As I posted yesterday, Chris Macedo gave the message on Sunday even though I was on the premises. Usually, when I'm there and someone else is preaching, I am itching to be up on the platform. Not Sunday. Let him go while cobwebs rule in my brain!

4. You lose count of how many people ask, "how was your trip?" because your brain doesn't count above ten anymore.

5. Sudden onset narcolepsy.

A Double Revelation

Yesterday's message at church had this as the one point:

Worship is our RESPONSE to the REVELATION of who God is.

So that was one "revelation" on Sunday ... that the more you are aware of the character, love, and forgiveness of God, the more you respond with sponateous acts of worship.

Those acts of worship may include singing, serving, or, as in the case of the message's lead character from Luke 7:36-50, anointing the soles of Jesus' feet with perfume.

But the second revelation on Sunday was WHO delivered the message: Chris Macedo, our Pastor of Worship Arts.



Now Chris has been here almost five years, and in that time I've learned that he can sing. He can strum a relentless rhythm guitar. He can play the keyboards in ways that are both subtle and bold. He can drum. He can design and produce videos. He can engineer lighting cues. He can lead a band to play in ways that are unified and seamless. He can call out praise from a worship leading choir. He can understand and live out our staff mantra that "the most important part of your job is not your job . . . it's helping us be the best team we can be." I knew he could do all of that.

But I never knew he could preach.

Until yesterday.

Chris was relaxed. He was funny. He was biblically accurate. He was historically informative. He engaged the mind and the heart. He was a wordsmith.

In short, his preaching ministry was a revelation.

The second one of the day.

(Later on Monday, you can watch the message at www.gsumc.org/media)

The Courage Of Common Sense

Few words have moved me recently as much as those of Rick Lowry, writing in last week's Time Magazine about the high social cost surrounding the increasing numbers of children born to parents who are not married.

Lowry writes what most know to be true even if we are hesitant to express it. Thankfully, the piece below has no such hesitation:


The old schoolyard taunt "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage" badly needs a rewrite.

A front-page New York Times article put an exclamation point on a decades-long trend when it reported that more than half of births to mothers under age 30 now occur out of wedlock. We are casting aside the institution of marriage and with it the notion that children should be raised in stable two-parent families. This is a social catastrophe.

The benchmark for discussions of illegitimacy is always the controversial 1965 report on the perilous state of the black family authored by the liberal intellectual Daniel Patrick Moynihan. When he wrote it, 24% of births among blacks and 3% of those among whites were out of wedlock. It turned out those were halcyon days of traditional family mores. Today out-of-wedlock births account for 73% of births among blacks, 53% among Latinos and 29% among whites.

The unraveling that began in the underclass has crept up the income ladder, although illegitimacy is still a class-based phenomenon. Almost 70% of births to high school dropouts and 51% to high school graduates are out of wedlock. Among those with some college experience, the figure is 34%, and for those with a college degree, just 8%. Marriage is increasingly the exclusive province of college-educated Americans. Or to put it in Occupy terms, the top 30%.

The diminishment of the much maligned patriarchal family is not the declaration of independence by professional women famously imagined on TV's Murphy Brown 20 years ago. The Murphy Browns of the world--well educated, accomplished, deliberate in their choices--are a bastion of marital traditionalism. It is left to the poor and the working class to ignore age-old wisdom about how to order our lives and thereby suffer the consequences.

Insofar as we know anything from social science, we know the breakdown of the family is bad for kids. Children in two-parent families, University of Virginia sociologist Bradford Wilcox notes, are more likely "to graduate from high school, finish college, become gainfully employed and enjoy a stable family life themselves." An invaluable store of social capital is denied to kids who are born into or raised in single-parent households. Through no fault of their own, they begin the race of life a few paces behind.

The left argues that economics explain the decline in marriage. The most simplistic version of this argument is a canard. Wages for black workers were rising from 1940 to 1980--and catching up to those of white workers--at the same time the black family was coming undone. If the economic determinists were right, the Great Depression would have destroyed America's family structure.

Clearly it is the erosion of the cultural norm against out-of-wedlock childbearing that chiefly drives illegitimacy. But economics play a role. It is harder for working-class men to get good jobs, making them marginally less marriageable. It is easier, on the other hand, for working-class women to get employment, making them marginally less dependent on men.



Can marriage be saved? The college-educated have managed to preserve it. If nothing else, they realize how much more difficult single parenthood would make their lives and those of their kids. Single moms, by contrast, often consider marriage something they can achieve only after securing a place in the middle class. This gets it backward. Marriage is a means of getting and staying out of poverty rather than an economic capstone. The poverty rate for single-parent families is six times that of married families.

No one wants to be preachy about marriage when everyone knows its inevitable frustrations. ("Marriage is a wonderful institution," H.L. Mencken said, "but who would want to live in an institution?") At the very least, though, we should provide the facts about the importance of marriage as a matter of child welfare and economic aspiration. As a society, we have launched highly effective public-education campaigns on much less momentous issues, from smoking to recycling.

It's not hard to think of a spokeswoman. Michelle Obama is the daughter in a traditional two-parent family and the mother in another one that even her husband's critics admire. If she took up marriage as a cause, she could ultimately have a much more meaningful impact on the lives of children than she will ever have urging them to do jumping jacks.

For now, the decline of marriage is our most ignored national crisis. As it continues to slide away, our country will become less just and less mobile.

Lowry is the editor of National Review

Lights ... Camera ... Make Up?

As we wind down our time here in Odisha, I spent a couple of hours yesterday recording four sermons that will be broadcast on Indian television.

(In case you're interested, I did three from the "Fashion Statement" series and then one from "Christmas Lights" -- a sermon from the Transfiguration scene (Matthew 17) with the one point of Jesus is NOT godly. He is God.)

As you might imagine, it's a challenge delivering four sermons in a row, all without notes, all while looking into a camera instead of a congregation.

Yet the bigger challenge for me came before the recording even started: my session with the make-up man.

He blotted my face with rouge. He filled in my eyebrows. Most unnerving, he lined my lips. I was thinking, "is he after the Angelina mouth look?"

When I looked in the mirror afterwards, the almost ghostly hue of my face was a bit embarrassing. They tell me it will ensure that I will neither splotch nor shine when the sermons actually get broadcast.

My discomfort and self-consciousness will be worth it, however, if some of our new India friends can embrace the truth we drew out of Matthew 17: Jesus is not godly. He is God.

Guest blogging for Talbot from India

Hi everyone! This is James-Michael Smith, one of the members of GSUMC's India team.

Talbot is out this afternoon filming some sermons that our ministry partner here will be featuring on his national television program...which means that Talbot's to over a billion people. Pretty amazing if you stop to think about it.

So he's asked me to post today's blog and share some pictures from the trip so you can get an idea of what we've been up to. Here are some of them...

[To see more of them, visit my Facebook album from the trip.]





















It's been an amazing trip, full of incredible people. The faith of these pastors who serve villages in the face of persecution, poverty and conditions that would make Bear Grylls think twice is humbling beyond my ability to communicate.

The fact that GSUMC has been able to partner with two ministries in such a place is a blessing indeed...for them and for us as well!

Please continue to pray for these pastors and their beautiful feet!

And pray for us as we begin the 2 day journey back home tomorrow!

JM

Proof The World Is Flat

Today a young church worker from the Kandhamal District of Odisha -- an area characterized by thatch roof housing, wild tigers, and tribal villages -- asked me:

"Pastor, are you on Facebook? I'd like to friend you."

Dubbed On National TV

During my 2011 visit here to India, I recorded four sermons to be broadcast on an Indian religious television station.

This past Friday night, one of them aired nationally. A group of about 200 of us watched it together on a large outdoor screen at the Orissa Follow Up ministry site.

The twist was this: while my face was on screen and I was in fact delivering the sermon, no English was coming out of my mouth.

It was instead dubbed into Oriya, the common language in the state of Odisha. The production editing crew spent a great deal of time in the last year getting the translation right and finding the right voice to dub (thankfully, he had a deep bass).

The effect to those of us (meaning me, James-Michael Smith, and Chris Thayer)was a bit like the old Japanese Godzilla movies dubbed into English . . . a bit more hilarity than spirituality.

Those who watched it with us, however, seemed to get something out of hearing a gospel message in their native tongue.

And no doubt had some inside smiles at a white American man "speaking" fluent Oriya.

In any event, it was broadcast to every state in this country of one billion plus people.

________________________________________

Our team is now at a place called Gopalpur On Sea where we will encourage and equip another group of 80 or so pastors. These particular co-laborers in the gospel serve in the Kandmahl District, a region where violence against Christians broke out in 2008 and continues in sporadic form to this day.

What Your Money Does . . .

Today we gave out 20 new bicycles to some of our Indian pastor friends.

Courtesy of the people of Good Shepherd, the new two-wheelers will be used by Indian preachers as they travel from village to village planting churches and discipling believers.

One of the pastors I spoke to currently covers an area of about forty square miles that includes one "station" church and four house churches. And now he'll have a bike to use in riding his circuit.

I used "circuit" there on purpose . . . the similarities to the deployment of preachers in Orissa to the early days of the Methodist movement is uncanny.

(And this network doesn't have ties to Methodism; just an energy and enthusiasm that parallels our origins in both Great Britain and the U.S.)

There's a bishop. There are supervisors -- men of experience and accomplishment who in addition to pastoring their own churches provide mentoring and guidance for younger clergy. In Methodism we call them District Superintendents.

And there are circuits . . . local preachers don't serve in simply one spot but ride a circuit of several preaching & teaching points. In Methodism then and now, virtually every preacher at some point serves a circuit of more than one church ... from 1990-1999, for example, I preached at Midway UMC near Monroe at 9:45 and then drove 13 miles to preach at Mt. Carmel UMC at 11:00.

In early Methodism the circuit riders rode horseback.

Here, they ride Scwhinn.

Schwinns that you all have provided by your generosity.

I tell you this a lot, but it bears repeating: please notice that we did not take a special offering for the bikes. No mission fund raisers. We simply teach generosity, you all give in that spirit, and then we are able to bless ministries around the corner and across the globe with our abundance.

Because we don't nickel & dime you with small requests, your money is able to make a big impact.

Even the two-wheeled kind.

You Would Have Been Proud . . .

. . . of your Good Shepherd team in India today.

James-Michael Smith and Chris Thayer had their opening teaching sessions today.

After I gave the opening talk in which I spoke about Sunday sermons not as disconnected pieces but as parts of an integrated whole -- in other words, it's better to preach in series rather random messages week by week -- we settled down into the meat of the day. James-Michael on the Old Testament and Chris on the intertestamental period between the Old and the New.

Here are some of the nuggets I got from their talks:

In the Old Testament, God is active outside of Abraham, but the focus within the bible is how God uses Abraham and his family to rescue the world.

Abram means "exalted father." The name change to Abraham means "father of many."

Early on this was Abraham's crisis: how could he be the father of many when he wasn't the father of any?

God says to Abraham, "I will keep my promise to you at the cost of my life."

When Jacob wrestles with the angel in Genesis 32, God changes his name to Israel which literally means "one who struggles with God."

As a nation (the ancient people, not the modern state), Israel is how God will reach the world.

The old covenant was written on stone tablets; the new is written in human hearts.

Jesus was a descendant of Abraham who kept the Old Covenant perfectly and brought it to a close so the New Covenant can now reach the nations.

Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons. Jesus had 12 disciples.

Israel came out of Egypt as an infant nation. Jesus came out of Egypt as an infant.

Israel crossed the Jordan on the way to the promised land. Jesus crossed the Jordan in his baptism.

Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years. Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days.

Jesus takes on the identity of Israel and walks it out . . . if you know the story of Israel you know the story of Jesus.

There are three parts to the context of Scripture: 1) Behind the text which is the the history of authorship and audience; 2) Inside the text which involves the purpose of the writer and the kind of literature involved; 3) In front of the text which is what WE bring into the reading of it.

In between the testaments, God was supposed to bring a king to Israel but instead Roman kings like Pompeii walked into the temple and made fun of God.

The people longed for a king who would deliver them from their oppressors.

When he first performed miracles, villagers expected Jesus to be their military king. That's why he often told them to keep his miracles quiet . . . it was his way of telling them, "I'm not THAT kind of king and this won't be that kind of kingdom."


After that rich teaching, we sat down with some of the pastors who speak English.

The most poignant moment came in response to the question, "have you ever been persecuted for your faith here?"

"My father was killed and I was beaten," one man answered softly.

"Did it ever make you want to give up since it would obviously be easier on you not to follow Jesus?" I asked.

"Of course not," he said. "I will keep preaching to the end."

And we're trying to teach them?

How India Wakes Up

One of our hosts here in the city of Balasore -- a man who has spent some time in the United States -- explained to me the difference between waking up in the US and waking up in India.

"In America, you wake up to silence," he said. "In India, we wake up to noise."

As I woke up today (Thursday morning in India), I understood what he was talking about.

See, if you live in a typical subdivision in Steele Creek, Lake Wylie, or Fort Mill, whatever noise surrounds your morning ritual probably comes from inside your house: babies crying, children talking, coffee pouring, or TV talking heads pontificating.

Outside your house is a different story. With the exception of an occasional school bus or speeding car, the wee hours of the morning are as quiet as they are dark.

Not so here. When you wake up in India -- or, more accurately, when you get woken up in India -- it is to a cacophony of people, vehicles, and horns. Mostly horns.

Remember the vuvuzela horns from the World Cup Soccer matches in South Africa a couple of years ago? That's what we have here. At 4 a.m. And 4:01 a.m. And 4:02 a.m. And on and on.

The sounds of life, struggle, survival, and ambition on the Indian streets every morning.

Most definitely not the sounds of silence.

When A State Changes Its Name

I told you on Monday that our ministry time in India focuses on the northeastern state of Orissa.

And then our plane landed here later that day and I found out the name of the state had been changed in recent months.

What was Orissa is now Odisha.

The two words sound similar -- whether coming out of mouths that speak English or the local language of Oriya -- yet the name change is highly significant.

In recent years, the political leadership of India has tried to remove most remnants of British influence over the land. (As many of you know, India was a British colony for the 200 years prior to 1947.)

That's why the city of Bombay no longer exists. Today it's Mumbai.

Yesterday's Calcutta is today's Kolkata. The former Madras is now Chennai.

So the name Odisha is more indigenous than the Anglicized Orissa.

What does that mean for ministry in the 21st century? Not a lot, perhaps.

Or perhaps a great deal. As India's prosperity and influence grow, so does its national pride. Deservedly so. And with many people here, that development also involves a suspicion of all things Western, Anglo, and American. Not hostility as we might find in some countries. Instead, a guarded suspicion.

So our team does all it can to honor what is indigenous in Indian Christianity. All too often, believers from the US have wanted developing peoples to become "American" as part of becoming "Christian." Well, Acts 15 settled that long ago. Christ calls people to himself first and to a culture second.

So we'll honor that which is from Odisha -- no longer Orissa -- while sharing what we worship in Christ with our new friends.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a dinner shot with our hosts, PR and Anju Misra and their family:



Later on Wednesday, we drive to the town of Balasore, Odisha, to begin training and encouragement with local pastors there.

Top Five Tuesday -- Top Five Things We Hope To Accomplish In India

Here's what James-Michael Smith, Chris Thayer, and I hope to accomplish in India as we serve the role of GSUMC's ambassadors:

1. Learn from the faith of Indian pastors and leaders -- how does their faith in Christ thrive in the midst of marginalization at best and persecution at worst?

2. Strengthen our connection with our long-term ministry partners in Orissa.

3. Shore up the biblical knowledge of indigenous leaders. Indian pastors are sadly under-resourced when it comes to biblical context and history. James-Michael and Chris are just the kind of resource they need.

4. Provide practical know-how in sermon development, healing services, and funeral ministry. Um, that's what I'm supposed to be doing.

5. Invite all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

Who Are These Guys And What Are Doing Together?

As you read this post, I am on an airplane with two of my good friends, James-Michael Smith (left) and Chris Thayer (right).

We're heading to India.

That's right, India.

Why?

Well, as some of you remember, four of us from Good Shepherd took an exploratory trip to India and Cambodia in March of 2011. You can read about that trip by clicking here and then checking subsequent posts.

Upon our return home in 2011, we realized that we'd found some partners in the Gospel in that land where following Jesus comes with such a high cost. So we're returning to the city of Bhubaneswar in the state of Orissa, on the northeastern coast of the subcontinent.



While there we'll give training to indigenous pastors. Chris will focus on New Testament history, James-Michael will share some of his Old Testament knowledge, and I talk about grief, healing, and sermon preparation.

And . . . there's a reason why the picture was taken in front of the Prayer Room.

Because that's what we want you to be doing for us.

Down To Earth Week 3 -- Monday On A Sunday

The Apostles Creed states that Jesus "ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

So when he ascended did he leave his followers powerless and alone?

Not at all.

Because we believe that after the ascension, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit "down to earth" to continue his ministry in and through the church.

And what did Jesus' ministry include while he walked the earth?

Preaching, teaching, feeding, healing.

So those are the divine ministries that continue today in the power and spirit of Jesus himself. Especially that last one. Healing.

It's where we're headed this coming Sunday. In a way we've never quite done it before.

Monday on Sunday.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

And remember to move your clocks ahead one hour.

A Different Way To Keep Score

As a kid, I was fascinated with how scoreboards worked ... their size, the amount of information they included, and even whether or not they had a digital clock or an old school time dial.

So maybe it's no surprise that more times than I care to admit I see ministry through the lens of a scoreboard.

And the Monday morning scoreboard is blissfully simple:

How many people came?

How much money they give?

Attendance and offerings. Measuring participation, commitment, and momentum.

Like I said, blissfully simple.

And exceedingly deceptive.

Because it's not about the church. It's about the world. After all, Jesus didn't say "for God so loved the church ... "

Because it's not about the church. It's about he kingdom. After, Jesus didn't pray, "thy church come, thy will be done ... "

So if it's ultimately all about the kingdom of God entering the world of men and woman, our Monday morning scoreboard might ask some different questions:

Instead of asking "how good is our church?" we'd ask "how good is our community because our church is in it?"

Instead of asking "how strong is our youth ministry?" we'd ask "how strong are the teens in our community because our students are in it?"

Instead of asking "why aren't more people in church?" we'd ask "why aren't more church people out in the community?"

That's a different way of keeping score indeed.

New Reflections On An Old Job

I spent part of last Saturday morning listening to a man from Good Shepherd deliver a creative and engaging devotion to our BigHouse students and their guests from the Children's Attention Home in Rock Hill.

As he began, I had a twinge of guilt. Should I be the one giving the devotion? After all, I'm paid and he's volunteering? Wouldn't I be a better leader if I was up there and he was sitting down?

But then the answered thundered in my mind: NO.

Because if I'm doing pastoral ministry correctly, then . . .

It's less my job to teach than it is to release the teacher in others.

It's less my job to lead than it is to unleash the leader in others.

It's less my job to heal than it is to empower the healer in others.

It's less my job to preach than it is to equip the preacher in others.

It's less my job to pray than it is to encourage the pray-er in others.

And it's less my job to "play God" than it is to trust the God in others.

Top Five Tuesday -- Some Sermons You Won't Hear

As many of you know, I spend a lot of time and energy getting Sunday morning messages ready.

I also try to give my best creativity to the titles of those same sermons, as you never know when the right title will draw the person in who needs to hear it the most.

Which got me thinking . . . what are some titles I would simply never use? What are some things that while some Christian friends may believe and teach, I can't quite agree with, much less preach on?

And here's the result of my thinking and doodling . . . five sermons you just won't hear at Good Shepherd:

1. Becoming Rapture Ready

2. The 6,000 Year Old Earth

3. The Republican God (and its cousin, The Democratic Jesus)

4. The Saving Power Of Infant Baptism

5. The Myth Of Eternal Damnation

Something We've Never Done

So yesterday's service concluded with something we've never done before as we invited people to respond to the sermon by purchasing a book we made available in the lobby.

Here's the background. The message came from Acts 11:19-26, a little story from the early years of the church in which nothing much appears to happen. Upon closer examination, however, everything happens in that story: Paul and Barnabas settle down in the city of Antioch and for a year invest in the lives of the new Christians there by teaching the stories of God and declaring the truths of Christ.

The episode demonstrates that when it comes to the Holy Spirit, the steady is as supernatural as the spectacular. In other words, the Holy Spirit is as much about the consistency of discipleship as he is about the euphoria of conversion.

So as part of the process of preparing the message, I realized that we should provide an "everyday" type resource to the people of the church. Not a suggestion. Not a weblink. Not a book mark. But a tangible resource that could get the people of the church started on the pathway to Spirit-filled steadiness.

Enter Timothy Tennent's brilliant set of reflections on the Apostles' Creed, This We Believe.



I had used this little book for my own devotions back in the fall and was amazed and moved by the ways in which Tennent uses everyday language to explain the deepest truths in the universe. Tennent's thoughts on the Creed inspired my preaching for the But For The Grace Of God series in particular.

I'll admit a bias in favor of Tennent: he's the president of Asbury Seminary, my much beloved alma mater.

So we bought 600 copies of the book in advance of yesterday's service, figuring one edition for every four people who might show up on a Sunday.

We then sold them after each service (though I noticed some people picked their copies up before church even began!).

Why sell them? Not to make money -- we still don't allow fund raisers here and took a slight loss on the whole project.

And not to mimic the money changers in the temple -- Jesus' anger at those folks was stirred by the usurious interest rates they charged their fellow worshippers and not because they were supplying people with discipleship materials (they most definitely were not!).

We sold the books so that people would have their own "sweat equity" in engaging the truths of God. As one preacher said, "that which we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly."

So we charged the same $5 per copy that we paid for them in the first place. I loved seeing the large crowds of people after the 8:30, 10, and 11:30 services lining up to get their books.

(We have a handful of copies left for any of you who weren't able to pick one up yesterday; just stop by the church office.)

In the end, it's deeply rewarding to me that this morning, hundreds of households at Good Shepherd began the day by soaking up the riches of what it means to say

I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth . . .

Down To Earth, Week 2 -- Steady As She Goes

Down To Earth moves to its second week with a message I simply can't wait to deliver: Steady As She Goes.

Check out Acts 11:19-26 and figure out if you can see why I'm so excited . . . and what in the world the Holy Spirit has to do with that little story in which not very much appears to happen.

Part of our response to the message will include something we have never done before but something I know will bless and grow large numbers of people in the Good Shepherd community.

Sunday.

8:30. 10. 11:30.


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Speaking of the message title, I've always like this song by the Raconteurs.

While we won't play it in worship this Sunday, it's still a lot of fun.

Enjoy:

A Different Background Music

I was planning on posting on the subject you'll read below when an email came in that served as confirmation of the topic.

Here's a portion of that email, the subject of which was a different sort of feeling in the recent worship gatherings at Good Shepherd:

I can tell that more room is being given to the Holy Spirit during worship. The whole atmosphere seems to be changing.

I think the change in atmosphere has to do with a change in background music.

Let me explain.

For awhile, the background music in our sermon preparation and worship design consisted of questions like, "How can we be creative?" . . . "How will this interest people?" . . . "How can we give them something they don't expect?"

These days, the background music is much simpler: "God has been really good to me and I just want to tell you about it."

Wow. What a refreshing difference. God has been so good to me and to us.

Saving what was lost.

Healing what was infected.

Protecting what was vulnerable.

Filling what was empty.

And now watering what is more and more fertile.

He's so good.

It's so much nicer to live the miracles you proclaim.

That's the song in our background.

And we just want to tell you about it.