I like fictional legal dramas. Perry Mason, Law & Order, 12 Angry Men, A Few Good Men. Real legal dramas in the media just aren’t as interesting. OJ, BTK, The Menendez Brothers. While I feel for the families, I don’t need another reminder of the messed-up nature of our society.
continue reading "I call to the stand, you."

Popularity: unranked [?]

Does anyone have a harmonica I can borrow?

First off, I want to say that this isn’t directed at anyone but myself. I may mention other people but it has nothing to do with them, I’m not blaming anyone for anything, they just happen to be players in the story.

I’ll be honest. Easter was flat. It just was. A number of people were gone for a variety of reasons. Who was gone or why isn’t the issue. How the number of people who were there (or not) effected me is what I’m interested in talking about. We were down to about two thirds of our normal family gathering. And when you aren’t that big to begin with it makes a big difference. “Here we go, another pastor talking about numbers wanting to build a mega church.” No, not quite. This is actually about the conversations God and I had on this Resurrection Sunday.

I started the service late, hoping some more people would show up. No one did. I was bummed. “God, where are the people who want you, who need you?” I asked. God promptly said back, “Don’t worry about who you don’t have in front of you. Take care of the ones you do have in front of you.” Crap. Fine. So we start the service. People have their coffee, I make some announcements, and Doug leads worship. During practice Doug and I realized that the chosen set as pretty mellow. There’s nothing wrong with mellow, but there really wasn’t anything celebratory, and it is Resurrections Sunday after all. Worship was good, but it just kind of carried over the funk that was already in my heart. Mellow. Flat.

I recently changed the way I use notes for my studies. I wanted something that made me more flexible in my speaking. I felt too tied down to my notes, afraid I would leave something out, so I was basically looking down the majority of the time. But now that I have this freedom to “riff” it lends to going longer. I went for 59 minutes. Sheesh! Shut up, Corby! And in my study prep I had hoped for and kind of planned on some visitors or non-believers. There weren’t any non-believers in the house. The phrase “preaching to the choir” comes to mind. But in this case, the choir is the only thing that showed up. It feels like the choir is all that ever shows up. I love the choir. I’m thankful for the choir, please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I am saying it would be nice to share the good new of new life in Jesus Christ with someone who needed to hear it right then and there. So far that hasn’t happened yet. Ever.

We got done, packed up, and went home. Some had family plans. We didn’t, and that’s no big deal for us. But the day ended just as flat as it began. I felt like there was no impact on the community. No change. (Again, these are just my feelings and may or may not reflect reality.) My heart is to reach out to this hurting and broken community. “But Corby, you are sewing. It takes time for the harvest.” I know this all too well. See, here’s the thing. For me, it feels like I have been sewing my entire Christian “career.” It feels like all I have ever done is sew. I have never seen direct fruit in my life. I have never led anyone to the Lord. I haven’t even ever prayed with someone to that end. I have seen much fruit from what I have sewn in others. A missionary to China. A youth pastor who leads a group of middle schoolers that is at least double the size of my church. Another youth pastor who is impacting kids. “One sews, another waters, another reaps.” I know that. I get that. But I want to reap! Is that wrong? Is that selfish?

The natural course of the thought process is to then ask, “What do I need to do to make this thing grow? What more do we need to be doing?” More advertising. Banners and posters. Cool artwork. Bring in bands that will draw. Buy a better projector so we can do cooler stuff on the screen. Try to be funnier (or funny, as the case may be). Something. As I was going through that list in my head, again, God showed up and gently said, “The only thing you and My church need to do more of is to give Me more of yourselves.” Again, crap.

So it was a humbling Easter. I’m kind of glad I didn’t have to go visit family and act happy because I wasn’t. I was broken. I was humbled. Resurrection Sunday is about the resurrection. Duh. But it is also about how we are raised to life with Him. In order to experience more of that life we need to die to self. Daily. So it isn’t about who is there on any given Sunday and who isn’t. It’s about me. It’s about you. It’s about us right now.

Popularity: 3% [?]

You’ve seen the bumper stickers or tee-shirts before I’m sure. “Gun control means using both hands.” And then there is the other extreme that basically says guns should be illegal except for maybe law enforcement and the military. I might call it the doctrine of gun control. In that light, it isn’t too different from what is happening in Christianity as it relates to the Bible and how Christians, or Christ-followers, or whatever, live their lives.

There are those in the emergent church movement who say that the doctrine of inerrancy isn’t a Biblical doctrine and should not be so forcibly held onto. The doctrine of inerrancy basically says that there are no errors of fact nor are there any contradictions in the Bible. The Bible is 100% accurate when it speaks on matters of history, science, culture, etc. While the Bible may not contain a label that says, “This book is inerrant,” the concept can be found throughout the Bible. If it is the word of God, then it must be inerrant. When you look at the writing it’s pretty apparent which books are historical and which ones are poetic. There are ways to tell when the writing is being figurative and when it is being literal. If there is any confusion about anything it usually has to do with the fact that we are 21st century Americans reading about 2,000+ year middle eastern cultures. Once you get around that, things are clearer.

Why do some object to this doctrine? Because, they say, it is one of the things that has led to Christians becoming isolationists from the rest of the world. It is part of what has led to mainstream Christianity become so ineffective and irrelevant in our society. Those who hold to an inerrant view of scripture aren’t tolerant of other cultures and make Christianity look stupid.

Their answer? Get rid of the doctrine. And don’t stop there, look at all the other whacky stuff these inbred Christians are into and get rid of that too. Bible prophecy is irrelevant. The origins of mankind and the universe, as told in the Bible, are a myth, a morality tale, not a historical narrative. Basically, instead of using the Bible as God intended, redefine it. Take away these things and redefine or recreate Christianity and God in our own image. Don’t teach people how to use the gun, take it away from them. After all, it isn’t the only source of truth in this world. All truth is God’s truth, according to Rob Bell. The Bible isn’t the only source of truth, Christianity doesn’t hold the corner on truth, God is bigger than that.

Why am I on about this? Because I love God’s word. I get fired up when people attack it or abuse it ignorantly. When you have a false presupposition and come to a conclusion that happens to fit the evidence, your conclusion is still false. It so happens that I agree with many of the objections the emergent folks, and the world for that matter, have concerning the church and Christians in our culture. But their solutions are completely wrong, and in opposition to God’s word. Their presupposition is wrong, their observations are right, but their conclusions are wrong.

The answer isn’t redefining God’s word. The answer isn’t taking it less seriously. The answer is taking His word more seriously. The answer is studying it and applying it more. The agent of change in this world is the Holy Spirit. But when you don’t believe that the Spirit is active today, you are going to ignore Him and try to find your own way to be an agent of change. When you don’t believe Jesus is really going to come back, God is going to judge the world, and Jesus is our only hope for the future, you make up a new future, you spiritualize our hope. When you don’t believe those early chapters of Genesis, the Bible becomes a collection of stories, it becomes a pile of pillows upon which people are supposed to build their lives, instead of the firm foundation that it really is.

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” If I can’t trust the Bible then I can’t trust that Jesus love me. If I can’t trust that Jesus loves me, then what’s the point? I might as well believe in the Smurfs, and you darned well better respect my beliefs. Why? Because the Smurfs believe in truth, honesty, and sharing. So does God. Therefore, God must be in the Smurfs. Do you see where this leads? Now where did I put my white hat…

The Bible is the word of God. It tells us where we come from. It tells us that God made us for a purpose. It tells us that that purpose is to have a relationship with Him. It tells us that Adam an Eve disobeyed God which is sin, which resulted in all of their descendants (that’s us) being separated from God because we sin too. It tells us that there is no way we can fix that on our own. It tells us that God Himself had a plan to fix it because He doesn’t want us to be separated from Him. It tells us that Jesus’ death and resurrection was God’s plan to fix it, and that that is the only way it can be fixed. It tells us that He will give us His own Holy Spirit to change us, and He will use us to change the world around us. It tells us that God will tolerate the sin of the world for only so long and that He is going to judge it someday. It tells us that Jesus is the only way out of this judgment.

The Bible gives us a sense of purpose for our past and present, and it gives us hope for our future. We can have confidence in that. It is certain. It is absolute. Jesus love you, this you can know, for the Bible tells you so.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Next weekend (Feb 3rd) will be my one year anniversary as the pastor of the church. A year. We have come a ways. I won’t repeat how we have grown because I already talked about that. What’s bugging me now is the desire to see growth. As I have already written about, we are seeing some great internal growth. People are healthier in their relationship with the Lord than perhaps they have ever been. And that’s awesome. I praise God for that. So I’m not talking about that kind of growth. I’m also not talking about numbers for the sake of numbers. I’m talking about seeing more people in this community being plugged in and switched on in the Lord.

“Corby, are you saying that all of the people who attend all of the other churches in town aren’t plugged in and switched on in the Lord?” I can’t say that because I have not been to every church in town and observed every member of every church. I can say this. If they were, this community would look very, very different. The kind of growth I want to see is an increase in people who are hungry for God. I want people who are ready to, or at least willing to try to get past their preconceptions of what church and Christianity is supposed to be. Church isn’t the building. It isn’t where we go for Bingo night. It isn’t three points and a poem. It isn’t this style of music, dress, and decor. Christianity isn’t a moral code by which one does their best to live their life. God isn’t an old man in a robe with a white beard. Jesus isn’t white guy with blue eyes and long, straight, brown hair, walking around in sandals, a white robe and a purple sash.

I don’t want to pastor the church that tries to draw people in and keep them in by my own means. I don’t want to pastor the church that is known among Christians for it’s excellent youth program, so that’s where all the Christian families go. I don’t want to pastor the church with the new building that everyone wants to go check out.

I want to be a part of the church, a part of the body, where people who have a hunger for God go, connect, build each other up, go back out into the world and are used by the Holy Spirit to bring others to Jesus.

It may sound corny, especially if you know the song from LoveSong, but I want to be that little country church on the edge of town, where people come from miles around. I want people to show up and say, “This isn’t the way church used to be.” I don’t want to talk about religion, I want to praise the Lord with the rest of my family. I want our church to talk about revival and the need for love, I want it to come alive. I want to see the Spirit working among us so that we are working together in our community for the common good, putting anything that may hinder us from our past aside. Long hair, short hair, coats and ties, doesn’t matter. Looking past the hair, or tats, or clothes, or whatever, straight into people’s eyes, and knowing that we are one in Jesus.

That’s the kind of growth I want to see. I’m eager for it. Yeah, I know it takes time for the farmer to see the results of his labors. Yeah I know it takes 9 months for that baby to grow and a lot of labor pains before the new life appears. I know a watched church never boils. But sometimes I just want to yell, “God, you said you would build your church. So build it already!” I want to be used, I want the people in the fellowship to be used by God to welcome the lost into His family. I want to be used to be that place where all ye who labor and are heavy laiden can come and take up the Lord’s yoke, His easy and light burden. I want our fellowship to be that part of the branch on the vine (John 15) that is abiding in Him and being fruitful. I want to see that seed scattered, fall on good soil, and multiply 30, 60, and 100 fold.

When it happens I look forward to simply saying, “Thank you, Lord.” I look forward to telling others about what the Lord has done and is doing. I don’t want to be the one being told, “Don’t worry, trust in the Lord.” anymore. I want to be the one saying it to someone else.
When Jess was pregnant, both times, at the end I remember her saying, “Is this baby ever going to come out?” I kind of know how she feels. And I know I’m not alone in this.

If the fields are white unto harvest and the workers are few, God, show us where these fields are so that we might harvest.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Like me, you probably hated to do book reports in school too. When you are forced to read a book and then write about it, your attitude kinda gets in the way of enjoying the book. You might never want to read the book again because of that experience. Such was the case for me and the book, They Found the Secret by Raymond Edman.

This was a Bible college required reading book. I was in a whole different place then attitude wise, but that’s another blog. Now that I have read and reread this book a time or two since, I’m convinced that it should be a required reading book for everyone. The only hang-up is the older style of writing of the author and the obviously older writing style of those he quotes.

The book is 20 mini-biographies of men and women of the past few hundred years and their experience with what is referred to as the baptism with/coming upon/filling of the Holy Spirit. Most of the names I had never heard of. Some of them were familiar. Andrew Murray, D.L. Moody, John Bunyan, and Oswald Chambers to name a few, uh, names. These aren’t salvation testimonies, these take place well after that. If you want to call it the second blessing, that works too, though some disagree with that theologically. For me, these stories clearly demonstrate that the filling of the Spirit in a way that is unique is and can be a separate experience from salvation.

There isn’t a formula. Well, I take that back. There kind of is. In the chapter on Oswald Chambers, Edman writes,

This pattern in the crisis of the deeper life, followed by its wide outreach, is almost identical with the experience of countless others of God’s children. First, there is the hunger of heart, often followed by a sense of desperation that leads to utter surrender of self. Thereafter there is the meeting of the soul with God in whatever manner the Almighty is pleased to reveal Himself to the desperate seeker who, like Jacob at Jabbok, will not let Him go until there is blessing.

Some people, like me, were saved in environments where the Holy Spirit wasn’t part of the equation. “Live a good life, God is God, Jesus is His Son, believe and be saved. Now get out there and bring others to church!” For me there was no dependance on the Spirit, no dependance on prayer, no concept of a “deeper life.” On the one hand, it seems like it shouldn’t take desperation on the part of a believer to really go deeper. On the other hand, desperation isn’t always a bad thing. We can be desperately in love. We can be so in love and enamored with someone that we just want more of them.

Because a relationship with Jesus is supposed to be just that, a relationship, love is a factor. Desperate love will result in simply wanting more of someone. Jesus gives us more by means of the Holy Spirit. That’s what this book is about. That, and how we can have the same things. How we are supposed to have the same thing. It’s our birthright.

Popularity: 3% [?]