Reunion Quote

At Beth's 30th high school reunion last Friday night, someone said to her, "I didn't recognize you." Less than a minute later, the same person in the same conversation told her, "You haven't changed a bit."

?????

The Thanksgiving Killer

(The following is the introduction to a message from Thanksgiving weekend 2003. I posted it here in 2005. Thought it was worth repeating again.)

How was your Thanksgiving? Mine? Well, we filled up on turkey, honey ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rice and gravy, cream corn, dressing, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli casserole, mmm, mmm. For dessert, we had red velvet cake, pecan pie, coconut cake, fudge, and chocolate chip cookies.

When I walked in the kitchen to see all of the work that went into the meal it looked like the first three rows at a Gallagher show.

We all sat back stuffed, miserable, and grateful for all of the food. We reflected on the past and dreamed about the future. We enjoyed seeing family and friends that we don’t often see. Later that night, I went to bed grateful for all the blessings that I have.

Then the Thanksgiving killer arrived. Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving when Christmas shopping officially begins. It is represented by this huge newspaper that arrived at my house. The largest newspaper of the year with sales inserts galore. Virtually every retail store in Augusta had an ad or insert in the paper.

Why is this the Thanksgiving killer? Because on Thanksgiving Day, we thought about all that we have and we were grateful. But on the day after Thanksgiving through the rest of the holidays, we focus not on what we have but on what we want.

The Thanksgiving killer is the Christmas commercialism that says we need more. Just when we have a day to be thankful for all of our blessings, the Thanksgiving killers show up and tell us that we will not be happy until we have something more.

Someone wrote, “Half the world is unhappy because it can’t have the things that are making the other half unhappy.”

Author Steve Brown writes, “The most unhappy person in the world is not someone who didn’t get what he or she wanted. The most unhappy person is the one who got what he or she wanted and then found out that it wasn’t as wonderful as expected. The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you’ve got. Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have.” (Servant Magazine, September, 1993, p. 8)

Our problem is that we are looking at the Christmas catalogs focusing on what we want rather than looking at our photo albums and rejoicing in what we have!

Everything is Amazing, But Nobody is Happy

Incredible Catch

Watch this catch by a Lassiter High school (GA) football player. Click here

Book Review: Jim and Casper Go To Church

Jim is a veteran minister. Casper is a committed but open-minded atheist. They visited megachurches and some smaller churches around the country to answer the following questions:

What do first-timers see?
How are they treated?
What are the central messages they glean?
How do they process the experience?
On what basis do they decide whether or not to return?
What is, and how compelling is, the call to action?
How is the Bible integrated into practical examples of living the faith?
What prior knowledge and belief does the church assume attenders possess?
Is the church more interested in conversation or conversion? In dialogue or debate?
How accessible is the heart and mind of the ministry?
Is the church engaging people or performing for them?
How realistic is the teaching? Is it the result of proof-texting or contextualization?
What is the church’s capacity for listening?
Is this a body of believers who are more interested in serving or in being served?
What makes a church genuine and authentic in its interaction with people?
How honest are Christians in discussing the cost of following Christ?

Quotes from the book:

Some professed Christians are not exactly following Jesus but are instead following religion. These people should more accurately be called religionists. Atheists are more honest about their unwillingness to follow Jesus. (p. xxv)

(At Saddleback Church) I silently wondered why we Christians seem to believe that it’s our God-given duty to appear unusually happy – especially at church…Casper and I shook hands with everyone who offered them, grabbed our programs (which Casper called brochures), and looked for a place to sit. (p. 3)

The preacher asked everyone to ‘greet the people around you.’ Well, I don’t mean to throw cold water on your church thing, but frankly, I thought that was lame. Why do you have to tell people to talk with each other anyway? Why didn’t someone voluntarily approach me? (p. 5)

(At Willowcreek – about Bill Hybels’ offering disclaimer) “He (Hybels) made first-timers feel okay about not kicking in when he said, ‘Visitors, just let the plate go by.’ I think that’s important: You don’t ask someone to pay for your services sight unseen.” (p. 41)

(At Lawndale Church in inner city Chicago) I realized that ‘get saved’ evangelism was designed for suburban folk. It had little meaning in an urban context…People in the city are not encumbered primarily with feelings of guilt. Their deepest feelings are of hopelessness.” (p. 65)

At Imago Dei, Casper said: “Imago Dei is not trying to get you to join them, so much as they’re trying to join you. I really like that.” Imago Dei talked about inbreaking. Inbreaking is joining an existing community action, while outreaching is inviting them to join yours. (p. 95)

We can find out what groups in our community are already doing to make life better for people and join them. Rather than start groups, we could join their groups. Rather than join groups to convert people, we could join them to connect with and serve people. This was one of the most innovative observations that emerged from our work together. (p. 164)

Giving isn’t really giving until it interrupts your lifestyle. (p. 96)

We Christians spend so much of our time trying to get others to see the light that it never occurs to us that we may be living in a fog. (p. 102)

Is the Church Too Political?

Tomorrow morning at TNC, Steve, Jay Knotts, and yours truly will be sharing our thoughts about the Church being too political. It's the fourth installment of our "Confessions of a Christian Church" series. The series is based on the book Unchristian which gathered results from a recent Barna Research Group survey. It is a humbling report on how young Americans perceive the Church in America today.

Here's some of what you'll hear from me:

Why do young Americans have the perception that Christians are enamored with politics? I think the creation and involvement of groups like the Moral Majority started it. (It’s interesting to note that the Moral Majority was created in 1979 to help an actor from Hollywood, Ronald Reagan, defeat a Southern Baptist peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter. The Moral Majority is credited with giving Reagan 2/3rds of the white evangelical vote.)

2/3rds of young outsiders believe the political efforts of Christians is a problem. Nearly half of young Christians agree.

Involvement in politics is seductive. It can be an obsession, maybe even an addiction. Years ago, I used to get a “rush” listening to talk radio. I read a lot of right-wing political newsletters and magazines. I’ve watched the talking heads for hours on the TV news networks. I’ve taken the advice of the Moral Majority and the American Family Association. I even boycotted K-Mart for years because K-Mart owned Waldenbooks, the largest supplier of pornography in the country. I refused to listen to certain radio stations or watch specific TV shows as a form of silent protest. I wrote letters to the editor, congressmen, even the vice-president and president.

There was a time in my life when politics would make me angry, anxious, and nervous but several years ago I decided that I was not going to let the political world control my emotions. I still read the newspaper almost everyday. I see what’s going on in the world online each day. But I don’t spend much time watching or listening to the news channels any more. It was for my own sanity and peace of mind to let those things go. I chose to no longer be obsessed with it.

I was once convinced that it was the job of the church to correct the wrongs in this country through its political system. When you get involved in the machinery of an election process and believe that you have a part in influencing elections, it is tempting to believe that one of the main purposes of the church is to shape the political process.

I have put my trust in men, political organizations, and political parties. But my trust has to be in God. I cannot be obsessed by politics but I can be obsessed with God.

Psalm 63:1 - O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you… (11) But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God's name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

We need to be engaged, informed, and involved in politics without jeopardizing the impact we might have on others – especially those with different points of view. One of the things that struck me the most in Unchristian was the statement that outsiders feel hostile toward Christians is because of our swagger, i.e., how we go about things in an arrogant manner. We have to be careful that in our enthusiasm for an issue, candidate, or party that we don’t project ourselves as better than others.

We need to realize that our involvement in politics is important. But politics can only go so far. Lives are ultimately transformed by connecting them with Jesus. And that is our greater calling.