No News is Good News

I didn't go anywhere this week. I think I put a total of 7 or 8 miles on my car. I walked a greater distance than I drove (at least 12 miles). I have no great tales of transatlantic travel or wild adventure. No grand missions. No wild treks. No time travel or even time zone travel.

This was a good week. Not great. Not horrible. Good.

In a world that values knowing what is going on in every corner of the globe every minute of every day--I don't even have cable TV or Internet hooked up in my new house (the day is coming soon). I received information in the mailbox for professional conferences, world travel, and work that would take me afar. I tossed it all in the trash.

I'm craving the very local. I'm reminded that Jesus kept his travels to a very tiny piece of the global land masses. He didn't preach to that many people. He wasn't a famous international speaker. He lingered. He mingled. He loved to hang out on the Galilee. He was a local.

I think there's going to be a movement soon--a movement to nowhere but where you are. I suspect we are tired of constantly going while we find the depth of our relationships and life thinning and thinning. I think we are finding Facebook to be sur-face, two-faced, and a bit of a facade. We are craving a subcutaneous situation.

Here's to being where you are, just as you are, right now.

Who Is A Christian?

Christianity Today reports that 19% of evangelical Christians believe Barack Obama is a Muslim and just 38% believe he is a Christian.

I want to make a couple observations that have nothing to do with political preferences, but spiritual bias, and theology.

Given the fact that Obama is a longstanding church member of a Christian Church it is interesting that 1 in 5 Christians call him a Muslim. But even more surprising, despite his claiming the name of Christ, how can nearly two-thirds of those surveyed say, "No, you're not."

A man claims to be a Christian, participates in a Christian church ... and two-thirds of Christians exclude? Why?

Yes, I think politics are involved. Yes, I think his particular views on certain social issues, like abortion, are involved. But just how narrow are Christians allowed to draw the lines of "in" and "out"? When Jesus tells his disciples to leave alone others who are doing ministry and Paul says that he is happy whenever the gospel is preached--even when preached with poor motives--what impact ought this to have on us?

I sometimes wonder if the Protestant Tradition has so firmly drenched our Christian culture that we are now protesting everything and everyone who does not share our specific, narrow understanding of Christ and Christianity. Why are we constantly denying as orthodox those who are legalists or liberals, prohibitioners or progressives? Why, even among those who affirm that Jesus is Lord, are we apt to accuse, and disfellowship?

How do we maintain the astonishing open-heartedness of the New Testament without watering down the "narrow way" articulated by Jesus?

A Whole New World

Read this article.

What if the reason we don't experience the Supernatural is we don't take time to develop the natural, or physical brain, in a way that can, in fact, experience spiritual things?

Perhaps Moses saw the burning bush because he had trained his spiritual vision over the course of four decades?

A Preaching Puzzle

I'm studying this week for some late summer and fall sermons. Working particularly on a basic, age-old, ever-present, biblically-asked question: "What should I do with my life?" It is striking me that it is so very difficult to change the basic pattern(s) of your life. The influence of culture in the key areas--time, money, sacrifice, depth, priorities, relationships--is so strong, can one actually break free? What does it take for a person to live a counter-cultural life? How can we make significant changes toward the abundance Jesus envisions?

It is one thing to preach the bold and beautiful vision of Christ. It is quite another to facilitate and (I pray) celebrate bold and beautiful living. I am convinced the life God offers is higher, longer, wider, and deeper. I am befuddled why we tend to live lower, shorter, narrower, and shallower.

A preaching puzzle indeed.

The Question

A reporter for Walla Walla University's student newspaper The Collegian asked me the following question:

"How will you get younger people to come to church?"

This is a good question. A very important question. The exodus of emerging generations from the church in North America is alarming.

My answer was honest, but maybe not all the reporter hoped for.

"I won't get younger people to come to church."

"That's up to the Spirit and to individuals moving in response to the Spirit. A 'hot' worship service with lots of bells and whistles may attract, but will it revolutionize? I don't think so. What I hope to do is pay attention to what the Spirit is up to and hopefully cultivate an environment that is AT RISK for an epidemic of God-charged energy. I want people--including young people--to see our church as a place where powerful, even supernatural things can happen. Things greater than a funny sermon illustration or a relaxed atmosphere."

Home Ownership

Tomorrow my wife and I are closing on a house. We will become home owners, once again. We will get "title" to the house. And so we will be "entitled" to the trees, grass, flowers, floor, walls, roof, and airspace therein.

Of course, the bank will own part of the house.

Of course, the city, county, state, and the US of A will own part of the house.

Of course, should Canada invade the United States they could change the laws of "ownership" and we could be removed as property owners.

Do we really own anything? Do we own life? What does it mean to "own" something?

Perhaps we're just adopting the house. We are caretakers, we are guardians, we are stewards.

For a time, we are agreeing to properly manage ... to beautify ... this patch of God's Good Earth. My computer, my car, my clothes, the chairs in my house: all of these I have responsibility to use with beauty, with love, with purpose, with passion, with joy. Perhaps we would buy less if we saw acquisition as signing up for a serious responsibility. Perhaps we would do better with what we acquire with this vision.

Walla Walla

You only have a short window to enjoy a "first impression." Here are my observations about the community of Walla Walla University, my new home and parish.

1. The first word that comes to mind is spiritual. This word gets thrown around so much in Christian circles and beyond. And so its meaning is murky. By spiritual I mean Spirit-ual. I mean a community hungry for the gifts, fruits, movements, and moments of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is a deep desire to hoist kites, sails, and hot air balloons into the breezes of The Beloved. This beyond-matter sensitivity is palpable. If the Space of the Spirit is the final frontier, this is a community on the final, fanciful, faith-bathed trek.

2. The second word that comes to mind is mature. I get this sense that this a group of people unafraid to move ... and yet not easily moved. It is neither the stale "been there, done that" defeatism nor the jumpiness that seems so prevalent in Christian circles these days. There's something inspiring about the maturity to both remain and renew that I find very attractive. To be ready at a moment's notice to "abandon it all" with the vision-wisdom to know The Moment.

3. The third word that comes to mind is playful. Whimsical might even be a better word. An attitude of joy that comes from interaction with the contours of life. The adventure of wild terrain. The tenderness of rural living. An appreciation for each and every human being--and his or her unique reflection of The Creator. Flaws are more the knots in the wood (that contribute to its beauty) rather than potholes in the road of the soul. A sense of humor about humanity. An appreciation for both simple and exquisite beauty. The ability to laugh thoroughly. A full inhale of the God-breathed world.

I'm glad to be.

Here.