How is it going? This generic question that we often ask of friends and acquaintances is frequently answered with a hurried response about how life is changing.  I’m in a season of transition, is a retort I hear often. It has dawned on me that life, from birth to death, is one long series of transitions.  We move from one stage of life to another, often times seamlessly and unaware of the change and at other times painfully or joyfully cognizant that we are embarking on the next step.  Sometimes change is our friend and sometimes it is our enemy.  But one thing is for sure, life never stays the same for too long.  Transitions and change in life are the norm rather than the exception.

We see change most clearly in the very young.  A baby goes from milk to solid food, from immobility to crawling and eventually walking, from screaming unintelligibly to a few words and then eventually, real speech.  We transition from grade school to junior high and then high school and possibly college and beyond.  Entry-level jobs hopefully give way to a career.  Most of us lived at home with our parents, moved out for a season, then came home broke for another short stint of parental care before launching for good.  If we are blessed with a spouse, this is a major transition.  Having children is a big deal and rearranges your life for eighteen years or so.  And then when they leave, the house gets quiet and stays clean, but it also entails another season of adjustment for mom and dad. Tragically, if a divorce should ensue we face another change of the unwanted variety.  A geographical move, a new job, a new church, a new house, fresh friends, a health crisis, financial difficulties, and more can all upset the equilibrium of life. 

Getting older also necessitates another period of transitions.  At some point in middle age we admit (usually only to ourselves) that we are no longer the twenty-something athletic stud of our imagination.  We start pondering the when of retirement, downsizing, and how to spend more time with the grandkids.  We have more prescriptions and less energy.  And, possibly our friendships are changing.  Life gets smaller.

Whatever our age and stage of life, it is worth asking how we are handling the inevitable transitions of life. Think about what changes have taken place in the last few years of your life.  What changes have been positive?  What transitions have been difficult and even unwanted?  How have you navigated these changes as a Christian?  How have they affected your spiritual life?

Christians know our faith should be sufficient for every season.  But why?  What is it about our faith that should provide stability through the uneven flux of life?  Put simply, it is God.  When changes in life come and the uncertainty that accompanies these life passages confuse and alarm us, we would do well to focus on the unchangeable character and promises of God.

James, the half brother of Jesus puts it succinctly.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17).  Are you alarmed by the rapidly changing world situation?  Do the threats of a nuclear North Korea, Jihadist Islam, or a militant Iran unsettle you?  Are you losing sleep over our economy and your job prospects?  Has the doctor’s diagnosis caused you to worry about your future?  None of these events take God by surprise or change him.  In our shifting world, God remains the same.  It is in his unchanging character that the believer is to find comfort and security.

The prophet Amos was anxious for Israel to understand who God was in the midst of very uncertain times.  He reminded them about the nature of their God.  He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name.  (Amos 4:13)  In this short verse God’s people were reminded that God was in control.  As Creator, he is the one who forms the mountains, andcreates the wind.  He made it all and it is his.  He is also the God who providentially sustains the world he created.  Our world continues to function because he is the one who, turns the dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth.  This God is also the one who speaks as he reveals his thoughts to man.  We are not left in the dark to wonder what God is thinking. 

Jesus had a lot to say about our tendency to worry and fret over the uncertainty that change can bring to our lives.  In the best sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus bids his followers to not worry precisely because God, who is Father, knows our life situation and he cares for us.  The changes that surprise us do not surprise God.

One thing is for certain in each of our lives: transitions…. Change and new passages will invade and unsettle the calm all of us crave. Without the loving fatherhood of God I could easily see myself descending to despair.  Yet with the strong and sure embrace of a loving heavenly father who is not capricious in his nature or fickle with his promises I can face the years ahead with confidence.  In the midst of these seasons, whether pleasurable or difficult, we are invited to trust in the unchangeable nature of God and his rock solid promise that he will never leave or forsake us.  So remind yourself about the unchangeable nature of God and his loving promises to those who trust him.  Let each of us say with the Psalmist, The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?  The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies (Psalm 118:6-7).

Actually, this King James translation, though a bit embarrassing, isn’t half bad.  Yet most of our more recent versions read quite differently.  The point of the proverb extols the value of the disciplined life.  The verse reminds us that the lazy crave and get nothing because they are lazy, but the disciplined grow fat because of their diligence! 

Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke writes his own translation of this proverb:

The sluggard’s appetite craves, and he has not;

         But the life of the diligent is fattened.

Fair enough, but something in me prefers the uncouth and somewhat impolite word fat!   The soul of the diligent shall be made fat!  FAT!  I like the sound of that.  Our culture obsesses over being thin, and King Solomon says, Be fat!  Not well fed, not nourished properly, but fat!

But what is the proverb talking about?  On the one hand, it simply refers to a principle of life.  Diligence is productive; work produces profit; if you snooze, you lose.  This is a proverb Germans and Scandinavians love!  It contains a truism for those built for speed rather than comfort.  But at a deeper level the verse teaches us something invaluable for our Christian life.  The proverb shows us, graphically, that maturity in our discipleship doesn’t happen by accident.  Christian growth takes place gradually, incrementally, and always by diligence.  If we desire to grow spiritually fat, it will take some work!

Are you familiar with John Charles Ryle?  He may be the most important pastor you have never heard preach.  J.C. Ryle was born in 1816, near Macclesfield, England.  After the complete financial collapse of his family’s fortune, Ryle was destitute and depressed.  He entered the pastorate and served faithfully for the rest of his life.  When Ryle was 64, the age of retirement in his day, he was appointed as the first Bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England.  This pastor-teacher served as bishop for twenty years and died two months after his retirement in the year 1900.

It is because of these last two decades of Ryle’s life that we remember him.  He challenged the lackluster clergy of his day and worked strenuously to preserve evangelical faith at a time when theological liberalism was sweeping over the church in Europe and England.  One of Ryle’s concerns was what he called “jellyfish” Christian faith:

We have hundreds of “jellyfish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have no definite opinions… they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.

We have thousands of “jellyfish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint…

And worst of all, we have myriads of “jellyfish” worshipers—respectable Church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors… They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”;… ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old.

One of my all-time favorite books is Ryle’s Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.  The book, originally published in 1877, is a compilation of papers and sermons by the first Bishop of Liverpool on the Christian’s call to holy living. Again, Ryle’s book is one of my devotional treasures.  I read it, often early in the morning along with my Bible, and the good bishop takes me closer to God. 

Recently I was reading Holiness, and Ryle quoted Proverbs 13:4.  He then went on to make this hard-hitting point:

One thing essential to growth in grace is diligence in the use of private means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man must use by himself alone, and no one can use for him. I include under this head private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, and private meditation and self-examination.

Ryle goes on to say that the person who doesn’t take pains about these three things must never expect to grow!

Here is the whole reason why many professing Christians never seem to get on. They are careless and slovenly about their private prayers. They read their Bibles but little, and with very little heartiness of spirit. They give themselves no time for self-inquiry and quiet thought about the state of their souls.

Were we to re-write Ryle more than a century later, we might paraphrase like this:

Here is the whole reason why many professing Christians are dead in the water.  They are more interested in the sports page and texting than they are in prayer and Bible reading.  They are more keen on a new app for their iPad than they are on examining themselves so as to take the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28).

As you read this, the Lenten season is behind you. Easter has come and gone, and spring is in full bloom. Your trees are blooming, and your agapanthus are shooting up in all their glory. To put it in the words of the proverb, the plants in your yard are going fat at this time of year.

Are you growing spiritually fat in this season of your life?  Dear Christian, make every effort to grow a fat soul.  Realize this won’t happen without determination on your part.  Put to work what J.C. Ryle calls the private means of grace.  Give attention to private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, and private meditation and self-examination.  Again, hear Proverbs 13:4: The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.  Let it be so in our lives, that we may grow to maturity.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching… instead…, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ! (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Bitterness is not only deadly, but it is secret, silent, undetectable even to the embittered, and it can have a very long gestation period before anyone notices it exists.  (In fact, unlike anger and lust, I can hide my bitterness even from myself and not even notice I am doing so.)  Bitterness is one of our favorite poisons.  We humans find it sweet to the taste, and it tastes sweeter as we swallow larger and larger draughts. 

a warning, a definition

The biblical writers warn against bitterness.  The apostle Paul tells us that bitterness is one of the chief characteristics of people who don’t seek God (Romans 3:14). He tells the church in Ephesus to get rid of all bitterness! (Ephesians 3:14).  In fact, it is the root of bitterness that threatens to destroy the church (Hebrews 12:15).  Like any root, bitterness lies beneath the surface, undetected, unseen until it blossoms into the flowers of divisiveness and discord.  But exactly what is bitterness?

I define bitterness as unforgiveness stretched out over time.  It is the festering wound that first manifests as anger or pain or embarrassment or regret.  But the wound, self-inflicted, or inflicted by another from without, doesn’t heal. Infection sets in and bitterness results.  In time this bitterness becomes gangrenous and spreads as easily as room-temperature butter on a piece of toast. Bitterness follows the off-handed but stinging sarcastic remark at the proverbial water cooler that five years later, has morphed into full-blown hatred.  Bitterness shapes our countenance, disfigures our face, and affects our posture.

Unlike anger that is a flash point sin, bitterness needs to steep.  Like a fine wine, bitterness needs months, even years, to ferment and grow to maturity.  At that point, bitterness is—in its essence—un-grace.  While grace gives us good things we don’t deserve, bitterness seeks to inflict the revenge we deem appropriate.  If God’s mercies and faithfulness are new every morning, bitterness is a cancer of the soul that spreads late in the afternoon.  If the joy of the Lord is our strength, bitterness is the weakness that makes us think we are strong even as life is being sucked out of our bodies.

The writer of Proverbs said, The heart knows its own bitterness (14:10), but this is not always true.  Sometimes our hearts deceive us, and we hide our bitterness not only from others but also from ourselves.  We dress up our resentment and call it concern, feeling strongly, or being hurt when we’re actually dealing with garden-variety bitterness, hate, and a complete unwillingness to forgive.  Of course I find these traits easier to detect in others than I do in myself.  I’ve known other people who struggle with bitterness, but I have REALLY been wronged.  My case is different.

avoiding bitterness

Know this, dear reader: in a fallen world we all have been and we all will be wronged.  Life in this world is not the way it is supposed to be, and the pain you feel from the misdeeds of “that” church, or from your father, or from your friend is real.  And the wounds go deep. 

But bitterness is still a deadly sin.  For starters, it will kill our relationship with Jesus because he taught us that we will be forgiven in the same way we forgive.  Ouch!  Our bitterness will also cost us even those friends with whom we have no quarrel.  Why? Because, to put it bluntly, bitter people are not very much fun to be with.  And, third, bitterness will ruin your relationship with yourself.  Cultivate bitterness, and you will be a perpetually glass is half-emptyperson as you slowly die of thirst. 

So what do we do?  How do we avoid bitterness as though it was the black plague of the 14th century?  No formulas from this fellow pilgrim, but consider a few discoveries which have been helpful in my life:

First, study carefully the nature of your own heart and rejoice that you have a Savior.  Look deep inside and you will find the murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander that Jesus said was there.  Rejoice that you have a Savior who knows you and loves you nevertheless, and maybe the wrongs done to you will begin to shrink.

Second, pray for your enemies.  Don’t pray that God will settle the score, don’t pray for revenge, pray for God’s blessing.  Pray that the one who wronged you will be restored from his sin.  Pray that God will not treat that person as his sins deserve.  When we pray for our enemies we ourselves are healed.

Third, rejoice in God’s providence.  Recognize that nothing has come to you but by his fatherly hand.  This truth may be the hardest pill to swallow, but we Christians don’t believe in accidents.  For example, Joseph spent years in prison and decades away from his family.  He was stuck in Egypt when he’d rather have been in Canaan.  But when he has a chance to settle the score, to get even with his ornery brothers, to make them pay for their sins, what does he say?  He lines up his brothers before him, forgives them for the sins they committed against him, and delivers the zinger: As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20).  Joseph places his pain in the larger context of God’s plan.

a better feast

At times I have found myself tempted to dine at the feast of bitterness; at times I have wanted to load my plate with anger and resentment and then savor every bite.  But having confidence in the providence of God has kept me from that meal many times.  Believing that I have a heavenly Father who not only created all things, but who sustains all things has led me to another supper consisting only of bread and wine.  In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, I serve a God who upholds heaven and earth and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hands.  Bitterness, be gone!

We have opportunities to reach out to our community in the all too many losses everyone experiences.  First, however, we must address our own shortcomings in this area, grow from grieving our own losses, and then be better able to come alongside others who are hurting.  It is way too easy to run from the dark places, but Norm Wright gave us encouragement to enter them just the same, and in so doing, find that God Himself is already there. We, of course, prefer the happy places of joyful worship and healthy relationships when in reality, life is multi-faceted.  The blessing is that we can come to know God better in those facets if we will allow Him in, rather than hurriedly rushing away from pain. In so doing, we will be better equipped to help others.

There are a number of significant experiences that have impacted our church family in the last few years that Norm was not able to address in his short time with us.  He wasn’t able to address how to care for those who have lost a sibling or a child, a victim of suicide or violence, sudden loss of a parent, or those in other venues of loss that might not be acknowledged. We have much more to learn in order to care for our church family, as well as the community in which we live.

On Saturday of the conference, Norm pointed out the fact that we need to be sensitive to people who are hurting, including in matters of faith. He demonstrated this in a concrete way when he held up two books explaining that when he talks to the grieving, he asks, Which book would you be more comfortable with: one that is faith-based or one that is not? His point is that we need to meet each person where they are at in order to truly meet and care for them.  Norm did not say to deny our belief in Jesus or prayer, but to hold these beliefs in a respectful way that allows others to observe our faith and know our compassion. I dare say this is what Jesus did. He believed and lived his life in a way that showed he was the way, the truth and the life, BUT the way he interacted with those he met was not one size fits all…he sought to meet them where they were.

Let’s press on both individually and as a church family to invite Christ into our losses and grief.  Hopefully more venues will open up for learning and sharing about these things and our church family will grow to be an ever more safe place for the hurting. In this way, we’ll better represent Christ’s compassion to them.  Dr. Linda Schupp described it this way, Commonalities create comment. Differences produce distance.

Thank you, Norm Wright, for starting a conversation I hope will last a long while.

Whether or not you know much about Financial Peace University (FPU), you should know that the nine-week course is not primarily for folks who are struggling financially.  Education helps our church support system.  For example, whether or not we have recently lost a loved one, we all benefit from the recent grief seminar because some of us gained tools to help another through grief.  In the same way, FPU equips us to serve our families, our church body, and our world.       

Since January, we have been walking through the FPU curriculum for a second time with our SBCC family.  We continue to see families, lives, and (yes) finances change for the good, and we are eager to share our hope and vision for the future of our church.

First of all, FPU is not a ministry opportunity that SBCC offers as much as it is a culture change we hope to achieve.  That culture change is a returning to Scripture as authority for our finances and our lives.  I have walked with Jesus long enough to experience that not all Christians read the Word and glean identical truth and conviction.  However, the Bible does not shy away from how we as God’s people are supposed to handle the resources He has for us to steward.  What I have witnessed in my own life (and dare I say most of my Christian brothers’ and sisters’ lives) is a tendency to prioritize the financial wisdom of the world over God’s wisdom, and we pay a price for it.  When we handle money as the world does, we leave our lives vulnerable to the perils of society, and even if we win with money, it serves no eternal significance.  Before FPU, I was drinking the Kool-Aid big time.  I lived my life as a Christian, but I sure looked like everyone else.  In his January article, Jim also shared some sobering statistics regarding the perils of being just like the Joneses.

Furthermore, I am convinced that God himself is the master giver.  As we experience the joy that comes from a mature stewardship and ability to give, our kingdom efforts are magnified.  For anyone who knows me well, financial joy (as well as peace) is the single most important reason I am so passionate about the FPU experience. 

We are committed to making this life-changing course available to every person in our fellowship.  So we need your input about how to reach you.  What has kept you from being able to participate in the class?  Are our Monday gatherings from 7:00-8:30pm at the church too difficult for you in terms of day, time, or location?  Have you not been able to coordinate with your spouse or babysitter?  Is the $95 (for the FPU kit and lifetime membership) a burden at this time?  You may not know that we have provided childcare and scholarships in prior classes, and we are currently planning to help Redeemer Church of Carpinteria launch their first class after Easter.  While homegroups are on break this summer, would you like to be part of this course with a similar 5-10 family format?  Please feel free to answer any of these questions using the FPU suggestion box in the church foyer, and we will keep you posted.  You can also pick up testimonies from some of our graduates there.  We are continuing to add FPU resources to the SBCC library, so drop by and check out all we have to offer.

We would like to build a network of FPU alumni and also need more leaders.  If you are an FPU graduate, or have a desire to serve on the leadership team, please do add your name to the box in the foyer.  As always, Jim and I are only a phone call or email away for questions.  Jim may be reached at jim.johnson@ago.org or 570-7221.  I (Scott) may be reached at scottjskripsky@gmail.com or 817-312-9114.  We look forward to continuing this mission with you all.

It happened on the Oprah Winfrey showwhere, at one time, Oprahhad enthusiastically encouraged her audience to wear the now ubiquitous yellow Livestrong bracelet. Comfortably seated in front of the cameras, the high priestess of everything, “O,” began the interrogation.  As many of us sat transfixed to the television screen, it was Lance’s turn to explain himself, and our turn to finally hear the truth.

Did he dope? Yes. Did he boost his blood with EPO? Yes. Did he lie, betray and bully? Yes, to all that.  Did he feel guilty? Not really. Guilt and deception without shame.  Did it feel wrong at the time? No. Scary, he says. Did you feel bad about it? No.  Even scarier.

Now found guilty of doping, Lance has been unceremoniously stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, dropped from almost all of his multi-million dollar endorsement deals, and resigned as chairman of the $46.8 million foundation that bears his name.  His personal fortune is in jeopardy and he most likely faces many years of lawsuits.  In cynical disgust there is now a new, robust business being done inLiestrong yellow bracelets, hats and t-shirts.

Unfortunately, the staccato confession seemed to lack any sense of true contrition.  While none of us can know what is in a person’s heart, Lance seemed, well, less than penitent.  Armstrong went on to tell Oprah matter-of-factly that what he was doing was simply leveling the playing field in a sport where apparently everyone was doing it.  Was this justification for the lying?  Only at the mention of his 13 year-old son’s misguided defense of his dad did we see a hint of emotion.

Armstrong who had lied repeatedly and convincingly over many years seemed unsure how to repent.  Shame was hard to detect.  Sorrow difficult to see.  A man who has been better known for arrogance than humility seemed confused by how, why, and to whom repentance was to be directed.  

There is of course another very famous person who was also badly in need of repentance. Like Lance, he was at the top of his game.  In fact, he was a king, and not just of a sporting event, but of an entire country.  As anyone who has read the Bible knows, Israel’s second king, David, sinned dramatically.  Adultery, denial, the murder of Uriah, and then the eventual consequences as a preacher named Nathan confronted David with the ugly truth.  

It is precisely here that the similarities between Lance and David evaporate.  When David finally comes to grips with what he has done, he is a broken man.  The Psalms can often be read as a spiritual autobiography and after David’s sin has been revealed,it is easy to detect in David sorrow, shame, and a true understanding of his guilt.  David’s repentance is not a perfunctory admission of a wrong-doing but rather a gut-wrenching plea for forgiveness and restoration from sin.

Most importantly, David knows where to take his guilt.  The king knows that his sin was ultimately not against Bathsheba or even Uriah. David knows he has sinned against God, and it is God to whom he is repenting.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.  (Psalm 51:4)  Because David knew God he also knew where to go with his disobedience, asking for forgiveness and cleansing.  Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2) 

It is one thing to admit culpability to Oprah and a rapt television audience, and it is an entirely different thing to repent before a holy God who hates sin and yet longs to lovingly restore the truly repentant.  Thankfully, most of us will not have the public exposure that Lance and David had.  Most of us are ordinary people.  Yet, when we are honest with ourselves,we too, find that we are often in need of repentance.  Our sin, while less dramatic than Lance’s and David’s, is nevertheless real. 

As Christians, our repentance is very different than a simple admission of guilt.  A believer’s repentance is uniquely related to our relationship with God.  Christian repentance requires sorrow and shame, it is accompanied by true humility, it is primarily directed to God, and it trusts in the ultimate forgiveness and restoration that is only found in Jesus Christ.  All of us will mess up at points in our lives.  All of us will sin.  Our sins will not all look the same.  I am quite sure that I will neverbe in danger of blood doping and then lying about winning the Tour de France.  At 62, my sin looksvery different than Lance’s.  But I have, and will, need to repent of my sin.  So will you.

What a wonderful gift God gives us in leading us to a true repentance where there is restoration, salvation, real forgiveness, and a freedom to live life again as a cleansed person.  Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret…(2 Corinthians 7:10).  When this true repentance happens all of us can say with the repentant King David, Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice…restore to me the joy of your salvation  (Psalm 51:10 & 12).  I hope and pray that Lance will experience that freedom which David knew and I know.

I write today about the process of becoming a bona fide empty nester.  The “he” I refer to above is my youngest child, Davis.  When he walked out of that coffee shop, Lisa and I walked into a new era of our lives together.  It was almost three decades ago when Lisa told me that it would no longer be just the two of us.  We had conceived a child.  First came Karis, an unasked-for intrusion into our happy life as husband and wife.  But with this “accident” of marital union came joy unimaginable.  Our lives were no longer our own.  We had a daughter to raise. Then came Peter, and then Davis.  And now it is just the two of us again.

If you have the privilege of fathering and raising three children, when you are in the thick of it, with toys and clutter everywhere, you think this is the permanent state of the universe.  If you are at all like me, you are tempted to complain about how little time you have for yourself and how demanding the children are.  You think you will always be diapering, bathing, reading to, coaching, training, driving, watching… .

But then it happens.  The proverbial nest starts to empty.  Unless you have only one child, twins or triplets, the nest doesn’t empty all at once.  Empty nesting, like having children, is a season.  First one goes off to college or elsewhere, then the next, and so on.  And then it is the two of you again.  The house is quiet, you buy fewer groceries, your live-in gardeners fail to clip the ivy, and you hope they call or at least text.

You also begin to ask yourself a few questions:  Did I do a good job?  Have I raised my children in the “fear and training of the Lord”?  Did I teach my children to think biblically about everything?  Did they see my love for Jesus?  Did they learn from their mother and me what matters most?

A few thoughts from this father in his empty nest:

First, dear parents of SBCC, realize that you stand on holy ground as you raise your sons and daughters.  God has entrusted you with something far more important than the golden lampstand in the tabernacle!  Or, as C. S. Lewis put it, God has entrusted you with something far more significant than nations or even civilizations.  The latter are temporary, but every child of God is eternal.  And God has entrusted you with this child!  Of all the things you will do in life, is there any more important than the raising of the children God gave you?  And of all the things you do in life, none will be more challenging.  And none is potentially more rewarding or disappointing. 

Second, love each other so that when your nest is empty, you will be glad even as you are sad.  Lisa and I have been married almost thirty-two years, and we still really like each other.  Along with the demands and joys of raising our children, we have pursued the joy of each other.  So even though our house is empty we are filled with anticipation about the future.  We have started playing tennis together.  We’re pretty poor players, but it’s fun to be pretty poor together.  We hike together.  We share ministry together in our church.  So we are glad even as we are sad.

Third, trust God with your children now so that you will more easily trust him with them when they are gone.  At the end of the day, our children are not our children.  They are God’s children, entrusted to us for a time to prepare them—as best we can—to worship, serve, and enjoy God for eternity.  The sooner we realize this, the easier it will be to let them go when the time comes for them to walk out of Peet’s Coffee.

Lisa inscribed this Bible passage in one child’s baby book as something of a life verse and prayer for each of our children.

May our sons in their youth
    

       be like plants full grown,


our daughters like corner pillars
    

       cut for the structure of a palace…

Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
    

       Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord! (Psalm 144:12, 15)

Will my sons be like plants full grown?  Is my daughter like a corner pillar cut for the structure of a palace?  I think so.  But these are promises, not guarantees.  One lesson I find in the above verses is the call to trust God, and not myself, with my—I mean His—children.

Fourth, realize that your nest isn’t really empty when it’s empty.  When I was eighteen, I left home for college and never really went back.  I got busy with life—with going to college, attending seminary, living in Italy, and moving to Santa Barbara.  But over the years I have delighted in having parents who love me and nurture me.  When I was in seminary, my mom would write me letters (yes, on paper and with a pen!) encouraging me to eat my vegetables.  I loved those letters even as I avoided my broccoli.  To this day I love having a mom and dad who watch after me, worry that I’ll be eaten by a shark when I go surfing, and check in to see how I’m doing.  In some vague, delightful way, I am still under my father’s authority, and I will be, to some extent, long after his life is over.  I like to run big decisions by him not to get his permission, but simply to benefit from the wisdom of his years.

In the final analysis, our nest is not really empty when we think it is empty.  God has placed us in families.  We let our children go.  We send them, in fact, into their own future.  But in sending them, they become free to include us in their plans, in their hopes, and in their dreams.  Indeed, Lisa’s and my nest isn’t empty.  It is simply that the house is quiet or at least quieter.  But not for long.  Our daughter is due to have a baby on or near February 17.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

First, he brought me to Santa Barbara. I attended Westmont College where I had two opportunities to travel to Asia, a place where I said I would never travel. I explored Thailand and Cambodia on a Mayterm about human trafficking. The next year I traveled to Nepal to teach English for a month in Kathmandu. I was hooked. In an attempt to gratify my desire to interact with the global community, I became determined to raise funds for missionaries. Out of fear, I was selling myself short of the plans that God had in store for me.

Every time I leave a country, I’m changed. In Thailand and Cambodia I realized that I would forever be dedicated to freeing those who were oppressed; I knew I had to stand up for them. In Nepal, God sought me out, sought for my whole life, not just the parts that I had sectioned off for Him. He wanted to free me from my fearful life. There, in Kathmandu, I willingly gave Him all parts of me.

The natural progression seemed to be signing up for Urbana ‘12. I studied international rhetoric; I had visited Asia, and now it was time to get connected with others who had the same vision. I attended incredible seminars led by a variety of different people. I was surrounded by so many different cultures. At times it was overwhelming and seemed like too much to handle. -Still there was lightness amongst the 16,000 attendees. There was a Spirit that reached out to each of us.

Yet I felt hardened. I was unwilling to let God speak to me in the ways that he had in Asia. He brought me to the prayer ministry room where I realized without His healing I couldn’t move forward with the incredible plans He had laid on my heart. A prayer minister helped me begin the process of healing. My scars and fears were once again holding me back from His plan. The Lord came to me and spoke over the lies I had believed for years and gave me a bit of light on my path; He wants me to be a missionary.

Naturally, this scared me to death, but I know it to be true. I can feel it in my gut. He pulls me from there; He implants a yearning that I can’t seem to satiate. No food, no drink, no amount of laughter or tears can make it go away. When I feel it, I close my eyes and hear different languages, I smell curries and fresh fruits, I see poverty, and I have to move. Yet I’m nervous even to write it down.

I want to go back to Nepal. There, thousands of people are becoming Christians every month. Those in the valleys and hillsides are hearing about Christ and coming into His family. And I want to help!

There’s too much of Urbana to adequately describe it. What I took away was that God wants His Spirit to guide us every day. He wants us to lean on Him for everything. For me, anything can get in the way of that. Washing my car, getting to work on time–all of it seems to detract for the One and Only who wants to walk through life with me.  He wants to lean over and whisper, “Remember my people. Remember whom I love.” While at Urbana, I was able to hear Him again. Now I desire to hear all He has to say, even if it scares me to death… like going back to Nepal… which scares me to death.

I have a great life in Santa Barbara. I’m pretty content. Yet I close my eyes again and I hear the horns, I feel the muggy heat, I see the vividly painted temples, and I know that God has more for me.

And now, as you read this, you know and so I have to go! When will I leave? Who knows. How will I ever pay for a ticket across the world? WHO KNOWS. The Lord does. He’s got it all planned out and by taking this step toward Him, I know that He will provide in His time.

The cliff I’m concerned about is not so much financial as it is spiritual, moral, and religious.  At this particular moment in US history we seem increasingly convinced that we can do quite well without God, and thus the Divine Majesty has been excused from the dinner table. 

It is fairly well known that the fastest growing religion in our society is that of the Nones, that is, those who claim no religious affiliation when polled about their beliefs.  Between 1972 and 1989, about 7 percent of Americans claimed to have no religion.  That demographic, though, has skyrocketed, and today nearly 20 percent of us claim to be religionless.  If you narrow the search to those under the age of 30, the number jumps to over 30 percent identifying themselves as Nones.  Again, we seem to believe we can do quite well without God or creed.  Yet our society is showing signs of this religious vacuum.  When we de-God ourselves and our society, then everything is up for grabs.  Moral structures which once gave stability to the social order come crumbling down.  A few examples:

Marriage and family: It is no secret that Americans aren’t getting married as they once did.  The so-called iron triangle of sex, marriage, and childbearing is has become very rusty.  Between 1910 and 1970, the “ever married rate” (people who married at some point in their lives) was between 92.8 percent and 98.3 percent.  Today over half of our adult population is unmarried.  The causes of this shift in the way we commit to marriage—or, to be more accurate, the way we don’t commit—are many and are said to include no-fault divorce, the rise of higher education, urbanization, effective birth control, sexual opportunity outside marriage, the expense of raising children, etc.  According, though, to Joel Kotkin, who wrote a report entitled The Rise of Post-Familiaism, the demise of religion plays the most significant role in the neglect of the institution of marriage.  Kotkin points out that each of the world’s major religions understands and exalts marriage as fundamental to living the life God designed us to live.  And why is the decline of marriage a problem?  Kotkin puts one reason very succinctly: A society that is increasingly single and childless is likely to be more concerned with serving current needs than addressing the future-oriented requirements of children.

Same-sex marriage:  It is no small irony that at the same moment heterosexual marriage is devalued, same-sex marriage is increasingly gaining traction.  Last February the White House announced that our Department of Justice would cease all efforts to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts. DOMA, ratified in 1996 and signed into law by President Clinton, held that no state was required to recognize a same-sex marriage performed by another state.  Furthermore DOMA prohibited the federal government from extending marital benefits to same-sex couples.  By May 2012, during his presidential campaign, President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage. As Bob Dylan crooned, The times they are a-changing… In November same-sex marriage was on the ballots in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington, and voters in each of those states voted for or toward its approval.  This is something of a moral earthquake.  In recent years, 33 states have passed some sort of referenda against same-sex marriage, but the November 2012 election went four for four in favor of such.

We could cite many more examples of the crumbling of our nation’s moral foundations.  We could speak of the casual acceptance of abortion-as-birth-control, violence in our films and on our television sets, the availability and widespread use of pornography, and the wanton materialism that characterizes our lives.  We have indeed tiptoed toward the edge of a moral cliff, and the prospects are frightening.  Hear how C. S. Lewis put it more than a half-century ago:

Such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. … In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

Like the pot-heads who think they can graduate to meth without losing their teeth, we believe we can abandon God and live without losing our bearings.  We are like the Israelites who  offered up sacrifices to a golden calf and then ate, drank, and rose up to play (Exodus 32:6), never noticing the fire that burned and the thunder that clapped from Mt. Sinai.  We are convinced that severing the tether will liberate, not realizing the height of the cliff we wish to scale on our own.  We have summarily dismissed God from the public square, and yet we are surprised to find we have a certain moral and social vertigo? Really?

Is our society rushing over a spiritual cliff?  That is probably the wrong image.  When one falls off a cliff, the fall is swift and sudden, and, depending on the height of the cliff, the person who falls will suffer either a skinned knee or sudden death.  Our society is not falling off a spiritual cliff; rather we are following a comfortable glidepath toward Gomorrah.  As if we’d been traveling on a transcontinental flight from London into LAX, we’ve heard the jet-propelled engines that held us at 35,000 feet die down to what seems like an idle.  But we are not coasting into Los Angeles for a safe landing and the warm welcome of friends. Our religionless, godless glidepath has ominous implications.  If there is no God, then everything—and anything—is permitted.  As William Butler Yeats wrote, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold… 

Despite the edge of the spiritual cliff, however, our society seems determined to march over, despite the glidepath we have placed ourselves on, we who put our faith in Jesus have no room for despair.  After all, we know how the story of history will turn out, and the end is really, really good.  We worship the God whose kingdom has come in Jesus, the God who will have the last word.  Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, so we have every reason to be confident about the future.  In the meantime, let us, his followers, live in a way that will woo the hearts of the hardened toward the greatness of God.  Let us continue to seek the welfare of the city (Jeremiah 29:7) while we live as strangers and aliens in a world hostile to the faithful.  Let us evangelize the lost and pray for our governors.  And let us wait expectantly for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

In my lifetime, I have watched the Christmas season start earlier and earlier.  It seems that no sooner have we thrown away the excess Halloween candy than we begin to see Christmas decorations in the stores.  Everything seems to be red and green, lights begin to go up, and the radio is playing Christmas music.  Some begin to plan their Christmas cards that often have a picture of their family and their dog and say things like Noel.  Others, with either a stronger environmental conscience or just a dislike of licking envelopes, send their Christmas greetings via email. 

I do look forward to my grandchildren’s musical at the local elementary school and I eagerly crowd into the tiny auditorium to take pictures of the little darlings as they sing.  The program, however, seems awkward to me.  There are no songs about Jesus, only about Rudolph, Santa, roasted chestnuts, and snow.  I find myself wondering if everyone has forgotten whose birthday it is and what we are celebrating.  Increasingly, the season less and less resembles a Christian holiday as our secular culture strips Christmas of Christ, leaving us with only vague religious sentimentality. 

Tension grows in my household as Donna and I discuss what sorts of presents to purchase for our family.  How much money should we spend and what will the recipients like?  These discussions rarely result in peace on earth.  Fortunately, my mailbox is flooded with lots of very helpful advertising on the myriad ways I can save money at various stores.  We also tend to be busy with lots of social activities.  I love a good party, concert, or a Christmas parade, but find we are out a lot of evenings.  December feels fun but very busy.  In fact, it can be so frantic that when we sing “Away In A Manger,” the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay, I find myself envying the tranquility of the scene.  By Christmas Eve a snooze in some hay sounds pretty good to me.

How the church in different parts of the world and in different periods of history has prepared for Christmas can be a bit confusing too. Each country and period has its own unique observances and traditions.  Ancient Roman Christians tended to observe the Advent season with lots of celebrating while their brethren in much of the rest of Western Europe fasted.  By the eleventh century, though, Rome fell in line with the rest of Europe where Advent meant no feasts, no recreational travel, no marital relations, and no weddings.  Humbug!

In Syria and Lebanon, believers begin to observe the Christmas season on December 4th, Saint Barbara’s Day.  The Armenian Orthodox Church begins the Advent season on Saint Philip’s Day, November 15th and its members observe considerable days for fasting. In Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands the season begins on Saint Nicholas’ day, December 5th.  In this rather peculiar tradition, Saint Nicholas, strangely accompanied by a little demon, brings gifts to children who set out shoes or socks for him to fill.  The Swedes start Christmas observances a little later on Saint Lucia Day, December 13th.  Like our own Christmas preparations, all of these various customs are a combination of mythology and faith.

These traditions, along with a dizzying array of other feasts, holy days, and special observances during the Christmas season. are an uneasy blend of pagan holdovers and Christians attempting to observe Christmas as a holy day.  As a result, the Reformers of the sixteenth century frowned upon and eventually suppressed many of the special feasts, veneration of saints, and religious protocol that surrounded Christmas.  The New England Puritans went so far as to enact laws that forbade Christmas celebration!  Seeing it as residual Papist idolatry, a heavy fine of five schillings was punishment for anyone caught merry-making.

Many of what we think of as traditional Christmas carols are actually not very old.  Most were not sung in the church until the second half of the nineteenth century.  Some of our traditional Christmas carols were not even songs at first.  The words that would become Hark The Herald Angels Sing were first penned by Charles Wesley as a poem in 1739.  It wasn’t until 1840 that Felix Mendelssohn wrote a tune that was later adapted to fit Wesley’s words that we sing today. Isaac Watts wrote the words for Joy to the World in 1719.  Again, it was over a century later, in 1839, that the carol was set to music by Lowell Mason.

It can all be a bit perplexing for the contemporary Christian.  What traditions to keep?  How to celebrate?  Where is the dividing line between secular and sacred? How much to spend?  How busy should our schedules become? Let me offer a word of simplicity in the midst of what, for many, is a confusing time of year.  Christmas, as observed by believers, commemorates the most profound event in human history—the entry of God into our world in the form of a baby.  Quiet your hearts with this simple and profound mystery that God took up his dwelling in our world in a tabernacle of flesh. In the din of all that will accompanythe season, contemplate a baby, who is actually God.  Ponder God’s initiative in the great drama of salvation. 

The excitement, tensions, disappointments, and joys that accompany Christmas build to a climax on December 25th and then stop suddenly. The decorations will come down, schedules will return to normal, and we will breath a sigh of relief because it will be another year until the season is upon us again.  Yet for the Christian, our joy is not found in a particular season, but in a particular person, the God-man Jesus Christ.  He inauspiciously entered the world as a baby, grew to be a man, and then paid a ransom on the cross which enables those with faith to become new creations and a part of God’s family.  Thank God for Christmas!

For progressives, the president’s reelection signaled the dawning of a new era.  The sun had risen yet again, and the day’s prospects looked bright and beautiful.  For conservatives, the election results led to head-scratching and dire prophecies of “America = Greece” and the end of the American dream.  I want to suggest that both responses to the election should provoke repentance by any of God’s people who are feeling either the deep despair or the enthralled delight.

A Christian’s role in and response to politics is far from simple.  Consider the Bible’s very nuanced description of God’s people as citizens:  We are to care, but not care too much.  We are to be hopeful about our politics, but not too hopeful.  We are citizens of the country where we dwell, but only provisionally.

First, the Bible tells us we are to care deeply about the common good of those with whom we live and dwell.  We are to do our part in the political and social order.  For example, Jeremiah instructed those exiled from Israel to Babylon to seek the welfare of the city… and pray to the Lord on its behalf.  The motive for such involvement is somewhat self-serving: for in its welfare you will find your welfare.  The Apostle Paul boasted of both his Roman citizenship and his citizenship in Tarsus (see Acts 21:39; 22:25-29).  Jesus himself also modeled involvement in the social order.  Here was a rabbi who went about doing good and healing (Acts 10:38) and who sent his followers into the world to function as salt and light.  That is, we are to serve society by preserving what is good and by chasing away the darkness with the light of the gospel.

In his book How Christianity Changed the World, Alvin Schmidt shows that most of what we take for granted in modern Western society (public education, hospitals, the end of slavery, freedom and dignity for women, the sanctity of human life, and the concept of freedom and liberty for all persons) arose from Christians taking their faith seriously and playing their role in the public square.  Indeed, we who love God are to seek the welfare of the city whether we live in Babylon, Bombay, Buenos Aires, or Boston.  We are not to be “of” the world, but we are definitely sent into it (John 17:15-16).

So we are to care deeply, but we are not to care too much.  After all, the Bible clearly states, that here we have no lasting city (Hebrews 13:14).  We are to see ourselves as sojourners and exiles in the world (1 Peter 2:11) who are longing for the the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10).  The same apostle who bragged about being a citizen of Rome was also adamant that his real citizenship was in heaven (Philippians 3:20).  We dwell on this earth, but we are waiting for the blessed hope who is Jesus himself, not for the second coming of our favorite politician from years past, whether that be Ronald Reagan, FDR, Bill Clinton, or Thomas Jefferson.  The Bible is clear: we are not to put our trust in chariots, horses, or political candidates.  Like the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, our potentates all have feet of clay, and it is high time those of us in the church, whether progressive or conservative, realize this.  It is not too much to say that if we put our hope in the political order—whether the utopian visions of the socialist, the conservative, or the libertarian—we will have put our faith in a god that fails. 

When Christians have said throughout the ages, Jesus is Lord, they were making a profound political statement.  It is Jesus—not Caesar, not the Soviet State, not Fidel, not Chavez, not the RNC or the DNC—who is Lord. When we say Jesus is Lord, we are saying that our true hope is in heaven even as we work for the common good on earth.  Sometimes we will work with, and sometimes we will work against, the authorities and powers who hold the seats of power in the political arena. And Jesus will still be Lord of all!

Justin Taylor, blogger extraordinaire, puts it well in this warning:

There are more important things in life than politics. It’s easy [for politics] to become an idolatry. But it’s also easy to be too apathetic. As the Lord leads, let us commit to letting our politics be shaped by the gospel and informed by the Word of God as we prayerfully work to become informed and to fulfill our roles, seeking the good of the city even as we wait for the city to come.

Probably like you, my love for reading began by being read to.  I distinctly remember loving Pinocchio, and being disturbed by Alice in Wonderland.  When I could read for myself, I devoured everything from fairy tales to science fiction, biographies to mysteries.  I was indiscriminate because I simply loved to enter into —and observe— other worlds.  I loved the craft of a well-turned sentence, the ability of a writer to end a chapter by dangling a curiosity or thread of suspense that made you want to turn just one more page.  I still love all of those things, but since becoming a Christian, my reading habits have taken on a greater sense of responsibility.  Let me explain…

All of us read for three basic purposes: entertainment, information gathering, and opinion-shaping.  The first two are self-explanatory; reading is a fun escape, and reading expands our factual knowledge.  The third point, however, merits some extra discussion.  What does it mean to be a well-rounded reader in such a way that our opinions are healthily shaped by what and how we read?  As followers of Jesus, what does this even look like, and why is it important?  It is crucial to know what we believe, and it is also important to read broadly in order to understand the culture in which we live.  If we only read Christian books, or if we only read from sources with whom we agree, then how are we to be humble, compassionate bridges-builders to a lost and hurting world?  So, in light of that, here are a few points to consider:

1.  We benefit from fiction, especially the classics. 

Our imaginations need exercise, just like our bodies.  If we limit our imagination to the visual (movies, TV, etc), then someone else has done half the work for us.  We need to let our own minds paint the pictures, set the scene, hear the sounds.  Well-written fiction does more than entertain; it also has the ability to teach us.  We can read a book on the theology of forgiveness, and we can also read Les Miserables. We can read an article about the psychological effects of guilt, and we can perhaps learn as much from Crime and Punishment.  Read with a filter that looks for the plight of the human condition, and the search for transcendence that results.  Listen to this opening paragraph from a modern novel, A Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton:

I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident.  I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually you don’t lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing.  You don’t necessarily sense the motion.  I’ve found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap. 

This is not a Christian author, but isn’t it a great description of the problem of sin?  Reading fiction exercises our imagination, but it also reminds us that the great themes in literature are always firmly grounded in a search for meaning and truth.

2.  Read the newspaper.

We need to be familiar with global issues, educating ourselves in the complexities of our world.  We shouldn’t settle for learning our news from Fox or CNN —read and think.  Read and wrestle with it. Read and pray.

3.  We should read from those with whom we disagree.

I’ll come right out and admit that one of my pet peeves is the predilection of many Christians to read only those authors whose opinions line up with theirs.  On one level I get it, but on another level one could say that it’s like surrounding yourself only with friends who will always agree with you and never challenge you.  Such practices breed pride at the very least – possibly pharisaical thinking at the worst.  This is not to say that we should open ourselves up to be “blown about by every wind of doctrine,” (see point #4 below), but it does mean that we should seek to truly understand the opinions of those in our culture who see the world much differently than we do.  Why is this important?

a.    As Christians, we always have much to learn from the world around us.  Evangelical churches can learn about “doing church life,” not just from other evangelical church leaders, but from the great institutions in our culture such as from the business world, from caring institutions like hospitals, from the field of education, and so forth.  On an individual level, we need to read from the experiences of those whose lives are completely different from our own.  Reading is one way to expand our hearts and grow in compassion. Our posture as Jesus-following readers should be one of humility combined with discernment.

b.    The importance of reading broadly, inclusive of reading opinions we may not share, is that we are called as Christians to be bridge-builders.  We are called to search in our culture not just for every little thing about which we disagree, but also for the common threads that allow us to extend a hand of grace and compassion in the name of Jesus. I would go so far as to say that if we are not building bridges, we are building ivory towers.  Reading broadly helps us to find common ground in order to be better-equipped bridge-builders.

4.  We should always read the Bible in one hand, and our additional reading material in the other.

All reading —and all information for that matter— should always be held up against Scripture.  If our primary reading objective is to remain culturally relevant, then we have abdicated what Christ calls us toward, which is always and forever a call towards himself.  That call will put us at odds with our culture and will keep us as foreigners, rather than true citizens, of this earth.  If, however, we absorb from Scripture the call to reach out to this lost and broken world, then our desire will be to find every possible way to understand that world and know it, so that we can speak the truth and love of Jesus.  Reading broadly helps us with this understanding, as long as we push it first, last, and always through the filter of Scripture.

In a world of tweets, sound-bytes and bullet-point communication, reading remains a way to slow down, and to introspect, to wrestle with what we really think in the midst of a world that offers a fire-hose of constant information and opinions.

So fellow readers, let’s take some time to think about what we read.  Let’s start with Scripture, and then expand our reading diet. As Dr. Seuss said, The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.  May we go to places in our reading that help us to become better bridge-builders, not tower-builders.

Other than that?  Excuse me?  Every flesh-and-blood human being has flaws, but an ongoing affair?  Isn’t that what we call a game-changer?  Isn’t that a fatal flaw that puts an end to the marriage?  A deal breaker?  The catch that cannot be overlooked?

the facts

Like you, I have been watching the political landscape recently, and I wonder if you have seen the scorched earth, game-changing ideology of one of our political parties.  I refer to the utter disregard—on the part of our president and his party—for the weakest members of our society, for the unborn who cannot speak for themselves. I speak of the abortion regime that is determined to exterminate life under the guise of “reproductive choice.”  I speak also of the party of abortion that has in its platform these words:

[Our party] strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

I speak of our president who, during the second presidential debate bragged four times that his budget included funding for Planned Parenthood, an organization that ends the life of a child every 95 seconds.

the heart of the issue

No doubt some reading this are aghast.  Perhaps you are tempted right now to toss the Community News into the recycling bin, disgusted that Reed has gone political on us.  Santa Barbara Community Church, this is not about politics.  This is not about the size of our government, federal monetary policy, or deficit reduction.  This is about fundamental morality.  Abortion is not one issue among many.  Abortion is not a single issue; it is a singular issue.  Abortion is like the affair Jack’s wife enjoys: this one behavior disqualifies her from being called a good wife.  Similarly, the approval of abortion-as-birth-control involves an unthinkable depravity that ought to make us shudder and cry out for God’s mercy.  This global and national holocaust makes other evils look tame by comparison.  Worldwide, we are slaughtering over 50 million babies a year.  In the United States we are putting to death nearly 1.5 million children a year, and fully one-third of babies conceived are destroyed by abortion.

the grace

Before going on in this essay, we must pause to affirm the greatness of God’s grace for those who have participated in this silent holocaust.  The Scriptures are clear:  Jesus died for sinners, and his forgiveness runs deeper than our guilt and shame.  His blood cleanses us from every stain and wrinkle. The apostle John wrote, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from allunrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  Have you had an abortion?  Have you encouraged another to that end?  Confess and be made clean!

the biblical response

Look again at the statement from the party platform.  It argues for abortion as a means of birth control for any reason or for no reason, and it argues that the state should pay for such abortions if the mother herself cannot afford to.  Notice the words: We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.  Could any statement be more fundamentally opposed to a Christian worldview? 

Those who love God, love what God loves.  God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and life is God’s most fundamental gift.  As Christians, we believe that every human being is created in God’s image.  Every human life has an inherent, God-given sanctity.  Every life deserves the protection of the law and the respect due to all persons.  We do not believe that a person attains his or her rights based on size (small, short people have the same rights as large, tall people).  We do not believe a person is accorded rights because of intelligence (the mentally challenged have the same rights as the intellectual elites).  We do not believe a person attains his or her rights based on the absence of deformities or abnormalities.  On the contrary, we believe all of us are flawed to one degree or another.

the science

Furthermore, we believe that life begins at conception and is, from that moment, precious in the sight of God.  Interestingly, the scientific community is confirming—without resorting to arguments based on theological considerations—that every conceived baby is a human life.  Consider the following from Dr. Jerome Lejeune, professor of fundamental genetics at the Paris School of Medicine:

Life has a very long history but each individual has a very neat beginning, the moment of its conception. The material link is the molecular thread of DNA. In each reproductive cell, this ribbon, roughly one meter long, is cut into pieces, or chromosomes. As soon as the twenty-three paternally derived chromosomes are united through fertilization to the twenty-three maternal ones, the full genetic meeting necessary to express all the inborn qualities of the new individual is gathered and personal constitution takes place. At two months of age, the human being is less than one thumb-length from the head to the rump. He would fit at ease in a nutshell, but everything is there, hands, feet, head, organs, brain. In the fourth week, there is consciousness. All are in place. His heart has been beating for a month by the second month. His fingerprints can be detected, his heart is beating 150 to 170 beats a minute.  To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place, a new human being has come into being, is no longer a matter of taste or opinion.

We also believe that the biblical mandate given to human government is to punish evil and protect those who do good (Romans 13:1-7).  Therefore, it is the responsibility of the church to both pray for those people governing the land (1 Timothy 2:1-2) and, in a free society such as our own, to elect individuals to govern who know and pursue that which is good and right.

the christian’s responsibility

Am I suggesting how you vote?  In a word, yes.  I am not telling you for whom you should vote, but I am suggesting—strongly—that you vote Christianly when you cast your ballot.  I am urging you to take your convictions about God into the public square and into the voting booth. Read what theologian Albert Mohler said about matters of life and abortion:

We are not looking at minor matters of political difference. We are staring into the abyss of comprehensive moral conflict. Christian voters can escape neither the consequences of their vote, nor the fact that our most basic convictions will be revealed in the voting booth come November. Christians cannot face these questions without the knowledge that God is the Giver of life, who made every human life in his image.

The protection and preservation of life is dead center of what we as Christians believe.  African American pastor and writer Tony Evans was asked how he teaches his 9,500-member church to prioritize the most important issues at the ballot box.  His answer was forthright:  I will always start with the right to life.  Because all other rights depend on your ability to live.

another voice for the voiceless

One of the heroes of our time is the WW2 Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  This German pastor boldly spoke out on behalf of those without a voice, and he had the courage to follow his convictions all the way to his untimely death.

Adolf Hitler was oppressing Jews and other non-Aryan people groups, gaining power in Germany, and setting the stage for war in Europe.  Bonhoeffer was appalled that the church was remaining silent in the face of moral evil. But the Führer had promised a degree of religious freedom to the church in return for her uncompromising allegiance to his authority and ascendancy.  In September 1934, Bonhoeffer wrote this in a letter to a friend:

It is also high time we broke with our theologically based restraint towards the state’s actions—which, after all, is only fear.  “Speak out for those who cannot speak”—who in the church today realizes that this is the very least that the Bible requires of us?

Bonhoeffer’s questions should challenge each of us at the very core of our being.  Who will speak out for those who cannot speak?  Who in the church today realizes that this is the very least the Bible requires of us?  God help us.

• Tape a waiting child’s picture to your dashboard and pray for them every time you get into your car. 

• Pray for them in your home group.

2.    Speak up for them.

•Carry a waiting child’s picture and show it to other believers.  Ask if they, or someone they know, would give this child a home.

•Become a court appointed special advocate for a child in foster care. Visit NationalCASA.org for details.

3.    Provide for their needs.

•Give sacrificially to a reputable orphanage. Visit HelpOrphans.org

•Organize a drive in your church to collect school supplies for children in foster care or shoes for orphans overseas. Check out the Soles 4 Souls table after the service.

•In December support Bridges of Hope by buying jewelry and other goods.

4.    Support those who are supporting them.

•Mow the lawn, babysit, or organize meals for a week for foster parents.

•Pray with them and tell them you appreciate what they do.

•Encourage a family adopting an older child by hosting a shower for them.

5.    Protect them from harm.

•Become a foster parent or emergency foster parent. Check out the Angels and Arrow table for more information.

•Raise money to build a children’s home to help to remove children from the streets.

6.    Visit them where they are.

•Go on a mission trip to an orphanage on an ongoing basis.

•Be a part of Kid’s Club or tutor a foster child.

7.    Give sacrificially to them.

•Contribute generously to our Santa Barbara Lifesong Adoption Fund to help an adoptive family to help offset their adoption costs. 

•Make Thanksgiving Bags in your home group and participate in Operation Christmas Child. See the table after the service for more information.

8.    Encourage them to press on.

•Sponsor a child, support them financially, and encourage them through your letters. Visit VisionTrust.org, Compassion.org and Hopechest.org to learn more.

•Become a mentor or tutor a teenager in a foster group-home. Check out the Fighting-Back Mentor Program.

•Help out with Kid’s Club or Royal Family Kids Camp.

9.    Adopt them into your family.

•Give a child a home through international, domestic, or foster care adoption.

•Adopt a young adult who has aged out of the foster care system.

10.  Mobilize your church for them.

Join Community ONE:27 in their efforts to stand for the orphan. Contact Tracy Wilcox at communityone27@gmail.com.

Justin begins, appropriately enough, describing for Huffington Post readers what most people are looking for in sex.  To be specific, this fledgling pastor claims that most of us want sex that is passionate, interesting, refreshing, and frequent—and many folks in their twenties and thirties see marriage as an impediment to all of the above.  He writes this:

Many people (especially men) think marriage is a cage, a cage that prevents you from enjoying this kind of extraordinary sex. This way of thinking makes sense. Marriage (as most would define it) means a lifetime of sex with the same person, so it’s easy to conclude that novelty, variety, adventure, passion, and heat would fade when you’re simply having sex with the same old person for multiple decades. How interesting could such sex really be? “It’s a cage,” the masses seem to cry.

Pastor Buzzard tells of a recent conversation he had with a nonbeliever in his twenties who feared marriage because it would destroy the heat, passion, and frequency of sex.  Well, tell me honestly, Justin asked, how many times in the past year have you had sex?  The young man stewed, stammered a bit, and admitted to three sexual encounters over the previous twelve months of his life.  Now this is where the essay gets interesting.  Buzzard writes:

In a loud and jovial voice I immediately replied, “I have like 100 times more sex than you do in a year! And it’s all with one woman, a woman who loves me and gets better at sex every time we have it. It’s hot sex!”

Let me state, clearly, that Justin Buzzard’s essay was brilliant, especially when we consider where it was published.  He smuggles a little bit of the gospel into an arena that wouldn’t normally be open to a Christian worldview.  After the above quote Buzzard goes on to extol the virtues of marital sex.  He explains that in his nine years of marriage, sex has been both fulfilling and, ahem, hot:

Yes, I’ve been having sex with one woman, the same woman, for nine years. But, on the other hand, I’ve been having sex with a different woman each time.…  The woman I enjoyed sex with on my wedding night still goes by the same name today, but she’s quite different. A lot has changed in nine years. I feel this every week—that I’m a man constantly becoming a new man who shares a bed and everything else with a woman who is a little bit new every morning.

That sounds like love to me.  But what about “hot” sex?  And what about 300 times a year?  Is that what we are after?  When I read Justin’s essay, I fired off a friendly email.  May I quote myself?

One question (rhetorical, just for pondering).  How do we believers talk about and celebrate the gift of sex without capitulating to a worldly (i.e., idolatrous) understanding of sex?  Truth be told, you are not having sex 300 times a year unless you and your wife are very different from the rest of us.  And, truth be told, sex is not always hot. Sometimes, even, it is perfunctory.  Hence the old phrase fulfilling one’s conjugal duty.

My friend wrote back promptly admitting that, in fact, 300 was a bit of a stretch.  It turns out, Justin and his wife are actually like the rest of us….

The point of my question to Justin comes from a concern that when we present a Christian view of sex, we don’t win the battle and lose the war.  It would be quite possible to oversell our position.  By adopting the language of the sexually adventurous (“hot sex”) and making somewhat inflationary claims about our prowess (“300 times a year”), we could be doing a disservice to our Christian view of sex.  After all, it is quite possible to enthrone sex and make it another idol even we believers worship.  And by so doing we would, essentially, be saying, Our worship is better than yours. You worship sex in the temple of promiscuity; we worship the same god in the temple of marriage.

Yes, sexual intercourse is a great gift from God to married people.  The joy of sex is an example of what theologians call common grace.  Sex is a gift for Muslims, Jews, agnostics, and Mormons.  Yet, sex is not God, and we need to be careful to point that out.  Perhaps the most revolutionary thing the New Testament says about sex is that it is something we can live without and still have a meaningful life (see 1 Corinthians 7, for example).

Justin, who encouraged me to write this rejoinder to his blog, ends his piece with the question, I think our world could use a lot more hot monogamous sex. Don’t you?

My answer?  I dunno.  It depends on where the emphasis is in that sentence. After all, the world may pass away for the absence of monogamy.  Yes, that’s what I said: the world may pass away for the absence of monogamy. Fatherlessness, AIDS, abortion, poverty, crime, divorce, and a host of other ills have at least some of their roots in the giving up of monogamy and the pursuit of sex-at-all-costs. What if, however, we demythologized the notion of hot sex?  Would not global warming come to an end?  Wouldn’t many marriages be saved if we dethroned sex and enjoyed it simply for the gift that it is?  Wouldn’t those who are unmarried in the church have an easier time of it if we weren’t touting the frequency of our encounters and the temperature of our lovemaking?

The naked truth is this: sex is both a gift and a mystery.  Make too much of this gift and the delight will be spoiled.  The pursuit of sex has brought untold pleasure—and led to much pain.  Our love for God puts sex in its place: a gift, but not God.

I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, “We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage…” I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is about.

So the grand inquisition began.  The LGBT community immediately called for a boycott of the restaurants even as crowds lined up by the hundreds to express their support for Cathy’s comments by buying a sandwich.  Mayors from Boston to San Francisco declared all things Chick-fil-A unclean and promised to banish the food chain from their fiefdoms. Even the Goleta Architectural Board of Review got into a food fight with the city when several members abstained from voting over a minor change proposed for the Chik-fil-A that is soon to open on upper State Street.  Resignations followed. Wowski!

Yes, July/August are slow months for news, and the timing of Cathy’s radio interview was pregnant with possibility.  But the uproar revealed a truth about our times that is so obvious that it’s easy to miss.  That truth? Simply put, we are experiencing an exceedingly rapid shift in the tectonic moral plates of our society.  Our public sexual mores are changing at a breathtaking rate of speed. 

•  Behaviors that were unmentionable in public discourse when I was in college are staunchly defended by many of our cultural gatekeepers in 2012. 

•  It wasn’t too long ago that same-sex attraction was understood by the American Psychological Association to be a mental illness.  That designation was removed in 1975. 

•  It wasn’t too long ago that anti-sodomy laws were on the books of many states and sometimes enforced.  But in 2002, Lawrence vs. Texas made same-sex practice legal in all states. 

In other words, in our not-too-distant past, certain behaviors were thought to be simply wrong and certain desires were thought to be abnormal.  Moral categories were applied to heterosexual as well as homosexual behavior between consenting adults.  Imagine!  But, as we say, that was then, and this is now…. 

•  Then police were known to raid gay bars.  Now we have a president who has expressed his support of same-sex marriage.

And this rapid rate of change has increased in even the past decade—and especially in the last year.  Consider, for example, what has happened in our military:

•  In 1993 the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy was instituted in the US military.  DADT allowed men and women to serve regardless of their sexual preferences.  The policy was thought to be revolutionary at the time.

•  In September 2011, DADT was repealed, and those with homosexual orientation are now allowed to serve openly in the military.

•  Less than a year later, in June 2012, the Pentagon hosted a Gay Pride Month for members of the military, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta posted a YouTube video praising the repeal of DADT and thanking homosexual members of the military for their service.

•  In July 2012, for the first time—and with the approval of the Defense Department—members of the military wore their uniforms while marching in a gay pride parade in San Diego.

•  Finally, in August, Tammy Smith became the first openly gay general in US history.  About a year earlier Ms. Smith married her partner, Miss Tracy Hepner, in Washington, DC after dating for nine years.  Newspaper writers struggled with what to call Miss Hepner who was honored at the promotion ceremony.  Sometimes Hepner was referred to as General Smith’s wife, and other times she was Smith’s partner.

So, you ask, what is your point, Reed?  Why talk about this in Community News?  The point is that we, as believers, need to think clearly about our Christian convictions and how those convictions run totally counter to our increasingly secularized society.  We need to understand our times and intercede for a culture that is chasing God out of the public square.  To this end I offer three proposals:

1. Let us love all people, regardless of their desires and practices, because all people are created in God’s image.  Let us repent of any homo-hatred we might find in our hearts.  We ourselves need to hear—not just preach—the truth of the gospel: Jesus died for sinners, and we are all among that number.  Were it not for God’s grace, all of us would be hopelessly lost.

2. Let us cherish God’s gift of marriage.  We do this by valuing marriage above individualism and by treasuring our spouse more than our career.  Parents show that they cherish marriage when they love each other until death separates them.  They also show the greatness of matrimony by talking to their children about marriage more often than they talk about what college Junior needs to get in to.  Lisa and I wanted our three children to know that marriage is a covenant capable of moving heaven and earth.  Two people enter into a bond, which gives definitive shape to the rest of their lives.  Therefore we encouraged them from a very early age to prepare for marriage.

3. Let us patiently nudge our society toward celebrating this example of what theologians call common grace. God gave the gift of marriage to all people, to Christians, Muslims, Mormons, and secularists.  Consider, too, that all cultures throughout all history have understood marriage to be about begetting and raising children.  Therefore, marriage was reserved for couples whose body parts fit together by design and who, in all likelihood, would soon produce children.  Hence, marriage has always been a restricted institution. 

In our society, for example, most states prohibit first cousins from marrying.  All states prohibit brothers from marrying their sisters and sons marrying their mothers, etc. And all states prohibit people from marrying more than one person.  In other words, as Adam Kolasinski points out, Homosexuals, therefore, are not the only people to be denied the right to marry the person of their choosing.  What is behind these limitations on whom someone might choose to marry?  Is it not to encourage the bearing of children and provide for their upbringing?  Again, hear what Kolasinski says:

When a state recognizes a marriage, it bestows upon the couple certain benefits which are costly to both the state and other individuals. Collecting a deceased spouse’s social security, claiming an extra tax exemption for a spouse, and having the right to be covered under a spouse’s health insurance policy are just a few examples of the costly benefits associated with marriage. In a sense, a married couple receives a subsidy. Why? Because a marriage between two unrelated heterosexuals is likely to result in a family with children, and propagation of society is a compelling state interest. For this reason, states have, in varying degrees, restricted from marriage couples unlikely to produce children.

Marriage is in trouble in our society, and the Chick-fil-A inquisition is simply the most recent testimony to this tempest.  Sailing through life without a moral compass, we as a culture are lost, and, worse, we don’t even know we are lost.  The church must speak to this sorry state of affairs.  We need to say, lovingly and patiently, that for a thousand reasons it is not a good idea for Mike to marry Mark.  Their union can never be generative, and to pretend otherwise is, well, to pretend.  We Christians need to say, with our lives and with our words, that lifelong heterosexual marriage is a gift worth preserving.  We need to explain to our friends, coworkers, and neighbors that sex is designed for more than personal gratification.  We need to contend, tenderly, that the laws of our land should respect the wisdom of the ages.  May God help us.

It’s been a while since I last read Community News.  About 25 years, I think.   So imagine my surprise yesterday when Katie and Brendan (my wife and son) brought the latest issue here to Boston.  They visited SBCC during a quick tour of potential West Coast colleges, as Brendan, a rising senior, wanted to see Westmont College.  They couldn’t have brought me a nicer gift.

I started at SBCC when the church was a mere handful of wide-eyed twenty somethings, meeting at a restaurant/bar on State Street.  Reed Jolley had dark hair.  Steve Jolley had some hair.  And Krista Jolley was the only child in Sunday School.  Times change. 

The church is now celebrating 33 years.  A third of a century.  Enough time to make a difference for the Kingdom, you would think.  Jesus lived that long.  But how should SBCC evaluate its impact?  What index would God use?  One answer to that question dawned on me as I read the last page of Community News.  It reminded me of the difference between Jonah and Jeremiah.

Jonah was the most successful, if least faithful, prophet ever.  God used him to convert the entire population of Nineveh in just three days.  The flourishing capitol of a vast Assyrian empire, Nineveh was teeming with people hostile to God.  Imagine Billy Graham converting every man, woman and child in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during one short weekend.  That’s the picture.  If successful ministry could be measured in growth and size, Jonah would stand today without peer, the Michael Phelps of Olympic prophets and preachers.  But he was also brash, reluctant, and unreliable.

So I’m not sure SBCC should evaluate its impact by measuring success, impressive though that be.  None of us 33 years ago dared to imagine three services, nineteen staff and dozens of thriving ministries.

Jeremiah was the opposite.  He was the most faithful, if least successful, prophet ever.  For more than thirty years, without evidence of changed lives or fruitful impact, he preached of the justice, love and mercy of God.  He believed the promise of God toward Jerusalem so strongly that he purchased property in the city even as Babylonian warriors camped nearby to sack it, which they eventually did.  Imagine buying stock in Lehman Brothers as Wall Street ticker tapes predicted its imminent bankruptcy.  That’s the picture.  If successful ministry were measured in growth and size, Jeremiah would have been forgotten long ago.  He lost the whole farm.  But he remained constant and faithful for more than three decades.  And God honored that.

Nineveh soon turned from God and fell to ruin, becoming the New Testament model for urban desolation.  Today, it’s a war-torn, God forsaken dust-bowl near Bagdad.  But meanwhile God returned Jerusalem to his people.  He came to live and die there, inaugurating his kingdom on earth as it was in heaven. 

Christians celebrate success.  We love the kind of statistics reported by Jonah in Nineveh.  But God honors faithfulness.  He celebrates the kind of constancy modeled by Jeremiah in Jerusalem.

So here I am reading the last page of Community News, 33 years after starting at SBCC and 25 years after leaving it for other worlds.  What strikes me most is the number of people still at SBCC who remind me of Jeremiah.  Five of the staff profiled (and no doubt others, too) were with us decades ago in that fancy restaurant/bar on State Street:  Bonnie Fearer, Reed Jolley, Steve Jolley, Tricia Popp and Kathy Roberts.

In a community as transient at Santa Barbara, at a time when church hopping is the new normal, when pastors cycle through ministries as quickly as New Yorkers through revolving doors, please do yourself a favor.  Rejoice that God honors faithfulness.  And be thankful for leaders who are more like Jeremiah than Jonah. (I love your photos, Bonnie, Tricia and Kathy: you haven’t aged in 25 years!).  Celebrate the last 33 years, not by measuring success, but by honoring the faithfulness of those who equipped you for it.  And what better way to honor faithfulness than to imitate it.

Every family has a “family historian” – one who remembers the times, places, events, and relationships between different family members.  In some families that historian is more of a statistician, and in others it is a storyteller.  In my family, we have storytellers (which, by the way, can make some of the statistics questionable), and I am thankful for a sense of history and connection to those who precede me by a few generations. My family was the first family (on either side) to ever venture west of the Mississippi.  My mother’s family were farm people, and my father’s family were city (New York City) people.  When we moved from the east coast to California, we put 3,000 miles between us and our regular connection with extended family.  What was lost in that were some of the stories – stories I heard almost every weekend as we spent time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  I remember stories that made us laugh until we had tears rolling down our faces, hearing the retelling of the escapades of our “elders” when they were young, and the things they did that got them in trouble.  Then there were stories that made us hush in reverence, because they were the stories of loss. As a child, these were sacred times.  The mysteries of life – growing up, growing older, facing challenges, and learning to laugh at the end of the day – all of this was passed on through stories. 

Some of the best conversations were in the kitchen, with the women.  Largely by overhearing conversations not intended for me, I got glimpses into the inner sanctum of marriage, parenting, divorce, disappointments, aspirations.  In the conversations that were intended for me, there was advice and encouragement – a view from experienced women about the road ahead.

Titus 2:3-5 instructs older women to be reverent in their behavior so that they may encourage the young women to be loving people, caring for husband, children, friends, to be self-controlled, chaste, kind… so that the word of God may not be discredited.  The role of older women is clear:  Come alongside younger women to encourage, be a role model to, and instruct.  How does this work today?  Most of us don’t work together on farms, quilt, or bake bread together and, in our mobile society, most don’t live within close proximity to extended family.  The ease of natural cross-generational wisdom and instruction has largely disappeared from our cultural landscape.

We are further fragmented by our lifestyles. Ruth Haley Barton, in her book Longing for More: A Woman’s Path to Transformation in Christ, says, …the number of working women has increased so dramatically that the networking that used to occur quite naturally no longer takes place.  The woman who chooses to stay at home full time may find herself the only one home in her neighborhood during the day.  In the meantime, working women find that they are barely holding themselves and their family together, without much energy or time for mutually beneficial relationships.  Ironically, these very differences cause us to need such helping relationships now more than ever. Add to that the fact that we live in a world broken in too many ways to list here.  It all touches our lives, and we need connection with other women to help us live as faithful people.

Well…?  The answer to this dilemma could be simpler than we think.  First, a necessary component to this solution is a recognition that God has given each of us something to offer younger women.  Praise God for the young women in their twenties who serve younger high school women in our youth group!  Women in their thirties and forties have so much to teach those navigating the challenging years of choosing vocation, marriage, children, or what it means to be single and living out our faith.  In other words, women who do not consider themselves “older” are always older to someone who could use some encouragement.  I am in my early fifties.  I need women older than me to help guide me in how to be a consistently loving and godly parent to my college and teenage children.  I need to understand how to face losses, how to be a faithful friend as my friends face losses, and how to love God through seasons that sometimes feel discouraging.  How thankful I am for the perspective of those who are a few steps ahead of me.

Secondly, as we live in this time when women of different generations do not always have natural venues to be together, we need to be intentional in seeking those of a different generation for mutual discipleship.  Did you notice that I did not impose responsibility on one generation to seek the other? Younger women, invite an older woman you respect out for coffee.  Older women, do the same!  Try to get in homegroups or women’s Bible studies where you will be placed with others outside your generation.  Also, notice the intentional use of the word mutual.  Mutual discipleship always occurs when we seek it with humility.  I can say as one who speaks from experience that I spent too much of my younger years desiring self-sufficiency over instruction.  How sad for me!  Simple pride probably kept a lot of wise and godly older women at arm’s length from me because, you see, older women can sense when a younger woman does not want help or input.  I can say that with experience from where I sit now, at this, most recent, season of my life. 

Recognition that God wants to use us in the lives of other women; intentionality to carry that forward; and humility to seek God’s larger purpose of kingdom-building in the process – all of this is a joy-filled adventure that God calls us to as women.

I was able to take a trip back east to visit family last year, and spent some great time with one of my aunts.  She is our family historian, a verbal gallery of stories and life lessons.  This time we talked about growing older, and we talked about faith.  I came home wistful, and missing her presence in my day to day life.  I also came home, with a greater sense than ever, that God puts this wistful desire in all of our hearts because He desires it for us first – so that we may know Him better.  How tender of Him to suggest the encouragement of other women, younger and older, along the way.

Our driver, Dario, pulled the van to the side of the steep hill and brought it to a stop mere feet from a steep drop-off. He told us, Pienso que es buen lugar para sacar una foto (“I think this is a good place to take a photo”). To our right, on the other end of an expansive and lush valley, loomed two volcanoes: Acatenango and Fuego. The previous night’s rain showers had resulted in a morning of clear blue skies and a magnificent view of the two natural wonders. Just above Fuego, a little puff of smoke clung to the peak, betraying the mountain’s hidden power and capacity for chaos. Dario knew of what he spoke; this was, indeed, a good spot for a photo, something we would want to remember forever.

But, it would be hard to identify many places we visited during our time in Guatemala that wouldn’t have been suitable for a photograph. Besides the picturesque Central American landscape, each day brought us into the company of people worthy of a place in our memories, if not our very hearts. From newly empowered Mayan women running a baking co-op with joy and wonder, to clean-water technicians who are bringing hope to desperate places, from tireless construction workers who labor to the point of exhaustion for the sake of blessing others, to dedicated teachers who set a Christian example and broaden students’s horizons, our team of 35 worked along saints with great faith, strength, courage, and vision that humbled, challenged and inspired us.

We were humbled by the graciousness with which our rather overwhelming and regularly inconvenient group was welcomed, accommodated, and cared for. We were challenged by the example of those who have accepted the Gospel’s call to be difference-makers—spiritually, socially, emotionally, and physically—in their own communities and left to consider our own response to the very same call. We were inspired to live lives worthy of the One who adopted us and called us his own.

As we prepared to embark on this experience, we looked at Philippians 2, considered Christ’s example of condescension in order to serve, and thought long about our need to do the same. Yet, in our time in Guatemala, what became abundantly unclear is exactly who was being most served by whom. I am thankful for the reminder that God is not another flimsy North American export in a world so overcrowded with them. No, the sovereign, all-powerful Lord of the nations is deeply at work worldwide in and through flawed people, cultures, and nations in order that his name might receive the praise due it and that people as broken by poverty as we are might see and know his character a little better.

Thank you for your participation in what God is doing in Guatemala. Thank you for making it possible for us to represent Christ and SBCC. Guatemala touched and shaped each of us and left us with a thousand photographs in our hearts. When we think of our time there, we will all think back on people, conversations, moments, places, and, above all, a glimpse of the magnitude and wonder of the God whose glory burns hotter than lava, that we will undoubtedly remember forever.

The plot of Ted is really nothing new.  Ted is just one more on a long list of movies where the male character never grows up and behaves like a confused junior high student.  Wahlberg’s character seems to be most happy just hanging out on the couch with his talking teddy bear Ted, smoking pot and watching old sci-fi TV shows from the ‘80s.  Scene after scene depicts this juvenile behavior.  At one point in the film, an exasperated Lori (Kunis) protests, I need a man, not a little boy with a teddy bear.  The message of the movie, however, seems to be that it is really preferable to stay in adolescence. 

Ted has lots of good company.  Films abound that make us laugh at men who refuse to embrace maturity, work hard to flee from responsibility, tend to think with their genitals, abuse drugs and alcohol, avoid the commitment of marriage, and are so inept that they have a hard time getting through life.  Going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s we need only think of movies like Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes, Dumb & Dumber, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.  More recently films such as Knocked Up, The Hangover, Steve Carell’s The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Will Ferrell in Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Wedding Crashers tell us that the genre is alive and well. 

So why are films like Ted so popular and appealing?  Well, for starters, they are often really funny, even if inappropriately so. Recently, I was asked by a friend what my all-time favorite film was.  Without hesitation, and without thinking, I blurted out, School of Rock (Jack Black).  School of Rock made me laugh. (I also liked the music.)  But the allure of these films is greater than simple humor.  Often times they reinforce stereotypes of male angst and provide a plausibility structure for continued adolescence.

In addition to simply being funny, these films point to a deeper problem in our culture and in the current male psyche. The sociological culprits that feed the material for these films are many.  Currently, there is a larger percentage of 25-34 year old males still living at home with their parents than ever before.  Think of Failure to Launch. It’s one example of a film where this theme is the foundation of the plot.  Yes, the economy is crummy.  Yes, feminism may have emasculated some men.  Sadly, though, it seems that many chronologically adult men prefer perpetual adolescence, subsisting on a steady diet of video games and mom’s cooking. 

Psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus at Stanford University, and Nikita Duncan, artist and psychologist, have written an intriguing article called, The Demise of Guys: How Video Games and Porn Are Ruining a Generation. The article points out that the use of video games and online porn is so damaging that it is creating a generation of risk-adverse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school, and employment.  Essentially, they are unable to grow up and they remain content to hang out on the couch with Ted.

 Zimbardo and Duncan suggest that,

. . . we are in a national, and perhaps global, Guy Disaster Mode that needs to be noticed and solutions advanced to fix a totally novel phenomenon, which will only increase in intensity and breadth without the concerted efforts of educators, gamemakers, parents, guys and gals.  It’s time to press play and get started reversing these trends.

The lure of remaining immature is not only due to a variety of cultural and social factors but may be reinforced by behaviors that rewire the brain, encouraging a man-child lifestyle.  Zimbardo and Duncan continue,

Young men – who play video games and use porn the most – are being digitally rewired in a totally new way that demands constant stimulation. And those delicate, developing brains are being catered to by video games and porn-on-demand, with a click of the mouse, in endless variety.

So what is a young man to do in a culture in which immaturity is all the rage and is replete with sports heroes, political leaders, and rock stars who have an arrested development that stagnates somewhere between Junior High and freshman frat boy?  Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald said at one point, Being a grown-up, mature, is a terribly hard thing to do.  It is easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another. It appears that a large number of young males have decided to do just that and hop from one childhood to another. 

For the Christian man, sitting on the couch with Ted should never be an option. There is a consistent cry in the New Testament for believers to press on to spiritual maturity and grow up into a full relationship with Christ.  (1 Corinthians 3:1-2, 13:11, Ephesians 4:13-14, Colossians 1:28, 2:6, Hebrews 6:1) While spiritual maturity and social maturity are not identical, often there is an overlap between the two.  It is difficult to grow in spiritual maturity while remaining a cultural adolescent.

One of the pernicious contemporary myths that needs debunking is that adolescence is more fun than maturity.  I write as one who loves a good time.  I am an enthusiastic participant in the next volleyball game, backpacking trip, bike ride, or surf trip.  Invite me to a BBQ (I’m a vegetarian so please be sensitive), or for that matter any party, and I am often the first to arrive and the last to leave.  Vacations are sacred and I have enough dreams and plans to keep me busy until I am about 200 years old.  But the greatest joys in my life have been steadily growing in my relationship with Christ, being married to the same wonderful woman for 39 years, raising two daughters, going to work every day, leading a church for 33 years, and mowing the lawn on Saturdays (after a bike ride or surfing).

I am calling Christian men to be just this:  men who grow out of childish behavior and mind sets and press on to spiritual and personal maturity.  Get off the couch and leave Ted to play the video games by himself.  Let me offer a few concrete suggestions.

1.    Be intentional about an adult male mentor-discipler.  Spend time with an adult male who is mature and loves Jesus.  Ask questions.  Imitate him.

2.    Be intentional about getting married.  Yes, marriage can be difficult, but it sure beats eating day old pizza while playing video games with Ted.  Search for a woman (there are lots of them out their) who you can love and built a life and family with.  Learn to be committed to her for the next, 60 or so years.  Find a good woman and you will not be sorry.

3.    Be intentional about making babies.  Yes, you read this correctly.  Children are about the best thing since . . . well a surfing trip to Indo, or hiking the John Muir Trail.  Plus it is a lot of fun trying to make them.  If making babies is a physical difficulty then adopt.  Marriage and children are the best safeguard to keep you from becoming an unalterably selfish old man.  They will make you more like Jesus.

4.    Be intentional in laughing (mocking?) a silly culture that portrays immaturity as attractive.  It is a joke.  Let’s just name it for what it is.

If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint.

Kreider then goes on to describe that this boast/complaint is not necessarily a lifestyle many people want, and yet it has ever increasingly become the modus operandi for many Americans. They just seem to acquiesce to it, because… well… because everybody does.

This article came as a stark contrast to the two weeks I got to spend at Forest Home, taking the High Schoolers to summer camp in the end of June and the 4th grade through Jr. Highers in early July. Our time in the San Bernardino Mountains was an experience of getting to enjoy margin, space, and free time. In fact, it became kind of an inside joke with our leaders as we laughed at how often we heard a Forest Home staffer describe what we were going to do next as “creating space for…”. And yet, laugh as we did, this was exactly what our students needed.

For too long our youth have been caught in the “Busy Trap,” which explains why so many commented on how thankful they were that at camp space was created. They were glad that they were forced to have 40 minutes of solo time, where they had to be alone and quiet, and were encouraged to read their Bible and pray. They were glad that they had to surrender their cell phones (well, to be fair, only some were glad) and were not allowed to text for an entire week. They were glad that they got four hours every day of free time to play, talk, recreate, and to do what ever they wanted. Not all of their activities provided physical rest – but they were all restful.

As adults, many of our regular lives lack any sort of space – created or inadvertent. As Kreider writes, those caught in the busy trap are almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve ‘encouraged’ their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.

Now what we must note is that from all appearances Kreider is a non-Christian secular writer, and therefore lacks the vocabulary of rest in God, Sabbath, and their opposite: idolatry. Yet he is an astute observer of our problem. Did you notice that last line of the quote above? Many of us are addicted to busyness and dread what [we] might have to face in its absence. Ouch! (If it stings, you, too, may be caught.) He goes on:

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.

What Kreider touches on, but is unable to holistically address, is that our own busyness often masks a lack of confidence in God to provide our lives with significance, meaning and worth. When we do not fully grasp how the gospel fills our lives with worth (Christ died for us!), and with meaning (Christ calls us to glorify him), and significance (Christ sends us on mission), well, then we become afraid of the void that might be exposed if we do not keep our plates spinning in our busy lives. (Interestingly, Kreider’s solution is idleness, but this is clearly insufficient to address the deeper problems he identifies).

This is where we need to take a page from places like Forest Home and our experiences like summer camp and the church retreat. Our students crave the space they are given (or forced into) at camp. They come from lives filled with really great “things,” but their lives are full – and not necessarily in a good way. (Don’t misread my emphasis on these things as sarcasm. These “things” are particularly compelling because they are indeed great). So many of our parents have acquiesced to this frantic pace of life, and allowed their students to over-commit because the “things” they are committing to are such great “things.” There is a sentiment that the resulting busyness is unfortunate, but an inescapable by-product of necessary goods. College applications, making the varsity team, the sense of meaning and significance offered through success - all work together to fuel this trap. Our students actually like each of those great “things” in their lives, but at camp they realize they don’t like the cumulative effect of all of them. Camp reminds our students how much they love and prefer the space.

My guess is that we adults are no different. Our schedules demonstrate a similar frantic pace and a plethora of virtuous activities crowd our calendars like a packed elevator. We too need to create space in our lives where we can experience Sabbath rest. The nation of Israel had regular rest written into their social code and laws.  Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath and promises true rest through an acceptance of the Gospel. And we too need to orient our lives in such a way that reflects this; and if necessary, we need to create space.

Filling every sliver of an opening in our planner, trying to squeeze one more 15-minute task or job into our overly crowded day, running non-stop from event to event does not actually give us the meaning, significance, or sense of self-worth that we may be tempted to think it does. Only the gospel of Jesus – and allowing ourselves to have time to meditate on it – can. We need space, we need margin, we need Sabbath rest.

And so Church, I want to encourage us to do the hard work of creating space. Not idleness, as Kreider would suggest, but space for rest, space for Sabbath, space for the Lord of the Sabbath, to remind us of all that we have in the gospel. This may mean saying, “No,” to the next great thing that comes around; this may mean retiring from certain activities that keep us busy; this may mean allowing quiet moments to be left with our own thoughts. And hopefully, like the Psalmist, we will hear God in this space gently say to us, Be still, and know that I am God.

A half-century ago along came a birth control device that could simply be swallowed, and a pregnancy would be prevented.  It was thought that this little pill would liberate women from the slavery of fertility and free them from the shackles of domesticity. Everyone agrees that the Pill, at least in part, helped spawn a sexual revolution during which our mating habits changed dramatically. 

The Pill whispered to us, Sex is fun, harmless, safe, and good! Go ahead!  But today sexually transmitted diseases are epidemic, fatherlessness is rampant, and over 50 percent of all children born to women under the age of thirty in 2012 will be born to unmarried mothers.  Furthermore—and it’s a horrifying consequence of the revolution—the practice of abortion has set the hearts of fathers and mothers against their own children. Eberstadt calls abortion the Pill’s sad backup plan when things don’t go as expected.  As we as a culture became rather numb to the changes wrought by the revolution, abortion became a part of our national conversation.  By the 1970s, abortion had become increasingly acceptable as a means of birth control for large numbers of American women at all socioeconomic levels, so, when pressed, the Supreme Court agreed that the practice should be legalized.

Abortion was marketed, so to speak, as something that could take place in the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy before the fetal tissue had developed into a human being—and, to this day, there are probably people reading this essay who believe that abortion is only allowed in the first trimester of a pregnancy.  When Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were handed down simultaneously by our nation’s highest court, we were led to believe that the practice would become legal and safe but not necessarily common. That was then but this is now, and what a long way we have come in the intervening years. 

First, our language has changed.  In the 1970s and 1980s pro-choice advocates rarely, if ever, referred to that which was aborted as a baby or child.  Fetal tissue, mass, or product of conception were the preferred euphemisms.  With the advance of prenatal technology, however, our vocabulary has, of necessity, changed.  Now we use the word baby.  Think of the very serious public debate carried out on our bumper stickers.  One reads, It’s a baby, not a choice.  The rejoinder bumper sticker doesn’t bother to disagree, it simply says, If you can’t trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?

Second, our collective conscience has been seared.  These almost forty years of virtually unlimited abortion have hardened our hearts toward human life.  We see children as expendable if they don’t suit our fancy.  Consider two examples from just the past few weeks.

On June 19th, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Before Birth, Dad’s ID” by Andrew Pollack.  Appearing on the first page of the business (!) section, this article described a new technology that allows a woman to determine who the father of her baby is in the eighth or ninth week of her pregnancy.  The Times rightly pointed out that this will be a game-changer of sorts.  The article began with the following:

It is an uncomfortable question that, in today’s world, is often asked by expectant mothers who had more than one male partner at the time they became pregnant. Who is the father?

The article then goes on to praise this new, noninvasive procedure:

Besides relieving anxiety, the test results might allow women to terminate a pregnancy if the preferred man is not the father—or to continue it if he is.

Notice the word might:  A woman might terminate a pregnancy based on who the father is?  Perhaps a woman might take this test simply out of curiosity or to relieve her anxiety over who the father might be, but, clearly, terminating a pregnancy that resulted from the wrong sire will be one of the primary purposes of this blood test.  The Times could have and should have had the intellectual honesty to state the obvious.

Another example of the searing of our national conscience has to do with abortions based on the gender of the baby.  It is estimated that since the technology to determine the sex of the child in utero has been available, sex-selected abortions have claimed the lives of an estimated 200 million baby girls worldwide.  You see, for various reasons most parents who want to select the sex of their child want baby boys, not baby girls.  This grisly practice should cause us to shudder.

And it is happening within our own borders.  At least six studies have shown that sex-selection abortions are taking place here in America. In late May, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), which would have prohibited abortions for the purpose of sex selection, was put before the House of Representatives.  PRENDA would have forbidden this heinous crime against children in general and against little girls in particular.  As Arizona representative Trent Franks said on the House floor, PRENDA is needed to prevent this ultimate violence against women.  The White House press office disagreed, issuing a statement saying, The government should not intrude in medical decisions or private family matters in this way.  In the end, what has been called gendercide was protected: the House defeated the bill 246-168.  Abortion can take place because of either who the father is or who the baby is.

So how are Adam and Eve doing after the Pill? Mary Eberstadt has the courage to say, in effect, Not very well.  While this research fellow from Stanford’s Hoover Institution claims that both men and women have suffered from the effects of the sexual revolution, she says that women suffer the greater loss:

It is women who have abortions and get depressed about them, women who are usually left to raise children alone when a man leaves for someone else, women who typically take the biggest financial hit in divorce.

Then there is the sexual doublespeak of the revolution: 

Just look at any …popular “chick” fare like the television series Sex and the City. [They] reveal a wildly contradictory mix of chatter about how wonderful it is that women are now all liberated for sexual fun—and how mysteriously impossible it has become to find a good, steady, committed boyfriend at the same time. It’s as if, say, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were to put out magazines that were half pitches for vegetarianism and half glossy pages of pork and beef and chicken simmering in sumptuous sauces.

Modern Adam and Eves may have suffered greatly from what the Pill has wrought, but we worship One who is sometimes called the second Adam.  The One whose perfect obedience made it possible for us to be born again, to be transferred out of a kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ.  We call upon this One whose love is immeasurable and whose forgiveness is without qualification.  This second Adam, Jesus of Nazareth, died to forgive all our sins and to turn us into something new and glorious.  Our history is not measured by a Pill that was invented fifty years ago, but by the One who came at just the right time (Romans 5:6) and died for our sins.

We are living in an unusual time in the history of the Christian church and religious affiliations in general.  More and more people, especially young people, are turning away from any type of organized religion.  Since 1990, the percentage of people in the United States who say they have no religious affiliation has doubled, to somewhere around 16% of the population.  In tandem with this movement has been the rise of Christian believers who profess to love Jesus but not his church.  In the process, church gets dumbed down and redefined as a few like-minded friends sipping a latté or a caramel macchiato and having an honest discussion about their doubts.

Some social scientists have dubbed these non-joiners the NONES.  They may be enamored of Jesus or some sort of vague spirituality, but they tend to be either dismissive or outright disdainful of anything that smacks of organization, belonging, structure, or church.  For those of us who love both Jesus and the church, which he died to establish, we must ask why?  The reasons for the rise of the NONES are varied and not easily identified. The NONES’ disenchantment with the church seems to stem from a combination of real recent events and cultural mentalities that fuel their disdain for all things ecclesiastical.

For example, the growing sex abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic church has helped to fuel cynicism within younger Protestants, as well.  And, evangelicals have not been left unscathed by their own scandal.  When it was revealed that Ted Haggard, mega-church pastor, author, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and family man had consistently led a double life that included soliciting male prostitutes and drug use, the NONES nodded their heads knowingly and headed for the doors.  The NONES will not tolerate hypocrisy.  At least in others.

The NONES have a difficult time with confessional Christianity that appears to them as overly dogmatic, rigid, and judgmental. While the NONES claim they don’t have any problem with God, they will often balk at statements that define the character and actions of this God in a manner that would thwart their theological freedom.  Churches have walls that define God (the Bible and the creeds). Preachers in churches talk about right and wrong (according to Jesus), and tell us what we must do to be saved.  For those who want the freedom to fly and meander in the spiritual sky of autonomy, actually landing and affirming definitive doctrinal propositions is akin to prison, which is equated with the church. 

For many of the Christian NONES, evangelical church life appears to be a synonym for voting Republican and hating the gay community.  Their logic often being, Since I don’t vote Republican or hate the gay community, there is no place for me in the church.  So the NONES tend to create very small communities, little churches, of like-minded people who share a similar place in life.  They, however, refuse to be called, and take the responsibility of being, the church.  For example, one group named itself, Not Church.  Ironically, the title betrays them.

Probably the loudest complaint of the NONES is the charge that the church is not authentic, and is usually phony, shallow, sinful, and disingenuous.  The NONES can be like self-appointed blood hounds, sniffing in the pews for the hypocritical believer.  The hunt never takes long. Ironically, the critique of lacking authenticity, while often times very true, is in the end self-defeating.  Pastor Kevin DeYoung comments: 

But the church will be full of sin so long as she is full of sinners-which is kind of the point I thought.  It’s more than a little ironic that the same folks [NONES] who want to ditch the phoney, plastic persona and become a haven for broken, imperfect sinners are ready to leave the church when she is broken, imperfect, and sinful. 

As anyone who has been a part of any local church knows, some of the church’s bad press is deserved.  And, some of it is not.  Unfortunately, the NONES often come perilously close to becoming perennial cynics and in the process miss out on what God has planned to be the primary institution for spiritual growth and mission in the world  (Ephesians 3:7-13).  Sadly, the NONES, untethered to the church, end up missing out on the deep spiritual richness that is found only in the local church.

NONES miss out on being a part of a worshipping community that is bigger than a few socially and culturally like-minded friends.  If your only spiritual connection is with a handful of people who are roughly the same age, like the same music, vote the same way, and are all somewhat miffed at the church, you end up with a very narrow understanding of God’s people.  In the process, your own soul will become impoverished.  Learning to worship and serve alongside people who are in many ways different from you but with whom you share faith in Christ will increase your humility and in the end, make you more like Jesus. 

NONES miss out on the joy and wonder of staking one’s life on definitive doctrinal propositions derived from the Bible.  Some NONES have been so put off by churches that dogmatically pontificate about theological minutiae that they have rejected any statements or formulations of truth.  Like a boat free from its moorings, all seems well until the tides shift and the winds come up.  NONES miss out on the security and drama that comes with believing certain truths about the faith. It was novelist Dorothy Sayers who reminded Christians that, the dogma is the drama.

NONES miss out on belonging.  A generation of non-joiners have left the church for the coffee house or flitted casually from church to church never really settling down to consistently live the life of the Kingdom with other committed members of a local body.  The late Charles Colson pointed out that,

Church isn’t something to be endured, it is something to be entered into joyfully.  Maybe you don’t like the sermons, or maybe the music bothered you one Sunday, but those are trivial compared to the very act of committing yourself to being part of the body of Christ, and participating fully. 

It is like the difference between dating for a few weeks and a forty-year marriage.  Long-term commitment (ownership, belonging, membership) to a particular local church will pay tremendous spiritual dividends that the casual or occasional church-goer will never realize.

The NONES, though, miss out on so much more than merely belonging.  They miss out on the fullness of the Body of Christ.  Hang out with a group of people quite similar to yourself and you will miss out on loving the old guy whose hearing aid has feed-back during the worship service and can’t hear it.  The NONES miss out on caring for the young mother who recently became a widow.  They will miss the wisdom of men in their ninth decade of life and the optimism of a thirty-one year old who is just getting started in his career.  The NONES don’t get to see and enjoy the challenge of educating toddlers in the things of Jesus.  They don’t experience the joy of compromise or the sweetness of seeing the elderly maintain their faithfulness in the final days of life.  They will miss the refining influence of worshipping alongside someone who votes and holds political views diametrically opposed to theirs. The NONES mistake a part for the whole and settle for too little rather than too much.

If you are reading this article you are most likely not a NONE.  Good for you!  But our privilege is to love the local church, imperfections and all, and spread the word to the NONES, that this is the same church for which Christ died (Acts 20:28).  It is the same church upon which Jesus said he would build his Kingdom (Matthew 16:18).  The New Testament could not be clearer that God’s wisdom and power would be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through the church (Ephesians 3:10).  We have letter after letter in the New Testament written not to a few disgruntled friends, but to local churches full of irregular, sinful, and, at times, hypocritical people.  SBCC, let’s gently and lovingly invite the NONES back home.

Regrettably, many our of students seem to view this time in the service as punitive rather than formative, as something to be endured rather than something to be embraced. I want to humbly suggest three ways that students and parents can gain more out of the opportunity for increased participation in the services.

First, expect to learn something. In Junior College, I re-took Spanish 1 and 2, even though I had taken three years of Spanish in High School. I did that because they would be easy credits and I wouldn’t have to re-learn much. And, guess what? I didn’t re-learn much, nor did I really enjoy the classes. Coming to Scripture is a wholly opposite endeavor.

Because God’s character is so rich and beyond us, there is always something to be learned of him. Each time we gather, we are pursuing the God of the universe who—though he dwells in mystery—has chosen to reveal himself to us in the Scriptures and in his Son. How could we not learn something?! Students, come expectantly, knowing that there is always more of God for you to encounter.

Second, look for the central point. I refuse to believe that students who can read something and track with the main point of what they’ve read—whether it be a comic book, a chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, or a selection from Homer’s Odyssey—cannot also sit through a 35-minute sermon and “get something out of it.” The two require very similar skill sets.

Just like reading a piece of literature, when listening to a sermon, look for the central point. At the end of a sermon, you should be able to give a recap of what it was about in one or two sentences. A good sermon will be about one thing. There may be subpoints, but the sermon is really about one thing. Put your best detective’s skills to use and find that one thing.

And, don’t let the subpoints distract you from the quest. Instead, as the sermon unfolds, listen for how each subpoint or story contributes to the central point. It may actually help you to jot down key phrases, sentences or Scriptures as the sermon goes along. You wouldn’t want to reach the end of a 2-hour movie and realize you didn’t pay close enough attention to know what it was about. The same holds true on Sundays. Come ready to find the central point.

Finally, be willing to marvel. I think we have a serious lack of wonder in our culture. We are hard to impress. But, the fact that the almighty, holy, perfect, just, compassionate, merciful, sovereign, eternal God of the universe has chosen to reveal himself to finite, sinful, rebellious, prideful, idolatrous people like you and me should cause us to shake our heads in wonder. And, if nothing else, come to church to marvel at such a God and to thank him for such grace. The grace of revealing himself in the Bible so that we could know him. The grace of saving wayward rebels and making them his children. The grace of putting us into a family of believers that encourages and challenges us.

Maybe we could all use a little dose of wonder. And, with it, we just might find that the Scriptures come alive in ways we couldn’t have dreamed. That sermons take on shades and character that we never before noticed. And that the gathering of the family of God is something we wouldn’t dare miss because we can’t imagine anything else that we could possibly “get more out of.”

I’m excited to see the ways in which God uses this summer in the lives of our students. We have a full calendar of camps, Youth Group, and various activities, and I hope he works in mighty ways through each of those things. I know, though, that he works through the gathered family of God coming on Sundays to attend to his Word, and—this summer even more often than during the school year—our students get to benefit from that gathering. So, let’s come ready to meet our big God each Sunday as we gather in “big church.”

The warnings were sent, but the Titanic’s radio operators were mainly bothered that their work of sending passengers’ messages to shore was interrupted.  The warnings were ignored, and at 11:40 p.m. the Titanic struck ice, its hull was ripped open, and the unsinkable ocean liner began her descent to the bottom of the sea.  In those frigid waters off Nova Scotia, 1,514 people lost their lives!

I’ve been a little bit caught up in the romance of the Titanic this month.  I have found myself reading the various essays and articles in the newspapers.  I have even toyed with the idea of seeing Kate and Leonardo sink once again but this time in glorious 3D. (I thought better of it when I realized the headache I’d get from wearing those glasses for over three hours in a darkened theater.)

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic got me thinking about icebergs and the church – icebergs that lie below the surface of church life and threaten to destroy what God has created.  What are those unseen blocks of ice that endanger our very existence as a community of God’s people?

First, there is the iceberg of pride, church pride.  The sinking of the Titanic is an inglorious illustration of Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  The Titanic sailed her maiden voyage at the height of what is sometimes called Edwardian Triumphalism, the notion that with technological advances, we could pretty much conquer the world. There is a scene in the movie when a British aristocrat prepares to board the ship, stops to gaze at its size and strength, and says, “Even God himself couldn’t sink her.”  But pride goes before destruction… especially in the church. 

SBCC, we are enjoying good days as a church.  Frequently I am politely accosted on the streets of Santa Barbara only to have someone say, I hear that great things are going on at SBCC or some such compliment. It is true.  Great things are going on in our congregation.  People are coming to know Jesus, disciples are being made, friendships are being forged, Christian missions are being advanced, and God is being worshiped. As one of your pastors, I am deeply thankful for all of this and more.  And I hope you are thankful for the good things God is doing in and among us.  I trust you praise him for the good times we are enjoying.  Yes, we are highly imperfect as a church; our list of failures and shortcomings is long. Nevertheless, God is among us. I hope you know this truth, enjoy this reality, and cherish God more because of it!

But, SBCC, let us not be proud.  Let us not think for a nanosecond that we are a strong church.  All of the vitality, all of the ministry of SBCC, can and will vanish in a heartbeat when we give in to the sin of ecclesiastical pride.  Is SBCC unsinkable?  Far from it.  Everything we enjoy could vanish in a fortnight.  When we find ourselves thinking we know what we’re doing, when we say in our hearts, Well, we have this “church thing” down pretty good. . . In fact, we’re quite a bit better than those other churches down the street…  When we find these attitudes in our hearts, the end will not be far off.  God’s blessing will be removed, and we will become little more than a religious club.

Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked (Revelation 3:17).  Santa Barbara Community Church, know this: we are a poor, blind, naked, pitiable church.  Were it not for God’s grace and mercy, we would devour one another and forsake God himself.  It is because of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.

Second, there is the iceberg of indifference.  God calls his bride to holiness and purity.  Jesus calls the entire church to keep watch over the entire church (Matthew 18:15ff).  We are our brother’s keeper!  We are responsible for pointing one another toward the holiness of God!  The church is to be a tightly-knit company of disciples committed to Jesus Christ.  But, as a church grows older chronologically and larger numerically, there is the increasing temptation to sail too close to the iceberg of tolerant indifference.  Because of our size or our age, we can be tempted to either let things go or simply go with the flow.  Well, that’s just the way she is…  He always struggles with that sin…  We can be doing missions and making disciples even as we overlook holiness. 

I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:19-20)

Jesus calls his church to holiness.  When we begin to tolerate sin in our own lives or in the life of our congregation, a fissure will be torn in our church’s hull, water will come gushing in, and it will not be long before we will need to abandon ship.

Third, there is the iceberg of worldly-preoccupation.  Perhaps this is the iceberg that ought to frighten us most.  The Titanic was a floating world.  The ship had a daily newspaper called The Atlantic Daily Bulletin.  It included news, stock prices, horse racing results, a society column, and the day’s menu.  When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the people went about their business.  Some were gambling, others were occupied in their conversations, and many were sleeping.  Most passengers just kept doing whatever they were already doing.  The passengers were preoccupied, simply too busy to stay alert. They were unaware that this night would be their last.  Doesn’t Jesus warn the church of the iceberg of worldly preoccupation?  In his very last sermon, Jesus warns of our obsession with the present and our lack of focus on the coming judgment of God:

Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. (Luke 21:34-35)

Members of SBCC, have you enjoyed reading about the Titanic this past month as I have?  The stories have taken us back in time and allowed us to visit with people long dead.  We have caught a glimpse of what life was like early in the 19th century.  But let us put this centennial anniversary to work.  Let the sinking of the Titanic serve as a warning to us.  To be sure, we can and should enjoy the gift of the church, the gift of one another in community as we serve the King of kings and Lord of lords.  But let us be on the lookout for those icebergs that barely rise above the surface and yet threaten to destroy the good gift of God.

Agencies at the beginning of an adoption process will use the metaphor of an adoption journey as a roller coaster ride. They are many ups and many downs.  They didn’t tell us how hard the down times would be and how long the valleys would last.   Our wait for our much-anticipated, precious daughter from China stretched on from 8-12 months into years.

During this long wait there were also several significant and amazing peaks in our roller coaster ride as well.  God changed the direction of our adoption from China to Ethiopia, and we launched an adoption ministry at our church:  Community ONE:27.  Our fourth biological child, our son Zachary, was born in May of 2008 and we became a family of six!

In October of 2008, after idling on the wait list in China for two years, I had completely had it with God’s “timing” and told him so.  I had reached the end of my rope.  He answered me in a surprising and sweet way.  He gave me a vision while I was praying.  The vision was a little girl in my husband’s arms who reached out to me and said, “Mommy.”  This little girl was an African girl with curly, cute ponytails.

As I tried to understand what this vision might mean, I grasped two possibilities. The first was to spur us on in our passion to raise awareness of the vast number of orphans in the world. This number is staggering and our adoption would only help one child out of millions.  We needed to do more.  What came out of this is Community ONE:27.  Community ONE:27 is dedicated to helping spread awareness and mobilizing our church body to care for the vulnerable children in our world.  Secondly, God wanted us to adopt from a different country.  The switch of countries was easy since our agency in January of 2009 announced they were launching a new adoption program in Ethiopia.  We completed a new set of paperwork, submitted it to the proper agencies, and in November of 2010 we were placed on the wait list.  We had also decided during this time that we were willing to take a referral for two children, siblings or non-related (because why not go to a family of eight, once we were already at six?!).

On December 2, 2011, we received the call informing us we had been matched with two children.  Our new daughter is three years old and her name is Maleka Nazareth Wilcox and our son is Geb James Wilcox and he is five years old.  Our children are not biologically related. At the end of February, we traveled to Ethiopia to meet our children and attend Ethiopian court to officially make them our children. We are now a family of eight.  We are currently waiting for the US Embassy in Addis Ababa (capitol of Ethiopia) to clear our case and issue our children American visas.  We are hoping they will be home at the beginning of May. 

The most difficult challenge for international adoption is the cost.  Our adoption has cost over $40,000 to complete since we are adopting two children at one time.  Typical adoptions cost between $25,000-30,000.  The costs include: agency fees, dossier fees, notary fees, traveling, Embassy costs, court costs and medical fees.  We have been so thankful for our church body which has provided us with gifts of money to be able to afford this adoption.  Our church has set up a Lifesong account for all potentially adoptive families, which helps fund adoptions in our church through tax-deductible donations.  We have received $2500 from this account to help defray our costs. Andy and Sara Ribbens also received funds to help them finalize their adoption of Nya and Bauer from Uganda. Our Lifesong account has officially helped four children find forever families. In the Sunday school classes, 1st-4th grade children were given a calendar for Lent to help raise funds for this Lifesong account.  The money collected will go to a family in our church who is choosing to adopt to help them with the related financial burden.  Thank you so much to Tricia Popp for the wonderful Lent calendars and to all the children and parents who are participating in this project.  We as a church are helping orphans find forever families.

To learn more about our adoption you can follow our blog at www.the wilcoxfamilyblog.blogspot.com. 

Spending time with the neighbors in Santa Teresita, watching the boys play with kids who live in dire material poverty with no preconceived judgments from either side, working alongside wonderful Argentines, sharing and serving mate, being part of a healthy Argentine church, hanging out with Leti and her family and neighbors in Las Bajadas, helping college-aged students with their English and sharing Jesus with them, discovering the fun and diversity that comes with making new friends in a different culture, seeing God’s faithfulness to us on a daily basis... these are some of our favorite things of the past 2 years.

God has used this experience to mold and shape us and hopefully make us more like Him.  We recognize that we come from a culture where time is money, bigger is better, and numbers matter.  However, we’ve realized that is not always God’s way.  One of the lessons we’ve learned is that investing in one life – one life – is so important.  Time is not always equal to money.  Bigger is not always better.  And numbers, even for accountants like us, are not the main things that matter.

It is our job to obey.  God does the work.  And if, through us, He makes a difference in one life or 100, we want to choose to obey and it is a privilege to be used by Him.  We worked hard to make it work in Argentina.  We have sought out projects and offered our time and yet have had more doors closed than opened.  We definitely didn’t see a bright, neon, God-powered light in the sky that said, Return to Santa Barbara, but we have felt a sense of release and a freedom to return, that we had not felt previously. 

In February, we began to see the writing on the wall: our projects had a natural ending in sight, we could hand off our parts to locals, and we simply could not imagine attempting to get other projects going.  Again.

In coming to Argentina, we responded to God’s invitation.  In returning, we do the same.  On May 31st, when we get on the plane to make the 15-hour flight home, there will be tears.  We have made a life here and life-long friends.  There will also be tears of joy when the plane lands in our home country and we are welcomed back with open arms. 

Thank you for your willingness to walk alongside us in these discoveries and service.  Words simply cannot express how grateful we are for your friendship and faithful support.  And we cannot wait to tell you that in person in June.

I believe that the preaching of the Word of God changes the world.  I believe individuals, neighborhoods, cities and nations are changed by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  For in preaching the good news of Jesus Christ (which is ultimately what any biblical text preaches), it turns out that we are participating with the living God in God’s ongoing transformation of the world.  –Darrell Johnson, The Glory of Preaching

Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible makes much of the activity called preaching? 

Isaiah was a preacher, as were Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and a host of other Old Testament voices.  When John the Baptist shows up, he is preaching (Matthew 3:1).  Jesus claims at the outset that he was sent to preach (Luke 4:18-19), and eventually he sent his disciples out to do the same (Luke 9:2). Look at the early church and you find a high priority placed on preaching.  Paul sees his very conversion as a call to preach the gospel to the nations (Galatians 1:16).  And later in his life, the apostle passes the mantle to his young friend Timothy, exhorting him to preach the Word in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2).

And now, twenty centuries later, preaching is still a world-shaping, disciple-making, soul-changing, and church-driving gift from God to his people.  A healthy church is built on its preaching, on the steady and systematic proclamation of God’s Word.  It is really quite shocking if you think about it.  With all of our technology, with our dazzling media, with the colors and sights and sounds available to us, thousands upon thousands of believers nevertheless gather each Sunday and sit still and listen.  Why?

Something happens in preaching that happens nowhere else.  Again from Darrell Johnson, When we preach, when we dare to say again what the living God says, the Word and Spirit make something happen.  The going forth of the Word and the breathing by the Spirit are God coming to make something happen, to make salvation happen.  Preaching is to the church what ballast is to a sailboat.  A sailboat goes forward and doesn’t tip over because as the wind fills its sails, the sails are counterbalanced by a lot of weight in the hull.  Churches move forward into the world, into mission, into compassion ministry, and into a thousand other activities, in large part because these activities of the church are driven by the ballast of preaching!

Last month, I went to Ethiopia and taught a class to several seminary professors on the how-to’s of biblical preaching.  Somewhere on the flight home, I found myself thinking, If my class was about the art of preaching, what about the art of listening? Since there is a gift of preaching, does it not follow that there is a gift of listening?  If preaching is so important biblically and historically, how then should we listen?  I offer the following:

Come prepared.  Probably the best way to listen to a sermon, to receive from it what God has for you in it, is to come prepared.  And, to be deliberately redundant, coming prepared requires some preparation.  It means getting a good night’s rest before the early service; it means not coming frantic and frazzled to whichever service we attend.  If we try to squeeze in a run to Costco or are fighting traffic on the way back from Camarillo before we come to the afternoon service, we are in no position to really hear what God has to say to us through his Word.  It is difficult to hear God speak when you come to worship fatigued, famished, and frenzied.  Hearing God’s voice when his Word is proclaimed usually requires the three Rs of preparation: rest, read, and request.  Show up having rested on God’s Sabbath.  Read the passage several times and meditate upon it.  And request that God speak to you through the preacher.  Ask that he will use this ancient medium to incline your heart toward him.

Bring and open your Bible.  And bring a Bible made out of paper.  The Bible is God’s Word to us and for us.  Bring your Bible, look up the cross references, circle important words, jot a note or two in the margins.

Listen like a Berean.  On Paul’s second missionary journey, he was chased out of Thessalonica.  His next stop was Berea, and, as was his habit, he continued to preach the gospel.  The author of Acts tells us that the Bereans received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (20:11).  In other words, they tested the words of Paul against the rest of the Scriptures.  The Bereans were critical thinkers, and they were commended for their circumspection.  They wanted to make sure that what Paul said was consistent with what the rest of the Bible said, and so should we when we listen to preaching and preachers.  That’s why our Bible needs to be open along with our mind.

Listen like a child.  Jesus said that to get into the kingdom of God, we have to be like little children (Matthew 18:4).  If you think about it, children ask lots of questions.  They are, indeed, little Bereans.  What separates children from so-called grown-ups is not that children don’t ask questions, but that they accept the answers.  There is a receptivity in children that Jesus commends.  When we hear the preaching of God’s Word, we need to listen receptively, asking, God, what do you want to say to me in this moment?

Take note, not notes.  If you listen better by jotting things down, fair enough: take notes.  When I listen to Steve or one of our other preachers open God’s Word, I always take notes. At all three services I take notes!  And then I promptly throw them away.  A sermon is not to be a lecture, and I am not to listen like a student.  But I am to take note of what God said:  What is God saying to me?  How will I employ and apply what God says to me?  This is what it means to take note.

Test your listening.  The Scriptures are full of passages that speak of God’s Word going forth and not coming back void.  God promises us, for example, that his Word will accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11).  But this accomplishment must pass through the doors of a soft heart, a receptive spirit, an alert mind, and an eager soul.  The test of our listening is found in our living.  Are we hearers of the Word only? Or are we doers of God’s will as revealed in his Word?

Scottish preacher James Stewart pondered the benefits of godly preaching.  He concluded that such preaching aims to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.  May it be so in our church and in our lives.

A central tenant of SBCC has been what we have referred to as the priesthood of the believer or every member ministry.  These two terms, which we use synonymously, reflect a crucial teaching of the Bible that cuts to the core of our belief, practice and spiritual self-image.  To understand the problem, we need to review some church history.

The early church began as a band of brothers and sisters set free to function as the ministers of this new community. The ministries of evangelism, service to the poor, spiritual encouragement, confession, discipleship, prayer, mission, teaching, etc., were performeded by average believers who knew they were empowered and gifted by the Holy Spirit for these areas of service. Unfortunately, through a long and rather complex series of events and a certain mindset, what began, as a beautiful new community where every member of the church understood himself or herself to be a minister, morphed into an unbiblical hierarchal structure that robbed God’s people of their priestly identity.  By the 16th century, this drift toward a divisive distinction between the clergy and laity, the priest and common believer, the spiritual professional and the lowly amateur Christian, had created such a gulf that the Biblical teaching that all Christians are ministers was largely lost. It was the 16th century Protestant Reformation that began to salvage the authority of the Bible and the identity of God’s people. 

It was the iconoclastic Augustinian monk Martin Luther who began to upset the religious status quo.  Luther’s rediscovery of biblical teaching on the priesthood of every believer was explosive.  Luther plainly stated, Everyone who has been baptized may claim that he already has been consecrated a priest, bishop or pope.  (Luther was not a friend of the Pope or of church hierarchy!)  He went on to assert, Let everyone, therefore, who knows himself to be a Christian be assured of this, and apply it himself—that we are all priests, and there is no difference between us.

The application of the every member ministry was twofold.  First, all believers have direct access to God.  It is in the Protestant air we breathe that Christians do not need a human mediator to plead our case before God.  Jesus is our high priest and has opened the way to God by presenting himself as a sacrifice for our sin.  As Greg Ogden puts it, We are all drawn into the priesthood in that we represent ourselves before God through one intermediary, Jesus Christ.  (Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministry to the People of God, p. 18)  Second, the priesthood of all believers means that we are also priests and ministers to each other in the church and in the world.  In other words, it is the average believer such as, the homemaker, the business person, those in sales, in construction, school teachers, and mechanics who have gifts and a calling from God to function as ministers.

One of the key New Testament passages that point to an every member ministry is Ephesians 4:11-12.  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service (ministry), so that the body of Christ may be built up.  The apostle Paul is saying that works of ministry or service are to be done by all of God’s people who are the church.  (The Greek word translated service is derived from diakonia, which is also translated ministry)  The apostle Peter refers to all Christians as a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5) and a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) who have both the right and the responsibility to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).  Paul’s first letter to the believers at Corinth affirms to this immature church that they are in fact all saints who are gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit to minister in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12).

The New Testament teaching that all Christians are ministers is both comforting and demanding.  It is comforting in that the believer can be confident of his or her new identity, calling, and giftedness to actually function in the church in a life-changing way.  Once the believer understands that he doesn’t have to go to seminary, or have a title, to serve Jesus there is a true liberation.  On the other hand this teaching can be demanding, even troublesome.  Many of us would prefer to just go to church and leave the work of ministry to others, or even to the paid pastoral staff. Going to church happens when we reduce the Christian life toan hour and a half of Christianity on Sunday morning or afternoon. We can sing a few songs, hear a palatable sermon, pray a little, take the Lord’s Supper, chat on the patio with a cup of coffee and then go home and on to real life.  Repeat this religious ritual next Sunday.  Here is the wonderful and uncomfortable truth.  The health of SBCC is contingent on its members understanding and functioning as ministers.  To the extent that our church understands and lives out this delightful reality, SBCC will be a healthy growing body of believers.  The day we forget who we are and give up on this life-changing truth, we will fade into religious institutionalism. 

Practically speaking, what does the priesthood of every believer, every member ministry mean?  Quite simply it means that each one of us are Holy Spirit-gifted and empowered to evangelize our next door neighbor, teach the Bible to your co-worker, work with a Young Life club or Alpha group, visit our fellow believer in the hospital bringing comfort and prayer, hear the confessions of a fellow sinner, lead a Homegroup (or any other small group), disciple a fellow believer, direct the church in worship, start a prayer group, begin a ministry outreach to your neighborhood, mentor someone at the Rescue Mission, and a hundred and one other ministry ideas that I don’t have space to list.  Why can you do all this?  Because you are a minister!

It is important to mention what every member ministry does not mean.  It does not mean that all believers are gifted in the same way.  It does not mean that everyone is called to the same ministries.  There are a variety of callings and giftedness. 

Every member ministry does not mean that all Christians are pastors.  It was Elton Trueblood, a champion of every member ministry, who pointed out this fallacy: 

There is always the temptation to suppose that the early Christian emphasis required then or requires now a denial of difference of function.  Why not say that all Christians are supposed to be ministers and leave it at that?  Why not deny the need of pastors at all?  The earliest Christians were far too realistic to fall into this trap, because they saw that, if the ideal of universal ministry is to be approximated at all, there must be some people who are working at the job of bringing this highly desirable result to pass.  The office of pastor is for those, who possess the peculiar gift of being able to help other men and women to practice the ministry to which they are called. (The Incendiary Fellowship, p. 40)

There is a crucial question every believer must ask. Who am I?  How do you see yourself actually functioning in the church and in the world? Do you see yourself as a second-class citizen in the church, waiting for others to take care of the business of the kingdom of God?  Or do you see yourself as a vital member of church living out your new calling as a minister?  The extent to which the priesthood of the believer has teeth at SBCC will be dependent on how you answer these questions.

This wonderful and liberating New Testament teaching is dependent on each believer understanding his or her spiritual identity.  Greg Ogden suggests that when Christians get a firm grasp on their priestly calling as ministers it will result in a new Reformation.  The New Reformation seeks nothing less than the radical transformation of the self-perception of all believers so that we see ourselves as vital channels through whom God mediates his life to other members of the body of Christ and to the world.  (Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministry to the People of God, p. 18)  So I ask each member of SBCC:  Do you know who you are?

First came recreational sex.  With the advent of the birth control pill in 1960, women could now—the argument went—enjoy sex without the threat of conception. The pill was thought to be a savior to women weighed down and held back by the burden of childrearing.  Sex was set free from the shackles of pregnancy.  But these same women were betrayed with a kiss.  Men enjoyed, so to speak, a free ride from responsibility.  They began to marry later, if at all.  Sexually transmitted diseases increased exponentially after the advent of the pill, and many of these diseases led to infertility.  Women have, in fact, borne fewer children since the advent of the pill (3.6 in 1960 vs. about 2.1 today), and their chances of getting married have declined substantially.

The recent book Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think About Marrying shows that there is a whole lotta matin’ going on among today’s college-aged men and women—and it also shows the sheets are not always made of satin!  Sociologists Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker claim that three-fourths of 18- to 23-year-old women are in some kind of relationship, and 94 percent of those are sexually involved with their partner.  But as one reviewer noted, while love and marriage no longer go together, promiscuity and depression do. The authors’ research revealed that a hook-up culture is particularly consequential for women.  Young women who have multiple “sexual partners are eleven times more likely than virgins to report elevated depression symptoms.”  Furthermore, Regnerus and Uecker see a link between premarital sexual activity and a decline in marriage.

The second strand of the cord came with Roe v. Wade. Pill or no pill, sex tends to make babies, and many women found themselves with unexpected pregnancies. The pill was intended to prevent pregnancy, but it gave birth to the abortion industry as a culture of promiscuity came to be. Between 1960 and 1972, abortion rates skyrocketed in the United States.  Then came Roe v. Wade.  The 1973 Supreme Court found a right to privacy in the Constitution and allowed abortion during a woman’s first trimester.  Then Doe v. Bolton, another court decision handed down simultaneously with Roe, gave women unrestricted abortion rights until the baby was born.  Essentially, the Supreme Court outlawed laws against abortion.  The numbers are staggering.  About one-third of all pregnancies in America end with an abortion, and American women have had over 50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade.  Like the pill, this court decision is replete with irony. Specifically, Roe was intended to settle the issue of abortion in the United States, but we have been fighting about it ever since.

In recent years, pro-life advocates have employed an incremental, step-by-step strategy in seeking to overturn Roe.  As a result of that strategy, 37 states now have on their books fetal homicide laws that treat the unborn as full human beings.  This means, for example, if a drunk driver swerves into another car and kills a pregnant mother and her baby, he will be charged with two homicides, not one.  Ironically, that same mother could have, by law, been driving to an abortion clinic to terminate the life of her child.

Consider how much Roe has muddied our logic and confused our thinking. For example, on Sunday, January 22, 2012, the Santa Barbara News-Press ran an editorial by Richard Solomon and Christine Lyon to commemorate the 39th anniversary of Roe.  Early on, these authors did some handwringing over Republican presidential candidates who might seek to overturn Roe.  Why does this matter? The authors say this:

It matters because government simply has no business interfering with the intensely personal decision of how to respond to a pregnancy.

So abortion is a personal decision, but notice what Solomon and Lyon say next:

For millions of women, the embryo and then fetus is a baby, and abortion is not an option.  For millions of other women, abortion is the best and perhaps only option at that point in a woman’s life.

So, it is a baby if the mother wants it to be a baby, and it is an option if the mother has no other alternative. Since when does being wanted determine one’s personhood?  How can we say in one hospital room, We will abort your fetus since you do not want to give birth but in the room next door say, We will take whatever measures we can to keep your baby alive?  How can we live with these contradictions?

Then came the third strand in this cord that won’t be easily broken: a declining birthrate.  We are having far fewer babies than our grandmothers had and thus doing less childrearing than ever.  As previously mentioned, as recently as 1960, the fertility rate of U.S. women was 3.7 children.  Today, it hovers at about 2.1 (1.7 for non-Hispanic whites, 2.0 for African Americans, and 2.3 for Hispanics).  Children, we believe, are inconvenient and expensive.  According to one calculation, it costs $1.1 million to raise a single child.  As Jonathan Last wrote in the Weekly Standard, The median price of a home in 2008 was $180,100.  Having a baby is like buying six houses, all at once.  Except you can’t (legally) sell them—and after thirteen years they’ll tell you they hate you (9/27/2010).

So what began as an experiment in liberation with the advent of the birth control pill has resulted in the braided cord of Roe, recreational sex for its own sake, and an increasingly child-free society.  What kind of a knot this cord will tie has yet to be determined, but we have been moving into unexplored terrain.

Consider, though, what the posture of the church is to be in such an environment. How are we, as the disciples of Jesus, to behave in a culture of death?  The answer is, simply, wait till marriage, get married, and then make babies!  In other words, let’s show the world the deeper joy of holiness rather than the shallow thrill of promiscuity.  As God’s people, we need to create and enjoy a marital and sexual counterculture that cherishes the things God cherishes and loves the things God loves.  God loves marriage, he loves fidelity, he invented sex, he made it very pleasurable, and he loves children.  God designed us for these things.  Those of us who truly follow Christ will find ourselves living in a world of wonder and witness.  We will wonder at the beauty of marital love, even when it is difficult.  And we will witness to the greatness of God as we trust his instruction and live accordingly.  In other words, we are to live holy and godly lives and enjoy the fruit of both.  As C. S. Lewis said,

How little people know who think of holiness as dull.  When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.  If even 10 percent of the world’s population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?

After graduating from Oxford, Hitchens became a voice for the left, avowing the doctrines of Trotsky and Marx.  He found himself gifted in both writing and debate, once saying, If you can give a decent speech in public or cut any kind of figure on the podium, then you need never dine or sleep alone.

Hitchens was especially notorious because he seemed to be an equal-opportunity offender.  He called Bill Clinton a pathological liar and a rapist and, in a book he wrote on Mother Teresa, called her a fraud. He attacked Sarah Palin on the political right even as he attacked Noam Chomsky on the political left.  He called the Dixie Chicks fat slugs—and later admitted he had never seen a picture of the band. In Vanity Fair he wrote a column entitled “Why Women Aren’t Funny,”arguing that women essentially have no need for humor because they are objects of men’s desire.  Humor is, Hitchens argued, a male mating call by which a man distinguishes himself from other men and thereby attracts a lady’s attention.  Feminists were not amused.  After 9/11, Hitchens came to despise the political left because it blamed the atrocities committed by Osama bin Laden on American foreign policy.  AsSaul Bellow once said, Hitchens was a playboy thriving on agitation.

Christopher Hitchens is best known for his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.  Published in 2007, the book is essentially a defense of atheism, kind of a Mere Christianity for unbelief.  In that work, Hitchens made much of the oft-used argument that religion is simply outdated in the modern world.  On the one hand, Religion comes from the period of prehistory where nobody… had the smallest idea what was going on.  On the other hand, in our scientific age, Religion has run out of justifications.  Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important.

And then came the phone call.  Early in 2010 Hitchens learned he had esophageal cancer that had spread to his lungs and lymph nodes.  His cancer was classified as stage 4.  Writing about his cancer, the 62-year-old iconoclast said this:

I have more than once in my life woken up feeling like death, but nothing prepared me for the early morning last June when I came to consciousness feeling as if I were actually shackled to my own corpse.

Hitchens was indeed shackled to his own corpse but, sadly, he refused the free grace of the only One who could loose the chains that bound him (Romans 7:24).

In April 2011, Hitchens was supposed to speak at the annual American Atheist Convention.  His cancer was advanced to the point that he had to cancel his appearance.  His letter of regret stated, Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death.  His letter ended with the words, And don’t keep the faith.

Hitchens was the center of attention during the last months of his life.  Believers sent him messages that they were praying for him, and others wondered if this iconic voice of our times would, in the end, turn to God.  But the British-American curmudgeon remained defiant to the end, stating that redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before.

His last book, Hitch-22, is a memoir of his life as a public intellectual, a writer, a debater, and an apologist for atheism.  In the opening pages Hitchens reaffirms his defiance of the inevitable.

I personally want to “do” death in the active and not the passive, and to be there to look it in the eye and be doing something when it comes for me.

Christopher Hitchens was smart, quick witted, articulate, and proud. He was what the scriptures call afool.  He said in his heart, There is no God, and he appears to have been faithful to his creed to the end.

There is a story told of G. K. Chesterton going to the funeral of an atheist early in the twentieth century.  Someone standing nearby noticed how poorly dressed the deceased looked as he lay in his open casket.  The onlooker commented, “All dressed up, with nowhere to go!”  Chesterton replied, “I bet he wishes that were true.”  I bet Christopher Hitchens also wishes it were true.

In the end, Hitchens’ defiance came with its own reward.  As C. S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce,

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

Christopher Hitchens was impertinent to the end, and he reaps his reward.  May we be found among those who say to God, even to the end, Thy will be done!

Although Scripture is filled with examples of mentorship/discipleship, the most notable may be Paul’s relationship with Timothy. Particularly in II Timothy, the last letter Paul wrote, he is guiding Timothy in his role as a pastor in Ephesus. Paul writes from a prison cell in Rome, likely within weeks of his own death. The wisdom of this letter is tailored to Timothy’s difficult assignment in Ephesus, and takes into account the specific challenges Timothy is facing.  Paul could have been writing a memoir, collecting his best teachings – he had some time on his hands.  Instead, what he chose to write was a simple letter of encouragement and guidance to his young protégé Timothy.

Another examples comes in Titus, chapter 2, where we are given the counsel that older women are to not only be good examples to younger women, but to actively disciple them. 

Mentorship is to be purposeful on both sides of the equation – mature believers seeking those to mentor, and younger, less “seasoned” believers seeking the wisdom of a mentor.

As one who is on the pastoral staff at SBCC, and as one who is growing increasingly “seasoned,” I hope you’ll indulge me in a few observations:

1.      Some of the most significant spiritual growth at SBCC takes place in homes and coffee shops around Santa Barbara in the middle of the week.  Intentional, personal discipleship – whether one-on-one, or in small groups – is a huge component to spiritual growth, a great encouragement towards living out our spiritual gifts, and can sometimes provide a valuable challenge, admonishment or warning.  All of it serves to grow us.

2.      The culture of mentorship seems to be waning. As the culture around us changes, so the church changes.  Some things are fine to let go; some things are worth fighting for.  We now live in an age of information at our fingertips.  Sometimes that information (and how easily it can be accessed) can supplant actual people.  Online banking replaces contact with the tellers; Wikipedia replaces asking the librarian (sometimes); Google has become a verb we exercise every day in lieu of asking another person a question, etc.  You get the idea.  The subtle shift is slow, but it is a gradual turning from relationship. Instead of seeking out those who are older, more mature and wise, we have the “immediacy” of turning instead to the quick and efficient answers.  For younger believers, it is much easier to seek the “pooled wisdom” of peers, or that of technology.

3.      Older Christians, we are not off the hook.  At the risk of offending, I have to say that it is sometimes disappointing to me to see so many wise and gifted Christians among us who have never sought out a younger believer to encourage.  And yet, this is our responsibility and our privilege as followers of Jesus!  I have often asked various people in our body if they would be willing to mentor another believer.  The number one answer I get is, I just don’t think I’m qualified.  While I understand where this is coming from, I also think it is a misunderstanding of the gospel of Jesus.  There is nothing we can do to “qualify” ourselves for anything.  Jesus paid it for us; he gave us responsibilities to encourage one another and to build up his church.  This is our qualification. If we truly believe that the good news of Jesus – His death and resurrection for sinners – is the world’s only hope, then the passing on of that message should be our life’s work.  As Josh Harris says, …if we can teach, train, and disciple men and women to trust in, love, and proclaim the message of Christ and him crucified, then we’ve accomplished something worthwhile.

The best mentors I have had in my life were the ones who knew they weren’t qualified, and that is precisely why they felt such freedom pointing to the sufficiency –not of themselves—but of Christ.

4.  Mentoring is about connecting the spiritual to the practical.  This may be one of the main reasons why we need mentors more than ever in the church.  The nuclear family of the “Ozzie and Harriet” days has all but vanished – not quite gone, but definitely not the norm.  The everyday things that some of our older generations learned from parents, relatives and family friends are increasingly learned elsewhere.  Sexuality, singleness, dating, marriage, juggling career and family, navigating losses in life, financial decisions – these are all practical realities that need Christ at the center.  The safety of healthy mentoring relationships can sometimes be both rudder and compass.

If we agree that mentorship is indeed something worth fighting for in church life, where do we begin? 

•      Be intentional right where you are.  Are you in a homegroup or other small group?  Start praying about mentoring connections God might have for you there. The place where your relationships most naturally overlap is the best place to start thinking about a mentoring relationship.  Simply showing up to a group isn’t mentorship – in either direction.  Mentorship involves the risk of asking (either to give or receive mentoring) and committed investment.

•      Keep realistic expectations:  Mentors, you supply encouragement and significance in the life of your “mentee” only to the extent that you point them to Christ.  Mentees, no one person will ever give you all that you want.  In fact, they will likely disappoint you.  The point is to grow deeper in your relationship with Christ, and to keep your eyes fixed on that.

•      Pay it forward:  A “culture” of mentorship is one where we are mentored and then, in turn, mentor another.  We should all be striving to mature in Christ so that we can encourage other believers. 

One of my earlier mentors was my high school Young Life area director.  He was charismatic, zany, crazy, and he exuded love for the Lord.  He walked a hard road as a leader, and remained steadfast through some losses in his personal life.  He had many young eyes watching.  I recently saw him at a Young Life banquet, now much older and using a cane.  As I saw him across the room, it occurred to me that I had never told him how much his leadership and love for God had influenced my life.  After several decades, I knelt down next to his chair and told him.  I was so thankful for the opportunity.  The sweetness of that exchange may or may not be experienced in our mentoring/discipling relationships. Perhaps heaven will be full of scenes such as that.  I don’t know. What I do know is that Jesus didn’t tell us to make converts; he told us to make disciples.  I am so grateful for the mentors in my life, and also acutely thankful for what I have learned about the heart of God as I bring my own flawed self alongside those younger in the faith.  Let’s press on to be people who are intentional about our own growth in Christ, and just as intentional about passing that along to others.

I am not one of those persons. Don’t get me wrong! I love to pray, but I need help.  I need help from friends, some who are living and active in my life and others who are long dead but are friends nevertheless.  And I need help because, for me, prayer is both refreshing and hard work.  Prayer is like a good, long jog, both exhilarating and painful, invigorating and tiring. 

Have you ever watched a group of people run?  Skinny people appear to run effortlessly, but the rest of us labor under the burden of our own girth.  When I pray, I am anything but spiritually skinny.  I pray under the girth of my own sloth, my distracted mindset, and my unbelief that wonders if prayer actually accomplishes anything at all. But I pray nevertheless. I pray because I like to pray—and I pray because I must.  I pray alone, and I pray in groups.  And every time I pray, I need a little help from my friends. 

For those of you who are like me, I’d like to share a few insights from some friends who have motivated me in recent years.  The voices of these friends have spurred me on to a greater devotion to prayer.  I am a better disciple because of these men and women and their ability to articulate the nature and value of prayer.

On the nature of prayer itself:

New Testament scholar William Barclay writes, Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us.  It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little.  When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God’s voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him.

Thomas Watson, one of my favorite Puritan writers, says, Prayer as it comes from the saint is weak and languid; but when the arrow of a saint’s prayer is put into the bow of Christ’s intercession, it pierces the throne of grace.

On the necessity of prayer:

Author Catherine Marshall writes, One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel no personal loyalty to Him at all—indeed, pay no attention whatever to His commandments and His will for one’s life.  One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.

The Victorian-era preacher Charles H. Spurgeon said we can measure the vitality of a church by how it prays: The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings.  So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people.  If God be near a church, it must pray.  And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.

J. C. Ryle, bishop of Liverpool in the nineteenth century, said,To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven.

An the power of prayer:

Methodist pastor Samuel Chadwick once said, The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying.  He fears nothing from our prayerless work, or prayerless religion.  He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.

A. C. Dixon, Baptist pastor and staunch critic of theological liberalism, wrote early in the twentieth century, When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.  Pastor Dixon was right, and we want what only God can do.  So let us press on in prayer.

An invitation and a plan

Do you want to grow in your prayer life in 2012?  I hope so.  I know I do.  To pray is to keep company with God(Clement of Alexandria).  To pray is to get to God (E. Stanley Jones).  Prayer is the fuel for church renewal.  Prayer is what keeps the church from becoming a mere institution.  Prayer keeps us coming to God like a persistent widow before an unjust judge (Luke 18).  Prayer will shape our church, and prayerlessness will be the ruin of our church.

To that end, as we move toward a new year, let us pray.  And let us keep praying. Make some friends who will teach you and help you pray.  In 2012, read a book on prayer that will encourage your prayer life.  Try God’s Prayer Book by Ben Patterson or Deepening Your Conversation with Godby the same author.  Read Charles Spurgeon’s The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Lifeor—possibly my favorite—The Soul of Prayerby P. T. Forsyth.  Andrew Murray’s classic With Christ in the School of Prayer is very valuable.  Buy or one of these books, read it slowly, and don’t worry about finishing it.  But let these friends lead you to prayer. 

And then… pray!  Pray alone in the morning even if for five minutes….  And pray with your church.  Come on Tuesday mornings if possible and pray with your church.  Let Ben Patterson show you a model of prayer you may never have seen….  See your homegroup as a place of prayer…. Consider forming a prayer group that meets regularly….  And learn how to pray.  Find a mentor and begin praying. 

I will let J. C. Ryle have the last word:  Faith is to the soul what life is to the body.  Prayer is to faith what breath is to the body.  How a person can live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a person can believe and not pray is past my comprehension, too.

Lord, teach us to pray!

Let us press into God’s goodness to us and remember His grace is what brought Jesus into our world. It’s not our right practices or excellent theology.  HIS GRACE will bring Jesus into our homes, but the trick is letting His grace into our hearts and minds as parents first. Can you trust that He wants to enter the dusty closets of your mind and bring in His light? That He wants to meet you in your disappointments and failures? That He longs to be close to you so you can reflect His gifts to your children? We ourselves are God’s children and need to remember this as we guide our children during Advent. There is much brokenness in our own lives that needs to see the Light of the World. This is the joy we can have in God’s provision for our families: His coming is for each of us.

As we enter this Advent season, let’s commit ourselves to inviting God to reveal the gifts of Advent to us as parents/adults so that we can truly guide our children toward them for themselves. Shed all the guilt of not having the “Hallmark” family and embrace the God who came in the most humble of wrappings: that of a helpless baby. The fact that Jesus came in this disarming form can remind us of the need to humbly receive help from God as we celebrate the season.

•      Take time for prayer and honesty with God, especially when you feel extra pressure to adopt some new tradition or press on with old ones that simply don’t work…maybe it is time to stop and find real joy. Let His Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love seep into your dry and needy pores.

•      Read an Advent devotional that resonates with real life (not unrealistic “Norman Rockwellish” ones) or simply read a Gospel and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you for His birthday. (Preparing for Christmas by Richard Rohr; God is in the Manger by Deitrich Bonhoeffer; and Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri Nouwen, are a few suggestions.)

•      The memory work for the children during Advent is Psalm 80:7, Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. Bring this up during the season with your family and ponder what comfort and hope it offers.

•      Go on the offensive with the overwhelming number of choices for celebrating the season by  trying on an Advent activity that you think you would enjoy with your family. Be gracious with yourself if it doesn’t “fit.”  Laugh together as a family and commit to trying something new next year. If nothing else, you have modeled that it is important to you to bring Jesus into your home.

•      Talk to a trusted friend or counselor when the disconnect becomes too great. Our sin-pocked lives are the road map to our need for Jesus.  God longs to give us hope (not earthly perfection) as we face the places where we hurt.

•      Most of all, allow Jesus into your real families, not the ones you wish you had. Use the disappointment to catapult you into Jesus’ presence and find the real Jesus of Christmas.

Wishing you and your family the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love of Jesus this Advent season…even in the messiness of your real lives. God is with us – Emmanuel.

At this point, if you are still reading, you are probably expecting to be beaten and bloodied a bit. You probably think I am going to begin citing statistics about how wealthy we are in North America and how little we, the world’s most affluent denizens, give to those in need. You probably think I’ll tell you that over half the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day while Americans, who live on considerably more, give away, on average, only 1.5% of their income. Or maybe you think I will drag up some UNICEF statistic such as the oft-cited claim that about 30,000 children die daily due to lack of basic nutrition and medicine. Or maybe the truth that, as an American, you are roughly seventy times richer than people in the poorest countries of the world. There is, indeed, a place for this kind of essay in Community News ... but you’ll not find it this month. Instead, let’s ponder together what might be called the joy of money.

The joy of money? Isn’t the love of money said to be the root of all kinds of evil? Don’t we learn in Scripture that people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires

(1 Timothy 6:9)? If these things are true, how can money be something that leads to joy in the life of a believer? Should we not shun money, live on as little of it as possible, and decry the evils of riches, gas-guzzling SUVs, and meat eating? Well... yes. But money can, does, and should also bring a Christian disciple great joy—and I learned this truth from the Puritans!

It turns out that the Puritans agreed with their predecessor John Calvin who said that money in itself is good. Now, because of what you were taught about the Puritans in high school, this may be hard to believe, but the Puritans liked money because, with it, one could enjoy life more. If we happen to have inherited much property, we are to enjoy these in good conscience as blessings and gifts of God, wrote William Perkins.^[1] Richard Sibbs went so far as to say, Worldly things are good in themselves and given to sweeten our passage to Heaven.

What, specifically, were the Puritans’ convictions about money?

First, these disciples—who appeared around the middle of the sixteenth century and faded from the scene at the end of the seventeenth—understood money and wealth to be gifts from God. Cotton Mather said, In our occupation we spread our nets; but it is God who brings unto our nets all that comes into them. The Puritans sought to avoid the sin of pride over worldly wealth by ascribing all earthly success to the providence of God.

Second, the Puritans taught that money should be held loosely. Consider this Puritan statement about work:

Success with equanimity... failure without despair. In other words, if one is prosperous, that prosperity is to be understood as a gift from God. But if one’s hard work leads only to subsistence living, that too is to be seen as the blessing of God.

As the Puritan John Hull said when he lost his fortune, The loss of my estate will be nothing, if the Lord please to join my soul nearer to himself, and loose it more from creature comforts.

Third, the Puritans would agree with Spiderman, who said, With great power comes great responsibility. When God gives us money, we are to use it responsibly and generously to help those in need. Edward Browne said, Riches may enable us to relieve our needy brethren, and to promote good works for church and state. He went on to say that money exists for the glory of God and the good of others. In other words, the joy of money is found, supremely, in magnifying the God who gave it to us in the first place.

Fourth, the Puritans preached that money would never satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. In Puritan theology, money was put in its place. Specifically, money was seen to be a good gift, but an insufficient god. Consider Henry Smith’s poetic critique of wealth:

Riches are like painted grapes which look as though they would satisfy a man, but do not slake his hunger or quench his thirst. Riches indeed do make a man covet more, and get envy, and keep the mind in care.

Wealth and riches in the Bible swing on hinges that go both ways. On the one hand, the biblical writers see money as dangerous. Money is constantly viewed circumspectly. Wealth, or even the desire for wealth, is a potential idol in the lives of God’s people. The prophets speak more loudly about the dangers of wealth addiction than they do about the dangers of sexual promiscuity. And, of course, the Puritans would agree. John Robinson warned that both poverty and riches have their temptations.

... And of the two states, ... the temptations of riches are the more dangerous... . If a man be rich, and full, he is in danger to deny God and to say in pride, and contempt of him ... , Who is the Lord?

Wealth does bring with it an appetite for more—for more exotic vacations, larger numbers in our savings account, more comfort at home, more clothes, more digital technology. Wealth never says, Enough! Instead it cries loudly,More!

On the other hand, wealth in the Scriptures is understood as a blessing from God. Money and wealth are gifts to be enjoyed for the pleasure they bring. As the writer of Proverbs has it, The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it (10:22).

So how are we—who are, to be sure, among the wealthiest people who have ever lived—to think about money and riches in our time and place? I make two obvious suggestions. First, let us take care to enjoy the bounty with which God has entrusted us. Let us eat and drink and spend and save and give to the glory of God and to our own pleasure. Second, let us be vigilant to remind ourselves of the snare of riches. As contemporary author John White says, Riches corrupt anyone who is in the least corruptible. And, if the truth be told, all of us are corruptible.

When everything is said, money is a dangerous joy. Yes, money is a gift to be enjoyed, but money whispers in our ear, I am what you really want. Get more of me, and you’ll be happy and satisfied. That is, of course, a lie. And so we ought to pray with Samuel Hieron, a Cambridge Puritan, the following:

Oh, let not mine eyes be dazzled, nor my heart bewitched with the glory and sweetness of these worldly pleasures... . Draw my affection to the love of that durable riches, and to that fruit of heavenly wisdom which is better than gold, and the revenues whereof do surpass the silver, that my chief care may be to have a soul enriched and furnished with Thy grace.

I find it difficult to write a Community News essay warning of the days to come without sounding like Scrooge—and when it comes to Christmas, I really don’t want to sound grumpy.  I actually love Christmas. 

I’ve surprised many, though, when I tell them that Christmas, for Lisa and me, is a relatively quiet time.  I love our Advent Sundays at church, and I am deeply moved by the special music we hear in December, the Westmont Christmas Festival, and a family walk on State Street with the lights and greenery.  I especially love the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  The Jolley house goes semi-comatose as we wind down another year.

It is Xmas that really bothers me.  Like it or not, the season is upon us.  The catalogs are coming in the mail every day, the stores are vying for our attention, and television ads are telling us to spend, spend, spend.  Two months from now we will be breathing a sigh of relief that Xmas is over.  Many of us will dread the coming VISA bill, and most of us will welcome the fresh start of another calendar year. 

C. S. Lewis, the Oxford professor of literature who had something to say about almost everything, was a sharp critic of the way we observe Christmas.  He once described Christmas as the holiday that gives, on the whole, more pain than pleasure:

Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them.

In 1954 Lewis penned a brilliant parody comparing the annual Christian observance of the birth of Jesus with the commercial enterprise that comes in the month of December.  His essay was titled Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus.  Xmas, Lewis wrote, is celebrated on an island in the north Atlantic called Niatirb (read it backwards and you see Lewis’s point).  In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great festival which they call Exmas.  The people of Niatirb have a sense of obligation during this festival to send each of their friends a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card.  But the pictures on the cards are of birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs.  

After buying as many of these cards as they think they will need, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them.

And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at last is over for another year.  But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also.

Then there are the gifts.  At Christmas the Niatirbians buy things for one another that they would never think of buying for themselves.  The sellers, long ago recognizing this custom, sell all the things that they haven’t been able to sell during the rest of the year.  Bah humbug.

Again, I don’t want to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.  I hope each of us has what we commonly call a good Christmas.  But how?   How can we get to December 26th and be neither spiritually fatigued, physically bloated, fiscally troubled, nor socially spent?  I offer the following suggestions:

1.          Spend some time during Advent reading the Christmas portions of the Bible.  Read some of the great prophecies of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 9:1-2, 7:14, 9:1-7, 11:1-10).  Then read the Christmas Story in Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2.  Read these portions of Scripture slowly; memorize a favorite verse or two.  Meditate, ponder, pray, and soak in the wonder of the coming of our Savior.

2.          Get out your calendar in early November.  Schedule some times to be quiet and do little in the months of November and December.  Plan to listen to Handel’s Messiah in one sitting or watch The Nutcracker on DVD.  Have someone over for dinner.

3.         Be proactive in your gift giving.  Shop early and shop sparingly.  Decide how much money you should and will spend on Christmas gifts.  Ask how much of His money God would have you spend to buy gifts for your friends and family.  Make a commitment not to buy what no mortal would ever buy for himself.  Better to simply say, Merry Christmas! I love you! than to waste God’s money on mere stuff.  And have the courage to receive.  If someone gives you a gift for Christmas, dare to say, Thank you and forgo the temptation to buy a pay-back present.

4.          Focus your expectations. As far back as I can remember, I’ve heard people say, Christmas is a hard time for me or I’m looking forward to January because Christmas is kind of depressing.  Xmas often reminds us of what we don’t have: a large, extended family, a blissful marriage, Lake Wobegon children.  Xmas is a time when unemployment seems all the more painful and depression becomes all the more acute. 

But what if we focus on Christmas instead of Xmas?  What if we truly celebrate Advent?  Then we will, with wonder, look forward to the coming of the Christ child and long for His coming.  Advent moves our focus from what we might have had in this life, to what we will have when Jesus comes again.  A true Christmas observance will cause us to realize that our hearts are, indeed, restless until they find rest in Him.  When we observe Christmas and not Xmas, we will find ourselves saying with delight, This is the One we have waited for! This is the Lord! Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation!

I have a memory of my husband, Todd that I’ll always treasure.  We were attending the wedding of one of his co-workers on the campus of a retirement community where Todd served as a physician.  The grounds were beautiful, canopied in oak trees, and the day was warm and sunny.  As we were headed to the large lawn where the wedding was to be held, we passed the unit that housed many of the patients with Alzheimer’s disease.  A bell was going off, and we noticed a woman clothed in a pink bathrobe and slippers walking away from the building and down the perimeter road, her long gray braid swinging down her back to her waist.  Even stooped over, she walked with purpose away from the clanging bell.  Todd said, “Oh it’s Ruth; she’s gotten out again.  I need to go get her.  Just wait here.”

Now, in my mind, what would happen next looked like this:  Todd would walk over and take her by the elbow, and explain that she needed to come back with him.  She would be confused, maybe agitated, and he would soothingly convince her to come with him, and they would turn, Todd leading her into the building. 

What really happened was this:  Todd walked up beside her and took her hand and kept walking beside her.  I saw them smiling and talking, and Todd just walked along next to her, hand in hand under the dappled light shining through the oaks, until they were both out of sight. 

He never turned her around.  They walked and talked until he had taken her all the way around the perimeter road which naturally returned to the building where the nurses (and I) were anxiously awaiting her return.

Why is this memory so vivid and so precious to me?  It is precious because it says so much about my husband, who is the kindest person I know.  It is vivid to me because it paints a picture in my mind of what it is to be an encourager.  Specifically, this…

We join people on their “path.”  What a different picture this would have been if Todd had been more “direct.”  He could have directly turned Ruth around and taken the short path back to where she belonged.  He saw, though, a woman taking a moment to enjoy a piece of normal life – a walk under the oaks on a beautiful day, surrounded by sunlight and birdsong – instead of buzzing fluorescent lights, wheelchairs and weird smells.  And so, Todd joined her…and held her hand.  They took the long way.

Joining people where they are has another name – compassion.  Meaning literally to feel with, compassion takes energy and effort.  It is not just a spontaneous thing that washes over us; it is something that requires training and habits.  Over and over again in the gospels, we see Jesus responding in compassion – to the sick, the lost, the sinful, the grieving.  He is our example of what it is to be compassionate.  Jesus acted with compassion, not just when he was well-fed and well-rested—but when he was exhausted.  Jesus’ march towards the cross was punctuated by acts that encouraged, whether it was by a miracle, or simply a well-timed word.  And he commands us to do the same in Luke 6:36: You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

We take the time it takes.   I don’t remember precisely, but I’m pretty sure this scenario cost us some promptness to the wedding.  I am a clock-watcher.  Efficiency and multi-tasking are important to me.  (There’s a reason I’ve gotten speeding tickets.) To be an encourager, we need to slow down, and take whatever time is required.  Hasn’t God done that very same thing, and more, for us?  If we look at the scope of history, we see God in loving pursuit of his children – children who repeatedly wander from him or reject him.  Our patience with others will never match God’s patience with us, but we are certainly transformed by trying.

We are blessed in the blessing.  If Todd had returned and then complained about Ruth’s escape, or how long these things take, etc., this whole scenario wouldn’t be a sweet memory.  Instead, when he came back, he told me what they had talked about when they walked the perimeter road together – what a remarkable woman Ruth had been in her younger days, and what a privilege it is to care for those that the world often forgets.  Todd blessed Ruth by taking the longer route with her, and he blessed her with his time, unhurried and “present.”  In turn, God blessed Todd with a glimpse into His own heart for his children, inviting Todd into the sacredness of encouraging another human being.  

Pastor Tim Keller was once asked what he thought was the most important evidence of growth as a Christian disciple.  He gave a one-word answer: gentleness.  Gentleness is the mark of a disciple’s growth….  I don’t remember his explanation for this answer, but the answer itself has stayed with me.  Maybe it is because I am personally convicted by it.  Maybe it is because all encouragement of others in the name of Christ, requires it.

Galatians 5:22 (NLT) says, When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  To join another human being on their schedule and in their circumstances – and to prayerfully take the time it takes to encourage them – is Holy Spirit work indeed.  All of the theology and apologetics and doctrine that we learn intersect as we attempt to “be Jesus” to another person in want of kindness, material help, or a Savior.  Todd exemplified that for me that day under the oaks.  His example pointed to Jesus, who took the “long way” to save me.

Lessons from L’Arche: “A community where people with and without disabilities share life together”  

I’m thinking,” Barbara muses. “I’m thinking.”
“What are you thinking about, Barbara?”

“I’m thinking that I want to live with Stacy forever!”

Oh, that we could all find this kind of acceptance and love in our lives! This scene played out at the all-important dinner conversation at L’Arche, Portland. L’Arche is a worldwide community of homes that exists to meet the needs of people with disabilities. I became acquainted with L’Arche through the writings of Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus. All of the core members in this home have intellectual disabilities, the population most often served by L’Arche. I had the incredible privilege of spending some time this Fall with four core members and their assistants as part of my sabbatical project as a professor at Westmont College. The conversation described above took place between two women who live in this community together. I left L’Arche with lessons humbly learned and a desire to share this experience with members of my own church family.

While there, I experienced powerful lessons about becoming a “welcoming presence” in the lives of others, particularly those with disabilities. Most churches, ours included, have sought to remove physical barriers that prevent full participation and acceptance for all. We have ramps leading into our sanctuaries, access to the stage for wheelchairs, help during Communion and devices available for those with hearing impairments. What we sometimes fail to consider, though, are the attitudinal barriers that can cause more pain and exclusion than physical barriers. Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, describes this best: What I am discovering is that the greatest suffering is not that man with the handicap, not that boy who is blind, who is deaf and severely brain damaged, but the greatest pain is in those who reject them.

How do we do create these barriers? First of all, we do this with our language. Scholars in the area of disability studies have encouraged us for over a decade to use “person-first” language. When we refer to “that blind person” or “that intellectually disabled” person, we focus on their disability and not who they are as people. Just as you or I would not want to be labeled by the many things we cannot do, people with disabilities deserve to have their identity rooted in their individuality, not in generalizations. Some might hesitate at this attempt at being “politically correct,” but it is more accurately described as being “respectively correct.” If we can do this, “people with disabilities,” not “disabled people” will feel more welcomed in our church.

My first week at L’Arche was restless and awkward. What should I say or do? How do I interact with people with intellectual disabilities? The assistants serving at L’Arche became my mentors. To watch them in action is to watch the hand of God care for the most vulnerable of His creation. They modeled for me how to be present with the core members.

Sitting beside a core member, I learned that sharing a quiet moment has great value. In doing so, I am communicating, “I like being with you.” People with disabilities can offer us the gift of patience/steadfastness in this fast-paced world. Simply “being” and not “doing” can benefit all of us.

Reinders writes, Despite the success they have found in strengthening their status in the public sphere, people with disabilities – particularly intellectual disabilities – experience loneliness and isolation in the sphere of their personal lives. In our church community, each of us, young or old, can provide the gift of friendship, especially to those we perceive to be different from us. Invite someone with a disability out to the park, a meal or for a walk.

It is important to teach our children to respect and embrace difference. We struggle with this because we have grown up in a world that has not modeled seamless integration of people with disabilities in our lives. Invite a person from Young Life Capernaum to your home for a visit. Model to your children how to be comfortable around disability by encouraging interaction, whether in the neighborhood or in a restaurant, when the opportunity presents itself to engage in natural conversation.

In Luke 14:13, Jesus tells us whom we should invite to our banquet table. Vanier reflects on this passage and reminds us:  If you become a friend of somebody who is excluded, you are doing a work of unity. You are bringing people together. You are doing God’s work.

References

Reinders, H. S. (2008). Receiving the gift of friendship: Profound disability, theological anthropology, and ethics. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub.

Vanier, J. (1995). Seeing God in others. Catholic Education Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/social_justice/sj00196.html

Vanier, J. (2008). The fragility of L’Arche and the friendship of God. In S. Hauerwas & J. Vanier (Authors), Living gently in a violent world: The prophetic witness of weakness (pp.21-42). Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books.

My journey into foster care began nearly ten years ago, when I worked at the Instituto Evangelica de Goias, an orphanage in Anapolis, Brazil. During my time there, I met a little two-year-old girl who called me Tia (auntie). Each day we snuggled for hours in the courtyard of the orphanage – her head buried in my chest, one of her hands stroking my face. She had a family, but they could not care for her. They dropped her off at the orphanage when she was just an infant. The need she had for love was so clear. All she wanted was someone to hold her. On that trip I wrote in my journal that I wanted to be that little girl’s mother. In fact, I wrote that I wanted to be the mother to any child that needed one. That desire has been in my mind and in my heart from that time.

Since early on in our marriage, my husband and I talked and prayed about the way in which God would grow our family. For the most part, we have always known that our family growth would include adoption. We feel very strongly that the family God has for us is not limited to biological children. About a year and a half ago, we came to the conclusion that our first child should be adopted. As we talked and prayed about the manner in which we would adopt, we kept circling back to Angels Foster Care (www.angelssb.com). The need for foster parents in Santa Barbara is great. Because so many children right here in our county need homes, we felt that it would be best to begin our process with Angels.

As of this summer, our plan was to finish our certification, provide short-term respite care for a couple of months, and then accept a long-term placement in possibly December or January. Well, six weeks ago we got a call that put our plan in fast forward. We were two steps away from completing our certification when our social worker called to see if we were interested in taking a two-month old baby boy. We said Yes. She said that we could meet him that afternoon.

Let me clarify and add that we were unprepared. We didn’t really have anything for a baby, and neither of us have ever been parents before. I was worried about bonding and attachment, and I was concerned that he would feel too much like someone else’s child for me to feel like a mother. And then we met him. We walked into the respite care home where he was staying. He’d just been dropped off and was still in his car seat. I lifted him out of the car seat and looked at him. In that moment I felt flooded with a love that I cannot explain or describe, but I’m going to venture to say that it’s the love all mothers feel for their children. It’s God-given and all encompassing.

We’re calling this darling boy Mason, and we’ve definitely grown quite attached to him. Thankfully, he’s grown quite attached to us as well. People often ask if this attachment is too hard or too scary. While it is hard and it is scary, what’s scarier to me is that fact that if Mason were not placed with us, he would have gone into a temporary placement or even a series of temporary placements until he was given a long-term home. The thought of an infant being bounced around from place to place without ever attaching is much harder and much scarier to me.            

As foster parents, attachment is our goal. Our job is to love the children placed with us so that they will learn how to bond and love and form healthy relationships. As parents and as Christians, we have the ability to heal from the pain of losing these children should they reunify. A child cannot heal from the pain of never feeling loved or attaching to a parent or caregiver. Furthermore, as Christians, we believe in the power of redemption, so reunification is not a bad thing or a “horror story,” as I’ve heard it described. Our goal is for children to not be orphaned at any point, and for them to feel love no matter where they are. 

Part of our decision to foster/adopt was based in our belief that God would give us the children we were supposed to have. We still believe that. Now, we don’t know if Mason will be our “forever” child or if we will be his “forever” family, but we do know that he’s ours to love right now and for that we are so thankful.

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.   Numbers 11:4-6

It seems foolish to forfeit the glory of the Promised Land for the joy of grumbling, but that is what happened. 

The people of Israel had been delivered from slavery, miraculously and dramatically. They left Egypt trusting in the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey.   All they had to do was make an eleven-day journey across a dreadful desert.  Yes, God delivered his people, but those same people missed the fullness of his blessing because they complained about the menu. 

Well, there is a bit more to it than that.  Actually, the Lord’s people grumbled in the wilderness again and again, thus missing the joy of being grateful for the greatness of God.  These same people also died in that desert wilderness.

Thank you are words we teach our children to say, and these two little words contain a whole universe of meaning.  Thank you draws us into a world of wonder.  Thanksgiving compels us to see things from God’s perspective.  Giving thanks sharpens our focus.  These two little words lead our heart in the right direction.  They move our soul toward the God from whom all blessings flow, toward our heavenly Father who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

But perhaps I am being overly simplistic.  Is gratitude always appropriate?  Is thanksgiving always possible?  In the face of suffering and pain, am I expected to put a smile on my face and say, “Thank you” to God?  Wouldn’t that be a bit superficial?

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.  Perhaps she is your friend, too, for she has been a part of our church for many years.  Her disease causes her chronic pain. In fact, she feels quite miserable most of the time.  Her body tells her, moment by moment, that all is not well.  The disease often forbids her the gift of sleep.  It has caused her to quit her job and has affected just about every area of her life.  Nevertheless, my friend has made a habit of thanksgiving.  When diagnosed with this malady, she made a choice to be grateful to God.  Her gratitude is not the sugary sweet variety.  Instead, she is choosing to be grateful for the little things in life as well as for the big things.   Somewhere in the early stages of this affliction, she began making an actual list of the people, events, tastes, sights, and sounds in her life for which she was thankful.  Her goal was to get to 1,000.  My last email from her concluded with Thanksgiving #1238!  I don’t expect this grateful enumeration to stop any time soon.  Gratitude makes the heart glad even when it is burdened by life in a fallen world.

Grumbling, on the other hand, is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The grumbler complains about the menu, never pausing to give thanks for his daily bread.  The pessimist is always disappointed, partly because things are never as bad as they could be and partly because they probably won’t get any worse! 

Grumbling leads us to grumble.  G. K. Chesterton—who had no room for those who grumble—once said, “I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.”

And the apostle Paul could not say enough about the value of thanksgiving and gratitude.  When he writes about the dynamics of unbelief, he says that it is characterized by dishonoring God and an absence of thanksgiving (Romans 1:21).  So, over and again, he tells the church to be thankful.

Be thankful for what?  Sometimes the apostle doesn’t even say.  In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul writes, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful (3:15).  We are summoned to a life of thanksgiving regardless of our circumstances or our experiences.  So start your list and send it to me when you reach a thousand.  Thank God for your salvation. Thank Jesus that he is coming again.  Thank God for the crisp air of the Santa Barbara autumn.  Thank him for the children in our church.  Thank God for the food on your table, for the socks on your feet, and for the dawn of a new day.  Thank God for the breath in your lungs and the water that comes out of the faucet.

I think it is right to say that both grumpiness and gratitude are as much dispositions as they are deliberate acts.  It is also right to say that we become what we practice.  Those who grumble become grumblers, and those who give thanks are numbered among the thankful.  If we reach the age of fifty or sixty, our face will testify to whether we led a life of thanksgiving or a life of complaining. 

I have been blessed by the presence of two very thankful men in my life, and they both have caused me to be more grateful than I might have been.  I’m thinking of my father-in-law who died in July.  Bob almost lived to his 86^th birthday.  Tethered to oxygen due to his emphysema , he spent most of his final years simply staying alive.  Every day was a struggle.  A basic task for me might take him thirty minutes to complete.  Bob suffered, but he was thankful.  He was thankful not for his suffering, but in his suffering.  Thankful for his family, thankful for every day of life, and thankful for God.  Thankful. 

The other thankful man I look to is my own father, who is in his 83^rd year. He is very healthy, but his legs don’t work very well and he is losing the ability to walk.  (The medical term for his condition is neuropathy.)  Nevertheless, my dad, Bud, lives a life of gratitude.  I love being around him because he is always—and I mean always—thankful.  When I asked him about this he chuckled and said, “I’m too lazy to be grumpy.  Grumpiness takes too much energy.  It’s easier to give thanks!”  He doesn’t complain about the menu, he gives thanks for his daily bread, and he looks forward to the feast that is coming after the business of this life is complete.  Hanging around with my dad makes me think about the greatness of God and the bounty of his blessings.  I become more thankful whenever I spend time with him!

It is said that when those in the early church met and conversed, they would never part without saying, Deo gratias!, Thanks be to God.  May it be so in our lives.  Thanks be to God!

I have a favorite treadmill at the gym. I prefer the one all the way to the left, against the wall. In terms of features, this treadmill is just like any other in the room, but its location makes it very different. From the extreme left side of the room, a pillar blocks my view of the television that shows ESPN. I love sports more than most people you’ve met, which is precisely why I can’t run on a treadmill with even a partial view of that television. Picture me, distracted by the television one moment, crumpled on the floor in a heap the next moment. Perhaps great hilarity for you, but not part of my ideal workout.

While my treadmill selection plan keeps me safely upright, it also comes with its own cost attached: the television in front of my chosen treadmill stays tuned to HGTV.  All the time. Which means that the shows that accompany my run typically involve people (usually young) shopping for homes (usually recently renovated) and turning up their noses at the lack of a fourth bedroom with a view of the adjacent park, the fact that the master bathroom doesn’t come with a heated floor, or some equally grievous design flaw. And, in the process of trying to keep my body healthy, my soul gets a little sicker.

At the end of his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul praises them for their financial support of his ministry. But, he includes this important caveat: I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want (4:11-12).

I wish I could say, along with Paul, that, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. But, I haven’t yet, and I’m reminded each time I hit the treadmill.

As I watch the prospective home buyers ridicule and reject various features of the homes their agents show them, I think to myself, You’re crazy! Take the home, you perspectiveless, entitled ingrates! I would not only take it, I would love it as it is! This state of mind does not help my run feel any faster nor help me feel any more content. Instead, in the height of irony, I begin to ridicule my own house. As I run, I compare my home with the ones I see on the TV and a growing part of me really longs to live in a modern, spacious home with an open floor plan and a backyard that actually features grass. But, we don’t. We live in a cozy, “veteran” place with a backyard featuring various weeds that function like the landscaping equivalent of a combover.

It can be easy for me to excuse my thought process as simple dreaming, but, in truth, I am grumbling in discontent. And, as a believer, I face a far more serious condition than the people on HGTV. Sure, they may be picky and overly pretentious, but I’m flat-out sinning. And, as with most sin, the issue is one of perspective.

I can never hope to find contentment if my sights remain set so low. If I put my hope, my desires, and my longing into earthly things, then my desires will remain unfulfilled. No amount of earthly things will ever pacify my capacity for desiring more. No, if I want to learn real contentment, I need to learn that my true desires can only be met in Christ.

These TV shows take my eye off of what really matters, and the secret that Paul embraces: Christ matters more than stuff. More than homes, more than cars, more than jobs, more than health, more than children, more than spouses, more than anything. Paul says as much in chapter 3 of the same letter to the Philippians:  I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord (3:8). In light of salvation, all else not only pales in comparison, but fades in significance. When I realize, in increasing measure, how incredible my salvation is in light of the magnitude of my sin and the glory of Christ, then any gift that God chooses to give is that much more incredible. Contentment begins by considering the cross.

As I learn to desire and treasure Christ more and to consider how truly stunning grace is, I will find my truest desires met and my perspective shifted and I will begin to see clearly. And, as I begin to see, I can truly be content and thankful that God has seen fit to bless our family with the wonderful gift of a cheerful, safe, plenty-of-space-for-a-family-of-three home with a backyard with lots of “character.” Because God doesn’t owe me a thing. Instead, he chooses to bless out of his love and kindness. And, when I can lift my eyes up long enough to take in the reality of what God has done for me, I can’t help feeling content.

I want to be known for treasuring Christ above all else, and because of the resulting contentment, trusting in the goodness, timing, and sovereignty of the God who feeds the sparrows and knows exactly what I need. Then, with God’s help, I can watch HGTV without the poison of discontent creeping in–which I need to learn how to do, because there’s no way I’m changing treadmills.

As we continue to endure these struggling economic times, what are you thankful for this year?  Your health? Your family? Your church? Your friends? Your home? Your job? Food on the table?  If you have been blessed with these things and more, I am sure you are thankful for each of them.  But simply being thankful for God’s many blessings should happen daily… so what makes the Thanksgiving holiday special?

I believe the Thanksgiving holiday should be about more than being thankful for your own blessings, but about blessing others; giving others something to be thankful for.

In Matthew 25, Christ calls us to feed, clothe and welcome those in need.  The Thanksgiving Meal Bag ministry is one way we as a body of believers can work together to meet the physical needs of families in our local community.

James 2:15-16 says, If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So let us work together to help our community go in peace, be warm and filled.

The majority of the families served by this ministry will be given a bag of ingredients to prepare a Latino-style dinner including rice, beans, corn flour, and other non-perishable items, along with a gift card to purchase meat and perishables.  We also give out a small number of traditional style Meal Bags including potatoes, yams, stuffing, gravy, canned vegetables and cranberry sauce, etc,. and a gift card to purchase a turkey.

Each year, we coordinate with Isla Vista School, Cleveland Elementary School, Franklin Elementary School, McKinley Elementary School and the Eastside Kids Club for the bulk of our distribution.  But, we also have a smaller number of families each year from El Camino School, Harding School, Adams Elementary School, and Kellogg School.

This ministry has grown over the years in the number of families wanting to participate, but unfortunately we are never able to collect enough bags.  Two years ago, we collected over 400 bags.  But last year we were only able to collect 366. Let’s put this ministry back on track, aiding families in our community that need help putting food on the table!

So, what can you do?

Start TODAY by talking with your Homegroup and committing to a minimum number of bags you will prepare. (Homegroup leaders will email Kate at ThanksgivingMealBags@gmail.com with a commitment.)

During October 23rd through November 13th there will be Thanksgiving Meal Bag ‘drop boxes’ at the church to collect money to purchase gift certificates ($20 per dinner) for meat for each Meal Bag being donated.

November 13th completed bags are brought to church.

*Not in a Homegroup? You can still participate by donating money for gift certificates and then bringing completed Meal Bags to church on November 13th.

**Don’t have time to shop for groceries?  You can donate funds to help cover the costs of the completed Meal Bags.  Please make sure to write “donation” on any checks not associated with a completed Meal Bag.

Do you want to volunteer to help count Meal Bags OR help deliver Meal Bags on November 17th? Have questions?  Email Kate at ThanksgivingMealBags@gmail.com.

We try to have an idea of the number of bags anticipated by coordinating with each Homegroup.  Homegroups give between 1 or 2 bags collaboratively all the way up to 50 bags donated from one Homegroup.  We use this information to let each school know about how many bags they can expect. Start talking with your homegroup now!

In the August Community News we looked at the purpose of homegroups. They are designed to build community and to develop disciples—discipleship in community. All group members are involved in both of these intertwined aspects of their homegroup. How is each and every person (not just the leaders) involved in making a homegroup thrive? How does someone function well as a homegroup member?

First, and foremost, you must join a homegroup. Second, and really more important, you must show up to the homegroup meetings. If you do those two things, you are well on your way to becoming a good homegroup member!

The role of a homegroup leader is to facilitate the group through the stated goals, which include studying the Bible, worship, prayer and building community. Leaders also coordinate various forms of service. All homegroups are assigned on a rotating basis to serve with the Children’s Ministry during Sunday worship services. In addition, most homegroups participate in providing Thanksgiving Meal Bags each November, twenty-four groups provide either lunch or dinner to Transition House residents each calendar year, and various other service projects take place. Leaders also coordinate homegroup meals and, of course, weekly dessert.

Although leaders play an important role in a homegroup, without member participation the group will fall flat. Leaders provide a structure and members fill it in. Each week, homegroups study a specific Bible passage assisted by a study guide. Leaders come prepared to lead a discussion, but that is only fruitful if the members have prepared to participate. Similarly, leaders may come prepared to lead a time of prayer, but if no one participates it is simply an awkward several minutes. Homegroup prayer time is a wonderful place to learn to pray aloud with a small group of people. God is glorified as we lift our voices in concurrence to him. Likewise, the Bible discussion is a safe place to study God’s word and ask questions about its meaning and application to your life.

Homegroup membership is most meaningful for a person, as well as the rest of the group, if there is personal investment in the group process. Engaging in the community aspect of homegroup is important. As you build relationships and connect with others in the group, all of the elements of a homegroup become more meaningful and you are further formed as a disciple. This is why weekly attendance is essential, and participating in the social aspect of homegroup is important. Many groups spend the first portion of their meeting enjoying dessert and talking. This is not an optional part to skip or a time cushion to be tardy! Hanging out and enjoying one another’s company—getting to know each other—is all part of building community, which is a key part of homegroup. Remember, the purpose of a homegroup is discipleship in community.

A rich homegroup experience is the responsibility of each person in the group, not just the leaders. Our gracious and merciful God has created us all as unique and valuable individuals. On account of diverse life experiences we will each contribute to our group in a way that no one else can. Leaders facilitate the core elements of a homegroup.  Yet it is only when homegroup members invest themselves that they will experience deeper fellowship, enjoy homegroup more, and grow closer to God. It is our hope at SBCC that group members embrace homegroup in a way that produces commitment and enthusiasm to make the homegroup experience excellent for all involved.

Just over the hill from parking lot “B” you will find the Santa Barbara A Rocha Five Loaves Farm. The entire 3 acres have been planted out with veggies ranging from Anaheim peppers to zucchinis. Over the past four months (May–August), we have been blessed to be able to donate approximately five tons of top quality organic produce to the hungry poor of Santa Barbara –that’s at least $20,000 worth of fresh food! The farm is a beautiful sight to behold, and it is uniquely filling real needs in our community.

A little over 12% of the families in Santa Barbara live at or below the federally-defined poverty level. To give you an idea as to what that means in terms of dollars, a family of five would need to make less than $26,170 annually. Just over 21% of all children in Santa Barbara live at or below this level. That number is effectively larger when you take in the high cost of living in our area. One of the greatest needs among the poor is access to healthy food. By our donations of high quality, nutritious, organic produce, we communicate that the needy of our community are loved and as valuable as any other member of our society. It’s a concrete way of sharing the love of Christ.

Santa Barbara A Rocha continues to distribute food through the Santa Barbara Community Development Center in Isla Vista on a weekly basis. We have also been distributing produce through Querencia’s Eastside Kids’ Club and Garden Court, an assisted living center for the elderly poor of Santa Barbara, and due to our increase in productivity we have expanded our distribution through Foodbank Santa Barbara. This ensures that the food gets to people who need it most around our community. Organizations and people that currently use our produce coming through the Foodbank include the Organic Soup Kitchen (healthy meals for the homeless, Transition House, and pregnant moms), Food From the Heart (providing meals for hospice and the critically ill), and St. Vincent’s (meals for single moms and their children). What a blessing to be able to tangibly give of our “first fruits.”

Over the summer we also hosted three weeks of Creation Care Camp for 60+ children ages 6-13. Kids experienced a bit of the wonder of God’s creation while learning about local geology, entomology, agriculture, botany and more. We hiked, dug, explored, ate, and planted our way around the area. Each day opened with a memory verse that touched on the topic of the day. For example, the day we studied Entomology, we learned Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! (Proverbs 6:6). We then were led in an activity with a community specialist for that topic. In all, over a dozen community specialists volunteered their time to share with the kids each week.

By now you are probably asking, “How can we get involved in what is going on with A Rocha?” (1) Come volunteer on the farm any Monday evening from 5-7 pm. It was fun having Dave and Paige Chase’s homegroup join us last month; maybe your homegroup would like to get dirty, as well. And there are individuals, like our friend Debbie, who come out almost every week. (2) Contact Emiko Corey (emiko.corey@arocha.org) and bring your family or coworkers to the farm some day to help with harvesting, like the Hislop family did a couple of weeks ago. Your high schoolers can get community service credit by helping us in this way. (3) Check out our blog to learn more about what is happening (http://santabarbaraarocha.blogspot.com/). (4) Pray. Pray for the hungry poor who receive this food that their daily needs would be met and that they would experience a deepening sense of God’s love and care for them. Pray for the organizations that we work with throughout our community that our expressions of care and stewardship would reflect well the love of Christ for all creation. And pray for us (Marty Robertson and Emiko Corey) that God would provide our every need as we continue to work in this ministry.

Young man, sit down, you are an enthusiast: when God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine.

Carey was not deterred.  He left his comfortable life in England for India in 1793 in response to the call of God to evangelize those who had never heard the gospel.  Five months later, Carey arrived in India and he never went home.  The father of modern missions stayed 41 years until his death at age 73.  Along the way, Carey founded churches, translated and printed the Scriptures into 40 languages and worked for social reform among the Indians.  

William Carey didn’t go to Urbana.  He didn’t read material from Operation Mobilization.  In fact, there were no missions conferences, there were no prayer letters, summer missions, or career missionaries.  William Carey simply studied the Bible and he couldn’t ignore what he saw.  Everywhere he looked he found God’s mandate to mission, to evangelism!  So he wrote a short book with a long title: An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen.  The book caused a stir but it led to the formation of England’s first foreign missionary organization, with William Carey as their first missionary.  Before leaving for India, Carey preached his most famous sermon, Expect Great Things From God.  Attempt Great Things for God.  William Carey had both great expectations and great aspirations and he endured over four decades of suffering in India for the cause of Christ.  The fruit of his ministry endures to this day.

What does William Carey have to teach us on the 250th anniversary of his birth?

First, Carey was willing to pray.  And prayer led him to his life’s calling. In his cobbler’s shop he took some spare leather, made a globe of the world and began to pray over the whole world.  Finally he said, If it be the duty of all men to believe the gospel… then it be the duty of those who are entrusted with the gospel to endeavor to make it known among all nations. Carey cried out, Here am I; send me!

Second, Carey was willing to plod in ministry.  What do you think happened when this British shoemaker landed in India?  Did multitudes of Hindus flock to him eager to hear the gospel?  Hardly.  Carey labored seven years before he saw his first conversion to Christ!  Once he was asked how he persevered in such a difficult environment.  He said, I can plod.  And plod he did.  His story is a tale of triumph and tragedy.  His first wife lost her sanity, in part due to the deprivations of life in India.  At one point he lost 12 months of translation work due to a fire in his printing office.  (Twelve months!  How did you feel the last time you lost a single document on your computer?)  Bitterly disappointed Carey wrote, I wish to be still and know that the Lord He is God, and to bow to His will in everything.  He will no doubt bring good out of this evil and make it promote His interests, but at present the providence is exceedingly dark.

Third, Carey was willing to see.  As he saw the plight of the Indians, he understood that evangelism means more than evangelism.  Carey’s goal was to win Indians to Christ.  But he didn’t show up in India and present the gospel in a vacuum.  He understood the gospel to be a society-shaping, world-changing force.  Accordingly he worked in other areas of Indian life.  He watched the de-forestation practices of the natives and worked to prevent the 18th century equivalent of clear-cutting.  He was horrified at some of the practices of the local Hindus.  One custom was to burn to death a husband’s wife (or wives) upon his own funeral pyres.  This allowed his wealth to be passed directly to his sons.  Over 500 such widows had been recently burned in the area where Carey worked!   This missionary labored for 30 years to make this practice illegal.  He also surveyed and helped abolish the practice of throwing babies into the Ganges River during an annual festival at the Island of Saugor.  Each year hundreds (thousands?) of families would offer a child to the gods.  With Carey’s help the practice was outlawed.  

Fourth, William Carey was willing to use the gifts God had given him.  There is no question that this uneducated shoemaker was a gifted linguist.  By the time he was 21, Carey had mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Italian.  He was moving on to Dutch and French.  Once in India, he employed his gift for languages to translate the Scriptures.  If nothing else, we learn from him that when God calls us to himself he will use the gifts he has already given us to glorify his name.

Fifth, Carey was willing to stick to his strategy.  He knew his calling and he refused distraction.  His aim was threefold: to preach the gospel in the people’s native tongue, to translate the Scriptures into the local dialect, and to start schools to educate the young.  His vision kept him on course for four decades while a thousand distractions threatened to take him on a detour.  

By the time William Carey died, the doors of modern missions had been flung wide open.  Carey was a world-renowned linguist and something of a celebrity back in England.  The former shoemaker was unmoved by his notoriety.  He cared only for Christ and the work of spreading his kingdom.  While on his deathbed, Carey was visited by a missionary named Alexander Duff.  The young Duff sat next to Carey’s bed and whispered effusive praise into the dying missionary’s ear.  Duff reviewed Carey’s faithfulness, his accomplishments, and his missionary success.  As Alexander Duff got up to leave he heard the feeble voice of the famous missionary.  Mr. Duff, you have been speaking about ‘Dr. Carey’, ‘Dr. Carey’.  When I am gone say nothing about ‘Dr. Carey’—speak about Dr. Carey’s Saviour.

A few days later William Carey died.  He wrote the epitaph for his own gravestone.

William Carey
Born August 17, 1761: Died—
“A wretched, poor and helpless worm,
On Thy kindness I fall.”