Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

When things don’t seem to go our way, whether in our jobs, our family, our finances, or our church, it’s easy to get discouraged. We try to get ahead, and so often, as we try to move forward, we find ourselves on a conveyor belt pulling us back. It’s all we can do just to remain stationary, and when we manage just to keep up, we can feel pretty good about ourselves.

In his book, Direct Hit, Paul Borden says, “Being content with an impotent, declining congregation that is ignored by the community is evil.”

Those are strong words, but they’re true. Right here in North Ridgeville, 20,000 people don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, and many of those who do treat Him more like a casual acquaintance instead of the lover of our souls He really is. God has placed us here to reach out to them with His love to foster new and renewed relationships with Christ Himself and with His bride, the church.

But if we’re doing the best we can and still not moving forward, how do we change that? The answer is simple: get off the conveyor belt.

Have you ever, while driving, seen a bird in front of your car, and when trying to get away from the car, it flies straight ahead instead of going up or to the side? I just want to yell, “You’re a bird! You have wings! Go up!”

We’re the church! We have the Holy Spirit! Go up!

How do we do that? First of all, pray. Pray some more. Pray for God’s direction, for clarity of vision so we can see the path that lies before us. Pray for faith to walk down that path. No, pray for faith to run down that path. When God parted the sea for Israel to escape Egypt, it took faith to walk between those two walls of water, knowing at any moment, the wind could stop, and the walls would crash down on them. But really, that couldn’t happen. They were being held up by God, and God would never destroy His people as they walked by faith. Pray for the assurance that He will lay His path before us as well. And when He lays that path before us, pray that God give us swiftness and sureness of foot, that we move forward boldly, but all the while remain on His path, not our own.

Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

OK, everyone, as a member of Shepherd of the Ridge, has certain responsibilities: Worship, Bible study, taking care of your family, and that whole 10 Commandments thing. But did you know that, as an (all too often secret) agent in God’s army, you have secret responsibilities?

In his blog, church leadership guru Nelson Searcy suggests that every church member, when attending worship, have a set of responsibilities to accommodate guests. Borrowing from his list, here’s my custom list for Shepherd of the Ridge members:

• Fill out the pew pad and offer it to anyone else in your seat: This helps us make sure nobody “slips through the cracks” if they haven’t been here for a while. It also encourages guests to fill it out, since they’re not being singled out. (Being a smaller church, they already feel exposed.)
• Sit toward the middle of the pew instead of at the aisle. (If you have trouble walking due to a medical condition, I’ll excuse you from this one, not doctor’s excuse required.) This allows guests to easily find a place to sit.
• When you see someone you don’t know, introduce yourself. If you think they may be members, but either you or they haven’t been to church in a while (or you just haven’t had a chance to talk to them before), “Hi, I’m <name>, but I’m not sure we’ve met,” works. In a smaller church where “everyone knows everyone (not true, but that’s the perception),” guests want to know that they won’t be excluded.
• This may sound obvious, but when you talk to guests, invite them back. There’s a reason the kid at McDonald’s says, “Thanks. Come again.” He doesn’t care, but he’s been instructed to say that. It plants the idea. We actually do care, and we want people to know that they are welcome here unconditionally.
• If you request a prayer before the service, be loud enough that everyone, not just the pastor, can hear you. People care and want to know whom they’re praying for.

Is God going to strike you down if you sit by the aisle? Nope. He loves you. But He also wants you to love your neighbor as yourself, and that means making personal sacrifices for others.

We sometimes talk about assimilating guests and new members, that is making them more like us. That’s not our job and is, honestly, selfish. We should accommodate guests and new members, making (pretty small, really) sacrifices to make them feel comfortable and welcome.

So next time you come (and we want you to come back, too!), keep these suggestions in mind. If you have other suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

English: Atheist avatar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After inviting a handful of atheist bloggers to our Genesis discussion, one of their readers sent me a poem. Sadly, the email address given was fake, so I couldn’t respond directly, so in the interests of making a point, I’ll post the comment publicly and respond (it’s a bit crude–you’re warned):

The Christian’s Jehovah is Almighty God,
a capricious and cantankerous sod,
and, so far as I can tell,
the Christian often is as well.

because

The Bible Bogey, he’s taught to see,
is three that’s one, and one that’s three;
it’s a father, a son, and a friggin’ ghost,
that with magic spells becomes wine and toast!
With the problem of theodicy,
it sure as hell is idiocy.

similarly

The Jew’s Yahweh is a wrathful old jerk,
setting strict rules on when to work,
how to dress, and what to eat and sip,
and giving baby boys the snip.
Myths of Bronze Age, goat-herding nomads
metaphorically get them, by the gonads.

also

The Muslim’s Allah is a fierce great djinn;
Submission is even the name of his religion.
Apostasy is treated just like a crime;
they’ll threaten to kill you, to keep you in line.
The Religion of Peace is what they call it,
with warfare & terror, they zealously enforce it.

likewise

Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and Jain,
Confucianist, Taoist, Wiccan, – they’re all insane;
the faithful of every cult or religion,
are mired in the miasma of superstition.

My response:

That brings us to the atheist
Who says he’s not religionist
Yet holds that God does not exist
But without proof, he’ll still insist.

Instead of intellectual theses,
He’s satisfied throwing verbal feces.
While holding tight to Dawkins’ nape,
He shows his relative’s an ape.

But all rancor from either place
Results in only saving face.
To coexist, instead we must
Sit down together and discuss.

Hammer your sword into a stein,
And raise your glass of malt or wine.
Then talk of what we disagree,
To see with your eyes, and yours through me.

Last week, Psychology Today published an opinion piece, trying to disguise it as science, showing that atheism will replace religion. So, given that this would threaten my own job security, I thought I’d better check it out. And now, having read it, I’d like to thank the author for once again demonstrating the axiom, “Often, when scientists reach the mountaintop of discovery, they find the theologians who have been waiting for them there for thousands of years.”

Statistical Theology

The author, Nigel Barber, points out the increase in atheism in “developed” countries and cites, “Anthropologist James Fraser proposed that scientific prediction and control of nature supplants religion as a means of controlling uncertainty in our lives.”  In the Lutheran Church, we call this, “The Theology of the Cross” (which, incidentally, happens to be the central topic of our current Sunday morning Bible class). In short, it’s through suffering that God calls us back to Him. When we consider most of our lives to be happy and content, we see no need for God. When things get bad, though, we tend to remember how much we need Him. This study simply demonstrates statistically what Luther said 500 years ago and the entire Old Testament history of Israel exemplifies. (Read the Book of Judges for a great example.)

Fun with Statistics

While increased intelligence and atheism tend to follow the same trends, still only 36.6% of the most elite professors consider themselves atheists, which means that, while many of our intellectual elite don’t believe in God and tend to worship the human mind and its accomplishments instead (which makes sense, considering their field), the majority still believe in God. Further, since the birth rate among religious people is considerably higher than that of atheists, and since children tend to inherit their parents’ beliefs, atheists will eventually disappear simply through their own parenting plans.

That said, atheism is growing in America (I couldn’t find worldwide historical trends.) Atheism is growing at a slow-but-steady rate. And while this rate, if trends continue (and historically, we know these trends tend to fluctuate, so it’s unlikely), Protestant Christianity will last another 258 years, but it’ll be 780 years before the flying cars are all being driven by atheists.

God of Science

Many scientists, the more they learn about creation, come to the conclusion that our universe points to God. While God did not give us the Bible as a science book, we should expect that the Creator of the universe should know a thing or two about it, and the more we compare the Bible to science, the more we learn that the universe affirms the truth of the Bible.

Got Guilt?

While many religions sadly promote guilt, only the Bible can actually cure guilt. A psychologist can tell you not to feel guilty or tell you that you have no reason to feel that way, but the only actual solution for guilt can be found on the cross, where our guilt was nailed, killed, and left for good (Colossians 2:13-15). Until the world comes up with another solution, our own eyes tell us of the evil and suffering in the world, and our consciences tell us that we are accountable for our sin, and if we’re accountable, we must be accountable to Someone, Who can only be God. But thank God that He has provided the solution that we could not (Romans 5:7,8).

When the Hammer Falls

As a pastor, I’m there in the best times (weddings, births) and the worst times (funerals) in people’s lives. I’ve seen the power of God in those situations, and true the the Theology of the Cross, it’s during the funerals that the promise of God’s love and the assurance of the resurrection shines clearest. Because no matter how bad things get in our lives, we know that it will get better, that Jesus will one day return to take us to a new heaven and earth, free from pain, suffering, and corruption (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). Nobody else can offer that assurance.

Promise Made

Finally, we have the promise from the Creator Himself that the Christian church will continue (Matthew 16:18). He kept His promise to suffer for our sin made way back in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15), and He has kept all His promises since. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), so we can trust that, one day, atheism will disappear as the Son of God replaces faith with sight. Until then, we persevere and seek to love our neighbor, whether Christian, atheist, or anything else, as we love ourselves.

In 1984, when we still had Saturday morning cartoons and couldn’t sleep in and just record the shows we wanted to see, while sitting in my jammies and munching on cold cereal, I sat through public service announcements that could only be entertaining to a child still groggy from a sleepover, anxious for the Smurfs to get out of the bind they were in before the show went to commercial.

Among those educational ads came the voice of Luther Vandross as “Zack of All Trades,” a career counselor with a boombox who tells us that our talents and hobbies can give us a hint as to what job we might have someday.

But while the church is not called to do career counseling, the Bible tells us that we all have unique gifts (Ephesians 4:11,12) to use to help each other. God calls us to use those gifts for His service. We can use many of those gifts directly in service to the church, but we also use those gifts in our workplaces, homes, and communities.

Through these vocations (“callings”), God works through us to serve our neighbor. In our workplace, we provide goods or services to our community, making their lives better. When we fail to live up to our calling, the company’s customers suffer, the company suffers, and all of our coworkers suffer. In our homes, God calls us to serve our families, whether as parents or children, and when we fail to act in love toward our families to the best of our ability, they suffer. People in our community depend on us to help them through volunteer activities. In doing so, we show people the love God has shown to us through Jesus Christ.

When we fail, though, while those around us suffer, and we may suffer the consequences of such actions, Just like Peter after denying Jesus (John 21:15-17), God assures us that Jesus has already paid the eternal consequences for our failure, so He forgives us, continues to love us, and calls us again to our vocations with a fresh start, forgiven and called again to the honor of serving the King of the universe.

Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

What are your plans for summer? Camping? Travel? Staying home and cleaning? Some big projects?

While summer is a time for recreation, remember that you’ve already been recreated through your Baptism. Each day is an exciting new day of fresh starts, because you start each day as a forgiven child of God.

Try this exercise: how do your daily activities remind you of your relationship with God? Make this game part of your family activity, whether with kids or out with spouse or friends: Going swimming? Remember your Baptism, and think about what it means to have your sin washed away. Going camping? How is our life here on earth like a camping trip before going to our eternal home, and how do we then live as campers here? Going on a date? Read Ephesians 5. A night in with your spouse? Read Song of Songs together in a suggestive voice (It’s a wedding night poem!) Spring (or summer) cleaning is also a good time to sort through your habits and ask which are beneficial and which are contrary to God’s will for you.

Many families just don’t talk about faith matters, thanks to encouragement from Satan and our sinful flesh, and our fallen world is happy to present all kinds of distractions, but as Jesus told Martha (Luke 10:39-42), only one thing’s necessary: being in God’s Word. Don’t let those distractions be more important to what is really the only important thing from which all other importances come from: the Word of God. (Stop and think about that for a minute. No, really, don’t read on. Stop, reread that last sentence, and ask how you’ve been doing that and how to change it. Jot down some notes.)

(Did you actually do that? Once you have, read on.)

God speaks to us through His Word, but His hand can be seen in our lives no matter where we go. It’s no substitute for the Word of God, and please don’t fool yourself into thinking that, but keep an eye open constantly for the hand of God in your life and in the world around you. He has promised to be with you (Matthew 28:20), and He is. And if you don’t see Him, look again.

Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

Image via Wikipedia

Today is the National Day of Prayer, regardless of the controversy wherein a judge ruled the day unconstitutional. If you’re upset about that ruling, you can write a letter to an elected official. Your letter may or may not get read.

That said, you have a much better opportunity. While a government representative may be able to handle your grievances, you have a greater Advocate. You see, God loves you. He promised to hear you. We don’t deserve to be heard by Him, being rebellious sinners, but because Jesus took our place on the cross, He takes our concerns to the Father.

And unlike a government official who can’t possibly read and respond to every request, God wants to listen and does. Think how often you’d write to the president if you thought he’d actually read and consider your thoughts. Now think how much greater God is, and He eagerly waits to hear from you and hangs on your every word.

But you don’t need a day decreed by the president to take advantage of this opportunity. God listens every day. Like an earthly father, He wants to be in conversation with us, to hear about our day. And even though He already knows, like my daughter telling me what she learned in science class, He just likes to hear it from us. Anytime. Take advantage of that!

Originally written for Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church, apply these ideas to your local context.

Last night during Confirmation Class, our class was talking about Holy Baptism and sponsors, and I mentioned that I personally pray for my godsons every day. One of the students said, “That’s because you’re a pastor.”

I get that a lot.

In my later years of high school and early months of college, many people suggested to me that I should become a pastor. God was using them to call me to this vocation. But, like many of the Old Testament prophets, I resisted. I reasoned, “As a layman, I can tell many people about Jesus, and they’ll understand my sincerity. As a pastor, when I tell people about Jesus, they’ll say, ‘You’re just doing your job.'” Obviously, God eventually convinced me that I could do more good and help more people through full-time ministry, and I stopped running away from His call. I’ve never regretted it.

That said, I was right. That comment I got last night wasn’t isolated. Many of the things I say and teach get filtered through my collar. When I meet people outside the church, I try to let them get to know me as a person before they find out I’m a pastor, not because I’m trying to trick them, but because I don’t want their preconceived notions and stereotypes to draw an inaccurate picture of me, or, more importantly, of Jesus and the real impact He’s had on my life.

When I preach, teach, and care for people, I do so because of the love that has been shown to me. On those days when I don’t live up to my calling, I find myself asking why God chose sinful humans instead of perfect angels to lead His people. Clearly, imperfect people can do the job better, because the message is all about forgiveness, and we can tell firsthand about God’s forgiveness of our own sin.

So why am I a pastor? Because God loves me. I became a pastor, because I firmly believe in His love, and I get excited about the opportunity to share this good news with others. The prospect of doing so all day, every day was just too great an offer to pass up.

That said, most of the people reading this are not pastors. You’ve received God’s love and been given the gift of faith, but He has called you to serve the community through other vocations. You have an opportunity that I don’t: you can share God’s love through word and deed with others without people thinking you have an ulterior motive. Like a satisfied customer compared to a salesman, your actions will look much more sincere. Even if a salesman firmly believes in his product, he’s still “just doing his job.” But as one who has freely received God’s forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf, God can reach many people through you that I will never even meet.

May the Lord of the harvest equip you with all you need to bring His love to all whom He’s placed in your life.

Facebook logo Español: Logotipo de Facebook Français : Logo de Facebook Tiếng Việt: Logo Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A recent article suggested that the Christian church is seeing a decrease in attendance largely due to the ability to connect with people electronically. In other words, instead of going to church for a weekly dose of social interaction, people can just hop on Facebook, send a text to a friend, or connect in some other way.

Given that telephones have been meeting that need, although to a lesser extent, for decades, I don’t think this is the root of the problem. Personally, I see a lack of solid, relevant education being the greatest problem the church has faced over the past few decades, leading to generations leaving en masse. Quite honestly, if the only thing bringing people to church is social activity, then the church would do better to sell its property to its host city so the space can be used by multiple social clubs throughout the week. More importantly, if that’s all the church is providing (well, that and some nice music), it’s completely missing its mission and deserves to die.

But if we’re going to do the work of the church, the question then becomes, “How do we use this technology and information to do the work of the church?” Roughly 2/3 of all Americans between 18 and 45 have a Facebook account. Facebook is all about communication with people. Nearly every American in that age range has a mobile phone. Mobile phones are all about communication with people. Jesus came for everyone. Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh. You don’t get much more about communication than that. So then it just makes sense to use these (and many other) means of communication to connect them with The Word.

We’re already working on some upcoming projects that will use these technologies to connect with people, or more to the point, connect people with the Word. That said, there are many other opportunities we haven’t dreamed of yet, not to mention opportunities that can be done individually by you.

“But,” I hear you say, “I’m not on Facebook! I don’t have a computer!” (This article will be printed in our monthly newsletter.) You have a phone, right? And people you see regularly? And so far, the Post Office is still in business. We still have opportunities to share God’s love with those around us, both in word and deed. Let others see the New Creation God has made you to be by your Baptism, dead to sin and alive to Christ’s love.

How do we do that? You don’t need a demographic study to answer that question. Look at the needs of those around you. If you don’t know what they need, ask them! If they seem down or stressed or frustrated, offer to help. When they politely turn you down, say, “No, seriously. I’d like to help. Really.” If their needs are beyond what you can do to help, then offer to pray for them, and actually pray for them. Check in with them, let them know you’re still praying, and keep checking in.

If you have other ideas, post them below (if you’re reading this online) or drop a note in my box, or call me.