Rip The Church Roof Off.....

Would we let them in? Would we rather not stop the damage to the "house". G Boyle tells about how the church was smelling like feet on Sunday because of the homeless people who were permitted to sleep in the church building each night. It was noticeable, and the church people said it was OK because it smelled of Jesus....and it smelled like commitment....  

"In Scripture, Jesus is in a house so packed that no one can come through the door anymore. So the people open the roof and lower this paralytic down through it, so Jesus can heal him. The focus of the story is, understandably, the healing of the paralytic. But there is something more significant than that happening here. They're RIPPING THE ROOF OFF the place, and those outside are BEING LET IN."
(Tatoos on the Heart. Greg Boyle. pg 75)

This "Used To Be", or "Finally Is", the Church? You Decide!

Working with gangs and housing people with no home in the church building etc. It drew a lot of attention and a lot of threats and criticism to this Priest in California. Can't help but remind me of how many people are in the building on Sunday for themselves,  and their own comfort.... no real heart to help with anything messy in the world.

"It was at about this time a man drove by the church and stopped to talk to me.  He was Latino, in a nice car, and he arrived at some comfortable life and living.  He knew I was the Pastor.  He waxed nostalgic about having grown up in the projects and pointed to the church and said he had been baptized and made his first communion there.

Then he takes in the scene all around him.  Gang members gathered by the bell tower, homeless men and women being fed in great numbers in the parking lot.  Folks arriving for the AA and NA meetings and the ESL classes.

It's a Who's Who of Everybody Who Was nobody.  Gang members, drug addict, homeless, undocumented. This man sees all this and shakes his head, determined and disgusted, as you to say  "tsk tsk".

"You know", he stays, "This used to be a church."

I mount my high horse and say, "You know, most people around here think it's finally a church."  Then I ride off into the sunset.

(Tattoos on the Heart. Gregory Boyle. pg 73)

New Meaning Of Compassion

The most piercing comment on compassion I have ever read.  Book is worth a read.

"Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgement of how they carry it." 

(Tattoos on the Heart. Gregory Boyle, pg 68

Calibration of Compassion

Spoke by a priest working with gangs in California, to make peace. 

"Dante speaks of having compassion for the dammed. We need not feel ourselves as soft on crime if we see this kind of compassion as its highest calibration." Tattoos on the Heart. Gregory Boyle. pg 67

Sometimes the Gulf is wide for Compassion

"Kids I love, killing kids I love......acknowledge how wide the gulf is that we all hope to bridge. But isn't the highest honing of compassion that which is hospitable to victim and victimizer both?" (Tattoos on the Heart. G. Boyle, pg 66,67)

The Answer To Every Question

"Just assume the answer to every question is compassion....Compassion is no fleeting occasional emotion rising to the surface like eros or anger.It's full-throttled." (Tattoos on the Heart, Gregory Boyle. pg 61)

Why Men SHOULD NOT BE ORDAINED

Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

January 6, 2012 9:15 pm

A friend (a woman, naturally) passed this on to me. I thought it was pretty funny. Also helpful in reminding ourselves that what passes for an argument often isn’t.

Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do ministerial tasks.

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and basketball games demonstrates this.

5. Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.

4. Pastors need to nurture their congregations. But this is not a traditional male role. Throughout history, women have been recognized as not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are prone to violence. No really masculine man wants to settle disputes except by fighting about them. Thus they would be poor role models as well as dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man. His lack of faith and ensuing punishment remind us of the subordinated position that all men should take.

1. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the song service on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church.

By Paul Neeley

Article link http://timstafford.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/why-men-should-not-be-ordained/

Too Many Choices Turns people into "Browsers"

"Sometimes Googlers don't want more choices. Sheena Iyengar, in her book "The Art of Choosing", says she began by offering twenty-four different jams for people to taste free of charge. She then reduced the number to six. When she was offering twenty-four choices, 3 percent of the people bought a jar of jam. But when she reduced the selection to six flavors, 30 percent bought some. Too many choices turn people into browsers, not buyers. By the way, the magic number before a person succumbs to cognitive over load is seven." (Viral, pg 110)

I remember that during the GM, Chrysler, and Ford motor crisis, one of the main criticisms was that, particularity GM, had too many options in product. Toyota and Honda had basically 5 choices of cars that have been the same for decades, though upgraded slightly each year. But they concentrated on a small number done well. GM's choices confuse people it seemed.

Believing Too Little

"People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little."
(James Hilton. Lost Horizons)

Legendary Places

"Most races have their promised land, and such legendary places, must necessarily be somewhat inaccesible, hidden behind misty barriers where ordinary men do not go." (Frank ward. The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges)

Church Hit

The way churches operate, this is so true. You can try as hard as you can to leave a church (Except for moving) as silent or as quiet as you like, for big reasons or little reasons. Stated reasons or having never said a word to anyone about it.....but you will always get a slice from someone. It is always spun as you are being rebellious, or unloving, or just can't get along. 

"You can never leave a church without taking a hit." 

Brian Huffman

Uniquely The Same?

This just about sums up lie for most of us, most of the time... trying to be something or live somebody elses dream.

"If we are all unique, why do we spend so much time trying to look and be like everyone else?" 

Wayne Jacobsen

Church Show...!

Someone somewhere along the line got the idea of putting on a “play” for people and calling it church.   The spectators sit quietly waiting for the performance to begin. Each week they start with colorful music and someone leads them in four or five songs. Then the spectators sit down and wait for the announcements.  Once that’s finished, the spectators are encouraged to give money to the “playhouse”.   Then the spectators sit quietly and listen to a guy stand up and tell them what God is saying.
When he finishes, all the spectators file out the door, pick up their children and head for home.  On the way home they discuss the play.  How the worship team did, how the Pastor preached and so on.  Seven days later, they return and experience it all over again.

Darin Hufford

Internet Frees Faith From "Gatekeepers"

"The Democratization that is realized through the Googler culture is a reason for hope, action, and empowerment. Christians should embrace it as a further elaboration of the Reformation doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Just as the movable-type revolution democratized Scripture by taking it out of the hands of the church, so Google revolution is democratizing religion by taking it out of the hands of the gatekeepers and enabling more open-source, self-organized connections with God. This can be for good or ill."(Leonard Sweet. Vital, pg 111)

Pucker Up!

".....I remember asking God about some of the stupidest things. Conflicted about whether I should kiss a girl I met at a camp meeting, I ran across this poem that eternalized my love for poetry.

Father, Father up above,
should I Kiss
the Girl I love?
Sinner, Sinner, down below
Pucker up
And Let her Go!

(Len Sweet, Viral, pg129)

Assumptions People Make About Your Social Media

I have observed that when I quote anything....... people OFTEN make these assumptions on Social Media.;

1. People assume that if you quote it, post it, or share it, you agree with it.
2. People assume if you are reading it, you must accept all this author stands for.
3. People assume some deception, or a "I don't buy it,"  position, if/when you clarify that what you said/meant, is not what you understood. (That is a conversation ender, and a very telling relationship indicator.)
4. People assume YOU are taking the attitude, "I'm all right, and anything thing else is (Mainly you are) all wrong."

No Tinkering!

"The current predicament of churches in North America requires more than a mere tinkering with long-assumed notions about the identity and mission of the church...there is a need for reinventing or rediscovering the church in this new kind of world."

- Darrell E. Guder, editor, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.

Port can make you Happy?

I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that.
If you want a religion to make you feel comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.
- C.S. Lewis

Small Things that Occupy

I am beginning to think Winnie the Pooh understands how good things, fine things, things that are OK,  clutter our heart and prevent us from living for the most excellent things. Have we settled, settled for the brokenness of the world as it is, accepting it's fallen terms, and in the process lost our dreams for the greater visions for something that is good, safe, secure, and OK- at least OK in most people thinking, except your own?

 "Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart." Winnie the Pooh

It's Just You....Or Is It?

"Maybe it's a matter of peer pressure for most of us. Who wants to face the obvious comebacks we are sure to get if we ask why it's not working? You know what I'm talking about. The 'stock' Christian answers we get when people don't know what else to say. 'You need to be in the word,' or 'You must have secret sin in your life,' or 'You just need to spend more time in prayer,' or the ever popular, 'You just need to give it to God,' These comebacks all imply personal failure or a lack of comittment. They are designed to shut you up so you won't be tempted to ask controversial questions that the people who say them don't have the answers to," (The Misunderstood God. Darin Hufford, PG 8)

Loves Hardship Mends Broken Bones.

"As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one another, because this love is the resetting of a Body of broken bones." (Thomas Merton)

Heading of in Gods direction.

"And what else is revival if not the willingness to see what God wants to do and heading off in that direction." (Viral. L.Sweet, PG 182)

30% Wrong

"I'm going to up front with you. Thirty percent of what I'm going to tell you is absolutely false. The problem is, I don't know which thirty percent it is." 

N.T. Wright

Hungry Season is Planting Season

"It is one of Africa's cruelest ironies that as the planting season begins, as it is now across much of the continent, so does the hunger season. The food stocks from the previous harvest are running low and it will be several months before the next harvest comes in. Whatever food remains in the household is rationed: portions shrink, meals are skipped, malnutrition rises." 

African Farmers: Surviving or Thriving?
Posted: 10/04/2012 00:00
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/roger-thurow/african-farmers-surviving-or-thriving-one-campaign_b_1405948.html

Why Have a Device that Does Only One Thing?

God question is it not?

"On way you can tell Gutenbergers from Googlers? Check their wrists. Googlers rarely wear a watch.  `Why would you want a device that only does one thing?' one of them replied when I asked, `Where's your watch?'  They have Iphones, IPads, Androids, mobiles, and Blackberries that put the equivalent of a newsstand, a library, a shopping mall, a jukebox, a video camera, and a high-tech communications center at their finger tips. Soon a handheld device also will double as your wallet, credit card, keys, bank, remote control, airline ticket, video conferencing center, and  thousand other nonvoice uses. Gurenbergers use technology, often reluctantly. Googlers live technology." Viral pg 136

Tidal Wave

Worth some time. Get a coffee, and just listen, think, ask, and pray.

Tidal Wave from simplechurch.com on Vimeo.

Slippery!

"Every issue facing the church today has a slippery Caiaphas, a vacillating Pilate, a betraying Judas, and a centurion who will drive the nails because it's his job." Lloyd Ogilvie

" Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it." Attributed to Harry Truman

Simple Church Interview

The interviewer is annoying, but I get that he is followed by people who have never head of this stuff and it's way outside their box..... first time exposure.... so he is trying to walk them through it...
But worth listening to. 
  

Same Girl!

A young playwright went to see George Bernard Shaw for some coaching. "What's the secret of your success as a storyteller?" Shaw answered. "Well, it's really quite simple. Every play boils down to the same thing. My plots are all the same. Act 1, curtain rises, girl meets boy, curtain falls.  Act 2, curtain rises, girl falls in love with boy, curtain falls.  Act 3, curtain rises, girl marries boy, curtain falls.
The playwright snorted "But Mr Shaw, whats so exciting about that?"
Bernard Saw replied with a smile saying "Same girl, different boy."

Too Simple to Beleive

"You know what I'm beginning to think..... I'm beginning to think that the reason all of this seems so difficult is because it's far simpler than I dare to believe." 

21ys old med Student commenting on simple church. Podcast with Wayne Jacobson,

"Religion is a social experiment to see how many hoops someone will jump through before they go postal."

A 15 yr teens comment to his mother about religion. 

Link: http://thegodjourney.com/2012/04/06/the-simplicity-of-a-loving-life/

Evil is Now Abolished!

On his first day as president of Yale University, the late Bartlett Giamatti issued a memo stating.

"I wish to announce that henseforth, as a matter of University policy, evil is abolished and paradise is restored. I trust all of us will do whatever possible to achieve this policy objective."  1978

"Leader" is a "Madeup" Word with a "Madeup" meaning!

When we use non biblical words, we are guaranteed to diverse opinions and meanings of what leadership is to be... And frankly, how most church consultants are using the word Leadership the last 10 years is scaring the socks off me.  Oh, this kind of leadership works to build churches  (You don't have to deal with dissenting voices), but it does not build relationships.

"Our  fundamental category is `Follower'. Even when Jesus calls us to the front of the line, we still lead from behind. For the last fifty years the church has made a fetish of a word that is hard to find even once in the New Testament (Leader) and has ignored a word that is found hundreds of time (Mathetes or `follower,' `disciple'). Leadership is, at best, a function. Followership is an identity.Christianity is all about following, but that is hard for us to accept. We want to be the leader who takes people to success and greatness...... The first words Jesus's disciples heard? `Follow me'. Jesus's words were not interpreted in a directional sense (`let's go north'). They knew he was calling them to be caught up in what he was doing. Jesus never once used the word leader or anything like it to refer to his disciples." (Leonard Sweet. Viral. 2012, pg 63,64

We've Rediscovered Fire..... Happy Easter!

"Some day, after we have mastered the wind, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the human race, we will have discovered fire."
(Teilhard de Chardin.)

How We see Ourslves- How Seen By others! Google Answers!.

"Christians are so......." How would you fill in that blank? Want to see the top ten Google searches? Type this phrase into Google "Why are Christians so.." 

You will learn something about the Google generations top ten things that most people seem to think  Christians are "So" characterized as being "So" much like... 

What, in this Easter season will make any difference in how we interact with others?

1. Not Alone: Why Are Christians So Hateful?
2. Why Conservative Christians So Often Fail the Common Good
3. Why are Christians so close minded? - Yahoo! Answers
4. Why are Christians so notorious in sinning throughout the world ..
5. Why are Christians So Judgmental?
6. If Christianity is all about love, why are Christians so so desperately obsessed with all the people they hate?
7. Why do Christians so adamantly support a false religion?‎ - 30 Mar 2012
8. Why are Christians so cruel to other religions?‎ - 27 Mar 2012
9. Why are Christians so gullible?‎

 

Sadness is Part of Life

The article says that we see happiness as control, and if we are sad it's because we are out of control.   To be balanced sadness and what we learn from the experience is healthy, and part of normal ife.

"Thinking positively is better than thinking negatively. But thinking realistically has even more to commend it."

(Hugh Mackay; In Praise of Sadness, Readers Digest, Nov 2011, pg32)

Shallow End Journey

"The church is like a swiming pool; the splashing goes on at the shallow end."
(Former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie)

Love Is Proven By A Walk!

"Give them time and see what their love amounts too. The kind of love we are talking about here is something that pervades ordinary life, lifts the burdens of trying to be righteous, and easily flows out to those around us in a degree that you don't see in people, even in people who talk a lot about love..... The teachings of Jesus are actually expressions of a person who has been transformed, there not telling you how to be transformed. When you put them into practice you immediately discover you gotta have help, and help comes, and that is how you know God is with you..."
 (Dallas Willard in an intervene with Drew Marshall on The Drew Marshall Show Toronto)