Father Daughter 2011

►

If you missed the fun at our Father daughter dance, here is a video to see all the fun and plan for next year.

Ministers in Johnston first gathering

One of the things I noticed when I arrived in Johnston is that there are a dozen good churches.  All of them have an excellent ministry and have a niche in the community.  But I also quickly determined that there was not a lot of ecumenical (inter-denominational) cooperation. As often happens with churches we quickly get caught up in our programs and with a lack of time our churches naturally focus on the needs of their own community.  Sadly that implies that we are not sharing the gospel, or even noticing the needs of our “Neighbors.”

How then to do we do evangelism or care for others?  Is it left to the individual Christian?  Is it only the outgoing pastors who find time and have the gifts to share their faith with others?  How can the, over a dozen, churches in Johnston work together to reach out to our neighbors with the good news of the gospel and care for the needs of those in our midst?

Well, here is an article that followed one of our first ecumenical gatherings.  Check out what was written in the Johnston Register on Thursday of this week.

Euthanasia (Part 2 of To Kill or not to Kill)

Check out this 2008 Time Magazine article on Euthanasia, or Fox News similar article.

After discussing the Death Penalty I thought that Euthanasia would be a breeze.  (But then I realized it had just as many intricate details that had to be thought out.)

Let me remind us once again that we are talking about controversial topics,(Thanks to Adam Hamilton and his book Confronting the Controversies) but we are respecting the views of all.  I invite everyone to this conversation knowing that we will not all agree, but that every perspective deepens the understanding and compassion of the whole.  I would also remind us that these issues are not salvation issues.  No matter what your view on these topics, salvation is only gained through a personal relationship of faith in Jesus Christ, and the grace that he extended to us through the cross.  So let me begin with a scripture text.

To Kill or not to Kill

Capital Punishment is one of those issues that can find many passionate opinions on both sides.  And the reality is that most of us cannot understand the depth of passion that some family members feel.  Recently in Iowa there was a murder and robbery in Algona and Humbolt that brought out many strong feelings of retribution and empathy.

Considering these crimes committed allegedly by Michael Swanson I am sure there are many opinions surfacing about what is justice.  On KCCI’s page you will find the facts and reactions of community and other readers.  This is obviously a boy who made a poor choice that will affect many people.  One victim left 10 children.  Families and communities will struggle to answer the questions; why, and what now?  And although he is only 17 there is already consideration of trying him as an adult, and in some comments I have seen people promote the death penalty.

In Iowa we no longer allow the death penalty.  This web page contains some basic facts about the death penalty in the US. As of 2009 there were somewhere over 3,000 people on death row in the in United States.

As thinking Christians we are faced (as the rest of society) with horrible acts that affect whole communities.  How are we supposed to respond to violent acts like this?  How do we balance the words of scripture and interpret God’s Justice and Mercy?  I hope you will follow the link and vote your opinion on Capital Punishment.

Creation & Evolution

Which came first Creation or Evolution?

In a world where politics, religion, sexuality, and any other controversial issue is considered taboo, I believe these are exactly the topics we need to discuss.  Instead of setting our mind on a position and arming ourselves to defend it, as intelligent and compassionate Christians I believe our society demands that we strive to understand and seek out the Christ – like connecting points on difficult issues.  It might do us a bit of good to remember that Jesus did not take the same hard-line position as the religious leaders of his day on many “important” issues and laws.  He spoke truth, but he did so with grace and compassion.  He also spoke harshly to the Pharisees when they promoted a law over the expression of grace and compassion toward a person.

I recently began leading an Adult Education class on Sunday mornings at New Hope.  Our goal is to address culturally relevant and challenging faith issues in a format where everyone can converse openly, honestly, without judgment or being judged.  We remind people that these discussions have to be done with respect. (We used Adam Hamilton’s book Confronting the Controversies as a resource guide)

Christmas Tradition or Pagan Celebration?

Tradition has great value.  It has been one of the cornerstones of the church since its inception at Pentecost.  In fact I wrote about the value of tradition in a previous article (Why does our culture need the Church?)  Interestingly many of our traditions have roots that go back much further than we know and have very secular foundations.

Christmas is one of the holidays that tend to be recognized as “Christian” in origin.  Many people assume it is the day of Jesus actual birth.  But the reality is that no one knows the actual date of Jesus birth, (Like the info here, but you will find my conclusion in stark contrast to this web page) In fact, Mark (which is the earliest gospel begins with the story of Jesus at his baptism – indicating that for the early church, Jesus’ birthday was not as important as his life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

As I have been searching, there are a ton of sites out there with information about the origin of Dec. 25th as the birthday of Jesus.  Most of the information including Wiki articles point to its connection with the winter solstice, or Sol Invictus and the pagan celebrations of other cultures such as Babylonian, and Mesopotamian roots.  There is even more ancient traditions of tree decorating and hanging greens.  I guess the point is that Christmas is not really a “Christian Origin” holiday. It has roots in pagan history long before Christians began to celebrate the birthday of Jesus on Dec. 25th.

At this point we find staunch traditionalist or fundamentalists saying that the best thing to do is to throw out the Christmas holiday and not celebrate it at all.  I on the otherhand as a self-proclaimed “Striving for centrist” believe that we don’t need to “throw out the baby Jesus with the bath water.”  In fact I think that the Christmas holiday tradition is a perfect example of how the Christian church has learned to grow and adapt to secular / pagan culture.

Jesus himself exampled the transformation of an Old covenant for a New covenant at the passover meal / Eucharist.  At that point a new tradition began which took the symbolic bread and wine of the Jewish celebration and gave it a new symbolism (for the transubstantiationist reading this, Christ gave the bread and wine a whole new physical reality – no need to argue over Eucharistic doctrine in this article) Paul continued this practice of changing the meaning of cultural things into religious symbols and teaching tools when he taught in Athens at the Areopagus.  (Acts 17:23)

For me the highlight of understanding the roots of Christmas as pagan is in the fact that Christians transformed a cultural celebration into an opportunity to teach about the good news of Jesus.  It reminds me that Christianity is its best when, instead of running from culture, it embraces the secular culture it is a part of and impresses the truth of Christ into it.    Another good example of this (which will have to be another article) is how many of our traditional and most favorite hymns of today were originally BAR TUNES.  Yep, that is right, people like Charles Wesley learned that if they took familiar melodies and changed the words, they could teach people about Jesus.

Maybe the question we should ask ourselves this Christmas is; “Am I embracing the Christian meaning of Christmas, or am I just taking what the secular culture is throwing at me?”

If you don’t have family traditions that teach your children about the Christian meanings of Christmas, maybe this is a good year to try something new.  (Attend Christmas Eve Service as a family, read the Christmas story as a family (Luke 2) Sing some carols, share what gifts God has given you this year)

May God bless you and your family this Christmas!

New Hope 2010 picture celebration

New Hope 2010b

►

Bible Resources

“What are some of your favorite internet Bible Study resources?”

This is a question in here occasionally, and one that I ask just about as often.  The web is full of resources for everything you can imagine, the real issue is finding the tools that you need.  I thought I would start a listing here of some of my favorite resources, and if you have any that you really find beneficial, please add your suggestions via comments.  I will update the list as I receive more info.

• Bible Reading
  • http://www.biblegateway.com/ – probably one of the easiest and most broad Bible resource sites, includes:
    • great search tools
    • 2 commentaries
    • 3 Bible dictionaries
    • audio bible
    • several reading plans
  • http://www.bible.com/ – A simple Bible reading, search, and devotional page.  It also has some good resources for basic faith questions.
  • Free Recovery Bible – If you or someone you knows needs a Bible to read and hold, here is an option for a New Testament

• Bible Study (Commentaries Concordances)
  • Bible Study Tools – This site has an abundance of study tools.
    • 12 commentaries
    • 5 dictionaries
    • 20 English Bibles versions plus many other languages
    • 6 versions of the Apocrypha
    • 4 concordances
    • 1 Encyclopedia
    • 5 book collections of Church history – including the 38 volume series of early church fathers
    • *** Online Greek and Hebrew lexicons – for those of you who really want to know the exact translation of a word.
  • Group Bible Study Resources – some free download-able
  • Discipleship Journal – A great online archived magazine with article and studies for the Christian who desires to grow in discipleship.
• Bible Context / Culture
  • Christianity Today – A magazine with online archived articles and research along with recommendations for books.
  • Historical and Cultural context of Scripture
• United Methodist Resources
  • GBOD -Global Board of Discipleship – Way to connect with everything United Methodist; find a local church, conference, district, hospital, mission, or find resources for lectionary, leading your congregation, or worship.
  • New Church Initiative (Path One)
  • Iowa Annual Conference
  • Christian Educators Fellowship – If you work with Christian Education in the United Methodist Church, here is a web page to connect you with others who are doing the same thing.
• Christian Multimedia
  • Audio Bible – a simple King James audio Bible that plays through Real Player
  • Blue Fish – Great videos and backgrounds for use in worship
  • sermon central – Powerpoint presentations, sermon illustrations, videos, and even searchable sermons
  • sermonspice – illustrations, backgrounds, countdowns,
  • shiftworship – motion, still and video backgrounds

Well, I hope this gets you started and helps you find the resources you need to dig a little deeper in your faith.  As I mentioned, if you have a resource that you want to share, please add it in the comments so I can add it to the list above.

Beer in the Bible?

Warning, if you know that you have a strong conservative view on Alcohol and believe that Jesus would never condone the use of “strong drink,” you might find it would make your day better if you did not read this article. If however you feel you have an open mind read on.  (you have to read it all to get to the survey)

First of all, thank you to a certain member of my SPPRC (Staff Pastor Parish Relations Committee) for passing the link of information on to me.  (I’m not sure if they want their name acknowledged or not – this way I can take all the credit/blame)

The reality is that in the United Methodist Church we have a long standing history of being Teetotalers.  So much to the point that we serve grape juice in stead of wine for Holy Communion / Eucharist.  In fact, Thomas Bramwell Welch – the father of Welch’s grape juice was a member of the Weslyan Methodist connexion,  which required the serving of the Lord’s Supper to be with “unfermented wine.”  So in many ways, the United Methodist Church can lay claim to inspiring the birth of Welch’s Grape Juice.  There is even a reference in our Iowa Methodist history book “Between the Rivers” to a Methodist preacher who was shot in the street for his stand against alcohol.

Before we go any further I want to make sure that you understand that excessive drink is contrary to scripture and harmful to individuals.  It is referenced in Prov. 23:20.  So this article is not written to justify drunkenness.  Rather it is written in effort to correct the pietistic (super-righteous) attitude of many Christians that cause them to judge or even condemn a person who chooses to take a casual drink.

The Stress of it All!

I just don’t know how I can face tomorrow!!!

That is how the day starts and ends for many people; our friends, neighbors, or family members. Depression, anxiety, mood swings, and stress are a part of our everyday life. In our present economic situation stress is a part of every persons life, we can’t avoid it. With elections just past, we realize that there was stress leading up to them, and a new stress coming out of them. With jobs, families, finances, church, friends, there is stress of all sorts.

I recently attended a CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management Seminar) in training for a position as a Chaplain of the Fire and Police Departments of Johnston. Of course these public servants do come into contact with some very serious events that can be stressful and it is important for them to have some form of debriefing process to go through. In fact we too often take their difficult services for granted and do not say “thank you” enough for the positions we as civilians put them in.

Thank you to all of you public servants, and military personnel who put your lives on the line to protect and serve, and to keep us safe when we put ourselves in harms way – accidental or not. And we want you health – physically, emotionally, and spiritually, so don’t be afraid to talk to someone when the stress seems to much. It does not mean you are weak, it means you are human.

On the civil side of reality we all experience stress of some kind. There is such a thing as cumulative stress on people that grows out of our everyday life experiences and it can be just as debilitating as the stress of a critical incident. This is stress that you get at work when you aren’t getting along with coworkers; at home when you have a marital dispute, when you move, when you change jobs, when you have a health problem, or so many other possible situations.

Some of you may find yourselves carrying more stress than you are able to carry. Some may think that the rope is ready to snap. If that is the case, I encourage you, don’t wait until it does. There are people out there who care deeply about you. There are people who will listen. They will not judge you or your situation, they just want to help you find the balance to your life again.

If you feel that way, and don’t know where to go, please contact me. Whether you are in the same city or state with me it doesn’t matter. Where ever you are, I will help you find someone to talk to. Here is a contact page for Iowa:

Iowa Critical Incident Stress Management Network – with a list of contact phone numbers for every county in Iowa