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so for some reason today my mind has been ticking more than usually. the thought in my head today has been this…who is the church for?
we have all heard the saying that church is a “hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints”. yes, this is true. but how often do we actually see the church as being a “hospital for sinners”? in my eyes, the church is more often a hotel for saints. i guess this is good and bad.
a church is a hotel for the saints b/c it is a place where worship happens. unchurched people are not going to understand everything that goes on in a church service. this is simply b/c they are UNCHURCHED. they won’t (most likely) get it. in this case we can relate church to “base” in a game of tag. after running around all week and hopefully getting dirty by doing ministry in our offices, our meetings, our classrooms, etc, we can come back to “base” to catch our breath. to gain energy, and then go back at it.
but then there is the word “hotel” in that statement. many churchgoers simply leave their christianity in the church. so these churchgoers “stay ” in this hotel called church. they feel that that is all they need, the thought that church is about me, me, me.
now the thought that the church is a hospital for sinners. this is very much true as well. if i were sick enough to have to go to the hospital, i am confident that i would feel very welcome in the hands of a doctor. in the hands of someone who knew the cure or could point me in the direction of someone who knows the cure.
in my opinion, the church should be both. it should be a place where we can retreat to be re-energized with the word, and to spend time with our Creator, but it should also be a place where “sinners” (i am reluctant in using that word b/c it makes churchgoers sound better than everyone)can come and feel welcome. where they can come to be pointed in the direction of the one who holds/offers the cure.
so here the major question that has been going on in my head all day…to whom should the church cater, if it should cater to one specific group? on some blogs i read regularly i am excited to see things that other churches are doing.
Austin Stone Church is doing great things FOR the city of austin. FOR the city, not specifically for the churchgoers. it seems that their focus is making sure that their churchgoers see that the church is much more than some walls and a guy that sings, and a guy that preaches, and some people that sit in chairs and sing songs about a guy named Jesus and listen to the bible proclaimed.
another example is Buckhead Church in Atlanta who is doing this crazy thing. going into the bars and clubs around atlanta and taking good art. (mostly music it seems) church members are going and simple talking with people. not mentioning buckhead church but just investing their lives into the others there at the bars/clubs. and the crazy thing is…IT IS WORKING!
i just sit here and see things that are going on in other churches around the nation, and then i look at my church. i wonder what things we could do here in rosenberg that would make an impact on the city, and on our church.
so here is my question again…
im in the middle of reading this article. “I live with another man’s wife”. personally, i think it is such a clever article title for communal living. here are a couple quotes from the article that have really caught my attention.
+ “When forgiveness flows within the community, the individuals within finally come alive. A resolved conflict breathes new life into the house, and it’s clear that all the verses I was forced to memorize as a kid regarding settling things and not allowing bitterness to take root actually held meaning for real life.”
+ “However, finding God in the community usually isn’t about times of praying together or staying up all night worshipping - at least not in our house. For us, it’s about finding God in the mundane approaches to daily living together - cooking and cleaning, chore lists and game nights, crowding around for a Bourne marathon or our weekly obsession with Lost.”
this article is very interesting, and this is why…
this lady in the middle is our new friend lindsay. she is kimbs new friend from grad school. when kimb and i closed on our house we wanted to get a house that was big enough for us to give a room to friends in town who needed a room. lindsay is sleeping upstairs in our guest bedroom so she doesn’t have to get up before the sun tomorrow to go to the med. center in downtown houston. this communal living thing is a very new idea to me. it most certainly has its pros and cons but so far tonight, i only see pros.
growth in Christ comes from community. i have said many times that it is nearly impossible to live a life that is pleasing to Christ without community. community brings things that are a necessity in this life.
i really don’t know exactly what i’m trying to say here. all i know is that i feel good knowing that kimb and i are offering part of our blessing from God to another person who is in a little bit of a need.
where should churches stand in regards to the 4th of july?
should entire worship services be dedicated to this national holiday?
is it weird that i feel awkward singing “God Bless America” in a church service?
i am really torn. dont get me wrong, i am proud to be an american, but my allegiance lies somewhere a little more important.
“my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it’s to a king & a kingdom”
+ derek webb - a king and a kingdom
your thoughts?
grace and peace.
our week at camp was simply amazing. before the week began i had been praying for unity within our group. i have never seen a group of young people bond and treat each other like family like mine did this week. it was truly an answered prayer. i had one girl who accepted Christ…AMAZING!
one other thing that was awesome was that two children were saved from poverty. one of my senior girls sponsored a child through compassion and one of my junior girls family sponsored a child as well. i was extremely excited to see this.
this camp was probably the best camp i have ever been to. i was honestly put-off by the registration process, it was pretty weird, but once i got to the camp and got integrated to the process of the student life camp, it was one of the most well run camps i have ever been to.
now on another note…today was very interesting. this afternoon i started mowing our yard. as i was mowing the side of the house i caught the water line to our house with the front wheel of our mower. next thing i know…..water is spraying everywhere, and i can’t get the water turned off. sooo, my crazy handyman dad comes over and we spend like 4 hours taking apart and re-engineering the water line. we get it working after a few hours and then i get back to finishing the yard. last time i worked in the yard…this happened. so needless to say, when i got to the back fence…i was a little paranoid. but i made it through without getting stung by one of those dadgum yellow jackets.
i’ve been working on laundry from youth camp so we can have clean clothes tomorrow and i put together a little table for my wife this evening.
this has really been one of the most random days ever.
ever.
oh yea. go read my wife’s blog. show her some love.
grace and peace.
taking the youth to student life camp tomorrow at angelo state university.
it’s that time again.
pray for us.
it’s going to be a crazy week.
no sleep.
early mornings.
late nights.
and a lot of jesus.
it’s going to be a great week.
pray for us.
grace and peace.
the past few editions of the baptist standard have been pretty cool. there was the recent cover story of using video games to reach youth and the current cover story entitled “pass the popcorn”. this article is about christians engaging culture; specifically, movies.
there are many good quotes throughout this article. the authors are coming from the point of view saying that as christians we should not by any means neglect film. we should embrace it and look for the spiritual in the film. here are a few quotes from the article.
“…separation from culture wasn’t the model Christ set. ‘He was to be found at the corner pub, surrounded by messed-up people. He was there among them, but he was different. He was compassionate.’”
“‘The more I look at it, in order to have a meaningful influence on society, we need to live fully engaged lives. How do we do that without hearing the stories told? Without listening to the music played?’”
“If Christians aren’t engaged in culture, they will not change the world or impact society. We’re not going to do it. Period.”
“…Christians…tend to live in a bubble. ‘People isolate themselves, there is nothing wrong with isolating ourselves - Jesus did - but if we don’t know how to exist in the larger culture when we emerge, we have failed’”
“…people know when they are being marketed. ‘So much of Christian art is just advertising for Jesus. If we just keep shouting, we shouldn’t be surprised when people react like we are salesmen’”
lets please not get started on church marketing.
“Christians tend to believe that films have the power to single handedly disrupt or uproot a person’s spiritual development if they contain corrupting elements. I do think people should be discerning about what they watch, but throwing out the baby with the bathwater - and sometimes the bathtub - is a flawed method of encountering and dealing with media.”
at the end of the article one of the contributors told a story of a screening they did of Hotel Rwanda. here is his story from the article.
[Greg] Fiebig (associate professor of communication and theater at Indiana Wesleyan University and former theater director at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.) helps lead a film festival at Indiana Weslyan University. Last year, the first year of the festival, they decided to screen Hotel Rwanda, a film depicting the true story of Paul Resesabagina, a hotel manager who helped house over a thousand Tutsi refugees during the Rwandan genocide.
A student from Uganda, who had lost family members during the struggle, attended the screening.
He began the discussion after the film by announcing he could not stay, due to the fresh emotions the film conjured, but he asked the other students to pray for Rwanda and Uganda.
‘It was an amazing moment,’ Fiebig said. ‘In a room of college students, you could hear a pin drop. A Hollywood film became a worship service.’
these are my thoughts. i cannot fathom being a Christ follower and not doing things they way he did. i want to make an impact on this generation. im convinced that i cannot do that unless i am in there with them. in the words of rob bell…”everything is spiritual”.
grace and peace.
i am going to start going through the beatitudes on sunday nights with my youth. i sat down today to start taking notes and such. here is what i wrote in my journal concerning chapter 5, verse 1.
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
“…and when he sat down…”
why did jesus sit? i learned as a communication major that you can project more when you are standing up. there were crowds, why would he sit? jesus would have to really project. did he sit to get down on their level? it had to be really really quiet. how could they hear? how big was the crowd? i wonder if jesus was a spitter? i wonder if the front row was soaked. i wonder if jesus yelled when he taught or was he just simple and soft spoken. the disciples could not just pull out the sound board, speakers and lapel mic. so he probably had to yell. i wonder if that was out of his character?
thats what i have been doing for the past hour. its good sometimes to get in the office and to shut the door, open your journal, open your bible, and start writing.
…certain things can remind me of my redeemer. yesterday was a very interesting day. probably the worst day i have had, emotionally, in a REALLY long time. in all honesty, maybe the worst day i’ve had, ever. this morning i got into the office. i did my habitual round of websites (myspace, facebook, fantasy sports @ yahoo, astros.com, livejournal, wordpress) and then i decided to sit down and play with photoshop. something that always calms me. i went to find picture that could be a good one to edit in my iPhoto library and ran across this one…
i love how my redeemer is faithful.
we know that every morning the sun is going to rise, and that it is going to set that evening. thats how it works. thats just how it is. i know that my redeemer is faithful to take care of me (i really don’t know what this means), to provide for me (im understanding this more and more), and to never leave me. i am thankful that i serve a God that walks beside me. that is with me in my struggles and in my pains.
please continue to pray.
its going to be an interesting couple of weeks.
… on second timothy tonight and when studying, i think i have found something that i can chew on for awhile.
“But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed,…” 2 Tim. 1:12a
Paul is saying that he KNOWS, his redeemer. he knows the character of his redeemer. it is because of that character that he is not ashamed and sticking to the true gospel of justification by faith.
so here is what i am going to be chewing on for awhile.
there are many characteristics of my redeemer. what is my favorite? can i have just one favorite?
…Christians have a bad name.
this hurts me.
and im pretty sure it hurts God.
such a shame.
In December my fiance’ and I went to Andrew Peterson’s, Behold the Lamb of God show. While there Bebo Norman gave a presentation on Compassion International and Kimb and I felt called to sponsor a child and through this sponsorship, offer them hope, life, and Jesus.
Yesterday in the mail I received a letter from Compassion and in this letter was a letter from our boy Clement. I promptly opened it and read with great eagerness. It was so exciting to read and through this letter sense his excitement that a couple in the United States would choose him. So last night when I saw Kimb, she and I quickly wrote back to him. So here in a few days we will find a picture of us to send with our letter and in a few weeks Clement will see what we look like. Kimb and I are so excited to be able to impact Clements life. We pray that through our monthly sponsorship Clement will come to know Jesus and that if we can never go to Burkina Faso to see him, to know that we will see him one day dancing in heaven.
The joy that this brings to Kimb and I is amazing, but the joy that it brings Clement…
…I cannot imagine.
Would you pray about sponsoring a child through compassion?
peace be with you,
last night during communion my pastor shared a story written by bob benson. (this is a paraphrase. the best i could remember it. but the meaning is still there)
there was this man named james. james was a very active member in church. one sunday his pastor announced that the next saturday afternoon their community of faith would have a picnic at the local park where everyone would just bring their own food for their family.
so james went through his week like he always did. living for Christ in every way that he could. saturday morning comes and james goes to run some errands and stops by the store. there he runs into one of his fellow church members. this member asks if james is going to the picnic. james replies, “i actually forgot all about. i shouldn’t go. i don’t have anything to bring”. james’ church friend encourages him to go and then heads on his way to the picnic. so james goes home and opens his refrigerator and pulls open the drawer where he keeps lunch meat and finds there a dried up piece of bologna. he sighs and pulls it out. he gets his bread and it isn’t really that soft but he gets what’s left of it and the mustard and he makes himself a less than desirable bologna sandwich. then he gets in his car and heads to the picnic.
when he gets to the picnic the church family quickly gathered and prayed over their food and then began to eat. james goes to one end of the table and sits down. then a family of 4 comes over and sits near him and it looks like the mother had slaved over the stove all morning. a huge plate of fried chicken. baked beans. potato salad. pickles, tomatoes, carrots, celery sticks. a chocolate pie and a huge jug of sweet tea. james hesitates to pull out his undesirable bologna but realizes that it is all he has to eat. so he pulls out his sandwich and starts to eat.
when the mother of the family next to him sees that all he is eating is a small bologna sandwich she offers for james to share in their feast. james says “no its ok. i’ve got my sandwich”, but the mother insists. james agrees and enjoys the meal with his new friends. james realized that he was a simple pauper bringing very little to a feast, but then he was invited into this family to share in their feast.
now i understand that this story might be a little cheesy and sound completely made up, but the point is that we are invited to the table to take part in the feast that Christ has to offer us. the thing is that we really have nothing at all to offer him. just a lousy bologna sandwich all we can do is agree and take part in Christ’s feast. the feeling i get when i think that i have been invited to the table, i have accepted the invitation and even though i am seated where i don’t belong, i am never asked to get up and leave the table. ever. i am glad Christ accepts me for who i am.
i saw this phrase on my friends myspace.
“i’m a complete idiot, but i’m pretty sure that God still loves me.”
i am glad that God still loves me and never asks me to leave the table. even when i am a total idiot.
we had communion last night at church. every year, on the first sunday of the year, we gather in the fellowship hall around tables to share the bread and the wine (grape juice. we’re baptist remember). don’t get me wrong, i love taking communion and the memory that comes with it but this years was extra different. with the death of my cousin and everything else that was/is going on, it was good to sit with my family and to be served the elements by my father. after we have taken communion we all stood in a circle and sang the good ole baptist hymn, the bond of love. it felt good. it felt like community.
thank you Jesus. what a great sacrifice. help me to understand to the best of my ability. i know ill never completely understand, but still.
i found this on a friends blog. its just my thoughts.
what are your thoughts?
“[1]Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? [2]For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. [3]He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom med hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [4]Surely he has borne our briefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5]But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brough us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. [6]All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7]He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. [8]By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricked for the transgression of my people? [9]And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. [10]Yet is was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. [11]Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12]Therefore i will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he pured out his sould to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
Isaiah 53 ESV
my friends.
it is time.
it is Christmas.
it is the time that we celebrate the birth of a baby, who was King.
a baby who was King and who was born to die.
for our sins. for our blemishes.
to restore a right relationship between us and the father.
let us not forget.
i was at RAC the other night and i was looking at this book. it was a basic timeline of the world. and this time line was ridiculous. it had way more than the normal big events. in looking through this book i noticed that they mentioned Jesus Christ. so i read on of course. and they wrote after the date…”Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry began. He preached a message of compassion and eternal life.”
national geographic gets the fact that Jesus preached a message of eternal life AND compassion. it seems like we preach about and follow the Jesus that only preached eternal life more times than not. i wish we could just follow the Jesus that the national geographic magazine recognizes. and not just be legalistic about silly stuff.
my mind is confused.
will they ever leave? not that i want them to go, but here…let me explain.
i was reading this morning from the gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 36ish. this is where Jesus calls His first disciples. John the Baptist is hanging out with a couple of his disciples and Jesus walks by. John points and tells his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Immediately, Johns 2 disciples left and followed Jesus. Left John in the dust.
After reading this I thought of my youth. Prior to this John had done a great job of preparing the way of the Lord. He really did nothing to bring praise to himself but instead, did everything to bring praise to the King whose sandal he is not worthy to untie. So John had these disciples who followed him, ( i am convinced) because they knew he would point them to this One who is to come. These were the very disciples who immediately left John to follow Jesus. The disciples were so sure of who this Jesus was. John must have done an amazing job preparing these disciples for the time when they would meet Jesus; for the time John knew was coming. The time when they would leave.
So here is the question I ask myself. I spend alot of time telling my youth about Jesus. Am I doing as good a job as John? Will my youth, the moment they truly catch a glimpse of Jesus, leave? Will they drop all they have and follow this King without asking questions?
I sure hope so.
i have been reading the lion the witch and the wardrobe for a while now. i read it when i was younger but now it takes on so much more meaning. c.s. lewis is so good. so here is the quote that got me today.
“You have a traitor there, Aslan,” said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking about himself after all he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the witch said.”
when i read this i pretty much just shut my book and sat back to think. this quote is so true about our relationship with Christ. well, it is how our relationship should be. you see, edmund had basically gotten sucked in to the witches “promises” and betrayed his siblings and neglected the promises that were to come to him. the promise of being a king of narnia. all of edmunds siblings had met and encountered the real King, Aslan, but edmund had not due to the fact that he had followed after the empty promises of the white witch. when the time came and edmund met Aslan, he was floored. the beauty of this real King had all of his attention. when the white witch, edmund and Aslan were together, edmunds attention was solely on Aslan even though the witch, who had previously captured edmunds heart, was present.
at the beginning of this quote, the white witch reminds edmund of his past. this is so true in our lives as believers. satan always rears his silly little head and reminds us of who we once were. he reminds us of all those times we have screwed up, all those times we have blown it. but in this scene edmunds actions show that Jesus is more beautiful than his past.
so that is my prayer for myself and for anyone else who is a believer. that we would see Jesus as so beautiful that even when satan reminds us of our past, we can’t take our eyes off of Him.
“And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven’ ” - Mark 2:1-5 ESV
I have talked about this scripture many time to many people, and everytime I read it I want to take on hell with a super-soaker. One of the first things I see when I read this scripture is that where Jesus is, people want to be. The people heard that Jesus was going to be in town so they pack out this little house just to hear the guy talk (little did they know but they were going to see alot more than that). But this is not what I want to focus on. There was this group of friends and in this group was a paralytic. These friends had no doubt heard that Jesus was a man of miracles so like any friends would do, they wanted to take their paralytic friend to this Jesus to get healed. So they pick him up and carry him (who knows how far), and I’m pretty sure that they weren’t walking slowly. They get to the house, its packed. There is no way they can get their friend, on his mat, into the house to see Jesus. So they carry the guy upstairs, this is a feat in itself. They go on the roof of this random house and kick/dig/who knows what else, through the roof, knocking dirt/mud/straw onto everyone inside the house. Then they lower their paralytic friend down infront of Jesus, hoping that Jesus will heal him, and Jesus does.
The point of this is that these friends took drastic measures to get their friends to Christ. It’s exciting to see some of my youth starting to come around. Many times I wonder if what I am doing is making a difference. Many times I wonder if God is using me to my maximum potential. As of recent times, it is good to see the fruit. So in your everyday walk, in your comings and goings, when you are reaching out to your co-workers, your fellow students, do whatever it takes to get them to the feet of Jesus.
As far as my post title, I don’t care…what it takes. I’m going to get them to the feet of Jesus.
i think one of the best things about being a youth pastor is seeing a student make progress. tonight i heard a student say from her own lips “i don’t wanna do that anymore” (in reference to part of her past that she knows was not Christ-like). that is always something good to hear.
when a student knows they are doing things that christ is totally not down with, and they make the commitment to themselves to change that part of their life. that makes me me smile, and i know it makes God smile.
baby steps. one baby step at a time.
“let everything that has breath praise the lord” - psalm 150:6
boy have i blown this one.
grace and mercy please?
so it is awesome to see how god is working.
i was talking with a girl in the youth group.
she spilled her guts to me.
she told me how God was starting to change her.
then we prayed.
it was awesome.
i could see how God was using me.
nice. very nice.
oh yea. and go here
myspace.com/abovetheblue
listen and then spread the word.
it was sept. 19th, 2007 that rich mullins went to be with the savior that he so longed to be with. here is what someone wrote about him. it is so good. so true.
1) Rich hated the limelight. His typical concert uniform was jeans (with holes in the knees) and a t-shirt. No shoes. No socks. In fact, he was known for sneaking onto the stage before being introduced, because the glowing introductions always made him uncomfortable. It was not uncommon for the audience to think the guy walking out onto the dark stage and sitting at the piano was some sort of pre-concert piano tuner. Then he’d start playing, and the lights would come on, and everyone would go “Oh, that’s him!” and the concert would start.
2) Rich was a genius musician. I had never heard of the hammered dulcimer until I bought the cassette tape of The World As Best As I Remember It (Vol. 1) when it came out in 1991. There was this brilliant sound on some of the songs — a droning, dancing, rhythmic theme that sounded like a cross between an acoustic guitar and a piano — and it mesmerized me. I figured out that this must be the “hammered dulcimer” mentioned in the liner notes. Within a few years, I had my own hammered dulcimer and had learned to play it. Never anywhere as good as Rich, but still entranced by the beauty of it. Rich introduced a lot of Christians like me to the depth and simplicity of Appalachian music…and the Irish folk music that inspired it.
3) Rich was a 36-year-old college student when his career really began to take off. From 1991 to 1995, one of the bestselling Christian musicians was enrolled at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, pursuing a B.A. in Music Education. He played French Horn in the band, for Pete’s sake. And he remained there until he graduated and received his teaching degree. Now, imagine Chris Tomlin deciding suddenly to enroll at your local community college so he can study physical therapy — because he truly wanted to help people by becoming a licensed, practicing physical therapist — and then actually graduating with a degree…while still writing and recording music. It was kind of like that.
4) Rich was a “new monastic” before we knew what that meant. Before guys like Shane Claiborne came along, Rich was pursuing an uncloistered, semi-Protestant monastic existence. Upon graduating from college, he moved to a Native American reservation in New Mexico, near the Arizona border, where he taught music to kids in the local school. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars through album sales and royalties, but Rich only ever saw a fraction of that money. Early in his career, he set up a team of advisers to handle his finances. They paid him a yearly salary — as I remember it, it was something in the mid $20,000 range, equivalent to that of a common laborer — and the rest went to various charities. He didn’t know what his music and career were worth, and didn’t want to know.
5) Rich was theologically curious, and religiously ecumenical. True story: I grew up in a pretty tight bubble of very conservative Southern Baptist theology and practice. I owe a lot of who I am to that upbringing, but I also recognize that much of who I am comes from the steps I’ve made outside of that bubble. And I was given the freedom to take those first steps by Rich Mullins. The stuff he wrote and sang about from 1991 to 1995 — the end of my high school years and beginning of my college years — set me on a path toward re-understanding a lot of theology. It wasn’t until he started talking about this book by a guy named Brennan Manning, a Catholic writer none of my friends had ever heard of, that a little book called The Ragamuffin Gospel became the Blue Like Jazz of the mid 90s. I devoured The Ragamuffin Gospel. I started reading all of Manning’s other books. Then I started reading all the authors — Henri Nouwen and Frederick Buechner and Thomas Merton and Flannery O’Connor and G.K. Chesterton and Bonhoeffer and Moltmann — that Manning listed in his footnotes. And when a sheltered Southern Baptist boy starts reading Catholics and Anglicans and other suspicious thinkers, the Gospel gets a whole lot bigger. When Rich Mullins described listening to a cassette of Brennan Manning speaking about grace, he told of having to stop his pickup truck, pull to the side of the road, and weep. That hooked me, and it set my feet on a path I’m still on today. (Always rebellious and controversial, Rich ended up converting to Catholicism before his death, by the way.)
6) Rich was messy. It was generally suppressed (for our safety, I suppose) while he was alive, but after Rich’s death we began to learn that he had a fondness for cigarettes, light beer, and the occasional dirty word. This sort of behavior is, perhaps, more readily accepted among CCM artists in 2007, but back in the mid-90s, we needed to be protected from the less wholesome activities of the guy who wrote “Awesome God.” So no one ever talked about it. But there were always rumors, and Rich Mullins was as human as people get. That’s always good to know.
Rich Mullins asked hard questions and didn’t always offer answers. He rebelled against the establishment. He was a quiet, humble prophet in a culture of screaming TV preachers and Christian musicians wearing glittery jumpsuits. He refused to clean up his act — or his wardrobe — for record labels. He wrote songs about the color green, preferring to record offbeat music with densely metaphorical lyrics played by a Ragamuffin Band of unkempt, scruffy, outcast musicians rather than release a polished, radio-friendly pop song. He made lots of money but never saw it. He loved Saint Francis of Assisi and “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber. He grew up Quaker. He drove an old pickup truck and taught himself to play the cello. He talked of grace as often as possible. We were strangers, but I feel like we were companions during a very formative time in my life. I never met him, but he influenced me more than just about any other non-relative I can think of.
Thank you, Rich. You left us too soon. We’ve missed you. You suck, by the way, for not wearing a seatbelt.
Say “hi” to Francis for us.
there has been a scripture that has been running though my head for a couple weeks now. its only right that this same scripture is our study for sunday school this week. its such a good one. i had to share it with you guys.
after Nebuchadnezzar threatened Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with death if the didn’t worship his gods, listen to their response.
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, ‘Your threat means nothng to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.’ “
“…even if he doesn’t…”
everytime i read this i wonder how will i react in regards to my faith even if God doesn’t deliver me? how would you react?
why is it so hard for me to approach the throne of God?
Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.”
i just find it so hard to approach the throne. i understand the fact that i am a sinner, BUT i am redeemed/made clean/sinless by the blood of Christ Jesus, so why is it so hard for me to approach the throne of God.
maybe there are just spells/seasons that believers go through. some days i am doing awesome. jesus and i are tight. there are honestly days where it seems like i am in the presence of God all day long. then there are other days that it seems like there is no chance to be in the presence of God. i guess that is where faith comes in.
i just need to remember that Jesus himself made it possible for me to enter the presence of God by His death on the cross. i need to, at every possible chance, take advantage of His sacrifice and enter the presence of God.
*day two of the H2O project and im doing good.
i would like to introduce you to my friend jamie johns. this is his website (see picture) http://www.hamoreh.org . i think you should check it out. jamie was a professor of mine during my stay at hbu. this man has an absolute love for africa. please visit his website and click on the blog tab at the top. spend some time reading his blogs and i am sure you will be blessed. it is good to see the things that Jesus is doing.
now for another update. on august 10th i left on vacation with kimbs family. we are currently in portland oregon. oregon is pretty cool. i know that in houston they are fighting temperatures of like 99 degrees with a heat index of around 107. here we are dealing with temperatures of like 70 degrees with heat indexes around….70 degrees. its awesome. i really like portland. it is a city of hippies. alot of people riding bikes, vespas, etc, instead of cars. it is very encouraging to see people who are doing what they can for the environment. it seems to me like portland is a very green city. i love it. but today we went and picked berries at a farm market. it was pretty rad. i have gotten coffee a couple times at free trade coffee shops. and later this week we will be going to a farmers market. so i am kinda getting a feeling of what it would be like to live with the earth in mind. its pretty cool. i see from staying here this week that at home we are doing a pretty bad job at taking care of the earth. i want to do a good job. i want to live with the earth in mind. i.e. ride a bike to work instead of driving my car. it will save me some money but it will also cut down on emissions, etc.
talking with kimberly on our walk home from the nickel arcade today we were talking about if we could live in portland, etc. from this conversation we got on the topic of witnessing. how it is so easy to witness to people in other countries but here in the states if you mention the name Jesus, peoples ears close. i brought up the fact that here in the states, b/c of the fact that peoples ears close you really have to focus on your lives. making sure that your lives match what you say you believe. this is because people can go around with their ears closed but they can’t go around with their eyes closed. when people see you living your life differently that will cause them to wonder and then it is simple to preach the gospel, even if their ears were closed.
i want to live my life better and in a way that people can know that i follow Christ.
