One fine day a few years ago, Chloe and I were enjoying a perfect summer afternoon, riding our bikes on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay when we happened upon a garage sale. The residence looked appealing so Chloe’s bike veered effortlessly to the right up the driveway and I instinctively followed her. We browsed for awhile enjoying the treasures, when I came upon what would become a very good friend of mine. I am always drawn to old books at sales like these. Rummaging through the piles I came upon “The Way”; a Bible popular in the early 1970s with college students (my generation) published by Youth for Christ. Holding it my hands brought back enjoyable memories of those days. I brought it to “garage sale checkout” and found out it was free so I took it. This free book has become my favorite Bible for my devotions, especially when I travel. In the front of the book is a convenient table where I keep track of the chapters I’ve read. I have kept track of my reading progress for a few years now.
Early this morning, with “The Way” in my hands, I decided to start my day in the Gospel of Luke. The Introduction to Luke pounded me to alertness. It states, in part, “Victory, defeat, joy, pain, birth, death – life is all of these. Jesus knew joy - and tears. He knew birth and life and – death! But after He was murdered, he rose from the dead! And that was His life was all about. He lived so we could live – really live – and that is why He said we can know joy which runs so deep that no disappointment can fully squelch it. And through Luke’s account of Christ’s life you will see Him “fleshing out” this kind of living – the integrity and depth and power all of us want, so that so that when our successes and accomplishments disappear like smoke and all that we have left is sand in our mouths, we still have what He had. Life.”
With “fleshing out” in mind, I started Chapter 1. These are familiar verses to me about the events leading up to the birth of Christ so I thought I would breeze through them quickly so I could check them off as read. What happened to me was completely something else. Thirteen verses in Chapter 1 spoke to me directly this morning! Amazing! One verse in particular that spoke to me was Luke 1: 37, “For every promise from God shall surely come true”. Another was verse 79, “and heaven’s dawn is about to break on us, to give light to those who sit in darkness, and death’s shadow, and to guide us to the path of peace.”
What happened this morning was so powerful to me that I decided to start carefully reading only one chapter of Luke a day for the next 24 days. Each day, I hope to underline verses where God is speaking to me; “fleshing out” promises and truths giving me the path to peace and the life He has for me. Jesus lived so we could live – really live! Unconstrained, bottomless study in the book of Luke, one chapter a day, will help me flesh it out personalized to my life! This will be a good discipline for me and I look forward to spending time with a very good friend of mine, “The Way”.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Faith belongs to risk takers
IF, “Faith belongs to risk takers.”
AND, “If you haven’t taken a risk, you don’t need faith.”
THEN, “Faith is a vision of what God has already put in place to take care of you.”
New Psalmist Baptist Church, Baltimore, MD. Bishop Walter Thomas, on Palm Sunday, made these provocative quotes in his message – truly representing the way he has led this church since becoming senior pastor in 1975, Warren Bird reported in LEADERSHIP NETWORK LEARNINGS http://learnings.leadnet.org/ (First-hand reports of what innovative churches are doing!).
Warren Bird has been a close friend and teacher/mentor to me since we first met at PAC in 1998. We have spent countless hours talking about innovation and church growth in today’s world. I have learned much of what I know on the subject to date and have been challenged by the conversations we have had. Warren has developed relationships with amazing network of successful growing churches as well as written much on innovative churches.
Last night I was scanning this blog which Warren contributes to on a regular basis. When I came upon these three quotes concerning faith, I was reminded again that Christianity is really an action sport and living by faith is not always for the faint hearted. These three quotes on faith caused me to reflect about taking faith based risks in my own life. Twenty-five years ago I wrote in the inside cover of my Bible, “No reserve, no retreat, no regret”
Many times in my life I have stepped out in faith into the unknown not knowing how things would turn out, notably in 1996 moving to a new company in New Jersey leaving a secure career in Minnesota and then leaving this career of 32 years in 2001 to start a new career in ministry.
Hebrews 11:6 is my current favorite verse on faith. Faith is how we please God. We really have nothing in this life to offer Him that He doesn’t already have except ourselves, in a sense being available to Him. We make this choice by faith. We can go boldly into His presence with our prayers and petitions because of faith. His promise is that He will reward those who earnestly seek Him. We trust this promise by faith.
God always has been faithful to me even when my faith was faint hearted. II Timothy says that when we are faithless, He is faithful because He cannot deny Himself. In a sense even faith is from Him, not me.
While I liked all three quotes at the top on the posting, my favorite quote is the third one because He knows my future and has already made provision for it. My next step in life will be made the same as my other ones, by FAITH.
AND, “If you haven’t taken a risk, you don’t need faith.”
THEN, “Faith is a vision of what God has already put in place to take care of you.”
New Psalmist Baptist Church, Baltimore, MD. Bishop Walter Thomas, on Palm Sunday, made these provocative quotes in his message – truly representing the way he has led this church since becoming senior pastor in 1975, Warren Bird reported in LEADERSHIP NETWORK LEARNINGS http://learnings.leadnet.org/ (First-hand reports of what innovative churches are doing!).
Warren Bird has been a close friend and teacher/mentor to me since we first met at PAC in 1998. We have spent countless hours talking about innovation and church growth in today’s world. I have learned much of what I know on the subject to date and have been challenged by the conversations we have had. Warren has developed relationships with amazing network of successful growing churches as well as written much on innovative churches.
Last night I was scanning this blog which Warren contributes to on a regular basis. When I came upon these three quotes concerning faith, I was reminded again that Christianity is really an action sport and living by faith is not always for the faint hearted. These three quotes on faith caused me to reflect about taking faith based risks in my own life. Twenty-five years ago I wrote in the inside cover of my Bible, “No reserve, no retreat, no regret”
Many times in my life I have stepped out in faith into the unknown not knowing how things would turn out, notably in 1996 moving to a new company in New Jersey leaving a secure career in Minnesota and then leaving this career of 32 years in 2001 to start a new career in ministry.
Hebrews 11:6 is my current favorite verse on faith. Faith is how we please God. We really have nothing in this life to offer Him that He doesn’t already have except ourselves, in a sense being available to Him. We make this choice by faith. We can go boldly into His presence with our prayers and petitions because of faith. His promise is that He will reward those who earnestly seek Him. We trust this promise by faith.
God always has been faithful to me even when my faith was faint hearted. II Timothy says that when we are faithless, He is faithful because He cannot deny Himself. In a sense even faith is from Him, not me.
While I liked all three quotes at the top on the posting, my favorite quote is the third one because He knows my future and has already made provision for it. My next step in life will be made the same as my other ones, by FAITH.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
A,B,C's of Small Groups
My job brought us to New Jersey from the midwest in 1996. After we visited many churches over a one year period, we found Princeton Alliance Church in December 1997 and quickly decided this was the church for us. We joined PAC in early 1997. We got involved in a small group shortly afterwards. We met Bill and Tia Smallwood who invited us to join a new small group led by them. Bill and Tia have a real gift of making new people feel at home. It was in this small group that I eventually met Bill Clark who became one of my closest friends at that time. Bill and I had many rich discussions and I grew from our friendship and time we spent together. At the time I was completing my first career of 32 years and many times was able to use much of what Bill and I discussed in company employee meetings (my job then was to lead a company business unit of 1100 people).
One of Bill and my discussions centered on man's deepest need to be fully known and fully loved. The problem man faces is that if he believes that when he is fully known, he won't be fully loved because peple will know his faults and shortcomings and not love him. We crafted these thoughts in the document below based on these discussions.
"The A,B,C's of community in small groups are Authenticity, Belonging, and Caring.
Authenticity - is our basic desire to be fully known.
Belonging - is our basic need to be a part of something bigger than our selves so that, interacting with others, we can learn about our selves and receive:
Caring - we need to know that we are considered precious by others. We need to be loved.
The problem is that, on our own, we can get this exactly backwards. We start to think that if we are authentic - if people come to know us for who we really are - they will reject us. We will not Belong, and if we don't belong, we will not be loved. So from a human perspective, we see a conflict between being authentic and being loved.
But the good news is... Jesus fully knows us AND fully loves us - enough to die for us on the cross. And once we really accept the grace provided by the cross we can begin to be authentic with God. We can stop pretending that we can be good enough and accept the fact that through Him we truly Belong in the Kingdom of Heaven. In that security we can ask God to help us see ourselves - authentically.
So with Jesus, the Love comes first, when we accept this unconditional love, Belonging and Authenticity follows.
So why do we need community? Because when we are alone, we fall back into human conventions. Like thinking that A comes before B and B before C. Even when we come here for corporate worship - we put on our best clothes and we tend to leave all the stuff that needs to be brought before God at home in closets. We're afraid to bring that stuff here because if we did, we might not Belong. And, as a result, we might not be loved.
So what we need is a place that's modeled on God's A,B,C's of community - not ours. Where the Caring comes first and the sense of Belonging follows. Together, these create an environment in which it is safe for us to be Authentic. And here's the good part - at this point a feedback loop kicks in - when a more authentic version of you is loved (even while being held accountable), you really feel like you belong and this allows you to be even more authentic, and when this version of you is loved, you belong even more..
When this upward spiral takes place lives are transformed as we grow in Christ, together. I believe that this spiral occurs more easily in small groups than in large ones and it occurs most easily in small groups where the caring - unconditional caring - comes first. So, if you are not in a small group, get in one. If you are in a small group, do what you can to make the caring come first. You'll be amazed at what happens next.
Bill Clark and Pat Colgan
October 2000"
One of Bill and my discussions centered on man's deepest need to be fully known and fully loved. The problem man faces is that if he believes that when he is fully known, he won't be fully loved because peple will know his faults and shortcomings and not love him. We crafted these thoughts in the document below based on these discussions.
"The A,B,C's of community in small groups are Authenticity, Belonging, and Caring.
Authenticity - is our basic desire to be fully known.
Belonging - is our basic need to be a part of something bigger than our selves so that, interacting with others, we can learn about our selves and receive:
Caring - we need to know that we are considered precious by others. We need to be loved.
The problem is that, on our own, we can get this exactly backwards. We start to think that if we are authentic - if people come to know us for who we really are - they will reject us. We will not Belong, and if we don't belong, we will not be loved. So from a human perspective, we see a conflict between being authentic and being loved.
But the good news is... Jesus fully knows us AND fully loves us - enough to die for us on the cross. And once we really accept the grace provided by the cross we can begin to be authentic with God. We can stop pretending that we can be good enough and accept the fact that through Him we truly Belong in the Kingdom of Heaven. In that security we can ask God to help us see ourselves - authentically.
So with Jesus, the Love comes first, when we accept this unconditional love, Belonging and Authenticity follows.
So why do we need community? Because when we are alone, we fall back into human conventions. Like thinking that A comes before B and B before C. Even when we come here for corporate worship - we put on our best clothes and we tend to leave all the stuff that needs to be brought before God at home in closets. We're afraid to bring that stuff here because if we did, we might not Belong. And, as a result, we might not be loved.
So what we need is a place that's modeled on God's A,B,C's of community - not ours. Where the Caring comes first and the sense of Belonging follows. Together, these create an environment in which it is safe for us to be Authentic. And here's the good part - at this point a feedback loop kicks in - when a more authentic version of you is loved (even while being held accountable), you really feel like you belong and this allows you to be even more authentic, and when this version of you is loved, you belong even more..
When this upward spiral takes place lives are transformed as we grow in Christ, together. I believe that this spiral occurs more easily in small groups than in large ones and it occurs most easily in small groups where the caring - unconditional caring - comes first. So, if you are not in a small group, get in one. If you are in a small group, do what you can to make the caring come first. You'll be amazed at what happens next.
Bill Clark and Pat Colgan
October 2000"
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