What Do You Think When You Hear The Word #Church?

That was one of the subjects on twitter the other day - What do you think when you hear the word #Church (Ignore the # - it's a twitter thing). I didn't see many of the responses but I was mulling over possible responses in my head. As a partner in LifeQuest Church in Macon, I thought it was something that I should consider.

Personally for me it is something to look forward to. Of course there are some exceptions, making sure that the media is ready to go is part of my responsibility and I have been up at 2AM early Sunday morning trying to get things right for Sunday morning. But like other Christians I think that sometimes it becomes a responsibility; something that is expected of us rather than something we look forward to. If we as Christians maybe sometimes cringe when we hear the word Church what is possibly running through the minds of others.

Is this possibly what may be running through the minds of certain people groups?

Teenager - Is church a place that is relevant to me. It seems like we learn about all those ancient guys- almost as bad as school but at least we don't have tests. Not my type of music. I can't wait till I'm an adult and I can decide where I go and where I go probably won't be to Church on Sunday mornings.

College Student - Church, yeah I sometimes go with Mom and Dad when I'm home for the weekend. When I'm away at school I just never have the time for that. Church isn't that important in my life right now.

Young Couple with small children - I was raised in Church. I also believe my kids should be brought up in Church too - I want them to be exposed to religion even though I don't always agree with the Church's stand on certain issues.

Alcoholic, Drug User, etc - I have messed up too bad for God to want to have anything to do with me - and those Church people - they may come around sometimes like they want to help, bring a meal or something like that - but what I really feel from them is that this dirty filthy sinner better not get not to close to them. I think they come here to us sometimes so they can feel better about themselves without the likes of me dimming the door of one of their buildings on a Sunday morning. Pretty much lets me know I was right in the first place - I've done too many awful things for God to forgive me.

Homosexual - Yeah - like I would go there. I have heard hate the sin but love the sinner enough. Hope that makes them feel better - I don't think there is a church around here that I could walk into without sneers and snickers behind my back. Such love of God these people exemplify.

What thoughts do you think of when you hear the word CHURCH??

Straining Gnats

I hate gnats. For a while I lived in Statesboro which is well into the gnat zone. They aren't like they are in Macon where you get a few sometimes - down there they travel in clouds and as they pass your head they try to crawl through your tear ducts, in your nose and fly into your ears. There isn't much that can stop them (other than moving to nice gnat-free areas of the country). Thus, I hate gnats.

Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (Mat 23:24)

Today Churchianity looks at externals and has all their rules to make you appear to be a good little Christian. Don't doubt that there is a hierarchy of rules that would make any Pharisee proud. It is more important to not drink, smoke, or be rude than many other things - thus we allow the gnats to obfuscate the real problems.

God has been dealing with me about superficiality since we have been preparing LifeQuest Church. We have taken part of a building that hasn't been used for several years and made it look pretty good. There is all new ceiling tiles, new paint, and other things to help fulfill some modern Church expectations. Granted, everything we have done has been necessary and God has blessed us in doing so, but just as trying to make sure we act right and look like presentable little Christians on Sunday morning......but something is wrong. When the rains come some of our pretty little ceiling tiles start showing big nasty water stains. Everything looks good, but our building has some hidden faults that are exposed under the right circumstances.

Churchianity wants to make sure we look like good little Christians and tries to pretend that there aren't any faults - that everything is ok under our perfect veneers. Jesus wants to fix the hidden faults and let it show through to the outside. Jesus cares that we are caught up in sexual sin whether it be sexual relationships outside of marriage, lust, pornography, homosexuality and wants to free us from desires that enslave us. Jesus cares about our addictions - our dependences - nicotine, alcohol, drugs, activities, relationships and he wants to free us from those that ensnare us.

Maybe we should be Jesus rather than a pharisee on Sunday Morning (and other times too) and care less about the outside - those annoying little gnat issues that block us from seeing the camels - the issues that Jesus is really trying to fix. We become distracted by how people look, act, dress, smell and how they act rather than seeing beyond - seeing the person inside that is coming to us looking for a relationship with the Living God of The Universe - looking to us that say we know him and can introduce them to him - looking to us that sometimes decide that the person looking is unworthy in our eyes to be introduced to that God.

maybe I shouldn't be as bothered by the gnats...........

Father's Day

God has been messing with me all week about Father's Day. At first I thought I was supposed to say something about it at LifeQuest Church this morning but as it got closer to this morning it became more obvious that what God was saying to me was for my blogging.

I have a different outlook this year than I have had in the past - as many of you know my Dad and Stepdad both died this year within a month of each other so this is my first year without a father figure for me. At the same time, Kymberly (my daughter) is out of town with her fiance where they are gone for pre-marital counseling with Pastor Darin - making this the first year one of my children was away at the same time.

As a son and a father I know that sometimes hard decisions have to be made. It would be great if we could always make the decision that our kids want us to make - to give them everything they want - to be what they want us to be. But we can't. It is our job to make the decision that has to be made even if our kids think it is unfair - to withhold things they want for their own good - to be what we have to be even if it feels like it hurts us and them at the time.

Now we are just a shadow of the type of Father that God wants to be to us. as much as we want to make the right decisions our human emotions and desires sometimes get in the way - our lack of knowledge about all circumstances cause us to fail in our goal of making the right decision. God doesn't have to work under those handicaps - he as the perfect Father cam make the right decisions - to always have the best interest of his children at the forefront.

And yet, we turn away and run away from Him. Some of us call Him evil and refuse to give him the respect that He is due. We justify our actions by what we see and our own circumstances. we refuse to see the big picture. And when we sometimes do finally realize what we have done we claim that what we have done is so bad, so evil that there is no way back - that we are not worthy of our father's love.

As a father - as a pale shadow of the Father let me assure you that when our children come and say they are sorry, that they messed up, can they come back - that we will welcome them with outstretched arms. Though we know that sometimes our children have to walk some rough and rocky roads before they realize that all we want for them is their best - we never cease being their Father - we are always ready and waiting for them.

You Might Be A Right-Wing Extremist(Terrorist)

You might be a right-wing extremist if......

.....you are concerned about the economic downturn.

.....you are unemployed.

.....you have trouble getting credit.

.....you believe in the 2nd amendment.

.....you served your cuntry on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq.

.....you believe in the 10th amendment (states rights)

.....you are opposed to abortion.

.....you believe that people immigrating to our country should follow the laws to get here.

.....you have been buying ammunition because the price is going up.

.....you believe the US has lost jobs in the manafacturing and construction sectors.

.....you are concerned about home foreclosures.

.....you are not in favor of the governments expansion of social programs.

.....you are concerned about government infringement on civil liberties.

.....you fear a economic collapse.

.....you believe Jesus is coming back and end-times prophecies are being fulfilled.

.....you believe some people would like to make a one-world government.


Glad to see the DHS is spending it's time wisely. (sarcasm)

TAKEN

I saw the movie "Taken" last night. (I know I am way behind the curve on getting around to seeing it). What a good movie - but also makes you think about a couple of things.

Look at the depravity of the heart of man - that man has fallen so far as to traffic in the lives of others to satisfy their greed. They could do legitimate things - but their fallen nature is so twisted, so perverted, so far from where it should be that it appears they have no conscience and not a feeling bone in their body. Don't kid yourselves into thinking that sex trafficking is not happening in our country - if not even in our own towns.

One other thing that stood out is how her father would do anything to rescue her - willing to risk his own in very dangerous situations to bring his daughter back to him. This week after Easter it still reminds me that Jesus didn't just risk his life - he walked into certain torture and death to carry out his rescue of us.

A quick thought,
Steve

Dissatisfied

Today, on the third day of dealing with a software company on upgrade issues on a specialized piece of software, I just about lost it. I was fuming. After it became apparent that they were not going to be able to fix the problem again, I left the location where i was at, went to our office, dug out my laptop and wrote an e-mail to the owner and President of the company. I was dissatisfied, I was unhappy, I was ready for something to change.

I am dissatisfied with my spiritual life. I don't study my Bible as much as I should. I don't pray as much as I should. I have not brought my children up and fully taught them what they should have been taught when they were younger - I left them to fend spiritually for themselves, with just my poor example. I sometimes look at my spiritual life and say to myself; " Is this it, is this how it was meant to be?" There are things that God has told me to do that aren't going like I think they should go. I want to say; "Come on God, you have told me and others to do this. Show us what to do."

There is a current of dissatisfaction - I know God made us for more than this. You have something you want me to do. It is almost like a hunger - a knawing in the gut that prompts me to not be satisfied with the ordinary. I am prompted to write out these thoughts I have, almost like a mental vomit that must be released.

It is coming......................................................................

More Americans Say They Have No Religion

SOURCE STORY - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506849,00.html

According to the story, most traditional forms of Christian religiosity are in decline in this country. Less and less people are calling people of faith. The only groups on the increase are non-denominational groups (though there was also a story from a few months ago I commented on showing that non-denominational groups falling away from a charismatic tradition are also decreasing) and people that are increasingly bearing the label of evangelical or born-again. More and more people are apparently unable to continue an association with mainline Protestant, Catholic and some other groups.

So what is missing?

Why are people disassociating themselves from religious institutions?

Is it because of perceived empty tradition. Is it a failure of some Churches to be relevant - to be real - to fail in entering into relationship - to be Jesus? I know those sound like catch words, like I an trying to use the new terminolgy that people want to hear, but that isn't what I am really trying to say. I don't want us to be relevant by using relevant terminolgy - I want to be relevant by making a difference.

I want to be a revolutionary!

I want Jesus to live in me enough so that I can show others what he looks like. Not the man-made rules we have made up to keep people in line - to get them to act like good little Christian boys and girls.

Maybe we appear to be too safe to the world. Too content in our womb-like sanctuaries. Some people might even think we seem angelic in our comfort zones and masks and facades. But, even the worldly image of angels is wrong. Angels aren't safe. Why do you think they had to tell people don't be afraid every time one appeared. Angels are dangerous. maybe it is time for us to be dangerous - it is hard to put dangerous people away in plain sight and pretend to yourself that they don't matter. Dangerous people are exciting. Dangerous people affect everything around them.

I want to be a dangerous revolutionary.

How Christians Are Like Bad Drivers

I do a lot of driving. Besides living in Monroe County and working, going to Church and almost everything else in Macon; my job has me driving 2-3 days a week up to Marietta to work at Dobbins Air Reserve Base. Besides that, the company I work for has a contract that can on any given day have me driving to the Florida state line, near any of the other surrounding states or anywhere in between. The point of all that is to say - I do a lot of driving - and it occurred to me that in some ways some Christians are like bad drivers.

CONSTANT TURN SIGNAL CLICKER - This Christian sees the signs of the times in everything and points it out to everyone. Not just about earthquakes, famines, and war but they see the signs in a local traffic accident and other mundane events.

THE SLOW DRIVER - The Christian equivalent to this driver is the person who won't move from their current place or do anything new unless God tells them to do it. They haven't figured out that God has already given them a lot of direction in the word and insist that they get direction for everything they do from God.

SLOW DRIVER (BLUE HAIR VERSION) - There is another type of slow driver and those are the people that insist that we can never do anything different from the way that we have always done it. They will threaten to withhold their time and giving to keep something new from coming to their church.

THE SPEEDER - You have seen them blow through your church. From unsaved visitor to the emotional saving event to eager volunteer to burned out and gone in a matter of weeks.

THE SWERVER - Never content with a church for more than a month or two they speed through and are off to the next one - sometimes leaving chaos in their wake.

THE RUBBERNECKER - Is there for the show and to be entertained. The word is not as important as the presentation. This person thrives in a church with a lot of behind the scenes drama and controversy.


I think there is a little bit of some of these in a lot of us - the trick is to realize when we are being a bad driver and then correct it.

These are all the ones I come come up with off the top of my head - are there any others you can think of?

Confronting Mortality

As many of you know, my Dad died suddenly this week. It was last Tuesday - a bright, sunny February day. I was at work and he was running a daily errand for my sister. As he performed a simple daily task he had an Aortic Aneurysm and died while driving down the road.

As I have thought of the events the last few days I first confront my failure to do what I believe I should have been doing and I also have to examine the frailty of life itself. I can easily reason with myself and excuse myself for our relationship. I can say that our personalities are similar in some ways - the main way in that we were both fairly quiet people and though we got along and I respected him greatly - many of our conversations were plagued with uncomfortable silences. My Dad and Mom divorced when I was fairly young and I could use that as an excuse.

What I can't use as excuses are what he has done - the weekend visits and car rides, going to Falcons and Flames games with him when I was a teen. Also letting me live with him during my senior year of High School rather than me having to leave my friends and move to a different town when my Mom and Step Dad moved to Macon. The meals he has bought. The money he loaned me to get me through some tough times in college. I missed seeing him two Fridays ago when I was in the same county because my job went a little long and I didn't want to get home too late.

Life is so frail

An aneurysm, a heart attack, a car wreck can suddenly snatch the ones we love from this life. Or sometimes lingering diseases like cancer can slowly steal the life from them. Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed for us to die once - it is something that we will all do and we need to take advantage of every moment we have.

There are a few things that I urge each one of you to do.

Cover you loved ones in prayer.

Take care of what you can do to protect your life - lose weight, exercise, etc.

Make the most of the minutes you have with family and friends.

See what mission God has for you today.

With Some Regrets, Steve

Batwoman - a lesbian?????

Lock up the comic books and shield your kids from the comic book rack at the store - Batwoman is replacing Batman and she is coming out of the closet.

What is DC comics thinking.

Source

Judge Orders Gang-Raped Pregnant Woman Be Jailed And Given 100 Lashes

Those fun-loving open-minded (far enough for their brains to fall out) wacky Saudis have done it again. And those are the ones we are friends with -

Source

The Tamar Project

I am the Outreach Pastor of a new church in Macon, GA in which we plan on doing an out in the community event at least once a month instead of a service. Check us out - LifeQuest

Tamar was married to one of Judah's (leader of one of the 12 tribes of Israel) son. Her husband had died and as was customary at the time, the second son was sent to marry her and raise up a son for his brother - he refused and also died as a result of his disobedience. The third son was too young at the time to take a wife and Judah sent Tamar away, telling her that he would call her back when it was time. Judah had no intention of keeping his word and as time wore on, Tamar realized this.

At that time in history most of the woman's identity was tied up in who her husband and sons are. She had neither. Judah had sent her back to her father's house - so instead of being the wife of he eldest son of the leaders of the tribes of Israel - she was nothing. She was forgotten, she was ignored - the family of her husband would not do what they were supposed to do, thus relegating her to a life much below what she was promised and had married into.

Tamar then heard that her Father-in-law was coming near her area and she prepared to meet him (though he had no plan to meet her). Her preparation was that of a desperate woman - a woman that decided that he had to disgrace herself to get what she wanted. She sat on the road as a common whore and prostituted herself to her father-in-law in an attempt to take what she thought she deserved. She couldn't see the purpose of her life, the love of God or anything else because the ones that were to example that love had failed to do what they were supposed to do.

There is more to this story in Genesis 38 if you want to read it. The point is that there are people on the outskirts of society that have missed out on the promise for one reason or another - they may have been abandoned or they may have just been hit by a lot of life's storms. Then there are others that have become as desperate as Tamar - desperate enough to prostitute themselves in a misguided effort to get what they think they want.

THE TAMAR PROJECT

On February 14, 2009, LifeQuest will reach out to these people as we go out on the streets of Macon and take these people a simple sign of love - a rose and a homemade Valentine's card. We want to let them now that no matter what has happened to them, no matter what people have done to them, no matter what they are doing to make it thru the day and thru life .....that God Loves them.

There is another group of people that we want to take roses to - read Rhonda's blog Le Waffle House Elegante to read about them.

Six Things God Hates

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
(Proverbs 6:16-19)

I ran across these in Psalms and figured " Hey, if there are six or seven things God hates then maybe, just maybe I should find out what they are." Not like I was actually doing any of them, not me - no way was I doing stuff God hates on a regular basis.

PROUD LOOK
Well right off the bat I'm in trouble - maybe not with the look but I sometimes have a pride problem. Get a compliment and file it away in the folder of why I deserve that and the rest of you didn't.

LYING TONGUE
I am safe from this one - Oh wait was that a lie.

HANDS THAT SHED INNOCENT BLOOD
OK safe - that is at least if you don't get into that whole spirit of the law stuff like Jesus got into in the sermon on the mount.

A HEART THAT DEVISETH WICKED IMAGINATIONS
Don't you just want to know.

FEET THAT BE SWIFT RUNNING TO MISCHIEF
Well the legs are a little older and not quite as swift as they once were.

A FALSE WITNESS THAT SPEAKS LIES
I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing......

SOWETH DISCORD AMONG THE BRETHREN
Who, me, never,

God hates these - a little something to think about - and maybe if you think you are ok - a little better that the rest of us - not quite the heathen I am - take a look at that first one again - the one about a proud look..........I think I will go and repent now.