How do you know God is Real?

A young woman asked me “How do you know God is real?” earlier this week. She was on her way one direction, I on my own in another.

How would you answer this question?

I’ll post mine later today or first thing in the morning.

Is $4 per gallon enough?

The Senate voted yesterday to suspend daily deposits of 70,000 barrels of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserves.  Reports say this could save motorists between 2 and 5 cents a gallon.

Two of three presidential candidates have talked of suspending the federal gasoline tax for the summer months.  Such a measure would reduce prices an additional 18 cents per gallon.

Therefore, IF oil prices level off, these two measures together would save a maximum of 23 cents a gallon; approximately 5-7 percent of the current price.

While many would benefit marginally from such a cut, I am concerned about the bigger picture as I see it.

The bigger picture is this: it is time to find sources of energy other than petroleum.  If you don’t buy this from the environmental perspective, it seems to me you ought to buy this from the economic and/or national security perspective.

Gas prices have gone up - at least tripled - over the past 4 years.  Periodically during this time, when prices shot up, only to level off, or even back down a little from high points, we hear reports of people taking drastic measures to cut costs - traveling less, trading in for vehicles with better fuel economy, even using public transportation.

Then, as soon as prices plateau, it seems people make the necessary adjustments to go back to life as usual.

It seems as if we will only maintain the needed resolve if gas prices not only stay high, but continue to climb.

Are you ready for $5 a gallon?  How about $6?  What will it take?

What direction are we going?

Andy at ThinkChristian asks “Is our culture on a downward moral slide?“

One question this begs (see my most recent post) is what does one mean by “our”?  Do Christians include ourselves in the larger culture in which we live, or do we define this away and try to explain ourselves in terms of a “Christian culture?”

This question takes me back more than a decade, when I was still in coursework for the PhD at Baylor.  Once upon a time in a seminar, one of my fellow students went on at length about how the gospel of Jesus meant that he had more in common with a Christian in rural China than with a non-Christian who lived across the street from him.

In the words of Dave Barry, I’m not making this up!

Kingdom Rant

So yesterday I am at another Church and see on another church bulletin that famous category “Our Men and Women in the Military.” Sometimes they specify “in Iraq,” or “in the war;” I am pretty sure they all mean about the same thing.

Yes; I pray for the U.S. Military. I pray for soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. But I cannot stop there.

It has been a long time since I was comfortable praying for “our” soldiers. I am becoming less and less willing to keep my perspective on this to myself.

For a Christian or follower of Jesus to refer to any nation’s military as his or her own is extremely troubling. We who follow Jesus render to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s: whether your Caesar or mine commands “kill and destroy,” that Caesar does so by the authority and power of Caesar, not of God.

It is, therefore, of utmost importance for Christians to speak, and request pray, clearly: do American
Christians ask for prayer only for American soldiers?

On a related topic, upon seeing that prayer list in a church bulletin yesterday, I wondered how many people that congregation has put into ministry.  What is the ratio of United Methodists who have gone into the military to represent the country (read “Caesar” if you dare) to those who professionally represent God?

What dose this ratio say about our priorities?

Mother’s Day 2008

We had an interesting little discussion this evening about Mother’s Day.  How ought a preacher handle Mother’s Day?  There were a couple of options given:

• Mothers honored.
• The virtues of motherhood examined and extolled

Then a third way was suggested

• The traits and values of motherhood are generalized onto all of us in a sense of mutual accountability

And then someone shared that this particular tack had been requested:

• The young people of the church should be reminded of the commandment to “honor your mother and father.”

I blew a gasket when I heard this one!  Not that I don’t have a daughter of my own; not that I don’t earn my living working with 12-18 year old kids labeled “at-risk.”  I am probably as aware as anyone of “societal decay” and all that is no longer like your glory days.

But was that one commandment given for kids, while the other 9 are for adults?

No!

The “honor your father and mother” commandment was not aimed strictly at young people.  God’s desire for God’s people is that they (we) honor our parents all of our days.

Is it common in our churches to make out the 5th commandment as being about (young) children? Is this the same kind of attitude that, a few years ago at a college campus ministry was expressed as “I hope you all grow up and graduate and get good jobs so I can keep receiving my Social Security”?

Learning and Growing, Challenging and Provoking

I am at Perkins School of Theology, at SMU in Dallas this week for training to become a mentor pastor to a student intern.

Yesterday, one of the early sessions found a couple of students who have just completed their internships, sharing with us their perspectives on the process. One of the students mused that one of the purposes of the internship for her was, she hoped, so she could learn “to speak to a Sunday School class and not be thrown out.”

We all chuckled, understanding the exuberance of being an idealistic theolog with coursework fresh on the soul. I resonated with her to the extent that I remember being in seminary, and learning things and theories and connecting scripture with tradition, reason, and experience in ways that would and should be unsettling to the typical congregation.

At the same time, I also recognized that no matter how radically different my understanding has been on any topic from what I perceived to be the understanding of my congregants (be sure there are always some laity which much more nuanced theological perspectives than we give them credit for), I had always approached her question from the opposite side: “How can I explain myself and my understanding in such a way that these people, or this class, might be open to hearing something they wouldn’t ordinarily hear?”

Perhaps this is the difference between prophet and pastor.

Making Disciples AND Transforming the World

As I’ve already shared, the United Methodist Church has adopted a new mission statement: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The decision to adopt this happened Tuesday, April 29th.

At least twice since then, I’ve heard reference made to the “dual purposes” of the church. Sometimes these are dualized by pitting “evangelism” against “social action.”

I no longer aaccept this duality. Unless the real-world situation of persons is affected by the good news, I question whether indeed souls are being saved. Likewise, unless people are lead to tell themselves into God’s story of creation, redemption, and sanctification, whatever social good we might bring will lack the foundation to sustain lasting Kingdom presence.

Making disciples IS transformation of the world.

Top Ten

A good friend and colleague asked me for my “top ten books for youth ministry or personal top ten.”

Here’s what I told him:

1. Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler-Bass
2. Practicing Passion, by Kenda Creasy Dean
3. Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder
4. Soul Searching, by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton
5. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, by Andrew Root
6. Postmodern Youth Ministry, by Tony Jones
7. Growing Souls, by Mark Yaconelli
8. Resident Aliens, by Hauerwas & Willimon
9. Sex God, by Rob Bell
10. Unlearning Church, by Mike Slaughter

What do you think of my list? What would you add? What would you leave out?

Pondering Our New Mission Statement

The mission statement of The United Methodist Church has changed. It was “to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”

It is now “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  I like the addition.  It is still simple, clear, and straightforward enough to serve as a mission statement, but I think the additional phrases give it something more to grab onto.

One suggested amendment offering on the floor of General Conference was to add the words “for the salvation of souls and” so that the full statement would be “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls and for the transformation of the world.”  This amendment was rejected, and, judging from the arguments against it, it was rejected primarily because it was seen as redundant.

If this is the case, then United Methodists tend to equate the transformation of the world with the salvation of souls.

Are these two the same thing?

End of Bitterness

Being that I have acknowledged that I have become The Man, I’ve got some changes to make.

First and foremost, I’ve got to give up on, set aside, put away, the bitterness that so easily infects me.

It is easy for me to see and sharply, usually sarcastically, comment on all that is wrong with church, society, my denomination, my country, you name it.

But, cliché though it it may be, I am either part of the problem or part of the solution.

As long as I am bitter and jaded about, for instance, the institution of The United Methodist Church, I am not part of the solution.

I am getting serious about this.  Serious enough that House isn’t as entertaining to me as it used to be.