First, an apology. I thought this was scheduled to go up yesterday. Just realized it was not. My “I’m on vacation bad.”
So here we are.
We are on the verge of July, and while I know this is very cliché, I feel like I am always in disbelief that we have already come through this much of summer.
My family and I are visiting our program for about a week and a half. I had the honor of speaking to a great group of emerging leaders last evening, very early this morning and then I will do so again tonight. This weekend I will be speaking at all five gathering of and also at . It is a great church and I always enjoy seeing them.
This week I would like to ask a very simple to state but tough to fully answer question.
Ready? Hang on, its coming in just a minute.
“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach the new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” Matthew 28.18-20 NLT
Likely, everyone that is reading this post has heard this one before. Go and make disciples. And yes, that is the jist of it. But let’s unpack this a bit.
When Jesus spoke to his followers, his learners (that is what disciple means) he had lived his life here on earth without sin, had laid his life down and submitted to one of the most gruesome death processes that world knew, had taken the entirety of the weight of our human rebellion (past, present and future) upon himself and finally, had physically risen from the dead.
As a result, God the Father had given God the Son authority over everything. Jesus had access to all the power of the trinity and had reign over everything.
So when Jesus said,“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth,” he meant it. It would be like your boss getting a huge promotion at work and they tell you, “I have the power to bring you up with me, and I am going to do it.” They have been given power and they are telling you how they intend to use it.
I have to say, I have LOVED hearing from everyone who has posted a comment or sent me an email. Please keep them coming. God is doing some very cool things through our doing some very simple things.
That being said, what I am also hearing is that there are a number of people who are starting to feel like they are behind on some aspect of the weekly focus, prayer or action step(s).
Cool. Let’s do this, let’s say that this is one of two things: a catch up week or a continuation of what you have already been doing.
If you are on it and rolling, then continue to roll. Continue to ask God for ways to demonstrate the God-flavoring that we are all called to be. Pray expectantly for opportunities (be they big or small) to chat with people about how you view God interacting in the world. Now remember, this isn’t just helping people understand their need for Jesus’ forgiveness and guidance. It certainly involves that, but it isn’t just that. Salt simply takes what it is on and brings out the flavor. Trust God to place you in situations and simply talk about what you notice.
This past week I was at a wedding and about half of one of the families was from Utah and were Mormon. At one point during the reception, I was talking with a couple of friends and the grandfather of the groom came up to me and asked me what I thought about marriage in heaven. I referred to a situation where some Pharisees were attempting to trick Jesus. In his answer, Jesus seems to pretty clearly say that in heaven we won’t have marriages. As hard as that seems to me to grasp, it seems like when we are fully present with God, we won’t be lacking for connection (either with Him or one another) and so marriage won’t be an issue. This is just one issue that Mormonism views differently from Christianity.
I have really been struggling with when/if I should write another book.
I have struggled for who knows how many hours over the topics and over the invasive nature of writing. It takes time, thought, prayer, struggle, time, time and time.
I happen to love my ministry role at [nlcf] and my family even more that that. So, Tracy and I have really struggled with this decision. I have a wonderful agent who has helped in my thought process about the book and has never really pushed me either way, several good friends who have helped me work through different ideas and timelines, so I feel like I have had every benefit I could ask for. But I still couldn’t decided what to do. A couple of weeks ago I decided I needed to take some more time to really decide. And through a number of different avenues, I think I have.
I wanted to share an amazing email I got from Bill (who asked that I change his name.) He is a minister (in a state that is farther west than Virginia) and is in ministry (of some type) :)
The reason I am sharing this email is that he states in it the exact reason I started writing the first book. If you are interested in reading what he said, take a look after the jump. I appreciate his giving me permission to do so. (more…)
If you are in the New River Valley area and would like some saweeeet Greek cuisine, stop by on College Ave in Blacksburg Wednesday night for dinner. Not only is the food excellent, but a portion of the proceeds will go to support [nlcf]‘s . C’mon… how do you say no to Ukranian orphans?
Just try to… you physically can’t.
If you find you can, watch the vid, then see.
from on .
And remember, they are pronounced, yee-rohs. Just helping you to not look lame at a Greek place.
Peace, Jim
Probably, if you are like me, you had never heard of George Rekers… until some pics taken at Miami International Airport on April 13th of this year.
To quote CBSNews.com in their coverage of the story… “he has long played a prominent role behind the scenes in the social conservative movement: A member of the founding board of the conservative Family Research Council, Rekers has authored books on how to ensure that children grow up straight.
A Baptist minister and former research fellow at Harvard University, Rekers has testified against gay adoptions and is on the board of National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, which “upholds the rights of individuals with unwanted homosexual attraction to receive effective psychological care.”
So, what do we make of ole George?
To me, there really are three questions that matter here.
1) Is he telling the truth?
2) If he is not, what are the implications?
3) Am I free to come to my own conclusions regarding homosexuality or does the bible speak into it?
As for question one, Is he telling the truth? my natural cynical default becomes a real issue. Now, realize that I am not calling myself a cynic. The definition of cynic from -if you can believe anything is really free 
- defines a cynic as someone who believes that people are essentially cold, calculating and out for their own selfish interests. By that definition I would be a recovering cynic. I would categorize myself as more of a skeptic at this point. I can doubt things and people pretty easily,but it isn’t my default any longer. I am actually learning how to trust more people, more readily. That skepticism doesn’t mean I never believe anything that is tough to believe, it just means that to do so I need to feel like I have a reason for overriding my doubt. My doubt-button is easily pushed, if you will, sometimes helping me to see the truth through misleading stories, and sometimes causing me to question or reject what is actually true, just tough to believe.
Suffice it to say my doubt-button has been pushed on this one. What is tough here is that, in many ways, this feels like former Idaho Senator Larry Craig’s “ type of story. A public figure that is caught
in a damaging situation and comes up with an explanation that seems too far-fetched to really be true. Probably all of our doubt buttons were lit up and blinking over that one.
But that doesn’t mean that everything that is tough to believe is wrong. It just means it is tough to believe.
Right?
Sure, it could be true. Rekers probably does need some help with luggage and whatnot, but getting help from a travel companion that advertises the ways he can help on Rentboy.com? I, probably like everyone else, look at that with more than a bit of skepticism.
As a follower of Jesus, and as one that hold the scriptures to be an authoritative voice, I am called by God to believe the best of others. Jesus challenges me to let my yes be my yes and my no be my no in my interactions with others and to try to believe that they are doing the same with me. That doesn’t mean I automatically take everyone’s word on everything they say (other sections of the scriptures, in particular several in Proverbs, wisely call that foolishness). So, I try to give the benefit of the doubt, as much as I can. My goal has become trying to see the world through God’s eyes. Trying to look more and more at things from his perspective and realizing, after reading this section of Matthew, how different his perspective and mine really is.
1 One day as the crowds were gathering, Jesus went up the mountainside with his disciples and sat down to teach them. 2 This is what he taught them: 3 ”God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them. 4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them. 6 God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full. 7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. 9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. 10 God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 11 ”God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too.
That was one of the first times that I realized that, not only could my take on what I am experiencing not be right, but that I might completely miss that it is wrong. That my perspective was more about self-protection than about truly interacting with those I am around.
Honestly, it wasn’t until I started trying to live in that way that I realized just how little trust I was willing to give anyone. How much I expected them to be dishonest with me. As I have been trying to live in a more trusting way towards others, a few things have happened that I didn’t expect.
I have become more accepting of others, regardless of how much we agree about or how well we get along. My cynicism caused me to have an almost constant internal sneer towards others. Internally I pitted myself against them, was always looking for their angle, was waiting for the thing they were hiding to come into the light. As I have walked away from that, I find I am much more interested in the people I am around. Much more accepting and open to hearing from them and learning from them.
Now, there have been a number of times that I have been taken advantage of as well. The process hasn’t always been rosy. But through those and through a continuing pursuit of God, I have been trying to re-calibrate my skepticism. Not get rid of all of it, we don’t live in a world that allows that, but to allow it to speak into my decisions when it is right to do so and not allow it to drive almost all of them.
All that being said , it seems very hard to believe that nothing was happening. Either way, I am wanting to pray for George Rekers. Either he has inadvertantly stumbled into a situation that is almost impossible to believe could be truly innocent, and as a result is suffering for something he never did; or he has just had a part of his life and soul that he clearly has been trying to cover be exposed. Both would be horrible to live through.
For the rest of us, I suggest we should do four things in the midst of all this. First, remember to be praying for George and in particular, his family. Second, to allow this to be a cause for pause. A time to reflect on how skeptical/cynical we are towards those around us. Third, to seek to live lives that are fully known. To have at least a couple of people that we have no secrets from. And fourth, to only use family members as luggage-hefting travel companions.
Please tell me your thoughts on all this.
In a few days we will discuss what the implications would be for a Christian, reparative therapy advocate to be found to have been involved in at least one homosexual sexual relationship.
Peace, Jim
As many of you know, I am one of the pastors of a church that is primarily made up of people thirty years old and younger. As such, I get to be around a ton of single people and young married people, most of which do not have kids.
That last part is really key.
I get razzed quite a bit for a few things in [nlcf]. I get razzed because I am functionally bald, because I am turning the corner on forty and primarily because for the last eight or nine years, I have driven a minivan. Three of them to be exact. Now I claim that our new Mazda 5 isn’t really a minivan – I mean, it was driven by a bad guy in 24! But no one is buying it…
So, being the mature adult I am, I tease back and tell them that while my minivan days are on the wain, theirs haven’t even begun yet. This is when I inevitably hear the mantra… We won’t drive one of those, we will get an SUV.
Now, realize this, I am around A LOT of people that go through the early married years transition to the been married a bit longer and now have a few kids phase. Off the top of my head I can only think of ONE family that has stayed the We’re going to get an SUV course. Ryan and Lisa Hartsook, you get the prize.
Most couples follow this trajectory…
I will never have a minivan
Hmm… that is kind of a sweet looking minivan
Wow, you mean you fit the stroller, the playpen (excuse me, play garden as they are now sometimes called – say what you will, it has sides, it’s a pen), the booster seats and some toys back there?
Then the final step… you mean they can’t reach each other to fight?
When that happens, hang your heads cool people, cause a minivan is coming for you!
I have recently been razzing another [nlcf] staff couple who live two doors down from us, Steve and Amy Englund. They absolutely deny they will EVER own one.
I am not buying it.
My point in this whole rant is that, in six to ten years, this will be the Englunds. Mark your calendars. Steve and Amy, start saving up for your own personal Swagger Wagon…
We rock the SE not the SUV…
This past Sunday, ran a review of Should We Fire God?. Overall, it was a good and fair review, while certainly not the strongest the book has gotten. If you haven’t seen it, you can read it . Here is a quote from the review that was very kind.
He writes in a personal tone and presents the message of redemption in a clear manner while interweaving his own story of disbelief. The book reads like a candid conversation with the author on a very difficult subject..
What is interesting is a blog the reviewer, Stephen Escalera, wrote about the final, edited version of his review. I am including one paragraph of his response to that final version.
While I am excited about having a review published in print, I am also very disappointed with the editing. As published, the book comes across as rather postmodern with perhaps only a hint of the gospel. However, the book is very strong on presenting the gospel and I said as much as originally written in my review. However, in the editing process, the key paragraph of the review was pared down to say next to nothing about the author’s message in his book. I’ve posted the paragraph as it was originally written, with all the bolded section indicating what was omitted:
You can read the rest of his thoughts . Stephen just started following me on twitter (nlcfjim) and I am definitely following him as well. I would recommend his blog as he has an interesting reading list and some very interesting thoughts on many of those books. I have only been able to peruse it a bit, but have liked what I have seen so far.
Just thought this was an interested look into the world of reviews.
For the record, I have no reason to think that the Roanoke Times had any ill motives in editing down Stephen’s review. The more writers I know and speak to, this is a pretty normal thing. Just another piece of the puzzle.
Peace, Jim
Well, okay, that was a bit of an overstatement. I can say that over a period of a couple of months I was in eight states, flew over countless others, had a last minute trip to New York City where my very good and dedicated friend, Matt Rogers drove with me about twenty hours (round trip) in about thirty-eight hours. Thanks also to Todd Hiestand who was a guide who delivered us to the Fox studios with plenty of time to spare. I was on , which is filmed just outside of Dallas TX, LIVE and has a regular viewership of over 200 million people! Here are some pics from my makeup process, 
which yes, did include my bald dome. Also they had a KICKING green room!
It is the first one that I have been in that was actually green too. So, bonus there. The last pic is of my wonderful publicist, Jodi Phillip. 
I know it is a terrible one, alas, I was distracted. A highlight of the Dallas trip was getting to meet her and the team at in person. So, let’s count that a double bonus. I was able to interviewed on the at FoxNews.com. I literally locked in the decision to DRIVE up to NYC the day before! graciously agreed to hop in my car and off we went. The 60 minute interview ended up being a panel discussion about a number of topics and it was abundantly clear that I was the only one who didn’t know what those topics were! I literally realized with about a minute before the show went live what was happening. So, if you saw the interview and at first I looked a bit surprised, my wheels were spinning! But at least we got to discuss low-key issues like the Catholic pedophillia scandals, what God really is and isn’t and issues of homosexuality. So, you know, fluffy stuff. 
I only managed to take one pic in the studio as we were about to go live. But, I got to become MUCH cooler to my 13 year old son, Noah. Toby Mac, a very popular Christian rapper/singer was in the studio and I got a pic with he and my intrepid NYC guide . By the way, Todd is more than a guide, he is a pastor and a kicking web designer. Look him up! A particular high point of this trip was my ability to meet in person for the first time Michelle Rapkin. Michelle was the person who kicked this whole book thing off when she saw me interviewed on CNN just after the shootings while she was in an airport in Sicily. Michelle, it was a true joy to 
meet you face to face, and the fact
that you took Matt, Todd and I out to lunch at the cafe looking out onto the ice rink at 30 Rockefeller Plaza… icing on the cake. I have been privileged to speak in two large churches in Minneapolis (below is a pic of the banner one made) and be interviewed in every city that my plane landed in. While in Chicago to record the audio version of the book I was able to meet my agent for the first time in person as well. I even was able to take an interview with a regional early morning news program called ‘. That pic is on the right.
Things are still going strong. I have potentially three book signings 
that are in the works, with the next one being in Richmond VA on Wednesday night.
More details to come, on the blog as well as Facebook. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience everything that I have been able to experience. I have been able to write a book, get it published, and go all over the place to promote it. It has been a completely new world and as much chaos as it has caused, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
I have broken one major rule of blogging.
And I am about to break another.
The first rule of blogging is that if you want your blog readership to grow, then post consistently. Obviously you want to post high quality content, but you need to do that regularly. Over the past couple of weeks I have just been too busy to post much at all.
The second is that it is best to stay in your own lane. What that essentially means is you are most helpful to the blogospere if you select a couple of subjects that you care about and have some experience in, and stick with those. Unless your blog is intended to be about everything, then scaling it back to a few things can be good.
I say all this because I am about to step into a new blogging area. Don’t know if I will be regularly swimming in this particular pool or if this is just a brief dip. Either way, here goes…
I have been under a fair bit of pressure lately. Not exorbitant, but not light either. I am the husband of a wife that I dearly love and truly enjoy spending time with, and the father of three kids. Noah is thirteen, Seth is eleven and Emma will be ten this summer. Between math, sentence diagramming (thanks Jenna for guiding us through that one,) puberty, soccer, basketball, piano, girls saying mean things about you… It gets busy fast.
Then there is my ministry with [nlcf]. As we enter a different season as a church, several of the things that we will be doing are things that I will be heavily involved in. I love working with this church! I truly do, but one of the hardest things I do each week is figure out what I won’t do that week so that I can live a life of balance.
Then there is Should We Fire God?. I will be honest with you, doing what needs to be done and what I would like to do for the book could easily be a full time job all by itself.
I manage Seth’s soccer team, try to exercise, get enough sleep, have some growing friendships and have a meaningful and growing relationship with my Messiah.
It is a lot to do. Please hear this, I am not complaining and I am not saying any of his so that anyone reading this will feel sorry for me. Everything that makes my life intense during this season is borne out of a blessing I am enjoying. So… let’s be clear with that.
All this run up really just leads me to the reason I am blogging tonight instead of sleeping (or watching Glee.) The speed and pressure of life can sometimes make it easy to pass over moments where I have the opportunity to connect with someone. Tonight I almost missed one with Seth.
Tracy mentioned to me that he seemed more upset than usual and so I stopped what I was doing and went up and talked with him about it. After we dealt with the issue that had made him frustrated, he just kept going and I was privileged to be along for the ride. I got to hear his frustration with a kid in his class, his fears about talking to his coach regarding some things he doesn’t understand, the new type of clothes he likes (Aeropostale), how he is as long as the mattress when we extends his arms, how nervous he is about starting middle school next fall, and why he never gets in trouble doing his morning work.
We didn’t talk about much in great depth, but we talked about him. I loved it, probably that twenty or thirty minute conversation was a highpoint of my day. And I almost missed the chance – had he not been in such a bad mood and had Tracy not been paying attention I probably would have.
The scriptures tell us that children are a blessing from the Lord. Yes, they are a responsibility and yes that responsibility is very heavy at times. Tonight, I just sat in my sons’ room and enjoyed the blessing. I was blessed to hear about his emerging life and I was blessed to be reminded that I can be two feet away from someone and completely miss what is going on in their world.
Here’s to hoping it doesn’t take an abnormally bad mood for us all to have those moments in the future, eh?
Peace,
Jim
If I am honest, I could list off a couple of people that I know that seem to be in ministry, not in response to any calling that they sensed Jesus make on their life, or out of any sense of love for him. Gratefully only a couple. But this article from shocked me a bit. Again, not that people with atheistic beliefs are in some of those postions, but rather the lengths to which some will go to remain in them.
Ministry is hard. The hours, the strain of so many broken people around you and you add to that your own brokenness. I know that personally I have, at times, made the success of more about me than about the Kingdom of God. At times I have not trusted in Jesus like I would want to; have taken things into my own hands. So, it isn’t that I don’t get how you can allow the strains of ministry life to take you down paths you didn’t intend to go.
The difference is that when we realize we are heading down them; we need to have the reflected discipline to stop, consider why things are going as they are, and then let others around us know what has happened. In my 14 years of ministry experience, the best advice I could offer anyone walking through a ministry life is to simply walk closely and openly with Jesus, walk closely and openly with those around you and never be unwilling to be honest with where your life actually is.
No clergy on a pedestal thinking ever brings a more honest relationship with Christ. In the beattitudes, Jesus let the disciples in on a little truth. The truth was that the way we see the world work isn’t the whole story.
We honor wealth over poverty. Jesus never said wealth was intrinsically wrong, he just warned against the unexpected problems it can bring with it.
We honor vengence over peace. Jesus told his disciples that he wanted them to have the types of hearts that would respond to evil, not with more of the same, but with love.
Jesus was showing the disciples, and us through them, that our worldview isn’t completely wrong, just painfully small. That there is an expanded view of life and our place in it that includes an active and loving God who is calling us, not to sit quietly and allow our world to set our frame of reference, but to follow Jesus and allow him to set it. There is so much beyond the experience of this life and what we can experience with our physical senses. In that fuller experience, Jesus’ odd challenges, make perfect sense.
I wonder what those that are “play acting” would say about what they have been up to when they see that what they were faking was real was actually true, and what they were honestly believing was actually false?
