Over the next month or so I will be working on my written work for ordination as an Elder in the United Methodist Church. For those who don't know, this involves answering 16 theological questions that are then followed by an oral examination. Since I came into methodism from another denomination and I went to a school (Asbury) outside of the official schools, the examination might be rather streneous. To not stress, I won't be blogging for the next month or so.

I am also taking the time to really examine what my site and writings will look like in the future. Since moving back into the local church I have been conflicted regarding content. I want to take this time to prayerfully investigate what this side of my ministry will continue to look like.

Thanks for hanging in. I will still be on twitter and facebook, so I won't totally go silent.

Over the last month or so, I have been drumming up folks to read scripture together in the new year. Last week, John Meunier also mentioned reading Wesley's Standard 52 through the year and some people expressed interest in doing so together.

I like reading with people, even if our only connection is via the internet. To facilitate greater interaction, I started two simple little blogs for both projects. They will be tweaked out in greater measure over the next few days, but if you are interested in either project, consider joining and contributing to them sites.

Let's walk this journey together!

standard52.tumblr.com

90daybible.tumblr.com

This Christmas Eve we are having communion together in my congregation. I pastor and lead the contemporary service at my church and over the last few months we have used the more formal Great Thanksgiving liturgy in the United Methodist Hymnal. Due to both time and the fact I we have been pretty high church lately, I decided to use a less formal approach to communion for Christmas Eve.

The tension revolves in the sacramental conviction I have as a Methodist pastor to keep communion in line with the greater tradition of the Church. Specific words do not matter, but the greater story does. I wanted to find something brief but strong and would fit well within our service.

This Advent, my secret weapon for a few special services as been the A Christmas Sourcebook. I found this while in seminary and it has proven its worth several times over. It has plenty small bits that work well in Advent and Christmas services. It is a must buy for worship designers.

Below is what I am using to tell the story of Christ during our communion time. You can find it on pg. 23 of the sourcebook.

The grace of God has appeared, ordering salvation to all men and women. It trains us to reject the godless ways and worldly desires and live temperately, justly and devoutly in this age as we await our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus. It was he who sacrificed himself for us, to redeem us from all unrighteousness and to cleanse for himself a people of his own, eager to do what is right.

I wanted to share this great resource with you. Buy it and be ready for next Advent season.

My message from this past weekends Christmas Carol service

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In the last few weeks Time magazine has announced their “person of the year”. Past folks who have held this title have been John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Both George Bushes, many other presidents and Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of facebook.com. A few years ago it was even “you” with a mirror like cover showing the face of the person looking at it.

This year, they did something rarely done to announce the person of the year. They selected a grouping of people, who they felt made 2011 a monumentous year. The person of the year is The Protestor. From the sands of North Africa to the concrete streets of the United States, this has been a year marked by protest.

You might wonder why I am talking about protest during a Christmas Carol service. But what I wanted to share with you was the reason we sing. The image of the protestor is perfect for understanding the power of Christian singing in the face of a world filled with death.

In songs, we are agreeing together on the foundational principles of Christian faith. If we were to try to explain such complicated theological concepts in sermons, or casual conversations I think many of us would quickly change the subject. But the words of these songs matter very much.

When we sing these Christmas songs, we are declaring to the world that Christ has come. The Son of God has descended from heaven, came to earth through the womb of a young woman and is here to cause light to overcome darkness. The prophets were true...they told the world to prepare, because the kingdom of God has come.

While these songs give us great memories, warm feelings and are fun to sing together during the season, we need to remember that they contain very dangerous words. These songs and the message the contain, and from our belief, shake the foundations of hell. They mark the time when the light that was before all men, Jesus Christ, came and overcame darkness.

In worship, we make an outpost of the Kingdom. These songs show we are not allowing the world to write our story, but we are part of Gods story. We are rehearsing the great narrative of Christ and his Triumph of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us.  We declare that this space does not belong to the world...but belongs to a heavenly kingdom where Christ sits on the throne.   In this room, tonight, we are retelling a story of the greatest act of resistance that has ever and will ever take place. When God himself came to this world to bring his people back to him. Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

My good friend Joshua has a great Advent post up. Joshua really hits home the idea that in Advent we are celebrating the fact that God walks among us. In Advent, the Godman has arrived. As Joshua puts it "If your God is so Great, why doesn't he speak my language?"!

Josh then gives an extensive quote from Timothy Tennent about the power of Bible translation into indigenous languages. The incarnation radically changes our lives and Christianity must always be functioning within the theological concept of "God with Us"!

Check out the rest of the post here.

I'm Expecting

My use of this phrase might sound odd. Usually, it is reserved for the fairer sex to announce the anticipation of a new child. It can be made plural, as in “we are expecting” as well, with the same connotation. But for me, a male, to say “I’m Expecting”...you probably think I have lost my mind.

But expectation is the best way to think about the Advent season. Expectation (in the pregnant sense) entails a season of hope, anticipation and preparation. A body of emotions is wrapped up and fulfilled in a specific event. At that point, everything will render unimportant as the birth comes. The season of hope will be fulfilled in the joy that comes. The anticipation is finished and any anxiety or nervousness has past. The preparation is finished, because it has to be. The time has now come and “all hands on deck” is the order of the day.   

We are ready for the coming of the Son of God. We celebrate hope and the promises of God. We an- ticipate the season and the change it makes in our hearts. We have also prepared ourselves for it by recognizing both our own individual sin and the sins of humanity as a whole. The ancient liturgical prayer called the Rorate Coeli (based on Isaiah 45:8) expresses the hope, anticipation and expectation of the prophets and priests of the Old Testament and becomes part of our prayers;

We have gone astray; in the multitude of our sins we have been made unclean. Fallen, fallen, stricken as leaves of autumn. The storm wind carries us away, the tempest of our evil deeds. You have turned us from the face of your mercy, and our iniquity has crushed us like a potter's vessel. O Lord our God, look upon your people in their affliction; be mindful of your promises. Send us the lamb who will set up his dominion from the rock of the wilderness to Zion, enthroned on her mountain. There is no other whose power can break our chains and set us free.

 As somber as this might seem, as Christians we understand the hope and glory contained in the glorious thing called The Incarnation. Christ and his passion brings us to a new place. Isaiah 40:1-5 (NLT) gives words to that sense of expectation;

    “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her twice over for all her sins.” Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The LORD has spoken!”

This is a highway of expectation. It is a highway that leads us home. Christ, in his life, death and resurrection leads us along the straight path into the loving arms of the Father. Advent is an active celebration of the church. Let us prayerfully go through the range of emotions which are part of expecting. On Christmas day, we can welcome our savior in the fullest way, because our hearts have hoped, anticipated and prepared for him to come!

Come Lord Jesus!

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This was my article in our Churches Advent Devotion. If you want to see the entire piece, cruise over to our Issuu page and read it.

Earlier today, my good friend Jonathan mentioned he is reading through both the New Testament and St. Athanasius's "On the Incarnation " this advent season and was looking for others interested. I had read through the prophets in the last month before Advent and had been thinking of how I would be reading scripture this season and was really excited to see Jonathan's reading plan. It is ordered a bit different from the standard cover to cover, so I am happy to see a little change.

You can see Jonathan's reading schedule here. We are also reading through a marvelous work by a Church Father, Athanasius. I am excited about spending this season reflecting on the radical idea that Jesus Christ is truly Emmanuel. He is God with Us!

There are a handful of us reading along this season. If you want to jump in let me know. You can get "On the Incarnation" free online through the CCEL.

So far our list is: @chaddbrooks, @bamahank, @jonboy017 and @aaronmansfield2

On of my favorite journal publications is Christian Reflections, published by Baylor University. A topical journal, I look forward to every issue. What is really rad though.. it is a free subscription. They even post each entire journal online!

Last year I mentioned journal #37 Advent Ethics. This quarter is titled "Christmas and Epiphany." You might be wondering why I am pointing you toward a resources for Advent that is seemingly not about Advent. But the newest issue is written in tandem with last year and focuses on the "original trajectories of Christmastide and Epiphany, so we can celebrate them faithfully and winsomely today."

If our congregations struggle to really understand Advent apart from Christmas, it is up to leaders to show the differences and mark the time changes. Our worship cycle tolls the bell for when our posture changes. Advent should be Advent. But Christmas should be Christmas.

Christian Reflection #41 jumps into these issues. Read, pray and talk about the difference and how we can be leading congregations to a better pattern of worship during the Church year.

Earlier this week, I mentioned on twitter and instagram that I finished another cycle of reading the bible in 90 days (disclosure..it took a little longer this time). I received several tweets and other questions asking for information on the whole idea...so I thought I would put together a quick info page on what I do.

The Plan:
Zondervan sells a fancy bible that makes it really easy...but why pay for a new Bible. I know of two ways to make it super easy. The first is to simply download the bookmark with the readings on them. The image to the left is said bookmark. The file is a .pdf and has three bookmarks. The second is to use youversion.com's plan. I have done this as well. It is identical to the paper version, but utilizes their bible app.

How?:
Alot of folks tell me it sounds really intense. I guess it is...a little. I spend about 45 minutes reading. Building a pattern of scripture was more important than watching a King of the Hill re-run. In the mornings I read my 90 day plan. That evening, I do a more devotional reading. With the expanse of the 90 days, I find it really important to have a second reading time that is devoted to prayerfully and deeply reading a smaller portion of scripture.

I would also encourage you to find a person or two that will join you. My first time around this kept me on track. My pastor talked me into it and we had a ball discussing it through the week. There has been some discussion of a few people starting together on January 1 and then group blogging through it.

Thanks for being interested in reading more scripture.

For my own experiences with the 90 days here are a few other posts.
Creating a Rhythm of Scripture
Digitizing Devotion...my latest experiment
90 Days through scripture...my ending thoughts
90 days in scripture...take 2

Advent is my favorite season to design worship for.  Every year I combine different Advent resources I find and try to share them. Today, I was putting all of the lectionary readings into a document for my design team and I figured I would share them with you. I have a few additional thoughts in there as well. You can download this booklet Download Advent 2011 or just use it through scribd.com. Feel free to share this with others. Have a great season of worship.

If you are looking for even more Advent resources, check out the entire category.

Advent 2011