Sole Jones

The Death of Integrity

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:26:00 +0000

I don't want to hear about it anymore. It's a dead topic, dead to me, gone, obliterated, covered in sackcloth and ashes, shamed, defamed, besmirched,soiled, sullied, trampled underfoot and left for - who cares for what? It's dead already, never really existing in the natural world, as far as we can tell with electron microscopes, spy satellites, and the entire, vasty science armada who tracked down the super-secret Higgs Boson particle.

I'm referring, of course, to the long, slow - bullet-time, really - super, super slow-mo - fall from grace of college football's own Mother Theresa look-alike , Joe Paterno. Joe Pa, as he was affectionately referred to by legions of Penn State students as well as players, current and former.

The death knell is sounded by a forensic whiz, a guy with credentials of his own, former federal judge, former director of the FBI, Louis J Freeh who looked it over, looked it over for seven months - they talked to everybody, over 400 interviews according to the New York Times, and tons of email and other documents - and Louis says that the top guns at Penn State, Joe Pa included, were more into protecting the status quo than they were into protecting children. Poof! There goes a legacy. There goes the whole enchilada.

This kind of thing happens all the time. It just doesn't happen to hallowed old men, for pity's sake, practically sainted old men, enjoying near universal adoration. This is different than simply powerful old men, this is old men lauded for being different, different in outlook, different in motivation, made of special stuff, sprinkled with the extra-special pixie dust, men, we love to say, of integrity. You can hear the holy hush bracketing that word when uttered, the angel choir sighs out a long breath in perfect harmony, and eyelids snap more open by a couple of millimeters. Hey, you've got our attention. Here comes a prince among men - nay! - grander than that. He's like an emperor.

And guess what? The emperor is buck naked.

If you're an institution - and that's a loaded word, meaning either an organization held to a higher standard, or an individual perceived just as trustworthy because of decades of perceived flawless, selfless service - if you're an institution, at some point you get more interested in preserving the institution than in doing the stuff that is the reason for the institution's existence.

What's the upside of this debacle?

Maybe it calls on us to quit trying shotgun coronations, kangaroo parliamentary promotions designed to win arguments and corral vast sums of loot or prestige or maybe just say-so. Maybe we'll quit trying to wield that kind of club, because it turns out that the sorry thing is hollow, rotten to the core - more useful as a threat than an actual stick to hit someone with. And now it's not that great a threat, either.

"Oh, really? Your guy's got integrity? ... Isn't that what Joe Pa had?"

Maybe we could start to cooperate instead of coerce. Maybe we could start to collaborate instead of compete. Maybe we could learn to discuss instead of attack.

I know that's not very likely. But less likely is the man of great integrity. It's now officially dead.

Mike Breen's New Book

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Mike Breen's new book, Multiplying Missional Leaders, makes the case that most churches don't have leaders at all, they have managers: people carrying out the vision of the top leadership. Under this pov, leaders are people that receive their own vision from the Lord, that they are uniquely tuned to receive, and they go about implementing it.

So under this scenario, to use a musical metaphor, leaders use original material and managers only do covers - other peoples' material. It's more nuanced than that: successful recording artists do occasionally cover other artists' songs, and your local cover band will sometimes do originals.

Maybe the work place example of the self-starter will be more helpful.

What's the big deal about a self-starter? Once she knows what the big picture goals of the group are, she naturally begins doing things that need doing, things that directly contribute to the fulfillment of those goals. You don't have to give her her every single task in order to get her to contribute to the success of the group.

This does not, and should not, mean that self-starters can't work effectively on assigned tasks. Our ideal person is versatile: he can work for others, with others, independently of others, and lead others.

This is what I believe Breen is talking about.

Mercy Triumphs

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:26:00 +0000

Mercy triumphs over justice, justice being equivalent to logic, all tied into a grace extended, turning an instant decision, that I should obey instantly but can't, into the process that eventually transforms me and delivers me beyond the wretched-man place and into the man-God-intended space, apparently molecule by molecule. Sufficient grace for the insufficient me. Not a pat answer, but an actual encounter, no off-the-rack provision, but a tailored response, designed and executed to work with, and in spite of, my Quasimodo uniqueness, that which can't be mentioned, now beginning to be healed in this, his ministry of reconciliation. O happy day!

Is Finding Your Role an Excuse?

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:00:00 +0000

I think it highly likely that many of us don't know our true role in the kingdom. It appears to me that we're somehow in process on this, and not in any long-term, set format just yet. I mean, come on, it's too convenient, way too convenient, to have this thing waiting there in the wings so that you can simply say, "That's not my role" when things get uncomfortable.

That's like me saying, "Avoid chips and dips? That's not my role!" anytime the nachos come rolling around.

How's it any different from "that's not my gift?"

It's really easy for your conception of "your role" to be exactly the same thing as "your comfort zone."

I think about the King's X song "We Are Finding Who We Are." That's a much better way of putting it.

What about finding our persons of peace? We have to get out there and engage with some people, and see who responds in an open and friendly manner. We don't need to pick and choose who we're going to engage with, just get started and keep going until someone proves himself a person of peace.

A person I think well of said something that I found troubling. He talked about living in his world, and what it consisted of. No doubt, he thinks of it as rich and varied. I'm sure that it is. Then he talked about a hypothetical person he might come into contact with. "All this guy wants is to get off work, get a couple of beers, and go fishing. We don't live in the same world. I would have to pretend to be something I'm not to interact with this guy."

I was surprised at what I heard. This was hate in action, and my friend was completely unaware of the problem. He saw his life as rich and varied. He saw the other guy's life as containing only two elements. How accurate do you think that really is? I don't think he even saw it as being all that accurate, but only as sufficient justification to cross that guy off his list as a potential person of peace. But a simple hello could lead to several common elements. Maybe they like the same baseball team. Maybe they like a couple of the same shows. Maybe they have some common acquaintances, or they both like to play "Gardens of Time" on Facebook. Maybe they both had a really tough football coach that they wound up being really close to.

Endless possibilities, but shut off, denied purchase in the here and now because "knowing my role" was a convenient excuse. It becomes a repackaged caste system where I don't have to talk to someone if I can make a case for pigeon-holing them.

Doug Pagitt's Evangelism in the Inventive Age

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:24:00 +0000

I like Doug Pagitt. My wife and I met him on the North Little Rock stop of his book tour for A Christianity Worth Believing. He was working his way through the room, chatting and laughing, shaking hands. He made his way over to us and visited for a couple of minutes before moving on again. A friendly, likable guy.

So now we come to his new book, Evangelism in the Inventive Age, the latest in his “Inventive Age” series, and I’m predisposed to like it, too. Doug posted a message on his blog about giving away pre-release .pdf copies of the book if some people would be willing to blog about it, and I jumped in with both feet.

Does your evangelizing seek to bring people into conformity or help them achieve transformation? This is one of the first issues tackled in section one, and I think it’s a good question, highlighting a common problem we run into: people often reject our evangelism efforts because they sense we’re trying to control them, that we want them to conform to our way of life.

Doug goes on to point out the effectiveness inherent in each approach. Think weight loss. If you go on a crash diet, you might lose weight and hit your target. After the diet’s over, however, your weight creeps back up and you find yourself back in the same boat or worse. If instead, you transform the way you eat, picking new, healthier patterns and habits, you might lose weight at a slower rate, but the change is more likely to be permanent.

“Conformity is temporary,” Doug says, and then goes on to deal with how to engage in transformative evangelism instead. It involves the word resonance. You hear people say “Oh, that resonates with me. I’m really in tune with that,” all the time, and Doug makes good use of it here, so the stage is set.

Next up, sections two and three, where Doug gets more into just what this “Inventive Age” is all about.

Quick Look at Psalm 131

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:38:00 +0000

Ps 131 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

Man, I love this psalm. It’s a huge confession, this gateway to humility, this doorway to peace in the midst of turbulence. When I can’t figure something out, this is where I go. When I’m so confused, or overwhelmed, or disgusted by life’s circumstances or the mystery of other people, when I need to just shrug my shoulders and get on with things, this is what I do.

First, a little self-examination. Is my heart proud? Do I think I’m self-sufficient? Is this circumstance within my comfort zone and therefore a potential area of pride? I have to remind myself at times that I don’t want to have a proud heart; I don’t want to go down that pathway, because it can easily lead me into haughtiness.

Haughtiness is being a jerk, thinking I’m better than others. It’s dehumanizing to those around me, too. If I don’t want to be proud, it’s because I sure don’t want to be haughty.

Then comes the letting go, the turning away. This is like getting rid of that bad to-do list that you had no hope of finishing, or giving up the idea of fixing that thing that was way too broke for you to fix anyway. This is great stuff, and the more reluctant you’ve been to give this whatever up, the greater the relief when you do reach this state of grace, this opening of your hand. You can’t fake this; it’s an act of balance, coming right out of the inside of the experience. You’re either stepping free of something that had you bound, or it doesn’t really happen.

Quick Look at Ps 113:5-6

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:12:00 +0000

Ps 113:5-6 Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

I love this quality of the Lord’s to stoop. This action, stooping to us, is usually offensive from a human, but for the Creator of the universe to take notice of what’s going on in our personal little pocket-world is simply fantastic. We get ignored by plain, silly humans all the time. But our God doesn’t ignore us.

And He doesn’t just turn His eye our way, either. That would be sufficient, what with His super x-ray vision. I mean, He could know anything about our condition with the tiniest glance. Well, heck, He wouldn’t even need the glance. He just knows. But He’s so cool; He stoops over to get down on our level, to check us out. He really, really loves us.

Kathleen Norris on Childhood Epiphanies

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:16:00 +0000

From her book The Cloister Walk:

"If we teach children when they're young to reject their epiphanies, then it's no wonder that we end up with so many adults who are mathematically, poetically, and theologically illiterate."

As usual, Kathleen's on to something. Now, how do we reawaken our deadness to epiphanies?

Quick Look at Psalm 141:3-4

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:14:00 +0000

Ps 141:3-4 Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies.

This fits right in with James 3, depicting the tongue as the gateway to our attitude, and our attitude as the gateway to our actions and affections. This is why saying negative stuff is so dangerous. It’s not that it’s magic and something has now been inadvertently cursed. It’s what it does to our attitudes. Like pouring salt on your garden plants – it just kills.

Quick Look at Psalm 146:7-9

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Ps 146:7-9 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. I love this statement of what it is that the Lord does. To wit:

1. He takes up the cause of the oppressed

2. He feeds hungry people

3. He frees imprisoned people

4. He gives sight to the blind

5. He lifts up the weighted down

6. He loves His own

7. He watches over the different

8. He takes care of those who need care

9. He messes up the ways of the wicked

You know, I think I can really get into having a savior like this…

Quick Look: Ephesians 4:11-24

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:28:00 +0000

(11)...this gives the structure (generally speaking) of the whole church
(12)...what's it for? for equipping and edifying
(13)...UNTIL we're unified and Christ-like
(14)...the time is over for being a child

what's being a child? being tossed to and fro and carried about (away) by:

doctrine
trickery

(15)...let's try a couple of things:

speaking the truth in love - this might be as simple as being honest with ourselves
grow up into Christ-likeness

(16)...that brings about health in the body of Christ
(17)...no longer walk in the futility of your mind (the way things seem to you)
(18)...here's what happens to those people (walking in the futility of their mind):

their understanding is darkened
they are isolated from life in God

why? because isolated from God, they're left with inadequate resources

(19)...past feeling = past hearing from God at this point and therefore have given themselves into all kinds of bad practice
(20)...but that's not how you learned/experienced Christ

i say "experienced" because learned = what you have come to know, and to know is to experience...

(21)...if you're actually in the club, you'll know to:
(22)...put off (take off, like a jacket) the old man

what's the deal with the old man? he's subject to the law of entropy... he grows corrupt

corrupt could equal disfigured - computer programs that get screwed up and no longer function correctly are said to be corrupted
how does he grow corrupt? the deceitful lusts... that means following these misinformed notions that people are subject to

(23)...and reboot your brain
(24)...and put on (like a jacket) the new man, which is to imitate Christ...

Interesting Post: Coker on Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:26:00 +0000

Jason Coker of Pastoralia is fast becoming one of my go-to guys. I'm always fascinated by what he has to say. Today's post on Haiti is no exception.

Fitch Is the Bomb

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:57:00 +0000

David Fitch wrote this article about a year ago. I'm highly impressed, as is my usual reaction to most Fitch-items. Today I want to concentrate on one paragraph in particular, putting the term missional into high resolution. Here it is:

When we plant today, we survey the land for the poor and the desperate, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. We seek to plant seeds of ministry, kernels of forgiveness, new plantings of the gospel among “the poor (of all kinds)” and then by the Spirit water and nurture them into the life of God in Christ. We gather on Sunday, but not for evangelistic reasons. We gather to be formed into a missonal people and then sent out into the neighborhoods to minister grace, peace, love and the gospel of forgiveness and salvation.

I love that idea of "survey the land" and the object of that survey, the poor and desperate of every stripe. This desire to help, and the accompanying recognition of ourselves as being in that number... I find that very encouraging.

He winds up the paragraph talking about the why behind our Sunday gatherings: to be formed as a people that can knit the "redeemedness" of our lives with the lives of others. Sweet.

Will Jesus (Introduction)

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:02:00 +0000

Karen Zacharias' introduction makes reference to the heavily Oprah-plugged The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, and that becomes the perfect launching pad for her discussion of American prosperity doctrine in general. Pretty quickly, she gets into some pithy observations.

"It's a perfect theology for people with means."
- Yah, nothing says "You're right!" like success. It's a gimme from the peanut gallery most of the time. We say, "Well, he must be doing something right..."
"However, it's a terrible theology for the poor and downtrodden."
- Yah, once again, we reaffirm this like it was true: "...it's just my luck..." "I must not be living right..."
"...whatever blessings we enjoy may be more the result of good geography than good theology."
- I really, really like Karen's willingness to let the fur fly. This is hard for a lot of Americans to come to grips with. We've been so schooled to believe that our wealth is a direct result of 1) the Christian principles of the founding fathers, or 2) our ongoing support of Israel, or 3) our exceptionally large number of televangelists (more about that in Chapter 1). Anyway, since we believe we got the good stuff because we were good, we tend to think that we can keep it - yah - protect our stuff by continuing to be good (our version of good). It boils down to this: we operate under an illusion of control. I think this book is going to punch that notion right in the solar plexus. In fact, the next Karen quote does that very thing.
"...we are not masters of our own universe."
- Told ya. We'll finish up the introduction next time.

New Book! Karen Spears Zacharias' Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:00 +0000

New Zondervan book by Burnside Writers Collective regular Karen Zacharias. It's called Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? ('Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV) and I can hardly wait.

I read the foreword by Steve Brown and in it he says 1) "I have no idea why Karen asked me to write a foreword to this book," and 2) "...while reading this book ... [I] winced. Wincing is good if God is in the wincing."

In a second foreword, fellow-Burnside-colleague Susan Isaacs says, "No, you're not alone in your nagging suspicion that God's kind of wonderful is something more weighty and difficult than mastering a prayer or a key to success; and that it's more often found among the least of these."

Yup, Karen's book is something of a riff on prosperity doctrine. And, if the part I've read so far is any indication, it's really funny as well.

Next post, I'll deal with Karen's Introduction, which, unlike many books, proved an excellent starting place.

Interesting Post: Austin Mustard Seed

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:30:00 +0000

I was reading the other day, and came across some strange ideas, the blog of John Chandler, pastor of Austin Mustard Seed. Okay, that's a lot of links.

So here's the link I found so interesting. The congregation was contemplating silence and the post lists the quotes they were considering, and one in particular hit me, from Dallas Willard:

"So if we really intend to submit our bodies as living sacrifices to God, our first step well might be to start getting enough sleep. Sleep is a good first use of solitude and silence. It is also a good indicator of how thoroughly we trust in God."

Wow. Right. Between. The. Eyes.

Quick Look at 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:30:00 +0000

In 2 Cor 12:7-10 (TM), Paul discusses his infamous thorn in the flesh, and it proves to be a rich field of study, mainly because we have here the primary human author of the New Testament, and he’s not getting what he asks for in prayer. I’m sorry, but that’s notable.

The first thing you notice is that he sought the Lord three times for the thorn to be removed, so it’s clear that it was a big enough deal for him to ask, and then he didn’t just ask, he sought the Lord, pleading. What I get from this is three full-blown seasons of seeking God’s will on this, and he finally hears God’s answer, so he hung in there.

The second thing you get is that answer. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” This is all your gonna get. This is a ticket for a free ride to quit whining, to get on with life, a dry-eyed, clear-path trail through the ruins of whatever-you-were-hoping-for, onward to what your life is actually going to be.

You are given grace, which is the free ticket part of the whole deal: it’s grace, stupid. Duh. It’s the guarantee that you can, indeed, make it through this. Sometimes we complain that a person doesn’t seem too concerned about whatever trouble they’ve found themselves in, but isn’t that the goal? That particular point could probably stand a lot of unpacking, and maybe I will do that at another time, there is a kind of indifference to results that indicates no direction, no drive, no ambition, but that’s often misconstrued for the actual working of grace, that allows you to despise (think Jesus despising (TM)the shame of the cross) all that as you keep your gaze fixed on the prize. We too often get derailed by minor points, or troubles that are beside-the-point. Grace is like peace in these situations; it lets you move on.

The third thing you get is how not-high-minded-or-spiritual this grace thing is. It’s a huge, cool thing. Do you see people born into money acting all apologetic or thinking they’re failures? Not as a general rule, you don’t. But they’re recipients of grace, also. So maybe we should take a cue from them whenever God decides to give us a free ride, and not hang our head about it.

Paul goes on to talk about bragging about his infirmities, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Look at me, Paul says, this is POWER.

Blue Parakeet: Chapter 4

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:09:00 +0000

In chapter 4 of Scot McKnight's fine Blue Parakeet, it's all about story and the retelling of the story with fresh nuance at each and every turn. He calls these retellings "wiki-stories" in the manner that the Wikipedia is put together article by article - hey, in some cases word by word, by the bearers of remarkably different viewpoints united in a common cause; it's a distributed model for a post-Babel world. What else could serve such a disparate, dispersed people?

Scot uses Mt 4:1-11 (TM) to illustrate the idea of wiki-story. It's the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, and Scot explains that this could serve as a "perfected" retelling of either Adam & Eve's temptation, or the wilderness travails of the children of Israel. Either one works; indeed, maybe that's the point - Jesus steps in to whatever story and, in walking through it again, redeems it and reconciles it to Himself. And just this small taste, this one example, starts to open up an entire universe of possibilities for us: maybe this is how the ministry of reconciliation actually works! And then we're able to make the traditional application of rebuking Satan and his temptations with scripture just like Jesus, only now, through this reading of the story as a wiki-story, we're suddenly much more solidly grounded, more thoroughly prepared for the vagaries of life.

The Bible is flexible. It's vast. It's wide, covering a bazillion different things, and it's deep, restating some themes over and over with subtle variations, fitting itself through these countless iterations closer and closer to where we actually are, wherever we've actually washed up, painfully in need of rescue.

The Network of Conversations

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:44:00 +0000

Finnish sociologist Niklas Luhmann stated that “community is a network of conversations.” This is one of those quotes that immediately strikes you as being true, even when you don’t understand it. I have a pretty good idea about usage of the word “conversations” in emergent circles. In fact, I guess that it’s very closely related to my use of the word “negotiate,” or “sitting down at the table.”

Think of negotiating “in good faith.” How’s that defined? You have notions of transparency and fairness… in short, the Golden Rule, so that community becomes a network of Golden Rule participants. I was concerned that saying proper negotiating follows the Golden Rule is stating the obvious, especially when you could say that proper anything follows the Golden Rule. However, to put the emphasis on conversation heightens the attention to communication, the transparency side of negotiations, and using the word “negotiations” acknowledges that each party has its own set of interests; i.e. we don’t operate and relate in a bubble devoid of interest, and we are not all the same.

A pressure point in negotiations happens right here when parties realize that their interests do not map with those of other parties. You hear statements like, “I thought we were on the same page,” and the words carry a tone of betrayal and disappointment.

This isn’t right, though. Indeed, it betrays a certain naiveté to feel this shock. Of course the other party or parties have a different set of interests from my own. We should realize this.

What should inform this is another question: what is germane to this particular project? We are seeking to set scope. Are we on the same page? The only page that matters is the most local one that covers the project. Do our interests within the scope of the project map to a tolerable level of congruence? This is why Jesus says (TM) that if they're not against us they're for us.

Most misunderstandings where there wasn’t an out and out transmission error, in other words, where all words and intentions got transmitted and received correctly (transparency), fall under the category of scope error.

Going Up to Jerusalem

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:15:00 +0000

They were going up to Jerusalem with Jesus. What they were expecting was a blockbuster Michael Bays film: lots of explosions, collateral damage. Zap! Pow! What they got was an indie film with a confusing ending that wasn’t really an ending.

A Quick Look at Psalm 81:11-12

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:35:00 +0000

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 81:11-12. (TM)

"...My people..." Even in the midst of our disobedience, even in the midst of punishing us, God considers us to be His people. We would do well to remember Hebrews 12:6 (TM), "For whom the Lord loves He chastens..."
"...would not heed My voice..." The opposite would be the way to go. Heed, according to OneLook.com means "pay close attention to..."
"...So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart..." A direct consequence of that stubbornness. God has the reputation of not staying where He's not wanted, and this passage would seem to support that.
"...To walk in their own counsels." This is reminiscent of Isaiah 55:8 (TM), where the Lord says that neither our thoughts nor ways measure up to His. Choosing our own way is a bad move, and He will let us do just that if we insist.

Quick Look at Psalm 81:7

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 81:7 (TM).

You called in trouble, and I delivered you... - Isn't this so typical of the Lord, the very type of thing that causes Him to be named Faithful and True?
...I answered you in the secret place of thunder... - I love this secret place of thunder... secret, and therefore mysterious... thunder, and therefore powerful. I think it really is just like thunder when the Lord drops something heavy on you. It rattles everything, even the foundations. And nobody else is even aware of it many times, so that it's secret at the same time.
...I tested you at the waters of Meribah... - This refers to the first time (TM) Moses was instructed to strike the rock, satisfying the thirst of the Israelites. It's funny how it says here that God tested the children of Israel, and in the Exodus passage it says that the people tempted God by asking "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Kind of makes you think this could be a diagnostic: If I'm thinking that I'll just smart off at God about my situation, maybe I'm just being tested after all.
Maybe it's the tell-tale sign that He's right there, though unseen, and He's involved. That's a nice thought.

Quick Look: Psalm 47

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:27:00 +0000

Let's take a quick look at Psalm 47 (TM).

You read verse 1 of this psalm and you're taken immediately down memory lane with the children's chorus, which is unfortunate in a way. The chorus leaves out so many good bits!

v2 This verse states what is perhaps obvious, but just how obvious is it that
- 1) the Lord is the Most High, and
- He is awesome?
Even in our gatherings at church, do we act as though He is awesome? Not really.
v3 I think this states Israel's expectation right up until the time of Christ, and was indeed the plainly stated role they imagined for their Messiah.
v4 This puts things perhaps a bit more ambiguously, foreshadowing the Suffering Servant role that the Messiah would actually fill. It's a good place for us to be, being willing and able to readily admit that God will choose our inheritance.

Jonestown, 30 years later

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Here's a link from boingboing about Jonestown and related stuff. I was in college when this happened. I think it's important, and something everyone should be informed about. We mustn't blindly follow anyone, and there were clues aplenty that Jim Jones was up to no good.

More about this later. Do any of you remember any of this stuff?

Yancey at CT on Diagnostics for Congregations

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Philip Yancey (Wikipedia article) has an interesting article on Christianity Today called "Denominational Diagnostics." I wouldn't have called it that, because it doesn't seem to have too much to do with denominations. He talks about being able to sense the "aliveness" of the congregation within a very short amount of time, based on 1) talk going on in the foyer, 2) presence of laughter, and 3) what activities and issues were highlighted on the bulletin board.

Read the entire article. What Yancey says he found at the heart of his quick impressions were three things.

Diversity - I think he was getting at the idea that diversity showed tolerance of personal differences and the absence of any one group dominating everything. I bet everyone's been in a congregation where actions and attitudes were highly restricted so as not to upset the "alpha" group. When that's not happening, it's a good sign.
Unity - We could easily get into centered vs. bound sets here, a fun topic to be sure. Unity could simply be strongarm tactics - "be like I tell you to be or you're not welcome here." But that would go against the diversity point above. Unity shouldn't be based on blind conformity, but on a cherished common ground, hopefully in the case of churches - Christ.
Mission - Is the church obviously trying to make disciples, and are they doing so in some positive, uplifting way that includes large doses of love?