Becoming a Spiritual Guide is an intensive three month program designed and led by author, spiritual director, retreat leader, and veteran minister Mark Yaconelli. Through contemplative retreats, practical teaching, spiritual direction, weekly spiritual practices, engaging group discussions, online correspondence, and selected readings participants will:

• Deepen their experience of and relationship with the God of Jesus
• Grow in practice and knowledge of the Christian spiritual arts: prayer, discernment contemplative listening, and compassionate action
• Learn a variety of spiritual exercises, disciplines, and compassion practices for use with individuals and groups
• Experience a variety of discernment practices and processes for use within churches, non-profits, and other organizations that seek the Spirit’s guidance
• Gain personal guidance and clarity on vocational gifts and calling
• Learn how to hold and heal relational conflicts and personal wounds
• Learn leadership skills for guiding others in prayer, spiritual practice, discernment, and compassionate action
• Gain a set of skills, methods, and processes for forming communities that are creative, compassionate, and attentive to the Spirit

This is going to be an amazing intensive, and I’d encourage you to check out more information here, and think about how this could fit into your life and ministry.

I went to my share of National Youth Worker’s Conventions and Emergent Conventions, where I got a chance to see, hear and meet David Crowder a couple different times. I’ve played some of his songs in worship before, and compared to some of the cheesy, worship/praise music that’s out there, the David Crowder Band stuff has always been stuff that I’ve enjoyed.

Today they have released a new album, All This For a King: The Essential Collection. If you’re a long-time David Crowder fan, then you’ll probably want this to add to your collection.

If you’ve never heard of David Crowder or his music, this would be a good intro to some of his most well-known songs. And if you use this link to Amazon, you can get the album for only $8.89 (which is a pretty good deal, I’d say).

The album has some of my favorite songs: O Praise Him (All This For a King), You Alone, and No One Like You. The full track listing is below:

1. O Praise Him (All This For A King)
2. Our Love is Loud
3. Open Skies
4. Here Is Our King
5. Wholly Yours
6. How He Loves (Radio Version)
7. You Alone (Live)
8. Everything Glorious
9. The Glory of It All
10. SMS {Shine} (Radio Version)
11. Shadows (Family Force 5 PHENOMENON Remix)
12. After All (Holy) (Capital Kings Remix)
13. No One Like You (The Digital Age Remix)
14. This I Know (New Track)

While the band has called it quits, Crowder will continue to release music and tour the country. Crowder will be headlining a 20-city club tour in the Spring of 2013 and will continue to work on new music as he launches his solo career. An all new record from Crowder is coming in the Fall of 2013.

Giveaway

I have 5 signed physical copies of the CD to giveaway. It’s going to be on the honor system. If you’ve NEVER PURCHASED A CROWDER ALBUM BEFORE, and would like this “greatest hits” album, send me an email through this site (via the Contact Page). The first five to do so will be the winners. Thanks!

So I’ve spent a few posts reflecting on preaching recently, must of it a critique of what we’ve done before, and trying to rethink preaching.

• The Flipped Sermon
• Rethinking Preaching: Seminary Killed my Style – Now What?
• Rethinking Preaching: Monological vs Dialogical Preaching
• Rethinking Preaching: PechaKucha Preaching

But what if nothing had been around before? What if preaching and the field of homiletics didn’t exist? What if no one had ever heard a sermon before? Something went awry during the Reformation, we never inherited the teaching-style of proclamation, never thought about someone standing up and proclaiming the word of God in the fashion that we have all become accustomed to. Work with me here…I know it’s a stretch.

So you and a group of people get together. There are some parishioners and some pastors. Some professors, teachers, grocery-store baggers and stay at home moms and dads. There are some youth, preschoolers and a few elderly folks. And your goal is to come up with a way in which you engage and interact with scripture and people’s lives.

Essentially, you’re given a blank slate. A chance to brainstorm and come up with a new way.

What does that look like? What tools would you use? How might proclamation of the word of God look in 2013, if you were starting from scratch today? Would you essentially end up with something similar to what you do now? Or would you feel more freedom to go in a different direction?

You may have already seen this video before, but I first heard it on a Radiolab podcast a few months ago (I was a few months behind, it originally aired December 2012). The theme for that podcast was “Bliss” and it began with the audio of Aleksander Gamme’s video above. This is from Radiolab’s podcast description:

First: a perfect moment. On day 86 of a 3-month trek to and from the South Pole, adventurer Aleksander Gamme discovered something he’d stashed under the ice at the start of his trip. He wasn’t expecting such a rush of happiness in that cold, hungry instant, but he hit the bliss jackpot.

At first,  you might think it’s kind of funny that he’s that excited about finding some food. Or that he’s just hamming it up for the camera. But can you imagine experiencing that intensity of hunger and cold and the trek that he’d been on…and then to find something that he’d forgotten about?

Bliss.

When was the last time you experienced bliss?

I am not a fan of churches “giving in” to Hallmark holidays and celebrating the commercial holidays during worship services. It’s funny, even the founder of Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, was really upset by the commercialization of the holiday by the 1920s (she had just started it in 1914). Oh my, what would Anna say today?

But what I did learn recently (thanks to the Wikipedia article here), is that Mother’s Day falls just behind Christmas and Easter in terms of attendance. So, our churches are going to be filled this Sunday…and the question is what do we do with Mother’s Day? Earlier this week, I had a brief conversation with David Hansen and Bruce Reyes-Chow on Twitter, and it has had me thinking the past few days. You can see the conversation below:

My default response is to say nothing. It’s a commercial holiday. People are going to have their own celebrations and traditions following church…so why give it more time in the context of worship?

After losing Micah and Judah 2.5 years ago, and realizing what parenthood looks and feels like when you have lost children, it gave me a deeper appreciation for the fact that Mother’s Day and Father’s day have the possibility of being horrible days for many people.

When we lost Micah and Judah, and I began to blog about my journey through grief so openly on DazedDad.com, I had so many older women come up to me at church and tell me stories of children they’d lost, miscarriages they’d had and other stories of infant loss that they’d never told anyone before. If you haven’t thought much about this before, you would probably be shocked at the high percentage of women who will be sitting in your pews this Sunday who have suffered these types of losses.

But then I had the above conversation with David and Bruce, and two tweets in particular stood out to me. First, one from David in which he said: “Ppl are going to make meaning out of those events. Church can either be a part of that meaning-making, or let them go at it alone” (link) and when Bruce said: “I always mentioned them if only to give permission and language to deconstruct them . . . because they need to be” (link).

And that’s true. People are going to make meaning out of these holidays and events, as they do with everything else in their lives. And the question for the church is whether we’re going to be a part of that meaning-making. Others have said if you don’t say anything about it at all, then you’re just making the church look more irrelevant. And I can see that. I can see the important of allowing the church to have that prophetic meaning-making voice. Of mentioning these particular types of holidays and events in the lives of people to allow them the freedom to join you in some deconstruction of them and the meanings that have been attached over the years.

So, that’s got me thinking about how we might be able to do that in a way that still recognized the profound and deep sadness, anger and confusion that many feel during these particular days. It’s certainly not easy to figure out – but it’s an important conversation that we all need to be having, instead of just sitting around in staff meetings and asking the question: “So, how are we going to honors mothers this year?”

Finally, there have been many others who have written about Mother’s Day in the church recently, and you’ve probably seen some of their posts and written liturgies. A few that I have really appreciated and resonated with are below:

• Marci Glass has a really moving piece called “Mother’s Day” that all pastors should read in preparation for worship this Sunday
• Amy at The Messy Middle wrote a post that went viral this past week, and is another must-read for you: An open letter to pastors {A non-mom speaks about Mother’s Day}
• Finally, Ashley-Anne Masters has written two beautiful prayers that could be used in your liturgies this Sunday. First is a Prayer for Parents & Those Who Want to Be and the second is a Prayer for Children of All Ages.

Images can often be much more powerful than words. Even though the above photo (from Barry Taylor‘s PechaKucha presentation at Emergence Christianity, January ’13) actually has words in the image, it’s not something that can be easily forgotten.

Doing my PechaKucha presentation was one of the most enjoyable speaking opportunities I’ve had in the past couple years. The challenge to create a talk based on 20 slides of 20 images sparked my creativity, and was both fun and very challenging.

Someone left a comment on a recent post (though, for the life of me, I can’t seem to find it right now) about how they had been experimenting with crafting a sermon based on images that were displayed during the sermon. They also shared that they had received some really wonderful feedback about the sermon and the use of images.

In the past two sermons that I’ve done here in Ashland, I’ve had slides rotating in the background with images, and incorporated some video as well (big shout out to The Work of the People for some of their great videos!). For example, on Palm Sunday, I just found all sorts of artwork and different multicultural depictions of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and had those in the background while I preached. You can see some of those images here. I did something similar for my sermon on John 20 and “doubting” Thomas – just had a variety of different art pieces rotating in the background while I preached.

Each Sunday, I’ve had people from all generations (young people and some of our oldest members) who have commented on how much they appreciate the art and the use of the images on the screen.

It doesn’t take a huge amount of time on my part, it adds a really beautiful aesthetic to the service, and people get caught up in the images and have said that it really adds to the whole sermon experience.

So, that’s one easy way to add something to our sermons – both of those sermons I preached were manuscript sermons.

But, what if we did some PechaKucha preaching too? What if we gave ourselves 20 slides. 20 seconds per slide. And crafted images and spoken word into a multi-sensory experience. For one, it’d only be about 7 minutes long, and folks might even remember what we said! After a quick YouTube search, I’ve seen that at least one person has tried doing it before…not sure it’s the most engaging presentation, but just wanted to say that I’m not the first person to think of this.

But if we are able to craft together a spoken word experience like that that is shorter, with images, it would help people have a more memorable experience, I think, and then because it is shorter, it would allow for folks to discuss and do some reflecting with the community, without the service going longer than 60 minutes (which, for us Presbyterians, makes people really, really antsy).

For those of you who have done a PechaKucha presentation before…what do you think? Would that work for another option for doing a sermon, for getting into the Word of God? Or if you’ve seen a PechaKucha presentation before, do you think it could work for a sermon and reflection time?

Last week I wrote a bit about preaching styles (manuscripts vs outline vs more free form) and today I want to chat a bit about the form or content of a sermon.

First, a note about the above photograph. This is a shot of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, a community that Doug Pagitt helped to form. I love so many things about the photo above, but I think this gives you a bit of an idea about what preaching “in the round” or having a dialogical type of sermon could look like.

I think most would agree that the church is one of the last places around that you’ll still see the primary/sole mode of teaching/transformation be a lecture-style sermon, monological preaching. Folks in education have been experimenting with different forms of pedagogy for years, and have moved past the “talking head” format for quite awhile now. Sure, there are times in a large lecture-format course where it still makes sense to give information that way – but most students would probably tell you there are more engaging ways to learn and actually have the information stick, than listening to a lecture.

Yet, it’s a safe bet that you can show up at church on a Sunday morning at your typical church, and expect, for the most part, to sit back, listen, hear and be a passive recipient of a worship service, particularly during the sermon.

And yet, there are other folks who argue for a more interactive and participatory. Doug Pagitt is one of those persons, and has referred to the traditional model of preaching as “speaching.”

Let me say that if I look at all of my preaching experience, the majority of it has been the more traditional format. I get up. Preach what I feel God is calling me to say. Say AMEN, and that’s the end of it.

But there have been some times here at Ashland where I have tried to find ways to incorporate discussion and sharing both at the end of the sermon, and during the middle of a sermon. I’ve always received very positive feedback from folks who have experienced that form of preaching. I’ve also thought about trying something like a flipped sermon.

Tony Jones is another person who values a more participatory style of preaching, and wrote the following about a year ago while he and Doug spoke at the Festival of Homiletics in Atlanta:

We live in the most highly educated society and the most highly participatory culture in the history of humankind. Everything around us has changed: the clothes we wear, the way we transport ourselves, how we communicate. And yet, 99% of preachers stand up on Sunday morning and deliver a monologue. A soliloquy. And their churches decline. And they wring their hands. There is another way. There is a way of participation and inclusion and dialogue and conversation.

And so, my question has to do with the purpose of preaching. Do we still have a view of the preacher as the educated one who should be “dispensing” the word of God to the congregation? The Presbyterian Church (USA) did recently change the title of our ordained ministers from Ministers of Word and Sacrament to Teaching Elders (not a change that everyone loves), so according to our polity and view of ministers, we are called to be “teachers.”

Although I would still point to the vast array of educational theory and methods out there today that differ from the “talking head” approach of teaching and learning. Ministers can be teachers, but that doesn’t mean that we need to only deliver sermons that are “speaching” or one-way communication.

Or is preaching not as much about dispelling information, as it is to take our sacred text, and help bring it to life amidst a community of followers in the way of Jesus. To take a text, and allow others to bring their vast array of knowledge and life experiences to the text, and join together to have a discussion about the text and how it can be meaningful in our lives today.

Again, I feel I should say that I’m not trying to say that I do this well. For me, I think it’s easier to sit down and write my manuscript sermon, as opposed to thinking how I can engage the congregation and invite them into the process. But I still say that when I take the time to do that, I am more engaged in that time of reflection, and I think the congregation is as well.

And I do still like to hear good monological preaching. I have heard Barbara Brown Taylor preach a few times, and I could listen to her every week! And there are some preachers who are amazing storytellers and are able to really bring a text to life. And as a preacher myself, there are times, I think, that call for a more straight-forward, old-school style of preaching.

But I don’t really foresee that style or preaching being what’s going to be part of the future church. I think it’s time to really live into this reality of the priesthood of all believers, and really buy into the idea that we all have unique gifts and experiences and insights to bring to a text, and our communities would be richer in hearing a multitude of voices, as opposed to only one, single voice, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

Now, I could be wrong. I’ve never belonged to, or served, a community of faith that actively lived into this style of preaching. So, who knows? Maybe I’d get bored by it. Maybe it would take too much time to try and craft a participatory sermon every week. But, I think it’s something that more preachers ought to try more often.

What about you? What do you feel the essential role and purpose of preaching is? And do our methods today (the methods that have been used for years…) still connect with our people and culture of today in such a way that it’s really allowing us to bring about the most transformation in the people belonging to our communities?

Photo Credit: Courtney Perry

I thought I’d spend a few posts here on Pomomusings reflecting on preaching, something that I don’t get to do every week as an Associate Pastor, but something I do enough that the topic is on my mind often.

Many of you may recognize the photo above: it’s Miller Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary. I preached there once (watch the video here).

But before I went to seminary, I had done some “preaching” and some preaching. Let me explain. I spent my first two summers during college working at Camp Sawtooth, a Presbyterian Church (USA) church camp just north of Ketchum, Idaho. After serving on staff for a couple years, I got invited back to be the Camp Dean for certain camps. The Camp Dean had to give morning chapel and evening campfire “talks.” I made intricate outlines, listing every one of my 20 points per 45-minute talk…yah, I still pray for the kids who sat through those “talks” of mine.

I remember one week of camp…it was the FIRST NIGHT of camp, and I was supposed to do the “Hey everyone – welcome to camp, this is going to be a great week” talk. It turned into a 45 minute….well, I don’t know what it was. But I do remember that it was close to 45 minutes long.

After college, I also got to preach at the church I served as Director of Youth Ministries. I still have the outlines I made for those sermons…and they’re long. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed sitting through those early sermons of mine.

I was long-winded. I rambled. I got off on tangents.

But…what I could do…was preach from a rough outline, and I felt comfortable with that. Folks encouraged me and said they appreciated my style (sure, maybe they were just being kind, but still…).

And then I went to seminary. Now, I say that seminary killed my preaching style. And if that means that I’m not preaching long-winded tangent-laden sermons that don’t necessarily have a point…then I guess that’s a good thing.

Princeton taught me to preach from a manuscript. Before going to seminary, I had always felt like that was cheating. Who uses a manuscript?! Well, I would begin to use one at Princeton Theological Seminary, that’s for certain.

And after graduating, and now having served two churches after seminary, I can assure you that I have always preached with a manuscript since then. And, it’s not all bad. It helps me keep the length to a fairly predictable length, which I enjoy. It helps me craft the sermon the way I want folks to hear it (of course, there is always the Holy Spirit who likes to mess things up sometimes), and it probably does make me a better preacher.

And at least in my experience, while I preach from a manuscript, I still have a more casual, conversational tone in my delivery, and that feels better to me.

But, I really do want to move away from preaching via a manuscript. I want to be able to think about, craft and be really comfortable with a sermon, so that I can preach it from just a few notes for an outline. I think it will give me more freedom, and I think that it will help give me even more of a “conversational tone” for my delivery.

Seminary taught me a lot about preaching that was helpful, but I think it also took away some of the freedom & “casualness” of my preferred sermon delivery method.

Anyone else stuck in this type of a conundrum? Have you found helpful ways to move away from manuscript preaching?

However, I did want to share Micah, Judah and Caleb’s story with Sherry and her audience, so I agreed to do a podcast about my experiences of being a father.

I really appreciated how Sherry structured the podcast interview, and we had a good conversation. I talked about the joy of fatherhood and shared some stories about life with Caleb, and I shared some of our story about journeying through grief and loss.

Sherry and I also talked about how I am a bit of a social media buff, how having kids has changed me and I share some about my Little Bunny Foo Foo dance. If  you want to listen to the podcast, check out the Parenting Remagined podcast here or you can like them on Facebook here.

Update: I did NOT watch the YouTube video I linked to above for the “Little Bunny Foo Foo” song. Oops. I’ll leave the link there, because…well, you’ll have to see it for yourself. And to be honest, there really aren’t that many good animated portrayals of that song…it’s a little bit of a demented song, huh?

Thanks to inspiration from folks like Mike Rohde and Paul Soupiset, I’ve recently found ways to incorporate writing + drawing: Sketchnoting.

Young Authors Conferences
Dinosaurs. Little boys. Magic doors. Teleporting. These were just some of the things I wrote about as an elementary school aged kid. I don’t know how many communities and schools still host these, but when I was young, I attended many Young Authors Conferences. At these events, we learned about writing, stories, met real authors and got a chance to present stories of our own.

I remember countless hours writing, and illustrating, my books. I remember my dad taking me to work with him on a Saturday or two, and sitting in an empty office room with blank paper, crayons and colored pencils, and feeling as if there was no limit to my imagination or where the story could go.

One of my stories involved a dinosaur: Tyrannosaurus Rex to be exact. I drew, and redrew, and redrew this tyrannosaurus rex over and over again. Each time, trying to get just the right shape of his head, his arms and his tail. I remember it just like it was yesterday.

Continue reading over on A Deeper Story…

Last week, Patheos blogger David Murrow wrote a post entitled “Why traditional churches should stick with traditional worship.” It was apparently shared over 38,000 times on Facebook…so it’s quite possible that you’ve seen the post. In this post, Murrow shares an experience he had worshipping at a small, traditional church. Now, Murrow is a member at Alaska’s largest church, a megachurch; but sometimes he and his wife occasionally worship at a small, traditional church. They enjoy it, and describe it like this:

The richness and rigor of the liturgy is refreshing after years of seeker-sensitive services. It’s an eight-course meal, carefully measured out for us by church fathers – confession, forgiveness, praise, instruction, communion, giving, fellowship and benediction. It’s like a spiritual multivitamin in an easy-to-swallow, hour-long pill.

But one Sunday, they showed up and the church was doing its monthly contemporary worship service. Unfortunately, it didn’t jibe as well with Murrow and his wife:

We arrived to find the pastor without his clerical robe. A projection screen had been lowered in front of the organ pipes. We sang praise choruses instead of hymns, led by a solo guitarist who had trouble keeping the beat. The congregation did not seem to know the songs, so they sang tentatively. On a positive note, the sermon was good as usual, and the pastor skillfully used PowerPoint slides to reinforce his message.

And so, because of this small church in Alaska that struggled to effectively pull of a contemporary service, Murrow suggests that traditional churches should stick with traditional worship. He writes: “…if you offer just one service, stick with what you do best.”

Now, let me start off by saying that I’ve certainly sat through services like Murrow did. A primarily traditional church that had a group of individuals who really wanted to pull off something more contemporary and…well, just didn’t quite make it happen. Maybe it was because they were doing “contemporary music” that was contemporary in the 70s, or the technology just failed over and over again…who knows. So I get where he’s coming from to some degree.

And I know that there are young adults and young families who really do connect with a more traditional form of worship, so I’m not trying to say that you have to try to pull off contemporary or modern worship to bring in young people. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the way we’re doing church right now isn’t connecting with a vast majority of 20-40 year olds. And I would argue that a lot of that has to do with our worship services.

So when I hear Murrow say “traditional churches should stick with traditional worship,” what I hear is “traditional churches should stick with traditional worship if they’re content with dying a slow death.”

I think, I hope, that the church is going to look vastly different in 50 years. And I think our worship services will look vastly different as well. And I’m not the only one that thinks this. Derek Penwell, in his post “What If the Kids Don’t Want Our Church?” last month, wrote the following:

Because churches with massive overhead invested in things like church buildings, denominational infrastructures, functional church organizational models (think: a baptized version of General Motors’ organizational structure, complete with a board of directors, departments, departmental committees, etc.) are awakening to the fact that the generations that are supposed to be taking the institutional baton are showing very little interest in grabbing for it.

You could try to convince the emerging generations that they ought to value the tools you’ve always used, that they should want to take care of them, that they’re going to need them someday, that they should want to pass them down to their children.

Or, you could complain about the fact that these kids just don’t appreciate what you’ve done for them.

Or, you could suck it up and bless them on their next wild adventure.

I think there will be aspects of traditional worship that will remain in whatever it is that is created in the future. I doubt we’ll throw everything out. But, I’m guessing, and I could be wrong, that worship will look a lot different. And the churches that maintain a stubborn insistence to do things the way they’ve always done things, will probably only be filled with the people who remember how things were done back in the day until they all pass away.

Now, I’m not saying that contemporary worship is the style of worship that we will find filling all of our churches in 50 years either. It probably won’t be either of those, but a mashup of a sort, a form of worship that is more engaging, participatory and enables followers in the way of Jesus to see and understand that their faith has a practical significance in the world.

But it does seem that there are elements of contemporary worship, even if it’s simply the style of music, that connects with young adults today. And if churches are adamant about refusing to try to incorporate those into their worship services, or are told that they should just stick with traditional worship, I think they are missing out on opportunities to create spaces for a younger demographic.

Of course we’re going to fail sometimes. We all do. But to not try, to be content with the status quo, and to just do things the way we’ve always done them…I think that simply places us in a mode of passivity, and of an acceptance of dying a slow death.

But you’ve all seen GoDaddy’s commercials during the Super Bowl, the scantily-clad women, the obvious objectification of women…and for the past couple years I’ve kept telling myself, “I should really move my domains from GoDaddy to another company.”

Well, last year I bought a domain name with Namecheap, and knew they were who I would want to move to eventually. Namecheap is super easy to use, has very competitive prices and has a much cleaner interface than GoDaddy.

So last week, I moved all 13 of my domain names over from GoDaddy to Namecheap. It was incredibly easy and I had no downtime with any of my sites. I wasn’t sure all of what was involved with it, but it ended up being a very smooth process. Now, I should say that I’ve never used GoDaddy for any of my hosting, and I think that would have been a more involved process.

So, I would highly recommend doing this. And luckily, there are a lot of really helpful step-by-step articles that will walk you through the process. Here are a few links:

• Namecheap offers advice on how to specifically move from GoDaddy here
• Here is some basic information from Namecheap about transferring domains
• Here is another article from Namecheap about how to make the switch without much of a downtime
• Here is another article about migrating off of GoDaddy, with a lot of helpful information

Hope you’ll take the time to move your domains to Namecheap, you won’t regret it.

Our kids from the Ashland Youth Collective have just started the joyous task of fundraising for our 2013 Summer Mission Trip. I’ve written about our experiment with this collaborative form of youth ministry before here, and it’s continued to be an exciting part of my ministry here in Ashland.

As I learned yesterday – because these kids are so amazing and involved in so many things, many of them are having to fundraise for two, sometimes, three different events all at the same time. And I know how difficult even fundraising for one trip can be. We have kids involved in sports, musicals, lots of other extracurricular activities, some students who just got back from Haiti, after raising money for a trip there…they’re like all of the kids you work with too probably…

So, I decided I’d try and help them out with the Pomomusings Bump. You’ve probably heard of the Colbert Bump, right? Well, this is like that, it’s just the Pomomusings Bump.

At any rate, with the stats that I have on Pomomusings, I know that I get around 500-800 visits to this site each day – which is awesome. Now, each student has to raise about $225 to go on this trip. So, if each of you visiting were to give just $1, that would help AT LEAST 2 kids go on this trip, maybe up to 3 or 4. And that would be a huge gift to this ministry that we have.

So, that’s all I’m asking for. $1. And we’ve setup a PayPal donation link where you can do that $1 donation SUPER quick. So, could you take 2 minutes and give a donation to our summer mission trip? It’d be awesome if you’d be willing to do that.

Well, my birthday is almost over. And my Jesus Year is just beginning.

And yes, apparently this “Jesus Year” thing is actually a thing. According to the Urban Dictionary, it means “Time to get moving and get things done (maybe).”

So, I guess it’s tine to finally get moving and get things done this year. I think it will be a good year, and I look forward to seeing what God has in store. Today was a good day: Caleb slept in a little bit (7am is now sleeping in; hurray!), we watched My Little Pony for awhile, I got some good gifts, and then we had some friends over tonight for awhile. And now my Jesus Year begins. I think, really, that I just have one goal for this year (as of right now): not to get crucified.

Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!

Our Gospel passage today picks right up from where the story ended last week. In John’s version of the story, Mary Magdalene had gone to the tomb, seen the stone rolled away, told the disciples, went back to the tomb and ran into a gardener…who turned out to be Jesus. She then went and told the disciples what Jesus had told her, and that’s where we pick up this morning.

The disciples had essentially been hiding out behind locked doors…they didn’t know what to think about the fact that the stone had been rolled away and that Jesus’s body was gone…they thought someone might be coming after them. And so they hid out. Behind locked doors. Waiting…we’re not really sure what they were waiting for. Maybe for things to die down…maybe for someone to come and tell them that they weren’t under suspicion of anything, we don’t know. But they were hiding.

And then Jesus showed up.

The text doesn’t tell us that he knocked on the door…or anything at all about how he came to be standing there among the disciples. As you heard this story, you probably get the image of a ghost-like Jesus suddenly just…appearing…to the disciples.

And obviously, I wasn’t there, so I can’t tell you how that all played out, or how exactly it was that Jesus showed up…or whether it was Jesus as a spirit, or if he had a type of body…but, nevertheless, there he was. With his disciples…minus Thomas…maybe he was sent out on a pizza run? Who knows.

And Jesus probably knows that they’re going to be a little unnerved by all this…and might have some questions, so he shows them his hands and his side…just so that they would know that it’s him. It is their teacher, their spiritual leader, the one who had a spear stuck into his side, and nails hammered through his hands.

And what happens next seems to be…a commissioning of sort. He’s clearly not going to be around for long…and so he’s commissioning, empowering and sending out these disciples of his for ministry. He breathes on them, gives them the Spirit, and empowers them for a ministry of forgiveness.

I love this part of the passage, Jesus breathes on the disciples…giving them the Holy Spirit. As you heard this verse, you might have been reminded of any number of other passages in the Bible. Perhaps it was the creation story in Genesis 2:7, in which we are told that “the Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life.”

Or maybe it was the very creepy story of the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37, where the bones eventually come back together, and sinews and flesh and skin cover the bones, and finally the Lord says: “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.”

A few verses later, the Lord promises: “I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the Lord. I’ve spoken, and I will do it. This is what the Lord says.”

I think we’re supposed to be reminded of all of these passages – I think that’s something John did on purpose when he tells us that Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit….just as God breathed life into the first creation…and as the Lord God breathed life into those dry bones…Jesus breathes new life into these disciples, these broken and weary and fearful disciples…many of them had probably been doubting Jesus, were doubting much of what he said, because it appears that he had been killed…even though they heard from Mary that he was risen…could they really believe it?

And then Jesus shows up. Their eyes are opened and they see his hands and his side…they are able to see the risen Christ, and receive the new life breathed on them…the Holy Spirit.

Oh those lucky, lucky disciples…

Well, all of the disciples except Thomas.

Can you picture the scene when he arrives back at the house?
Thomas walks in…and everyone just kind of looks at one another:

“Tell him.”
“No, YOU tell him.”
“I’M not telling him….just tell him what we just saw.”
“Okay, so….Thomas…while you were out…”

And then Thomas says the line that forever has him branded as the one who doubted…as a Doubting Thomas…he says to the other disciples:

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

There it is. Poor, doubting Thomas. Sad, Thomas the doubter.

He will not believe.

And thousands of years later, we still sometimes look at folks with a little bit of pity and say “Oh….don’t be such a Doubting Thomas…”

Thomas just did what ANY of us what do, didn’t he?!

He wanted to be able to see Jesus with his own eyes…he wanted his eyes opened, as the eyes of the disciples had been…to this new reality of Jesus, the Risen Christ.

And so…Thomas did what many of us have done in similar situations.

He waited.

A whole week.

You have to wonder what Jesus was out doing during this whole week, and why he didn’t reappear to the disciples agin sooner, but the text says: A week later Jesus’s disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

And after waiting for a whole week….after sitting with his doubt, with his questions…wondering why Jesus would show himself to the other disciples, but not to Thomas…Jesus arrived. Brought peace. And let Thomas have the same experience that the other disciples had been blessed with a week earlier.

Something I noticed during my reading of this text this week was what Jesus said to Thomas:

“Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

He offers Thomas exactly what Thomas needed to believe. And he does this without having been there a week earlier when Thomas said this is what he needed. Perhaps we’re just missing a little dialogue here in the story. Maybe Jesus showed up…the disciples said something like, “See Thomas! He’s alive! He’s risen! Now you can put your finger in the mark of the nails and put your hand in his side…”

And then Jesus says, “Okay, sure. Do that.” Or perhaps there is something quite mysterious about the Risen Christ. The Risen Christ, who, while not visibly-present to Thomas a week earlier, still knows Thomas’s heart, knows what Thomas needs to believe…still knows what Thomas said to the other disciples.

Jesus says to Thomas “Do not doubt…but believe.” But to be honest, that’s not a great translation. The Greek in that text essentially says: “Don’t be unbelieving. But rather, believe, have faith.” It’s possible it’s just a bit of a game of semantics here, but I think there is a difference between unbelieving and doubt.

I don’t think you can believe and unbelieve at the same time, and I think that’s what Jesus is talking about. But you can believe and have doubt at the same time. For, I think that pretty much describes the bulk of our Christian journey.

Jesus doesn’t show up in the room and say “Get rid of all your doubts…” Rather, the Risen Christ shows up and says “Don’t become unbelieving. Look at me. Believe. Have faith…you will believe because you’ve gotten the chance to see me…but there will be others who will believe without seeing…”

And who is he talking about there? Well, lots of people…but definitely US. We haven’t seen Jesus’s hands and side. We haven’t gotten that first-hand experience of having Jesus just show up in a room we’re in behind locked doors. And yet…here we are. Many of us followers in the way of Jesus…

And many of us still have doubts. That doesn’t mean we don’t have faith…that doesn’t mean we don’t believe…but we do still have doubts.

And while we have those doubts…we wait. We wait like Thomas waited that week for Jesus to show up. We wait with our doubts, with our questions…and it may be a day, or a week, or years…but at some point, Jesus shows up, shows up in the locked spaces that we are hiding…and says “Peace be with you.”

As our passage from Revelation said, Look! “He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him.” 

1 Corinthians 13:12 says: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.” Things might not be all that clear to us now…sometimes they may be a little fuzzy…but I think the encouraging thing is that at some point, our eyes will be opened. Every eye will see him.

And so, I think we go throughout our life and our spiritual journeys sometimes feeling like the disciples…having experienced God’s presence and feeling that new life that’s been given to us by the Holy Spirit…

…sometimes we’re feeling more like Thomas. Feeling like we missed Jesus…and that we just have to sit around and wait for Jesus to show up again…sitting around with our doubts, with our fears…and just not quite feeling as sure as the disciples may have felt.

And I think the good news for us in this story is that Jesus shows up again. Thomas and the disciples didn’t know that Jesus would show up again, but Jesus does. A week later, Jesus surprised them by just appearing again in the house behind the locked doors.

He brings them peace, encourages Thomas’s faith and gives Thomas exactly what Thomas needed to believe. Jesus isn’t thrown off, or upset, or irritated with Thomas’s doubts. But he reaches out to him in just the way that Thomas needed.

That sounds like good news to me…that God will show up. Meet us where we are. That God will accept us just as we are, with our doubts, our questions, our faith…all of it. And in just a few moments, when we celebrate communion…we create a space where God shows up.

And while we don’t understand the mystery behind the bread and the wine, we participate in this act of remembrance and of hope, that God shows up and meets each of us wherever we are on our journey.

Out of Order is a documentary about homophobia in the Presbyterian Church (USA) that you might be interested in supporting. They are currently running a support campaign on Indiegogo (similar to Kickstarter) and as of right now, they’ve received $9,419 toward their goal of $20,000. This is some information from their website:

Out of Order is a feature length documentary following the journey of three queer members of the Presbyterian Church (USA). With unprecedented access, the groundbreaking documentary Out of Order is the first film of its kind to positively portray queer people of faith actively changing the meaning of Christianity.

This important film is about people making a stand for what they believe in. It’s not merely about Christians or gay and transgender people. It’s about wider humanity and doing what’s right, despite institutions telling you you’re wrong, broken and don’t belong.

The characters in our film are on the edge of a big cultural change, one which the President is talking about, the church is talking about and society is talking about. Out of Order is a story of empowerment and inspiration. It invites everyone, gay, straight, faithless or religious to challenge exclusion and intolerance.

If you’re interested in supporting this documentary, you can do so here.

A few weeks ago, Shawn Coons posted a link to this article, “Flipping Churches” on Facebook. No, don’t read “Flipping” as a derogatory replacement for the F-word, but rather as a verb. The article talks about the flipped classroom, an idea that is used in education more and more. The article describes the flipped classroom like this:

The “flipped classroom” is the idea that instead of learning about a topic in class and then practising the topic at home (for example, at school your teacher explains how to do long division and at home you answer problems on long division) students learn about a topic at home and then practice the new learned technique in class.

And the article asks how this idea might be used in churches, specifically with the sermon. Shawn posted the money quote from that article as well:

“Imagine that instead of coming to church, listening to a sermon for [insert your churches sermon length] ending with a few questions which no one talks about (except maybe a brief mention over coffee), the congregation listened to the sermon before coming (it could even be a famous preachers sermon or the pastor could record one). Once they turn up to the meeting, everyone discussed the implications for themselves, prayed for each other and perhaps, even, left the church building and put their ideas into action.”

While I certainly appreciate a well-crafted sermon, and am glad when I am able to deliver one, I keep thinking that preaching needs to move into new and more participatory models if the church is going to continue to be relevant to people today. Why is the church one of the last places that still puts an emphasis on the lecture-style of teaching? Why do we assume that our parishioners still want this type of sermon when you can often see the boredom and detachment on their faces when they’re listening to sermons? I love this idea of the flipped sermon, and am hoping to try it in the next couple months.

I think this allows the preacher to wrestle with the text, to listen to the Spirit and have a sense of what God might want to say to that specific congregation…but then takes it further and asks each person sitting there in the pews to have to interact with the message and the text, to have to imagine how they might be able to live out that specific text, and to make themselves aware of the Spirit’s nudging in their lives.

Do you think you would be able to preach a flipped sermon in your context? What other ideas have you tried to bring creativity and new ideas to your sermons?

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! A day to celebrate new life and new beginnings.

Although, when I woke up this morning, it certainly didn’t feel like a normal Easter…rain, overcast, a little chilly…not quite the Easter that I was hoping for, and not the best morning for Caleb to experience his very first Easter Egg Hunt.

This is what I experienced this morning as I was about to get out of my car at the church. Rain. Grey. Cold. But then I shifted my focus a bit…and saw this:

Not necessarily a HUGE improvement but when I shifted my focus, I could see the colors in the trees and the potential for new life.

And I think that’s part of what Easter is all about. Shifting our focus…seeing the new reality that’s out there right in front of us…even though it might not be what we thought we were looking for, I think God and God’s Spirit can surprise us sometimes…

I went to high school with Treva Blomquist and always knew that she was a really talented singer and musician. Years later she’s made a name for herself in Nashville and in the music scene, and I’ve enjoyed her music and following along with her success.

She just came out with a new album called “So We Would Know.” She describes the album like this:

“So We Would Know” is 11 songs about God’s goodness, faithfulness, mercy and love. These songs are based on old hymn texts I’ve found, most of which were written in the 1700-1800s. This collection of spiritual songs sits very close to my heart. I hope you will find them encouraging, and I hope they will point you towards the greatest love of all.

If you like folk/Americana style music by a really talented singer-songwriter, I’d suggest you checking out Treva’s music. She sings some new life into these old hymns; I’ve been listening to it on repeat for the past day or two, and really enjoyed Treva’s voice, the musicianship of the album and how it all came together. My favorites are probably “Ain’t No Grave” (a good song for Sunday’s Easter worship service if you’re still looking for some fun music you can use) and her rendition of “Come Thou Fount.”

You can listen to it via the player below…but if you’d like to support an up and coming musician, pick up the album for only $10 today here.