Disciple Making

When we talk about making disciples, our language can so often be misunderstood. "Making" in English sometimes has the connotation of forcing. "Making disciples" isn't about clubbing people over the head, dragging them into the Jesus camp, and putting another mark on the board.

When we say "making" we are not talking about forcing someone to do anything. What we are hoping is to be a part of the spiritual formation of another person. We become participants in a work that is powered by God and accepted by a person who is choosing to learn how to live a faithful life. This is no cookie cutter operation. The resulting disciple--follower of God in the way of Jesus--will never look, act or feel exactly the same as any previous disciple of Jesus. Each of us is unique. There is no time when the operation is complete. As long as we are on this planet we remain works in process--pressed, formed, changed by a power that is at once outside ourselves, between us, and within us.

The full expression of discipleship is a person who is always seeking and renewing his/her connection with God and neighbor through acts of contemplation, mercy, forgiveness, and charity (love). Are we at CUMC making and becoming disciples? I pray that we are. I know that we are...

A Place for All God's Children

The opening page of our church website says, "A Place for all God's Children." I love watching as a phrase that was half true when we coined it begins to become more and more true. Our congregation is full of people from different social classes, diverse age groups, and ethnic backgrounds. We have people who are dependent and codependent, addicts/recovering addicts and the people who love them, happilly married people and people suffering through broken marriages, exconvicts and the people who visit the incarcerated, people who are baby Christians and life-long Christians.
When I look out over our congregation I know that I can say with integrity that our congregation is a place for all God's children. I know in my heart that that is the way Jesus wants it.

success

Who decides what it means for us to be successful? Too often we allow society, the culture, even our bosses to decide what success might look like. Jesus stepped into peoples lives and often challenged their self-perceptions. Our harsh judgments of ourselves often hold us back from realizing success as God would define it--love for God and care for our neighbor. How many of us are incapable of those two basic concepts? If we are loving God and neighbor, does it really matter how big our paychecks are or if we get the coveted positions at our work places?

Should the success of church be defined any differently? Are we loving God and neighbor with all our resources, exposing God's love to the community, fighting against injustice, raising the standard of civility, helping people change their lives for the better? If we are, then I truly believe we are succeeding as a church to be exactly what God has called us go be. If not, let's get to work!
p lou

Civility

It seems that civility has become a lost art in our society. The concept of civilization rests on the notions of mutual repect, appreciation and courtesy. I was taught in school that my freedoms stop when they begin to impinge on someone else's freedom. There was an assumption in that teaching that I would be self-limiting in my freedoms out of respect for the next guy or girl. Now, it seems, that it works almost the opposite. Each person pushes his or her freedom until someone else pushes back hard and limits it. We experience this "Make way, I'm coming through attitude," daily in traffic jams, check out lines, and school hallways.

Over the next 9 weeks I will be preaching on the nature of our spiritual life by reflecting on the bibical concept of the "fruit of the Spirit" and contrasting it with our current lives of quiet, personal desperation and resulting coercive attitudes and actions. We need our hearts changed. We need to experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Maybe then church and society will become more civilized and our hearts will be a bit more reflective of the Savior we claim to follow.

Church Growth

In the age of stagnant mainline churches, it is tempting to believe that the natural order of church is status quo. In fact holding our own or maintenance too often becomes perceived as success in this environment.

In my early ministry, I read volumes on strategies for church growth and tried to stay current with the hottest new means for bringing more people to church. We implemented many of those concepts and were "successful" in bringing more people to church--but was that really making disciples.

As we look to the future of Christianity in general and our congregation in particular, I hope that we will use a broad definition of making disciples that includes bringing more people to church and bringing more to the people of the church. We need to challenge all people to think more deeply, to love more compassionately, to live more consistently their lives of faith. And we need to give people the tools to accomplish these things. Maybe then we can say that our congregation is experiencing church growth. Maybe then God will look at us and say, "Well done good and faithful servant(s)."

In the words of Nicole Noordeman's song "Brave" let's say together:

"So long status quo

I think I just let go

You make me want to be brave

The way it always was

Is no longer good enough

You make me want to be brave"

Reflections on 9/11

When we are young we really believe that someday we will be able to change the world. Over time our vision becomes a little more practical, a little more sensible, a little less vital, a little less interesting. What happens to our dreams so steeped in potential?

On September 11, a group or terrorists set out to change the world, packing box cutters and sentence prayers in their personal belongings, they in a misguided mission set off to change the world.

I know my world changed as I watched and listened. People were dying before my eyes on American soil. I wasn't safe anymore. I succumbed to the temptation to patriotism and a desire for revenge. "Something must be done," I thought. Maybe I should have defined more clearly what that something should or shouldn't be. A sense of insecurity crept into my life and the lives of others that day as the safest, richest country in the world tried to deal with being a victim.

So five years laters the world is a different place thanks to a few men who set out to change it, having learned as children that it is possible to change the world. Now we have chosen to live in this less than brave new world--a world of hate, fear, condemnation, violence and retaliation. Who said a few people can't change the world?

9/11 hold many lessons, not the least of which is that a few men and women can change the world--those plane pilots certainly rocked ours. So don't give up your childlike belief that the world can be a better place because of what you say and do. We all have a chance to change the world--for better or for worse.

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." "You are a city on a hill." The world is looking at us. Will we be a people of darkness or a people of light? Is it possible to change the world? Yes. Is it possible to change the world into a more loving, peaceful, forgiving, generous place where citizens of diverse nations can learn not to fear each other? You tell me!

As for me, I am ready to try and be a little less practical, a lot more interesting, a little less sensible, and a lot more vital, and a lot more convinced that I can help change the world. Won't you join me?

p lou