Last Sunday I admitted to the worshippers in the Celebration Service that I was never good in math. Algebra still makes little sense to me. I was very thankful that the least math credits required for any major while I was a student at Centenary College was for a religion degree. God is gracious!
However, I do have enough math savvy to realize when the numbers don’t add up. Through the first 29 weeks of the year, our attendance in worship is up an average of 125 people a Sunday. That is an increase of almost 10%. We have already had 3,637 more people in our worship services this year than in 2008. We have had only four Sundays of the twenty-nine this year that had less people in worship than the same Sunday the year before. This is great news and a good indicator of the continuing growth and health of our church. Thank you for welcoming your neighbors into our church.
On the other hand (I’m sure you knew there was going to be another hand involved), offerings to the church have not increased with attendance. For eighteen of the twenty-nine Sundays of 2009 giving has been less than the same Sunday in 2008. Some Sundays the difference is just a couple hundred dollars, a few are down as much as $15,000. Overall, giving has decreased over these first twenty-nine Sundays by over $65,000. As the reports from our Financial Ministries Team have reassured us, we have been keeping our spending down to record levels, so the numbers are not as bad as they seem. But you don’t have to be a math genius to realize the attendance figures and the giving numbers just don’t add up. The old church adage is “giving follows attendance” and usually that is a truism. If that were the case for us, we should be having a banner financial year in 2009.
The most frightening number of 2009 is the comparison giving for the summer. Giving since June has decreased this year from 2008 by over $28,000. Of the $65,000 we are behind our 2008 giving, $28,000 of that has come this summer. That means 43% of our shortfall for the year has come over the last seven Sundays. In other words, we are going in the wrong direction…fast. Instead of catching up, we are falling further behind and the fall has increased in momentum. We cannot even blame this one on the economy – it has been picking up the past few months. Even my retirement fund increased this last quarter for the first time in the last year and a half.
Your church needs your help now. Please help us catch up these next six weeks of summer. I am asking you personally and individually to prayerful consider your response to the church’s need. We cannot allow this trend to continue without serious harm to our ministry. Starting this Sunday, we will give you an update each week on the comparison from 2008 to 2009.
In addition, in August we will inaugurate a new stewardship emphasis campaign called “One Dollar More”. Watch for details in the next few weeks. Until then, please make your additional contribution to the church so we can right the ship. Together we can make a difference and help these numbers begin to add up.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
What I Read On Vacation
Every once in a while, I read a book that stretches my traditional Christian thinking and that was the case with a book I read over my vacation. Several years ago, I was told by a church member I shouldn’t be reading such books and certainly not sharing them with others. I have to say my faith has grown much more from reading books that challenge my faith than from reading books that just confirm what I already believe. I hope, by sharing with you what challenges me, you grow in faith as well.
The book is entitled An American Gospel by Eric Reese. I decided to read it after I heard the author interviewed on the radio. Reese is the son and grandson of fundamentalist Baptist ministers and is presently a writer in residence at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. There is a lot going on in this book: Reese’s attempt to capture what he calls “the American Gospel,” which grew out of a response to the restrictive puritan beginnings of religion in America; sharing his love of American literature and its writers and finding spiritual direction in them; working through his father’s suicide and trying to make some spiritual sense of it; and a little touch of environmentalist tree hugging at the end of the book. But the reason I decided to read the book was that Reese, in the radio interview, said he no longer went to church. If the Christian church is declining, as the surveys increasingly tell us, we better find out the reasons our friends and neighbors are choosing spiritual pathways other than the church. Eric Reese’s story and faith journey did not disappoint.
In the introduction to the book, Reese begins with Leo Tolstoy and the inspiration Tolstoy received from the free spirits of American writers Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Reese writes, “In The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy argued that one cannot believe in both the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene Creed… In this sermon (following the Beatitudes), Jesus goes on to charge his crowd to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, give to those who beg, and avoid hypocritical judgments. By contrast, the Nicene Creed is solely an assertion of the divinity of Jesus…Tolstoy argued that either one accepts the Sermon’s rigorous demands for how we must act in this world, how we must treat others, or one chooses the Creed as a way of escaping from this world into another.”
Reese goes on to quote Tolstoy as writing, “The man who believes in salvation through faith in the redemption or sacraments cannot devote all his powers to realizing Christ’s moral teaching in his life.” What Reese says in his book is we have emphasized the divinity of Christ to the exclusion of the humanity of Jesus. We have placed personal salvation over our responsibility to love God and our neighbor – the greatest commandment as Jesus would say. We have concentrated our faith more on entering the Kingdom of God in heaven than we have building the Kingdom of God on earth.
First let me say, I don’t believe we must put such a strict dividing line between the divinity of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus – our salvation and the works of faith. As the Book of James reminds us, through our salvation (our oneness with God through Christ) flows the works of faith. One does not have to throw out the divinity of Jesus to follow the teachings of Jesus or visa versa. But Reese’s point is clear and important – as a person seeking spirituality outside of the church Reese is telling us, until I see the people of the church changing the world through the works demanded by Jesus, I will not believe of your salvation (oneness with Him) in His name. Jesus warned us of being like the hypocritical Pharisee praying in the marketplace. (Luke 18:9-14) He encouraged us to show God’s love through our lives more than anyone else. (Matthew 5:43-48) Jesus knew that was the way into the hearts of those seeking something more in their lives.
We must listen to the Eric Reeses of the world. They are telling us why they have not found the church to be a legitimate pathway to the spirit of God. They are telling us there is an incongruity in what we say and what we do and they don’t want any part of it. John reminds us of that incongruity, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (I John 4:20). So put your acts of faith where your religious mouth is. Never ask someone if they are saved before you show them your oneness with God in the way you live.
The book is entitled An American Gospel by Eric Reese. I decided to read it after I heard the author interviewed on the radio. Reese is the son and grandson of fundamentalist Baptist ministers and is presently a writer in residence at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. There is a lot going on in this book: Reese’s attempt to capture what he calls “the American Gospel,” which grew out of a response to the restrictive puritan beginnings of religion in America; sharing his love of American literature and its writers and finding spiritual direction in them; working through his father’s suicide and trying to make some spiritual sense of it; and a little touch of environmentalist tree hugging at the end of the book. But the reason I decided to read the book was that Reese, in the radio interview, said he no longer went to church. If the Christian church is declining, as the surveys increasingly tell us, we better find out the reasons our friends and neighbors are choosing spiritual pathways other than the church. Eric Reese’s story and faith journey did not disappoint.
In the introduction to the book, Reese begins with Leo Tolstoy and the inspiration Tolstoy received from the free spirits of American writers Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Reese writes, “In The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy argued that one cannot believe in both the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene Creed… In this sermon (following the Beatitudes), Jesus goes on to charge his crowd to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, give to those who beg, and avoid hypocritical judgments. By contrast, the Nicene Creed is solely an assertion of the divinity of Jesus…Tolstoy argued that either one accepts the Sermon’s rigorous demands for how we must act in this world, how we must treat others, or one chooses the Creed as a way of escaping from this world into another.”
Reese goes on to quote Tolstoy as writing, “The man who believes in salvation through faith in the redemption or sacraments cannot devote all his powers to realizing Christ’s moral teaching in his life.” What Reese says in his book is we have emphasized the divinity of Christ to the exclusion of the humanity of Jesus. We have placed personal salvation over our responsibility to love God and our neighbor – the greatest commandment as Jesus would say. We have concentrated our faith more on entering the Kingdom of God in heaven than we have building the Kingdom of God on earth.
First let me say, I don’t believe we must put such a strict dividing line between the divinity of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus – our salvation and the works of faith. As the Book of James reminds us, through our salvation (our oneness with God through Christ) flows the works of faith. One does not have to throw out the divinity of Jesus to follow the teachings of Jesus or visa versa. But Reese’s point is clear and important – as a person seeking spirituality outside of the church Reese is telling us, until I see the people of the church changing the world through the works demanded by Jesus, I will not believe of your salvation (oneness with Him) in His name. Jesus warned us of being like the hypocritical Pharisee praying in the marketplace. (Luke 18:9-14) He encouraged us to show God’s love through our lives more than anyone else. (Matthew 5:43-48) Jesus knew that was the way into the hearts of those seeking something more in their lives.
We must listen to the Eric Reeses of the world. They are telling us why they have not found the church to be a legitimate pathway to the spirit of God. They are telling us there is an incongruity in what we say and what we do and they don’t want any part of it. John reminds us of that incongruity, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (I John 4:20). So put your acts of faith where your religious mouth is. Never ask someone if they are saved before you show them your oneness with God in the way you live.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Remembering Pete Messick
On October 24 last year, we lost a cherished member of our church and the drummer in the Celebration Band, Pete Messick. Pete’s face became an iconic presence in our worship services. He found so much joy in playing songs that praised the Lord that his face became radiant when he played. I cannot tell you how many times people would comment to me on the pleasure they received in their worship watching Pete play. As I said in the eulogy at his memorial service, Pete was our Little Drummer Boy.
After some interesting years on the rock and jazz music circuit, Pete began to grow in his relationship with God. Through their professional careers, Pete and Buddy Mattei, director of our music ministries, became friends. On the way to and from gigs, Buddy and Pete would talk about the church in McKinney Buddy was involved in. Soon Pete and his wife, Joanne, found themselves in worship at Stonebridge UMC. After one of the services, Pete told Buddy that he liked the music, but the band could use a drummer. From that point on Pete became our drummer boy. If you remember the classic Christmas story, a little boy was trying to find a way to give a gift to the new born Son of God. He finally and reluctantly decided to play a song for him on his drum. This act pleased the Lord more than any other gift. Pete’s playing on Sunday mornings pleased the Lord and Pete came to understand it as his gift to God. That was the radiance you saw on his face.
To honor Pete’s memory, we are installing a prayer labyrinth on the property at the church. The labyrinth came from Greek mythology and found its place in Christianity in medieval times. It symbolizes our pathway to God. It has a clearly defined center which represents our union with God and has one entrance which is to remind us of our birth and baptism. Labyrinths are symbolic pilgrimages where we focus on our growing relationship with God. Its significance faded over time, but its spiritual use has recently experienced a rebirth. Today, you can find labyrinths in churches and parks. We have a portable indoor labyrinth we use for special occasions in the life of our church.
The Pete Messick labyrinth will go on the east side of the church building where the portable buildings used to stand. It has been approved by the church Trustees and it will be paid for from memorial gifts given in honor of Pete. If you would like to honor Pete and make this wonderful addition to our church a reality, make your checks payable to the church with Pete’s name on the memo line. You will also be able to give electronically through the Secure Give kiosk located at the information desk outside Celebration Hall or through our web site by clicking here.
This Sunday, a picture of the labyrinth will be in the church hallway close to the church office. As you imagine people walking the labyrinth, think of Pete’s face as he played. I have no doubt that radiant face will be looking down on us in joy.
After some interesting years on the rock and jazz music circuit, Pete began to grow in his relationship with God. Through their professional careers, Pete and Buddy Mattei, director of our music ministries, became friends. On the way to and from gigs, Buddy and Pete would talk about the church in McKinney Buddy was involved in. Soon Pete and his wife, Joanne, found themselves in worship at Stonebridge UMC. After one of the services, Pete told Buddy that he liked the music, but the band could use a drummer. From that point on Pete became our drummer boy. If you remember the classic Christmas story, a little boy was trying to find a way to give a gift to the new born Son of God. He finally and reluctantly decided to play a song for him on his drum. This act pleased the Lord more than any other gift. Pete’s playing on Sunday mornings pleased the Lord and Pete came to understand it as his gift to God. That was the radiance you saw on his face.
To honor Pete’s memory, we are installing a prayer labyrinth on the property at the church. The labyrinth came from Greek mythology and found its place in Christianity in medieval times. It symbolizes our pathway to God. It has a clearly defined center which represents our union with God and has one entrance which is to remind us of our birth and baptism. Labyrinths are symbolic pilgrimages where we focus on our growing relationship with God. Its significance faded over time, but its spiritual use has recently experienced a rebirth. Today, you can find labyrinths in churches and parks. We have a portable indoor labyrinth we use for special occasions in the life of our church.
The Pete Messick labyrinth will go on the east side of the church building where the portable buildings used to stand. It has been approved by the church Trustees and it will be paid for from memorial gifts given in honor of Pete. If you would like to honor Pete and make this wonderful addition to our church a reality, make your checks payable to the church with Pete’s name on the memo line. You will also be able to give electronically through the Secure Give kiosk located at the information desk outside Celebration Hall or through our web site by clicking here.
This Sunday, a picture of the labyrinth will be in the church hallway close to the church office. As you imagine people walking the labyrinth, think of Pete’s face as he played. I have no doubt that radiant face will be looking down on us in joy.
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Wonderful Cross
We sing the song in church every once in a while and I have to admit I cringe a little when we do. “O the wonderful cross…” we sing - such a melodic tune for such a violent and tragic image. My guess is Jesus wasn’t singing about the wonderful cross while he was dying on it and for us to sweetly sing of how wonderful it was negates the power of Jesus’ willingness to die for what he believed. It is to go from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without remembering the hurt and pain of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
To think of the cross as wonderful can confuse our spiritual thinking. It can cause us to think maybe God sent Jesus to die on the cross. I believe God sent Jesus with the great hope we would listen to Him, follow Him and build the kingdom God put into His heart and mind. Jesus was the continuation of the covenant relationship God had whispered in the ear of Abraham, engraved on stone tablets for Moses and wrote on Jeremiah’s heart. It was God’s promise to always be our God and God’s demand for us to always be His people. The people were never fully able to remain loyal to the covenant relationship, so God sent Jesus to be a living, breathing connection to Him and His desires.
The cross came not by God’s direction, but because of the inability of those listening to Jesus to hear the word of God through him. His message threatened them and the religion with which they had become comfortable. It should remind us that crosses are never wonderful and are not the way God chooses to work with His people. God does not use crosses to test us or to get back at us for something we have done. Thinking this way distances us from the One who is always pursuing us that we might know His love. Crosses come not from God, but out of our shallowness, selfishness and sinfulness. They come out of our inability to see the vision of God for us.
The good news comes when God responds to the faithlessness and cruelty of the cross with the resurrection. God gives the life the world took from Jesus back to Jesus. And God continues to do so for us today. God still loves us through the hurts and difficulties of life; not making the crosses we bear wonderful, but manageable. The love of God helps us to live through the crosses to a new life – and not just a new life in the world to come, but a new life in the world we live in now.
You may have noticed crosses in Protestant churches and Catholic churches look different from one another. In Catholic churches Jesus is on the cross, while in Protestant churches the cross is empty. One recognizes the suffering of Jesus while the other emphasizes the resurrection. We should probably have examples of both in our churches, because both concepts are important for our faith. As the song says, “O the wonderful cross bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.” I hope the next time we sing these words, you will cringe a little with me.
To think of the cross as wonderful can confuse our spiritual thinking. It can cause us to think maybe God sent Jesus to die on the cross. I believe God sent Jesus with the great hope we would listen to Him, follow Him and build the kingdom God put into His heart and mind. Jesus was the continuation of the covenant relationship God had whispered in the ear of Abraham, engraved on stone tablets for Moses and wrote on Jeremiah’s heart. It was God’s promise to always be our God and God’s demand for us to always be His people. The people were never fully able to remain loyal to the covenant relationship, so God sent Jesus to be a living, breathing connection to Him and His desires.
The cross came not by God’s direction, but because of the inability of those listening to Jesus to hear the word of God through him. His message threatened them and the religion with which they had become comfortable. It should remind us that crosses are never wonderful and are not the way God chooses to work with His people. God does not use crosses to test us or to get back at us for something we have done. Thinking this way distances us from the One who is always pursuing us that we might know His love. Crosses come not from God, but out of our shallowness, selfishness and sinfulness. They come out of our inability to see the vision of God for us.
The good news comes when God responds to the faithlessness and cruelty of the cross with the resurrection. God gives the life the world took from Jesus back to Jesus. And God continues to do so for us today. God still loves us through the hurts and difficulties of life; not making the crosses we bear wonderful, but manageable. The love of God helps us to live through the crosses to a new life – and not just a new life in the world to come, but a new life in the world we live in now.
You may have noticed crosses in Protestant churches and Catholic churches look different from one another. In Catholic churches Jesus is on the cross, while in Protestant churches the cross is empty. One recognizes the suffering of Jesus while the other emphasizes the resurrection. We should probably have examples of both in our churches, because both concepts are important for our faith. As the song says, “O the wonderful cross bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.” I hope the next time we sing these words, you will cringe a little with me.
Monday, June 22, 2009
What is a Worship Leader?
In our 2008-2012 Strategic Plan, seven priority areas are identified to give us direction as we continue to seek to “change our community and world through growing relationships with Jesus Christ.” The second of those priorities is to expand on the excellence of our worship services to include a focus on passion in our worship. A team of our members was put together to think through what that might mean for us as a church.
The first consideration that came from that team was to hire a worship leader. The idea came from the book Go Big by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius. This was the book we used to help challenge us as a congregation into our next stages of growth. In the chapter on “Staffing the Church for Explosive Growth”, the authors emphatically recommend hiring a worship leader. In fact, they say that the most important staff person following the lead pastor is the worship leader. In our setting here at Stonebridge UMC a worship leader would work with the other music and worship staff to design worship, help in choral song selection, conduct a growing number of music groups and lead in the presentation of music, particularly in the Celebration Services. In a sense, this person is to make sure the congregation is brought into a spiritual mood of worship as we begin our service. The worship leader is to help us reach our potential in our praise of God. He or she is to enable us in glorifying God.
When Don Smith started this church, he recognized the importance of music and made some of the first hires of the church our music leadership. When we started The Bridge, we knew the success of that service would revolve around the music; so we hired D-MAC to team up with Pastor Terri and The Bridge was off and running. Now, the next step for the Celebration services is to enhance the dynamic music Stonebridge has become famous for by adding a worship leader to our staff. Our Staff Parish Team has already written a job description for the position of worship leader and has approved posting the position to gather candidates for the job.
You are going to get a taste of what that might look like in Celebration Hall on Sundays, June 28, July 5, and July 12. Our very own Tracy Lastrapes will play the role of worship leader in those services to, as Emeril Lagassi would say, “crank it up another notch.” This does not mean the Celebration Service will become more Bridge-like. We want each of our services to be as distinct as always. It also does not mean it will be louder or more contemporary in style. What it does mean is that our worship will be more passionate; with the singing more robust, infectious and praiseful.
Make sure you are in church these Sundays to see the beginnings of our next steps of growth in the name of Christ.
The first consideration that came from that team was to hire a worship leader. The idea came from the book Go Big by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius. This was the book we used to help challenge us as a congregation into our next stages of growth. In the chapter on “Staffing the Church for Explosive Growth”, the authors emphatically recommend hiring a worship leader. In fact, they say that the most important staff person following the lead pastor is the worship leader. In our setting here at Stonebridge UMC a worship leader would work with the other music and worship staff to design worship, help in choral song selection, conduct a growing number of music groups and lead in the presentation of music, particularly in the Celebration Services. In a sense, this person is to make sure the congregation is brought into a spiritual mood of worship as we begin our service. The worship leader is to help us reach our potential in our praise of God. He or she is to enable us in glorifying God.
When Don Smith started this church, he recognized the importance of music and made some of the first hires of the church our music leadership. When we started The Bridge, we knew the success of that service would revolve around the music; so we hired D-MAC to team up with Pastor Terri and The Bridge was off and running. Now, the next step for the Celebration services is to enhance the dynamic music Stonebridge has become famous for by adding a worship leader to our staff. Our Staff Parish Team has already written a job description for the position of worship leader and has approved posting the position to gather candidates for the job.
You are going to get a taste of what that might look like in Celebration Hall on Sundays, June 28, July 5, and July 12. Our very own Tracy Lastrapes will play the role of worship leader in those services to, as Emeril Lagassi would say, “crank it up another notch.” This does not mean the Celebration Service will become more Bridge-like. We want each of our services to be as distinct as always. It also does not mean it will be louder or more contemporary in style. What it does mean is that our worship will be more passionate; with the singing more robust, infectious and praiseful.
Make sure you are in church these Sundays to see the beginnings of our next steps of growth in the name of Christ.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Wear Your Shirt and Share Your Faith
A few weeks ago, our Coordinator of Adult Ministries, Suzy Cass, was presenting a devotional in which she used a video clip from a sermon by Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. In the sermon Adam told a story about a meeting he had with his youth pastor, Dan. It was one of those weeks when time had become tight and their regular staff meeting had been cancelled, so Adam and Dan, both being night owls, decided to meet on their common agendas at a pub down the street from the church at 10pm.
They were seated at a table and talked church matters and enjoyed soft drinks and appetizers. Adam was wearing a sweatshirt with the church’s logo on it which evidently drew a few people to their table. The first was a drunken woman from the table next to them. She asked with slurred speech, “Do you guys go to that church?” They answered “yes”. Then she asked, “Why did God kill my sister?” Adam promised the congregation listening to his sermon that he would be talking about that in his sermon the next Sunday. A while later the waitress stopped by their table and asked, referring to his sweatshirt, “Is that the church on…” and gave the address. They said “yes”. And she asked, “Do you like that church.” Sheepishly, Adam answered, “Yeah, I like it a lot.” Then the woman confessed, “My life isn’t going so well. I just recently got divorced and I have a three year old child. I’ve been a pagan witch for the last eight years and that’s not really working for me. I just feel like I need something else in my life. Do you think that church you go to would let a divorced, single mother who works in a bar and has a been pagan witch come to church?” Adam responded, “I can tell you without hesitation the people of that church would welcome you.” She came the next Sunday – a little surprised to see him preaching in his robe – but that was the beginning of her journey.
As most of you know, we have been selling shirts with our church name on them. You can buy a “golf shirt”, a “camp shirt”, a “t-shirt” or even a shirt with rhinestones on it, but, whatever shirt you buy, I hope you understand the purpose of these shirts. It is not to be a fashion statement (even though I am sure you will look really good in one), but rather an opportunity to share your faith and invite people to church. For most of us, the most difficult part of our Church + 3 commitment is to share our faith. It does not seem to come naturally. Certainly we have had few good role models to show us appropriate and helpful ways to go about it and, we would probably have to admit, we are not always comfortable articulating what we believe. But wearing a shirt with our church name on it gives you a simple way to invite someone to church. First, they will come to you to ask their questions; you don’t have to feel like you are “assaulting” someone against their will. Secondly, you don’t have to be a theologian to invite someone to church.
I hope you decide to wear a shirt as a commitment to your discipleship and a sign of your willingness to share your faith and church with others. You might just find yourself telling a story about how you helped someone start their journey of faith. To order a shirt, contact Suzy Cass at suzy@mysumc.org or call 972-529-5601 x332.
They were seated at a table and talked church matters and enjoyed soft drinks and appetizers. Adam was wearing a sweatshirt with the church’s logo on it which evidently drew a few people to their table. The first was a drunken woman from the table next to them. She asked with slurred speech, “Do you guys go to that church?” They answered “yes”. Then she asked, “Why did God kill my sister?” Adam promised the congregation listening to his sermon that he would be talking about that in his sermon the next Sunday. A while later the waitress stopped by their table and asked, referring to his sweatshirt, “Is that the church on…” and gave the address. They said “yes”. And she asked, “Do you like that church.” Sheepishly, Adam answered, “Yeah, I like it a lot.” Then the woman confessed, “My life isn’t going so well. I just recently got divorced and I have a three year old child. I’ve been a pagan witch for the last eight years and that’s not really working for me. I just feel like I need something else in my life. Do you think that church you go to would let a divorced, single mother who works in a bar and has a been pagan witch come to church?” Adam responded, “I can tell you without hesitation the people of that church would welcome you.” She came the next Sunday – a little surprised to see him preaching in his robe – but that was the beginning of her journey.
As most of you know, we have been selling shirts with our church name on them. You can buy a “golf shirt”, a “camp shirt”, a “t-shirt” or even a shirt with rhinestones on it, but, whatever shirt you buy, I hope you understand the purpose of these shirts. It is not to be a fashion statement (even though I am sure you will look really good in one), but rather an opportunity to share your faith and invite people to church. For most of us, the most difficult part of our Church + 3 commitment is to share our faith. It does not seem to come naturally. Certainly we have had few good role models to show us appropriate and helpful ways to go about it and, we would probably have to admit, we are not always comfortable articulating what we believe. But wearing a shirt with our church name on it gives you a simple way to invite someone to church. First, they will come to you to ask their questions; you don’t have to feel like you are “assaulting” someone against their will. Secondly, you don’t have to be a theologian to invite someone to church.
I hope you decide to wear a shirt as a commitment to your discipleship and a sign of your willingness to share your faith and church with others. You might just find yourself telling a story about how you helped someone start their journey of faith. To order a shirt, contact Suzy Cass at suzy@mysumc.org or call 972-529-5601 x332.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Super God
“It’s a bird! It’s a plane!” No, it’s just some guy in blue tights and a cape. The other night, nothing was on television (Can you imagine, hundreds of channels and nothing to watch?), and I found myself watching the movie Hollywoodland. It is the story of the mysterious death of George Reeves, the original TV Superman, and I’ll have to say the movie took a little of the “super” out of the man. To tell you the truth, even though I grew up loving the show, I never really thought he looked all that “super.” The suit showed a little more of his body shape than it should have. It was hard to imagine him being “faster than a speeding bullet” or “more powerful than a locomotive” or able to leap much more than a foot off the ground.
My favorite part of the show was when he would demonstrate his many powers to the bad guys; bullets bouncing off of his chest, bending steel with his bare hands, using his x-ray vision to overcome a criminal and save the day. Now that was television! I hated those shows where he was weakened by kryptonite or unable to see through lead. Even though I knew he would win by the end of the show, I didn’t like it when he was vulnerable. Seeing the “man of steel” exposed as a man with a number of human frailties in Hollywoodland reminded me of how alluring the fantasy of invincibility is.
Throughout history, we have often made our gods, super gods. Huge images of the gods of Egypt, Babylon and Mesopotamia were erected to show the immense power of that god; often to instill fear and servitude. The God of the Old and New Testaments was not such a God. Yes, we proclaim our God to be omnipotent (all powerful) and believe God to be the creator of all that is, but the more we learned about the God Yahweh, the more we realized He was never an aloof God. God connected to us by making a covenant with us, became vulnerable in sending us his Son and the only image God ever wanted erected to Him is us. Too often we have tried to make God who we have wanted Him to be, rather than who God has revealed Himself to be. We would rather think of God being responsible for everything than realizing God calls us into a partnership to be responsible with Him. We want God to right the wrongs, overcome the bad and defeat evil at very turn. We want our enemies to be God’s enemies. We want God to rescue us from anything bad that might happen to us, rather than understand that God walks with us through the valleys of life. So, we have blamed God for not fixing something in our lives, blinding us from our responsibility as His partners and seeing His presence loving us through it.
We are created in the image of vulnerability rather than power. It is in giving ourselves to another person that brings the wholeness of humanity, not wielding our power over them. As I think back on it, Superman became a model for little boys. He was the epitome of masculinity. He was powerful, fearless and invincible. To be manly growing up in the 50’s meant to show your muscles, never cry or show that you were hurt and never take a chance on showing your feelings in front of someone else. Most of us took seriously those Charles Atlas ads on the back covers of comic books that said to be a man meant never to let anyone kick sand in your face and get away with it. I am afraid not much has changed.
The Bible calls us to remember that we, not some enormous idol, are the images of God in the world today. God expects us to bring the kingdom of which Jesus taught into reality. It might be fun to imagine there is a being out there fighting “the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way”, but what makes God “super” is the love that comes out of being vulnerable.
My favorite part of the show was when he would demonstrate his many powers to the bad guys; bullets bouncing off of his chest, bending steel with his bare hands, using his x-ray vision to overcome a criminal and save the day. Now that was television! I hated those shows where he was weakened by kryptonite or unable to see through lead. Even though I knew he would win by the end of the show, I didn’t like it when he was vulnerable. Seeing the “man of steel” exposed as a man with a number of human frailties in Hollywoodland reminded me of how alluring the fantasy of invincibility is.
Throughout history, we have often made our gods, super gods. Huge images of the gods of Egypt, Babylon and Mesopotamia were erected to show the immense power of that god; often to instill fear and servitude. The God of the Old and New Testaments was not such a God. Yes, we proclaim our God to be omnipotent (all powerful) and believe God to be the creator of all that is, but the more we learned about the God Yahweh, the more we realized He was never an aloof God. God connected to us by making a covenant with us, became vulnerable in sending us his Son and the only image God ever wanted erected to Him is us. Too often we have tried to make God who we have wanted Him to be, rather than who God has revealed Himself to be. We would rather think of God being responsible for everything than realizing God calls us into a partnership to be responsible with Him. We want God to right the wrongs, overcome the bad and defeat evil at very turn. We want our enemies to be God’s enemies. We want God to rescue us from anything bad that might happen to us, rather than understand that God walks with us through the valleys of life. So, we have blamed God for not fixing something in our lives, blinding us from our responsibility as His partners and seeing His presence loving us through it.
We are created in the image of vulnerability rather than power. It is in giving ourselves to another person that brings the wholeness of humanity, not wielding our power over them. As I think back on it, Superman became a model for little boys. He was the epitome of masculinity. He was powerful, fearless and invincible. To be manly growing up in the 50’s meant to show your muscles, never cry or show that you were hurt and never take a chance on showing your feelings in front of someone else. Most of us took seriously those Charles Atlas ads on the back covers of comic books that said to be a man meant never to let anyone kick sand in your face and get away with it. I am afraid not much has changed.
The Bible calls us to remember that we, not some enormous idol, are the images of God in the world today. God expects us to bring the kingdom of which Jesus taught into reality. It might be fun to imagine there is a being out there fighting “the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way”, but what makes God “super” is the love that comes out of being vulnerable.
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