Christmas Email '04

Christmas is such a special time of the year. The holiday season carries with it great symbolism for many cultures and religions. For me it is a reminder that my birthday is a month away and that I will soon be one more year older. Tragically I am rapidly approaching my “middle-age” years. I can remember thinking, “When I turn thirty, I’m dead. No one will want to hire an over thirty year old youth pastor. Certainly no students will want hang out with some pot-belled, middle-aged, weirdo for Jesus.” But now many years after thirty, I personally feel like a bottle of wine, I have only gotten better with age. Sure there are some things that are harder for me like, trying to maintain cultural relevance with teenagers (there is only so much MTV I can take anymore.) Overall though I feel like with every passing year of service in ministry I become better equipped to not only handle the needs of students, but I am capable of dealing with the needs of their parents and those of the congregation members as well.

Even with growing confidence and self-esteem, as I age there are still those moments and situations that make me say, “Dang, I’m old!” It’s the little things that can irk me the most. To the students I work with, the Atari 2600 is an antique, they have never bought their favorite album on vinyl and they cannot remember a time when Blockbuster didn’t rent DVD’s. There are many things in the world that have changed since I was a child. Christmas shopping for my own children is a huge reminder of how things are so different, even from thirty years ago. Technologies are different, entertainment is different and even clothing styles are different (they say leg warmers are coming back, but I can’t see Old Navy promoting them next Christmas season.)

For all the changes however, many things stay the same. Some for the good and some for the bad. I received a reminder of this today as I was downloading Christmas songs off the Internet. At this time of the year I love to listen to music that reminds me what this season is all about. As I was browsing through a list of songs I became somewhat nostalgic of my Junior High School years. There in the play list was the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, sung by a group of British new wave pop stars called Band-Aid. Besides Bono of U2 fame, most of these artist’s are nothing more then a track on a “Best of the 80’s” CD or regaining nominal fame by staring on the VH1 show “Bands Reunited”. During the mid-eighties however, these bands and singers where huge icons in my album collection. So when they sang about World famine, this mid-west white boy stood up and took notice. Here are the lyrics that had such an impact on me 20 years ago.

It’s Christmas time; there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime
But say a prayer to pray for the other ones
At Christmastime

It’s hard, but when you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you

And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life
Oh, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?
Here’s to you, raise a glass for everyone
Here’s to them, underneath that burning sun
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?

Feed the world
Feed the world
Feed the world
Let them know it’s Christmastime again
Feed the world
Let them know it’s Christmastime again

Listening to the song again raised the memories of nightly newscasts describing the incredibly gruesome famine, taking place in Ethiopia. I remember being a fourteen-year old Christian asking myself, “What am I doing so that those people know that it is Christmastime?” The answer was a disappointing, “Nothing.” Sadly, twenty-years later things haven’t changed much, in my life and the world.

I unknowingly downloaded the “extended” version of the song. In this version the performers gave holidays greetings during an instrumental section. The words that hit me hardest came from eclectic rock superstar David Bowie when he said, “It’s Christmas 1984 and there are more starving folk on the planet then ever before.” After hearing this I asked myself, “Had the world changed any in the past twenty years? I realized starvation and hunger still existed in the world. But it had gotten better, hadn’t it?” In 1984 hunger had reached close to 500 million people in a world population of 4.8 billion people (11%). Today, this very day, there is an estimated 850 million people living with hunger. With a world population of over 6.9 billion people, an estimated 12% of the world’s population goes hungry each day. In the past twenty years of technological advancements one would think the world community could have at least lessened the percentage of people that go to bed hungry each day.

Here are some of the things we have done in the past 20 years:

We have launched the Space Shuttles 113 times at a cost of $470 million dollars a shot.

We have bought 84 million DVD players here in the United States.

We (globally) spent $18.5 billion dollars on video games in 2003.

From Budapest to Bloomington we snarfed down $17.5 billion dollars of “BigMac’s” last year alone.

Retail sales during this holiday season alone are being estimated at $220 billion dollars in the US.

Bono from the band U2 was once quoted as saying; “Christ's example is being demeaned by the church if they ignore the new leprosy, which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here. If it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play. If it doesn't, it will be irrelevant." The same can be said about the churches response to world hunger and most social justice issues. It is a shame that the church doesn’t do a better job of showing the world that Jesus is it’s light; during the time we celebrate his birth. If 70% of this country claims to be Christian (this percentage has been on a yearly decline for over 10 years), then the church can claim around $154 billion dollars spent on Christmas presents this season. It seems for all our attempts to “Remember the reason for the season” we have been failing at getting out the message of why God sent his Son to us in the first place. If Jesus had delivered, in today’s context, the section of the Sermon on the Mount found in chapter seven of the book of Matthew, it may have sounded something like this: “Not all those who sound religious are really godly. They may call me their Leader, but they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The issue is whether they did what my father asked them to or not. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Leader, CEO, we went to conferences and festivals in your name, we bought multiple copies of books about you to raise their sale’s ranks on Amazon and we went and saw your movie multiple times’‚ But I will reply, ‘I never had a relationship with you. Get out of here; the things you did were not authorized by me.”

The same painful lament by Jesus can be found in Matthew 25:41-46:

"Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, `Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his demons! For I was hungry, and you didn't feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn't give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, and you didn't invite me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me no clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me.'
"Then they will reply, `Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?' And he will answer, `I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

We got off course from where God wants us to be. How we got there? I don’t know. How do we get back on course? I think that is up to each person that reads this. I know for all the Christmas seasons to come our family has made a pledge to not buy any more retail gifts. From now on we are going to work with one of the many hunger relief organizations that allows one to purchase livestock to be sent to those that have great need. We will be purchasing, in the names of our family and friends, livestock to be distributed to the hungry. You may want to join us by giving in this way also, or you may want to donate food to your local food pantry, or you may want to provide and serve a meal in your local mission. The key is we all have to do something different then the little we are doing now.

Our greatest failure as the Church, the living embodiment of Christ Jesus, will be if we allow another twenty years to go by and we do not feed the hungry, help strangers in need, comfort those afflicted with AIDS and visit hurting people in jails. After all when Jesus sent out his disciples to do his work his instructions to them were, “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:7 & 8, NLT) The Kingdom of Heaven is here. What will you do this holiday season to prove Jesus’ love to someone that may not know his love is true and for all people?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

BIG NEWS for those 18 to 25!!!!

I usually don't post short anecdotes or articles thatI find on the net here on my blog. But if you haven't heard about President Bush ordering up a draft, you need to see what I found on the net!

You are such an oxymoron!

"Mean People Suck!"

Oh how badly I want that to be a true statement. As it may be true in some context, the statement in and of it's self is an oxymoron. How so? By making the statement, "Mean People Suck!" you are stating in fact that you yourself "Suck". Saying someone else sucks is a mean thing to do. Hence being a person and having done something "mean", if the original statement is true, declares the individual saying that someone else sucks, as one that "sucks" as well. Bottom line if I make the statement "Mean People Suck", then so do I.

Darn it! I hate it when people do mean things to others. I hate it when people do mean things to me. I just can't say that they suck. But . . .

I can say, "Anonymous People Suck!"

People that write anonymous emails or comments on a blog in hopes to tear someone else down are mean. I don't do that. You may not like what I have to say on my blog or in my posts on certain forums, but give me credit for not hiding behind the word "anonymous". Yes, I deleted a comment from an anonymous poster today. And in doing so I'm sure to have some people say I can't take critic or that I don't allow others to build into me. A good friend told me once, "If there is no name, then "nobody" wrote it." That was hard for me accept at first, but I understand it more today. If you can't put your name under what you write and accept the consequences for doing so, then don't bother writing anything at all. "Anonymous" receives no credibility in the world. So even if you have valid comments to make, they will not be heard. I'm sure some may question this, but if the person that wrote those mean and ignorant things had left their name, I would not have deleted the post. If they had had the guts to claim the statements they made by putting their identity with the post I would have commended them. Maybe I would have even listened to what they had to say about the post and myself.

"Anonymous People Suck!" No name, no game!

Purple America

We are a couple of weeks past the election and it is time to take a closer look at how divided our country really is or when the truth is told, is not. There is no right wing conservative Christian mandate for our President to follow. It seems that the left leaning media and the Democratic National Committee have finally stolen a play out of the right’s playbook. I call it “scare the hell out of them.” It appears those with a liberal bias are starting on a fast track with this strategy. Tell America that this election; Presidential, House and Senate, has given the right wing political machine card blanche to force their agenda down every Americans throat, whether they agree with it or not. Hey it worked for the right. The common right wing rhetoric on radio talk shows before the election sounded a lot like, “I’m going to vote for the person the terrorists don’t want to win. You know the terrorists want John Kerry to win?” Or one of my favorites, “John Kerry is going to allow all those gay people to get married.” Well it sure did “get out” the republican vote. A local radio station in my area had a live remote on election Tuesday from a precinct where a 74 year-old woman was voting for the first time in her life. The radio station was running a contest for first time voters to win a limo ride to the polls on Election Day. I’m not sure if this woman voted for the President, but it is highly likely her being from the “greatest generation” and all. So how do the liberals scare up some votes for ’06 and ’08? They tell America all their civil liberties are soon to be taken away from them by the evil theocracy. Will it work as well for them as it did for their counterparts? I hope not. These tactics keep politics as usual. If the two parties just swap this strategy back and forth nothing will ever get accomplished in Washington.

Let me be clear, there is no mandate! How can I say that when the map is clear-cut red and blue? With the majority being “RED”? I stumbled onto this map while surfing the net. It is a much better view of our nation then the standard “red & blue” maps we are accustomed to seeing on news shows and in the publications we have been reading over the past couple of weeks. The nation is more a shade of purple then it is either red or either blue. There are two observations that I did not hear anyone in the media making concerning these maps. First, each of those squares is based on a population density. So even though it appears to be an overwhelming victory for those that attach themselves to the color red, the reality is that red square in the middle Nebraska that looks like such a huge area, has just as many people in it as one of those small blue areas in the north east corner of Illinois (Chicago). On top of that not everyone in those red precincts voted for Bush. Nor did everyone in the blue areas vote for Kerry. The country is purple. Yes, at this point there are only two sides to choose from, but the country isn’t as cut and dry divided, as either side would like us to believe. Second is that those maps only account for the Americans that voted on November 2nd, 2004. There is an estimated 295 million people living in the United States of America. When you subtract all those under the age of 18, you wind up with 221 million potential voters in our country. The total votes cast on Election Day where 115,809,878. This means the margin of victory is actually less than 4% of eligible voters in the United States. To say that the majority of America is solidly behind the President and his moral agenda is not true. President Bush was actually re-elected to office by little more than 25% of eligible voters across the country. Hardly a mandate.

“If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.” I’ve heard this for the past 16 years of my eligible voting life. I'm not complaining about the outcome of the elcetion. I pretty much knew the American people would be screwed no matter who won the election. It's the spin people put on actually facts that makes me mad. Let's tell the truth on why only half of this country votes. Give me a candidate worth voting for and I will. Could that be the reason why only half the country votes? Not because they are apathetic or lazy, but because the candidates we are given to chose from are not acceptable choices. We heard from pundits about why the youth vote didn’t show up for this election. They are experts in politics and I am certainly not. I am an expert in dealing with young people and they are not. Students can smell a fake a mile a way. If you attempt to become a part of their world with outh being authentic you will fail. You couldn’t really call either of the candidates from this election “authentic”. For that matter is there anyone in Washington that is? And the youth of America knows this. That is why they do not vote.

As my friends and I talk, there is a sense that this country is headed for some type of revolution. Whether it comes to us through a political revolution, an economic one or societal one; it is coming. The choice we all need to make is which side of the revolution we want to be on. That is the beauty of the free will God gives us, we get to use it!

I pissed off people with this one too!

This is something I wrote on a Youth Specialties message board. I got pretty beat up for my remarks. Oh well, the Lord said I would be persucutied for sharing the truth, just didn't think it would come from other youth workers. Here it is.

I shaved my goatee today. Who would have thought that this gesture would be considered a thumbing of the nose at the “system.”

Being the newest youth pastor in a small Midwest town has given me a short chance to observe my new cultural surroundings. Only knowing a hand full of parents and students (I’m working at a mid-sized church) allows me to attend the homecoming football game practically unnoticed.

They were all in attendance last night. Every character portrait that can be painted of a youth minister was at the game. In the past couple of weeks I had met a couple of these youth workers, but after fourteen years of trying to network with other youth workers, some just stuck out to me like a soar thumb. There was the non-married, middle-aged, female associate pastor of a mainline denomination. She was sitting in the parent section ignoring the game while talking to three soccer moms from her ministry. There was the nice, married, middle-aged guy from the almost large non-denominational church. He stood in the walkway between the bleachers and the field, as to get maximum exposure to both students and parents walking by. I saw the young, twenty-something, unmarried, female Para-church worker proudly sporting her organizations name and logo on her t-shirt, sitting smack dab in the middle of the student section.

Then towards the end of the third quarter I over heard a little girl say something to her mom. She said, “Look mommy there’s pastor Jimmy (name changed).” I didn’t have to look to see where the girl was pointing. Up the center isle walked the iconic arc type of the modern day youth pastor. I had heard about this guy from my senior pastor, who had been very jealous and bitter about this pastor’s churches success and ability to woo parishioners from our body. Pastor Jimmy with his slight muscular build wore khaki cargo pants and a button-downed shirt that had the hometowns team logo embroidered on left pocket. His hair was trimmed short with a slight fade running into his inch and a half long sideburns that poointed to his well trimmed goattee. He maneuvered himself into a seat next to his senior pastor. He shook the hands of several well dressed middle-aged men sitting in the senior pastor’s section, made some obviously humorous remarks, patted his senior pastor on the back, and left this group. Making his way past the student section he was stopped by some of his students. When they introduced him to their friends he would promptly hand the student his business card, presumably with his mega-church’s (over 1500 would be considered mega around here) youth ministry information on it. I continued to follow his progress as he moved toward the concession stands where this act was repeated several times, but now with middle school students.

Now before I get slammed by people saying, “the body is made of several parts”, you need to understand at one point or another in my fourteen almost fifteen years of youth ministry I could have been painted in anyone of those portraits. I have been all those people. My point in writing this is to draw our attention to the fact that we have been marketed an image of what we are to be as youth workers. It could be our denomination, the Para-church organization we work for or even, dare I say, YS in it’s publications, conventions or associations promotes an image of what a youth worker should look and sound like. I admit to being the worst offender of buying into the hype. So I’m shaving my goatee.

The other night a friend in ministry was trying to motivate me in attending NYWC in Dallas. He asked, “When was the last time you went.” Well it’s been four years since I went to a NYWC and I don’t see myself going anytime in the near future. When I responded to his question he said, “You are over due.” Why is NYWC the magical cure for what ales me in ministry? Why do I have to sit in ten seminars for my experience to be validated as “continuing education”? Why aren’t we getting “fed” while we are doing ministry? Where I’m at in my walk and ministry life I don’t feel like being around a couple thousand goatees and backpacks.

What if? What if a hundred of those who were planning on attending NYWC this fall, all planed on going to Grenada on the same week to help with the clean up. No national speakers, no video production company trying to sell you their latest product, no goatees, just a hundred people living out the word of God.

So, to quote Tom Cruise for the movie Jerry Maguire, “Who’s with me? Who’s coming with me?” What could be a stronger leadership statement to the students we work with than for us to use our time away from them to serve others? Serve without anything to gain expect for each of us to get closer to God.

I think Yac would have liked for us to start painting a new portrait of what YM is or at the very least recognize that master piece of artwork God paints of us is never finished.

I was called a "Blog Slacker" today! It hurts!

I have been very busy the past couple of weeks. I had some computer issues, now mostly solved. Last week I got slammed with having to preach on Sunday morning. Sometimes I wish that is all I had to do every week and other times I'm glad I am such a great "cruise director". So to please the person that insulted me so, here is my sermon from Sunday since he lives to far away to come and hear me. Love ya TPA!

"Giving Minsitry Away"

Meetings. We all love meetings, don’t we. Planning meetings. Committee meetings. Board meetings. Team meetings. It’s seems in the world and in the church we can be on meeting overload. Growing up in the Episcopal church I was very familiar with meetings. I use to imagine back then that if some of the adults I knew had gotten small pins the size of a dime to wear for every meeting they had attended they might not be able to walk around. “Hey Jim, where you going?” “To another meeting.” I thought the church was bad, and then between 1991 and 1998 I went to work for Eli Lilly and Company. I’m convinced that down in the basement of their corporate offices somewhere there is a “Meeting Quota Management Specialist.” “Robert, Mr. CEO here. Have we met this months meeting quota yet?” “Let me check sir, no, no sir it looks like we are 54 meetings behind for the month.” “Well by all means schedule some more!” I was talking to with a high level, 24 year Lilly veteran once about the issue of meetings. He said to me, “Roger, do you know how you can tell if a meeting was successful?” “No”, I said. “A meeting is only successfully,” he said, “if by the end of it you have scheduled another meeting.”

Looking back, I don’t think all that time in meetings at Lilly was wasted. I remember a specific time, where there had been a CEO change at the company. The new leader wanted the entire company to understand some of the business philosophies he felt would help take the company to the next level. During an all day meeting we learned that even though I didn’t have direct personal relationship with the customers that bought the drugs the company manufactured, that I was still a part of the “customer chain”. At that time I worked serving breakfast and lunch in the cafeterias to those working in the production end of the company. What we discussed in that meeting is that by our serving fast, healthy, nutritional meals to the production operators, they may be able to do their jobs in a more timely and efficient way, which helped distribution to get the drugs out to market quicker, which allowed the sales people in the field to promote that doctors prescribe the drugs, which the customer then bought. Although I wasn’t dealing directly with end consumer buying the drug, I still had a customer that I needed to serve. We learned the importance of viewing the next person in the supply chain as our end customer. We also learned that no single person can ever be all the links I that chain. The CEO couldn’t be the production operator, the lab technician, the marketing director and the sales person all at the same time. For him to serve the end customer of the pharmaceuticals we produced, he would have to give major responsibilities away to others.

This wasn’t an innovative business tool he had created. It wasn’t even a new management fad the CEO obtained at some leadership seminar (another meeting). No, this form of leadership has been around for thousands upon thousands of years. It can be traced as far back as Moses struggling as the leader of a recently freed nation. He was working all day and all night hearing out his people’s grievances and needs. Seeing how hard he was working, his father-in-law Jethro, came to him said this, “Exodus 18:18-23”. Jethro gave Moses the first pyramid scheme. There was no way Moses could handle all the issues brought before him. Instead of dealing with the all the problems himself, Moses appointed 10 people to oversee 10 people to oversee 10 people and so on. Moses had to give ministry away to others. The disciples found themselves with the same leadership issue. “Acts 6:1-4” The church was growing by leaps and bounds, and the day to day needs of all those people, like providing them food, was falling through the cracks. The disciples had to appoint others to take care of this task so they could continue teaching. But understand this, they didn’t just go out and grab the first warm body they found. What does verse three say again, “Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.” They didn’t want to give away the responsibility to just anyone, but they also didn’t say, “Go find people that can do the job just as good as we can.” They gave away the ministry to those that were respected in the community and that had wisdom. And as we heard this morning in our reading from the Gospel of Luke that Jesus too gave away His ministry, even while he was still on this earth.

It has seemed that during my fifteen years of ministry experience it has been inevitable that during almost every committee or team meeting the conversation will at some point turn to the fact that the ministry is in dire need of more volunteers. After some time had been spent on the topic someone will drop the conversation-stopping hatchet by saying, “Well, scripture says, the harvest is plenty but the workers are few.” And everyone else in the room will agree and move on. When you take that tiny snippet of scripture by itself it can be a damaging piece of self-fulfilling prophecy. Here we have Jesus, getting ready to send out 75 workers to harvest. Now you have to realize, Jesus had already sent out the twelve in chapter nine. As we know these twelve weren’t always getting what Jesus was saying. Let’s face it if Jesus disciples sat in Donald Trumps boardroom, they would all get fired at the same time. Jesus knew they were the cream of the crop because he had told them all you need is the faith of a small mustard seed to move a mountain. So Jesus was taking these twelve sub-par guys and adding sixty plus more just like them to the work force. These workers needed a pep talk from their boss. What they got however was much more than a pep talk. Jesus followed the hard-hitting reality that the workers were few with this, “therefore pray the Lord of the harvest send out laborers into His harvest.” It was His harvest. He was giving them more than a pep talk he was giving them the power of his name to get the job done.

Here’s another self-fulfilling prophecy the church uses sometimes. I don’t know how long this one has been around but I suspect it’s been around for a while. “20% of the people do 80% of the work.” This prophecy tends to be true a majority of the time. But if the harvest truly is the Lord’s why is this true? Who is to blame? Is it the 20% doers fault or the 80% watchers fault? For three years Renee and I were a part of fast growth church start on the northwest side of Indianapolis. This church grew from zero to 500 in five years. Renee and I would often come home from leadership meetings where the 20% doers would complain about the other 80% not doing anything and we would ask each other, “As someone in the 20% what are we doing or not doing that would help the other 80% to get involved.” There are several things the 20% can do to help mobilize, see I just used a word from our churches purpose statement, proof by the way I have been paying attention in those meetings, to help mobilize that other 80%. Here are just a few.

1)Ask – I know this sounds simple, but the 20% needs to ask for help. As the 20% some times we can be misguided that it is easier to do things our self than it would be to ask for help. We disregard asking people for help because we believe no one will. I remember growing up around my father learning the value of asking questions. My father says, “You never know what you’ll get until you ask for it.” I would go shopping with my dad as a young boy and watch him, as the sales people would come up to ask him if he needed any help, my father would quickly reply, “Any of these toothbrushes on sale today?” Or, “Are any of these tools free?” Now most of the time this approach didn’t work. But every once and awhile my dad would hit the jackpot. “Nothing free today Mr. Williams, but I was just about put a 50% off tag on those screwdrivers over there.” One of the best ways we can mobilize others is to ask them to join us in ministry.
2)Mentor – We often here, “It takes time to show someone else how to do all the jobs I do for this ministry.” Or, “If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.” I know to often I find myself falling into this mindset. But that kind of leadership is no leadership at all. Paul best describes mentoring when he is instructing Timothy on how to be a good leader. Paul wrote to Timothy. “2 Timothy 2:2.” This past month during the ISTEP testing, I had several juniors from the high school “job shadow” me during school hours. I’m sure they had thought a day with the youth pastor was most likely going to be a blow-off. All right so we did have some fun, but we also did some work. I took two of these young men to the laser tag facility we are using next weekend during our Mission:Possible event. I didn’t leave them in the car; I took them inside with me so they could see me interact with the sales person. They witnessed the style in which I would ask the gentleman questions. They had a chance to walk through the decision making process for the pricing of the event. And more importantly they watched my personal interaction as Christian leader with someone from outside the church. Neither of those students may wind up in full time youth ministry, but I took them with me so they could see how important it was as a Christian to be kind and courteous during a business transaction. Jesus had also mentored his workers right before he sent them out. Feeding the five thousand, casting out demons and teaching were all done by Jesus in front of seventy-five, to prepare them for the work he would later ask them to do. I don’t care if you sharpen the pencils for the pews, who have you asked, ahhhh ask, asked to come along side you so that you can teach them how to do your task so at some point you may give that ministry away?
3)Say no – It’s okay to say no! If you are in the 20% of doers it’s okay for you to say no when someone asks you to do something. As leaders in ministry we need to stop asking the same people over and over again to help us. Let’s be honest half the time we ask those people to do something, it’s only because we know they will automatically say, “yes”. The reality of the prophecy “20% of the people do 80% of work” is that if we allow this to continue we will have or are going to burn out those people that can’t say no. How many times have you heard this from an over worked church volunteer, “I just need a break.” Well if you haven’t said no to anything in the past five years I bet you do need a break. God demands we be good stewards of all the resources he gives us. That applies to the resource of laborers for harvest just as much as it does to our money. The purpose statement for our church does not say, “Make, Mature and Martyr Disciples.” No, it says, “Make, Mature and Mobilize Disciples.” Listen if I ever ask you to do something for our student ministry and you feel like you have to say no, it’s okay! I will not take it personally. If saying no to helping chaperon a middle school over night means you would have more time to spend with your family, say no. If saying no to helping on Sunday night with youth group means you get to rest a couple of more hours after a long weekend before going back to work on Monday, say no. You cannot be mobilized for the Lord’s harvest if you are out of Gas.

So what if you are one of those that fall into the 80%. How can you get yourself involved in Kingdom building work?

1)Ask – Don’t be afraid to ask if someone else needs help. One of the statements I hear a lot in ministry is, “Well Julie always does that Sunday mornings and I don’t want to step on her toes.” Listen close; Julie is dying for someone to ask her if she needs help. I know it may be hard for some, but you can’t always sit around waiting to be asked for your involvement. Take some initiative. If you believe God is calling you to certain ministry go to the leader of that ministry and ask how you can help. If you ask me if there is anything you can do for our student ministry here at Trinity Park I’m going to find something for you to do.
2)Mentor – Ask people questions about how ministry happens or how an event works. I was talking to Nat Baker the other day and he asked me if adults would have to pay their own way on our summer trips for students next year. I told him no they wouldn’t because we incorporate the cost of adult chaperons into the price the students pay for the trip. He said how do you do that, so I should him. I pulled out a budget work sheet I created and walk him through how I figure up the cost of the events and the price we charge the students. It behooved me to show Nate how budgeting a trip worked. If I mentor Nate in planning trips, I can give away a small piece of my ministry to him, which will free me to do other things for students and their parents.
3)Say yes – It’s simple, it’s fun and it’s free! You may say yes to four or five things before you find the place where you have the most passion to serve, so that means you may have to take some risks. How do you know your going to enjoy carving up a bar-b-qued pig until you try? This strategy for involvement is also a great way to enable you to say no. If you have tried multiple ministries and found the one God is calling you to, when someone asks you to get involved in something else you can now say, “You know what I tried that, and I have found that God has called me to do this other ministry instead.”

No matter which percentage you fall in as participant in this church you have a responsibility in the mobilizing of disciples. Whether it’s mobilizing yourself or someone else.

Ahoy ye lubbers, take heed of this here post or ye be kissing the gunners daughter!

As many of you know last Sunday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day. This has to be one of the best holidays of all time! My post today is a compilation of multiple internet sources on "pirate speak". I have placed it in my blog to share my joy of talking piratical with you and to also make sure I have this stuff archived for next September 19th. It's long, but fun!


Addled -- Mad, insane, or just stupid. An "addlepate" is a fool.

Aft -- Short for "after." Toward the rear of the ship.

Ahoy -- "Hello!"

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

Avast! -- "Hey!" Could be used as "Stop that!" or "Who goes there?"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Beauty – The best possible pirate address for a woman. Always preceded by “me,” as in, “C’mere, me beauty,” or even, “me buxom beauty,” to one particularly well endowed. You’ll be surprised how effective this is.

Begad! -- By God!

Belay -- Stop that. "Belay that talk!" would mean "Shut up!"

Belaying pin -- A short wooden rod to which a ship's rigging is secured. A common improvised weapon aboard a sailing ship, because they're everywhere, they're easily picked up, and they are the right size and weight to be used as clubs.

Bilge! -- Nonsense, or foolish talk. The bilges of a ship are the lowest parts, inside the hull along the keel. They fill with stinking bilgewater -- or just "bilge."

Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship

Bilge-sucking -- A very uncomplimentary adjective.

Black Spot -- To "place the Black Spot" on another pirate is to sentence him to death, to warn him he is marked for death, or sometimes just to accuse him of a serious crime before other pirates.

Blaggard -- "Blackguard." An insult.

Blimey! -- An exclamation of surprise.

“Blow the man down” – To kill someone.

Booty -- Loot.

Bosun -- Boatswain; a petty officer.

Bowsprit -- The slanted spar at a ship's prow.

Brethren of the Coast -- The Caribbean buccaneers called themselves by this name in the 1640-1680 period. During this time, they actually formed a sort of fraternity, and did not (usually) fight each other or even steal from each other. After 1680, a new generation of pirates appeared, who did not trust each other . . . with good reason.

Bring ‘em Near—A telescope.

Briny deep -- The ocean. Probably no pirate in all history ever used this phrase, but don't let that stop you, especially if you can roll the R in "briny"!

Buccaneer -- A general term for the Caribbean pirates.

Bucko -- Familiar term. "Me bucko" = "my friend."

Bung hole – Victuals on a ship were stored in wooden casks. The stopper in the barrel is called the bung, and the hole is called the bung hole. That’s all. It sounds a lot worse, doesn’t it!

Cackle Fruit—Hen’s eggs.

Cap'n -- Short for "captain."

Cat o'nine tails, or just "cat" -- a whip with many lashes, used for flogging. "A taste of the cat" might refer to a full flogging, or just a single blow to "smarten up" a recalcitrant hand.

Chandler, or ship-chandler -- see Sutler.

Chantey -- A sailor's work song. Also spelled "shantey" or "shanty."

Chase -- The ship being pursued. "The chase is making full sail, sir" = "The ship we're after is going as fast as she can."

Chest -- Traditional treasure container.

Corsair -- A more romantic term for pirate. But still a pirate.

Crow's nest -- A small platform, sometimes enclosed, near the top of a mast, where a lookout could have a better view when watching for sails or for land.

Cutlass -- A curved sword, like a saber but heavier. Traditional pirate weapon. Has only one cutting edge; may or may not have a useful point.

“Dance the hempen jig”—To hang.

Davy Jones' locker -- The bottom of the sea.

Deadlights -- Eyes. "Use yer deadlights, matey!"

Dead men tell no tales -- Standard pirate excuse for leaving no survivors.

Dog -- A mild insult, perhaps even a friendly one.

Doubloon -- A Spanish gold coin. At different times, it was worth either 4 or 16 silver pesos, or "pieces of eight."

Fair winds! -- Goodbye, good luck!.

Feed the fish -- What you do when you are thrown into the sea, dead or alive.

Gangway! -- "Get out of my way!"

Gibbet Cage—Chains in which the corpses of pirates were hung and displayed in order to discourage piracy in others.

Godspeed! -- Goodbye, good luck!

Grog -- Generically, any alcoholic drink. Specifically, rum diluted with water to make it go farther.

Grub -- Food.

Gun -- A cannon.

Fore, or forrard -- Toward the front end of the ship.

Flogging -- Punishment by caning, or by whipping with the cat.

Hands -- The crew of a ship; sailors.

Handsomely -- Quickly. "Handsomely now, men!" = "Hurry up!"

Head -- The toilet facilities aboard a modern ship. This will do for modern piratical talk. The toilet facilities aboard an ACTUAL pirate ship do not bear thinking about.

Hornpipe – Both a single-reeded musical instrument sailors often had aboard ship, and a spirited dance that sailors do.

Hornswaggle—To cheat

Jack Ketch -- The hangman. To dance with Jack Ketch is to hang.

Jack Tar, or tar -- A sailor.

Jollyboat -- A small but happy craft, perhaps even one which is a little dinghy.

Jolly Roger -- The pirates' skull-and-crossbones flag. It was an invitation to surrender, with the implication that those who surrendered would be treated well. A red flag indicated "no quarter."

Keelhaul -- Punishment by dragging under the ship, from one side to the other. The victim of a keelhauling would be half-drowned, or worse, and lacerated by the barnacles that grew beneath the ship.

Kiss the gunner's daughter -- A punishment: to be bent over one of the ship's guns and flogged.

Lad, lass, lassie -- A way to address someone younger than you.

Landlubber or just lubber -- A non-sailor.

Letters of Marque -- Papers issued by a national government during wartime, entitling a privately owned ship to raid enemy commerce, or even attack enemy warships. Early letters of reprisal were issued to merchants to make it legal for them to counter-raid pirates! A ship bearing such letters, and operating within their limits, is a privateer rather than a pirate . . . that is, a legal combatant rather than a criminal and murderer. The problem is that letters of marque aren't always honored, even by the government that issued them. Captain Kidd had letters of marque; his own country hanged him anyway.

Lights -- Lungs. A pirate might threaten to "have someone's lights and liver."

Line -- A rope in use as part of the ship's rigging, or as a towing line. When a rope is just coiled up on deck, not yet being used for anything, it's all right to call it a rope.

Lookout -- Someone posted to keep watch on the horizon for other ships or signs of land.

Maroon -- A fairly common punishment for violation of a pirate ship's articles, or offending her crew. The victim was left on a deserted coast (or, of course, an island) with little in the way of supplies. That way, no one could say that the unlucky pirate had actually been killed by his former brethren.

Me -- A piratical way to say "my."

Me hearties -- Typical way for a pirate leader to address his crew.

“Measure ye fer yer chains”—To be outfitted for a gibbet cage.

Matey -- A piratical way to address someone in a cheerful, if not necessarily friendly, fashion.

No quarter! -- Surrender will not be accepted.

On the Account -- The piratical life. A man who went "on the account" was turning pirate.

Piece of eight -- A Spanish silver coin worth one peso or 8 reales. It was sometimes literally cut into eight pieces, each worth one real.

Pillage -- To raid, rob, and sack a target ashore.

Pirate -- A seagoing robber and murderer. Contrast with privateer.

Poop deck -- The highest deck at the aft end of a large ship. Smaller ships don't have a poop; the highest part aft is the quarterdeck.

Port -- (1) A seaport. (2) The left side of the ship when you are facing toward her prow.

Poxy, poxed -- Diseased. Used as an insult.

Privateer -- A ship bearing letters of marque (q.v.), or one of her crew, or her captain. Thus, she can only attack an enemy ship, and only in time of war, but does so as a representative of her country. A privateer is theoretically a law-abiding combatant, and entitled to be treated as an honorable prisoner if captured.

Prow -- The "nose" of the ship.

Red Ensign—British flag.

Reef -- (1) An underwater obstruction of rock or coral which can tear the bottom out of a ship. (2) To reef sails is to shorten them, tying them partially up, either to slow the ship or to keep a strong wind from putting too much strain on the masts.

Rope's end -- another term for flogging. "Ye'll meet the rope's end for that, me bucko!"

Rum (noun) -- Traditional pirate drink.

Rum (adjective) -- Strange or odd. A "rum fellow" is a peculiar person, the sort who won't say "Arrrr!" on Talk Like A Pirate Day.

“Run a rig”—To play a trick.

Sail ho! -- "I see a ship!" The sail, of course, is the first part of a ship visible over the horizon.

Salt, old salt -- An experienced seaman.

Scallywag—A villainous or mischievous person.

Scuppers -- Openings along the edges of a ship's deck that allow water on deck to drain back to the sea rather than collecting in the bilges. "Scupper that!" is an expression of anger or derision: "Throw that overboard!"

Scurvy -- (1) A deficiency disease which often afflicted sailors; it was caused by lack of vitamin C. (2) A derogatory adjective suitable for use in a loud voice, as in "Ye scurvy dogs!"

Sea dog -- An experienced seaman.

Shanty -- Another spelling for "chantey" - a sea song.

Shark bait -- (1) Your foes, who are about to feed the fish (q.v.). (2) A worthless or lazy sailor; a lubber who is no use aboard ship.

Shipshape -- Well-organized, under control, finished.

Shiver me timbers! -- An expression of surprise or strong emotion.

Sink me! -- An expression of surprise.

Smartly -- Quickly. "Smartly there, men!" = "Hurry up!"

Splice the mainbrace -- To have a drink. Or, perhaps, several drinks.

Spyglass -- A telescope.

Starboard -- The right side of the ship when you are facing toward her prow.

Sutler -- A merchant in port, selling the various things that a ship needed for supplies and repairs.

Swab (noun) -- A disrespectful term for a seaman. "Man that gun, ye cowardly swabs!"

Swab (verb) -- To clean something. Being put to "swabbing the decks" would be a low-level punishment for a disobedient pirate.

Swag -- Loot.

Swing the Lead - The Lead was a weight at the bottom of a line that gave sailors a way to measure depth when near land. To Swing the Lead was considered a simple job, and thusly came to represent one who is avoiding work or taking the easy work over the hard. In todays terms, one who swings the lead is a slacker.

Take a Caulk - on deck of a ship, between planks, was a thick caulk of black tar and rope to keep water from between decks. This term came to mean to "take a nap" either because sailors who slept on deck ended up with black lines across their backs or simply because sailors laying down on deck were as horizontal as the caulk of the deck itself.

Walk the plank -- A piratical execution. The victim, usually blindfolded or with bound hands or both, is forced to walk along a plank laid over the ship's side, to fall into the water below. Except this seems to be a total invention; it first appeared in 19th-century fiction, long after the great days of piracy.

Weigh anchor -- To haul the anchor up; more generally, to leave port.

Wench -- An individual of the female persuasion. "Saucy" is a good adjective to add to this, and if ye can get away with "Me proud beauty!," more power to ye.

Yo-ho-ho -- A very piratical thing to say, whether it actually means anything or not.

Chapter 1, Part 3

After graduating from high school my world and political beliefs began to change. Two specific things happened in my life that pointed me in a new direction. First, I started to pay taxes. You start to scrutinize the person holding the purse strings to your paycheck a lot more, when you stop getting all of your money back at the end of the year. The second thing that happened to me was that I fell in love. During my last semester of high school I began to date a lovely young woman that would eventually become my wife. She too grew up in an upper-middle class conservative home. Unlike myself, who had rejected my right wing upbringing, Renee fully embraced her conservative heritage. Instead of rocking out to Genesis and Bruce Springsteen in her sharp looking Nissan 240SX, she was an avid listener of talk radio and knew that Rush was “always right.” We would have grand debates, I mean dates, where we would discuss various topics of world importance. Slowly I began to be swayed to see her point on many issues. Mostly due to the fact that then and even now I cannot best her in a war of words.

Chapter 1, Part 2

I became a full-fledged politician as a freshman in high school. That was the year I ran for student senate. I was not extremely popular. I wasn’t a tremendous athlete. Nor did I date the prettiest girl in school. Even with the full knowledge of my sociopolitical status amongst my peers I believed I still had a shot at winning one of the six seats. My campaign manager (my father) came up with a great campaign strategy. We decided to go simple. Borrowing from the British pop group Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s promotional campaign “Frankie Says. . .” , we made posters, buttons and t-shirts with large black letters on white backgrounds that said, “Roger Says . . .Vote For Me” or more humorous ones that said “Roger Says . . . Eat Broccoli or Watch Cartoons”. The humor must have been lost to my classmates, because I lost the election. This began my long stretch of cynicism towards politics.
“Finding” yourself in high school is a daunting task for anyone. Our family has moved back to the conservative Midwest where I attended a high school filled largely with upper middle students. It was the type of school and community that surrounding school systems loved to hate. We won just about every state championship we entered. From marching band to football or from show choir to swimming, it was hard to beat my aulmumater at anything. The students at my school were stereotyped as spoiled rich suburban white kids. And seeing as how I knew three students during my junior year that all drove Porsche’s to school every morning, that stereotype was rooted in some form of truth. To say my adolescent years were formed in the midst of the conservative right would be an understatement. As I searched to find my place among the privileged and well to do, I found myself gravitating towards the students for what ever socio-economic reasons found themselves at the bottom of the social hierarchy at my school. I was a punk. Well, at school I was a punk. While riding the bus or in a friends car to school I would change from my yuppie Izod tennis polo (with collar popped) into bleached out, cut up jeans with my Clash concert t-shirt. I led a dual existence. At home I was a bible study attending, well-mannered, quasi-conservative young man. But at school I was a We Are The World, free Nelson Mandela, damn the man liberal. My parents did have some idea of my political leanings. Our political conversations would always end with my father excusing my viewpoints by saying something like, “If you’re not a liberal at 16 you don’t have a heart and if you’re not a conservative at 35 you’re just stupid.” I don’t think my views at this stage in life could be called true convictions. I was into being anti-, well anti-just-about-everything because I thought it was a great way to meet girls. I remember a specific occasion of me traveling to the convention center of our state capital to protest the appearance of Ronald Reagan (one of our greatest presidents of all time) at an Amway business meeting. I had heard that a young lady I wanted to get to know better was going to be there so I went. I believe the protesters were upset about nuclear weapons traveling across the US by rail car or something like that. Heck, it would not have mattered to me if we had been protesting peoples rights to choose Pepsi over Coke in a blind taste test, I was there for the chicks. About the only activism I remember performing in my high school years that didn’t have alterior motives was my coordinating a mile of people in the “Hands Across America” movement. I sure could talk a good game about being liberal, but when push came to shove I wasn’t acting out my supposed convictions.

Chapter 1, Part 1

November 4th, 1975 was the date of the first political conversation I can recall having with my parents. I remember sitting in the back seat of the family’s wood paneled station wagon with my brother and sister waiting for my parents to come out of a local church near our home. As we drove off to dinner after their return, our parents explained that they had just voted for whom they wanted to be the next President of the United States. Being six years old and with a limited understanding of the conversation, I asked the simplest and what I thought was the most obvious question, “Who did you vote for?” My father proceeded to give me my first civics lesson. He explained that voting was a private matter and that you don’t have to tell others who you voted for. Looking back I’m sure this was my fathers attempt to not force his views on us, that we might grow up forming our own opinions about life and the world around us.

My next childhood memory of politics came four years later. My family and I had moved from the conservative Midwest to upstate New York. With the American Hostage situation in Iran and what the Republicans called the misery index (inflation plus unemployment) it seemed the chances for President Carter to win reelection were slim to none. During my third grade teacher’s presentation on the presidential elections, I nominated myself official pollster of our class. While the teacher spoke, I quietly wrote both candidates names next to each other on a piece of paper with the word “VOTE” written at the top. I placed a check mark under my candidate of choice and passed the paper around the class. Like the election its self, our third grade classroom straw poll had Ronald Regan beating President Carter by a margin of ten to one. I’m not sure why I voted the way I did that day. It may have been due to my conservative right wing up bringing. Or it may have just been I had some understanding from watching the news and listening to adults around me that what ever was going on in this country wasn’t good and it was time for a change. Regardless of how I voted, it would be the last time I would vote in a presidential election for a long time.

The blog, the blog is back!

After a long stint away from this blogging thing, I am back. I took some time over the past couple of months to do some healing. I am physically, emotionally and spiritually in a better place now. During some of my "free" time this past summer I started on a book. Over the course of the next several days I will be posting the first chapter of my work. At well over 3000 words, I thought it would come across better to you all in smaller chunks. As always, please feel free to comment and critique what you find here.

"Arm the homeless"

The tribe has spoken!

Isn’t funny how they gang up on you. Have you ever heard the phrase, “My enemy is my enemy’s enemy and thus my friend”? Last night on Survivor there were some in the tribe that saw Colby as a threat and some that saw Richard Hatch as ultimately their biggest concern. Eventually both sides came to the conclusion that the naked guy was the most cunning and crafty player and if they didn’t join forces to vote him out, they individually were at risk. An “unholy” alliance was formed and Hatch is no more. John’s cries in the wilderness put fear in the hearts of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These two groups of religious leaders did not get along. They had been at odds with one another for generations. But as we see in this chapter, there was something John (and later Jesus himself) was saying that threatened them both. If the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand or near, what use would they be in society? When they listened to John’s proclamations to repent and that it wasn’t good enough just to be a son or daughter of Abraham, they could feel their power and jobs slipping away. So they joined forces against John and later against Jesus. Our lives aren’t Survivor. We aren’t playing a game. There are consequences to our actions. If you find yourself making an uneasy alliance with someone to protect your name or image, stop and examine what is really going on around you. You may not be as righteous or as far from being wrong as you think.

Jesus, international man of the people.

Genesis 2:2-3 "On the seventh day, having finished his task, God rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from his work of creation."

The Sabbath, is the most holy of days. So holy in fact, it is the only day mentioned in God's Ten Commandments to us (Exodus 20:8-11). God took time to rest and soak in all that he had accomplished. He desires for us to do the same thing. We spend so much of our waking hours running around like chickens with our heads cut off. God's original design for our lives was for us to take some time off and explore all the wonderful things he has done for us through all he created.

Jesus respected the Sabbath as a time to benefit God's people. On one Sabbath day Jesus and his followers were walking through some grain fields when his followers started breaking off the heads of the wheat. The religious leaders of the day saw what they were doing and used this infraction of the law as a chance to attack Jesus ministry. Jesus replies "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!" (Mark 2:23-28) Jesus also healed on the Sabbath which some would consider work as well. When challenged about this he responded, "If you had one sheep and it fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you get to work and pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, it is right to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-14) The disciples picked the grain to survive, just like you would need to rescue a sheep for food. God asked for the Sabbath to be kept holy, by us stopping the work for others and concentrate on his works. What is godlier then taking care of yourself (God's greatest creation) by eating or helping others? Both of these scenarios keep the focus on God and that is what he is looking for us to do on our Sabbath day.

So when is this Sabbath day? Biblically this day runs from sunset on Friday evening to sunset on Saturday evening. To the Jews, sunset was literally the end of the day. Being Jews themselves, Jesus and his followers observed this time period as the Sabbath. It wasn't until after Jesus rose form the grave on Easter Sunday, was there any kind of celebration on Sunday. To the Apostles and the first Century Church Sunday morning gatherings were considered to be "The Lord's Day". (Acts 20:7-12) To them this was not a replacement of the Sabbath. It was a festival to gather and celebrate the Lords Supper. They still held to the law and observed the Sabbath as God's holy day.

It wasn't until fifth and sixth centuries that the Roman and Anglican churches called for they're to be no work done on Sundays. In 690 A.D., Ina, King of Saxons, made it illegal for any one to work on Sundays. If a freeman was caught working on Sundays they could lose their right to freedom. It wasn't until well into the tenth century that the Eastern and Western churches even began calling this day "the Sabbath".

There is nothing sacred and biblical about Sunday mornings. I believe it is very important for us the big "C" church, not the little "c" church I attend, to gather for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When we do that and how frequently is up to us as body. There is no biblical mandate accept that we do it.

In a twenty-four hour a day society how can we hold in honor the Sabbath as the Lord asks us to do? There needs to be, for each of us, a time when we put all other things aside and concentrate on God. He deserves that much from us when you consider everything he has done. There are people that work weekends and then there is always that weekend sports event you are involved in. I think the key is to be able to keep your schedule during the Sabbath, but as you are participating in something others may consider to be work, that you focus on God through that activity. Do everything you do as you are doing it for the Lord.

Time off!

Genesis 2:2-3 "On the seventh day, having finished his task, God rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from his work of creation."

The Sabbath, is the most holy of days. So holy in fact, it is the only day mentioned in God's Ten Commandments to us (Exodus 20:8-11). God took time to rest and soak in all that he had accomplished. He desires for us to do the same thing. We spend so much of our waking hours running around like chickens with our heads cut off. God's original design for our lives was for us to take some time off and explore all the wonderful things he has done for us through all he created.

Jesus respected the Sabbath as a time to benefit God's people. On one Sabbath day Jesus and his followers were walking through some grain fields when his followers started breaking off the heads of the wheat. The religious leaders of the day saw what they were doing and used this infraction of the law as a chance to attack Jesus ministry. Jesus replies "The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!" (Mark 2:23-28) Jesus also healed on the Sabbath which some would consider work as well. When challenged about this he responded, "If you had one sheep and it fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you get to work and pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, it is right to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-14) The disciples picked the grain to survive, just like you would need to rescue a sheep for food. God asked for the Sabbath to be kept holy, by us stopping the work for others and concentrate on his works. What is godlier then taking care of yourself (God's greatest creation) by eating or helping others? Both of these scenarios keep the focus on God and that is what he is looking for us to do on our Sabbath day.

So when is this Sabbath day? Biblically this day runs from sunset on Friday evening to sunset on Saturday evening. To the Jews, sunset was literally the end of the day. Being Jews themselves, Jesus and his followers observed this time period as the Sabbath. It wasn't until after Jesus rose form the grave on Easter Sunday, was there any kind of celebration on Sunday. To the Apostles and the first Century Church Sunday morning gatherings were considered to be "The Lord's Day". (Acts 20:7-12) To them this was not a replacement of the Sabbath. It was a festival to gather and celebrate the Lords Supper. They still held to the law and observed the Sabbath as God's holy day.

It wasn't until fifth and sixth centuries that the Roman and Anglican churches called for they're to be no work done on Sundays. In 690 A.D., Ina, King of Saxons, made it illegal for any one to work on Sundays. If a freeman was caught working on Sundays they could lose their right to freedom. It wasn't until well into the tenth century that the Eastern and Western churches even began calling this day "the Sabbath".

There is nothing sacred and biblical about Sunday mornings. I believe it is very important for us the big "C" church, not the little "c" church I attend, to gather for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When we do that and how frequently is up to us as body. There is no biblical mandate accept that we do it.

In a twenty-four hour a day society how can we hold in honor the Sabbath as the Lord asks us to do? There needs to be, for each of us, a time when we put all other things aside and concentrate on God. He deserves that much from us when you consider everything he has done. There are people that work weekends and then there is always that weekend sports event you are involved in. I think the key is to be able to keep your schedule during the Sabbath, but as you are participating in something others may consider to be work, that you focus on God through that activity. Do everything you do as you are doing it for the Lord.

The big story!

What’s the famous bumper sticker/church sign say? “Wise men still follow Him!” Sure they do, but not in threes. One of my biggest pet peeves in Christian culture is how badly Jesus birth is depicted in Nativity sets. A barn, with animals and three kings from the east. I deal with the barn and animals thing in an earlier post, so check out the archives for that one. But what I want to deal with today is these “three” wise guys. Let us just put this into context: They wouldn’t have been so “wise” if it was just the three of them traveling from the Far East! There is a certain wow factor that can be gained from this story, even if you believe it was just three guys that came to see the little baby. That would be impressive in it’s self. But for their own survival they would have had to travel in a large caravan. If the little statues are correct, it would have been easy for robbers and thieves to recognize the fact these guys were loaded. If it had been just three guys they would have been easy pickens for one or two robbers. The journey they took was long and treacherous. There weren’t exits and road stops every three miles like are on our highways. They may have gone days with out seeing anyone else on their route. Besides the journey being dangerous, let’s talk about their encounter with Herod. This was a bad King. The dude was ruthless to say the least. He would have made Saddam look like Mickey Mouse. In my opinion they had to be traveling in a large group, because for some reason Herod seems intimidated by their presence. Not just because these guys were foreigners who knew nothing of the Hebrew scripture but where looking for the Jewish king, but because I’m sure they had plenty of slaves, servants, priest and guards of their own traveling with them. It was a large group of people coming through town and everyone in Jerusalem had heard about them. Herod could have offed three guys with out many people knowing it, but to try and kill a large group of maybe seventy to a hundred people, would have been a hard thing to cover up. The people of Jerusalem know why these guys where in town and if Herod had killed their whole party, it would have been obvious to the people he was afraid of the news these wise men were bringing. So why are there just three “wise” men. Well it of course has to do with the fact that only three gifts were mentioned as being brought to Jesus (gold, frankincense and myrrh.) I don’t know the validity of this story, but someone once told me that it was Martin Luther who made the first nativity set, as a way to share the story with little children. So he must have simplified the story so there weren’t as many pieces. This would help him tell the story quicker and be easier to carry around. Can you imagine your nativity set on the mantel of your fireplace with an additional ten Sheppard’s, a large seventy-piece caravan and a couple hundred (a host) angles? The mantel would fall off the wall. My problem with the nativity set is it takes away from the awe and majesty of what was truly taking place at the time of Jesus birth. This was definitely a huge event. I’m sure if Martin Luther were around today the nativity would look more like a 570 piece Lego set. Ugh, I hate putting those things together! So lets read this chapter of Jesus story and try not minimulize the grandeur of what was happening.

All I really need to know I learned from Toby Keith

(This is my birthday post, it's my birthday, YEAHHH!!)

making a list is a good thing * go for a little walk *
look up an old lost friend * give your girl a little kiss *
don’t break your back for a million bucks you can’t
take to the grave * raise a little hell * put an extra
five in the plate at church this week *
you can’t compete with super stars (why would you
want to try) * money wont make you happy * aint nothing in the
world like youngens (getcha some) * you should always
seek justice * have a band of brothers * buy at least
one round for your men * and two for your horses *
sometimes you have to draw hard lines *
find a place to gather where every one feels accepted *
even if its in a bar (cause it won’t be in the church) *
revenge is sweet (sometimes) * don’t mess with the U S of A *
thank people that serve in our military * never smoke
weed with Willy * listening to others is good *
but it’s alright to talk about “me” (occasionally) *
you shouldn’t kiss like this, if you don’t mean it like that *
sometimes you need a little less talk *
and a lot more action *
Jesus had long hair * He liked to have a good time *
His friends where poor * He hung around with
non-religious people * the people that crucified Him had
something to hide * when He comes back He is
brining amazing grace * He laid His life down for us *
He’ll forgive you and adore you while He’s hanging
on your cross *

The War on Terrorism: Get the “F” out of our church (Editorial)

(I wrote this about a year ago in the midst of a flurry of attacks on our ministry and my character. I still stand behind what I wrote. I need it published some where, because I never sent it to the terrorists that needed to read it.)

Terror Alert: High. What color is it these days? Orange? Red? Puce? Over the past months the Terror Alert system our country uses has become the fodder for late night talk show hosts and quips on family sit-coms. Certainly our nation is not gripped in fear. Or is it? I wish I had bought stock in 3M six months ago. Duct tape flies off the shelves at Wal*Mart quicker then the swim suit issue of Sports Illustrated. Honestly, are those saw horse barriers put up in front of the local oil company in my small town truly going to stop any kind of terrorist attack? On September 20th, 2001, just nine days after the most gruesome terrorist attacks the world has ever seen, President Bush addressed our nation during a joint session of Congress. In that address the president said this about how terrorist operate, “These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.” The chief weapon of a terrorist is not a car bomb or a suicide plane it is fear.

Terrorism is defined by Webster as, “The state of being terrorized or the act of terrorizing; the use of intimidation to attain one’s goals or to advance one’s cause.” The terrorist succeeds not when the plane levels a skyscraper but when thousands are afraid to use our commercial airline system to travel. The terrorist wins when the people of this nation buy duct tape and sheets of plastic, when they certainly provide little, if any protection from a chemical attack. The terrorist rejoices when we trick ourselves into thinking that wooden saw horses are a suitable barrier against his car bomb. Secrecy is the gun that propels the bullet of fear. We live in fear because we neither know who the terrorists are or when and where they will attack next. Americans are accustom to fighting wars head on. Political parties and agendas aside, this country is winning its war on terror. There has not been another attack on our nation’s soil since 9/11. We are winning in part because President Bush in that address to the nation identified al Queda and Osama bin Laden as our enemy. In giving our enemy a face he reinsured our resolve as a nation to confront our fears and fight this war.

Our churches are also in a “War on Terrorism”. As leaders we hear the “chatter” of these small pockets of people that have been sewing seeds of discontent throughout our church body. Some of these pockets have chosen the “hit and run” method of terrorism by delivering emotional suicide bombs and then choosing to worship elsewhere. Although those attacks wound our church, the terrorists that have remained behind are doing far greater damage to the body. They do not attend Sunday worship but show up at committee meetings, use prayer cards in a hateful manner, have stopped giving to the general fund and do little to fulfill the “Great Commission” through our church. Their implements of terrorism include: snide, underhanded remarks at committee meetings, unsigned letters with ministry job postings elsewhere sent to staff members and slanderous gossip disguised in the name of “problem solving.” President Bush’s description of the terrorist he is fighting provided an eerie reflection of what we face in our bodies. He said, “We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.” The terrorists we fight have shown disrespect towards God’s word by their loveless actions against their brothers and sisters in Christ in an attempt to gain perceived power.

Our ability to over come the fear of terrorism can only be derived from a sense of Christ centered confidence. The kind of confidence Jesus instilled in his disciples the day he first sent them out on their own to do His ministry. Jesus’ pep talk to them out of Peterson’s The Message reads like this, “Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now. Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.” It’s time we get the “F”, fear, out of our churches. We must not be afraid to identify these people for what they are and put them on notice that their behavior against Gods people will not be tolerated anymore. We can no longer function in God’s will as paralyzed servants, in fear of what others may think or say about the decisions we make to advance Gods Kingdom. We can no longer enable these people to build the walls around their Christian ghetto even higher. As leaders desiring God’s will to move His church forward we must embrace faith, hope and love. Embrace them with a Christ centered confidence and a healthy fear of God.

Christmas E-mail '03

This past year the world of youth ministry lost one of its greatest warriors. On October 30th Mike Yaconelli, co-founder and owner of Youth Specialties (publisher of thousands of youth ministry resources) died at the age of 61 in car crash. If you are unfamiliar with whom Mike is you wouldn't have been able to tell him apart from the person that served you your double latte caramel macchiato at Starbucks this morning. Mike would have liked that. For those of us that have heard the calling to invest our lives into young people, Mike was a profound source of encouragement. Because of his bluntness with the truth, passion for reaching teenagers for Jesus with a “whatever the cost attitude” and with the ability to encourage others in that same direction; for Senior Pastors all over the world, Mike could be a profound pain in the backside.

I had the honor of speaking with Mike two years ago at the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas. During our forty-minute conversation I found him to be both lovingly humble and confidently strong. These are the same characteristics I see in Jesus. But unlike Jesus, Mike wasn't perfect. The fact that he would be the first to admit this is what I admired about Mike the most. In a speech to youth workers Mike once said, "I hope you realize when Jesus comes, he comes to people like you and me. Who make mistakes. Who don't do it right. Who screw up. Who do the stuff that maybe other people wouldn't do who had more sense."

That's me. I mess up. I miss opportunities to empower the volunteers in my ministry so that they can be all God longs for them. I push people out of my life because I have a tendency to hold others in contempt. I snap at my children when trying to rush them out of the house because I'm late. I don't turn my socks right side out before I put them in the laundry basket. Worst of all I consistently fail to show my wife that she is the love of my life.

I can hear some of your thoughts now, "Thanks for sending me such a joy filled holiday email.”, “I guess Roger is having a blue Christmas.”, or “Do me a favor and take me off the list for next year." In Mike Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality, Mike makes a great point that our messes are God’s opportunities. So what better time of the year then Christmas to remind ourselves of the hope that can be found in our messiness?

Let’s break down the messy Christmas story found in Luke 2. To start, there was no Red Roof in Bethlehem. More than likely, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem for the Roman census only to find every aunt, uncle and fourth cousin occupying all the rooms of Joseph’s ancestral home. The original manuscripts of the New Testament were written mostly in Greek. The English word “inn” found in scripture today was translated from the Greek word kataluma. Like most ancient languages, words had multiple meanings. The only other place we find this word used in scripture is in the descriptions of the Last Supper (Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14). In both of these accounts, the word kataluma is used to describe a large “guest room” found in someone’s personal home. So, in Mary’s condition, why didn’t they make a place for her in the guest room? I’m sure if you have a pregnant relative come visit with you this holiday that your family will openly show concern for that mother to be. She will be given the most comfortable seat in the house and will be waited on hand and foot. Not so 2000 years ago. Mary was a woman. A very young woman. Even though she was pregnant and about ready to give birth, Mary did not hold any priority over the older men in the family to earn her a place in the kataluma.

So this is when they got sent to the stable? Not exactly. The word stable or barn is never mentioned in scripture. We would expect to find a manger in a barn or stable these days, but in the ancient world small amounts of flock animals were kept inside the home. They didn’t have refrigerators or freezers so the meat was kept fresh by keeping the animals alive until it was mealtime. By storing the animals in one of the ground floor rooms it protected them from the elements and theft. Also the heat produced by the animal dung would rise up through the floor to heat the second level living quarters. So, after traveling four or five days in the sun and having to stay in the nastiest place in the house, Mary finds herself getting ready to give birth to the savior of the world.

Just when Mary was thinking how this could get any worse some shepherds show up. These ragamuffins claimed they had been given the good news of the Kings’ birth by a host of angels. During this time shepherds were a marginalized people. Think of a job, the worst job you can possibly imagine doing for a living and that’s how people looked at the task of shepherding.

How do you think Mary was feeling at this point? Her relatives treated her like junk, she had to give birth to her baby in substandard conditions and now a bunch of Shepherds were hanging around gawking at her baby. One might feel bitter, angry and frustrated, but not Mary. Luke 2:19 describes her reaction like this, “. . . but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Engulfed in so much mess, all this young girl could think to do was to be humble.

Recently my family and I gathered around the TV to watch Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause 2. While watching this movie it struck me how incredibly lucky we all are that there is no Santa Claus and we aren’t relying on him to bring us presents. You see, the bad toy Santa was right, we have all been naughty and all deserve coal. None of us can make the “nice list” because at some point during the past year we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Mike Yaconelli said, “What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly! What drove Jesus’ enemies crazy were his criticisms of the “perfect” religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus’ ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.” God’s gift to each of us is a department store gift wrappers worst nightmare. The truth about Jesus is not perfectly packaged in gold lame paper with a pretty red bow. The present of Jesus’ unconditional, forgiving love for us is wrapped in the most common, messy birth of a little boy and delivered to us through His brutal death on a cross. And the Good News is no matter how messy or broken we think we are; this present is available for us to open all year round.

Have a Messy Christmas and a Broken New Year!

Give it away, give it away, give it away now!

Matthew 20:26,27 "But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave." (NLT)

There is a great quote form the movie Braveheart as William Wallace is trying to get Robert the Bruce to step up and become the leader he was destined to be. Wallace, desperately trying to motivate the Bruce to action, says, "Men don't follow titles, they follow courage." It takes little courage to sit behind a name plate these days. Most leadership positions people assume have a perceived entitlement to leadership. "I've earned this position and now you must submit to me because of my title." This leadership philosophy is widely used throughout the corporate world, the military world, the education community and sadly also in the arena of ministry as well. People tend to demand authority because they were either elected, nominated or given a title.

Jesus fully grasped how the world worked as shone in Matthew 20:25, "So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads." (The Message) Who are our rulers today? Your boss? Your principal? Your Pastor? Your parents? We don't serve at the pleasure of kings anymore, but we do have a multitude of people we answer to. Jesus could see how in a position where a title was given there is a great chance for the abuse of power. Do the people that have "earthly" rule over you treat you well or do they "throw their weight around"? If you are in a position of authority over others, do love them or do you leverage them?

To be great leaders in the eyes of Heaven we must stop trying to use our positions of authority to leverage people or force them into doing what we want. We must become a slave to those we lead. A slave is completely subservient to their owner. Jesus wasn't talking about "prid pro quo" here. This form of leadership isn't calling us to do something for others, so that they will do something for us. Being a slave to someone else is doing what ever they need, whenever they need it. I have a tendency not to be a slave to my family like I should be. If my goal is to be the spiritual leader of my house then I should be a slave to their schedule, instead of them being slaves to mine. It really does pain me when Noah asks me to play with him, but I have something else that needs to be done at that exact moment he asks me. I tend to only read to Emily out of "The BFG" when there is nothing on TV I need to watch. Jamie still has a fish tank we bought her for Christmas, sitting in the box in her room. And my need to "decompress" from my day always supersedes Renee's need for intimacy with me.

We need to stop worrying what we "get" out of serving others and do it out of a love for a mighty God. Jesus himself said in Matthew 22:37-40, that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything you have and that a close second is to love others. My daughter Jamie says it best, "God first, others second and yourself last." She learned the phrase at camp, but I pray she sees it lived out in her home. The more we focus on God and others, the better leaders the Lord will allow us to be. Men don't follow titles, they follow courage. There is nothing more courages, in our times, then abdicating your position of power to become someone else's slave. Do we have the courage?

The house God built.

I Corinthians 6:19 “Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,”

After my last post I could hear it coming. “But, your body is a temple.” Okay, if our bodies are temples why are we the most overweight nation in the world? Why has it taken over two hundred years of American legislators to finally do something about the tobacco industry? Why are so many teenagers so stressed out that they have to take prescription drugs to cope with the world around them? And why is the church virtually ignoring the AIDS crisis in Africa that has gone beyond epidemic and is now being called “pandemic”?

Isn’t it a good and healthy thing when we take care of the body God has given us? Yes! Is this what Paul was talking about in I Corinthians 6:12-20? No!

Paul wrote these specific words to the church in Corinth because before he had come there with the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Corinthians liked to have sex. A lot of sex. In those days there was a widely held belief called Gnosticism. This is a belief that your body and your mind are separate. What you do to one doesn’t affect the other and vice a versa. We can relate this belief to a bumper sticker that reads, “If it feels good do it.” Before becoming Christians many Corinthians practiced the worship of Aphrodite. To worship this goddess, what you basically had to do was visit her temple and pay to have sex with one of the temple prostitutes. The reason Paul wrote these words was because after accepting Christ as their rescuer and leader the people in Corinth were still visiting the temple prostitutes. Because of this widely held Gnostic belief, having sex (the body) didn’t interfere with their spiritual life (the mind). Paul was letting these folks know that since they had a relationship with Jesus and now that the Holy Spirit had come to them, they had a new temple. And they were to treat it with love and respect.

The society in Corinth sounds a lot like ours. “Just do it.” “If it makes you happy.” It seemed when I was growing up as a teenager that guys where the “Gnostic” thinkers. The media portrayed guys in my generation of not caring about the emotional outcome of having pre-marital sex. We saw this in the TV shows and movies we watched or in the lyrics of classic music like Meat Loafs, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”. Something has dramatically changed over the past fifteen or so years. As I study pop-culture it has become more evident that the young woman of our society are thinking more like the Gnostics of old than ever before. The girls in our culture are much more sexually aggressive then in the past couple of decades. And I’m not just talking about making the first move with a guy by calling him on the phone or asking him out. It goes much deeper than that. Proof? I got three words for ya, “Girls Gone Wild.”

And don’t think for a minute this Gnostic attitude only applies to Spring Breakers and college students in the Greek system. It’s taking hold in our churches as well. Just last year my wife and I had a young engaged Christian couple in our home for dinner. In our small community this couple is looked up to and lauded over as the perfect Christian couple. The young ladies father was a prominent member of the pastoral community in our town. While we were getting to know the couple over dinner, I could see they did not have strong accountability in their lives and I asked them how they were doing with the “purity” issue in their relationship. After several moments of awkward silence they both spoke up about how they had been sexually active together for most of their relationship. My wife and I shared our brokenness about some things in our marriage and graciously offered to council them. A couple of weeks later, a relationship with my wife and I was soundly rejected by this couple. Did this couple wind up getting married? Yes. Will they have a long happy marriage? Heck, I don’t know. But just because you had the perfect wedding day doesn’t mean you will have a perfect marriage. I can say from personal experience that this young couple has taken scars into their marriage that will take years even decades to heal.

Paul was talking about sex. He was talking about the connection between the body and the mind. There are more and more studies being done about the emotional scars left on a women after she gets an abortion. And I’m sure that after the alcohol wears off and those girls see the videotape of themselves flashing for beads, that something inside them is going to feel a little less dignified. The misuse of your body sexually has an emotional price tag. It’s a price not worth paying.

(P.S. Just like we honor the Lords temple by putting up banners and making beautiful stained glass murals, I tattoo my body with things that will please the Lord.)

Tattoo U

Leviticus 19:28 “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourself. I am the Lord.” (NIV)

In honor of my most recent body modification I will start out this blog with the scripture most Spiritual McCarthyites (those that shame and belittle others for having different theological beliefs then the mainstream evangelical western church) take way out of context when dealing with those whom have chosen to adorn their bodies with art.

Leviticus 19 is a call from God for his people of Israel to be holy. He asks this not as a favor but out of a sense of duty one would have of a King or ruler. (Lev. 19:2) Because God is holy, he asks the people that represent him to the entire world, to be the same. It’s like when you were young and your parents expected you to have good manors while you ate out for dinner. As a parent I can tell you, that request is all about me. I don’t want people thinking I am a bad parent because I haven’t taught my children how to behave. So I command my children to sit up straight, not talk with their mouths full and use their quite voice while at the dinner table.

The Israelites where an earthly reflection of who their mighty God was. So to set those apart as His followers, God gave Moses some rules for the Israelites to live by. One of the many mourning practices of the day was to cut yourself or tattoo a deceased loved ones name on your body. This was an outward sign, pride fully worn by the bearers to show the world they missed their loved one. Through God’s eyes death is an extension of life. Those that believe in Jesus to be their rescuer and leader will spend eternity with their maker. If this is true, why mourn? Why not rejoice? Yes, we physically miss that person and there might be a lot of pain from a close death near us, but God is rejoicing and wants us to as well.

The whole nineteenth chapter is full of does and don’ts for us to be Holy. Here are some of my favorites, see which ones you have failed on doing or not doing this week:

Do not lie. (verse 11)
Always judge your neighbors fairly. (verse 1)
Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. (verse 16)
Keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence toward my sanctuary. (verse 30)
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beards. (verse 27)
Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of fabric. (verse 19)

Even a small tiny lie I tell to protect a friend is a lie. I categorize and pigeon whole people I see walking down the street not knowing a thing about them. Gossip! Eyes roll! When was the last time I kept the Sabbath seeing as how the biblical Sabbath runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown? Sunday is biblically not the Sabbath. I don’t know how many times I have gotten funny looks because I haven’t shaved in two or three days. I think every undershirt I own is made of a 50/50 blend. We all fall short of being as holy as God. That is why he is God and we are not.

I didn’t get my tattoos out of mourning the loss of a loved one, so I don’t see how getting a tattoo keeps me from being any more or less holy than a teacher that gossips with her students all day long or the person that has to eat a medium rare hamburger everyday.

What’s that old saying, “When you point a finger at some one you have three pointing back at you?” Leviticus 19 holds guidelines laid down for each of us to strive for while individually trying to become as holy as God. Not rules for us to interpret so we can try to hold others accountable to them. This chapter is just more evidence of how great the body of Christ could be if each of us concentrated on our own spiritual walks instead wasting our time judging others.