Derelict Theology

A recent post on Dan Kimball’s blog really struck a chord with me this morning.  In the post, he describes a recent service at his church where they handed out notecards and had the congregation finish this sentence: “I dream of a church….”.  The responses he got were pretty remarkable, and heart piercing at the same time.  Honestly, it’s something that I wish we could do here at FBC Adamsville, but I don’t know how well it would go over.  It got me thinking, though, about what my dream for the church is.  Not just our church, but the church as a whole, worldwide.  There are things we’d all like to change about our local churches, so I’m trying to think widely and also be positive at the same time.  So, if I were to have a list, this is what mine would be.

 ”I dream of a church….”

- that cares more about what God wants than what people want.

- that sees it’s place in the community and seeks to be a helping hand there.

- that doesn’t look down on people because of the way they look.

- that preaches the Word only.

- that doesn’t compromise it’s position to appear more “relevant.”

- that makes each person feel important to the body, not just a number.

- that is open to new ideas

- that is more concerned with people than budget.

- that is open, real, and honest.

I’m sure I could add more if I wanted, but right now, I’m spent.  Just ask yourself the question.  “What do I dream about the church?”  Leave your responses below.

Tonight I found out another of my youth had recommitted her life at M-fuge last week, and that another has answered a call from God to youth ministry. 

 It’s days like this that make ministry so worth it.

I’ve been incommunicado for the last week or so due to M-fuge, which is a youth camp that we take our group to every year. The camp centers around missions, and 4 days out of 6 are spent on ministry sites doing everything from backyard bible clubs for kids, to roofing houses in need of repair, to visiting maximum security juvenile detention centers (which is what I did). M-fuge is a big part of our youth ministry, and was intrusmental last year (which was our first time) in being a big reason behind our group focusing more on missions in the last year than we ever have. It was a good week, of course there’s always a little drama on a camp trip, but we came back feeling refreshed and also challenged, and I know our group is closer now than it’s been ever. Also, I left one of my youth at camp for another week, because he’s an SLA, or Student Leader Apprentice, and this week is his week to be a shadow staffer. I’m excited about that. I mentioned to some of my youth Thursday night during a conversation that I believe that you can’t be a Christian and not care about people. Loving people was at the core of Jesus’ message and ministry. What bugs me, though, is that a lot of times it’s not at the core of our messages or ministries. This is somewhat of a new thought for me, because I’d always believed that I was supposed to love people because they needed the Gospel, but I believe that Jesus is telling us to simply love people because we’re supposed to love them. This week on my ministry site we visited several places where people had done bad things. Sometimes it was a result of feeling unwanted or underappreciated. In the conversations we had, I never really got to mention Jesus’ name, but those people did leave every day with a smile on their face. We gave them a bright spot in their day that they might not otherwise have. I’m proud of that. God did tell me this week that I’m not living in joy, though. Something the speaker said one morning during adult bible study really hit me when he said that “we should be living in the joy that God gives us”. God didn’t create us to be sour and to be worried all the time, so I’m trying not to be. I think my wife can tell the difference, and I think she likes it. It’s much better this way. I just hope it’s not a temporary attitude adjustment. This week, on Thursday, I leave for Weston, Missouri, where I’m going to be speaking at a youth revival over the weekend. It’s going to be a fun trip, because I’m going with a group of friends who are in a band called Saul2Paul and they will be leading the music. We’re going to stay at a church in St. Louis and then drive on to Weston on Friday morning, then do training and ministry the rest of the weekend. Should be a good trip. Hopefully I’ll be able to post from the road. Tomorrow: Pics from M-fuge

I guess I should count myself among the easily swayed.  I usually find a lot of meaning in music and movies, and yesterday was no exception.  I heard this song for the first time at the end of the movie “Cars” and I thought it was pretty accurate at explaining the last 4 years of my life.  Sometimes you just hear something that’s so spot on that it’s powerful, and that’s what happened when I heard this.  I couldn’t even get up from the seat in the theater while it was playing, I made Erin stay with me.  I want to share the lyrics with you, and I might even share some thoughts on it later in the week. 

“Find Yourself” by Brad Paisley

 When you find yourself,

in some far off place

and it causes you to rethink some things,

you start to sense that slowly you’re becoming someone else

and then you find yourself

When you make new friends,

in a brand new town

and you start to think about settling down,

the things that would’ve been lost on you are now clear as a bell

and you find yourself, that when you find yourself.

You go through life so sure of where you’re headin’

and you wind up lost and it’s the best thing that could’ve happened

cause sometimes when you lose your way it’s really just as well

because you find yourself, that’s when you find yourself.

When you meet the one,

that you’ve been waiting for

and she’s everything that you want and more,

you look at her and you finally start to live for someone else

and then you find yourself, that’s when you find yourself.

You go through life so sure of where you’re heading

and then you wind up lost and it’s the best thing that could’ve happened

sometimes when you lose your way it’s really just as well

because you find yourself, yeah, that’s when you find yourself.

We’re home now, but I wanted to recount the amazing escapades of Marty and Erin throughout the city of Atlanta on Friday.  I promise tomorrow that I’ll get some pictures up, but they have to be transferred and edited first.  Friday morning we woke bright and early, ate the complimentary breakfast at our hotel, and then headed to downtown Atlanta to find the Coca-Cola museum.  This was really a highlight of our trip, at least for me.  I’d never been to the museum and it was filled with all kinds of ads, old machinery, memorabilia and other great things.  We saw how Coke was made before the fountains that we have now dispensed it.  We saw Coke carvings and statues made in Turkey, and Mozambique.  We sat in a giant polar bear’s lap and had our pictures made.  Then finally, the coup de grace, we got to go into a room where you can taste the Coke of today in America, and the Coke of today from other countries!  I’ll just say this: our version is much better.  There was a problem however.  Since this is the Coke museum, the official place of Coca-cola; you might expect them to have the best Coke in the world there for you to drink.  WRONG!  Every sample we tried was FLAT!  And, as we all know, flat soda is disgusting!  So, it was a bit of a let down.

Afterwards, we went across the street to the Underground Atlanta shopping mall, where we saw nothing that was that striking, except for a club claiming to have the world’s #1 female impersonators.  We walked by rather quickly.  The Underground is a mall that’s housed in what used to be Atlanta’s streets, so it’s pretty nifty in there, but nothing caught our eye.  We were getting hungry, so we decided to leave.  This is where our trip gets fun.  We had to get on I-85 and go to exit 88, where we would find the restaurant we wanted, which was called “Fat Matt’s Rib Shack”.  Supposedly it’s ranked #1 in Atlanta for the best food.  We finally found I-85 after getting out of downtown Atlanta with no trouble……but we were going the wrong way!  So we ended up at the Atlanta International Airport.  Turning around, we got going in the right direction, and fought traffic to get to I-85 NORTH, which was where we were supposed to be.  Finally, we see exits in the 80’s, and we’re rejoicing.  Wait…there’s exit 87…..and then 89….where was 88?!!!  We had to get off like we were going to 87 to go to 88, but there were no signs that told us that!  So, we get off at 89, lost again.  We drive around for about 45 minutes, looking for our road, until I stop and ask for directions, and we are there within a matter of 15 minutes after that.  The ribs, I must report, were delicious and quite worth the trouble.  But, by the time we were done, and by the time we got lost again on our way home, neither of us wanted to go and do anything in downtown Atlanta that afternoon, which was our plan.

Instead, we headed north about dinnertime, after a failed trip to the mall yielded us no places to eat.  We must’ve driven 10 miles without seeing one nice sit down restaurant!  Finally, we stop again to ask for directions, and are told to get on another interstate, go one mile north, and there’s some restaurants there.  So finally, after going through a blinding rainstorm that threatened to run all traffic off the road, we sat down for a big slab of grilled cow at Outback Steakhouse.  Then we went home and almost got run over by an 18-wheeler.  Fun times. 

Pics soon!

We made it!  That is a huge accomplishment for someone who hates driving in congested traffic.  If you guessed though, Atlanta is full of it.  I think I’ve spent just as much time in traffic as I have going to attractions.  But, that aside, we’re having a really good time here.  Tomorrow morning, we’ll come home, but I want to break down each day and let my faithful readers know what we’ve been up to…and I’ll be sure to upload pictures as soon as I can.  Yesterday morning we left at 8 a.m. our time and traveled until Waynesboro, where we stopped for breakfast.  We weren’t in McDonald’s long before some old men started asking us questions about our Scion.  It seems that every loves to ask questions about our “Lego” (as our youth call it).  We left there and traveled with little interruption, save for bathroom breaks and a stop for a Sundrop to Smyrna, GA, which is about 15 miles outside of downtown Atlanta.  We checked into our hotel room, which has two double beds instead of a king size bed we asked for, unpacked, and then headed for Stone Mountain Park.  Stone Mountain Park’s main attraction is the giant mountain of granite that is in the center of the park upon which a carving of three Civil War heroes is etched.  Every night they have a laser show that is projected on the side of the mountain, and you can ride a cable car to the top to look around from the mountain.  You can hike up and back dow, and there are other things to do, like ride a train or a riverboat, or look around a couple of monuments or museums.  I had to confront my fear of heights to ride the cable car, but once I got up there on top of mountain, it was so worth it.   We finished the night off with the laser show, which we left early from because of a rainstorm.  But what we saw was pretty cool.  We came back to the hotel, got a good night’s sleep, and woke up this morning for a tour of downtown Atlanta!  But more on that…….TOMORROW.