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Thoughts on what makes a church work

The Dallas Cowboys won on Monday Night Football just a few days ago, catching up in the last few minutes to beat the Washington Redskins (sorry to any Redskins’ fans still recovering). There are many keys to the success of a football team — good players, a good game plan and sometimes a little luck. But there is one key so overwhelming that no team can win without it, and that is the players submitting to the leadership and direction of the coach. Putting their own agenda, concerns and will aside enough to follow the game plan of the coach enables a team to put the ball across the goal line.

I was thinking early this week about what really makes a church work (put the ball across the goal line) and win. For me, this was in the context of all the amazing things First Methodist Church does and the special congregation it is. As churches go, First Methodist has a lot of wins and scores touchdowns pretty much every week. Are you ready for the answer, at least as I understand it?

“ . . . And Jesus is also the head of the body, the church . . .” Colossians 1:18a

I am convinced the church works because its members bend the knee to Jesus Christ. It’s not because a church has the best worship services, the best programs, the best building and certainly not the best preachers but because people in that church family submit to the lordship, authority and direction of Jesus Christ. When a church family is full of people who give, worship, serve and do so from their commitment to Jesus, then there are no boundaries to the success of that church. When a church is made up of people who put aside their own agenda and concerns for the agenda that Jesus calls us to — to live out the plan the Lord has for His Church — then that church family is going to score a lot of touchdowns, make the difference that Jesus leads that church to make. I am convinced this is why First Methodist is the church it is.

We give because of a knee bent to Jesus Christ.
We serve because of a knee bent to Jesus Christ.
We worship because of a knee bent to Jesus Christ.

When I kneel before Jesus first, then everything else I relate to — the church, my family, my workplace, my neighborhood — all falls into place in a very different, even dynamic way, falls into place because God can now work as God chooses.

I can’t promise you that the Cowboys are always going to win when they submit to the coach, but I can promise you that each of us as well as the church will win as we bend the knee to Jesus.

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow!” Philippians 2:10

Thoughts on chage

I remember Carl one year pointing to the sky at hundreds of Monarch butterflies on their way south. Every year at that same time they migrate thousands of miles to lay their eggs. They fly the same route year after year, and along that way, multiple predators such as the Oriole and the Grosbeak are waiting for them. Most won’t make it. They can’t alter this genetic tendency; they will attempt to fly to Mexico no matter what. These butterflies just can’t change!

But people can change. God has given us free will to love or hate, believe in Him or turn our back on Him, submit to His authority or reject it, accept the savior Jesus or refuse this amazing grace. We can choose to live between the guardrails the Bible teaches or choose another way of life, even though guardrails are designed to keep us safe, placed at the places of greatest danger — guardrails often given to us from the Bible in the form of God’s commands.

A sign I occasionally see on the highway that seems so ironic to me — so ironic I almost always comment to Rhonda when I see it — “Guardrail Damage Ahead!” If the highway department has time to put a sign up, don’t they have time to fix the guardrail?  It is not a bad idea to have the signs up that warn us of a potential problem at a curve, but isn’t it much better to have the guardrails clearly in place?

Questions to ask myself:

• Where is my Bible? (I have dozens but often can’t find the one I am looking for.)
• How is my spiritual health? (My recent blood tests didn’t rate this.)
• When was the last time I prayed to God seriously? (Depends on how much trouble I am in or how serious the problem of the moment is.)
• What are the convictions that guide my behavior? (I always find time for a Maverick’s game.)
• What should I say “yes” to, what must I say “no” to? (No’s are hard; do I have to?)
• Do I know the Ten Commandments as well as I know the theme song to my favorite television show? (I am pretty sure I can sing the theme song to “The Brady Bunch,” “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Flintstones.” Yes, I am dating myself.)
• Do I love God enough to struggle as much to keep the 10 (commandments) as I do to drop 10 (pounds)? (Darn that Mexican food.)

Butterflies can’t change, but you and I can. Look for the guardrails!

Thoughts on September 11

On September 11, 2001, after a session of Congress to address the significance of the terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress gathered on the Capital steps and sang “God Bless America,” many holding hands. In the midst of chaos and fear, Congress called upon God for help and blessings. In our own church (the original attacks were on a Thursday although the tenth anniversary falls on Sunday), we put a sign out on Walnut Creek Drive advertising a prayer service at 7:00 p.m. that night. Our church was full. In fact, people came in and out all day to gather together and to pray. That Sunday it looked like Easter as people gathered to pray. Churches, government agencies, capitals all had the same experience, people gathering and praying.  It was a remarkable time. I remember it like it was yesterday, as most of you do. As a nation, and certainly as a church, we were drawn to one another and to God. Political correctness was left on the sidelines as a nation got serious about prayer.

Since the prayers we prayed that week, our daughter Kelly married Chad, our son Michael married Gladys and our daughter Julie married Jason. Our son Michael got out of the Marine Corps, and Chad has had two tours in Iraq. We have also added six more grandchildren to the two little ones we had back then. There have been no more significant terrorist attacks on America since then by Al Qaeda. The American economy has survived the economic meltdown that immediately followed the attacks. Airplanes are back in the air, businesses are back to work, families are back to being families and the church still worships and serves God, thriving in life, mission and ministry. I know you have your story as well, the stories of what you were doing and where you were when the attacks happened (I was preparing for a funeral and left to go to the funeral home as the towers began to fall), but even more, the story of your life and family since and certainly the story we share as Americans — a common story of a nation that said “God help us” as the tragedy of senseless terrorism unfolded and the story of God who heard those prayers and overwhelmed that same terrorism with grace and the heroism of many Americans who heard God’s call to give, serve, help and rebuild.

Jesus came upon 10 men with Leprosy. They were easy to spot; they were covered from head to toe to hide the disfiguring disease. They had to wear clothing that let people know this was their disease, and they were isolated beggars. They could never return home, and after years, they would eventually die of the disease, unrecognizable as to whom they had once been. They, too, asked Jesus for help and mercy. He gave it and healed them all. As they headed to the temple priests to be declared “clean” so they could return to their own communities, only one turned back to give thanks. Jesus asks, “Ten were healed, why does only one return to give thanks?”

I would like us to think of this coming weekend as a season to give God thanks, to not forget how God heard our prayers and the many ways God has answered those prayers these last 10 years. In any service you attend — Saturday, Sunday and even our new service on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. in the Chapel — you will have that opportunity. I hope we will all turn back from the busyness of our lives and stop for a moment and say as the leper said, “Jesus, thank you!” Is it unthinkable for me to hope that the crowds coming to give thanks to God would be as significant as those asking for God’s help and mercy?

Ten lepers cried out, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us.” One returned to give thanks.

God is always the answer

The pastor got up to tell a story to some children.  He began by trying to get them to guess the right answer to a question.  “What kind of animal runs around in trees?”  No answer.  Then, “What kind of animal runs around in trees and stores up nuts for the winter?”  Still no answer.  Frustrated, the pastor then said, “What kind of animal runs around in trees, stores up nuts for the winter and has a bushy tail?”  Still, no child gave an answer.  Finally one boy blurted out, “I know you want us to say God, but it sounds like a squirrel to me!”

The moral to the story is simple — even a child knows that somehow God is always the answer.

One of the most important questions anyone can ask is “why?”  Why is God’s will so hard to find?  Why do our prayers seem to go unanswered?  Why is there suffering?  When these questions are asked, people typically want specific reasons, specific explanations, specific answers — reasons, explanations and answers that really can’t satisfy — when in reality, the satisfying answer is as simple as a big God.

When Jesus told his disciples that he was soon to leave them (speaking about his journey to the cross), they asked him, “Where are you going?” . . . certainly hoping for a specific answer.  He said, “You know where I am going!”  Philip asked, “How can we know the way?”  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life!”  Then after the resurrection, he gave them a simple command and promise, “Go make disciples, and I will be with you!”

Somehow God is always the answer.  God is the author of life, the giver of salvation, the saver of the soul, the founder of eternal life, the creator of a cross-based grace.  When Peter was asked by Jesus why he did not quit following him when so many others had, Peter said, “To whom else shall we go, you have the words of eternal life?”  And, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

I often wear on my arm not only the blue God Is Big Enough wristband but a white one that came from my brother’s church in Waco.  Steve came up with the God Is Big Enough wristband idea when he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer at M.D. Anderson.  I gave it to Gary who loved the God Is Big Enough wristbands so much that he gave many to people in the Dallas hospital where he spent the last few weeks of his life, dying of cancer not long ago, leaving a young wife and two little children.  Gabby, his wife, came up to me after church and gave it back to me.  I told here, “No, you keep it.”  She said, “Gary would want you to give it to someone else.”  So, I am waiting for the right time and place to give it to another.  No explanation necessary, no reason enough, but a God Is Big Enough, a God is enough answer.

When we sometimes want a small answer that fits in a small situation, God wants to be our complete answer — where we fit into the kingdom of God, a kingdom defined by a cross-based grace and a resurrection-based power.  Explanations are seldom the answer for our “whys,” but God always is.

Thoughts on Uncertainty

An earthquake with its epicenter in Virginia just shook a great deal of the East Coast, including Washington D. C.  It looks like the revolution in Libya is about to result in the overthrow of its long-lasting dictatorship, following closely on the heels of the revolution in Egypt.  Rockets are raining down on Israel from Gaza again, though it looks like a truce has been signed.  The conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to go on forever, and we wonder more about China than we used to.  Famine is rampant in Somalia, and we are in the middle of a huge drought in Texas and beyond.  And yes, the stock market has been interesting this week as the price of gold goes up and oil goes down.  Morality and values seem to be slipping constantly.  The nation seems to be polarized politically and religiously, dividing into camps.  It can be quite a scary world.  We might think it is worse than it’s ever been and that the known yesterday looks more appealing and comforting than the confusing and chaotic present, and certainly more so than an unknown future.

When I was growing up, two of the three biggest earthquakes in American history happened in Alaska, 1964 and 1965.  Vietnam, a 10-year war, began about the same time.  Most of the young men in school at the time were very sensitive to the possibility of being drafted, as were our moms.  Most of us lived under the constant threat of nuclear attack, remembering the words of the Soviet Prime Minister, Nikita Khrushchev, “We will bury you!”  In the same season, a president was assassinated, as was his brother running for president and a civil rights leader.  The so-called generation gap was advertised by hippies, LSD and Woodstock.  Cities and college campus were rocked by riots — Berkeley, Kent State, the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — while hundreds of thousands marched on Washington to oppose the war and thousands marched through Alabama fighting for civil rights. The nation was divided.  The 1967 war in the Middle East resulted in a resounding defeat for Arab countries and the expansion of the nation of Israel, while the 1973 war in the same country almost resulted in the defeat of that same young, but old, nation.  A famine in Biafra was something talked about in every school as Americans sought to help the hungry there, as Americans help the hungry in Africa today.  Much of this was capped off by the resignation of a president in the early 1970s after Watergate and the beginning of a long recession with interest rates and inflation skyrocketing.  And yes, Vietnam became the first war where America suffered defeat.

My guess is that one can take any generation in human history and record the difficult and traumatic events of that season, and it can seem like the worst time of all times.  It often seems like that for those living through it.   In Jesus’ time, Israel was occupied by one of the most oppressive and immoral regimes in history.  The nation was divided into zealots, Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and others living in a season of economic decline and in constant fear of revolution and war.  My parents’ generation dealt with the depression, Pearl Harbor and WW2.  My grandparents survived WW1, a worldwide flu epidemic that killed millions of young people, “the Roaring 20s,” prohibition and the crime that ensued, the dustbowl and that same depression.  The generation not long before that survived slavery, a civil war that had hundreds of thousands of Americans killed by other Americans, followed by the only American president ever impeached.  And yes, earthquakes, hurricanes, uncertain economies and people divided politically, economically and even religiously all filter through the story of every American generation.

There are two things we are all tempted to say that we probably should never say:

1. It’s worse than it has ever been;
2. I wish we could go back to the good old days when everything was better.

No matter the season any Christian lives in, the expectations of God are constant — love God, love neighbor, live the commandments, honor God, keep the faith, serve, give, confess, obey, pray and so on.  It’s not the season I live in; it’s my commitment to be faithful in that season.  In Revelation, a Bible book that speaks of the end times and the birth of the new heavens and the new earth, it encourages us to “overcome no matter what.”  It’s never about fear; it’s always about faithfulness.

What do I do?

“God has shown you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

Jesus said it even more simply.

“Love God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Perspective is always important, but the perspective of the Christian is not found in the news, history or fear of the future.  It is found in the faith we place in Jesus Christ, the love we have for God and our commitment to live a life that pleases Him and makes a difference in the world, all in the context of His Kingdom that is eternal.

Thoughts on discovering God’s will

I couldn’t count the times I have prayed the Lord’s Prayer, from childhood to today, in worship, on the road, in my backyard and in uncountable situations.  The Lord’s Prayer has been prayed by people in churches, in hospitals, at gravesides and on battlefields.  People who may know little of the Bible or the Christian faith often know the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that was first prayed by the Disciples when they asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray!”

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . . .”

The will of God — what an idea, what a question as to how to discover and live in the will of God.

When I was a brand new Christian, I made the decision to accept and follow Christ on a Sunday night.  I think the next few steps I took were as life-changing as the first step to believe.  I began struggling with doing the will of God.

I began to read the Bible.

I went to a Bible study on Wednesday night.

I went to church that Sunday at a small country church in Georgia.

But there is more, even a critical time that could very well have set the stage for more discoveries in God’s will as the years have gone by.  I went to a young adult Sunday School class that Sunday with a middle-aged teacher who had her hair in a bun (I was 20 and had traveled far from church).  She said that the pastor was looking for people to volunteer for more things in the church, so she was going to help him by looking for what we could do — the first search being for new choir members.  There were five or six of us in the class, and I was there for the first time.  She had us each go in a circle and sing a song.  I was on the verge of panic . . . should I leave and go back to the barracks, say “No, are you crazy?” or sing a song.  Since my world did not include many church songs — unless you consider Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven as a church song — the only song I could think of was Jesus Loves Me, a song most of us learned as children.  So, I sang it and ended up in the choir, a choir full of old folks, but I sang anyway.  If this was the will of God, then it was what I was going to do.  The rest, sort of, is history.

The Bible teaches in many ways that those who are faithful in small things — in the little things, in the beginning thing — God will give more.  These things seem to teach that discovering God’s will includes experiencing life as a partnership with God and seeing that partnership as a privilege, a privilege not experienced typically in leaps and bounds but one step of obedience and faith at a time — the first time I open the Bible, go to church, step into Celebrate Recovery, the first time I give a tithe, the first time I forgive my neighbor, the first time I act as a greeter, help in a class, serve in a mission, drop by the hospital, say “I’m sorry” — you understand — the steps of faith that overwhelm our choices and change our course and decide our future as we become available to God, the first step that leads to a second step, and one day to a surprising step on the way God has all along really wanted to bless and use us for His Kingdom purposes.

Thy will be done!

Thoughts on learning the secret

I remember the first time I set foot on a racquetball court.  I had my new racquet and was ready to go.  As the first ball was hit against the wall by my opponent, the experience became laughable very quickly.  With four walls, a ceiling and a floor, the ball can go in multiple, crazy directions leaving the player swinging at air.  But as I continued to play, I began to get better and started to win a few games.  I learned the secret of racquetball.  You don’t run around swinging at the ball, you learn where it is going, get there first and keep your opponent running around.  I learned how to play.

Paul recorded this in Philippians 4:11-12:
“Not that I complain of want, for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.”

As once again we hear difficult financial news, the news of a dropping stock market, a raised national debt ceiling and a lowered national credit rating.  This might cause some of us to be anxious.  We like good news.

Paul goes on in the next verse of Philippians to give us the secret:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

If our goal is to follow Christ, sometimes “want” can be a problem, creating anxiety and fear.  And yet in the same vein, “plenty” can sometimes be a problem, creating an illusion we don’t really need God.  We learn the secret.

Yet, the Bible promises and advises don’t stop there.  Paul also says in the context of the generosity of the Philippians church:
“My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (4:19)

Of course, here the secret is separating “need” from “want” and learning that God’s supply for us is born of our commitment to being generous.  The entire Philippians letter is a “thank you” (our stewardship campaign last year) to a generous church family who even from a foundation of want blessed others with their generosity.

I am continually amazed at the generosity of the First Methodist family, generosity revealed in many ways ever day.  Generosity and trusting Christ is the secret when anxiety-producing news comes out of Washington, Wall Street and wherever it comes from.

Thoughts on defining a miracle

Miracle — A true miracle is an event in the eternal world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God. (Bible Encyclopedia)

“The Miracle on the Hudson,” most of us remember this as the safe landing of a jet on the Hudson flown by Captain Sullenberger just a few years ago.  After birds hit the engines, the plane landed safely, and all passengers on board walked away.  Many have said Captain Sullenberger is a hero.  He sure is a good pilot.

“The Miracle on Ice” is the story of the U.S. hockey team where a group of mixed and matched college hockey players faced a professional Russian hockey team in 1980 and won in an amazing fashion in that year’s winter Olympics.  Even non-hockey fans cheered during this cold war face off.

“The Miracle on 34th Street” is a movie that came out in 1947 starring Natalie Wood that centers on the character of Santa Claus.  It is still a classic Christmas story today that may celebrate the innocence of a child as much as the idea of Santa.

Miracle — Anything God does!

To me this means that the very fact you are reading this Thought for the Week is a testimony to God’s miracles in the world and in your life, a testimony to God’s faithfulness, whether it be the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of Christ from the dead, the healing of the man at the gate called beautiful or the many acts of mercy we each experience in our world and in our lives day by day.  I can’t tell my story without telling of miracles, even if I don’t recognize them as miracles because God is always at work, sometimes in a very obvious event, but more likely in events that have become so common and routine that we miss that they are acts of God’s faithfulness in our lives.

After the people of God crossed the Red Sea — maybe the most obvious and celebrated miracle in the Old Testament — they entered a desert, quickly forgot the miracle, clamored for better food and a trip back to Egypt and slaver, which sometimes looked better from their perspective.  But even still, God was faithful.  God gave them everything they needed to make it to the Promised Land, sometimes more, but never less!  And so, God will do for all those who trust Him!

As Paul said on Mars’ Hill, Acts 17:27, “In God we live and move and have our being!”

Anything God does is a miracle.

Thoughts on Miracles

Miracle — An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.  (Miriam-Webster Dictionary)

There is more than one powerful connotation about our God Is Big Enough emphasis.  Almost daily I hear stories of how this truth and the visible picture of it through the blue wristband brings hope and faith into multiple situations — at the loss of a loved one, in a hospital room, a police car, an Afghanistan desert, a child dealing with divorce, during a struggle with cancer, in a chapel at a funeral home — the stories go on an on and continue to expand through many other churches.  It speaks of a truth that we need desperately, that there is a God and that that God is big enough.  The foundation of the campaign is that God still intervenes in human affairs and that miracles happen.  We are not alone, defenseless and helpless as we deal with the many limitations of our human nature.

If the first truth is that God is big enough, it is based upon an equally important truth, that you and I are not big enough. “God is big enough, and I am not” is the place where faith is at work, where miracles happen, where life changes, where God is often known and experienced most clearly!

I think sometimes it is easier for us to think that God is big enough than to really deal with the truth that we are not.

We are often surprised when we are ambushed by an illness.  It is difficult for us when someone we care about dies.  When our life hits a wall unexpectedly — job loss, financial problems, health issues, relationship difficulties, even a flat tire or a broken air conditioner — we easily get frustrated.  We can’t believe this could be happening to us, yet it is a part of the human condition, a condition where we are not big enough but God is, a God who loves us as deeply as the cross His Son died on for us, an unmistakable fact of God’s love, an act followed by an equally unmistakable moment of God’s power, the resurrection.  We sin, God gives salvation.  We die, and God raises the dead.  God is big enough, and we are not.  This is faith, this is where miracles happen!

Jesus said, “In this world you will have problems (tribulation), but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!” John 16:33

1 Peter 4:12 records similar words, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”

The next few weeks our emphasis will be Miracles!  Do miracles still happen?  What is a miracle?  Does God still exercise “divine intervention” in my life, my family, my church, my world?  I think that God does!

God Is Big Enough, and we are not — the place where miracles unfold!