nakedpastor

1. pay them rent (you live in their house & your money’s theirs)
2. let them tuck you in at night (you’re old)
3. ask when you can use the car (they have a life)
4. study cross-cultural communications (they’re aliens)
5. learn how to bend laws (there are no rules)
6. buy noise-canceling headphones (what’s a decibel?)
7. become skilled in the art of rebuttal (they’re lawyers-in-training)
8. practice speaking in a vacuum (no one’s listening)
9. take yoga (you’re going to be stretched)
10.love unconditionally (they demand it AND need it)

I came up with this “how to” list because, well, I live with teenagers. Lisa and I have Joshua, 19; Jesse, 17; and Casile, 14; and they are wonderful people who have blessed our lives, and we thank God for them. So the list is obviously tongue-in-cheek. I also composed this list because I’m entering a “how to” contest that Darren Rowse is staging over at Problogger. Check it out for other entries.

I’ve been loaned a book by a good friend of mine called The Laughing Jesus, written by both Timothy Freke, a philosopher and international public speaker “exploring gnosis”; and Peter Gandy, an “internationally respected authority on the ancient Pagan Mysteries and early Christianity” (back jacket flap). Although I agree with my critics that I should wait until I’ve read the book in total before critiquing it, I must agree with others that it is totally allowable to critique it along the way.

I already have major problems just from reading the first pages. Example:
“But the original Christians didn’t see Jesus as an historical man who ‘suffered for our sins’. They viewed Jesus as the mythical hero of a symbolic teaching story, which represents the spiritual journey leading to the experience of awakening they called ‘gnosis’, or ‘knowing’” (p. 4).

Not that I don’t believe we need to critically examine our assumptions, traditions and beliefs we’ve inherited from the past. But I hope they spend considerable time and effort to prove that! It’s a huge, sweeping statement that flies in the face of centuries of research, study, and writing. I recognize the recurring and growing influence of gnosticism, so I feel it is urgent for me to read and understand these guys, their books, and their influence. Let’s see what happens, so stay tuned!

Hannah Grant, one of the young people from our church (Rothesay Vineyard) is back to visit us for a little while. She spoke at our church this morning and did an incredible job. She’s been working with Youth With A Mission for years now, and has risen to the level of instructor. She as been to Nepal on missions trips, as well as China and southeast Asia. She and her fiance Nick, after they are married in March, will begin to develop a training center in Indonesia next year. She plans to teach English as a second language and he will provide water-purification services while they live in that region. I just want to say that she, and what she had to say, was an incredible inspiration to our congregation today. It was a pivotal moment, the ramifications of which we’ll see and enjoy for a long time to come. Thanks Hannah!

This painting of mine was used by Roger Faught, a graphic artist, to make up a poster of a band called ShineBriter. Thanks for the compliment guys!

So yesterday I finally completed and sent in my firearms license, all in order to legally “possess and/or acquire firearms or purchase ammunition”. Which is important in Canada if you want to hunt, which I do. I also fish, but you don’t need firearms for that (at least where I come from). What has this to do with thinking about the church, you might ask? Well, when I was filling in the application, it asked if I had been recently divorced, bankrupt, or depressed. My first thought was “profiling!” But on second thought, I thought, “Gee, maybe I shouldn’t own a firearm!” Lisa confirmed my suspicions when I mentioned these criteria to her. She asked if there was a check box for “nearly”. I said, no, just yes or no!

Upon which we decided to take a mini vacation to St. Martins. We spent the afternoon walking and lying on the beach. We just enjoyed the warm air and fragrant breezes from the ocean. We talked. Talked some more. Then we joined three other couples for a fantastic meal of fish and chips and wine and engaging conversation. We came back home renewed. Being in ministry for the past while has been exhausting and costly in terms of our personal health and general wellbeing. Mix that in with raising teenagers and you have someone who maybe shouldn’t own a weapon.

I hope to be okay by hunting season.

I finished Jack Good’s book, The Dishonest Church. It was an okay read. I clearly don’t agree with everything he says. But the basic issue he has is that pastors are not being honest with their churches. In his case, he thinks that if they don’t believe in, say, the divinity of Jesus, then they should be honest and preach that from their pulpits. Good is convinced that the congregation may appreciate the honesty, probably admit that’s what they believe themselves anyway, and everyone will be happy… except those who do believe in the divinity of Jesus.

I agree with Good that preachers should be honest. I disagree with the tack Good takes after that. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:2 says:
“We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.”
Paul insists on honesty. As Chambers says today, in reference to the same verse he translates as, “Not walking in craftiness…”:
“…that is, resorting to what will carry your point. This is a great snare.”

Good starts with the human mind’s conclusions based on experience, selected research, and hunches, and then canonizes which scriptures support these conclusions and rejects the rest. Paul went the other way, rigorously pressing God’s word upon the human mind and its conclusions. It is one thing to be honest with ourselves. But what if we ourselves are crooked, confused, and wrong? Paul asks: are we honest in light of God’s word? If we are honestly falsifying God’s word, then is that honesty or craftiness? That’s a totally different question.

This morning about 10 young mothers came in with their children to hang out in our newly updated toddler room. They brought snacks and I put on some coffee. Not generic stuff, but quality stuff made by Randy and Glenn, a couple of local guys with a successful coffee business in town called Java Moose. Only two of the moms come to our church. The others loved it, and we agreed that they could use the room at their discretion. They appreciate it. We’ll see them again next week. I stayed and had coffee with them until they started talking about, well, mom stuff. It was fun, relaxing, and cool to meet new and interesting people. I went back into my study and buried my head in a book of theology.

Anyway, check this out:

I painted this acrylic on canvas (10″x14″) this week. I like it. It’s on auction on ebay. CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT! Or you can just click on the ebay icon to the right! Make a comment on what you think of this painting.

Stay tuned on some of my thoughts about what I’m reading.

Congratulations REX! You won the mug:

You’re very wise comment, “WOOF!”, paid off. Next time, try to limit your words It will be delivered to your door. Stay tuned for the next contest when the mug will have an original piece of my art assigned to it. Stay tuned for today’s post later.

Okay, last chance to enter the contest simply by making a comment. Enter the draw now for a mug. Go to this post and make a comment and win the mug!

One of the things I’ve come to discover over the last several years of serving the church is that theology is at the root of our actions. Bad theology can lead to bad actions. Good theology can lead to good ones. I’m generalizing of course, because we all know that no matter how right our thinking may be, we still make mistakes. However, I’m quite certain that if we examine something that went terribly wrong, we will usually if not always find erroneous theology at the root of it. There have been several times when I have had to totally scrap a certain way of thinking because it manifested itself in bad actions. Same as our church! We’ve had some pretty whopping bad things happen, sending us to our microscopes to examine our inner life and thoughts to discern where the problem started.

Theologian Karl Barth had a similar experience. He experienced a “black day” in August 1914 when 93 of Germany’s foremost intellectuals and theologians, including his formerly revered teachers, signed support for the Kaiser’s war efforts. Barth says:
“Amazed by their attitude, I realized that I could no longer follow their ethics and dogmatics, or their understanding of the Bible and history, and that the theology of the nineteenth century no longer had any future for me.”

If only we had the wisdom to recognize empty theology when we see it! If only we had the courage to abandon it when we do!