nakedpastor

This is an up and coming band from the Halifax area in Nova Scotia Canada. One of them, Aaron Ewer, a friend of mine, is married to a friend of mine who is a daughter of another friend of mine who is a Vineyard pastor too (uh, figure that out!). Anyway, they’ve just come out with a cd. It’s got some really good stuff on it. The one I chose to stream for you today may not be their favorite, but it’s mine. Here’s the deal: just make any kind of comment on this post, any kind at all, and your name will be entered into a draw to win their brand new cd, “Something in the Sky”. The contest closes Sunday midnight Atlantic Time. I’ll announce the winner Monday and the cd will be shipped out to the winner anywhere in the world! Good luck and have fun. You can check out their official website HERE.

MP3 File

I’m thankful for my community that I’m a part of. It is sometimes exciting, sometimes boring, sometimes calm, sometimes tumultuous, sometimes religious, sometimes sinful, sometimes uniform, sometimes incredibly diverse. In any case, it is my community. I’m a part of it. I have friends I love and who love me. We are bound together somehow. And even though we individually go through seasons where we feel disconnected, alienated and isolated, when we come to our senses we know that our friends, who really want to be loyal and true, are always there. I’m thankful that as the cold weather stakes its claim, people are planning parties. We have one coming up tomorrow night. It’s a time when we can come out of our holes of loneliness and gather in a warm room of love. Here’s a small painting I did yesterday. I call it Northern Friends. It’s available in an eBay auction HERE.

So yesterday I made some suggestions that the community shouldn’t assume when it has pleased the Lord. Like I said, I think this can be a fatal mistake. This has always been the problem of humanity and the problem with the church. We do something, it seems to work, so we bottle it to use again in the future. We even sell it if we can. Not long ago Willow Creek made the public confession that their high-profile and lucrative approach wasn’t working. Read about it here. Back to the drawing board! But I say, “What about the thousands of churches who modeled themselves after you? What are they supposed to do?” I suggest that going back to the drawing board only recreates the same problem. We can’t know how we are going to please the Lord tomorrow, and we can’t assume that we are now. Humility, I think, is being who you are now… nothing more (that’s pride and arrogance) and nothing less (that’s false humility, another kind of pride). God isn’t impressed with our deeds. Especially when we are and we think he is. We could worship our faces off, but our hearts could be far from him. We could give to the poor, and neglect Jesus as Mary refused to do in spite of vocal opposition from the men in the room. We could serve until our hands bleed but not be at the feet of Jesus, as Martha was. We could cast out demons, prophesy and heal and be complete strangers to him. We could do coffee houses for Darfur, feed a few people and please ourselves with a job well done but be far away from the one thing that he requires. Do you know what I mean? Of course, we could do none of these things and think we have a contemplative intercessory ministry and be completely in the dark too. I refuse to be impressed with our shows, even when they seem to promise to produce fruit. Judgement on the last day will expose what was true and what was not. The truth is, as eloquent as my lips might be, in the end my heart is what needs surgery. Anyway, enough for now. No pic. Sorry.

I appreciate everyone’s comments on yesterday’s post about the Coffee House raising money for Darfur. I am very proud of the young people who put it on and the people who gave towards this important issue. I always try to be cautious though about using language such as, “Now you guys have got it right! You are on the right track! This is what it is all about! Now you are truly living meaningfully!” It is so tempting to think that this is the church at its best. And I am tempted to say such things. But in fact it can possibly be the church at its worst!

Always in the back of my mind is the story of those who found themselves before the Lord on the last day. They’d done it all right: used the Lord’s name to cast out demons, prophesied, and did all kinds of amazing things. But the Lord never knew them. Those who only gave water to the thirsty and fed the hungry and clothed the naked and visited prisoners were welcomed. Both parties were shocked. The former were surprised because they were so intentional and missional about their faith. The later were surprised because they weren’t at all intentional with faith. The former did religious things but were disconnected from the Lord. The later were connected and didn’t know it while doing non-religious acts. Go figure! In fact, the root is assumption: if you assume you’re in, you’re out. If you assume your out, you’re in. Perhaps it goes something like that. So, ya, the coffee house was a success. But I dare not say that what we did pleased the Lord. We can’t know. We must do what we know must be done. We must do the right thing at the time. When presented with injustice, we do the just thing. But it can be a giant and fatal leap to assume that this makes us right with God.

The fine art photograph is the creation of my friend Mark Hemmings. It is a shot of a Ballet theater he saw in Hungary. Something devilish about that character? Watch out! That’s what I’m trying to tell ya!

On Friday night, one of our young adults Andrew Falk (pictured first directly below) with the help of friends and the use of our building, put on a coffee-house. All the funds raised… close to $1,000… is going to the Red Cross in Darfur. It did my heart good to see him pull this off. I never suggested it, nor did anyone else. He felt called to do this all on his own, and with some helped pulled off an incredible night. There was some wonderful tunes. Another young man of our community, Kurt, who is a DJ, did his tables that night. It even inspired some dancing. There was a rotating slide educational slide-show on the Darfur tragedy. Food was available… all the proceeds from this was towards Darfur also. Anyway, it was just an incredible night. We are now talking about doing this once a month.