A taillight or a headlight?

I have been pondering this week about what would've happened if John Wesley and Martin Luther King, Jr. had met.

Granted, they lived in different centuries and different countries. But as I have been reading Rev. Dr. King this week after reading so much Wesley last week, I wonder if anyone has ever looked closely at their writings and work together. (If you are reading this and know of anything related, please let me know!)

Rev. Dr. King gives me that same feeling of heartburn that I blogged about last Friday. His words make me shake my head and respond out loud. I've had a tough time trying to pick small tidbits to share daily with my bible study group, because I feel like entire paragraphs and pages are necessary and soul shaking. And I've written about three blog drafts in the last week that I have then saved instead of posting, because I can't seem to express this feeling I have when I read Rev. Dr. King's work.

I think that my favorite document by Rev. Dr. King is the Letter from Birmingham City Jail. One reason I love it is because he speaks so explicitly to the church, to people who claim to follow Jesus Christ. It seems that the life of discipleship is the heart of much of King's work, but this letter writes it plainly, sharp and simple as an arrow.

This is the passage I highlighted today for my bible study group, and it is such a great text to have soaking in our heads on Sunday:

"In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern” and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.

So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a taillight behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice."

-Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Have we learned anything since Rev. Dr. King wrote these painfully true words? Are we spouting the same old "pious irrelevancies" while people are struggling and dying in front of our eyes? Is the church today a taillight or a headlight?

Triflers and the trivial

"Do nothing on which you cannot pray for a blessing. Every action of a Christian that is good is sanctified by the Word and prayer. It becomes not a Christian to do anything so trivial that he cannot pray over it."

-Random John Wesley quote (meaning, I don't know where it's from)

“May it not be one of the consequences of this, that so many of you are a generation of triflers; triflers with God, with one another, and with your own souls?”

-Sermon 4 “Scriptural Christianity” (1744)

A generation of triflers; ouch.

I read this last week while I was preparing to preach and while I didn't bring in up from the pulpit, it has been stuck in my head ever since. John Wesley was definitely not a man who wasted time on anything that he considered trivial. He was a man driven by urgency, the urgency of the gospel.

We talked about this last week as we discussed the Gospel of Mark as a whole. The word "immediately" is characteristic in Mark, occurring over and over again, and this makes the gospel feel urgent, pressing.

I wonder if we truly grasp the urgency of the gospel, the drive that God has to make all things new, the overwhelming passion of God to complete the work that God has begun in us and in the world that God has created.

There are many days that I look back and think, where did the day go? How is it 5:00 already? or 11:00 already? What have I been doing? And I wonder if I am really using the time that God has blessed me with to the greatest extent that it can be used.

I know this: I do not want to be a part of a generation of triflers. I don't want to waste my time on the unimportant, the petty arguments, the pointless discussions. I don't want to waste my time surfing the web or channel surfing. There is no time to waste! If I can't pray for God's blessing in it, maybe I shouldn't do it, no matter how small it is.

What would it be to live like this?

Heartburn: A Side Effect of Methodism

No, I'm not just referring to the abundance of food in a Methodist gathering and the sluggish way you might feel when you waddle home afterwards.

I'm talking about the burning deep down in my heart that I get when I read, well, just about anything of John Wesley's.

I have been reading a good deal of John Wesley here recently, catching up on a some books that I have owned for a few years but haven't read. This inspired me to term our Wednesday worship services in the month of August "Wesley Wednesdays" because the burn that I felt as I read some of Wesley's work could not help but get expressed in the sermons that I preached. A combination of John Wesley's sermons and the book of James...that's enough to light you on fire!

I have also recently been working on the Bible study that I am designing for my ordination application. I have chosen, between the options of Mark and Job, to teach from Mark and to focus on the Way of Discipleship. As I have been working on this, praying about it and immersing myself in preparation, I had a thought that felt particularly inspired. Since we are talking about discipleship, what if we also heard from folks who lived their discipleship in powerful ways over the years, not just disciples from the biblical witness but those who have lived the faith since then?

I looked at my outline, nine weeks worth of Markan texts teaching about and calling forth discipleship, and started brainstorming about nine disciples whose life embodied or embodies this radical kingdom lifestyle. I will say, shaking my head, that I never cease to be amazed at the way that God works, and how beautifully everything comes together for God's glory!

So everyday, I am emailing the Bible study group with quotes from the weekly disciple. The week's quotes are particularly focused on the texts that we will discuss at the end of the week and they all express discipleship in the person's context.

Week one, of course (you all knew this was coming!) is John Wesley.

And we are back where we are started: heartburn. This week I have been combing through his sermons, journal entries, and notes about him to pull out tidbits and quotes for my class, none of whom have studied or read much of Wesley's works.

I get drawn in to this work and find it hard to stop. I read his sermons and shake my head, reading parts out loud and saying things like, "preach!" or "well." I just can't help myself. The Spirit of God continues to move in his words even today, over 300 years later. My heart burns within me as I read the challenging words that he spoke to people in his sermons and then instructed his lay preachers to preach as they rode their circuits.

It wasn't an easy word then, and it isn't an easy word now. I was reminded today as I read through his journal entries in May 1738 how often he was asked never to come back after he preached in a church, especially in well established, significant churches. Over and over again he writes about how he preached in such and such church and then was asked never to return. So the next day, he did the same thing. And then the next day. And then the next. The establishment wasn't too crazy about him. And this is particularly interesting because for his whole life and ministry he worked against the notion of starting a new church. He had no desire to split from the Church of England, but rather, he called people to faithful discipleship within the church, even while he was eventually willing to preach in fields and marketplaces to people who the established church did not reach.

I could go on and on, but perhaps I will save the rest of my heartburn for another blog.

And stay tuned for nine weeks worth of interacting with a few of the men and women who have inspired me and many others over the centuries in the way of discipleship.

Palpable Pain

Since moving to the Shenandoah valley, I have become a Shakespeare junkie.  

Shakespeare had never really been my thing, until I found myself living 20 minutes away from the Blackfriars Playhouse, the world's only recreation of Shakespeare's indoor theater. I went to see The Christmas Carol, which they perform every year in December, but my world wasn't rocked until I saw Cyrano de Bergerac in May. Ever since then, I find myself drawn to this theater whenever I have a free night.

The acting is outstanding and I often find myself moved to hysterical laughter or gut wrenching tears, sometimes in the same show. Shakespeare didn't write his plays to be read in classrooms, he wrote them to be performed on stage, and I think it is impossible to approach understanding of his brilliance until you have seen his work incarnate.

This afternoon I attended a performance of Titus Andronicus, which is said to be Shakespeare's bloodiest, most violence work and is very rarely performed. The feeling I sat with throughout the entire show was: pain. Gut-wrenching, want to tear your heart out pain. The pain was palpable on the stage and even in the audience, where all of us were affected by the depth of grief, hatred, and evil that almost every character exuded.

Theater is a powerful medium because unlike film, a theater goer is a participant, a part of the story that is being told. It is very difficult to remain aloof or apart from live performance, especially at the Blackfriars, where the actors intentionally draw the audience in and make us part of the play's world.

So I walk away from the theater today feeling a deep sense of loss and grief in the pit of my stomach. Having witnessed the evil that comes from revenge, which is the basic plot of this play. Having seen the ways that cycles of violence only beget more violence, pain, and destruction. To think that this entire tragedy might have been stopped by the forgiveness, the pardon of Titus at the very beginning. And yet, Titus found it necessary to uphold the practice of retributive justice, let the punishment fit the crime.

I will not come to see this show again, though it was brilliant. I don't think my heart could take it. I come away with my heart broken by the way that a lack of forgiveness can give birth to pain and destruction beyond compare, without end.

May we learn to forgive.

My Call to Ministry

If you would've told me five years ago that I would be pastoring a church, I would have laughed. But much of my life is like that, unexpected in the way that grace often is.

I always have a hard time with this question, because my understanding of call goes back to the very beginning of my Christian story. Or maybe that is just very Methodist, since we believe that all bapized Christians are called to ministry.

I was baptized as an infant at Kingsway United Methodist Church in Springfield, MO. My parents, however, were not really into church, so with a couple of exceptions, I was unchurched as a child. I had my awakening to faith when I went to camp the summer before 6th grade, and when I came home from camp, I immediately got involved in the church.

We moved to Virginia when I was a sophomore in high school, which was traumatic but a blessing. As I started to look at colleges, my main focus was the physical therapy program. I knew that whatever I did as an occupation, it would be ministry because of the way that I did it. I felt compelled to help people learn how to walk again, after accidents and injuries, and I figured that I would work in clinics and lower income settings so that I could be in mission.

As I worked my way through college, however, I was miserable with my path. Cellular biology was the turning point; or, at least, that semester was, the spring of my sophmore year. I had a hard time believing that I would be so miserable if I were really following my call. I took one class that year in the religious studies department: Black Religion with Dr. Mark Wood. I loved it! Essays and not scantrons! Reading and interacting with the texts and my classmates! It was like coming up for air if you are drowning.

I began to really discern whether I was going in the right direction. I was active in leadership at my home church as well as the Baptist Student Union on campus. I loved this one class. And yet, in my other science classes and volunteer work in the hospital, I was miserable. I talked with my campus minister, Bill Berry, who had no doubts about my call to some kind of ministry. And I signed up to go on the study abroad trip with Dr. Wood to Havana, Cuba.

The two weeks in Cuba changed my life. When I got on the plane to come back to Virginia I knew two things: 1. I was going to come back to Cuba, and 2. I was not going to be a physical therapist. It's funny to look back on this, because this was not a "mission trip," not a churchy trip at all. But I felt God's presence so strongly in Havana, and I heard God speaking so clearly through the scripture I was reading.

When I returned to school, I changed my major to religious studies. I felt called to be a missionary, to work with people in Latin America or specifically in Cuba as we struggled to be the people of God in the world. After I graduated, I went to Guatemala to study Spanish, knowing that I needed to be fluent for my call, and then to Wesley Seminary. I felt the need to be ordained, though I did not plan on being a pastor.

My sense of call was further refined in seminary when I went to First United Methodist Church in Hyattsville to serve as a pastoral intern. I had never even considered the possibility of being a pastor. And yet, as I served at this amazing church, I discovered gifts that I never knew I had. It was another awakening experience, another great surprise of grace.

When I worked at the hospital in Washington D.C., I told this story to one of my colleagues and she said: "You are just like St. Francis!" St. Francis of Assisi heard God's call to "build my church" and thought that God meant that literally. So St. Francis found a broken down church and began to rebuild it. He later realized that God meant for him to rebuild the whole of the church, not the physical building. I heard God's call to help people learn how to walk, and so I began a path toward physical therapy. It wasn't until later that I realized God was calling me to help people walk in a much different sense, as disciples.

My call story is long because God has transformed me along the way, refining, polishing, and sometimes scrubbing with microbeads. And I don't feel like it is finished. In many ways, I continue to seek God's call everyday and to discern where and how God wants me to serve in ministry.

I do know one thing for sure, I am here only by the grace of God. I am constantly amazed that God would bring me here, that God would care so much for me as to call me to serve and to provide for me throughout my journey. I echo Paul's sentiments, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and God's grace toward me has not been in vain" (1 Corinthians15:10).

Biblical Personality

One of the last days that we were in Brazil, Mario asked me if I would give him my Bible.

The Bible he was referring to is a pocket-sized NRSV that I have travelled with for probably 10 years. The feature I loved most about this Bible was that it had a zipper, so that the pages didn't get creased or bent in my suitcase or backpack, and it also allowed me to keep all sorts of mementos inside.

Of course, I told Mario I would give him my Bible when we left, so the night before our departure, I cleaned out all of the clippings from this Bible. I had a ticket from last year's mission when we rode up the train to visit the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio de Janeiro. I had my nametag from the event that I attended on the border in Mexico. I had a creased song sheet from back in the day when we led music at Frank Pais camp in Havana. I had a bulletin from my grandfather's funeral. I had a note from a young girl in Cuba. I had a boarding pass from Miami. I had a sheet of star stickers from who knows when. But I left a mark on the Bible, the masking tape nametag from last year's trip to Brazil, afixed on the outside leather.

In my experience, every Bible has a personality. I have a rose colored NIV that is terribly beat up, full of different colored underlining and dates that I read certain passages. I got that Bible when I was in sixth grade, right after I had an awakening experience to faith and committed myself to follow Jesus Christ, and I used it up until I graduated from high school. When I went to college, I got a hardback RSV, and my campus minister commented that this meant I was going to seminary, because that was the version all the seminarians read. I laughed at him; I wasn't going to seminary. When I was in seminary (who is laughing now?) I bought a cheap paperback NRSV, which is what I currently have beside my bed. It is absolutely falling apart; everything after Acts has become unbound and falls out if I'm not careful. (Side note: this is a great way to learn the order of the books in the New Testament!) I have written all over it, questions, dates, connections, themes.

It is sad to me when I think that many people's Bibles don't have a lot of personality because they are not used. You might not be as tough on your Bible as I am, but is there evidence that you have read it, studied it, grappled with it, been challenged by it or changed by it? Of does it still look nice and pretty, up on the shelf collecting dust or safely protected from wear?

When I gave my Bible to Mario he asked me, what is the first passage I should read? Good question. (And may I add, that this is a young man who recently turned 18). After a moment, I said decisively: Isaiah 43.

"But now this says the LORD,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and through the rivers,

they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through the fire

you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

Talk about personality.

Use it or Lose it

It was a tough week at the gym last week.

Those who know me well know that I am a gym rat. I'm at the gym at least 5 but usually 6 days a week. It's what keeps me sane and gives me stress relief. I'm a big fan of group exercise, because I have found that I push myself much harder when I am surrounded by others. I take zumba, which is a dance workout that is latin based, but my latest love is body combat, a rockin' kickboxing, martial arts class. It is hard core, emphasis on the word hard, and a fantastic workout.

But then I went away for about three weeks, to Brazil on a mission team, to Blackstone for a residency event, and to Richmond for my brother's wedding.

Hence, last week, my first week at the gym in three weeks, was a tough week.

I'm always amazed at how quickly one can lose the edge. I've been building up stamina for months, working hard and pushing myself, and after three weeks away I feel like I'm back at square 2. It was all I could do to keep up for the whole class, and boy have I felt it in my back, arms, and legs!

I think this rings true about the most important things in life: when we step away from them, even for a short time, we rapidly lose the ground that we have spent months building up.

The spiritual life is definitely this way. John Wesley would call this backsliding, when we get lazy or busy and neglect the spiritual disciplines, when we neglect our relationship with God and the way that this relationship intentionally calls us into relationship with others, when we lose our focus on God's will and call for our lives we start sliding back. And unfortunately, we all know that it's easier to slide down the hill than it is to climb back up.

Summer, while it is fun and spontaneous and unstructured, seems to be time rife with backsliding. There are so many other things to do, that worship takes a backseat to going out of town or "enjoying" the day off (a strange and un-Christian understanding of sabbath). We don't offer any Bible studies at the church, instead we take a break. And I would hazard a guess that many of us often take a break from the personal, spiritual disciplines that we practice as well.

But following Jesus Christ is an everyday commitment, with no breaks and no holidays (though there are holy-days). It takes focus and determination. It takes reordering of priorities and quite honestly, the reordering of life. It takes our response: to God's call, God's initiative, God's grace. It takes practice, which is one of the reasons why we work on spiritual disciplines. It necessitates community, to keep us accountable and to surround us with encouragement (again, it's all about group classes!)

May God keep us focused so that we can continue to press on toward the goal!

VBS fun

At this moment, we have finished Day 4 of Vacation Bible School, and I can already feel the weariness setting in. Day 4 is a tough day, because by this point in time, all of the kids are tired and cranky, since many of them are staying up later than usual to come to VBS. They are also feeling more comfortable and bold, which is both a positive and a negative. It's positive in that they are singing the songs with confidence and dancing freely. It's negative in that they get a little too free and push the limits, every limit they can possibly push.

But VBS is so wonderful!

Tonight, I had a little girl, I would guess 5 years old, come stand next to me and tell me, "I love Jesus" in the same kind of way she would say "I love my mom."

Then a little boy who is 7 said, "Pastor Kristin, aren't you going to stand up and dance?" And so of course, I stood next to him and he became my dance partner.

A teacher told me about her niece, who heard someone mention Brazil on the radio today and said, "Hey, that's where those kids live!" (We have been talking about the kids in Brazil every night because our VBS offering is going to the Shade and Fresh Water Project.)

All of these little moments, strung together, make the chaos all worth it. What a blessing!

On God's Mission to Brazil

Well, it has been a wild and crazy week because I have been preparing to leave tomorrow with a mission team from my church to Fortaleza, Brazil. We went to Fortaleza last year for the first time and were very blessed to connect with the brothers and sisters at Aerolandia Methodist Church. When we returned home, we felt God leading us to develop a partnership with this particular congregation, so here we go, returning one year later.

It is a really fun team this year, with 6 people returning from last year's team and 5 new folks. What a great mix! We have been sending facebook messages with the young people at Aerolandia for the last few months, and everyone is eager to see each other face to face. There's nothing like returning to friends after being away.

There's a good chance I will not be blogging on my personal blog, because we will be keeping a team blog while we are there. I invite you to check it out> www.calvaryinbrazil.blogspot.com. We will be updating everyday with stories from Brazil and photos of friends and activities.

Like I said, I have been running and running trying to get everything together and done in the last week. I can't wait to get on that airplane!

Feeling thankful

Last night I had one of those moments of deep gratitude.

I was at the men's church softball game, where our team was playing the Baptists. Friendship Field is the name of the field where the men's and women's softball teams play here in Stuarts Draft, and it is THE place to be on just about any evening in the summertime. Friendship field is actually in the middle of a vineyard; think "Field of Dreams" and replace the corn with grapes.

Softball games are a staple of small town life. I sat over on the Calvary side with several of the wives and children of the players. The smaller kids were all playing in a big pile of sand by the scoreboard, burying a beetle and filling up a huge pixie stick with sand, then mischeviously asking us if we wanted some candy. There were at least eight or nine folks with dogs, both big and small, who were also socializing here and there. The bleachers were packed last night with people watching the game and talking about life.

It was the perfect night for softball; hard to believe that the next day was the beginning of July. There was a delicious breeze in the air, and I actually wished that I had brought a jacket with me. The game started at 8:00, so we watched the sun go down over the outfield. The sunset painted the sky various shades of pink, yellow, and blue.

It turned out to be a great game, and our team won. As I walked to my car, parked by Row 4 of grapes, I stopped for a minute and looked out at the mountains, dark blue in the twilight, and the crescent moon just above the skyline. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude, for that particular moment in time, for the beauty that was so incredible. What a blessing it is to witness and be moved by beauty. Thanks be to God!

The Master Gardener

Yesterday I finally got around to trimming the bushes that had overgrown and were taking over my back porch. I have a love/hate relationship with yard work. I put it off as long as possible and have a hard time getting motivated to do it, and yet, once I start playing in the dirt and clipping away at the bushes, something deep inside of me feels calm and peaceful. I know with my bones that sitting on the earth is good for the being.

I think I spent a good hour cutting back the two bushes, and it was quite dark by the time I finished. As I clipped, I couldn't help but think about the theolocial significance of pruning. In John 15, Jesus talks with the disciples about God's pruning task. Jesus is the vine and the Father is the vinegrower, the Master Gardener if you will. We are the branches that are to abide in the vine, and the Master Gardener prunes such branches so that they will bear fruit.

I thought about all of this as I trimmed away. My bushes were completely out of control. They were wild and crazy, taking over the deck, pushing away the other flowers. They looked terrible and uncared for. I spent a long time trimming them (I am NOT a master gardener), trying to get them balanced, healthy, ordered, and beautiful. When I finished, they looked great!

The tendency I also have to watch, however, is over-trimming. Anyone who has ever gotten a bad haircut will tell you that at a certain point, you are cutting away too much and doing more damage than good. When you cut away too much of a bush or a plant, it looks bare and ugly.

I do believe that God continues to prune us, to cut away at things that are unhealthy, unnecessary, unruly in our lives. Spiritual disciplines are a way that God does this. As we spend time in prayer, fasting, worship, tithing, and as we spend time with the poor, we begin to notice things in our lives that are at best distractions and at worst, unhealthy addictions. We notice that we spend more time watching television than gathering with the body of Christ to worship. We notice that we spend more time on the internet than interacting with our families. We notice that our thoughts are consumed with gain, with money, with possessions, with stuff, with guarding what we have and getting more of it instead of giving freely and living simply.

And then of course, there is Scripture. As I used the big clippers, I couldn't help but think about the Word of God being a double-edged sword, and how great that sword would be at pruning! As we read the story of who God is, what God has done/is doing/will do, and what we are to do about it, it is like holding up a mirror to our own lives. Yeah, I think that Scipture is probably even better than the very cool electric bush clipper that someone let me borrow last year!

What needs to be trimmed away? What needs to be seriously cut back?

At the end of the night, I felt satisfied with my work. I imagine that God probably enjoys the gardening work; that God enjoys ordering our lives, giving us healthy discipline in which we can find freedom, creativity, and life. I am sure that God loves to see our beauty as we are shaped into the magnificent creation that we are intended to be.

A few of my favorite things (audiobooks)

As promised, here are my favorite books on cd/readers:

1. The Harry Potter series read by Jim Dale.
First of all, if you are going to listen to Harry Potter, the reader has to have a British accent. Secondly, I am amazed that all of the characters are read by this one man, because each one has a very distinctive voice without being cheesy. The man is brilliant, and of course, the books are as well.

2. Ilyana Kadushin (reader)
The quality of her voice is breathtaking. I encountered her for the first time in The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which was pretty good. She also narrates the entire Twilight series, which I found delightful, and I enjoyed her reading much more than the movie.

3. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier
I love to listen to books read by the author, and this is my favorite in that category. Sidney Poitier, in addition to having a wonderful voice, reads his book as if he were sitting on a porch with you telling you these stories firsthand. He even chuckles here and there. He is truly an amazing man.

4. Dreams From my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Another book beautifully read by the author. Yes, I could listen to him read the phone book.

5. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Read by the author...hmm, I'm seeing a trend. I read this several years ago when it came out and was very moved. I was moved again in listening to the author tell this powerful story of redemption. I also like to hear the author pronounce the places, names, and words that I do not know how to pronounce correctly.

6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, and Steven L. Hopp
I have been on a food craze recently, reading lots of books on the food industry and such, and I enjoyed this book immensly because it is a more narrative form that still contains good information. It is also unique because it is written by Barbara Kingsolver's family, and all three authors participate in the reading.

7. The Camel Club by David Baldacci
The author does not read this, but I loved this book. Since I have started to listen to books on cd, I have listened to many of Baldacci's books. This one is my favorite. Baldacci writes conspiracy fiction that is based in Washington D.C., Richmond, and the Charlottesville area. That is my geographical home, so I enjoy reading books that are situated in areas that I know.

I would love to hear about any particular audiobooks or readers that you suggest!

Audio Books

I absolutely love audio books aka "Books on CD." I started listening to books on cd three years ago when I came to Stuarts Draft. I would say that on average, I spend at least an hour a day in my car driving to and from work, the gym, and anywhere else necessary. By the end of my first few months here, I was tired of all of my music, not crazy about the radio stations, and not ready to spend a fortune on new music. Enter: audio books. I discovered that my local library has shelves of books on cd, and it is FREE to check them out! Not only that, but I can use the library website to search for books that I want to read from other libraries in the area and have them sent to my library! It is brilliant!

The wonder of audio books is multi-faceted. I actually love to read but never have enough time to read the books that I currently own, much less new books that are current and trendy. Now, I can "read" books while I'm driving, cooking, or cleaning the house. I have "read" most of the books on the bestseller lists and re-read some of the stories that I loved the first time around.

On a geekier, more ideological level, I believe that it is important to continue developing my aural skills. We are fast becoming, or have already become, a culture that is unable to listen to and tell stories and depends solely on visual media. While I am a very visual person and love visual media, I believe that it is crucial to be able to get wrapped up in a story that someone is reading or telling. This doesn't just happen; it has to be developed.

A word of caution: not all audio books are created equal. Obviously, the reader is a determining factor in whether I will enjoy the book or not. The reader can make or break the whole experience. I will not be able to listen to a great book read by a boring reader, but there are several books that I have listened to when I thought, I could listen to this person read the phone book!

So, watch for my next post: my favorite audio books and readers! And I welcome any recommendations!

A study, not an office

I had many wonderful professors in seminary, and there are many times when I hear their words or phrases echo in my head. One of these phrases that I have been returning to recently was part of a lecture from my Introduction to Preaching class with the outstanding Dr. William McClain. Dr. McClain, being the dynamic preacher that he is, tended to preach rather than lecture. One week he preached about how crucial it is for a pastor to study. He said, "A pastor does NOT have an office, a pastor has a study, and what do you do there? You study!"

I'm sure this looks flat on the computer screen, and I wish that you, the reader, could hear Dr. McClain say this aloud. I'm sure if any of my classmates are reading this, you will remember Dr. McClain's voice proclaiming this maxim.

I confess that at my church, I do not have a study, I have an office. It is a great place for ministry but it is not such a great place to study. The phone is always ringing, there are always people who need something, and before I know it, I have spent two hours troubleshooting without doing anything about the list of things that have to get done.

And yet, I am a pastor who needs to study. Could you imagine going to a doctor who doesn't keep up with new research and technology? Could you imagine a business person who doesn't read market research, journals, and other current materials? Could you imagine a teacher who isn't constantly examining new curriculum, learning new techniques, and reviewing all of the classics?

Pastors do all of these things, or should do all of these things. We are constantly reading, studying, and searching. We are studying scripture and tradition and always discovering new things. We are paying attention to culture and context. We are examining our communities and noting the surrounding trends and shifts. We are learning new technologies, new skills, and new realities that surround us.

And so, I find it necessary to designate a day of the week as my "study day." I like to study in the community, at a coffee shop, at a bookstore, or at the park. I like to be surrounded by people and yet somewhat removed from their conversations. I like to be incognito and yet familiar, when I return to the same place week after week and people learn my name.

Are you studying, learning, growing? How? Where? When? With who?

What a blessing God has given us in the gift of studying!

Wisdom, part two

I can't resist sharing this story after my last post.

Last Sunday during the children's sermon I talked with the children about being a disciple and following Jesus. The previous week, we had discussed Jesus calling Philip, who ran to get his friend Nathanael so that Nathanael could also follow Jesus. This week, Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to follow him, and they drop their fishing nets (they were fishermen) and follow Jesus. Then Jesus sees two more fishermen, James and John, and calls them to follow. These two leave their dad behind with the boat and follow Jesus.

There were three children at the early service as we talked about these things, and one of them called my discussion to a close with a typically profound, child-like statement: "Well, it's easy. We are just supposed to follow Jesus." I didn't have much to say after that.

Could it really be that simple? When Jesus calls, we answer? We follow? We leave behind the things that we are in the middle of and turn our attention toward Jesus?

I think it could be that simple. BUT, I think that most of us are too tied to our things and our lives done our way to let it be that simple. And most of us care too much about what the neighbors would say and what the world would think to respond so simply.

When was the last time that Jesus called you and you dropped everything to follow him?

When was the last time that Jesus called you and you had a really good excuse to stay where you are?

Wise as children

I had a moment this week when I realized that children are possibly and probably the wisest among us.

I was getting an oil change, waiting in the tiny room with the television and several other people. My attention was drawn away from my book to a CNN story on white phosphorus in Gaza. I have been following the recent news about Gaza in horror for the last few days, so the story immediately drew my attention. They were talking about the possibility that Israel is firing white phosphorus into Gaza and the ethical and legal ramifications of this. There was video footage of doctors talking about the severe burns and injuries that they are seeing in this heavily civilian area, and they showed a photo of one man in particular whose face was burned.

There was a child with his father in the waiting room. I would guess that the child is six. He saw the video of the man and he asked his father, "Daddy, what happened to that man's face?" The father looked uncomfortable and said, "He got burned." The child persisted and asked his father, "Why?" The father looked even more uncomfortable, mumbled something, and promptly took the child out of the room.

I was touched by this exchange and the genuine concern of the child. For children, life is not complicated. I don't like him because he smells funny. I don't like her because she won't share her toys with me. Children are brutally honest about what they think but they speak out of love and concern. Why do you have those dark marks under your eyes? Children don't understand when adults act in contrast to the way they proclaim children should act. If I'm not allowed to hit, why are they allowed to shoot?

I wonder if the simplicity of love is one of the reasons why Jesus said that we must be like children to enter the kingdom. I know that children had no status in his cultural context, that they were truly "the least of these" with no rights and no voice. But children also understand that love is basic, concrete, and actually very simple. You either love someone or you don't. Children truly sense the horror of the terrible acts of violence that humans inflict on one another. We should all be horrified. We should be confused. We should be asking questions. We should be as wise as children.