Lake Louise Church of the Nazarene

1. Why don’t people go to church?
2. Can a Christian be a Christian and not go to church?
3. Is it still church if people struggle and don’t always agree?
4. What makes a church a church?
5. Is the church about here and now or there and later?

Church is messy because it is filled with people. These people have ideas, opinions and preferences about how things should and shouldn’t be. Sometimes people don’t get their way and they leave a church body. They don’t have fellowship with other Christians and are at risk of dying spiritually.

As I struggle with some friends about how a new church would look in our community, we are asking some of these questions. People leave, people fight, people disagree. Is it still church? because if it is, we need to change our concept of what it means to be the Church.

Want to be part of the process, send me your thoughts and ideas.

     What am I going to write regarding New Years that you would even remotely care about? Seriously, it has all been done before. Each year they trot out the “Ten Best…” of whatever. We are told how to make and keep New Year’s Resolutions and how to pick ourselves up after we have failed to keep our resolutions. We will be bombarded with advice and tips and tricks for all of this. So, here we are…another New Year…one more “Top Ten” list…another resolution to make.

All of this thinking got me thinking. What if I could give you one thing you could do this year that might just make everything else easier? This idea is really simple, but not at all easy to do. This idea will require you to unlearn some of the things you already know and replace it with different information. But, if you can get past that, it may just change all of the other stuff you are doing. For example, (I cannot believe I am doing this!) here is a list of the “Top Ten Resolutions”: More time with family, get in shape, lose weight, quit smoking, enjoy life more, quit drinking, get out of debt, help others and get organized. You probably fit in there somewhere, right? I know I do.

     What is that one thing that will make it easier? Accepting how much God loves you. Wait, don’t quit reading. How many of us are defined by the job we do? Lots of us think we are what we do. We are identified by our job or profession. We get our sense of worth and value as a human being by the pats on the back and the praise of customers, bosses or parishioners. We struggle and strive to do a good job and it is never enough. There are lots of us who get our identity from the things we own. We have a great house, cool car, take great vacations all because that is how we measure our worth and value. Some of us work so hard for things that we think will make our lives more enjoyable that we don’t enjoy them because we are working so hard at getting these things. Some feel the pressure of all of it and drink and eat or just veg out. Bleak, eh?

     I can hear you ask, “What’s love got to do with it?” Love has everything to do with it. It isn’t a second hand emotion…sorry. God loves you with an everlasting love. It is unshakable. God doesn’t love you only when you do the right things. God’s love is steadfast and true. The Apostle Paul has a great description of God’s love: It is patient and kind, not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.

     If we truly understand God’s love, we don’t need stuff to make us feel better. We don’t need booze or food or sex or money or a title or anything to make us feel better. All of those things are temporary. When we recognize and accept the love God has for us, we are free from what anyone else thinks about us. We don’t need things to make us anyone because we are already someone in God’s eyes. We are already loved perfectly and completely by God. And, since God is unchanging, we don’t have to worry about God changing God’s mind.

     Since we don’t have to work so hard for things to make us feel better about ourselves, we are free to enjoy life and spend more time with the family. We can get out of debt because we don’t need to keep up with Joneses. We can help others because we know that God will take care of us. We can do almost everything on the list (I am still waiting to get organized!) when we fall in love with God like God is in love with us. There are a lot of great churches to help you on your journey to better understand God’s love for you. Why not start the New Year off right and fall in love with God? It will change your life, I promise.

I was talking to a friend the other day. She was telling me that she can’t always make it to church on Sundays because of work. Then, when she runs into people from church, she feels judged by them. They say nice enough stuff. They say they missed her at church. There isn’t anything so bad about that, is there? It is nice to be missed. It is nice to have people notice you weren’t some place they hoped to see you. 

So what is bothering her? Maybe it is the tone these folks use. Maybe it is something else. It could that the comments have a bit of a dig to them. You know what I am talking about, right? There is something in the way these folks say the words that let us know if they are being sincere or sarcastic. It lets us know if they are being concerned or judgmental. It isn’t the words, it’s the inflection they put on the words.

            Besides, I think many people that miss church actually want to be at church. There was no problem, no emergency that kept them from coming. They aren’t secretly sacrificing small animals to some ancient Babylonian god. They had to work. They were up all night and didn’t feel well. There are any number of reasons people don’t come to church. Believe me, subtle sarcasm or disapproval doesn’t help get people motivated to come to church.

Maybe, just maybe, the next time you run into someone you haven’t seen at church in a while, just smile and tell them you are glad to see them. If you are a hugger, and they are okay with hugging, give ‘em a hug. Just give them the love you missed giving them on Sunday. Ask them about their lives. Ask them how they have been. Be interested, but not nosey.  

It doesn’t matter that they were not at church. Just love them. Be glad to see them. I am pretty sure you will see a much happier recipient than if you use the other method.

The sheer madness of life is stultifying. While I write this, crimes, deaths, abuse, sickness and accidents will take and maim lives. Children will be born and children will die. Other people will be determining where to take a family vacation. Life marches on and does not skip a beat regardless of life or death, sickness or healing. It is into this maddening monotony that we minister.

We have a calling on our lives to make a difference in the name of Jesus. We have been called and empowered by the Spirit of God to go forth and proclaim God’s favor to all the people. We have a heightened sense of the cruelty, injustice, bitterness and rage in the world. We see things that are wrong and desire to fix them because we carry within us the Spirit of the Living God. We know that we can make a difference with a word, a prayer or the laying on of hands. Yet, despite our fervent and sincere prayers, the parade of life marches on without a moment’s hesitation.

It must be me. My faith is fragile and weak. I need more of everything. Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick and on and on. We are supposed to do greater things than he did. So, I try harder. I jump in front of the parade and extend my hand in authority and command it to stop. No one flinches. No one stops. I am unable to stop the insanity to which I have been called to minister. I have failed, no matter the effort. In defeat, I sit and watch the parade.

The cure to my torment is the calming voice of Jesus. He beckons me to come to him for rest. Yes, life will continue to march on. I recognize that life went on when Jesus died. It marched along when we thought the world should stand still. My hope is to find my reality, meaning, identity and strength in Jesus Christ. He is gentle and humble in heart and will give me rest. I will burn out if I forget that the light I cast in this world marks my place with a shadow. In Jesus, however, my place is marked with blood in the Book of Life for all of eternity.

I am thankful for Jesus.

     Love is not for sissies. I was sitting with my uncle in his den. His wife of 65 years had just died. He was, and is, in a lot of emotional pain. A darkness has fallen in his world that seems to defy any glimmer of light. Love is not for sissies, because when you lose it, it hurts – a lot. It takes courage to love.

     Because the pain of losing love is so great, we may be tempted to protect ourselves from it. While life without love may be free of pain, it is also a life free from living. Life without love is cold and gray. A life that risks nothing ultimately gains nothing. It is not really life. It is some cold facsimile of life. It is no more than a statute or portrait of something real.

     Maybe that is what evangelism is so cold and static these days. If I were to love my enemies, to wish the best for them and pray that they find peace and happiness in their lives, I risk so much pain when they choose another path. Caring about someone’s life that does not care about his or her own life is frustrating. It opens us to so many disappointments. It can crush our emotions.

     It is gut wrenching to care about someone’s eternal soul. Caring, loving, healing and helping people all take their toll in our lives because we risk rejection. To see someone throw their life away on drugs, alcohol or cheap sex is horrifying. Moreover, when we try to help, we risk people questioning our motives. We risk pain while trying to ease someone else’s pain. Love is not for sissies.

     When Jesus said that he had come to give us an abundant life, we need to understand all that entails. An abundant life involves just as much pain as it does pleasure. It involves as much losing as gaining. It involves sorrow as much as joy. An abundant life may seem to require a lot, but it offers so much in the living.

     When love prevails…there is no greater joy, no greater satisfaction. We experience a joy that overshadows the deepest sorrow. It brings a peace when all we knew was chaos. When love prevails, we have strength to face another day. We know that the mountain can move and love can succeed. The benefits of a prevailing love far outweigh the losses. Love is not for sissies.
     
Jesus risked everything for us. He risked rejection for the hope of a real relationship with us. His love for us cost him everything. He mourned for Jerusalem’s rejection. He was devastated when many of his disciples left him. He even wondered if his small band would leave him like everyone else. Christ’s love for us caused him much pain and sorrow.

     When Jesus rose from the grave, we saw true love prevail. We saw the end of death and the beginning of real life. We can finally understand that while we will have trouble in this world, Jesus has overcome the world. We finally understand that while love risks great disappointment and pain, it promises great joy and pleasure.
     Thankfully, Jesus was not a sissy.

Dave

It happened while I was driving to the Detroit Science Center with my wife and daughter. We started talking about dating and marriage and all of that kind of stuff. Then, in a fit of parental passion, I felt like I needed to offer some wise advice about marriage. I looked in the rearview mirror and said, “Honey, I just don’t want you to settle.” And, just as quickly, unable to stop the realized truth of that statement, said, “like your mother did.”

It was true. I was no prize when Ruth met me. I had no direction, no aspirations, no dreams and no real job. It was so bad that when we got married, I believe some of my friends were selling squares for how long my marriage would last. None would have put the marriage’s success at longer than a year. It was not a good choice for her to marry me. Some may have called it faith. I think most thought it was crazy.

My greatest concern was that people would judge Ruth for being with me and think she was a bimbo. I wanted to be judged by my being with her. I wanted them to see how sharp Ruth was and think there must be more to me than meets the eye.

Anyway, as I blurted out those self-actualized words to my daughter, I realized that love is not some tame kind of thing. It is a wildly optimistic and totally insane kind of thing. My wife must have been crazy to say yes to me. Seriously, people can tell you all sorts of harsh things about marriage and your chances of success in this world and it means nothing. Because you are in love, you believe you can conqueror any foe and vanquish any villain. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stand in the way of the power of your love. Love is crazy.

During pre-marriage counseling, I try to warn young lovers of the scary things they will encounter in marriage. I tell them all about the potential pitfalls that lay ahead. I give them things to think about and ways to communicate for the difficult times. Nevertheless, in the end, they stare lovingly at each other and blankly at me. So, I have to trust the vows.

Because the crazy optimism of love defies logic, reason and experience, we have these things called vows. Vows are like the restraints that slam down on you when you get in a roller coaster. The ride may be scary and bounce you around a bit. You may even get so scared that you want to get out of the ride – while it is moving – at sixty miles per hour – 400 feet in the air – at night! Yep, it can be so scary that you would be willing to throw yourself out of a moving vehicle.

The vows encase you so you do not do something you will regret for the rest of your life. The vows protect your optimism during the days in life where you would swear that you have never, ever seen the sun shine.  Whoever wrote the vows must have known about the craziness of love.

When my daughter falls in love and decides to run headlong into marriage, I pray that she never thinks her marriage will fail. I pray that she does not listen to the negative people that think marriage is an old-fashioned notion, unimportant or disposable. I pray that she thinks it is worth protecting. I pray that she and her husband believe with absolute certainty that they can face whatever life throws at them and be victorious because they are in love. Moreover, in the weak and painful moments, I pray that the vows keep them safe.

It is one of the first things I learned when I became a Christian. I have used them repeatedly. I don’t think they are wrong. It’s just that I am not sure what to do with them. They are the ‘Magic Words’ of evangelism.You know them I am sure. You may have heard of them as the “Four Spiritual Laws”. You may know them as the “ABCs of Salvation”. The “Roman Road” comes to mind. But they are almost all magic words.Let me explain.

When we lead someone to the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to be forgiven their sins and go to heaven when they die, we run through some sort of Scripture program of what it means to be saved. We lead them in the sinner’s prayer and they are saved, Praise the Lord! Then, we tell them they need to start reading their Bible, be baptized and worship (or some variation of those things). And that’s it.

There is a question that used to sit at the back of my head is now working its way onto this page. The question is, “Is that it?” I look at Alcoholics Anonymous and they do a whole bunch more to get sober than we Christians do to get saved. An Alcoholic admits that his or her life is unmanageable and that they are powerless. We do that, too. They come to believe in a power greater than themselves that can restore them to sanity. We are still tracking. They make a decision to turn their lives over to God. Ditto.

Then something insane happens. The person in AA make a fearless moral inventory of their lives. They confess their sins to another human being. I could go on, but it is just insanity. They go beyond admitting that they are a hopeless drunk and take care of business.Sure, I know there are Christians that go farther than simply admitting they are sinners saved by grace, but not a lot. If we are to truly become like Jesus, we need to do more than just get saved. I can hear some of you thinking that is blasphemy. Is it? What would happen if we truly got our garbage out in the open and let God deal with it? What would be the result if we began to deal with our broken relationships and make restitution for the things we have done wrong? I think amazing things would happen. It is imperative that we move past the “magic words” and started to do the hard work of letting God into our lives for real change. That is a journey and not a destination.

How about an example ripped from today’s headlines (Dramatic, yes?): A young Hollywood starlet just was busted for Driving Under the Influence even though she just go out of rehab two weeks ago. She probably learned a lot about addiction and alcoholism.  I am sure she didn’t drink in rehab. Obviously, sobriety is more than not drinking. How do I know? Because she gets out and goes right back to her old habits and ends up drinking and driving, again. She needs to change some habits and become a different person, not just quit drinking. It isn’t good enough for her to admit she has a drinking problem, she needs to face lifestyle habits and personal issues for real change to take place. The same is true for us. We admit our sins, and ask Jesus to forgive us. Then, we need to change our old habits and replace them with new ones. Transformation is more important than information. Without it, we, like this young starlet, will end up right back where Jesus found us. In other words, we need more than magic words. What do you think? Let me know.

The human body is cool. It’s amazing how all of the organs and systems work together. All you have to do is go to the Detroit Science Center and see “Our Bodies: The Universe Within” and you will be convinced. Each system and organ has a function. All of the systems depend upon each other. Everything organ counts on every other organ to function properly. Except the appendix, it is useful in a book, but evidently not in the body. But even the appendix can affect the whole body when it is acting up. We recognize these things in our human bodies. How many of us have stubbed our toe and it ruined our whole day. It affected the way we walk and enjoy the day. And that is just a toe. Yes, the human body is truly amazing.

Properly functioning bodies are able to do all that we need them to do. Sick bodies are often limited. There is less freedom of movement and lots of pain. Sometimes there is a disease or sickness that affects the body but it is not seen until it is too late. That is why we need to go to our physician and get regular check ups. I can almost hear that annoying commercial asking me what kind of doctor I have.

 The church is the body of Christ. No, I did not say that my church is the body of Christ. And I did not say that your church is the body of Christ. We all are the body of Christ. Some of us are neat parts of the body and others of us are, well, not so cool. But, we each need each other. The Body of Christ needs all of the parts of the body.

That is why I wonder why we are so separate from each other. When that happens, the people in our community don’t see a unified body. They see a bunch of churches fighting for their own turf and not even hanging out with each other. This is kind of like what I have discovered about brains. They are cool when you can’t see them. They are gross laid out on a platter separate from the body. In fact, in my humble opinion, all internal organs should stay that way – internal. When we move around thinking we are independent of everyone else, we are like a brain without a body. Yuck!

The point I am trying to make is that all of the churches need to get together and share the love of Christ. If we go around beating each other up, or ignoring each other, people will not see true love. They will see a bunch of people that care more about being right than being loving. Harsh, I know. Is it fair? I think so.

It shouldn’t even be about being right. For example, the human heart pumps blood. The liver filters blood. And the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone. These are obvious things. The heart does something completely different from the liver. And I am not too sure that the liver thinks the heart is wrong because it is not a liver. Why can’t we figure something out based on what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12? Jesus said we would be known by our love for each other. Even Paul says love is the more excellent way. It is about love and communion with Christ.

We are the instrument that God has chosen to share the Good News about God from God. We are a symbol of hope and promise. We are supposed to be salt and light. Will you join me and other churches as we seek to make the love of God real in this life? You can be an appendix, but where’s the fun in that?

I just finished watching a couple of videos online. They were from an evangelist that uses evidence to prove beyond a doubt God’s existence. Which, as one blog wrote, negates faith. This debate was between two atheists and these two Christians. It was a horror show.

I used to like to argue with atheists. There are lots of books in my library to prove it. Now, not so much. Why? It all comes down to love. I had to decide whether I was going to argue with people or love them like Jesus did.

By focusing on love, this evangelist would say that I am representing only a part of the Gospel. He would say that I am focused too much on God’s love and not enough on God’s judgment. You can look up the video and tell me if you think the argument route is more convincing than love.

Yes, I know that love is a dynamic concept. I realize that sometimes love hurts. I get it…honest. It killed Jesus.

Jesus said that we would be know by our love for each other. We are to love people as Jesus loved us. We are to be imitators of Christ. What would happen if we witnessed to people by living the love of Christ, even atheists? What if we let the Holy Spirit do the Spirit’s job and we love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves?

We could argue with atheists, but is that the best use of our time? I know the Bible says to be prepared to give a reason for our hope in Jesus. It also says it is to be done with gentleness and respect.

So, whether it is a mind-numbing banana defense or using the Ten Commandments, I think I will stick with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, imprisoned, and giving a drink to the thirsty. Simple, yes…and powerful.

Love…the anti-argument.

What does being Christian mean? How do we live the Christian life?

Some people might say that we obey the rules. Others may say that we are to separate ourselves from sin. Still others might say that being a Christian entails total commitment. These may have a place, but is this what Christianity is all about?

I know I have practiced each of these at times in my past. But what is the mark of the Christian life? Jesus said it is love. In fact, we cannot love God if we are not loving others.

We are being Christian when we love each other and the world as Christ Jesus loves the world. This love life seeks the best for the people with whom we come in contact. It brings wholeness and beauty.

So how do you understand love? How do you love those around you? What are your biggest challenges with loving others?

Let’s get the conversation started.

Dave G