Living the Usual Unusually Well

Yesterday morning we kicked off our one year experiment with the lectionary readings. It was also the first Sunday of the Advent season and it was quite interesting to me to note that the Scriptures texts for the first Sunday in the new liturgical year pointed to the return of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom here on earth. Talk about beginning with the end in mind.

I found Jesus’ words in Luke 21:28 especially potent:

“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Often when people consider the words of Jesus and the end times, things can get amped up pretty quickly. Sometimes I feel that people actually believe they can sped up the return of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom here on earth through their frenetic activity.

While I applaud passion and seek to live a more passionate life of faith myself, I find that at certain times and in certain contexts, people feel a compulsion to focus on the unusual and the extraordinary (kind of like the season leading up to Christmas when people can get amped up over all sorts of external and nonessential things). So my question this morning is, “in light of the reality that our redemption is drawing near, what kind of life does the Advent of Christ invite us to live?”

These words from Dianne Bergant speak strongly to that very question:

“The Advent way of life does not necessarily require unusual behavior on our part, but it calls us to live the usual unusually well. It affects the everyday events of life; it directs the way we interact with people; it informs the attitudes that color our judgments and motivations. It is as ordinary as the birth of a child; it is as extraordinary as the revelation of God.”

Jesus calls us to live the usual unusually well. This reminds me of Eugene Peterson’s translation Romans 12:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

God is not looking for extraordinary and unusual acts of faithfulness, courage, daring or sacrifice. Worship is offering our everyday, ordinary lives back to God for the life of the world.

What would it look like for you to live the usual unusually well? And how might God take our simple acts of faith, hope, and love – infuse them with His Spirit and use them in the establishment of His kingdom here on earth?

I will give the last word this morning to Francis of Assisi:

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Stay connected…

Filed under: advent, hope

Scripture and Community

Please excuse my absence the past couple of Mondays. The fall season has been incredibly busy. And while I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks, I have been doing some significant reflection upon the relationship between Scripture and community. Two books have energized and informed my thinking and I wanted to recommend both of them to you. The two books are Jim Belcher’s Deep Church and the second is Tim Conder and Daniel Rhodes’, Free for All: Rediscovering the Bible in Community.

Drawing upon C.S. Lewis’ phrase, “deep church,” Belcher explores the ongoing dialogue (that’s my overly polite term for much of what is going on) between the traditional church and the emerging church movement and searches for the best insights of all sides to forge a third way between emerging and traditional. Belcher calls this third way, “deep church.” — a missional church committed to both tradition and culture, valuing innovation in worship, arts and community while remaining firmly rooted also the historic creeds and confessions.

The thesis of Conder and Rhodes’ book is that the Bible is intentionally and relentlessly a communal document. “Emanating from the triune divine community, the text becomes the living Word of God as it is received as such by specific human communities.” They suggest that interpreting the Scriptures is a collaborative effort between the community of authors and compilers of the sixty-six books of the Bible (canon), the historic community that has received and read these texts as sacred (catholicity) and specific practicing communities of faith in the world today (people like you and me).

I have to confess that both of these books have informed and fueled a prompt I received in April from the Holy Spirit while attending the Q event in Austin. The prompt was in regard to my own perspective and, might I say, consumption of the Scriptures, especially in connection to my preaching and teaching. Why do I choose the Scriptures that I chose to preach and teach upon? On my best days, I do believe I can honestly say, God lead me to the texts that I am speaking on and on my worst days, I think I can honestly say as well, that I select texts to pursue my own agenda for the church. Grappling with Belcher’s pursuit of “deep preaching” ( center-set preaching that focuses on Christ and the Gospel), along with Conder and Rhodes’s concept of a “hermeneutic of peoplehood,” have solidified a couple of decisions that I have made regarding my preaching and teaching for the next season of my ministry.

• Beginning on the first Sunday in Advent (November 29), our community will embark upon a one year experiment with the lectionary (a lectionary is a listing that contains a collection of Scripture readings appointed for worship on a given day or occasion. We will be following the Revised Common Lectionary)
• As well on Tuesday evenings, our community will be invited to engage in the ancient Hebrew practice of midrash (a vigorous dialogue over the meaning and interpretation of a Biblical text).

I look forward to sharing more about this process, but in the meantime I’d love to hear your thoughts on the relationship between Scripture and community. How does your community interact with God’s Word? What role does the community have (both the larger and local community) in the interpretation of Scripture? Who selects what Scriptures are preached and taught and why? How much input do you have? How much input do you think you should have?

Stay connected…

Filed under: leadership, worship gatherings

Weakness, Strength, and God’s Power

For the past couple of week’s I have been thinking about a provocative question that was raised by Pete Wilson:

“What is it that you are doing this week that you cannot do apart from the power of God?”

Last week I found myself in the midst of two situations (believe me I was in many more of these kinds of contexts but I was deeply aware of my limitations in these particular ones). On Thursday morning, in partnership with the Pregnancy Resource Center of the South Hills, I stood before a group of 8th graders at South Park Middle School to present the first of three classes on sexuality. The forty five minutes before these students were some of the most painful I have ever experienced as a teacher and communicator. I tried my best and pulled out as many tricks as I could think of to engage the students – all to no avail. It was deadly. And I felt like a failure. And to top it off, I was scheduled to return on Monday morning to do it all over again.

The second situation was quite different. A number of months ago my wife was treated injustly and hurtfully by a former employer. A couple events transpired last week that reopened the wound of that situation. Now I can put up with and endure a lot of abuse personally – but when you mess with my wife and inflict pain upon her, well that’s a whole different story. I was filled with a ton of anger toward these people and quite frankly wanted to inflict some pain back in their lives. It became clear to me that no matter how hard I tried, I was unable to let go of my hostility.

What are you doing this week that you cannot do apart from the power of God? Well, these two situations were “in your face” reminders of my human limitations and weaknesses.

God, in His graciousness brought me back to a beloved text of Scripture from Ephesians 3:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

Just as I had received some “in your face reminders” of my weaknesses and inabilities, I also received an “in your face” reminder of God’s powerful love. God wants me to be strengthened with power in my inner being; and God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all I can ask or imagine. My guess is that includes letting go of unhealthy thoughts and a desire for revenge and even engaging some eighth grade students in the classroom.

This morning a friend passed along a powerful essay by Dallas Willard, entitled, “Living in the Vision of God.” Willard’s words helped me reframe my recent experiences in the light of God‘s nature and character. He writes:

“Vision of God secures humility. Seeing God for who he is enables us to see ourselves for who we are. This makes us bold, for we see clearly what great good and evil are at issue, and we see that it is not up to us to accomplish it, but up to God —who is more than able. We are delivered from pretending, being presumptuous about ourselves, and from pushing as if the outcome depended on us. We persist without frustration, and we practice calm and joyful non-compliance with evil of any kind. God looks to those who are humble and contrite of spirit, and who tremble when he speaks. (Isa. 66:2) He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (I Peter 5:5) Remember, “grace” means that he is acting in their lives. So the humble are dependent upon God, not on themselves. They humble themselves “under the mighty hand of God.” (I Peter 5:6) That is, by depending upon God to act. They abandon outcomes entirely to him. They “cast all their anxieties upon him, because he cares for them.”

So what are you doing this week that you cannot do apart from the power of God? How are you rooting yourself deeply in God’s love which manifest itself in powerful ways through the Holy Spirit? And how is God’s grace active in and through both your weaknesses and your strengths?

Stay connected…

Filed under: leadership

Bible Answer Man or Orthodox Heretic?

Over the past couple of months I have been slowly reading through Peter Rollins’ most recent book, The Orthodox Heretic. Rollins is a brilliant thinker/practitioner from the UK with a PhD in postmodern thought and while I have been familar with his work for some time now, I have to honestly admit his first two books (How Not to Speak of God and The Fidelity of Betrayal) have been a bit too weighty philosophically for me to engage fruitfully.

The power and beauty of  The Orthodox Heretic is found in the fact that is filled with stories. Now stories are something that I can wrap my mind around.

This morning I came to the final pages (digital pages I might add as I have been reading the book on my Kindle). The last parable was entitled, Heretic and recalls the story of a man who is tried for the crime of heresy, convicted and sentenced to death. The judge permits one final request from the condemned – “if it would please the court, on the day of my execution I would like to choose from among the gathered crowd the one who would light the fires upon which I am to die.” On the morning of his execution the young man speaks to the crowd, “I stand before you, helpless as a child, condemned to death for heresy. I am guilty as charged, for I have held a distorted, muddied, and inaccurate view of the divine. I have only one request that I be set alight by one among you who is innocent of this charge.”

This story reminds me of my own journey of faith. Years ago as a younger pastor and leader I often succumbed to the temptation of having to present an air and attitude of  complete certainty when it came to all matters of faith and doctrine. I viewed my role as a type of localized “Bible Answer Man” – always ready with a quick Bible answer for both the small and big questions of life. Being a well educated seminary graduate, I could put together some pretty good answers (and even make some some good ones as well when necessary to maintain my position as the Bible Answer Man).

An honest Monday morning confession and I say this in complete faith in Christ and in the wondrous salvation that I have graciously experienced: sometimes I feel like the older I get, the less I know.

The very last sentence in The Orthodox Heretic resonated deeply with me this morning: “we must question the difference between the heresy of orthodoxy in which we dogmatically claim to have the truth, and orthodox heresy, in which we humbly admit that we are in the dark but still endeavor to live in the way of Christ as best we can.”

While I am grateful that the Light of Christ has shined upon my life and that through the presence of the Holy Spirit I am not walking in complete and utter darkness, I recoginze that in my humanity I still flounder around an awful lot in the darkness. Even some of my best thoughts and reflections upon God are muddied, distorted and inaccurate.

Call me what you will – but I pray that until my earthly journey ends I will faithfully live as an orthodox heretic. And in deep humility, with an every growing and ongoing dependence upon the revelation of God, and by sharing the journey through my  embracing the gift of community with sisters and brothers, I (and we) will endeavor to live in the way of Christ as best we can.

Stay connected…

Filed under: hope, leadership

Pursuing Greatness

“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Jesus)

“Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.” (Martin Luther King, Jr)

Yesterday I included a piece in my message that I don’t normally include  – I called it the Big Ask (and thanks to Rick Warren’s tweet on Saturday night that included the reminder and encouragement that every message should end with the words, “will you?”). We were concluding our series “We,” (We Worship, Learn and Serve) and I wanted to invite our community of faith to not just grasp the idea of serving (as a mental model) but embrace it as the only true pathway to greatness. Part of this flows out of my Significance strength which motivates and empowers me (and drives me) to call our community of faith to be a great church, a church that makes as big a kingdom impact as possible. I reminded our community (and myself) that greatness is not measured by size or numbers but by our willingness and commitment to serve others as Christ has served us.

At the end of my message I asked people to make a commitment, over the next three months, to jump into one of the serving environments we have worked to create. And I asked them to make the commitment on the spot (without checking their calendars in advance).

I was pretty blown away by the response. Of course, many of our heavy lifters, stepped up to the line and made fresh commitments to roll up their sleeves and serve. And for that I am extremely grateful. But I was also thrilled that a number of people seized the opportunity to get out of the bleachers (in our case I mean the literal bleachers as we worship in a gym) and onto the playing field.

This pumps me up on two levels. First, we are following the pathway to greatness as outlined by Jesus.  I once heard someone say, “we are never more Christlike then when we take up the towel and serve.” When we are serving others as a response to the way Christ has served us, we will living the life that God intends us to live and in so doing, we are living as collaborative friends of Jesus bringing near the kingdom of God through our actions and our influence.

Second, serving environments are tremendous incubators for spiritual transformation. Last evening I began to read, “Follow Me,” the recent Willow Creek publication which focuses on the latest research on spiritual growth in the Church. Their research identified four categories of spiritual catalysts in terms of spiritual growth: spiritual beliefs and practices, organized church activities, personal spiritual practices, and spiritual activities with others. In light of my message yesterday morning these words leapt off the page:

“Serving is the most catalytic experience offered by the church….Serving as his hands and feet, whether in a church ministry or serving those in need, seems to reinforce growth in one’s relationship with Christ. Interestingly enough, it appears that serving experiences are more significant to spiritual development than organized small groups.”

When we follow Jesus’ example and serve others, we position ourselves in such a way that the Holy Spirit is unleashed within us. Wow – how cool is that!

I never got to raise these questions yesterday in my message, but if you are interested in pursuing greatness on Jesus’ terms, I invite you to spend some time reflecting upon them and then do something about it.

• How do I understand my uniqueness and actively contribute to my community of faith and the world through that uniqueness?
• How is my sphere of influence (home, neighborhood, workplace, church) different and healthier because of my active presence in it?
• How often do I change my plans or adapt my life based upon the leadings of God to serve others?
• How do I tap into the power of God to fuel my serving?
• What is it that I am doing today that apart from the power of God I cannot do?
• Who are my serving partners?

Stay connected…

Filed under: leadership, worship gatherings

Experiencing Good Leadership

When was the last time you were well led?

On Saturday evening I gathered in a field on the property of St Benedict the Abbott in McMurray for an evening of music and worship. The musical event was the culmination of a day-long experience called “Alive Again,” a gathering for Catholic youth and young adults. The leadership at St. Ben’s were gracious to let some of us Protestants crash the party.

Matt Maher and his band led the evening’s festivities. Matt isn’t a household name quite yet in worship circles (unfortunately he is most likely best known for mistakenly singing one of Chris Tomlin’s songs, “Your Grace is Enough” and I say mistakenly because Matt actually wrote the song) – although things are changing as the title track from his new release, “Alive Again” is in heavy rotation on KLOVE.

One of the things I appreciated most about Matt’s leadership was not only his attention to musical flow but also his integration of rich theological images, metaphors and liturgical movement. For me, the most beautiful and profound segment of the evening was when Matt led us via song through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth. We moved from “You Were on the Cross” to “Christ is Risen” to “As It Is in Heaven” (Let your kingdom come, let your will be done…) and the invitation to participate with Christ in His death, resurrection and as a cooperative friend in the establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth was real and palpable.

There is tremendous power released when we are well led.

A couple of thoughts to reflect upon:

• When is the last time you thanked someone for their leadership in your life?
• What is the realm or sphere that God has called you to exercise leadership? Who are the people who are looking to you for good leadership?
• What kind of power and potential is released when we both experience and exercise good leadership?

Stay connected…

Filed under: leadership, worship gatherings

Sunday Night at the Movies

After a good morning of worship with God’s People, an afternoon gathering with Patty’s family, and a LONG nap, I found myself capping the day off by taking in a movie with Patty at the Galleria. Our choice: “Julie and Julia” and straight up, I loved it!

I know some of you may be questioning my manhood right now. But seriously, “Julie and Julia” is no a chick flick – it’s a human flick and everyone who is concerned about becoming more authentically human should take a couple of hours and immerse themselves in this film. It is thoroughly entertaining and might even serve as a catalyst for more authentic and passionate living.

Based on Julie Powell’s book “Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.” Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul. Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents quite the creative assignment. She will take her mother’s dog-eared copy of Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes -  all in the span of one year.

Along with Julie Powell’s story, director and writer Nora Ephron masterfully flashes back and intertwines Julia Child’s (played brilliantly by Meryl Streep) story into the film. Trust me, you don’t need to be a “Lostie” to figure out the flashes back and forward; it is pretty to easy to distinguish between Paris in 1950’s and NYC in the early days of the 21st century.

There are three primary reasons why I loved the film. First off it is all about food. Both my wife and daughter are foodies and my life has been incredibly blessed by their passion for food. They have turned me on to the beauty and wonder of great food. My guess is the Food Channel gets more airtime that any other channel in our household (ok maybe ESPN is first). It’s a sacred moment when a new episode of Ina Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa” shows up. Through my wife and daughter I am now on a first name basis with great chefs like Bobbie Flay, Rick Bayless, Giada De Laurentiis and of course Patty’s hero, Ina. And I have learned that good food facilitates good relationships.

“Julie and Julia” is a film about relationships in general and marriage in particular. I am quick to tell dating couples that I am a raving fan of marriage and “Julie and Julia” was a reminder to me of how adamant I am about that. Both Julie and Julia have strong partners to share the journey of life. Stanley Tucci is brilliant as Julia’s spouse, Paul. He stands by her with encouragement and support. He calls her to dream and to live out her passion in life. He reminds Julia that there are no limits when she follows her true dream.  In a poignant scene, Julia asks Paul, “What if you hadn’t fallen in love with me?” and as the film unfolds it is clear that Paul’s deep and abiding love for Julia helps her to become the very person she was created to be. If you know anything about Julia Child, she was indeed a strong woman – but even strong people need supportive and encouraging environment to flourish. In a similar, yet distinctive way reflective of life in the 21st century, Julie Powell and her husband Eric (played by Chris Messina) navigate through the ups and downs of life’s shared journey.

Finally, the film is about passion. Meryl Streep said this about Julia Child, “When you talk about passion, Julia Child didn’t just have it for her husband or for cooking, she had a passion for living. Real, true joie de vivre. She loved being alive and that is an inspiration in and of itself.”

How passionate are you about life? And how does your passion help connect you to others in meaningful, life-giving ways?

As I walked away from “Julie and Julia,” the words of Frederick Buechner echoed in my soul. Buechner described vocation as the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need. I think both Julie and Julia discovered theirs. What about you?

Stay connected…

Filed under: movies

Rogue Waves

It’s hard to believe that it has been two months since my last post. Little did I know that my reflections on Lament were simply a prelude for what was to come in the days ahead.

Straight up – it has been an extremely demanding summer; in fact, the past eight weeks have been some of the most challenging days I have experienced in some time. First off, my son became an economic causality and was laid off from his job. Next up my wife lost her job in an ugly way as she was treated inequitable and unjustly by her former employer. And then our daughter spent eight days in the hospital with a very serious flare-up of her colitis. More than a few times I have looked to the heavens and given voice to my lament to the Lord with this question – “what in the world are you doing God?”

During his opening talk at this year’s Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels introduced me to a fresh image that has helped me process the events of the past couple of months. The image comes from the world of sailing (one of Hybels’ passions) and is that of the rogue wave. A rogue wave is an unexpected, unpredictable, abnormally large wave that occurs on a seemingly random basis in the oceans. One of the things I realized afresh this summer is the reality that rogue waves are not confined to the oceans – you and I are confronted by them throughout our journey on terra firma. One of my favorite lines from Hybels’ talk was this:

“The normal we once knew and loved has left the building.”

Hybels reminded the 60,000 plus leaders participating in the Summit that it is times like these where our faith is challenged and our deepest convictions about the God and the community of faith are put to the test.  Is the Church really the hope of the world? And in my case, will the Church not so much be the hope of the world, but will it be a source of hope and help to me as I face the rogue waves of my own journey?

The most potent line from Hybels talk (which I immediately text to my wife) was this:

“We’re going to get through this chapter in life together.”

And we have!

Let me use this forum to say thank you to all of you in the Community of Faith who have been a source of real help and hope to me and my family during this season. Your timely texts and emails, the meals you have delivered to our doorstep, your continual prayers, your hugs and encouraging words – they have helped sustain me through the rough waters of this season.

One other thing that has helped sustain me along the way has been music. And Matt Redman’s recent release, “We Shall Not Be Shaken” has served as a powerful reminder of God’s presence and provision even in the midst of rogue waves. The title track reminds me that even when everything is breaking, God is left unshaken – when everything is tumbling down, God is the solid ground.

We shall not be shaken!

Stay connected…

Filed under: hope

The Place of Lament

Over the last week or so I have noticed a rather constant state of fatigue – a weariness of both body and soul. I initially tried to fight it off with a nap here and there thinking that some extra rest might bring the restoration and refreshment my body needed. The extra sleep hasn’t really helped. And during my Sabbath time over the last 24 hours, I discerned some clues as to the source of my fatigue. It’s actually pretty simple: I’m sad.

This morning as I sat on my back deck I loaded up my new iPod touch (new things typically pick my spirit up) and listened to Rob Bell’s talk on “Learning to Lament in a Culture of Denial.”  It was a talk based upon the first chapter of the book of Lamentations and it was exactly what I needed to hear today. Rob’s thesis is that we live in a culture of denial, a culture that goes to great lengths to cover up and mask over the painful edge of life and yes even faith. The antidote to denial is lament and Rob shared some great thoughts from Lamentations 1 and the practice of the Hebrew community in exile, along with thoughts from contemporary writers like Peter Rollins and Kathleen O’Connor. While I cannot remember the exact quote Rob used from Kathleen O’Connor, it went something like this – simple acts of lament expose and open us to name things, to make them visible and to remind us of the elephant in the room.

My soul fatigue began with a conversation with a newly married couple who were filing for divorce. I grieved hearing the story emanating from South Carolina about the governor’s unfaithfulness. I watched the heartbreaking news from Iran get bumped off the airwaves and media by the death of a pop icon, a tragic fusion of musical genius and a freakshowish personal life. My heart has been heavy as I have watched someone close to me be taken for granted, disrespected and unappreciated.

It was good to name some of these things in the presence of God today and while there were no quick responses or easy fixes offered, I do know I was heard.

The second thing I did today was to listen to a psalm of lament. Music speaks to me in powerful ways and God has used U2’s music to speak into my soul in many different ways. U2 is always diligent in putting their tracks together on their recordings and they typically pay special attention to the final track.”No Line on the Horizon” is no exception. The final cut is a song entitled “Cedars of Lebanon” and is a haunting, minor-keyed melody with a lyrical bass line by Adam Clayton and some amazing understated percussion work by Larry Mullin Jr. And the voice of the poet cries out:

“Yesterday I spent asleep
Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap
Spent the night trying to make a deadline
Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline

I have your face here in an old Polaroid
Tidying the children’s clothes and toys
You’re smiling back at me, I took the photo from the fridge
Can’t remember what then we did

I haven’t been with a woman, it feels like for years
Thought of you the whole time, your salty tears
This shitty world sometimes produces a rose
The scent of it lingers and then it just goes

Return the call to home…

The worst of us are a long drawn out confession
The best of us are geniuses of compression
You say you’re not going to leave the truth alone
I’m here ‘cos I don’t want to go home

Child drinking dirty water from the river bank
Soldier brings oranges he got out from a tank
I’m waiting on the waiter, he’s taking a while to come
Watching the sun go down on Lebanon

Return the call to home…

Now I’ve got a head like a lit cigarette
Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret
You’re so high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?

Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you
Make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends.”

The world is simply not the way it should be. And sometimes it is important to name those things, bring them into the presence of God and simply but powerfully lament.

Stay connected…

Filed under: hope

Prodigal

This Sunday our community of faith will begin a new series of worship gatherings called, “prodigal.” Over the next six weeks we will be exploring one of the best known and beloved stories in all of Scripture, Jesus’ parable of “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15. One of the things I love about this parable is that it serves as a window to help us better understanding the mission of the Church, the reality of sin and human brokenness, the power of hope, and the prodigal love of God for each of us and all of us. This week’s message is entitled, “The People in Jesus’ Neighborhood” and my hope and prayer is that God will give us Christlike eyes, ears, and hearts to the people in our world.

Here are some of the resources I have been tapping into as I have been preparing for this series. Perhaps you might want to pick up one of them and do some personal exploration this summer (and I would love to hear your recommendations as well):

The Cross and the Prodigal (Kenneth Bailey)
Crazy Love (Francis Chan)
Prodigals and Those Who Love Them (Ruth Bell Graham)
The Prodigal God (Tim Keller)
The Return of the Prodigal (Henri Nouwen)
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus (Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg)

I also put together a prodigal iMix for those of you who like to engage God through music.

Please join me for the journey.

Stay connected…

Filed under: worship gatherings