Listening is such an important skill to learn. Some of us were born with a tendency to speak (or scream!) more often than not. Others of us were born as more quiet infants. But all of us have had to learn – and must continue to learn – the art of listening. This is more than just hearing what someone else says, but really trying to understand that person from his or her perspective.
Yesterday afternoon I had one such opportunity, which I’d like to share with you today. Continue reading
Mercy: receiving a gift of something good when you deserve something bad. Evangelism is all about diving deep into God’s mercy and allowing his love to overflow into the lives of those around you. Listen to Pastor David’s sermon on Romans 12:1-2.
Recently, I have heard a few people at church express their concern that my Doctor of Ministry work is leading to one inevitable outcome: my “moving on” to another pastoral position at some other church. If those few people had the courage to share their feelings with me directly, I can only imagine that others of you may be feeling the same thing privately.
Let me clear some things up for you: I have no intention of leaving Mt. Haley any time soon. I am not doing this Doctor of Ministry degree as a “career advancement” move. I’m doing these studies because I believe in this ministry, the Mt. Haley Church of God, and I want to enhance both my skills as a pastor and our ministry together as a congregation. Continue reading
The percentage of people claiming no religious affiliation has grown significantly in past years. One reason? The privatization of faith. Maybe our faith is meant to be lived out in public! Listen to Pastor David’s sermon on Matthew 7:7-12.
What if people who wouldn’t attend church would come to a Bible study, if it were at a different kind of location?
That’s the question that prompted a local Christian leader, Kurt Faust, to host the “Bible, Blessings, and Brews” pub ministry at the Midland Brewing Company on N. Saginaw Road this summer.
Last month, I was invited by Kurt to come and lead the pub ministry’s Wednesday evening discussion on the topic of forgiveness. Now, you might expect the pastor of a conservative-ish holiness congregation like ours to say “no” to the invitation. But truthfully, I only hesitated a moment before saying “yes.” Continue reading
Racially-motivated shootings. The legalization of same-sex marriages. The fear of Islam encroaching on our religious and personal freedoms. A sixteen-month-long presidential election cycle that will divide the nation into two broad camps.
We have many reasons to distance ourselves from other people, reasons which have had a lot of air time in recent days.
But from a Christian perspective – and from my inherited perspective of white, male privilege – I wonder what our response to these things should be. If you are involved in social media at all, you have likely seen more than enough responses to any or all of these topics in the past week or so. Many of these have been so angry and dismissive that it grieves my heart.
Let me offer an alternative response: the example of Jesus in John 4. Continue reading
My friend James died this past Sunday at 10:45am. He died of a rare and aggressive form of leukemia that whittled away at his strength for the past couple of years. James did not want a funeral or memorial service. He will be cremated, and the world will move on.
Most people would not care to know James. Let me introduce him to you. James was an ex-con, incarcerated on three separate occasions: once for statutory rape, once for breaking and entering, and once for check fraud. His last conviction was his “third strike,” and he spent twelve years in prison as a result. Continue reading
Reconciliation is the process of restoring friendly relationships between individuals and communities. It is something that is desperately needed in today’s world, from the streets of Ferguson to the mountains of Afghanistan, from the hallways of public schools to the pews of local churches, from county courthouses to family living rooms.
Reconciliation is a one-word description of the work of God through Jesus Christ. This passage from 2 Corinthians is very important:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV)
You might recognize the last verse as the inspiration for the opening words of “Jesus Messiah,” a worship song that we sing with some regularity at Mt. Haley.
Biblical reconciliation – making things right between God and us, and between each other – is the theme of the Anderson University School of Theology, where I am currently working on a Doctor of Ministry degree. In mid-April, I spent a week on Anderson’s campus taking forty hours’ worth of intensive classes for my spring course; the emphasis of this course was all on biblical reconciliation.
In preparation for this course, I read a number of books and articles, as with any graduate-level class. One book in particular stood out: “Mobilizing for the Common Good: the Lived Theology of John M. Perkins.” This book is an anthology of essays about John M. Perkins, an African-American Christian leader who has worked tirelessly in his 85 years of life for the causes of God’s kingdom, social justice, and community development. Perkins founded the Christian Community Development Association in the late 1980s and has promoted “relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution” as three Christian principles that can transform local communities.
I did not know anything about John Perkins before taking this class. Our discussions about his urban ministry efforts reminded me of our time in inner-city Indianapolis. In a way, the issues facing urban areas – issues like poverty, drug abuse, homes in disrepair, and socio-economic segregation – appear in rural settings like ours, as well. This class gave me much food for thought.
On Friday, on my way home after classes ended, I stopped in nearby Muncie to have dinner with an old college friend of mine. She and her husband live in a depressed neighborhood with their two young children. I had not seen this friend for about a decade, so we had quite a bit of catching up to do.
I asked my friend about her church life, which I know is very important to her. She talked about how the core group of church leaders (including her family) moved into that Muncie neighborhood several years ago as a stabilizing force in a very transitional community. She spoke about how everything their church does is aimed toward the goal of reconciliation. And then she asked me a question that made me do a double-take:
“Have you ever read anything about John Perkins?”
Why, yes, actually I had just spent that entire week learning about John Perkins. And now I was sitting in the home of a friend whose church was putting into practice the principles of Perkins’s ministry.
It was like reading a book about baseball and then being thrust into the dugout of the home team during a regular-season game.
What kinds of reconciliation are needed in our community today? How can we partner with God (and with others) to accomplish this great work? It is, after all, the work that Christ left us to do in this world.
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry… (James 1:19 NIV)
To answer before listening — that is folly and shame. (Proverbs 18:13 NIV)
God gave you two ears but only one mouth because he wants you to listen twice as much as you talk. (anonymous)
You know the sayings: listen before you respond, think before you speak, avoid jumping to conclusions. It is hard but important to do; listening well can help us resolve conflicts before they begin, communicate effectively and meaningfully, and keep our minds open to other peoples’ ideas.
So why do we struggle to listen to others so frequently, both at home and in public? Why are we so quick to speak and slow to listen?
Surely you know what this is like. Often I will react to something my wife says, or to something that another customer says or does at the grocery store, without thinking about what I choose to say first. There is so much more wisdom in simply slowing down, thinking and praying quietly, and then responding carefully. Arguments and wars and tragedies, great and small, can be avoided.
Can you imagine what would happen if Israelis and Palestinians listened to each other’s desires and viewpoints – I mean, really heard each other?
Can you imagine what would happen if Darren Wilson had listened to Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri the other weekend? What if Michael Brown had listened to Darren Wilson?
Can you imagine a political debate in which the opponents actually listened and responded to each other instead of giving us pre-cooked sound bites? (No, I can’t either – but I can dream!)
Listening is so important to human communication and to society in general. How can this simple idea influence the church’s outreach efforts? I think the possibilities are endless:
The key idea to listening as an outreach device is the concept of caring. If you really care about people, you will listen to them carefully and orient your life around their responses. This is, I believe, one of the messages buried within the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
And the second key to listening is a challenge for me personally: responding appropriately. God gave you two ears, yes; but he also gave you one mouth. Listen to others, show your concern for them, but remember that your own words can have tremendous influence – for good or for ill – in the lives of those around you.
We are called to reach out to others for the sake of Christ. Listen to your neighbors as you do so!
On Sunday, February 2, Pastor Jerry preached on Philippians 2 and spoke about our church’s upcoming mission trip to Guatemala, the recent death of his father, and our call to Christian living in our everyday lives. Listen in to this powerful message! And remember to pray for our Guatemala Team, which leaves this Thursday (February 6) and returns next Thursday (February 13)!