Monthly Archive for April, 2008

The 3-Letter Word We Never Speak of OR Sunday-School 101

Published
by
Jenn Walters
on April 21, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 5 Comments

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about sin. We talk a lot about messing up at circle. It’s nice, because we mess up a lot, and it’s refreshing to be amongst a community that can accept this and still love you; it’s safe. I get sick of messing up though, and I often wish we would talk more about trying not to mess up.

I’m not going to lie: sin scares me, and more importantly, it has a profound impact on my relationships and inevitably, on our community. Most of us have read “The Screwtape Letters” or seen “The Devil’s Advocate”, but we don’t give evil and sin much afterthought. Even the word “sin” isn’t very hip. (I even thought of avoiding this topic for fear of being viewed as one of those Sunday-school teachers we all hated.) Sometimes I think we ignore the idea of sin to focus on the relational aspects of Christianity-because we’ve been reassured that “it’s about our heart, not our actions, and no one can judge our heart except God.” Plus, sin is complicated. I wonder if we’re doing a disservice to ourselves, and our community, however, by making sin just about forgiveness, and not also about avoidance.

Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized the sadness and hurt of sin, especially secret sin, but he also proclaimed moral failure as the one thing that bound us to others in, as he said, “the common bond of humanity.” Though I ought to be caring, compassionate, and forgiving to those who fail and sin around me, I seldom do until I have failed and sinned as well. Sadly, then and only then do I recognize that there is no, or at least a fuzzy, line between those who are righteous and those who are not. I have found myself far more loving and forgiving after making some egregious moral mistakes. It shouldn’t have to be that way, but it seems as if it is that way most of the time. I think our community understands this part fairly well.

But what if we go a step further, and consider the everyday consequences of sin, specifically as it relates to community? I’m convinced that the Devil continues to hide behind sophistication and fears of being too pious in order to convince even intelligent Christian thinkers to hurt themselves; that’s all he exists for, to hurt us, to make us less effective in serving others, to mar, dismember, hinder, even destroy us. Paul tells us to flee from sin and evil, but we tend to embrace it, play with it, tease it, experiment with it, and then wonder why it blows our hands off. Don’t get me wrong, tolerance and love help us to remember our worth, and remind us that we are children of God; that we are forgiven the minute we mess up. But speaking from experience, this fact doesn’t begin to heal some of the deep physical, emotional and psychological wounds that stem from moral mistakes. We forget that there are components of sin that get carried around with us for the rest of our lives, and that affect our relationships and our community. And these components can render us useless, which is exactly what the Devil wants.

I look at things like alcohol, sex and even drugs, which are not morally wrong, but which have all done a world of hurt to myself and so many of my friends, and I’m reminded of how difficult it can be to flee from these things, specifically in a community embracing tolerance and love. Of course, there have been churches, Bibles, and other less frightening things used to destroy people as well, and this is where I think the church and its Sunday school teachers have misrepresented evil. C.S. Lewis reminds us that the Devil doesn’t care what he uses to kill you, he just wants to kill you and if he can use your mother to do you in, he will.

So how do we respond to sin and evil in a community? Well, I think for starters, we need to learn to recognize it, talk about it openly, and start getting serious about helping each other avoid it. And that means being OKAY with warning our friends about damaging behavior, knowing that this IS the loving thing to do. Love doesn’t mean never holding anyone accountable. Evil tends to be its own punishment, the sin its own executioner. It is a lowering of the human condition, and it hurts, I know this feeling well! But I know we don’t want this for our community. Responding to sin with a sense of great sadness, not scandal, judgment, or self-righteousness is a good start. But deep down, I know that we have some skin in this game too.

So instead of always focusing on the “forgiveness” part, I am wondering if we can shift sometimes to focus on the “what happens before we mess-up” part, the part where we make a choice. I think it would be good and appropriate to stand together in an effort to protect one another from the dangers of sin. As a community, we can better help each other to avoid this kind of hurt, and to avoid bringing it into the community. We can focus on what we know to be true: serve God, care for others less fortunate, and maybe most importantly, avoid moral compromise at all costs. These truths and the pursuit of them can fill our lives and our community with direction and purpose during difficult times. We spend our lives fixing things that are broken with tools that are dull. The church, (and circle,) and its people are the same way, and I don’t expect it to change anytime soon. But I know I have to be a part of it to fix it, and I want to do a better job. As Paul put it, “speaking the truth in love, we can all grow up to the full stature of Christ.”

What’s with all the gambling?

Published
by
Rod White
on April 17, 2008
in Action, Community and Dialogue
. 1 Comment

In a radio commentary, I heard our economy described as millions of people sitting by their computers “placing bets” as they decide to buy or sell stocks and “investment products.” Robert Reich, the economist, is concerned about just how ignorant we are about all this. He says, for instance, “Hedge funds have been operating huge financial casinos without having to disclose what they’re betting on, or why.” The big players who lead our country, usually behind the scenes, certainly not elected by us, are basically big gamblers. I’ve heard people say that the U.S. economy is no longer based on actually doing anything (we’ve outsourced that to the Chinese). It is just about making virtual bets. The proliferation of illegal gambling, and the rush by the states to operate every form of casino and lottery may be the most obvious, but least-considered, example of what kind of economy we are creating and, more interesting to me (and Jesus, I think), what kind of people the economy is creating.

David Reich in Boston College Magazine teaches: “From the turn of the 20th century until the middle 1960s, all U.S. states prohibited gambling, with the famous exception of Nevada. Today, of course, gambling is everywhere—in all states save Utah and Hawaii. Forty-two states run their own lotteries, which in 2006 sold $52 billion worth of tickets; most states host Indian-run casinos or bingo halls; and 13 states allow, and tax, commercial casinos, with Massachusetts poised to become the 14th.”

Christians used to be dead set against gambling. We went with George Washington, who was fond of quoting the French proverb: “Gambling is the child of avarice (greed), the brother of iniquity and the father of mischief.” But somehow the monster escaped its cage, began defining how we do business, and normalized greed as “sport” organized for profit by a “gaming industry.” Our prophetic voice about all this seems very confused. On the one hand most Christians seem to have given up the idea that things can be wrong and have adopted the society’s “ethic of tolerance” that argues that people should be left alone unless their activities harm others. On the other hand we have also believed the sales pitch that argues that gambling meets acceptable criteria under our more faithful “ethic of sacrifice,” which holds that people may have to give up rights for the common good. We seem to think the end justifies the means, since the proceeds of state-run gambling are often designated for education or senior citizens, or something else the state knows we want but won’t tax us to fund. Maybe we just don’t want to say anything because we’ll end up needing to talk to the Catholics about bingo.

But I at least want to shine this little light on gambling in our little blog. Because I think people, in general, are in danger of being reduced to taking fake risks when real risks are necessary. We are being trained to play a virtual game with our lives when we need to find joy in really living. From giant hedge funds making money out of placing the right bets on which way the index numbers will go, to the guy in the neighborhood who buys a lottery ticket every day, from making the Native Americans the nation’s casino owners to putting two casinos on our waterfront, we’re surrounded. We not only need to wake up and swim against the tide before it sweeps us away; we need to find our prophetic voice and at least say, “No!” (as in casiNO! perhaps).

Ending our personal poker games and feeling guilty about a rare trip to Atlantic City is not what I am talking about when I say, “prophetic.” We have something real to bring into an era in which people are being reduced to false hope and virtual risk. When we get something for nothing we tend to become the nothing traded for it. I think we should keep calling people to be real, to offer something of value to the world, to gain something to give, and not be looped into feeding the greed monster in yet another way.

Decision Making

Published
by
Ryan Bowers
on April 14, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 1 Comment

I had lunch with a friend the other day who recently decided to move from Philadelphia to the other side of the state. What struck me in our conversation was the process she used to make up her mind. When it came time to make the decision, she told me she drew up a table that listed her name, as well as her husband’s and kids’ names—next to a list of her family’s main qualities of life, such as money, friends, etc. Then she rated how each aspect of each family member’s quality of life would change if they were to move. What an organized mind! Personally, I get a thrill just thinking about using a process like that, but the thrill quickly descends into despair as I can’t even figure out how to set up my table.

So what’s your decision making process? To be honest, I never learned one growing up, and regrettably, I never quite developed my own. Sometimes I feel that my friends and family who have a naturally logical, systematic and organized mind have an advantage in making decisions. But from my own experiences, and from what I’ve read in Scripture, there’s something about life and about how the Spirit moves that defies logic; that has its own, spiritual logic.

In the fifteen months that I’ve taken steps to intentionally rebuild my understanding of decision making, a few specific words of advice have stood out among the rest. The first is this vague recollection of Rod saying that God should always be at the center when you’re making important life decisions. The second is from Joshua, who many of us have probably heard mention that whenever we’re working through life’s big decisions—like moving, career changes, making big changes with your marriage—we should process it with people who know us, who we can trust, and most importantly, who we know are connected to God and His body. Sounds a lot like a cell, doesn’t it?

In the year and a half that I’ve been a cell leader, the topic of decision-making and how we’re to make decisions has been a reoccurring theme. Looking back over our time together, our cell has slowly grown to the point that we’re now trusting our decisions making process with each other, and at the same time trusting that we’ll point one another to listen to God for how He’s calling us to make sense of it all.

Of course, every now and then someone in cell will share a particularly juicy situation they’re in, and when that happens, even the person who’s been the most quiet that night won’t hesitate to join the rest of us in trying to convince the person to take whatever ill conceived advice we pick from off of the top of our heads. But even then, I’ve noticed in our cell a growing tendency to hold back, and instead pause and prayerfully think through if there is something God has for us to share at that particular moment, and how we can be truly present in the moment.

Week after week, no matter what we discuss during the evening, the time when we bring our discussion to a close, settle down and begin to lift up to God the things we’ve asked the cell to pray for—this for me has become the hallmark of our time together. I carry those prayers and the feeling of everyone praying for each other with me through the week, and in doing so, I also bring the wisdom, courage, hope and faith of everyone in my cell.

Open for Business

Published
by
Lana Thompson
on April 8, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 2 Comments

There are a couple verses that have been encouraging me lately, and I wanted to share. It’s from Hebrews 10:22-25, the first one is from the Message, and the second one is NIV.

“So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.”

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

I feel like there are a lot of good ideas in these few verses. I connected what was talked about at PM last Sunday, in the woman who reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak, with the first verse. We should not be ashamed, or feel unworthy when coming to Jesus. His death and resurrection gives us the opportunity to come to God as new cleansed children. I think sometimes I get down on myself, and will give up trying to reach out to God all together, because I don’t think I’m good enough. I love the word “unswervingly”. It reminds me how straight I need to be. This goes along with having confidence in our faith.

I also feel challenged by the last part in how I can be spurring and encouraging you, my brothers and sisters, on in love. Am I taking an active part in the community, and letting myself be used by God? The reminder here is good for me, because I sometimes think that God will orchestrate everything, and I don’t need to think about it. But I need to reach out, like the woman, and make myself available. I have to be actively open, to receive His work in my life.

Use me Christ
I’m open and willing
Amen

We are pilgrims on a journey.

Published
by
Jonny Szczesniak
on April 3, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 3 Comments

I was really encouraged this Easter, by what my friend, Robin, said during the “talk back” time in our public meeting. She spoke about her journey from struggling to believe, into believing that Christ was resurrected. Her story was very easy for me to grasp on to and see very similar steps that I’ve taken, and am still taking in my life. Basically, she said that for a long time, it didn’t make total sense to her, intellectually, that Jesus was raised from the dead. She was a Christian for a good number of years before she came to a place where she didn’t see the point of arguing why or why not, it must, without a doubt, no bones about it, be absolutely true, because A2+B2=C2; therefore Jesus rose from the dead. She learned how to just believe that he did because he did and maybe Jesus is bigger than our intellectual minds anyway.

She had great courage to tell her story in that public meeting, and it was very encouraging to me and probably a lot of other people in the room. Yet, these stories are rarely shared, especially in large group settings, due to a weird fear inside of us that we would be called to the front of the congregation and asked to repent of our evil doubt. Maybe, since we don’t automatically take everything said from the pulpit in one solid bite, we would be asked not to bring our bangin’ goulash to the next potluck. Or, maybe, since we blog that we are on a journey and didn’t teleport to the destination, we’d get a stern talkin’ to from some guy who is going to force us to stop our backsliding.

But no, let me assure you, the blogee, that those scenarios are not meant for here. I’m not going to guarantee that some individuals in our community won’t do weird things or be mean, but our vision as a church is to be a SAFE PLACE to EXPLORE and EXPRESS God’s LOVE! That is why I love this church! We can struggle together, learn together, grow together, discover together, build together, play baseball together, laugh together, cry together. On top of that, if someone needs to work through something, we not only try to encourage them by being there to talk to, but we let that person work through the things that they need to work out in order to be a more complete person. While talking to Robin after the PM, she said that now she sees herself as a guide to offer hope to someone on there journey. That it’s ok to be skeptical, and shine light on things that just don’t seem to make sense. She sees a lot of younger adults trying to figure things out right away, and then get discouraged because they don’t have all of the answers. Robin offers encouraging words to us like “It’s ok to be where you are, you’re headed in the right direction.”, or “Jesus can handle it when you are working with tough questions… he’s fine with the process.” She’s been there, and she still works with this stuff, many years since she’s been a Christian. I’ve been there too.

When I moved to Philly in March 2005, I was at a point in my life where I’d seen some “flaws” with a lot of Christ “facts” that I was force fed since I was a kid. Even when I was a teenager I noticed things that I always knew to be truths, started looking more like not-quite-truths. I won’t blog about the specifics right now, but I really didn’t know what to believe, therefore, I was confused and had a lot of big questions. Was my whole life all a lie? Was Satan just trying to get me to backslide? Is everyone else on the planet secretly aliens here to study me? Is God real? Is the Devil real? Should I read the Bible like a text book? Is there a heaven? Would I still be a Christian if I knew there wasn’t a heaven? How should we treat other people? Is it ok to say swear words? Is the U.S. God’s chosen country? What country doesn’t God choose? Does our society treat people fairly? Can I do anything to help? What should I do during my stay on planet Earth? These, plus about 3 million other questions flooded my mind, but I felt scared, or ashamed of asking anyone, especially if I knew they were a Christian. I guess I’ve heard too many horror stories.

So, after the big move to Philly, I decided to join Circle and drop just about everything that I believed. I essentially wiped my brain clean, and tore down the foundations of what I felt I should believe. Then I asked a lot of questions, to myself and to the people around me. I was amazed at what happened. People had conversations with me and we tried to work it out. They didn’t give me some one-liner fact answer on a grey area question, nor did they try to solve the problem for me. This community let me work out stuff that I really needed to work out. My faith in Jesus became a lot stronger and I fell in love with this community. They even blogged about their own struggles! I’ve seen the areas that people struggle with, transform and become some of the greatest things about them! I felt loved by others, even though I probably said or did some weird things. I died to my old ways and resurrected with Jesus! And I’m still working with a lot of stuff. I’m still dying to old ways, and I’m still rising with Christ! Dag, that’s awesome!

being present and going deeper

Published
by
Tracey Kohl
on April 1, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about having conversations about Jesus with people who don’t know much about Him. Over the years I’ve struggled with having a conversation with people about anything. I’ve grown in this area and now I can start a conversation or keep up my end of the conversation. Most times I enjoy myself, which is surprising to me. I still get a little nervous when meeting someone new. Occasionally I want to take a nap after being with a new friend or friends for a couple hours, because I feel emotionally drained. I think what tires me out mostly is all my internal work, not the conversation itself.

Sometimes when reflecting on a conversation with a friend I’m left with a longing for something deeper than chatting about our kids, or what’s new in the neighborhood. I’m realizing I want to show up more in the conversations. I don’t just want to participate I want to bring more of me into the conversation.

So, how do I do this? First I think I need to enter the conversation knowing that I am a child of God and I am connected to Jesus. I need to know I am loved. Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a woman remains in me and I in her, she will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).” I also need to really love the person I’m talking to. I want to get beyond my insecurities so that I can get to know a person instead of just surviving the conversation. I want to really know God and the stories of my faith. Jesus helped lots of people know themselves more and go deeper with him through stories. When people want to know more about me I want to really tell them rather than sticking with the safety of the weather. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, (1 Peter 3:15). I also know that Jesus and Paul talk about words being given to us when we need them. I want to trust that if I get to a place in a conversation where I have nothing to say, where I’m left speechless (this is a big fear of mine), that the Spirit will give me words to say. As I write this I wonder if it might be okay to be speechless every once in a while too.