There is No God, Or is There?

Two recent changes in the nature of unbelief have taken hold in recent years.

First, the atheistic mindset has become more militant in nature. Characterized by people like Richard Dawkins, the assault against God and against believers in God has become vitriolic and insulting. Atheists are instructed to call believers fools and to dismiss them as unable to think or reason.

Second, people have stopped caring. The spiritual climate in our nation is dominated by apathy. It’s not unusual to encounter the thought: “God may or may not be around. Who cares?” People don’t even care much about atheists!

Do these two developments have any significance? Yes.

Militant atheism pushes people to live in denial and to think irrationally. Anger at God, life, religion, or the church that may drive atheistic rejection of God sends people into an detrimental way of life. It’s just not healthy to live in anger and denial. Furthermore, denying historical and eyewitness accounts of the supernatural and the miraculous leads people into inaccurate thinking. It’s bad science to ignore documented facts.

An apathetic attitude toward the Divine leads people to miss out on life. In addition to staying at arm’s length from the natural events of life, this apathetic approach robs people of the deeper mysteries of life.

What’s the answer? In a perfect world it would wonderful if everyone could engage in balanced thought and stimulating discourse about the possibility of the miraculous and supernatural. But this isn’t a perfect world.

So, the next alternative may actually be the best. It’s up to God to do the convincing. He’s the best One to prove Himself to a doubting world. He’s also the best candidate to pursue us when we don’t care.

Watch out. God has a track record of surprising a denying and slumbering world.

Why a Convention?

Around the LCMS, district conventions have taken place or will take place. The Texas District begins its convention on Thursday, June 21. Most comments I’ve heard about conventions recently haven’t been positive. I’ve heard it said that they’re “boring,” they’re “expensive” or “they don’t have any Kingdom significance.” Honestly, I’ve even thought similar things.

Years ago, as a new pastor, I visited with retired men who spoke much differently about church conventions. They commented about the wonderful fellowship, the joyful blessing of being together and worshipping together, and the unity of mission as decisions were made. Of course, not every convention was perfect, but these men who looked back to the 1950’s and earlier had a glimmer in their eyes as they remembered good days in the church.

Times have changed. Institutions and organizations are not very popular. Organic, grass-roots ministry is what people crave. But might we be forgetting something?

A number of years ago my family and I visited some missionary friends in a small village in West Africa. We didn’t go there to build a building. We didn’t go there to do a project. Our friends asked us to visit and just be there! We talked to people, met with village elders, prayed together, and hung out together. The result? A remarkable sense of mutual encouragement unfolded. I realized that I was in the middle of a remarkable ministry of “presence.” Being there meant so much to the people we met. Being there with the people we met meant so much to us. Genuine spiritual encouragement was happening. Undistracted by a list of tasks, the value of relationships took hold. A sense of the body of Christ became very real.

An African gentleman told me a while back that we Americans are terrible at relationships. That may mean that we are not reflecting the foundations of the early church when “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Maybe we need to be together a bit more--pulling our eyes away from screens (computer, cell phone, tablet, television), look into each other’s eyes, bear one another’s burdens, and lift up hands in prayer together.

Maybe that’s what the deeper value of a convention is. Please pray for the groups that gather this year, and for us in Texas. The powerful ministry of presence may advance God’s Kingdom more than we realize.

Are You Still Running?

I ran across some friends at the store the other day. I haven’t seen them in a while, so we spent some time getting caught up. They asked me a question almost everyone who hasn’t seen me in a while asks: “Are you still running?” It’s a question that contains these thoughts: “Are you really crazy enough to keep doing that?” “Haven’t you broken down yet after all those miles?” “Is this a short phase or long phase you’re going through in your life?” I’ve been running since 1977. It used to be a warm weather pastime for me, but in 1990, as I settled into lots of desk sitting, long meetings, and stressful situations, I knew I had to have regular cardiovascular activity in my life. In January 1991 I resolved never to miss a week of running. To this day I haven’t. I call it my “week streak.” I take rest days, but I never miss a week. So, when people ask me if I’m still running, it’s like asking if I’m still breathing or eating. I wonder if our perspective about being a disciple of Jesus is similar to the “Are you still running?” question. When I was growing up, discipleship had a cognitive emphasis. It was like math class: learn the facts, perform well on the academic exams, but don’t ask too much about how you’ll use this in real life. Discipleship, however, is not just a cognitive pursuit. Following Jesus is like breathing and eating; it’s every day, every moment, life. It’s a part of you. In relationship with Jesus and others, you are on mission together. Everything becomes saturated with the importance of knowing and showing Christ and the life He gives. It’s not just a “church” thing or a “Sunday School” thing; it is a life thing. This is something the world craves. People yearn to make a meaningful difference, and people need hope. That’s what Jesus gives. People aren’t craving cognitive discipleship; they crave action and meaning. What “life things” have become nonnegotiable components of your day-to-day existence? Is being a disciple one of them? Are you finding more people who will join you in the discipleship boom?

Will You Hear?

I used to think I lived in a quiet neighborhood. When we started taking care of my granddaughter I realized I was completely mistaken. We live in a cacophony of chaotic commotion! Trucks roar, weed-whackers whack, edgers whine, mowers growl, airplanes rumble, and sirens wail. Murphy’s Law made sure that all the sounds came together at just the right time to awaken my granddaughter from her nap. How did I miss the noise? It may be the same way I tune out the noise of life going on around me. Busyness and self-interest, my agenda and my ambition, lead me to miss the important noise of life around me. I can so easily resemble Jesus’ description of hardheaded sinners who tune God out: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matthew 13:13). What awakens me to hear, to really hear again? New life. The cry from the cross, the rumble of the opening tomb, the words: “Broken and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” rouse me to life and show me that God treasures His children. With ears unstopped by the touch of Jesus, His mandate: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation” roars into my soul and enlivens me to hear God’s people and share His concern for them. In a span of only nine verses, Jesus uses the word “world” eleven times in John 17. The Greek word is “cosmos.” This term began as a word meaning “that which has been put into order, that which was adorned.” We translate it “world.” God sees it as his precious and beautiful handiwork of humanity. His concern is for the world. He hears His people and He cares. Will I? Will I live insulated in my own pursuits or will I hear people and respond to them? Will the church? Will we hear only our own internal “business” or will we hear the cries of the “cosmos” and respond? The “cosmos” begins in your home. In your life. In your community. Will you hear?

Bubba Mission

When Bubba Watson won the Masters golf tournament, he made Bubbaugusta history.  Commentators gushed about how an ordinary guy, a person who never took a golf lesson, a professional who didn’t have a cadre of coaches around him, proved that an ordinary man can win a major.  His improvised hook shot off the pine needles was lauded as Bubba creativity.  What carefully trained, meticulously coached, PGA groomed, institutionally produced golfer could even think of such a shot, let alone pull it off?

It’s a new era of ordinary winners.  Or, maybe it’s an era of remembering that golf is meant to be played by ordinary people.

Might the same be true of mission?

We’ve come through a generation and a half of carefully trained, meticulously coached, church-system groomed, institutionally produced ecclesiastical professionals.  What’s happened to the church?  The culture is losing faith in it.  The professionals are falling to the wayside in scandals--ala Tiger Woods.  The institutional prototype is turning people off.  People are leaving the church.

But there are some Bubba’s out there.  Ordinary women and men, people both young and old, are getting creative with the Gospel.  They’re meeting people where they live.  They’re personifying Jesus in their communities.  They’re inviting people into making Christ’s difference.  They’re looking outward and giving the genuine love and care of Jesus to people around them.  They’re meeting in homes, apartments, and coffee shops.  They’re sacrificing, starting non-profits, and traveling both near and far because they believe Jesus is the most important person for everyone to know.

And people are coming to faith in Him.  Around the world, the actions of ordinary people--of Bubba’s--are making Christianity the fastest growing faith movement on the planet.

Could your life use some Bubba mission?  Could your church?

Go for it, Bubba!

C & E No More

My daughter commented on Easter that it looked like even the Christmas and Easter attenders weren’t showing up for worship.  I looked around and agreed.

Times have changed.  I asked a young acquaintance of mine what she was doing for Easter.  Church was not in the plan.  Their families don’t attend church.  It isn’t a part of their lives.

The same is true of a good number of people in our culture, both young and old.  The church habit is slipping away.

The big question this presents believers with is: How will people hear about the hope we have in the risen Savior, Jesus?

If Christmas and Easter attenders are dwindling, if overall church attendance is declining, if the attractional, institutional church is losing its appeal, how will the Gospel invade the lives of the hopeless?

This is the question each believer and every church must wrestle with.  My thoughts?  Here they are:

1. The risen Christ isn’t boring or routine.  Christians need to be reminded about this in creative and compelling ways.

2. If the risen Christ is the source of true hope, Christians need to be ready to offer this hope in caring and appropriate ways within everyday relationships and encounters.  The church must exert new energy for the formation of every believer as a disciple in the trenches.

3. If the institutional church is no longer the center of the culture’s spiritual quest, the church must deploy to venues that allow believers to speak into the god conversation of the culture.  This will require great patience, strategic thinking, courageous action, and some radical retooling of budgets.

4. The church must trust that God really desires all to be saved.  As the paradigm of outreach shifts, Christians need to remember that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Lord’s Church.  Times and methods may change, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Five Ways to Get Out of the (church) Box

1. Be the church where you are. The picture in this article is from a recent small group ministry effort of my friends in Africa. All they did was to find a shade tree and dig into the Word and prayer. Where can you bring Christ’s Church through serving, fellowship, prayer, and study?

2. Love on people in a local nursing home. Hundreds of elderly and disabled folks in our communities are lonely and forgotten. What if a handful of people from church invited non-churched friends from the community to gather with people there for conversation, songs, a brief devotion, and some games every week? The result would be a satellite congregation and many lives reached with the love of Jesus!

3. Deploy. What if you started a “preaching station” or a missional community in another part of town or in a town nearby? Why not stretch your boundaries by sending people to extend the reach of the Gospel?

4. Plant a church. What if you worked with your local Mission and Ministry Facilitator to seriously consider what it would take to get the right church planter on board to start a new ministry?

5. Serve. What if you blessed the community by finding a way to help make the community better? Talk with community leaders to see what needs exist. Then invite non-members to get involved with you. People will say yes to community service more often than to attending a church service. Let them see Jesus in action first!