Goodbye, DisciplesWorld

DisciplesWorld, which has been the denominational magazine for my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), announced today that it is ceasing publication. It was in operation for seven years, shortly after the denomination shut down The Disciple, the denomination's own in house magazine.

To say that I'm a little sad, would be an understatement. I think this is bad for the denomination and will hurt us all in the long run.

As I said, DisciplesWorld, which was an independent magazine, came into being because of the closure of The Disciple. Now the Disciple was not much a magazine. But what it did was keep us informed of what was going on throughout Discipledom.

I know that there are many of my fellow Disciples out there that look at the end of DisciplesWorld and will shrug. Magazines are so 20th century, they will say. We can get all our info from the web, others will say. All are valid reasons. But I also think all of them are a croc of...well, this is family blog.

Listen, when it comes to the web and social media, I am all over that. I've been blogging since 2002. I love Twitter and Facebook and I want to find ways to use them to foster better communication.

But despite all my love for modern communication, it will not replace what I think was worthwhile journalism. Maybe it's the old ink-stained wretch in me (I did get my bacheor's degree in jounralism), but the reason blogs exist is because of the traditional media that we so casually ignore. It's because there are people that make the work of reporting and writing their jobs, that we bloggers have anything to say. Now that DisciplesWorld is gone, does anyone really think that some blogger in Minneapolis is going to write about what some Disciples congregation is doing? Most bloggers don't have the staying power do the real live jounralism. We blog occasionally, but we have to tend to the rest of our lives.

Which is why I think the loss of DisciplesWorld is such a bad thing. We are losing a unifying voice, a place where we could come and learn from each other. We are losing a way to find out what is going on the wider church. We are losing a way to be challenged with thoughts and opinions that we may not agree with. We are losing some damn good reporting. I will forever be thankful for their stories on the Jonestown massacre, which helped a new generation understand what happened in the jungle in South America all those years ago.

One would hope this would be a case for Disciples News Service to kick it up a notch and come up with something new. It could be web-based. I don't care what it is, but something needs to happen to keep the tradition of Disciple publications going. From the times of the Millenial Harbinger to now, Disciples have used media to express thoughts and ideas.

I will miss DisciplesWorld. I am thankful for Verity Jones, Rebecca Woods and Sherri Emmons for all of their hard work, especially for Rebecca who interviewed me for an article earlier this year. You fought the good fight.

Thank you.

Grace, Judgement and Tiger Woods

I was checking out Rod Dreher's blog and he happened to have this to say about the recent transgressions of Tiger Woods:

He had the world -- fame, fortune, worldwide admiration, a wife and children -- and he blew it on extramarital affairs with floozies. I never could have imagined writing words like this about Tiger Woods (Tiger Woods!), but he is a contemptible human being. God help his poor wife and children. I thought he might still escape this morass with his endorsement deals intact, but that's looking increasingly unlikely. Good. Having betrayed his wife and children so grotesquely, he needs to suffer. He needs to hurt like the mother of his children is hurting. If that is possible.

That brought out some reaction from commenters who thought Dreher was being too rough on Tiger. Rod's response was rather blunt:

Nope -- not before he feels the full weight of what his sin meant to the lives of his wife and children. Anything else is false repentance. For me, the most moving scene of any film, ever, is in "The Mission," when Robert De Niro, the repentant slave trader, drags a heavy weight behind him as he climbs the jungle mountain to the mission where the Indians live. At the top, as he's covered with mud and filth, and exhausted, one of the Indians -- the same people he has persecuted -- severs the rope binding De Niro to his sins. He is free. He sobs in gratitude. If he hadn't felt the full weight of his sins, his repentance wouldn't have carried much weight.

I get so sick and tired of the cheap grace in our culture, especially attending celebrities. Tiger's publicists are no doubt already planning the Oprah interview to rehabilitate his image, and to repair his brand. How about let's remember that there are real people torn to bits by his infidelity? If I were ever to do that to my wife and kids, I hope none of you will let me off the hook so easily.

Dreher has always been an interesting blogger for me because he can get into this mode where he is calling this person or that "contemptible." His remarks have me wondering: what sort of punishments should Tiger go through? Does a Christian community have to be a place where we have people dragg heavy weights until they are "truly sorry?" And who decides that?

I don't have any easy answers, but I do worry that such a viewpoint would have us go back to the days of "shunning" and "scarlet letters" that might do more harm than good.

I dunno. I'd like to know what you all think. What are your thoughts?

Things of Heaven...Stuff of Earth

The whole sorry tale of Maurice Clemmons and his life of destruction has led me to think a lot about Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor is getting his share of blame for allowing Clemmons to walk free. Most of the political bloggers that I follow tend to view his road to the presidency as kaput.

Now I don't really like Huckabee's views on various issues. But right now, I feel sorry for man. Because while he made a big mistake in releasing an animal like Clemmons into the public, I think he did it for the right reasons.

What is interesting right now is how some tend think that relying on religious beliefs while in office is somehow dangerous. While one should rely on all aspects of knowledge, to say that a politician must not be informed by their faith is ludicrious. Christianity, and any other religion for that matter, is a worldview that informs all parts of an adherent's life. It is impossible to say that religious views be kept somewhere on the coat rack of life while we live our lives. For any adherent, it is the fabric of life.

Religion informs people's choices on all sorts of matters. Many of my liberal friends who support universal health care do so for religious reasons. Same goes for those who oppose abortion or war. The problem isn't that we have these views, the problem lies in how they are used.

The case of Clemmons poses hard questions because it strikes at the heart of something that both Huckabee and I strongly believe in: redemption. The belief that people can change their ways and live right, to turn away from wrong is at the heart of Christianity. We are taught of a loving God who cared for us even when we did wrong and compels us to live righteous lives. For a Christian, it is not enough that the we believe this, it is something that must be lived out, just as we believe Jesus did when on earth.

When Huckabee pardoned Clemmons, I have to believe he did it because he truly believed Clemmons' sob story of having changed. He wanted to live out his faith and he believed this man had been redeemed.

That's of course, the danger here. We try to live as followers of Christ in an imperfect world. We try to show love and mercy to a fellow human being and he in turn kills four cops who were just trying to get some paperwork done.

So what do we do? Some bloggers say simply that Huckabee should have simply thrown away the key. He should have known better. Once a skunk, always a skunk.

Maybe a future politician will do what many politicians do and ignore their religious beliefs and keep more felons in prison and maybe even execute a few to show the public he/she means business.

The citizen in me says just that: lock 'em up. But the pastor in me, the one who wants to try to live as Jesus did, wonders if doing that is the right thing. The pastor wonders if everyone that asks for mercy is a snake, or if some really are wanting to make a change for the better.

Joe Carter, in his excellent post about Huckabee muses that the governor was naieve. Maybe so, but isn't Christianity at its root somewhat naieve? It preaches love in a world filled with hate. It's hardly a rational faith.

The problem for all Christians, and maybe for everyone who has a faith is knowing when to as the Bible says, be wise as serpents and when to be innocent as doves. When can we allow for heaven to break through on earth, and when to realize that heaven is not here yet.

It's a problem I wish pastors dealt with more. Because while we want to have some heaven here on earth, we live in this world filled with grays. How do we strive to be a loving a forgiving people in a world of Maurice Clemmonses?

What has been frustrating to me is that few if any religious blogs are talking about this issue. I have searched and searched and found none at all. I find that amazing. Maybe we don't want to admit that this is hard issue. But it would be honest.

Mike Huckabee made the moral choice in wanting to give someone a second chance. But in this case, it was not the right choice and four dead police offers are the result.


Crossposted at NeoMugwump

Sunday Sermon- November 8, 2009

“Healing Hospitality”
Genesis 18:1-5, Mark 2:1-12, Romans 12:9-16
November 8, 2009
First Christian Church
Minneapolis, MN

While I was a student at Michigan State University, I became friends with three other people. We began a good relationship during my sophomore year and we started gathering weekly for prayer. It was a great time of sharing our lives with each other. It created a friendships that lasted long after college ended.

All of us were friends with an other person by the name of Chris. Chris was an agnostic and many of us had spiritual conversations with him. I remember one night he entered the room where we were praying. All of the sudden, the very smooth flowing nature of the group suddenly became frosty. Chris noticed how rigid we were. He could tell that he wasn’t welcomed and ended up making an excuse and leaving the room. We went back to our conversation.

A few days later, I was walking with Chris from class and Chris ended up confronting me on what had happened. “You say your are Christians,” he said, “ but then why didn’t you welcome me that night?”

I was stumped and ashamed. He had cut right to heart of the matter: here we were, supposedly loving followers of Jesus, and we had basically cut off someone who was curious about Jesus. We were not being hospitable.

That whole experience taught me about hospitality. What I learned is that as a follower of Jesus, how we treat people matters.

Today’s sermon is about hospitality. Now you are probably wonder what in the world does hospitality have to do with evangelism. As I was preparing this sermon, I decided to ask a few friends via Facebook to define hospitality. Here is what a few people said:

Inviting and accepting everyone into the group... making them feel welcome. Offering them my seat, while I stand or sit on the floor. Giving them my plate of food, while I have a cup of water instead.

Being a friend rather than being friendly. Opening the door to the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised. Opening the door to all who are different from ourselves. To me it means the same outside the church as it does inside the church.

Inviting, welcoming and generously serving the needs of others. Seems to apply both inside and outside the context of a church.

I also remember a time when my pastor had to call down our congregation during worship. Seems when a visitor would appear and try to take a seat in our frequently full sanctuary, oftentimes a member would say, "That seat's saved." John had to remind us--because so many of us hadn't had the experience in years--how difficult it is for someone to come visit a strange new church, without us making it harder by keeping them from finding a place to sit. He said, "No more saving seats in church."

The story in Genesis has Abraham meeting three strangers who basically walk up to old Abe one day. Immediately, he welcomed these strangers in and the scrpiture records how trouble he went into to make these strangers welcomed. What Abraham didn’t know is that these three people were two angels and God. He did all this without knowing that God was in his midst.

Then there is the story in Mark where four men are trying to bring their friend who is paralyzed to see Jesus. But they can’t get in. You would think that would be a signal to give up, but they got up on the roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus, who forgives him of his sin and heals him.

The stories in the Bible and the answer I heard on Facebook told me that hospitality is more than being a nice to people. It’s a process of being open, open to God, and open to those that we meet in our daily walk. It’s more than making sure visitors know where the bathroom is located, but about making a space where people can be who they are and where they are welcomed to God’s Table. Hospitality is not about doing the church doing something as much as it is about the church being something in the world.

Let’s look back at that first story in Genesis. Now, if most of us saw a couple of strangers come up to us, I’m pretty sure that none of us would be as friendly to these gentlemen. We don’t know who they are and they might be out to do us harm. And sometimes in church, we tend to do that as well. We want to be welcoming, but it has to be on our terms. We don’t go out of our way in trying to please our guests.

Or it could be that we are concerned about those people. They maybe different from us, from different race or economic background. But in keeping our distance from strangers, in not making them feel at home, we missing what God as to say to us. The reason is that those strangers in one way or another is God coming in one form. God might be speaking from this person and we miss seeing what God is up in the world.

Maybe the most basic rule of hospitality is being open to God. We have to have hearts that are willing to be open to God and what God is doing in the world. Too often we get trapped in customs and traditions that might be keeping us from hearing God.

Hospitality means wondering what God is up to in the world. Because God is not just found here on a Sunday morning, but is out there in the world and we are called to join in the Misseo Dei or mission of God.

In hearing all those responses on Facebook, what I learned is that hospitality is not something we do to get more members. If we think that we need to be nice in order to get more people in the pews, well, that is not biblical hospitality. Hospitality is about being the church. Let God worry about bringing more people in the church. What people out there wonder is if the church really cares about them. They aren’t looking to join a church, but they are looking for authentic people who welcome people and love and serve others as Christ did.

So then what is hospitality in the context of First Christian Church? Well, it’s when I hear of Warren and Karen Westphal as they stand and hand out brochures to people at Gay Pride showing that followers of Jesus love gay and lesbian people. It’s when several families here go on Saturday and cook a meal for the homeless at St. Stephen’s shelter. It’s when people like the Hesanos take part in building a house for Habitat for Humanity or when Deb Murphy starts a Children’s Sunday School class making the Little Ones that Jesus talked about feel welcome. Hospitality is about showing the love of Jesus in action to our neighbors and our friends.

Now, this doesn’t get people off the hook for inviting people to church. But it does put it into context. If we are talking about Jesus, but not welcoming the poor, or those of different races and nationalities, then what we have to say means nothing.

When someone enters the door of this church, we not only see God in their eyes, but they see God in us. Or can they? Are we open to welcoming people into our lives, not simply into membership?

What Chris taught my two decades ago, is that I was not open to God’s prompting. Here was a man wondering about Jesus and we told him Jesus was not interested in him. When we meet our co-workers, and friends and families, will be willing to be like Abraham and welcome them in as if they were family?

First Christian, I don’t think you’re done yet at a community. If we are open to what God is up to out there, then we can get ready for a wonderful journey. So let us get ready to welcome the world and welcome Christ- with arms wide open.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

John Elder Robison

One of the books that helped me as I was coming to terms with having Aspergers, was Look Me In the Eye, by John Elder Robison. It didn't hurt that John is the older brother of one of my favorite writers, Augusten Burroughs.

Below is a clip about John and Augusten from the Today Show.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can...

I've recently noticed something about myself in relation to my having Aspergers. I tend to be someone that can be doggedly persistent about something. Where as others can be focused on something for a while and then give up, I tend to persist...and persist.

For example, whenever I've been without work, I've been dillegent in looking for work. I'm basically running like clockwork.

At church, I've noticed that others don't tend to have much hope the church will continue. Even though there are those that I think want change, because others tend to not be that interested in changing there is a sense that there is no hope and that we should just learn to die well.

Now, they could just be realistic. However, in my view, I tend to think that if there are some people that want change, then you just keep at it and ignore those who don't want to change.

In the whole conversation, I've been the one that seems to be the one that wants to damn all the naysayers and keep trying. I want to believe that God is not done with First Christian and that if we are just open to what God is saying, a miracle will happen. Even the Senior Pastor based on the evidence is not hopeful the church will survive.

Maybe they are all correct and I'm all wet.

When I was leading Community of Grace, I held on to that project with all my stregnth. I did finally give up and closed the ministry, but I still look back and think I didn't try hard enough.

I'm hardly an Pollyana. But I think because my Aspie brain is so focused, I can't really see other options. Of course that can be a bad thing. Sometimes you have to see other options and understand that what we want and hope for might not come true.

But I also think it has a good side. As I journey within mainline Protestantism, I tend to see a lot of what I would call defeatism. We look backward at the past and long for the "good 'ol days" when the pews were full. We look at our small flock and think there is no hope.

But what if the church saw things like someone with Aspergers? What if we were single-focused on doing God's will in our particular setting? What if we believed all those stories told to us about how God took all those "uncool" people like Gideon and performed a mighty deed?

My brain is wired in a way that I'm a doer. I might not be the best person socially, but I can do the work required. I really do believe with faith in God and hard work, there are still good days ahead for First Christian.

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't think God is done with First Christian in Minneapolis. I have to believe that God is just waiting for us to know that we still have much to give to the service of God's kingdom.

I think we can, I think we can...

Unbinding Your Heart: Day One

Today's text was Psalm 139:

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
5You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.


7Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
12even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

As I've been meditating on this passage, what struck me is that God knows me. ALL of me. And yet God loves me.

One the questions today is how I know God. I can remember musing about the nature of God when I was a kid, but it was an event in my early adulthood that really made me aware that God is here. I will share that later.

Right now, I am just reveling in the fact that I can't hide from God and inspite of knowing all of me, God loves me anyway. Quite amazing.