Everything That Rises

As a minister I think about church a lot...I mean A WHOLE LOT! It's my life, my vocation, my passion of sorts, so it's natural that it would occupy my mind most of the time. Lately, however, I've been thinking more intentionally about church. I haven't been thinking about the usual stuff (sermons, events, Sunday school lessons, etc.); I've been thinking about why we even do church in the first place. Why does the congregation I lead even bother to meet? We are in a county of Alabama where there are at least 85 or so other congregations that are not too dissimilar from ours in terms of worship style, general practice, and doctrine. There are well over 100 churches in and around our city doing good things--"getting people saved," feeding hungry mouths, giving people gas money, etc.-- so why is it necessary that we exist? Is it even necessary at all? Of course, I could easily extend that question to myself. There are hundreds of Christians in and around my c...

I'm sorry the A/C is too cold... I'm sorry the A/C isn't cold enough... I'm sorry the fellowship hall isn't clean enough for you... I'm sorry the sermon was too short... I'm sorry the sermon was too long... I'm sorry you didn't know about the meeting mentioned in the newsletter, bulletin, and the beginning of the service... I'm sorry that some of the youth were playing tic-tac-toe during the service, while another baby was crying... I'm sorry I didn't do that the way you think it should've been done... I'm sorry if other members of the staff/congregation don't do things the way you'd like them to... But here's the deal... You can stop complaining... You can take a more pro-active role in the church... You can do more than offer your two cents... You can actually stop practicing your faith on the sidelines, critiquing everything that I do, or telling me about everything you think is wrong with everyone and everything el...

Hell. The word "hell" is mentioned only 13 times in the Bible (that is the New Revised Standard Version of the Old and New Testaments, excluding the Deuterocanonical books, for those of you keeping tabs). Eleven of those times it is in fact Jesus who speaks the word, which is the Greek word Gehenna (if you'd like to learn more about Gehenna and the history behind the word, you can click here ). To give you a sense of perspective, while the word "hell" is translated some 13 times in the entire Bible, the word translated "poor" is used some 25 times just in the four gospels of the New Testament (of course in both cases this excludes allusions to the ideas of hell, poverty, etc.). Hell has been the topic of some of my more "theological" discussion as of late, so I thought it might be useful to put some of my own thoughts on the subject down if for no other reason than to simply sort them out. I have to say I'm not "thrilled" abo...

A year ago, the most influential person in my life passed away. I wrote the words below a year ago in reflection of her influence. Rosie Orene was born on a day no one remembers in a year no one recalls, in a place too soon forgotten. She grew up poor when poor wasn ’t noble. Her father was a drunk, her siblings were transient, and as a little girl she sat beside her mother’s bed as she slipped from this world into Beulah Land. She grew up the audience of violence, watching her father and brothers fight over booze money and the last spoon of peas. She lived in the gritty reality of a romanticized world and was all too often its victim. Like the other great heroes and heroines of human history, her adolescence is untold, but maybe that is best for all of us, to protect her innocence and the great magnitude of her selflessness. Still, she grew to be a woman, a wife, and a mother. As a woman, she was anything but dainty. She had more in common with “Rosie the Riveter” than merely a name…...

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child... I assumed everyone somehow started out the same way I did. They all came from the same sort of family with they same sort of resources. Everyone had the same experiences and the same opportunities. When I was a child... I thought there came a point in one's life where he or she purposefully decided to "make it" or simply get by. I thought those who were broke, poor, in jail or on the street wound up in those situations by their own free will. When I was a child... I thought crimes were committed by those who were purely evil and couldn't possibly have any good in them, those kinds of people who did bad things because they were bad people. When I was a child... My eyes were covered with the rose colored glasses of childhood, my horizons were only as broad...

I've heard a lot lately about the National Day of Prayer. So I thought I'd say just a few things about it and move on. First, why is it that so many people are conveniently religious when stuff like this happens? People I see maybe three times in a year in the Sunday morning congregations tend to come running out of the woodwork to let everyone know that they don't want their "Christian" beliefs violated, or their religious rights taken away. Seems to me like honest believers would just sort of shrug of a National DAY of Prayer, seeing as how EVERY day is a day of prayer for them. Second, what's the big deal with having a National Day of Prayer? (That question is aimed at all of those people who think we shouldn't). So we set aside ONE DAY to encourage prayer in the lives of the people of faith in this country. There comes a point when all either side is doing is trying to piss off the other side, so really, what's the big deal if there is a National D...

Why are we in love with stuff? Stuff breaks. Stuff gets old. Stuff wears out. Stuff is expensive. So why do we love it? I say we because I love stuff too. Of course, I'd like to think my stuff is a bit more socially acceptable, but at the end of the day it's really just more stuff. Stuff is a symbol of our spending power--our worth. Stuff gives us control, grants us status. Stuff clutters our hallways and offices, yet we don't want to get rid of it, because we know we'll just go out and get more. There are people who have serious issues with stuff; we call them hoarders. However, the strange thing is no one has ever come to my home, seen some stuff I don't use, and say, "Hey man, why you got all this stuff over here that you don't use? Are you a hoarder?" I don't know. Maybe we're all not that obsessed with stuff, but it does say something that we live in a country with an entire industry built around storing excess stuff. I'd like to ...