Just the right words.

Making Waves

OK, so the surf off the South Carolina coast isn't the Bonsai Pipeline. Still, early this morning ten or twelve dudes crawled into the cold Atlantic to hang ten, or whatever it is these guys do for the few seconds they can ride our small waves. Watching them for more than an hour was good mindless entertainment as I savored my robust morning Verona. More than that, it was illustration time for me, a reminder of some spiritual truth a colleague used to talk about all the time.

In the more than an hour that I watched their acrobatics, I never once saw any of them try to make a wave. They didn't command any sea-going vessels, possess any wave machines, or cast any spells over the Atlantic Ocean. There weren't any groupies or roadies beating the surf to shift the currents or  move the under-tow in another direction. These cool looking sandlappers floated till the big waves happened and then they rode them, or attempted to, at least. You see, in the genius of creation God set the seas in place, arranged the sun and moon and stars, put the rotation of the earth and all the other planets and solar systems into motion, and orchestrated the movement of the waters so that there would be tides, ebb and flow, waves. So, the SC surfer dudes weren't saddled with the burden of making waves. They rode them. If they didn't they either floated or drowned. And, I don't really think many of them got up that early to go float in the Atlantic, and certainly not to drown.

Here's a lesson, surfers. God makes spiritual waves too. Those of us who serve Him must learn to ride the waves He creates, or suffer the same result as the kids @ Garden City Beach, South Carolina. Trouble is, just floating is really not an option. You see, the currents are strong these days. If you don't ride the waves God creates, you'll either drift away in the tides, or be swept out to sea in the under-tow, then eventually drown. That is not good.

There is a spiritual wave sweeping around the world today. It is the new thing God is continually doing, the thing he promised Isaiah (see Isaiah 43:19), the new wine---fresh, effervescent, alive,  bursting the seams of old, worn containers. Some spiritual leaders discern this work of God, and are riding the spiritual wave that God is creating. Others are drifting out to sea, caught in the under-tow of tradition and ritual and religion. Others are drowning.

The Isaiah passage includes a serious question: "...do you not perceive it?" Could it be that God could create such a spiritual wave and some people not see it?

Hmmmm. Think I'll watch the surfers again tomorrow. There may be another lesson in it.

Disconnected and out of sorts

OK, we're on vacation and supposed to be chillaxin. Translated, this means we're supposed to unplug, power down for a few days, shift into neutral and stare at the big pond all day. Naaah! That's just not in me, vacation or not. So, as soon as we arrived and unloaded our stuff---a pair of shorts, three or four t-shirts, two bathing suits, flip flops, and some toothpaste---I subscribed to the Time Warner Cable Roadrunner ISP. I mean, what good is it to go on vacation and not be able to rub it in everybody's face. 

But, nooooh! Most of Sunday night and Monday I haven't been able to find enuff signal to send Harriet a love letter in the other room or email poor Oliver a "thinking of you" card at Goose Creek Bed and Biscuit. So, we went out on a pilgrimage to locate a Starbucks, Atlanta Bread Company, Panera Bread, McCafe, or anyplace with WiFi so we could re-connect to the world we've been separated from for most of twenty-four hours. Talk about separation anxiety!

Fugedaboudit. We would have had to drive to North Myrtle Beach to find anything. You see, the people who live in Murrell's Inlet, Garden City, Surf Side Beach, or any of the south area Grand Strand aren't techies. The Casio hand-held adding machine w/o paper roll is an innovation in this part of the world. So, our low country tour was for naught. Now, I'm sitting in the car on a side street hoping to keep three bars to get this thing posted. It's hot in car, by the way.

Funny how staying connected is so important today. Emails, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web sites---all the toys of the www are just about essential to survival. I was in double afib, cold sweats, threw a tantrum or two, and had a nose bleed when I couldn't get on line. What a world!

Some sad people are disconnected from the main source of direction and purpose in life. The Apostle Paul identifies them as believers, but they worship angels, boast about their experiences, and are arrogant in their spirituality. Paul's says that this man "...has lost his connection with the Head..." (Colossians 2:19), meaning Jesus Christ our Lord.

Staying connected to the virtual world on vacation is really no biggie. My withdrawal symptoms are just another vivid illustration of how important it is to stay connected to Jesus in life. And, the implications are much more significant than Oliver not getting a "thinking of you" e-card.  

Check the new link: mychristianblogs.com

Blog champ Tony Kummer has introduced another great Christian resource for those interested in keeping up with happenings in the church world and arenas of faith. Let me tell you, the blogroll @ mychristianblogs.com is a compilation of the best thinkers and writers in the blogosphere, a single resource where each of us can stay informed about matters touching our faith. Of course, if you want to live in a perpetual disconnected state, you can simply surf the jokes pages or see who's dancing with the stars and ignore this new, innovative site. If you're the least bit concerned about the movements shaking our world, Christian responses to them, and ways that you can get inside of them yourself, then you'll want to check out this site for the many perspectives you'll encounter there.

The SBC Voices site will continue to post many other fine commentators and give each of us another window into the diverse and powerful spiritual people and ideas influencing our times. We are truly indebted to the individuals who have stepped up to assimilate these many great resources and provide a forum for addressing the key issues of the day.

So, sports fans, check them out. Visit them often and let these individuals know appreciation for the service they provide.

Amen.

Eager, expectant faces

Sunday morning we held services in our new worship center, one week ahead of schedule. It was a surprise for most of the people in attendance, having shared the Friday decision with a small cadre of ministry leaders. The first miracle of the day was that the circle of people in the know stayed so tight, not usual for the grapevine in a Baptist church. I stand amazed in His presence!!! Wonders never cease.

Now, a full day later, the lessons learned Sunday morning are scrolling across my screen, ranked like the top ten on ESPN or a NASCAR finish listing. Spot one surprises me a little, outpacing all the others in the polls by a margin of at least ten to one. It is the product of a memory that lingers above all the others, a brief moment stored on my hard-drive that keeps appearing on my personal screen like a pop-up. It is the picture of eager, expectant faces looking up to that brand new contemporary truss-work podium, waiting for something. The singing was over, the haze was settling, I was getting accustomed to the lights, and suddenly there were hundreds of attentive eyes fixed on that spot.

In that instant God taught me something valuable, lasting, a lesson that eventually confronts every person who has ever stood behind the holy desk, one that I had learned in another life and let slip to the backwaters of memory. I'll admit it was a little unsettling at the time. Further reflection lets me know it is another one of those God things we always talk about, timing being such that I could not lose the lesson in the excitement of the day.

At first I went clever. Facing the wall, turned away from the congregation, I told them that, contrary to warnings, the lights didn't actually bother me too much and I could see them fine. Yuk! Yuk! A few laughs. Then, the awkward pause as the joke faltered and, it was  lesson time. That's when I realized that all those eager, expectant faces weren't there for clever, cool, techno savvy, intelligent, bright, or funny. They were eager and expectant for a word from God.

You know, preaching is something we do. We go to seminary to learn a few basics, develop our own style, master the language arts, snoop for illustrations, study the nuances of communications, become proficient in Scripture, theology, and church history, all seeking to make a connection with people. There is always the temptation to allow this sacred calling to devolve into something else, maybe even let the holy moment become about us. I mean, most of us are recovering approval addicts and kind of enjoy the ego bump of being on such a platform.  Sunday morning God taught this old preacher that all of those bright, eager, and expectant faces want is spiritual truth, something from God to challenge and lift them, a word that supercedes the times. Not comedy or drama or tragedy or theatrics. God's Word brought with passion.

The new worship center is awesome. There are some personal adjustments I'll have to make to get used to the new platform, the lights, my image on screens all around. But, those things are really unimportant, insignificant to what those eager, expectant faces want. It has to be higher, bigger, more substantive that cleverness or wit. Truth. That what those eager, expectant faces wanted.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the religious people were threatened greatly. They tried to find a way to arrest the Lord. Luke tells us why they couldn't. Luke 19:48 reads, "...yet they could not find a way to do it, because the people hung on his words."

That's what God taught me Sunday morning. They were hanging on his words.

Awesome

Total surprise! Our congregation was caught completely off guard by the move into our new facility today, a week ahead of schedule. What a blessing. Both services were awesome. It was made even better by the many guests who shared the first day with us, to experience the joys of such newness, and the advanced technology we have been privileged to build into the process. There's a few kinks we need to work out, no doubt. but, it was a fantastic day. Glory to God!

See you next Sunday!

Don't look now...

Friday our staff and leadership made a momentous decision. Having been granted our certificate of occupancy from the City of North Charleston we decided to hold services in our new worship center a week ahead of schedule. That would be today. I mean, this morning starting @ 8:30 a.m.

So, here's the plan. We're going to let the early service crowd arrive this morning at the regular time over in the old sanctuary. At 8:30 sharp we're going to run a short video clip of me asking, "Where is everybody?", shot from the stage of the new facility. Then, I'm going to say, "What are you all doing over there? Come over here so we can worship God together."

What a special day it will be, the culmination of three years of feasibility study, building planning, and actual construction! I feel somewhat like an excited kid @ Christmas, ready to spring this surprise on our eager and generous church family, more ready to experience worship is this fabulous new place. Chill bumps all day. No, that's not right. It's been chill bumps, cold sweats, and afib all weekend. Worse than that, I wanted to share our secret with everyone at the kids carnival yesterday. What misery!  Us high relators like to tell everything. 

Don't look now...God surprises us at every turn in life. Most of the time we're too occupied to notice the special gifts and little twists He throws into our paths. In the greater scheme of history our new worship center and preschool/children's facility is just a blip. But, in this Kingdom outpost, today finds us on a new platform for fulfilling our assignment. He provided it. We are thankful. We pray that we are as ready as our new buildings are. 

More so, I am praying that I am ready for the wonderful opportunities ahead. 

What's that about being prepared in season and out of season---like, all the time!

On the horns of a dilemma

Decisions, decisions, decisions! Every day is an agonizing crucible of choices. Perhaps the heaviest burden of leadership involves the crushing weight of decision-making---laborious deliberations,  ponderous soul-searching, fervent prayer, wise and diverse counsel, meticulous study. Still, when all the options are weighed and every possibility considered, there is h-hour, the decisive moment when a final decision must be rendered. Pray. Search Scripture. Flip a coin. Throw darts. Play rock, paper, scissors. Cut cards. Roll the dice. Two out of three. Somehow, we have to find an answer.

Here's he deal. Harriet and I are going on vacation next week. We are working through a significant family decision relating to our few days in Garden City. Should we take Tootsie, our Wii console with us, or leave her home alone?

Go ahead, laugh! Actually, Tootsie gets a little more than miffed if we don't include her in our daily lives. This week while we were in Wake Forest for the SEBTS spring trustee meeting we left her home for three nights. It was a cold turkey separation, no contact whatsoever. Evidently, she suffered a good bit of separation anxiety. When I visited her Thursday morning, for the first time since Sunday, she scolded me and asked where I had been for three days. I felt really bad. Yes, we had boarded Oliver at the Goose Creek Bed & Biscuit, the luxury animal spa, so he wouldn't be home alone. But, thoughtlessly, we left Tootsie there all by herself.

So, now, we face this terrible dilemma. I mean, we want to be humanitarian about this thing. And, we certainly don't want the people from PETC (People for the Ethical Treatment of Computers) after us or our church. At the same time, we would love a few days away from her sweet but nagging voice. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Maybe Best Buy should open a bed and breakfast to board consoles when their family is away. And, then, there are the houseplants.

Silly me.

What I learned by eavesdropping

A while back I overheard a conversation between a group of college fraternity brothers. The occasion was a fast-food joint in Columbia, South Carolina. Eight or ten fraternity brothers were discussing their upcoming weekend. I know all of this because I did what any self-respecting gospel minister would do in the same set of circumstances: I leaned in their direction so I could hear every single word of their conversation. Nosy preacher!

Anyway, they were planning a field trip to the Carolina Cup. Now, for the folks from Rio Linda, The Carolina Cup is horse racing in Camden, South Carolina. The first Cup was run in 1930, and it has continued annually since. Today, The Carolina Cup is the social event of the year for the trendy horse-racing crowd, usually 65,000 strong. They enjoy mint-juleps and shrimp and grits in their elegant tail-gate dining rooms, and strut their spring fashions as well as the quarter horses prepping for the gate.

The fraternity brothers were making their final plans. Charter buses, lavish catered menu, beverages of just about every variety, eager young dates, and their prescribed dress for the day---white button down dress shirts, khaki bermuda shorts, flip flops, and frat emblem bow ties. Elegantly shabby.

One of the guys asked, "What time is post time?" They all looked a little baffled. "What do you mean?", another said. "I mean, what time is the first horse race?", he asked again. It had to be a freshman who chipped in next, someone who had never attended before. "You mean there's horse racing at The Carolina Cup?" Oops.

Strange, isn't it, how organizations and institutions can so easily lose their sense of mission? Things that ought to be on the periphery actually shift to center stage, monopolizing the attention and precious resources of the group, hearts being captured by wrongly defined treasures. Ridiculous may be another descriptive, that the horse racing at The Carolina Cup would become secondary to the party. Of course, no more absurd than the focus of Christ's church being riveted on programs and activities not essential to the founding mandate of Christ.

Missional concepts thrust God's people beyond the boundaries of our well-appointed buildings and the relative safety of our walls. The GCR proposed by Dr. Danny Akin is simply a call back to our founding Lord's vision. Truly, we don't have to eliminate all the peripheral things that nourish His people and prepare us for service. Worship, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, missions, evangelism---all aspects of our corporate faith experience. No, they are all important.

What is needed is just some re-ordering of priorities to insure that the main thing remains to be the main thing, and that our mission doesn't become lost in the rest.

Jesus said it well, and often. "...make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

GCR and the bloated SBC bureacracy

Axiom 8 of Dr. Danny Akin's Axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence isn't going to be cheered by the bureaucrats of our convention agencies at any level. But, finally, an agency head has the brilliance and fortitude to state in plain English what our declining numbers and high drop-out rate among younger evangelicals have been indicating for some time now. You see, this is the sentiment among the many convention loyalists who have choked on the bloated bureaucracy thing for years now. So, while many are gasping at such boldness, many more are applauding Axiom 8 as ground zero for making missional more than a buzzword at our dwindling convention meetings.

Putting legs to this axiom may actually provide the critical mass for any kind of spiritual resurgence in our denomination. It's a fact that many of our younger pastors and leaders have withdrawn from denominational involvements, favoring ad hoc affiliations, missional affinities, and loose connections with people and organizations with similar convictions. More often than not, they have been wrongly accused of disloyalty, ingratitude, abandoning their roots, or labeled as theological renegades. In all the talk an elephant lurks in the room. Axiom 8 exposes it. 

Please take a moment read the Axioms of a Great Commission Resurgence. Read them thoughtfully and prayerfully. Pause over Axiom 8 for a minute. Pray that our denominational leaders will understand that this may be the tipping point for a spiritual movement within our denomination that will change the world. 

The Book of Acts always inspires me. One thing I love about the apostolic church was that it's leaders knew when to make organizational adjustments to facilitate engaging that culture. Acts 6 is a timely example. We always proof text deacon ministry here. But, that's not the big idea! The monumental thing that occurred in Acts 6 was that the disciples of Jesus realigned their organization to insure a more strategic reach into that world. Now, that's what I'm talking about.

Sign me up.

The other day I read an interesting question from a young Christian. He asked, "When are we going to stop using the Bible to explain the world and start using it to change the world?"

Now. Right now.

Shock and awe @ the old switcheroo...

Well, duh? Mainline media snobs were aghast @ contestant Carrie Prejean's answer to the question about same-sex marriage in the Miss USA pageant Sunday night. Likely, her biblically correct  response, to use her own words, cost her the crown and shoved her into the also-ran category as first runner up. What the Hollywood types couldn't grasp is that most Americans were home applauding her down-home Christian values and the courage to speak them on such a stage.

Of course, this is just another indication of the disconnect which exists between rank and file citizens and the hacks who pimp the liberal agenda today. They're affecting shock and awe at her traditional views as if she were the one out of step with the vast majority of Americans, a switcheroo of epic proportions. Surprised? Certainly not. This is how liberals do things, standard modus operandi for people who lean more than a little in that direction. It's a bait and switch operation that turns the tables so deftly nobody notices. 

Kids, the culture war is operating at another level and the good guys need to ratchet up the response a notch or two. OK, now the blogs and Monday morning QB's of the beauty-pageant circuit are crying foul because of red-neck Perez Hilton's well-aimed question, mostly agreeing that Miss Prejean should have won. A few have vented at NBC for their sensational follow-up reports and headline grabbing antics about what they call her gaffe, as if her answer was a faux pas of some sort. Not nearly enough have hit the "off" button on NBC or taken the time to let the Miss USA/Universe people how offended they are that the question was asked in the first place. It was a low blow. Boo.

So, while we idle away the hours, entire value systems are vanishing right under our eyes. Maybe these are the last days after all, and we've surrounded ourselves with teachers that give us exactly what our itching ears want to hear, to the point that we don't know what we believe any more.

Two guys were talking. One asked, "why is it people today are so ignorant and apathetic?" The other said, " I dont know, and I really don't care."

It's the old switcheroo. Be careful.