missionary wheels

What does God think about people walking away from their homes?

2010-02-11T09:35:00.001-05:00

Solomon’s Porch topic for tonight: People in SE Michigan are walking away from their homes in alarming rates. Houses in Redford are down up to 80% in value over the last five years. This current trend is expected to continue for at least two more years as individuals walk away from mortgages that are twice(or more) the value of their home. Some questions to ponder for SP tonight: what would God say about this trend? Should people of faith view this differently that others? At what point, if any, is it acceptable to walk away? Does the responsibility of a person of faith change in a different market, where your home goes up in value and you stand to make significant profit? Those questions and questions from the gallery are all welcome at SP tonight from 7-8 pm at Panera Bread, located at Schoolcraft and Middlebelt. As always, if you cannot be present but have something to add to the discussion, e-mail me today and I will include your thoughts as part of our conversation.

Introduction of God sightings!

2009-10-27T14:43:00.003-04:00

Friends:

I recently attended a conference of the Transformational Leaders Initiative for the ELCA. At the conference, I was inspired by my colleagues who are doing so much creatively to spread the Kingdom to the world. We are hoping to instill one of the creative ideas into the life of our church here in Redford, Michigan. It is called God sightings, and here is how it will work. Thanks to Dave Daubert for introducing this initiative to our group.

God Sightings

Purpose: It is important for people of faith be reminded that God is present in worship, at church, in the community, and the world. With that in mind we are starting a new initiative at St. John’s that allows us to share all the places that we see God at work in the world. Starting this week, we will be using the board in the Narthex to chronicle all the places that we see God alive in the world. The three questions we will ask ourselves each week are as follows:

1. Where did you see God in the world around you this week?
2. Where did you witness God’s using someone else as a blessing in the world around you this week?
3. Where did you see God using you this week?

Names are optional, but I would encourage each of you to name and claim how you witnessed God working in us and through us this week.

I am looking forward to seeing this initiative grow in strength and be a blessing to the people of SJLC.

Do we really need billion dollar stadiums to watch athletic events?

2009-09-22T10:41:00.001-04:00

Friends:

Tonight we meet for “Solomon’s Porch” at First Cup coffee house, Five Mile and Inkster Rd. to discuss issues of the day, to delve into how faith and life connect within any given topic, and see where the Spirit leads us. The topic for tonight:
Last Sunday night was the season premiere of Sunday Night Football featuring the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. It was a time to introduce the new Cowboy stadium to the masses. At a cost of 1.2 billion dollars, it is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built. Yes, you read correctly, 1.2 billion. It will hold its pricey title until next season, when the New York Giants unveil their new 1.6 billion dollar field. The new Texas stadium features, among other things, a 600 ton Jumbotron television screen in the middle of the field, and at 3 million square feet it is three times larger than the field that the Cowboys played on last year. Owner Jerry Jones notes only 7% of football fans have ever been to an NFL game and he wants to encourage more fans to come out and experience live football. That experience does come with a price, however. The average price for a family of four to enjoy an NFL game with all the trimmings (tickets, food and drink, programs, caps and parking) is $412.64. At the new Texas stadium, that price is $758.58.

There are lots of places to join in the conversation of this topic. Do we really need billion dollar stadiums to watch a football game? Should we be spending a house payment to enjoy live football? What might be a better use of those funds? In most stadium situations, public and private monies are partnered together to build stadiums, touting the revenue that will be produced by having state of the art venues like this one, is it worth it? As people of faith, should we be speaking out against this type of excess, and if so, how? Should we be boycotting live events? Should we be advocating for a reallocation of these funds? Does it matter if it is private or public monies? Certainly people like Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys do a share of charitable giving, but is a one billion dollar stadium over the top?

Bring your opinion tonight to SP from 7-8 pm. As usual, if you cannot make it but have a comment to share, let me know today via e-mail. I look forward to seeing many of you tonight!

Solomon's Porch featured in the Redford Observer

2009-09-09T10:55:00.002-04:00

Check out our article here

This is great news for our church. The next Solomon's Porch will be Tuesday, September 22nd at 7pm. I hope to see many of you there.

Check out this feel good video from Belgium.

2009-04-14T10:45:00.001-04:00

I know it is still Lent, but watch these Norwegian boys tear up "Hallelujah"

2009-04-01T17:26:00.002-04:00

Is Leonard Pitts on the mark?

2009-03-17T11:01:00.003-04:00

I usually enjoy the writing of columnist Leonard Pitts. Today in the Free Press he asks if religions are driving people away from the church. Read the article here. I think he is on to something when he wonders if people of faith are paying attention. What do you think?

Is Al Gore good for the environment?

2009-03-11T08:29:00.003-04:00

Friends:

The folks over at RELEVANT magaizine are asking that question in "The gospel of Al Gore", a must read that can be found here. In this particular article, the writer takes Gore to task for his "create life" stance while being a pro-choice abortion advocate. Read the article and let me know what you think. Is Al Gore the right poster child for the enviornmental issues that our world is facing?

What do you think of what Louis CK had to say about our recession times?

2009-03-10T11:34:00.001-04:00

"Saving Grace" returns Monday, March 2nd at 10pm

2009-02-27T14:05:00.005-05:00

"Saving Grace" returns this Monday on TNT. It is a great show that takes a long, hard look at issues of faith, redemption, repentance and grace without all the fluff that often accompanies programs surrounding faith issues. I will be blogging each Tuesday about the newest episode. Check the blog on Tuesday and join in the conversation by commenting.

What do you think of what Penn has to say about being given a Bible?

2009-02-24T10:21:00.002-05:00

What do you think of this quote?

2009-02-18T11:06:00.001-05:00

"The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing."

Michael E. Gerber

Is he right? Where do you fall on this spectrum?

Theology on Tap begins February 12th

2009-01-27T14:20:00.004-05:00

Theology on tap”: Have you or someone you know ever wanted to ask a pastor a question about faith, life, God, and how they all connect? If so, “Theology on tap” is for you. Beginning Thursday, February 12th, from 6-9pm Pastor Bob will be at Micho’s Bar and Grill, 25524 Five mile just east of Beech Daly, to respond to questions and be in conversation with all who gather about how God may or may not be making Himself present in our contexts. This will be a great opportunity to invite friends and family who may not ever attend a church service but have questions about religion, God and Jesus. Please invite them to come out and explore faith and life and how they connect. By the way, Micho’s has really good food so make a night of it! This will become a regular monthly ministry of St. John’s in 2009.

New weekly book club starting at First Cup Coffee House beginning February 27th

2009-01-21T09:50:00.002-05:00

Our weekly book club will restart Friday, February 27th from 10-11am at First Cup Coffee House, Five mile and Inkster Road. We will be discussing John Ortberg’s new book, Faith &Doubt. If you are interested please speak to Pastor so that we can place a bulk order to keep the price of the books down. Pastor will buy your beverage each week. Being present in our community is an important aspect of our redevelopment process. Join us each week as we discuss faith, life, doubt and how they interact with each other.

Check out this song responding to Gaza from Brian Mclaren

2009-01-16T15:20:00.003-05:00

Read what he has to say at www.brianmclaren.net

One way to pray President-elect Obama into his new role

2009-01-12T10:18:00.003-05:00

Freinds:

This is from David Crumm, a former columnist for the Free Press:

Read The Spirit

342: An Inaugural Prayer for President Barack Obama — and All of Us

Posted: 12 Jan 2009 12:11 AM CST

This is part of our ongoing coverage of the spiritual power blossoming around the historic transition in Washington D.C. We've already taken a look at several examples of spiritual activism focused on the inauguration. Stay Tuned! Throughout the coming week, we'll have much more.
TODAY, well in advance of the inauguration weekend (including the King holiday and Inauguration Day), we're publishing this special prayer we hope you'll share with others.

An Inaugural Prayer for President Obama and Us
By the Rev. Marsha M. Woolley

CREATING GOD OF LANDS AFAR AND MINE…
On tiptoe we stand…expectant, eager, hopeful, anticipating…peering over the edge from what has been and on the threshold of what is to come; longing for, yearning for a better way, a more holistic way, a more gracious way of living in this country and in the world. It seems the whole world is holding its breath, daring to believe that the mess we’ve created is not permanent; that you have indeed raised up in our midst one who can lead us in ways that will restore the values and character upon which this land was once established.

In this inaugural time, O God, we hold our breath…praying that the good identified in Barack Obama will be used to turn around the hollow systems that have led us down selfish paths, to mend the broken bureaucracies that have led to inertia and inaction, to discard the worthless wasting of precious resources, and to pave new avenues of liberty and justice for all people. Yet, keep us from holding our breath… as if this one appointed man can or should — or is even expected to — heal this country alone. Indeed, keep us all breathing and alive and active as agents of the change so desperately needed, as aides in the healing process, and as willing participants in the necessary sacrifices required of us all.

As we breathe in the hope and anticipation of this new beginning, let us exhale and rid ourselves of the well-learned skepticism we hold for government and our leaders.
As we breathe in our desire for affordable health care and living wages for all, let us exhale and rid ourselves of the sense of entitlement and selfish greed that consumes so much of how we live.
As we breathe in and hold up this new First Family, let us exhale and rid ourselves of any too-high expectations we have for them to “fix” this country.
As we inhale and realize our desire to know all about them and to watch them at all times, let us exhale, and respect their need for privacy, and grant them the gentle times of family togetherness.
As we inhale and confess our expectation that this new President will be wise and powerful and able to live up to the promises of his campaign, let us, in our exhaling, come to understand that he will only be as wise and powerful as we allow him to be; that the only change that will happen is the change we all choose to make happen together.
Indeed as we breathe in, recognizing that we are inspired and motivated by what we’ve heard from this elected one, let us also slowly breathe out and realize that what we have really heard is a voice being given to the stirring of our own hearts.

Oh, it’s true, O God, we are on tiptoe…as expectant as anyone can be…praying that you might be able to create in our midst a new way of living that better honors your creation, that more fully respects your desire for community, that more urgently works for peace and justice for ALL.

To that end, we dare ask that your hand of blessing be upon President Obama — chosen not for the color of his skin but for the content of his character — that he might guide and lead us in the ways You would have us go. Thru him and with him, make us all agents of good…in our homes, in our communities, in our country and in this world.
Gracious God, for all the possibilities, promise and privilege of the freedom we enjoy and celebrate this day, we humbly offer our thanks, not only with our lips, but also with our lives.
In earnest hope that a new day has indeed been inaugurated in our midst, we pray.

Amen.

CARE TO READ MORE?

STAY TUNED! Over the next two weeks, ReadTheSpirit will provide a series of soul-stirring stories as we approach the inauguration, including more of our daily Interfaith Heroes stories. As we approach Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday, you’ll find fresh insights into the interfaith roots of America’s civil rights movement.
VISIT MARSHA’S WEB SITE: Marsha is the senior pastor of a Newburg United Methodist Church in Livonia, Michigan.

SHARE THIS PRAYER! We invite you to share this prayer as we approach the inauguration. To do so, include the Rev. Marsha M. Woolley’s name as author and a link back to http://www.ReadTheSpirit.com/

PLEASE, Tell Us What You Think.
Not only do we welcome your notes, ideas, suggestions and personal reflections—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this anytime by clicking on the "Comment" links at the end of each story. You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We're also reachable on Facebook, Digg, Amazon, GoodReads and some of the other social-networking sites as well, if you're part of those groups.
(Originally published at http://www.ReadTheSpirit.com/)

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Great new "Jesus" song from Brian McLaren

2008-12-22T17:42:00.002-05:00

Check out this song, just in time for Christmas, from friend Brian McLaren.

Check out a new version of "Stand By Me"

2008-12-16T17:44:00.005-05:00

This is from the producers at www.playing for change.com. Great video!

A new way to revitalize Detroit?

2008-12-15T15:18:00.008-05:00

Does acre upon acre of barren blocks offer a chance to reinvent Detroit?

An interesting question in today’s Detroit Free Press offers a fresh look at a generation old problem of what to do with empty land currently taking up great blocks of space in Detroit. Our Solomon’s Porch coffee house discussion will look this week at one person’s take at a solution. The Free Press article can be found here.

Information for the discussion:
-A new map shows how to tuck the land mass of Manhattan, San Francisco and Boston into Detroit. All three urban areas would fit snuggly within Detroit’s 139 square miles with room to spare.
-Detroit’s population has declined from a high of 2 million in 1950 to under 900,000 in 2008
-the writer’s conclusion: hopes and plans to repopulate the city and redevelop the city’s vacant land are unrealistic, at least for another generation. Some redevelopment deals will succeed, but realistic Detroiter’s should seize the opportunity to become a leaner, greener city for the 21st century.
-When speaking of the best use of vacant land, urban farming is generating the most buzz. What if Detroit could provide a significant amount of fruits and vegetables for its population and the surrounding areas?
-All the mayoral candidates are mum on this topic at the moment. Why do you think that is?
-Did you know that Detroit was once called the city of Elms, a green city known for its parks?
-studies concluded in the fall of 2008 that all of Detroit’s current population needs around 50 square miles for living space. The remaining 89 square miles could be used for other purposes.

Faith issues: How are we called, if we indeed are called, as people of faith, to participate in the revitalization of Detroit’s vacant land? Would advocating for the greening of Detroit be connected to care of Creation? What sort of voice should people have that live outside of Detroit proper but are affected by the issue of vacant property and population decline in our largest city? What other uses of the land make sense to you? How should the church be involved in this process?

Bring ideas to these questions as well as some of your own to our Solomon’s Porch coffee house discussion tomorrow night at First Cup coffee house starting at 7 pm.

Can different faith expressions live together under one roof?

2008-12-12T13:34:00.004-05:00

Lately I have been thinking a great deal about how different people, sometimes from different generations, approach Christianity and how it is to be lived out. When new approaches enter into the fray there usually is some sort of backlash against those who are attempting to look at the same story and how it speaks to us today from a different perspective. Sometimes this happens within a church context that is attempting to invite newer voices to the table of discussion. It is often hard for these new expressions to gain validation as they attempt to figure our how these new communities experience faith, life and how faith and life connect in their context. Doug Pagitt, author of “A Christianity Worth Believing”, writes of a perspective from a church that is creating a new way in the midst of the old one. I think what he writes about can be of benefit to those of us who are journeying together at St. John’s and asking God what sort of new thing we are attempting to create.

Pagitt writes the following after giving a sermon to a church like the one described using Saul as an example. He writes, “Saul was a man of deep faith and conviction who was persecuting the new movement because it seemed to abandon what he believed to be the true, faithful way. Saul was not trying to kill the things of God; he was trying to keep them alive. But we know that he was literally killing what God was doing-and the people who were doing it.” (page 215)

Pagitt continues: “I hoped the people would recognize that in the earliest days of Christianity-just as it is now-people who were motivated by the certainty of their belief assumed that they were perfecting life with God when in actuality they were blocking fresh expression of what God was doing. I hoped they would see that even when we question the conclusions of others, we can do so without questioning their faithfulness. I hoped by telling the story of the faithful but misguided attempts of Saul, I could encourage the people to be more patient, more grace-filled, and more open to those who held to a different version of the Christian story.” (page 216)

The question becomes, how do we live in the tension of new approaches while acknowledging both the old and the new faith expressions are attempting to be faithful to how God in working in and through the process? Is it possible to keep the process expression driven and not personality driven? I believe it can happen, but the further question that haunts me is simply can people parse their faith into process driven discussions without the personality of the person coming through? Does this need to happen? When two “rival sides” journey together with how God can be expressed in a faithful way through those who follow, how can we effectively mediate a productive, worthwhile discussion that enables both expressions to be recognized and honored in a meaningful way?

Let me know what you think.

Be blessed.

Check out this cool new idea from Detroit

2008-12-11T13:32:00.005-05:00

Freinds:

Last night I attended a human rights conference in metro Detroit. One of the people I met was Amy Tarrant. Amy is starting a business centered in an new an exciting way to be a Detroiter. Her concept that thoughts are vibrations, think happy thoughts, live the vibe in welcome in this part of the country. Her company, Vibrate Peace Detroit, is attempting to bring an alternative message and image to Detroit. Today I am wearing one of her cool t-shirt designs. Check them out and support her if you are able. I think we need more people like Amy doing creative things like this.

Be Blessed.

Great passage from "The Fidelity of Betrayal"

2008-12-10T15:58:00.004-05:00

One of the books I am reading is "The Fidelity of Betrayal" by Peter Rollins. In the first few pages I am struck by its content and how it arrives as a balm/antagonist to the journey I have been on reconstructing my theology of late. Here is a paragraph to illustrate what I am reading about:

Rollins writes, "Christianity is not brain surgery or rocket science, it is not quantum mechanics or nuclear physics; it is both infinitely easier and more difficult than all of these. The fragile frame of faith is fanned into life so simply; all we need to do is sit still for a few moments, embrace the silence that engulfs us, and invite that flame to burn bright within us. This act is simpicity itself, and, just perhaps, after a lifetime of hardship and struggle, a few of us will achieve it and be set alight by it."

I am thankful how Rollins, in his writing, is helping to fan my flame of faith. The rub seems to be how I rarely look at faith for its simplicity, that being a follower of Jesus indeed can be simple yet I often make it complex. I am then left to wonder if it is hardship and struggle or egocentricity and a lack of courage that drives my faith to complexity and gets in the way. Or maybe the thought of intentional silence and my inability to embrace it. Or maybe the dark reaches of my soul prevents me from inviting the flame to fully burn brightly within me.

The journey of faith continues.....

Looking for something to do tonight?

2008-12-10T12:38:00.002-05:00

I will be attending the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights event at Hope United Methodist Church, 26275 Northwestern Highway, east of Lasher in Southfield, Michigan. My son and I will be checking out the Human Rights Unity Fair from 6-7 pm. The topic for the discussion that follows: Human Rights: The Future of Detroit and the World Depends on Youth.

If you are able to attend find me and say hello.

Be blessed.

Check out this free downloadble music from Church of the Beloved in Seattle

2008-12-09T22:02:00.006-05:00

Friends:

This album of emergent music is available through download from the Church of the Beloved website found here. The album is called "hope for a tree cut down". This music is a true gift and worth listening to. If you end up listening to it, let me know what you think. Thanks to Tony Jones blog over at Beliefnet for pointing it out to me.

Be blessed.

The "Great Emergence" conference

2008-12-08T11:39:00.004-05:00

I just returned from the "Great Emergence" conference in Memphis. It was inspiring to hear Phyllis Tickle speak four times about her book The Great Emergence. I will be spending the next few post writing about what I experienced at the conference and how my thought are being shaped days as a result.

One of the people I met at the conference was Peter Rollins. If you have not read or heard him before I urge you to check out his web site here. He presented with many other authors as part of a rapid fire, five minutes and twenty seconds each introduction to who and what they are all about. I have heard Peter before via video, and to hear him speak even faster than normal, blow everyone in the room away and then return to his seat(and take a breath) was one of the highlights of the two day event.

Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt did a fantastic job putting on this event.

A call to action from the ELCA advocacy group

2008-12-03T12:44:00.002-05:00

Hear is a way to let your voice be heard by the Obama administration from the folks at the ELCA advocacy network.

Help make creation a priority
Join us for a day of climate action on December 6 and sign a letter to President-elect Obama calling for climate justice! The open letter can be viewed below or at the National Council of Churches http://nccecojustice.org/presidentialletter.html website. To sign on to the letter, click here [http://nccecojustice.org/presidentialsignon.html].

The ELCA recognizes that the threat of "dangerous global warming, caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide" poses challenges to the entire world, and commits us as individuals, as a worship community, and as a public church, to address this serious threat to God's creation. Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice (1993).

Climate change is real and it’s happening now, with impacts ranging from rising sea levels that threaten small island nations to droughts and flooding that impact global food supplies, from increasingly severe storms to melting glaciers that supply drinking water for millions. Each of us will have to adapt to these changes in our world, but the impacts of a warming world will fall most severely on people living in poverty who have few resources to adapt to these perils and bear little responsibility for causing them.

Despite the many ongoing efforts to address this moral crisis, the U.S. has failed to engage in meaningful conversation with other nations and has done little to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions.

However, President-elect Obama has committed to taking action. This action would protect the most vulnerable in the U.S. and abroad from devastating impacts climate change would have on our communities and families if left unchecked.

In response to the growing need for effective action, individuals and communities around the world will be taking action on December 6 to call for just and effective climate action. This important day will be midway through the annual UN climate conference, taking place this year in Poznan , Poland .

We are inviting you to join your brothers and sisters around the world and call for climate justice by signing a faith community letter to President-elect Obama that will be delivered shortly after his inauguration. This letter calls for:

strong emissions reductions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change
financial assistance to low-income and working families to protect them from the rising cost of energy
international assistance to help vulnerable nations and communities adapt to the impacts of climate change
Read the letter, included below, and click on the link below the letter [http://nccecojustice.org/presidentialsignon.html] to sign it.
Ask your friends and family to join you! Click here to encourage a friend to sign!
October 8, 2008
Dear President-elect Obama:
Genesis and the Psalms tell the story of God as Creator and humankind as the stewards of Earth. The Prophets and the teachings of Jesus speak of justice for all, especially our neighbors who are voiceless and vulnerable. Inspired by the words of Holy Scripture, Christians are called to be stewards of Creation and to work for justice.
As Christians, we heed the call to be faithful stewards and caretakers of God’s creation by limiting the future impacts of climate change on God’s Earth. Already, global warming has damaged the precious balance of God’s creation causing long-term drought in Africa , increased disease in many of the world’s poorest countries, and an increase in natural disasters that are destroying homes and lives. Any steps we take to address climate change must follow scientific recommendations and focus on the short-term goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions by 15-20 percent reduction by 2020 with a long-term vision to achieve carbon emissions reductions of 80 percent by 2050. Failure to meet these targets will put vulnerable communities in great peril from increase climate change impacts.
We are driven to act by our moral obligation to stand up for those living in poverty who have contributed least to the problem of climate change yet stand to suffer the most. Experts tell us low-income communities and people of color are at the greatest risk to the physical impacts of climate change and could bear the greatest burden economically from efforts to address this moral issue if not done appropriately. Any and all efforts that address climate change should therefore include meaningful and measureable steps to shield those living in poverty from the disproportionate dangers while limiting their increased financial burdens. The inclusion of financial assistance to low-income and working families who will be most affected by the rising cost of energy is necessary and must be considered as we move forward.
Global warming’s societal impact—floods, droughts, and the increased number of natural disasters— already falls most heavily on those around the world who are least able to mitigate the impact. To rectify this injustice, public and private efforts to address climate change must include mechanisms that provide adaptation assistance to the world’s most vulnerable developing nations and communities in order to assist them in their efforts to deal with the impacts of global warming. The US should work with these communities to provide appropriate low carbon technology and the needed support to create both adaptation plans and response systems.
For all to have enough requires that others address patterns of acquisition and consumption. We cannot achieve significant reductions in global warming emissions unless we make changes in our lifestyles and particularly in our energy consumption. Energy conservation must be prominent throughout our economy.
We remain committed to requiring that the tenets of justice and stewardship are incorporated as we address this moral crisis.
To sign on to this letter, click here.

Solomon's Porch tomorrow night

2008-12-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

Solomon’s Porch for Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Friends:

Over the last three weeks our local paper, The Detroit Free Press, has published a list of all the home foreclosures for Wayne County for 2009. Sunday’s addition made up almost a third (about eight or nine sections) of the paper. In our part of Michigan this is certainly seen as dismal news. Economists claim we are still a long way from an economic turnaround. As we continue to live through these difficult times, how are we, if indeed we are, holding onto happiness? If we are not happy, can we do anything about it?

The current issue of The Week, one of my favorite magazines, looks at this very issue. In recent years happiness has been turned into a scientific study known as “positive psychology”. More than 200 colleges now offer courses in this field, which seeks to maximize happiness both for individuals and for society at large. As we find ourselves with a need to hold on to happiness in hard times, The Week asks the following questions, which will provide the backbone for our discussion tomorrow night. The questions are:
-What makes us happy?
-How does money affect happiness?
-Why do we pursue wealth?
-Where are we left after analyzing those factors?
-Is happiness in our control?
-Can we be happier?

As people of various faith expressions, how do these questions relate to our relationship with God and others? Does our faith, as we express it, make us happy?

I will bring along the article to share with all those attending. You can read the article ahead of time by clicking here. I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow night at First Cup Coffee House, Five Mile and Inkster Rd, from 7-8pm. As always, if you cannot make it but have something to add to the discussion, e-mail me and I will include your voice at the table.

Be blessed.

Peace,
PB

Solomon's Porch tonight

2008-11-18T09:43:00.000-05:00

Friends:

Solomon’s Porch meets tonight at First Cup Coffee House, located at five mile and Inkster road, from 7 pm to 8 pm.

The topic for tonight: We will discuss the proposed bailout of the automotive industry. Is it necessary? Is it vital to not only our immediate area but the whole US? What sort of stipulations, if any, should be placed on the proposed bail out? Do you think this bail out will set further precedent for future bailouts of other industries? We will partner that discussion with identifying what our criteria are as people of faith for “bailing” out someone in need. If we are to do for the least of these, what does that look like in your life? What guidelines, if any, do you use when you lend someone a hand? How should the church or people of faith be involved in these discussions? Do we all need to agree on how and when help is provided? Should there be a universal model?

Please plan on coming out with your opinion as well as respect for others as we tackle this timely issue.

Look forward to seeing many of you there. If you cannot attend but would like your voice heard, send me and e-mail today(bicyclepastor@yahoo.com) and I will include it in the discussion tonight.

Be blessed.

Peace
PB

First faith and film discussion this Sunday

2008-11-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

Friends:

Be sure to join us at St. John's this Sunday at 6 pm for the viewing of the Morgan Spurlock film "What would Jesus buy?". It is a fun yet poignant look at the consumerism of how Christmas has been taken over and Americans are getting further and further in debt and losing focus on the reason for the season. Some facts for you to ponder this Christmas season:

-the average American currently holds $13,000 worth of credit card debt.
-In the average Christmas season consumers in America will charge 100 billion dollars to their credit cards.

This is a discussion our church and community needs to have. Please join us for popcorn, a special movie and a lively dialogue about what habits God is calling us to adopt this and every Christmas season.

When: Sunday, November 16th
Where: St. John's Lutheran Church
Time: Movie starts at 6 pm, discussion at 7:30 pm

Be blessed.

Peace
PB

A call to action from the ELCA advocacy group

2008-11-13T11:03:00.000-05:00

The current Congress will be in Washington for a lame duck session the week of November 17. The nation's need for economic recovery is urgent, and we believe Congress should act as quickly as possible. One thing Congress can do immediately to help low and moderate-income families is to support job creation measures and provide additional support for safety net programs that are especially needed during times of economic hardship.
Our partners at the Coalition on Human Needs have provided an easy way to get this message to the lame duck Congress. Simply go to the following link and send Congress a brief email: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26088 Thank you for taking this easy action during these tough times. For more information on the current advocacy work of the ELCA, visit our website at www.elca.org/advocacy.

Be blessed.

Great line from former lineman and ESPN analyst Mark Schlereth

2008-11-12T17:26:00.002-05:00

Being a former trench man myself I have a fondness for former offensive lineman. Today on ESPN former Washington Redskin/Denver Bronco guard Mark Schlereth used a one liner I have never heard before. I am sure it is not an original but love the visual. He said:

"Remember when you point a finger three are pointing back at you"

Priceless and so true.

Be blessed.

Dine out with friends of SJ and help support our missional efforts

2008-11-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

Friends:

Please consider dining out with our church on Thursday, December 18th between the hours of 5pm and 8pm at Max and Erma's in the Laurel Park Mall at 6 mile and Newburgh. On that night groups from SJ will meet for dinner and fellowship with 20% of your dinner cost going to support the missional efforts of SJLC. This event is open to friends, family and anyone else you would like to break bread with. At 5pm and 7pm folks from SJ will be there for group dining, but you can go anytime between the hours of 5-8pm. More information will follow about how to make sure that SJ is credited with your dining experience. This is a great opportunity for fun, fellowship and a good meal.

Peace,
PB

Wise words from a six year old....

2008-11-06T14:16:00.002-05:00

Check out this great story I received this morning on e-mail. Good news about life, its purpose, and how we might want to live it.

A Dog's Purpose (from a 6-year old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Becker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Becker, and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Becker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Becker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience. The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Becker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Becker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Becker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Becker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, 'I know why.' Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

Check out this great post blog post from Bruce.

2008-11-06T12:48:00.003-05:00

Friends:

I enjoy reading the blog of Bruce Gerenescer. His post this morning is spot on. It is titled "God is not the problem". Find it here and be inspired.

Be blessed.

Post election charge from Jim Wallis at Sojourners

2008-11-05T13:01:00.001-05:00

Dear Friend,

Click here to watch a special message from Jim Wallis to President-elect ObamaYesterday’s election represents a watershed moment in the life and history of our country. Regardless of how you voted, our entire nation can celebrate the milestone of our first African-American president. We can all embrace this profound opportunity for deeper racial reconciliation and social justice.
But this is also a moment that demands prophetic leadership and the power of a faith-inspired movement. From the abolition of slavery, to women's suffrage, to civil rights, history shows us that political change happens when social movements push on open doors of political leadership. And the best movements have spiritual foundations.
Please join me in telling President-elect Obama that we will pray for his presidency while also holding him accountable to the promises of a new kind of politics.
This election represents a new and open door for change. However, we know that President Obama will face tremendous pressure and obstacles in pursuing an agenda that addresses the moral imperatives to overcome poverty, develop renewable energy, responsibly withdraw from Iraq, and dramatically reduce the number of abortions.
That is why your commitment is needed now more than ever. We must ensure that the campaign slogan of “change” becomes a new movement for change.
Send a personal pledge to the new president, telling him that you will be part of that movement.
We will deliver your pledge to President-elect Obama and his team, with the message that the faith community will be mobilizing both in support of him and to hold him accountable. Sojourners will start with President Obama’s own pledge to mobilize our nation to cut poverty in half in America over ten years and provide the leadership necessary to achieve the Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015.
Join us in ensuring that these campaign promises become a reality.
In recent times, religion has been both too narrow and too divisive. The faith community can now play a new role—bringing people together on the biggest moral issues of our time—even across old political divisions.
This election has shown that the era of single-issue voting is over and a broader moral agenda that seeks common ground on moral issues has begun. Members of Black churches, Catholics, evangelicals, Latinos, and mainline Protestants are acting on a broad set of biblical values. I look forward to the day when both poverty reduction and abortion reduction become nonpartisan issues and bipartisan causes.
Please join me in offering President-elect Obama our prayers and our actions as he assumes the responsibility of leading our nation in a very challenging time.
Sincerely,
Jim WallisPresident, Sojourners

Is e-mail dead?

2008-11-04T14:00:00.002-05:00

From www.christianitytoday.com

Text Appeal
How churches are integrating new communication tools into ministry.

If you haven't heard, e-mail is so 2006. Text messages sent via cell phones are quickly becoming the communication method of choice, especially among young adults. And churches are now finding ways to integrate the medium into their ministries.
Earlier this year, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, fielded churchgoers' questions sent through text messages during his "Religion Saves" sermon series. The approach offered anonymity (no one had to go up to an open mic) and broader participation (off-site viewers, including those watching streamed video online from home, could send in questions).
The ability to interact with the preaching via text messaging during the sermon was so well received that Mars Hill is planning to expand its use.
At Lake Pointe Church near Dallas, Mason Randall says his skateboarding outreach ministry has grown about 25 percent during the past year largely because of text messages sent through EZTexting.com.
Randall, the congregation's student outreach pastor, pays EZTexting.com about 2.5 cents per message per student to blast out reminders of upcoming events or to communicate prayer requests. He strategically times his messages to reach nearly 350 students at opportune moments such as weekday mornings before school and during lunch hours. He figures he pays between $50 and $100 a month to do it.
"Most of the people I hang out with are glued to their cell phones," Randall says. "Teenagers don't do anything with e-mail." Like Mars Hill, Skate Church also offers opportunities for students to text questions during Tuesday night sermons.
Randall expects to see text messaging grow beyond youth groups: "I see more and more adults becoming text-message savvy and doing more things on their cell phones than ever before."
But don't send too many texts, he warns: Not everyone has unlimited text-messaging plans with their cell phones, so some have to pay to receive messages.

I still think e-mail has a place. But, at the same time, I realize that at 40 I may not be as "hip" as I think I am. I do text, but not near as much as I e-mail.

What do you think?

Be blessed.

It is now easier to access this blog

2008-11-03T16:11:00.003-05:00

Friends:

Missionary wheels blog is moving up in the world. We now can be found more easily at http://www.missionary-wheels.com . Please tell your friends about this site and the new, easier way to access it. According to blogger, it should be up and running in the next three days.

Thanks.
PB

Solomon's Porch tomorrow night

2008-11-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

Friends:

Solomon’s Porch meets tomorrow night at First Cup Coffee House from 7-8pm. Every other week we gather and discuss an issue in the news and ask the questions of how faith and life intersect in relation to the topic. The topic for tomorrow night:

The holiday season is upon us. This time of year is often marked with indulgence in too much food, drink and spending. As we face the current economic crisis, will this season be different from others? Will you indulge less? Will your time, talent and resources be allocated in a different way? Will you pay attention to how you are eating, drinking and spending? If so, what will this look like? What, if anything, are you doing differently to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus? How are people of faith called to “represent” this season? Will your involvement in the commercialization of Christmas be different this year? Make sure you come out tomorrow to First Cup and share your views!

Be blessed.

Peace,
PB

Friend Tony Jones moves his blog to Beliefnet

2008-11-03T13:05:00.003-05:00

Friends:

I am a regular reader of Tony Jones blog. I appreciate the way he makes me think and I am glad to report that his blog has moved here. Check it out if you get the chance and make it one of your favorites or subscribe to his blog feed. You won't be disappointed.

Peace,
PB

A hope filled letter from the folks at Emergent Village

2008-10-30T12:02:00.004-04:00

A letter was sent out this morning about the future of emergent village, a web site that has been helpful for our community as we re-imagine our future. The entire text can be found here.

As our church community continues to seek new ways to engage people in faith conversation, I found the way emergent grounds itself to be helpful in the way we imagine our community. I include it here for you to read, discern and discuss. They write about commitment to:

1. Commitment to God in the Way of Jesus-We are committed to doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. In the words of Jesus, we seek to live by the Great Commandment: loving God and loving our neighbors—including those who might be considered “the least of these” or enemies. We understand the gospel to be centered in Jesus and his message of the Kingdom of God, a message offering reconciliation with God, humanity, creation, and self. We are committed to a “generous orthodoxy” in faith and practice—affirming the historic Christian faith and the biblical injunction to love one another even when we disagree. We embrace many historic spiritual practices, including prayer, meditation, contemplation, study, solitude, silence, service, and fellowship, believing that healthy theology cannot be separated from healthy spirituality.
2. Commitment to the Church in all its Forms-We are committed to honor and serve the church in all its forms—Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Anabaptist. We practice “deep ecclesiology”—rather than favoring some forms of the church and critiquing or rejecting others, we see that every form of the church has both weaknesses and strengths, both liabilities and potential.
We believe the rampant injustice and sin in our world requires the sincere, collaborative, and whole-hearted response of all Christians in all denominations, from the most historic and hierarchical, through the mid-range of local and congregational churches, to the most spontaneous and informal expressions. We affirm both the value of strengthening, renewing, and transitioning existing churches and organizations, and the need for planting, resourcing, and coaching new ones of many kinds.
We seek to be irenic and inclusive of all our Christian sisters and brothers, rather than elitist and critical. We own the many failures of the church as our failures, which humbles us and calls us to repentance, and we also celebrate the many heroes and virtues of the church, which inspires us and gives us hope.
3. Commitment to God’s World-We practice our faith missionally—that is, we do not isolate ourselves from this world, but rather, we follow Christ into the world. We seek to fulfill the mission of God in our generations, and then to pass the baton faithfully to the next generations as well. We believe the church exists for the benefit and blessing of the world at large; we seek therefore not to be blessed to the exclusion of everyone else, but rather for the benefit of everyone else. We see the earth and all it contains as God’s beloved creation, and so we join God in seeking its good, its healing, and its blessing.
4. Commitment to One Another-In order to strengthen our shared faith and resolve, and in order to encourage and learn from one another in our diversity through respectful, sacred conversation, we value time and interaction with other friends who share this rule and its practices. We identify ourselves as members of this growing, global, generative, and non-exclusive friendship. We welcome others into this friendship as well. We bring whatever resources we can to enrich this shared faith and resolve.

Hopefully our church can learn and continue to be in dialogue about how these commitments might fit into the community we are recreating. Thanks to emergent village board for issuing this letter.

Good words from Adam Smith over at Relevant Magazine

2008-10-28T13:34:00.001-04:00

There’s no doubt that the current financial crisis is at the forefront of most people’s minds. Banks are in trouble, homes are being foreclosed on, and the stock market continues to plummet with a savage and single-minded determination. The government has scrambled to stop the bleeding, with both parties tripping over themselves to throw billions of dollars at companies who apparently couldn’t handle their affairs in the first place. Fourty-two billion went to investment giant AIG, who promptly and in good faith used 0,000 of it to send their executives to a five-star resort. After the press brutally raked them over the coals for their conspicuous consumption, the chastened corporation took their executives on a hunting trip to England.
Bailout: A Crisis of Economy and Faith
The Ordinary Radicals
Seven Burning Issues: Consumerism
Yom Kippur Throws Some Punches
Everyday Ways To Stay Afloat

In the midst of this absolute mess, it’s very easy for the common person to panic. After all, with companies in flames all around us, the corporations that drive our economy grossly mismanaged to the point of catastrophe, can our jobs or livelihoods fall far behind? However, there is a powerful message in all this, if we choose to learn it. Jesus puts it in perspective for us in Matthew 6.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:25-33, TNIV)
Our first reaction to a response like this is to think it trite. After all, we don’t need tired Christian catch-alls right now. We need pragmatism. We need action! I wonder why it is, though, that faith in God’s providence seems impractical to us? In our modern, Western society, it’s easy to look at the words Jesus spoke here and dismiss them as a lot of nice and idealistic talk. Yet, what Jesus is telling us is far more than the necessity of relying on God. He’s pointing out all the things we rely on instead.
As Christians, we are supposed to be a set-apart and peculiar people. We seem to have diminished that concept to a list of action-based do’s and don’ts while still accepting part and parcel the world’s attitudes and priorities. How different are we really when it comes to our concerns over money and material desires? Where does our faith run off to when the company we work for starts handing out pink slips? Either the message Jesus spoke here is true both in times of abundance and want, or it is never true at all.
We have a very particular opportunity before us. As the world pulls out its collective hair watching global markets fall farther and farther, we can exhibit a peace and faith that befuddles those around us. We can show the world that we truly believe that God will supply our needs, even when we don’t see it happening. Even when we have misconceptions about what our true needs are.
There’s another element to all this. For those of the world who are deeply affected by this economic downturn, we can be a light by helping to supply their needs. Can you imagine the impact it would have on the world if the body of Christ suddenly came to the financial aid of those who have lost their jobs? How many volumes of God’s love could we speak by stepping up to help pay the mortgage of our neighbors facing foreclosure? This global panic could be remembered as a time when Christians put the Gospel in action and reached out to help the downtrodden, or it can be remembered as a time when they panicked along with everyone else. The choice is ours.
Democrat or Republican, we should be able to agree that the answer to our problems is not a government bailout. The answer is a steadfast reliance on God’s provision. Even when everything around us looks grim, and our very livelihoods are threatened, we can rest assured that God is more concerned with our needs than we are. Let us be a people who fundamentally believe the promises Jesus made. Not as a pious platitude, but as a pragmatic reality.
Author: Adam Smith

Check out this cool new Bible. Thanks for David Crumm's web site for pointing it out to me.

2008-10-16T16:40:00.002-04:00

Friends:

Check out this cool new Bible!

Read The Spirit
278: Conversation With the Creators of the World's 1st "Green Letter" Bible
Posted: 14 Oct 2008 11:11 PM CDT
One century has passed since an evangelical publisher launched one of the most popular editions of the Bible in the 20th Century: the Red-Letter Edition. All the words of Jesus were printed in red ink, a symbol of Jesus' blood.
Now, at the dawn of a new century, religious leaders concerned about the future of the Earth are launching: "The Green Bible," a Green-Letter Edition. All the words of the Bible about God's care for Creation are printed in green. The latest studies of Bible ownership in America show that most of us claim to read the Bible and most Bible readers own multiple copies. This means that, if you're a Bible reader — go ahead and click on the cover of this new edition, because you're going to want to buy a copy. There's much more to this effort than gimmickry. The creator of the Red-Letter Edition, Louis Klopsch, wanted to refocus Christian readers' reflections back on the teachings of Jesus. This was part of a larger movement 100 years ago especially among Protestants to return to the life and core teachings of this rabbi from Nazareth. Klopsch said he wanted to help people "set aside mere human doctrines and theories regarding Him ... to gather from His own lips the definition of His mission to the world and His own revelation of the Father." Now, it's time to refocus the world's spiritual attention on God's Creation and the future of this fragile blue ball on which we live. Dr. Matthew Sleeth, the ecological evangelist who was among the main advisers on the "Green Bible," writes in his Introduction: "What my reading disclosed is that creation care is at the very core of our Christian walk. ... From Genesis to Revelation, I discovered a trail of green trees as well as vines, bushes, branches, and leaves."
Our Conversation today involves two people who played key roles in the publication of this landmark edition. First is Mark Tauber, senior voice president and publisher of HarperOne.
DAVID: Mark, like a lot of important new ideas, there's a simplicity at the core of this concept that borrows from earlier innovations. A Green-Letter Edition. When I heard about this and got an early copy of your new Bible to read, I kept thinking: Wow. This is such a natural idea. Why didn't somebody think of this sooner? MARK: We've been thinking about this for a while. "Green" and "sustainability" are on our minds these days and, as we tried to take the temperature of mainline Protestant groups and Catholics about creation care and sustainability, we found that this would be a perfect Bible for a whole lot of people. With this book, we have established what we call a green trail. Matthew Sleeth, who acted as a general editor and wrote the introduction, is lined up to do two more books with us. DAVID: Now that the concept is out there, I'm guessing we may see others follow, right? For example, this is a Protestant version of the books of the Bible. I'm guessing we may see a green-letter Catholic edition at some point. Are you planning to do more versions at HarperOne? MARK: Next year, we will do a Green Bible devotional with scripture and thoughts and reflections. And we do expect to see others do something like this with the Bible. I would not be surprised to see Zondervan or Thomas Nelson or Tyndale do something like this. DAVID: Was it technically difficult? I know that the Bible is produced in green-friendly materials: soy-based inks, recycled paper and a cotton-linen cover. MARK: Yes, first we had to organize this whole team of people, including Matthew Sleeth, picking the passages we would mark in green. But, even more difficult than that was getting the tone of the ink just right. DAVID: This book is printed on that strong-but-thin paper that is used for Bibles. I'd call the color of the ink something like "forest green." And it turned out to be tough to print? MARK: Yes. We had to have our managing editor fly to rural Ohio to one of our big printing presses and he had to do a middle-of-the-night press check to make sure the green was right. We didn't want it to be too light. And we didn't want bleed-through to the next page. We had to get that right. Bible publishing is a very hard business. You see all of these specialty Bibles stacked up and some of them are just laughable because the concept just doesn't work well. There's a part of me that sometimes cringes over the idea of specialty Bibles. But people are telling us that this is a very helpful resource. Yes, it's a specialty Bible, but it's also a new concept and I think this the Green Bible will last for quite a while. That's why we're calling this the start of a green trail of books.
Then, we turned to Matthew Sleeth, who began his career as a medical doctor, but became convinced that he was called to a far larger vocation as a healer of Earth itself. In his Introduction, he describes a vacation he and his wife took with their children to an idyllic island off the coast of Florida. Life on the island was like a slice of Eden and the stars came out at night in a way they don't in more urban areas. Talking with his wife one night on that trip, she happened to ask: "What is the biggest problem facing our world?" Moved by this setting and his love for his family, Matthew replied, "The world is dying." It was a defining moment in which he began to ponder his life and the changes he had seen even close to home. He writes, "There are no chestnuts on Chestnut Lane, no elms on Elm Street, no caribou in Caribou, Maine, and no buffalo in Buffalo, New York. Multiple states have had to change their official tree, animal or flower because of extinctions."
DAVID: I was deeply moved by reading your Introduction to this new Bible. You write in a way that I think every parent will connect the dots here and see the urgency of working on these issues. It is about loving the natural world, but it's also about the future of our families. MATTHEW: We now live in Kentucky, but we lived on the coast of Maine at that time. It was the middle of winter when we took that trip to the island. There were no cars and no street lights there. The breezes blew in off the gulf and there was this kind of quiet at night. It was kind of like the way God made the world. What I now understand is that God often speaks to us through our spouses, our friends and the story of our lives. The answer I gave my wife that night was a profound and disturbing one. DAVID: I think that as people begin to read this Bible, they're going to be amazed at how much material there is in the Bible about what we call today "Creation care" or "greening." MATTHEW: Do you know who was asked to interpret the first dream about climate change? It was Joseph in the Bible. There are biblical answers here for the problems ahead of us. What did Joseph do? He didn't drill for more water. He began a conversation program. DAVID: So, how did the team decide what to mark in green? Flipping through the pages, I think people may take issue with some of your choices. They may spot passages that the team missed. MATTHEW: My role with the book was broad based. I didn't choose the passages. Even as I read the book, I see things that aren't marked in green that should be. As we read these passages more thoughtfully, more will seem green to us, I'm sure. But this was the first time this was done and it was a good effort. I hope we will see many more Bibles like this in the future. The beauty of the Bible is that wherever we find ourselves in time, and whatever problems we face, we can turn to the Bible and there are answers. Joseph had some good advice about preparing for climate change. DAVID: You're clearly not alone. Everywhere I turn, people are talking about green themes in their spiritual journeys. There's a hunger for this message.
MATTHEW: It's written into our genes. It's our first commandment in the Bible to protect and serve the Earth. In the New Testament, when Christ is resurrected, he's mistaken for a gardener. That's not a mistake. This resonates with believers and nonbelievers, with children and with old people. Sometimes people say to me, "Oh, yes, young people will get this." And I say to them, "No, all people will get this." When I first started talking about these ideas, I spoke to very small audiences. It was hard for me to get time in a pulpit to speak about this. Now, one group after another invites me to speak and sometimes I'm speaking to thousands of people. DAVID: People are beginning to realize that they need to be concerned about this — and that even a handful of people can make a difference. MATTHEW: Here's what often happens. I will go to a particular church that has invited me. I went to a church in Baltimore, for example. One person there had been working for years to try to get the church to take on this issue. Then, I went there and taught a small class and preached to four different services throughout that weekend. That whole church did a 180 turn. There are a lot of people out there like the person in Baltimore who finally arranged for me to come and speak. They're often isolated. A critical mass hasn't built yet, but it is building. This is an enormous change we're all making. And this is just the beginning.
CARE TO READ MORE? HarperOne has set up a Web site to introduce the new Bible. It's at http://greenletterbible.com. The site has information about co-sponsoring organizations and offers a link to "browse" sample pages of the Bible online.
PLEASE, Tell Us What You Think. Not only do we welcome your notes, ideas, suggestions and personal reflections—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We're also reachable on Facebook, Digg, Amazon, GoodReads and some of the other social-networking sites as well, if you're part of those groups. (Published in the ReadTheSpirit online magazine.)

Is this a miracle?

2008-10-14T11:01:00.002-04:00

From one of my favorite weekly magazines, The Week:

Miracles: after residents of Marino, Italy, discovered white wine flowing from their water faucets. "Miracolo!" they cried. The vino, it turns out, was supposed to spill from a fountain in the town square for the annual grape festival, but a plumbing mishap diverted it into homes.

Newest letter from ELCA Bishop's about the ecomonic crisis

2008-10-09T14:36:00.002-04:00

This is from our national church bishops. Do they get it right? Do you feel better or worse after you read it? Let me know what you think.

Almighty God, . . . teach us how to govern the ways of business to the harm of none and for the sake of the common good; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 78

Grace and peace to you.

As bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America , we are deeply concerned about the current financial crisis, which is affecting not only our nation but the entire global economy. This crisis is causing fear and loss in our country as thousands of families face unemployment, foreclosure, and uncertainty about savings and pensions. Meanwhile, they struggle to put food on the table and gas into their cars. The future is uncertain for all of us, but it is especially frightening for those who are already vulnerable and struggling to survive. We offer our prayers for those whose lives are being affected and for our national leaders as they seek to address this complex matter.

We call on all people in our own communities of faith and those from every segment of our society who seek the health of our nation to join in conversation and prayer about our collective economic life, our financial behaviors, and the interconnectedness of all life and creation that cries out to be reclaimed.

This church has addressed the issues surrounding economic life in its social statement, “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All,” (www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Economic-Life.aspx), and we encourage the use of this statement as a way to understand more fully how the following theological and biblical principles are central as we respond to this situation.

Concern for People in Poverty

The constitution of the ELCA calls this church to serve by “standing with the poor and powerless and committing itself to their needs.” (ELCA 4.02.c.). We are grateful for the pastors and leaders in our congregations who already have stepped forward to care for those who are suffering, and we encourage them to continue this response and to provide leadership in the task of turning our attention to the causes and effects of this crisis. We are called to work toward an economic system that truly serves the common good and especially the needs of the poor. We look for partnership with all those who seek to address this financial crisis in a way that also recognizes the humanitarian issues involved.

Personal and Corporate Responsibility

The ELCA social statement on economic life calls for individuals to live responsibly and within their means and to beware of the dangers of over-consumption and unnecessary accumulation, which draw us beyond authentic need into excess and destructive indebtedness. We call on businesses and corporations of all sizes to consider the social implications of company policies and to practice good stewardship of creation (Genesis 1:26).

The Need for Good Government

We hold and teach that government has an instrumental and constructive role to play in our shared life. This role includes “limiting or countering narrow economic interests and promoting the common good” (“Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All,” p. 11). We call on government to hold corporations and other powerful economic actors accountable for the effects of their practices on workers, communities, and the environment.

The Benefits and Limits of Free Markets

For many people, the current market-based economy has proven to be effective as a system to meet material need, generate wealth, and create opportunity. However, we hold and teach that any economic system should be measured by the degree to which it serves God’s purposes for humankind and creation. Those who have been blessed by the fruits of our economy are called to be generous in giving to those who have lost much and to advocate for accountability and appropriate regulation in this system.

As people of the God who calls us out of fear into hope and community, we welcome all people into widespread and respectful discussion about this current crisis. In this way we can create partnerships that will help those whose lives are being shattered and encourage responsibility and integrity in our national economic life.

As people of faith, we pray:

Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ dignified our labor by sharing our toil. Guide us with your justice in the workplace, so that we may never value things above people, or surrender honor to love of gain or lust for power. Prosper all efforts to put an end to work that brings no joy, and teach us how to govern the ways of business to the harm of none and for the sake of the common good; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Conference of Bishops
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
October 7, 2008

Good food for thought for a struggling people

2008-10-07T10:00:00.003-04:00

Friends:

Here is one take on how to make it through whatever economic crisis we are in.

How To Survive A Bad Economy
by Randy Robison

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves breakin and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)

There’s a lot of talk about the economy these days. The stock market is taking a beating, homes are being foreclosed and the dollar is losing value. The news is full of doom and gloom, so people are worried. Accusations of thievery and mismanagement abound. But when the blame is set aside and the financial intricacies are stripped away, what is the core issue?
Mark Punzo, a friend of the ministry who works at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, recently asked me, “What is something worth?” It didn’t take me long to reply, “Whatever somebody will pay for it.” “So what are you worth?” he asked. I admit my first thought went to life insurance actuary tables. My salary times x number of years before I retire… But I knew that wasn’t what he was driving at, so I guessed, “Whatever someone will pay me?” “Whatever someone will pay for you,” he corrected. Then he asked a question that really bent my mind. “What did God pay for you?” Now I got it. God paid for me with His only Son’s blood. It certainly wasn’t the first time I’d heard that principle, but it was the first time I had heard it put that way. It struck me hard. Is that really the value God places on me? Am I worth the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Why don’t I act like it?
“When God spoke that to me,” Mark continued, “He then said, ‘Look at all the people around you. That’s what they are worth to Me, too.’”
What incredible value! You, your loved ones, your acquaintances and even the people you don’t know are by far the most valuable things ever created, worth more than any company’s stock, assets or investments.
So why is it that we seem to be more concerned about our retirement plans than our relatives? Why do we react to an economic crisis with more urgency than a spiritual crisis? Do we really see the value in ourselves and in other people that God sees?
I confess that I take people for granted. If I spotted a $20 bill in the gutter, I’d stop to pick it up. But I have passed right by a person lying in the gutter without any second thoughts. I think perhaps my sense of value is askew. As a “responsible” husband and father, I spend time laying up treasure on earth for medical bills, college and (hopefully, some day) retirement. But those things will all pass away. My daughter’s car will eventually break down and rust, but her spirit is eternal. My son’s braces will give him a nice smile for a while, but what kind of man will he be when his teeth are falling out and his looks don’t matter any more?
I have decided to not worry about the economy. Good or bad, God is in control. I can only have one response if I want to hold on to anything of value: invest in the things in which God has invested.
You are worth what God paid for you. So is your spouse, your child and your neighbor. If you want to be rich, don’t look to your bank account. It will fail you. Look to the people in your life and invest in them. Then you will be truly prosperous, no matter what the economy does. And unlike the wealth of this world, you can take it with you forever.

This Week: Don’t worry about the economy; just make good investments. Deposit your time and love into someone’s life.
Prayer: “Father, forgive me for focusing on the temporal things of this earth. Help me to see the value in people that You see and lay up treasure in heaven by investing in them.”

Be blessed.

Solomon's Porch tomorrow night

2008-10-06T17:43:00.001-04:00

Friends:

Please consider joining us tomorrow for Solomon’s Porch at First Cup coffee house at Five and Inkster in Redford. Our topic for tomorrow:

Last week the people of metro Atlanta experienced the first real gas shortage in recent memory. People were left to wonder what they would do if they could not gas up their vehicles. The questions for discussion are: what would you do if you could not put gas in your car? How would your life change? How would you go about living your “normal” life? Is modifying your use of fossil fuels a good or bad thing? What would be the end result if this became a reality in our area? Could you survive? What is the faith response to all of this? Come out tomorrow for what should be an interesting discussion.

Be blessed.

Can you work through these four phases of forgiveness?

2008-09-24T10:36:00.002-04:00

Do you have the power to forgive?

Friends:

I came across this in the Free Press this morning. I believe people of faith, like all people, often struggle with the issue of forgiveness. As yourself, if there is someone in your life who you need to forgive, if you can work through these four steps toward better health? Below I have listed the four phases of forgiveness. It asks, are you willing to:

Uncover the causes of your anger and recognize its impact on your health.

Decide to forgive. Recognize that it is your choice and make the commitment.

Work toward understanding, forgiveness and compassion.

Release yourself from your emotional prison and discover the freedom of forgiveness.

Source: "Forgiveness Is a Choice: A Step-by-Step Process for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope," by Robert D. Enright (American Psychological Association, $19.95)

Is this helpful? Did the author leave something out? Let me know.

Be blessed.

How do you pray?

2008-09-12T11:09:00.001-04:00

Friends:

One of the books I am currently reading is Body Prayer by Doug Pagitt. In this insightful read some postures for prayer are explained. Which one fits your style of prayer?

Many people are accustomed to closing their eyes and bowing their heads during prayer. For the originators of this practice, this was not an empty custom but a physical way of focusing of God. By their actions, these people of prayer showed that their immediate surroundings were not as important as God.

For other early believers, folding their hands during prayer was a statement that they would not hold onto anything else when they were praying. It was a physical way to say to God, “Your kingdom come, your will be done in my life.”

Still others pray with their eyes open, their faces turned up to the sky, and their hands spread wide. This posture indicates a willingness to accept all that God has made.

For pray-ers in the first century, it was common to pray facedown with one’s knees pulled close to the chest and one’s forehead touching the ground. Doing so put one close to the ground and in the most humble position possible.

The custom of kneeling and bowing one’s head in prayer is strengthened by the imagery of a person approaching a king to make a request. When doing this in prayer, the subject puts herself at the mercy of the King by exposing her neck, and act which shows her complete vulnerability to the Sovereign’s power.

The New Testament practice of placing hands on the one being prayed for is yet another physical act of faith and prayer.

Still others pray while walking or singing or standing.

Pagitt further points out that “From the beginning Christians have recognized that prayer is not simply a matter of words; it is an integration of all of life, through the body.”

How do you pray? Let us learn from each other new ways to mesh the body and spirit.

Solomon's Porch Road Trip?

2008-09-11T16:06:00.001-04:00

Is anyone interested in making this our next SP? I have heard Jim speak in the past and he promises not to disappoint.

Jim Wallis, the author of the New York Times best-seller, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, will be speaking in Detroit, MI.
On Thursday, September 18, at 7.30 p.m., Jim will give a keynote address at University of Detroit Mercy. Jim's talk, entitled "Faith in the Public Square," will cover religion and politics, and the upcoming presidential race. The event is free and open to the public and will take place at Calihan Hall on University of Detroit Mercy's McNichols Campus. An RSVP is required.
Sep. 18, 2008: Detroit, MI.An Evening with Jim WallisUniversity of Detroit Mercy (7.30 p.m.)4001 W McNichols Rd.Contact: Gary LichtmanTel: 313-993-1254

Is your church tech saavy?

2008-09-04T15:28:00.003-04:00

I am glad our church can check all the boxes. How about yours? What do you think about connecting with people using electronic media?

Info to share from Barna Report about technology:
16% of churches Podcast
26% of churches have social networking page (facebook)
56% of churches send e-messages to members and attenders
62% of churches have a website

-2008 Barna.org survey of U.S. Protestant Churches

Any "Saving Grace" fans out there?

2008-07-30T14:40:00.001-04:00

Friends:

TNT network is back with another season of Saving Grace, a show I commented on and recommended through the e-newsletter last year. It is the story of a police detective in Oklahoma City and her interactions with an angel named Earl. Generally, there is lots of “faith” stuff to talk about in each segment. It is on every Monday night at 10 pm and is slated for a full 18 episode run. Lately I have been getting into more and more conversations about the show and wondered if anyone on this list would be interested in gathering, starting Tuesday, August 19th, at First Cup Coffee House at Five and Inkster from 7-8pm to discuss the previous night’s episode?

Let me know if you are interested.

Join our e-church community on facebook!

2008-07-25T12:34:00.003-04:00

If you are on facebook, you are invited to join our e-church community. If not, this is a great time to create an account. It is pretty user friendly, just follow these steps:

Log on to facebook.
Enter a search for St. John's Lutheran Church Redford, Michigan.
Click on join group.

There is a discussion board and we will keep it updated with events and other items of interest. I look forward to connecting with you there and having you be a part of our on-line church community.

Green Update

2008-07-23T09:52:00.001-04:00

Friends:

I want to take this opportunity to catch all of you up on the “greening” of our church. As many of you know, we have spent the last eighteen months or so looking at ways we can be more environmentally friendly and at the same time identify ways to be more fiscally responsible in making our building more energy efficient. Things we have done to date:

We joined Michigan Interfaith Power and Light-the highlight- an energy audit conducted by an organization called RETAP. They have submitted their report and your green team is beginning to decipher what recommendations fit our life at SJ. Thanks to Jon and Jim for their work on this project!
Cloth Bag drive to benefit our green committee-we are asking the members of SJ to consider reducing the number of plastic bags used each week by carrying one or more of the great SJ cloth bags. Sales of the bags have been terrific (we only have four left out of our first order) and all the profits from the sale of the bags will go toward living into the recommendations put forth through our energy audit.
Paper drive to benefit Fisher Elementary-thanks to everyone who has been bringing in their paper for recycling or dropping off their bulletin after worship in our paper cans. I know that at times there is an overflow but that tells me two things-that we are committed to recycling in this way and that our local school, Fisher Elementary, will be getting more school supplies because of us! We try to take the paper every other week. Thanks for Michael our confirmation student for helping me transport the paper every other week!
Bottle/can drive to benefit the unified budget-this ministry has been a great success with over three hundred dollars collected over the last seven or eight months. Our financial goal with this project was to generate $500 to give to the unified budget of our church and we are well on our way! Thanks to Fred Ingham for being my bottle/can buddy each month!

This is just the beginning. I am proud of our church. We are one of the churches spear-heading ecological ministry in our community.

"Michigation" anyone?

2008-07-09T14:27:00.005-04:00

The other day on talk radio I listened to a discussion about how Michiganders should consider taking a "Michigation", or a vacation in Michigan, this summer as a way to spark the economy of our downtrodden state. As I was listening to what seemed to make sense(staying close) I wondered if Michigan was not already one of "those" states where people vacation within the state because there is so much beauty, shore line and camping opportunities locally. I know our communities up north are struggling but I wonder if people are just staying put because they cannot afford to go anywhere. We have plans for a trip up to the Bruce Peninsula in Canada in August and a five day camping trip for the "Bridge Walk" in September, but are considering changing the former and heading to the western side of the state. My question is, if we as residents of Michigan, or whatever state you reside, are going to vacation this year, do we owe it to our state to stay within its boundaries and invest our vacation dollars, though fewer, where we live? We will talk about this at Solomon's Porch this Thursday night at First Cup.

Birth Announcement

2008-06-27T11:07:00.002-04:00

Friends:

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been a little busy with a little one. Last Friday we welcomed the newest addition to our family, Henry "Hank" Robert Hegdal. It is a time of great joy and celebration for us and a reminder of the wonders in life God entrusts us with. Thanks be to God!

Yep, I'm 40 today

2008-06-11T07:12:00.002-04:00

I made it. 40 years ago in New York I made my first appearance. Lots of mileage since then. Hopefully lots more open road to discover and experience. Thanks to all who have been part of the journey.

The "present"

2008-06-03T10:24:00.003-04:00

Lately I have been listening to a lot of sports talk radio. Yesterday I was tuned in to the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN radio with guest Coach Mike Ditka. They were asking him how he was spending his time before football season begins in July. He said something that really resonated with me and I would like to share it with you. He said “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, which is why they call it the present”. He admitted that the quote was not his, just something he remembers as he begins each day. What a great way to look at the gift of each day we are given by God to live in this world.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, how are you spending this day, this present, this gift from God? Will you take time today to acknowledge and enjoy the gift of “the present”? All too often we spend our time living in the past or looking toward the future at the expense of enjoying each moment of each day, of “the present”. I invite you to take time today and drink in your surroundings, to give thanks for life and for the blessing of another day.
Peace to each of you. Enjoy your day.

Solomon's Porch Thursday Night

2008-05-21T13:42:00.001-04:00

Friends:

This Thursday we will meet for Solomon’s Porch at First Cup Coffee House, Five Mile and Inkster, from 7-8 pm. The discussion for this week will be:

Within the next month our national presidential election will become a two member race leading up to the election in November. This week’s issue of Time magazine looks at the economic challenges facing the incoming president and breaks the pathways toward potential stimulation to the following five categories:

Income: Less than one percent of Americans are doing better than they were in 2000, and if we adjust for inflation, the average American household survives on approximately $1,000 less than in ’00.

Taxes: The bill for the deficit is due. Yes everyone’s for tax cuts. For the fiscal year 2008, which ends in September, the government will probably spend $500 billion more than it takes in, a deficit of 3.5% of the GNP.

Energy: With gas prices hovering over $4 a gallon, Americans are beginning to realize that burning fossil fuels isn’t and energy policy. Do we need to get one?

Real Estate: A house in an American dream, but the tax break proves costly to many Americans. In 2007, 1.5 million homes fell into foreclosure, and that number is expected to increase in 2008.

Financial Security: Do rising health care costs and unstable retirement programs scare you? If they do, you are not alone.

First, as an individual citizen of this country, how would you rate the importance of each of these areas of potential economic stimulus as an immediate priority of our next president?

Second, if you re-look at this list through the lens of a person of faith, does your list change?

I am looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at 7 pm.

Peace,
PB

Back on the road to 40 grind with a little help from Shane Claiborne

2008-04-24T16:43:00.003-04:00

I am really growing to appreciate the writings of Shane Claiborne. In his latest book , Jesus for President, Claiborne invites us to journey in our hearts and minds about how much we, as Christ-followers today, look like Jesus. He writes:

Looking Like Jesus

Remember when ole John the Baptizer sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was the one they were expecting and he didn’t answer with a simple yes? Jesus instead told them to go tell John what they saw him doing. He knew that John could read the trail of crumbs. John knew that when lepers were healed, the blind saw, the dead rose, and the good news was preached to the poor, the one they were waiting for was indeed here.
What does our trail of crumbs look like? If someone asks if we are Christ-followers, can we say, “Tell me what you see”? is there enough evidence to prove that we are taking after the slaughtered Lamb? What if they ask the poor around us? What if they ask our enemies? Would they say that we love them? Christians haven’t always looked like Jesus. Perhaps the greatest barrier to Christ has been Christians who pronounce Jesus so loudly with their lips and deny him so loudly with their lives.
In the South, we have a saying: “You are the spittin’ image” of someone. Folks still speculate over how exactly the phrase originated, but I’ve heard it put like this. It’s shorthand for “spirit and image.” Spittin’ image. For us, it meant more than just that you look like the person. It goes beyond just appearance to include character and temperament. It means that you remind people of that person. You have their charisma. You do the same things they did. In the truest sense, Christians are to be the spittin’ image of Jesus in the world. We are to be the things he was. We are to preach the things he preached and the way he lived. We are to follow in the footsteps of our rabbi so closely that we get his dust on us.
We are to remind the world of Jesus. The criterion for whether something is a manifestation of the kingdom of God is the person of Jesus. Does it look like him? –from Jesus for President pg. 230-31

I invite you this week to look at your life and your walk as a disciple. What kind of bread crumb trail are you leaving behind?

Solomon's Porch tonight

2008-04-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

Solomon's Porch Coffee House conversation meets tonight from 7-8 pm at First Cup Coffee House at Five Mile and Inkster Rd.

The topic for tonight:

As people of faith we are often called to have hope where there seems to be no hope, to be a voice of hope in our communities. Over the past few years tens of thousands of Michigan residents have left the state. In 2007 Metro Detroit was the foreclosure capital of the US. Our situation seems dire. What responsibility, if any, do people of faith have to stick it out during these lean times, these times when things seem utterly helpless? Do we have a responsibility to remain present and help transition our communities toward stabilization or is it OK to be part of the flight toward what appear to be greener pastures elsewhere? I want to know what you think? Be part of the conversation tonight at 7pm.

Wednesday Solomon's Porch update

2008-04-09T10:51:00.002-04:00

One of the recent joys of ministry has been our Solomon's Porch Coffee house conversations at First Cup Organic Coffee House. Tommorow night we will be discussing our upcoming tax "rebates" and what we will do with the money. Different people seem to think the monies need to go stimulate the economy, some think it should go into savings or pay down our debt. What do you think? How is God calling us to use this resource?

The start of a new week...

2008-04-02T15:04:00.002-04:00

Greetings to all:

A happy belated Easter greeting to each of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ! Thanks to all of you who have been on the journey to 40 with me. I would like to use this space today to catch you up on some things that are going on at our church:

Wayne County Family Center: Our mission to the center has gotten off to a rousing start with the following events/items donated to the center:
-2 dinners for the residents averaging 50 meals served
-85 bath towels
-16 twin sheet sets donated
-2 alarm clocks
Our church has done a great job in just over six weeks of involvement. Remember, residents take these items with them as part of their transition to permanent housing. Thanks to all who have been able to donate time or tangible goods to this awesome agency, a partnership between Wayne County and Lutheran Social Services of Michigan. If you would like to participate in one of the feedings or would like to donate items, please email me at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com .

Michigan Interfiath Power and Light: St. John’s is now a member of Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, (MiIPL), a coalition of churches organized to “involve communities of faith as stewards of God’s creation by promoting and implementing energy efficiency, renewable energy and related sustainable practices.” (MiIPL) Over the next few months we will be reporting to you about our involvement with this organization and how we are responding at St. John’s to God’s call to be good stewards of our resources. If you would like to be part of our “Green” team, please email me at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com

Upcoming Special Worship Services at SJ:

Sunday, May 11th at 10:30 am “Pack a Pew for Mothers” Sunday at SJ. Sign up to “pack a pew” with family and friends as we take special time to honor all the women in our lives who mother us.

Sunday, May 18th at 10:30 am “Blessing of the Bikes” Sunday at SJ. Join us as we hold an outdoor service and have a special summer blessing to all our motorcyclists and bicycle enthusiasts in our community. Know someone who rides? Invite them to this unique service. If you would like to help plan this service, or know someone who should receive a special invitation, email me at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com

Sunday, June 1st at 10:30 am “Church Music Sunday” at SJ. This is our annual service featuring our wonderful music program. Know someone who loves good music? This is an excellent chance to invite that someone special to attend worship as we lift up our excellent music program.

“Tentative” Sunday, June 8th at 12:00 pm “Special service/picnic at Kensington Metro Park for Pastor’s 40th birthday” I will be riding that day in an MDA 50 mile bike ride. Come out and join me as I celebrate my 40th birthday with a bicycle ride to raise money for MDA. If you want to find out more about the ride or honor me with a donation toward MDA, click here. After the ride, participate in an informal worship service led by the “50 mile” rider, followed by an afternoon of fellowship and picnicking.

Sunday, June 15th at 10:30 am “Service Honoring Fathers” at SJ. Come out to worship as we honor the father figures in our lives. A special “Tribute” book for fathers will be created for the service. If you would like to include a tribute to the father figure/s in your life email me at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com for more information.

Sunday, September 7th at 10:30 am “Blessing of the Pets” service at SJ. This outdoor service will honor our pets with a special blessing as part of the worship. Know someone with a pet? This is a great opportunity to invite someone who is a pet lover to experience SJ.

I am excited about all these opportunities to share the message of Jesus Christ with our family and friends. I hope you will consider joining us and inviting those you love to these unique services.

Remember, I pray for the readers of this blog every Friday. How can I pray for you?

Growing in faith together:

Day 76 A day to remember...

2008-03-27T17:45:00.003-04:00

This day is one of the highlights in my life as it is the birth date of my daughter. She is definitely the best thing that ever happened to me.

I have spent the last few weeks reconnecting with those I have lost contact with or just have not heard from in awhile. I wonder why we get so caught up in our lives that we do not stay better connected to those who mean something to us. I have many friends and family who do not live close. Yet, with stuff like the internet I still do a poor job of staying connected with them. What is wrong with me? If there is one thing I have learned in my almost 40 years of life is that family and friends matter.

Maybe eventually I will get my head out of the sand and be more diligent to connect with those I love using the gifts of connectedness God blesses us with.

Who in your life could use an email?

Day 78 Back to the grind....

2008-03-25T22:02:00.002-04:00

A great day off yesterday hanging out with my daughter. The older I get the more I see the need to be dedicated in taking my day off. Too often I answer the phone, do e-mail and other work related stuff on my one day off a week. Up until yesterday I could not tell you the last time I took a full day off. Definitely not the way to live as I approach 40 years of age. I hope to begin the process of detoxing from my need to think I always need to be available and working. I need to turn off the computer and more importantly my Blackberry.

As I journey toward for fortieth I ask God to intervene for me in my weakness and help me to take better care of myself, including taking my time off. I ask God to remind me that it is not all about me and that I need to take care of myself if I am going to take care of others.

Or at least not answer work e-mail on my day off. I know what you are thinking. All talk. I am trying. It will take some time to fully be in recovery. At least I did not post this message from my Blackberry :)

Days 82-80 A drop of the ball....

2008-03-23T09:10:00.004-04:00

Despite best intentions, I have missed the last two entries on this blog toward 40. I could claim a senior moment, too much for a pastor to do during Holy week (a personal pet peeve) or I could do what I have grown accustomed to doing as I mature, to say I have no "good" excuse, ask for forgiveness and move on.

He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! A blessed Easter to all!

Day 83 Maundy Thursday

2008-03-20T16:26:00.003-04:00

Today is one of my favorite days in the life of the church because yearly it reminds me how difficult it is for me to accept help from others. Sure, it is easy to be a servant, to serve others, but when it comes to being served most of us, myself included, head for the hills. I wonder why we are so reluctant to accept or ask for help from others. Why do we resist the help of others in such a dramatic way? After all, in order for us to be servant doesn't someone have to be served? Why can't that person be us? Why can't we open ourselves up and be vulnerable enough with each other to allow ourselves to be served.

Today, when we go to the water basin and have our hands washed, when we symbolically wash ourselves as Jesus washed the disciples so long ago, I wonder how many of us will be moved by what we say, "In order to be a servant we first must be willing to be served". If we don't get that, I am not sure how much of a discipleship walk we can be on. Jesus told us, if you want to be like me and live into what I call you to this is a must do. You must humble yourself in service first by being served yourself.

Easier said than done.

Day 84 Oh, my aching mouth!

2008-03-19T21:39:00.002-04:00

Not much to report today. I am feeling the effects of my dental work on Tuesday. My mouth feels so sore I can only equate it to my old powerlifting days when I would barely be able to walk the next day. A promise of more engagement with the blog tommorow.

Day 85 A trip to my favorite place....

2008-03-18T16:18:00.003-04:00

Today I had my third appointment with the dentist in as many weeks. The visit today was for the final gum scraping, plaque blowing cleaning I needed for the last three years or so. It took about two hours to complete and served as a reminder to floss. I always have good intentions when it comes to flossing but somehow it always gets put on the back burner. It leads me to think today, 85 days shy of my 40th birthday, why I don't take my health more seriously, especially my teeth. I know that I should floss, I know that my teeth will last longer but I do not always take the time to do this simple thing.
Today I ask God to remind me to take care of myself, to prod me into being a better steward of the body entrusted me with. With a new baby on the way it is even more important that I take care of myself. I ask the readers of this blog: how is God calling you to care for your body? How could you be a better steward of the body God has gifted you with?

Day 86 A thought for the day to be unpacked later...

2008-03-17T17:08:00.003-04:00

Today I was riding around from place to place listening to a podcast through my new I-pod hook up in my Explorer. The speaker used a phrase that I have not been able to get out of my head. He said, "the more right you are the less nice you seem to be." And I wonder how often that is true in my life. I am on a journey of faith that constantly reminds me that I do not have to be right in my faith, just a participant on a journey. Yet I wonder if in the midst of that journey if my actions reflect that understanding. When I talk with people about faith in "something" or they try to convince me about how wrong I am to have a faith in transition I like to think that I remain as open minded as I can be, yet sometimes I feel this cynical "right" side coming out of me wondering when they will get it. It is the rather convincting notion "why can't they just get it the way I get it." That does not marry well with ideals that are supposed to reflect and openness and willingness to inform people how I experience something and never discount how they experience the same thing. I have come across people who are so sure they are "right" they turn me off. Today, on day 86, I hope and pray to God that I don't concern myself so much with being right that it keeps people from seeing the LIGHT.

Day 87

2008-03-16T22:53:00.003-04:00

A wonderful Palm Sunday service today using the "Service of Shadows". It was a great way to center our folks for Holy week. Later in the day I was part of a team that served food at the Wayne County Family Center. Despite the awesome smells of the sloppy joe's I stuck to my new vegetarian guns and just served the delicious meat, I did not eat any.

But, just to beat a point, the sloppy joe did SMELL awesome. How many days till Easter?

Day 88 Saturday Evening Post for the 21st century

2008-03-15T16:37:00.005-04:00

Today was a day right out of a Normal Rockwell Saturday Evening Post painting. It started with French toast with the family, Irish dance class with my daughter and a walk at the dog park with our black lab. It was a picturesque day, a giant slice of Americana. The only down side was a few police cars in the park, so our dog needed to stay on her lease until we reached the woods(this park allows dogs off leash once you hit the woods).

The woods were amazing, almost "Ansel Adams" like. As we walked along the trail we came upon a scene we were not prepared for. Our friends from the police were in the woods a short distance away. As we closed the gap, one of the officers came over and asked to speak with us out of earshot of my daughter. The officer informed my wife that a man had taken his life in the park and the officer wanted us to take another direction around the bend away from where the man was. We were able to steer clear of the scene with my daughter unaware, wondering if the police were looking for the skunk we had seen a few weeks earlier. Even though our walk went off without a hitch, it was not the same.

I was hit today with the reality that is all around us here in Metro Detroit. That people are suffering and looking for ways out. People are losing their jobs and their homes along with any sense of hope. It is a tough time to be in this part of the country. It reminded me to be on the lookout for people in crisis and not be so caught up in myself not to notice those around me who are suffering. As we journeyed through the woods, I prayed for the man who perished and those who loved him. I prayed for all those who are on the brink of hopelessness. I gave thanks for the blessings in my life. I wondered who in my circle is suffering. I asked God to plant a seed within me to check in with those I love.

Not exactly what Norman had in mind.

Day 89 A day to give thanks...

2008-03-14T15:09:00.002-04:00

Today I journeyed with one of the member's of our feeding team over to the Wayne County Family Center, a center for people in need of transitional housing. We have committed to serve dinner twice a month at the center, a worthwhile partnership between Wayne County and Lutheran Social Services of Michigan. Each time I am privileged to be present at the center I learn something and take away much more than I give. Today was no exception. The director of the facility is a wonderful woman clearly dedicated to the work God has empowered her to do for the kingdom. Being in her presence makes me want to help the shelter all the more. Today, as usual, I asked her if there were any additional tangible ways the our church could be a presence at the facility, and she relayed to us the need for electronic alarm clocks. She reminded us that often folks in transition needed the most basic things in life, including the reminder that when working or having responsibilities to be certain places at certain times that an alarm clock might be a great asset. She further said that one of the goals of the center was to model some realities that lay ahead when the families transition to their next home. Educating or re-educating people on the value of an alarm clock is just one of the many life lessons they attempt to instill in the residents while they are at the center.

Today, 89 days shy of my 40th birthday, I want to give thanks to God for all the people who have travelled in and through my life modeling and teaching me basic life lessons. It is not often that I have the opportunity to have such gifts in my life pointed out to me in such a profound way. So, for all those who gave of their time and wisdom helping to make me into the person that I strive to be, I thank God for your presence in my life. Today I appreciate each of you in a different way.

Thought for the day: Who are those wonderful people God placed in your life, individuals who participated in making you into the person you are today? Do they know the impact they had on your life? I wonder, could you be so bold as to let them know?

90 day journey to the big 4-0

2008-03-13T10:57:00.002-04:00

Friends:

It turns out that Thursday, March 13, 2008 is a significant day in my life. Today I am officially 90 days shy of my 40th birthday. I have thought a lot over the last few months about what it means for me to be turning” the big 4-0”. It leads me to wonder what God has in store for me as I live into my fifth decade as a member of this planet. New friend Doug Pagitt recently challenged me, when speaking about church work and life, “ask yourself if this is this how you want to spend your forties?” I had not really thought about my life in that way, breaking it down in decade long intervals. It makes sense, I just never thought of my life in that way before. As I journey through my life and try to walk in a way of faith I find myself wanting to create a list of hopes and dreams for the next decade. The more I engage in my walk with God the more I feel passionate about walking in and toward the light of Christ and making myself into an expression of the gift of life given to me by our Creator. Here is the start of the list I am creating about this transition in my life. I will be blogging daily about this walk toward 40, and invite you to join me as I attempt to discover if the passions I believe God is placing in my heart will translate into real action and change in my life and those whose lives I am connected with.

Church: I am feeling called to help those I share a calling with to journey the walk of a disciple rather than a member of a church. I sense God calling me to speak to and with those on a journey of faith rather than those “fixed” in a comfortable final destination. I feel passionate about traveling with those who are questioning their faith, life, and how faith and life connects within the context they find themselves in. I would like to help others, and myself, to change our view of what the church is and what it is called to be. I have been ruminating over a quote from one of my favorite authors, Brian McLaren, about the church and what he sees as God’s vision for the purpose of the church. McLaren writes of how the role of the church is not about meeting your individual needs but rather about inviting others to join the mission of God’s people to meet the world’s needs. I want to spend my forties exploring what living into that means.

Family: I want to spend my forties being the best husband and father I can be. I desire to be a role model for faithful living within the context of raising a family and nurturing relationships with those closest to me. I am committed to being intentional about investing in the lives of those who surround me.

Health: I have often attempted to convince myself that I was committed to healthy living. However, often my actions do not always reflect a commitment to that journey. God entrusted me with a physical body and charged with its care. Too often over the last few years I have taken this for granted. I feel encouraged to change this and model the life I speak about in a more definitive way.

Environment: God has really been convicting me lately to take a larger role in caring and advocating for our planet. I like to think I was interested in this before the recent buzz about “being green”, but only in the last year have I began to seriously look at how we are caring for the environment God has entrusted us with. I want to continue to strengthen my knowledge and voice about environmental issues and encourage others into care of this awesome earth we are privileged to reside in.

Justice: This concept is freshest on my radar. God is really working on me to be more of an advocate. I feel I have spent too little time in public ministry acting and speaking out for injustice in our world. I am dedicated to change that and lend myself in partnership with others as a voice for justice.

There you have it. This represents the ground floor of a list that will be ruminated over, molded, shaped and perhaps modified over the next ten years. I wonder, if you examined your life in the same way, how God is calling you to be His agent over the next decade. Remember, it is not a question of if, but rather how God is calling you. What things or issues is God placing in your heart to be passionate about?

ELCA's Environment Lenten Devotional

2008-03-04T19:32:00.002-05:00

I have really been enjoying the Lenten devotional produced by my tribe, the ELCA. Check out the following sample:

Stop Global Warming
Saturday March 1, 2008
Abundant Living: Wendell Berry wrote, "To live, we must daily break the bread and shed the blood of creation. ... When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. ... In such desecration, we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness and others to want." How can your life be a living sacrament to the wonders of creation? [Wendell Berry, "The Gift of Good Land"]
Stop global warming at home. Stop global warming at church, school, work.
Stop global warming in fields, factories, and governments.
Start.
This is a call to something extraordinary: a life of care and justice.
To protect creation we must make small and sweeping changes. But most importantly, we must begin. You can change a light bulb to conserve electricity. Business can reduce travel and use carbon-free technology such as teleconferencing. The United States can commit to treaties that take responsibility for our disproportionately high carbon emissions.
Jesus calls us to actively witness to a new order that recognizes the outcast and the broken. Jesus' message was radical because it transformed the earth through extreme love for the place where unity and harmony are missing. Global climate change requires that we embrace these dark places as well and find solutions that reconcile us to creation knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently.
Be Aware and then Act
ELCA's Global Warming Resources
National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Resource Guide
Pew Center on Climate Change
Prayer for the Day's Journey Let there be respect for the earth,Peace for its people,Love in our lives,Delight in the good,Forgiveness for past wrongsAnd from now on, a new start.Rev. Peter Trow
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend!
If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America e-Advocacy Network.

Writer: Kathleen Wood. Design and editing: Brewer Communications, Inc. Produced by: Advocacy Department, Church in Society Program Unit, ELCA. Photo © iStockphoto.com/Daniel Gustavsson. Earth photo courtesy of NASA. Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and used by permission. All rights reserved. Web sites linked from this message reflect the positions of the outside organizations and may not necessarily reflect an official position of ELCA. Copyright © 2008 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. All rights reserved.

Update

2008-02-26T11:44:00.002-05:00

Friends:

I pray for all of during this time of Lent.

Some updates for your consideration:

Lenten Services: We are presenting unique services on Wednesday nights during Lent. These services will help shape the new community we hope to create on Sunday evenings in the near future. These services call us to reflection about five different ways God speaks to us. Soup is served at 5:30 followed by a short service at 6:15 pm. I invite you to check out this new service.

Echoes to be available on-line: Our paper newsletter, the Echoes, will be made available on-line starting in March. You will be able to access it through our website or we can e-mail it to you. This follows the “green” principal of reducing the need for paper and will financially help our church with postage/production costs. If you would like to electronically subscribe to the Echoes, please e-mail our office manager Jennifer at sjlcredord@yahoo.com.

Solomon's Porch this Thursday: We will meet as usual at First Cup coffee house from 7-8 pm. First Cup is located at the southeast corner of Five and Inkster in Redford Township. The topic for discussion this week will be a look at the presidential candidates and how they will address environmental concerns if elected. Come out and share your opinion and find out where the candidates stand on this issue. Remember, whether we agree or disagree, all voices are welcome in the discussion.

Green Request of the week: Are you one of those people who use a signature on your e-mail? Have you seen others signatures and wished you had one? This is your chance to investigate/implement it and help the environment in the process. Why not join me in cutting and pasting the following statement into your e-mails? Even if you don’t create a signature you could easily place it at the end of your e-mail correspondence. Thank you in advance.
Tag statement for the end of e-mails:

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

Social Ministry Update:

Wayne County Family Center (WCFC) Update: We are now just three weeks away from our initial feeding at the Wayne County Family Center, a transitional housing unit for families in our county. We are scheduled to provide dinner for the residents the third Sunday and Tuesday of the month. There are still many chances to serve available in order to make this commitment happen. NO experience necessary.

WCFC Towel update : Our bath towel drive for WCFC continues to be a huge success. To date we have collected over 50 bath towels. Remember, each new family is given the towels when they arrive at the facility, and they take them with them when they transition to new housing, so new towels are always needed. Thanks to all who have participated in the service project.

Shoe Update: We have been collecting gently used shoes for redistribution among those in need in the metro Detroit area. To date we have collected over 25 pairs of shoes. Remember, these shoes help someone in need as well as address a “green” principal through the recycling of shoes.

A view from the outside?

2008-01-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

Here is another good dose of “food for thought” from author Dan Kimball:

In his book “They Like Jesus But Not the Church”, Kimball questions out loud if people who are connected to the church are also remaining connected to the “outside” world. He wonders if we follow our charge as people of God to be an “everybody church, everywhere”, if we are a people that regularly journey with people who do not identify themselves as Christians? Here are some great questions to ask:

Am I numb or neutral toward people outside the church?

Do I intercede daily for people outside the church?

Who am I praying for now who is not a Christian?

When’s the last time I had coffee or dinner or gone to a movie and hung out with someone who is not a Christian?

How did you do? Are you engaging in the culture that surrounds you or are you remaining insulated in our own comfortable environment? How comfortable are you with doing something about it?

Green tip of the week: What's the probability your supermarket plums are genetically modified?
The BitePlum dandy (um, pretty high). But we'll help you crunch the numbers: the little stickers on fruits and veggies have digits that let you know whether they're conventionally grown or organic, and if they're genetically modified (GM).
The Benefits
· Better odds for your body. GM foods have been in stores only since the 1990s, so we don't know the long-term health risks, and in a 1998 EPA sampling, 29% of the foods tested contained detectable pesticides.
· Less of an eco-gamble. Scientists are concerned that GMOs will reduce biodiversity.
· Winning the taste-bud lottery. Foodies all over the world agree that the range of possible flavors is greater when we just let Mother Nature do her thing.

Wanna Try? Look for the labels stuck on your fruits and veggies:
· A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
· A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
· A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's GM.

Are you in the race?

2008-01-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

I love author Brian McLaren. His books are quite inspirational and the titles are awesome. I especially love his book titled “Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel”, co-authored by Tony Campolo.

I have often spoken of how in order to run the race of faith we have to actually be engaged in the process of running, of being on a faith journey. As we look at this issue, I wonder how we can use our four point discipleship model, G-od, P-eople, C-alling and J-OY in creating an environment they write about for our church and community.

Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo tell a parable of a boring, little town that decided to hold a footrace. On the appointed day, the runners showed up in all their athletic finery. The crowds gathered. But then, something very strange happened:

“The runners took a step or two or three across the starting line, and then abruptly stopped. One man fell to his knees, crying, ‘I have crossed the starting line! This is the happiest day of my life!’ He repeated this again and again, and even began singing a song about how happy this day was for him.

“Another woman started jumping for joy. ‘Yes!’ she shouted, raising her fist in the air. ‘I am a race-runner! I am finally a race-runner!’ She ran around jumping and dancing, getting and giving high-fives to others who shared her joy at being in the race."

“Several people formed a circle and prayed, quietly thanking God for the privilege of crossing the starting line, and thanking God that they were not like the skeptics who didn’t come dressed for the race.”

The spectators, the authors say, were baffled by this strange behavior, but finally one observer turned to a neighbor and suggested that maybe they ought to get into the race. And so they did. Many others joined them:

“Soon many were kicking off their dress shoes, slipping out of their jackets, throwing all this unneeded clothing on the grass. And they ran — past the praying huddles and past the crying individuals and past the jumping high-fivers. And they found hope and joy in every step, and they grew stronger with every mile and hill. To their surprise, the path never ended — because in this race, there was no finish line. So they were never bored again.”
— Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo, Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel (Zondervan/Youth Specialties, 2006).

Green Tip of the week: Do you have a violent reaction to peanuts - the polystyrene kind?

The Bite: No kidding. For such a small piece of foam, packing peanuts are huge source of annoyance and waste. Keep your nutty reaction under control by reusing them (and bubble wrap too).
The Benefits:
Saving cash. Saving them for future mailings costs less than paying for new packaging and you can use the money to pay your allergist.

Easy recycling. More than 1,500 places nationwide (such as most UPS Stores) will take 'nuts and bubble wrap off your hands.

Fewer new peanuts. Places that collect used peanuts meet 50% of their packing-fill needs thanks to peanut donations.

Bio and recycled options. If you must buy new box-fillers, go with eco-friendlier versions.

Wanna Try?
· Plastic Loose Fill Council - visit this site or call 800-828-2214 for the nearest packing-peanut drop spot.
· Custom Wrap Cellulose Wadding - recycled paper that works as a filler or wrap ($45/two 24-in-by-200-ft rolls).
· Sealed Air Bubble Wrap - bubble wrap made using partially recycled plastic ($5/12-in-by-10-ft roll).
· U-Haul Biodegradable Packing Peanuts - made from cornstarch, they're durable but will decompose in H2O ($5/1.5 cu ft).
· Virtual Bubblewrap - once you pop, you can't stop.

What is missional?

2008-01-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

Over the past few years I have often used the term “missional” when describing what the church is called to be. Missional is one of my favorite words even though my Microsoft Office 2003 tells me it is not a word or it is, at the very least, a misspelled word. Figuring out what is means to be missional here in our community is a central focus for our ministry in 2008. In conversation with others I have discovered that the term missional is often misinterpreted to be something it is not. Dan Kimball, in his new book They Like Jesus But Not The Church, gives us a few descriptive images of what he sees as missional. I tend to agree with his assessment, but leave it for you to interpret. What do you think? Is he right, and if he is, how is God calling us to react to such thoughts?

-from They Life Jesus But Not The Church

What Is Missional?

-Being missional means that the church sees itself as being missionaries, rather than having a missions department, and that we see ourselves as missionaries right where we live.

-Being missional means that we see ourselves as representatives of Jesus “sent” into our communities, and that the church aligns everything it does with the missio dei (mission of God).

-Being missional means we see the church not as a place we go only on Sunday, but as something we are throughout the week.

-Being missional means that we understand we don’t “bring Jesus” to people but that we realize Jesus is active in culture and we join him in what he is doing.

-Being missional means we are very much in the world and engaged in culture but are not conforming to the world.

-Being missional means we serve our communities, and we build relationships with the people in them, rather than seeing them as evangelistic targets.

-Being missional means being all the more dependent on Jesus and the Holy Spirit through prayer, the Scriptures, and each other in community.

Bottle/can collection success!

2008-01-04T17:52:00.001-05:00

Another banner month for our bottle/can collection. This month we raised $36.70. That brings our two month total to $63.80. Our goal for 2008 is $500. This is part of our campaign in 2008 to "green" our church as well as contribute to the ministry of our church. Congrats to all who have participated.

First post for 2008

2008-01-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

Friends:

A blessed new year to all of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ.

I am reading a fascinating book titled Church Re-Imagined by one of my favorite new authors, Doug Pagitt. In it he takes the reader on a spiritual journey reflecting the life of his Minneapolis church, Solomon’s Porch. I appreciate the way he calls us to approach our faith walk as he invites us to partner what we know about faith with how we react to what that faith calls us to be about. Let me give you an example:
”There are many of us who have come to believe that the “gospel” that sits at the center of much of the Protestant life today is a bifurcated version of the gospel message, one that reduces the call to Kingdom life to simple belief about Jesus while leaving the exemplary Christian life to the very devoted” (Pagitt 31)
The question Pagitt raises is a good one that we will be exploring this year as a people at St. John’s. Pagitt is asking us to ponder how we will balance learning about Jesus with acting like him. We will spend 2008 re-imagining how God is calling us to action as we witness to our faith. I look forward to the journey and ask you to pray about how God is calling you as an individual to a life of faithful living and how God is calling our church to be faithful witnesses to God’s message.

Remember, I pray for the readers of this blog every Friday morning. How can I pray for you?

Peace
PB

Prayer-points
-for the people of Iowa today as they give the countries first measurable indication of how our presidential election will shape up
-for all those who are facing home foreclosure or job loss
-for the mission of our church and Synod

Good Search: Thank you for using Good Search in 2007. St. John’s received a check for $11.97 as a result of our web searching in 2007. I would like to encourage you to continue to use Good Search in 2008. Our fundraising goal using Good Search is $100.00 for 2008 (that is just 27 searches per day). Why not make Good Search part of your toolbar search engine in 2008? Please use St. John’s Lutheran Church (Redford, MI) as your charity of choice. Thanks!

Green tip of the week: Great present #1: 365 Ways To Live Green by Diane Gow McDilda. Many of our green tips for 2008 will come from this great resource.
Tip: Change the way you shower. Beyond taking shorter and colder showers, you can take other steps to conserve water and natural resources while cleaning up. Standard showerheads put out up to 5 gallons per minute. Low-flow showerheads can cut that in half. If a low-flow shower isn’t satisfactory, try using an aerator showerhead. Air is added to the water as it flows from the head, making it feel like a higher flowing showerhead. You can also add aerators to spigots, reducing the flow of more than 2 gallons per minute to 1. Aerators are relatively inexpensive and easy to install.

Advent Conspiracy

2007-12-18T16:47:00.000-05:00

At St. John’s church we have been spending Advent challenging ourselves to “take” Christmas back. Back from crass commercialism. Back from the notion that the local mall is our reality, that spending lots of money on presents is our reality, that over-indulging is our reality. We have tried to focus our reality on the gift of Jesus, and how Jesus calls us to be about G-od, P-eople, C-alling, and J-oy.

I have praying about how God is calling St. John’s to be a simple church in 2008. I believe God is calling us to focus on loving God, loving people and serving the world. Over the next year I will be presenting you with opportunities to reflect on this concept and invite you to help us decide where we will make new ministry inroads in the coming year. One of the possibilities that intrigue me is participating in the Advent Conspiracy. It calls us to focus back on Christ, to take Advent and Christmas back in a radical way. It represents what I hope St. John’s will become more intimately engaged in as a called people of God. Check it out:

Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption. It has its own web site: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/ . I just signed our church up. This year, Christmas isn't about credit cards. It's about: - Worshipping Christ more meaningfully.- Refusing our culture's hunger for consumerism.- Giving relationally to our friends and family.- Loving all by giving to those most in need.

START CONSPIRING:

1. Sign Up-I have already done this.
Register your organization to join the Advent Conspiracy or start getting the newsletter.

2. Invite your friends to this group.

3. Communicate the Vision
Worship More, Spend Less, Give More and Love All.

4. Educate Yourself
Read a little more about materialism, the local and global needs and what the meaning of Christmas is all about. Then, start talking about it.

5. Get CreativeDiscover together how to live in a more relational and meaningful way.

6. Identify who you will LoveChoose the key people groups and clean water projects that you will assist.

7. Celebrate the Birth of ChristTake an offering that will go to the groups you have identified.

8. Share your StoryTell us what God did, so we can learn and grow and share it with others.

Let me know what you think. Do you think we should be involved in conspiracies like this? I will be praying for each of you this Friday. How can I pray for you?

Atheist Sunday School?

2007-11-27T14:42:00.000-05:00

The December 3rd issue of Time contains a story that caught my attention. It is located the religion section and titled “Sunday School for Atheists”. The article begins by outlining some perceived advantages for non believing people on Sunday morning, writing about how they were making brunch, shuttling around kids to soccer games, running errands, or the ultimate, sleeping in! It then asked the question, without religion, is there a need for church?
The answer seems to be maybe. Some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. The article reveals how Atheist parents are beginning to realize that co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their children values as well as provide support. Slowly, groups are forming and meeting on a regular basis for atheist Sunday school. A profiled Sunday family program in Palo Alto, California, uses music, art and discussion to encourage personal expression, intellectual curiosity and collaboration. Rather than a Bible story, the group read Stone Soup, a book about a traveler who feeds a village by making a stew using one ingredient from each home. Older children gather around a conversation centered on the role persuasion plays in decision-making.
Time reports, “it is estimated that 14% of Americans profess to have no religion, and among 18-to-25 year olds the percentage increases to 20%. Atheist parents want an environment where their children can learn that it is ok to not believe in God and gives parents a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.” Yet, interestingly, they are using a format modeled by the Christian church to accomplish this.
We are embarking on some great Solomon’s Porch type discussions in our community about faith, life and how faith and life connect in places outside our worship spaces. In this instance, how does God call us, as people of faith, to respond to groups like this one being formed in our communities? Would God want us to condemn them for meeting in a perceived Christian way and calling it something else? Would God want us to applaud the teaching of ethics and values, whether or not they are labeled Christian? Would God want us to shun them if we saw them meeting? Would God be in favor of one good “We told you so”? As Christians, should we be determined, or some would say arrogant enough in our faith to dismiss the thought that God is present in meetings such as the one described, without limitation? Or, would God, who sees all people as His children, call us to be in conversation with people who are nonbelievers? Would God call us to have honest dialogue, respecting each others beliefs, yet pointing out what we have in common and acknowledging what separates us? Would God want us to be on a journey together, challenging each other and discovering though these discussions ways to strengthen our faith as we explain it to others? Let me know what do you think? This topic will be the basis of our next Solomon’s Porch coffee house meeting at First Cup this Thursday from 7-8 pm.

I pray for each of the readers of this blog on Friday mornings. How can I pray for you this week?
PB

Attention I-pod users:
Our weekly message podcast is now available on I-tunes. Open your I-tunes, search St. John’s Lutheran Church Blogcast and sign up. It is free! If you sign up, each week our podcast will download directly into your I-pod when you sink it to your PC.

Green Tip of the week from Ideal Bite:Ready to hang your holiday lights? Aren't you just dying to know how to be more green this Christmas season? Easy: LED holiday lights. LED stands for light-emitting diode - a heavenly little bit of technology that lights things up using very little energy.
The Benefits
· Watching energy bills flatline. LED bulbs use 90% less electricity than traditional holiday bulbs.
· Killing off holiday hassle. With their 20-year lifetimes, you don't have to replace LED light-strings as often as conventional ones.
· More cash on the other side. Burning 10 strands of lights with 100 lights per strand, eight hours per day for a month costs $175 for incandescent bulbs vs. about $1 for LED mini-bulbs.
· Seeing the light, not heating it. Incandescent lights give off as much as 90% of their energy as heat, leading to fire concerns. LEDs barely warm up.

Prayer Points
-for all those who do not believe in God, that we could find a way to be in productive dialogue.
-for all those who suffer from depression
-for those who serve in our local police, fire and rescue stations

Date Book
Thursday, November 29th Solomon’s Porch Discussions at First Cup Coffee House 7-8 pm
Sunday, December 2nd Faith in Film Night featuring The Nativity Story followed by the short film Resisting the Occupation. 6-8:30 pm
Tuesday, December 11th at St. John’s “Little Christmas” concert and Silent Auction beginning at 6:30 pm.

Christian/Muslim Dialogue

2007-11-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times Sunday, November 18, 2007:
Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You
On October 13, 2007, on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, 138 Muslim scholars and clerics sent an open letter to “leaders of Christian churches, everywhere.” The signatories of that letter, titled A Common Word Between Us and You, include top leaders from around the world representing every major school of Islamic thought. The text of A Common Word Between Us and You appears at www.acommonword.com.
A response was drafted by scholars at Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture. It was issued and endorsed by almost 300 Christian theologians and leaders. To promote constructive engagement between these major religious communities, planning is underway for a series of major conferences and workshops involving many of the signatories to A Common Word Between Us and You and to the Yale response, as well as other international Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders. Events will be posted at www.yale.edu/faith, where readers can view the list of signatories as well as add there names to the list.

I believe this is exactly the type of open dialogue God is calling the world to be engaged in. Please take the time over the next few days and read both letters. If you have any questions, email me. My goal is that we can hold a forum soon at St. John’s to discuss both letters, as well as discern where we, as representatives of the local church, are called to respond.

Worthy addition to your Christmas card list: When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:
A Recovering American soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20307

Help St. John’s financially as you search the web: A few months back I told you about www.goodsearch.com , a web search engine from Yahoo! Unfortunately, it had a few kinks, making it difficult to sign up. Those initial problems seem to have been fixed. You can now add Goodsearch to your tool bar very easily and begin raising money for St. John’s with every search. Here is the process:
-Go to www.goodsearch.com
-Under “who do you search for” put: St Johns Lutheran Church (Redford, MI)
-Confirm that we are the agency you want credited with your searches
-Click on Add Goodsearch to your IE, Firefox, or Mac toolbar
-Start searching
St. John’s will receive one cent for every search you do using this search engine.

Thank you in advance for doing this to help support our missional endeavors.

Solomon’s Porch update: In the last few weeks we have seen impressive showings for our Faith in Film and Family Film Nights. We also had a very successful first coffee house meeting last Thursday, taking up a whole table at First Cup Organic Coffee House in Redford!

Green Reminder of the week: Household waste increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. In the United States, trash from wrapping paper and shopping bags totaled four million tons last year. Think of creative ways to handle all your holiday waste this year. If you have addressed this holiday issue in the past and want to let others know, e-mail me and I will get the word out in future issues of this e-newsletter.

Help me reach my goal: My goal for the end of 2007 is for this newsletter to have 100 readers. I am currently at 82. Is there anyone in your life who you think would benefit from receiving this e-newsletter each week? Send me their email and I will add them to the list!

Prayer Points:
-for the Chrisitan/Muslim dialogue generated by the two documents presented above
-for traveling mercies for all this Thanksgiving weekend.
-for all those struggling with addiction

I pray for the readers of this blog every Friday. How can I pray for you? Let me know at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com

Update

2007-11-14T15:05:00.001-05:00

Greetings to all:

Another great week for updates on all the cool things happening at St. John’s :

Faith in Film: Last Sunday, we had an excellent turn out and discussion for our most recent feature, Sicko. It was good to share thoughts about how we, as people of faith, are called to engage in the discussion of equitable health care for all of God’s children. Some of you were asking what the Lutheran church may be doing about this. Check out the Lutheran Office of Government Affairs site for more information about how the larger church is addressing this issue. E-mail my good friend Drew Genzler, director of LOGA in Washington , DC , and tell him I told you he has all the answers! Next month we will host a double feature with the Nativity Story followed by a recent short documentary about current housing/land struggles in the Holy Land . Plan on another insightful, challenging discussion as we discern how God is calling us to action with regard to the ongoing situation in the Middle East .

Solomon’s Porch First Cup conversations: This Thursday is our inaugural First Cup conversation at Redford’s new organic coffee house, First Cup, located on the Southeast corner of Inkster and Five Mile. Join the conversation from 7-8 pm as we discuss the Hollywood writers strike, fair labor practices, responsibilities of workers and management, and how the Bible can provide some insight into the discussion of how as people of faith we are called to engage in this issue. Join us this first week and I will take care of your beverage for you. If you want to be thinking ahead, click on the attached file for some background information leading up to our discussion.

Joke of the week: From my daughter, who asks, “What did one snowman say to another?” Check the end of this message for the answer.

Book Club News: This Friday at 10 am we start our new book, The Gospel According to Starbucks, by Len Sweet. Join us for great discussion about how some of Starbucks principals may relate to our mission as people of God.

Silent Auction Update: St. John's will be holding it first silent auction on Tuesday, December 11th, the night of our annual Little Christmas concert. We are in need of additional items to auction off that night. If you can help out, please contact me ASAP. All proceeds from this event will benefit the missional efforts of St. John's.

Family Film Night: Release date delays caused us to show Happy Feet last month instead of Ratatouille, our scheduled feature. Ratatouille has since been released and we will be shown this Saturday night starting at 5 pm. Pizza, popcorn and liquid refreshments will be available. Last month we had 36 people in attendance, so show up early if you want a place on one of our comfortable couches or bring blankets and pillows to create your own comfortable space.

Green Update: Never say yes to paper or plastic again! We are taking orders for our new environmentally friendly cloth bags. Check them out at attachment 2 above. Use them and be a witness not only to St. John’s and our commitment to be “green”, but discover a great way to tell people about our church. It is as easy as saying no to paper or plastic and watching the conversation flow! The bags should be about $8 each.

Joke of the week answer: I smell carrots!

Have a great week. Remember, I pray for the readers of this blog Friday morning. How can I pray for you? E-mail me at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com

Jonah and his message of hope!

2007-11-08T16:09:00.000-05:00

Friends:
As I write to you this week I am listening to the band Jonah 33. For those of you who don’t have the Bible memorized, Jonah 3:3 says, “This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large it took three days to see it all” (NLT). Jonah is one of my favorite books in the Old Testament, especially chapter 3. It begins with God coming to Jonah a second time and commanding him to go to Nineveh, a city of the lost. The first time God commands him to go there, Jonah runs away. The second time he obeys and goes among the lost to proclaim God’s message to the masses, who in turn repent. It is a great story of how our God is a God of second chances, that despite past mistakes we may have made, we are continually given the chance to participate in spreading God’s message of hope, salvation, grace and love to those who feel lost, helpless, hopeless and alone. Jonah’s brings an unpopular message that challenges the community of Nineveh to turn away from the false idols that are ruling their lives and turn to God. It is a great message showing the God’s word is for everyone. Despite the wickedness of the Ninevite people, they were open to God’s message and repented immediately. If we simply proclaim God’s message of salvation, we may be surprised at how many people will listen.

Food for thought: How is God calling you to be like Jonah? Where are the Ninevite communities in your life? Do you know someone who is lost and could use the message that God gives us today, one that says our God is a God of second chances? Can you remind one person this week that God loves them?

Reminder: Don’t forget our faith in film series continues Sunday night with the showing of Sicko. The film starts at 6 pm and is followed by a discussion of how God calls us to be engaged in the process of equitable health care for all God’s Children.
Reminder, part 2: Next Thursday, November 15th from 7-8 pm we will hold our first Solomon’s Porch coffee house discussion at Redford’s new organic coffee house at Five Mile and Inkster, First Cup. Join us as we talk about faith, life and how faith and life connect using real issues in the news.

Green Tip of the week: Wondering what to do with all those greeting cards laying around your house or sitting in your attic? Reuse your greeting cards as gift tags. Call us psychic, but we're betting you're not planning to reread every single card you receive this holiday. Instead of stashing them in the attic to collect dust, grab some scissors and get crafty.
The Benefits
· Save trees. Our crystal balls (and industry stats) predict that about 90% of all US households will buy greeting cards, but few will be recycled.
· One-of-a-kind gift tags are a great personal touch when you're giving presents.
· Save money - you'll never buy another gift tag again, boxes of which go for $2-$15.
· An artful lesson in reusing for the kids. Just grab some pinking shears and give the kiddos a right brain workout.

-courtesy of Ideal Bite online resource

I will be praying for those who read this blog every Friday morning. Let me know how I can pray for you at bicyclepastor@yahoo.com ?

Have a great week
PB
Web: www.sjlcredford.org
Blog: www.missionarywheels.blogspot.com

Prayer Points:
For all those who feel lost, that they may know that our God is a God of second chances
For those who do not have access to quality health care
For our Sunday school as it continues to grow
For discernment with our brothers and sisters at Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Updates

2007-11-01T12:46:00.000-04:00

Friends:

Lots of good news to report this week:

Worship Update:
Our sermon podcast is up and running. I am so glad we have this new ministry off the ground. I have already heard from a few folks who appreciate the ability to listen to our weekly message if they are not able to make it to church. Some also commented on how they may listen to it a second or third time after they hear it on Sunday. More talk about forwarding it to friends so they can learn more about our church! What a great, easy and fast way to connect someone to our church.

Last Sunday we were blessed to welcome two new members to our church. God is continuing to provide us with new faces.

Sunday School Update:
Operation Christmas Child is one way you can make a difference in a young person’s life. This year the children in our Sunday School class have decided to do this project as a way they can give to others around the world. Please support our Sunday School kids and children around the world by packing a shoebox filled with school supplies, toys, and personal items. The shoeboxes go to millions of boys and girls around the world who live in difficult circumstances and are in desperate need of hope. Shoeboxes will be collected on Sunday, November 17. A donation of $7 per shoebox is required to help cover shipping and other project costs.

Outreach Update:
Last Saturday five of us volunteered at Thrivent’s Habitat for Humanity project in Pontiac. Thrivent has done a magnificent job of sponsoring new homes for families in need. Two of us ended our day passing out food left over from the day to the homeless in downtown Pontiac.

The Redford Connection gifted us with a half page full of advertising space promoting our family and faith in film movie nights. That means that around 30,000 homes in Redford got the information about our movie nights-I guess we better make some more popcorn for Sicko on the 11th and Ratatouille on the 17th.

Solomon’s Porch Thursday night conversations at Redford’s new organic coffee house First Cup begin on Thursday, November 15th from 7-8pm. This is a great opportunity to gather and talk about faith and life while enjoying a good cup of coffee or tea. This is also a great way to introduce someone to St. John’s. As an added incentive, I will take care of buying the beverage of anyone you invite to the conversation.

Green Committee Update:
We have begun to collect cans for recycling and hope to have containers out for cans and other recyclable trash available soon. In the meantime, I will begin to post weekly “green” tips in this newsletter and on my blog.
Also, we will be offering cloth bags for sale to use in place of paper or plastic bags when shopping. Look forward to seeing them in the next few weeks.

Green tip for the week: Save paper by reducing the amount of junk mail you receive. Go to the following sites to have your name removed from junk mail and credit card offer lists.
Direct Mail
Opt Out

Lots to celebrate this fall.

Our podcast is up and running!

2007-10-29T22:16:00.001-04:00

Check out our new sermon podcast here. I am excited at the possibilities this type of ministry tool brings to our church. Tell your family and friends to check it out. We should be up and available at I-Tunes in the next week or so. In addition, the message will be available each week on our website.

Green, Green, Green

2007-10-24T11:16:00.000-04:00

God is calling us to becoming a “Green” church with “Green” households by the end of 2008. Here are some cold, hard facts about how not being “Green” in America is affecting God’s world.

Facts:
-Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour!
- A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
- Paper products make up 40% of all trash. That can all be recycled!
- Only about 30% of paper, trash, and food waste is recycled.
- Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups that cannot decomposed or be recycled
- All soda cans are made from aluminum. Each American uses about 400 cans a year. If aluminum is recycled, 95% less energy is used than if it were made from scratch
-About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material!
-The highest point in Ohio is a literally a garbage dump that is now called Mount Rumpke
-reprinted from http://www.dosomething.org/

Our “Green” Committee will be working hard over the next few months to help us understand how we can recycle and help God’s planet. I hope all of you are open to ways we can help this beautiful world God has given us dominion over. Please let me know the ways that you are currenlty recycling so that we can all learn from each other.

Stay tuned for: practical ways to recycle

First Cup Coffee House in Redford!

2007-10-23T17:56:00.000-04:00

I am so excited that we now have a cool, organic coffee house in Redford Township. It will be a great place for us to meet to discuss faith and life in a "Solomon's Porch" kind of way. More to follow.

Things to celebrate!

2007-10-22T17:08:00.001-04:00

We had an awesome weekend at St. John's. First, we had 36 people come out Saturday night for our first Family Movie Night . Then our Sunday school got off to a great start with nine children in attendance! Third, we have eight people signed up to go to the Thrivent Habitiat Build this Saturday. I am so excited about what God is doing in and through our church.

Bible vs. Cell Phone

2007-10-22T16:41:00.000-04:00

This is something to make you go…hmmm….where is my Bible?

One of the blog’s I listen to is by author Len Sweet. It is called Napkin Scribbles. Each week he takes a different topic and spends a few minutes talking about it. This week he really spoke to me. It compared carrying a Cell Phone (which most of us do) to carrying a Bible. He wonders out loud what it would be like if we treated our Bible like our cell phone.

Sweet asks:

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?

Did you feel as convicted as I did?

Nobel Prize for Al Gore

2007-10-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

Al Gore and his documentary on global warming have been awarded the Nobel Prize. Do you think our showing An Inconvenient Truth at church last Sunday night sealed this recognition:)?

How would Jesus address critical issues of today?

2007-10-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

I am reading Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope. In it he invites us to journey with him as he imagines what would happen:

if people of faith moved beyond political polarization and a few hot-button issues to the deeper questions nobody is asking.
if the world's leading nations spent less on weapons and more on peace-making, poverty-alleviation, and creation-care.
if a renewed understanding of Jesus and his message sparked a profound spiritual awakening in a global movement of faith, hope, and love.
if we believed that God's will really could be done on earth and not just in heaven.

McLaren sets forth a new agenda for being a person of faith. One is left to wonder if the vision that he believes Jesus is directing us to engage in the issues really possible? Are we ready to move past old disagreements theologically or politically and look at deeper, more difficult questions? How can we move toward peace and engagement in tough social issues facing us? What will be the catalyst toward the spiritual awakening he writes about? What do you think about all this? Are books like this necessary? More about this book to come in future posts.

I'm back

2007-10-09T15:54:00.000-04:00

Friends:
I am back in the Motor City after a refreshing week at the Glorieta Retreat Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico praying, playing and engaging in conversations about the Emergent Church . I’m finding myself drawn into the Emergent Church movement more and more and look forward to discovering how we can incorporate some of the basics into the life of St. John’s as we continue to discover and figure out how God is leading us.

We had an excellent turnout for our first Faith in Film series last Sunday night. We watched An Inconvenient Truth and followed it with an inspiring group discussion about how God is calling us to react to the issue of global warming. The most valuable lesson was the acknowledgment that we are all play a role in the crisis and all have the opportunity to make changes and become part of the solution. A small committee agreed to begin meeting to address how St. John’s can become more “green”.

I am excited to announce the re-start of Sunday school on October 21st at 10:30 am. We look forward to building this program over time and sharing God’s message of love and hope during our normal worship time to children in a unique way. If you are planning on joining us that day or know anyone who could receive a special invitation please let me know ASAP.

Last Sunday we began to take a look at how God may be calling us to engage in a new way of thinking about our faith lives using the GPCJ philosophy. For those of you who could not make it last week the philosophy encourages us in the following ways.

By the end of 2008 we will focus on these four areas as we live out our faith walk-

G-God-we will concentrate on worshiping together, learning of God’s love for us and sharing with others that God’s love includes them as well.

P-People-we will make efforts to remain connected to those closest to us and take risks engaging in those relationships may have become strained or lost.

C-Calling-we will be open to how God may be calling us to acting on our faith in new and different ways.

J-Joy-we will identify the things in our life that bring us joy and be intentional about making time in our lives for them.

View from the foothills of the Rockies

2007-10-04T23:27:00.000-04:00

I am spending a few days at the Emergent Village Gathering in Glorieta, New Mexico, just outside of Santa Fe. It has been a beautiful place to relax, connect and try new things. The past two mornings I participated in a yoga class and I am sore! Yoga feels so good and I hope to continue it after I return to Detroit tomorrow.
I have learned a great deal about the Emergent Church movement these last few days through presentations, conversations and group discussions. I cannot wait to unpack what this learning will mean in the months and years to come at St. John's-stay tuned.

Volunteer for St. John's Habitat day

2007-10-01T20:42:00.001-04:00

Have you ever thought about volunteering but did not know exactly what you wanted to do? Do you like to participate in events that make a difference? Are you someone who can commit to things if and only if they make it into your calendar? I am pleased to announce that we just confirmed our first day to work at the Thrivent Habitat House in Pontiac, Michigan. On Saturday, October 27th we will be on site making a difference from 8am to 4pm. If you have never volunteered at Habitat before I encourage you to consider joining us that day. If you have previous Habitat experience you know the great things they do revitalizing communities one home and family at a time. You can volunteer online at Habitat or call St. John's at 313-538-2660. There are plenty of jobs at the site or you may want to help us prepare and serve lunch on site that day for 25-30 people. Let me know how you can make a difference that day ASAP.

Good News!

2007-10-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

We just hammered out the details to launch an education hour for children starting Sunday, October 21st. The curriculum is awesome and I am excited about being able to offer something for children again. Check out the information at our web site here. This is an exciting time in the redevelopment of our church.

It ain't easy being "green"

2007-09-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

I have spent a significant amount of time lately in prayer asking God where He is calling St. John’s to venture in 2008. A recurring theme of these prayers center on God’s call for us to be more environmentally friendly. I am not sure the correlation between these prayers and our upcoming viewing/discussion of An Inconvenient Truth, but I am sure it has something to do with it. I find myself captivated by the notion of caring for our environment in a healthier way. In today’s language we refer to the concept as being "green". As I pray, asking God what it means for St. John’s to be more “green”, a few things come to mind:
-I am going to need some help. I know just enough about being “green” to get myself in trouble. I don’t even know how to put the recycle bin out in a way that the truck will pick our stuff up. At St. John’s, we need some folks who can put their heads together and get us on the right track.
-I know this is a lesson I need to teach/model to/for my daughter. Her generation is going to need to be more “green” than any other since the Industrial Revolution.
-All small things CAN and DO make a difference.
-I am going to jump start this movement by creating a bottle/can Sunday the last Sunday of each month. It will be an opportunity for individuals who desire to contribute to our "green" campaign, clean out their garages, and help fund the missional efforts of St. John’s all at the same time.

I hope to expand on these thoughts in the coming weeks and months. Will it be easy being "green"? I don't know. What I do know is-

God will provide direction.

"Faith in Film" series

2007-09-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

I am really excited.
On October 7th we begin “Faith in Film” at St. John's starting at 6 pm. We are showing An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s movie about global warming. No matter where you fall on the issue I encourage you to join the dialogue. The showing of the movie will be followed by a discussion and we will finish up by 9 pm. I am really hoping we have people with different view points as it always makes for a better discussion. Good, healthy dialogue about this world God has given us management over is part of what we are called to engage in as God’s children. We will start and end each discussion with the acknowledgment that we are first and foremost God’s children. Differences in opinion will not change that understanding and it will serve as the background for our dialogue. Before the discussion begins we will make a covenant with each other to respect each others opinions and learn from each other. I hope to see many of you there.
I am really excited.

Ready to clean house?

2007-09-19T11:13:00.000-04:00

I want to write to you today about clutter. Right, the stuff that is all around your house, car, office and life. The stuff that you swear you are going to deal with if you only had the time. Yes, you got it, the stuff that drives you crazy and makes you unable to relax even in your own house. You know, clutter.

One of the books I am currently reading is John Ortberg’s latest, When The Game Is Over It All Goes Back In The Box. Great book so far. Ortberg is one of my favorite authors because he explains things in a way I understand and challenges me at the same time. I just read his chapter about clutter. About the stuff we save and hold onto, the stuff we cannot do without. Ortberg talks about it being the stuff that gets in the way. He explains, “There are now more than 30,000 self-storage facilities in the country offering over a billion square feet for people to store their stuff. In the 1960’s, this industry did not exist. We now spend $12 billion a year just to pay someone to store our extra stuff! It’s larger than the music industry.” (Orberg 83) He further goes on to talk about how it is only stuff, it is not eternal, and that if we spent as much time, finances and energy investing in things that are eternal by nurturing our Spiritual lives and living the life of a disciple who knows what sort of impact we could make in the world God has entrusted us with managing. What kind of change agents for God could we be if we began with a 12 billion dollar budget each year?

But first, you have to get rid of your clutter. Get rid of all that stuff that is getting in the way. The stuff that is preventing you from doing the things you are called to do. If you took an inventory of your clutter today, what would you find? Is the clutter in your life making you feel better? Is it nourishing your soul? What if you spent your time that you manage (or mismanage) your clutter and dedicated it to God? It is time to clean house and channel all that clutter energy toward God. Care to join me?