imagining

[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

One of the most striking stories in the Bible, for me, is found in Luke chapter 7. It is the story about a woman, who the author Luke makes the deliberate point to describe as a “sinful woman.” This woman hears that Jesus was eating at the house of this religious leader, a gathering where people of her caliber were clearly not welcome. But still, she must see Jesus. As she gets closer to this house where Jesus is eating, she sees that there is a crowd gathered around this house. And seeing the crowd, her heart sinks. She sees how people are looking at her with disgust in their eyes. She can feel on her skin their indignant judgment. She can taste in her mouth their foul whispers and murmurs. But still, she pushes through. She has come here on a mission. She makes her way through the crowd, carrying in her hands the most valuable thing that she owns, a jar of perfume that is worth about a year’s salary. And quietly, with love and adoration in her heart and tears of joy in her eyes, she walks right up to Jesus, gets on her knees, and begins clean the feet of Jesus with her tears and her hair. And after all the dirt has been wiped clean from his feet, she gently kisses them and lavishly pours this precious perfume on the feet of Jesus.

VineyardUSA is launching a new initiative, the Society of Vineyard Scholars (SVS).

Here is the description from the website: We are gathering the thinkers and scholars of our movement to "think theologically" in community — both in order to address the critical questions of the moment and to put down theological and intellectual roots for the long haul. Our expectation is that doing this well involves building a diverse, interconnected community of scholars, pastors, and scholar-pastors within our movement. Ultimately, our desire is both to deepen our theological reflection and to broaden our engagement with our culture. Towards these ends, we anticipate holding conferences and other events to provide forums for collaborating and sharing intellectual work as well as pursuing other ways of facilitating connections among current Vineyard seminarians, graduate students, and scholars.

The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God: Justice, Power, and the Cross

Location: Vineyard Columbus
Dates: 10/22/2009 - 10/24/2009

This last May, VineyardUSA hosted its biennial national conference for its pastors and leaders in Galveston, Texas. VineyardUSA is offering the audio for all the main sessions for free on their website.

09 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 09 National Conference. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Cherith Fee-Nordling, Don Williams, Jay Pathak, Wess Stafford, and Rich Nathan.

07 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 07 National Conference held at Anaheim, California. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Charles Park, Jeff Heidkamp, Lance Pittluck, and a discussion forum with Bert Waggoner, Rich Nathan, Rick Olmstead, Eric Sandras, Thora Anderson, Dianne Leman, Phil Strout and Lance Pittluck.

05 National Conference Resources
Click HERE for free resources from the 05 National Conference held at Columbus, Ohio. Speakers include Bert Waggoner, Dr. Gordon Fee, Rick Olmstead, Dr. Floyd Flake, Julia Pickerill, Dr. Philip Jenkins, Julia Pickerill, and Rich Nathan.

The Necessity of Mentors

One of the most important decisions that a new pastor can make is to obtain a good pastoral mentor. Ministry is a craft. I am unperturbed when new pastors sometimes say, “Seminary never really taught me actually how to do ministry.” I think seminary is best when it instills the classical theological disciplines and exposes to the classical theological resources of the church, not so good at teaching the everyday, practical, administrative and mundane tasks of the parish ministry. One learns a craft, not by reading books, but by looking over the shoulder of a master, watching the moves, learning by example, developing a critical approach that constantly evaluates and gains new skills.

Selecting a mentor can be your greatest challenge as a new pastor. Few experienced pastors have the training or the gifts for mentoring a new colleague. The “Lone Ranger” mentality afflicts many lonely pastors and their work shows the results of their failure to obey Jesus’ sending of the Seventy “two by two” (Luke 10:1).

Here is the rest of my list of unsolicited advice for those moving from seminary to parish:

1. Be open to the possibility that the matters that were focused upon in the course of the seminary curriculum, the questions raised and the arguments engaged, might be a distraction from the true, historic mission and purpose of the church and its ministry.

2. On the other hand, be open to the possibility that the church has a tendency to bed down with mediocrity, to accept the mere status quo as the norm, and to let itself off the theological hook too easily.

One reason why the church needs theology explored and taught in its seminaries is that theology (at its best) keeps making Christian discipleship as hard as it ought to be. Theology keeps guard over the church’s peculiar speech and the church’s distinctive mission. Something there is within any accommodated, compromised church (and aren’t they all, in one way or another?) that needs to reassure itself, “All that academic, intellectual, theological stuff is bunk and is irrelevant to the way the church really is.” The way the church “really is” is faithless, mistaken, cowardly, and compromised.

Recently, I asked a group of our best and brightest new pastors what they would like most from the church and from me as their bishop. I was surprised to hear them all respond: “Supervision!” They yearn for help with the move between these two worlds because they realize the inadequacy of their preparation. Churches and judicatories must take this move more seriously and must develop better means of mentoring and supervising new pastors through this process.

As someone who now works with new pastors on that move from the world of the theological school to the world of the parish, I have some specific suggestions:

1. Devise ways to learn to speak their language. Laity sometimes complain that their young pastor, in sermons, uses “religious” words like “spiritual practice,” “liberation,” “empowerment,” “intentional community” (this is an actual list a layperson collected and sent to me) that no one understands and no one recalls having heard in Scripture. Such “preacher talk” makes the pastor seem detached, alien, and aloof from the people and hinders leadership.

The Reverend Dr. William H. Willimon is the Bishop of The United Methodist Church, a post he has held since 2004. He leads the 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors in North Alabama. For twenty years he was Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Willimon is a graduate of Wofford College (B.A., 1968), Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 1971) and Emory University (S.T.D., 1973). Here is an excellent entry from his blog that I wanted to pass along to you.

Advice for New Pastors (Part 1)

This past year Allan Hugh Cole, professor at Austin Presbyterian Seminary, has edited a book for new pastors, From Midterms to Ministry (Eerdmans). I was asked to write a chapter in the volume, recounting my own journey from seminary to the parish, drawing out any implications that my experience had for new pastors.

This month, thousands of new pastors will emerge from seminary, a few of them coming to join the ranks of the North Alabama Conference. I therefore offer these thoughts in the next few weeks, hoping that they will be helpful to those of us who are new in the pastoral ministry and those who are not.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Parkside Church (near Cleveland, Ohio) hosted their 10th conference for pastors on preaching from May 11-13 with featured speakers John Lennox, John Piper, and Alistair Begg. I wasn't able to attend but I noticed that they are making all of the resources available from the conference for free on the web. Click HERE to access the resources.

John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an adjunct Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University and a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum. He lectures on Science and Religion in the University of Oxford and teaches at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

I love stories! Don’t you just love stories? I love movies that take you on a marvelous adventure beyond your wildest dreams. I love books that you just can not put down because you just have to find out what happens to your favorite character. I love songs that tell wonderful stories. Believe it or not, my wife Angela got me into country music. I fought it with all my heart for years, but some of the stories in the songs were just so funny and outrageous, I just could not help but fall in love with it. I mean with song titles like these how can you not love country music?

• I Gave Her the Ring, and She Gave Me the Finger
• I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well
• I Want a Beer as Cold as My Ex-Wife’s Heart
• I Would Have Wrote You A Letter, But I Couldn’t Spell Yuck!

Whether it’s a memorable movie, a great book, a touching song, or just simply sitting down together with family and friends to talk about the week, I love stories.

The author Karen Blixen says this:

To be a person is to have a story to tell.

And the author Barry Lopez says this:

[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Who can tell me what two presidential candidates were running for office in 1960? And who can tell me why this presidential election was different than any prior election?

The 1960 Presidential Debates between Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy were the first nationally televised debates in presidential campaign history. And because of television, for the first time 70 million voters were given the opportunity to not only hear the candidates, but to visually compare them as well.

Surprisingly, opinion polls revealed a sharp contrast between the voters who had actually watched the debates on TV versus those who had merely listened to them on the radio. While radio listeners clearly thought that Nixon had won the first debate, television viewers were captivated by Kennedy’s smile, charm and overall appearance.

Television underscored the significance of nonverbal communication. As we’ve studied more and more how people communicate with each other, we see that communication is lot more than just talk. We’ve discovered that we “talk” with our body that we “listen” with our eyes. We are not always conscious of this fact, but we are doing this all the time.

Martin Smith, the lead singer of Delirious?, will be leading worship at Vineyard Columbus this weekend. So if you are in town, come and worship with us.

A song called "Obsession" from their Cutting Edge (1 and 2) album which came out in the late 90's is one of my favorite songs. Here are the lyrics:

Obsession
What can I do with my obsession?
With the things I cannot see
Is there madness in my being?
Is it wind that blows the trees?
Sometimes you're further than the moon
Sometimes you're closer than my skin
And you surround me like a winter fog
You've come and burned me with a kiss

And my heart burns for you
And my heart burns

And I'm so filthy with my sin
I carry pride like a disease
You know I'm stubborn God and I'm longing
to be close
You burn me deeper than I know
I feel lonely without hope
I feel desperate without vision
You wrap around me like a winter coat
You come and free me like a bird

And my heart burns for you
And my heart burns for you

Vineyard Columbus collected a special offering on Palm Sunday asking people who had jobs to give (above and beyond tithe and offering) to help those without jobs. And the church responded in an incredible way by giving over $625,000. Praise God! And it doesn't stop there. The following week, on Easter weekend, the church had its highest attendance ever with 12,090!

The news of the collection is making headlines around Ohio. (The Columbus Dispatch did a front-page article on the collection.) And it is beginning to get national attention as the AP just picked up the story. (Read on to see the Dispatch article)

For me, the best part of this story is not the amount that was collected (which is absolutely amazing!). The best part of the story for me is that so many people gave out from a place of need! It was a wonderful gesture of faith, hope, and love - each gave out of love for God and their neighbor; each gave in the earnest hope that what they gave (big or little) will make a difference in someone's life; and each gave, believing by faith, facing an uncertain future, that should they ever be in need, that God will always provide!

This story reminded me of the story of the widow's offering found in Mark 12:41-44 (and also in Luke 21:1-4):

I recently read an article about various learning styles where it pointed out that the three major learning styles are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (tactile). Out of these three major learning styles, about 30% of the population are auditory learners, 65% are visual learners, and only about 5% are kinesthetic learners. (And of course, these are not mutually exclusive) This is just a hunch, but I imagine that as our society becomes more and more ADD, that these numbers will shift significantly in the direction of visual learners.

Here is why I bring this up: If these numbers are really correct, then most of our churches need a major overhaul in how we disciple people. The church is almost exclusively geared towards auditory learners with preaching as the primary medium. Some churches may incorporate slides, videos, dramas, and special music and such, but is that really the best that we can do? And while we spend so much time focusing on what happens during the corporate gathering on Sunday mornings (and mostly on the sermon), are we digging ourselves into a hole if the rest of the world is slowly moving away from simply auditory learning? It seems that our Universities are slowly beginning to grasp this concept because they are moving away from traditional lecture style to more of an interactive learning environment.

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Sunday, April 12, 2009; Page A17

Are we witnessing this Easter season the decline of Christianity in America, or is this a moment of reform and renewal, a time when the deterioration that has been underway is arrested?

The death and resurrection of religion, if not of Jesus Christ, has been a favorite subject of newsmagazines since April 8, 1966, when Time momentously asked: "Is God Dead?"

This trend, announced on a somber black and red cover, lasted a little over three years. Or perhaps the original question was premature. In any event, on Dec. 26, 1969, Time offered a bright white, yellow, blue and purple cover carrying the hopeful query: "Is God Coming Back to Life?"

This Easter week, Newsweek doesn't pretend to know God's state, but its cover offers a stark declarative statement positing "The Decline and Fall of Christian America."

The article by Jon Meacham, a thoroughly knowledgeable student of these issues, offers some powerful data, notably a near-doubling since 1990 of the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, from 8 percent to 15 percent. Meacham also points to a 10-point drop in the share of Americans who self-identify as Christian, from 86 percent to 76 percent.

Blogs I've Been Reading Lately

• William Willimon (Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church)
• Lifehacker (Don't Live to Geek; Geek to Live!)
• The Simple Dollar (Money Management and Financial Advice)
• Digital Photography School (Photo Tips)
• Guy Kawasaki (How to Change the World)

People I Would Like to Meet at Starbucks

• Joaquin Phoenix (He's getting weirder every day!)
• Francis Chan (Pastor of Cornerstone Church)
• Richard Curtis (Writer, Producer, and Director)
• Bernard Madoff (What were you thinking?)
• Peggy Noonan (Speechwriter for Regan, now a Columnist for WSJ)

Books I've Enjoyed Reading Recently

[Sermon from Joshua House at Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for audio of the sermon]

I want to tell you a story tonight. It is a sad story. It is a heartbreaking story. And it is a true story. The man’s name was John Griffith and the year was 1937. John had lost everything that he had in the stock market crash. So like most people in those days, he found work wherever he could, which for him, meant moving to Mississippi where he took a job as a railroad bridge operator. At scheduled times each and every day, the huge bridge was raised so that ships could make their way down the river, and the bridge was lowered so that trains could cross over.

That summer, John took his 8-year-old son, Greg, with him to work for the first time. The boy, like every boy would be, was thrilled to be so close to the railroad bridge and to see the trains and the boats. But he was thrilled most of all to see that his dad was in charge of it all.

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

On October 17, 1969, at 8am, the entire police force of Montreal, Canada went on a strike to demand better pay. As a result of the strike, which lasted just about 16 hours, six banks were robbed, more than 100 shops were looted, and there were twelve fires. Property damage came close to some $3,000,000 and two men were shot dead. All this in just 16 hours!

This incident brings up a lot of interesting questions:

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendors and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

“I want you to watch that one particularly,” said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

“Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,” said the little angel. “What's special about that one?”

“That,” replied his senior solemnly, “is the Visited Planet.”

“Visited?” said the little one. “you don't mean visited by --------?

“Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory.” And at these words he bowed his head reverently.

[Sermon from Vineyard Columbus, Ohio] [Click HERE for the audio of the sermon]

Good morning! I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. I hope that it was a time of laughter and love. And I hope that you ate way more than you should have. I know I did.

I know that most of you here do not know who I am, so let me give you a very quick introduction. My name is Insoo Kim and I have been on staff here at Vineyard Columbus for the past 8 months serving as Rich Nathan’s research assistant. Prior to coming to Vineyard Columbus, I was an assistant pastor at a Vineyard church in Chicago for almost four years.

I have been married to my absolutely wonderful and beautiful wife, Angela, for four-and-a-half years now, and we have two boys, a two-year old Elliot and a 6-month old Isaiah, and they are absolutely amazing! And having two young children means that we are at that stage in life where most of our conversations are about poo-poo and pee-pee, and various other kinds of bodily functions. And we often find ourselves saying things like, “Please do not rub the peanut butter on your hair!” And “Please do not stick your finger up your nose!” And “Please do not stick your finger up your brother’s nose!” We love being parents to our boys and we thank God for them on most days. I am thrilled to be a part of this great church and for this opportunity to teach today.

Speaking at the most recent EG (Entertainment Gathering) conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs (agnostic) talks about the year he spent living biblically -- following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible. Here are his thoughts from the experiment.