Archives For Church

From my sermon prep for this week about the baptism of Jesus:

We believe that Jesus is God, yes, but we need to be careful that we don’t make him “too sacred.” By that, I mean that Jesus is not set apart from the world.

Some religions look at their founders and heroes as people who escaped the darkness and pain of the world. Jesus embraces dirt, disappointment, disgust and disease.

Some religions look at their founders and heroes as symbols that must be venerated, never questioned or mocked. Jesus doesn’t need to be protected, he asks to be followed.

Some religions aim to achieve a sort of God-ness. Jesus was a man, and call us to live fully into our humanity.
Some religions provide a license to demote other people to less than ourselves. Jesus invites us to join the lowest of the low.

If we take Jesus identity seriously, we need to as ourselves “who or what do I despise?” We need audit our hearts and our actions and ask: Who did I ignore? Who did I avoid? Who did I mock? Who do my choices hurt? Chances are, those are the kind of people that would line up with Jesus at the river with John the Baptist.

Top 10 Posts of 2014

Chris —  December 30, 2014

2014 has been a phenomenal year for me personally, and I appreciate all that you have done for me. As I gear up for next year (Podcast! Webinars! Freelancing! More!) I’m sharing some of my favorite content from the year before.

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How Not to Mess Up Christmas

Chris —  December 22, 2014

Here’s an excerpt from today’s post I wrote over at Fresh Expressions:

Christmas remains one of the few times when people show an openness to hearing the story of Jesus, even if they aren’t open to church. If handled correctly, this can be one of the best opportunities of the year for directing conversation toward Jesus. However, a lack of forethought could make things worse.

A fresh expression is a church community that grows organically out of an established people group. Every people group and the individuals within it bring their own “baggage.” The baggage becomes almost tangible during the holidays.

Christmas could be one of your best opportunities to share about Jesus all year long. Handled poorly, it can reinforce negative stereotypes about “church.”

Read the whole post, and let me know what you’re up to for Christmas.

Recently, my church community Austin Mustard Seed and my former church community, Vox Veniae had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Cherith Fee Nordling on the important, yet often tricky concept of “embodied spirituality. Here’s an excerpt from a recap by Chris Morton.

Orthodox teaching, as is encapsulated by the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, states the mystery of our faith is this: Jesus is simultaneously 100% God and 100% human.

Obviously, this is a paradox. No one thing can be 200%. Heresies, argues Fee Nordling, crop up when people try to explain Jesus as anything other the mystery of 100% God and 100% human. 

The problem that many of these heresies are trying to solve is “the flesh problem.” Many cultures, including many people today, don’t know what to do with our bodies. Our modern secular world seems torn between animalistic epicureanism (do whatever feels good!) and an obsession with productivity (life and body “hacking.”) 

These heresies and many more, all try to address the same struggle: if bodies are bad, then how can Jesus be fully human (embodied) and fully God?

According to Fee Nordling, this isn’t a philosophical point. A misunderstanding of our bodies cheapens the story of scripture and causes many problems for daily life. The alternative is to understand what humans are, bodies, and all. The result is a much more tangible story of how God is plotting to help us “get our lives back.”

Read the whole article here.

You can listen to audio from the retreat here.

Bonhoeffer was an expert on waiting, suffering, and thus, Advent. Here’s a great quote about enjoying what we’ve got. Which is really central to waiting, isn’t it?

We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts he has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.

We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from him the little things?

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if, on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

Life Together