What Church Should Look Like: A Community on the Go

            At Shiloh, I have been noticing a positive trend that gives me great joy.

            Recently, a woman told us she wanted to be a part of our church. I would like to tell you, it was because of my marvelous preaching. That was not case.

            A few years ago, this lady was living in an apartment complex and the power went off. It was at night, so darkness enveloped her living quarters. She heard a knock on the door. Lisa Beasley, one of our Shiloh members was there, with some candles in her hand.

            “Here,” she said. “I thought you might be able to use these.” With those words, Lisa entered in and served.

            At that time, the woman was a single mother with two teenage children. In a stressful time, Lisa physically and spiritually brought light into her home.

            Jason Smith was at work a while back. He became acquainted with a young man experiencing challenges in his life—as we all do.

            Jason shared Jesus with the young man; he shared with the young man, from his Bible, about how to respond to Jesus. And the young man did! That relationship is growing, and now others in our church are getting to know this new Christian and sharing God’s word with him.

            I can’t help but think this is the way it should be.

            I love our church building. People from all over the Tyler area are using our building every day. Many are not part of Shiloh. Some are not Christians. I hope people continue to use our building. However, even if everybody in the area wanted to use our building, we could not bring them through fast enough to match the growth of Tyler’s population.

            So, we, at Shiloh, go out.

            The last thing Jesus told His disciples was—go.

            We remember that we are ALL missionaries.

            There is a sign, Shiloh family members pass under, on the way out the door. It says, “You are now entering the mission field.” And we are.

            Sundays are great. I love being with our community of faith and, together, entering into the presence of God. Nevertheless, like Jesus told three of his disciples, we have to leave the spiritual mountaintop and go into valley where the people are.

            Sometimes, they are in difficult places. God is not present where they are, so we take God there. We take with us beauty, and light, and wholeness to face up against the ugliness, and darkness, and fragmentation the Evil One has brought into their lives.

            We minister to them. We serve them. We look for opportunities to put in a good word for Jesus—the epitome of all that is good.

            On Sundays, I believe having five hundred people leaving Shiloh in this way—Tyler will be a better place. And God’s Kingdom will expand.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I would like to see how many had Connecticut, Butler, VCU and Kentucky for their Final Four Brackets. This is why I have never filled out an NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket. I will stand behind what I wrote last week, “I have a feeling we are going to hear the name of Brad Stevens (Butler’s coach) this time every year when major schools are looking to hire a new coach.” All of this notwithstanding, I am predicting Connecticut to win the National Championship next Monday night.

2. I hope Baylor wins the girls’ National Championship. Look out for Connecticut in the girls’ bracket as well.

3. TIME had a fascinating section in their issue last week. It’s called TEN IDEAS THAT CHANGE THE WORLD. One article was titled “Fix the Deficit? We can Do That?” As you might imagine, that caught my attention. Here’s a link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059521_2059686_2059682,00.html

4. I just finished my series on Revelation. Never have I been so concerned about a series and it turn out so well. I’m glad I preached Revelation.

5. I have become a fan of Timothy Keller. He is a preacher who lives in New York City. He has written several thought-provoking books. His latest is on the gospel of Mark entitled KING’S CROSS.

Heavenly CPS

            I want you to imagine a nightmare scenario. Imagine Judy and me adding a baby to our repertoire of four kids! (If you don’t know me, I’m fifty, Judy is … well, Judy is my wife, and we have four kids ranging in age from 8-17.)

            Now, picture Judy and me placing the bulk of our attention on our oldest daughter, who is a high school senior. We dialogue with her constantly, listen to her every whim or complaint. We do all we can to make sure she is happy and doesn’t rebel and leave our family.

            Meanwhile, after the initial excitement over the birth of our baby, we pay less and less attention to it. Even though some attention to our oldest daughter is important (helping her in her transition to college, for example), logically, we should understand she has entered a state of maturity that demands less concentration. Instead, one would think it essential to demonstrate more care and concern for the baby than our oldest—or even our other three children.

            All humor aside, I want you to picture in your mind something truly awful. Let’s say Judy and I neglect our baby so much, the child becomes malnourished or even terribly ill. Unfortunately, since we are so occupied with the desires and concerns of our oldest, we neglect our baby.

            Granted, it is easier to minister to our oldest child in a lot of ways. One would be communication. Our daughter can tell us how she is thinking and feeling. Indeed, she has the confidence to seek us out.

            Babies, as you know, can’t communicate well. Sometimes something can be wrong with them, and the parents have a difficult time diagnosing the problem.

            To society, however, there are no excuses. If Judy and I neglect our baby and the symptoms began to show, CPS will come calling.

            Here is my point—inspired by months of study in the book of REVELATION. Too often in churches, we preachers (and I definitely am including myself), elders, staff, ministry leaders, and members, place the bulk of our attention on the “older children” of the church. I don’t mean senior citizens; I mean those who have been in Christ for a number of years.

            We focus our sermons on the mature Christians. We plan our worship according to what mature Christians are thinking. We listen to mature Christians, who seek us out to give opinions and feedback. We organize our congregational families around the needs, and wants of mature Christians. Meanwhile, too many of us are not paying enough attention to the spiritual babies.

            I am glad there is no Heavenly CPS. Can you imagine? Heavenly case workers taking neglected spiritual babies from one spiritual home and placing them in another—offering someone else a chance to give them the nurturing and care they need. 

            Or, maybe there is. Maybe that is where all the spiritual babies have gone.

            Maybe that is why so many of our churches are spiritually infertile.

            Excuse me, I haven’t heard anything from my spiritual baby in a while; I need to go check and see if everything is okay.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I am ashamed to say I have still not gone out and purchased the new Rob Bell book. I’ve got to do that this week--and read it.

2. Saturday was the day I sprayed the house and yard for bugs—always an ordeal. But I did get to catch the end of the Pittsburgh-Butler game to see who advances to the Sweet 16. What a finish! I’ve never seen a guy foul underneath his own goal, after a free throw, with virtually not time left. I have a feeling we are going to hear the name of Brad Stevens this time every year when major schools are looking to hire a new coach. Butler has 4200 students. Amazing.

3. With Netflix’s growing instant play library, I’m starting to wonder why I keep so many DVDs around. 

4. I finally got around to reading last month's TIME Magazine’s cover story on the young generation of leaders seeking freedom in the Middle East. Maybe this is a time to be truly optimistic about the future there.

5. Congratulations to Diann Preston’s ETCA girls basketball team for yet another honor. My daughter, Haleigh, joined Samantha Phillips in making First Team on the TAPPS All-State Basketball Team. Jenny Munoz was selected to the Second Team. Hayley Robertson was named as an Honorable Mention. Samantha, Jenny, and Hayley Robertson are all juniors and will return next year. If I may indulge in a little parental pride, I have been grateful to see Haleigh named to First Team All-State in both volleyball and basketball this year.

Is Sex Spiritual?

Is sex spiritual? In my new series beginning this Sunday morning, we will be pursuing the answer.

In the Garden, it was not good for man to be alone. Not only did it hurt man, it hurt his relationship with God, and God desires to for his relationships to be close, personal, and intimate. Even before the Fall, before Eve was created, the potential in the relationship between God and Man was not reached.

But, God allowed Adam to name all the animals, subtly creating the understanding within Adam that none of the animals was a suitable companion. And then when God brought Eve to Adam, the idea expressed in Genesis 2:24 was practically that of Adam jumping up and down in excitement proclaiming, “This is it! This is it! At last, this is somebody who is meant for me.”

So why did God want to bring in the competition? Why did God allow someone else to move in on his territory? Because God understood that done well, a relationship with Eve would help Adam grow closer to God.

Adam’s relationship with Eve included sex. Obviously, a sexual relationship helped Adam and Eve have children. Still, that was not the only purpose. The concept of “leaving to cleave,” is built upon that first marriage. Adam and Eve, in order to cultivate a healthy sexual relationship physically, mentally, and emotionally, had to learn how to cultivate a healthy sexual relationship spiritually.

That meant Adam and Eve had to look after the interests of the other, serve the other, to seek what was best for the other even above his or her own need. In short, the more Adam and Eve became like God, the healthier their sexual relationship became. The more healthy Adam and Eve’s sexual relationship became, the more they grew to be like God.

I am convicted the same holds true for us today. Good sex is a spiritual training exercise for godliness. (I can hear some husband say, “Great, I’m going to tell my wife, ‘Practice, practice, practice.’”) Marvelous. But hear me out.

When I say “good sex”, I am presupposing several things. These include:
1. A man and woman who are married to each other.
2. A husband and wife who have surrendered their lives to Christ.

The reason is simple, with God being the compass; this husband and wife will be much more inclined to serve each other. In doing so, they become more Christlike. Have you ever heard of the vicious cycle? This is the good cycle.

We, humans, think about sex every day. Instinctively, we will keep at it until we get it right. This is one the few areas of life that we will not quit. This is not an accident. God is hoping this desire will lead us to “experiment” by giving ourselves to our mates, surrendering to our mates, serving our mates, and living unselfishly. As we do, our sexual experiences gratify us more. And in the process, we become more Christlike.

Here is the catch. Every decision we make affects our sexuality. And, our sexuality affects every decision we make.

A man cannot treat people like objects, be mean to his coworkers, cheat on his income tax, and expect to be a kindhearted, tender husband in the bedroom. Consequently, his sexual satisfaction will be diminished because his wife will have trouble surrender herself to a self centered, deceitful bore.

On the other hand, a woman cannot be a shrew, undermine her coworkers, disrespect her boss, and expect to be cultivating and experiencing an outstanding sexual life. Few husbands find Jezebel to be a good draw for the bedroom.

Is sex spiritual? Absolutely. Is spirituality sexual? You bet.


Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I never get over how amazing Leadership Training for Christ is. It is so well run, instructive, and inspirational. Thanks to Tim Henderson and literally hundreds of volunteers for making it go.

2. I love preaching at a church where I can preach a four week series on sex. And this suggestion to preach on the subject came from our Prime Timers!

3. I am predicting Butler vs. Duke and Connecticut vs. Stanford in the two b-ball championship games. :) Okay, in all seriousness, the winners will be Duke and UConn.

4. I was sorry to see the Baylor women lose last night. Words of wisdom: "Wait until next year."

5. Today I am taking off to enjoy my kids, who are themselves enjoying a school holiday. Part of this day I am spending introducing my younger children to the blessing that is ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. I've seen this mini-series/movie probably a dozen times; it never loses its magic.

Have a great week!