Every Now And Then

I often wonder what people where thinking when they build things. How many times have you heard of a business decide to build a bigger building only to find that they have outgrown their new facility a year later? Community planners seem to also run into this problem.

This year I got stuck in a parking lot at our closest mall because the road system couldn't handle the traffic flow. The first time I was in one parking lot looking wistfully across the traffic to our local chocolate shop. I wanted to buy some truffles for my wife but getting to the shop seemed like it would be imposible. I was about ready to just walk when I remembered that the shop had a branch in our local airport which has free 30 minute parking , no lines and is on the way home. With plan B looking like a viable option I found a back way out of the parking lot and scurried away from the traffic as fast as I could.

Unbelievably, I found myself in the same parking lot a few days later staring at the exact same traffic jam. I had foolishly thought that things would be better now that Christmas was over but apparently there were a lot of people who were not satisfied with their gifts or still had money to burn this year. As I looked at the mess I began to wonder why the planners hadn't come up with a better system that would have let the traffic flow better.

The reality is that this only happens a few times a year and the rest of the time it isn't too bad. But has humans we always want the best. I hate buying computers because I have a tendency to way over buy for my needs. Satisfaction can be somewhat elusive.

I think I'm going to work on being more satisfied this year.

If You Say It Fast Enough

My sons and I were sitting around last night shooting the breeze. They are 11, 13, 15 years old. For some reason we were talking about Haiku. Haiku is rather addicting even if you don't know much about it or are pretty bad at it. We were soon rattling off Haiku on all sorts of topics and I would have to say we pretty much fall in the "bad" category.

It wasn't long before an argument broke out when someone tried to use one of those words that can be either 1 or 2 beats depending on how you say it. My oldest son, Ben, has a pet peeve about people who try to get away with a liberal use of this so of course the other two started stretching things way beyond the limits. Can you say superchalephragelisticespiallidousous in one syllable?

From there we ended up in a discussion about pain and poetry with the consensus being that pain produces the best poetry. Is that true? Are we at our creative best when working from a painful experience? No doubt many are also inspired by beauty but my kids say pain wins out. Mmmm. I'll have to think about that one. I wonder if my sermons are better when prepared in pain. Okay, no wisecracks about my sermons causing pain.

Drawing From The Roots

I will be one of the first to admit that I don’t know my denominations history that well. Oh, I’ve read the general stuff and taken the history course that was required but I’ve never delved deeply into what it was all about as many others have. However, I have appreciated a heritage that I have imposed on our roots simply by what I know of other groups which is admittedly a dubious approach. But I will give credit to the fathers until someone shows me otherwise.

One of our fathers was a Mennonite preacher so I have assumed that we carried some Mennonite distinctives. One particular distinctive that I particularly like is that Mennonites tend to be wary of abstract theological issues and focus more on the gospel and how it should influence day-in day-out community life. How Jesus would have us live in relationship with one another is of primary importance. It seems that redeemed relationships with others follows in close priority to a redeemed relationship with God.

Now I may be talking out of both sides of my mouth here because I do like to dabble in abstract theological issues at times. And I suppose that to some that would be a distraction that should be avoided. But I claim that distractions aside I tend to be accepting of the various sides of many of these issues in spite of my willingness to argue my views and I do hold to the priority of loving God and loving others in the way described above. I get frustrated when we let these issues become divisive.

The odd thing is I would probably have difficulty living in a Mennonite community. Perhaps I would get frustrated with what I would perceive to be legalistic issues. But I love the priority placed on the idea that the gospel speaks to us in terms of community and am pleased with that heritage.

Carried Away on Mission

"Mission is inevitable when Christ is incarnated, but without incarnation mission looks a lot like busy religiosity." - Dwight Friesen

This quote is from an article in which the author explains why he does not consider himself missional. It's not that he doesn't believe we have something to accomplish but he doesn't like how we use the term mission. He says that when we are on a mission anything that doesn't contribute to the mission is marginalized and not given proper respect. In a church setting this usually means that everyone needs to be on the pastor's mission and whatever unique mission God has given them personally plays second fiddle.

I think I agree with his sentiment. Now I'm sure it is very easy to overstate the case and I imagine that there are people who would read this and be turning to Matthew 28 just as fast as they could. But I get tired of that. Pastors do have a tendency to try and get people to join a mission that has more to do with their own personal goals than anything else. The danger with that is that there is a tendency to subvert a relationship with God by interjecting oneself in between people and God. I know Paul wrote "follow me as I follow Christ" but I don't think that is what he meant.

Friesen wants incarnational living instead of missional living but I don't think I like that term either. The problem with that term is that people think that they are to be Christ instead of Christ like. I can't be Christ because I'm not Christ. That means in a given situation I want to do not necessarily what Christ would do but what He would want me (Tom) to do. That is what I think it means to present an incarnate Christ through me to the world.

Most of this is nothing more than semantics but it still drives me crazy. Have you ever been in a room when people are agreeing and saying the same thing but you know that they are really thinking something different? That's why it can get tiring keeping track of all the definitions of the terms we use.

Innocent as Doves

Many of his readers (Eugene Petersen for one) see Fyodor Dostoevsky as not only a brilliant author but also as a pretty good theologian. I enjoy reading his stuff too but I especially liked "The Idiot" because of its portrayal of what is believed to be Dostoevsky's idea of Christ made flesh among the Russian aristocracy. Prince Mishkin subverts the prevailing culture by being able to love unconditionally an incredibly wide range of individuals no matter how awful they treat him. He is often thought of as an idiot but in spite of this he is admired by one and all and is able to have a huge impact on their lives due to his innocence and unconditional love.

I was thinking today of Forest Gump and I wondered how much of that story was influenced by "The Idiot" because there is a similar subversion that takes place. The most remarkable affect is on Jenny and Lieutenant Dan. No matter how hard they try to discourage or push Forrest away he won't leave.

I want to influence people that way.

Members

Every year at about this time I start thinking about church membership. I meet with the nominating committee and we try to figure out who we should nominate for the various church offices. I give the committee members a list of folks who "qualify" which means that they are active members in the church. The list is pretty short.

People don't seem to like to join. They can be very active and committed to the church but they just don't want to join. I think for a lot of them this issue has roots in the past. I know a lot of people blame it on the new generation but I think it is the anti-establishment generation that is the problem.

One thing we always talk about is changing the rules so that you don't have to be a member to serve in the various capacities. The people we would likely put in those positions have been faithful after all. That is always countered by the idea that if they are really with us why wouldn't they join?

Fortunately, I think the younger folks are getting over the fear of joining and are starting to take more interest. They kind of think it is cool to belong in that way. I suppose that there are still a lot of people who would disagree with that assessment but I think it is true for us.

I am also pleased that this has not been divisive for us. I don't think very many people actually think about it in when it comes to our church family. Family is family and the only way out is disowning on the part of the individual of the family whether you like it or not. There are no membership questions for that.