Who is right and who is wrong?

There has been a dialogue (debate) about the state of the church and the massive exodus by millennials. I am not sure if you have been privy to the numerous blog entries or articles written about this, but it seems to be a huge topic and rightly so. If the millennials are exiting the church in droves, then we, the church leaders, need to pay attention. We need to be asking questions and we confronting the situation.

My problem with this is that many of the reasons cited as to way this mass exodus is happening can be contradictory. For example some articles explain that millennials are looking for a more traditional or rather a less contemporary church atmosphere. An article wrote –

“Barna Group and Cornerstone Knowledge Network has found that in reality, 67% of millienials say a quiet church is more ideal than a loud one; 67% say classic is more ideal than trendy; 77% would chose a sanctuary over an auditorium.”

While this can be true, I wonder why many of the biggest/more prominent churches have a trendier feel to their approach. Where there is a barista available to make you a drink before you go and worship to a band that sounds and plays like Newsboys or The Crowder Band. Where your senses are engage through special lighting, large tv screens, smoke machines and a state of the art sound system. Why is it that millennials can be found flipping through their iPhone or iPad as they take notes or fact check the pastor’s message (and hopefully not texting, Instagraming or trolling Facebook).

Why aren’t our more quieter churches, the one’s with acoustic guitars and piano are not full of millennials? Why aren’t the churches that have not gimmicks, no apps, no high-tech sound systems and no lattes being inundating by millennials?

These are just questions. I am not saying that the study is wrong or the these type of articles are wrong or right. To me, it just does not add up. There has to be more. When other churches are going “Hollywood” and command the attention and following of hundreds of millennials then I have to wonder what attracts them to this church. When I visit a church were there are a handful of millennials who are worshipping to an acoustic guitar and/or a piano and nothing else. Then I have to wonder why this church is not full of millennials.

What are your thoughts?

324 year old words that can change your life

What do you devote your time to? What do you spend your extra time doing? Where do you go, what do you see? What holds your attention? Whatever holds our undivided attention surely becomes something that can end up being our devotion. For some it might be work, a hobby, money, a car, children or numerous other things. Brother Lawrence understands this and wrote:

“We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will, whether he takes us through sufferings or consolations.”

He urges that our devotion should be targeted towards God no matter the consequences. This devotion should be a complete abandonment to Him.

What holds your attention? What consumes your time? Who or what has your devotion?

324 year old words that will change your life.

In the last 5 years the art of conversation has diminished through the used of Social media tools and apps. Many young christians struggle to have a consistent prayer life and thus struggle to truly know who God is. Nevertheless, we are encourage to have constant prayer life. Brother Lawrence writes:

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”

In order to experience this sweet and delightful life, we need to have a continual conversation with God. Have you spoken to him today?

324 words that can change your life.

James 1 begs us to consider it a pure joy when we encounter painful and unpleasant circumstances. It continues by stating that through the endurance of these circumstances, our faith will grow. Once this perseverance is finished, it will make us mature and complete, not lacking anything. Bother Lawrence puts it this way:

“I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love.”

Let’s pray to have the same resolve – to allow painful and uncomfortable situations to help us grow in faith and to draw us closer to God.

324 year old words can change your life

“The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.”

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Knowledge begets knowledge. When this knowledge is centered on God then this knowledge is transformed to love, genuine love. This love is not swayed by time, or situations. It is a constant love. After all, God love. The more we know about God, the more we know about love and the more we know about love the more we understand the type of love God has for us.

324 year old words that can change your life

324 years ago, on Feb. 12 Brother Lawrence, a former soldier who had a dramatic religious conversion, died. He devoted his life to follow God. After joining a monastery he became Brother Lawrence and spent the rest of his life serving others. During this time he discover a profound truth – God presences can and should be experienced everywhere.

Brother Lawrence never wrote a book, but one was created using some of his letters and discussions with his peers.

For the next 10 days I will be posting one quote a day by Brother Lawrence.

“The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence.

Why should we forgive?

There is a lot written in the Bible about forgiveness, a lot. One verse speaks of not letting the sun go down while still angry at your brother. Another speaks of forgiving just as God forgave us while another explains the amount of times we need to forgive someone (seventy seven times seven, in other words countless times).

Many have a hard time forgiving for past offenses and carry the weight of resentment for a life time. This weight can manifest itself in physical, emotional or psychological symptoms. Nevertheless there are some real benefits of choosing to forgive rather than living with a life long grudge.

What do you guys think – Why do you think is hard to forgive? And, can forgiveness have a physical and psychological affect on our lives?

The link below is a story of two brothers that took to different paths after their mother was murder during a robbery. One chose to forgive, while the other was not able to let go.

The Forgiveness Boost

3 Things the Church Can Do to Bring Peace

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. This past Saturday as I was enjoying our Christmas Celebration in church I stumbled upon the news that 2 NYC Police officers were shot to death as they sat inside their patrol car eating lunch. There is never a good time to receive this type of news. What made it more personal is that a close friend of mine (like a brother) who is a member of the church, was there to enjoy the celebration is a police officer. Needless to say, it hit home.

The shooting was the action of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a Baltimore man who had an extensive criminal record. Before the tragic murder of the officers, he shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend.

Before committing this unspeakable crime, reports and witness confirmed that he bragged about “what I’m going to do” on Instagram and moments before he murder the officers. He also also insinuated that his actions were vengeance for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

During these turbulent times, my thoughts turn back to the role of the church and how we can best response in a Christ-like manner. These are just my thoughts and suggestions.

1. Appreciate

Everyone wants to feel appreciated. I am fairly certain that many of us have felt that need from time to time. Maybe you have a stressful job, or you wear too many hats. Regardless of what your situation is, we all want to be appreciated for the work we do and for the sacrifice it takes to get it done. Police Officers should be no different. I wonder what an impact it would be if a congregation would leave the church (building) on a Sunday morning and walk to the nearest precinct to pray for and over the officers, to encourage them and to show them how much they are appreciated. I think it would be such a powerful massage, one that can help the church fulfill a reconciliatory role.

2.  Teach

There is a lot of misinformation being communicated and our congregants are not immune to it. I believe that the church should be a place where everyone should learn about the Bible and Jesus but also encouraged to find ways in which to integrate these truths in their lives in a practical way. Our youth and young adults should learn how to see life through the lens of the Bible and engage the world around them based on a biblical worldview. I wonder what it would look like if we created on ramps and avenues for our church to engage their neighbors and neighborhood in meaningful and practical ways.

3. Safe Place

In the old testament, when a person killed another person, they would pay with their lives unless they were to make it to a designated city of refuge. This city of refuge was a sanctuary where a person would be able to state his case and be tried by elders of the city. I believe that our churches should be places of refuge for those who feel persecuted, who persecuted, oppressed, victimized,tyrannized. We need to be careful in not polarizing or further antagonizing a situation. Citizens as well as Police Officers should feel at peace, protected or at least not persecuted in church. We should not take sides, rather we should seek the reconciliation of the city, neighborhoods, people, believers.

Let’s appreciate each other for the things we do. Let’s be careful in what we teach, making sure we teach what the text says and not what we think. Lastly, let us be agents of reconciliation, bringing people together and allowing them to feel safe in the house of the Lord.

Reality check.

Today is our second day in Santiago, Dominican Republic and our first day going to our construction site and the church in which we will be doing Vacation Bible School. If you have never been outside of the United States it might be hard for you to understand what poverty looks like. I know that there are under privilege people in the states, I know that there are homeless and hungry, nevertheless the poverty that I am refering to is not relative poverty rather absolute poverty. Where there is no hope for a better tommorrow or government help at the other line of the phone. Where children eat once a day and parents make due with what little they may have. Where the floor is tightly packed dirt, the beds are cots that fit three kids in the night and homes have one or maybe two rooms with an outhouse and sporadic running water and electricity. This is the face of poverty.

I often wonder why we complain so much about the things we don’t have, when we continually use phrases like, “I don’t have anything to eat” as we stand in front of our refigerators. Or we say “I have nothing to wear” while we pile clothes on our beds looking for something to wear. I know I have been guilt of this, but I am realizing that I can do something about. 

Today I met about 30 kids who live under those conditions. They were bright eyed, a little shy but quick to smile after a few minutes. Eager to learn, and enthusiastic to sing. Monica was daring enough to come up and participate in one of our games. Milka, seemed shy at the begining but became a great help in letting us know the names of the younger children as we were making name tags for each child. To my surprise we had a couple of older teens/twenty somethings in the group who were eager to learn, happy to be there and attentive to the lesson.  

I pray for more time, for a better opportunity to get to talk to these kids and teens. I pray that I will see through God’s eyes, hear through His ears and have the courage to be an answer to someone’s prayer.

  

This is not a suggestion…

Matthew 28:19 is a call for the church, the body of Christ, to go and make disciples of all nations. In other words, to go and share the good news, what Jesus has done and is doing in you life, with the hope that some will come to know Him through our testimony. Many of us hopefully do this locally, while others ventured out and travel to other countries to fulfill this calling. Nevertheless its a calling, a command, not a suggestion. Therefore we should all be engage in missionary work. 

I am responding to this call and for the next week I will posting updates as I, along with many others, share the gospel through love, compassion and deed, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I can’t promise you moving pictures or picturesque scenes, but I can promise to share with you my impressions, stories, interaction and the work of God in my life and in the lives of those I will encounter.

I do ask one thing. Please keep me and my team in your prayers. May God use us to show love, compassion and bring His peace and hope to children and adults that are looking for something different for their lives. 

I hope that you join me in this journey.