New Life Assembly

The "Relaxed" Weekend Reflections

****Please note, I am moving my blog to www.keithmcnamar.com.  I'm posting here today and maybe for the next couple of weeks, but after that, you'll need to move to the new site.  All the old posts are there, but just with a new look.  Hopefully you'll join me there!

It's Monday.  It's the start of a new week, so why not shake things up as much as you possibly can right?

• You may have noticed that you had to take a different route to get here today, and that the surroundings looked a little different.  Welcome to the new blog, which, to skip all the techno-babble that could go along with this, will hopefully provide a cleaner, more appealing environment for you to read from, and will also save me a few dollars every month on hosting fees!
• If last weekend was a whirlwind of activity, this past weekend was much more subdued.  The rain on Friday night certainly helped, as no one in the house really felt like getting up and moving at all.  The kids watched a movie, I watched the Bruins game, and Rita read a book.  Doesn't get much more "low key" than that.
• Saturday was busier, but still relatively relaxed.  CrossFit in the morning at the 8:00 class, which sounds early until you realize that Rita was there with some other crazy people at 7:00.  Felt really strong in my workout and even better afterwards.
• Saturday morning tradition has become CrossFit for the parents, followed by Rita getting home and making sure we eat as much food as possible.  You could call it "carb loading" but I think it's probably just old-fashioned pigging out - eggs, sausage, pancakes, cinnamon rolls (I skipped these) made for a relaxing morning and a full stomach.
• We had a pretty lengthy meeting in the afternoon, but that was made easier by more carb-loading (pizza) and some good conversations.  I love doing ministry with friends, and I'm blessed to have some incredibly gifted, talented, thoughtful people working on church stuff with me.
• Which reminds me - Pastors are like Quarterbacks - when it goes well they get too much credit, and when it goes badly they get too much blame.  I have an INCREDIBLE team of people around me at New Life who volunteer to serve so selflessly.  They deserve way more credit than I do for what our church has become.
• Saturday afternoon was spent at the park, drinking iced coffee and watching the kids enjoy the day in the sun.  Are you catching the relaxing theme yet?
• Sunday was a work day, however.  My friend Scott, who pastors Renaissance Church in Providence, is on a three month sabbatical.  He invited me to speak to his church this weekend, which meant being up to Providence at 8:30 for their 9:00 and 11:00 services.
• It's been a long time since I've preached two services, and I have to say it was as exhausting as I thought it would be.  I give credit to those guys who do it every week, and stand in awe of the guys who are running 3, 4 or even 5 services every weekend.
• It was great to be with another church for the weekend, even if I really did miss being with my New Life family.  As strange as it is to preach to another group of people, it was liberating at the same time.  I felt a certain kind of freedom from knowing that I was only responsible for bringing my best to that community on this one day.
• Since I had Jacob with me for the day, we landed at Five Guys for lunch with Nate and Becky from Renaissance who were great to talk with and I'm sure are a huge asset to Scott and the whole Renaissance community.

 

• Capped off Sunday with a nap and a visit from some friends, which rounded out the subdued, restful weekend feel.  That's probably a good thing, since with our Block Party just two weeks away, I have a feeling there's not too much rest in my future!

Sphere of Influence

I graduated from Bible College well equipped to read, study, and teach the Bible.  I went into pastoral ministry assuming that I was ready to be a pastor but discovered, to my great chagrin, that I wasn't nearly as well prepared as I thought I was.  It seemed that I had been trained to do a job that probably existed 30 years ago, but no longer exists today.

While there was a lot of work to do to get ready for a Sunday message, or a midweek teaching, there was a whole other realm of the work of a pastor that I hadn't learned much about at all:  leadership.  It was assumed that if you were "called" to be a pastor you would automatically get the leadership stuff that went along with that role, but I don't think that was always the case.  

My first pastor, and a great mentor to me in ministry, recognized this gap between my education and the experience I would require and he did his best to fill it.  He fed me books to read and worked diligently with me to increase my ability as a leader.  Early on I grabbed on to a concept from one of those leadership books that has stuck with me for quite a while.  John Maxwell famously says (or quotes someone else saying) "Leadership is Influence", and for the most part, I've come to see that this is true.

That's probably why when I was reading the other day in 2 Corinthians a certain passage stuck out to me. At the end of chapter 10 as Paul is writing to the Corinthian church defending his ministry against some of the criticisms that have been leveled at him he writes: 

"But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you." 

It struck me again that God has given me an area of influence for the sake of his Kingdom and work in the world, and it would be a failure on my part if I don't steward that influence well.  Paul recognized that there were limits to that area of influence, but within it, he was tenacious about making the most of his impact.  He wouldn't boast out of bounds, but within those bounds he had a healthy sense of pride and protectiveness for the lives God had given him influence with.

Here's how I think of my areas of influence.  Maybe thinking through these would help you understand the areas that are uniquely yours.

1. Family - This is my primary area of influence because these are the people closest to me.  They know me better than anyone else, and will be more sensitive to a lack of integrity in my leadership.  It is incredibly important to me that I fulfill my role as Rita's husband well.  I want to lovingly lead her into becoming everything that God has destined her to be.  No one else gets to fulfill my role as a dad to Jacob, Seth, and Aislinn, so it is vital that I lead them well.  My words to them weigh so much more than anyone else's at this stage of their life, so I want to use those words to encourage them towards becoming the characters in God's story that he wants them to be.  If I steward my influence well in this area, it will always be the most important task.
2. Friends - God has been incredibly gracious to me in giving me some friends that are as close to me as family.  In this role I'm not seen as an influencer by virtue of a role or position, but because I have been given permission to have influence.  Abuse your influence with your friends, and they will eventually walk away.  But if you use your influence wisely to encourage, build up, and when needed challenge your friends, you will find that the quality of those relationships will go deeper than you might ever have imagined, which will lead to the most rewarding, fulfilling friendships you've probably ever had.  Together you will push each other to deeper love for God.
3. Church - I've spent over 13 years here at New Life and this is probably the area where I've had the most growing to do.  At the beginning I had influence only by virtue of a position:  I was the pastor, therefore I had influence in decisions.  But over time I have learned that the kind of influence that really shapes lives and moves them towards God's purpose as individuals and a community doesn't come from a title, it comes from character and consistency.  I'm grateful for a group of people who was willing to let me learn "on the job" and gave me great grace through my many mistakes.  I think that now when I talk about vision or direction for the future I have a greater credibility with people by virtue of having invested my life in their well-being.
4. Community - When I first came to New Life I would say I had zero influence in my community outside of the church.  As I've consistently plugged away at connecting outside of the church and finding ways to serve the community I think I've earned some influence that comes by virtue of serving alongside someone in a cause that matters to both of us, even if it's not overtly "religious".  While I'm certainly not a major influencer of policies in the town, I do think that I have learned how to step into certain places where my voice can make a difference. 

All of these are areas where I have already grown, but where I'm certainly still a work in process.  Take some time to think through the various areas where God has given you influence, and ask what you're doing in those areas to make a difference for him there.  You may be surprised by what you see!

The "Beach, Sweat, and Tears" Weekend Reflections

For those of you who were wondering where my Monday post was from last week, I'll sum it up in one word (and a link):  Murph.  I could barely lift my arms, never mind type after that...

This weekend is a much more normal one, so we can proceed with a bullet point recap of the weekend that was in my life and in my New Life life:

• Friday evening Rita and I made some dinner and then packed the kids into the car to take a short trip to the beach.  One of the advantages of living so close to the beach is that you can go for a couple hours and not feel like you wasted a trip.
• The other advantage is that when you're as white as me, you can go to the beach in the evening and not have to put sunscreen on every 15 minutes.  
• The beach in the evening, when no one else is around, makes me feel like you can almost physically breathe stress out with the sound of the surf.
• I spent Saturday morning where I spend most Saturday mornings - in the CrossFit gym relieving stress in another way, by pounding my body into submission.  I break a sweat when we start stretching in the winter, but with the temperature pushing 90 for a few days straight, our gym felt like a sauna.  I finished the workout looking like this:

(Yes, that's sweat)

• In the afternoon our CrossFit community traded our workout gear for different clothes and had a little party, which was a little strange because you never really see most of these people outside of the times that you're sweating and killing yourselves together and then you see them eating a burger and a hot dog.
• I left right from there to to pack up our gear for the show our band was playing at the Upper Room coffeehouse in West Warwick.
• Despite some sound glitches getting set up, we had a really good time playing there again.  Good crowd of New Lifers showed up to cheer us on, which was pretty cool.  I'm amazed at how tight the band has become in these last several years.  
• Highlight of the night for me was "Jesus Paid it All" because I thought we finally nailed that song like I know we can.  Hopefully next time we play it on a Sunday morning we can get it like we did there on Saturday!
• My voice was incredibly rough Sunday morning - bad enough that during practice I had to apologize a couple times for the notes that came out of my mouth :)  But thankfully I was able to keep it together during the music and the message.
• Felt really good about this week's message.  Every once in a while I get into a groove in a passage where I really feel like I can unpack what's happening in the story and this week's passage (Luke 7:36-50) is one of those for me.  
• Got a little choked up towards the end of the message as I was reminded again that I couldn't do anything to deserve to be invited to the table with Jesus but that because of his great forgiveness I'm free to be in a living, breathing relationship with him.  That's a pretty amazing truth that I hope I never get tired of hearing or telling.
• Once again I challenged the church to really let go in their singing at the end, and you guys didn't disappoint!  What a great feeling to push the microphone away and have us all sing "Amazing Grace" together with our voices lifted in thanks to God who could save a wretch like me.
• Went out to lunch with friends after service on Sunday and not sure if I ate something bad or what, but let's just say I didn't end the weekend on quite the note I would have liked!
• Next week I'll be speaking at Renaissance Church in Providence for my friend Scott who is on a three month sabbatical.  I will very much miss my New Life family, but I'm incredibly excited to share with Scott's church!

 

Tension, Grace, and Humility

Last night in our partnership group we had some great discussion about hypocrisy, self-righteousness and the human tendency to point out someone else's flaws while ignoring our own.  Before we dive in, let me give you a little bit of context.

We've been working through a video curriculum based on Tim Keller's excellent book, The Reason for God.  Each group meeting we've been watching a video of Tim Keller with six other people who don't identify themselves as Christians as they discuss various objections to Christianity.  

This week's objection dealt with the question of hypocrisy among Christians and asked why the church has been responsible for so much injustice throughout the years.  On the surface I thought this was probably the easiest objection to deal with simply because there is an element of hypocrisy and injustice inside every single human being regardless of whether they're a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or even an atheist.  We are all good fault-finders when it comes to the shortcomings of our neighbors, and we're less adept at finding our own faults even when given overwhelming evidence that they exist!

As we discussed this, the word that kept coming to my mind was:  "tension".

When we identify ourselves as a follower of Jesus, we have suddenly identified ourselves with a certain body of teaching, which is then meant to carry over into a certain kind of behavior consistent with that teaching.  We would say that we've accepted the forgiveness that Jesus offers for our sins - past, present, and future - but we would also say that it is important for us to be making different choices as we move forward in our lives with him.  The standard that we have publicly embraced as a follower of Jesus is an impossible one.  Jesus himself said it this way in Matthew 5:48 - "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

That means, by necessity, there is a gap between our current conduct and the standard which we believe should guide our lives.  I don't know anyone who has arrived at the "be perfect" standard yet.  In that sense there is always a measure of hypocrisy in us because we claim to be following Jesus who calls us to perfection and yet we fall short of that standard on a daily basis.  There's an awful lot of tension in that gap between our actions and God's standard.

That is where two other key words step in.  The first is grace.  God's grace extended to us in Jesus is the means that bridges the gap between us and God.  Our conduct is imperfect, and yet we are forgiven for those sins by Jesus' sacrifice for us.  But grace is not the under-rug-sweeper that we sometimes make it out to be.  Grace actually calls us to account for our actions and seeks our transformation. In other words, grace is not tolerance.  Tolerance is passive - do whatever you want to do and I won't bother about it.  Grace is active - what you've done is wrong, I love you and want to see you change going forward.

Sometimes in church world we think that if someone calls us on an area of our lives that is out of step with God's character that they're being judgmental or hypocritical.  But in the context of true Christian community, where there is genuine love for each other and grace being extended, the best thing we can do is to call each other on our sins.  Paul actually says that we should forget about judging people outside the church, but inside the church we should judge each other so that we can, by God's grace, bring our community more into line with Jesus' intention (1 Corinthians 5:12).

The second key word to address the tension is humility.  This is where we often go wrong with our judgment towards each other.  For whatever reason we forget that there are still gaps in our lives between where we are and where God wants us to be.  It may be in a different area than the one we're addressing with our fellow believer, but the gaps are very real.  So when we're talking to each other about areas of our lives that are out of step with God's character we should be careful to do so in an attitude of humility.

Paul writes to the Galatians that when they restore a brother who has been found to be sinning they should do so gently while also keeping watch over themselves so as not to be tempted into sin themselves.  A little humility with each other would go a long way towards seeing true grace do its transforming work in our lives.  

Let's be honest, the tension is always going to be there.  But in a church community we can go a long way towards closing those gaps if we're willing to offer true grace in a spirit of humility.

Generous on Average

I'll have you know that you're keeping me from my afternoon coffee.  I made myself a deal that I wouldn't go get my coffee until I had finished writing my blog, so in a weird way, you're helping keep me accountable to my goals.  Thanks for that.  I couldn't have done it without you.

But now that you're here, let's talk a little bit more about generosity.  You may think we exhausted that topic with the message on Sunday, but I'm pretty sure we were just scratching the surface of the subject.  And just in case you're feeling a little threatened, here's what I'll do for you - I'll just talk about my issues with generosity, and let you see if any of it resonates with you.

I tend to think of myself as a fairly generous person.  I'm not so generous that I'm giving out money to homeless people on the street of the city when I walk by them, but I'm not so stingy that I wouldn't pay for a friend's dinner or coffee.  I'm generous enough that I give over and above 10% of my income, but not so generous that I think I'd be willing to get really radical and sell my possessions to give money to the poor or needy, even if I knew them really well.

In other words, I think I'm just about average in generosity.

And that's the problem.

I measure my generosity based on what other people around me do.  I measure my giving based on percentages and then think about what my neighbors do (or don't) give to charity and I start to feel almost saintlike.  Then other days I have a conversation with someone else whose generosity even out of their lack of resources absolutely puts me to shame, and then I start to feel like a selfish, ungrateful, stingy Scrooge. 

As long as I measure my generosity against someone else's, I'll probably always vacillate between those two feelings.  But when I start to measure my generosity by the standard of God's grace extended to my life, suddenly generosity comes into more clarity and definition for me.  When I consider, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8, the incredible grace of Jesus towards me that caused him to impoverish himself so that I might become rich, my generosity consistently feels insufficient.

Perhaps that's why Paul was insistent on not giving the Corinthian church a percentage to give, but told them to look inside their hearts to see what they were going to give to God's work.  I don't think it's because he didn't believe in a principle of tithing.  Rather I think it's because he believed that if they understood grace they would never want to stop giving generously of their resources for God's work.  If I ever grasped grace, my tendency to do the least and to measure myself against someone else would be swallowed up in the ocean of God's great grace in my life.  

My goal is to live a more generous life that better reflects Jesus' grace in my life.  Practically speaking that means that I don't settle for stagnancy in my giving to God's work.  A long time ago Rita and I settled that we were going to give 10% of our income and live on the rest.  But since then we've also made the decision to increase that percentage every year if it's at all possible.  We've also found that living within our means has allowed us to be more generous on those occasions when we become aware of needs in the lives of people around us.  

We certainly haven't figured this out, and truthfully even though I know we're more generous than we were 10 years ago, I still don't think we've arrived at the place God wants us to be.  I suppose that this area of my life, like any other area of spiritual growth, requires constant evaluation and commitment to step away from what's comfortable into greater dependence on God.  

What would you do if you moved towards a more generous life today?

The "Whirlwind Weekend" Monday Reflections

"How was your weekend?" you ask.

Well, maybe you didn't ask, but let's pretend you did.

• Friday night I got to hang out with friends celebrating a birthday.  Our friends' daughter turned 13, and while I never thought I'd find myself at another birthday party for a 13 year old child until mine turned that age, I'm amazed at the way our church community rallies around to celebrate with each other on these occasions. 
• Also, there was cake.  Like the kind of cake that makes me want to find a corner and hide with a larger-than-normal slice of cake cake.
• I spent too many hours in a car on Saturday driving up and back to a family wedding in Connecticut, but enjoyed (as always) getting to see my extended family.  I know lots of people say it, but I really do have an incredible family that I love spending time with.
• Weddings are an interesting study in human behavior.  They can bring out the best, worst, and weirdest in people all at the same time.  
• On Sunday my aunts and uncles drove down from Connecticut to join us at New Life, which was quite an honor!  I thought it was only a little ironic that the one Sunday they showed up we were talking about money.
• So yeah, we talked about money yesterday and I think I managed to put it into a good context and perspective for us.  If I had to simplify it down to one statement, I'd say that when we understand God's grace in our lives we give because we want to, not because we have to.
• If I gave away every last dollar I ever made to God's work and his Kingdom, it still wouldn't be enough to honor the grace that he's showed me.
• I was supposed to make an announcement yesterday that I decided to hold off on because after the message I just felt like it was going to come across the wrong way.  It felt like the right move then, and feels like the right move in hindsight, but if you're reading this I'll let you in on the secret.
• We're now offering the option for folks to give their contributions online.  Yes, we're slowly moving into the 21st century!  If you want to contribute online, you can go to the church website and click on the icon on the bottom that looks like a dollar sign (very subtle, I know).  That will take you to the page where you can sign up for your giving either on a one-time or recurring basis.  You can also just click this link to be taken directly to the form.
• Spent Sunday afternoon substituting a large grill feast and a sermon prep meeting for my usual Sunday nap.  I was excited to work with Jason and Jeff on the summer series which will be working through the book of 1 Peter.  
• Simultaneously spent Sunday afternoon watching Rita try to juggle her travel plans for her work trip to Pittsburgh.  One plane delayed and then the later flight canceled meant she ended up driving up to Boston early this morning to get out in time to teach her class in Pittsburgh by 9:30.  
• To top off a day that was already full enough, we got into the car to go get Rita's laptop from work and I backed one car into the other car.  Minor damage to the car, major damage to my ego!

That's how my weekend was.  How was yours?

Why I CrossFit (and Church)

For the last 12 years of my life I've paid much more attention to my physical well being than I have at any point in my life before that.  I remember the day I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office at the age of 25 to see it reading 240 pounds.  I remember the day my grandmother in her most well-intentioned but direct way told me that I was (how do I say this delicately?) more well-endowed than my sister.  Not long after that Rita and I found out that she was pregnant with our first child. 

It was a perfect storm of sorts for me.  I was terribly overweight, out of shape, and even my grandmother was making fun of my body.  Something had to change.  I went on Weight Watchers and lost nearly 40 pounds.  Then I gained a lot of it back.  Then I lost it again.  Then I started exercising in addition to dieting and I maintained my weight.  Then I gained some back and lost it again.  I started lifting weights at the YMCA with a friend, which made me feel stronger but when I had to start lifting on my own, I found my motivation lacking.

So about nine months ago, in hopes of getting stronger and more fit I walked into our local CrossFit gym (affectionately known as a "box") to see if this was what I was looking for.  From the first free introduction class on a Saturday morning I was hooked.  It was seven minutes of pure agony that made my hour long workouts at the YMCA seem like a Sunday nap.  I knew I was in for pain when the coach said to all the newbies that the "warm up" would be worse than our regular workout.  He was right.

But I came back.  I signed up for the On Ramp class to get introduced to the basics of CrossFit, and then I started joining regular workouts.  I had found something that I thought would make a huge difference in my pursuit of physical fitness.  And in the process I found some interesting parallels between what was happening in the gym and what happens in my life in the church.  The same reasons that I loved my church were the reasons I kept coming back to CrossFit:

• I needed a coach.  I needed someone to look at me from outside and evaluate what I was doing.  I needed help figuring out when my form would break down.  I needed another set of eyes to watch me as I learned how to lift in ways I'd never lifted before.  Sometimes I need the reminder not to burn through the beginning of a long workout too quickly.  Other times I need the coach to stand beside me and refuse to let me drop the bar even though everything inside me wants to.  In other words, I found that the coaches function like I want to function as a pastor in my church.  I pray for my words to be well timed and provide encouragement to those who are tired and challenge to those who need to be stirred up.  There are times that I want to just provide another set of eyes to someone in my church so that they can see the ways that God has been working in their lives.
• The Community.  When I worked out at the Y I drove to the gym by myself, put in my workout by myself with my music playing, and then walked out the door alone.  I've found that the sense of shared experience at CrossFit is a huge piece of what makes it meaningful to me.  We talk before a workout, then we experience the shared blood, sweat and tears of a workout, and when it's over we bump fists or shake hands and stack up weights together to get ready to do it all over again the next day.  While CrossFit supports my quest for physical fitness, the church provides the same sense of community for my spiritual fitness.  We share that Sunday morning experience or a small group environment together and when we do, we're taken to a place where we are no longer individuals, but where we are the church united in worship of our God as we move closer to him.  I grow more as a follower of Jesus in community than I ever would on my own.
• Fitness.  I've never been much of an athlete.  I played sports as a kid, but as I got older my life had gotten more sedentary.  CrossFit has allowed me the chance to compete (albeit against myself) again in a way that has felt more purposeful than spending 30 minutes on an elliptical machine ever did.  As a result I'm more physically fit and capable than I've probably ever been in the past.  I needed a push in this direction, and CrossFit provided it for me.  But more important than my physical fitness is my spiritual fitness.  CrossFit specifically doesn't train for specialization, but for being generally fit and capable of doing more work.  I think spiritual fitness is much the same.  Sometimes I think we can specialize in one area of our spiritual fitness to the neglect of others, and that doesn't prepare us well for actual life.  We need to be ready for the spiritual demands of a life that often presents us with challenges that we've never seen before, and my spiritual fitness community (a.k.a. my church) gives me the place to work out that fitness.

 

 

"Mother's Day" Monday Reflections

In my ongoing efforts to be (a) more disciplined, and (b) more creative, I'm working on a new blogging schedule.  For a long time I've been just going once a week, but starting this week I'm shooting for two.  I think the Monday post will be probably a bullet point download of everything I can think of from the previous weekend, and then later in the week I'll try to write on something more substantive.

So, enough chitchat...let's get to the point.

• Rita spent Friday and Saturday with my mom, my sister and my sister-in-law out on the Cape for what has become their annual "ladies weekend" away.  I think she got some refreshing time away from the kids, and I did my best to keep up with everything she usually does.  What did I realize?  I wouldn't be a good single dad, and I still hate laundry.
• Mother's Day weekend was tougher for me than I thought it would have been.  Every card I wrote made me tear up thinking about my dad, even though they were for the moms in my life.  I finally understood how difficult these days can be for those who DON'T have the one they love around any longer.  It's yet another reminder that the more I age and experience different stages of life, the more God uses those moments to soften my heart as a pastor.  
• Yesterday was a great day at New Life on lots of accounts, but one of my favorites was listening to Jason bring the message.  He's grown so much in both his content and his confidence as a speaker, and I thoroughly enjoyed his message on why we do groups at New Life.
• Speaking of which - we do groups at New Life so that we can each have the opportunity to grow deeper in relationship to God and in community with each other.  But maybe the best question Jason asked yesterday was, "Why don't you?"  Food for thought when we come around to the fall and open up new groups again.
• While we've gone away from doing much in the way of morning announcements on Sunday, we are trying to make sure that we keep everyone in the loop of what's happening.  Our newest way to do that is through text message updates.  If you're interested in getting those about once a week, text "nla" followed by your name to 59769 and you'll be signed up to receive those.  
• Block Party is coming soon (June 22)!!!  We got our postcards to hand out and send out this past week, so be sure to pick some of those up to use for inviting your friends to the party this year.
• We've got another 21st Century addition to what we're doing at New Life that we're going to unveil this Sunday.  I won't tell you what it is, but it definitely has the potential to make your life easier. 
• Last but not least, I received a few positive comments about what I shared regarding Mother's Day at the end of service.  I should point out that my thinking was shaped in part by this post on another blog.  What follows is the text I wrote and read from yesterday:

Mother’s day probably captures the full spectrum of human emotions:

Joy to sadness,
Hope to despair,
Laughter to anger,
Peace to fear,
Security to doubt,
Trust to worry,
And everything in between.

That’s the case because no one here has walked exactly the same road to this point.

Some of us today are celebrating because we’re with our moms, or because our kids are sitting next to us, happy, healthy, and in right relationship.
Some of us today are grieving the loss of our own mothers, either through death or a separation that’s not of our own making.

Maybe someone here just found out they’re pregnant for the first time, and there’s a tremendous amount of hope springing up in your heart.
Maybe others of us despair because we’ve prayed for God to give us a child, and he still hasn’t answered.

Some of us are going to laugh with our moms later when we remember the great times we’ve shared together.
And others of us might silently seethe with anger that our mom never quite lived up to the promise of that name.

Some of us are caring for children that are not our children by birth, but are children by choice and by heart and find peace and contentment.
Others of us are afraid that those children we’ve birthed are making choices that are leading them down a darker, more dangerous path.

Some of us have tremendous security in being a daughter, a friend, a mentor and a child of God and don’t weep to not be a wife or mother.
Others of us are doubting our own worth because we haven’t filled the role that we thought we would have by now.

And in all of these emotions, all of these moments, we find God present with us in unique ways.  And all of you ladies may, at different times, feel any one of these emotions, or any number of them at the same time.  But in all of them we, your church community, want to honor you – mothers, grandmothers, foster mothers, adoptive mothers, spiritual mothers, daughters, sisters – as gifts to us from God.  

 

Looking In, or Looking Out?

Rita and I had the privilege of spending a couple days away from home on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was a much needed break for both of us.  We went to a show with Needtobreathe at the Boston House of Blues Tuesday night, and then spent part of the day walking around Boston on Wednesday.

We both wanted to visit the site of the recent bombing in the city, so we took the train over to Copley Place and spent a few minutes looking at the various items that have been left in a shrine of sorts that has been set up there in memory of the victims.  The memorial area that has been set up sits between two beautiful, historic Boston buildings.  On the one side is the Boston Public Library, on the other Trinity Church.

Rita and I decided to take a walk through Trinity Church, so we purchased our tickets and received our guidebooks to look around the breathtaking sanctuary.  One of the highlights is the stained glass window pictured above at the rear of the sanctuary.  It's a work by John Lafarge called "Christ in Majesty", and there's no way that a picture could really do justice to how stunning it is when the light hits it.  I imagined what it would be like to stand in a pulpit in a cathedral like that, preaching to people with the image of the exalted Christ looking back at me.  The particular technique used for the stained glass makes it appear to glow with light from within, and it was absolutely beautiful.

When we finished our brief tour through the church, we stepped outside into that same light and walked away from the building.  I wanted to take a picture of the exterior, because it really is such an intriguing building to look at.  I turned to look back and noticed something that caught my attention physically and spiritually.  The stained glass image of Christ in Majesty was still visible to me from the outside, but this time it was devoid of color and faceless.  

That's when it occurred to me.

We build churches for church people.  We like being in the church, looking up at Jesus looking back at us.  I would love to preach in a building like that, but all that majestic, gorgeous stained glass does nothing for the people walking by outside every day.

I wonder if Jesus would prefer to have his stained glass window looking out onto Copley Place, onto the square where the sorrow and hatred and bitterness and anger and shock and fear run mingled together in the hearts of broken people in need of healing.  Based on the way he consistently turned away from the religious towards the sinners and the suffering in his world, I think he might rather his eyes, and his church, be facing outward.

I'm not sure how to accomplish that from an architectural standpoint, but I have a good idea of how to do that from a people standpoint.  We keep encouraging each other to be conscious about the ones who are still outside our walls.  We keep reaching out to them in ways large and small.  We never forget Jesus' words when he was challenged by the religious people of his day:

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me:  I have found my lost sheep.'  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over on sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

Luke 15:4-7

Why We: Worship

This week's message reminded us that when we gather to worship we are joining with all of heaven in declaring that Jesus is Lord and there is no other:

PDF:  Download Worship

Podcast:  Download 17 Why We- Worship