Author Archives: Josh

While I have attended church pretty much my entire life, I am not sure that I had ever spent a significant time trying to define what church is. Of course there were the divinity school definitions and the traditional understandings, but without experiencing working in the church, I just never thought to think about it. It was just church.

And therein lies the problem. One incorrect definition of the church is that it is an activity. Treating church as an activity means that you don’t really have to have a connection to the church. It is something that you do, and probably feel guilty if you don’t do. It is another thing on the calendar rather than the place where you long to be all week. I think many of the people who see the church as an activity do so because they were trained to see it as an obligation. You went to church just like you went to school or worked for the PTO. What happens here is that activities are harder to prioritize. If church is equal to another thing we are involved in, it’s 50/50 on what we will choose to participate in. Plus, the church is ongoing, there is always next week or next month.

Another incorrect definition of the church is that it is a club. I like belonging to things that give me identity. When I was in a fraternity in college, it felt good to wear the shirts or sit at the special tables in the cafeteria. But if you were to ask me what the point was of being in the fraternity, I don’t think I would have an answer. There was no goal or purpose, it was just a place to belong and spend time with friends. That can’t be what church is about. If it lacks purpose or a goal, why go? If there is a sense that we exist for ourselves so that we can belong, then it might be a great club, but not a church. If it annoys us that new people get in, then we are in trouble. The church is meant for a purpose. It is a means to an end, whereas so many times we have approached it as the end. The church is a tool designed by God to save the world, not to give us a place to hang out.

So what is a church? After spending almost a year working in one, I have come to the conclusion that it is a community of change agents. In the world of social activism people often speak of change agents. These are the people who encourage towns to help with the problem of homelessness or the people who design recycling programs. Change agents see a problem and seek to change it. Christians are called to be change agents, and the church is the community in which we find support, guidance, and fellowship. The community part may be as important as the change agent part. The truth is that sometimes it takes all of the change agents working together to accomplish a goal. When I see Christians who have no community, it pains me because they have missed half of their calling. It is so common to see people who pour their lives in to creating change or ministry, but fall apart because they don’t have a community to support them or they feel like they are doing it all by themselves. I believe that the churches who create the biggest changes are the churches who embrace community as well. Not only do they use cooperation to change the world, but these types of churches also pull people to them because they have two primary things that people want: a place to belong and a place to have purpose.

Like many Bible passages that contain elements that are good for kid stories, the story of Samson is one that is grossly misunderstood if you fail to look at it deeply. While we would love to celebrate Samson as a strong man who God used to do amazing things, most of the things that he accomplished were done in defiance of God. Samson was less heroic Hercules and more of an evil Incredible Hulk. Many of his great accomplishments were done out of pride and rage. It was not his intention to honor his God, he was usually just vengeful. Not to mention his weakness for women.

Samson was a child born of blessing and made a life-long Nazirite vow. He could not cut his hair, drink wine, or touch dead things. So eating honey from a dead lion and picking up a jaw bone were not only unsanitary, these were in violation of a vow made to God. Samson even complained to God about his thirst right after violating his vow. Samson would also attend feasts where he presumably drank wine. And yet God continued to forgive Samson for these things as evidenced by Samson retaining his strength until the end. Samson also offended God’s commands by marrying women who were not Israelites. With both wives he would be convinced to tell an important secret.

Samson was not so much a hero as a cautionary tale. He no doubt revered God, but he simply could not stay on the right path for his life. He had substantial promise, and he was gifted beyond belief not only in strength, but poetry as well. Samson was given a great responsibility, but he could not handle it. While God was patient with him, God would eventually cause Samson to lose his strength after Samson had broken every single promise made to God. Once his hair was cut, Samson had proven that he believed his own desires to be more important than God.

Samson was a flawed man, just as each of us is flawed. We all have times in our lives where we seek our own pleasure rather than doing what God has called us to do. We have also been given gifts that God wants us to use for His glory. So we are given the choice, use what we have or lose what we have. I hope that we use it.

I mentioned earlier that the book of Judges is presented in such a way that we see the nation of Israel deteriorating before our eyes. With each judge (which is what the unofficial leader of the nation was called), the people turned further from God and suffered more extreme consequences. This means that they also needed more extreme deliverance.

The phrase that we see time and time again is “when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer from the people of Israel who saved them.” While we know the names of Abraham, Moses, or Joshua, you probably have never heard of judges Othniel, Ehud, or Shamgar. Some of the judges who God used to deliver the nation are only given one verse. However, these people were used by God to save His people.

So we are given a good reminder. Some people may be Moses, but others may be Shamgar. Each were equally important. A character in a new TV show said “fame is the only thing that matters today,” and I am not so sure that she is wrong. In today’s reality TV culture, some people are famous simply because someone said that they are famous. I would guess that most people want to be known. We celebrate celebrities and big names. This happens in churches as much as it happens in movies.

It is also important to remember that Moses and Shamgar were both used by God, and it was quite an honor. Sometimes we need to realize how God is using us rather than asking us how God can use us in bigger ways. It is also important to ask ourselves why we would want to be Moses rather than Shamgar.

If that is not enough, we also should remember that God has an amazing amount of patience. God continually delivered the people simply because they called out for help only when things got really out of hand. God also exhibits his patience because he uses people in the first place. He uses people, and anytime people are involved, things get messy. He know this, and He still chooses people like you and me to change lives and change the world.

On Wednesday nights we are going through the 7 virtues. This week we are talking about courage. Courage seems to be one of those things that we celebrate, but rarely do we make it a key part of our lives. Many people know that Joshua is told to be “strong and courageous.” But was does that mean?

Is courage taking risks? I’m not so sure it is. Is courage feeling the freedom to always say what you think is right? This seems to lack some love. Is courage never having doubts? Again, I don’t think so. So what is courage?

Aristotle described courage as the willingness to face that which is painful. This seems to be right because doing something even though we know it will cause pain, whether that pain is physical or emotional, seems courageous. We see many examples of this courage in the Bible. We see it in Joshua while leading the people on military conquests. We see it in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as they are sentenced to the fiery furnace. We see it in Paul as he endures pain to share the faith with a lost world.

We see this kind of courage today as well. We see it in the person who shares his or her faith with a person who may react negatively. We see it in people who accept the call to the mission field. We see it when we do something that we know is right but is equally unpopular. We see it when people sign up for the nursery (just kidding).

Courage is a virtue because it is the action that should follow after we decide upon the right thing. We should not pat ourselves on the back for knowing the right thing to do unless we also actually do it. In a society where image is so important, it is difficult to stand out in a crowd. While we celebrate courage on many levels, we also are wary of others who display courage. When people challenge the staus quo regardless of the costs, we can react in a very hostile way.

So the challenge is this: demonstrate courage by not letting the pain deter you from your mission and demonstrate love by recognizing courage in others. Good luck.

While we celebrate the leadership of Joshua in his conquests of the promised land, the truth is that he left a great deal undone. There were still a number of Canaanite tribes living in the land that God had given them. In the second half of the book of Joshua (the part that most people skip because it is about land allotment to the tribes of Israel) we learn that there is still a strong Canaanite presence in and around the land that has been assigned to the tribes. It won’t take long for this to become a problem.

In Joshua 24 we read of the renewing of the covenant between Israel and the Lord. Shortly thereafter, we read that the Lord is unhappy with their efforts to remove the Canaanites (Judges 2). For the rest of the book of Judges we see why this was such a problem. By not removing the existing inhabitants, the Israelites created a situation in which they were susceptible to the practice of worshiping other gods. The temptation became too great, and the people began to forsake God and worship the gods of the peoples around them. This leads to the ruin of the people and their relationship with the Lord who brought them to the land in the first place. The book of Judges is written in such a way that things go from back to worse. By the time of the last Judge, things have become almost irreparable.

So where are the Canaanites in our lives? What are the things that we have failed to remove as we seek to live the life God wants for us? Maybe it is a particular sin, but maybe it is something else less threatening. Maybe it is a tendency to become materialistic or an inablility to accept forgiveness for an action long ago. Maybe it is a behavior that puts us in a situation where we face temptation. Maybe it is the false belief that we are fixed simply because we became a Christian. Regardless of what you still need to remove, the reality is this: if it is not removed, your faith will never be what it is meant to be.

While it is not always pleasant to think about, it is hard to go through a day without sinning. Even if you managed it, there would be the danger of becoming proud of what you accomplished, despite the fact that it is not that extraordinary. When people talk about having a sin nature, it simply means that we are prone to sin. Perhaps not prone to murder, but we are prone to making decisions or performing actions that simply do not always glorify God or demonstrate our faith.

We know about big sins: murder, adultery, grand-theft auto. We also know about little sins: gossip, white lies, illegal downloads. But, is this really the way it works? Intellectually we know that this is not the way that God sees sin. This is the way that the Legal System sees crime, but we know that sin is sin. There are degrees to the consequences, but there are no degrees of sin.

The story of Achan in the Bible is a great example of how something little was actually much bigger. As the people of Israel entered the promised land, God had commanded that they not take certain things as plunder. Things like gold and silver were to be put in the treasury, and the rest was to be burned. Part of this was to allow God to provide and a bigger part was that the things that could be plundered often had a religious significance in the other religions. This makes sense, but can you imagine how hard it would be to walk out of a city in which they had just won a tremendous victory and not pick up a necklace or some new pants?

This temptation proved too much for Achan who decided to take a few souveniers for himself. It probably seemed like a little thing. He just wanted a new robe and some spending money, though it is telling that he buries his ill-gotten goods under his tent. The effect of his sin is that the people of Israel lose a battle they should have won and a significant amount of momentum in their efforts to realize what God has in store for them.

And that might be the biggest problem with “little” sins. We lose momentum. We’re plugging along in our faith journey and suddenly we choose take a step back. Maybe it is a little step back, but it is still keeping us from getting to where we want to go. I think that the key is to remember that a life of “little” sins is still a life that, without Jesus’ death, would have kept us from God. It is also important to remember that if we become comfortable with the “little” sins, bigger ones may not be too far off. Achan was stoned by the whole nation as an example that the “little” sins can throw the whole plan off. Maybe we need to really reconsider if categorizing sins is really as valid as we would like for it to be.

I love to read stories. I confess that I don’t particularly enjoy classic novels. I am more of a best-seller reader. If the book is about spies or international intrigue, I will knock it out in a couple of days. I love the way that you can become engrossed in the book, experiencing the world from the pages. I love how the characters become real to you. A good novel does that, it makes the people and situations seem real.

I think that this is why it is so hard for many people to read the Bible. What happens is that we forget that, unlike our favorite novel, these people are in fact real. The Bible is not based on a true story–it is a true story. Sure, there are several genres of literature, such as poetry or parable, but the stories happened and the people were there.

Sometimes I like to think about the people who were behind the scenes. While we know a lot about Moses, Aaron, or pharoah, what was life like for the little guy. What was life like for an Israelite father who was trying to raise his two kids? What was life like for someone whose name we don’t know, but lived through the things that we now recognize as the Exodus?

My guess is that they were fairly skeptical about all that was going on. We see quite a bit of grumbling from the people, and it makes sense when you consider their less than secure circumstances. I would assume that the group was fairly mixed. Some people were devout, others may have even left the camp at night to go back to Egypt.

Sometimes I wonder if the Exodus would work today. I’ll be honest, it took a lot of faith to leave Egypt–faith in Moses, in God, and in the whole idea of a Promised Land. That kind of faith is harder to find today, and my generation is a big part of that. Recently I was talking with someone about how people a couple generations ago often just took things on faith. They were slow to question it, and they were generally more trusting. I don’t see that happening much today.

My generation questions everything. I mean everything. We question commercials, preachers, news clips, scientific findings, content labels, philosophies, nutritional labels, and lessons about the Bible. We put everything to the test because too many things are simply untrue. We know this because there is so much information. There are entire websites dedicated to disproving things or setting the record straight. It takes about 20 seconds to look up something to see if it is true or not. We have a lot of information at hand. I read somewhere that one newspaper has more information about the world than a typical person in the nineteenth century would have had in their entire life.

So how do you speak truth to people who test everything? First, be honest. If it is complicated, say it is complicated. If there are multiple views, respect that there are multiple views. Second, speak about experience, your experience. Facts are not nearly as convincing as hearing what you have gone through or how you experienced something. Third, be patient. I will not be convinced without time to think it out. Teaching people truths about God or about life can be challenging, but again we are faced with being part of a process. We have to let others come to the conclusions.

I don’t want to be part of the solution, I want to have the answer. I don’t want to fix my part, I want to fix the whole thing. I don’t want to work on something to a point and then hand it off for the next step, but that is the way that life works. We are called to be a part of the process, and very rarely are we the total solution.

Can you imagine the disappointment that Moses had when he was standing on the peak looking down into the land that he would never be able to enter? After all that he had been a part of, the plagues, the sea, the commandments, Moses still was not allowed to be a part of the next step. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land in the same way that we often don’t get to see the end of the story.

A few months ago I came across an old picture of our church’s youth ministry. It was definitely from the early 80s, and it reminded me that I am just one of many ministers who will have an impact at my church. People were here before, and people will be here again. The key is to embrace the present and do your best with the part that you have been asked to play.

This is not easy to do in most cases. Just ask the sons or daughters who cannot convince their parent to come to faith. Just ask the friend who has no idea what to do when someone they love is experiencing emotional pain. Just ask the minister who sees a kid messing up her life and cannot figure out what she should do to help.

We live in a quick fix world now, and solutions are supposed to be fast. There are entire corporations whose sole purpose is to provide solutions to problems. If I need an answer to something, all that I need to do is Google it from my phone and I have it. That is not how life works, though. Solutions do not come easy, and people cannot be fixed when someone finds the perfect answer. Isn’t that essentially what Job’s friends did? They came with quick answers trying to fix a situation that was simply immune to a quick fix.

So what do we do? We change our perspective. If we approach these things with a win or lose mentality, we have already lost. If you beat yourself up because things are not better even though you tried your best, you will always feel like a failure. Like I said before, the answer is to understand that you are part of the process, but not necessarily the solution to the problem. Imagine putting it on yourself to save the soul of your friend. You try and try, but you are not succeeding. Then suddenly they call you and say that they have become a Christian because they heard a song that made them think about things in a completely different way. See, you were part of the process and so were the people who made the song, and so were the people who put it on the radio. Embrace your part, do it well, but do not become defeated.

I doubt Moses felt like he had been defeated, disappointed yes, but not defeated. Moses allowed himself to be used by God and had a huge part in the process of saving the world. Whatever issues you face, remember that you are a part of the process, but also remember that you have a God who is control of the whole.

How many times have you heard that every Christian is a minister? I heard it often growing up, and I guess it made sense some of the time. However, in my culture, paid ministers were very different from the “member ministers.” Pastors wore suits, even when it seemed extremely uncomfortable to do so like when attending a prayer breakfast or doing lawn work. Pastors had great hair too, while the other church members just tried their best. Pastors also spoke with a hint of King James as if they had been born in 16th century England but moved here when they were 3 or 4. Then there is the movement that led many pastors to believe that they were actually CEOs so they needed to present themselves as corporate giants. Even today these things are true about many pastors. But why?

I am sure that part of it is a cultural expectation. Pastors should be the best dressed because they represent God, and God loves our best. Included in this is the idea that the first thing you should notice about a pastor is his or her piety which I supposed means that he must always be serious as if one wrong step will send someone to hell. This culture may come out of the fact that our pastors should be better than us because we know ourselves and we need to be able to aim higher.

Another part of our views on pastoral piety is found in history. In church history priests and clergy were often powerful economically and politically. We also have in the back of our mind the picture of monks walking somberly around a gray backdrop praying silently to themselves. The historical pictures and influences perhaps frames some elements of expectations for what clergy should look like.

Sometimes I forget that I am a minister. I suppose that I am still getting used to it. I am still trying to figure out what it means to be act like a minister in non-ministry times, or if there is even such a thing as a non-ministry time. How does a minister act at Walmart? How does a minister treat his or her waitress? Is the behavior required of the minister any different than it would be from another Christian? The answer is probably not, but there is this feeling that my “ministerness” should be evident wherever I go. In Leviticus the priests were definitely set apart. Their guidelines for living were stricter, and their responsibilities much more serious. As we use the phrase ‘every member a minister’ I think that it is important to invesigate why these feelings exist and how they impact the people in the pew.

Here is something that we all need to hear: we, you, are not God. You are not, in fact, even close to being God or acting like God. God is a wholly holy other. Even though we know this logically, are there still times when we wonder why we cannot do things like God does? Are there times when we think that God is just a somewhat improved version of who we are?

The book of Leviticus is a tough read, let’s be honest. There are cubits and strange woods that would probably make great hardwood floors. So what is the point of reading the blueprint for the tabernacle or how the priests should dress? Here it is: it is to remind us just as it reminded the Israelites that God has high demands. For a people who depended on ceremony to have access to God, there could hardly be enough instruction. God demanded that the people live holy lives so that He, being holy, could approach them. He also wanted them to be different so that He could be glorified.

Sometimes we wander into dangerous territory when we assume that God is just like our buddy who sits on the couch with us. While we should celebrate that Jesus’ death allowed us to have ongoing fellowship with God, free from all the ceremony and sacrifice, we should also keep in mind that God remains a holy other. It is difficult to balance the holiness of God with the idea that God wants to know us intimately. I don’t know the answer to that, but it bothers me when people begin prayers with “hey big guy.” It also bothers me when others begin with “Oh holiest God who maketh the raineth.” There is a place for conversation with God and a place for reverence. I think the key is getting our hearts right. If your heartsong is to approach God with a little more reverence then do it out of honest feeling but not out of obligation. If you want to just hang with God, do it out of thanksgiving and truth, not because it sounds trendy.

God is different, but He is also our Creator and our Father. What He seeks is a real relationship with all the honesty that you can muster.