It Feels Good to Get Something Done

Three years ago I was invited to speak at a conference on the Holy Spirit in Turkey. Being invited to speak anywhere is exciting. Being invited to speak on the Holy Spirit is really exciting. But being asked to do it for the Christians in Turkey, which is 99.7% Muslim, is downright cool.

A year later I was invited back to lead conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders in two cities. I will be going back to do the same again in September.

There are fewer than 100 churches in Turkey, a country of over 70 million people. About half of the churches are in Istanbul. Few of them have been in existence longer than about ten years. As a result, there are very few experienced pastors in Turkey. There are also very few Christian books available in Turkish, and none that I know of on the practical aspects of administering a church. That may explain why my talks on that subject were so well received.

In the last year I have been working intermittently on expanding my notes into a book that can be translated and made available to Turkish pastors and church leaders. It will be in three sections, on the pastor, the local church, and the wider church. This morning I hit a milestone. I finished the first draft of the first section!

I know what you're thinking. "You've been working a year, and you just finished the first draft of the first third of the book?" In a word, yes. And it feels good. If you've ever worked a long time of a big project, you can identify.

Please pray that it is useful, and that I finish the rest of it more quickly. (As many of you know, the biggest problem is setting aside time to work on it regularly.)
And please pray for God's work in Turkey.

I Am No Longer My Own

“I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” - John Wesley, founder of Methodism

A spiritually significant event happened in the Sunday morning services on February 14. The people of Trinity United Methodist Church formally and officially renewed our recognition and acknowledgement that Trinity Church does not belong to us, but to God.

We did that by praying together John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, printed above.

I know this is not the first time the people of Trinity have prayed that prayer. In fact, when I first moved into the pastor’s office here, I found several copies of a Covenant Service in which that same prayer had been used. Nonetheless, I believe it was a significant act.

I spent most of the sermon time talking about what it means to tell God that we “freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.” I told of two churches who have prayed that prayer. For one, God chose to “let it be full” and “let it have all things.” It’s now one of the largest United Methodist churches in the world. The other church was one of the largest United Methodist churches in its area when they prayed that prayer. God chose, at least for a time, to “let it be brought low.” (You can hear the sermon at www.trinityannapolis.org.)

When a church prays the Wesley Covenant Prayer, there is no guarantee which way God will take it. On February 14 the Trinity congregation heard the possibilities, took time to search their hearts, and were invited to freely pray it or not. It sounded to me as if almost everyone chose to pray it.

When we acknowledge that the church belongs to God and not to us, then it’s up to God what he wants to do with it. We know that it will be for the greater good, but it may not seem to be for our local good, at least at first.

I’m blessed that Trinity is a people who understand this. For instance, many were very skeptical of putting a big screen up in the front of our beautiful traditional sanctuary, but you were willing to go along with it if that’s what it takes to reach people who don’t know Jesus. And most of us have found now that we actually are glad to have the screen. Going along with God’s plan doesn’t have to be painful.

Of course, all this applies when we pray the same prayer for our own individual lives. Do you trust God that much?

So we’ve prayed the prayer. What will happen now? I believe that God will choose to take Trinity’s yieldedness to his will and turn that to something that, like the video screen, will not only bless our community but bless us as well. I can’t guarantee that, but it’s a feeling I have.

God has a plan for Annapolis. Trinity Church has now publicly said to God, “Whatever you need us to do to make your plan happen, we’ll do it.” I’m excited to see how God is going to answer that prayer. I don’t think we’ll have long to wait.

Snow Day

As I write this we are in the middle of what will probably be called “The Blizzard of 2010.” I’d guess we have at least fifteen inches of snow on the ground, and forecasters are calling for five to ten inches more by the time it’s over.

Some people have to work during a snowstorm, and I thank God for the plow drivers, first responders, power line crews, and others.

But for most of us, especially if we don’t lose electricity, a snow day is something we look forward to. I know it is for me.

A snow day is a chance to just sit back and relax. Nobody expects us to go to the office. Nobody expects us to run any errands. Nobody expects us to work in the yard or drive anyone anywhere.

So what do we do instead? Read by the fire. Work a puzzle. Play a game. Drink hot chocolate. Odds are the whole family is there in the house together, which may not happen often anymore, and we can do these things together. We might go out and build a snowman or have a snowball battle. Or we might just sit and talk to each other – which most of us need a lot more of.

And when it’s over, you feel good. You feel relaxed. You feel refreshed and rejuvenated. And you may think, “Wow, we ought to do that more often.”

You know what? God thinks so, too. In fact, God thinks it’s so important that he made it one of the Ten Commandments. One day out of every seven. The Bible calls it “sabbath.” It’s a time to rest, relax, be with family and friends, and be with God.

Your body needs it. Your mind needs it – just ask a doctor how many health problems are caused or exacerbated by stress. Your spirit needs it. Your family needs it.

Don’t wait for a snow day to force you to obey the Fourth Commandment. Do it every week. Start with church, which refreshes your spirit in worship and refreshes your soul by being around a wonderful bunch of people. Then spend the rest of the day doing things you enjoy and you aren’t required to do. You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make for you the rest of the week.

God didn’t command us to take a weekly snow day because he likes rules. He did it because he loves you. So enjoy it!

God Invented Sex

I’m preaching a six-week sermon series on the real-life issues we all have to deal with. Things like life and death, and politics, and when God doesn’t answer prayer. Yesterday’s sermon was, “God Invented Sex.” (You can listen to a podcast on our church website, www.trinityannapolis.org.)

At the 9:00 service it was my turn to give the children’s sermon. Most of the kids are between two and six years old. I asked them if any of them were married, and they laughed and one said no, they were too short. Then I asked them what married people do. I was thinking about things like taking care of each other, so I was a little surprised at the chorus of snickers from various parts of the congregation.
Why is that the usual reaction to this topic?

Forty years ago, 8% of children were born out of wedlock. Twenty years ago that had climbed to 18%. Today, depending on what you read, the percentage of children born to single mothers is between 40 and 51%. Adding in the wide availability of birth control, and the number of children conceived by single mothers who are never allowed to be born, that points to a huge amount of sexual activity outside of marriage. And more and more couples I talk to in pre-wedding counseling have no idea that God even has an opinion about that.

That’s not something to be snickered at.

Then there’s the increasing visibility of the GLBT population: those who consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

This is not just something we read about in the newspaper. Most of us know unmarried couples of all sexual orientations living together. Often they are in our families.
Somebody asked me recently, “How do I treat these people? What do I say to them?”

The simple answer is this: you love them. How can they ever know that God loves them if we don’t show them God’s love by loving them ourselves? That doesn’t mean we condone what is obviously unbiblical behavior. Encouraging people to continue in anything less than God’s perfect plan is not loving them.

But these folks know the church doesn’t approve. They don’t need us to tell them that. They may not know God doesn’t approve – in the eyes of many people there is a big disconnect between God and the church – but they’re not likely to take our word for it.

Our job is not to condemn non-Christians for acting like non-Christians. The Holy Spirit is the one who convinces people. Our job is just to love them, and tell them what Jesus has done for us.

Most of us grew up in a time when the Christian view of sex was accepted as the common morality. That is no longer true. If the church doesn’t tell people what the Bible says, nobody else will.

But if we don’t love them first, why should they listen to us?