What We're All About

It's a well-known fact that people who read Revival Fire Annapolis are exceptionally knowledgeable and intelligent (not to mention good-looking). As such, I would like your help with something.

We're doing some work on our Trinity Church website right now. As of this writing, none of the changes are published, they are still in draft stage. One of the things we are adding is some explanation to go with our vision statement: "Jesus: It’s all about H.I.M. - Hosting God’s presence, Imitating Jesus, and Making him known."

The below is what I wrote to go on the first page of our website. I would love to hear your thoughts. Is it clear? Is it engaging? If you were looking for a church, would this make you more likely to try Trinity? Is there anything about it that doesn't seem right?

I really appreciated the insightful comments I received on an earlier posting. Please let me know what you think of this. Thanks!

"Jesus: It’s all about H.I.M. - Hosting God’s presence, Imitating Jesus, and Making him known.

Hosting God's presence: God created people to share his love, so God's great desire is to live with his people. Our great desire is to be a people God wants to live with, comfortably and freely expressing himself to us, in us, and through us. We want everyone who comes among us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are in the presence of the living God who loves you, and a church of people who want to love you as well.

Imitating Jesus: As a church, our job is to help each other become more and more like Jesus. This means growing in the four great characteristics of Jesus, by the power of the same Holy Spirit who lived in Jesus and who now lives in every Christian.

• Spirit-filled character - Jesus always demonstrated the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-led wisdom - Jesus always knew what to do as he followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-powered actions - Jesus brought God's miraculous power to help in time of need. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-motivated multiplication - Jesus invited and equipped others to join him in advancing the Kingdom of God. We want to do the same.

Making him known: This is too good to keep to ourselves. We work to equip, motivate and encourage every Christian to carry the presence of God in love and power everywhere they go, to everyone they meet. And we want every small group of Christians to be ready to be the church and do church any time, any place, with anybody.

We base this on the following passages from the Bible: Revelation 21:3; Ephesians 4:13; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:14; Acts 1:8 and John 14:12; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 8:4-8."

The Most Natural Way to Connect with God

What is the best, most natural, most spiritual way for human beings to connect with God? What spiritual practices result in the greatest spiritual passion and fulfillment?

Some say it's all about the Bible. Others say no, the Bible is good, but the Bible is really just to point us toward the real thing, which is experiencing God's power.

Wait, another one says. If you really want to connect with God, go in a closet and close the door and stay there. But that idea freaks out somebody else, who really finds God best by taking a walk in the woods.

As a pastor and a musician, I have had to faced the frustrating fact that in Sunday morning worship services, some people put up with the music in order to get to the sermon, while others endure the sermon as the price they have to pay to hear the music.

And then there are those who say all that is OK, but Christianity is all about serving people, and the only way to truly connect with God is by actively serving someone in need.

Who's right?

All of the above.

Two recent books each outline nine different ways in which different people most naturally connect with God. Christian Schwarz, in The Three Colors of Your Spirituality, calls these spiritual styles. Gary Thomas, in Sacred Pathways, calls them spiritual temperaments. Every denomination and tradition contains people of each style or temperament. The key to spiritual growth is first to discover your natural or native syle or temperament (both books provide help in this), and then to intentionally develop an appreciation for the others.

The point is that no one way is right for everyone, and no way is wrong (as long as it leads you to Jesus, as Jesus is described in the Bible). No one way is more or less spiritual or Christlike. But when we all work together and pool our connection with God, then we have something awesome.

"Why?" Is the Wrong Question

The prayers and thoughts of people all over the world are with the people of Haiti, and those trying to help them. The last estimate I read said they expect 200,000 deaths from the earthquake, with countless more injured and homeless, without medical care, shelter, food or even water.

When terrible disasters happen - and it seems like we've had a lot of them lately - it's only natural to ask, "Why?" If God is real and God is good, why do things like this happen?

It's amazing how much time and effort people put into trying to find an answer to that question, and the number of different answers they come up with.

"Why?" is a natural question. But I think it's the wrong one.

I'll be talking about that tomorrow morning in my sermon. I won't ignore the "why," but I will be trying to shift us to something I believe is more relevant: what God expects of us in the face of such things. If you can't make it, it should be available in the form of a podcast on the church website by Tuesday.

In the meantime, the two great needs for Haiti right now are prayers and cash. You can pray by just talking to God, wherever you are, in whatever language feels right to you, right now. You can donate at church, or through a number of online sites. I recommend www.umc.org. The United Methodist Church has an excellent emergency/disaster relief program, and 100% of your gift goes straight to the need, because the denomination covers the overhead.

What If I Didn't Get Healed? (Or Stay Healed?)

A few months ago Trinity Church hosted a guest speaker who led a weekend of healing services. There were some amazing reports of miraculous healings. Many of those who were healed are enjoying their new freedom. Praise the Lord for that!

But some people received prayer and didn't get healed. And others had their symptoms disappear, only to have them return again.

What's going on?

Some people say this kind of thing proves God doesn't really heal, it's all in people's heads. Others say it proves God is capricious or arbitrary or he plays favorites. Some say if you didn't get healed, you don't have enough faith, or the person praying didn't have enough faith, or the church doesn't have enough faith. Some say if something doesn't work every time, it isn't scientific, so forget it.

I don't buy any of that.

People don't get healed every time they go to a doctor. Does that mean all medicine is a fake?

People who do find relief through medicine sometimes find their symptoms returning. Does that mean we should forget the whole thing?

I believe God wants us well. The Bible refers to Christians as the children of God, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and the army of God. What loving Father wants his children sick? What head wants its body sick? What groom wants his bride sick? What general wants the army sick?

God so much wants us to be well that he has given us numerous redundant systems to make it happen.

In the natural realm, God put healing in our bodies through an incredible immune system. He gives us medicines, surgery, nutrition, exercise, and alternative therapies.

In the supernatural, the Bible describes a wide range of ways in which miraculous healings are ministered. I have seen people healed in many of these ways.

For a long time I didn't pay a lot of attention to the subject of healing, though I always believed in it and prayed for it and from time to time would see miracles.

Recently, though, God has brought this much more to my attention. In fact, I'm currently working on a book about what I believe are some neglected aspects of the subject. I appreciate your prayers for this project.

The ultimate healing, of course, comes after the death of this mortal body. That's when we receive our new resurrection bodies, fit for eternity. But God wants us well in this life.

God's will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven - that's why Jesus told us, in the Lord's Prayer, to pray for that to happen more. So sometimes people are not well. But that doesn't mean sickness is God's will.

To paraphrase Dr. Robert Tuttle, it's not a sin to be sick and die. But it is a sin to allow someone to be sick and die without doing everything we can to alleviate it.
That includes physical and spiritual remedies.

So I'm learning what I can, and doing what I can. I don't think any of us can do less.

P.S. I always appreciate comments, but I would really like to hear from you about this subject, especially if you have stories or questions.

Non-rehearsed Children's Christmas Eve Pageant

We're doing it again this year. Trinity's 7:00pm Christmas Eve service will feature a non-rehearsed children's Christmas Eve pageant.

What, you ask, is a non-rehearsed children's Christmas Eve pageant?

I figure every church needs at least one time a year when the kids can dress up in costumes and the grandparents can take pictures. Christmas is a great time for that. Unfortunately, the traditional children's Christmas pageant requires several weeks of rehearsals to get ready, creating a lot of stress on everyone's schedules just at the time they don't need more stress.

The solution? A Christmas pageant with no rehearsals!

Every child who shows up at Trinity's Christmas Eve children's service will be invited to be a part of the pageant. We will provide the costumes, the script, the coaching, the music, and the microphones. The kids take it from there. The more the merrier! We especially enjoy and welcome new children and families.

We did the NRCCEP ("Non-rehearsed Children's Christmas Eve Pageant") last year for the first time, and it was ... it was ... well, it's kind of hard to describe what it was. Let's just say it wasn't a time of solemn reflection. It wasn't even "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But everyone had a wonderful time and everyone definitely wants to do it again. And I firmly believe all the children came away with a greater understanding of the Christmas story.

So we're doing it again this year.

I hope we'll see you there. And bring somebody with you!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Just a quick thought -

What if everyone made a list of the things they were thankful for at Thanksgiving, and then for Christmas tried to find at least one person who didn't have one of those things and give it to them?

I don't mean things like a DVD or a box of candy. I mean the more meaningful ones.

For instance, at Thanksgiving I said I was thankful for my wonderful family. This Christmas, how can I bless someone who doesn't have a family?

At Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the bountiful food. This Christmas, how can I bless someone who doesn't have enough food?

You get the idea. What did you tell people you were thankful for this Thanksgiving. How can you give someone else the opportunity to be thankful for the same thing this Christmas?

God Will Provide - Really?

I found the discussion fascinating. I expected it to be boring, a rehash of things I already knew, but the variety of people and experiences made it everything but.

The setting was a monthly meeting of United Methodist clergy. The subject was (stay with me here) stewardship. Often that means, here’s how to get people to give money to the church. But this was very different.

It started in the plenary session when Chris, the leader, read from Mark 7 where Jesus castigates the temple leaders for their concern with worldly acclaim, then points out the widow who put her last pennies into the temple offering. I have always heard this held up as an example of great faith on the part of the widow, but Chris read an interpretation saying the real point is the scurrilous scribes who are living high on the backs of the gullible poor. Then someone referred to a news story about a church that was being sued - the pastor promised that if people gave money to the church, God would double it for them in nine months, and it didn’t happen.

We moved into smaller groups and continued the discussion. How do you preach about money when people are losing their jobs and their homes? How do you expect people to think about spiritual things when money is such a real and pressing issue? What does it mean to trust God to take care of us?

One African-American pastor told of being a poor seminary student in Mississippi. He had almost nothing, but his pastor had asked everyone to contribute $100 towards missions work. About the only thing he owned was his clothes – a few casual clothes, and (as required by the church culture) four suits. He privately determined to sell two of his suits to raise the $100 to give to the church. Just then he received a letter. A couple in his church had been praying, and this pastor had arisen in their hearts. They had talked about it and decided to do something to help him out. Enclosed with the letter was $500.

I told a similar, though less dramatic, story of a time in seminary when someone brought my family a bag of groceries at a crucial time. Several others agreed that God always comes through.

But another pastor told of a church she served in Appalachia where families were struggling to live on $12,000 a year. She told of several women who would faithfully put money in the church offering plate every Sunday, only to see their children go without food for one or two days each week because the money was all gone. She said there was no question of the faith of these women, or their genuine love for God. So why was God allowing their children to suffer from malnutrition?

Other questions came up along the way. Is giving out of gratitude for God’s gifts the only really spiritual motivation for giving? Is it wrong to expect something from God in return? Is tithing a legalistic Old Testament relic or mandatory for Christians or somewhere in between?

We didn’t arrive at a clear agreement on any of these points. Some felt that preaching tithing to poor people drives them further into poverty, while others agreed with my experience that tithing has proven to be my lifeline out of deep financial distress. Some felt that we give as a response to what God has given us, while others said that we have to give first, as you have to plant a seed before you can expect a harvest.

I had never heard of God failing to come through for people who were genuinely trying to put him first, as in the case of the poor women who couldn’t feed their children, and I said so. A couple others agreed with me. It really caused me to think. And here’s what I think.

God does his work through his people. The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head. A head can’t get anything done if the body doesn’t cooperate. If that couple had not listened to God and followed through by sending something to that poor seminary student, he would have had to sell his suits. If the people that brought my family a bag of groceries had failed to listen to God and obey him, we would have been pretty hungry.

Does God provide for his people? Absolutely. But he does it through other members of the family of God. And we haven’t always come through very well. May God have mercy on us all.