Road Trip- Day 4 (Thursday)

Morning

Arrived at the UMC church and heard Dr. Fred Craddock.  Craddock is a popular preacher, teacher, and author from the Disciple’s tradition.  Craddock has been studied in seminary for decades and has shaped preaching today through his influential book “Preaching as One Without Authority.”  So I found it exciting to hear this seasoned pastor/teacher/author preach to us.  His wit, style, and ease modeled true preaching to me and I was amazed.  He spoke on Judges 13 and Acts 14.  I am preaching on Judges this Sunday so was excited to hear he was using the Samson passage as well.  Craddock preached on “What Shall I Do With My Gift?” He challenged us as pastors to think about our gift as preachers.  He talked about how God gifts us and we choose what we will do with that gifting.  Some will deny the gift.  Others will give it back to God and say “No thanks!”  Others will do it out of necessity and be compelled to follow (a burning desire that you can’t stop doing it).  Others will complain about it.  Some will love their gift and want praise for it.  Others will want to get rid of it.  And yet we need to respond as Jesus and go and do what we are called to do.   As a pastor it was a reminder of my calling but really all of us as Christians need to think about what God is calling us to do and how we are responding.  Samson had a gift and blew it.  He wasted his potential.  What will we do?

I rushed over to the Baptist church and heard Dr. Craig Barnes preach on the topic “When Christians are Embarassing.” He talked about how when people find out he is a minister they often want to complain about bad experiences with the church.  And the truth is that some Christians do some dumb and sad things.  So how do we deal with this?  He spoke on Philippians 1:12-18 about how some preach Christ out of selfish ambition and others out of love.  Some are too worried today about being right rather than love.  Most debates today in the church are about who is in and who is out.  Barnes stressed that we need compassion and conviction but often we lean on one over the other.  The center must hold and the center is Jesus.  I really liked the conversation in this sermon and agree that both compassion and conviction simply can’t be separated.  We have to have both.

Dr. Walter Brueggemann, OT Scholar and UCC minister lectured on “Unity, Purity, and Miracle.” In the church unity is given by God but the problem is that we are not good receivers of that gift.  In our churches today there is diversity and we hear so much about the red/blue state issue and this exists in our church.   Sadly our response in many churches is to “win” our arguments.   Brueggemann stressed we need a dialogical unity to hear voices that our not our own.  Like in marriage churches have to accept the diversity that is present and let it be a dialogue and not a separation or battle.  We need to listen to one another.  As an OT scholar he stressed that the OT is diverse and there are many voices within the text  as well as within the church in the NT.  Diversity is not a new thing.  So our sermons will never find complete closure and there will be differing opinions in our churches.  So the unity he stresses is dialogical unity- a decision to be one in conversation.  The purity aspect is more than sex.  Purity is about pure faith and reliance and trust in the goodness of God given in Christ and can’t be found without compassion (conviction and compassion again).  Our society is in constant anxiety and so this is really needed.    And so if this happens then we have “miracle.”  It is a miracle of God and possible if we are willing.

Dr. Barbara Lundblad spoke next on Mark 10:46-52 and dealt with disability in the church and how we need to help all people have a voice in our church.  I found it to be a powerful reminder that some voices are not heard in our churches and the disabled need to be given voice.

Afternoon

The afternoon was spent with Dr. Diana Butler Bass, Church historian/commentator on religion/professor/popular author lectured on the church and religion today.  She has written quite a bit on the state of the church today and I enjoyed hearing her latest thoughts.  She titled her lecture, “Rebooting History to Boldly Go Where We’ve Already Been.”  She said the new Star Trek movie reminded inspired her for the title.  By looking back we see we’ve been here before.

She gave the state of what we have already heard.  Two recent major polls have shown that all denominations are declining and religious life in the US is taking a beating.  Churches in Africa and South America are growing but churches in the US are dying.  Newsweek usually has an Easter cover about Jesus but this year had all black cover and wrote about the decline of Christianity in America.  The NY Times talked about the financial crisis within churches.  She gave one startling illustration.  A leading seminary in her denomination last year was able to have all graduates hired within three months of graduation but this year 50 percent are not able to get jobs.  Is Christianity dying? Is it over?

1. In a sense he was written fifty years early about the issues we face today.
2. Now is the time!  Revision! Reimagine- our lives, our faith and our church!

I liked her comments and felt challenged and hopeful.  I really do believe people desire something more and God is not dead (nor does God slumber).  People might not care about doing everything the same way and we are going to have to be creative but if churches are willing to do the hard work our brightest days may be ahead of us!

Evening

I went to see Star Trek!  Took a break!  This isn’t a movie site but what a movie!

I went to a worship service tonight.  An African American pastor, Dr. Kenneth Samuel and his choir led us in African American worship.  He preached on Mark 15:6-15 and “Every Vote Counts.” His challenge was how people voted to kill Jesus.  Where were those who Jesus fed (5000 plus), healed, the disciples, etc?  Why did everyone vote on his death?  He challenged us that today people either don’t show up to vote for Jesus or abstain to vote.  The majority isn’t always right and in fact often we who follow God will be in the minority.  The metaphor vote (which is actually our choices in life) is that we must decide what we do must fit who we follow.  Some  quotes that stuck out for me:  “Justice not Just us”, “Threat to justice anywhere is that to justice everywhere”,  and “We have a voice, vote but only God has a divine veto.”

Tomorrow’s posting may be late.  I will be listening to two speakers rather early then heading out back to VA.  I’ll sum up those thoughts and my overall impressions of the week as soon as I can.  I’ve enjoyed posting this week.  By thinking, writing, and summing up my day it has helped me process the massive amounts of information/learning I’ve experienced.  I hope my ramblings have given food for thought.

Blessings,

Derik