full sail

For the last half dozen years or so three dear friends (and colleagues) have been working with me to create a whole new approach to congregational men’s ministry. We call it “Full Sail: Men Ministering to Men.” For the first time since we began our work together John Opsata, David Holden, Ed Huckleberry and I are all living in Kentucky within an hour of each other. This has given us the opportunity to begin meeting together to complete this vital work. This fall we will launch “Full Sail.”

There is an obvious reason why this ministry is so vital to our congregations today. Men are our congregations’ most notable absentees. Men have found most mainline congregations unfriendly places, at least with respect to meeting the unique needs that most men in Western cultures have. “Full Sail” addresses this reality head on.

There is a more compelling reason why this ministry is so vitally important. Our political system, democracy, is a system of competition where ideologies and personalities compete against each other for the most votes. Our economic system, capitalism, is also a system of competition where corporations and businesses compete against each other for the purchase of their products by you and me. As I learned in Mr. Lehman’s high school Econ class, “the key to capitalism is competition.” Competition is the foundation upon which just about all the decisions that impact our lives are made.

There are many plusses to all this. Competition unleashes creativity and innovation. It stimulates finding solutions to difficult challenges. It improves the products we depend upon. Competition has a lot of upside. It is a necessary stepping stone to our maturation as a people.

There is a dark side to competition as well. Competition, as expressed through capitalism, is destroying our planet and its inhabitants. Because capitalism has no moral compass, no conscience, those who play the competitive game of capitalism do not stop to ask the questions about the long-range outcomes of their decisions. Global warming is a prime example. The burning of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas) is causing irreparable harm to planet earth in ways that are just now coming to light. All models of the possible scenarios that lie ahead have a doomsday ring. If capitalism had a moral compass, a conscience, then the corporate energy suppliers long ago would have begun developing and employing clean energy sources to meet the world’s energy needs. We would now be a clean energy economy. Thirty square miles of the mountain tops of Appalachia would still be in place. Obviously, that has not happened.

If capitalism had a moral compass, a conscience, there would be no poverty in our world or epidemics of treatable diseases. Global conglomerates and governments would work together to make distribution of the food and medicines they produce a priority so that all people’s basic needs would be met. If capitalism had a moral compass, a conscience, then the ideology of the board rooms would shift from “making a windfall profit regardless of the long-range consequences” to ”making a profit while meeting the base needs of the world’s global citizens.”

If capitalism had a moral compass, a conscience, the health care debate in the US would be over. The conversation would now start with the goal of “meeting the health care needs of all people in the most cost effective way” rather than the goal of maximizing the “profit needs of the stock holders of the insurance companies.”

It makes me wonder, do the stockholders of these corporations have a moral compass, a conscience? Their actions certainly suggest they don’t. Yet, my guess is that many of these individuals attend a church or synagogue. That these same individuals are regularly exposed to the principles of justice and righteousness upon which the Judeo-Christian tradition is grounded. So where is the disconnect?

The disconnect is found among us, the purveyors of the principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition. We have allowed ourselves to be seduced into believing that the competition-based approach to life is somehow consistent with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures. We have made it the normative behavior for all. We have been seduced into believing that the measure of our worth is found externally in what we have achieved or conquered. Yet this way of measuring self-worth impedes our journey to the more mature expectation of God that measures us by the development of the internal qualities of the other-centered life through how we exercise our citizenship in the kin-dom of God. The “Full Sail” ministry goes to great pains to point out that it is from a worldly mentality of competition that Jesus came to save us. It strives to teach us that God’s way is to level the playing field. God’s way is to love all equally. God’s way is to remove the barriers that divide us and the structures, attitudes and behaviors that diminish and demean us. God’s way is to create environments where all the people, all creation within our individual realms of influence can discover their God-given potential and be nurtured and supported in realizing it.  Competition is not God’s way.

“Full Sail” is not designed to remove competition from our world. Far from it. It is a necessary ingredient. “Full Sail” does attempt to create a different foundation from which to live our lives where competition is understood as a tool rather than a way of life. It seeks to ground us in a much more mature understanding of life that helps us see that you and I (men and women) are created by God to be the moral compass, the conscience of our world called to appropriately preserve, protect, and nurture all life and live sustainably within the balanced confines of the world God so loves. I pray it is not too little too late.

larger than life

It’s a cool July morning on the deck. As I am sittin’ and sippin’ my first cup of coffee and thinkin’ about life I am a bit melancholy. Walter Cronkite is dead. I must say his death has given me pause. For nearly 20, formative years of my life Walter Cronkite painted the picture of the world for me and millions of Americans. When he signed off his newscast every weekday evening with “And that’s the way it is…” you truly believed him. He was a major part of how my worldview was formed.

One of my favorite things Mr. Cronkite did was the “You are There” series of historic dramatizations for secondary education. He acted as the on-the-scene reporter for all the major events in history. While they taught history in a fun and creative way for that time these dramatizations also showed the more playful side of Mr. Cronkite. I loved it when we went to the movie room (a dark crowded room under a stairwell) to watch those old 16mm reel to reel films. They were just one more way he cemented his significant influence on so many of my generation.

In many ways Mr. Cronkite was a larger than life figure for the generations of people who depended on him to bring the world into our living rooms every evening. No one ever did it better or with more integrity. With his death one of the remaining vestiges of public trust has been taken away.  That truly saddens me along with the loss of a great man and a great world citizen. It seems a period on the final sentence of a chapter of my life has now been penned.

mind meld 1.2

So where does one begin to seek answers to THE question, “what must we do to be faithful to God?”

I can’t answer that question for you but I can tell you where God first led me when I  earnestly and faithfully began asking that question, to a campfire of sorts, to God’s conversation with Moses at the burning bush. It is here that the Judeo-Christian saga with God began.

Recall God’s words to Moses in Exodus 3:7-8a, “Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” Here God establishes the foundation for all relationships. It is love defined as compassion.

Like God, we relate to all of creation by: 1) observing the misery of the people and planet around us; 2) hearing their cries; 3) entering into their suffering so that we know the depth of their anguish and the severity of the threats that confront them; 4) doing our part to deliver the people and planet from the source of their suffering, to remove them from harm or remove the source of threat; and, 5) creating for them a new environment where healing and a new life can begin. God created us to be people of compassion who see, hear, enter into and do something about the suffering and threats that seek to diminish, demean and destroy the people and planet God so loves. My discernment has led me to understand that being people of compassion is a prerequisite of faithfulness.

God did not limit God’s underscore of compassion to Moses. The Psalms and the prophetic writings resound with compassion’s theme (check out Isaiah 58 and 61). Jesus himself, leaving nothing to chance, made clear what he was all about when he inaugurated his public ministry in Luke 4 by quoting from Isaiah 61. In that public proclamation Jesus himself tells us that is the lens through which all of Jesus’ ministry must be viewed. Then, to make sure we did not miss the point he concluded his ministry in Matthew 25:31ff by defining the terms upon which our faithfulness will be judged with his famous words, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.”

What must we do to be faithful to God? That’s a question only you can answer but it is THE question you must answer to grow in right relationship with God. It is THE question that every congregation is called to answer to grow in right relationship with God.  For me it begins around a sacred campfire, a burning bush. What is foundational for you?

mind meld 1.1

“What must we do to be faithful to God?” This was the question Jesus sought to answer by his very life.

His day was not much different than our own. The constancy of war, oppressive economic hardships, political division and class warfare within the community of faith, marginalization and powerlessness, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness that hung over the people like a rain cloud.

Into this kind of world Jesus came.

The questions in the peoples’ minds and on their lips was “Where is God in the midst of our suffering!?” Why doesn’t God answer our prayers?!” Their prophets told them they had every right to ask these questions, to demand that the miracle-working Jesus quiet the roar of their children’s stomachs with bread and fish; liberate them from the harsh life of Roman oppression; fulfill God’s ancient promises of land, a home, prosperity, and peace; and restore their dignity and honor as God’s chosen people. They believed they had the scriptural authority to make such demands on the Son of God. They had a right to ask for relief from the burdens of life they were carrying without the answer being death.

Into this kind of world Jesus came. He came knowing they were asking the wrong questions.

Jesus knew there was only one real question to answer, “what must we do to be faithful to God?” That was the key. To ask “why me? why us?” is to self-generate quicksand of pity, trapping us in, pulling us down and robbing us of the hope and energy required to lift ourselves up and journey to a new place teeming with life and hope.

Jesus’ real miracle in many ways was his ability to get these people, in these deplorable circumstances, to ask a different question, the right question when seeking audience with and assistance from, God. You can hear this question being assumed in the telling of each parable. It was as if someone in the crowd would holler out before each story, “Jesus, what must we do to be faithful to God?” And Jesus would answer with, “Well, a sower went out to sow his seed…” “Jesus, what must we do to be faithful?” another would ask. “Well,” Jesus would reply, “There was a man who had two sons…” “Jesus, what must be do to be faithful?” a lawyer would query and Jesus would reply, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers…” That was the question Jesus assumed he was answering with each parable told. He assumed it because it was the only question that mattered.

As we strive to stare down the extraordinarily difficult times we face today over 2000 years later, I would like to suggest we focus on THE question, the eternal question, the question Jesus answered with his life, “Lord, what must we do to be faithful?” and spend the time required discerning the answer. That’s the intent of this blog category because it is really the question of life for people of faith.

In answering this question we will find the answer to our declining churches, to our sagging budgets, to our own economic challenges, to our strained and broken relationships, to our fears, and to the pervading sense of hopelessness and loss that hangs over us like a rain cloud. It is also where we will find joy, fulfillment, and the peace that passes all understanding. The caveat? We must be willing to listen. We must be willing to act on what we hear. It will require change. And, it will be not always be the same for all who seek to answer the question.

It was the question that needed answered for a people 2000 years ago and by every generation since. It is now our turn to ask and answer the one true question of the people of God. “Lord, what must we do to be faithful?”

the creative unfolding

I’ve been sippin’ coffee and watching a hawk circle overhead. Many minutes have passed since it flapped its wings. It just rides the wind currents looking for its next meal. Being the systems thinker that I am, this got me thinkin’ some on how I view the world.

Fritjof Capra, in his 1996 book entitled, The Web of Life, while explaining the difference between the old and new views of evolution writes, “One of the most rewarding features of the emerging theory of living systems is the new understanding of evolution it implies. Rather than seeing evolution as the result of random mutations and natural selection, we are beginning to recognize the creative unfolding of life in forms of ever-increasing diversity and complexity as an inherent characteristic of a living system. Although mutation and natural selection are still acknowledged as important aspects of biological evolution, the central focus is on creativity, on life’s constant reaching out in novelty.”

Like Capra, I see the world through the lens of living systems where everything is connected to everything else. In living systems one clearly understands that what I do matters. What you do matters. What the hawk who circles over my head does matters. In God’s economy everything matters! According to Capra, not only does everything matter but in this “creative unfolding” the complexity of these living systems is geometrically increasing.

A key element in the whole living system we call planet earth that you and I are part of is that it is value neutral. The creative unfolding (novelty) has no emotional investment in the outcomes. For instance, one real novelty it may embrace is a future planet earth without humans in the life-cycle equation or in a dramatically scaled back, “colony of survivors”scenario. That is a very real possibility because of the increasing threat that we humans pose to the planet’s ability to sustain human life. The planet will creatively unfold with us or without us and not care.

To minimize the chance of that novelty being exercised will require that we minimize the threat we humans pose to the living system, now, in dramatic ways. We start by recognizing that the complexity of the world can no longer be contained or managed or explained away by Newtonian constructs. The planet is not a machine that is broken but a living system facing a dramatically life-altering illness. We need to do our part and give our living system a chance to heal.

Scientists now know that the complexity of the world is not only bigger than our science, it is bigger than our imaginations’ capacity to imagine something that complex. What we do know is that you cannot throw mechanical solutions at relational problems. Newtonian physics, defining the world through outdated mechanical models, is grossly inadequate and to try and do so with the complexity of the problems we face as a planet, as a living system, is perilous.

At some point in time the small minded Newtonian worldview thinkers must be challenged for what they are, people whose worldview is too small, too antiquated, too minimalist, too ego-centric, and too classist, to understand the complexities of the world we all face. Their great fallacy is that living systems can be managed. They can’t. They are relational. They grow in complexity with the addition of each new relationship formed and the added new possibilities that come with that relationship. It is beyond human comprehension (and computer modeling) how any living system will behave with all the variables in play (think predicting the weather here). Today, the pace at which the creative unfolding of the world is progressing has outstripped our ability to imagine but a few of the novelties it will embrace. Our task is to imagine how we might participate in the creative unfolding with the awe, reverence and wonder it deserves and find contentment in our place there. We must use our imaginations to see how we might minimize the human impact that is fueling the ever-increasing rate of the creative unfolding before us.

That hawk circling over my head goes with the flow, trusting the air currents to take it where it needs to go. It imagines its oneness with the wind not its mastery over it and seemingly finds contentment in that relationship. Watching that hawk got me thinkin’.

melding of heart and mind

These are challenging times for the historic mainline churches in North America. I believe the answer to these challenges are found in answering one basic question, “What must we do to be faithful to God?” Under the category “Thinkin’ about the Melding of Heart and Mind,” I will wrestle out loud with you what the answers are to this question for CCK. The posts will appear under the heading “Mind Meld – .” I very much welcome your responses.

creation care mentors

Henry and Emily were both in their early 70’s when I became their pastor. They were the kind of people you instantly fall in love with. They oozed authenticity.

Henry had retired as a brakeman on the Santa Fe Railroad many years before I arrived. Emily never worked outside the home. Henry and Emily committed to living a simple, back to nature lifestyle in the late 40’s, thirty ears before the first Earth Day. They believed that to care for the land and the planet that provided for you was just the right thing to do. On a brakeman’s salary Henry and Emily bought their farm, built their modest house themselves, raised a son, accumulated significant assets and devoted themselves to a life of service to God through their generosity and dedication to the church I was called to serve.

They lived off the land. Emily made nearly everything from scratch. They practiced “organic” gardening before it was so named. Henry was a master recycler. He would always seek something used before buying new. They were people who were at peace with the land, at peace with themselves and at peace with their God. A pastoral visit to Henry and Emily was always a mini-retreat for me. Oven fresh bread. Homemade jam. Maybe cookies fresh from the oven. Always a hot cup of herbal tea in the winter or a glass of iced herbal tea in the summer. I could have rocked all day under the shade trees that was their only form of air conditioning.

In addition to all the wonderful homemade refreshments, I was always treated to deep, thoughtful conversation on Henry’s latest biblical study complete with commentary research or a conversation about the latest headlines or a lesson on gardening know-how from the school of Henry and Emily. They genuinely cared with no strings attached.

Henry and Emily lived simply by choice. They spent a great deal of their faith energy and accumulated resources anonymously meeting the needs of those whose only choice each day was food or medicine for their children, not both. When they first started house-keeping Henry and Emily made the decision to live on half of what they earned, saved (invested wisely) the rest and more than tithed to their church. Over time, Henry told me, they struggled to find a way to give their money away responsibly each year to the many charities they supported.

I first met this extraordinary couple 20 years ago. They remain far and away the most authentic two people I have ever known. To many they were a couple of beloved eccentrics. To me they embodied the faith in their lives that I am sure Jesus embodied in his. Compassion, hospitality, a commitment to biblical justice and creation care, and superior stewardship of their resources defined their lives. God placed them in my life at a critical time. I learned much from them about many aspects of life. I will always be especially grateful for them mentoring me in creation care as a lifestyle, as a day to day commitment on how to live one’s life and prioritize one’s choices on principle, rather than a program to participate in after all other demands have been satisfied. I loved Henry and Emily and would love to see us all embrace more fully their authentic Christianity.  Our Stewardship of Creation Task Group is working hard to show us some ways to begin that transition. I hope you will join us on the journey.

what lies ahead

It is really hard to contain myself as I look ahead to our work with CCK consultant, the Rev. Dr. Alan Roxburgh.

As has been well documented by now, CCK is at crossroads in its storied life. The landscape in which we perform our ministries has radically changed. That landscape includes congregational change, cultural change, denominational change and CCK change as we can no longer staff for the historic expectations that have defined us for so many years. Our options are to limp along and pretend things will suddenly get better if we just work harder and smarter at what we have always done or we can proactively discern God’s will for us and adapt appropriately for faithful, effective and innovative ministry amidst the sea of change that defines life today. The CCK staff and Board opted to be proactive.

On August 14-15, 2009, we will launch this journey with Alan at a “ya’ll come” event in which pastors and lay leaders throughout Kentucky are invited to come see first hand just what this is all about. This experience will allow us (CCK staff and executive team, congregational pastors and leaders, and Alan Roxburgh) to determine which 24 or so congregations will be part of our pilot experience that launches this October.

This is a journey to set free again our missional imagination much like the journey the Campbell’s, Stone and Scott launched over two hundred years ago. Their courageous faith called them to risk it all for God’s sake of the sake of the world God so loved. Friends, we can do no less. This is our moment. This is our calling as Kentucky Disciples today. The world needs our uniquely blended witness of compassion, hospitality and biblical justice. This is our calling and what a calling it is!

As we journey together we will discover where God’s priorities of ministry are in the world and what our part of God’s missional priorities are as Kentucky Disciples. Together we will discern our calling and then prepare ourselves to fulfill our calling. We will make it 240 different ways honoring the uniqueness of every congregation but it will be a shared and grounded witness clearly ours as Disciples of Christ.

Friends, we want everyone who is able to be present on August 14-15, 2009, at Middletown Christian Church in Louisville for this experience. Your pastor has all the information. The folks who showed up at the Cane Ridge Revival over two hundred years ago did not know they were launching a new movement. They just came to be spiritually fed and to be faithful to their God. I don’t know if God will launch a new movement through us in August, but I do know this, God is far from finished with us yet. And, I believe this is the time we will come to know just what unfinished business God has in store for us to do, together. I can’t wait for what lies ahead.

i could get used to this

It is day 5 of the vacation. With each passing day I feel a little more refreshed. The weather has been perfect, unusually cool for this time of year. Perfect for playing in the dirt outdoors.

To be honest, I really thought I would start each day with a post. Obviously, that hasn’t happened. Instead, I have spent each morning with nose-in-book. Up by 6:30 a.m. Grab my favorite mug for some fresh coffee sippin’ and good deck sittin’ in the morning’s tranquility, alone with my thoughts and my book. This is absolutely my favorite time of day.

Yesterday, Nora and I planted a perennial garden in our backyard. She designed it. It will be beautiful when grown in. This morning I spent time weeding the garden, harvesting a few early tomatoes and a zucchini. The potatoes are ready. Beans still a few weeks away. This afternoon was spent with the AC repairman followed by a trip into Lexington for mulch to spread, well, just about everywhere.

Tonight, time online followed by a movie. Our movie watching has been sorely neglected. We have pledged to make it a priority once again.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have something more profound to say. For now, all  I can say is that I could get used to this extended time at home.

rest

Today begins a much needed 10 day vacation. Nora and I are kicking it off the right way by having the kids and grandkids over for a cookout. Then piddling around home the rest of the time just enjoying each other’s loving presence. No agendas. Just much needed time together in our little county retreat setting. In a bit I’ll put a 5-7 pound Boston butt on the smoker and let it cook all day. The special rub and sauces make this one of the best outdoor, summer-fun meals. My family loves it.

It is such an odd sensation to feel the tension and fatigue literally begin to leave one’s body. I never know just how much wear and tear I am enduring until I stop long enough to face it head on and “rest” it away.

Can’t wait to begin my deck sittin’, coffee drinkin’, nature lovin’, bloggin’ about life from the quiet of this Nonesuch place.  Thanks be to God for sabbath-like rest!