Phil Robertson, The "War" on Christmas, and False Martyrdom

Oscar Romero     Phil Robertson    Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As the saying goes "one of these things is not like the other". Phil Robertson is a fine guy. I've never personally met him, but I enjoyed the I Am Second video with his and his family. I love hearing stories of people who turned from their reckless life and embraced God. So while Phil is a Christian much like the other two names above there is one major difference. The difference is Bonhoeffer and Romero were martyrs. They were men killed for their faith. Bonhoeffer for teaching that Christ not Hitler was king and Romero for teaching that serving and following God's will was more important than following the orders of a corrupt government. Phil Robertson while he seems to be a great guy doesn't share that same label. Phil Robertson is simply the latest in a line of false martyrs in American Christianity.

    You see in some parts of the world, people pay a cost to follow Christ. They are imprisoned or even sometimes put to death. When viewed through that lens american Christians have it pretty easy. Do you believe in Christ? Yes. Okay great. Do you believe in Christ? No. Okay great. There is no cost to be a Christian in America. You see part of the problem lies with many american christian's awareness of the true martyrs of the gospel in Asia and other places. Americans need to feel like we are paying a cost for our faith but not actually pay one. How do you do that though? You create a straw man.

  American Christians create these straw men or false martyrs. We create people who have been "persecuted" or "suffered" for their faith or beliefs. It makes us feel like there is an actual cost to be paid for being Christian in america without actually having to suffer. We feel the need to suffer for our faith. It's Biblical because Christ tells us the world will reject us for following him. It's the same reason Christians in America cry out about the "war" on Christmas. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your reaction to someone wishing you "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is doing way more to hurt Christmas and Christians everywhere than some atheists taking out an anti Christmas ad in Times Square.

  

  We have got to be honest with ourselves. Christians in America have it easier than any other Christians in the world. I often wonder if so much of the push back and creation of false martyrs we see in american Christianity is because those who create them are worried about having to actually stand up for their faith and possibly pay a real cost to follow Christ.A millionaire being suspended from a tv show is not persecution. Some Salvation Army Bell Ringer wishing you "Happy Holidays" is not persecution. This whole Duck Dynasty situation reveals a greater problem than simply someone's words. We want to feel like we are paying the cost to follow Christ that Christ Himself tells us it will cost without actually paying any cost.  I know it can be hard to decide in the media infused world whether or not you are being persecuted as an American Christian.With some time and some sweet MS Paint skills, I created the handy little flow chart below to help. Take a moment and look it over. When you're done, let's commit to calling out the creation of false martyrs. Let's commit to ending phony "wars" that aren't really wars at all. Let's commit to maybe actually paying a real cost to follow Christ that makes us uncomfortable, poor, unemployed, or alienated from our family. 

No One Wants To Follow......

It's tough
It's unrealistic
It can't be done
I'm not perfect

It is tough and unrealistic for broken imperfect human beings to follow Christ and live according to the ways we are called to. You know I see the word "prophetic" used a lot in United Methodist Circles these days. Typically it's applied to someone who has spoken out in favor of changing the UMC's stance on homosexuality. Every time I see something like that I think of myself. I think of how many times I've watched someone take a stand for something or someone only to sit back and cheer for them. Why do we do that? Why do I do that? Is it in our nature to be slacktivists? I think it is. It's so much easier to cheer on someone from the sidelines who is doing what Jesus is calling us to when he says "deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me" Matthew 16:24. It's not just that issue it's issues in my own life. We take the easy way out. Standing up for people and doing what is right is hard. It's tough, It's unrealistic. It may cost you friends, family, your job, or various other things. It's so much easier to stay on the sideline and cheer on from afar. The sidelines are safe. Pastors don't lose their credentials on the sidelines. Pastors don't lose half their congregations on the sidelines. We don't lose half our friends standing on the sidelines. We don't shake up and move the idea of comfort and personality we have built by ourselves by standing on the sidelines. It's what we do. It's the easy way, but we are called to more. By ourselves we can not do more. I grow to realize this more and more every day. I've been deeply convicted of times recently where instead of offering a kind word to someone I chose to be harsh. It harkens me back to times in my life that instead of standing up for someone I piled on to fit in. It's the safe action. I also remember that grace covers those failures and by God's grace I can continue on towards perfection of Christian love for all of my brothers and sisters around me. I have to remind myself

It's tough
It's unrealistic
I'm not perfect

Notice it can't be done is missing. It's missing because it can be done but not alone. Not with the power we receive through Christ. I often grow frustrated with my friends who will post a litany of posts on facebook about issues in the world and how terrible they are, yet those very people are too comfortable to take action to change anything. Friends we are not called to a comfortable life. We follow a man who could have very easily sacrificed his principles and joined in rather than standing up and lived. However that was not the life he was called to and it's not the life he calls us to. Take chances. Put yourself on the line. There is no reward for doing the right thing. Doing the right thing will not make you money. It won't make you more friends. It won't give you lasting peace. What doing the right thing will do is let you know that you are laying yourself down for the betterment of those around you. You are living the sacrificial life calls us to even if it means losing your job, your friends, or your family. If we truly feel someone is being prophetic and a voice in the wilderness then are we not failing ourselves to follow? Do the right thing. If you feel that something is the right thing to do then be willing to lay it all on the line to make it happen. Don't lead a church and complain about gay rights if you aren't willing to lay your credentials, your pastorship, or your pensions on the line to make it a reality. Don't complain about violence if you aren't willing to sacrifice your social status, your friends, or even your family to help bring an end to it. Don't post stories about how sad it is that someone has been bullied when you are unwilling to end your role in the bullying itself. Choose true activism. Choose the "road less traveled". Choose to put yourself on the line to make the world a better place for those around you and allow Christ's light to shine through you.

4 Things Christians that "Go Greek" need to remember

It's that time of year again. Christians and Non-Christians alike all around the country are signing up to join fraternities and sororities at their college. I've watched many pledge classes and I've seen Christians fundamentally change the way their fraternity or sorority functions and I've seen Christians who were further from their faith Senior year than when I met them because of their Greek Organization. For that reason with comes this article of 4 things Christians who "Go Greek" need to remember.


1. Jesus is Lord
   Now this may sound dumb or even feel like beating a dead horse, but this is where we need to start. The simple phrase Jesus is Lord is a starting point and ultimately the end point. Your big, chapter president, or even brothers and sisters are broken human beings. The greatest human being ever doesn't hold a candle when compared with the Glory of a Holy and Living God. Many people in the Greek system will demand your attention, but put none above Christ. This leads us to point two

2. Put Christ First
    I can't tell you how many times I've seen people who have come to college and been active in church and campus ministry until they joined Greek Life. After joining Greek Life they would often have events (often "optional") on the same nights as campus ministry nights so even though they were optional the students chose the Greek event rather than be ostracized. These same students would often miss church on Sunday morning while sleeping off the events of Saturday night. The refrain I would often hear when mentioning this is "well we have a Bible study in our chapter room" and "we all go together to church as a group on Sunday". That's outstanding and I'm glad they happen but there is more to it.

3. A Day to Day Faith
   As I said before many chapters especially in the south will have some sort of informal Bible Study etc. This is not a substitute for true Christian community. A Bible Study while great means absolutely nothing if the people you are doing it with don't hold you accountable and show the light of Christ the other 6 days of the week. I've seen Bible Study leaders from fraternities and sororities carried out of the clubs and bars (yes seeing them means I was there. I'm not against people going out) on the "party nights". You must find a way to maintain a day to day faith that is consistent.

4. Keeping the Faith
   Life in a fraternity or sorority can make or break your faith during college. The sheer fact of the matter is that 6 out of 10 people who start college with a strong faith will walk away from their faith in college. While Greek Life offers many great things, to deny the fact that there is a dark side of Greek Life where random drunken hookups, binge drinking, and occasional drug use happens would be to tell only half the tale. Things like this may never happen in your fraternity or sorority, but then again they may. You must keep the faith. Remember that your commitment to Christ is more important than a commitment to any person or organization. It won't be easy but in the tough times when it comes to choosing between your commitment to living the holy life God has called you to and making a bad decision with some of your sisters or brothers you must draw yourself closer to Christ. The fact of the matter is you will make the wrong decision and you will do it more than once, but there is grace to cover all including our mistakes when we choose worldly desires over God.

My prayer is that if you are joining a Greek Organization out there that it is an amazing blessing to your life. That you grow closer to Christ and grow in holiness so that you choose Christ over peer pressure that would have you make bad decisions. I pray that you are an agent of change in your respective organization that when you see something that is wrong within your organization, you draw upon the strength of Christ to speak out against it. May the Lord bless you and keep you this year. May you and everyone you encounter know the grace and mercy of a living and risen Christ.

Methodism Remix (Ft. The People Called Methodists)

Okay okay so it has a cheesy title, but with Justin Coleman coming up with witty titles like Shipwreck which you can read here and Krystle Wheeler with "Is It Time To Say Goodbye" I had to try something for this blog on the UMC and schism. I don't like schism. I mean not because of the idea, I just think it's a weird word. Weird words are either entertaining like piccolo or bad like schism so I'll stick with split. DreamUMC an ongoing discussion by UMC members on twitter hit one year old. A bunch of folks blogged on the topic of a split in the UMC. I'm nowhere near as well spoken on the issue as the other folks that blogged, but it's hard for me to convey my thoughts in 140 characters so I wrote this blog post haste. So the question comes up.

“Is Schism the best future of the UMC? Why or Why Not?”

Okay so I'm going a little off script on my answer. The simple answer is it doesn't matter. Right now a split in the UMC doesn't matter any more than whether the pastor wearing a robe or suit/dress affects how many people fall asleep during his/her sermon. As I read Rev. Coleman's post on the topic it touched on some of the many ideas I have. You seem I think the split doesn't matter, because right now we are dead. I'm not a biology major but I've never heard of a dead cell splitting. Everything I've ever heard is about how the body removes dead cells or creates new cells to replace the dead ones. So you say Shawn what do dead cells have to do with the UMC? I'm glad you asked. John Wesley once wrote;

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.

You see from where I stand, we are already a dead sect. We have the form of religion but not the power. When was the last time the United Methodist Church was on the forefront of theological or social change?The Civil Rights movement? When was the last time the United Methodist Church was growing Disciples at an alarming rate? Well that one's easy about the same time men were joining Freemasonry at an alarming rate. The difference being, that Freemasonry is now experiencing the type of growth in the US that the UMC could only hope for. 

    So maybe that's a little melodramatic. Maybe we're not quite dead yet, but we are definitely on life support. So from here on out there are really two options. We can keep dying or we can make some new cells. You see the issue isn't really about whether we make new cells together or separate, but that new cells have to be made. The main question isn't about whether the UMC needs to split, but how do we get the UMC off life support and back to healthy growth in Christ. We all have different ideas on how to do that. Maybe a split is best. If a split allows cells to grow and us to be revived from the dead sect we currently are then great. If it allows us to reclaim the power of Christ's redemption as living, breathing, life-saving grace and not simply something that makes us feel warm and fuzzy then outstanding. John Wesley went on to say that whoever has their mind in Christ that same person is our brother, sister, and mother. That's what it's about. I don't believe a split is necessary, but to keep that from happening we have to focus on the (and i'm low balling here) the 60% of things we agree upon and move forward. At this stage we are simply discussing if we can continue or will we allow the minority of things we disagree upon become the majority that causes us to split. I still think a split is inevitable but with Christ all things are possible. We must ask ourselves what can we do to reclaim the power and rise up as a Lazarus of Christianity and change this world again? We've done it before. Let's do it again. 

Sins Against Singles: How the church is failing singles within it's community

“Come back and see us when you’re married.”

         For many millennials (ages 18-29) this is the perceived attitude in the church. Several articles have been released recently (one by Slate and one by The Atlantic, among others) wondering why those same millennials are getting married at the oldest average age in the history of the United States. To some like my friend Drew who married young, it was a pushback against a society that tells you it’s simply better to wait until you’re done with college and have a career before you get married.

How does that look for Christians? What if there is a pushback within a pushback? While society also tells us it’s more beneficial to wait until you’re older to marry, the church has done the same thing. The church, intentionally or not, has sinned against its singles. A number of ministries are geared toward members of the church who are married or have children. With more and more people waiting until they have a career and finish college to get married, the church has for years now geared activities towards those people because they have the money and means to support the church.

            Many churches care about the singles within their church; they just care for the wrong reasons. I believe that life is full of seasons. One of the most important in the life of any Christian is the period of singleness. This is when you develop who you are and set goals for who you want to become. The problem is the Christian church as a whole has not taken this approach. In The United Methodist Church, we provide outstanding youth ministry, but when those youth go away to college, we lose them. It’s no surprise that as we cut back funding for Wesley Foundations and campus ministries across the country and depend on the local church to minister to college-aged students, many of whom are the “singles” the church needs, that millennials leave the church at an alarming rate because we are not funding the ministries during such a vital time for millennials effectively.

              Most of us who were plugged into a local church for college and the time thereafter experienced these efforts first hand. The problem is that many churches treat these singles as if they are “broken.” I once heard a woman remark to her daughters after meeting an 18-year-old young man who was single, “18 and not married? What a shame.” It’s this attitude that permeates our churches and causes these sins against the singles.

               Here’s what I mean: If you visit the average large United Methodist church in a decent-sized city there will undoubtedly be some type of singles or college-aged ministry. The problem with these ministries is in their goals. While invitations to singles groups at church are often done with the best intentions, the groups end up resembling a Christian dating website. If you sit in on one of these ministries, you will often find it run by a married person with or without their significant other. You will often find the group studying books like “The Five Love Languages.” You may also find the group doing Bible study about what qualities you need to learn or exhibit to be a “good Godly man or woman” that someone would “want to marry.”

                 It ultimately comes back to the goals of the church. Whether the church will acknowledge it or not, our activities are simply not friendly toward singles looking to get involved in a community of faith. That’s why the churches with the biggest singles and college-aged student involvement are the ones that invite them to be the body of Christ without having to “fix” them. They are the churches that plan longer mission trips so someone who is single with no family or child attachments can go for a long-term mission. They are the churches that plan local, inexpensive mission projects where singles and college-aged students can give back their God-given talents if they aren’t financially stable. They develop singles who are equally happy and developed single or in a relationship. They avoid the trap of hosting a singles group only to try and get those in the group down the aisle with a ring on their finger.

                   Many in the church will say we have neglected the older generations in an effort to reach the millennials. It’s actually the opposite. The biggest relational sin the church currently engages in is making singles feel as if they can’t contribute to the community and be part of the body of Christ because they aren’t married with kids. The ones who are pointed toward the married couple that sits in the front pew, has been married for 40 years, comes every Sunday, and tithes more than 10 percent and told, “That is who you should want to be like.” Marriage is not the end goal of Christianity. Developing a deep relationship with Christ that forms and molds you into a Disciple of Christ that works to bring His kingdom is the goal of Christianity, not marriage. Marriage allows you a partner along the way to accomplish this goal who you can love as Christ loves His church

                      We must view singles as equals in ministry, walk alongside and guide them toward Christ and what Christ calls us to — not what we think is success. Admit we are all broken but that being single isn’t one way we’re broken. Realize that the humble Rabbi from Nazareth we follow was single until his death in his 30s, and he and his 12 friends managed to do outstanding ministry in that time. We all have a role in the ministry of the body of Christ and part of that ministry is to allow singles to provide as much of a faithful witness as those who are married with kids. We must stop systematically ignoring what is for most people a huge season of their life. Being single does not mean you’re less of a member of the church. It doesn’t mean you’re broken and in need of fixing. It doesn’t mean you “just haven’t met The One yet.” It means that this is a season in your life, and as with all seasons of our lives, combined with the grace of the powerful God who we serve, great things can happen.

Why I'm jumping on a sinking ship

The United Methodist Church is a sinking ship. Amid dwindling numbers and fewer new professions of faith the church is dying. Truth be told by it's founder John Wesley's definition the church is already dead.

“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power"-John Wesley

There is no power in a lot of the worship within the United Methodist church. Children who are born and raised in the church are leaving Christianity at an alarming rate (6 out of 10 men will walk away from their faith in college) those that are hanging around, are finding spiritual fulfillment outside of the Methodist Church. An example of such an event can be found on one of my previous posts. So why jump on a sinking ship? Why move towards ministry in a church that has hit an iceberg is going down fast? Because I believe in Jesus. I believe in redemption. I believe that "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still"-Betsie Ten Boom).  I believe that there is a better way than what we are doing now. I believe we can remove the fluff and regain the power. I believe that we can hold ourselves to a higher standards of our interactions with others without defending it with "i'm just a broken person". I grow so tired of seeing Methodist Pastors resort to snark and name-calling as if it somehow improves their point. I often find this occurring in articles posted by United Methodist Pastors. It's not a single place it happens either it's a total top to bottom epidemic. It occurs in letters coming from leaders of General Agencies all the way down to pastor's personal blogs. Look no further than the latest post on RethinkChurch. While my brother in Christ Morgan makes great points they are delineated by his name calling and snark used when dealing with Albert Mohler. I'm no fan of Mohler's either and goodness knows I've been way too snarky and condescending with those I disagree with but to do it on a nationally published article is not the time or the place. The points made in the post were outstanding (I would rather see an easter doodle from Google, but it's important to know the role faith played in Chavez's life) but I found myself wondering if using terms like "outragicals" did anything to improve the quality of the article. We must move on to better things. I'm jumping on the UMC boat because all of the work of going through candidacy has taught me that helping is a spiritual gift. I see people on this sinking ship grabbing as many buckets as they can working and working to bail out water and keep the ship afloat. It's time for me to roll up my sleeves and start bailing out water and lend a hand. How do we "fix" the UMC? Can the UMC be fixed? I believe it can because I believe in Christ's ability to redeem the broken and the UMC is most definitely broken at this point. I'm not anyone special. Just a small certified candidate for ministry in the UMC, but I do have a few ideas about how to fix the UMC.

1. Trim the fat (General Boards and Agencies all the way down to local congregations have too much fluff and fat. Get rid of it. Better budgets and more efficient use of mission shares.)

2. Accountability (As a pastor you swear to uphold certain ideas and rules. If you can't uphold that deal there need to be consequences. Ineffective leadership with zero accountability is killing the church)

3.End Online Seminary (Sorry I know it's "producing lots of UMC pastors" but it's killing the church because it's producing pastors that are the same person they are when they started seminary because they were never forced to interact and grow. This is really an argument of quantity over quality. Online or predominately online seminaries are producing large numbers of pastors but if 10 out of every 100 they produce is effective it's still a failure)

4. Increase educational requirements (Many Pastors coming out of seminary are ill equipped. Pastors get to small churches and realize they have to lead "Children's Church" with no training or idea how to most effectively communicate the Gospel of Christ to young children. That's just one example of how ill equipped some seminaries are leaving pastors)

5. Establish a better balance between personal and social holiness (Wesley tells us we need both, but right now the UMC is so sold out on social holiness at the expense of personal holiness that we're creating form with no power. I can hear the arguments coming in now "social holiness leads to personal holiness" that may be true in some cases not all. Whereas Wesley interprets the Bible to say in James that our works are an outpouring of our faith. )

6. Make room for more voices (right now there is no room for middle ground. If you want to have a voice in a conference, agency, church, etc you have to have a certain voice. You have to agree with the views of those allowing your voice to be heard. I despise the IRD, but their article about the revolving door at the general agencies has some truth to it. I as a moderate Methodist would not be allowed a place at the table at most of the general boards and agencies or even some local churches. That must change. We must quit seeing every issue in the church as win/lose and view it as a chance for holy conferencing and hope)

These are just thoughts. They are things I hope can happen and I feel would help the UMC regain some of the power to go with it's form. It's the hope of these things that leads me to grab a lifejacket, hop on board, take a bucket, and start bailing out water. God can redeem all. Maybe there's hope for the UMC yet.

United Church of Cracker Jack

In my new effort to lose weight and live a more healthy lifestyle, I've come to enjoy grocery shopping. Every aisle is a litany of possibilities now that I understand the dynamics of healthy eating. Occasionally I buy myself a little snack. The other day when I was grocery shopping, I came across Cracker Jack. For $1.25 you could get 3 boxes of Cracker Jack. Cracker Jack conjures up memories of my childhood for me so I bought it. I got home and unpacked my groceries, my mother remarked "oh look cracker jack". I told her the price and she said "wow i remember when they were 10 cents a box". As I enjoyed a box of cracker jack I pulled out the prize. A folding piece of paper that when folded and unfolded showed a young then an old George Washington. My mom then said "wow you don't even get real prizes in them anymore". As I laid in bed that night thinking, I began to realize something. The United Methodist Church is a lot like a box of Cracker Jacks. The prize (Jesus) is still there, but rising costs and ineffectiveness have caused the prize to be cheapened. The United Methodist Church in part due to inflation and other economic circumstances now spends more than they ever have to accomplish the churches mission while the number of members have dwindled to the point that in 20 years the UMC will not exist if the decline doesn't stop. You see much like Cracker Jack, the UMC relishes in nostalgia  People don't buy Cracker Jack anymore because of the outstanding taste or it's affordability. People buy Cracker Jack for the sheer nostalgia value. The same reason people purchase thing from the Cracker Barrel store. It's simply a reminder of better times for most people. The UMC experiences the same thing. As I said before the UMC is spending more now than it ever has. Every year the church is spending more money in an attempt to accomplish it's mission. However, the mission is not successful as it could be because of nostalgia  The old way isn't necessarily bad. The UMC could stand to get a healthy reminder that Wesley focused on both personal and social holiness to bring it back where it originally was rather than the social holiness centered ministry the church mostly engages in now. The nostalgia we hold on to is the unhealthy kind. The kind of nostalgia that says we've always done it this way even though it hasn't worked in years. For some reason, the UMC abandoned it's method of discipleship of the band,class, society system that had led to growth in membership and true discipleship among early Methodist  Instead we've held tightly to systems that haven't developed true disciples in decades. In the process we've cheapened the meaning of Jesus and what it means to our world. We've done things to help the poor, homeless, and disenfranchised in the name of Jesus without actually sharing the hope and reason that we actually are moved to that action. Many don't see much difference in members of the UMC and the outside world they live in. In that instance we've spent more money for a cheaper prize. We treat Jesus like a cheap paper Cracker Jack toy instead of the precious jewel of grace that he was. When will we move beyond the nostalgia  When will we embrace healthy change and re-adapt the things about Methodism that allowed it to grow to meet modern needs? When will we realize that we are called to both personal and social holiness not just one or the other? Until we change, we are simply the United Church of Cracker Jack. Join up, pay some money, get a cheap prize, and feel just a little bit of nostalgia about how great the UMC used to be.Cracker Jack serves a great role in American culture. It ties us back to some say a simpler time. Some nostalgia is healthy, but too much leaves us to being relegated to a bottom shelf tiny spot in American alongside the boxes of Cracker Jack.

Preach like a Methodist

One of the real joys of faith is sharing your faith with people. It gives me a great source of joy. I dare say it's my favorite thing about working with my youth is trying to answer the questions they have about faith and what it means to be a Christian in today's society. Even more enjoyable is when my peers ask me these types of questions. As I spent the last week serving with SOS in Memphis, TN. (Read more about SOS and their work in the Binghampton community HERE), I entered into a conversation with my friend Leanne. Leanne is a brilliant, smart, and funny girl. Like what seems to be a lot of my college friends, she was raised in the Methodist Church but now finds herself enjoying worship and ministry within another denomination. She asked me. " My pastor at home doesn't really reference scripture a lot in his sermons like the pastor of the church I attend while away at college. Is that just a church thing or a Methodist thing?" She asked other questions and made other statements about how when she got to college her friends had memorized scripture etc and she hadn't. Where does one begin on such a large question? I started the only place I knew. I started with the Bible. I discussed how Jesus really taught two different ways. One which would be considered "lectionary" and it led to attempts to throw him off a cliff, and the other being relationally. I discussed how both are important styles of preaching and it's really important for the pastor to know his/her audience to realize which style of preaching they would respond to best and lead to the most spiritual growth for them. It hurt as future Methodist Clergy to hear someone who was raised in the UMC feel like their pastor didn't put enough emphasis on scripture. John Wesley put Scripture above all else. Wesley too often told stories in his sermons but always brought it back to scripture.Pastors in the UMC used to preach with fire and enthusiasm.  I began to realize so many things that have worked in the past the UMC has turned away from simply in the interest of being "relevant". While I have my own theological issues with reformed theology and "neo-calvinism" ,statements like Leanne's confirm that the boldness however good or bad displayed in the preaching of modern reformed thought draws people in. There's no middle way. You might not agree with what they are saying but they hold strong to their beliefs. It used to be whenever theologians conversed about the most effective preachers at least 7 out of 10 would be Methodist. Sadly I feel that's not the case. Why did we change a system that was working? The Methodist Church I truly believe offers a theology that the "nones" so desperately seek in today's society. We offer a theology that points to the grace of God at work in our lives. We point to the work of the kingdom here and not just sell "fire insurance". We are a theology that doesn't force you to choose between science and religion. We are a theology that preaches how the love of God is big enough to draw the darkest of heart and not how God spends his time deciding who's in and who's out. If we are to claim that and stop the decline while creating disciples for Christ, we must reclaim the old "preach like a Methodist" saying.

What am I?

I used to be really into poetry, but gave it up after a while here is my foray back into it.


What Am I?
 A man without a home
a place that is empty where only me and Jesus roam
I'm too far left to be claimed by the right
and too far right for the left to say alright
I believe in saving babies
and that murderers can redeemed by grace
that I can be passionate about issues
without getting in your face
So why am I homeless
despite having my church
Because I live in the gray
and I make it work
My house sits near the middle
not the far left or the far right
I have no interest in the fight
that will continue until our church splinters
with all of it's might

I believe in change
but not just for the sake of doing it
I believe that grace helps us through suffering
because I've been through it
What am I then?
A man without a home
Not conservative or progressive enough
to avoid being stoned
What I am
is a man with a plan
and hope among all hopes
to draw folks back to the middle
to let God redeem what has broke
so we look more like the church
and less like politicians in empty suits
and a tree that is dying begins to grow
and bear fruit.

Carnival Triumph, Humanity, and our need for something bigger

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've no doubt seen the photos of the Carnival Triumph. The ship lost power after an engine room fire and was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico until being towed to Mobile, Alabama. As you're undoubtedly aware if you read my last post, a tornado recently ripped through the town I called home for 7 years. As I read the stories of people hoarding food, stealing food off people's tables when the lights went out, and daisy stringing power outlets together so they could charge their phones and other electronics I began to realize exactly what we were dealing with. You see this is an idea often discussed by various sources. There's even wikis that describe steps to surviving when social order breaks down. You see it took less that a week for social order to breakdown aboard the Carnival Triumph.In less than a week, people began stealing or hoarding food from other people. People continued using the bathrooms despite them not working with zero regard for the health or well being of their fellow passengers. People immediately started putting on life jackets and panicking as soon as the pa call came on calling for crew help.For their part the crew did everything possible to make this bad situation as bearable as possible. The attitudes and actions displayed by the folks on board the ship (waiting 4 hours to get to the gift shop and buy a $6 can of pringles?) display the most basic idea of humanity. At our most basic, panicked, or desperate moments we are simply a broken people who revert to our primal instincts of protect ourselves and forget everything else. It's in this brokenness we reveal our need for something bigger than ourselves. See Christ calls us to lay down ourselves. At certain points in the New Testament, we are called to lay down our lives and follow Christ or told that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for their friend. What we saw on the Carnival Triumph was a broken people desperately in need of a better way. One of the most joyous and frustrating aspects of my walk with Christ is times when I want so desperately to watch out for myself and follow my own path but am moved by the Spirit to put others before myself. If the Triumph incident teaches us anything, it's that we are a broken people who must remember our call to put others first even when our mind tells us to watch for us.

Where was God when.....

Hattiesburg Tornado

Sunday a tornado ripped through Hattiesburg, Mississippi and the surrounding area. As is typical in this technological age, almost immediately a facebook group for info and support popped up. At the end of tuesday, the facebook group posted a video of the University of Southern Mississippi's Wind Symphony playing Amazing Grace. USM's music program is world renown and is one of the top music programs in all of the United States. The music program lost 2 of their 3 buildings in the storm and the 3rd has major damage to it. It was a great gesture to acknowledge the importance of the music department and acknowledge the grace of God that despite over 1,400 homes being damaged or destroyed and over 100 people being injured there were no deaths. An individual began commenting on the post about where was God's grace for all the people who wanted to keep their home and not have it destroyed by the tornado? What do we do with that? How does one respond? Here is how I respond when asked that question. God created the heavens and earth and every thing on it. God continues to create every day and in every way. Natural Disasters are simply a part of the environment and ecosystem that God has created. God does not "cause" natural disasters. Contrary to the teachings and musings of the folks on the 700 club God does not send tornados and hurricanes down on us to "punish us" for our sin. They are simply a result of the ecosystems in which we live. However God's grace is always present. Those who worship Christ worship the great redeemer. A God who emphasizes new creation who takes the broken, beaten, and damned and redeems them. A God that brings beauty from the ashes. God is not the reason people lost their homes. God is not responsible for the evil and disaster of the world, but God's grace and providence is the reason that there are zero deaths from an EF4 tornado ripping through the 3rd largest city in Mississippi and it's suburbs. I'm reminded of how Rev. Adam Hamilton addressed a similar question when returning from earthquake relief in Haiti. "If you remove God from the earthquake in Haiti, the earthquake still happens. It's a part of nature, but you've removed the only source of comfort some people may find in the midst of such a terrible disaster" Grace is in the midst of disaster. There will always be cynics, agnostics, and atheists who decry God as evil for not protecting people from disasters like this. We as Christians must respond and articulate good theology of Christ who has and is redeeming despite destruction.Where was God when a tornado ripped through Hattiesburg? In our midst, wrapping his arms around those he calls his beloved and protecting them.

Fitness Update

Okay, I probably should have written this post long ago but hey life happens. In early November I was in a friend's wedding. As the pictures from the wedding began to hit Facebook, I began to find myself more and more unhappy with myself. I didn't like how I looked. I made the decision that would have to change. I embarked on a healthy regimen. I either enlisted or had those around me volunteer to help. As of this writing, I have finished day one of week 5 of the couch to 5k program. Yesterday after a 5 minute warm-up walk, I ran for 5 minutes and walked for 3 minutes and repeated that before closing with a 5 minute run followed by cool-down. It was tough, I was tired and exhausted but it shows how far I've come since I started. Also at the typing of this, I have weighed myself. For the first time in eight years, the number on the scale begins with a two. Not since 2004 have I been under 300 lbs. I would not have made this point without one major helper along the way. My friend Luci, is a lifestyle consultant. Upon hearing about my new quest for health she struck out to help me along the way. I get weekly healthy tips that range from everything to plate arrangement to cut down on portions all the way to how to eat when going out to the movies. Luci runs a blog filled with fashion, food, and my favorite thing her Fun Fact Fridays over at Luci's Morsels which you can find HERE.I really can't begin to explain how instrumental she has been in me getting to this point. If you want to make a healthy lifestyle change beyond just working out, contact her or a lifestyle consultant who can help you along the way. Her blog is also now on my blogroll up on the right side of this page if you lose this post along the way and still want to read her helpful hints. The most important thing I've had is support. Whether it's through my friends who have encouraged me along the way, Luci answering emails at random hours of the day with health questions, or my trainer at the gym who often leaves me in pain but feeling accomplished they've been supportive the whole way. I've learned so much about what it means to be healthy and make healthy choices in just the few months I've been doing this. You realize when your high school health teacher is the Golf Coach you often miss out on some really important lessons about health. Finally I know this is not a sprint but a marathon. There will be setbacks. There will be weak moments but with support and prayer I can make it. Thanks to all who have been a part of this incredible journey so far.

Putting on a bandage when we need surgery

My heart breaks for the families in Connecticut. As would be expected, a conversation has arisen in light of this most recent tragedy about gun control. This is a conversation that has needed to happen for too long, but it's simply a bandage on a situation that is so dire it requires surgery. You see, guns are only a small portion of the problem. The real problem lies in an American culture that much like Rome, thrives on violence. So much so that the violent culture flows along naturally every day and we perceive it to be "normal". Americans whether they will admit it or not love violence. Some would like to say they don't but we all do? #1 sport in America? American Football one of the most violent sports in the world. Top Pay Per View purchases since 2009? UFC. Some of the top songs for 2011? Grenade by Bruno Mars, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People, (run run faster than my bullet?), S&M by Rhianna? See where I'm going with this? What happened in Newtown was terrible, horrible, and should never be forgotten. What is forgotten in the conversation is while it was a tragedy, these tragedies happen every single day on the violent streets. Statistics tell us that between 1,300-1,900 people will die in gang related violence every 7 years in major cities alone.They didn't die because easy access to guns. They died because of a culture in film and music that glorifies violence, gang banging, and the "ride or die" attitude.  Fixing the gun culture in America is a start, but I've always be told if you want to kill a snake you cut off the head. I'm sorry to inform many many people out there but the NRA is not the head of the snake. Violent American culture is the head of the snake. We turn on the news and see nothing but bad news about violence, war, death, and crime yet we keep watching because we can't turn away. Celebrities and media types cry out for stronger gun laws but decry any effort to cut down on the sex, drugs, gun play, and objectification of women in media as "censorship". We can't keep talking about gun control. We have to get to the root of the issue. We are the little boy with his finger stuck in the damn plugging the leak. It's only a matter of time. Want to stop Newtown from happening again? Don't just ban assault weapons, refuse to participate in the culture of violence.

Why the battle over homosexuality may be the death of the UMC

"A house divided against itself cannot stand"

Abraham Lincoln

In his famous speech while accepting the Republican Senate Nomination, future President Lincoln uttered these words. For those familiar with Scripture, you will probably realize Lincoln is repeating the words found in the 12th chapter of Matthew "And every city or household divided against itself will not last" (Matt. 12:25). This my friends is how the United Methodist Church currently finds itself. At the crossroads of an almost Civil War within the church that will no doubt end with the same pain and hurt the last time the church came to this point (Methodist Episcopal Church Split Over Slavery). Now before everyone goes huffing and puffing about the title let me say this. Homosexuality and how the United Methodist Church deals with it, is a very important issue. That being said it is not the only important issue and in some people's opinion not the most important issue. I think it is a divisive enough issue to lead to the death of the UMC and here's the main reason. It does not significantly affect the path the church is on now. That is to say it doesn't stop the bleeding. Churches like St. Mark in Atlanta (across the street from Charles Stanley's Church) have seen drastic growth when becoming more open and friendly to people who identify as homosexual. That's excellent and great, but to simply suggest that changing the churches stance on homosexuality would fix the ills of the church is misguided. If we convinced every LGBT person to attend and support a UMC, it still would do little to stop the drastic rate in which we are shutting church doors. It is a start, but the root of why we are losing people is way deeper. Say you have a youth group. In that youth group are 10 young men. Statistics tell us that 6 out of those 10 men will walk away from their faith during their college years. Similar statistics tell us that the likelihood of a family becoming actively involved and remaining actively involved in a church drops drastically when the mother or the child is the primary member responsible for drawing the family to church. We have to rediscover what it means to be Wesleyan. We have to get people not only into the doors but to where they become passionate disciples of Jesus Christ.Fighting for gay rights is great, but not when you focus so much on social gospel you forget personal gospel. Wesley realized both were hand in hand. Focusing only on social gospel and not holiness does nothing to create disciples. It takes both parts of the equation. Are there people who are passionate about social justice who balance it with personal gospel? Sure. The inverse is also true, but elevating social justice above personal gospel like we have been known to do completely flies in the face of what it means to be Wesleyan. When you realize how fluid some people believe doctrine within the UMC to be, you begin to realize why Jon Stewart called the UMC the "University of Phoenix of Christianity. Give your money and believe what you want" Don't believe me? Google United Methodist Church believers baptism. You'll find tons of UMC churches that while acknowledging infant baptism openly state they prefer "believer's baptism" while only offering infant baptism a few times a year. If you need something more recent, you can also find pastors that despite the UMC saying people coming to the United Methodist Church from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) should be rebaptized due to drastically different understandings of Jesus Christ, feel it is their place to decide whether they need to be baptized or not. Every pastor upon being ordained takes an oath to uphold the Discipline of the United Methodist Churches. Every single day pastors readily ignore their oath. Jon Stewart was accurate. You really can disagree with things even Wesley himself taught and still be Methodist. That has to change if we are to grow. We have to be willing to say "This is what we believe" and stick to it. Having a Pastor saying "I don't think Hell exists" when we recite a creed affirming our belief that Christ descended into hell is why Jon Stewart is right. We have to begin by holding ourselves accountable.






Secondly, the battle over homosexuality within the UMC has become all consuming. I served for 2 years on the United Methodist Student Movement Steering Committee and attended Student Forum 2 years before that. I distinctly remember one year when there were approximately 20 petitions to the student forum. 12 of the 20 dealt with the issue of homosexuality and were almost identical in wording. This was 2006. How many more things were going on in the world that students needed to be aware of and vocal about? How many injustices and atrocities were being committed all over the world? In my opinion, the UMC has become so focused on the issue of homosexuality that we overlook the rest of the world. If we are a global church, we must insist that issues facing our brothers and sisters around the world are just as important as the issues facing Americans. For me this was no better displayed than in the post General Conference responses from Bishop Minerva who told our brothers and sisters from Africa to "grow up" because they felt differently about homosexuality. The struggle over homosexuality led to protests and demonstrations at General Conference in Tampa this as it has for the last few general conferences. The difference being this year General Conference was a complete and utter waste of time. No beneficial changes came out of General Conference. The one's that did were quickly done away with by judicial council rulings. Rather than discuss any of those issues and how we address them, the responses and reflections kept pouring in from Bishops and Pastors on General Conference and focused on a singular issue. The fact that changes to the Discipline and Ordination rulings concerning homosexuality had not changed. Even after we heard passionate debate from the floor about divestment, little to nothing was said about it in the wake of General Conference.






So where do we go from here? Do we continue to be a church divided against itself who is more interested in our side "winning" than holy conferencing? Do we continue to focus solely on homosexuality to the point that we ignore those hurting within the global church? If we do start to take a more holistic approach rather than basing success or failure on a single issue, how do we insure that the issue does not fade from conversation? These are questions the United Methodist Church must answer in the future.I believe homosexuality is a massive issue for the UMC and churches around the world, but we must quit acting as if it is the only issue. The hatred, time, effort, and energy spent ensuring "victory" for one side or the other has only served to strengthen the split within the UMC. Liberals and Conservatives, it's time to come forward and work together for the good of the global church. Liberals admit there are issues in the world just as important as whether a homosexual person can be ordained. Conservatives admit that homosexuality is a major issue and can no longer be simply swept aside. The church must deal with it and deal with it appropriately. We can either go forward focusing on both homosexuality and other issues or simply continue to look more and more like congress in Washington each day where we choose not to give a single inch until the divide is as deep as it can possibly be. When we reach a place where we began voting or expressing opinions simply because our idea was "voted down" or not spoken about favorable like happened at General Conference this year, we begin the end. We step foot down a road that will lead to ruin. A house divided against itself can not stand. We can no longer let a single primary issue drive the divide so deep in the church. Remember how that ended last time.

Learning To Trust:Turning It Over To God

Confession. I have trust issues. Not so much trust issues as much as jealous issues that lead to trust issues. I've been sick today so I haven't done much. When I don't do much my mind races so I play on facebook or video games to distract me unless I feel like being particularly pensive. I started to notice an increased number of engagement announcements on my facebook news feed. I started to notice people with boyfriend and girlfriends who were previously single. I began to feel jealous. I caught myself making unfair comparisons and saying mean things in my head about people who were my friends. I began to think thoughts like "What? That guy is a complete ass to women. How does he have a girlfriend while i'm still single?" These are not fair questions to ask. You see when you don't trust in God guiding you in the right direction, you begin to be unthankful for what you have. You begin to experience jealously. Ultimately for me this is a lesson in trust. Now I am a firm believer in free will. I don't believe that God lays out every single minute of every day for you. I believe God knows all that but doesn't make the choices for you. I do however believe if you take a destructive path that leads you away from things that God does have planned for your life God will do everything within His power to get you back. Ultimately it comes to trusting that faith. Trusting that the grace of God is sufficient. Trusting that if there is a desire that God has put on your heart it's there for a reason. I began to think about this as I mumbled through idle conversation with my barber. As the barber removed the hot towel from my neck to use the straight razor on my neck, I began to think of how much the trust required in this resembles the trust required of God. As I said on my twitter when you as a man let your barber take a straight razor to your face, you're basically gambling he or she is not going to go all Sweeney Todd on your neck.

In order to get the great feeling of a straight razor shave you need that level of trust (it's an amazing feeling by the way.That's for another time though). God is a lot like that. It takes trusting in God to know that you're not being led astray. John Wesley used to say (paraphrasing) that any good in a man and from a man comes from God alone. I fight so hard sometimes not to fall into the traps of jealousy and lack of trust. It's hard to have the desire to share your life with someone and it seems like everyone else around you is having such joy while you haven't been in a serious relationship since Bush was President. For me this is a time when I must rest in God alone. I've already seen through my brokenness that I alone can not overcome the feeling of inadequacy, jealousy, and mistrust I experience when struggling with the desire for a relationship. Instead I must learn to trust. I must learn to allow God to place the answers to the touch decisions on my heart so that I can make the choices that will grow me the most and bring Him the greatest glory. What are you turning over to God today.

Living into your calling

A few years ago, I was helping out with a campus ministry at a community college I attended.  The speaker that night was a guy I knew. He had played football at the junior college, went off to LSU, then transferred to Southern Miss where I went. The campus ministry had plenty of football players that attended the speakers and Bible studies. He and one of the current football players who was being recruited by various universities to play football were talking. As I overheard them talking, the question of regret came up. The speaker told the young football player if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't have went to USM. He would have went to a larger school where he could have had a better chance at being drafted. Now aside from my obvious disappointment at his disregard for our alma mater, I was struck by this statement in another way.Here was this guy who had a college degree, a beautiful wife (who he had dated as long as I had known them), got a chance to play college football, and knew the love of God. It began to dawn on me that he like many of us was not "happy" with his lot in life. He desired more than what he had been given. From listening to him speak, he was obviously successful in the career he had chosen and it allowed him to speak to students and make an impact on their life. I have no doubt he was exactly where he was called to be. The problem is many of us, myself included fail to live into our calling. For my friend, he would have been happier being a pro football player because to him it offered more value than what he was doing. Inversely there is my friend Catherine. As we were talking over facebook tonight, it dawned on me that Catherine was most definitely living into her calling. I'd only known Catherine about two years, but she had always been kind of quiet and reserved. The fact I'm overbearing and talk to much probably doesn't help encourage others to speak but it's my curse. However recently God has been doing amazing things in her life. She has shared ideas for outreach at the campus ministry I was a part of at Southern Miss. She volunteered to give her testimony to the youth group she is an intern with and is genuinely happy about both. She is living into her calling. She is making the most of life and speaking for God and about God in an unashamed way. Our calls change, but hers right now is to reach out to people and share how Christ has worked in her life and how God can work in theirs. She is experiencing the pure joy of how we feel when we live into our calling and are exactly where God wants us to be. As you go forward, look around and see the impact you making. Are you where God is calling you to be right now? Are you where you are supposed to be but not reaching out to who you are supposed to? I hope that anyone who reads this, can come to know the pure joy of the moment you realize that you are right where God has called you to be at that very moment in your life. The joy of realizing that we have the free will to choose the direction our life takes and we have chosen a path that is pleasing to God and allows us to work and build His kingdom.

-Shawn

Why Jesus isn't Taylor Swift or any other major music artist for that matter.

So I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Taylor Swift but some of her songs are catchy. By some songs I mean all, because all of her songs are essentially the same. You're probably thinking, what does this have to do with God or Jesus. This is what it has to do with theology. Taylor Swift and every major musician/artist has one great trait about them that makes them successful. They know their audience. Taylor Swift makes what I call high school drama queen music. She's like a more dramatic Adele. Her music is predominately about her last boyfriend and how terrible he was during their relationship which leads to my statement of all her music is essentially the same song. Regardless of how I feel about it, she's obviously very successful at writing songs that express the angst of teenage girls. It's as I hear these songs and words, that I'm thankful God is not like Taylor Swift. That's not a slight to Taylor Swift but simply a statement about the greatness of God. Romans 1:16 that in the Gospel is the salvation for ALL who believes. See unlike Taylor Swift, God doesn't want to focus on one demographic. God wants all of us. He doesn't just want the girls who have been hurt by a relationship. He doesn't only want the macho guy that fights in the UFC, God wants all of us. He chases after us with a relentless passion. You see it's not that Christ can't tell a story that appeals to a certain demographic, it's just that Christ tells a story that is bigger than any one person, group, or even musician. You see I'm not a fan of the idea that God chooses certain people to save and others to condemn. I think that's so belittling of the power of God to save any and all he chooses. Many times when explaining God we use the reference of a parent. That's akin to a parent choosing to lavish all their love and praise on one child while neglecting the other child. God is right there with you. He's walking alongside us begging us to follow him. I find solace in the fact that I never truly walk along. All of us like "the chase". It's part of a relationship. Since it's usually a man chasing after a woman, men don't often think of themselves as being pursued. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We men are pursued daily by a voice saying "Come Son, follow me and I will show you the way." What a great story for all of us. I'm thankful God puts storytellers in the world. Artists, Musicians, Actors, and Singers tell great stories through art, song, music, stage, and screen. However God tells a bigger and better story. Quit worrying about if you're in His "demographic". You're one of his beautiful and glorious creations. We are all God's target audience.

Shawn

Service To Myself: Reflections From SOS:Legalism and Holiness

“I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions.” John Wesley

I know it's been a while, but I was dealing with a Hurricane. This is the final post in my SOS series. I didn't want it to drag on forever, so I narrowed it down. One thing that I realized this summer, is that no matter how much we preach on it, read about it, try to avoid it, everyone in the Christian community struggles with legalism to some extent. As I listened to my then coworkers and soon to be friends share their stories with me, the consistent stream was a struggle with legalism. Many had been raised in a home where while loving was more legalistic and moral than based on holiness and discipleship. Now there is a fine fine line between holiness and legalism. That I think it something as a whole the church doesn't often speak on even though it should. Holiness is living you life in a way that is pleasing and brings glory to God all while growing closer to God. Legalism is simply living a certain way to avoid God's wrath or to check something off the list. While I may be a tad biased because I am Methodist, many scholars agree there are not many theologians more well versed on Holiness than that of John Wesley. For Wesley, social and personal holiness were paramount to the life of a Christian. It is through holiness that grow closer to God and closer to the people God intends for us to be. It is through social holiness that the earth begins to look a little more like God's kingdom each day. Even in Wesley's day holiness was a struggle. We simply can no longer afford to live a  life of legalism and ignore the holiness that God calls us to. "Be Holy for I am Holy" 1 Peter 1:16. The move from legalism to holiness is a heart condition. What I mean when I say that, is that many things that we do that are legalistic, are only legalistic because of the desires of our heart when we perform them. Reading your Bible and praying daily is not legalistic. Taking communion weekly is not legalistic. When these things are done out of a desire to avoid God's wrath and to check them off your list they become legalistic. The prophet Isaiah tells "Your righteous acts are like dirty rags". When we do what Wesley would call "attending upon the ordinances of God" and we do them out of a desire for our heart to be molded to more like Christ, we shift from a life of legalism to holiness. Even holiness can become legalism if we let it. While we start doing things to grow closer to God, they too become like a checklist. I find this to be especially true of people who grew up in the church.A few of the best books on holiness I can recommend if you want to read more on the subject are below.My prayer for you as you read this, is may your heart be "strangely warmed" by the Gospel of Christ. May your heart draw you closer to Christ daily. May you move to a place where you serve God out of love and not out of expectancy.

"The spiritual poverty of the west is far worse than the material poverty here in India" Mother Theresa. 

"Why Holiness Matters" by Tyler Braun. It's an outstanding book that relates his real life experiences with legalism, holiness, and his own failures.

Holiness of Heart and Life by Charles Yrigoyen. An overall look at Wesleyan tradition and history as well as the holiness that marked the early methodist movement and led to revival. A must have for any Methodist bookshelf.

A Blueprint for Discipleship by Kevin Watson. This is by far my favorite book I've read in the last year. It talks about Wesley's Three Rules (Do Good, Do No Harm, Attend upon the ordinances of God) as a pattern for Discipleship and has some really great nuggets as it relates to holiness.

Service To Myself:Reflections from SOS:Wealth and Affluence

This is the second of a series of blog posts about my summer working for SOS or Service Over Self in Memphis, Tennessee. You can check out their website here, if you'd like more information. Please take the time to check it out and see the amazing things they are doing to revitalize the Binghampton section of Memphis and prove to Memphis and specifically Binghampton that God is not through with "The Bing".

What are these strange things above this post you might ask? Well those are food stamps. Many people have never seen them as the US government has now switched to an EBT card that folks use to pay for food when they are on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) or welfare. The image of these are burned into my mind as a reminder of where I came from. While I would be considered middle class now, it is only through the hard work of my mother that we are in fact middle class. It wasn't always that way though. From the time I was born until I was about 8ish I didn't know what regular Christmas was. Very few presents I got came from a place other than Dollar General or Family Dollar. I still vividly remember being at Winn-Dixie with my mother as she bought groceries for us and paid with those stamps with the all too familiar Liberty Bell on them. I say that to reveal one of my greatest struggles that reared it's ugly head this summer. Money and Affluence. Money is not a real issue for me. I don't have a lot but I have enough and work hard for it as does my family. However, I realized this summer while at SOS I really struggle with people of affluence. Many of the campers who come to SOS are suburban white upper to upper middle class kids. Many of the kids come from families with money who live in the wealthy suburbs of cities they come from. I realized this summer as one kid refused to follow the "Serve to Your Left" rule (at SOS you always serve food to the person to your left at dinner) that he had never been told no. He had seemingly always been allowed to do what he wanted when he wanted. There was a sense of entitlement. The words of my grandfather often ring through my head, "The world owes you nothing and there's nothing worth having that you don't have to work for". God began to reveal in me my struggles with people of affluence and wealth. I harbored resentment towards people who were given everything they ever wanted and had allowed that to mold them into people who felt they were entitled. I began to be shown the resentment I harbored in my heart even towards these campers simply because their parents had enough money they could go to the store, point something out, and have absolutely no problem paying for it. I also began to feel shame for how I grew up even though it was no fault of my own. I felt shame upon realizing these things for multiple reasons. One, I had undervalued the life God had given me. While life has never been easy, there are many moments that have shaped me into the person I am today. Two, I was being judgemental towards campers because of something that was no fault of their own. It wasn't the campers fault they were entitled and affluent. That is a learned condition. Their parents through not forcing them to work for the things they wanted and valued had created a sense of entitlement and superiority in these children. It was through this time that God not only showed me to be thankful for the life I've had and the lessons it has taught me, but that the church has work to do. The words of Mother Theresa ring true when she  “The spiritual poverty of the Western World is much greater than the physical poverty of our people". While God does not necessarily frown upon wealth, we must as the church be diligent in encouraging those with the means to use the gifts God has given them to reinvest in the world. We must also do it not only with the intention of it being a checkmark, but as an outpouring of the grace God has shown us in our lives. We have to show people that you come to SOS to serve God and serve others before yourself. The title Service Over Self is not just a catchy name that rhymed with SOS but a response to the commandment of Christ that "anyone who would follow me must deny himself and take up his cross daily"(Paraphrase of Luke 9:23). For these kids and their parents, it means not only coming to SOS but committing to using your means to serve the least, the last, and the lost that Jesus Christ came to save (Luke 19:10). It means not being so poor that all they have is money. For me it means living into the life and the story God has given me and being thankful for it. It means spending my time educating and preventing people from falling into spiritual poverty while they maintain material wealth. It means realizing we are all broken and live in some kind of poverty.

In Christ
-Shawn

Service To Myself: Reflections From SOS: Being Manly

This is the first of a series of blog posts about my summer working for SOS or Service Over Self in Memphis, Tennessee. You can check out their website here, if you'd like more information. Please take the time to check it out and see the amazing things they are doing to revitalize the Binghampton section of Memphis and prove to Memphis and specifically Binghampton that God is not through with "The Bing". 

    It's been about two weeks now since SOS ended and I feel like I've had time to decompress, relax, rest, and really jot down my thoughts about the summer. The first thing I want to speak about as a way I was changed this summer was manliness.

Calvin and Hobbes

As part of SOS, each Thursday a summer staff member gives a short version of their testimony to the campers. I gave my testimony this summer and really focused on the image of God the Father. I grew up with my grandpa as my father figure in my life as my dad had hit the road due to drugs and alcohol. I really found comfort in the idea of God being a father that would never leave me or bail on me the way my natural father did. As I really confronted this idea, I began to realize the effects of culture on men. I'm a member of the United Methodist Church. I love my church, but we have our problems. In the interest of inclusiveness and feminism, we have limited the role of men in the church. I've been passed over for or encouraged not to apply for leadership positions because I'm a white male and therefore don't offer the diversity of other candidates. This is not necessarily the churches fault but a reflection of culture. While feminism offered many great advances in American society, it has and continues to reshape how men act and behave. In our society today it is more socially acceptable for a man to wear skinny jeans and listen to Miley Cyrus than it is for a man to grow a beard. I've decided to grow my beard just because I wish to see how it will look when given room to grow, but I've gotten strange looks and comments from people. "You look like a caveman" a female friend told me. What I learned this summer from living in close quarters with 20+ other godly men, is that it is completely acceptable to just be a man sometimes. Now to understand why this is a big deal you need to understand this. In the course of theological conversation with a fellow Methodist, she stated she felt it was sinful and idolatrous to worship God as either male or female. This summer, while I already knew that God created man and God created woman it was reinforced by just spending time with my brothers. It was okay to sing "manly" songs of worship. It was okay to build a blow gun and use it on a can of shaving cream. It was okay to go to Central BBQ and pig out on some BBQ nachos. It was okay to go see a movie with guns and explosions without hearing "it's too violent". It's okay to go to dirt track races and cheer for sprint cars as they zoom around the track. It's okay to just hang out with the guys. Now I'm not saying those things wouldn't be allowed in church (obviously I've never used a blow gun in church). What I'm saying is we live in a society today constantly trying to blur the lines. This is not just gender wise but in all aspects. Some of those lines need to be blurred. The lines that divide activities as being white/black activities such as dirt track racing need to be blurred. However, along the way we must not loose track of the fact God created us all different and we should be unafraid to live into that role. Similarly we as the church, the Body and Bride of Christ must be unafraid to allow people to be themselves. We must allow men to be men and women to be women.We must move to a place where men who love Jesus can love Jesus and still enjoy things that society deems too manly. We must move to a place where we simply choose the best person for the job regardless of male/female, black/white, single/married.  Some may say "I'm comfortable in my masculinity, that I don't need to express it like that". I'm comfortable in my masculinity as well, but I still desire fellowship with other men where I can be unafraid to be myself and enjoy the things I enjoy without society telling me I'm wrong. So to the men I served alongside with this summer, I thank you for being the outstanding godly men you were and offering the male fellowship that I needed to grow this summer.