elfed

From Calvary's own Mary Alice Birdwhistell:

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/dWLfSdXCzDPrz0d2OgKA



Enjoy!

a word from Ben Stein

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened.. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. We said an expert should know what he's talking about.. And we said okay. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.' Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing yet? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully, Ben Stein

piece on marriage in America

Interesting, and scary, piece on marriage: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/16/ward.sears.marriage/

The dirty truth is that the divorce rate among self-professed Christians are slightly higher than the rate for non-Christians. I'm an adult child of divorce [first time I've typed that] determined to make certain that my kids don't have to call themselves that.

Knowing that there are reasons for divorce and knowing wonderful second marriages, as believers the burden of these conversations fall upon us. We need to teach and preach and listen to those in difficult marriages and those who are no longer married. Or there will be more broken homes, children raising themselves and statistics like those on the link.

the gift of grace

From Shane Claiborne, "A Season for Mischief and Conspiracy: A New Take on Christmas Charity."

Critiquing the thick irony of the Christmas season is fair. It's ludicrous that we celebrate the birth of the homeless baby Jesus by indulging in the biggest consumer spending of the year, scurrying around trying to find something to buy for people who have everything.

Nonetheless, there is something beautiful about giving, generosity and the contagious cheer that fills the world (not just the malls) during Christmas. We just need fresh imagination with how we celebrate amid the frenzy and clutter.

So we've started a new tradition here in the post-industrial concrete jungle of North Philadelphia ... we call it the "Christmas Carol Conspiracy".

A suburban congregation wanted to do something for families in our inner city neighborhood. We were all tired of distant acts of charity that do little to address the roots of poverty in a neighborhood like mine where we have a couple hundred thousand jobs in the last 30 years. We were all suspicious of do-gooder volunteerism that can so easily give a handout while pick-pocketing people of their dignity. And yet we were also convinced that inequity breaks God's heart and should break ours, and that we have the power to do something about it. There must be a way to be more creative with giving money away than the corporations
are with getting all of it.

We prayed for imagination. And we put our minds together. Our goal was to practice generosity in a way that was so creative that even money would not corrupt the act of giving. (After all, Jesus said to be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves as we deal with the stuff of earth, like that green stuff that keeps things going but is always overstepping and trespassing on our souls.)

So the dreaming began. As we started plotting goodness, there were a few things we noted. The suburban folks had money and some of the folks in my neighborhood could use a little. The suburban congregation didn't know how best to share the money in a way that protected the recipient's dignity, and they had the humility to ask which was fantastic. Finally, we all knew that for some folks $500 would be a gift and to others it would be a curse.

Here's what we came up with. A group of us who live in the inner city pray, and then come up with a list of a dozen of our neighbors who have had a particularly difficult year -- like my friend who worked for the shelter which lost its funding and had to lay everyone off, or our neighbor whose house caught on fire, or the family around the corner whose 14 year old got pregnant this year. Then, we give that list to our suburban co-conspirators, and we let each family know to expect a little visit at a set time (though we keep the details of the visit on the down-low).

On the special night, the carolers roll through the neighborhood. They visit each home with some lovely singing, deliver a plate of baked goodies, and then they head out. They are long gone by the time the family has opened the envelope underneath the cookies -- which contains several hundred dollars and a note that says, "Know that you are loved. Merry Christmas."

Last year our little mischief-makers gave away over $10,000 to families around the city. And the cool thing is the families do not even know who they are. They don't even know the name of the congregation and may never see them again ... all they are left with is a little reminder that they are loved.

So let the Christmas Conspiracy spread.

Imagine if every neighborhood had a little conspiracy like this one, and imagine if every suburban congregation began plotting goodness with folks in poverty.

Do an anonymous act of love this season.

It was the Christ-child who said, "When you give, do it in secret ... don't even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." It is an invitation to mischief -- sort of like the old "ring-and-run" prank we played in high school, only better.

This mischief is holy mischief. It is a divine conspiracy. It is about reminding the world that it is loved. And that seems to be what Christmas is all about.

real world example of When Helping Hurts...

From the LA Times on December 13, 2010: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haiti-aid-20101213,0,5340743,full.story

book review

Below you can find notes from another book on Life Groups. I'll provide some additional commentary on the book, and a flaw I see within it's model, in a later post.

Building a Church of Small Groups, Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson.

Community is bodies in a circle but, those bodies must face one another. Bodies in a circle doesn’t work if you have souls turned away.

Connect truth with life and life with truth.

Tell the last 10%--that’s the hard truth.

Manage group conflict:

1. If it happens in group, process it in group

2. Leaders is responsible for process, not outcomes

3. Validate the conflict

4. Conflict need not be resolved at the meeting

5. Process conflict with trust and confidentiality

Navigating breakdown:

1. Start soon. Don’t wait 2 weeks.

2. Meet face to face. No emails.

3. Affirm the relationship.

4. Make observations, not accusations.

5. Get the facts.

6. Promote resolution.

Leading is based on discipling—intentional shepherding. Built on 5 g’s:

1. Grace

2. Growth

3. Groups

4. Gifts

5. Good shepherdship

Leaders are not counselors. They are shepherds and work for mutual growth in group. Leaders are to gather (invite current and potential members into community); during meetings this means building intimacy; between meetings this means build friendships and seek new ones. Leaders are to develop (take each person the next step in spiritual growth); during meetings this means create a place where truth meets life; between meetings this means shepherd members and develop apprentice leaders. Leaders are to serve (complete ministry tasks); during meetings this means plan and prepare for strategic serving opportunities; between meetings this means serve personally outside the group or serve together as a group.

When working w/new leaders, emphasize: role of leader-shepherd, invite people to the group, lead a discussion, guide prayer, promote safety, build a team, cast a vision, form a covenant.

P142 gives good example of training meeting.

Advocate open groups. Allow unconnected and new people to choose between new and open groups.

notable quotable

File this under Notable-Quotable and News from the Pews:

Calvary's own Gerry Cleaver is featured in the December issue of Christianity Today. The Baylor physicist talks about String theory, and that model's latest unified theory of everything M-theory, and how this points to a creative and imaginative God. The article attempts to explain String theory but, as someone with two masters degrees who reads about quantum physics on the side, I still don't get it. However, the point of the article, and one that Gerry highlights, is that the universe(s) leave ample room for God and a God that is interesting (as opposed to a deity/watchmaker).



The December issue of Christianity Today is in the Welcome Center for your perusal.

advent devotions

A dear member put me onto to daily advent devotions. D365 is a website that provides a short online devotion each day. They are covering Advent, of course.

While I'm not too keen on the background music (they do have a silence button right on the browser), their material does have depth and clarity.

The website for the Advent devotions is www.d365.org/followingthestar

Blink

I decided to take a one book break from the Small Group ministry books I've read of late. I picked up Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: the Power of Thinking without Thinking. Gladwell authored the wildly successful The Tipping Point.





Blink is a good book filled with Gladwell's argument and then a lot of anecdotal stories to illustrate his points. He further seasons the work with some psychological and behavioral research.





The basic argument is that in complex decisions, more information leads us to make poor choices, if we can make any choice at all. Go with the gut and act seems to be the maxim. He frames this by acknowledging that we do need to think through some decisions, those decisions are more likely to be of a simpler nature. We have access to so much information in this age that the additional data doesn't serve us well--we can't process it and it is often contradictory in nature. Rather than lead us to informed decisions, we end up informed but in stasis--information overload in other words.





For my own part, my gut is usually right about things, though often I make experience prove that intuition. One drawback to this approach is that we can't answer 'why' when we follow our gut. Gladwell admits this but argues that we don't usually know why when use something other than our gut. He argues that, while we can't control our first instinct, to better utilize our gift for instant preferences, we should provide better parameters and avoid stereotypes or cultural biases.





Easier said than done. If you are looking for an interesting and easy, but not life altering read, this book is for you.

book reviews

I'm a big fan of The Wire tv series, a 5 season offering from HBO. I didn't have HBO when it came out; I still don't. But I did view the series via DVDs.



Before you run out to grab it, there is violence and language and adult content. I didn't find any of it gratuitous, but others might. Be forewarned.



The series takes on urban life from a multitude of perspectives using Baltimore's police, politics, news media, poverty and education system as foils. I really found it to be a good representation of the life in Trenton, albeit the series did so on a larger and grander stage.



To that end, I picked up a book by The Wire's creator, David Simon, titled Homicide. Simon was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun until buyouts and cutbacks led him to scriptwriting. Homicide is a non-fictional account of a year in the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit. It's a fascinating account about investigation and its separation from prosecution as well as ample "inside baseball" material. It's not a quick read but I recommend it.



I also read Rafael Alvarez's The Wire: Truth Be Told which chronicles the series from inception to finale. It includes episode summaries as well as essays about peripheral topics. The material from Simon was by far the most interesting for me.

thanks

There are many things to give thanks for. Calvary Baptist and its community is certainly one. I also give thanks for the quote I heard last week:

"[Calvary Baptist Church] is like Disney World, except with Jesus instead of Mickey Mouse."--Sarah Stoner.

Great quote. I'll try to post notable quotables as they arise.


My reading on Life Groups continues. Here are some notes for a very insightful book about LGs:

Making Small Groups Work; Henry Cloud & John Townsend

Need a theological and practical vision for small groups [SGs].

For Leaders

SGs foster reconciliation. Leaders can help members: reconnect to the Source, reconnect through real relationships, experience total grace, learn & experience the value of obedience to God and give control to God.

To achieve this, SGs need grace, truth and time. Time is not real time but redemptive time. Group time has seasons.

Groups

Groups provide connectedness, integration of character, honesty, normalize struggle.

There is discipline and structure to SGs. To discipline, see the love in discipline, see the need, learn a language of discipline, and learn how much structure the group needs.

Decide prayer’s place in the group. Pray about group issues. Encourage individual accountability. Forgiveness is an element—forgiveness for the group and from the group.

Mentoring is a necessary ingredient to build new leadership.

Starting one

There are two threads to groups: structure/truth (how group imparts its truth to its members) or experience/process (how much emotional closeness is right for the group). Good groups need some of both threads.

Typical types: bible/book study, topical, recovery and general support. In choosing materials, people come first. Prepared group members have a much better exp.

Groups facilitate process, provide safety, listen, clarify and ask questions, confront, set limits, allow and silence.

Group members

Expectations for group members: be known, listen to each other, receive and give feedback, learn to love, practice obedience, make positive changes, learn new skills, discover and develop gifts, discern harmful patterns, confess and repent, take risks, and grieve.

There will be problems in groups. Expect that. There are ways to deal with neediness, noncompliance, passivity, shutting someone up, aggression, narcissism, and spiritualization.

Life Groups

Some church matters over the past few months have kept me from focusing on Life Groups. I don't have a very good LG background. But I'm trying to catch up quickly through voracious reading.

Find below some notes from a book I just finished entitled The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry by Donahue and Robinson.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:

Unclear Ministry objectives: Three small group models: church w/groups; church of groups; church is groups. P22. Ways to associate groups: affinity, geography, placement. How to belong: church member, prospective, seeker. Every group has a leader. Some meetings have instituted structure model, others are per the group. Curriculum can be centralized or per the group. Willow has low-control, high-monitor model. Vertical alignment links w/church mission; horizontal alignment builds church together.

Lack of Point Leadership: Need someone to champion small group min to leadership and to church. Get people connected; monitor group effectiveness. Point leader needs leadership, administrative gifts, discernment, ability to communicate vision, team building.

Poor Coaching Structures: Good coaches care, listen, encourage, pray and reproduce (Christ in others through spiritual development). Coaches need supervision of the same kind.

Neglect of Ongoing Leadership Development: Pay attention to leadership pipeline and develop those leaders in it.

Closed Group Mind-Set: Open chair matters. Teach community with it growing and enlarging on different levels.

Narrow Definition of a Small Group: Define role of leader, nature of connection, community of care, spiritual next steps, willingness to extend community. Have common developmental framework, common structure, and common ground.

Neglect of the Assimilation Process: Follow up early and often. Also know when to quit. Connect to a small group leader. Developmental framework is: Groups, Grace, Growth, Gifts and Good Stewardship.

Book reviews return!

I must be pretty famous. Or I’m very forgetful. Over the past two months, I’ve gotten innumerable emails seeking my help in assisting foreigners navigate bureaucracy as they seek to reclaim their fortunes. And they all claim to have met me and gotten my implicit agreement for assistance. WOW!

I’m bringing back a golden oldie. When I served on Trenton’s City Council I had a daily blog. Among the blog components were some book reviews. Most of these dealt with urban policy—crime intervention, housing, economic development, community organizing, etc. It was interesting stuff and very pertinent at the time. The reading continues, though the subject for the most part has changed.

Let’s start with a book review of…When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert. I read this book upon a recommendation this summer and Calvary recently concluded a study of this book as a Sunday School elective and as a Wednesday night offering. The authors argue that most Christian efforts to help those in need are counter-productive and discourage meaningful personal relationships. Most Christian social ministry is geared to relief when more appropriate models of assistance (rehabilitation and development) are needed. Relief as a model promotes dependency on those receiving and an air of superiority on the part of the giver. Long term resentment and “savior complexes” can arise.

This tendency hurts both parties. The recipients lose dignity and opportunities for responsibility. The situation encourages false pride and self-sufficiency on the part of the givers. This cycle reinforces itself and creates a nasty cyclone.

The author provides a great story to illustrate this at the beginning of the book. Everything about the story screams for his intervention, and he does intervene. He goes on to show that his intervention, while providing some relief, had short and long-term consequences and, as importantly, negated an opportunity of the community to take care of itself. It was easy to intervene; it felt like the emotionally acceptable thing to do; it was harmful to the community and to him.

The authors argue that care and compassion and love require more than a quick fix (which isn’t a fix at all). It requires relationships that show the vulnerability and brokenness of all parties and thereby allows Christ to transform.

I recommend the book highly and it has had a great impact on Calvary’s missiology as we move forward. We are getting out of the relief business and focusing all our missional efforts on relationship building.

cli: understanding your neighborhood economy

10/23 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Understanding Your Neighborhood Economy; Lee Ann Adams

Key Concepts in Community Econ Dev

1. Comm. econ dev

a. Improving econ conditions: decreased cost of living, increasing income, improving financial stability

b. Enhancing quality of life: fostering growth of creative and cultural industries, creating attractive and healthy environment

Really good comm. dev can displace people.

2. Attributes of an ideal local economy

a. Econ vitality: provides good jobs, good services, productive activities and full utilization of human and physical resources

b. Econ equity

c. Econ security

d. Econ quality

e. Econ empowerment: local ownership

Comm Econ Dev Term:

1. Community Benefits Agreement

2. Development Subsidies

3. Social Enterprise

4. Small Business

5. Microenterprise

6. Employment Multiplier—when new jobs within community generate related jobs

7. Local multiplier effect—number of times a $ invested in labor is recycled on other items w/in community

8. Capital leakage--$ leaves community when goods are purchased elsewhere

9. Import substitution—local work that replaces the need for importing those goods or services

10. Green jobs

11. Smart growth

Key players in neighborhood economies are residents, neighborhood associations, educational institutions, local/state/federal govts, financial institutions, corporations, private developers, cdc’s.

Adams laid out the typical process for both private and publicly initiated development.

Strategies for improving your neighborhood economy:

1. Select guiding principles

2. Improve econ conditions through reduction in cost of living or increased income. Encourage asset accumulation.

a. Reduce cost of goods/services

b. Reduce time/travel costs

c. Increase demand for labor

d. Improve labor safety

e. Increase asset building

Raising property taxes will usually result in higher cost of living w/in neighborhood.

3. Local first campaigns. Chicago studied that big box stores do not result in increased jobs as they replace local ones. The tax revenue generation is negligible b/c the low wage jobs often push residents onto public assistance.

4. Anchor institutions.

5. Commercial district revitalization

6. National Main Street program

7. Workforce dev

8. Growing good neighborhood jobs

NW CLI 135 Strategies for Creating Great Neighborhoods

10/22 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Strategies for Creating Great Neighborhoods; Michael Schubert

MS manages Milwaukee Housing Initiative, which affects middle neighborhoods, not high or low income ones. Built organization framework. Has consulted for 20 years focusing on neighborhood change. Worked for Richard Daly Jr. as Housing Dir for a couple of years. Before that, he worked at National Housing Services of Chicago for 14 yrs.

Most goals are working with people in neighborhood and attracting new people. That’s redevelopment. Neighborhood confidence matters—keeps folks engaged and need to build it. Things can change positively if folks are engaged.

Course objectives: understand the components of what makes a great neighborhood; understand the ‘neighborhood story’ and how to shape it, present some important ideas about neighborhood change—connect strategies to build on strengths and overcome obstacles.

What makes a great neighborhood? Good people, safe/clean, economy, blight is not focus though may be present in some degree, visible pride. Neighborhoods have names. Each has hst and stories. A great neighborhood is a place where it makes econ and emotional sense for neighbors and other stakeholders to invest and a place where neighbors can successfully manage day to day issues and are connected to each other in positive ways. Doesn’t mean that a neighborhood is problem free. It is a place where neighbors have capacity to manage problems.

Principles of Neighborhood Change: Neighborhoods are always changing. The tenor of change is driven by how people read who’s moving in and who’s moving out. What about gentrification? MS says class doesn’t matter, find positives. Markets are so soft now that there isn’t any gentrification. There is speculation and this is on the whole negative. In ‘80’s, there was anti-speculation ordinances. One had a high tax on flipping properties in less than a year. Small developer has always been great asset to neighborhoods. Over the Rhine Cincinnati was mentioned [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-Rhine].

Many make the mistake of thinking of neighborhoods as projects. They are systems. Do things to suggest a positive future. Neighborhoods improve when residents feel confident.

Work with realtors. Market and sell. Give people a sense of control. Build on strengths; don’t just focus on negatives.

How do you create great neighborhoods? 1)know the neighborhood: who’s there, geography, market, neighborhood story. The neighborhood story is the narrative people inside and outside tell about the neighborhood. What 3 things do you want people to say about the neighborhood? One can learn the story by: walking & talking, listening and engaging and analyzing data.

2)have the right language. What does positive change look like? What outcomes do you want? What are the real issues?

3)right strategies and right program tools. Don’t have a crime watch but a welcome committee. Don’t focus on affordable housing but housing demand. How? Understand the market: who to market to and what does this group want. Understand neighborhood: what can it provide, what’s the message, and how do you reach them with the message? Use market to benefit the community. Activities need to reinforce positive image.

4)the right organization does the right things. Gave Layton Boulevard West Neighbors and Enderis Park in Milwaukee as youtube participants.

5)know if things are changing. Results push us forward. Evaluate what you are doing. Generate outcomes, not just output.

What undermines efforts to create great neighborhoods? Folks invested in maintaining a culture of dependency so that a neighborhood becomes a group of clients instead of citizens. He referenced James McKnight’s work on this. Also know that things perceived are real in their consequences. Planning is not the new doing. McDonald’s doesn’t blame me when I don’t buy a hamburger—if what we aren’t doing isn’t working, maybe it’s not good enough. Sometimes there are one or two buildings that symbolize decline; addressing these may have a great impact.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE

NW CLI Rocky Mountain Plenary

10/22 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Building Leader & Sustaining Communities

Rocky Mountain District Plenary, Fred Chapin

Each NW group (i.e. Waco) will write an action plan on Sat. This session is to get ready for that action plan.

Action plan purpose: take what you learn and apply it (project, event, activity), produce new leaders. Start with desired end and work backwards. Define results, document results, report results to NW America so they can report to Congress. Each team will get $2000 to go towards their action plan. This can be combined with other sources of funding.

Past examples of action plans: websites to provide communication outlets, murals (Waco did this in E Waco), beautify community gateways, community stories.

Neighbor Works Community Leadership Institute plenary session

10/22 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Building Leader & Sustaining Communities

Opening Plenary. John Santer

This CLI has over 1000 people. 20% of participants are not directly related to NW. NW America provides opportunities for affordable housing, works to improve lives and strengthen communities by financial support, tech assistance, and providing training.

Dorothy Mae Richardson was a mom in Pittsburgh who started National Housing Svcs 42 yrs ago. That became NW. In 1978, Congress made Natl Reinvestment Corp, now NW America.

NW is 230 community based orgs in 50 states. There are 8 geographic districts. Each NW is autonomous. 33% serve rural areas. Neighborworks.org is website. NW served 1 million homeowners since 2007 and issued $629 million in grants.

Susan Naimark, Dir., Community Building & Organizational Progress NW

NW has 3 divisions: training, community building & organization, and field ops. There are 3 elements to community building: resident leadership, resident organizations, and relationship building. This yields effectiveness, inpact and sustainability.

First CLI in 1995. They have had 28 since. First natl CLI was in San Jose in 2008. CLI’s provide chance to learn, discuss community issues.

Lisa Thompson, New Directions Housing Corp in Louisville Director

Louisville crosses KY-IN state line. New Directions works on both sides of the Ohio river. She likes community based coaching.

Dr. J.Otis Smith, Philadelphia professor, keynote speaker.

Good communication allows for discussion on a range of things. 3 toughest leadership challenges/hidden opportunities in plain sight: knowing where you want to go and where you can go [opie clip]; attracting and listing to folks that aren’t clones (this is risky but not listening has consequences) [office space clip]; doing something that matters to you and your neighbors.

2/3 of residents want fairness and respect. This is a leadership asset in plain sight.

Theories: stereotypic vulnerability—the stereotyped start to believe the stereotype; and learned helplessness—past treatment can affect the present [mouse shock experiment example, research on mouse showed that it took 23x to get out of corner].

community leadership

One of Calvary's own, Chad Klawetter, works for NeighborWorks. NeighborWorks sponsors Community Leadership Institutes at various times in various places. These CLI events provide education, networking opportunities and demonstrations of best practice in community revitalization.




NeighborWorks has invited me, Rev. Oliver from Greater New Light and a minister from Antioch to attend the latest CLI in Louisville, KY, that starts today and goes through Sunday (I'll be back on Sat night for those interested). Some questions that we will consider during this event include:

--How do we best define Sanger-Heights as a "healthy" or "revitalized" neighborhood? What does it look/feel/sound/operate like? How do we measure progress toward this goal or vision? Who should own the outcome?

--What community assets and strengths might we want to include in developing a strategy for making Sanger-Heights a healthier neighborhood? How can we use subsidy strategically?

--Do our residents have the capacity and willingness to manage change in the neighborhood? How can we help equip them?

I've provided a link to their website about the CLI and, as a copious notetaker, I'll post regular updates about the event.





http://www.nw.org/network/training/specialized2/cli.asp

consecration sun

We had a wonderfully faithful response at Consecration Sunday. Over 60 families/individuals filled out 2011 pledge cards. Most of those indicated a willingness to increase giving next year as an act of worship and faith in God for provision.

Today, letters and pledge cards will go out to member who were not present on Sunday. We hope to report a grand total sometime in November.

Thanks to the Diaconate for passing out the cards. As spiritual caretakers of the church, their involvement displayed that this Sunday was not about finances but about Worship. Thanks to the Finance committee for collecting and tabulating the results so far. And thanks to Rita for providing some great chicken tortilla soup.

One more point, last year we had a few youth pledge part of their income (allowances, odd jobs, etc.). This year, we also had some children make monthly commitments. Most of these are below a $1 but the amount never matters. What matters, and is a testament to Calvary and their parents, is that they understand that ultimately God provides and that God entrusts some of the work of His kingdom to us. Wonderful news!

parking and postmodernism

Funny story from Sunday night. Maybe ironic would be a better description. Getting to it, the youth and Mikal Klumpp and Cody Phillips and I carved pumpkins this past Sunday evening. While we trying our artistic skills on the innocent gourds, one of Waco's finest rolled in. Evidently, someone has abandoned an old car on the lot across Homan Ave. from the church. This is the lot that the church owns. The officer came by to tell us about this having been alerted to it by neighbors that face the lot on 19th St. These neighbors wanted the City to tow the car as it interfered with their parking; the twist being that they wanted a car towed from a church lot so they could continue to park on said church lot.





In a very tenuous segway (think irony), I had a conversation with a Truett student last week. It wasn't a Calvarian Truett student but one that was still church shopping and sought me out. She wanted to talk about post-modernism. Post-modernism is a loose school of thought that rejects all claims of propositional truth. There are only perspectives and assertions, nothing foundational that has universal appeal. Jean Francois Lyotard's work in 1979, The Postmodern Condition, is the corpus for this.

There is an inherent contradiction to postmodern thought: the only truth is that there is no truth. That in itself is a truth. This is a foundation for something built upon an absence of foundations.

Whatever the current thought trend swirling around our culture matters little to the Church. I actually think the Church does better when it is not the dominant culture. The Church survives when it is taken as a given; the Church thrives when it is the minority facing an opposing culture. If it's the postmodern culture, let's have at it.

inerrancy or interpretation

I mentioned a Christianity Today article in my message last week that featured the current head of Southern Seminary in Louisville. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/october/3.18.html

In the article, Mohler makes a profound admission. He states that the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention wasn't about the bible itself but rather how to interpret the bible. For years and years, fundamentalists crusaded to defend the Holy Writ. Words like 'inerrant' and 'inspired' were thrown out. That became the litmus test, for these pharisees, on whether or not a Christian was a true-believer.
In truth, that wasn't it at all. I don't believe the bible contains errors. I do believe that it is the inspired word of God. Believing that doesn't mean that I have to interpret Genesis 1 as occurring in 168 hours.
Fundamentalists really want control. Using some buzz words doesn't yield that control. Determining how scripture is to be interpreted, that does. Of course, arguing that scripture has only one interpretation negates the power of the Holy Spirit and denies the Reformation's argument for the perspicuity of scripture that Luther fought so hard for--but hey, the lust for power is a strong temptation.
To sum up, the battle from 1979 to whenever was a battle of hermeneutics, not a battle for the bible. I'm pleased that a fundamentalist finally fessed up to that.

non-profits and poverty

The Waco Tribune had an interesting article last week about McClennan County's poverty rate. The article had the temerity to ask why the poverty rate continues to increase despite the plethora non-profits and social services in the area. It's a great question that is rarely asked.

To be fair, college students count toward the poverty rate, according to the Chamber of Commerce. Students don't have much income and technically fall below the poverty line. As Baylor's student population increases, as I understand it did this year, the county's poverty rate will increase too. For the sake of argument, let's discount the increase in the poverty rate and take it as static.

The lousy economy certainly comes into play as more individuals and families face challenges. That aspect can't be overlooked.

However, the Trib question remains. There are some interesting non-profits and social service agencies doing their thing in Waco and the surrounding area. Are they largely ineffective? The flip side to this is that perhaps they have kept the poverty rate from increasing at a geometric rate. That's a possibility.

I recall my time in Trenton. There were some great non-profits there. Isles, Inc. and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen probably typify the best of them. There were also a lot that served as vehicles to provide jobs to supervisors and staff, rather than trying to get folks to a level of self-sufficiency. The point of every social service non-profit should be to put itself out of business. Some really try to do that; many lock clients into a level of dependency to insure continued funding of the agency. There is a lot of money in fighting poverty.


Calvary is working through When Helping Hurts. It challenges some basic assumptions, many maintained by the Church, in dealing with poverty. Join us on Sun mornings in the Fellowship Hall, 9:30, or on Wed nights in the College SS room at 6:30pm.

Religious quiz

From our friends at the Pew Forum On Religion and Public Life, a religious knowledge quiz to test you.

I'll post how I did tomorrow!


http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

Finley Graham--missionary to Arabs and Sheila Graham Smith's father

Here is a link to a Baptist Press piece on Finley Graham: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=13120

burnings and buildings

I had inadequate time on Sunday to address the furor surrounding a proposed mosque in lower Manhattan and a proposed Koran burning by a minister in Florida. I felt the need to address it none the less. Hopefully, this elaboration will clarify my remarks from Sunday.

As a Baptist, I must advocate for freedom of worship. If one wants to build a house of worship, regardless of that religion, on private property and has conformed to all applicable laws and regulations, that house of worship should be built. By the same token, if someone wants to burn some books as a form of worship, then so be it. Freedom of worship is freedom to worship as long as no one else is physically harmed.

Implicit within our many freedoms is the freedom to be dumb. I think book burning is moronic; I don't recall Jesus burning any books in the Gospels. By the same token, there are plenty of sites in and around NYC to build a mosque. Determining that lower Manhattan is the best prospect for a new Muslim house of worship is unwise and myopic. However, the principle of freedom of worship trumps wisdom, good sense and appropriate judgment.

As an aside, I don't have a high opinion of either the Iman or the minister. Both seem more interested in cameras and microphones than in anything substantive. Today's media seems to have no problem giving each a bully pulpit.

In a time in which we have so many more pertinent and complex issues, perhaps we can turn our attention elsewhere.

hipster

We may not be cool but we are on the cusp of discussion trends within 21st century American Protestant Christianity. I offer the link to this month's cover story in Christianity Today. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/september/9.24.html

bring your brain to church

I got an appropriate email from a congregant following Sunday's sermon asking for some clarification on the message. There was a fear that I was preaching an anti-intellectual message given that I took the Sadducees to task for asking a "dead" question (Mark 12.18-27).

I’m a student of theology and enjoy thinking about doctrine and how things work and so forth. I suppose I was making a distinction about the origin of questions, not the substance of them per se. I would argue, and maybe I did that morning, that any question asked as a purely academic exercise without an underpinning of devotion or without a foundation of a relationship with God or without a desire to know the Divine is a dead question. It’s not the question so much as the asker and where that person is that determines whether or not a question has merit.

By that standard, potentially any question could be dead. As well, any question, if asked from a place of seeking, could be alive (to stretch the metaphor—perhaps to its breaking point). The Sadducees engaged in an intellectual dual to tear down, not to build up, to close the Gospel, not to open it.

hipster Christianity: point, counterpoint, counter-counterpoint

The raging debate about Hipster Christianity continues:http://thewartburgwatch.com/2010/08/19/tthe-wall-street-journal-weighs-in-on-hipster-christianity/


As an aside, I can't think/write/vocalize hipster without being reminded of Kramer from Seinfeld being called a "hipster doofus."

hipster

Following the thread from the previous post, a church member submitted the post available at the following link:
http://www.maurilioamorim.com/2010/08/hipster-vs-polyester-christianity-and-the-cultural-trap/

Game on the field

During the invitation on the Sunday before last, a regular visitor to Calvary came to the back and gave me an anecdote to the message.



He said that friends of his had been to Cowboys Stadium to watch a game. With the massive television above the field, their attention wasn't on the actual players on the turf but rather they were fixated on the screen.



He related that to Calvary. Amidst some bands and worship shows, the message of the Gospel can be lost. He said that his family liked Calvary because the game on the field was always front and center.



Everything else aside, that's cool.

trendy church

Apropos of today's message, I present the following link for your edification: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111704575355311122648100.html

good news

Some tidbits from the recent meeting of the Coordinating Council:
*one year ago our note on the Welcome Center addition (and other renovations of Calvary) stood at about $1,000,000.00. As of Sunday, it was down to $656,000.00! That is excellent. Some of that drop is from the Numbers 449 campaign. Some is from the budgeted principle we pay each quarter. Some is from fulfilled pledges dating back to Fall 2009. I do not think that we will pay the debt off in 2012, as this timeline might suggest. However, we are well on our way. Thanks be to God.
*we had a number of children go to Passport Camp in late July. While there, I am told, some members and chaperones of other Baptist churches asked Calvary adults how we did it. They wanted to know how we as a primarily middle to upper middle class Caucasian church had incorporated such a diverse demographic of children into our church. These churches had the heart to do this but had not succeeded. How did we do it? I don't know the response that serve as an adequate answer. I think we struggle with whether we have done it or not. It may look like a finished process to others but does not appear so to one on the inside. However, sometimes as one on the inside, we don't see the totality of the road travelled but only the distance that still lies in front of us. We have come a long way. We have further to go. God has remained faithful to this point and we trust in that steadfastness tomorrow and beyond.

wheels

The family got back into Waco just before dusk last night. We had traveled 2300+ miles in a week going from Waco to Memphis, TN, to Nashville (2 nights) to Albany, GA (2 nights), to New Orleans and then home again...home again.

Lots of car time and wishing to be there already time and hoping the kids will take a nap time. During the trip, the "check engine" light came on twice--once climbing the hills around Chattanooga (with 300 more miles to go that day) and the other as we rolled into New Orleans on Monday. Each time, the car ran fine and the light eventually went off.

I will confess to great anxiety when the light came on. I couldn't take my eyes off of it--it was a harbinger of doom: sitting on the side of a road with young children, waiting for a tow, getting stuck in a town while repairs are made, being at the mercy of a mechanic. Does it sound like I've done this before?!

As I tried to take my eyes and mind off the light, I thought about God giving believers a "check engine" shakeup once in a while. With the light on, I thought of how wonderful it is to have a working machine. I point it in a direction, give it gas and it goes. When it is going, rarely am I thankful; I take it for granted and fail to notice it. On that trip, I gave thanks each time we arrived somewhere. That has continued.

As a believer, maybe I expect it to go well all the time. Maybe I'm surprised when a "check engine" light or some other obstacle appears. Maybe we do that as a church and as the Church. Paul tells us to be joyful in all things. We can be joyful in many things. We usually aren't joyful when the "check engine" light appears; we are usually anxious. Maybe that light is to test our joy.


Recent reading: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad; When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...or Ourselves by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett; Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice by Franklin Seger and Randall Bradley; No Peace without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu; Evangelism without Additives by Jim Henderson; The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr.

Calvary kids at Passport

Our children are at Passport camp this week. Keep them and our chaperones and Children's Minister in your prayers.

Digital chronicling of the week may be accessed using the instructions below:

Here is a link to the website: http://www.passportcamps.org/campphoto/files/kidsbuckner1.php
And password: sprint

Season of Repentance

Calvary served as a bright morning star to the Sanger-Heights neighborhood and Greater Waco for years. The church went through a season when its light dimmed and its halls grew dark. However, the light of Christ is returning. If we truly desire to dwell in the illumination of the fullness of Christ once again, we must repent as a church for the past few years. Please use Psalm 51 as a daily confession for this, praying it as your own each day.

A link to Sunday’s sermon on July 18 is provided below. If you missed that worship service, please take time to listen to it and join us as we seek to return to the light.

http://calvarybaptistwaco.com/media.php?pageID=12 and click on the message for July 18, Have Mercy.

More from Youth Passport Camp

For and update from camp please visit:

http://www.calvarystudents.net/documents/greetings%20from%20passport%20camp.pdf

youth at passport

From our Youth Minister Danny Steis:

http://www.passportcamps.org/campphoto/files/mercer5.php

* the password is "jump"

* expect new photos to be added each afternoon

CBF Notes--Winner sermon

Sermon by Lauren Winner, Duke U. professor; Worship service, CBF, 6/25; Charlotte

LW is a big mix: Baptist grandmother, Episcopalian mother, reformed jewish father. She is Episcopalian now.

Long story about her home church and a pie social and lost car keys and video discussion.

CBF asked her to speak hopefully @ mainline churches. 1 John may have been response to new teaching arising in that contemporary situation that seemed at odds with old teaching. How to wrestle through discernment amidst fracturing and fragile community? There is mainline anxiety now: less $, less stature. LW says this is good for the churches.

In 1950, Christian Century did a piece on 12 mainline churches doing it right. There were 2 baptist churches included, one in Apex, NC (Olive Branch BC). It had a community center in this agricultural community that served many functions.

Fosdick’s 1930 hymn “God of Glory” has verse saying ‘grant us courage.’ The ‘us’ includes mainline churches but also the nation-state.

In ‘90’s, Christian Century did follow up on those 12 mainline churches profiled 40 years previously. Book came out on this by Randall Baumer, Grant us Courage. Here, ‘us’ is just mainliners. ‘Us’ has changed over the decades.

We can’t go back to seeing ‘us’ as at one with nation-state. Mainline anxiety leads to strange questions. These come from false sense of powerlessness. It is easier to feel powerless than to be a disciple. Handwringing is abdication.

Apex church in 1950 was engaged in total life of its community. Discerning needs and involving ourselves in those needs is discipleship. We are called to total involvement in the community.

What present do we want to craft? We don’t want or need to be in the nation-state. We don’t need to be anxious mainliners. We need and are called to be kingdom makers and cross bearers.