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.

CBF Notes--Vestal address

Dan Vestal, Exec Coordinator Address; CBF, 6/25; Charlotte

Applying test to CBF. There is evidence of renewal in Baptist life. ‘Community’ is term used intentionally.

Nod to late Cecil Sherman, one of the organizers of CBF.

CBF has a task force to ask three questions: 1)what is best model of community to foster collaboration, as opposed to competition, between churches? 2)what is best way to focus and streamline organizational structures for local churches? 3)how can CBF get Baptist churches to be a part of this?

1 Cor 3.9—God’s servants working together. Fellowship defines identity and determines how we do missions—partnership. There mutuality of care for well-being of the other; no control, no institutional self-preservation. How can CBF live this out into the future? 1 Cor 3.9 is who we are. When we work out of who we are, there is natural and supernatural work happening.