The holiday season brings so many expectations. Expectations of joy, happiness, and fun. Every social media post seems to be a record of someone’s perfect and wonder filled holiday.

Yet, for many the holiday season is a time of pain, sadness, and heartache.

Why do we engage the disciplines of spiritual practice?

I will never forget the experience of going to work for my dad. I was pretty excited because my name was on the building and I assumed that I would get to work some cushy easy job and make the big bucks.

I was very, very wrong.

The fuel for spiritual growth

For the last few years I have had the privilege to help coach a few baseball teams. It has been an amazing experience of learning the game and learning how to help young men develop into the best baseball player that they can be. When a player is coachable, it is amazing to see how they grow and change over the course of the season. When a player is self-motivated, the growth is exponential.

The key to spiritual growth

I am the oldest of three sons and I check just about every box on the “oldest child” list. Chief among them is that if I don’t think I can do something perfect right away I usually won’t even make the attempt. Do you know what’s odd about that? I love to learn. There’s something magical in learning something new. What I am coming to realize though is that when I say learn what I mean is gaining new information.

These two things are not equivalent.

A foundational tool for spiritual growth.

What if I told you that the most significant thing that I have learned about consistently growing in my faith is something as simple as a circle?

The Foundation of Spiritual Practice

When we start talking about spiritual practice, spiritual growth, and the like some folks begin to sweat. They think that this necessarily means that there is something we are “adding” to our salvation. Some folks have a deep and abiding worry that somehow talk about spiritual practice necessarily leads to a works based Christianity.

The reality is that the opposite is true.

An Introduction to Spiritual Practice

>“Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is.” - C.S. Lewis

Do you find that quote to be relatively true? I do.

Actually, I not only find it to be true, it cuts me deep. As I think about that line it has me wondering, “How can I become the kind of person that does well when he’s taken of guard?”

Four Gs: God is Gracious

Grace, she takes the blame She covers the shame Removes the stain It could be her name

The Four Gs: God is Good

What do you need to be satisfied? What do you need to be content?

Seriously.

What is it?

Do you need a new car? Those clothes? That house? This gadget? That person?

What do you need to be satisfied?

The Four Gs: God is Glorious

When I was in middle school I was not what you would call, “popular.” I was a home body, I played a non-school sport, and didn’t have many friends. Shockingly, middle school was really hard for me. It’s not a period of time that I look on with any kind of fondness.

The Four Gs: God is Great

It was cold. The mist hung thick in the air. It was late in a game that was out of hand underneath those Friday night lights. My son, the quarterback, dropped back to pass and after he released the ball a defender crushed him. It was by all means a late hit, one of many that game.

I lost my mind.

Fear is powerful. It generates strong emotions for fight or flight. Fear brings about not just emotional responses but physical as well. For the most part we work very hard at mitigating the fear that we feel and experience on a regular basis.

The time within which we live is filled with people telling us everything that we are afraid of or should be afraid of. Fear and promotion of fear is everywhere. It seems to be the currency by which those in power trade.

The story of the Scriptures opens by grounding people in their fundamental identity: human, the divine image bearer.

Thomas Browne in Religio Medici writes, “Let there be no doubt at the end of your life that you have been human. You are entitled to a Divine particle and to union with the invisible.”

>“Beauty is the soul’s birthright.” - Bernard of Clairvaux

There is something that Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)”

Have you ever thought about it?

When was the last time that you changed something about yourself? Perhaps it was a diet or workout regimen. Maybe you limited the amount of screen time you were consuming to read more.

What was it?

Have you ever been to a place where you expected hospitality and received none? How did it make you feel?

• Frustrated?
• Angry?
• Annoyed?
• Disappointed?
• Unwelcome?

Each day we rise and choose. Nobody else chooses for us. It is our choice and our choice alone.

We choose joyfulness. We choose hopefulness. We choose gratefulness. We choose happiness. We choose love.

We choose anger. We choose rage. We choose frustration. We choose irritation. We choose hate.

It is our choice. Nobody can make us do anything.

Every so often there is what I call, “The Pastor’s Lament.” This is when pastors take to the social media and explain how hard it is to be a pastor. They share memes of how pastoral ministry is so hard that they age like the President of the United States. They complain about the people they serve (not in public, but in private forums).

Basically, they whine.

I too am a pastor. Are there difficult things that go with being a pastor? Absolutely.

However, let us not lament, whine, or complain for we get to be cared for by the people of God to pray, serve, study, write, preach, and lead.

When we started the Antioch Movement, what is now becoming the Acts 13 Network, we made a decision about families. We decided that we wanted families to be together in all that we did. Our hope was that families would not be separated during their times of worship.

We believe that for children to grow and see what it means to be God worshipers, they need to be with their parents. Not only that, we think that they need to see other adults worshiping God too. Also, they need to be witnesses to the worship of their peers.

Do you ever wonder about God’s promises? You know, the ones that seem to be huge and wide sweeping. The ones that seem to go on forever.

Yet, never really seem to happen.

I do.

Often.

How is your soul?

>Is it filled with anxiety? Is it filled with stress? Is it scattered? Is it weary? Is it joyous? Is it happy? Is it content?

How is your soul?

It was late fall and the leaves were almost completely off the trees but hadn’t been raked. At the end of our street was a 90 degree turn because we lived on a horseshoe. One morning, shortly after receiving my driver’s license, I was fiddling with music in my car and wasn’t paying attention. As I looked up the turn was coming at me. I slammed on the brakes and slid into a bank of mailboxes. Thinking nobody saw me, I continued on to school.

Later that day, I was home watching TV when the phone rang and my mom answered it. Something in me knew I was done for.

“Dan, were you involved in a hit and run today?” my mom asked.

“Me? No I didn’t hit anyone. Come on.” I replied.

“Well that was the police and they said someone reported that you hit the mailboxes at the end of the street this morning and fled the scene.”

“Oh. Yeah. That was me.”

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

That’s a question that is on the tip of many tongues. Too often too many people feel as though they are experiencing injustices.

There is a great picture floating around on social media. It’s a photo of two kids on a medal platform. The kid in first place has a sour look on his face. The kid in third place is rejoicing! The caption typically reads something like this, “Happiness is all about your perspective.”

I dig that sentiment.

Are you a parent? I am and I struggle daily with being a parent. It’s really hard and scary work. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

In America we organize everything around our kids. Over the last few years there have been helicopter parents and now lawn mower parents (I’ll let you hit the Duck Duck Go Machine if you don’t know what those are).

A conversation…

“I could never be a pastor. I don’t know how you do it."

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You have to walk through all the terrible stuff in people’s lives. You’re face to face with all the bad stuff all the time. I guess, I don’t understand how a pastor could ever stay a Christian. It seems like it would be really hard to keep the faith when you see all the times that God doesn’t do what you want."

Where do you find your roots? Is your identity rooted somewhere? How do you know who you are?

As we walk through this life I think that this might be one of the most important questions that we face. The world comes at us pretty fast and more times than not the knowledge of who we are helps us to know what to do.

There are times when we feel like nobody cares about us. Sometimes, we feel all alone. That sense of being alone in the world is brutal. It lays us bare. It can feel like a million pounds is weighing us down.

This sense of being alone in the world and that nobody cares is not something new. It is common to the human experience.

Some Bible passages make us super uncomfortable in the modern era. It’s often because we don’t take time to think about what they’re saying and what they’re not saying.

The Scriptures were not written in a vacuum, culturally or otherwise. Neither should we interpret them that way. Nor are all passages written in the same genre and so we must take the time to understand what is happening in a particular passage.

Psalm 122 is one of those kinds of passages.

Have you ever noticed that life isn’t quite as easy as everyone says it’s supposed to be?

Our conversations so often look like this:

“How are you?" “Fine. Everything’s good."

Then you find out they are dealing with marital problems, cancer, or something else super hard.

Why do we need to gather together in community? Have you ever thought about it? Seriously, why?

To gather in community is not something that only Christians do. People from all kinds of religions meet together. Non-religious people gather in community, why? What is it about gathering together that we feel the necessity to do so?

There are few passages in the Scriptures that have impacted me more than 2 Corinthians 5. The whole chapter is amazing as it centers on the reality of the one who seeks to follow Jesus is a “new creation.” The ultimate result of this new reality is that the follower of Jesus is called an “ambassador” and is entrusted with the “ministry of reconciliation.”

As you might imagine a pastor is connected with a lot of people and accounts online about religion. My feeds are filled with other religious people and with people critical of religious people. If there is one particular kind of thread that I see often it goes like this:

>Christians only care about getting folks “saved.” The rampant hypocrisy of >the Christian is overwhelming. I love Christ but despise Christians.

To be clear, the particulars of this thread change, but that’s the heart of it. I see it from Christians and non-Christians. I see it from theists and atheists.

One of my favorite lines in any comic book or movie is the one from Uncle Ben, Peter Parker’s uncle in Spiderman. He said to his nephew, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

That line is memorable because I think we know that it is inherently true. We live in a world where so often we see the opposite. People with great power in our culture tend to abuse it. The powerful, with many exceptions, often use their power to amass more power. The wealthy, with many exceptions, use their wealth to amass more wealth.

There’s a line in a prayer that I reflected on this morning that says,

>Let us bless thee at all times and forget not how thou hast >forgiven our iniquities, >healed our diseases, >redeemed our lives from destruction, >crowned us with lovingkindness and tender mercies, >satisfied our mouths with good things, >renewed our youth like the eagles. (Valley of Vision, 382)

There are two responses this that run through my heart and mind to this and they are intertwined. I think that they feed into one another.

Introduction

In the long history of Christianity there have been many “rules.” These treatises of living have had profound impact in the life and ministry of the faith. From Benedict to Francis to the modern day, the “Rule” has been a means by which to order one’s life.

Over the past number of months I have been thinking a great deal about my social media and how I use it. I have listened to and taken in the reactions of people in my life to how I use social media. Their responses and perceptions have helped to shape this rule.

Beyond that I took some time to read through my “activity” on Facebook, approximately 13 years of social media usage. What I saw there has also significantly shaped this rule.

Finally, I hope by writing this out and publishing it publicly, I will learn to live by it. My desire is to live life to the full and to #LoveWell.

Update: On May 17th Coach McGoy was officially reinstated as the head coach of the Varsity baseball program. This was almost completely due to the overwhelming outpouring of support from the community.

Anytime I watch live TV I’m struck by the vast numbers of retirement commercials. They run constantly. It is non-stop. It seems like every other commercial is trying to make sure you will live comfortably in your retirement. The amassing of personal wealth for retirement seems to be the goal of every American.

I remember when it hit me. That moment in time when I knew I was going to marry Amy. Something had switched from being in love with the idea of love to knowing that she was the one. There is no other that shines so bright in my universe.

I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a kid, I watched the cartoons on Saturdays and after school, I bought comic books, I even collected (and played with) action figures. Yup, I dig the whole thing. The movies are enjoyable and very entertaining. Do you know what else? They ask some really hard questions.

There’s the famous story about the boy walking the beach covered in starfish. He was stopping and throwing them back into the water. An old man walked up to him and said, “Son, there are thousands of starfish. You can’t possibly save them all.” The little boy replied, “But sir, I can save this one and that matters.”

It’s a story that we hear and often roll our eyes at. It sounds so nice. But we all know that the boy is just being silly. I mean, seriously, what a waste of time. Right?

I’m a pastor. I invite people to follow Jesus. It’s my vocation, calling, and passion. Before becoming a pastor, I was a missionary on the college campus. I invited people to follow Jesus. There is nothing I want more than people to follow Jesus.

We live in a time where everyone talks about “community.”

“Community” this. “Community” that. “Community” “Community” “Community”

I have a secret to tell you.

A lot of people who are throwing around this word, “community,” have zero idea what it means or how it is supposed to work itself out in real life.

True community requires a few things.

Just like Vizzini from the Princess Bride, I have a feeling people don’t really know what community means.

Instead of either/or let’s be both/and!

I wrote yesterday about problems. Problems with he building centric model of being church and problems with the neighborhood missional approach to being the church.

It’s so very easy to point out problems.

The hard part is coming up with some solutions.

Or “Why Missional Neighborhood Congregations Aren’t Perfect”

I often write and speak about how beautiful my congregation is. The truth of the matter is that I do love it, I love every messy thing about living life with the people who are in my congregation. There is nothing that I would rather do than be our neighborhood pastor.

It is life.

Or, Why We Won’t Have A Building

I met with someone recently who is interested in launching a new congregation. They listened to my stories and my heart. I felt really heard by them. It was a wonderful time. It is evident they are a good person who loves Jesus.

They asked the question in our conversation that always comes up when discussing my perspective on leading congregations.

Why would having a building be so bad? How would it hurt what it is you’re doing?

A thought about what happened in the kitchen last night.

Each week I have the joy of gathering with friends to share communion. Communion is the culmination of our time together. It is not quiet or somber. It is noisy and talkative. It is beautiful and I love every minute of our inefficient celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Before that time we gather in together in a mob of humanity in my living room.

Part seven in a series on using the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to mission.

Why are we, Christians, upset when people want to hold us to a higher standard than others? When this happens I see the response from other Christians,

“We are sinners too, you know!” “We aren’t perfect, that’s why we need Jesus.” “We are broken.” “We are just like anyone else.”

Part six in a series on using the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to mission.

Who is your “them”? Is it conservatives? Maybe your “them” is liberals. Perhaps your “them” is cishet white males. Your “them” may very well be homosexuals. It could be that your “them” is people of color. Whomever your “them” is, to be on mission is to move towards “them” in love and forgiveness.

Part five in a series on using the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to mission.

I’m slowly working my way through the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to missional living. Do you want to catch up? Here you go:

Program vs Presence

Present in Prayer

Our Father

On Earth…

I am always amazed by how full my calendar is. I have dates on there months into the future. It’s crazy! This reality makes it very difficult to live in the moment. I am often thinking, planning, worrying, and dreaming about the future. Today is not something that I often pay attention to.

I live in the future.

I have a dirty secret.

Honestly, it’s not that much of a secret.

I am white, American, and male. Those three facts alone mean that I experience on a daily basis a level of privilege that many people don’t.

OK, many of you are about to stop reading and your eyes have rolled into the back of you head. I actually heard them roll. I have a teen-agers, trust me I can see an eye roll a mile away. Please keep reading. This is going somewhere. It’s not another “white man self-loathing” kind of piece.

We get exactly what we want.

Over the last few days I have bumped into an article by Rhonda Stephens entitled, “Parenting: Are We Getting A Raw Deal?” I saw it once and read it. I saw it a second time and read it again. The first time I laughed and remembered my childhood and how it reflected much of what Stephens wrote. I appreciated that at the end she makes it clear that maybe the current state of affairs is not the way things ought to be.

Part four in a series on using the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to mission.

I’m slowly working my way through the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to missional living. Do you want to catch up? Here you go:

1. Program vs Presence
2. Present in Prayer
3. Our Father

Love that is just an idea is not love at all. Grace that is just an idea is no grace at all. Mercy that is just an idea no mercy at all. Peace that is just an idea is no peace at all.

All these things need to be embodied. Love, grace, mercy, peace all need to be lived to be something. If they are not lived and carried out in the body, then what are they? Nothing.

Part three in a series on using the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to mission.

I’m slowly working my way through the Lord’s Prayer as a roadmap to missional living. Do you want to catch up? Here you go:

1. Program vs Presence
2. Present in Prayer

The next bit in the prayer is, “Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” You may be thinking, “What does that have to do with mission?”

Part two in a series on the Lord’s Prayer as road map to missional practice.

The other day I wrote about the difference between program and presence. I stated that I though that the Lord’s prayer is a road map to presence. Lord’s prayer starts with, “When you pray…"

I have been re-reading through Faithful Presence by David Fitch this last week. As I read, I am struck by the significance of presence over and against program.