Daniel Rose: The Pastor Next Door

On our way home from school I decided to break the news to Ethan. He had only one question, “Why Dad?”

Listening to all the talk about Miguel Cabrera and thinking about my own family’s history with alcohol and drug abuse, I am realizing that all of us are asking the same question. We feel a lot like this:

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQveng3Wxz8?rel=0])

You know what though? We don’t want to hear the answer. Why would a man who has a great wife sleep around? Why would a person with a family who loved him turn to drink? Why would a kid with everything in front of her slice up her arms? Why does a kid with a great future waste it away sitting on a couch getting high?

We are constantly left with the question, “Why Dad?”

The answer, while simple, is profound. The answer, while simple, sounds weak coming off the tongue. The answer, while simple, is not what we want to admit to. 

The answer is that the world is broken. Each of us are broken. There is a cloud of stink that sticks to us and we can’t shake it. 

Some of us can go about hiding it really well, for a while. 

Some of us can even hide it for our whole lives, but deep down we know it’s there. 

What bothers most of us is that we know, “…but by the grace of God go I”. 

What keeps any of us from doing these things? What keeps us from living out our brokenness in such a way that leaves us alone in a jail cell? 

It seems like there are two are things. The first is that there is someone in our lives who is willing to fight for us. They make it clear that they are with us and for us no matter what. For me, it was my mother. I remember when my mom and dad were divorced and her telling us, “You will not become ‘those’ kids. Your Dad and I love you and we expect that you will become successful, hardworking, good men. This divorce is not an excuse for anything.” 

She backed it up. Over and over.

The second is that there comes a point where individuals take responsibility for their own lives. There was a time, for me it was college, that each of us have to decide how we are going to live and whether or not we will take full responsibility for our actions. For those of us don’t get to that place we become like this:

http://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf

So, how did I answer the question, “Why Dad?”

I told Ethan that we live in a broken world that is filled with broken people. Sometimes this brokenness gets the better of them and they do things they don’t want to do. That’s why we have each other and that’s why we need each other. Then I told him we need to pray for everyone we know who’s broken and hurting because God really does care. That’s why Jesus came here and that’s why Jesus died and rose again.

Because God, really does care. 

How would you answer?

Dear Miguel,
I don’t know you. I have not ever met you. I have watched you play baseball every summer since your arrival in Detroit a few years ago. You may be the best baseball player I have ever seen. Every night before I go to bed I see your life sized poster hanging on Ethan’s, my nine year old son, bedroom door. 

You are his favorite player. 

He’s never met you either. 

Ethan and I cheer for you. We feel like we know you because you are in our home nearly every night from April through September (hopefully October too). Ethan wants to be a baseball player when he grows up and you are one of his heroes.

Today as I drove into work I heard on the radio about your DUI. My heart broke and my eyes filled with tears. I thought this is stupid, I don’t even know him. My heart is broken because I know that Ethan when he watches Sportscenter tonight or tomorrow will find out too. So, I know that he and I will have to talk about it. 

I know that he will experience heartbreak. 

I know he will cry. 

I know I will hold him. 

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be you. The pressure you must feel everyday has to be overwhelming. To live every single day in a bubble because you play a boy’s game better than anyone else has to be one of the most difficult things there is. I don’t want to pretend to understand. Because I don’t. 

I do want to say this, I am praying for you and Ethan will be too. Whether you know it or not you’re part of our family. You’re one of us, even though we’ve never met you. When you hurt, we hurt. 

Miguel, I hope that you will set aside baseball for a while and get the help you need. I hope that some day soon Ethan and I will be able to watch you play baseball again. We will be praying and asking that God will heal your brokenness and that he will break the addiction to alcohol. 

My hope is that you will realize that you cannot do this on your own. My hope is that you will realize that you are not invincible and that you need other people to come alongside you and care for you. Let them help. I also hope that you will realize that there is great grace, mercy, and community available to you in relationship with Jesus if you will repent and seek the forgiveness he offers.

Ethan and I will be praying and waiting. 

Sincerely,
Ethan’s Dad

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Missional Map-Making: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition is one of those books that jumped out at me as one that I needed to read. First, it was penned by Alan J. Roxburgh who has been a key player in the missional movement for a very long time. Second, the title alone highlights the fact that Roxburgh is not just talking recipes but is seeking to dive deeper into the heart of what is happening in the church today.

The text is broken out into two parts. The first is entitled, “When Maps No Longer Work”. In this first part Roxburgh makes a cogent argument that the world is not changing but has changed. The shift has occurred and our culture has moved from the “enlightenment/modern” understanding of the world to the “post-modern”. This means that our entire way of understanding the cultural terrain is broken. 

Roxburgh uses maps as his key metaphor. He argues that each of us have internal maps to help us navigate our daily meanderings through life in this broken world. This is the primary function of worldview. They are to provide us the means by which to make sense of the world around us. 

But what happens when the world is no longer what it once was? What happens when the maps no longer work? 

This is catastrophic when it comes to leadership. Roxburgh makes great connections from the business world and from the world of philosophy to make his point that leaders must not use the old maps but must be willing to change their maps so that they can lead the community of God’s people toward reaching a lost world. 

I think one of the best arguments he makes is in chapter 7 where he discusses the development of the internet and compares it to the culture at large. The internet was initially a linear connection of a handful of super-computers. It is now an interconnected web with no beginning or ending. This is true of our culture. The boundaries are being erased and as a result we struggle to even speak “multi-culturalism” or “pluralism” because inherent to both are boundaries. 

The boundaries are disappearing, so argues Roxburgh, so what will the church do about it?

Part two, “The Map Making Process” seeks to answer that question. There are four key components to building a new map that Roxburgh discusses. The first is to assess and understand the changes that have taken place in your community. Unless we have a firm understanding of the lay of the land it will be very difficult to draw a new map. We must become surveyors of the new landscape. 

The second is the cultivation of a core identity. This core identity is developed from the Biblical narratives and calls people to a renewed confidence. It is a pushing down to the “regular folks” the mission of God and removing it from the hands of the “pros”. 

The third is the “cultivation of parallel cultures in the kingdom”. This means that we must ease change into being by living out the new culture alongside those in the old. As more and more people live off the new map the old map will give way. While this is requires patient and slow change it is the way of love.

The fourth are “partnerships between a local church and neighborhoods and communities.” Roxburgh argues for the church to partner within its neighborhood to meet real needs and to care for the community within which it resides. These partnerships will help the church to ask the right questions and begin to draw an even more proper map for it’s world. 

Conclusion

This is a great text. It’s strength lies in the critique of contemporary church culture’s ability to engage with a changed world. It’s weakness lies in application. While Roxburgh provides some good stories, the reader is left wondering, “How?”. I was expecting this from the start (thanks to a very well done introduction). The truly engaged leader will be spurned on to creativity and thoughtfulness.

Creation: the act of producing or causing to exist; the act of creating; engendering.

We are all little creators. We are designed to create. Some of us may do this ways we would call “creative”; poets, artists, authors, or painters. Regardless of how creative you feel, you as a person created in the image of God, are to create. This is what it means when the Scriptures talk about the “subduing” and having “dominion” over the creation.

We are to leave the world better than when we found it. We are to build, shape, mold, and design. This is what it means to be human. This is the distinctive difference between us and the animal kingdom (and opposable thumbs).

To be human is to create.

To be Christian should mean to create at the highest level. Sadly the creatives among us are largely ignored or cast out. A friend says that we plucked out the eye of the church (although we like musicians because they can be ‘used’ in the worship service).

When I look at the world today the Christians are at the bottom of the rung when it comes to creating. Sadly we do not create well. We used to (read here Tolkien, Lewis, Sayers, Dostoyevsky, etc..) and the music used to be the best (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, etc…) but now we create for the lowest common denominator.

The church has co-opted pop culture and has done nothing to improve it, but typically is a poor mimic. “Christian” film is poorly written and poorly produced. “Christian” music tends to be meaningless drivel with the words “Jesus”, “Spirit”, and “God” thrown in to make it spiritual. “Christian” fiction is often overly sentimental with no real connection to the realities in the world around us.

I am not saying that everything is bad. There is good. But, on the whole, Christians are not creating at a very high level.

Christians would not be considered to be at the top of their crafts in the arts (with the exception fo U2).

But our creation doesn’t stop here. We must look at education, business, politics…everything and ask, “Where are the Christians”? In business it seems that many Christians are doing well (Chik-Fil-A, Interstate Batteries, etc…). In education the Church is holding steady at some places (Calvin and Wheaton) but it is largely on the outside looking in as more and more Christians retreat from the education system.

In politics…that’s another post for another time.

Here’s the bottom line: we can no longer whitewash cultural engagement with the adjective “Christian” and assume that means it is “Christian” because often times it is sub-Christian. More on this as we look at critiquing culture in the next post.

See the introduction to this post here.

We live in a unique time in the history of the world. If you don’t believe me check out this video:

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8])

Did I mention that video is a year or so out of date? 

Regardless. The reality is that the world is a very different than it was just a decade ago. We live in a time where our world is more interconnected than ever through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and Wordpress. We are able to express our thoughts and ideas to the globe in a keystroke. 

This is for the most part, in my opinion, a very good thing. It’s good because for those of who are seeking to make change we are able to express our ideas to the world at large in a way that is fast, nimble, and easily accessible. 

There is a darkside. A very darkside. One that I think is something we must begin to unravel or it could become so epidemic that change will be a farce. 

In the most recent edition of the MTV Sticky Facebook was the central theme. There was an article entitled, “Social Story Telling” which caught my eye. It did so because I like stories and I really like thinking about the new and different ways that we can tell in the emerging generations.

This article broke my heart with three sentences:

To support my friend in Egypt, I have already signed up for the virtual march of millions along with friends and 328,977 fellow Facebookers. We are all choosing to take a stand online in support of an event, enabling us all to attend an event digitally and making our voices heard in a non-physical way. (Much safer than getting caught short by a lobbed fire extinguisher). However, we are still able to impact on an issue that means something to us.

I had to do a double take. Did she really just say that through hitting the “like” button they are having an impact on an issue? 

Yes. She did. 

This is what I think of that:

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ4sEXiRP4k?rel=0])

This is the darkside of social media. “Virtual Participation”. The consequences are significant. As we consider how to build the kingdom of God in the emerging generations we must realize that our greatest difficulty will be to engage their participation “IRL” (that’s, ‘in real life’ for you older folks). 

The kingdom of God will not be built through hitting a “like” button. It grows through the faithful obedience of a covenant people proclaiming the message of their King. 

We cannot let the “like” button win. Huxley’s Brave New World with its unlimited entertainment is where we are heading. Will we as the Church sit idly by or will we call, train, and send a new generation of leaders to subvert the Empire of Consumerism Entertainment?

The Holy Spirit lives in those of us who have been reconciled by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those of us who are invited into and adopted as sons and daughters of the living God have received our new but old identity as ambassadors.

He gives us all we need to be who we are. This is it what it means to human.

What does this ambassadorship look like?

We create culture.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
(Genesis 1:26–28 ESV)

This is the cultural mandate. Created in the image of God and commanded to “subdue and have dominion”, this is our mandate.

There two sides to this mandate. The first is how are we doing as culture makers? How are we, who are called by the name of God, doing at creating?

The second is how are doing at critiquing and engaging culture?

The next two posts will address these issues.

Where have we been in this quest for understanding the cultural engagement by Christians? Well first we saw that humanity is created in the image of God, second we recognized our epic fail, then we saw how the Law was given to keep on the straight and narrow, and in the previous post we looked at King Jesus.

The question we must now face is what does this mean for the Christian? If we indeed have been transferred from death to life by King Jesus through his bloody revolution on a Cross, what does this new life look like?

2 Corinthians 5 gives us the answer, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV).”

In the new life we are now ambassadors for Christ. Wait, isn’t that what we were called back in the first post: “God gives humanity a very specific responsibility and that responsibility is fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominon. We are to this as God’s ambassadors.”

Yep.

You see we have been redeemed. Redeemed means, “to obtain the release or restoration, as from captivity, by paying a ransom.”

That’s right, restored.

What are we restored to? We are restored to our roles as ambassadors for Christ to the creation. If you say you are a creation you are not your own. You are an ambassador. You serve at the pleasure of King Jesus. You serve a particular purpose.

This ambassadorship is not a “special” or “unique” calling to a privileged few. It is for all Christians. This is our new identity, which is actually our original identity, only better.

How is it better?

The Holy Spirit.

Seriously.

Jesus said, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:7–15 ESV).”

This is what makes everything so much better. The Holy Spirit lives with us and is in us. How can we engage the world? We do it with the Spirit’s help.

The new is the old, only better.

As we continue to think about what it means to be culturally engaged Christians we must take a look at the turning point. Where have we been so far? First, we are created in God’s image. Second, we failed and failed big. Third, the Law was given as an overseer to show us our need for the Son. Now, we come to this place, the turning point.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:15–23 ESV)“

Paul is at his best here. He paints for us a compelling picture of a rupture in the entire world system. There was a new emperor in town and this one conquered through a criminal’s death. He won the day through blood being shed but not someone else’s, his own. Dostoyevsky argues in Crime and Punishment that all great men are proven great by getting away with murder. The King was so great that he orchestrated his own murder and then overcame through resurrection.

Then there is this phrase, ”…through him to reconcile to himself all things…“ It is this reconciliation that makes us human again.

Prior to the King overcoming death, we were in exile, not politically, but in our identity. We were exiled from who we really are: ambassadors to the King’s creation. We lived in broken relationship from our federal head who.

We were not human.

In relationship with the King through his reconciling work we become human again.

With reconciled identity and being and purpose we can finally be who we ought to be.

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Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Conquering any Business Challenge. It was given to me by a friend who said, “You have to read this. It’s pretty great.”

I was looking forward to reading it because I had already taken the leadership style inventory that goes with the book and found out that I was a “Wildebeest”.

That didn’t seem very inspiring.

You can read that last comment as “I was a bit skeptical”. I have read many books on leadership. I could list them for you but, my fingers would stop working. Swanepoel, has however, brought a unique twist to the game. He identifies seven key skills that a person needs to succeed in the Serengeti of leadership.

I am a pastor and so I read Swanepoel’s parable of the Serengeti through a bit of a different lens. I am not very interested in making a lot of money. What I am interested in is making an impact.

A big impact.

As I read I tried to imagine the Serengeti of church leadership and how the skills of the strategic lion, the enterprising crocodile, the enduring wildebeest (me!), the risk-taking mongoose, the communicating elephant, the efficient cheetah, and the graceful giraffe, would play out in our community.

The reality is that all of them, as Swanepoel states, are necessary. The skills that he highlights are at the principle level and cross the chasms business, education, non-profit, and wherever else leadership is needed.

I deeply appreciated the fact that in the Serengeti you could not go it alone. Each of the skills worked together for the survival of the whole. This is true in the church context as well. We must have teams who lead together. These teams must recognize the giftedness of the players and embrace one another’s special role.

I recommend you take a peak and think about what it would take to survive your Serengeti.

THE ENDURING WILDEBEEST
Like the wildebeest, endurance for us in its simplest form is the ability to exert ourselves for relatively long periods of time. More specifically, it’s all about the ability to withstand hardship and stress. We need to remain steadfast and persistent in the face of obstacles. It‘s often not the fastest nor the strongest one that wins the race, it’s the one that stays the course and goes the distance.

Last week I wrote that we have experienced an epic fail regarding our roles as ambassadors for the Creator to the creation. We rebelled and separated ourselves. We lost our way and began a corrupting process that led to shame and guilt (the first sin was Adam’s silence followed quickly by fratricide, that’s one heck of a spiral).

The story though is just beginning. Thankfully we are not the heroes or the centerpieces of this story. A good story needs a hero who desires something and overcomes conflict to get it.

The story that I am talking about has a hero, God. He wants something, relationship with people. So, what is he doing to get it? That’s the question I want look at.

It started in Genesis 3:

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

(Genesis 3:21 ESV)

If you look a few verses earlier you see that Adam and Eve were experiencing shame from being naked. So, God, kills a few animals and gives them clothes.

Shame is removed. A glimmer.

As time goes on humanity continues to go it’s own way. Through Abraham God calls out a people to be his own, the Hebrews. To these folks he gives the Law.

Have you ever read it? It’s remarkable. It’s merciful, gracious, and loving. Paul says it this way,

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

(Galatians 3:19–20 ESV)

It was an overseer. The law watched over God’s people leading them to him. If they would just follow it they would see him and know him.

They didn’t.

What will God do? He sends his son…

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. (Matthew 21:33–46 ESV)

It didn’t go well for the son.

Thankfully that’s not the end of the story. The death of the son changed everything. It opened a way for humanity to finally become, well, human.

In my previous post we looked at our identity as image bearers of the Creator King. We saw that humanity is called to follow its Creator in creation as representatives and ambassadors.

But, something is not right.

The original ambassadors for the King failed. They failed and as a result they sent all future generations into despair and exile. The man, Adam our representative head, was silent as his wife was deceived and drawn into sin.

From this moment on humanity was in a state of brokenness. We were lost and dead. The consequences extended to how humanity related to one another and to the creation. We no longer functioned as the King’s ambassadors but as traitors to the throne.

We corrupted it all.

We broke everything.

Separation was natural.

As a result we went to war to with our natural calling as human beings. We set aside our freedom for law. Enslaved by a self-centeredness that is tangible to every aspect of life.

We lost our way. Over time (about one generation) we forgot how to be ambassadors. We began creating things that did not bring glory to God.

We lost our calling.

Epic Fail.

God created…

Did you catch that? God created.

God made. God did. God acted.

What did he create? Quite simply, everything. He created it all and he did it well. You might even say perfectly.

One of the things he created was a human being, “male and female he created them.” We learn from Genesis:

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26–28 ESV)

The key word: tzelem — image. God made humanity in his likeness. Usually man made God in his likeness. In Genesis it’s the opposite. HALOT (a Hebrew Lexicon) points out that tzelem in this context leads us to the idea that man is God’s “viceroy, representative or witness among the creatures.”

What did God do? He created.

What is man? God’s representative in the world in his likeness.

What should man do? Create.

Look at the last paragraph of the passage quoted above. God gives humanity a very specific responsibility and that responsibility is fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominon. We are to this as God’s ambassadors.

This requires humanity to create.

The primary responsibility of humanity is to represent God among the creatures and in so doing we are required to create. This is what is necessitated by us being made in God’s likeness.

Many people today believe that the primary identity of a person is that they are a ‘sinner’. It is not. The primary identity of a person is that he is an image bearer of God. If we can begin to understand this we can begin to understand some things about how we are to interact with culture.

Now I am getting ahead of myself. For today let’s end it there. To summarize: Humans are image bearers of the Creator that are to represent their Creator among the creation.

I am reading a great book by Dick Staub entitled, The Culturally Savvy Christian. As I have been reading it, I keep hearing amens and alleluias rumble inside my head. I think it’s because this guy has written a book that I would have loved to write.

I can’t write the book, he already did.

What I can do though is bring some focus to this little corner of the cybernet and discuss a bit what I think it means for the church to engage culture.

Welcome to the Jungle, it should be an interesting journey.

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[podcast]https://danielmrose.com/wp-content/uploads/Grace-101226-reduced.mp3[/podcast]

It seems as though there is something huge waiting to break through. I can’t put my finger on it but there is something almost tangible enveloping my heart, mind, and soul. Have you ever felt this way?Naysayers don’t seem to have any power. The vision, the mission, the dream are in front of me and yet it seems as though there is a fog that causes me to not quite be able to fully comprehend.

So I actively wait.

Faithful to the things that are clear and before me.

Hopeful for the things that wrapped in the mystery of the fog.

Thankful for the sovereignly good God within whose kingdom I serve.

Don’t we all love the prayer scene from Talladega Nights?

[www.youtube.com/watch](httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7pco3TTV5k)

OK, maybe not all of us. But, I sure do. What strikes me is that today is the day when we all celebrate “sweet baby Jesus”. On Christmas Eve we watched a full slate of classic Christmas movies for kids and all of them dealt with skepticism regarding the existence of Santa. At the end of the day the point was always, “Christmas is about helping poor people” or some derivation.

In my head though this wasn’t ringing true. I am becoming more and more convinced that Advent and Christmas cannot be separated from the Cross. The Magi brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh, all important for middle eastern burials. Jesus was most likely born near Passover (that’s a discussion for another time) and he died at Passover.

The Lamb of God born at Passover, the Bread of Life born in the City of Bread.

What is Christmas about? It’s simple, it’s about a Cross and a Resurrection.

It had to start somewhere and it started in Bethlehem in a common cave used for the keeping of animals. To close I want to leave you an extended quote from Jonathan Edwards (this quote was taken from here):

What an amazing act of grace was it when Christ took upon our human nature. In this act of great condescension, he who was God became man. The Word should be made flesh, and should take on him a nature infinitely below his original nature. We should appreciate the remarkably low circumstances of his incarnation: He was conceived in the womb of a poor young woman, whose poverty appeared in this, when she came to offer sacrifices for her purification, she brought what was allowed of in the Law only in the case of poverty, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.

Christ’s infinite condescension marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable, because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others, that were looked upon as persons of greater account. The blessed Virgin, being poor and despised, was turned or shut out. Though she was in such need, yet those that counted themselves her better would not give place to them. Therefore, in her time of giving birth, she was forced to give birth to her son in a stable, and laid him in a feed trough.

There Christ lay a little infant, and there he eminently appeared as a lamb. But yet this feeble infant, born this way in a stable, and laid in a feed trough, was born to conquer and triumph over Satan, that roaring lion (cf. 1 Peter 5:8). Jesus came to subdue the mighty powers of darkness, and make a show of them openly, and so to restore peace on earth, and to manifest God’s good-will towards men, and to bring glory to God in the highest!

…the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

It’s funny how clarity can change things. After the first big winter storm the schools were all closed and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had just been released, so we packed into the car and headed to the show.

The roads weren’t too bad but there was a constant spattering of stuff on my windshield. I hit the mister and nothing happened except for the mud and grime to smear. The realization of traveling on an expressway with no visibility was a little nerve racking. This got worse as I had to slowly make way around the exit ramp cloverleaf without falling off the side.

I learned a timeless that day: Clarity IS important.

In the previous post we talked about the importance of language. Here’s the thing though: language without clarity is useless.

This hit home for me a few years ago as I was engaged in a conversation with some Mormon missionaries (it always strikes me as odd how many are named “Elder”). We were talking about Jesus, grace, faith, God, and Bible. It seemed as though things were moving along well but it turned out that we were going nowhere.

I thought we were discussing the same things because we were using the same language. I could not have been more wrong.

We did not have clarity.

Our definitions were totally different. We were not even close to understanding one another and as a result our conversation slipped into mundane futility and frustration.

In a conversation about anything, let alone Jesus, the conversants must have a clarified understanding of the words they are using or there will be constant confusion and frustration. For those of us who want other people to follow Jesus we must listen closely to hear where we can build a bridge and in so doing we bring clarity.

Paul Tarsus was speaking at the Areopagus in Athens when he said these words, “For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:23 ESV)”

He wanted to bring clarity and that he did by redefining “the unknown god” to that of the revealed God, Jesus.

May we take the time to clear the clouds and reveal the Son!

[www.youtube.com/watch](httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HagzTRmUBIE)

Sa a se bagay ki pi enpòtan ke ou te ka janm li. Ou ka li li l ’? Si ou pa kapab alò ou pa pral kapab konprann. Ou dwe konprann! Frape, frape! Ki moun ki la a? Ou. Ki ou? Oh pa kriye, li jis yon blag!

I think that I have heard the words, “Watch your language!” more than I could ever imagine. It turns out that when I was younger I did not have much of a filter. It also turns out that as an adult I do not have much of a filter. Every day my poor wife has to remind what not to say.

Don’t you feel bad for her? I do.

My issues are not the point of this post, however. The issue is language. Could you read the opening few sentences? Unless you are some sort of awesome linguist, then probably not.

If you are a follower of Jesus you speak a secret language, a language that not everyone speaks. To he honest, most people don’t speak our language. It is comprised of big words, special words, insider words and most of them end in “-tion”.

When I have conversations with people I am reminded that sometimes my Christian language is different from their language. I want them to understand what I am saying because when we are talking about Jesus, we are talking about the most important thing.

What is the language of your neighbors? I am not taling about English. What are the metaphors and narratives that give their world meaning?

I will almost guarantee it’s not the biblical narrative.

Television, films, music, celebrities, and to a lesser extent books provide the narrative arc for the world around us.

Can you speak their language?

If we want to be able to invite them to know Jesus we must be able to speak the language.

Oh, if you want to know what the opening paragraph says leave a comment!

I was 18 or 19, the room was jammed with more than 1,000 college students and we were enthralled by the man on the stage. He was thick necked and spoke with power and authority. When he got passionate the veins in his neck bulged. As a young man, I found in him the embodiment of all that I wanted to be: strong, intelligent, quick witted, and a command of philosophy and logic that left your head spinning.

He shared story after story of destructing the worldviews of other people thereby creating a vacuum for the message of Jesus to fill.

He didn’t share many stories of people becoming followers of Jesus.

Fast forward nearly ten years.

I am alone in my basement listening to a man with an English accent, whom I have never seen. He is sharing story after story of people responding to the story of Jesus.

One man built bridges and the other created vacuums.

One man started with humanity being created in the image of God and the other with human sinfulness.

One man started with the mindset of a builder and the other with the mindset of destruction.

If we respect people and understand what they believe we will necessarily find points from which to build bridges from their world to the glorious grace of God in the face of Jesus.

Building is harder than demolition, but it is worth it. It’s worth it because regardless of response the conversation stays open.

One of the most powerful feelings I have ever had was the time that I landed in Germany and realized that I had no idea what the signs said. It was remarkably uncomfortable. I had no idea what he ads were saying, I had no idea what the people around me were saying, I could not understand a thing. I felt very lost and very confused and very much alone (which is weird because I was traveling with a group of six others).

I felt these things because I knew I had no hope of being understood.

I have found that as a Christ follower who intentionally seeks to introduce others to Jesus I unwittingly speak German to them.

In my previous post I talked about respect. Well, if I respect someone then I can not caricature them. I need to honestly and authentically understand what they believe. This means that I must listen. Not only that it means that I must hear them.

This is hard.

It’s hard because the universe revolves around me and to really listen means that I need to set myself aside.

When you engage in conversation with someone about belief systems it is incumbent on you to be able to communicate back to this person their belief system in such a way they say, “Yes, that’s what I believe”.

Have you seen the movie White Men Can’t Jump? There’s a great scene where Woody and Wesley are listening to Jimi Hendrix and Wesley challenges him and says, “You can’t hear Jimi”. This is the point.

Can you “hear” another? If not then you are not really listening and you don’t really respect them and you will never understand what they believe.

I love the fact that Jesus took time to hear people and listen. John 8 is an incredible story where Jesus hears and understands and then responds in a way that changes lives.

Will we?

Aretha sang, “Find out what respect means to me”. Respect is a simple word. It is one which causes people to get into fights, feel good, or get loud. Respect is something that is intangible and yet is required.

Today I interacted on a blog where some people were critiquing a friend’s book.

They had not read the book.

Yet, they trashed the book. They trashed him. They challenged his character. It was a personal attack.

They claim to be Christians.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been teaching a group of people about how to engage with those who don’t follow Jesus. We began with “respect.” Why? Because this is the place that Jesus starts. This is the place that Paul starts. They were respecters of people.

Consider Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4.

He respected her. He did not pull any punches but he dealt with her in love and did not demean her.

Respect is a powerful form of love and it opens many doors that might not otherwise open. It is foundational for relationship.

If the Church is going to be what it’s called to be it has to respect those who are far from God. This means that to caricature those who disagree with you is out. This means that you must take time to learn and actually hear what these people are saying.

Back to my friend, he has a dynamic to atheists at a large state university. He has written a fiction novel that uses a genre that is attractive to those whom God has placed on his heart. I am probably not going to read the book, because it’s simply not a genre that I enjoy. But, I am quite certain that many people who are far from God will and as they do they will come face to face with the story and message of Jesus.

Will that message look like the Four Spiritual Laws? Nope. But it will challenge the mind and will of those who read it.

Interestingly, the Christians who have displayed such disrespect are probably never going to have the hearing that a man who has written something they detest will.

Why?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

[www.youtube.com/watch](httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0XAI-PFQcA)

What is the meaning of Christmas? That was the question that NBC’s Community asked last week in an incredibly creative stop motion animation episode that left me laughing. The episode was full of hat tips to great Christmas specials of the past and a few nice shots at the Christian faith.

Shots at Christianity in a Christmas special? Yes.

Are you offended?

The shots that they took weren’t the kinds that you might expect. The most crushing one came from Shirley, whose character is an outspoken Christian. She said, “I am a modern day Christian, I have learned sensitivity and so I say Happy Holidays not wanting anyone else’s religion to feel inferior to mine.”

I laughed. Then, I cried.

Not really. But, I have been thinking about this for the last few days.

Christmas has lost something in the post-modern malaise of mutual worldview affirmations.

Then I remembered last Friday, my son sang in a “Holiday Concert” at his school. They sang Happy Hannukah, Mud Slide, and Up on the Housetop.

Silent Night was played on the piano, no singing.

Something manifestly changed.

A hush came over the crowded cafeteria. You could have heard a pin drop.

Christmas, the moment when God split time one passover many years ago and entered into history. Even today with all of our sensitivity and complacency humanity still becomes silent before the reality that took place when God moved into the neighborhood.

Everyone in that cafeteria experienced something different in that moment than all that had come before. That moment was thick with the holy.

I wish I could sit down with Abed and over a peppermint mocha just talk about the meaning of Christmas.

Maybe I can, maybe there are people all around me looking for the real meaning if I would just open my eyes to see and have ears to hear.

What are you thankful for? This is the question that was posed by the boys at Professional One a “boutique of awesome” or also known as one of the best real estate firms in the country run by Mike and Todd.

Ever since the question was asked I have been thinking about it.

This is a question we ask around our kitchen table as opposed to the generic “God is good, God is great…”

How can you answer such a question with any kind of authenticity and keep the post relatively brief?

When I think about what I am thankful for I am amazed at all that I really ought to be thankful for, but I’m not. I am not thankful, at least not usually. I want to be one of those people that are constantly overwhelmed by gratitude.

I really do. But, I’m not.

Life is more complicated, it seems.

What am I thankful for?

I am thankful that there are people who are asking the question and forcing people like me to actually consider the question. I hear that question and the normal sorts of things that I ought to be thankful for pop into my head: friends, family, God, faith, love, relationships, provision, daily bread, grace, mercy, and the like.

My head tells me I am thankful for these things. My life tells me otherwise.

I don’t think I’m alone.

To answer the question, I ask another: If our lives don’t reflect gratitude are we really thankful?

When you find out that most if not all of your preconceptions are misconceptions it leaves you reeling. The first time I woke up in Israel I struggled to believe all that I was seeing. I felt as though I had stepped foot out of the Matrix and into “The Real”. There was nothing that was what I expected. Not a single thing.

We boarded our bus and met Yaniv, our guide and soon to be our good friend. He took us to Caesarea by the Sea. It was a confusing time as we left Tel Aviv and arrived at a place that was over 2,000 years old. This is the kind of confusion that leaves you scratching your head and unsure of what you are seeing.

It turns out that Israel is a place of paradox. You never can quite get your mind around it. It is a living and breathing postmodern experience. What is new is old and what is oldest is often times new.

The ruins of Caesarea were like nothing that I had ever experienced. They were almost unreal. I felt like I had stepped into one of those coffee table books that you find at your great aunt’s house and you start looking at because you can’t touch anything else.

Only here you could touch.

Smell.

See.

Experience.

It was a round the winter of 1996 that I began to truly study the Scriptures with tenacity. I was particularly drawn to the person and writings of Paul. He was almost a mystical figure to me.

Until now.

I stood in the very place Paul did when he left for his journey to Rome. I saw the place where he was held prisoner prior to leaving.

Paul has now become a very real person for me. He became very real in a place that is a living paradox of new and old.