For Those Who Give Their Lives

Memorial Day in the United States is designed to remember those who have defended this country, and to pay special tribute to those who have lost their lives in that defense. I might not be allowed to write this note were it not for all of them - thanks is just not adequate - but add my feeble attempt to the millions of others who are thankful for the sacrifices you and your loved ones have made and perhaps you will be able to hear our hearts.

In addition to those brave soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast guard who have lost their lives, as a Christian, I want to also remember all those who have lost their lives in defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for making it possible for me and my family to know and love Jesus - to know that Jesus loves me. Thank you for all the missionaries who serve today. Thank you for all those who even at this moment are in prisons around the world - simply because they love Jesus. For all of you I humbly pray:

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Amen

The Responsibility of Preachers

That's a pretty lofty title isn't it? I didn't mean it to be - I'm not going to talk about moral or social responsibility - I just want to point out the importance of communicating the Word of God with clarity. There is something about the human brain that longs for clarity and organization and I hear too many preachers that come up short in both areas. What's even sadder is that they blame it on the Holy Spirit! "Well, I just preach as I'm led" becomes the mantra of laziness and irresponsibility on the part of the preacher.

Let me give you a little picture that may help. If not, then I'm guilty of the very thing about which I'm concerned. Anyway, imagine yourself at the head of a car caravan. You have just left a wedding and your job is to get all those that attended the wedding ceremony from the church to the location of the celebratory gathering we call a reception. Imagine further, that you are the only one who has directions from the church to the reception hall. It is your responsibility to drive in such a way that you get everyone to the party. With that image, you understand that you will drive differently than if you were going to the party all on your own. If you didn't have the responsibility of getting others from point A to point B, you would drive a little faster; you would speed up going through traffic lights - even daring to go through the intersection when the light has turned yellow. You would always use your turn indicator. You would change lanes with much greater care and soon enough for everyone in the caravan to make the coming lane adjustments and turns. Every time you went through a traffic light, you would check your rear view mirror to make sure the whole caravan was still in tact. If anyone happened to miss the light, you would pull over and wait until the traffic light changed and those missing cars rejoined the caravan. The point is, you just drive differently when you know people are depending on you to get to a particular destination.

Now, translate that to preaching. First, a preacher must know the destination of the biblical text or the whole experience is an exercise in futility. Did you know that studies have been done that indicate that 50% of preachers have no idea what point they are trying to make with their sermons!!! That means that half of the congregations in America are following someone who has no idea where they are going!!!! That's frightening to me. We know those 50% are totally disorganized - that's a given. On top of that, probably half of the remaining preachers - even if they know the destination - even if they know where the text is headed - they are so disorganized that people have trouble following them. Too many preachers preach like they do personal devotions - it's a kind of stream of consciousness extemporaneous speaking - one thought or verse of scripture triggers another thought or verse which triggers another and so on. In the end, when the preacher looks back - the caravan has dispersed and no one shows up at the party - the celebration of God's Word.

I don 't know why that was on my mind this morning - but it was - so there you have it.

A Sad Commentary

I still get my denominational newspaper each week - the United Methodist Reporter. In the latest edition, there is a story about an Episcopal Church in New Jersey that has a major dilemma. They have no money and they are contemplating selling their "Tiffany Stained Glass Windows" in order to survive a little longer. The once vital congregation has dwindled to almost nothing and one solution that has been suggested by the pastor is to sell the windows. Each window is insured for a half million dollars, but brokers indicate that the most anyone could expect to get for a "religious themed" window is $200K. Of course there are many opinions related to what the congregation should do - Episcopalians are like Methodist in that regard - wherever two or three Methodists are gathered together there are at least 5 or 6 opinions! Anyway, in one discussion, the article quotes one concerned congregant (see how I use that denominational language with ease!!) said, "This is what makes the church, the historic stuff!"

In another realm, a letter to the editor in the Kansas City Star recently was lamenting the fact that people had made such a big deal out of the life of Jerry Falwell. The letter writer was aghast that anyone like Reverend Falwell could be considered a Christian. He even went so far as to say that Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, was a better Christian than Jerry Falwell because he was more accepting of gays and lesbians - or something of that nature.

And now for one more story: I was a campus minister at one point in my life and our campus ministry had an intramural basketball team. In one of our games, the officiating was obviously one sided against us. By the time the game was down to the last 3 minutes of play, our team had been to the foul line only 3 times (that means that only 3 fouls were called against the opposing team in the entire game), and the other team had shot more foul shots than we could count! Needless to say, our guys were quite frustrated and began to show that frustration toward the referees. Finally, the debacle was over and as our players walked off the court, refusing to shake the hands of the opponents (I'm not saying that behavior showed good sportsmanship, but it was understandable), one of the chief offenders from the other team (the one who fouled our guys most and got away with every one of them) yelled, "I thought you were supposed to be Christians!"

The implication in all of those stories is that we, the Church, have lost our way. From the church lady who thinks that it's the historic stuff that makes the church, to the gay guy who thinks that being a Christian means you have no standards, to the basketball player who thinks a Christian is one who never gets frustrated in the face of injustice - we learn that the church is obviously communicating a wrong message. We have wandered far off course from our mandate to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." It's time we Christians examined ourselves and see where we have lifted up our denomination, or our rules, or our attitudes and failed to lift up Jesus.

My Excuse Is...

Actually, I have no excuse - just a really good reason for not blogging - I'm lazy. That's a reason isn't it? The excuse I would have used, were I so inclined, is that my mentor - my friend - my inspiration (well, maybe that takes it a little too far) - but anyway, the guy who got me started, Randy Bohlender, quit and now he's back, so I guess I can give it another shot.

What a great 2 weeks I've had! Jonathan and Heidi along with Kai, Salem and Faith have been here for 12 days and in the middle of that Alicia, Ashley, and Aria came for Mothers' day! We have had a blast! The time had flown by so quickly. Ashley headed back to Madison, WI on Sunday; Debbie and I took Alicia and Aria to the airport this morning; and Jonathan's crew head out at O-dark thirty on Thursday. It will be disturbingly quiet around the Mills house. I would add pictures - but my grand kids are just soooooooo cute that it would create a flood of envy; and besides, I have too many pictures and just can't choose which ones to exclude. So, maybe in days ahead, I'll share a few.

Be blessed, y'all!