New Dawn

Today is my last day as Pastor of Journey Church in Derry NH.  It's been 10 and a half years of not just a role, but a very real identity - pastor. What a privilege, what a joy. I have loved almost all of it and even in the really bad days I have sensed the presence of God, and that has been enough for me.  I have learned a huge amount about Him, about people, community, public worship, leadership and what it is to lose oneself in the greater story and identity of Jesus Christ.  Beautiful.

Today will be a tough day.  My wife and I have been praying, preparing, bracing ourselves, grieving together, and daring to look ahead together.  Each step of the slow dislocation has been painful, but yet, but yet...

This morning I was up early as usual.  The cool morning air is crisp, the breeze shakes autumn leaves from the trees in the darkness.  It is a melancholy time of year.  Then I notice the dawn sky burning bright luminous red - grey clouds set aflame by the rising sun.  I stand and worship the God who gives gifts of light to those who see them.  It only lasts a few minutes before the sun is up and those clouds are scudding across the sky.

Change is coming to Journey Church and to me.  I have profound peace that as I leave, the God of the Dawn will gently care for His church, and for me.

Thank you Father for this life of gospel service.  Thank you for sustaining me, for Your faithfulness, for the privilege of seeing these wonderful people at their worst and at their best and for seeing You  in each one of them, all the time.  It has been a rich privilege indeed.  They call me pastor, and we call you Father. The first may change, but Your praises will be eternal.  In You we live and move and have our being.  May it always be so. Amen,

Gospel and Church

In The Church Between Gospel and Culture, Richard Halverson wrote: "When the Greeks got the gospel they turned it into a philosophy. When the Romans got it they turned it into a government. When the Europeans got it they turned it into a culture. When the Americans got it they turned it into an enterprise."
Quoted from Ed Stetzer

The point is: the Gospel is so powerful at redefining humanity both individually and corporately that it redefines and satisfies our ways of thinking about ourselves, truth and life (philosophy), our ways of relating to each other organizationally(government) our ways of being together artistically and relationally (culture), and even our ways of wanting to bring the best of ourselves to God's work (enterprise).  However. the gospel is more than all of those things. It is God's mission - the 'Misseo Dei' as it is now fashionably called by the insiders.  

Reflecting back on the last decade and half, I find myself turning to thinking about the Gospel in very simple ways.  I want to open my Bible with people who are outsiders, and to tell them the story of The God who is Father, who came as Jesus, loved us, died for us, and came again as Spirit to live within and among us.  I want to pass a cup of wine and break-open a loaf of bread.  I want to sing the songs of previously unknown love.  I want to be accepted, valued, nurtured and deeply loved by people who will look out for me, especially when I don't love as a I should. I want to do that for other people too.  That will be enough Church for me for the rest of my life.

Karl Giberson and unguided evolution

I have come to admire Karl Giberson as someone who robustly integrates his Christian Faith and his embrace of scientific understanding. As a leading thinker, co-founder of BioLogos, book writer, regular correspondent at the Huffington Post religion pages, he is clearly a shaker and mover in this area of thought.

I recently listened to a debate involving Karl:

http://www.faithandevolution.org/debates/can-a-christian-be-a-darwinist.php

In listening to this, I find I cannot embrace some of what Karl is saying. While I am certainly a Christian in the middle of the historical orthodox (small o) faith, and while I hold a very very high view of the Holy Bible as inspired scripture, inerrant (theologically) in it's autographs, and while I embrace science, especially biology and the wonderful advances in genetics and the implications of the human genome project... I have to say that I fully believe that God guided and indeed guides creation. I do not believe that God did/does not guide creation. Dr. Giberson seems to suggest an absent watchmaker approach - perhaps more theistic than specifically Christian, in which God sets creation in motions and then sits back to see what will happen. He suggests that God awaited to see which species would attain sentient, conscious awareness and that any such life form would enjoy a relationship with the creator. I do believe that God created actively (which might have involved evolution), and did not use evolution passively.

That said, it is entirely possible that God, on other planets spinning around other suns in our, or other, galaxies has created other races of persons and if so I would have no surprise if we find that Christ went there and died for their sins also. Indeed it would be entirely consistent with the self-revealed character of God we find in The Bible.

An ancient earth; micro evolution; common ancestry? I have no problem with that.

No historical Fall? I have a problem with that. I do not believe that God created a system that intrinsically needed death and suffering in order to exist. I see The Fall as having corrupted creation at the physical level as well as at the spiritual. 

I am grateful for this ongoing dialog. There is much work to do to continually understand the context of the timeless truth of the gospel within which our scientific discoveries sit.

Values at the Ballot Box

Yes it's Roman Catholic, but if you can get past that, I think this is well said:

http://youtu.be/D9vQt6IXXaM

I want an Administration in the White House and a Congress that has the humility not to either laugh and sneer at it's citizens, nor look down on the x% that lives the life at the bottom of the heap.   I'm not sure either option on offer works well for me.  That said, the big big issues - life, prayer, freedom of worship, are all in the mix.  As a pastor, I want you to vote.  As a Christian I want you to honor God in your choices over your own interests.  As an American, again, I want you to vote. Oh, and I approve this message. :-)

First World Problems

Hope the video puts your day into perspective.  Great charity too. http://youtu.be/fxyhfiCO_XQ