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Fresh Grace Shall Still Suffice for Me

August 18, 2022 /
earth from space

The past no longer in my power;
The future, who shall live to see?
Mine only is the present hour,
Lent to be all laid out for thee,
Now, Saviour, with thy grace endowed,
Now let me serve and please my God.

Why should I ask the future load
To aggravate my present care?
Strong in the grace to-day bestowed
The evil of to-day I bear;
And if to-morrow’s care I see,
Fresh grace shall still suffice for me.

Matthew 6:34

 

Hymn 835, from A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists by the Rev. John A. Wesley, 1889. https://www.ccel.org/w/wesley/hymn/jw.html

Warning Lights

June 30, 2022 /
TPMS Light

 

Friends,

Our family recently returned home from a much-needed time away on vacation. While skimming across our country’s interstates our car chimed and flashed a TPMS warning light. TMPS is “Tire Pressure Monitoring System.” At that moment, while I watched the little light flash, the steering wheel began to vibrate. The combined inputs into my neural pathways meant only one thing. I needed to get off the road quickly and check things out. Just prior to the exit, the vibrations went away, and I began to suspect they were actually coming from the roadway. After pulling into the gas station I checked the tire pressure and determined one was about two pounds lower than the others, but still within the safe range. With the problems identified and solved, we continued on our journey with no further issues. But it could have been a different story. Those warning lights serve an important purpose. They alert us to potential problems before they are really a problem and give us the time to take corrective action before a catastrophic vehicular event.

Of course, this post is not really about proper car maintenance. It is about life maintenance. I believe all of us have an LPMS. A Life Pressure Monitoring System. It’s just that some of us do not realize this is what we are feeling. We are like the person who puts tape on their check engine light to make it go away. The problem is out of sight and out of mind until the engine of life explodes.

What are your life warning lights? Indicators that tell you something is not right and you need to pause, assess, and correct. Maybe you find yourself irritable with people. Small things you would have brushed off you now can’t let go of. Perhaps, you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, no longer looking at the posts, just scrolling, and scrolling and scrolling. Maybe you are snacking without thinking. Maybe you turn down chances to do things you know you love. The list could go on and on. What are your Life Pressure Monistory System lights and when they come on, what action do you need to take to correct your course and avoid a catastrophic life crash? Sometimes the correction can be as simple as getting up and taking a short walk outside or putting down the phone and picking up a  book or just taking a nap.

Blessings,
Stephen

Giving Credit: Special thanks to Dr. Brian Russell, who planted the seed idea for this post.

Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown

January 25, 2022 /

Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
Charles Wesley

Come, O thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell Thee who I am,
My misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name,
Look on Thy hands, and read it there;
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.

In vain Thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold!
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal
Thy new, unutterable Name?
Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell;
To know it now resolved I am;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

‘Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue
Or touch the hollow of my thigh;
Though every sinew be unstrung,
Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly;
Wrestling I will not let Thee go
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

What though my shrinking flesh complain,
And murmur to contend so long?
I rise superior to my pain,
When I am weak, then I am strong
And when my all of strength shall fail,
I shall with the God-man prevail.

My strength is gone, my nature dies,
I sink beneath Thy weighty hand,
Faint to revive, and fall to rise;
I fall, and yet by faith I stand;
I stand and will not let Thee go
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

Yield to me now, for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy Name is Love.

‘Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me!
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure, universal love Thou art;
To me, to all, Thy mercies move;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

My prayer hath power with God; the grace
Unspeakable I now receive;
Through faith I see Thee face to face,
I see Thee face to face, and live!
In vain I have not wept and strove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art.
Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend;
Nor wilt Thou with the night depart.
But stay and love me to the end,
Thy mercies never shall remove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

The Sun of Righteousness on me
Hath rose with healing in His wings,
Withered my nature’s strength; from Thee
My soul its life and succour brings;
My help is all laid up above;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Contented now upon my thigh
I halt, till life’s short journey end;
All helplessness, all weakness I
On Thee alone for strength depend;
Nor have I power from Thee to move:
Thy nature, and Thy name is Love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey,
Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And as a bounding hart fly home,
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

One Group’s Attempt to Live Like Jesus

September 28, 2021 /

Friends,

Last week I started reading Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistible Revolution, Updated and Expanded: Living as an Ordinary Radical. I started the book after hearing another pastor speak of reading the book and how it has been transformative for him. The book is an early memoir of a community that has sought to live the words of Jesus. 

“If you find yourself climbing the ladder of success, be careful or else on your way up you might pass Jesus on his way down" (p. 40)

I am currently four chapters, twenty-five percent, of my way through the book (I know it is a little crazy to suggest a book so early on, but I am doing it anyway).  As one who has never been at home in the consumer-driven American church, struggling to find a place to fit in, whose questions were not welcome, and feeling pushed to the margins I found Shane’s book both hopeful and challenging. I highly recommend the book to anyone searching for hope in these complex times.

"We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor" (p. 99)

I know that Shane is a bit of an enigma in the church world. A man who lived and worked with Mother Theresa but also spent time working at Willow Creek. Two church worlds that could hardly be farther from each other. His views are often controversial but they are spoken with such love and compassion it is hard to turn away and dismiss him. John Wesley once said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” I think, perhaps, this is a community seeking to live this out in our present day. There is hope in the margins.

"My friends and I had a hunch that there is more to life than what we had been told to pursue. We knew that the world cannot afford the American dream and that the good news is that there is another dream. We looked to the early church and to the Scriptures and to the poor to find it" (p. 104).

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Going on a Journey

February 16, 2021 /

Dear Friends,

What if I told you that in roughly six weeks you are going to get to take a much-needed vacation to another country (bear with me, we are just going to pretend we are not in the midst of a global pandemic)? Where are you going? Let’s pick someplace warm and sunny. How about Iceland? Okay, I know that doesn’t sound warm, but the people there have warm dispositions. You have six weeks to get ready to go. What are you going to do between now and then to get ready? Oh, I forgot to mention one little detail, you are going to be there for seven months.

After we look up on Google Maps where Iceland is, the next thing we might do is make sure our passport has not expired. Next comes the planning, buying clothes, deciding who will feed the cat while you are gone, figuring out what suitcases to take, and the list goes on and on. I am sure you would spend time looking up key phrases in whatever language it is they speak there. You might even study some Icelandic culture and history. As you ponder the next seven months your thoughts might turn toward the people you are leaving behind. Who do you need to take out to coffee before you go? After all, it is going to be a long time before you are back. Maybe there is even someone you need to mend the bridge with in case you get trampled by a caribou while you are there. You certainly want to have your house in order before you go.

Seeing as I am a preacher you have probably figured out this message is not really about traveling to Iceland and avoiding getting eaten by polar bears. On Easter Sunday we are going on a journey. Easter is a day set aside in the church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. It is also a day for the sending out of the church into the world in the power of the resurrection of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit which we remember at Pentecost fifty days after Easter.

Before the church is sent at Easter and Pentecost we get ready for the journey. The season of getting ready is the time of Lent. Lent is the forty days, starting with Ash Wednesday (February 17th), before Easter. This is a time to prepare to go. It is a season set apart for confession, repentance, preparation, and listening. It is like being one of the disciples following Jesus around for the three years as he ministered on this earth. For three years the most important thing you would do is listen to and watch Jesus. As one of the disciples, you may not fully understand what Jesus is doing and why but you would still listen, learn, and wonder.

In this season of Lent we, at Hope, are going to listen and watch Jesus. We will do so first by daily reading together from the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the book of Acts. Attached to this message you will find a daily Bible reading plan. I invite you, as you read to listen and watch Jesus and his disciples. To ask questions and wonder. How might you have reacted if you had been in the crowd? Why do you think Jesus did what he did? What do you think God could be up to? How did Jesus express God’s love for humanity? We will also take this time to listen to our community. We know that God is already at work in the life of every person drawing them to himself and inviting them to experience his love. Take this time to listen and look with anticipation for where God is at work.

We will also listen to God, each other, and scripture by gathering together online each Wednesday morning and evening at 7:00 AM and PM for guided prayer. This will start tomorrow morning with a special Ash Wednesday service on Facebook Live that will be repeated in the evening. This service will end with communion.

Plan to join together with your Hope family in this season of getting ready to go on a journey of a lifetime following Jesus together as his people in the next season of ministry at Hope.

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

Let Us Not Miss the Day

January 20, 2021 /

Dear Friends,

Twelve years ago, our nation swore in its 44th President, Barack Obama. On that day I said it was a day to celebrate. While many of us had significant philosophical differences with President Obama I believed we could celebrate on this day that our nation’s first African American was ascending to the office of the presidency. An incredible thing only fifty years from the civil rights movement and 150 years from the legal end to slavery in our country.

Today is another historical day for our country. On this day, Kamala Harris will recite the oath of office to become the Vice-President of the United States. The first time, a woman has said these words. Again, many have very significant philosophical differences with her, but in the midst of it, we must not miss the significance and opportunity of this day. One hundred years ago women gained the right to vote in our country. Today, we celebrate with our daughters at the site of a woman reciting the oath. Today we celebrate the opportunities that are available to our daughters that did not exist a few short years ago. Today we are able to participate in witnessing history. 

Yes, our differences still remain. Yes, there will be much vigorous debate about policy and the future of our country, as there should be. Tomorrow, we will take up our debate. Tomorrow, we will return to our divisions. But, today, let us not miss the chance to celebrate history and the hope it means for all of us.

Blessings,
Stephen

Portage the Falls

August 10, 2020 /

It was June 1805, and the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the base of the Great Falls of the Missouri. “Lewis was thrilled to see the enormous waterfall, the Great Falls of the Missouri. It was 900 feet wide and 80 feet high with a ‘beautiful rainbow’ just above the spray. Lewis called it ‘the grandest sight’ he ‘ever beheld.'” The grandest sight was also a grand obstacle. The Corps of Discovery had spoken with Native Americans familiar with territory to learn of what lay ahead. Their expectation was a difficult one-mile portage of their equipment around the falls. What they found was a much more significant challenge:

The Corps would have to hike 18 miles to get around the five waterfalls. They left their heaviest boat and equipment hidden near the base of the falls. The other canoes and supplies were carried, dragged, and pushed. The Corps created makeshift wagons. When the wind was strong, they attached the boat sails to help move the equipment. The ground was rocky, uneven, and hard. Prickly pear cactuses were everywhere. The Corps wore through their moccasins every two days. The intense heat of the summer sun was interrupted by violent storms, with thunder, rain, and hailstones the size of eggs. Swarms of gnats and mosquitoes pestered them. Rattlesnakes and grizzly bears were a constant threat. (Library of Congress)

The eighteen-mile portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri would take thirty-one days. Before they could continue their journey up the Missouri River, the Corps would have to build new boats to replace the ones left behind.

There are many stories in the journals of Lewis and Clark that describe perseverance through unexpected adversity. Five months ago, we began a journey together as a church and community. We thought we would make a simple portage around a small snag. What we have experienced is the grandest sight and grandest obstacle of many of our lifetimes.

What has made it the grandest sight? Every preacher, it seems, has said, “The church is not the building. It is the people.” The last five months have challenged us whether we really believed it. What I have seen is a beautiful sight. Like a rainbow in the mist over raging falls, its beauty holds me, and I do not wish to walk away from it, even if I must. The vision I have seen is a church come alive. I have witnessed people carrying for each other and watching out for their neighbors. People smile behind masks. They wave as we pass, even if we have never met. Groups have gathered together to pray and study the scriptures in their homes. We have become less dependent on the programs and structure of the church to prop-up our faith and much more dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s awe-inspiringly beautiful, and I fear its loss.

I am also aware these five months have been unmercifully brutal on some. People are unemployed and facing eviction. Families are starving. Friends have died. Many feel left behind and left out. Loneliness, darkness, depression have been consuming. I do not wish for these days to continue and long for the morning to come that will bring joy.

What we are experiencing is an arduous trek whose end is not yet in sight. The end will come, and when it does, we will once again put ourselves back in the waters of a much smoother journey. To continue the journey, though, new tools, equipment, and methods will have to be fashioned. 

For many of our churches, we have rolled most of our ministry online, and in doing so, we have taken our in-person programming and put it online with few changes made for the medium. It has been like putting sails meant for a boat on a wagon. At some point, we will have to find a better way. Before the pandemic, online worship was never an effective replacement for in-person. Primarily online worship served two purposes. First, it allowed those who were not able to attend in-person, because of work, vacation, or sickness, to continue to stay connected to their familiar community. Second, online worship served as a way for persons to visit a church without having to visit the church physically. It was a very low commitment way to try out a community.

I firmly believe that online can be an effective medium for a church community. I also believe it will require changing our methods and expectations. Like John Wesley preaching on a coal pile or George Whitefield preaching in the fields, it will be uncomfortable, awkward, and not without its critics. I believe this is a time that calls for us to try anyway. Already there are many critics who say it can’t be done. Already there are many questioning the theological soundness of those who are trying. It’s time we turn off those voices and just try. We may fail, but at least we tried. To do nothing is to guarantee our failure.

What will we have to change and do differently? I do not know. Right now, we are still struggling to get around the falls. Even as Lewis and Clark put their newly fashioned boats in the waters of the Missouri above the falls, an even more significant challenge lay before them: The Rocky Mountains. To cross this obstacle would require leaving their boats behind entirely as they depended on Sacajawea, a female Shoshone, to lead them through uncharted territory. Perhaps, we will have to leave our canoes behind too and submit to be led by those whose voices we refused to listen to or value before.

Our journey is not at an end, so it is difficult to say what it will be like on the other side. But we do have glimpses, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Quote and Picture Source:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lewisandclark/aa_lewisandclark_portage_1.html

Uncharted Territory

July 13, 2020 /

Whatever there is to say about the territory we are in, I think it is safe to say we have never been here before. In the book Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger, I came across this question that stopped me and caused me to ponder a change of perspective about my surrounding environment:

Could it be that God is taking our churches and organizations into uncharted territory in order for the church to become even more of a witness for the future of the world? (pg. 202)

If so, what does this mean about the way we respond to our current realities? Do we step into them, or do we try and find our way back to familiar territory as soon as possible? What if this is not only true of the church and our organizations but our lives as well?

Blessings,
Stephen

Sources:
Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian leadership in uncharted territory, IVP Books, 2018.

Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash

June 19, 1865

June 19, 2020 /

From the website http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

We are reminded this day of the long and painful road of reconciliation. It would be two and a half years from the time of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation until the slaves of Texas would actually be free. But even then, we know that reconciliation was and is still a long way off. Even now we long for it to come. A Psalm for this day:

Psalm 28

To you, Lord, I call;
you are my Rock,
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who go down to the pit.
Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back on them what they deserve.

Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord
and what his hands have done,
he will tear them down
and never build them up again.

Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Credit: Top image taken from a public post on Asbury Theological Seminary's Facebook page.

Standing on the Continental Divide

June 11, 2020 /

In March, our church Hope Wesleyan made the decision to suspend its in-person worship services. The primary foundation for this decision was a commitment as a church to love and serve our neighbors. In Ephesians 5, Paul’s charge is to “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us . . . .” Jesus loved us by laying down his life for us while we were still his enemy. When we were asked not to meet in-person but to find other creative ways to meet, we gladly accepted this inconvenience as an expression of our love for our neighbors. This commitment forms the foundation of our organizing for the return to in-person worship. Our first priority is the safety and well-being of our church family and the wider community. Our second priority is the public reputation of Hope in our community and the wider Christian church. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is addressing problems within the church at Corinth. He says this to them, “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good” (vs. 17). He then describes destructive divisions and favoritism within the community. For the sake of the church community and its witness in the city, it would have been better if they had not met. It is possible for our meeting together, even if we have the right to, to be more destructive than not meeting at all. We can unnecessarily put at risk the physical health of our church family and community as well as cause irreparable harm to our church’s reputation in our city. Therefore, these two priorities form the basis of our decision making.

Our commitment as leaders is to seek to provide for the spiritual growth and needs of all of our church family.

In the book, Canoeing the Mountains¸ Bolsinger describes the moment when the Lewis and Clark expedition reaches the peak of the Continental Divide as a “deep disorientation.” Their expectation was to see an open prairie leading to the Columbia River Basin and out to the Pacific Ocean. What they instead saw was mountain range after mountain range of the rugged snow-capped mountains like they had never seen before. It is hard to picture how disheartening and discouraging that moment must have been. Their expectations and plans were confronted by the reality of the Rocky Mountains. They were profoundly disorientated. Bolsinger warns that:

when we get to moments of deep disorientation, we often try to reorient around old ways of doing things. We go back to what we know how to do. We keep canoeing even though there is no river. At least part of the reason we do this is because we resolutely hope that the future will be like the past and that we already have the expertise needed for what is in front of us. (92, emphasis original).

In this moment, what was necessary for the Corps of Discovery was an adaptive shift. “This is the moment when they had to leave their boats, find horses and make the giant adaptive shift that comes from realizing their mental models for the terrain in front of them were wrong” (93).

As a church community, we have been confronted by an adaptive shift. We have climbed to the top of our Continental Divide. We expected to look onto the other side and see a return to worship and community as we were used to doing things. We planned for a celebration. Instead, we are faced with are the Rocky Mountains of uncertainty, snow-capped by state and federal regulations.

In the face of an adaptive challenge, Bolsinger says the first thing we do is recommit to our core ideology. We start with why we exist. He gives the following questions for organizations to answer when “facing-the-unknown moment:”

  • Why do we exist as a congregation, institution or organization?
  • What would be lost in our community, in our field or in our world if we ceased to be?
  • What purposes and principles must we protect as central to our identity?
  • What are we willing to let go of so the mission will continue? (94-95)

After recommitting to our core ideology, the next step is to reframe our strategy in light of our core ideology. “In adaptive leadership, reframing is another way of talking about the shift in values, expectations, attitudes or habits of behavior necessary to face our most difficult challenges” (95).

Third, in the face of an adaptive shift, we rely on learning. We always default to the level of our learning. Unless we commit to learning to do things differently, we will revert to what we have done before. We will canoe the mountains.

These moments of deep disorientation requiring adaptive shifts. Standing at the peak, we can choose to turn around and go back, or we can recommit to our core ideology, the mission of God. We can reframe our strategy and dedicate ourselves to learning how to navigate in this unknown world.

Blessings,
Stephen

 

Source Book:
Bolsinger, Tod. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian leadership in uncharted territory, IVP Books, 2018.
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