In God We Trust…Sort of

The last few days I’ve noticed a huge spike in the viewership of my blog.  I have the ability with WordPress to see how people are coming to ETC and what their reading.  Turns out, about a year ago I wrote a couple posts on the reality of greed in America and it’s effects on Wall Street.  With all the Wall Street news going on their have been massive amounts of people searching Google for ”wall street greed”…and finding my posts.

I also once wrote about prostitutes in the Bible and you’d be amazed how many searches their are for prostitutes.  I bet they’re pretty disappointed when they see my blog!

Like most Americans who have invested some cash with the plan of living off those investments later in life, I too have lost money.  Not a lot…but things are definatley going backwards.  While I haven’t invested a ton of cash, all this news of “bailouts” does make me nervous, and the question I’ve been asking myself is why. 

Why am I fearful of my money?  Why do I feel a panic when watching the media?

I think the answer is trust.  It’s my human nature to trust what I can touch, see, and control.  I say I trust in God, but when push comes to shove…my instinct is to squeeze tightly to what is mine. 

What is mine…maybe the biggest lie I could tell myself!

Yesterday, I read the words of Jesus.  Not as some kind of “pat me on the back” devotional…but rather a total examination of what money and Jesus mean to me.  Will I live with a sense of entitlement that stuff is mine, or will I continue to try and surrender to a radical trust in EVERYTHING Jesus taught?  Will Wall Street be my source of security or will I take seriously the Words of Christ when he said…

Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

 ”You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”   Matthew 6 from The Message

While I believe that we should pay attention to what is happening in Wall Street…hope that Congress doesn’t write a blank check without bringing people to accountability…and be concerned for our economy.  We should be thoughtful about the place money has in our lives.   Are we a fearful people in times like these?  Would more money really ease those fears?  It’s worth thinking about…

Love and Peace.

A Bad Choice

Life as we know, is largely made up of our choices.  We all make good choices and bad choices…the question is, how do we we react to each of them?  Well, this summer I made a bad choice.  I’ve been kicking myself all day for it…

I had the opportunity to go to New York in June for 3 days and visit Yankee Stadium in its last season.  I chose not to go as I was being cautious about spending the money.  As a devoted baseball fan, I’m know left to ask…What was I thinking?

Last night was the last game played in the legendary Yankee Stadium (1923-2008), and from what I saw on ESPN, it looked like quite an event.  So many great players…so many World Series…so many memories for the people of the Bronx.  While I despise the Yankees and just about everything they stand for…I missed out on a great opportunity to see one of the oldest and by far, most famous baseball stadium.

While I’ve had some great baseball moments in my life like seeing the last game Seattle Mariners game in the old Kingdome…the first division-clinching game in 1995, and Gaylord Perry’s 300th win in 1982.  To visit Yankee Stadium in person, would have been the highlight of my baseball life. 

I wonder if there’s a place that you wished you had visited before it closed or was torn down?  Maybe it’s a sports stadium, or a famous theater…a museum or cathedral…

What place do you regret not taking the time to visit?

Love and Peace.

Thoughts on Being Pro-Life

This has been one of those whirlwind kind of weeks where I’ve had long meetings, swim lessons with the kids, first day of school for Cade and lots of time given to thinking about church leadership.  It’s all been very enjoyable, but tiring.  Today I began my day talking with a good friend.  It was very refreshing to just drop my duties for a couple hours and just talk with him over a couple cups of Stumptown coffee…

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to give much time to the blog, but that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been plenty going through my brain.  One of the things I’ve given thought to over the past few weeks is what it should mean to be a Christ-follower and be “pro-life”.  What is often very frustrating for me is to hear the church limit the issue of “pro-life” to just abortion.  It seems to me that there’s much more to this conversation than making abortion illegal.

Well, in my business I did manage to catch up on some of my favorite blogs.  One of them is put out by my friend Steve at Spritfarmer.  A few days ago he thoughtfully and boldly approached this very issue that I’ve been thinking through and wanted to share it with you.  I found Steve’s comments in the last paragraph to be especially important to the conversation…

Over the past couple of weeks, paying even a little bit of attention to the political conventions, speeches, vice presidential nominations, etc., I have done an unusual amount of thinking about the whole abortion debate.  Especially since one candidate’s running mate, in particular, seems to have been chosen based largely on this issue, it’s been in my brain.

I’ll say that in all of my political thinking that’s shifted around a bit in the past ten years or so, one of the bigger reasons I’ve maintained a soft spot in my heart for conservative politics is because of this issue.  I won’t go fully into my position on “when life begins,” because, well, it’s not anything you haven’t heard before.  Let’s just say that with advances in medical technology that push the age of viability of premature babies earlier and earlier, I’m pretty opposed to ending that life.  Oh, and for the record, I am opposed to the death penalty based on the same logic – if it’s alive, don’t kill it.

But I’vecome to a realization that I’d like to test out here.  Feel free to push back if you think I’m naive, uninformed, or wrong – I may be all of the above.

I’m no longer a pro-life voter. 

The anti-abortion people would have us all believe that if we could just elect conservative presidents over the next 10-15 years, we could significantly reshape the Supreme Court such that Roe vs. Wade would get overturned.  The pro-choice folks, of course, are using the same arguments to appeal to their constituency, but obviously in the opposite direction.  But I’m thinking this is a bit of a smoke screen on both sides. 

Let’s say for the sake of argument that they’re correct.  Roe vs. Wade gets overturned.  Does that mean that abortion will indeed be illegal in all 50 states?  I find that very hard to believe.  If anything, I can see the issue being thrown back to the states to decide.  So basically there will be an “abortion” map of the U.S., which looks will roughly look like the red state/blue state political map.

So in a pragmatic sense, I just don’t see myself prioritizing my position on abortion.  If things “go my way,” they still won’t change much  Meanwhile, we could be spending a lot more of our attention and resources on other “pro-life” issues, like poverty, prevention of teen pregnancies, and care for the mothers who choose to not have abortions when in difficult circumstances.

What are your beliefs about a person being pro-life?  Is it narrow-minded to think of only abortion?  What would you include in the issue of “pro-life”? 

Love and Peace.

On My Mind…

Occasionally, when I have nothing I feel like writing about, I simply list out some of the random things that are currently occupying the mind of Rex.  Here you go…and feel free to throw in a comment or two about any one thought that grabs your attention.

Wisdom over relevance.  Something I, and every pastor should be seeking in today’s age.

Money.  I wish it didn’t occupy so much of my thoughts and time.

Nine.  The number of years I’m approaching in marriage.  This leaves me with a year to save for something really big!

Swaziland.  How excited I am to return and begin what I hope will be a long partnership.  Want to go with me?

Hopeworks.  This will be the hardest undertaking of my life.  Yet, it just may be the most important.

The Seattle Sports Scene.  You know it’s bad when I’m talking about MLS soccer!

 

On Being a Faith-Based Evangelical

Today I received a very disturbing email.  It came from avery prominent pastor of a local evangelical mega-church.  It was simply an email sent to many other evangelical pastors like myself, promoting Sarah Palin.  I didn’t find it disturbing because hepromoted Palin, but rather the way he chose to promote her.  The entire email consisted of pictures and comics showing Palin as the savior of American politics and being the person who will finally take down the liberals.  I guess he found them funny…

I hated seeing these pictures because they reminded me of what’s wrong with many evangelical churches as they try and take their country back for God.  As if God is somehow losing control…

What made it even harder was that I respect this pastor.  He’s a good man, and while we would disagree in major ways regarding philosophy of church and the role of the pastor…I’ve known him for many years and I have to respect the fact that he’s pastored the same church for nearly 30 years. 

Today I found myself thinking about what it means to be evangelical.  Don’t ask me to define it because I’ve never really been able to do that very clearly.  Even Billy Graham said he had no idea what it really means to be evangelical!  But today it became clear to me that more and more so-called evangelicals are falling into the temptation of defining their faith according to their politics.  They are finding more hope for the world in people like Palin (and many other politicians including Obama) and not in their own faith communities (churches).  Even worse…it’s their pastors who are pushing them into this dangerous approach to God and politics!

The selection of Palin by McCain was not a divine miracle!  None of these people can possibly be the force of change or hope the way the church can be.  Yet, so many churches seem to be convinced that all hope is lost if one person is elected over another.  Makes me wonder if any of us really understand the power of grace and how it could shape our culture…

I find myself today being reminded that the political race cannot define my faith in God.  I must be a person of faith (and faithfulness) first and form my political opinions from there.  Jesus must be my savior and not any one candidate or political party.  I hope to be an evangelical because of the faith I have in a loving, just and compassionate God…not because I live with fear that control is being lost or our country is going soft.

Love and Peace.

American Politics…Parental Discretion Advised

The other day while watching “Hardball” on MSNBC my 4 year old son who was in the room with me turned and asked…”Daddy, what is right to life?”  I froze.

Not only was it a good reminder to a young father that my kids are listening to much more than I realize, but they also want to know what everything means.  In this case, he had been listening to Chris Mathews dialogue with a some Senator as he explained Palin’s view on the issue of “right to life”. 

What was I going to say to a 4 year old?  That the right to life issue is and should always be more than about abortion?  Can’t do that, because he’ll then want to know what abortion is.  Really, how was I going to explain this?  Well, I didn’t.  In a classic father-move, I pulled a “conversational switch” on him and he forgot all about it.  But I have been thinking about this ever since.  How will I go about teaching politics to my kids as they get older?  How can I communicate a loyalty to the gospel first and then derive their politics from that loyalty?  It’s not going to be easy…

In today’s world our children are being exposed to American politics much earlier than we’ve seen in the past.  With the Internet, YouTube, multiple news channels, thousands of blogs, and a growing coffee-house culture where people are much more open to discuss their views than say, twenty years ago.  It’s no longer something our teens will learn only in civics or US Government classes.  Parents now have much more responsibility in this than ever before…

I would never want to hear that one of my kids voted because of someone’s “coolness” factor, nor would I want to hear that they didn’t vote because they didn’t get around to it.  I hear this from too many adults! 

It’s become apparent to me that along with sexuality, stewardship, and theology…I also have the responsibility to introduce a healthy and open dialogue about politics to my boys as they get older.  Sure I’m busy and in many ways I’m still defining what I believe about what government should be about.  But, if I leave it to the Internet, Chris Matthews, or teachers to teach my kids…well then I probably didn’t do everything I can to prepare my boys for responsible adulthood and devout following of Jesus Christ.

I really want to hear from any parents, teachers, youth pastors, or even those without kids.  How are you communicating responsible politics to kids and teens?  What approaches are or would you take in this? 

Love and Peace.

Must Watch TV

Have you noticed that for the past several weeks you can hardly watch more than 30 minutes of TV without being bombard with previews for the upcoming Fall TV lineup?  I love how each of them try and communicate a message of “you must watch this show, or else you’ll miss out on everything cool”. 

From Grey’s Anatomy to Heroes, we’re having TV drama shoved down our throats!  It seems all a bit desperate to me, which I guess is really what they are, considering very few shows make it these days like Seinfeld did or the way ER has. 

Don’t get me wrong here…I too like to watch some good drama. My wife and I follow Grey’s Anatomy pretty closely, but it seems life TV is getting worse every year!  I don’t mean morally, but that’s definitely part of the problem.  I mean with it’s content and writing.  There seem to be very little in the way of story-lines and the writing is horrible!  The jokes are so canned and “forced”, while the sense of creativity is lost.  Speaking of Lost…I meant to start watching season 1 this summer but never got around to it.  I hear it has both good content and writing.

I was thinking the other night about some of my favorite “past” TV shows.  You know…the whole “if I could bring back one show”, thing…

Here’s what I came up with: 

Seinfeld

Arrested Development

NYPD Blue (pre-Ricky Shroeder)

Hillstreet Blues

Cosby Show

The Wonder Years

So…here are a couple questions for you to ponder and discuss.

What ONE show would you like to bring back to TV?  What is CURRENTLY your favorite show?

BTW…Did anyone catch the debut of the “new” 90210 last week?  You know you wanted to watch it!

Love and Peace.

Playing dress-up with McCain and Obama

Today, while out with the boys I took them to their favorite toy store.  It’s one of those small, family owned joints that specialize in learning toys.  I too like going there because they really do have some cool things to build and play with.

But today was not just any day at the local toy store…who knew that we would get to play dress up with the McCains’ and Obamas’!

As I was walking out of the store a bookcaught my eye.  It had a picture of McCain on the cover and I was curious as to how this particular book could be in a kids toy store.  As I got closer I noticed the title said..”McCain Paper Dolls…The Campaign Edition”.  It soon got better as I saw that they also have the same book dedicated to Barack Obama!

I opened the book and inside were dozens of pictures of Cindy and John McCain in various outfits…each picture missing their faces as I guess the idea is to cut them out and play dress up with the dolls that come with the book.  Can you believe this?!?!

But wait…it gets better!  Under every picture of their outfits was a caption describing what they were doing when they wore those particular clothes.  No joke, one said under a picture of a McCain suit that, “this dark blue pin-stripe suit was worn by John McCain while having dinner at the White House with Carl Rove and President Bush”.  Oh, if I could have been a fly on the wall for that dinner!!!

      

I’m still cracking up over these rediculous books!  Surely, there’s a better way to introduce our presidential candidates to our pre-school children.  Then again…the less they know about politics, campaigns, and what hangs in the closets of McCain and Obama, the better off they may be.

Love and Peace.

One Crazy Summer

It’s hard for me to believe that we’re approaching the middle of September…while our Seattle weather is so nice this time of year, I can’t help but feel summer is over.  Just about every year this time, I reflect on the summer months and ask myself if I made the best of it.  Did I maximize my time to get enough painting done?  Did I continue to remain focused on leading my church even when crowds and involvement are lower than usual?  Did I set aside enough time for personal rest, family play, and time alone with Christalle?

Well, this certainly has been a crazy summer.  I’ve been so busy with the usual balancing act of pastor / painter…but I can also say that we as a family really made the best of our time this year.  In fact, I would say this was the funnest and most relaxing summer I’ve had in a long time! 

The boys are at an age where it’s getting much easier to go out to eat, so we had some great family dinners at Red Robin, or the Burger Ranch in Bothell followed by a drive to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream.  The boys loved that!  This Summer also brought a couple birthdays as Mason turned 2 and Cade turned 4…we had a big family and friends party a the house and each of them we’re spoiled with too many toys.

Christalle and I had the chance to leave the kids with some friends while we went on a 4 day vacation.  This was certainly the highlight of our summer as this was our first trip without kids in about 3 years.  We quickly found out that we can still spend time together without making the kids the center of our conversations…we still like each other I guess.

As a family we also had the chance to spend a weekend with some good friends at their new condo in Crescent Bar.  What a fun weekend of Sea-doo’s, pool time, and lot’s of great food! 

Now that summer is coming to a close, there are things about Fall that I’m looking foward to.  Cade begins pre-school in a couple weeks, Mason moves out of the nursery at church and into the big kid class (this is big deal for him!), and oh yeah…our third boy is due in early November!  Wow…come to think of it…the Fall will probably be crzier than the summer!

Love and Peace.

When vision collides with reality

Once again I’m finding myself in the midst of too much stress.  I worked half of the holiday weekend and then made the best of my days to spend time just being a husband and father.  The boys have been so much fun lately…in fact, I’m enjoying family life so much right now.  I’m a blessed man!

Today is the one and only day I have all week to dedicate to church stuff.  What I mean by church stuff is connecting with people, taking time to achieve the launch of our new non-profit, plan our monthly team / board meeting on Wednesday night, and then there’s always the constant research for upcoming sermons.  But I knew that I needed to do something much more important than all of that.  It’s been a while since I’ve visited with my good friend Daniel as he continues to battle his cancer in Seattle.

So, this morning after a quick meeting I drove to his place and took him to his appointment at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.  Then, we went to my favorite place in all of Seattle…Pesos, for some good Mexican food and Dos Equis.  It was so refreshing to just sit with a friend and talk.  He was appreciative for the chance to get out for a while, and I was grateful for the experience as well.

So, this leaves me with not getting everything done, and now I start yet another painting job.  For the next week I’ll be much more of a painter than a pastor and sometimes this can get very discouraging for me.  I know that there have been tons of conversations in the blogosphere about the future of the bi-vocational pastor, and I’m grateful for the chance to have been one for the past 3 years.  But sometimes I get so stressed trying to balance the two jobs (plus family) that I’m really not sure how much longer I can/should live like this.

It can be very difficult for those of us who pastor and work in the marketplace.  It’s difficult because often times we find that the realities of our job collides with our vision for our church. 

Eddie Gibbs, who wrote a great book called “LeadershipNext”, defines vision as the “definition and application of mission”.  If you believe that, then you automatically know that even with great skills of delegating, it will take time and tons of effort on the leaders’ part to see the vision come to life.

People often ask me if I love painting, to which I say…”no, I love my family and that’s why I do it”.  I realize every day how blessed I am to have learned a trade from my father and to see God provide for us the way he has, has been life-changing.  But, my imagination goes crazy with thoughts for my church, and the reality is that I can’t get to most of them right now.  And this is hard for me when I look down the path of my week and see more brushes and sprayers than all the things I love about being a pastor to Redwood Hills.

If you think of it this week, I invite you to pray for me.  But also, for Redwood Hills Church…pray that this faith community continues to seek the mind of God, and that we have His creativity, wisdom, and protection.

Love and Peace.