McLaren and CTU

One of the classes I get to teach every so often at Colorado Tecnhical University is HIST 210 (World History and Culture) and we spend the first couple of classes detailing humanity’s transition from a hunting/gathering societal structure to one that is primarily based on agriculture. It’s the transition to agriculture that spawns off division of labor, towns and cities, social classes, and the accumulation of wealth. Regardless of the society that we look at- Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India- this same societal pattern develops. As societies make the move to agriculture, all of these byproducts come with it. McLaren writes in The Story We Find Ourselves In that Cain and Abel is a story that reveals this conflict. Cain, the son who made the move to agriculture, kills Abel, who remains in his more primitive pastoral job of caring for the flocks (interestingly, God is pleased with Abel’s offering and not Cain’s). McLaren then writes on page 81 “eventually, the subsistence agriculturalists kill their pastoralist brothers. And eventually, the subsistence agriculturalists create surpluses, and they acquire greater and greater wealth, and primitive economies develop. And with economies come first towns and then cities. And with cities, people begin to feel more independent . . .”. I was fascinated by this writing because it is essence what we cover in our history and culture class, and you see it in every culture that develops. Truly, the story we find ourselves in.

We Are that Someone Else

We were with the Johansons and Amos at Bert’s house last night to do some yard work as part of Wednesday Night Service. Bert is a wheel-chair bound woman who lives alone with her six dogs. An 8 year old neighbor boy named Jacob appears to help her around the house. We got connected with Bert through Workers on Wheels and signed up to do some yard work- mowing, trimming, clipping bushes, etc. I had ran by Bert’s house on Tuesday to check it out to see how much work we’d be in for and at first glance it didn’t appear too rough. When we got there last night I had failed to take into account the second backyard- where the grass and the weeds were over 2 feet tall! So Amos got to working on the lawn, James and I and our sons Riley and Jamison trimmed and pulled weeds in the front. It was a fun night and I got a first hand look at how interesting and challenging it can be to engage my 5 year old son Riley in this whole idea of serving. It be a challenge to get him to pick up his toys, so helping him understand why we would help someone we had just met that night provided a valuable opportunity. As we were working, I asked if Riley could see that Bert was in a wheelchair. He said yes. I shared how that meant she couldn’t do what we were doing by herself. And then my son said what I say almost every day of my life: someone else can help her. And I shared that tonight, we are that someone else. As corny as it seems, we then reviewed the memory verse (Matthew 5:16) we’ve been working on from Hillcrest’s Family Time Guide right there in the lawn with his made up actions and everything. He was a typical 5 year old boy after that- some work, some play, lots of activity, but that moment captures the essence of why we are doing what we are doing. I am not a great parent by any means. I mess up all the time and I pray that the effects aren’t too rough on my boys. But for a moment last night, I was caught up in the perfect union of why we set out to do this- serving others, with others, and living out the scriptures the best that we can.

Defining Success

Our 2nd Wednesday night service is tonight and I think our numbers will level off a bit tonight. Some who participated last week aren’t signed up, some have already asked to be taken off for one reason or the other, and I am sure some just won’t make it over tonight. It will be interesting to see what happens as the service begins to settle in as a normal part of Hillcrest. Will it lose some luster and level off? Will it slowly pick up momentum? Will it remain somewhat the same? Reflecting on numbers and McNeal's idea that the scorecards have changed, I’ve asked myself how much of my own psyche is based on the fact that the service is starting off relatively well. If it hadn’t done well, how well would I be doing? It still would have been the right decision, but would it have felt like the right decision? Do numbers always validate one’s efforts, or is participating in the kingdom greater than just a stat sheet? I tend to love numbers- they are clean, they are easy, they don’t lie and they don’t mislead. But so much of the story of the kingdom, the work we find ourselves in, is more than just numbers. If Hillcrest hadn’t won an Angel in Adoption award, if the thank you notes from the community weren't coming in, if offerings were down, if no new folks were hearing of Hillcrest, would we still be doing the right thing? I believe these questions are good gut check questions for me personally. It was just two summers ago that we as a staff went through a vote of affirmation, that people were up in arms over programmatic and systematic changes, that we were fighting over the role of women in ministry, etc. It was just months ago that we were living week to week on offerings, wondering if we’d have jobs the next month, and yet still convinced that it was the right thing to do. One of the things we live by is that we try to the right thing, regardless of consequences. The right things don't change and can't always be measured.

Baby Steps

In The Present Future, Reggie McNeal writes "a missionary church culture will need to begin keeping score on things different from what we measure now. These may include how many ministry initiatives we are establishing in the streets, how many volunteers we are releasing into local and global mission projects aimed at community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach different populations, how many church activities target people who aren't here yet . . ." (67). We launched our Wednesday Night service two nights ago and it was an anxious and exciting evening. Here are some of our inital scorecard results:

• 190- $10 HyVee cards given out to Hillcrest's neighbors
• 100- volunteers that went out into the Sioux Falls community on Wednesday Night
• 80- teacher kits packed and delivered for Cleveland's teachers
• 60- meals served at the St Francis House
• 25- infants and toddlers who were being cared for while their parents were serving
• 7- meals and 7 desserts cooked at Hillcrest's kitchen
• 1- broken foot as one of our volunteers fell of a ladder while painting

These are just some of the results from what was a fun first service.

Serving and being served

Tomorrow our faith community embarks on a new adventure as we will scatter across the city and engage in various serving projects. Hillcrest is pretty excited about this as we have the better part of two years teaching on the importance of loving others and now we, as a church, get to put that into action. A few weeks ago I finished Making Room and was struck by a couple of things in relation to Hillcrest's new endeavor. The first thought was how uncomfortable providing hospitality can be and how some of us would rather do the cooking and cleaning for the guests than we would to actually share a meal with the poor. This is so true of me. I know the very few times that I have been in those situations- be it inner city LA or at the Sioux Falls banquet, my preferred style is to keep working rather than to eat a meal with one of the guests. The author claims that a meal is the great equalizer because everyone needs to eat and that when we sit down and enjoy a meal together our socio-economic differences are erased. I was convicted because even though I can participate in some good works of bringing the kingdom down closer to earth, I often miss out on the relational step of simply connecting with another human being. The author concludes that the final great equalizer is that each of us is created in the image of God and so to see a person in need is to see a person that God created to be in need.

The definition of literal

As I am continuing to read A New Kind of Christian, I am really struck by the parts on the bible. On page 71, McLaren writes “Fortunately, evangelicals don’t. . . justify killing infidels, even though Moses ordered the faithful to do so in Exodus. They don’t practice polygamy, even though David and Solomon did. They don’t recommend dashing the infants of their enemies against stones, as one of the Psalms celebrated. No, they have a grid of decency that keeps them from applying the Bible literally in these situations. But they seem generally unaware of this grid; they think they rigorously apply the Bible literally, and no one is as faithful as they are. Their grid is like their own retina- they see by it, so they can’t see it.” I am sure that to some it seems like heresy; that the teaching represents a false teaching that must be attacked and dissected for all of its weaknesses. But McLaren goes onto a masterful job outlining both ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ arguments for Scripture and in it reveals a major weakness of mine which is interpreting scripture through my overarching biases.

For instance, a week or so ago I was reading the last part of 1 Corinthians 14 and it deals with tongues and prophecy- two gifts my faith tradition is somewhat uncomfortable with. In this chapter Paul lays out the ‘ground rules’ for these gifts and reiterates the idea that tongues need an interpretation. I’ve always held onto this as my trump card in the debate as if to say look, I’m all for tongues as long as there is interpretation. I’ve believed that verse to be literally true. And yet later on in the chapter, Paul instructs women to be silent in church and that if they want to ask questions, they can essentially ask their husbands when they go home. And I’ve always contextualized that passage because it doesn’t fit my paradigm. I’m as guilty of the Christians who do that sort of thing with other causes. And so I need to continue to check my biases and judgments. Doesn’t mean I’m wrong on women, but it does mean I need to examine my biases against tongues.

Recapping the week

It's been quite a week.

• First, a great story from my hometown newspaper (The Forum, Fargo, ND; you may need to register to access the article) about what one church is doing for the community (I attended this church as a high school student).
• Second, the community of Hillcrest was up to some neat things in our community. On Wednesday, we joined Cleveland Elementary's staff for lunch and to present them with some monies for their mobile computer labs. On Thursday Hillcrest was notified that it is South Dakota's recipient of an Angel in Adoption award. Some great moments for our community.
  

Finally, a great post with thoughts from Mark Batterson that encourage us to keep everything in perspective (my favorite quote: "if you do the right things for the wrong reasons in the Kingdom of God, it doesn't count).