I hope your year is off to a grace-filled and thoughtful start. I enjoy the lists that roll out this time of year – e.g., best books, best movies, most important events – but I’m exhausted by the focus on resolutions. I’m sure some of it is helpful. But at the moment, I am trying to keep things simple: During 2018 may He increase and may I decrease.
To Be Read:
- Kyle Harper, a professor of Classics at the University of OK, published an article entitled, The First Sexual Revolution in this month’s issue of First Things. Harper notes that the sexual ethic of Jesus was unthinkable in the Roman Empire, but it won a hearing. Harper reminds us that cultures can change in healthy directions. Most of us are frustrated by some of the ways cultures drift. But revivals do happen.
- The Salvation of the Napalm Girl: On Friday, Dec. 22, The Wall Street Journal published the testimony of Kim Phuc Phan Thi. She opens the piece claiming that you know her. She then explains that in 1972 she was the nine year old girl whose picture was taken as she ran, “arms outstretched, naked and shrieking in pain and fear, with the dark countour of a napalm cloud billowing in the distance.” Kim Phuc recounts the decade she spent trying to heal (physically, emotionally and spiritually) before she came to faith in Christ. It’s a vibrant testimony worth reading. All the more given that it was printed in the Journal.
To be Watched: A couple months ago I participated in a discussion about training pastors in the future. It was funded by a foundation that believes that radical changes are on the seminary horizon, and was they were willing to host ten pastors and five seminary deans for a two-day discussion about what might be next. I reported on this earlier. (Those notes are here). This week I received a video of Tim Keller’s contributions to this discussion. (He backed out shortly before we convened, but joined us via a thirty minute Skype call). You can watch that here. Not everyone reading this will want to invest thirty minutes to hear about Keller’s thinking / plans for training pastors. But I suspect some of you will. And as usual, he has done some good thinking on this topic.
Quotes Worth Requoting:
- No person hands out their money to passers-by, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers. -Seneca
- Hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does to the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates…. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case…. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false become true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater…. So Jesus says love because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated. -Martin Luther King
Praise Update:
- I had knee surgery a week ago and it went quite well. In fact, the doctor told me that my knee problems are unlikely to materially diminish my chances for playing in the NFL! (Joking aside, it will be six weeks before I am running again, but that appears likely).
- If I am not careful, ministry can become little more than budgets, meetings and organizational headaches. It’s fun – and critical – to stay close to those whose lives are changing because of Jesus. On that front, I’ve been recharged this week by several people who have come alive in Christ. On a related front, I’ve been encouraged by reports from the local Fellowship for Christian Athletes (FCA) who are having success reaching student athletes through Bible Studies and Sports Camps.
Prayer Requests:
- This weekend Christ Church starts a new series on the Minor Prophets.
- On Sunday, January 28th, Christ Church is holding a worship service at the Genesee Theater in downtown Waukegan. Folks from all 9 weekly services are being invited to gather for one service, which we are calling Vision Sunday. We will be exploring God’s call, looking back at His faithfulness and forward to new challenges. I am excited about how it is coming together. Pray that the event – and all the work going into it – is pleasing to God.
- I spent some time this week reconnecting with pastors in the area in advance of the Feb. 25th county wide baptism service. Join me in praying that we get to relive the joy and energy of last year’s event.