Snowfall and Spring…

So today in Minnesota there was a “wonderful” snow storm, only like 3 inches or so, no big deal, but it got me thinking about a few things when it comes to winter and snow. 

So by way of a little back story it must be understood that I HATE winter, I mean hate, like I wish I was a bear and could sleep though winter in Minnesota.  I mean I have been trying my best to enjoy winter more, you know find stuff to do like skating, but no matter what I am doing in the winter, outside anyways, I am also thinking about how cold I am and how much I wish it was summer.   So having said that I think there are a few really cool things that can be seen in winter, and the following spring.

1. Winter is ALWAYS followed by spring: Now honestly I think this is the best part of winter.  Now the reason I think that isn’t simply because winter ends when springs starts but much more importantly it is because no matter how bad the winter has been, like this winter, spring always comes.   And when spring does finally come, after many months of me freezing to death, I can’t help but think about how faithful God is to us.

2. Snow is Amazingly annoying: So we have all heard the saying “washed white as snow” but that is not was I think is amazing about snow.  So follow me out on this ok.   Snow sucks, snow is cold, hard to deal with, and annoying but snow brings great things.  I mean think about the fact that EVERY YEAR Minnesota is listed as one of the highs “quality of life” states in America.  I think a big reason behind that is Snow, yeah I said SNOW, because snow cleans the air up as it falls down. So we have amazingly clean air in Minnesota.  I think Snow is God’s reminder of his amazing grace because it shows the way that he cleans us up.

I think there are MANY MANY more thoughts on winter and the way it shows God’s grace and love for us.  But I have not the time tonight to right on it.  I would love to hear any thoughts that you guys have on winter.  (Please comment.)  

Listening To Freddie Mercury…..

[We are all the same people.
With sinning hearts that make us equal.
Here is my hand, not words said desperately.
It is not our job to make anyone believe.] [Emery]
God’s grace is a truly great thing. Wouldn’t you agree? It is something that I don’t think that can ever be fully understood, explained or fully realized how amazing it is to find and live under God’s grace. But there has, I believe, become a gave problem in this Christian world when it comes to grace. This problem is something I see in myself on a daily bases. It is a problem that I believe is so ingrained in our minds that we are all but unable to fight it because we don’t even know its happening. This problem has become a mindset that we seem to not notice either because we don’t see it or because we think that this mindset is right.
Before I explain what this mind set is let me talk a little about the song I have put at the top of this post. This song is entitled “Listening To Freddie Mercury”. It is a song by a favorite band of mine named Emery. Now Freddie Mercury is a Singer/Song Writer best known for his work with the band Queen. He is also famous for having homosexual relationships and for dying of Aids. Which seems like a strange person to know a song after when all the members of you bands are Christian, or is it?
So what is this problem I talked about earlier? I guess the only way I can think to describe it is “elitism” or “Specialness”. What this looks like is something you most likely see everyday when you are around Christian people. Its that feeling when you start talking about people living in sin, like people having affairs or homosexuals or murders, that the people around you are thinking some where in the back of their minds “Oh how sinful those people are!” Or its the reason why you are so slow to admit to your close friends that you have a sin problem of any kind and so you try so hard to keep the mask of being perfect up as high as possible. Or the reason why you are so slow to admit you are a Christian around non-Christian people because you think they will right away think you are “one of those people”.
So back to the song by Emery. The thing I love most about this song is when the singer sings “We are all the same people.With sinning hearts that make us equal.” And I think that is something we are missing quite often these days we are missing the viewpoint of being equal. Do we understand that? We are Equal to even the Greatest of sinners. I mean isn’t that the great thing about grace? The fact that it takes our sinfulness and throws it away. I mean doesn’t Paul call us “Objects of Wrath”? [a] Doesn’t Paul talk about how grace is the thing that brings us to God not our being elite?
So now I must tread on some thin ice. Homosexuality today is an issue that is talked and fought about all over Christendom and the reason why I believe Emery picked the song title that they did. (This is not a post about Homosexuality but rather another sin). But in this song they don’t even address homosexuality because that is not what they are trying to get at. What they are trying to talk about is Judgment. And more importantly how Christians Judge people who are not Christians well not looking at themselves and understand that they are sinning just by Judging the people they view as such horrible sinners.
And isn’t this what we do so often inside the Church? We sit there and Judge rather than loving first and foremost. We sit there and act like we never sin when in fact we are just as guilty of the sins that we condemn. I could go on on this topic but I feel like this is enough to think about so I will end with a few questions. Why do you think we, as Christians, start with Judgment so often? Do you agree with the idea that we are all equal? Do you agree that God’s Grace is all that has saved us from being just like anyone else in the world?
(Once again please comment and ask questions. Also this topic will be revisited as I keep writing.)
[The Idea behind him calling us objects of wrath is to show that we at one time, before we accepted God’s grace, were against God. The link to the passage is below, please read.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:1-10&version=NIV1984]

Folding Chairs and Growing Plants

 

Not to long ago I started the wonderfully scary, hard and at time uncomfortable process of searching for a new Church home.  After 15 Plus years at one Church serving every Sunday and Wednesday and knowing what to expect out of Sunday Service and knowing, and being known, by everyone at the Church the day finally came when I felt like it was time to try something new, time for a fresh start, and new stage in my life.  I had never, as an adult, left a Church and had never been left to search for a Church.  So this has been a totally new experience for me.  I have so far been enjoying it and have had a fun time looking for something new and for some where to become my new home. 

So far I have visited only three Churches and there are things about each these Churches that I enjoyed and things about each that kind of put me off. There also were many things that these Churches did that were similar and many things that were different.

For starters none of these Churches had their own building.  So they were left to meet in a school or a building of some kind.  They also all had folding chairs to sit on rather that pews or anything like that.  The other and most important thing that all of these Churches did, or better stated are, is that they are all Church ‘plants’.  And I think this is the important part that I think needs to be zoomed in on and understood because this whole idea of Church ‘plants’ has become one of, if not the, major way that the Christian Church grows today and I have always wondered about the whole idea behind a Church ‘plant’, why does it work? What does it do better than a “planted” Church? Why has it become so “popular”?  Why do we call them Church ‘plants’?  And why is it that lots of Church ‘plants’ seem to be mostly younger people, well older people stay in there ‘home’ Church?

First I must say that the term ‘planting’ or ‘plant’ seems to be largely a Christian only thing.  At least I can not think of any time when I have heard someone say “well I’m gonna go plant a new Car dealership.” or anything like that and so it seems like only Churches use this word to talk about something new and truth be told. as much as it is totally a Christian term, I really like the term and the imagery that “Church Plant” brings to my mind.   Now I am by no means a person who keeps plants, I don’t know that I ever have kept a plant, but I know people who keep them and the coolest thing to me about plants is the fact that they need the most help and work at the very start when they are just planted but if you were to leave them after that to grow they quickly become unruly and start to do whatever they want (people who have plants do you agree?). 

 

Now the reason why I think this is important to understand is because I feel like the strongest thing that a Church Plant has is the fact that it is new and fresh, much the same way that every year a farmer must start over with a new crop a Church Plant is something new and fresh that happens to the Church body, and that I believe is a very strong thing to have happen.  I think that there are just times when something new should, and must, happen in the life of a Church other wise that Church will become unruly.

 

I also think that it is this newness and freshness that causes Church plants to often, not always but quite often, be mostly people from the younger age brackets, lets say 35 and younger, because the longer you stay in one place that harder it is to leave.  Just think about how often it happens that someone grows up in the same place and all of there friends are in that one city and all they have ever known is the streets that the walk on everyday. Than they get married and have kids and they want to stay close to their parents so their kids will know their grand parents and so they never leave because they are to afraid to take that leap of faith and trust that God will carry them through to a new place in their lives.  It is this same idea that works in Churches, I believe, the idea that the more comfortable you get in a Church the harder it is to leave a Church and the longer you have stayed there the more comfortable that place feels and it is this reason that makes Church Plants so often mostly younger aged people. 

 

I must finish by saying that I think there are many different kinds and sizes of Churches inside the Body of Christ and that all Churches were at one time “Church Plants” and that we are still growing branches of the greater Body of Christ.  I think that no matter if you sit in a folding chair or a pew on Sunday morning the most important thing is that you are worshiping the one true Savior Jesus. If that is true that nothing else matters!

 

(Please Comment and tell me what you think.  Also if you have any questions, concerns or ideas about this post feel free to comment or contact me anyway you can.  Thank you much.)