Oh Christmas Tree!

The Christmas Tree means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I know, for example, that some Christians deliberately choose not to put up a Christmas tree due to it’s connections to pagan rituals. For these people, the Christmas Tree doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus, so they don’t want to have anything to do with a Christmas Tree. For other people, the Christmas Tree is precisely a reminder of Jesus. Just as important a fixture as the nativity scene on the mantel. For others, the Christmas Tree is primarily a reminder of family and the importance of staying connected to the people we love. It’s a nice family tradition.

The Christmas Tree means radically different things to different people. In a sense, it’s what you make of it. I like having a tree in the house. It smells nice. It looks pretty with lights on it and it has fun decorations on it. Some of those decorations are reminders of my family, some are reminders of Jesus, and some just look cool. Sometimes I think about Jesus when I look at the tree, but I think that’s in part because…it’s Christmas.

Anyway, I was thinking about this, and I realized that church has this same characteristic: it’s what you make of it. For some, it’s a family tradition. You do it cause that’s what you do. What’s the point in asking why? For some people, I think church is even a place where you go to be seen-it might be a place to do some networking. For some people, it’s about Jesus. It’s about wanting to meet with him, be changed by him, and worship him with other people who love him. For most of us it's probably been all of these things in different season, or weeks, in our lives. At times I think church is more about who you are or what you do than where you go on Sunday mornings…

There may be a sense of safety in taking church for granted, but I think there’s value in asking why we do church. So… Do you go to church? Why? Or, how do you “do” church? What’s your take on the Christmas tree?

By the way- I'm going to be moving over to a different blog. It's jaronkamin.wordpress.com
Hope to see you there!

Anti-venom for a consumeristic church?

People sometimes say that the modern Western church has become severely consumeristic. It's has become a competitive "industry" where different churches vie for a slice of market-share by having the snappiest service, the best children's program, or even the most compelling preaching. People sometimes say that the church has become consumeristic, and people are sometimes right.
The thing is, we have needs right? Don't we need an environment where we can focus on God? Don't we need to hear a sermon that will challenge or encourage us? Don't we want to feel like our kids are being taken care of and discovering the love of Jesus? I dunno... Sometimes?
The thing I am wondering is, maybe there is a cure for consumerism that doesn't leave us feeling like no one cares about us.
Here's the thing I'd like to try, and I'd love for the five or so people that occasionally glace at my blog to consider this as well.
What if we prayed for the leaders in our churches? What if we prayed that God would be near them, and they would know His deep love for them? That they would discern His leading and they would have courage to pursue it with passion, determination, and boldness? That God would rebuke their wayardness? What if we prayed that God would hold them up in their weakness, and bless their strengths, and give them humble hearts to do the wild and treacherous work of leading the church?
I'm not going to suggest that the result of this will be that we will suddenly feel like the church is meeting our needs, whatever that means. It might mean that we could start to have a little more confidence that God is with us as a community, and He is leading us as a community. If this was the case, we could at least know, maybe, that even if we didn't feel like all of our needs were being met, we could see that God was still taking us somewhere together.
I don't know. Maybe not... but maybe.

"Sent People" Sermon

Here's a little sermon I gave on what it means to be a sent people. It's part two of a three-part vision series we are doing.
At the end, there is a question for reflection. The sermon ends after that, so if you feel like you're getting a long time to reflect, that's why: it's over.

http://www.box.net/shared/static/xsyb4yjkz8.mp3

Why Connect?

At the Launch, we talk a lot about being God's "sent" people. We are not here to live for ourselfs, but instead, we exist more for everyone around us. But here's a confession: I'm not very good at being "sent". I'm very good at being selfish. I tend to look after me. I tend to do things that will be good for me. Sometimes I realize this and think to myself, "Dang. I've got to be praying more. I'm so focused on myself. I need to connect with God so that I can be more focused on others."
I was having one of these conversations recently (not actually with myself, but with my wife) and I got a bit of a wake up call. Ultimately, I shouldn't be praying just so that I can be more focused on others, but rather, I should be praying in order to stay connected to my God who loves me and gives me life. This is not to say that I don't want to be focused on others- I'm just saying interaction with God is good in itself. It's not supposed to be a means to an end, at least certainly not exclusively. I want to share in the peace and joy of Jesus, AND I want to be a different person because of it.

Furniture and Change

My office is in an old, old building. It's awesome. I love it. There's a parlor around the corner, and recently, the facilities manager of the building rearranged all the chairs and couches and the piano. All that stuff.
We talked about it, and I guess he was a little nervous that people would not receive the change too warmly. I'm only guessing, but I would assume that the reason people may not like the change is because they were used to the way it was. From looking at it, there was certainly nothing wrong with the new setup.
This got me thinking a little. Furniture is movable. Sometimes it gives the impression of permanence, and sometimes the stuff might be challenging to move around, but it can be done. It's not permanent.
I think sometimes we treat a lot of things we do or have done like it's furniture. We like it, we got used to it, and we think it's permanent. The fact is, sometimes rearranging things can give us a fresh perspective that's incredibly helpful. Sometimes we may even have to get rid of the once beautiful sofa which is now stained and musty. We're still thankful for all the years we got great use out of that couch, but it's time for the couch to go.
It's so easy to fall into this trap of doing things as a church a very particular way. We do it cause it worked, and then maybe at some point, whether or not it still works, we keep on doing it because it makes us feel safe. I'm just as susceptible to this as anyone else. Sometimes there are new, more effective ways of doing things, and sometimes old methods work great. Sometimes that chair that was banished to the attic comes back out decades later to make a stylish reappearance.
I just don't want the value to be that we don't change things. We need to change things.
What if we never switched to the telephone because we really liked the telegraph?

New Music Player!!

After a great deal of tinkering and toil, I'm very pleased to announce the new music player, which plays music! It's right there on the sidebar. Check it out. I will try to add more music on a regular basis.

Multi-Cultural Church

Here's a church that I would say has a successful multi-cultural congregation. What's one way they do it? Hip-hop music. Check it out.

Here's an article by the pastor, Efrem Smith:
http://msainfo.org/articles/building-community-in-a-multicultural-church

Here's his church:
http://www.sanctuarycovenant.org/joomla/

They have a potluck and hang out on the day of their annual meeting too. I thought that was interesting!

To Save a Chef

I watch a fair amount of TV. Thanks to the internet and iTunes, I can catch up on the years of TV that I missed when I didn't have a TV. Yes!
So I've been watching old episodes of Top Chef, a competitive chef elimination showdown!
Anyway, a ways into the season a situation occurs where one of the better chefs, Elia, has kind of a bad day and is in danger of being eliminated. It was looking pretty bad for Elia, but then another chef (who also had a shot at elimination) stepped in and said she would resign so that Elia could stay in the competition. They don't ever tell us if it was actually Elia who would have been eliminated, but the judges accepted Mia's resignation instead of eliminating someone.
I think about how Elia must have felt, knowing that someone else gave up their chance at winning the competition for her sake, and I think that must have been really motivating for her. Knowing that someone cared enough about her and wanted her to succeed bad enough that this person would give up her spot so that Elia could continue, must have helped her work pretty hard to succeed.
I hope this isn't too terribly cliché, but I was struck by some of the similarities between the situation with these chefs, and our situation with Jesus.
Jesus gave up his life for us. But it wasn't only so that we could be a part of the big party, it was also so that we could do the work that he wants to do: sharing the gospel through these lives we've been given by loving the people around us in the way he loves and giving ourselves to a world in desperate need.
The analogy breaks down of course, because Mia might have been toast anyway, and Jesus didn't give himself up for us because we were doing so well in the game. But I felt there was still a little something there.

Perfect Attendance

I'm not a big fan of obligations. I should qualify that. I'm not a big fan of obligations for obligation's sake. When it comes to church, I feel the same way. I don't like taking classes because that's what you're supposed to do, and I don't like sitting in a service because that's what you're supposed to do. And I REALLY don't want the church to be obligating people to do a bunch of stuff.
They primary part of my job involves putting together a worship service each week. It's good work and I enjoy it, but I don't want people to come because they feel like they have to, or that someone will look down on them if they don't. What I want, mostly, is for them to want to come, and ideally, they'd come because they encounter Jesus there, and they are surronded by people that love them and care about them- like a massive, awesome family.

You know what's weird?

Rock and Roll in the morning.

But we do it! Every Sunday. We get up early, and we rock.

Feeling obligated to rock is also weird. I think it goes against the fundamental elements of rock.
If you are a part of my community here, I hope you don't feel obligated to show up on Sunday, and I hope you don't feel obligated to rock.
Don't rock because you're supposed to. Rock because God is awesome. I will try and do the same.

Fire!!

So, some churches use pyrotechnics in their services. Pretty wild. Seriously.
Click this link and scroll down to the video called ignited.
http://www.upperroomcommunity.org/mediaVideo.php?year=2004

(This link should work now)

Good News in the Ashes

So I gave a little meditation at the downtown campus for Ash Wednesday. I wrote the whole thing out in order to try and stay consistent with the way folks do things around here, so as a result, I can upload it for anyone to read! Here it is if you're interested

Phillippians 3:7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

“Good News in the Ashes”
Not too long ago, my wife and I moved here from San Diego, California. The weather here has definitely been a new experience, but, overall, I would say weʼve been enjoying all of the seasons, and if we donʼt freeze to death, weʼll call it good. I never thought Iʼd call 30 degrees warm, but after-18 below or whatever ridiculous temperature it was a while back, I was able to do just that. Iʼve changed.
Anyway, you might know that San Diego has a reputation for having a really great climate, but thereʼs a catch. While they donʼt get a lot of rain out there, they also donʼt get a lot of rain out there, and that lack of rain leaves you with extremely dry foliage. Consequently, every couple of years, the people in the area have to deal with pretty severe wildfires. One day, people will be enjoying a beautiful late summer afternoon, and the next day entire neighborhoods have been consumed by a blazing inferno, which only leaves behind lonely chimneys surrounded by ash and debris. People witness the lives they have built literally go up in smoke. The achievements, the memories, all gone. A lot of people in San Diego have worked really hard to build lives for themselves, only to have so much of what they have built their lives around go up in flames. Itʼs a terrible tragedy, but when it happens, they rebuild. And while people who experience destruction in their lives can and should rebuild, we see something in the remnant of those flames that tells us something important about the lives that we live.
Tonight, itʼs Ash Wednesday, and weʼre going to receive the ashes on our foreheads. In the ashes, we are reminded of our fleeting mortality. We are reminded that we are dust, and we will return to dust. We didnʼt bring anything with us when we arrived on this crazy little rock, and we wont take anything with us when we leave. Itʼs an inescapable fact of the human condition. The ashes are a sign of repentance and a reminder or our short timeline.
Paul tells us in the scripture that everything that he had going for himself, everything that he had striven for he now considers garbage compared with knowing Jesus. It might as well all be burned up. On the other hand, itʼs so easy for us to go through life pursuing the things we think will last. We dream of great success, we dream of influence and power, we search for things that we believe will give us a sense of significance and ultimately, I think, cause us to be remembered, granting us some sort of immortality. We also have a tendency to try and do the things we believe will please God, and we hope that somehow, the work weʼve done will be approved, and we will then enjoy eternity with our God. But thatʼs not how it works. It all fades away. It all decomposes ultimately into a grey, shapeless carbon, and it is forgotten. The good news is that we donʼt have to cling to all the things that we have sought, which will eventually slip right through our fingers. Instead, we can cling to Jesus. In the ashes we find we are released from the striving, and we are reminded that we can loosen our frantic grasp on the things that we could never hold onto anyway. Where there was once anxiety and fear, there is now peace and assurance. So why shouldnʼt we call our achievements and deeds garbage? Is it really so important that we receive credit for the life we lived? Do we really want credit? I donʼt. Not if it means I have to take credit for everything. I donʼt really want to take the bad stuff with me. So what if I just let it all go? The bad and the good. Then I have open arms to cling to Jesus. Iʼm not saying we shouldnʼt work, and work hard. I would say we should work for Jesus, and not so much for ourselves, because the goals we would seek for ourselves, in the grand scheme of things, arenʼt going to do us any good. Do wonderful and amazing things, great and small, and rejoice in God as you do them, but donʼt worry about trying to do those things to please or impress God, or to earn his Love. Thatʼs way too much pressure. He loves you. So let all those other things go, and hold on to him.
Paul calls all that he had worked for rubbish, and he also expresses his desire to become like Jesus in his death, and in the previous chapter of Philippians, he challenges us saying: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus had it all, and he gave it all up because of his love for us. We are invited to become like him, in a way, in that we can give up what we have and receive his love for us, but we canʼt hang onto what we have anyway. We have the opportunity, in repentance, to receive forgiveness for the things we did wrong, and to receive freedom from the things we think we did right.
So weʼre invited to let go of that which we canʼt hold onto. But we also see in this passage Paulʼs desire to “share in the fellowship of sufferings.” It might seem a little counterintuitive to desire suffering, but if youʼve been even halfway around the block, you probably know that suffering is another inevitable consequence of the human condition. You will suffer. I will suffer. But we also have a choice. Will we suffer the senseless pain that must be endured as part of the trappings of humanity, or will we also suffer for Jesusʼ sake. When you identify with Jesus, when you stand with Jesus, it will catch up to you at some point, and it will cause you pain, but Jesus will be with you, and he understands your pain. And just as our triumphs and feeble attempts at righteousness will pass away, so also our pain will pass away, but in the meantime, Jesus is with us in the midst of our pain, and through suffering, we have the chance to draw closer to our God who suffered for us. But thereʼs still more. Not only do we get to walk with one who understands what we are going through and is there for us in countless ways, but as we walk with Jesus, we experience the power of His resurrection. I donʼt believe that the power of the resurrection is reserved only for when we have passed on and are all raised together at the big finish. I believe we can experience that power now. The power of the resurrection is about making that which was dead--alive. Jesus brings life, and we get to witness his bringing new life to us and to those around us. And when we leave this life behind, our life with Jesus continues on. Just as we were sustained by him in life, so we will besustained by him in death.
So we are reminded of two eventualities. First, that we canʼt hang on to what we have accomplished in this life, and second, that we will suffer in this life. But Jesus offers us something to lift us far beyond both of these situations. When we find that we have nothing that we can hold onto, we know that we can cling to Jesus, and when we suffer, he is there with us, sustaining us, until, well, until always. He will always be there sustaining us.
As you might spend a little extra time in quiet during this season of lent, Iʼd like to suggest that you make a little extra room in your heart for Jesus. Let him replace all of the things youʼve felt like you had to do to “make it”, let him stand with you when you suffer, and let him fill you with the life giving power of his resurrection.

Advent Conspiracy Devotional: Spend Less #4

The wise men went on a great journey to find the one who was born King of the Jews. Matthew 2:10 tells us that when they saw the star revealing the birthplace of the King :
“...they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” (NASB)
We are all on a journey. We are all looking for something. Some of us think we are going to find what we are looking for by acquiring more cool stuff. It makes us feel good for a while when we get something new, but it doesn’t last, and I’m pretty sure for most of us, the feeling of getting a new thing doesn’t result in rejoicing exceedingly with great joy.
Now I know Christmas is almost upon us, and most of the gifts have probably been purchased, so instead of telling you not to go out and buy something, I’d like to offer an invitation. Pursue Jesus. Wherever you are, and in whatever circumstances, may you seek Him with passion and devotion. And if you search, you will find Him. And when you find Him, may you experience the exceedingly great joy that can only be found in Jesus. It’s the kind of joy that frees you from your burdens. I pray that you will experience wholeness and freedom in His embrace, both during this season, and for the rest of your life to come.

Luke 12:15- “Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’" (TNIV)

Life consists in Jesus.

John 9:10 “‘...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’”

Advent Conspiracy Devotional: Spend Less #3

When I was a kid, I could not sleep on Christmas eve. Maybe I’d nod off around 2 am and then wake up at 5:30 and run upstairs to rouse my parents. “Merry Christmas!!”, I’d holler, with my little brother in tow. We were so excited. This was the best day of the year. This was the day that we got a load of stuff that we had been wanting. Granted, I don’t think I even heard about Jesus till I was in Junior High, but even then, the big thing on my mind Christmas morning was the presents.
I know I’m not alone. If you spend five minutes in front of a television screen this Christmas season, you will discover that all of the US is totally preoccupied and enamored with all this stuff. There are a few reasons I’m not crazy about all of this, but one reason is that while we are spending all this time on stuff, we are totally missing the awe of Christmas. God made flesh, come to save us from sin and death, and make us whole, and I can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about all the goodies I’m going to get in the morning.
It’s interesting. When Jesus showed up as a baby, it wasn’t an event that captured the attention of the world. A very small number of people were aware that it had even happened. Christ came to the world and at that moment, the world was still going about it’s business. That moment when the story of our lives was beginning to be rewritten from one of sorrow and defeat to one of joy and victory, and hardly anyone was paying attention. The question is, has that situation changed? Do we just continue to go about our business?
I would encourage you to take some time in the next week to be silent for a bit. Let the rush for stuff subside and make room in your hearts for the awe of Christmas to sink in. God made flesh, like one of us- for you. Merry Christmas indeed.

Revelation 1:8-
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Isaiah 53:2-
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Matthew 1:23-
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."