Friday, November 27, 2009

A review of a book you will never read (Unless you're in Ireland)

I just finished reading a book that was given to me by its author while I was in Northern Ireland back in June. The book, Ireland's Lost Heritage, was written by David Carnduff who is a Bible scholar and an engaging conversationalist. I remember fondly the afternoon visit we shared over tea and biscuits in the church he is planting in a workout center in Northern Ireland. The book is not easy reading, but it was fascinating for me on a couple of levels. First is the telling of the story of the evangelization of Ireland, viewed from a Pentecostal perspective, tracing its history back to the 5th century. It is always encouraging to read of the challenges and successes of our pioneer evangelists.

The second thing is that concerns that we have today are not new concerns. On page 104 of the book in the chapter on George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim churches it says of him, "Evangelism was always close to the heart of Jeffreys. He had no time for such "holy huddles" and whereas some of the early Pentecostals saw the blessing of the "glory meetings" as Heavenward-looking and end in itself, Jeffreys saw it as inward looking and failing to reach the lost." That dilemna is still in evidence today. Many evaluate the condition of a church on how the Spirit moves during the services when they should be looking to how the Spirit moves in the lives of the members as they live life between the services.

In the early days of Modernism, there was a temptation to make the gospel presentation logical to the hearer and neglect the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. Today as we minister to the post-modern hearer we are tempted to make the gospel as intellectual as possible because we fear that our Pentecostal experience will be viewed as something for the uneducated. Or we orchestrate a "pep rally" atmosphere where feel-good emotions promise a good life. Carnduff addresses this well when he says, "Yet arguably, if you preach on an intellectual level you will reach on an intellectual level. If you preach on an emotional level you will reach on an emotional level. But only if you preach on a spiritual level will you reach on a spiritual level and this is the only level on which a truly life-changing result can be effected."

I am not a scholar, so I really appreciate the discipline involved in research and writing that results in books such as this which keep us connected to our past, for the past of the Irish believer is the same as that of any Christ believer around the world. We all trace our roots to a common beginning.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Word Inflation

It is well documented on this blog that I am a great fan of words. To me, words have definite and consistent meanings. But it is common these days for the value of a word or phrase to be diminished by overuse. I call this "word inflation".

At one time the acronym "ASAP" carried an air of urgency. As Soon As Possible meant just that. It coveyed a sense that it was to take precedence over almost anything else. Now people routinely use ASAP and no one really changes their schedule to accomodate the ASAP request. A few years ago I asked someone who worked for me to prepare a list of equipment needs for a project I was leading. He was to prioritize what equipment was needed right away and what would be added as the project progressed. What I got was a 9 page listing of requests with ASAP written next to each item. Just before I threw that list away I told him that when I saw ASAP next to each item, it lost any possibility of creating urgency. The overuse of ASAP rendered it meaningless.

Back in the day, digital pagers were the cutting edge technology used to keep in touch. A phone number would appear on the screen and I would begin looking for a public telephone to call the number which appeared. The most common number to appear would be the "office", of course, and we talked about a method whereby I would know if I should find the next off ramp and get to the phone right away, or if I could call back at the first regular opportunity. We decided that a message with the office phone number would mean to call next time I was near a phone. But if a 911 was added to the phone number it meant to drop everything and get to a phone. It worked just fine until two times in a day I made a mad dash to find a phone only to find that one of the guys I worked with wanted to ask about something that whas not particularly urgent. The second time this happened, I asked why he used the 911 designation for non-urgent purposes and he said that he didn't like waiting for me to call back. We stopped using the 911 shortly after that, because it had lost its "punch". Overuse had stripped it of its impact.

A phrase that is being overused these days is "a slap in the face". It is hard to read the letter to the editor section of the paper or watch man in the street interviews without this phrase popping up. It originated some time ago to identify a particularly offensive action toward a person or interest group. But now I see that anything done that someone doesn't like will be labeled "a slap in the face" to a large group such as "everyone who ever wore a military uniform". At one time, if I read the "slap in the face" term I could see why the person using it felt it necessary to use it. But now, through overuse, I get aggravated when it see it used. It sounds cranky. It makes me doubt the message of the aggrieved party. Overuse of this phrase has robbed it of its power.

Let's be careful not to be guilty of word inflation. Let's use the proper word in its proper context. After all, I have told you a million times to stop exaggerating.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

New Life


Yesterday we celebrated the long awaited arrival of my newest grandson, Simon Robert Pickens. To quote Harry Chapin, "he came to the world in the usual way." But for that day, there were no "planes to catch and bills to pay." Last night there was a time when 17 people were in the room, ranging in age from their first day in the outside world to well in their 70's. There were children zooming around, playing with toy cars and playing hide and seek. There were parents talking about parent things, and occasionally making futile attempts to rein in the energy levels of their kids. There were grandparents snapping pictures of everything. There was a great-grandma who was taking it all in and loving it all. It was chaotic; it was loud. It was awesome, because it was life. New life; new creation. A new beginning. New responsibilities for all of us. Promises of new levels of messiness and uncertainty. Promises of new opportunities and joys. Promises of new heartbreaks. Promises of sucesses and failures. And that is what life is about. It is an adventure. It's messy. It's unbelievably exciting and incredibly impossible. We take a great day like yesterday and hold it in reserve against the inevitability of a day that seems to suck the air from our lungs. Both days are life. But days that involve new life are the best.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Banquet Week

This must be banquet week. Tuesday night Carole and I went to the Reach the World Banquet and Auction. Last night I went to a Teen Challenge Freedom House banquet in Tulsa. Tonight I will go to a Teen Challenge Sonrise Ranch banquet in Lawton. I love Teen Challenge banquets because of the testimonies of those whose lives have been changed by God throught Teen Challenge. I never grow tired of hearing the stories of a life that was self-destructive and out of control that now is at peace because of the love of Christ. The transforming power of the gospel is simply amazing. I heard several such testimonies last night. I look forward to hearing more tonight.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A Modest Proposal

I remember reading "A Modest Proposal" in high school English as an example of satire. It was written by Johnathon Swift as I remember, and was written during the Irish Potato Famine, if my recollection is accurate. His proposal, in answer to the seeming indifference of the government to the plight of the starving was that the people should eat the babies. You have to read it.
www.art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

My proposal is not as outrageous as this. My proposal is along the lines of churches which need to be planted in Oklahoma City. Two come to mind, although there is a need for many "micro-congregations" in our city.

First would be a church in the "Little Saigon", or Asian District which is centered on Classen Boulevard between NW 36th and NW 16th. The people who have opened businesses in this corridor have saved this part of town from total deterioration. It is now an interesting and safe part of town thanks to their efforts. But there is not a church for them in any of the remaining vacant business locations.

Second would be a work in the Paseo Arts District. This area is in a resurgence and it is peopled by artistic people who will not typically respond to typical Christianity. However, they will respond to genuine Christianity which is not tied to Republican conservatism. (They really are two different things.)

I can't offer much in my proposal other than myself. I would love to work with and resource church planters who have a real calling and the ability to communicate at a heart level with the people of these neighborhoods. Our city benefits from having these populations in our area. We need to respond in love and share the gospel with them.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

New Life Isn't Always Embraced

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." John 11:43-50

New life isn't always greeted with joy. Lazarus, who had been dead for days, was now living again thanks to a miracle from Jesus. That news brought joy to many, but to those who were in charge of maintaining church order it brought great consternation. They saw the new life as a threat to their position and to their influence with the government. So they decided to kill Jesus.

Around the country it is not uncommon see the same spirit. A change occurs in a local church and there are those who receive the "new life" with gladness. But there are always those who have assigned themselves the responsibility to "protect the church" and they are not so pleased with the change that new life brings. So they set out to rid themselves of the one responsible for endangering the set order of things.

The Pharisees could not embrace the good news that Lazarus had another shot at life. They could only see that people wouldn't be coming to them for their answers; they would be going to the giver of new life, Jesus.

We should always remember that new life is exciting, messy, tiring, challenging and uncertain. It requires us to do things differently. It requires us to reschedule in ways that are really inconvenient at times. It may move us to the background while the recipients of new life get all the face time. But without new life, we grind to a halt. Our paramount responsibility as Christians is to pass the gospel to the next generation; not to keep it familiar for the current one. I plan to be among those who embrace and celebrate new life.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

It was fun this season


Back 15 or 20 years ago, I followed major league baseball closely. Every morning during the season I would check the box scores of my two teams, the Yankees in the AL and the Reds of the NL. It was before ESPN, before the internet. I learned the player's names from the box scores. I had no idea what they looked like unless they played on the NBC game of the week. World Series games were usually played during the day, so I would listen to them on the radio at school or work. It was fun. But as the responsibilities of life grew, my desire to follow baseball waned. The Big Red Machine of Cincinnati grew old and retired. Many of my Yankee heroes were replaced by a revolving door of guys I didn't know. Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash and I wouldn't be able to tell you who was catching for the Yankees until Jorge Posada arrived.

So this year, for the first time in many years, I got reacquainted with baseball. My son-in-law and several guys I work with are also Yankee fans, and I began paying attention to game results from the first of the season. The baseball season is a long one. There were many ups and downs. Players were hurt, players were traded. Some went through slumps, some got really hot. There were winning streaks and losing streaks. I was there for it all. I saw the Yankees lose their first 8 games to the Red Sox only to win 9 of the next 10. It was really fun. I pulled for teams I don't like when they played teams I like even less.

Last night the last game of Major League Baseball season was played. The Yankees were there to the very end and are now the champions. Of course, I am thrilled that my team won. But I have enjoyed the many conversations with many of my friends about baseball this season. I enjoyed reading the box scores again, although I read them on the internet now. It really was fun and enjoyable. I have rejoined the community of baseball fans. I'm ready for another season to start.