Then go joyfully about your work.

That is how Martin Luther ends his instructions for Morning Prayer in his Small Catechism. For me, this is both a challenge and an invitation.

It is a challenge to bring joy to aspects of my work that seem, well, mundane.

But it is also an invitation to see the work I have been given for the day as God’s work, as holy work, as meaningful work.

Say your prayers and then go joyfully about your work.

How does this challenge and inspire you today?

Sometimes you have to say “No” to 1,000 things to say “Yes” to the one thing that matters.

Three summers ago, my wife and I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It is now a nine-week course that helps people focus on getting out of debt, building wealth and giving generously. (We are offering it this fall through our congregation if you are interested.) The explicit strength of this program is the debt snowball and sticking to a monthly budget. The implicit strength of this program is what I like to call 1,000 Nos.

Last August we finished paying off all our debt and are now working toward building our 3-6 month emergency fund. We still do a monthly budget, pay cash for everything and say “No” a lot.

I still joke about the discipline of 1,000 Nos. I say “No” to a lot of things I want but cannot afford. Saying “No” over and over and over again is actually… quite freeing. Because over time it allows me to say “Yes” to a whole new set of things.

What things have you said “No” to lately to say “Yes” to the main thing? 

One of Rob Bell’s Nooma videos, “Shells,” also does a nice job with this topic.

Why is it that the only booths that scare the hell out of me (literally) at the county fair are the ones run by Christians? Can’t we do a better job of spreading the Gospel?

Here are some suggestions for how the treasure that is the Christian faith might better be shared on the midway.

1. Spend some money on better tracts. Instead of handing out little booklets that cost a nickel each, or some gimmicky plastic toy or a balloon, how about a nice summary about what you believe on card stock with nice lettering? And, for the love of God, stay away from Chick tracts.

2. Give out a nice story book about Jesus. Arch books are wonderful. Don’t invite my child in with a “free story” and then start the bait and switch about salvation. It’s tacky… and a little creepy.

3. If you’re going to give out a copy of one of the Gospels, give out any one but the Gospel of John. Don’t get me wrong, John’s Gospel is beautiful, poetic and very deep theologically. In other words, more suited to those mature in the faith. If you simply want to introduce someone to Jesus for the first time, Matthew, Mark and Luke are all winners. (Note: I had a difficult time finding much online, other than what Ignatius Press offers, so if anyone is looking for a niche market, here’s a hint.)

4. Enter the multimedia world. Voice of the Martyrs has produced a cartoon film called Jesus: He Lived Among Us. There are countless options, from The Nativity Story to The Gospel of John (see #3 however) to The Passion of the Christ. Do your own YouTube video about what mission-minded things your congregation is up to and then hand out bookmarks with a link and QR code.

5. Set up a prayer station. Bring the best of your prayer warriors. Set up a booth that reads clearly, “Listening post”… then listen to all of the problems people bring to you and offer to pray with them.

6. Feed the hungry. Set up a hunger-awareness station with handouts for ways to combat hunger, locally and globally. Put out a shopping cart for donations of canned goods. Promote local food pantries and hunger advocacy groups. Have a simple sign: Because Jesus says so…

7. Enlist local artists. Artists are woefully underpaid and under-appreciated. Pay some local artists really well to create an amazing mural during the fair. Have them do a section each day, so that it is not complete until the last day of the fair.

All of these stem from my conviction, based on Martin Luther’s explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed, that is the Holy Spirit who does the converting. We are called to introduce people to Jesus and to share his message in word and action.

Finally, some kudos to my brothers and sisters in Christ who showed a dignified witness to the Gospel:

Bowling Green Christian Academy had elephant ears for $3.50, information about their school and were promoting an upcoming Christian concert.

The Gideons simply handed out New Testaments to 5th – 9th graders.

What is the best form of Christian witness you have observed?

What is the worst?

One of the many things I love about the community in which I live is that it does Memorial Day well. Below are the invocation and benediction I gave today for the brief service honoring those who have died in service to our nation. I welcome your comments.

Memorial Day Service
Pemberville American Legion

Invocation
Almighty God, we give you thanks for our nation, the United States of America. Continue to shape us into a people who work for liberty and justice for all people.

 We give you thanks for all who have served bravely in our military, especially those who did so at the cost of their own lives.

We give you thanks for all who serve as military chaplains, who do the work of speaking your Word to the courageous, the fearful, the suffering, the wounded and the dying.

Bless and protect all who serve in our armed forces, at home and overseas, especially those we name before you now…

Bless the peacemakers, in our nation and around the world.

O Lord, we long for the day when your Kingdom will come in all its fullness, when there will be no more need for weapons and warfare, and when we will enjoy the peace that your Son Jesus gives to us.

In the name of this Jesus, your Son and our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Benediction 
May the LORD of glory bless us and keep us and our nation in his care.

May Jesus, the Prince of Peace, rule in our nation and in our lives.

And may the Holy Spirit give us strength and courage to do battle against all forces of evil.

 May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon us and remain with us, now and forever. Amen.

Writing about the importance of daily prayer during this busy time of year may seem about as wise as paddling upstream, but here we go anyway.

A member of the congregation I serve runs regularly. She struggles with reading the Bible daily. My life is just the opposite: I read Scripture regularly, but I struggle with even doing a little bit of exercise every day. We joke with each other quite often about this and try to encourage one another. My guess is that she sees exercise as absolutely indispensable, just something you do everyday if you want to maintain the life and body that God has given. The more I have thought about it, I see daily prayer and Scripture reading the same way.

So here are a few suggestions for getting that practice going in your own life:

1. Set aside a certain time of day. If we don’t plan for it, it won’t happen. You will have plenty of opportunities throughout the day for spontaneous prayer, but this is dedicated time to listen to God through God’s word and to speak to God in prayer. I like to set aside morning time, since that is when I have the most energy, so I can give my “first fruits” to God (see Deuteronomy 26).

2. Find a reading plan. Whether you use a one year Bible or find a reading plan online, there are plenty to choose from. I find that reading a portion of the Psalms, the Gospels, the Old Testament, the New Testament and a chapter from Proverbs works for me.

3. Pray. Pray for the church, the world and all those who are in need. Two indispensable parts of my regular prayer life are the Psalms and the Lord’s prayer.

4. When you fall down, get back up again. There will be a time when you will miss a day, or two, or ten. Instead of dwelling on what you didn’t get done, get back in the game. Start today. What is the old adage? The best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The second best time is today.

In case you’re curious, the format I use is below. I have tried all kinds of different devotional books, prayer books, prayer guides, etc. and keep gravitating back to this same pattern. Find what works for you and stick to it.

Opening versicle: O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise (from Psalm 51).
Gloria Patri: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…
Psalms: one or two
Opening prayer
Gospel reading: part of a chapter
New Testament reading: part of a chapter
Old Testament reading: usually a full chapter
Proverbs: a corresponding chapter with the day of the month
Intercessory prayer for the church, the world, and those in need
Lord’s Prayer
Closing prayer and blessing

That may sound ambitious, but I think the whole process takes about twenty minutes.

Comment and Engage: So what have you found most helpful about reading the Scriptures and praying every day? What have you found most frustrating?

For years the newspaper industry relied on

Scripture: It’s what’s for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast. And snack.

One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3b).

This is the table prayer we are using for all our meals during Lent this year. Its frequent repetition has forced me to consider my own practice of eating, chewing and digesting the Scriptures (distinct but related acts, by the way).

The more I pray about eating the Scriptures, the hungrier I get for them. (It’s one thing in Lent we don’t need to fast from.)

Sometimes it’s a full course meal. Mine is usually for breakfast. But I’m also intrigued by the “snack” approach. My children love snacks. There’s the snack before breakfast, the snack after breakfast, the snack right after lunch, the late afternoon snack, the before-dinner snack, the five-minutes-after-dinner snack, and then the obligatory bedtime snack.

Nutritionist say they are on to something: Regular snacking actually facilitates good digestion and overall health.

Before you head out the door, make sure you pack your Scripture snack.

Yum.

Each year, I choose a new devotional book to work through. Last year I enjoyed Henri Nouwen’s Bread for the Journey and By Way of the Desert, with daily excerpts from the Desert Fathers. I highly recommend both.

This year I discovered Eugene Peterson’s The Message / Remix / Solo: An Uncommon Devotional (also available at NavPress). This devotional book contains an excerpt from Peterson’s wonderfully-popular Bible translation, The Message, along with questions and guides for prayer and living out the Scriptures. He uses a modified form of the ancient Christian practice of lectio divina, “holy reading.” Each day you are invited read, pray, reflect and live.

What I love about this devotional Bible is its strong emphasis on an encounter and relationship with God. Ideally, this is always the case when reading Scripture. However, in practical terms, sometimes our Bible reading takes the form of information gathering or searching for self-help material, rather than an encounter with the Living God.

Another gift of this devotional Bible is that every seventh day, you are invited simply to pause and reflect on the readings from the previous week.

If you’re struggling with regular Scripture reading as a way to begin the New Year, I highly recommend The Message / Remix / Solo.

(While we’re on the subject of readable Bible translations, one recent translation that’s been getting a lot of buzz is the Common English Bible. Check it out.)

*Note: I do not receive any promotional benefits from any individuals or companies involved with the products named above. I simply have enjoyed them and recommend them.

Let’s just get a few things on the table. The “listening” part of prayer is sometimes the most difficult part. When we pray to God, we do not always get an answer right back. Sometimes the silence is deafening. Sometimes the silence is frustrating. But for me what is even more frightening is when God does speak back to us: through the Scriptures, through other believers, through situations and events, or through creation.

First, the silence. The silence of God is something that I believe we need to grow increasingly accustomed to. When Elijah is on the mountaintop, running scared from Queen Jezebel, God does not come in the earthquake and wind and fire, but in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:12). The greatest answer to prayer, the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, is done quietly, almost silently, as he is born in a manger in a small town: Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. As Jesus is tried and beaten and sentenced to death, the first Christians looked to Isaiah to describe what has happened: Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). And the most deafening silence of God is the silence of God the Son on the cross: the silence following the words It is finished and the silence of tomb. This is all to say that while we may find silence uncomfortable and frustrating, apparently God does not. In fact, silence seems to be one of God’s preferred ways of communicating with us, his creatures.

Second, when God speaks. If the silence of God can be deafening and overwhelming, then when God speaks—watch out! Have you ever had the experience of being deep in prayer and God answering you clearly and concretely through God’s creation, through situations and events, through other believers, or through Scripture? For me, the most humbling is when God speaks to me clearly and directly through his Word. The experience is overwhelming. Author Marva Dawn speaks of it as “God moving the bookmarks” (in our Bibles): God speaking a clear word to us through the Scriptures we read.

This also is a word of challenge to us. Hearing God speak through the Scriptures involves us taking time to read them and pray them and digest them. Eat this scroll, God says to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:3). Watch out, though, God often does not say what we want to hear!

 Lord, we give you thanks for your silence. Help us to be still and know that You are God. Lord, we give You thanks for Your Word. May we listen when You speak to us through the Scriptures. Lord, we give You thanks for speaking to us through our brothers and sisters in Christ. You are far more generous with us than we deserve. Make us ready to listen and quick to respond to what You ask of us. In the Name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.


[This article will be published in the monthly newsletter of the congregation I serve. Once it published, you can view it through our website.]

Columbus Day, I imagine, is a non-holiday for most of us. It probably evokes one of three reactions:

1. a vague reference to history: “Oh yeah, that guy who discovered America,”

2. a grieving of his legacy: Columbus as a representative of white colonial imperialism (see this e-card circulating on Facebook and Twitter), or

3. a chance to complain about how bank and postal service employees get the day off while the rest of us have to work. [I’m sure it’s not worth the grief they get all day the next day, by the way.]

May I suggest a fourth? Columbus as metaphor: for discovery, for taking risk, for striking out and doing something new–even at great personal cost. Even if the Queen is partially financing it.

I imagine most of us sail along on someone else’s boat, someone else’s ocean, using a corporate-logo-inlaid compass of someone else’s creation. We put the sails up and down day after day and rarely ask, “Where is this thing going anyway?” or “Is this a journey worth spending even a part of my life on?”

So how would I suggest we celebrate Columbus Day? Open your notebook to a blank page or take out a clean legal pad and start to dream, start to plan, start to chart new courses.

And if the current ship you’re on (or you own!) is not worthy of your mission, make plans to change (or jump) ship, sooner than later.

Just bought and watched one of the new Francis Chan short films, Teaching, on reading the Bible. Well done.

A blank legal pad. This is what I love about Saturdays.

While most of my “to do” lists during the week are done on a calendar / list matrix (I actually created my own paper calendar this year that fits how I do calendar / to do list triage), on Saturdays I begin with a blank legal pad.

And that is actually kind of inviting.

Whatever happened yesterday and this past week is done and now in God’s hands, not for me to obsess over except to give it to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness when necessary.

Today is a new day.

The resurrection of our Lord Jesus means a lot of things. One of them is simply this: each new day is really a new day, a day infused with the light of Christ, a day for rising and being born again, a day for believing that whatever has happened in the past is now done.

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb…

Christ rises before the sun dawns and begins his work before I am even up.

A new day. A new creation. A blank legal pad.

What I should write at the top is this: Christ is risen! So love well, Matt, for it is not you who live, but Christ who lives in you!

I hate to wait. So when I begin a newsletter column on prayer as waiting, it is not a topic I am fond of. At the same time, I am struggling to become a more patient person and am convinced that this begins with prayer. So what exactly do I mean by prayer as waiting?

My first thought when it comes to waiting is standing in line for a roller coaster at an amusement park or for concert tickets to an artist I really want to see. But I’m not sure this captures prayer as waiting, because in these examples the waiting is simply the thing we do to pass the time before the main event. The real thing is in the future; the waiting is just the prelude.

But there are many other types of waiting. Consider the nine months of waiting that precede the birth of a child. These are filled with anticipation, preparation, activity, and, of course, hope. Consider waiting for an adult child coming home from college or military deployment overseas. The waiting is filled with nervousness, but is also precious, even holy.

In the Gospel of Luke,* we find two times of waiting that invite us to consider how prayer can be a time of active waiting. The first time of waiting is waiting for God. It is captured in the first several chapters of Luke as Mary waits for the birth of Jesus, as she waits for God to be born in her and through her. The second time of waiting is the waiting of God. It is captured in the last two chapters, as Christ sleeps the sleep of death. This waiting, the waiting of God, invites us to consider God’s first act of rest on the seventh day of creation and the act of waiting, Christ in the tomb, that preceded the day of Resurrection, the first day of the new creation.

Prayer is both of these kinds of waiting: Prayer is waiting for God, in hopeful anticipation of what God promises to do. Prayer is also the waiting of God, who is patient and longsuffering with us.

Almighty God, Your ways are not our ways, nor are Your thoughts our thoughts. Give us patience and perseverance, that all of our waiting may be done in hopeful anticipation of what You are doing within us and among us through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we pray. Amen.

*These insights are from the late Henri Nouwen’s lectures, The Spirituality of Waiting: Being Alert to God’s Presence in Our Lives, which I would highly recommend.
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We watch our neighbors’ children a few days a week during the school year. It is a wonderful arrangement. My wife and I have always joked that when people come to visit, it is just the kick in the pants we need to clean the house. Yesterday evening, the basement got a thorough cleaning for the first time in weeks.

As we were preparing the house of their arrival as our guests this week, I thought to myself, “We’ll have to add the leaves in the table.” Our dining room table, a gift from my late grandparents, is large without the leaves; when the leaves are added, the table almost doubles in size.

The leaves, for me, became a metaphor for the hospitality we are called to offer to all people, in the name of Jesus. This simple act of literally widening our table, called me to re-examine how I offer hospitality to all guests in our home.

What are your “leaves”? How do you offer hospitality in your home and in your life? How is Jesus calling you to “add leaves”?

My spiritual father, also a preacher, is quick to remind me that we preachers do not have to preach… we get to preach. I believe he is true. At a preaching conference two summers ago, Rob Bell spoke of the preacher’s dilemma as the difference between “having something to say” and “having to say something.” In between these two reflections is the glorious burden of preaching.

I choose the word “glorious” because the Word that we bear is the greatest treasure the world can ever know. The Psalms speak over and over of the delight of the Lord’s commandments (Psalm 19:10) and how the Word of God is a lamp and a light to guide us (Psalm 119:103).

And yet preaching is also a burden. Not in the “have to” sense, but in sense that it is an immense weight to bear. It resembles for me the task of moving a huge rock from one place to another. This is heavy stuff, moving this glorious and heavy treasure into the hearts and minds and bodies of God’s people.

The Hebrew phrase kavod Adonai (the glory of the Lord) brings these two concepts together. In Hebrew, the glory of God is also something heavy, weighty, substantial. So it is with preaching.

Joel Willitts has written a series of blog posts reflecting on Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. His latest (and last), #9, compares Bell’s book with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship. Having read both, I believe Willitts is spot on in his comparison and critique. Read it yourself here.

Below is a sample of some of the blogs I follow. It is my hope that this representative sample will encourage you to read the work of others whom I have found inspiring and insightful.

May and early June have got to be the busiest times of the year for many of us. And just as soon as we catch our breath, many of us are off to take much-needed family vacations. In the summer, it seems, everyone is on the go.

So what does prayer “on the go” look like? Here are some suggestions:

1. Make the sign of the cross. In a hurry to get out of town on your family vacation? In a hurry to the ball field? Running a last-minute errand for hot dogs and watermelon? Make the sign of the cross over yourself and pray: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2. Make it a car game. Before playing some of the traditional car games on a long trip, challenge each other to indentify things you see on the way and to pray for those people, things or events as a family.

3. Make a pilgrimage. For hundreds of years, Christians have made pilgrimages to places of significance for our faith. While you may not be traveling to Jerusalem this summer, you may want to visit another local church building, a retreat center, or another place of significance, like a cemetery. Find a local congregation that has a labyrinth and make a prayer walk.

4. Pray a map prayer. Find an area of the world that you would like to pray for and keep that place and its people in your prayers throughout the summer. You may want to consider praying for our missionary, John LeMond, in Hong Kong or our companion synod, the Dodoma Diocese of Tanzania in east Africa.

5. Pray a map prayer II. Use a globe or map and, with eyes closed, pick an area of the world to pray for each week of the summer. The Voice of the Martyrs publishes a global prayer map for areas of the world where Christians are persecuted. Pray for the suffering church!

Keep this page in your glove box this summer, especially the prayer below from our hymnal which can be prayed before travel.

O God, our beginning and our end, you kept Abraham and Sarah in safety throughout the days of their pilgrimage, you led the children of Israel through the midst of the sea, and by a star you led the magi to the infant Jesus. Protect and guide us now as we set out to travel. Make our ways safe and our homecomings joyful, and bring us at last to our heavenly home, where you dwell in glory with our Lord Jesus Christ and the life-giving Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 331)

A few weeks ago I attended a conference at Valparaiso University. The Institute for Liturgical Studies is always outstanding. If you have a chance to attend next year, I highly recommend it.

On Sunday, May 29 we will begin a three-week series on the Holy Spirit:

My friend Phillip has written a reflection for Maundy Thursday. You can read it here.

A wise professor of mine once observed that, if the discussion leader is not careful, most Bible studies and adult Sunday school class devolve into hemming and hawing about “kids these days.”

Ever had to “re-friend” a friend you had “de-friended” on Facebook? It can be awkward at best (not to mention the grammatical conundrums such verbs present).

I have always thought of memorizing Scripture in mostly positive terms. Even when my own practice was spotty at best, it seemed to me an inherently good thing to do. I have been reading through Scripture by Heart by Joshua Choonmin Kang, who has prompted me to think more deeply about the many benefits of memorizing Scripture. Even when he raises something I’ve considered before, he does so in a way that deepens or expands my understanding.

When is the sermon done? This is a question preachers struggle with quite frequently–not only in crafting the sermon, but in delivering it.

Each new year I evaluate the devotional books I use as part of morning prayer. I always keep a few and then switch others out. The list below represents the ones I use on an ideal day, in roughly the order I move through them.

I have not been posting to this blog as regularly as I would like. Chalk it up to a busy fall, especially on the funeral front.

Inspired by my friend Mindy’s blog (which is hilarious, by the way), I may try a different tack for the near future: reflecting more on the everyday, rather than on big-picture theological musings.

Many congregations, especially those of mainline Protestantism, lament the shrinking of the church. “What can we do,” I often hear, “to make the church grow again?”

Please see these reflections from a blog entitled Euangelion (Gospel/good news).

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. -Tertullian

Tomorrow we will go to the polls and touch a screen, fill in a bubble or pull a lever to cast our vote. Some Christians will vote for Republicans. Some Christians will vote for Democrats. Still other Christians will vote for one of the other parties.

Since it is the month in which we get to vote as citizens of the United States, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the tricky and wonderful intersection of faith and politics. And I would like to use the second and third petitions of the Lord’s Prayer as a way of entering into this discussion.

Thy Kingdom come… Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray these words each time we take the Lord’s Prayer on our lips and in our hearts and minds. And I am quite concerned that—at least most of the time—we have no idea the depth and power of these words as we pray them.

When we pray these words, we are asking for God’s Kingdom, to come among us here and now. Put more bluntly: the Christian faith is not only about getting a ticket punched so that you can go to heaven when you die; it also has a deep, profound and lasting impact on our lives—right here and right now.

When we pray these words, we are asking for this Kingdom of God, which began on this earth in the smallest of ways, in Jesus of Nazareth and in his band of followers, to grow to epic proportions. The Scriptures use the image of a mustard seed growing into an enormous tree and a tiny batch of leaven that leavens a whole loaf of bread (Luke 13:18-21).

When we pray these words, we are acknowledging that as Christians, we always carry a dual citizenship: We are first citizens of the Kingdom of God and second, citizens of the United States of America. We live in a monarchy (Christ is King!) as well as a Democracy (the USA). We have duties both as citizens of God’s Kingdom and citizens of the United States.

So whether you go to the polls and vote “Republican” or “Democrat” or “Libertarian” or “Green Party,” be sure that before, during and after you vote, you pray with every fiber of your being, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

Perhaps the dear Pastor Martin Luther said it best, “The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself. But we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” (Small Catechism, explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer)

May the Lord our God, whose Kingdom is indeed coming into this world in Jesus the Messiah, plant that Kingdom firmly in our lives, that we may be his faithful citizens, now and into eternity.

Note: For the main points of this article, I am indebted to N.T. Wright, a noted New Testament scholar, at the lectures he gave at a conference I attended at Duke University in October. You can listen to the full lectures online here.

I had been meaning to post something on the celebration of Halloween from the perspective of a Christian pastor. But then I came upon this post and, well, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The world of religion generates a huge market for meeting all the needs that didn’t get met in the shopping mall. Pastors are conspicuous in this religious marketplace and are expected to come up with the products that give customer satisfaction.
-Eugene Peterson, Living the Message, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 261

This brief reflection is taken from a devotional book I have been using with my morning Scripture readings: Eugene Peterson’s Living the Message, p. 240 (August 30).

I know of very few people who spring out of bed in the morning chipper and ready to great the day with enthusiasm. And that ones I do know, the ones we call “morning people,” I don’t like to spend much time with until I have my morning coffee.

I do a dumb thing on a regular basis. My laptop gives me a warning that my battery is low and that I need to plug it in and recharge. But I ignore it. Then it gives me a “critical battery” message. I ignore that. Then, if I don’t plug it in, it shuts down on me. It takes forever to reboot. I get annoyed. Rinse. Repeat.

[Disclaimer: This blog post is part of an entry in a contest to win a chance to attend a workshop by Donald Miller in Portland. But it’s probably something I would eventually write about anyway. So there.]

This was the scene in my kitchen the other morning. I made a pot of coffee and went to the basement to switch the laundry. Not heavy multi-tasking, mind you. When I came up about 10 minutes later, this is what I found. A friend of mine on Facebook said it looked like a murder scene. Death by caffeine?

From time to time I like to share books I’ve read or am reading and a few thoughts on each. I am generally reading about a half dozen books at any given time, so some I’m further along in some than others.

It is the time of year when many children are taking swimming lessons. Perhaps swimming lessons have much to teach us about the path of growth in faith and spiritual formation. I was reflecting today on the connections between swimming lessons, faith formation and intentional small group / discipleship group ministries.

Do you have a prayer rule?

A podcast I enjoying listening to recommended the audio New Testament read by Johnny Cash. This came up in a discussion during our fellowship meal after worship this evening. We were discussing audio Bibles and the importance of the Word as an aural/oral word.

This Sunday we begin a 15-week preaching/teaching series on the book of Acts. I am both excited and intimidated: Excited that the same Holy Spirit that descended on Pentecost will enliven and enlighten and sanctify us…. and intimidated since this is one of the books of the Bible I’ve spent considerably less time in.

I will be tweeting our synod assembly this year. You can following along on my Twitter account. I also have some colleagues who will be Twittering as well. The hashtag to follow along is #nwosa.

Tomorrow our synod gathers in assembly. As part of this gathering we will elect a Bishop, vote on various items and share in worship, Bible study and fellowship.

One thing I think most churches struggle with is communication. On the institutional end, churches often fail to get information out in a timely way to the people that need it the most. And on the receiving end, members sometimes fail to receive the information once it’s put out there. Suffice to say, I’ve never heard of a church that “overcommunicated” or had an A+ in this area.

We are now one week into the great Season of Easter, a week of weeks that reaches from Easter Sunday to the Day of Pentecost (May 23 this year). I have always been fascinated by the “logic of the lectionary.” What are the deep resonances of the cycle of readings that we share with many Christians for our regular Sunday worship gatherings? What is the internal coherence of the church’s rhythms and structures? How does it all fit together? What does it say about Christ, our Hope–and where do we find our lives in Him?

Christ is risen, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

This evening I was talking to my son about the Crucifixion and shared that this Friday is “Good” precisely because we know how the story turns out, that it ends not with the cross but with the Resurrection. He replied, “But sometimes I wish it was a cliff hanger.” Indeed.