Quentin Tarantino on Preaching

Now there are two words that you don't see right next to each other very often - Quentin Tarantino and Preaching.  (Quentin Tarantino, if you are not familiar with his work, is the "dark" film director who made such movies as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds - need I say more).  However, the other day while Quentin was delivering an acceptance speech at the Golden Globes for a recently received award for directing, he said an important thing:  "I want to thank all of you out there who just listened to me when I was reading my movie scripts.  The truth is that I never really wanted your advice, I just wanted to...

HEAR THE MOVIE SCRIPT THROUGH YOUR EARS...

and that has made all the difference for me."

One of the most important lessons on preaching that I can offer, and I offer it because I have been made aware that there are a few young preachers who regularly read this blog-post, is this.  When you are writing your weekly message you must write it while listening to the words you write, "through the congregation's ears."  Each week when I write, I spend about 4 to 5 hours by myself at my desk.  But the truth is that I am never alone when I write.  As I sit at my desk, I also imagine that there are 4,000 members of my congregation sitting there and writing with me.  I write, and I hear the sermon through their ears.

But that isn't really the half of it.  In addition to the 4,000 or so people in my church who are with me when I write, I also imagine the weekly crowd of around 700 who are with me on Livestream from around the country.  I imagine the farmer in Montana who is listening, and I imagine the stock broker in New York City who has tuned in.  I imagine the 250,000 members of the armed services who reside in Colorado Springs also listening in, and I imagine the 450,000 other residents who also live in my city listening in.   I imagine the childhood, second grade teacher that I had growing up - Mrs. Sheets, listening in, and I imagine my friends from the seminary in Kerala, Kotayim, India listening in.  I...

HEAR THE SERMON THROUGH THEIR EARS

The truth is, this maxim of Quentin's also applies to so many other aspects of our lives.  Sometimes people may come to us with a deep personal pain or a grief that they want to share.  A friend may pour out a long sad story about a divorce or a death in the family.  One of the worst things we can do, if the timing is not right, is to offer ADVICE about what the person should do.  Most of the time when people are telling us their griefs or their woes they just want to

HEAR THEIR GRIEF EXPERIENCES THROUGH OUR EARS

Somehow, by watching our facial expressions or tuning into the emotions of another person's heart, we can get a feeling for where we are as individuals without hearing words from them.  If a person tells me a grief story, I often count it a privilege to simply sit and listen, and know that the words that they are speaking are being bounced off my ears and my heart, and that that reflection of the grief story is actually a healing dynamic in and of itself.

And perhaps that is one of the most important things that can be said of prayer.  When we pray, we are sharing our "deep heart's core" (to quote WB YEATS), with God.  What we need most is not a stentorian piece of advice from the heavens, but what we need most is that,

OUR PRAYERS MIGHT BE HEARD THROUGH GOD's EARS

All For Now,
GB
 

Can Unbelievers Worship?

This year at First Pres we are focussing on worship; this is the year that we are digging into exactly what worship is, what it means, how we can worship better - the "Transcend 2013 - The Year We Are To Worship."  And so, we are reading and studying (As Presbyterians know so well how to do) major thinkers on the subject of worship.  Last week I read a statement of Rick Warren's (Pastor of Saddleback Church, and best selling author of "The Purpose Driven Life") that I wanted to use this blogpost to take slight issue with.  Rick said in a 12 point piece called; "Rick Warren's 12 Insights On Worship," that, "Only believers can truly worship."  While I understand the sentiments of Rick's thinking, I humbly disagree.

Here are Graham Baird's 5 Questions On Worship....:-)

Is Worship Only About What We Do, Or Is It Also About What God Does?
The basic premise of Rick's thinking is that worship is a human expression of God's love, power, dominion, creation, etc.  And this is true.  When we go to worship, we are going to humanly express these things.  But, is God also doing something in the context of worship?  Is it possible to worship without us doing anything, while God does everything?  I believe the answer is yes.  I believe that God meets unbelievers in worship services all the time, and "meets them where they are," and actually does something metaphysical in their hearts and minds and souls.

Is Infant Baptism A Form Of Worship?
While the subject of infant baptism as has been debated for years (most articulately by Karl Barth who didn't believe in the practice, and who saved evangelical Christian faith from the throws of the Nazis), I have always believed in infant baptism.  I have always believed that it was more than just a "wet dedication" as some have said.  I believe that infant baptism is God's connection with a still unbelieving heart that God created.  I believe that infant baptism is somehow and mysteriously transformative, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the child being baptized and for the parent who has their child baptized.  And I believe that infants are unbelievers.  The question here is, "Is Infant Baptism a form of worship?"  If not, then it does not belong in a worship service. If yes, it is an example of an unbeliever worshipping God.

Is The Reception of Grace a Form of Worship?
Grace is one of the most important doctrines of our faith.  Grace is essentially God's mechanism for helping us to be Saved; "For by Grace you are saved through faith, not a result of your own works, so that no one can boast (Ephes. 2:8-9)."  Grace, which can be found in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, is God's gift to us that precedes our ability to love God, or even to know God.  Basically, we believe that the human soul is so tainted by sin, fallenness, that we can't even begin to know God, until God gives us Grace.  Grace precedes faith, Grace precedes belief.  Unbelieving people can receive Grace.  Is the reception of God's grace a form of worship?  I believe yes!

Is Being in the Presence of the Cross a Form of Worship?
Another very significant Bible verse is Romans 5:8; "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  The image here is of Christ on the cross, being crucified on Golgatha, and of all kinds of people, all kinds of sinners, observing God there, dying.  Was that a form of worship to simply observe the presence of the cross?  This is actually a point on which I am willing to bend.  There were people who were observing Christ's death who were not worshipping, to be sure.  The soldiers who cast lots for Jesus' clothes were not worshipping God, though they were in his presence.  And yet, I believe that Nicodemus (the Pharisee) was present at the crucifixion, and I am not sure he was a, "fully devoted follower of Jesus," at that moment.  And yet, I am pretty sure that Nicodemus was worshipping God on that day.

So, those are my humbly submitted 4 questions, set beside Rick's really good 12 insights.  I do want to say that, in general, I really think Rick Warren is great, and his ideas have helped to change many lives and his church is a model, in many respects, for church's like mine to learn from.  One might ask, at the end of the day, why any of this really matters?

Well, as First Pres. is beginning the process of figuring out what worship is, I think it is crucial to determine whether the worship services on Sunday or throughout the week are for people who "believe" or are for people who don't.  The answer is, of course, for both.  Personally, my deepest heart has always been for those who don't believe, or who I call, "dechurched."  That is why I am a pastor, and that is why I do what I do.  And I believe that the most exciting place for transformation of "unbelievers" is in the context of worship.

All For Now,
GB
  

Our Second Saving

Let me begin this week with a bold and provocative statement.  I believe that people are often saved twice.  I am using the word, "saved" here as an age long metaphor for the process of beginning a life long relationship with Jesus Christ (By the way, soteriology, or the concept of "salvation" in our faith has recently, and I think correctly, come under some fire from theological thinkers for utilizing a military or war time image - "salvation" - for the new relationship that people have with Christ.  This is why I also tend to stay away from the term "saved, or salvation" in church, and prefer the concept of "becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.)

The first time a person is "saved" is when they first find out about Christ, and they dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ, to be life long fully devoted followers of Him.  This first saving often happens at a church camp, or a youth retreat, or a moving worship service.  I spoke with one man who told me he was saved at a Billy Graham crusade many, many years ago in Boise, Idaho.  These are often powerful and moving experiences.  People often describe these experiences as a combination of a mountain top high, and a deeply emotional movement.  People often change the course of their lives irrevocably after such experiences - giving up addictions (like smoking, drinking, drugs), recommitting themselves to relationships (wives, husbands, children), re-orienting their hearts and their life behaviors and lifestyles.

People have often asked me when I had my first "saving" experience.  The truth is I cannot really remember.  Having grown up in the church all my life, I remember many, many, many mountain top "like" experiences where I felt very close to God.  However, when people ask me about my second saving experience, I am exactly and precisely certain of the very milli-second that that happened in my life.

I was a senior in college at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota.  I had been struggling with issues of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for about a year.  I was listless and out of energy and totally unable to focus, or concentrate or think in any meaningful way.  I was in a really bad place Spiritually, emotionally, physically.  So, I dropped out of college, and moved in with a dear couple who lived in Austin, Minnesota (Austin - home of the Hormel meat packing plant:-)).  I continued to spiral down hill further and further.  Then, one night at 3:00AM I got down on my knees at the foot of an old Norwegian bed and put my nose into a comforter there, and had a deep prayer - "Dear God, I need you to be involved in my life right now, or I am not going to be able to go on much longer with this life."  At that very second, I believe a deep light of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit entered my heart, and I experienced my "Second Saving."

What is a second saving?  Well, the truth is that it is a made up term, made up by me.  And I would not want to put it past any respected theology professor or thinker.  But I believe that it is often in the real depths of people's lives that they come to Christ the closest.  It is the in the real plummets of our souls that we most deeply connect with God.  So, a second saving is that moment when we are at our wits end, our souls dead end, and have no where else to turn but to God, and we ask God into our hearts (in my case it was a demand of God - I was really mad at Him...), and we feel God enter, almost imperceptibly into the midst of our pain and lostness.

Have you discovered who God is, and had a mountain-top high experience (a first saving?).  Are you in the midst of a crisis where God might enter your life in a new and deep way (a second saving?).   I have experienced both, and know that I wouldn't be who I am today without both experiences, and without God's guidance through both of them.

All For Now,
GB

27 Bells?

Last Friday I was asked to do a television interview for a local news station (ABC news, KRDO) regarding First Presbyterian Church's decision to ring the bells in our church bell tower 26 times, one for every child and teacher that was killed in the Newtown school disaster, one week before.  When the Connecticut governor requested that downtown churches peel their bells for this commemoration, First Pres was happy to oblige.  The interviewer asked me the usual questions that get asked at such moments, "How could God allow such things to happen?" "What is the local church's response?" "How are local groups guarding themselves from similar calamities?"  However, one question that the interviewer asked caught be by surprise, and has been ringing (so to speak) in my own ear and heart ever since, "Why aren't you ringing 27 bells?"

What the interviewer was asking is why isn't there a bell being rung for the death of the killer himself?  It's an intriguing question, and deeply theological question.  The immediate simple response is that we were only requested to ring 26 bells by the Connecticut government office.  However, the deeper question is, "When is it appropriate to grieve and remember the loss of someone who acted completely against the will of God?"  "When is a good time to forgive?"  "When is a good time to recognize that all people are made in the image of God, even fallen murders?"  

One of the things that the Bible seems to be very clear about is that forgiveness is a mandate for the human soul, not simply a request.  When Jesus said we should forgive our brothers who have wronged us, "7 X 77" he meant it.  However, another strong Biblical notion is the concept of time and the power of the Holy Spirit to work within us to help us to accomplish things that we could not do on our own.  

FORGIVENESS IS A PROCESS

Forgiveness should be enacted by primary parties, in the primary stages of any wrongdoing.  For example, it would be very wrong for me as a Caucasian Scottish American to offer forgiveness to those who committed atrocities in slavery in the 19th century in America.  That sort of forgiveness must be offered by those who were actually enslaved.  Equally, it is the families of those who lost children and loved ones in the Newtown tragedy which must be the primary agents of offering forgiveness in this crisis.  

FORGIVENESS IS A PROCESS

One of the most poignant examples of the long process of forgiveness in the Bible involves the character of Joseph in the Old Testament, who is sold into slavery by his own brothers.  Joseph is sold into indentured servitude, wrongfully accused of lechery, sent to prison for many years, made to work in Pharaoh's government, and then, many years later, he is faced with the question of whether to forgive his brothers, who come to him for help.  The tables are turned!  Interestingly, even when the brothers approach the Pharaohnic throne, Joseph seems to take his time in forgiving them.  He sends for his youngest brother, Benjamin.  Joseph talks to his brothers at length, toys with them, interacts with them, all processes in the process of forgiveness.  It is only after Joseph, at long length, reveals himself to his brothers as their long estranged brother that reconciliation occurs.  

How would this process even begin to work in the case of families who will never get loved ones back again, and a killer who is no longer alive?  God only knows!  Really, God ONLY KNOWS.  Which is why this interviewee did not glibly offer a simple solution to a very complex occurrence of wrongdoing, whilst ringing the bells on a cold Friday morning in December.

All For Now,

GB

Daddy's Here!

Last week, First Presbyterian of Colorado Springs went into a period of mourning and remembering the lives of those little children who died in the Connecticut mass shooting.  All week long, people we have been thanking me for my image of an "Everlasting Father" that met those children who died on that fateful day.  Several people have asked for a copy of that illustration and section from my message.  Here it is;

1.        Having An Eternal Father Means We Have An Eternal Comforter For All Of Eternity

I heard a true story recently about a little boy from Lowell Indiana,  who was in

his room praying one night.  This little boy had just learned the Lord’s Prayer, and he was trying to recite it by himself that night.  The boy asked to be left alone to pray, though his own Dad was at the door, listening to him pray.  The little boy got down on his knees before his bed, and he began his prayer this way, “Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, I Know You Know My Name…” (Our Father, Who Art In Heaven, I Know You Know My Name).

            From the mouths of babes.  Our Father knows our name, and will know it for eternity.  And will be with us for eternity.  And will comfort us for eternity.  And I don’t know about you but as I have thought about the events of this past week, in my mind, the shooting in Connecticut, that is about the only thing that can bring comfort to my mind. 

            There is a picture of a line of children being escorted out of the elementary school in a line, which was on the cover of the Gazzette and the Post, and is now famous around the country.  It is a picture of the children all closing their eyes and shuffling out of the tragedy scene in the school of the blood and broken glass, they have closed their eyes, so that they cannot see what is there.  (And I don’t know about you, but I feel the same way, a person who just wants to close their eyes to this, and to shuffle out without looking).

            But an image came to my mind this past couple of days.  The image is that of Jesus, the Everlasting Father, coming into that classroom at the very moment that the children died, and saying, "Daddy's Here!  OK, this is what I want you to do.  I want you to all close your eyes.  And then, I want you to put your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you, and then I want you to start to just walk slowly.  Keep your eyes closed so that you don't see all of the bad stuff.  And I will lead you to heaven."  And then, Jesus Christ, leading out the little children, who were lost, goes at the front of the line. 

Of course, none of us will really know exactly how God interfaced with those children on that day.  But our Bible tells us that we have an "Everlasting Father", an AD AV, who will be a comforter for all of us, on this side of the grave and on that, for all of eternity.

All For Now,
GB

Them That Nobody Wants

About seven years ago, I was attending a national pastor's conference somewhere (I literally cannot recall where at this moment, goes to show you how life all runs together sometimes..and a river runs through it...), and I heard Matt Barnette, senior pastor of The Dream Center near Echo Park, California speak.  Matt is the son of Tommy Barnette, the famed Pentacostal preacher and church builder.

Matt spoke about how he decided to begin a totally different ministry from his father.  He wanted to do something in the inner city, and really connect with gangs and drug addicts and homeless people, and all the tapestry of brokenness that one finds in urban settings.  Matt eventually bought an old hospital (by sheer miracle of God, raising something like $7 million needed to buy it - Matt had nothing when he started).  Matt recalls how one time a gang member that he was trying to help to become a Christ follower, pulled a gun on him, put it to Matt's temple and said, "get out of here, or I will shoot you, M#?#?# F?@?@?er."  Matt literally said that he thought he was going to be killed at that moment.

After about three years of this incredibly intense ministry, Matt said that he began to wonder whether God really was doing anything in his ministry, whether God really had a plan for his life, whether God was really still in this thing called ministry.  As Matt was walking across Echo Park one day, at that time a drug bedridden place of crime and fallenness, he literally heard this voice from God;

"Matt, if you take care of the people that nobody wants, I will send you the people that everybody wants."

Matt later said that this was a turning point in his ministry.  What Matt struggled most with was the notion that he was "wasting" his life with people that were not worth "wasting" life on.  What Matt soon found is that God was sending him all kinds of people to help with his ministry.  Hollywood became engaged in Matt's ministry.  The actress Sharon Stone actually became a member and a large contributor to the church.  Other big names have gotten involved over the years.

Now, obviously this entire concept of having people that "everybody wants" come to your church is not exactly a highly spiritual motivation for starting a ministry.  It is probably not a good metric for a ministry to see it as a trade off of (1) taking care of homeless people on the one hand, (2) so movie stars will come to your church down the road.  However, Matt thought has got me thinking.

Who are the people that nobody wants in my current ministry setting?  Who are people that society has deemed "unworthy, un-cared for, un-wanted, un-needed, un-necessary, un-attractive, un-valued?"  Who are the "Uns?"  And then, secondly, who are the people that "everybody wants" in a church?

I have no distinct or solid answer for this.  But I am thinking deeply!  What are your thoughts?

All For Now?
GB

What's Graham Reading???

This week, the Baird family are all in La Jolla (pronounced la hoya, as in oscar de la hoya, no matter what the gps system on my rental car says).  In addition to toting along an entire collection of baby parapranalia; pack and plays, bottles, strollers, baby backpacks, and formula, I have strapped in about 6 books that I am trying to be through, before we return on Wednesday.

Whenever I get a chance, I like to know what people are currently reading.  The answer to this question gives me a sense about what people are thinking, who they are currently being influenced by, or if they are thinking at all.  This is my thanksgiving reading list for 2012:

"The Generals; American Military Command from World War II to Today", by Thomas E Ricks.  Living in Colorado Springs, I thought I might learn something about leadership from the likes of Omar Bradley and Stormin Norman Schwartzkoff.

"The Book of Job; When Bad Things Happen to A Good Person" by rabbi Harold Kushner.

"Every Good Endeavor; Connecting Your Work to Gods Work", by Timothy Keller

"Life, God and Other Small Topics" by Eic Metaxas

"Midnight in Peking" Paul French.  Hey, all work and no play makes a pastor a dull boy....

"The Book of Books; The Radical Impact of The King James Bible", by Melvyn Bragg.

I think that about does it.  Oh yeah, I've been reading one more book quite extensively, "Barbar Goes On Vacation," Haley's new favorite tome....

See you when I return, unless I find another book shop in La Jolla and buy some more books....

All For Now,
GB