New Life Downtown

Now that I no longer have the responsibility and the privilege of preaching each week, I have the opportunity to do something that I have been longing to do since I arrived - visit other churches.  Yesterday morning I worshipped at "New Life Downtown".  Not a stone's throw from the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs (and I mean a 2 year old's stone's throw, as in my 2 year old could throw a stone from First Pres and hit the church, which meets across the street at Palmer High) is New Life Downtown.

Let me begin by saying what a wonderful, Spirit-filled, REAL worship experience it was to be with New Life Downtown.

I should offer some background to my many blog-post readers who do not hail from Colorado Springs. On the far north side of "The Springs" is a mega-church called New Life.  Most national news readers will remember New Life primarily for a scandal that occurred almost a decade ago that involved it's senior pastor Ted Haggart.  New Life today, of course, represents so much more than it's association with one pastor's spiritual fall, but suffice it to say that New Life is large.  The New Life building is so large that it can be seen with the naked eye from outer space.  It's huge.

New Life Downtown is not huge (the Sunday after Easter it had around 500 worshippers).  NLD meets in a high school auditorium.  It's senior and founding pastor (my friend) Glenn Pakiam, is understated and down to earth.  There are no fog machines which spew out a purple haze of mist as the band walks on stage.  There are no special lights.  There is no technicolored power point presentation.  There is not a lot of pomp or circumstance about the service.  The Sunday I attended, a single cross stood in the middle of the high school auditorium, adorned with a simple white grave cloth which draped across it.  Communion was served at the end of the service.  A simple message of hope and reassurance was delivered from the floor, at a bar table and from a stool.  It was wonderful.

Let me try to be more specific about what I found so enriching about this worship experience.  The service had three factors which I think are essential to any church that is seeking to be both spiritually alive as well as evangelically accessible to the outside world.  The New Life Downtown service:

Engaged High and Low;  The English poet John Keats once said that his favorite food combination was "pepper on strawberries."  Several years ago the most popular interior decorating style in America was "shabby/sheek".  Fashion designers in Milan have long attempted to combine denim and silk.  New Life Downtown had both high liturgical features and an effective low modern worship music and style.  Liturgical elements like "The Lord Be With You" "And Also With You" were invoked throughout the service.

Conveyed Warmth and Privacy; The morning greeting time lasted exactly two minutes (I know this because there was a time clock counting down from the front).  Two minutes equals a lifetime for an outsider like me who is in a new social environment.  And yet, in the two minutes of greeting time, five people reached out to shake my hand.  They weren't "in your face" or invasive in any way.  I know that some in the church took stock in my presence, because another friend later in the day asked me, "Were you at New Life Downtown today?".  In other words, my presence as an outsider mattered to them and yet I was able to worship in privacy and in my own spiritual space.

Invoked Authentic Experience; The pastor for the morning (not Glenn) talked about struggles that he had had in his life which helped him to understand deeper spiritual truths.  The message essentially dealt with a series of "inherent barriers" that many believers and non-believers struggle with in life.  A special prayer was offered at the beginning of the service for all graduating high school seniors from Palmer.

I fully believe that the future of all effective worship in the United States (at least for the next 20 years) will incorporate elements of New Life Downtown.  If you attend a church that is in major main-line denomination and is seeking revitalization, take a Sunday and check out NLD's  new and refreshing style.  If you are a part of the mega-church model years of the 1990's (Willow, Saddle), and want to experience the new latest model, go visit New Life Downtown.  If you are an outsider to the faith, and are skeptical of organized religion, be assured that this new model, is, in the end, not so new after-all.  the NLD service was more reflective of the first century Christ-followers who met in catacombs beneath the city of Rome and celebrated "Joy feasts" some two-thousand years ago.  The Spirit of the Lord was, as they say, in both places.

All For Now,
GB

Easter Monday

Happy Easter!  "What?" you say, "Easter was yesterday.!?! on Sunday, not on Monday."  Well, it just so happens that in many Christian traditions, Easter is not only marked by the third day after Jesus was crucified (Sunday morning), but it is also celebrated on Monday morning.  The Monday after Easter is known in many parts of the world as;

Easter Monday

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a denomination of Christianity that quite literally has liturgical movements for every aspect of human life, the Monday after Sunday is known as "Bright Monday," or "Renewal Monday."  In Egypt, the Coptic Christians, a sect of Christianity that hails as one of the oldest on the face of the earth, celebrate; "Sham El Nessim," or "the smelling of the breezes."  Although the holiday stems back to at least 2700BC, predating Christ's birth by almost 3,000 years, the day is celebrated as a way to take stock in how life is different after Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  As a dog smells the breeze on a fresh ocean morning (picture above), we smell the breeze of life.  The thought was that one needs to quite literally "smell the breeze" to detect that even the air we breathe is different the day after Jesus' resurrection.  Polish Christians have been celebrating a day called "Dyngus Day," on the Monday after Easter for centuries.  Dyngus is more akin to Mardi Gras, a celebration of life after death, usually recognized by the drinking of many bottles of libation.

What I was thinking about today on this Easter Monday, is what the first Easter Monday must have been like.  The first Easter Monday after the Easter Sunday, in about 33AD.  What was it like to first life in a post-resurection world?  We don't know exactly when Jesus met the disciples in the upper room, but it was likely on Sunday afternoon or evening.  We don't know for sure when the road to Emmaus occurred, whether on Sunday or Monday or later in the week, but we do know that the entire city of Jerusalem and the countryside was abuzz with chatter the Easter Monday after the Easter Sunday.  We know that the word of Jesus' resurrection must have travelled to Rome by the middle of the week (Wednesday), with the aid of a ship or two which would have sailed from the ports of Caesarea, to arrive on the Italian peninsula, and then be carried by horseback rider to the Roman citadels of power.  Rumors would have swirled about the rabbi-prophet named Yeshua, who was said to have actually come back from the dead after being crucified.  Perhaps the news would have been met with skepticism at first (Jesus was not the first rumored resurrection of a fallen, rural, tribal prophet from the sticks of Judea).  The intelligencia and Senators of Rome might have scoffed; "Resurrection of Yeshua…just a nice bit of gossip about a man coming back from the dead.  It's just a murmur  (a Hebrew onomatopoetic word) among the Jewish widows…not really true, but quaint.  Ha Ha!"

Easter Monday

Here's the big question for us.  How do we in the year 2014 experience Easter Monday?  The answer to this question surely boils down to the immediacy and the impact of our experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If yesterday (Easter Sunday) was the first time that you learned who Jesus was, how much he loves you, how he died for you, how he loved you enough to come back to life for you, then this day (Easter Monday) has deep significance.  It always will.  You will never forget this day.  Like the day after handing in a final paper for an exam, and receiving an "A" on that paper (but much more portentous), you feel relief today.  Like the day after VE day (Victory over Europe Day), you feel a renewed sense of peace and calm and tranquillity.  If you have been a Christ follower for many years, then this Easter Monday is likely no different than any other Monday.  Perhaps you are able to live in an Easter world; every day is Easter.

For me personally, this Easter Monday has a renewed freshness about it.  It isn't just that I am spending time with family in Sacramento, California, away from the 20 degree (snow filled) skies of Denver airport when I left.  Easter Monday for me today, on April 21, 2014, has possibility in it.  The "breezes" that I am smelling today, are breezes of newness, hope, relaxation, and recuperation.  Maybe my own Easter Monday, full of potential and aspiration is not so different than that first Easter Monday on the road to Emmaus.  Perhaps Easter Monday is what Easter is all about.

All For Now,
GB

The Seeds of Evil

Now that I am no longer writing for an audience of 4,000 congregants, primarily on topics relevant to  church spiritual life, I have a bit more liberty to write about a few of the topics that are have been of interest to me for some time, but I haven't had a chance to reflect on.  This week I want to think for a moment about the topic of evil.  More specifically, I want to reflect very briefly on;

The Seeds of Evil

Evil is a word that is hardly ever used anymore, even in churches.  When the word "evil" is used in popular culture it is often used satirically (e.g.: "that was an evil snowstorm," "the last hole at Augusta is the most evil hole on the course").  But of course, evil is a very real dynamic.  Though the Bible isn't exactly specific about the origins of evil, we know that a snake in the garden was possessed of evil, and helped to promulgate the fall of humankind.  We know that the Bible is specific about the existence of a devil, and that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, but how the devil exactly came about the Bible is vague about.  Most important, as Christ followers, on this Holy Week monday, we know that Christ conquered all the aspects of evil forever and ever on the cross.  The question I want to ask this morning is, "How does evil grow?" "Why does evil take shape in some people's lives and not others?"  What are;

The Seeds of Evil

I have recently been reading a biography of arguably one of the most evil people ever to live on the face of the earth - Adolf Hitler (the above picture is of Hitler as a child).  Hitler was responsible for the wholesale slaughter of millions of Jews, mentally challenged people, gypsies and vagrants (today we would call "homeless people"), and many others during World War II.  How did Hitler's evil take root?  Where did it come from exactly? It turns out that a quick look at Hitler's personal life reveals a depressingly fascinating recipe (or to carry the metaphor of this piece - bag of seeds) for evil.  Here's a quick bullet pointed list, with some of the seeds of evil underlined for emphasis:

*  Born in Munich in 1914 - in the context of a racist society.
*  There was a fever for war throughout Europe.
*  Hitler was beaten by his father at a young age.
*  Hitler's was abandoned as a youth when father and mother died when he was just 14.
*  Hitler was described as a loner in school, and socially isolated.
*  Hitler was rejected from art school twice.
*  Somewhere along the way, Hitler developed a kind of, "I am special narcissism".
*  Hitler was exposed to and encouraged towards anti-semitism in the hospital in WWI.
*  Hitler was exposed to gas in WWI and suffered mental neurological damage.
*  The remedy they used to cure Hitler of this damage was verbal abuse by therapists.
*  Hitler also experienced "shell shock", today known as PTSD.

This is just a short list of Hitler's upbringing and the context for the early development of his life.  However, if one were to list some of the extreme challenges Hitler faced, it is easy to see some trends and significant factors.  These factors, I believe, could be applied to any individual as a breeding ground or "seed bed" of the potential for evil.  One of them alone would be hard to overcome.  All of them together represent a very dangerous soil for seeds to take root:

*  A culture of violence
*  Traumatic loss
*  Abuse
*  Social isolation
*  Rejection/Shame
*  Narcissism
*  Hatred
*  Neurological Damage

These were the seeds of Hitler's upbringing.  These factors, combined, I believe can function as the garden bed, a richly fertilized soil, where seeds of evil can take root in any individual's life. Now, of course, many people have traumatic loss but do not become Hitler.  Many people were abused by someone close to them but don't turn into "The Furer".  Many people suffer from neurological damage or PTSD and do not commit genocide or terrible atrocities.  However, where you find several of these factors (or seeds) in a person's life, unaddressed or treated, there can be cause for great concern.

As Christ followers, we are called to be aware of the world around us, to understand the factors and the conditions in which we live.  When we see individual's who are more prone to, or have seeds of malfunction or evil, we are called to try to love them, to help turn the abuses around.  Christ followers are called to foster a culture of love not violence, gain not loss, nurture not abuse, fellowship not social isolation, connection not rejection, compassion and not narcissism.  In short, we are supposed to sow;

Seeds of Love!

All For Now,
GB

Snow Falling on Spruces

It is 7:45 in the morning, I am about to take my daughter Haley to school, I am sitting at my desk and I am looking out my home office window, and I am watching

Snow Falling on Spruces...

It is snowing in Colorado Springs on April 7!?!?  "I'm dreaming of a white Easter..."  But mostly I woke up this morning deeply grateful for my incredible journey with First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs which officially ended, as senior pastor, yesterday afternoon.

As the last member of the church made their way through a long receiving line to say goodbye to Star and I, at 2:00PM in the afternoon, I walked out of First Pres, with my pulpit robe thrown over my shoulder with a huge amount of gratitude.  As difficult as a call of the magnitude of First Pres can be, it is not the difficulties that I will take away with me.  My main takeaway will be the memory of a deeply loving congregation who is ardently, and sometimes desperately seeking God's will in their lives.

One exchange from yesterday will remain with me for a long time.  A 93 year old woman, who has been a member of first Pres for over 50 years peered at me from underneath the weight of a back that was bent with osteoporosis and time and said, "Graham, I was around when Howard Hansen (the previous, previous, previous pastor) of First Pres left as pastor.  I was sad then, and I am sad now.  You always reminded me of him.  I will miss you.  And I will see you in the next life."  Then, with the strong smile of a farmers daughter, and the focussed determination of a school teacher she said, "Now, get out of here, know that we love you, take care of that family of yours, and go have some fun!"

It's now 7:53 and I should take my nonagenarian friend's advice.  My daughter Haley needs to get to school before she and I get an "oops" sheet from her teacher.

Grateful!

For this church, this experience, this family, this life...and for...

Snow Falling on Spruces...

All For Now,
GB

The Church is for the World

For those of you who have been asking whether I will continue to write a blog post after this week, my last week as Senior Pastor at First Pres, Colorado Springs, the answer is yes.  I will keep the same web-address, and I would love to stay in touch!

This past week I have been battling a cold/flu/cough thing.  Actually, as I have spoken with literally hundreds of people this week, I am amazed at how many people have the same flu thing.  After hacking my way through the better part of the week, I finally broke down and got some antibiotics, and am doing better.  I recommend that if you are sick, you do the same.

Now, having taken these antibiotics - these magical little pills, penicillin, I am simply amazed at how effective this little invention is.  Underneath the red, sugar coated pills is a secret ingredient - mold.   We all know the story of how Alexander Fleming discovered that when these mold follicles were pitted against influenza and other viruses, the flu was attacked and nullified (picture above).  Penicilin was made for infection.  If penicilin is not applied to a sickness or a disease, it is useless.  Actually mold is quite disgusting in it's raw and basic form.  Just ask my refrigerator!

I have been thinking about another thing that is totally useless unless it is applied to the thing that it was made to help.  The church (and by this I mean, The Church, not any church in particular), is totally useless unless it is applied to the world.

The Church is For the World

When Jesus ascended into heaven on his fortieth day after being resurrected, he left the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Not long thereafter this, The Church was born.  Out of prayer and petition, and the moving of the Holy Spirit, the church was born.  We are told by Luke in the book of Acts, that in the upper room, where the disciples were praying, there were little licks of fire that appeared on people's heads.  At the same time, there was a Holy wind coming from God.  These things in and of themselves were interesting from an extraterrestrial, God encounter kind of way, but in and of themselves they were useless.  It wasn't until these disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, descended the steps of the upper room and went into the streets of Jerusalem that The Church was born.

The Church is For the World

Churches are complex organisms.  They are made up of people, and all people have problems (myself included).  Churches are made up of administrative systems that are important for the functioning of the church.  Churches are made up of leaders who strive to seek the will of God as they lead.  Churches are made up families, all which come with their own sets of marital difficulties, adolescent misbehavior, and juvenile developmental challenges.  Churches are comprised of financial boards and oversight structures.  Churches have staff leaders and lay leaders, each of whom have their own individual visions of what is most important.  Churches are complex!

But The Church was not meant to exist for these functions alone.  The Church was not meant to reside in the upper room.  Church was not meant to sit in a pill bottle on the shelf.

The Church is For the World

And the world has so many things that ail it.  The world is full of war, calamity, brokenness, heartache, disfunction, corruption, and just plain hopelessness.  The world needs what the church offers.  Church is the pill in the bottle that has to be opened, and applied to the sickness that it confronts.  Otherwise it remains a sugar coated moldy thing that has no use.

The Church is For the World

All For Now,
GB

Unique

Not too long ago, I listened to a sermon from my friend Lloyd Ogilvie (I say friend, because my family and he have known each other for so long, but what I really mean is, "friend in Christ").  The main gist of Lloyd's message was that all people are made in a unique way by God and that all of us have a very unique contribution to offer to the kingdom.

Lloyd began his message by talking about how, when he took his first call in ministry (a large established call in the Chicago area), he felt quite intimidated to preach in the pulpit that he took.  The pastor before him was a legend in his own right.  Lloyd was then only in his 20's.  Though Lloyd had won the National Oratory Championship as a youth, and was a very gifted speaker in his own right, he felt un-equal to the task, un-able for the mission, I'm-perfect in the vocation of preaching in such a big pulpit.  Early on Sunday morning, many hours before church was to begin, or the sun had even risen on the horizon, Lloyd went on a morning walk.  His walk took him to a park, nearby to the church. Lloyd was not dressed in his characteristically sartorial splendor of Sunday morning, but rather he was wearing street clothes.  He was wearing on hood over his head on that crisp Sunday morning.  When he got to the park, he met a man who was sitting on a park bench.  Lloyd felt called to tell this man his woes.  "I have to preach in the pulpit down on the corner in about two hours time, and I feel totally unprepared (though I have prepared thoroughly) for the task."  The man sitting on the park bench said.  "Son, I am also a preacher."  Lloyd looked the man in the eyes and realized that he was one of the most famous preachers in Chicago (think DL Moody...or someone of the ilk, but not DL because he died in 1899).  DL said, "I have been preaching for years, and I have to preach to 5,000 people in two hours, and I feel totally unprepared as well."  Then DL (or someone of his ilk) said, "But son, I want you to listen to me.  God made all of us unique.  God made you in a unique way.  The message that you deliver in your church can only ever be delivered by YOU, because God will be speaking through YOU.  I could not deliver that.  Only YOU can do that.  So, I want you to go back and I want you to preach the best you can, to the glory of God."

Lloyd talks about what an impact that encounter had on his young burgeoning pastoral soul.

When I heard Lloyd's message I felt the same kind of liberation.  God made me in a unique way as well.  I am the only one who can carry out God's mission in the world in the unique way that I am able to.  And as I have been praying about this theme, I believe that all of us have a unique contribution to make.  Some people are preachers, others are teachers, others are bankers or accountants, or school teachers or business people, or writers or musicians or painters or homemakers.  All of us are made by God UNIQUELY, to do God's UNIQUE work in us.

To carry the point a bit further.  If we do not, each of us as UNIQUE beings made by God, carry out God's unique plans in us, then the world, the kingdom will be the lesser for it.  Let's put it this way.  God's plan, for the salvation of the world (literally the SAVING of the world) is to work through each of us.  God has done His work on the cross.  That work is finished.  But the continued work of sharing that good news falls to us.  God gave each of us UNIQUE ways of sharing that good news.  But we must do it.  We must not sit back and say, "I'm not as good as that person at the Bible," or "I'm not really very creative, God can't use me," or, "I can't contribute much," or "Let someone else do the sharing, I'll just relax."  That won't work.  God made each of us for His greater purpose, to be a part of God's greater purpose.  We are each:

UNIQUE!!

All For Now,
GB

Social

Here's a newsflash.  I get most of my really good ideas from two sources; God and David Brooks.  David is an opinion columnist for the New York Times, and God is, of course, God.  A week or so ago, David Brooks wrote an opinion column entitled "Archipeligo of Pain".  The article was about the extremely negative impact of social isolation. The article was an encapsulation of a book called "Social" written by Matthew Liebermann, a UCLA social scientist who teaches there.  Here is the gist of the argument:

Human beings need social interaction.  They NEED it, or else they will begin to fall a part, in every which sense of the word.  Social isolation has been used as a punishment mechanism in prisons for centuries.  Every year 80,000 prisoners in the United States are locked away in social isolation spaces (cells that are no more than 6 feet by 9 feet).  These times of isolation away from prison guards and other inmates usually lasts for 23 hours a day, and can last a week, a month, a year or even a decade.  What scientists have recently found is that extended periods of social isolation is equally as damaging to people's bodies, and psyches as actual physical punishment or torture.  People in extended social isolation often have the following symptoms: insomnia, organ depletion, heart failure, deep physical pain, agonizing migrane headaches, high blood pressure, bowel control loss, rocking back and forth, shock, blindness, hearing loss, insanity, and the sad list goes on.

So, here's what I have been thinking.  God knows that people, humans, need social interaction.  God wired human beings to be in connection with one another.  One of the most powerful activities that Jesus engages in in the Bible is reaching out to people who are in social isolation.  The demoniac named Legion, for example, who lived the tombs of Garadene, was totally isolated.  Nobody talked to him or gave him any attention.  Legion was going insane, living by himself in the middle of nowhere.  Jesus connected with him, cast out his demons, and made him well.  Most of the healings that Jesus enacts in the gospels are of people who, because of their physical maladies (leprosy, blindness, bleeding, paraplegia) have been cut off from normal social interaction.  Usually these people are in both personal and in social pain.  Jesus heals them, and reconnects them with society.  What Lieberman's research shows is that Jesus' desire to connect with people socially was a healing mechanism in and of itself.  Connecting with people socially actually healed them personally.

John Stott, the late 20th century evangelist and theologian said that church plays three fundamentally important roles in people's lives.   Church offers people connection to a higher power, it gives people significance and meaning in their everyday lives, and it offers people social connection (fellowship) with one another.  Stott viewed social connection as essential to a healthy person's entire being.

As a pastor, I have seen first hand the impact of social connection, and the power of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.  Every week in my Seeds Bible Study (10:30AM, Wednesday, Seeds Cafe, Colorado Springs), I encounter homeless people who have not been interacted with socially for a long time.  I will begin my Bible study, and then, one of them will raise their hand.  They will ask a question.  Sometimes the question is extremely insightful.  I will dignify their question, whatever it is, with the best answer I can muster at the moment.  This will happen week in and week out.  After months of this kind of dignifying social interaction, I can honestly say that I have seen people change.  They begin to heal.  Their thinking becomes more clear.  Their physical maladies disappear.  It is a living example of the power of social connection and the Holy Spirit in a person's life.

On a personal note, I have begun to realize how socially isolating it can be to be a pastor of a large church.  I am always, it seems, either working or hanging out with family (which is social in a way, but it is also not social).  Sometimes I can be so tired from work, or stressed out by a big decision, that when a friend calls on the phone, I don't pick up.  However, after reading Brook's NYT piece, I am realizing that picking up the phone call of a friend could be as important as getting a good night's sleep and three square meals a day.  So, I am trying to be more social, even when I don't feel like it.

What about you?  How does social interaction impact your health?

God made us for connection - with Him, and each other!

All For Now,
GB