Chamber of Commerce Business Expo

Last night St. Matthew's had a table at the Goochland County Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. I went to this event last year and i thought what a cool thing it would be for us to be represented. There were over 60 businesses there and we were the only church. For me the main objective was to get our name out and let people in our community know what St. Matthew's is doing and i believe we did this. Though our church has been around since the 1850's most people in this small county (17,000) have no idea where we are, (we don't have a visible church or highly trafficked street). We handed out several fliers about the Neighbors Food Pantry and I must have told 20 people where we are located.
We also met a few people who for whatever reason have dropped out of church but were looking to get back to going. We gave them information about the church and also some sermons i had downloaded to cds which i said were good if you were having trouble sleeping.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians 3

We are continuing our discussion of the new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians. Chapter 3 starts with the Israelites back in Jerusalem, but things are not well. The current superpower, the Rome Empire is the occupying force. The Israelites are in Jerusalem but are captive like they were in Egypt and Babylon. After 400 years or so like this, Jesus is born and he fulfills all the prophecies of the prophets, he is a Son of David, he knows what he is doing, he is a servant, he heals, and he debates the religious leaders. The scripture that Rob and Don use is the Walk to Emmaus story found in Luke 24:13-35. The key verses for them is v25-27, "Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Everything that Israel has been looking and waiting for is found in Jesus. This quote sticks out to me,

"In Jesus' day, people could read, study, and discuss the Scriptures their entire lives and still miss its central message. In Jesus' day, people could follow him, learn from him, drop everything to be his disciples, and yet find themselves returning home, thinking Jesus had failed."

Our world has changed a lot in 2000 years, but in many ways it is still the same.

cool video

you need to turn the volume up and pay attention, but its worth it!


thanks Marko

Jesus Wants to Save Christians 2

Chapter 2 of Jesus wants to Save Christians begins with the Israelites in exile in Babylon. They cry out and God as God always does hears their cry. They write "because it's when we're fully present in our pain, when we're willing to sit in our tears, that we're ready to imagine a different kind of tomorrow." This is what happens in exile. They start to reimagine a new exile, like the ones they had from Egypt, a new exodus. Only this new exodus would be different, it would be a new way, a new marriage with a new covenant, a new city, with a new temple that would be big enough for everyone, not just the Israelites. Moses was the leader of the first exodus, who or what would the leader of the new exodus look like? This person would be a prophet like Moses, a servant, a prince of peace, and a son of David.

Here we go again!

i can't believe it but they took the video away

Jesus Wants to Save Christians 1

Here we go. Chapter 1 of Jesus Wants to Save Christians starts with an introduction to New Exodus theology. The chapter is broken into 4 parts:Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, Babylon.

Egypt- The Jewish people are in Egypt, enslaved and oppressed to the superpower of their time. They cry out and God hears their cry. This is central to this book and is central to the character of God. "God always hears the cry of the oppressed." God not only hears, God acts.
"Think about your life. What are the moments that have shaped you the most? If you were to pick just a couple, what would they be? Periods of transformation, times when your eyes were opened, decisions you made that affected the rest of your life. How many of them came when you reached the end of your rope?"
God, as God always does, hears the cry of the oppressed, and sends Moses to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. The Jewish people are lead out of Egypt and freed. But the story does not end here.

At Sinai, God speaks. Though Moses, God tells the people "you yourselves have seen what i did to Egypt, and how i carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." It is by God's love and grace that they were delivered, redeemed, freed, from Egypt. God calls the people to be a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation". To be a priest is to show the world who God is and what God is like. I like how Rob and Don (no i don't know them) say "God is looking for a body" and this is what the 10 commandments is about. They have a choice, to obey God fully or not.

Jerusalem. Many years later, the group of former slaves are now living in the land that they were promised. Things are posh as my daughters like to say. Jerusalem gains a global reputation. They have been blessed, but do they remember Egypt, and how they were delivered? How God's grace brought them out? Do they remember God's words at Sinai? Before long the king, Solomon is building a temple to the God who freed the slaves, WITH SLAVES. "In just a few generations the oppressed have become the oppressors." They have completely forgot their own story.

Babylon. When you forget that God hears the cry of the oppressed, when you forget that God is searching for a body, when you forget this you miss what God had in mind. "At the height of their power, Israel misconstrued God's blessings as favoritism and entitlement. They became indifferent to God and to their Priestly calling to bring liberation to others."
This is exile. When you forget your story, when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God. Israel is no longer interested in being God's body as they chose not to listen to God's prophets. Jerusalem falls apart and before you know it, the people that were slaves in Egypt, and became slave owners in Jerusalem, were once again slaves in Babylon.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians discussion

I am 0-2 at book reviews/discussions but like they say the 3rd times a charm! Starting Monday Oct. 6 we will begin a discussion on Rob Bell and Don Golden's new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians. Here is a brief description of the book. "There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers."
This book i believe is based off a sermon series the two preached at Mars Hill Church. The plan is to do 2 chapters a week, one on Monday the other on Thursday. I will give a brief review and then ask a few questions. Hope you can join me in this!

Jesus is a Friend of Mine part 2

Here is the David Crowder Band performing the Sonseed classic.

Jesus is a Friend of Mine

We hope to be playing this in church in the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy.

The Power of Podcast

For the 3rd time in the last 6 months we have had someone become part of our church family largely because of our podcast. In one case a lady that Leigh Ann and I knew through preschool had over time found out that i was a pastor and goggled my name. Which led to the blog and then to the church website, then to the sermons online. Before they ever came to the church she had listened to several of my sermons through the podcast.
In another instance a couple that had recently moved to the area was driving around and found our church. We have our website address on the church sign.

From the website they found the sermons and before they came to worship they had heard a few of my sermons and had even attended a Tuesday night small group.
The most recent case a man saw another one of our church signs (this was a directional sign that says the church is down the road) googled the church name, found the website and listened to the podcast before coming. This man decided to join our church family largly through the information he got through our website and podcast.

We get about 40 downloads a week (and yes most are my mom). We are a small church, about 220 a week in worship, and the podcasts have been an effective way of letting people know about our church as well allowing people to stay connected when they miss a Sunday. I bought 2 things to get our podcast ministry started, a digital recorder and Podcasting for Dummies which i give to one of our youth who is a tech guru, (you rock Austin) and he did the rest. The last 2 weeks we have put together a short video kind of as a sermon tease, Austin has also put this online as a podcast.

Richard Foster Rocks

Richard Foster who perhaps has written one of the best books ever, Celebration of Discipline was interviewed in the latest issue of Christianity Today. One thing that really stuck out to me was his response to the question, "how did spiritual formation effect your early ministry?"

Early on we were moving into a building program. And we did the various studies and so on and so forth, so I really could justify it. But I was also learning about prayer at that time. I remember Dallas asking, "Have we really prayed about it?" I realized we really hadn't.

I remember calling a meeting, a worship gathering on a Sunday night, to pray over this building project. We had all the approvals, and we were about ready to launch the fund drive. In a Quaker context, there's an open meeting for worship. So singing would happen, silence would happen, Scripture would be read, different things like that.

During the meeting, nobody ever said we ought to do it or not do it—that was not the spirit at all. The service lasted a couple of hours. I went into that meeting feeling that we probably should do the building, and I came out of it sure we shouldn't. During worship, my heart was revealed to me—that a big building and a big church would have been for me signs that I was a successful pastor. If anybody had actually said that to me beforehand, I would have denied it. But that night, learning to die to that was important. I'm not against buildings, but for me, it was crucial to give that up.

I think at times I am like Foster, I get too caught up in wanting to be a successful pastor instead of a follower of Jesus. This is a good reminder of what my focus should be.

Neighbors Food Pantry Starts Today!

Today is a big day in the life of St. Matthew's Church as the Neighbors Food Pantry opens today at 5 PM. One thing that we are doing to make this food pantry different is to create community by inviting all food bank participants to come to the Wednesday night dinner to share a free meal with others from the church. Often when we serve the poor we unintentionally do it in a way that you have little to no interaction with the participants. Our hope is that this will provide opportunities where community can be created. Please be in prayer for us as we enter into this new ministry. Who knew that there is Spam Lite?


We were blessed to have donated to us some nice shelves and 3 refrigerators.

Great Story about Tony Romo

I am in the tank for the cowboys and for Tony Romo. He is a cool story about him from last week. Enjoy.

This Week at St. Matthew's

Never a good thing to see

I was coming home from work yesterday when my car just shut off. Had it towed this morning. Hopefully this is not the end of the 94 Civic.
Please pray for us.

PS Jordan is doing great at Kindergarten and Leigh Ann and I are as we!

first day of kindergarten

Today at 7 AM our oldest daughter departed for kindergarten. While i am excited as is Jordan, i was surprised how emotional it was for me. I figured it would be for Leigh Ann, but not for me. How is she going to know where to go? How is she going to survive 2 hours on the bus? Who is going to help her with her lunch? What if someone is mean to her? We get to wait 9 hours, thats right, she will be gone from 7-4! Please pray for Jordan and more importantly for her parents!

cute

Hat tip to Marko

4th of July

Here is a devotion from my friend and mentor Rev. Dennis Dorsh about the 4th of July. Enjoy.

Greetings,
More thoughts on the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Refer to Matthew 23:23-39, preferably in the NRSV or the New Jerusalem Bible. American history and the history of God’s people are not the same. We Americans are usually not aware that for several hundred years, the British considered that they were the people of the New Jerusalem, indeed, that they were the new People of God, the new Israel. At the time of the American Revolution, that thinking was held by many of the British people who populated the American colonies, and after the Revolution, that thinking began to grow. The whole notion of “manifest destiny” was an extension of that type of thinking.
The Christian Church does not view the American Revolution as a major event in the life of the church. Jesus, in Matthew 23, was speaking of ancient prophets and not of the heroes of the Revolutionary War, but his words may well apply to our celebration of their achievement.

John Adams wrote to his beloved wife Abigail on July 3, 1776, after the Congress voted to pass the Declaration of Independence [we switched the celebration to the day of the signing rather than the day of approval]:

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.”

Frederick Douglass wrote (about 1855):
“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parades and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

James Madison weighed in with the comment: “The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property."

And, for today at least, a final comment by theologian Krister Stendahl:

“The Sermon on the Mount is actually a rebellious manifesto which gives to disciples of Christ the right to break the Law in the name of Christ. But it is important to remember that it is subversive, and that the disciple must be prepared to pay the price for such action…The license…can only be appropriated in faith, and will always threaten the equilibrium of God’s created world.”

Yours & His,

DED

That organ is too progressive

Dan Kimball has a great post on his blog about how the organ created controversy in its early days. The next time you hear someone complain about the current status of church music it would be good to remember a few of the stories from this post.

NT Wright on Colbert

One of my favorite theologians/authors NT Wright was on Colbert last night.