CHRISTMAS GIVING

When my mom was a little girl in Chicago, she remembers that her dad always left on Christmas Eve to go downtown. She never really thought much about it, being pretty small at the time. But when she was a bit older, she asked her dad where he went on Christmas Eve.

His answer was that he went downtown to the soup kitchen and served the homeless (they were called bums and hobos back then). That's a nice gesture, thought my mom. But why on Christmas Eve? The answer had become a favorite family story.

Back in the early days of the Great Depression, my grandfather was unemployed. He rode the rails to follow where migrant work might come up, picking apples in Washington, harvesting beets in Wyoming and corn in Illinois. It turns out he was in Chicago on Christmas Eve in 1929 or 1930, pretty down in every way.

He was sitting in a diner nursing a cup of coffee when a man came in, exchanged some pleasantries with him, and then bought him dinner. Then the man left.

Grampa asked the cook, "Who was that guy?"

"Oh, don't you know him? That's Al Capone. He does this every year on Christmas Eve. See, when he was a young man and down on his luck, someone fed him a meal on Christmas Eve, and this is his way of paying it back."

And so, some years later, my grandfather still continued the tradition of the hobos. Pay it back, and help the next guy the way you were helped when you needed it. It's the code of the hobos.

This is an almost unbelievable story, but it became one of my mom's favorite remembrances of her father. After all, I might not be here had it not been for that little gesture of kindness from that infamous man.

This year on Christmas Eve, the Hallelujah Trailblazers are going to have a community dinner for those who could use a meal. Maybe this will be the year for me to continue my grandfather's great tradition and pay back what Someone had done for me. After all, I'm just a hobo who was given something for nothing way back when.
-ker

ARE WE THERE YET?

We have reached the point of reappraisal as a church. Church planters say that the four-year mark is crucial. After three years, the original core begins to realize that the church will never become what they had envisioned, and an exodus of the original members takes place. If that exodus outnumbers the number of newcomers, then a negative mindset begins to settle in, and the church reaches a crisis. During the crisis, the church will most likely reassess their goals, their methods, and their approaches.

It looks like cciph is right on schedule for this reassessment. The elders have been talking, praying and considering where we are and where we are going since the summer, and we are beginning to see more clearly where we should be headed. We have given ourselves a season to relax and realign, and for all of our members to focus our attention to areas of our giftedness. As we emerge from this season, what will the "new" cciph look like?

To begin with, we know that our Sunday mornings will be more focused on allowing the leaders to equip the saints. We will have shorter worship sets and shorter assemblies, and more series of messages. We will have more intergenerational activities to equip the children. Then we will have extended worship about once a month or so, to give more time to prayer and expressive worship.

All this begins on January 1. The elders, under the leadership of Tom Powell, will be crafting the upcoming teaching plans. Then a worship programming team, led by Ken, will craft some creative elements to enhance the teaching.

Good days are ahead! Praise the Lord for guiding us to this point!

PEACE IN THE FAMILY

Jesus came to give us peace with God, and peace with one another. Yet, surprisingly, peace is not the absence of conflict, but the resolution of it. I think sometimes I am afraid of conflict, and I avoid confrontation, thinking I am keeping the peace. But Jesus said that peacemakers will be called sons of God, not peacekeepers.

It is right to immediately forgive, choose love and mercy over judgment, and treat others with loving kindness. When someone strikes me on the cheek, I simply turn the other cheek. However, there is a time to stand, and I must not be afraid of that hour.

Jesus cleared the Temple, and was sometimes indignant with his disciples, and especially with the religious hypocrites of His day. Jesus talked about conflict management often. In fact, almost half of the verses of what Jesus says as recorded in Matthew 3-7 contain a negative message. He says, “Go away, Satan!” and “Repent!” He refers to people as “your enemy,” “an evil person,” “false prophets” and “hypocrites,” and tells how to deal with them. He talks about forgiving “those who have sinned against us,” and tells us to “stop judging others.” He says that he himself will someday say to some people, “I never knew you” and tells us that his Father “will not forgive your sins” if you do not forgive. And what about those letters to the churches in Revelation? If Jesus was not afraid to confront sin or to speak of conflict, neither should I.

There is a difference between constructive conflict and quarreling. The Bible says that “the servant must not quarrel.” (2 Tim 2:24) But I am to rebuke or correct others when necessary. How can I know the difference between conflict and quarreling? Probably mostly it is my motive. In a quarrel, the desire is to win (while someone else loses), to divide (any kingdom divided against itself will fall), to exaggerate and have hidden agendas (not technically lie, perhaps, but emphasize my perspective), and to pursue selfish ends (scheming to get what I want). Instead, I must seek the good of others, seek to reconcile, speak the truth in love, be completely above board, and desire to edify and build up the other person. When my motive is right, I will be working toward reconciliation rather than division.

I believe God is calling me to be a peacemaker, and that sometimes I have chosen the coward's way out and tried to be a peacekeeper instead. But history has taught me that a peacekeeper does not win anything, including a friend.

"LORD, make me wise to know when to speak and when to be silent. Let me clearly see who the enemy is, and do no damage to Your work on earth. In the name of my example, Jesus. Amen."
-ker

UNITY THROUGH DIFFERENCES

Most churches teach that the healthiest way to build a church is through encouraging homogeneous affinity groups of common interest.

There is truth in this myth. Homogeneous groups of people with common backgrounds and common interests grow more quickly, and the people in them naturally “hit it off.” We naturally find ways to create time and energy for one another, because we do similar work, or we have similar backgrounds, or we have similar family relationships. Besides that, in the New Testament we find a Synagogue of the Freedmen, which apparently was a synagogue started by men who were freed slaves. Since the early church was structured similarly to synagogues, maybe the New Testament churches similarly shared common interests or backgrounds. However . . .

TRUTH: The healthiest way to build a church is by learning to love each other through our differences.

No doubt the fastest or easiest way to build a church is through affinity groups. But I believe the Lord purposely places people who are very different into the same Body in order to demonstrate long-term, supernatural love. Jesus said that even the pagans love those who love them. But God loved us when we were His enemies. His church should be a place where there is better love than the world can find; supernatural love, not love that is natural because everyone shares common interests.

And as for that matter of the Synagogue of the Freedmen: They were an unregenerate group who opposed the Gospel, not a New Testament church! A better biblical example would be the leadership team in Antioch. They had prophets and teachers from different ethnic groups and educations. Or, look at the background of the disciples. They were all from Galilee, so they had geographic and ethnic commonality, but one was a government employee and another was an anti-government zealot. One was nicknamed “Bighearted,” while two brothers were “Sons of Thunder.”

Perhaps the greatest commandment in Scripture is for us to love one another. Whatever our relationship with each other, it should be colored with love.
-ker

MY BIRTHDAY

Today is my birthday. I love birthdays, because they give me a chance to be totally selfish, but without the guilt. I wake up when I want, do the personal projects I want to do, eat what I want, and have everyone tell me how great I am. I wish I had a birthday every day.

Actually, my self-centered lifestyle on my birthday is the way I live most of the time. Especially when I am on sabbatical. With few exceptions, compared to others (my wife, mostly), I pretty much just do my own little thing all day. I think my little thoughts, do my little projects, and my entire universe extends to about six inches beyond my little nose. It used to be closer, but my eyes can't focus that close anymore.

I wonder how Jesus spent his birthdays.

I think I know the answer. I think he had some vague personal agenda, but it was interrupted, because there is this guy by the name of Ken, and he loves that old guy . . .

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Heb 12:2)

IT'S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

We have said many times that it's all about relationships. I see it more true every day.

I went into the ministry because I wanted to help people prepare for heaven. I imagined being in my office every morning, reading and praying, writing and organizing. Every afternoon and evening, in my mind, I would go out to homes and share the Gospel with people. Every Sunday, I would lead the faithful in worship and baptize the converted. It was, and is, a wonderful calling.

I have found, however, that most of my time is spent on relationship problems. I don’t know why that surprised me; my own life is filled with scars from past hurts, and every conversation holds the potential of a new wound, either inflicted by me or on me. All of my friends, at least the ones who are honest, are also still digging through damage done by past relational problems.

Every organization or program I have ever been a part of has had occasional burps and setbacks, usually due to someone being hurt or misunderstood. Why would the ministry be any different? Life itself is made up of relationships, and conflict is unavoidable on this fallen planet.

My ministry is not only helping others manage conflict. I’m sorry to say that I have caused as many conflicts as I have helped to resolve. Proverbs says that where there are many words, sin is not absent. So if I am in a communication field, sooner or later I will sin. I have been the center of conflict both with church members and with church leaders.

I often tell students there are two ways to learn something: You can read the instructions or you can make a mistake. Either way, you learn, but one of the ways is less painful. In the school of my life, most of my lessons are learned the hard way. But maybe if we work on our relationships together, we can learn from Jesus the less painful way.