Can you feel it? At least here in Oklahoma, the seasons are finally noticeably changing. My calendar tells me that we have been in October for two weeks, but it wasn’t until this morning that I felt that refreshing fall chill when I woke up and opened the back door to let the dogs out. I think I appreciate fall more and more every year.

I know many people bemoan that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. The commercial aspect can get out of hand. However, especially with us expecting our first child, I am just really looking forward to Advent. And with the chilly weather this morning, I felt like I was getting ready for Advent (or adventing Advent, if you will).

Halloween is two weeks away, which brings back great memories of Trick or Treating with my brother. (We literally ran from house to house to get as much candy as we could.) And once Halloween is over that means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means that Advent and Christmas are on the horizon. And all this comes with the weather changing, leaves turning brilliant colors before they fall, and then someday the first snow of the season blanketing the ground – which is always a grace-filled moment for me.

Today, I am especially thankful for God’s grace and God’s goodness. I just love this time of year.

Yesterday I went to youth group a little bit tired, and to be honest, not expecting much. The Finance Committee meeting immediately following youth group was more on my mind than what was right in front of me. But I have to say I left youth group with a big smile on my face, with excitement, and I even felt personally renewed in my faith and commitment to the church.

Yesterday evening was a gloomy night with thunderstorms passing through. The lightning was pretty severe as the time came for our devotion. We often watch one of Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos as a devotion and conversation starter, but we decided not to because of the storm. That meant that we suddenly had no plan other than eating pizza and playing games. I decided to have us turn to 1 Timothy 4:11-14:

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift , which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. (TNIV)

We ended up having a great conversation about how they as young people can set an example for the rest of the church. But that wasn’t even the coolest part. After our discussion, I mentioned that we were not going to have our annual Fall Festival because nobody volunteered to coordinate it. They were really disappointed because they were going to help out, and they felt bad for the young kids who always seem to enjoy it. So, they asked if they could do it. All of it. We talked about the responsibility that would be involved and what would be required, and once they knew what they were getting into, they still wanted to do it.

Just awesome. A great example of giving of self out of love for others. And what a great way to live out what we had just been talking about as far as not letting people look down on you because you are young, and setting an example for the church.

Yesterday was an inspiring and reinvigorating experience. And all I did was show up. All I had to do was witness a group of young people opening themselves up to God.

Praise God.

Friday Shout Out is 0 for 1… We will hope for better luck next week. Stay tuned because you never know who might stop by. Best of luck to Brian McLaren as he promotes his new book.

In the October, 2007 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY Stan Guthrie critiques the Red-Letter Christian movement. Tony Campolo has been the most visible proponet of RLC, and the the above link has Campolo’s response to Guthrie’s critique. I found the article to be interesting, but I was disappointed that Guthrie spent so much of his energy on the political/partisan implications of the RLC movement. It seems to me that there are much more interesting and important issues.

The article is pretty short, if you have a chance to read the article and Campolo’s response, please share your thoughts. What do you think about the Red-Letter Christian argument? Are you persuaded, what questions or disagreements do you have?

Mark Galli’s “Inside CT” article in the current issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY had a great thought I wanted to share:

Healthy Christian ministry assumes that… the lights go out in people’s lives with some regularity, and it is prepared to light candles. Yet some ministries seem shocked and appalled when the lights go out. They fumble for solutions and expend energy cursing the darkness of he surrounding culture.

At least it made me go, “Hmm…”

Another excellent article in the September 18, 2007 issue of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY is Anthony B. Robinson’s article “Courage to preach”. Robinson discusses two recent books on preaching, The Fully Alive Preacher by Mike Graves and Preaching as Testimony by Anna Carter Florence. Robinson’s discussion did make me write down the names of both books as possible Christmas gift ideas.

However, the main reason I found this article so interesting was because Robinson raised some important questions about what preaching is really about.

Robinson writes:

The focus of preaching is properly on who God is, what God has done, what God is doing. It is the good news about a God whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not our ways. It is the story of God’s relentless love, scandalous grace and persistent purposes. We, preachers and congregations, come second.

Another interesting quotation:

Will Willimon points to something similar when he observes that good preachers love God more than they love their congregations.

Robinson’s article has really made me think, and it has made me ask myself if my preaching has lately been focused on God and how God is at work, or whether I have made myself or the congregation the subject.

If you read Robinson’s article, I would be interested in hearing your reaction to it. What is the most basic thing that a preacher should be trying to do in the act of preaching?

It is not often that you read a book review that at the same time makes a profound and thought-provoking argument and leaves you with no desire at all to read the book that is being reviewed. But this is the experience I came away with after reading William C. Placher’s review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens in the September 18, 2007 issue of CHRISTIAN CENTURY.

Hitchen’s book, according to Placher, is frustrating because it is “full of mistakes” and “its author seems not to have read any modern theology, or even to know that it exists.” I was struck initially that it was sad that there is yet another book out there gleefully ridiculing Christianity (and other faiths) as not just wrong or hypocritical, but actually dangerous. I wondered why Placher or CHRISTIAN CENTURY would want to publicize a book like this. (Maybe you are wondering why I am doing the same thing by writing this post… if so, keep reading.)

Placher does two things that are very helpful for Christians to notice due to the current popularity of books like God Is Not Good. First, he helps us to realize that many of the people that Hitchens is arguing with are not actually people, they are nothing more than strawmen. Second, Placher makes an appeal to Christians who “have found ways to be religious without being either stupid or homicidal” to speak up. Books like the one reviewed by Placher thrive on stereotyping Christians. Yet, most Christians don’t fit these stereotypes. So, the simple question is: Why aren’t we speaking up? In Placher’s words, “folks like those who read the CHRISTIAN CENTURY need to put aside our obsessively good manners and shout, ‘Hey! Those aren’t the only alternatives! We’re here too!'”

I would highly recommend this book review, it is one of the most effective I’ve read.

I received a forward message last week that had a great one-liner in it.  Here is the line: “Remember, just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.”

We all know that a person who stands in their garage is no more a car than a dog who sleeps in its owners bed is a person.  However, we often act as if all that is required for someone to be a Christian is that they go to church for one hour a week (as long as there is nothing else that interferes with church, of course).

This email was a powerful reminder to me that being a Christian involves a commitment to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Disciples are certainly people who go to church, and who profess faith in Jesus.  But they are also people whose lives proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

Who is your life proclaiming as Lord?