I had an epiphany a few days ago. (I know, I know, as far as the liturgical calendar is concerned this is not the time for epiphanies…) Those of you who know me or have been following this blog know that I have a deep interest in small group accountability. In reading Doug Pagitt’s Re-Imagining Church: The Spiritual Formation of People in Communities of Faith, I realized that the deeper issue that I am trying to address in thinking about and writing about small group accountability is community.

It seems to me that there are so many people out there who are searching for authentic community, a place where they can belong, be known, and accepted. My theory is that if a church can succeed in creating meaningful community, then they will succeed in most every other part of their life together. But way too many churches are just acquaintance clubs, places where you rub shoulders with people week after week, but never really get to know them.

But what if the church were a community of people united together in a deep commitment to becoming faithful followers of Jesus? What if the church were a place where you knew you had people who you could share your deepest struggles with, and they would not judge you, but they would encourage you, pray for you, walk with you in the struggle towards a deeper relationship with God. I wonder if one of the main reasons that people are not more dramatically growing in their faith is because they are not opening up their lives to anyone else. As a result, they are not aware of how stagnant their relationship with the Lord has become.

I have a dream that the church would become a place where people enter deeply into each others lives and where people are in ministry with each other as we meaningful growth in living towards the Kingdom of God, in our own lives and as communities of faith. I believe that small group accountability, then, is a very helpful tool in teaching people how to let others in and how to care for one another.

Thank you Lord, that with you all things are possible.

For the two people out there who actually keep track of this on a regular basis, you may have noticed that I have not been posting with much regularity, especially other than posting my sermons. I am not sure why, but it has been a struggle to post lately. I also have even left my reader unchecked for long periods of time. (Is there anything more terrifying than signing into Google Reader and seeing that you have 100+ posts to skim… Ok, yes- lots of things are more terrifying than that.)

Earlier this week I did log into my reader, and there were just so many great posts. I am thankful for the people who are spending time and energy thining about the Kingdom of God and doing their best to present it to others. Reading these posts made me want to recommit myself to contributing to the conversation.

It also made me want to say thank you. So, in order to give thanks to these blogs, here are my top 5 blogs that keep me blogging: (listed in no particular order)

1. Catching Meddlers (We roomed together at licensing school, and he has since become an important friend in the Oklahoma Conference.)
2. Thoughts of Resurrection (A good friend of mine from seminary.)
3. Come to the Waters (A blog I have come to really enjoy reading, though I have never met the author.)
4. 33 Names of Grace (Another blog I have come to really enjoy reading, though I have never met the author.)
5. Step By Step (Act now, and you can see a picture of the author with a mohawk! In light of said mohawk, I am struggling with whether I want to acknowledge that he is also a fellow Wesley Seminary grad…)

So, thank you. There are other blogs I read and appreciate, but these are the five I was reading that motivated me that fateful day. I’m not sure if you all feel this, but it is sometimes hard to know if there is anyone out there and if what you are saying is connecting to anyone. You each have said something that has made me think, smile, or laugh and for that I am thankful.

I have posted last Sunday’s sermon (August 26th, 2007) on my podcast. As always, you can listen to it by clicking on the deeply committed sermons link on the right or by clicking here .

The Scripture reading for this sermon is Luke 13:10-17, which tells the story of Jesus healing a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. Jesus said to the woman, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Imagine Jesus saying those words to you today, what would come to mind? What are you bound to that Jesus wants to see you free from? These are the types of questions that this sermons discusses.

If you listen to it, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I just posted the sermon from August 19th, 2007 to my podcast. You can listen to it here .

This Scripture reading for this sermon was Hebrews 11:29-12:2, the great cloud of witnesses. Be forewarned, the tape turns over at the end of the sermon, so there is a bit of a pause, and then you get that last sentence or too…

By the way, does anyone have a program they use for hosting podcast that they really like? I use gcast and it gets the job done, but I dont’ think there is anyway to track whether anyone is actually listening to it. The statistics aren’t that important to me, but it would be nice to know if any is finding the sermons and actually listening to them. I would appreciate any thoughts or advice you might have.

Not that long ago I picked up a copy of Switchfoot’s CD “nothing is sound.” I have enjoyed several of their earlier albums, but this one is fantastic. I love the music and the lyrics. It is the lyrics that have especially caught my attention on this album. Maybe it is just me, but it seems like there are several Christian artists out there who are increasingly writing songs not just to sell records and make money, but out of a sense of calling to speak to the church and challenge it to become what it is called to be (see Derek Webb’s She Must and Shall Go Free ).

When singer/songwriter Jonathan Foreman writes: “I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians” in the song “Politicians” for example, I am challenged to remember that my ultimate allegiance is to Jesus Christ.

Foreman seems to speak to the confusion, anger, and desperation that many young people feel today in “Lonely Nation” when he writes: “She’s just reminiscing, blood, sweat and one thing’s missing. She’s been breaking up inside, inside. Singing without tongues, screaming without lungs, I want more than my lonely nation, I want more than my lonely nation. Desperate we are young. Separate we are one. I want more than my desperation. I want more than my lonely nation.”

Not everyone will agree with the perspective in every song, but one thing is for sure, if you are listening, the songs on “Nothing Is Sound” will make you think. Like so many other things, Christian music can sometimes become so predictable and familiar that it ceases to challenge us or encourage us to grow in our faith. Albums like “Nothing Is Sound” excite me, because I think they give people an opportunity to think through some parts of their faith that may have previously been unexamined in a bit closer light.

At least, I can testify that I have found this album to be thought-provoking. Oh yeah, and it rocks!

This year in Lamont we decided to try something new. Many people who are a part of our church community are wheat farmers. We wanted to try to find a way to help people see the offering as more than just giving money to the church. We wanted people to see that we offer back to God the gifts that God has given to us and that this certainly includes money, but it includes more than that. So, we thought that one way that we could expand our understanding of the offering was by asking wheat farmers to bring part of their harvest as an offering. We then took this wheat and had it ground by a local farmer who lives in Hunter. The ground wheat (shown in the picture) will be used to make the bread that we use for the Lord’s Supper.

The harvest this year turned out to be very bad in Lamont. Several farmers that I spoke to said that they only cut about 25% of their land before it was declared a loss by their insurance. In some ways I think this has challenged us to give thanks even in the midst of a disappointing year.

Last Sunday we used our first loaf of Lamont wheat bread for Communion. It was really neat, and it did seem to add a layer of meaning both to what we are doing when we offer our tithes to God and to the sacrament of Communion.

What interesting things has your church done to help people to experience the deeper meanings behind the things we do in worship?

I have just posted Sunday’s sermon to my podcast. You can listen to it by clicking here or by clicking on the deeply committed sermons link on the right.

This sermon is based on Hosea 11:1-11 and looks at the wonder of God’s grace, that despite being confronted with the depths of human sinfulness, God still chose compassion.

When I read the lectionary readings last week for the first time, I was struck by the contrast between the Old Testament Reading and the readings from the New Testament. I often hear the God of the Old and New Testaments described in very different ways. In the Old Testament, God is wrathful, eager to exercise judgment, and unforgiving… the idea seems to be that you follow the law or else. Whereas the God of the New Testament is often described as full of grace, loving, and almost overly tolerant of our sin… the idea seems to be that we can do no wrong, because God loves us so much and Jesus has already died for our sins.

Now I realize that this is a very superficial summary, but that is a working understanding of the difference between Old and New Testaments that I have often encountered. So, I was very interested in the lectionary readings for last week, which seemed to turn this on its head. The Old Testament reading was about God’s decision to choose compassion in the face of human sin, and the New Testament readings seemed to focus on the need to be faithful as a result of what Jesus has done for us. This was a helpful reminder that Christians believer that God is three, and one. We do not find a radically different God in the Old Testament who was softened up in the New. God’s desire to seek and save the lost is a theme that is woven throughout the Bible, and it is certainly evident in the Old Tesatment book of Hosea.

As I mentioned in my last post Bishop Hayes visited Lamont UMC this past Sunday. It was an incredible blessing to have him in our church. Several members could only remember Bishop Solomon visiting the church for 20 minutes when he made a mad dash to every church in the conference at the beginning of his time as bishop some years ago, and when the building was dedicated when it first opened.

Therefore, it was a very special occasion for us to have Bishop Hayes with us not only for the entire worship service, but also for a pot luck meal that he made sure he was at long enough to eat and greet everyone who was there. It was a great opportunity for people in our church to really get to introduce themselves to their bishop.

With Bishop Hayes’ permission, I am publishing the sermon he preached in Lamont on my podcast. As always, you can view it by clicking on the “deeply committed sermons” link or by clicking here. Bishop Hayes preached on Luke 15:11-24, the story of the prodigal son. Unfortunately, the quality is not as good as I hoped it would be. There are parts of the sermon that are difficult to hear. If you are not able to hear it all, I expect that you will be blessed by what you do hear.

Bishop Hayes will be preaching here in Lamont tomorrow at our regular worship service.  I am very excited to have him in worship with us.  To my knowledge, a bishop has not come to Lamont all that frequently, so this is an exciting opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to him and get to know him a little bit better.

I am amazed that with all of the preaching and traveling that Bishop Hayes does, that he is able to consistently preach inspiring, Spirit-filled messages.  We are blessed by the leadership and vision that Bishop Hayes brings to our conference.  I look forward to seeing the ways in which God uses him to revive and renew our conference during the rest of his episcopacy.   But for now, I especially look forward to hearing the message that he will bring to us tomorrow.

Click here to listen to this past Sunday’s sermon. The title of the sermon was “The Wrong Question” and the Scripture Reading was Luke 10:25-37. I tried to remind myself and all who were present of how radical this story is. Though we all think we know all about the story of the good Samaritan, this story reminds us that we are called not just to love those whom we know and love. Rather, we are called to a way of life that isn’t interested in restricting our sphere of responsibility. If the wrong question is “Who is my neighbor” or “Who do I have to help?,” a much better question is “How can I help” when we are confronted with need. This is the radical love that Christian discipleship calls us to and frees us for.