Leaving the Safety of Church

On Sunday, I will be delivering a message about Christians being perceived as hypocritical. Whether you like it or not, there is a perception that Christians are hypocritical. Specifically, folks in their 20s and 30s who are not Christians feel as though Christians do not live out the very things that they say the believe. Eighty percent of these folks know someone who is a committed Christian, but only 15% believe that those Christians live a lifestyle different from anyone else.

Our bible reading for this Sunday focus on right living. Our reading from James asks us to be doers of the word, not just hearers. In our reading from Mark, Jesus tells us that is from the heart that bad deeds come forth. Church can be a safe environment. Are we ready to take our faith out from the church and bring it into the community?

What Do We Value?

I am working my way through Too Small to Ignore, and I came upon a quote that addresses something that has bothered me for a long time. Wess Stafford writes:

"In our [modern] society, when a guy flips a basketball through a ten-foot-high hoop can make as much money in three hours as a school teacher, who is shaping the lives of the next generation, does in a year, something is horribly wrong with our values."

I could not agree more. And it's tough to agree with that statement, especially being the fan of sports that I am. I have seen the breakdowns for athletes who make over $20 million a year. The amount they make per game is just sickening. These athletes have talents and gifts that few of us have. So many of us enjoy seeing those gifts in action that we allow them to get paid an incredible amount of money to do it. And I suppose those chosen few with the right skills deserve to be paid for those skills.

There is no National Football League or Major League Baseball for teachers. Our most talented and gifted teachers don't necessarily get paid much more than other teachers and certainly don't get the same recognition. Yet teachers do some critical work in the formation of our children. How does this happen? I suppose athletes are the business of entertainment. People want to pay (and pay they do) to see them in action. Watching a teacher could be exciting, but most likely not to the same degree.

This may read funny coming from someone who appreciates what a capitalistic system does for us. Even with its flaws, it's a system that I believe works...and works well. I applaud any athlete that I read about that is willing to take some of their money and give it back to the community. Hey...live a good life, and put some money away for the part of your life when you can't be an athlete anymore. Not enough athletes are sound financial planners. But, with what's left...what do you need with it? What are you going to do with your $250 million contract?

Imagine all of the good that could be done with that money if they made some serious donations. I am not calling for socialism. Not at all. I am also not asking for them to be taxed more. What I am asking is that those who make way more money than they really need should share of their own accord.

When athletes are interviewed after a great performance in a game, they often thank God for giving them the abilities that they have. Well, that's good...and I applaud that. It was God that gave them that talent that they developed. How about you take on God's call to love your neighbor and take some of the million dollar salary and give it back to those in need. I know many athletes give to charities and many give quite a bit of money. But, you can't tell me there isn't a little more to give.

Please understand, we all could probably stand to give more to charity...I am no exception. But, it is my wish and my prayer that athletes, entertainers and others could see it in their hearts to take their blessings and be a blessing to others.

Edward Kennedy

Regardless of where you stand politically, I encourage you to remember the family and friends of Edward Kennedy, who has passed away. He had been battling cancer for over 15 months, and while the death was not necessarily a surprise, it is still significant.

He was involved in politics for over 40 years and was a true figurehead for the Democratic Party. I can't say I agreed with a lot of his stances, but I recognize his influence and his strong desire to mentor those in his chosen field.

Too Small to Ignore

After attending the teleconference put on by the Willow Creek Church, their pastor talked about spiritual disciplines. Among his recommendations, he said that we should set aside 30 minutes a day for reading. That's a great idea! But, I tended to set that time aside right before I go to bed. Bad idea. I usually fall asleep after about four pages, because I'm just ready to sleep.

With my evening strategy, it took me forever to get through unChristian. I have decided now to take the advice of the pastor and read in the morning for 30 minutes. I am much more awake and I will make more progress through the book. I am currently reading Too Small to Ignore by Wess Stafford.

The books talks about the importance of children in our lives. It also talks about his traumatic upbringing in a missionary school in Africa. There are already some great messages that I look forward to sharing with you when I am done.

Prayer Note: Please pray for the community of Fond du Lac and they struggle with the future of the Mercury Marine corporation. From what I have read, it is likely that the factory will be closing in the next 2-3 years. This will greatly affect the Fond du Lac community, and not for the better. They need our prayers!

unChristian

I just finished reading the book unChristian. I found it to be a fascinating book, and I found it a book that really got me thinking about the role that I play in: (1) helping to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world and (2) how do I help the perception of Christians.

This book interviewed non-Christians to get a sense of what their perceptions were of Christianity. They took the major themes and wrote about them. The major perceptions are:

1. Hypocritical - Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.
2. Get Saved! - Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.
3. Antihomosexual - Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
4. Sheltered - Christians are boding, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
5. Too Political - Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.
6. Judgmental - Christians are prideful and quick to find fault in others.

Although painful to admit, many of these perceptions are dead on. And any Christian should read this so they get a sense of where we are right now as a religion. We have lost our way and need to figure out how to change. If we want to reach out to a younger generation, this is a must read.

Rick Warren, when asked where he'd like to see Christianity in 30 years says, "My dream is that thirty years from now, the church will be known more by what it is for than what it is against For some time now now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth. We talk far more than we do. It's time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the twenty-first century.".

Amen.

Sunday's Service: Peace

This Sunday, I will be preaching on Ephesians 6:10-20 which talks about the "Armor of God." The writer wants folks to be prepared for the influences of the world. He warns us not about individuals, but large powers and forces at work in the world. Among the items to worn, are the shoes of peace.

I hope to talk with folks about the role of peace in the message of Jesus Christ. Yes, we do arm for a battle for the world, and we battle against evil forces in the world. However, we battle with a message of peace. I know it sounds weird. It is my hope that by coming to church, you may learn more about this message.

See you in church!

New Clregy Orientation

As you may have read in the bulletin from the last few weeks, I was out of the office on Monday and Tuesday so that I could attend the New Clergy Orientation at the Byron Center. This was focused on folks who were in their first appointment in the Wisconsin Annual Conference. So, there was quite a sample of individuals.

In those two days, I was given a lot of information about resources available in the conference. I hope to use many of those tools. I also learned a lot about my benefits and other financial information. Wow...it's confusing and overwhelming, but helpful.

I will be getting back into the swing of things this week and look forward to more regular posting.

Post Service Conversation

After the 9:00am worship service at Tabor United Methodist Church, a gentlemen came up to me to talk about the message. My mind, of course, wanders to worries about him calling me out on my history or my theology. Instead, he shared with me two thoughts about my message this morning. They are great points that I wanted to share with you today:

1. What is wisdom? - I would argue that wisdom is applied knowledge. In that sense, books smarts is fine, but until you can discern how to apply it, it is not wisdom. This man took is a step further. He said that that may be true, but what good is wisdom until you've used it in the world. In a way, you can spout of wise sayings, but unless you use them to better the world, they really don't do all that much good. I liked that.

2. Visits by God - In the lectionary lesson about Solomon, he was approached by God in a dream. The gentlemen and I talked about how while that may not happen to us today, we are still called on by God. It is just a matter of whether or not we are able to discern that call.

I appreciated the conversation. At least people are listening!

Other Sunday Notes:

• Together with Fond du Lac community, Oakfield UMC did their part to help put together 700 book bags for area students.
• One parishioner told me that she wanted my sermons to be longer. Really?!?
  

The Soloist

Christa and I have a membership for Netflix. Living in Oakfield, this has actually worked out well because we are at least 15-20 minutes from a rental place. The mail service also works remarkably fast here, so we get movies pretty quickly.

We watched The Soloist last night. Christa and I both look for different things in movies. Generally, we see to eye to eye on our ratings. Netflix gives you the option to rate the movie on a five star system. I think we have a system down. Let's put it this way:

* = Nothing redeeming. This movie is just absolutely awful. (We jhave yet to give a move this)
** = May be a glimmer of hope, but pretty bad.
*** = Average, entertaining movie.
**** = This was a very good movie with a lot of good qualities.
***** = Nearly flawless. This movie kept our attention. We'd want to see it again and again.

I find now that, as a pastor, I can't help but view movies from a religious and theological perspective. For instance, a movie like Knowing (***) took on whole different meaning when you think about it theologically. Same with Seven Pounds (****).

Today, however, let's focus on The Soloist. I do recommend the film and there's a few things I'd like you ponder as you watch:

• Check out the portrayal of the cello player, Graham Claydon (played by TomHollander), as a Christian.
• There is a moment when Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx) says that Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) is God. As you learn about their relationship, it is an interesting point of discussion.
• There is an overall message in the movie about what one person is capable of doing to make a difference in the world. With its focus on the homeless in Los Angeles, you can't help but be moved and saddened.

The overall story is that Lopez is researching stories for the LA Times. He finds Ayers who was a Julliard dropout suffering from schizophrenia. Ayers is homeless and estranged from his family. Lopez works with Ayers to get back his gift for playing the cello. I'll leave the rest for you to find out. Let me know what you think of the movie.

Town Hall Meeting - Sunday's Service.

I had every intention of attending the Oakfield Town Council meeting last night, but I was not able to go. I hope to be able to attend in September. I want to make an effort to be knowledgeable and aware of the affairs of this village. In Oshkosh trying to do that was intimidating...I think it will be more manageable on this level. I did notice earlier this week that Tom Petri would be visiting Oakfield for a Town Hall Meeting.

With all the hub bub over health care and some of the interesting occurrences that have happened at these meetings around the country, I wanted to check it out. I was curious to see how many people would show up. Walking down Main Street, I noticed a lot of cars parked. I could tell this one was going to be packed. That was the case. It was a standing room only crowd.

With one hour for the meeting, Petri fielded a variety of questions and allowed for people to comment. Much of the discussion revolved around concerns regarding health care. Other topics included illegal immigration, off-shore drilling, media bias, and the taking of God out of America.

It was neat to see democracy inaction and it was neat to see a Congressman talking to the people about the issues that concern them. But...I sensed a great deal of fear among the crowd. They were fearful of socialism creeping into America. They were fearful of losing benefits to illegal aliens. They were fearful for a secular United States that lost its religious roots. One man said he was mad at the state of the country, but he didn't know what to do.

* * * * * *

I wish I had an easy answer for that man. Politics aside, there are lots of issues that we are wrestling with. This Sunday, the theme of the worship services at Tabor and Oakfield is about wisdom.Specifically, we will be looking at Solomon's desire for wisdom above everything when God asks him what he wanted. Hopefully, we can learn more about how to proceed in times when we are uncertain, scared and overwhelmed. God bless.

Thoughts on Language

I have learned to appreciate the quiet that comes with living in a community of 1,000 people. That appreciation is greatly increased when you compare our living situation now to living in a residence hall of 200 college students within a college campus in a city of 60,000 people. Yesterday, I took the opportunity to grab a chair and sit out on the porch of the house and read a book. It was refreshing and relaxing. It is something I hope to do every day, as long as weather allows.

As I was reading, I came upon a passage in the book about today's culture and the Christian perspective on it. Specifically, it addressed swearing in public. This brought up a two things that I wanted to write briefly about; I would also appreciate your thoughts as well.

Swearing

I struggle with swearing. Do I swear? Yes...but a lot less than I used to. I work every day to reduce my swearing. I am getting better! What pains me is when I see young children biking around and here them talking with every fifth word being some kind of swear. I hear adults using the most apalling language to talk about pretty mundane stuff. Why do we feel the need to swear? How did we allow our language to get so vulgar?

I don't exactly know, but I know that it's not helping us. I feel as though we are continually becoming more accepting of foul language. I can't control the language that people use, but I know that I can role model better use of it. I feel as though swearing makes someone look bad and also makes them a bad role model for younger folks.

Perhaps this serves as a challenge for us to find the right words to describe our wonder, frustration, excitement and other emotions. Just as it can be helpful to have someone pick out all the times you use "umm" when you speak in public, it might be worth while to see the role that swearing plays in your conversation. I gaurantee that you will be seen as more intelligent and refined if you don't swear. Try it!

Using the Lord's Name in Vain

There has been a lot of talk lately about the use of words like "retarded" and "gay" to describe people and situations. I am in complete agreement. I am frustrated when I hear people use these words. I will confront people when they use words like that and explain how it can be offfensive. With this in mind, I wonder why these words need not to be used, but people can feel free to use the Lord's name in vain and nothing is done about it.

I will also confront this behavior and I get some strange reactions. I think this practice is so engrained in people's word choice so they don't even think about it. It may come as a shock to them that someone might actually be offended by them doing that. This is something that I really struggle with. I believe the Christian community also has the right to say that when people use the Lord's name in vain, that is offensive.

If you haven't confronted someone about it, I encourage you to do so. I also encourage you to think about your own word choice. Have I used the Lord's name in vain? Yep. We all make mistakes, but let's take the opportunity to praise our Lord, not defile His name.

...so, what are your thoughts on this? They would be appreciated.

Byron Center Worship Service

As many of you may already know, it is with great sorrow that the Byron Center will be closing its doors as a camp site for the United Methodist Church. It has a long and rich history of camps and has provided many wonderful memories. On September 13, 2009 there will be an opportunity to come together to share memories and celebrate the ministry that the Byron Center and its staff have helped foster over its life.

The grounds will be open to visitors at 2:00 PM for folks to walk around the grounds. There will be a worship service at 4:00 PM. There will be a pot luck supper beginning at 5:30 PM. I encourage you to come out to this event if you have been been involved in any way with the Byron Center.

If you are at all interested in helping out with the service, please contact me at: jbdroste@gmail.com or (920) 583-3352.

If you are unsure of how to get to Byron Center, check this map.

*** I will be announcing this event in the Oakfield and Tabor worship bulletins as well as the September "Good News"Newsletter. ***

Fitness Watch

As part of the WebMD component of our Health Insurance that we get through Annual Conference, we have the option of signing up for the Virgin Health Miles program. OK...the sponsor does seem a little interesting.

By signing up, you are sent a free pedometer which monitors all of the steps you take in a day. Periodically, you are asked to download them onto their website so that it can track your progress.

It is meant to promote activity and physical fitness. I happened to see a few of my clergy colleagues doing this and I though I should get on board. And...not only does it help you to get out and get active; you can also earn rewards! :)

So, you will see me all over with my pedometer on...even in church. Feel free to ask me how things are going with it. Thanks!

Tabor Vacation Bible School

I had the opportunity to finally be able to join the kids that were participating in Tabor United Methodist Church's Crocodile Dock Vacation Bible School Program. It was a three day program that was Monday-Wednesday of this week. I was honored to have the opportunity to lead the storytelling segment this morning. They will be having a celebration tonight at 7:00PM for all parents, family and friends of those that participants. From what I've heard, they had 35 kids from the great Eden area that participated. That is amazing.

The curriculum centered around five keys words and the ministry of Jesus. For instance, the key word for my storytelling focused on the word "seek." The story was about the four men bringing the paralyzed man through the roof of the busy house to that Jesus could heal him. We focused on the people's resolve to get in as well as the great gift of forgiveness and healing that Jesus gave to the man. Then the children had music time, crafts time, game time and science time to learn and reinforce the concept. I wish I would have been able to check out more than one day.

I want to thank all of the volunteers and coordinators that put in a great deal of time to make this event a success. It was great to see so many kids enthusiastic and excited to learn about about Jesus Christ!

Today's Field Trip

As I mentioned in the bulletin on August 2, I participated in a field trip with the other clergy in our circuit. We had the opportunity to travel to Sun Prairie to visit with Dan Dick, the Director of Connectional Ministry of the Wisconsin Annual Conference.

Wisconsin Annual Conference Headquarters
Before that meeting, we had the opportunity to take a tour of the facilities. I got to meet the folks from the Foundation, I got to see the resource room and I got to see the Bishop's office. Although the bishop was not available, I did get to see Steve Polster, the bishop's assistant :). I did see that there are some wonderful resources available to us as a congregation. I am hopeful that I might be able to incorporate some bible studies and some videos into worship and meetings.

Our meeting with Dan Dick provided great conversation and got me thinking about lots of ideas for the church and for our circuit! He has a website that you can see HERE.

Madison First United Methodist Church
After our tour, we walked to lunch and happened to walk by Madison United Methodist Church. They recently completed a large reconstruction project and we happened to see two trustees who gave us a complete tour. It is an amazing facility. I was glad to see it. The website should give you some insight what they have accomplished.

I think that's all for now.