I find it very hard to act normal when I am around famous people.  I get smitten.  Some people have the ability to play it cool when they encounter celebrities, but I am not one of those people.  I try to play it cool for a little while, but inevitably I get star-struck.  I can’t stop starring and that usually leads to me having to ask for an autograph or asking them a ridiculous line of questions that is embarrassing for everybody involved.

Once I was at a Presbyterian Church in California when I saw Judge Reinhold.  Now Judge Reinhold is not a real judge but he is the actor who plays Billy Rosewood in the movie, Beverly Hills Cop III.  During praise and worship a friend taps me on the shoulder and says, “Hey isn’t that the guy who was in that Eddie Murphy movie?”  And immediately I start humming the Axel Foley theme song.  It takes us a while to come up with his name, but when it comes to us I start to get smitten.  I try to listen to the message, but for some reason I keep looking over in his direction thinking about how he shot that rocket launcher backwards in Beverly Hills Cop III (all the while I am still humming the theme song in my head).

After church is over, we make our way over to Judge, just to makes sure it’s really him.  It becomes clear to me that I am standing only a couple of feet from a movie star.  I am not exactly sure if he is considered a star or not but I am star-struck nonetheless.  We go over to talk to him, and I ask him a couple of incoherent questions about what new movies Eddie Murphy coming out or something like that.  But I couldn’t stop thinking to myself I am in the presence of someone famous.  I talked about that story for the rest of the day or maybe even the rest of the week.

Before I tell a friend about my encounter with Judge Reinhold, I usually first have to describe who he is to them.  I have to explain what he looks like and also refer them to his great acting abilities in Beverly Hills Cop III and his role as the close-talker on Seinfeld in order for them to truly understand the magnitude of my brush with fame.

In Matthew 16, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “But what about you?  Who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answers, “You are Christ the Son of the living God.”  This is how Peter is describing who Jesus is to other people.  In order for people to understand our encounters with Jesus we have to describe who Jesus is to them.  We have to depict his goodness, mercy, justice, faithfulness, and love to them so they can have a better understanding of how we encounter the Son of the living God.

“Who do you say I am?”  This question is central to the foundation of Christianity.  Who do you say Jesus is?  How do you describe Jesus to other people?  Most people don’t know Judge Reinhold, so I have to go into impressive details about who he is in order for people to understand our encounter.

Similarly, most people know about Jesus but they don’t actually know who he is, so they need the impressive details.  We need to explain who Jesus is in order for people to truly understand the magnitude of His fame.  In Psalms 8 it says, “Brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.”   Jesus is the most famous One of all.  It’s an amazing thought to me that the most famous One of all is concerned with you and me!

So what is it that you really want?  I know, not an appropriate question to ask during Lent, particularly at the beginning of Holy Week, when we liturgical Christians are all about fasting and penitence and identifying with the cross of Christ.  Putting aside what we want, giving up chocolate or coffee or trips to the mall, focusing on what we should want instead of what we really want.

But what is it that you really want?  I have a hunch that most of us have trouble getting down to the root of that question – and that when we do get down to what we really want, we find a deep part of ourselves and a place where we meet up with God.  Remember when Jesus said that it is harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle?   Well, I wonder if that isn’t because the more we are able to get what we want on the surface of things (chocolate, vacations, new clothes, big houses) – the easier it is to keep that question on the surface and never really get down underneath those surface “wants” to what we really want.

Sometimes when you’re not getting what you want, you have to dig a little deeper.  You want some new clothes?  That’s not a bad thing.  If you can just go out and get some, then that’s that and it’s taken care of.  You feel better.  But when you’re out of money and can’t just go get some, you have to sit for awhile with what you want.  What is it that you want?  Why do you want new clothes?  To feel better about yourself?  To celebrate Spring?  Aaaah … now we’re getting somewhere.

If you want to feel better about yourself, then let’s dig a little deeper yet … what might go even farther than new clothes, is learning how to love yourself, believing that you are loved by the Creator … and that may take a little more work than a trip to the mall.  Maybe you’ve never really believed you are worthy of love, or maybe you’ve worked hard to hide some nasty parts of yourself rather than face them and love them into the light.  You may need help, a guide or companion on the journey.  It may take courage to form new healthy relationships.  And who knows, along the way you may find that your old clothes feel new.  Or that you find more pizazz in the thrift stores than you did before, now that you’re taking a little more of yourself through the door.  But whatever happens with the clothes, I bet you are a little more sustained by getting down to what you really wanted and meeting God and yourself there.  Maybe that’s a little of what the Kingdom of God is.

You have a yearning to celebrate Spring?  Now that you’ve named it, find a way to do it if you can’t buy new clothes – & it will hold more meaning, not than buying clothes, but more meaning simply because of having named the desire.  Buy the new clothes if you can!  Celebrate Spring!  And having named your desire to celebrate the amazing gift of the natural cycle of seasons … you may do more than buy new clothes.  You may build more “nature time” into your week, you may join the Nature Conservancy, you might help plant a community garden in a poor neighborhood to bring a little more natural beauty to some corner of the world.  Maybe that, too, is a little of what the Kingdom of God is.

So try to ask yourself throughout the day and throughout the week — what do I want?  Make a list.  Big things, little things.  Don’t try to do anything about them yet, just notice them.  Then, before you do a thing about them, sit with that question a little longer.  Don’t let yourself go get what you want when you want it.  Ponder it.  What is it that I  really want?  Sometimes you really just want some chocolate.  Part of who you are is your physical body with all its needs and desires.  So note that you want some chocolate and either get some or don’t.  You’ve acknowledged a bit of who you are in the process.

But don’t stop there.  Keep sitting with the question.

What is it that you want?  You may or may not get it, but chances are you will get something that you need.  And that, too, will help usher the Kingdom of God into your life and probably into a bit of the world around you.

Take a chance and say what it is you want.

Investment in Africa. What does investment in your community look like for you?

I want to be a giver.  Sometimes I am.  Sometimes I give because it makes me feel good about myself.  The older that I get, the more I am realizing how much my behavior has been motivated by looking good to others and myself, perhaps God…. rather than being a person whose actions are motivated out of thanks for the life and grace offered me.  I’m a wanna be giver, and a person who talks often about the fact that we as people are image bearers, and therefore made to contribute and create.  When I do give out of a heart of true generosity, I experience what I call the “transubstantiation of service”.

Transubstantiation is the idea my Catholic friends talk about when during the Eucharist (communion), the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ- not just a representation, but a supernatural embodiment of the risen Christ.  Whenever I choose to contribute to those who struggle, and even those who are doing  ministry to be a part of “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”, I hear the words of Jesus.  He said- “whatever you’ve done unto the least of these, you have done unto me.”  When I join in that gift, I wonder if Jesus speaks to us in literal terms, that He embodies those contributed to- much like the bread and wine.  I know that when there is relationship involved in my service, and when my motive is right- the presence of Christ is palpable- its thick.  Perhaps my awareness is just heightened- and I get in on what is true all along.  He is with us.  This is what He said of course in His last words before the ascension.

When I give- there is a time for charity.  Charity is giving to people because they are desperately in need.  I can help them move from point A to point B and it usually involves someone’s daily survival.  Charity is a real challenge because everybody it seems needs your contribution, and when you give $10 or $20 to the guy on the corner with the sign, there’s someone else on the next corner.  When you send your contribution to the child in Africa, its just one child, and another organization needs your contribution in the Philippines (which is where my Compassion International child is.).  Parker Palmer said that when you give, you should give from your heart, according to what God puts inside of you rather than giving in response to the world’s needs- because the world needs everything.

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

So I want to be a giver, and acknowledging all my shortcomings, my weak motivation, and my questions about how to be a good giver- there is one thing I now know:  While charity is good, and necessary- investment is better.  Everyone is worthy of investment- and that is the work that I want CQ Missional to be about.  We are giving our time and resources to help young people discover their unique role in God’s story.  Our mentoring and educational experiences do this.  We invest, so they can invest, and God’s life flows through that work.  I am so excited to be a part of it.  We also are very interested in helping with community change.  We are partnering with and supporting folks who believe in investment.  Hope International is an organization who have their finger on the pulse of what investment is- and they’re taking on poverty as a calling from God.  Check out this excerpt from their blog about the difference investment makes versus mere charity.

“I believe we have misinterpreted God’s commands to help the poor. Jewish scholars state that woven through the Torah is an understanding that “not all charity is created equal.” They cite that “the greatest level [of charity], above which there is no greater, is to support a fellow Jew by endowing him with a gift or loan, or entering into a partnership with him, or finding employment for him, in order to strengthen his hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.”

Does this prescription align with the majority of our charitable endeavors? Brian had deep respect that this Kenyan ministry served the “least of these.” But, was this charity in alignment with the biblical model of charity? Were they helping these women…

1)      To no longer need to receive charity?

2)      Experience the dignity of honest work?

3)      Enjoy the blessing of providing for their children?

4)      Know the joy of giving charitably to others?

In fairness, there are times when the only appropriate response is to freely give things away. The Haiti earthquake and support to the disabled are examples of such. But, barring such exceptions, our long-term aim should always be to help in a way which frees recipients of the need for our charity, “so that they might help others in need” (Eph. 4:28). Well-intentioned charity devoid of this goal can lead to unhealthy dependency and even addiction.”

Read more at the Hope International blog here.  Please consider supporting their work and read about their efforts.  Maybe they’ll challenge your idea of how to be a giver.

How do your efforts to help “the least of these” look like an investment that keeps on giving?   Do you see that your contribution is a kingdom building deal, where life is given perhaps for generations?  Are there people or communities that are right in front of you that could use your investment?  Is your intersection with them a divine meeting?

To all of those who invest in CQ Missional- thank you- and we plan to pay it forward.

The weeks guest post is brought to us by Rex Schultz:

I have been reflecting on the church – the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church. I am influenced at the moment by Matthew Kelly’s book, “Rediscovering Catholicism” (©2002, published by Beacon Publishing, Cincinnati, OH) and the discussion with some Catholics in my neighborhood. I am not a member of the Catholic Church but he reminds me that more than two thousand years ago, a small group of people began to follow & proclaim the teachings of Jesus – became known as “Christians”. They were the original members of “the church” – the seat of and for holiness. God is the Source and He provided a mechanism for the practice of holiness; the infrastructures of forgiveness, grace, and service. God has seeded the assembly with practitioners to encourage, exhort, guide, etc. the faithful (and not so faithful).

Kelly writes, “the Church, like so many other things in life, is not something we inherit from generations past or take over from our predecessors. The Church is on loan to us from future generations.”

In my quest for critical thinking, I have developed a habit of trying to put issues into perspective. On the issue of “the church”, here is my perspective:

As humans, we have four important and integrated aspects – physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. God created us that way; it is part of His design. It is impossible to separate them into distinctly different and separate dimensions –  to isolate one from the others. So, the spiritual aspect of our lives causes us to seek congruence and alignment with the physical, emotional, and intellectual. As a whole person then I search for authentic guidance and development of my spiritual using the physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects.

My spiritual hunger leads me to the church. Jesus revealed the church to Peter, in Matthew 16:18 when He said He would build His church on a heavenly-taught confessor of a faith – that Jesus is the Christ. Peter confessed that the Messiah of the Old Testament was personified in Jesus of Nazareth!
Kelly’s book reminds me that we live in a time of great moral and ethical confusion. Is it not interesting to note that some people confuse the confession while others seek the truth and the authentic?

In a personal study of “conscience”, I listened to a broadcast of R.C. Sproul on “building a Christian conscience”. Sproul says that the confusion between ethics and morality is based on a lack of understanding between the two words. Ethics comes from the Greek ethos which deals with foundational values and is concerned with “oughtness” – the imperative right that we ought to be doing. Morality, on the other hand, is derived from mores or customs and habits within normal behavior. It is descriptive “isness” and describes what people actually do. The consequence of this confusion, according to Sproul, is the emergence of statistical morality – the normal becomes the normative. We determine what people are doing and when enough people are doing the same thing, we declare that behavior to be normal or acceptable. A new morality is born that ignores Biblical ethics.

What has that got to do with the church?  Is the church teaching, preaching, encouraging, and discipling people in ethics or morality? Is there any confusion in the Mission and Vision of your Church?

Rex Schultz is Discipleship Pastor on staff at a Reformed church in Colorado Springs. A lifelong learner, Rex has been a Christian since 1958. By his own admission, he did not completely surrender his life to Christ until 1992. He and Sue have been married 48 years and they have four children and twelve grandchildren. -CQMissional

Oh how I love the madness of March.  The NCAA Tournament has slowly become one of my favorite sporting events of all time.  I have always been obsessed with sports and a big college basketball fan.  But growing up I only really watched the tournament if the Razorbacks were playing or if it was down to the Final Four.  But then came spring break of my freshmen year of college.  All my friends were off on their grand adventures, while I was stuck at home with a broken leg.  So what did I do? I watched basketball. All day long. I think I watched every game possible for the first four rounds of the tournament.  And it was awesome.

I had no idea how addicting this tournament could be.  That year I got to watch as two #1 seeds were taken down in the second round. It was thrilling tourney filled with several buzzer-beaters and plenty of upsets.  By the end of the first round I was hooked and without my Hogs to root for and my bracket pick Kentucky ousted in the second round, I found myself hooping and hollering at the TV while cheering on the underdogs.  With the loss of top seeded and heavily favored KU last weekend, I have found myself in a similar position and loving it.

Why is it so fun to root for the underdog?  Why is half of the country about to gather in front of their televisions to cheer on Northern Iowa as they get ready to take on Michigan State for a chance to make it to the Regional Finals?

I love it so much because they are accomplishing something bigger than they are capable of.  They are playing outside of themselves.  Northern Iowa didn’t beat Kansas last week because they are a better basketball team. Everybody knows that.   Likewise, the majority of the good things I have accomplished have less to do with how good I am, but more with how good and gracious my God is. Whenever I watch the underdogs pull it out, I am reminded of what is possible when I stop trying to do things on my own strength and learn to rely on others and the strength given to me by God.

CQMissional recently took a trip to Colorado…we had a great time!

We stayed at Silver Cliff Ranch, where we helped out around the camp, and had lots of time to play in the snow.

We shoveled some snow:

Cleaned some cabins:

Helped serve meals:

Went snowshoeing (we also went skiing):

we even drank chocolate milk:

Why did we do all this? We thought it would be fun (it was!), but more then that, the mountains are a a great place to hang out, share our stories, encourage each other, and be in God’s creation.

It was a great trip…next time we go you should come!

The journey is about two things.  One getting to know yourself in a clearer way without all the props and distractions we put around ourselves to hold us up.  But the second reason is the most important I believe, to learn to ask different questions.  We do this by coming into contact with people and places that we have never encountered.  The very act of walking into the unknown empowers the ability to question or at least encounter uncertainty which is a prerequisite for asking good questions.  Perhaps our most important life long adventure is to ask better questions.  It is our ability to ask questions that will release us from what we think we know in order to be open to what we could know.

For the next few posts I am going to introduce some people who have made me ask different questions in my life.  I will offer some of their perspective in hopes that you will go and engage them more fully on your own.  The companions you invite into your journey will make all the difference in both the way of the journey and destination you are likely to reach.

So, here we go…

“Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all possible religions.  And therefore if the cross is the sign of anything, it’s the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all the world’s problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing.  What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can’t do a thing about the world’s problems—that is it never did work and it never will…” Robert Capon – The Mystery of Christ and Why We Don’t Get It

What is beyond religion?  What would my life be like if I let go of religion?  What do I think I need to do to gain the acceptance of God?

As many know by now, a revised version of our president’s health care reform bill was passed a few days ago. We could debate various perspectives for or against the bill, predicted implications of the bill, consequences for the health care industry and our quality of care moving forward, but analysts on every channel are already spinning all of this in droves. Set aside, for a moment, your political affiliation and your feelings about government’s level of involvement in our lives. Instead, I’d like to view this discussion with a different lens.

First, I will admit that I have experienced two sides of health care. I have been completely without insurance and have absorbed medical costs as a result, and I have also been over-insured and benefited from sharing health care expenses. As a husband and a father, I do believe in the importance of having health care insurance, especially in this age of massively absorbent medical costs. However, is medical insurance a human right? What litmus should we use to define a human right? Is the health care issue in America a social injustice on the level of child sex trafficking or racial discrimination? There is little doubt that these are two issues that must anger God. In a world, however, full of such explicit inhumanities, I wonder what God thinks of America’s attitude and energy expended about our debate over health care rights. Are the lines between rights and entitlements beginning to blur? Have we finally crossed the line as a nation into full-blown opulence or are we finally addressing a real American oppression?

What I would like to know is if you feel Christianity has anything to say about what is and what is not a natural-born right. Does this health care topic intersect with your faith?

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” — 1 Thessalonians 3:12

This past week I was afforded an opportunity to experience quite an adventure in the great city of Chicago.  A team of 46 from our church community here in Tulsa spent spring break serving through a partnership with the great folks at Center for Student Missions (CSM) in Chicago (http://www.csm.org/chicago.php.).

Part of CSM’s model for short-term missions is sending teams out on an “urban immersion” during their trip.  My group of students had the privilege of going into the Lakeview/North Halstead community with the following scenario: experience the area as if you were a runaway youth.  While doing this, we were also given the task of getting to know as many people there as possible through conversation and asking a variety of questions. (What is like to live in the neighborhood?  What do you like and dislike?  How does the city attempt to help people?  The Church?  Etc.)

One thing I have yet to mention about this community is that it is also know as “Boystown” and is recognized as the first official gay village in the United States.

Before we disembarked one of the famous “L” trains for Lakeview, we talked amongst ourselves about what it would be like to be a runaway youth in our community, South Tulsa.  Initially my students talked about how much easier it would likely be to find assistance in Tulsa versus Chicago, but once we began meeting some of the fine folks in the “Boystown” area, they quickly began to sing a different tune.  What we discovered was a community of people that take great pride in caring for their neighborhood.  They were incredibly kind and eager to help.  The streets, shops, restaurants, etc. were immaculate and quite inviting.  At one point, my students commented that they would rather struggle through the challenges of being a runaway youth in Lakeview Chicago as opposed to the church-saturated community of South Tulsa.  OUCH!

The sad truth is that many well-intended Christians see the homosexual community as a disease to be avoided at all costs or something to fear on the same level as an impoverished neighborhood consumed by violent street gangs.  I am not speaking here on what the Bible says about homosexuality.  What I am speaking on is what the Bible has to say about how we are to love and treat people, regardless of how they live their lives.  Something is horribly wrong with the Church when the world at times is doing a better job of loving people than the body of Christ!

So what is your Lakeview?

Maybe you already do a good job of loving homosexual people.  However, if you’re like me, there is someone or some group that is incredibly difficult for you to love.  The answer here does not lie solely in trying harder but rather being willing and open to opportunities when they arise and seeking God’s love and peace, not just to benefit ourselves but ultimately to give away to those in need!

“Love is not just a word.  It is a measurable expression of one’s unconditional behaviors towards another.” – Andrew Marin (http://www.themarinfoundation.org/index001.htm)

The 00’s came to a close, so I decided to make a media decade in review list. Here we are with the last category of the decade in review: books. This category was great because it helped me to take inventory on the books that have made a big impact on my life over the last 10 years.  Here we go with my favorite books of the last decade.

Honorable Mention
Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning (2002)
Jesus and Empire by Richard Horsley (2002)
Waking the Dead by John Eldredge (2003)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman (2004)
Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller (2005)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (2006)
Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne (2006)
The Year of Biblical Living by AJ Jacobs (2007)
Fidelity of Betrayal by Peter Rollins (2008)
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (2009)

10–Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig (2003)
9–Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (2001)
8–I Am America and So Can You by Stephen Colbert (2007)
7–Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller (2004)
6–Sex God by Rob Bell (2008)
5–Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2004)
4–Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle (2008)
3–Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps (2009)
2–Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (2005)
1–Life Of Pi by Yan Martel (2003)