Nothing New

I have launched my new blog! Check out "Nothing New" at http://newunderthesun.blogspot.com and let me know what you think.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I have enjoyed blogging much more than I imagined. It causes me to be more reflective and creative. It challenges and stretches me. And it’s fun. (And it’s pressure-free since it seems I have a readership of about 2.) That said, it may seem surprising that I’m getting ready to bury The Three Amigos blog. I know, I know…. It seems tragically unfair – a blog with so much promise cut down in the prime of its youth.

Yes, I’ve broken up with the other two amigos, Chris and Henry. I wrote them an email and said it wasn’t them, it was me. And I asked them if we could still be friends. Henry said he wanted all his stuff back.

Sometime this summer, I’ll launch my own blog. It will be a little more individualized than “The Three Amigos.” I just hope my solo career doesn’t crash and burn like Scott Stapp’s. Keep checking out The Three Amigos until the switch. I’ll make an announcement and post a link when my new blog is up and running.

Here’s where I need your help. I need a name for the new blog. The person with the best idea gets $1000 or some bubble gum, whichever I have in my desk at the time. I’ll take whatever suggestions you’ve got.

“Live Richly” (or “I Ain’t No Hollaback Girl”)

There is a lesson in this spoof about getting through to God. It’s a good lesson, I suppose…… you know, God isn’t like an automated telephone system, you can always reach him……

But I’m posting it just because I think it’s funny.

Graduation Wishes

Congratulations to those of you who are graduating this spring. No doubt this is an exciting time for you since in many ways you are closing one chapter of your life and beginning a new one.

And you will surely receive many words of encouragement from friends, family, and graduation speakers. So I will not leave you with a long, complicated post commending you on your hard work and challenging you to go out and change the world.

Instead, I give you these simple words from Proverbs 3:5-6 (HCSB), my favorite Scripture passage.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and do not rely on your own understanding;
Think about Him in all your ways,
and He will guide you on the right paths.

I’m looking forward to hearing about the paths God has laid out for you in the future.

Confessions

Christian psychologist Henry Cloud asks an important question about openly acknowledging personal problems in our churches.

“In the church it is unacceptable to have problems: that is called being sinful. In an AA group it is unacceptable to be perfect: that is called denial. Which stance is more biblical?”

I met with a pastor this week who confessed to his congregation an ongoing and serious struggle with pornography and then resigned from his position. I imagine it took quite a lot of courage to do so. He wondered if confessing his sin would be equivalent to ministerial suicide. He wondered if he would be blacklisted from ever serving as a pastor again. He wondered about the kind of job he would be able to find and how he would support his family financially. He wondered what people would think. He wondered about the effects on his family. And yet, he believed that God was directing him to resign. So despite his fears, he was true to the conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit and resigned.

I wish more church leaders were as transparent. I’m obviously not suggesting that pastors, deacons, Sunday School teachers and other leaders should sin more, just that they demonstrate more brokenness and confession for the sins they are already committing. (And, by the way, as a teacher of a Sunday School class, I include myself in this category.) As it is, very few Christians today fully know the power of confession and it may be due, in part, to our lack of models who demonstrate the need for and power of confession.

Mark McMinn, another Christian psychologist, describes the relationship between spirituality and confession this way:

“Spirituality often becomes a source of secret pride. When churches are filled with people nursing spiritual pride, the blessings of community are overshadowed by ugly competition. Rather than being a place where Christians confess to one another, the church sometimes becomes a place where we compete with one another, trying to impress others with our spiritual maturity. Confession is difficult in this context because to confess is to shatter our fantasized persona of perfection.”

I wish we were able to be more transparent with each other in our churches. I wish we weren’t plagued by spiritual competition and pride. I wish there were more pastors like this one who was sensitive to the conviction of his sin by the Holy Spirit and taught his congregation about confession and repentance by his own example. I wish I were more like that.

Imagine a Church

Imagine a church where every member is passionately, whole-heartedly, and recklessly.....

Monkey Kick Off

The end of the semester is here and finals week is coming up. If you need a study break, check this out. In fact, I challenge all blog readers to a monkey kick off.