Food for Thought

From Pilgrimage of the Heart, a blog by Jeff Goins:

Bart Campolo: Why Churches Shouldn't Care for the Poor

I got to talk with Bart Campolo on the phone the other day, regarding a project about poverty that I'm doing with Neue, a Relevant Media Group website. I thought you might enjoy a brief excerpt from the interview - a teaser, if you will, dealing with a topic I broach on this blog quite often - church.

In response to my question, "Why should the Church care for the poor?" Bart gave this informal answer:

"You know, I'm going to be honest with you: I don't understand the fixation that most of the people I know that follow Jesus have with the institutional church. I don't really see buildings, denominational structures, and doctrinal statements reflected very much in the life and teaching of Jesus."

He didn't speak with scorn or contempt for institutional church; he just seemed to have a much simpler definition of church than that, a definition many of us are longing to live out. "While lots of really cool things have come from the church, I've also seen so much pain come out of people involved in church and organized stuff. I don't necessarily feel that the church... is the basic unit of our Christian 'society.'"

He thought for a moment, stumbled over himself for a second as his mouth caught up with what his brain wanted to communicate, and then redefined church: "I don't know - maybe a bunch of people hanging out with each other... So, if you mean by 'the church' a collective group of Christians, they should care about the poor for the same reason that I care about the poor, the same reason that God cares about the poor. Because we're human beings; we're made in the image of God. It is our nature to love, to respond."

He thought again for a moment, possibly considering what he had just said and took the challenge a bit deeper: "Why should organized church care for the poor? I don't know," he admitted rather bluntly. "Actually, if you came to my neighborhood, I could give you several reasons why the organized church shouldn't care for the poor. Especially, economically it's not in their interest to care for the poor. It doesn't advance organized religion to care for the poor."

Even though Bart and I were hundreds of miles apart, talking to one another over not-the-greatest cell phone connection, his words moved me. They stung a little, but I knew that it was a good kind of sting. I silently wondered if I was contributing to a Church that didn't have it in its best interest to care for the poor. He continued, comparing the two "churches" he had been talking about - one being the institutional "church" with buildings, structures, and systems, and the other being the true Body of Christ:

"So, why should people who follow Jesus care for the poor? Easy. Why should an organization trying to get a thicker chunk of the American cultural landscape care for the poor? Gosh, I don't know. They probably shouldn't. You don't see the Democratic or Republican parties bending over backwards to give to the poor, because it's not really going to help their movement very much. Those people don't have anything to give, [and] they'll suck a lot of your resources. Organizationally, it's not really a good move."

The interview continued, and Bart went on to talk about how he got started caring for the poor, but the thoughts that he opened the interview with continue to haunt me as I seek to follow a Jesus whose way doesn't always seem safe or comfortable. I asked him if he had any advice for young believers wanting to "do justice," and he said to get together with a group of your friends, move to the inner city, live together, and begin to include the hurting, the broken, and the poor in your circle. He admitted that there wasn't anything too glorious about it, but he said that it was a life full of tremendous reward.

Check out Bart Campolo's website, and visit his blog to read more about him.

Cardinal and GOLD (School Pride)

Besides boasting the #1 ranked football team in the country, USC sent 40 athletes to Beijing this summer to amass an impressive collection of medals.

Here's an exerpt from an article at USC times:

Rebecca Soni led a group of Trojan athletes past and present that continued USC’s Olympics success with 21 medals in Beijing.

USC athletes added nine gold, 10 silver and two bronze medals – more medals than at Athens in 2004 or Sydney in 2000 – to its impressive Olympics resume, bringing the university’s all-time tally to 121 gold, 76 silver and 60 bronze. It was Troy's second highest overall medal count, behind only the 24 medals it won at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

If USC athletes had competed as a country this year, they would have placed 13th in the overall medal standing in the Beijing Games (and tied for eighth in golds). USC athletes have taken home at least one gold medal from every Summer Olympics since 1912.

In all, 40 Trojan athletes competed at the Olympics, extending USC’s record total of all-time Olympians to 384.

For a complete list of USC's 2008 Olympic results, past stories and photos of this year's gold medal winners, visit http://www.usc.edu/olympians

“The entire Trojan Family is extremely proud of the performance of our current and former athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” USC athletic director Mike Garrett said.

USC athletes excelled in team sports, led by gold medals from Lisa Leslie ’94 and Tina Thompson ’97 on the U.S. women’s basketball team. Leslie and Thompson both started for the U.S., which dominated opponents by an average of 38 points. It’s the fourth gold medal for Leslie.

“In my fourth Olympics, to have four gold medals, it obviously shows a level of dominance that I’ve been able to participate in with so many great players,” Leslie said. “It would be shameful to try to take all the credit for myself when I’ve had so many awesome teammates. So, for me, I just pass that on to my teammates that will go on in the future to represent our country.”

Take a Train to Happy Town.... wooo wooo!

Yesterday we had a fun outing with other couples from our church. The women's ministry planned a "mystery event" with tours at various mystery locations.

The first stop was my favorite - a train museum that included a short ride in a refurbished train car. Our conductor was a former broadcaster that had a an amazing voice. Everything he said was fascinating!

I was devastated that my camera battery died shortly after we arrived, but fortunately Joy was on hand to take a cute picture of us:

On My Mind

So, this has turned out to be a month of not much blogging. There's been so much going on it's kind of taken back seat for a while. But not to fear, I haven't given up completely. Just to keep you in the loop, here's just a smidgen of what's been rolling around my mind:

- Hospitals and Doctors: Up until the past couple of months, I haven't spent too much time around them. Now that I am, as an advocate, I've been surprised and disappointed with my experiences. Care providers are happy to help with a symptom, but forget it if you want to discover and treat the cause. I believe I have some squeaky-wheeling in my future. Grr.


- The Shack: A work of fiction that has created such a buzz that I've tried to avoid it. Well, I wasn't able to, and now I am so glad that I finally gave in and read the thing. Once I started, I couldn't stop, and devoured the book in two days. The author creates such a fantastic word picture of a living, breathing relationship with God. I was amazed at what an encouragement I found this book to be. I'd definitely recommend it to anybody, Christian or not, especially those struggling to reconcile God's goodness with the problems and evil in the world. Excellent!


- New neighbors: Eric, the new worship leader at our church, and his wife Yvette, finally found a place of their own here in Concord. For the past six weeks, they've been living out of boxes and dealing with a lengthy commute while looking for the right place. Well, God has provided - they're moving into a house one street down from ours! It's literally a five minute walk from our front door. We are so excited to get to know one another better - what a blessing!

- Billy: I took my little doggy to the vet today for a routine vaccination and when I reviewed his records, realized that he is NINE years old! That came as a little bit of a shock to me, as we've really only spent three years with him. He wasn't a puppy when we adopted him, and we left him with my parents for a year when we went on the world race mission trip. But now, his right eye is getting cloudy, and the vet told me it's a sign of aging. What! Billy can't be getting old. No, no, no.

- The new school year: Yes, I'm excited. Nothing fires me up more than the possibilities in a new beginning. Yet, I sense that my role in youth ministry is going to have to be more defined and less all-encompassing than it has been in the past. I dread the moments when I am going to have to, at some point, say NO to myself, my students, and worst of all, to my husband. But I don't see a way around that if I'm going to keep myself and my marriage healthy for the long term.

I guess it's kind of like planting a garden - you're supposed to plant all the seeds, then uproot all but the strongest so they have room to grow. I'm gonna have to uproot some flowers in my life, and I don't like it. Nope, not one bit. I imagine you can expect many posts along this line as I try and sort things out. Along with related topics such as identity, purpose, calling, faithfulness, discernment, and the meaning of life. Argh. I suppose I thought these things would fall into place as I got older, but the more time goes by, the more complicated it seems.

Pastor Gary's latest sermon

Last Sunday, Gary had the opportunity to preach to the whole congregation, and did a fantastic job talking about the conversation between Moses and God in Exodus 3 & 4.

If you missed out on the chance to hear him live, you can catch it online here on our church website. Click where it says "When God Calls" (August 17, 2008).

You won't be disappointed!

Two Wolves

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all...

"One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

ht: Gary Black

Sometimes God opens doors, other times He provides them...

This past spring, as we were preparing to take our team of high schoolers to Guatemala, we were faced with rapidly rising prices for flights, to the extent that we feared busting our budget. We sat our team down at the next meeting and prayed together that God would provide flights that we could afford. Two days later, we found an amazing deal that not only kept us within budget, but saved us hundreds of dollars. Praise God!

Fast forward to the trip... when we arrived in Guatemala, one of the first things we did was to sit down with Pastor Antonio and ask him about the needs of the church and community. He shared with us that the new church had been able to construct a building to meet and worship in, and had even acquired sound equipment and musical instruments.

Unfortunately, however, they had not raised enough to put the final touch on the building - a secure door. Without the door, there was a huge open space that gaped across the front. Antonio confided in us that one of the young men in the church, Mateo, would sleep in the church building every night to ward off would-be thieves. We were amazed that this remarkable young man would leave the comfort of his home and family to protect the church's property.

We asked Antonio how much it would cost to construct and install a door for the church building. To our astonishment, the figure was the precise amount that we had saved on our cheap flights! We knew that God had provided, not for our indulgence, but for His glory. And we promised to Antonio that we would put a door on his church.

During our time in Guatemala, Antonio was able to order the door, but alas, it was not ready in time for us to see it installed. Antonio promised to send us a picture as soon as possible. And... here it is!

Before:




After:


Isn't it beautiful? I especially love the little faces peering out from the windows!

End of the Summer

Since my last post, I've been holding down the fort while Gary was gone for a week at the high school camp, then preparing for and running our own junior high camp this past weekend.

We've been running hard this summer, and I am pooped! On one hand, it's been extremely rewarding to pour myself into activities such as the mission trip and youth camp, working hard to see our kids serving and learning more about living out their faith.

On the other, now comes that tricky balance of trying to rest and recharge, take care of some mundane household needs that have been neglected, all while simultaneously anticipating the need to plan and prepare for the kickoff of fall ministries.

As I stand on the verge of a new school year, I want to be deliberate about finding a good balance for life and ministry. I want to improve at preserving my sabbath, building friendships, and developing myself outside of the bubble of youth ministry.

Don't ask me yet how I plan to do this (ha!), but I know it's going to be necessary for me to maintain my sanity as well as the ability to minister to my husband and to the youth. I look forward to seeing what happens!