God at work: $100,000
This past year, I've had a front row seat--indeed, I've been fortunate to be in the thick of the action--as God's been at work: in my life, in the lives of those around me, and in The District Church. Here are some examples:
- God's been at work through prayer in my small group, where we've prayed for jobs for four guys (including myself)--each of them is now employed; and we've prayed for housing for four more (including myself)--each of them now has a place to live.
- God's been at work in my small group period, where today we commissioned three new small groups out of the one I'd been leading. I felt blessed to have so many servant leaders in my group, and am so excited to see all of them stepping into what God has for them.
- God's been at work in our church, growing our small community until we're now stretching the space we've been meeting in. We wanted to find a larger space but none of those options worked out, so starting on September 25, we'll begin having two services on Sunday morning! This is such an exciting time and we believe this is a time God is calling us, to use an analogy from 2 Kings 3, to build ditches in preparation for the rain.
And most exciting of all ...
Last Sunday, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at our church, and in his message, Aaron spoke about how "True Awakening Leads to Reform" (we're currently doing a sermon series drawn from Habakkuk and Acts, entitled "Awaken"). He expanded on the op-ed he'd written in the Washington Post to mark the occasion, in which he'd written to the Muslim community to apologize for the ways that we as Christians had allowed our pride and prejudices to cloud our witness. And so on Sunday, as a small act of reconciliation, we took up an offering for our Muslim brothers and sisters who are suffering from the famine in the Horn of Africa--Somalia, hardest hit, is 99% Muslim. Through various other movements of the Holy Spirit, we had offers to match whatever we raised by up to 7 times. Still, we were conscious of our size--we're only about 150--and so we were ready to be thrilled regardless of the amount raised.
I suppose I should have left this email untitled to maintain the surprise. But when all was said and done, we as a church raised almost $15,000, and with the matching donations, we were able to raise $100,000 for famine relief efforts.
This was such humbling and spine-tinglingly exciting news, such an encouragement for me as a leader of a community of such amazingly generous people, and such a reminder that God is at work, doing great things even in the face of great suffering and tragedy.
May we all (continue to) see God at work in all things.
Egyptian Christians protect Egyptian Muslims at prayer
Love your neighbor as yourself:
Thanks to @NevineZaki for posting.
“The Calling”: Different Faiths, Common Humanity
Sojourners/God's Politics just posted my preview of the forthcoming PBS documentary, "The Calling," which follows the journeys of several people of different faiths who follow a calling to become professional clergy. Snip:
Both of my brothers are now pastors, and I also recently followed this “calling” into pastoral ministry, so it was fascinating for me to see and hear the stories of these seven. They include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims. The documentary served not only to educate me in the ways of clerical training in the other great faiths, but also to emphasize our common humanity even amid our differing spiritualities.
Check out the full blog here. And the trailer here:
Do all paths lead to God?
... is a question that gets asked a lot.
Fred Clark over at slacktivist always offers insightful and grounded theology, and commenters on his blog tend to be genuinely interested in dialogue and conversation. All of which I appreciate greatly.
As I do his response to the question, "Do all paths lead to God?" Here's a snip:
We Christians believe that one of the attributes of God is omnipresence. It's hard to know what to make of a question about paths leading or not leading to someone who is, by definition, everywhere.
"You hem me in, behind and before," the Psalmist says:
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there ...That whole omnipresence thing really wreaks havoc with spatial metaphors like "all paths lead to God." But even apart from that, the question makes no sense not just because of the nature of God, but because of the nature of paths.
The Mission entrusted to the Church
Posted on Wess's Gathering in Light blog:
This is the mission entrusted to the church,
a hard mission:
to uproot sins from history,
to uproot sins from the political order,
to uproot sins from the economy,
to uproot sins wherever they are.
What a hard task!
It has to meet conflicts amid so much selfishness,
so much pride,
so much vanity,
so many who have entroned the reign of sin among us.
The church must suffer for speaking the truth,
for pointing out sin,
for uprooting sin.
No one wants to have a sore spot touched,
and therefore a society with so many sores twitches
when someone has the courage to touch it
and say: “You have to treat that.
You have to get rid of that.
Believe in Christ.
Be converted.”
Oscar Romero – The Violence of Love