Archive for Words to the Church – Page 3

The Going Is Good

By revnick · Comments (1)
Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Here’s a pattern in the Bible. It happens over and over again.

Life is rough. God intercedes. Life is good.

Yes, it’s a simplification, but it’s there.

But then life gets rough again. People die. Invaders overtake the land. People are expelled. People end up living in slavery.

Then God intercedes and life is good.

But then everything falls apart again after a while. Wash, rinse, repeat.

What seems to be happening in these cases is, that when life is good, people think they can do it for themselves. They forget about God and make up their own rules as they go. Eventually things get so bad something breaks and there’s a sudden, great spiritual revival and people are all going to church and following God’s plan.

When I look at this pattern, I think of the state of the church and society today.

Here’s what I think.

We’re still on the way down.

The going is good so we don’t need God.

I believe we are on the verge of a great spiritual revival of Biblical proportions. God is putting people in places, He’s preparing things, getting ready. Only, things aren’t bad enough yet. We’re probably getting close, but not quite close enough.

It’s sad, but true.

When we look at the Bible, things get really bad before the masses begin crying out to God for help and returning to Him.

We aren’t there yet. We are well on our way to making our own rules, we’ve been doing it for decades. The man-made structures of governance and accountability are showing cracks under the stress. Sin is rampant, especially in these sectors. And innocent people are suffering greatly.

I pray we can avoid further pain and suffering. I pray things won’t get that bad.

But until people are ready to turn to God, there’s not a lot of hope to be had. God is pouring out His love to the world, but the world isn’t listening. And until the world is ready to listen, there’s going to be some struggles along the way.

What we can do as a church is be faithful to God’s call to love Him most of all, and our neighbours as ourselves. That is, love the people around us, the people who struggle, the people who need help. People just like us.

The world as a whole may not be ready, but people in our communities are longing to be loved.

This is where the church can make a difference. This is our calling today.

Come in. Seek God. Reach out. Love.

God will take us there.

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Categories : Reflections, Words to the Church

Biblical Religion

By revnick · Comments (3)
Monday, September 3rd, 2012

I didn’t preach this past weekend, but we read from the first chapter of James during the service. It’s a passage I love.

But here’s the verses that really speaks to me when I think of people out there who say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

“If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:26-27

These people who look at the church, or “religion” today are seeing a certain thing. They are seeing buildings. They are seeing denominational structures of various sorts. They are seeing certain news stories coming out of corruption and other evil acts in the church.

These are not examples of religion. At least not as defined by James.

James gives us a true, biblical definition of what “religion” looks like. Notice there’s no mention of building. No mention of committees or denominations.

Religion is service. Religious is the giving of ourselves to better the lives of others.

It’s love. In action.

How are we doing?

Somewhere along the way we lost this definition. Is it no wonder why people have lost their connection with religion when we ourselves are not living it out?

Let’s get it back! Let’s remember what it means to represent Christ to the world. Let’s be agents of hope, change, and, most importantly, love! Not just for the folks around us, but especially those who need it most in our communities.

Imagine the consequences of the church living out a religion as James defines for us!

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Categories : Reflections, Words to the Church
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state of shock

By revnick · Comments (4)
Thursday, August 30th, 2012

I truly am in a bit of a state of shock this week. I don’t expect it to ease much at all over the next little while.

As some of you may know, the United Church of Canada had it’s triennial General Council meetings this summer. Overall, when I looked at the agenda beforehand, there didn’t seem to be a lot of controversy going in compared to previous General Councils.

The big news coming out was that they voted to support economic sanctions against perceived illegal Israeli settlements in disputed lands with Palestine. People weighed in heavily on both sides of the issue from all across the spectrum.

The decision has not landed well with people.

Also, the church is facing severe financial crisis at it’s national office level and spoke out against the Northern Gateway Pipeline. These also have caused ripples in smaller ways.

As I look around, the only way I can describe the state of the church right now is that it’s “broken”.

In communications with my peers across the country, I hear stories of heartbreak and pain. Both in themselves and in their congregations as people assess the future of the church, the decisions it has made just weeks ago, and their futures within it.

Over the years I’ve felt extremely broken in my relationship with the church, more than once, even this year. But I’ve never seen so many broken at the same time as I do right now. Now I wasn’t around in church in the late 80s, nor terribly involved 10 years ago when other extremely controversial decisions were made.

But I am shocked by the amount of pain and brokeness being expressed in the church today. Absolutely shocked.

Emails, Facebook comments, conversations, people are seriously questioning their future in the UCC, both clergy and members. I didn’t see it coming at all. I thought this was going to be a fairly tame General Council.

I was wrong.

This I find rather ironic as, after praying about it, I made a conscious decision this summer to attempt to be more positive in my “Words to the Church” than I had been over the last year, and trying to lift up the church instead of beating on it. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of beating being done from both inside and outside the church.

My prayers are with the my friends and all people who are connected to the United Church of Canada. May the Father of us all guide us into healing and strength, and may He heal our broken hearts.

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Questions for leadership hopefuls

By revnick · Comments (2)
Monday, July 30th, 2012

In just a few weeks the United Church of Canada will begin its General Council meetings, held every three years. Part of the work to be done will be to elect a new moderator (spiritual leader) for the next 3 years. As part of the board for Cruxifusion, I was able to help draft some questions we sent to all the nominees. We posted their responses on our website.

I guess it seems only fitting, that since I helped draft the questions, I should provide my own answers. So here we go.

1) “Cruxifusion” means “united by the cross.” What does Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection mean to you?

Is “everything” too simple an answer?

Let’s face it, I am broken. So are you. There’s nothing I can do to fix this. I can try and be a better person, but I will always fall short. I will continue to screw up. I will fail. However, when I met the risen Christ in my life in 2001 I learned he knows my pain. He knows my challenges. Yet he still loves me and wants me to be with him. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he shows me it’s about the abundant, never-ending love of God that sustains me and draws me close. I am who I am today because of him.

So yeah… everything.

2) Describe the God you worship.

The Word of God which we read in worship are words of challenge. These words challenge us to rethink who we are as people of God and how we live in the world. Yet through it all, there are great stories of mercy, grace and love. This is the God I worship. God who loves and forgives us, but also a strong God who doesn’t want us to just coast through life just looking out for ourselves.

3) Which Christian author has had the greatest impact on you?

There have been many. But my “comfort” authors are the ones which helped form me and my understanding of God. Those would be Philip Yancey, C.S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

4) What gifts and passions do you have that you believe the United Church of Canada needs today?

I have a passion for lifting up Jesus Christ to the church. Without Jesus we are nothing. Without Jesus we cannot expect to reach new generations, no matter how innovative or creative we get in our outreach. Evangelism begins with Jesus Christ, from there we can get creative in helping people experience their own relationship with him. I’m also not afraid of new ideas and I think it’s time for us to explore new approaches to ministry and church. It’s time to bring Christ back into our communities through new models of outreach.

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A Plea to the Generations

By revnick · Comments (0)
Thursday, June 21st, 2012

The other day my wife found this post and shared it with me, “a plea to spiritual fathers to stop eating their young“.

It hit home.

I didn’t grow up in the church. I didn’t know Jesus Christ in my life until my late 20s so I have no ties to the traditional church. I don’t have a church I can call home where I grew up where there is a crowd of folks who I can say influenced greatly my Christian upbringing.

I’m not alone in this as the article above indicates.

I’ve heard stories from fellow young clergy who have been shouted down at meetings by “older and wiser clergy” because of their “new ideas.”  I was at a meeting recently where I was verbally roughed up because I was seen as driving my agenda without consulting the wisdom of the committee I was working with, when all I was trying to do was gather some information so my newly formed committee could further develop their mandate.

It hurts. 

It hurts to know that this church we feel called to serve shuts us out because we think “wrong.”

I talk with many clergy in my generation who are searching for a church that has meaning to us. Yes, we can function in the traditional church, but it’s not our passion.

Part of the problem is that the church (at least the denomination I am in) is in not in a position to free us up to do new things. The way we are structured actually makes it very hard to free us to explore new models of “church” because the church is in crisis.

When in crisis we tend to withdraw, to seek to protect ourselves and minimize risk.

I fully support the need to care for our traditional membership, but it would help me a lot to know I was being supported in such a way by the church fathers and mothers that I was free to take some risks and try new things in an effort to reach these lost generations.

I want people my age to know the love I have found through encountering Jesus Christ, but I also know the traditional church is unlikely to keep them interested for long.

We need to get along. We need to work together. We need to bless one another.

I’m reaching out to the church for help, a place to start, a blessing. 

Will someone respond?

Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/640941

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