soul talk: Psalm25:5

These last few months I have been thinking about what it takes to make a great leader, or just a great Christian. After weeks of thought I’ve been impresssed with the single characteristic of “courage.” I am sure there are good synonyms but I prefer “courage.”

The word “courage” first came to mind when I heard Arthur Blessit speak. He made a statement that impressed me, ”the most important thing you’ll ever do for Jesus is the next thing.” Arthur was talking about the importance of surrender, obedience, trust. These are all elements that require courage.

I first became a Christian on a Sunday morning in April 1967. On Monday I couldn’t wait to tell everyone I knew. I told everyone I met. For an eight year old boy is was the comparative of telling the world I had spent the weekend at Disney World! (I know there’s no comparison.)

I told my third grade teacher and she asked me where I went to church. I invited her to Wednesday’s prayer meeting, where she met my mother (who was also a school teacher). The two became friends, and a few weeeks later my teacher prayed to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Telling people about Jesus came with such ease then, but as time passed that boldness gave way to fear, and the courage to share was lost.

Leadership and living for Jesus requires great courage. The most influential leaders, and the most influential Christians are those who live with courage. Where God leads, they follow, even with others ridiculre and laugh.

So, my prayer today, is Lord, grant me the courage to surrender every occassion, every possession, every decision to you.

Our local newspaper picked up this great story of two young Westsider’s taking the initiative to “be the church” in our community. I read this and want to stand up a cheer! Do you know of more examples like this?

Scott McNight’s book “The Jesus Creed” says that it is morally dangerous to live by Jesus’ commands “love God, love others.”  There are 613 laws (commands and prohibitions) in the Old Testament. I have always thought that 613 was way too many and represented an example of religion gone wrong.  It occurred to me today that if I really live by Jesus’ two commands then 613 is not nearly enough. To really love God and others will effect every decision I make for every day of my life.

613 – is that all!

My wife and I spent a couple of days in Atchison, Kansas, recently. While there we visited the Saint Benedict’s Abbey Church. When we first walked into the church I was impressed with it’s size, acoustics, and formal atmosphere. We walked around for a few minutes and then turned to leave. I must confess that my thoughts where of the difference in theology between the Catholics and me. I was unimpressed by what I thought was an extravagant design, which held no significant meaning for me.

On our way out of the church, my wife discovered a brochure which offered a self-guided tour describing the church in detail. With the brochure in hand, we turned around and started off on a two hour tour of this beautiful facility. We read about the crucifix that hangs over the massive stone altar, the beautiful fresco.  We sat in the choir loft, and walked by the many chapels. We were so impressed with the facility that we decided to take advantage of an opportunity to attend a “Praise Service” the next day.

The prayer service started at 12:05, but we arrived about thirty minutes early and sat in the back of the church. The room is so alive acoustically that a whisper can be heard everywhere, so we sat in silence. As we sat we looked around the room. Everywhere in the room we saw something that drew us to Jesus. Our minutes of silence turned into beautiful meditation.

A few minutes before noon the monks started to enter, also in silence. Each monk took a seat in the choir. At noon the clock chimed, and all remained in silence. At 12:05 the clock chimed again and the monks began to speak a psalm. The sang, and spoke together in meaningful unison. After about 15 minutes the monks recited a prayer, said “Amen” and exited as they came, in silence.

This experience caused me to think about the design of our worship center and Westside, and so many other contemporary churches. These centers for worship are intentionally void of religious symbols. I have argued for this design in the past, but my experience at the Abbey Church made me reconsider my position. The silence in the Abbey was one of my most meaningful worship experiences to date.

As I considered the design of the Abbey my thoughts went back to the Old Testament practices of building altars to remember God’s work among his people. The idea was to build an altar so that whenever you passed by you would re-tell the story of God’s work.

In the metaphor of pendulums I suppose we could argue that there are extremes of design for worship space, but I can’t help but wonder if some presence of symbols in a worship center would not be a positive contribution to the worship of so many contemporary worshippers. Of course the meaning is lost if it is not understood, and passed on.

For me, I’ll always remember my time in the Abbey and hope to return someday.

When I was in the sixth grade I went on a class field trip to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The FI had some amazing exhibits. One I particularly remember was called the Foucalt Pendulum. A huge ball hanging from the ceiling moved back and forth in a pattern that seemed unpredictable to me. On the floor beneath the ball was a circle of pins, as the ball swung from side to side the pendulum occassionally knocked over a pin.  

What made this such an amazing exhibit to me was that the force behind the pendulum was the earth.  As the earth rotates it’s energy is transmitted through the pendulum. The result is a predictable pattern as the pendulum constantly swings from one extreme of the circle on the floor to the other.

Pendulum’s are used as a metaphor for extremes. In the church, in politics, in society, (and more) we tend to swing from one side of an issue to another. This blog is an introduction to my thoughts regarding some of those swings.

I’ve been wrestling with my theology in the last several years.  When I was eight years old I prayed to Jesus to ask him to forgive me of my sins, and receive him as my Lord and Savior. I’ve shared this good news with dozens of people over the years. What I’m trying to say is that the gospel message was pretty simple for me. My objective was to tell people about Jesus so that they could pray to him and go to heaven someday. There is so much more.

This email from one of our ministry partners in Kansas City reminds me that all Christians should serve to make a positive impact on our city and society. I don’t imagine we’ll make a heaven hear on earth, but I believe we should live as if it were possible.

From: Jake Latta [mailto:jakel@hopecenterkc.org]
Subject: Hope Center tragedy

 I wanted to let our Church Partners know of a horrific tragedy that occurred in our neighborhood this weekend and ask for your prayers and support during this difficult time.

2 of our best kids at The Hope Center , both age 16, lost their father this weekend to a senseless shooting in front of his own house. We don’t know many details and what the investigation will uncover but we do know that Ron Whitley was a great man, a devoted dad, who survived a really tough family background  to carve out a decent living for he and his kids.  He was a law abiding citizen as far as we observed.  One way you can help is to not let him be seen as just another statistic from the inner city.  He was a real person with good traits who didn’t deserve to die. This has become the norm in this community and we refuse to accept this.

My hope after being in this community now for 2 years is that we as a city come to a place where we won’t tolerate neighborhoods living in this level of abandonment, decay, and hopelessness, but until we get to there these acts will continue.  Transformation will occur when the entire city decides to not accept this. 

With God’s help, people like you and teaming with The Hope Center we ALL can and will transform this community. We move forward with increasing our safety initiative, opening the clinic, a strong youth ministry, neighborhood church, charter school and eventually housing. I look forward to the day when incidents like these are in the distant past.

Please pray for the family, that the police find the killer and please pray for us and the other THC volunteers who have relocated in- for safety, emotional health, and that God would use us to be a light in a forgotten neighborhood.  Pray the same for the THC staff.
–
Jake Latta
Chief Operating Officer
HOPE CENTER
816-931-6290 x 104
jakel@hopecenterkc.org

My daughter, Laura, leaves on June 21 (yes, Father’s Day) for a year of study at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia. You can read about Laura’s advetures at her blog.

Everyone says this will be such a great experience for her. I know it will be. I also think it will be a new experience for her mother and I, as we learn to trust God in a greater way than we ever have before.

If you think about it, you can pray for us. It will be an interesting adventure.

I work with a great team of leaders and often pick up excellent leadership principles. Here are a couple that are worth sharing:

Do things with SAS = Sustainability, Accountability, Scalability. As we’ve considered several ministry expansions this simple principle has proven wise. Can the project be sustained? Is the leadership accountable for proven results? Is the project scalable – can it grow as the church grows?

In the desire to expand ministry influence we can agressively start ministries that may offer short term gains but long term drains. Before moving forward with any project we try to address these practical concerns.

The Iron Rule of Ministry – Don’t ever do for somebody what they can do for themselves. Galatians 6 – bear one another’s budens, each one should carry his own load.

This one has hit home with me in recent days as I’ve explored the social and spiritual needs of our community. One young man I interviewed talked about his involvement with a food backpack project that feeds school children over the weekends. Students receive meals at school during the week, and on Friday pick up a backpack full of food to get them through the weekend. It’s a worthy project and meets a real and practical need.  However, my mind goes back to the root of the problem.

Can we meet the immediate practical needs and address the root of the need at the same time? A poor job market, broken families, fatherless homes? I’ll write more about this in a separate post.

“Thank you!” to the few of you who have said you missed my blog posts!  Your words are encouraging. I don’t know exactly how I fell out of the pattern of writing regularly, but I did. A week with the flu, issues at work and home…nothing too serious, but enough to cause me to loose focus. I’ve been intending to get back for weeks now, but obviously intentions didn’t get it done.  

Perhaps going public with my intent will help me to take action steps. So here it is…I’m blogging again.

Now the big question…what do I blog about? Give me a day or two to answer that one.

Blessings!

Matt

At least I hope so…

Things are not always “smooth” around the Adams’ household.  In spite of the efforts of my amazingly beautiful and loving wife, and my two stellar daughters, life just seems to spin toward complexity.  The honest truth is “normal” life situations come up every day that require a decision from me, and I do not know what to say….I am at a loss for answers – often!

• Your child said she feels bad, should you let her stay home from school today?
• Home work was late, or incomplete, should you push harder?
• Financing college requires a completed FAFSA, which requires completed state and federal taxes, and the end of the process the question  remains a mystery. Will we be able to pay for college next year?
• Friends can’t stretch their income to meet expenses, do you send money?

These aren’t simple questions such as “what should I wear today?” or “what should I have for breakfast?” The questions I struggle with have no clear right answer, unless “It depends” can be classified as a “right answer.”

So, what will I do when I don’t know what to do? I’ll admit my ignorance, and seek the best counsel available, and make the best decision I can make.  Maybe someday I’ll be more certain that I know all the right answers. But today I’m hoping admitting ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.