Suffolk Presbyterian Church

I just read a NYT article about a new trend in white evangelical churches in America. Now, these churches are known for keeping up with pop culture, and this trend is no exception. These churches are promoting mixed martial arts. The premise is that men, ages 18-34, think church is too feminine. If we add a little blood and gore, some upper cuts and jabs, and a few TKO’s men will want to come back. And in some places, it’s working.

But I wonder, what exactly are these men learning about the Gospel? See, the ‘pastors’ of these martial arts churches are teaching men that Jesus was a fighter, that Jesus never ‘tapped out.’ Well, in some sense that’s true, but if you went to read that article, which I suggest you do before going much further here, you’ll see that these men who claim to represent Jesus while in the ring, regularly break the bones, bloody the noses, and blacken the eyes of their opponents.

Last I looked, the gospel was about the salvation of human kind, not beating the crap out of them. There are better ways of interpreting the gospel for young men than turning into something it’s not. You can attract them with pay-per-view matches on big screen TVs in the sanctuary, but chances are, they won’t stay long. Many of these men grew up without fathers or other good male role models; they grew up knowing that the only one who would look out for them was them. Turning Jesus into a good role model is, I think, a good idea. But is a good role model one who beats up others? One who is a fighter, a warrior? Some think so. I’m not so sure it’s authentic to the Gospel, though.

I’m glad if they can get some of these men to learn about Jesus, but I am concerned that they’re not learning about the Jesus who’s in the gospels. Your thoughts?

During my lectionary group, we often throw out some pretty wild thoughts and questions to challenge each other. Last week as we began thinking ahead to Lent, we were discussing Jesus’ suffering and passion. One person said something along the lines of, “From one point of view, you could say he just seemed suicidal. He did nothing to prevent his own death. Nothing!” That’s pretty heavy. Of course, we know that there was more to it than that. He knew he had a greater purpose for his suffering and death. But those around him at that time, save for a few disciples, did not know this.It must have seemed quite bizarre to those watching the passion unfold.

It reminded me of a movie I saw recently called “The Hurt Locker.” It’s a film about an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) team in Iraq. They go into some pretty risky situations by definition. In fact, the film begins with the team leader’s death. The rest of the story follows the EOD team with their new leader, a man who cheats death several times, donning the bomb suit and hand-diffusing massive car and roadside bombs, often disregarding the advice of his teammates and certainly his own safety. I was pretty sure he was trying to–and going to– get himself killed several times. Suicidal.

But towards the end, there is a cut scene of him, back home with his wife and young, perhaps year-old, son. He seems out of his element, but he is playing with the boy, reading stories and tossing him in the air, and then he begins to talk to his son. I don’t remember the exact words, but he is telling his son that sometimes there is just something, just one thing, that you live for, that fills your soul, keeps you going. It’s the one thing greater than all else, though it can be a different thing for each person.

It’s unspoken, but we know that for this man, it’s diffusing bombs and therefore, saving lives. It’s part of who he is and it’s as though he must do it in order to be truly alive.

He’s not a Christ-like figure by any means, but you can see that, for him, his own death means nothing if he can save the lives of others by using his gift for diffusing bombs.

Are there any movies that have made you think lately? Leave a comment and let me know!

What a wonderful Sunday! We had two couples join our congregation and both are enthusiastic about sharing their gifts for ministry and mission. We also shared in the joy of a young man’s baptism. It was the first over which I’d presided. I’m looking forward to another in the fall! What a wonderful gift that God is infusing our congregation with new life and energy!

It’s been great to see all the new things happening here in just the last few months. New baby, new members, new elders and deacons, new energy too.

I had thought this summer might be a quiet one, but boy was I wrong! Baptism, maybe a wedding, elder training (not something we used to do in the summer), new member classes, VBS–the list goes on. I had wanted to do a catechism for adults class, but I don’t think I’m going to have time to put it together now. Which is fine with me; it’ll save!

I’m hoping that we can generate enough interest to get an online study group going for Lent. I’d leave out hard copies of the reading material and folks can post ideas, thoughts, etc., to the forum bulletin board at any time during the week, and once a week at a set time we could all be online at the same time in the forums and ‘talk’ about the lesson. So, what say you?

I had a great week last week at Makemie Woods as the week’s Bible study leader. I lead 3 sessions a day for all different age groups. I loved the questions that the kids would ask. I learned how their minds work and what they were interested in as far as the Bible and what God wants for them. I hope I can bring that home and translate it into good here for our church.

If I had to pick, though it would be very hard, I think I enjoyed the older elementary best. 10-12 year olds are on the edge between concrete and abstract thinking. They can ask some very hard questions, but usually they want simple answers to them. They learned that not all Bibles have exactly the same words in them, we had to discuss why that is (translations) before we could even move on to the lesson. The younger kids were also a lot less apt to whine about the heat than the teens, so maybe that gained them a point in favor.

I’m glad to be home, back to my routine. I enjoyed my time at camp, but I’m glad it was just a week. I missed having people stop in or call to interrupt the monotony or get me out of a slump mid-week. In other words, I missed you guys! But I do hope that any of you with camp-aged kids will seriously consider sending them to Makemie Woods. It is a wonderful, spirit-filled place.

Peace

Back in June we had our annual joint session/deacons retreat. We did some long range planning and one of the things that was on my agenda was Stewardship. We agreed to make 2009 The Year of the Steward. We’ll be using the Steward curriculum to guide us, but drawing the 12 week course into a 12 month thematic guide. We will be intentional about using each month’s theme to guide all aspects of our church life–worship, Sunday School, fellowship, mission, etc. The theme of stewardship, in all aspects of our lives, will permeate 2009.

I’m already going through and making plans how to use the material and  make  it work since it was originally designed as a 12 week curriculum. It  will be an exciting year I think, bringing an awareness of our role as caretakers of what God has entrusted to us–the gospel, the earth, our relationships with each other, our money, our resources, etc. I hope you’ll join us on the grand adventure!

Since this is my first blog post here, I wanted to write about our first session of our Faith and Culture study group that met at Starbucks last week. Three people and I were there. We talked about how our personal food choices affect our entire world: What choices we make about food when the economy is so bad, what we give up, what we can’t do without. We talked about ways that we could reduce the negative effects of our choices.

This won’t be the only topic we study. I’m hoping this will be an ongoing group, studying all sorts of things related to our faith as we go along. No, it’s not technically a ‘Bible’ study. You are certainly welcome to come, even without one. But we will look at our culture and our world through the lens of faith and that is most certainly informed by the Bible.

I was very excited and encouraged by our first meeting and am looking forward to the next even more.