Connecting with Young Adults

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

Did You Know? (The World We Are Called To)

Click 4(above) to see video

more about "Did You Know? (The World We Are Call...", posted with vodpod.What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

Positively Columbine

Words define and so do moments. Columbine is an example of both.

Robi and I just came from the tenth anniversary community-wide remembrance event. It was itself a powerful moment filled with powerful words. Words have enormous power to create.

It made me think about how the meaning of a very familiar word can change. “Apple,” for example, brings to mind images of computers these days as much as it does fruit. “Tight” now means cool, and cool used to mean chilly. Sometimes a word’s new meaning can be the opposite of what it used to be, like the words “bad” and “sick.” There are plenty of others.

Ten years ago, the word columbine conjured images of flowers that decorate the Rocky Mountains and this region. It is the State flower of Colorado. They are beautiful and colorful. They are hearty enough to make it through hard cold winters to bloom again with all their vibrancy each Spring.

Ten years ago the meaning of columbine changed with a moment. For most of us, the beautiful noun became a shocking adjective and verb, used in ways no one could have imagined. It became synonymous with the worst of school violence and the tragedy of evil. In a day, the new meaning of columbine took hold across the country and around the world. “Columbine-like” no longer meant flowers. It was part of the tragedy.

Ten years ago we lived in Ohio. Like most in our country, I watched in disbelief and from a distance as media carried stories from Columbine High School nestled in the Columbine community within the city of Littleton. In the days that followed, the meaning of columbine was redefined. It was easy, from a distance, to accept the new meaning.

Two and a half years ago we moved to Littleton, around the corner from Columbine High School and the community it’s nestled in. What I have discovered is a High School and community not defined by the tragedy ten years ago, but the triumphs they have experienced since. It is a rare tight-knit active community with a shared resolve unlike any community I have seen. Like the flower, it is a beautiful and colorful community. Together, they have discovered they are hearty enough to make it through a hard cold winter and bloom all the more with familiar vibrancy. I don’t mean this in some trite esoteric way. It is true in the daily reality of how they choose to live and relate.

For me, Columbine used to stand for school violence and evil. That was when I lived at a distance. That was when I allowed its meaning to be changed by people (media) who didn’t live there and didn’t know better. No longer. It’s just not true. On the contrary. The truth is this community represents vibrancy, kindness, blessing and resolve. For me, “Columbine-like” does not mean evil, but good. It is not devastation; it is restoration. It is not despair; it is hope. It is not victims, but victors. It is not powerless, but a community of determined resolve. It is not defined by one act of senseless violence, but countless acts of intentional kindness. It is not death, but resurrection.

I challenge all who read this to no longer define Columbine by a tragic event, nor to describe a tragic event by the name of Columbine. It’s just not true.

It’s time to change the meaning of a familiar word to reflect its true essence. What if Columbine, like the flower and the community, meant beauty, kindness, regeneration and resolve? What if we call it “columbine” when neighbors gather around a family to see them through a difficult time? (I have seen that happen in Columbine neighborhoods.) What if a marriage is renewed or “columbined” through the encouragement of family and friends? What if it is called “so columbine” when volunteer teams gather in New Orleans to rebuild homes of people they have never met after Hurricane Katrina? What if a painting is described as “columbine” when a variety of colors or materials are brought together to create something beautiful? The possibilities are endless, but the essence is the same. It is positively Columbine.

Words have enormous power to create. Words define and so do moments. Columbine is an example of both.

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

Begin with the End in Mind

If you were to fast forward to this time next year, what would you hope is different? What do you hope to have more of?



In our current economy, the first answer that may rise to the surface is more money or financial security. I relate to that. It is more difficult to make ends meet, and things certainly feel more uncertain.

However, when I reflect past the immediacy of the urgent to the depths of what is important, my prayer for this time next year is more faith. I don’t say that as a pastor or a “religious” type. I say it as a man. I say it as a husband and father, as a neighbor and citizen, as a regular guy. My prayer is for more faith. It is a dangerous thing to pray for.

It is too easy in our culture to replace faith with religion. Faith in God (or anything) is meant to inspire. It is living with such a deep inner-trust in the object of our faith that we are willing to risk, step out into the unknown and bank our lives upon it. Faith inspires and opens us up to new possibilities. I have found that nothing inspires like faith in the living God.

Ironically, religion (spiritual, corporate, or cultural) too often imposes the opposite mandate. Religion, in its variety of forms, most often reinforces the status quo and encourages people to fit in. Faith calls out values of vital trust and risk; religion often requires unimaginative conformity.

Religion at its worst reinforces the status quo, often at the expense of faith. They had a religion at Woolworth’s department store, and sticking, without variation, to the principles that made the store great prevented them from turning into a new, better kind of experience. The store is long gone, of course.
Tribes, Seth Godin, pg. 81.

I long for a growing “go-for-broke” faith. Isn’t that what Jesus kept pushing for in his interactions with people? He kept asking why people were settling for stagnant religious rule-keeping when they could experience the adventure of faith. Religious rule-keeping is all about control and conformity that doesn’t allow anything to surprise us. It prevented and prevents people from seeing Jesus when he shows up and stands right in front of us. More than anything else, religious types in Jesus’ day challenged him on his living outside the box of religious rule-keeping and conformity. Instead, he kept opting for the redemptive, healing, miraculous work of the Living God taking place all around Him. I want to do the same.

Godin’s book isn’t about spirituality or religion or faith – nor is it from a Christian point of view. Interestingly, it is a book on leadership. However, he adds, “if religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take” (pg. 83). His challenge is for more leaders to function outside the conformity of (corporate, spiritual or cultural) religious systems and to lead with vital faith from outside the box.

At the end of the day, or at the end of this next year, I want to look back and say “I trusted God more.” I want to say of the leaders of our church and the congregation as a whole, “we trusted God more.” We know we did, we will say, because of the actions we took. We know we did, we will say, because of the ways we experienced the activity of God in and all around us in ways we never would have imagined. I recognize it won't happen by accident. It begins by living with the end in mind.

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

Christmas Presence Video

Click 4(above) to see video*

Click here to add your ideas for a more meaningful Christmas on the St. James website.

*video adapted from adventconspiracy.org

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

Anticipating Christmas

I am finding myself deeply moved, challenged, and stirred by the baby of an unwed mother living in poverty in a rural, isolated, back-water town. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Isn’t that where and how the God of the universe showed up?

It may not be what you think. A couple weeks ago our family sponsored Theresia through Compassion International. Theresia lives with her mom and two siblings in an impoverished rural AIDS-infected area of Tanzania. She will be five in early January. She is precious and important beyond what she has any way of knowing. She is loved.

Predictions are picking up in the media about how dismal this Christmas season will be. The defining measurements are consumer spending and credit availability. Maybe especially because of this year’s economic challenges, Theresia’s influence on my heart helps to put it all in perspective.

The little town of Bethlehem was buzzing in a flurry of activity on that first Christmas. People were traveling great distances to be there. Inns were filling up. There were family reunions and festive parties. All of those pouring into that otherwise sleepy little town were there to fulfill the obligation to show up (Luke 2:1-3). It was all good. Other than hints in Biblical prophesy (e.g. Micah 5:2), they had no way of knowing why they were really there, what was really happening and the meaning of what they were missing. They were so close to it! In all the flurry of activity, in the least likely of places, God showed up.

That’s what hits me every time I walk past Theresia’s picture on our refrigerator. I want to pick her up and give her a hug. Her eyes, life, and new found place in our family provide ballast for my heart. God is using her to stir me to want to serve more and to care more. He is using her to help reorient my heart. I don’t want to miss why we are really here, what is really happening and the meaning of what we are really celebrating. I can be so close. Mother Teresa once said “It’s the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” Her words are hard; but that is her point. Jesus said “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Interestingly, Theresia’s full name means “little harvester.” God is using Compassion to reach her with His unfathomable love by showing up in the least likely of places, as the world measures things. Half way around the world, Jesus is showing up to harvest my heart through this baby of an unwed mother living in poverty in a rural, isolated, back-water town. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? That’s where and how the God of the universe shows up.

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.

I've Never Noticed That Before

Ever had one of those “I’ve never noticed that before” moments? You drive down a street you have traveled hundreds of times and see a building decades old that seemed to appear overnight. You discover a new feature in something you own that was standard equipment when you bought it. You admire a painting on a wall that has tied the room together for years. A new freckle is discovered on your spouse they swear was there when they were born. I’ll stop the examples there. It frequently happens to me. I think I must miss a lot.

That moment of surprise and discovery happens often for me with the Bible. It did again this week when I was preparing for the privilege of issuing the ordination charge to Dr. Rick Hess, professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary. I was traveling through that familiar dramatic passage in 1 Samuel 3. Most of my attention usually goes to the powerful drama of Samuel hearing God’s voice and not recognizing it. I am inspired when Eli mentors him to respond: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Suspense heightens when God speaks to an attentive Samuel and gave him visions that changed his life and the world around him. It is all so inspiring and powerful. It is what every destiny-shaped heart longs for.

The dramatic and familiar can easily distract, or at least monopolize our attention. An exquisite black and white Ansel Adams image might be missed if hung next to the explosive color of a Picasso painting. Verse one became like an Ansel Adams hanging next to the Picasso-colored events of the passage.

“In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”
1 Samuel 3:1

The call of God on an individual and community is always unique and contextual. It is always intensely personal and unapologetically Missional. Samuel’s call began with a powerful statement about the context of his call.

“In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”

The implication is clear: where the word of the Lord is plentiful, visions abound. People see with new eyes and are compelled to respond in ways they would otherwise have never envisioned.

God’s Word was never meant to be a book of religious regulations or a record to preserve or imprison people in the past. The Word of God bears witness and calls people to the creative and redemptive nature, character and purposes of God. Genesis begins with creation out of God’s Word. Revelation ends with the new creation. In between is the unfolding, never-stagnant, always dynamic narrative of God’s call on His people to live the Kingdom vision for the sake of all nations. Even when they were uprooted and displaced in exile, God called His people to His Word-inspired vision:

This is what God the Lord says—
he who created the heavens and
stretched them out,
who spread out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of
your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the
people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who
sit in darkness.
“I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my
glory to another
or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have
taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”
Isaiah 42:5-9

Jesus’ arrival, life, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension were all rooted in His preoccupation with the Kingdom of God. It is also what the Spirit’s arrival at Pentecost was all about - fulfilling the promise that old people will dream dreams and young people will see new visions of God’s unfolding redemption.

In these days, the word of the Lord is rare; and there are not many visions.

Inside the church, there is an all-to-common preoccupation with survival by trying to polish old visions. Outside the church, the word of the Lord is rare, leaving a vacuum filled by false idols, promises and forms of security. The breaking news stories and bold headlines of the last week announce the repercussions of their failure to deliver.

In these days, the word of the Lord is rare; and there are not many visions.

How are we rooting ourselves in God’s Word in a way that moves beyond information to transformation through Word-inspired visions? How are we engaging God’s Word in a way that compels our best dreams for when we are most fully awake? How attentive are we to God’s voice that His Word is frequent and His visions are plentiful?

God’s call on each of our lives, and all of us together is urgent, personal and unapologetically Missional. It is to live out His Word-inspired visions in such a way that a watching desperate world might sit up, take notice and say:

“I’ve never noticed that before.”

What do you think? Please click "Comments" 6 to leave yours.