Stripped

I'm reading a book called Stripped: Uncensored Grace on the Streets of Vegas by the pastor of Central Christian Church in here in Las Vegas, Jud Wilhite. It's a close look at how God's grace can radically transform people's lives, even in here in Sin City. The first chapter is about a married couple who both are committed Christians, baptized by immersion, and give 10% to their church. Sounds pretty normal so far...until you learn that both of them are dancers in provocative, well-known topless shows here in Vegas. The first chapter describes their journey to becoming followers of Christ, and then ends by mentioning that though they are still dancing in the shows, they can see how the very nature of the shows is in direct contradiction to the teaching of Scripture, and that they can both see that their careers as dancing in the adult entertainment industry must come to an end soon.

I finished this chapter in the morning and thought about it all day. WHAT!? They are still dancing in the shows?!? This was my initial response. It would seem to me that their pastor should have immediately, with gentleness yet firmness explain that what they are doing is causing others to sin and that they should obey God and trust Him to sustain them as they look for new jobs. Note: this was my initial response, though without a lot of confidence since I've never personally dealt with a situation like this. This leads to this thought: discipleship can be a messy process. Of course, we aren't supposed to clean our lives up before we are believers, and surely not immediately afterward, but there seems to be an unwritten rule in the Christian culture that I grew up in that says that you need to get rid of all major, up front sins within 6 months, or else. I thought that this was the end to this story since chapter two went on to another subject, but fortunately for me, Jud struggled with the same questions and moved back to this story in chapter 3.

Here's some of what he had to say.

After talking with the couple: "Had their faith made a tangible difference in their lives? Absolutely, they said. It inspired them to be baptized, to commit to one another in marriage, and it challenged them to serve and help others. But don't they see a conflict between what they believe and what they do for a living? Yes. They acknowledge a very real spiritual conflict, one they didn't feel good about, but one they admitted not being able to resolve. At least not yet." (pg. 60)

Jud goes on to talk about how Jesus really did hang with the riffraff of society, and ate with them, which he said, "Eating together is a picture of acceptance, loyalty, and trust...Jesus did not simply hang out with people on the fringes of society; He took great pleasure in being around them." (pg. 62)

I really love this quote: "Too often we mistake grace for weakness, forgiveness for giving in. We see strength only in pointing out sin and stomping on it until it's dead. But in Jesus we find someone who has no patience for those more concerned with enforcing the rules than helping others. Though He was perfect and, therefore, in a position to judge and punish all of us, Jesus showed us a different kind of strength, a strength found in grace, compassion, and forgiveness." (pg 63)

This question that I'm posing to myself of "What would I do if I was the pastor?" is a very old question. Churches since the first century have been trying to strike the correct pose between purity and holiness on one hand and grace and forgiveness on the other. I know that if you force the first, than it becomes an artificial holiness where people start following rules because they feel they have to instead of loving God because Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commands." Of this Jesus said in Luke 11:47, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." You can, however, encourage people to live holy lives out of the right motivation. On the other hand, can you offer too much grace and forgiveness? I think the answer is obvious: no.

So I guess I've tentatively come to this answer. For that situation, I would extend grace and support for them to continue to make the right decision with gentleness and love. But with blatant, outright sin in someone's life (even if they do seem to be making progress, if only in their mind at the moment), it would seem that you would want to limit to what extent they represent the church. You do have to be very careful who you allow to be put into places of authority, leadership, or any role where people might emulate an individual's actions or attitudes. Paul said in Philemon 4:9, "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice." Whether or not the leaders in the church say this or not explicitly, they will be imitated.

Whew! This is a tough situation that requires God's love and wisdom. Pray for the pastors and churches in Vegas!

Meaning

There is nothing as meaningful to me as seeing people come to know Christ as Savior for the first time, or for others to come back to him after being away. After the message at GP over the Prodigal Son this last Sunday, many people either put their faith in Christ for the first time or came back running in a manner of speaking. I have no idea what God has planned for our family's future, and I have no direction yet as to whether I am to stay in the AF or not. But having had the opportunity and privilege to be apart of God's work here in Vegas, where people so desperately need hope and something other than the emptiness of sin, it is very difficult to think about leaving. If I am to stay, I'll have to get out of the AF, and if I do, I'll obviously need a job. I have no idea what that will look like at the moment, but I know if I simply obey, God will provide everything I need at the proper time.

The Narrows

I hiked the narrows last weekend with some friends from work. We did the backpack stay over the night thing. We stayed at campsite 8, which seemed like a little too far for the first day. It was awesome, though.

This what it looked like toward the beginning of the hike:

An unexpected waterfall:

A good shot of the actual narrows:

Dave and Bethany at Big Spring (this water tasted just like bottled spring water, weird!)

One of the 317 times that I crossed over the river:

Finally done:

A Grief Observed

I just started...and finished A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis today. It's a very short book--I read it during my lunch break. It's not like the rest of his books; it's more his journaling as he deals with the grief of his wife's death. Since he published it under a pseudonym, he was brutally honest. There is a very sharp contrast between his intellect and his emotions as he strives to understand and deal with the raw pain caused by his wife's departure. The first couple of chapters are a little shocking, as he contemplates the idea that God is really not all that good, and that he might be a Cosmic Sadist. Interestingly, this contradicts the whole premise of the book that he wrote earlier in his life The Problem with Pain. This contradiction coincides with his thought that God allowed his wife to die to topple his "house of cards" which represent all the beliefs that have not been tried to the point of life-and-death. His attitude changes as he continues to write and go through the grieving process. That's exactly what he calls grief: a process. He says at first he started writing to map out a state of being called grief, but later realized that it was really a journey closely analogous to traveling through a long, narrow, winding valley where the scenery around each subsequent corner could become a little more bearable, but then it could also look like the shadow of death that you already passed through earlier in the journey. It was relieving to see that someone viewed as so imminently spiritual could express the course, organic, and undressed frustration that each of us encounter as we live out our journies, but at the same time see how God renewed his heart in the midst of one of the most painful and faltering times of his life.

The Role of "Church"

Something that's been on my mind for a while is the purpose of our worship gatherings as Christians. There seem to be two mindsets out there among Christians: 1) Our worship gatherings are for the growth and fellowship of believers and to encourage and train believers to spread the Gospel to others. If non-believers come to know Christ during the actual gathering time, that's great!, but that's not the primary reason that we meet. Once people do come to know Him, they will be welcomed as brothers and trained to reach others. The primary way we expect to reach non-believers is through the witness of the Christians in our church while they are living out their faith in the world. 2) Our worship gatherings are for the growth of believers and to reach those who don't know him. We want to help everyone, believer or not, to take the next step on their spiritual journey. That may mean helping someone start their search for God, placing their faith in Christ for salvation, or learning how to trust God as master in another area of their life. We want to not only train believers to reach others for Christ but to reach non-believers for Christ in the process. We understand that not every Christian is capable of a complete apology of their faith, but if they can tell their friends what Christ has done in their life through their local church, then perhaps their friends will come and be changed by God's grace as well.


Without getting into all the Scripture references at the moment, I know that the Bible commands us as Christians to reach others with the Gospel of Christ, to grow them in Christ (discipleship), to support other Christians, and to train them to reach others for Christ. Most protestant churches that are passionate about the Gospel wouldn't argue with these things. These goals can be reached in many different ways. I don't believe that these different ways should be viewed as right or wrong but instead as good, better, or best.


As I wrote in my Constantine blog, in the first and second century, Christian's worship gatherings were not primarily evangelical in nature and centered around communion. I'm not necessarily placing more credence on early-Christian's practises over our own (that's a whole different topic), but I am saying that option #1 does have historical precedence. However, is there Scripture that indicates that worship gatherings should be only for believers?

I've seen both types of churches in action. Both churches were Gospel-centered and led by the Holy Spirit. Option #1 church was better at giving believers a lot of in depth knowledge. However, knowledge is good only so far as it leads to obedience. One friend told me that we learn orthodoxy (right knowledge) so that we can do orthopraxy (right action). However, in my experience in my own life and the life of other Christ followers, I know way more than I actually obey. Option #2 church is better at reaching people for Christ and being an impact in the community. My sample size is small, therefore I can't make valid inferences about all churches that fit into #1 and #2.

What do we think? Two questions: 1) What does scripture say to support #1 or #2? 2) If scripture doesn't say much in support of or to detract from either, what can we say from our experiences? Note: if you respond, please state what you think the role of church is, so I know what your premise is.

How to Pack a Pack Properly

I'm going to Zion National Park this weekend and looked up in a book how to pack your pack. Here's what it said:

From "Mountainering", chapter on Outdoor Fundamentals.
"Strategically loading the items in your internal-frame pack can dramatically influence your speed, endurance, and enjoyment of an outing. Generally, you will feel best if you can concentrate the load on your hips and avoid loading your back and shoulders.
On trails, the load should be carried high and fairly close to the back, as this will allow your hips to take the majority of the weight. To implement this strategy, load your lightest, fluffiest articles (sleeping bag and extra clothing) in the bottom; place the densest items (water, food, stove, fuel, rope) up top, near the shoulder blades.

For more difficult terrain, revise your trail-packing strategy. Pack the heavy items slightly lowers, and ensure they are as close to the back as possible. This will force more of the load onto your back and shoulders but will lower your center of gravity and allow you to more easily keep your balance.

Along with arranging items in your pack for optimum weight distribution, organize them for quick access."

I know, for this type of thing peope call me a nerd, but I'm not listening!

It's a boy!

Everything looked good at the sonogram today, and he wasn't too modest! It was very easy to see that he was a boy. Here's the best picture, even though it's still hard to see the little guy, and I never like looking at other people's kids in sonogram form. I usually say, "It's a baby!" The event of the sonogram this morning really helps to solidify that this is really going to happen now. For a long time, even though I knew LA was pregnant, it didn't fully sink in that I was going to be a dad. It does help, though, thinking about what kinds of things I'll do with him in the future. Truthfully, both Leigh Ann and I were kind of relieved that it wasn't a girl, simply because boys are easier to raise (and cheaper I might add).

Rando

Lot's of stuff going on:

-Leigh Ann's pregnant for anyone that didn't know. Tomorrow, we may find if it's a boy or a girl, if the baby (we call it Oscar for the time being) isn't too modest. A lot of people have asked me if I have a preference, but I really don't. I answer, "I hope it's a child!" Anyway, it will be exciting to see the little person on sonogram finally. Last time I saw Oscar on sonogram, it was at 6 weeks, and he/she was the size of a grain of rice (not long grain either!).

-Serving at GP is such a priviledge. We had a meeting today where Devin casted the vision for Crew (our setup and teardown team), and we had around 20 people sign up. I realized that all of these people came for perhaps one or two reasons: they want to connect and/or they want to serve God. Everyone needs community and service is faith in action, our spiritual act of worship. At GP, service isn't just the way to get things done, it's an opportunity to allow a person to worship God through action. We need to make this opportunity available to everyone, and not allow just a few to hog the priviledge!

-Just finished a great book called "The Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the rest of us," by Larry Osbourne. It's not contrarian for contrarian's sake, but it does challenge a lot of the linear thinking methods to growing in Christ that we have been taught for a long time. Osbourne doesn't claim these methods are bad or wrong, but he does challenge the thinking that everyone must grow in God by reading your Bible for 30 minutes each day, praying for 20, journaling consistently, having an accountability partner, etc (what did people do before Gutenberg, for instance?). Again, not that these things are wrong, but they don't all work for everyone. He claims they are tools, not rules. Use what works, drop what doesn't, and there will be periods of your life that you need some tools more than others. There were some pretty challenging ideas for me in the book. I'll blog on those in the future.

-Also finished another book called "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley. Great book, especially if you're in church leadership. However, one particular chapter of the book was especially poignant for me. It was Listen to Outsiders: Focus on who you're trying to reach, not on who you're trying to keep. I'll blog more on this too, but two quotes: "If you are surrounded long enough by people who think like you think, you will become more and more certain that's the best way to think. Over time you find yourself inclined to completely disregard the concerned voices of those positioned on the outside." And "So if a large portion of the population is not going to church and the majority of churches are not full, that means there's a lot of room in the churches that exist for people who are not going. And yet most churches now being built are patterned after churches that already exist...The church today is primarily characterized by insiders reaching insiders." GP is very good at creating engaging environments where anyone can connect to God, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. I had a friend back in Florida that I was doing my best to point to God. I invited him to our baptist church, and he said to me, "You know, I just don't feel comfortable there." I couldn't argue with him. Looking from an outsider's perspective, I wouldn't have felt very comfortable either. And it wasn't because of the truth of the message being spoken either. It would have been because of the strange music, the dress code that no one told me about, the unknown language being spoken, and the fact that everyone that was a bit older seemed to have the first name "Brother." Should getting used to these things be a prerequisite to coming to know Jesus as Savior and Lord? No! The pharisees had tried to make things very difficult to come to know God, and ended up not knowing Him at all. Jesus made things very simple. Shouldn't we, without compromising God's Word and the eternal truth of the Gospel, make our presentation of that crucial message in such a way that the most amount of people will hear it? Stanley says "Invest and Invite." Use relationship evangelism to reach people to Christ, and invite them to a place where they can take another step in their spiritual journey towards Christ.

-Got back from TDY to Eglin last Thursday. It was good times. Saw a lot of my friends, went shark fishing, but didn't even catch a regular style fish! I flew three times, and only puked once! Seriously, I'm surprised I didn't puke more on the 3.3 hour flight, no a/c, hot and humid day in FL, making continuous circles on the flare track. The H-60 CTF is turning out to be a really great place to work, and if I don't get my security clearance for another couple years, I won't be disappointed. Oh, by the way, if your boss asks you to "monitor" the progress of a conference room remodel, run! The monitoring has turned into a 20 hr a week, making miracles happen with people who don't really feel like helping, all before the end of the fiscal year which is rapidly approaching. That's ok, though. I take solace in the fact that conference rooms are the new key to air power.