Slaughterhouse-Five is absolutely the worst book I’ve ever read, if not the worst one ever written. I wonder if I can sue to get that time back.
According to the 639 reviews at Amazon, however, mine is a minority opinion.
November 12, 2007
November 8, 2007
Prayer Request [Updated]
I have the opportunity to address a group of pastors today regarding adoption of Unreached People Groups. If God brings it to your mind to pray around 2:40 Central Time, it would be greatly appreciated.
Update: Thank you those who prayed. Our trip, though long, was smooth and safe and the speaking opportunity was very well received. We were in Brentwood, TN, just south of Nashville. I was able to share both on how our church understood the biblical philosophy of mission and how we came adopt the T—n people, while encouraging those from various churches to make UPG adoption a priority. This is the simple outline that I used:
Basis- The missio dei is the basis for every church’s mission.
Availability- A defining characteristic of a UPG is the limited availability of the gospel.
Sacrifice- It does take sacrifices of time, money and effort to engage unreached peoples.
Intentionality- You can’t get 8-12 time zones away by accident.
Church- Local churches can and must engage unreached peoples.
Soli Deo Gloria
November 3, 2007
Water, water nowhere and fewer drops to drink…
In case you don’t live in the southeast and, therefore, may not have heard, it hasn’t rained much here in a while. At a time of year when Atlanta would have normally received 50 inches of rain, we are some 26 inches shy of average. In fact, almost all of north Georgia, over 50% of Alabama, about 50% of Tennessee and parts of North Carolina are in the midst of an “exceptional drought,” the most dire category in the annals of weather prognosticators, meteorologists and other record keeping peoples. With a warm, dry winter predicted for the upcoming season, things are not looking any wetter…or better.
If it were a lack of rain alone, then it might not be a story. But, Atlanta is the largest metropolitan area in the US being served by a watershed area as small as the Chattahoochee River Basin. Combine that with the lack of planning by state and local municipalities who have issued building permits like there is no tomorrow and we have a situation in which the primary energy and drinking water source for the city of Atlanta, Lake Sidney Lanier, has dropped to near (if not to) an all time low and continues to drop at an alarming rate. Entire marinas are nothing but mud, surrounded by boats having no chance of floating.
As if this weren’t enough, the Corps of Engineers which is in charge of releasing water through Buford Dam is charged by the EPA with releasing about 3,000,000 gallons of water each day more than is necessary to support the continued life of freshwater mussels in the Appalachicola River. (See info about the Apalachicola, Flint, Chattahoochee basins.) Add to that the ongoing GA-ALA water dispute and you have the makings of a real crisis, which is what we are facing.
Enter the leadership of Georgia churches. During our periodic drought times, which have been increasing both in length and in frequency, area pastors always call for prayer that God might intervene and send rain to our parched earth, both providing replenishment for our drinking, car washing and bathing supplies and to help our already federally subsidized peanut farmers. This year our Governor, Sonny Perdue, himself a believer joined in the call. News reports mentioned 300 people gathered to pray on the Barrow County Courthouse steps, which was followed by a steady drizzle and then two days of precipitation. The leaders of the Georgia Baptist Convention have joined in citing a tie between repentance and physical blessing as observed in 2 Chronicles 7:14.
In times such as this, my question has always been, “Should we pray for rain? We pray and pray and pray for God to intervene in people’s lives, to bring revival to ‘the land’ and cause spiritual awakening, what if the drought is His way of getting the attention of people who should acknowledge their dependence on Him. Are we praying against the very method that God is using to answer our first prayer?” I don’t know, so I join in prayer with everyone else.
This is what I’d like to see: during one week of November, the Muslims implore Allah for seven days of rain. During a second week, the Hindus talk to Krishna about the crisis, during a third week the Jews pray and during the final week, Christians pray and the God who answers by a seven day period of steady rain is the true God. We could even allow the atheists to assign the weeks to ensure no cheating or advantage.
Yeah, I know, but at least my idea is biblical (1 Kings 18).
November 1, 2007
This Too Shall Be Made Right
Words and Music by Derek Webb (Song and album The Ringing Bell available on iTunes)
people love you most for the things you hate
and hate you for loving the things you canâ??t keep straight
people judge you on a curve
and tell you youâ??re getting what you deserve
and this, too, shall be made right
children cannot learn and children cannot eat
stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
children dream of wishing wells
whose waters quench all the fires of hell
and this, too, shall be made right
the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say weâ??re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
and this, too, shall be made right
yes thereâ??s a time for peace, there is a time for war
thereâ??s a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
a time for babies to lose their lives
a time for hunger and genocide
and this, too, shall be made right
oh I donâ??t know the suffering of people outside my front door
and I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore
Iâ??m trading comfort for human life
and thatâ??s not just murder, itâ??s suicide
and this, too, shall be made right
oh this, too, shall be made right
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:19-27
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
October 29, 2007
Education, Kids and The Kingdom
So, this whole education thing has been bothering be for a while. It seems that there is a tremendous misplacing of emphasis in the Christian community on the value and prominence of education in life and I’m not talking theological education. There is an appearance that many Christian parents value a good education (both middle and high school as well as college) over their child’s place in the kingdom. Probably this results from the parents concern that their child be able to gain a good employment and a steady means of income so that they do not have to live with the parents for the rest of their days. But, which kingdom holds sway in the end?
It is not uncommon for Christian parents to give their children a choice about participating in kingdom activities, while insisting that the child be in school and attend college. I’ve known many a parent who would restrict a child from a church activity (even student worship) because of poor grades, but never known a single parent who refused their child the Friday night football game because they had neglected their daily devotions. Many parents ask Little Johnny or Little Suzy if they want to go to the church’s youth retreat, but force them to go to band camp. And what is to be made of the parent who assents to the child’s not wanting to go to church, but would never assent to the same excuse made about school on Monday morning? Yes, I’m aware that there is some exaggeration to make a point, but it isn’t much.
Of all the excuses that I have heard, the one that has always just killed me is, “Well, if I force them to go to church now, they will not want to go when they are older.” If there needs to be one single example of the spirit of the age invading the church, this is it.
Scripture is explicit that it is the responsibility of the parents to raise children in the nurture and teaching of the Lord. The Lord informed the children of Israel that He desired “Godly seed.” It has never been God’s plan that Christian parents give their children an option toward Godliness, but that Christian parents lead and train in that respect. There are more than enough temptations abounding in the public school and college arenas through which kids have to negotiate on their own without the weight of inconsistent parents who don’t have a spiritual clue themselves. I’ve long believed that kids, rather than rejecting God and church, are actually rejecting the God and church of their parents, a quasi-religious Christian faith that was only exercised 1 hour of the week, never being witnessed in the home or in any practical sense. (This is not to say that all kids who abandon the faith have unfaithful parents, only that that particular diagnosis seems to be overlooked.) Several years ago I spoke with a high school junior who, up until that point, had been as faithful in attendance as her unfaithful mom would allow. She was really struggling with the the reality of faith, when she looked at me and said, “If what my Mother has is Christianity, then I don’t want it.” Case closed.
When our going-on-23 daughter was fifteen, she informed Sonya and I that she wanted to spend the summer in Canada doing missions. Not with a church trip, mind you, but she wanted to go and be a part of something that anyone was doing that would impact the kingdom. So, at the tender age of 16, she boarded a Northwest Airlines flight alone out of Atlanta to spend 7 weeks in Calgary to participate in Crossover Alberta and whatever else she was requested to do. She did the same thing for 7 or 8 weeks the summer of her 17th year. I’m praying now with out son that he, now 16, will spend some time this summer immersed in a kingdom opportunity somewhere.
It seems that there are too many kingdom opportunities that parents are letting slip through the cracks in relation to their kids. Do we remember that they are not our kids after all? Before our kids were even born, we had offered them to the Lord for His service to do whatever He desired. If He want to place them nationally, internationally or locally that is His business. If He wants them married or single, that is His business. I think that churches may be facing an ongoing situation where parents are so flagrantly living according to the priorities of the world that pastors are assuming too much to think that they have any kingdom knowledge at all.
I have a growing concern that the willingness of Christian parents to consistently prioritize the educational realm unwittingly pushes their children into an environment where philosophical naturalism has the upper hand. It is as if parents, with the constant push for “good grades” are setting their kids up for spiritual failure, if education is not taught within the total framework of Christian living. My hope would be that parents would awaken to the fact that kingdom living, not Phi Kappa Beta, is the priority of God’s economy. That knowing God, not knowing trig, is the bearer of eternal fruit and that the missio dei trumps summa cum laude every time.
October 26, 2007
Reincarnated Dictator?
A member of our church is currently on a business trip to South Korea. He snapped this photo while looking for a restaurant to eat dinner. Hmmm….
October 22, 2007
Gone Baby Gone, Movie Review
Friday marked the opening of the second Dennis LeHane book to be made into a major motion picture. Following the Clint Eastwood directed Mystic River comes Gone Baby Gone (see other reviews here), directed co-written by Oscar winning screenwriter (Good Will Hunting), movie actor and tabloid star, Ben Affleck. Affleck, in his first turn in the director’s chair, has given his audiences a remarkably well made film. I can’t remember a single wasted shot or scene and a scant few lines that I thought might have been better written. He is said to have used many locals for bit parts and it would not take much convincing of me to believe the truth of it. There are very few “actor looking” people in this movie.
The central characters of the story are Boston area private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Affleck’s brother, Casey) and Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), who are called upon to assist the police in finding a missing 4 year old girl, abducted from her bed while her mother visited with a friend next door. Morgan Freeman plays Jack Doyle, Captain of the Missing Children’s Unit, while versatile Ed Harris is ably cast as a Louisiana transplant, Detective Remy Broussant. So well cast is this movie that no part stands head and shoulder above the rest and with each performance being top notch. Freeman (of course he’s played God, so this should have been a piece of cake) in no way overshadows the others, as some might expect, and Casey Affleck (known to moviegoers as one of the “Mormon twins” in the Ocean’s movie franchise) is remarkably good in the primary role. Amy Ryan, as the conflicted, weak mother, with Titus Welliver and Amy Madigan as her brother and sister-in-law, round out the main parts.
To tell any of the story would be to tell all of the story, so I’ll tell none of it. But like the book, the movie deals fully in shades of gray. There is no black and white in the world of LeHane and Ben Affleck, while making a few minor changes in characters and some intricacies of the book, leaves the story a moral mess. Affleck explores the human condition and the emptiness of soul of people who have long since given up any clue about a holy God, choosing instead the full depth of depravity. The Kenzie/Gennaro series of books always leaves one thankful that there is a God who cares, though, apparently, He rarely makes an appearance in New England.
I would recommend this movie to pastors who are spending too much time cloistered away in the ivory towers of sermon preparation and need to be shaken and reminded as to the depth of sin. There is no sex or nudity in the film, but there is graphic violence, a particularly disturbing scene involving a child molester, suspense and pervasive bad language easily earning its “R” rating. Apparently Bostonians are partial to the letter “F” and have become very creative in ways to employ it.
When leaving today, I said to a pastor friend who attended with me, “What did you think?” He replied, “That’s the world we live in.” I did walk away thinking how we live in a world in which there are not always easy answers, everything isn’t always black and white and sometimes our field of vision is a little clouded on the grays around us, yet ever hopeful with the knowledge that the good news of Jesus can cleanse from the most vile evil and wickedness both in and among us.
October 16, 2007
The Atlanta Falcons…
are a train wreck.
I watched the Falcons last night on MNF just to see what would happen. It hurt. I actually feel sorry for those guys as players and as people. Taking the field week after week after week with virtually no chance of winning must be extremely disheartening. As I watched and contemplated the year to date for this team, some leadership thoughts came to mind.
Let’s assume for a moment (using Jim Collins’ analogy) that owner, GM and head coach are the right people on the bus and that they are in the right seats. At this moment, it would be hard to imagine it any other way: Arthur Blank owns the bus, GM Rich McKay was hand picked by the owner to drive the bus and head coach Bobby Patrino was hand picked by the owner and GM to sit in that assigned seat. Let’s further assume that the entire coaching staff (at least for this year) are supposed to be on the bus and are in their proper seats.
That only leaves the players (sorry, trainers and ball boys). The well chronicled woes of Michael Vick vacated the team of its star player, main draw, primary source of excitement and center of coaching plans. Imagine New England without Brady or the Colts without Manning, mere days from the start of the season, with only a journeyman backup and you get the idea. Then your most athletic back-up (DJ Shockley) is gone for the season with an injury leaving a fifth string as third string. In addition, the offensive line has suffered injuries, the secondary is typically porous and players have become mouthy about the coaches and each other. Sigh. Where to start?
We begin at the position around which the entire team rotates: quarterback. Joey Harrington is the perfect person to be in the slot for which he was hired–backup quarterback. Whenever Vick lost a shoe, got the wind knocked out of him or was beating a dog otherwise unavailable for a play or two, Harrington would come in and take a snap, hand the ball off to someone and return to the sideline to collect his check. I believe that Harrington is the right player, but he’s in the wrong seat. The problem is that he was forced into that seat when Vick jumped off the bus and then was run over by it. History informs us that Harrington is not a big time winning quarterback in this league, but when you have no options, you go with the option you have.
The running backs are also an issue for the Falcons. Warrick Dunn has dropped from over a hundred yards a game to 50 or so (I didn’t look it up) while 2nd year gazelle, Jerious Norwood, still averages about 5,000 yards per rush. I think that one of the problems is that the Falcons have changed their blocking scheme from smaller more mobile linemen to larger slower guys, who are supposed to be able to protect a less mobile, non-Vick quarterback, but Dunn is a small, stop and go runner who can’t really plow up behind a bunch of big butts for yardage. Norwood is on the bus, probably for a long while (unless he’s traded to move up in the draft, more to come) but they don’t have any idea what seat to put him in.
Every receiver the Falcons have are in the wrong seats–they should be defensive backs because they specialize in knocking balls to the turf. In defense of Michael Vick’s often poor passer rating and having watched the guy pretty consistently during his career, for every pass he threw that was completely uncatchable, two hit Roddy White, Peerless Price, Michael Jenkins or Alge Crumpler right in the chest or hands and were dropped. This year, Joey Harrington is suffering the same fate with passes being dropped at least twice a game, sometimes five or six times. Without a doubt, this is collectively the worst receiving corp to ever take the field in an NFL game. Most of them need to be thrown off the bus entirely. Less expensive guys can drop the ball with regularity. I’ll do it for $10k a game and save them all kinds of money.
I don’t have time to go through the defense, but suffice it to say that a few guys are in the right seats, but continuity and injury continue to be problems.
Now, as this bus is traveling the season’s road, there are certain considerations: First, what do you do if you are in the last year of a contract? Do you play as hard as you can to try and hit the jackpot as a free agent?
Second, what if you are in the middle of a contract? Do you play as hard as you can, risking injury, during a year that is and most likely will continue to be a disaster?
Third, will there be an effort to “give away the season” in order to secure the #1 pick and hope to get Brian Brohm from Louisville, who would doubtless be the choice of the head coach? Do you trade away one future (Norwood) to pin hopes on another (Brohm or Colt McCoy)?
Fourth, do you give rookies playing time at the expense of the veterans who know their shot at winning the big one has been put off for at least one more year and are already voicing the strain?
Fifth, how do you motivate guys to take the field and give their all in a season like this? If there are no incentives in the contracts, is it likely that they will continue to play hard?
October 15, 2007
Pastor’s Wife Appreciation Month
Years ago, Focus on the Family (I think), deemed that October should forever be Pastor Appreciation Month. As a pastor, I really like this emphasis as it has become the impetus for cards, calls and gifts received throughout the month. I ain’t complaining.
Today, I’d like to focus on the person at our church who makes Pastor Appreciation Month possible for me: Sonya Duren, my wife. If it wasn’t for her I don’t think I could survive from October to October to receive all the appreciations.
When Sonya and I were dating, I made the grievous error of buying a book about the pastor’s wife by some well meaning woman who was obviously writing from a context of the 1950’s or maybe even the 1940’s. It nearly scared her to death. I’m not sure why she decided to go ahead and marry me, but she did and has never tried to match up to the cookie cutter model advocated in the book. She is the perfect wife for me.
She doesn’t sing in the choir or play the piano, she’s never led VBS or taught kids Sunday school and she sits on the back row during church. But, for me and a number of women in our church she is a repository of wisdom. She’s read the Bible completely through more times than I’ve started. She’s in her 16th year of homeschooling our three kids, with the only graduate (so far) from the Duren Home School graduating in December from Georgia State University with a degree in Philosophy and a 3.8 GPA. Not bad for a teacher who only took one college class.
If there is a spiritual gift of hospitality then she has it. She is a marvelous interior designer who frequents Hobby Lobby and yard sales for our home decor. I’ve often joked with our congregation that, “We’ve probably got some of your stuff hanging on our walls.” Our home has a warmth that is recognized and commented on by guests. She has a great eye for color and has more plans for remodeling our yard than we could accomplish in 10 lifetimes. If we ever build another house, she has a notebook crammed with pictures and ideas torn from Southern Living and House Beautiful. She could give Ty Pennington a run for his money.
She’s gone with me on many adventures, some of which she was more than a little uncertain when we started, but we’ve managed to go together and stay together. From small church to mega church to medium church to not sure about church, she’s always been with me and I’ve never once thought that she might leave.
There’s no place that I’d rather be than in a north Georgia or North Carolina cabin making love to Sonya Duren. If marriage is about the completion of two people, then there can be no doubt that these two puzzle pieces were meant for each other. She is the love of my life and I’m taking this moment to say, “Happy Pastor’s Wife Appreciation Month, honey.”
October 11, 2007
So, Which One Do You Read?
I received this from a friend:
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country, but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country if they could find the time and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country, and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if someone is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The St. Petersburg Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.
