A Tree Planted by Streams of Water: A Chicago Update

It's been over a month since my wife and I moved to Chicago. It's been longer since I sent out any official update. And as I sit here thinking how exactly to describe what has happened in that time I am reminded of our very first weekend here in the city.

My wife and I took a walk along the beach of Lake Michigan that first Sabbath. She was surprised to see trees on the beach. She lived on the East Coast her whole life and so her experience of beaches was the ocean. Most trees do not do well with salt water. Her surprise caused me to stop and actually look at the tree. I was instantly reminded of Psalm 1. As I think back over this past month I realize that it is when I delight in the Lord that I am blessed and at peace.

Faith Like Abram: A Chicago Update

Abram’s family must have thought he was crazy. He left his family and the security of his ancestral home to go to a land that he did not know. More than that, he left to go to an unspecified place. He didn’t leave to go to a place he had heard of but never visited. He went to a completely unknown land. All he knew was that he needed to go.

I feel a bit like Abram. My wife and I will be moving to Chicagoland in September. We’re not moving because of a job. We don’t have those lined up yet. We’re not moving because we know someone. Neither of us have family in the area we’re moving to. We don’t even have a place to stay when we move there. What we do know is that God has called us and so we’re going. Against conventional wisdom, without friends and family, because we want to be obedient to God.

The Choice at the Tree

We make choices every day. We choose when to get up, what to wear and eat. When we choose, we use our judgement on what is the best choice. We do most or all of this without really thinking about it. Sometimes we come to an important decision and then we agonize over the right thing to do. But for most of us, our daily life is full of choices that we don't even think about.

For my second installment in this series, The Trees in Eden, I want to talk about the second tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like the tree of life, we see echos of this tree throughout scripture. Where echos of the tree of life pointed us to temples, echos of this tree point us to crucial decisions. What I find fascinating about the echos of this tree is that every decision is really the same decision that Adam and Eve had in the garden.

How Should Christians Respond to Crisis?

At the time of writing this article, all anyone sees in the news is COVID-19. There is a lot of fear and confusion around the virus and it can become easy for Christians to get caught up in the chaos. We can under-react and pretend like this is going to be gone tomorrow. We can overreact, sell all our 401k stock, and buy a year’s supply of toilet paper. Neither of these options is helpful or really even Biblical.

I have seen many well-tempered and well-informed responses to this crisis from Christians. So many in fact, that I thought that perhaps my writing about this was redundant. But this is a series about engaging life with proper theology and so I decided to give my take on the issue. As always there will be a livestream to discuss. The livestream for this article will be Wednesday April 15th at 8pm EST.

Three Forgotten Temples

I think when most Christians think about temples in the Bible they have in mind one of two things. Either they think of the Tabernacle in the desert or they think of the Temple built by Solomon. These are in fact the most prolific temples. If you read Exodus you find out that the creation of the tabernacle was very specific in its lengths. When you get to Kings and Chronicles, Solomon dedicates the temple. This is the temple that gets destroyed by Babylon. It is at this place that Ezra and Nehemiah build the second temple. It's no wonder that this is the temple that comes to mind.

Yet there are three other temples. Three temples more important than the rest. One is the template -- the blueprint -- for all those that come after. If we don't understand it, we cannot truly understand any other. One does not look or feel like a temple. It is dark and seems hopeless. And yet it is this temple that gives us all hope. The final temple is full of light. It is a future temple. It is the temple as it was always meant to be. These are the three forgotten temples.

Fear, Climate Change, and Greta Thunberg

Back in December, TIME magazine named Greta Thunberg as their person of the year. Whether or not you agree with Greta Thunberg, this seemed like a reasonable choice. Last year she quickly became a household name. This is in no small part because of her stance on climate change.

Often discussions of Greta involve some talk of her age and whether or not that makes her worth listening to on social and political issues. Though I think there is a discussion to be had around those issues, that is not the point of this article. What I came to realize quite quickly with Greta Thunberg, and what this article is about, is that the passion and urgency that she speaks with sounded very familiar. I began to realize that she sounded much like a fire and brimstone preacher.

God's Plan for Us in Chicago and How You Can Help

About six months ago my wife and I informed our church that we were planning on church planting in Chicago. This was not really anything new for us (we've been talking about this since we were dating), but I think that was the first time some people in our church heard that was our plan. I say our plan, but the truth is that this is God's plan. More on that later.

Since informing our church, we have had several conversations with people who want to give us advice on what to do. This ranges from people who think we should not go to Chicago (at least not at first) to people who have a very specific way that they think we should church plant. I think most of these people are well intentioned. They are trying to help. They are not helping.

Netflix and Jesus

No, our second installment of Everyday Theology is not some weird slang for bible dating. There has been a lot of news around these two topics recently. Though I plan to give a little background on two recent additions to Netflix’s lineup, the point is not to give a review in the typical sense. The point of this series is to apply the truth of the gospel to our everyday life. Since much of the media is not Christian, I think it is important for us to consider how our response to movies and television displays Christ.

One note before we get into the topic. By the time you read this I will have already had the first installment of Everyday Theology Q & A. Yet, at the time of writing this we are still a week out. That’s the time travel of print media. I say this because I want to remind you that we will be doing another Q & A livestream on February 20th at 8pm EST. If you want more information on how to get involved or you want to get questions in ahead of time you can visit the Facebook page for my blog. That page will always have the most up to date information.

The Captive Mindset

We started a series at my church called Out of the Wilderness. We are looking at wilderness narratives to help us understand where God is leading us in the future. This past week the senior pastor gave a sermon on Numbers 13 and 14. This is the story of spying out the promised land and how the people rebelled against God. You might know the song about it. It involves twelve men who spy on Cannon. Ten were... scared and two were not.

Well anyway, I have been thinking a lot about this sermon. It's really good. You can watch it here. My thoughts have been focused on this idea of a captivity mindset. This is something that is touched on in the sermon, but I have been thinking about it through the lens of trauma.

How to Have a Productive Conversation

Yesterday I posted a rant to my Facebook page. Usually I reserve these for Twitter, that seems a more apt place for rants. They are more likely to get lost in the general attitude of contempt there. This particular rant was a little long for Twitter. At one point I thought that I might make it into a blog, but I like my blogs to be more thought out than a rant. So it went on Facebook.

What's ironic (and a little bit sad) is that my rant involved me criticizing people for not wanting to have a conversation. But this is the pull that social media has on us. Sometimes it feels like we have lost the art of good conversations. We are quick to judge, quick to anger, and slow to listen. We don't really care about what the other person has to say. All we really want is to prove to the world that we are right.

The Gospel According to Kanye

I have a confession. Prior to the last week or so I hadn't really put much thought into Kanye. Sure there was his visit to the white house, his outburst at the 2009 VMAs, and his hit song Gold Digger. So I want to say upfront that I am not an expert on Kanye. I don't have 15 years of background to compare to. I am not a 'Ye fan. At least I wasn't two weeks ago.

The past week I have been listening to JESUS IS KING on repeat. I have seen his Airpool Karaoke video with James Corden. I have listened to Jesus Walks off his debut album. I have even watched his two hour interview with Zane Lowe in its entirety.

I've spent time thinking and praying. I've read article after article about the album. Yet there is one single fact I keep coming back to. What Kanye is now preaching IS the gospel. Everything on that album is the gospel -- from the emphasis on freedom for slaves to the counter-cultural statement that Jesus (and none other, not even an orange president) is king.

Teardrops on the Floor

Elevators are sacred spaces. For the last nine months I have been volunteering as a chaplain at a hospital in Philadelphia. Part of being a chaplain is recognizing sacred spaces when you walk into them. Its not always easy, and often I have to rely on the leading of the Holly Spirit, but sometimes you can just tell. As I stepped onto the elevator today, I again noticed a clear sign of a sacred space. There were teardrops on the floor.

When Doubt Grips You

Are you struggling to have faith today? Maybe you are reading this and in the back of your head you have doubts. Maybe you feel God calling you to something, but you are scared because you don't know the details. Maybe you are faced with crippling anxiety and doubt even though God just provided for you.

Usually, when I write these blogs I am writing from the other side. I have just learned something or have just gone through something. I write from a place of knowing. I write from a place of complete understanding. That is not the case today. Today I write from the unknown. I write not knowing how everything will play out.

Complaints in the Desert

This is a manuscript of a sermon I preached for seminary. What I learned here has always stuck with me. I came across it today because I was thinking about the lessons we learn in the desert. The ways in which God uses the dry times, the times of waiting, the times of Advent, to teach us. Without the desert the Israelites would not have been ready for the promised land. It was those years of wandering in the desert that taught them how to trust in God. As Christians I think we move to quickly into the hope of Jesus. We don't learn the lesson of the dry time: that our present circumstances are not an indication of favor or abandonment by God. It is not God who changes, only our willingness to follow Him.

An Open Letter to Survivors

This letter is dedicated to all those who in the last year have shared with me their stories. To those of you that have trusted me with some of the deepest hurts in your life. To those of you who years later are now able to look back and find something redeeming about your story. To those of you who are still in the midst of confusion about what the future holds. I have heard you. And I'm sorry.

When Salvation Feels Like Condemnation

Last weekend I preached a hard sermon. It wasn't hard because I had to do in-depth research. It wasn't hard because the passage was particularly confusing. It was hard because it was truth that people don't like to think about let alone hear. It was hard because it called people to change.

I could spend this post writing about all the ways that the sermon was hard for me. I could talk about the consequences of hard conversations on the person who initiates that conversation. But the reality is that more often than not we are on the receiving end of hard conversations. This is not a post for those thinking about having hard conversations. This is a post for those who have heard a hard truth and don't know how to respond.

5 Things to Learn from Jules Woodson and #churchtoo

I am not a victim. I have never been abused. In fact, being a pastor, I have more in common with the abusers than with the victims. On behalf of the church I want to apologize. Apologize for the silence of the church. Apologize for generations of Pastors who thought more about their position than victims. Apologize for churches who cared more about reputations than displaying the nature of God. If you have been abused this is not for you. This is a blog for the church. The church that has been silent for too long.

Deliver Us From Evil

The last few months have been alarming. Hurricane Maria has left Puerto Rico without power to this day. California has had several fires and now a mud slide that left at least 17 dead. In New Jersey we had a "bomb cyclone" that left the east cost covered in snow. North Korea gets ever closer to nuking the world. Just last month suicide bombers took out a church in Pakistan during a children's Christmas program.

Evil is part of the sinful world that we live in. There are times that the world seems so dark we cannot imagine how God can be in control. We wonder if there is anything that can save us from the evil in this world. Every day we hear of another case of sexual assault and abuse of power. Some of us have experienced very real evil in our own homes. When we pray for deliverance from evil often we think of immediate evil. But what Jesus was teaching us was about so much more.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I want to start this entry in the series with a question. What is your biggest temptation? It might be those cupcakes that coworker brought into work. It might be speeding. For some it will be a bottle of alcohol, for others heroin or meth. For over half of men the answer to that question would be porn. What I want you to see is that there are temptations all around us. Everyday. We cannot escape temptation. And yet for most this is a petition to God for escape from a life of temptation. But that is not really what Jesus is teaching us.

Forgive Us Like We Forgive Others

It has taken me quite a while to write this. Not because I have nothing to say about forgiveness, but because I have already written on it and I wasn't sure what I could add. When I actually went back and read my previous article I realized that I had left out the very passage from the Lord's Prayer that we will deal with today. In talking about this section of the Lord's Prayer I will of course go over some of what I have said before. But enough disclaimer. On to the intro. (Well that didn't take long did it?)

When we recite the part of the Lord's Prayer about forgiveness, we often focus on the first half: forgive us our sins. We gloss over the second half about forgiving others. It's understandable. Everyone wants to be forgiven by God. Isn't that what the Bible is all about? The issue is that what Jesus actually taught us to pray was a petition to God that was contingent on our forgiveness of others. Said another way Jesus taught us to ask God to only forgive us if we forgive others.