Advent: Waiting

So this is the first week of Advent. It always seems weird to me that churches that do not hold to the whole of the calendar still use Advent. But that is a blog for another day. Advent means coming. It is the season when we eagerly anticipate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. That means that it is a season of waiting.

Stop Talking About Women in Ministry

I want to start this off with an apology. Some of you may have clicked on this blog because you were expecting to commend me for my boldness in preaching the place of women or reprimand me for my chauvinism. I'm sorry. You won't find either of those here. I do hope that you are challenged by what I say. I expect some of you will still find what I say offensive, but for different reasons than you may expect.

Ignoring Singles is Killing Your Church

I'll admit it. Yes, I gave this a title that would make you click on it. But I did that because I think that this is something that every church must take seriously. For years I have felt that churches were not ministering to singles well. After watching a talk at the NINES conference this year, (Check it out here) I got some validation. In a nutshell there are twice as many single adults today as there were 30 years ago.

So about a month ago I posted about marriage. It has continued to be my most viewed post. If you haven't check it out here. One of things I mentioned in that post was that churches are poor at acknowledging singles. If you are in your twenties you know exactly what I am talking about. You are ignored. Worse, you are told subtly (or sometimes outright) that you need to get married. You are told that marriage is the best relationship. Perhaps you get the impression that marriage is the only relationship you will need.

Let me tell you. Marriage should not fulfill you. Marriage cannot fulfill you. If you are a twenty-something take this to heart. There is nothing wrong with you. Marriage will not solve all of your problems. If you are not a single twenty-something stop being marriage pushers. It hurts the singles in your church and consequently it hurts your church.

Let's get back this statistic. 

The NINES conference this year focuses on millennials. That’s a label that gets thrown around a lot. Honestly, half the time I have no idea what that means. Apparently it is anyone born between 1980 and 2000. So basically it means me and all my friends. Hmm, no wonder they always seem to be talking about me. 

Anyway, one of the speakers at the conference mentioned a very interesting statistic. He said that in the boomer generation only 9% of 25 year olds were single. That number has doubled to 20% of 25 year old millennials who are single. This is HUGE. You can talk all you want about why that is, but the fact of the matter is that churches MUST find ways to engage singles.

This same speaker mentioned that the percentage of boomers and millennials who were married at 25 and in the church was almost identical. Yet there are almost no single millennials in the church. Did you catch that? Singles are NOT in the church. Why? Frankly I think it is because churches are not acknowledging them. 

So what do we do?

Well first, stop trying to make them get married. I said this already, but I must say it again. Growing up in the church I felt like the only way to fulfill my life was to get married. Yet when I got married I realized that being married was not what I needed. 

Brothers-and-sisters I love you. I know you want what is best for those in your church. I know you want them to understand the miracle that marriage. I know you want them to experience what it means to commit to someone for the rest of their life. But you need to be honest with them. Quick fact.

Millennials can smell fake. 

They can tell when you are playing up the blessing of marriage. Look I have done it. Marriage is an exercise in humility. It is not, and was never meant to be, easy. Marriage is hard. Tell them this. Let them know that your marriage is not perfect. Share your struggles with them. 

You know what? That is EXACTLY what they want. They want you to be honest with them. They want you to share your struggles with them. They want you to share your life with them. Yes. I know this is scary, but you know what? It is Biblical. Churches are meant to be places where people come and learn from their elders. Oh and one more thing.

Let them be single.

Look, the fastest way to make a millennial leave your church is to make them feel like they are second class citizens. They have different lives then you do. They have different goals then you did. They have different backgrounds then you. But they have the same savior as you. They need the same gospel as you. Preach them the gospel. But not just from the Bible. Preach it from your life. Share with them. Give them a community that they can't find anywhere else.

Here is the bottom line.

People want respect. People want to feel needed, useful, and loved. Look, we have done a horrible disservice to our young people. Whether or not it is intentional there is a message being preached to our churches that singles are not worth anything. We need to include them in the things we do. We need to give them opportunities to serve and lead. 

Singles (yeah you're not getting out of this), seek out older married couples. They have so much to offer you. They want to pour into you, but they don't know how. Look to them. Ask questions. Push to be utilized by your church. Show them that singles are just as effective as anyone else.

May you seek to build community between singles and couples. May your church grow in faith and community. May you find those who will speak truth into your life. And many your church family be a diverse, vibrant, and fruitful family.

Amen!

The Dorea of the Holy Spirit

Those of you that have any background in Seminary or a charismatic church may be asking me. Why are we not talking about the charisma of the Holy Spirit? After all that is a free gift of grace. Though it is true that charis and charisma are used of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, today I want to talk about another, perhaps more important, word for gift.

The Kenosis of Jesus

Since creating this blog I have gotten asked several times to explain what kenosis is and why I chose to use it in my title. Since last time I did a linguistics lesson I thought that I would continue the theme and talk here about a Greek word.

The Hesed of God

Any of you that know me or have been reading the last of my blogs know that I have been going through a lot the last couple of years. Though I wouldn't particularly wish to go through any of it again, these experiences have given me some perspective on a particular Hebrew concept.

Yes you heard me right, today is a linguistics lesson - sort of.

My last post was an interpretation of Psalm 136. You can look at that post here. Some of you may notice that I did not use love, but rather covenant faithfulness. If you look at the range of translations you will see things like lovingkindness and steadfast love. All this variation is because of one Hebrew word:

חםד

This variation occurs because we don't have a direct corollary to hesed in English. The Hebrew concept of this word is vast and relies on history of the people to fully flesh out. All the above translations are correct, yet they don't really get at the complete understanding of the word.

So what does hesed mean?

Well first lets look at Psalm 136. If you look at it in the Hebrew you will find that every single line ends with hesed. (Technically it's hasdow, but that is because the pronoun is part of the word in Hebrew. Ok seriously I'm done with the technical.) What I want you to see is that Psalm 136 is sort of describing what hesed means.

Here we have the Psalmist going through the history of Israel and describing how God protected and cared for them. He starts with the might wondrous miracle of creation. Yet the very next thing is the death of the first born of Egypt. Some might find this odd if we are talking about the love of God. Yet hesed is more than just love. In fact if we look at the rest of the Psalm it talks about striking down kings and bringing Israel into the land.

Now the NIV translates this simply as love. Which I guess is correct, but love is a word that we use so much and is used to translate three separate Greek words. Add to this the fact that we are talking about God striking down kings. Love is really not enough to understand hesed.

The NASB translates hesed as lovingkindness. This is better. But again we might come across the same issues. ESV has steadfast love. Again we see love as part of the translation. It would seem that the translators think this is part of the concept.

Maybe we need to rethink how we view love?

Let's think about what happened to the people of Israel during the time described by Psalm 136. They were in slavery to Egypt for generations. They were forced to build the pyramids for the Pharaohs. This was not a fun family vacation. If we look at Exodus 3 we find that God did not think so either.

“I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey"

We don't ever really know why Israel was enslaved. Often we can look at things like the Babylonian exile and see that Israel turned from God. However that does not matter. What matters here is that God has not left his people. He has determined to save them. God is not going to continue to let His people remain in slavery. Yet to bring them out He must show his power. He must defeat the so called gods of Egypt and slay the first born of Pharaoh. This is the love of God. A love so strong that He is willing to defend His people in any way He can.

I once heard Matt Chandler (yes it's that guy again from this post) talk about the love of God. He made the analogy to himself. Matt is a pacifist. He doesn't want to hurt you. But he also loves his family. And though he is a pacifist he will not hesitate to hurt you if you try and harm his family.

For love to be true love it must also have wrath.

See this concept of hesed is one that is so close to my heart. It is a lesson that God has been teaching me for the last several years. When I did my interpretation of Psalm 136 I chose not to use the word love. Not because I don't think that God loves us. But rather because I think we need a fuller concept of love. For me the love of God is shown through His covenant faithfulness.

God did not abandon Israel and God has not abandoned us either. His love for us is vast and unending. Yet we think that love is a feeling. Not for God. Love is a choice. He chose to die for us. He chose to give up all the privileges afforded Him because He was God and become human. God did not give up on us. In fact God made the first move. With Israel (bringing them out of Egypt) and with us (dying before we were even born). Our God is a God whose covenant faithfulness knows no end.

The hesed of God is something that cannot and will not be stopped. God is faithful. But not only is he faithful, He has promised good to us. That is the covenant part. Not only will God always be there to deliver us, but He has promised to do so. This is the covenant faithfulness of God. He will not break His promise. He will always be faithful.

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

In my own life I have wondered if God is really faithful. When my ex-wife and I had a miss carriage God was faithful. When my marriage fell apart God was faithful. When I lost my job as a teacher God was faithful. When I found a new job and remembered my calling God was faithful. When I had to move for the third time in a year God was faithful. When I was provided a home and a living God was faithful.

The hesed of God is not about never having troubles. The hesed of God is about knowing that God will never leave us. It is about knowing that God is faithful to protect us. It is about God remembering His people. When you are in distress remember that God will not leave you there.

May the God who brought Israel out of Egypt save you in your distress. May you grow in your understanding of His hesed. And may His praises ever be on your lips.

Amen!

His Covenant Faithfulness Knows No End

Today I was going to write about the faithfulness of God, but I read through Psalm 136 and couldn't help but write my own.