Life. Faith. Christ. Culture.
CT Headlines Relevant Magazine news World Vision News
Priorities - the heart of this church - Dennis Mullen - 1.21.7
Listen (stream) - MP3 (right-click to save)
Series: Vision: Where MHCC is heading in 2007 (part 3 of 4)
Comments welcome (see link below)
Attitude adjustment - Thinking that holds us back - Dennis Mullen - 1.14.7
Listen (stream) - MP3 (right-click to save)
Series: Vision: Where MHCC is heading in 2007 (part 2 of 4)
Comments welcome (see link below)
Two MHCCers who have been blogging on MySpace have recently ventured out into the wider blogging community. One is Summer Hensley, whose blog “The Shelf” is on life in general and parenting in particluar, with a special focus on raising her autistic son. Summer registered more than 10,000 page views on her MySpace blog in 2006, and now she is putting her new content on the new blog. I highly recommend her work.
The other is Hannah, who is 15 so I’ll simply use her first name here. “Peace, Love and Hannah’s Blog” is well-written and thought-provoking.
“Why does God take some home who still have so much to offer…
when there are so many others he leaves behind who could more easily be spared?”
I’m paraphrasing that quote from Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary. I believe that baseball commissioner Landis said it at the death of Christy Matthewson at age 45. The press called Matthewson “the Christian gentleman” because of his integrity at a time when the game was dominated by morally questionable men like Ruth, Cobb, gamblers, bootleggers, and even Landis himself.
I’ve thought about that quote a lot since Saturday evening when our MHCC friend A. L. Woody died of cancer at age 37, one day after his wedding anniversary, leaving behind a wife, Barbara, and twin daughters Casey and Sarah, age 10. Why would God take someone like A. L., who still had so much left to do when God knows there are others who could more easily be spared?!
The thing is, A. L. didn’t think like that. John Pryor, in his funeral talk yesterday, said: “His attitude was not ‘Why me?’ but ‘Why NOT me’? He firmly believed that he would remain alive as long as God wanted him to - and that God always knows best. In his struggle against cancer, A. L. remained unflinchingly brave and regularly encouraged those around him. He fought hard to live because he wanted as much time as possible with his family, but he never feared death or doubted his salvation.”
In the end, I have to admit that A. L. was right and I am wrong. It’s true that A. L. had to leave undone his work as a father (work that only he could do) while others (myself included) seem to have less pressing tasks. But the world hasn’t operated with fairness and equity since Eden, and it won’t again until God’s Kingdom fully comes. To choose faith over despair is to make a commitment to trust God when it doesn’t all add up and wait for the end of the story to be written.
Thanks, A. L., for doing that. Wish you were still here though.
In response to my thirst for adventure that I described in my last blog post (which received wider-than-normal readership because it also ran in our church newsletter) I have had no shortage of suggestions from friends on how to kick-start the jaw-dropping life I desire. One guy suggested that I join him on an upcoming two-week backpacking trip. I think he was kidding, as I doubt he wants to carry me out of the woods after three days. But his long-lived passion for serious hiking is contagious.
A woman offered me the chance to join her in leading a group of middle/high school students on a whitewater rafting trip. I might actually try this one, though I fear it may remind me how much I like to sit inside where it is warm and dry and read. Another friend at church suggested that if I wanted adventure I could lead the soon-to-be-enjoyed congregational budget meeting. Um, no.
The suggestions, along with a great supportive email from another friend, reminded me that even when life is unsatisfying, it is great to have community, Christian friends who care what you think and respond to it.
I’m seeing it this weekend in our church’s grief over the death of A. L. Woody, a thirty-seven-year-old husband and father who died suddenly on Saturday evening after battling an aggressive cancer for all of this year. I can see in our church family that people not only want to help this family, we actually grieve with them.
Thanks for providing me with community. Thanks to those of you who have invited the Woodys into your life. Let’s keep our eyes open for those who still need to be welcomed in to the family.
Blogged with Flock
Last week at the conference I attended at the mega-mega church Willow Creek, I took a stroll around their massive campus. At one point I found myself walking across the back of their “old” sanctuary, worship center, whatever they call it, a room that has been replaced in the past few years by a much larger space (pictured at right, from my phone camera).A woman behind me, evidently a Willow member, said to her friend: “Oh, I haven’t been back in here for a long time. The young people use it now.” Then she added: “I miss this room. It’s so much warmer and more intimate than the new one.”
Folks, the old worship center must seat a couple thousand, and looks like nothing so much as a theater! Now you can see from my fuzzy photo that the new room is far from intimate. But what a lesson on perspective, on tinting the past with a golden hue.
I haven’t heard anyone complain about missing our old sanctuary, though who could deny it was WARM - 85-90 in the summer! But we all have to be careful about longing for the old days, for the way it used to be. We’re six months in to our new building, and the newness of change has worn off. Don’t let that fact gild the past.
Blogged with Flock
“The greatest use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.” James Truslow Adams. Last week at Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit, I heard Bill Hybels interview rock superstar Bono on his faith and his passionate work against poverty and AIDS in Africa. Bono is one of the world’s most famous people, even though my Dad thinks he used to be married to Cher and many folks under 20 don’t know him as well as I expected.
Bono said in the interview that celebrity is a ridiculous thing, an exact inversion of the Bible’s principles on value. But, he says, since he HAS celebrity, he chooses to spend it on Afirca. Celebrity gets him in to see the President, Senators, UN Leaders, and other wealthy and powerful individuals who can DO something. Celebrity also connects him to the masses of us who can each do a LITTLE something that can add up to MUCH.
Bono is directly involved in the One Campaign which, among other things, calls the U. S. to use one percent of its budget for basic health, water, food and education in the world’s poorest countries. I like this idea because I read in both Testaments of the Scriptures that God takes interest in nations as well as individuals and how they do justice.
Another group I’ve been impressed with is World Vision’s One-Life Revolution, a Christian-based organization that MHCC has worked with in the 30-Hour Famine. For the past 11 months, some of our youth have been raising money to dig a well for an African village to provide clean, life-giving drinking water to the people there. The last event in this effort will be a spaghetti and salad dinner here at MHCC on Sunday night, September 10 at 5p before evening activities. Come and donate!
More importantly, find your place in Africa, South America, Asia or other parts of the global south where poverty and disease is rampant, and then read Matthew 25:31f and see where Jesus is in such circumstances. Find your place to pray about daily and where YOU can get involved.
Many of you have enough money to know that it doesn’t satisfy. So start spending it (and your life) on something that will outlast it.
Blogged with Flock
Our church gives away three weekly publications from Standard Publishing - Seek, The Lookout, and Christian Standard. The latter two maintain a fair amount of content online, and Christian Standard sends out an email newsletter that partially duplicates the print edition and contains additional, immediate content. I recommend it.Since we moved to the new building, the display for these publications has been a little hard to find. Linda Mowrer improved it greatly this week. Look for these and other handouts in a new display in the Atrium, just to the right as you pass through the main entrance.
This article from Christianity Today illustrates the mixed bag of statistical information that I have discovered while preaching on debt. Take credit-card debt, for example. Some anti-debt prophets seem to say that nearly everyone is in trouble. Others suggest that the averages are high because a few (and only a few) are in serious trouble. Of course, as I’ve said in my sermons, what really matters is where you are and where you’re heading.
My brother recently reminded me that the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive may contain some old MHCC web pages. This link will take you to the list of pages at our old domain, morrisonhill.faithweb.com, which we abandoned in late 2001 or early 2002.
MHCC had other sites before 2001, including a Roane County Christian School site. I administered those sites, but can’t remember the addresses. Since search capability on the Wayback Machine seems to be weak, I wonder if any of you old-timers could help me remember and look. They were probably hosted by AOL and Compuserve.
P. S. Shortly after I posted the above, I stumbled across the old RCCS site. You can follow a link in it to the first MHCC site. Unfortunately, Bill Gunter’s cool woodgrain design is diluted in the archive.
On Sunday, May 14 (which is Mother’s Day) we will begin a two-week series at church called “Escape the Debt Trap” based on a book of that name by Dr. Kregg Hood.
Since MHCC just signed for a large loan on our new building, you might wonder about the consistency of talking about debt as a trap from which we need to escape. Well, consider:
1. Borrowing money isn’t a sin. In the Old Testament, God allowed his people to loan money to one another as long as they charged no interest, and He allowed them to loan to foreigners with interest (see Deuteronomy 23:19-20). I would guess that 90% of us borrowed money to buy our homes. You can bet that our church wouldn’t stand still for this if lending and borrowing were sins. Still, even reasonable borrowing limits us, for: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Now that MHCC has creditors, paying them is a moral and legal obligation, and they have a right to review our books.This is more than a little relevant to our personal finances too, because we participate in a market that encourages debt. We’re told: “If it’s OK to borrow for your house, why not for a car, and a computer, and for carpet and clothes? Why not use your credit card for groceries, utility bills and gas? And if you can’t pay it off at the end of the month, just extend it out as long as you need to (and pay the interest).” That leads to my second point:
2. MHCC is a reflection of her people, and so our church’s financial situation reflects the finances of the people who attend here. What I mean is that MHCC’s need to borrow may reveal that many of her people are trapped in personal debt.I think you will enjoy reading Dr. Hood’s short book (which we began handing out on Sunday, April 30 ). If you are completely out of debt, or you have your debt under control, you’ll find this study to be a rewarding review, and maybe it will inspire you to mentor others. If you have a debt problem (moderate or serious), you will find real help in this practical, Biblical study.
As a follow-up to this study, we will offer in June a four-week class on Biblical Financial Principles, and we will make available some personal financial counseling to those who will commit to it.
Since this is such an important issue, be sure to invite your friends to this special study on May 14 and 21.
Today our blog takes on a new format and makes use of software that allows you to make comments. Just click the “comments” link at the bottom of any post.
Johnprypr.org is the web site for the music ministry of our youth minister.