Comfort Zone

We've received great reports from youth group who are at Challenge this week! Good attitudes, good outreach projects, openness to letting the Word make a real difference in their lives. I'm looking forward to hearing stories from the full week after they return.

One of the events that our youth participated in was offering to pray with people who passed by them on the street. Apparently, it was a great experience - even though the thought of it must have been nerve-wracking at first. But, they jumped in, and saw God move in the lives of people. They were taken beyond their "comfort zone" - that space in which we feel comfortable and safe.

You've heard dozens of times "go beyond your comfort zone," whether in church, in business, or in school. It's a challenge to venture beyond that boundary between safe and risky, between comfortable and unsure. Jesus continually challenged people to step out of their comfort zones. You cannot come to Christ in faith without leaving your comfort zone, and you cannot serve the mission He has for you without passing that border.

But I prefer a different phrase than "go beyond your comfort zone." I would rather challenge you to "expand your comfort zone." Not only go beyond the borders, but then extend those borders! Bust through them as Jesus challenges us to, but then change them. Once you do something like praying with a total stranger, rather than retreat back into your same ol' comfort zone, redraw the boundaries to now include things like praying with total strangers.

Call it "gerrymandering for Christ"! Change your borders to include more and more of the things Christ wants us to do in your new, improved comfort zone. Stretch, but don't forget to then grow!

Challenge, Colorado, and Shalom

Challenge: This Sunday, 15 students and 3 (very brave) adults are heading off for Challenge, the EFCA conference for youth. I have heard tremendous reports from our youth about previous Challenge trips, including several coming to Christ. So, I "challenge" you to pray for our group as they travel. Please pray for God to bear much fruit, for safety, and for unity.

Colorado: Lynne and I will miss you this weekend. I have had a long-standing commitment to perform the renewal of wedding vows for friends of ours to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It is their desire for their renewal to be a strong witness of God's faithfulness to their non-Christian loved ones who will be attending, so please pray for us to put together a Christ-honoring service. We got to know this couple in Texas, we reconnected with them after we all had moved to California, and the celebration will be in Colorado - quite a nomadic friendship.

Shalom: This week, I attended an informative presentation at the Jewish Community Center near the Sprint complex. Several professors from their Jewish adult education program gave previews of what they teach in their classes. It was interesting to see how they approach Scripture and the rabbinic writings from centuries past. I was also interested in some of their comments about how the Jewish writings from the 3rd and 4th centuries were written in response to the rise of Christianity. They were quite welcoming to have a Gentile pastor attend, and I did pretty well not to verbally object to anything that was said. They are not coming from the direction of conservative Jewish scholarship, so I hold more to the traditional view of the Hebrew Scriptures than many of them do!

In order for us to be able to engage people with the claims of Christ, we must understand at least some of where they are coming from. To fail to do so shows that we don't really care about where they are, just where we think they should be. Only when we understand where someone is can we show them specifically how Christ speaks to them specifically.

Serve well.

Hallmark Holidays

This coming Sunday is Fathers' Day - one of those days I call a "Hallmark Holiday." Not because there's anything wrong with them, or anything wrong with Hallmark (our sister-in-law works there), but just as a fun name for "holidays" that are not "holy days." These are "holidays" created by society, not biblical events or decrees. Again, there's nothing wrong with them.

Fathers' Day was started in 1910 in Spokane, Washington, by the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her dad like people honored mothers on Mothers' Day. Mothers' Day has it's roots in some pagan deity rituals, which the church eventually redefined to be the day to honor your "Mother Church," the church you were baptized in. Then in the 1600's, the church in England expanded the day to include celebrating biological mothers, too. It wasn't until 1870 that Mothers' Day became part of the American tradition, when Julia Ward Howe (who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic) called for a day to commemorate mothers, and the idea caught on.

I think celebrating moms and dads is a good thing. And we might as well pick a day on the calendar to make sure that we're honoring them as we should. Whether it's my mom and dad, my in-laws, or just moms and dads in general, they are worth honoring.

On the other hand, you will find that I'm rather low key about building my preaching calendar around these "Hallmark Holidays." My preaching calendar is based on Christian holidays and whichever books of the Bible or biblical topics we're studying. Perhaps I'll choose a topic to address some current events, if appropriate. But I'm not in the habit of always preaching a Mothers' Day sermon on Mothers' Day, or a Fathers' Day sermon on Fathers' Day. On occasion, perhaps. But not every year. Part of my motive is to make sure society isn't dictating our church calendar, especially our preaching calendar - even though there's nothing wrong with days like Fathers' Day.

But ... you'll notice ... I am writing a Fathers' Day article! Hmmmm .... how do I squirm out of this conundrum????

How about this way: I love you, Dad!