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Get healthy — go to church. A Wall Street Journal article last week (May 3) reported on the results of a study that, "a growing body of scientific evidence shows that Americans who attend religious services at least once a week enjoy better-than-average health and lower rates of illness, including depression. Perhaps most important, the studies show that weekly attendance confers a significant reduction in mortality risk over a given period of time." According to the Journal, "The panel reported that the studies showed a 25% lower mortality rate for those who attend religious services at least weekly. . . Religious services at churches, temples and mosques boast various features that can be beneficial to health — meditation, a social network, a set of values that discourage smoking, infidelity and other unhealthy behaviors." As the medical professor who chaired the panel concluded, "After seeing the data, I think I should go to church." Hey, that's what we've been saying all along. Michael
Duduit, Editor Click here to visit "I Was Just Thinking" for insights and observations about faith and culture issues. If you missed this year's National Conference on Preaching, click here to learn about ordering audio cassettes and CDs of conference sessions and workshops.
It's all about the weekend In a recent edition of his Leadership Uncensored newsletter, Ed Young, Jr., reminded pastors: "At Fellowship, our favorite saying is, 'It's all about the weekend.' Why? Because throughout scripture, the value of corporate worship is hammered home again and again — that's huge. Also, the weekend is the biggest port of entry into your church. That's where most of the guests and visitors show up. So, to make an indelible impression on the most people, you've got to have the weekend hitting on all cylinders. "Here are some of the ways we've stayed weekend-focused at Fellowship Church: "1. Put weekend preparation at the top of your day. Personally, I keep the weekend the main thing by making it the first thing of my day. The most difficult thing that I do is thinking about, researching, and praying for the messages — it's very taxing. If I don't jump on that in the morning, I won't have the energy I need to do it justice. "2. Make the weekend a priority in your spending. If you really want to know what is the most important thing in your church, look at where you're spending the resources. If you are spending more money on stuff that has nothing to do with the weekend, then you're off balance and you're not focused on what's most important. The majority, I think, of funding, resources, and staffing should go towards the weekend. "3. Give the weekend serious attention during staff meetings. During our weekly Executive Team meetings, what are we spending most of our time talking about? The weekend. We talk about it, we critique last weekend, we compare numbers, and discuss what went well, and what didn't go well. Then we look at the next weekend and target what we can do to make it a better weekend. Of course we talk about other stuff that's happening in the church but we keep our top staff people focused on the weekend." (For more from Ed, visit www.creativepastors.com. And don't miss Ed's article on "Communicating with Creativity" in the May-June issue of Preaching magazine (www.preaching.com).)
Bugs Bunny meets Brian McClaren In an article on "Christianity, Pop Culture, and the Quest for Hip," Russell Moore talks about the "updating" of the Warners Brothers cartoon characters, and makes the comparison to elements of the emergent church movement. He writes: "Many good critiques of the 'generous orthodoxy' of Brian McLaren have been offered — noting everything from the movement's embrace of a faulty view of truth to its flirtation with understandings of salvation that reject the necessity of explicit faith in Christ. But even beyond the specific doctrinal crises in the emergent movement, there is the sad fact that this really isn't all that new. "That's because the problem is not simply with the postmodern fuzziness of Brian McLaren and his devotees. The problem instead is that American evangelicalism long ago sold out to cultural accommodation to the consumerist, therapeutic ethos of contemporary American society. Now that side of evangelicalism is as 'lame' in the eyes of the culture as a Looney Tunes cartoon from the 1960s. And so, evangelicalism 'reinvents' itself — in the image of a brooding, angst-ridden twenty-something coffeehouse culture. "Of course, there is more than one expression of the 'emergent' phenomenon — and not all of it is bad. The call to community and authenticity in life together are as old as the New Testament. Some of the worship practices that are emerging from the emergent church are an improvement on the canned infotainment of standard evangelical fare. But within the McLaren wing of the 'emergent' church, the simultaneous rejection of propositional truth and Christocentric revelation — coupled with a suspicion of authority in general — result in a Christianity that just happens to coincide with the cynical milieu of reality television, NPR-style religious pluralism, and the postmodern fads of the local university English department. "That may be hip, but it certainly isn't counter-cultural." (Click here to read the full article.) http://www.henryinstitute.org/commentary/read.php?article=20050311
Prophetic preaching requires 'blood on the sermon' In his sermon at last fall's Academy of Homiletics meeting, Princeton prof Brian Blount observed, "I have, admittedly, often gone for what a combat tactician might call the sermonic clean kill. The military clean kill concept is, as far as I am concerned, a draconian one. Tactically, it may work, it may well achieve its aims by surgically obliterating its targets on the ground. Spiritually, it fills the air with the sensibility of democratically sanctioned assassination, the targeted, sophisticated, and most importantly unmessy killing of one to thousands on the military and political cheap. I first heard the term when reading op ed pages about the Clinton administration's Balkan Air War strategy. The fight from the air, for our side at least, was a relatively clean war. It achieved its objectives, its "kill," by transforming people and the institutions they managed without getting our soldiers bogged down on the ground. "I, for one, am not suggesting that we have more messy wars. To the contrary, I would prefer that we arrange for a circumstance where we have no more wars at all. I am afraid, however, that in a world where it is thought that war can be fought and won cleanly, on the cheap in terms of human lives and military material, that we will be more prone to engage in activities of fighting where we would have heretofore exhausted every non-fighting avenue that we could. What is next for a country that finds it can topple entire regimes in a relatively clean way? . . . The words of Lawrence of Arabia are perhaps pertinent here. 'Making war or rebellion,' he said, 'is messy, like eating soup off a knife.' And messy it should be. It is the messiness that deters one from making it until it is absolutely clear that there is no other way. "John (in the Revelation) seems to believe that, as uneasy as the image may feel, prophetic letters and no doubt prophetic sermons should engage the person writing or preaching them in a messy, bloody rhetorical war. The prophet has to know that the objective he or she seeks will only come at great cost; it will cause a disturbance that will create chaos in the process of catalyzing change. I suppose that Martin Luther King, Jr., knew how much his messy preaching about the Vietnam War was going to cost him. I suppose that prophets like Jeremiah who told his own people to give up to the Babylonians because they had become so corrupt that God had now given up on them must have known how much his messy message was going to cost him. I suppose that prophets like Micah and Amos and Hosea and Isaiah who railed against the abuses of a people they desperately loved must have known that because of those railings their own people would end up despising them. Unpatriotic. Turncoats. Betrayers. All of them. "I suppose it fits the image of John who would tell his Christ believers to declare a singular allegiance to Christ even when he and they knew that making such a declaration went against the grain of Roman patriotic sensibility and Roman political-religious loyalty, and might therefore cost them their lives. I can't imagine that John came to the point where he felt it was necessary to write the material he wrote, in the harsh language that he wrote it, unless he felt that there was no other way to encourage and challenge his people in the midst of their very dangerous circumstance. In the rhetorical war in which he found himself, where he would only inspire a victorious faith for his people if he killed off their fear of Rome and its draconian desire to be worshipped as god and lord of history, John realized that he was in for the messiest of fights. His prophetic sermon would have to have blood all over it."
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ILLUSTRATION: Authority, Sexuality In his book Evangelical Landscapes: Facing Critical Issues of the Day (Baker), John G. Stackhouse, Jr., writes, "Ignorance of the Christian faith in our culture is compounded by an equally fundamental problem: a growing distance between Christian ways of deciding about matters of truth and virtue and other ways of deciding about such things. "To pick an example both obvious and important, we can look at sexuality. . . . The very way most North Americans decide about sexual issues is not Christian. Who seeks nowadays to investigate all that the Bible says about such matters so as to submit to its authority? Who listens attentively to the clergy? Who takes time to seek traditional wisdom? . . . "Homosexuality has become significant as the latest battleground in the war for sexual freedom, and that war is itself a campaign within the larger revolution in personal liberty. . . . What we need to recognize more fundamentally, both within our church disputes on this matter and in society at large, is that this cultural dispute is not fundamentally about homosexuality but about ethical authority. Who or what is going to say what is right or wrong? The reflexive answer from the man on the street, the woman on the legal bench, or the cleric in the pulpit is the same in many cases: a vulgar, shallow liberalism that amounts merely to the bromide that the individual should be free to do what he or she likes as long as his or her freedom does not impinge on another's. "When it comes to ultimate matters, then, many of our North American neighbors have resorted either to a secularism that frees one from all religious authority or to a hyper-individualistic 'religion ala carte.'" (Click here to learn more about the book Evangelical Landscapes.)
ILLUSTRATION: Impurity, Immorality Ken Walker wrote in the Christian Reader about six-foot-two-inch, 280-pound Clay Shiver, a center for the 1995 Florida State Seminole football team. Regarded as a likely All-American, when Shiver got word that Playboy magazine planned to name him to their All-American team, he prepared his response: "Thanks, but no thanks." "I don't want to let anyone down," he said, "and number one on that list is God." In his response, Clay Shiver quoted Luke 12:48: "To whom much is given, from him much will be required." . . . Fleeing immorality to remain pure seems dramatic in our day. But risking a bit of ridicule is a small price to pay to maintain integrity and honor. (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 4-30-05)
ILLUSTRATION: Timing, Miracles Charley Reeb shares the story (adapted from the Sunday School Times) of an Eastern king who was seated in a garden while one of his counselors spoke of the wonderful works of God. "Show me a sign," said the king, "and I will believe." "Here are four acorns," said the counselor. "Majesty, will you plant them in the ground, then stoop down for a moment and look into the clear pool of water?" The king did so. "Now, look up," said the counselor. The king looked up and saw four oak trees where he had planted the acorns. "This is indeed the work of God!" the king exclaimed. "How long were you looking into the water?" asked the counselor, and the king replied, "Only a second." The advisor said, "Eighty years have passed as a second." The king looked at his garments and they were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the pool and he had become an old man. "There is no miracle here!" he said angrily. "Yes, it is God's work," answered the counselor, "whether he did it in one second or in eighty years."
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ILLUSTRATION: Priorities As the elderly man lay dying in his bed, death's agony was suddenly pushed aside as he smelled the aroma of his favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs. Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with intense concentration, supported himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. In labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing wide-eyed into the kitchen. There, spread out on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies! Was it heaven or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture, one hand on the edge of the table. The aged and withered hand quiveringly made its way to a cookie near the edge of the table; feeling the warm soft dough actually made the pain of his bones subside for a moment. His parched lips parted; the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life. All at once he felt a sting on his hand. He looked up to see his wife, still holding the spatula she had just used to smack his hand, saying: "Stay out of those! They're for the funeral."
ILLUSTRATION: Forgiveness, Debts An elderly man took his little grandson for a walk around the local cemetery. Pausing before one gravestone he said, "There lies a very honest man. He died owing me 50 dollars, but he struggled to the end to pay off his debts, and if anyone has gone to heaven, he has." They walked on a bit further and then came to another grave. The old man pointed to the gravestone and said, "Now there's a different type of man altogether. He owed me 60 dollars and he died without ever trying to pay me back. If anyone has gone to hell, he has." The little boy thought for a while and then said, "You know, Grandpa, you are very lucky." "Why?" asked the old man. "Well, whichever place you go to, you'll have some money to draw on."
A little girl went up to her mother one day while holding her stomach saying, "Mommy, my stomach hurts." Her mother replied, "That's because it's empty. You have to put something into it!" She then prepared a bowl of soup. Later that day the pastor and his wife came over for dinner. The pastor began to feel bad. Holding his head he said, "I have such a terrible headache!" The little girl looked up at him, giving him a sweet smile, and said, "That's because it's empty. You have to put something into it!" (Pastor Tim's CleanLaugh List)
Leader Links is a web-based publication for Christian leaders. The May issue is now available at www.leaderlinks.com, and features an interview with business executive and author Regi Campbell on carrying faith into the workplace. For additional leadership insights and resources delivered to your inbox each month, subscribe to LeadingNow (just click here to subscribe).
ILLUSTRATION: Ministry, Emergencies A plane hit a patch of severe turbulence and the passengers were holding on tight as it rocked and reeled through the night. A little old lady turned to a minister who was sitting behind her and said, "You're a man of God. Can't you do something about this?" He replied, "Sorry, I can't. I'm in sales, not management."
"He will never get to heaven who desires to go there alone." (Thomas Fuller)
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Eight Rejected Changes to the Food Pyramid 8. Veggie Tale characters get own level 7. Pyramid re-done to include creamy nougat center 6. New food category: 'Twinkiepizzashakes' 5. "Nutter Butter" now included in dairy section 4. The Banana Splits (the old band) reunited for Pyramid promo tour 3. Pyramid held up on each end by kneeling Keebler elves 2. Fat content in food now measured in gross tonnage 1. New corporate name: "Mc-Pyramid"! (Copyright 2005 Dave Tippett. Permission is granted to send this to others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes. Via Mikey's Funnies)
And finally . . . A 21-year-old German man just sold his second-hand Volkswagen Golf for nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Why such a princely sum for a 1999 car with 47,000 miles on it? It's all in who drove those miles: the former owner was Joseph Ratzinger, now better known as Pope Benedict XVI. According to a May 6 Reuters story, Benjamin Halbe bought the car from a local dealer in January for 10,000 euros (about $12,800). "Ratzinger's private secretary sold the car in January to a car dealer, who then sold the car to Halbe without going into details about the previous owner. Halbe has been quoted in newspapers as saying the dealer told him the car had a 'heavenly ride.' He later looked at the registration papers and saw it had belonged to Ratzinger." Halbe sold the car on eBay to an American bidder, who will have to appear in person to collect his or her new vehicle. He included a copy of the registration in the auction that showed the car belonged to "Josef Kardinal Ratzinger" and had registration plate: "CD 140 XG." The address was listed as "Citta del Vaticano." No word on the make or model of the new Pope-mobile.
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