It Is More Blessed to Give than to Receive

I remember it plain as day. It was a strange scene to say the least. 

Years ago, I was helping to lead Vacation Bible School. It was the end of the day and I was putting things back in the closet when I heard the shrieks from a child on the playground. Hurrying outside, I saw something that I didn’t think was possible. 

One of our older children had chosen (unwisely) to get in a swing that was clearly designed for a much smaller child. The swing was a kind of harness, complete with holes for the child’s legs to fit through. When I stepped out on to the playground, I saw that her legs had gotten stuck in the harness. She was imprisoned; held fast to the swing. But that wasn’t all. She was hanging upside down.  

Now, I have no idea how this must have happened. But what compounded the oddity of the scene was that another child, about the same age, was standing nearby watching the girl scream in terror. The witness to this playground malfunction was a mature child who could have, I thought, brought some kind of assistance to the dilemma at hand. And yet, he just stood there looking at her while she screamed.  

After remedying the conundrum with the gravity-defying child, I turned my attention to the child who had watched the girl hang upside down.  

Perplexed by the other child’s obvious nonchalant response to his peer’s predicament, I asked him, “Why didn’t you try and help her?”  

He shrugged and said, “The devil told me I didn’t need to.” 

I was irritated with the child until I thought more about his response. The more that I reflected on it, the more I found myself moved by the honesty of his statement. We oftentimes assume that evil wishes for us to take a particular malicious action. However, sometimes the tempter succeeds in getting us to do nothing when something is called for.  

Jesus calls the devil the Deceiver, after all. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul highlights a teaching from Jesus that we do not have access to in the Gospels. He says, “In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35). 

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” 

Funny statement, this is. We’ve heard it all our lives. Although we don’t have a record of Jesus saying these exact words, he does tell us that when we “give… it will be given (back) to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”  (Luke 6:38) 

Here’s the thing. I don’t think we believe it. I don’t think we actually believe that it is more of a blessing to give—that is, to be generous, to contribute, to share--than it is to receive.  

If we stop and think about it, the statement seems absurd. Who doesn’t want to receive? We are consumed with consumption. It is far better to be served. It is far more desirable to be comfortable. It is far more satisfying to get what we desire.  

Besides, we don’t have enough to share or to give away. Right?  

Ah, this is the deception that we allow ourselves to buy into. We equate giving with loss rather than gift or blessing.  

In truth, I’m not sure we openly talk about this. Much of our energy is placed on the needs that exist and not the blessing that we receive when we contribute. We tend to emphasize the morality of giving, and that we are compelled to give. Not surprisingly, then, we grow resentful of those who ask us to give or share.  

But Paul gets it. In lifting up the truth about giving, he draws our attention to a God who knows the joy of being a creator of good things, of being radically generous, of bestowing blessings upon others. Jesus teaches us that it is a blessing to God when He gives us life, supplies our needs, showers us with good things.  

We give and contribute and are generous because God has first been generous to us! To give is not a burden. True, giving is a sacrifice. But the gift is that in giving we receive far more than we could have ever asked or imagined.  

But we just don’t buy it, do we?  

We’ve allowed ourselves to become stingy with the gifts God has given us. We hold on to our resources because we cannot imagine how God could bless us by giving something valuable away.  

Isn’t this the story of the boy who shared his meager lunch with Jesus, only to see God work a miracle through it? We are resistant to believe that God could be that powerful with our own sacrifices, and our own giving. So, we choose not to give.  

But the truth is, giving is such a blessing! Rebecca and I have been roundly astounded by God’s blessings to us when we have tithed our incomes to the church and contributed offerings to needy causes. Many would argue that we are not being wise stewards of our resources. And from a worldly perspective, that is definitely true. The money we give away could have been used to make improvements on our home, invested in our retirements, or put aside for our children’s education. And yet, God has always, always, supplied our needs (and then some). When we have given generously, we have been richly blessed beyond measure.  

Why are we so resistant to believing that it is more blessed to give than to receive? 

I don’t know. Perhaps we’ve been deceived by the world. Perhaps the devil has convinced us we that we don’t have to give.  

You know, the Deceiver’s not stupid. He knows what a blessing giving can be.  

The Midwives Who Feared God More Than Men

Captain Kirk and Spock. Napoleon Dynamite and Pedro Sanchez. Thelma and Louise. Marlin and Dory. Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan. Han and Chewie. Woody and Buzz. Frodo and Sam.  

Shiphrah and Puah. 

No, these two women are not featured in a motion picture (at least not yet). However, if they were, it would simply be called, “The Midwives.” Although these two women have not been cast in a summer blockbuster, their story figures prominently as we consider our sermon series about ‘Sharing the Path.’ 

They share the path, alright. As outlaws. 

Go back in time with me to a place when God’s people had made a home for themselves in Egypt. For years, the Hebrews had been revered for their wise son’s stewardship and leadership during a terrible famine. The sons and daughters of Joseph had multiplied exponentially in the years following his death and they filled the land of the Egyptians. 

As the story in Exodus details, however, “a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” (Exodus 1:8-10) 

Again, it bears repeating: The king dealt shrewdly with them. 

As a result, the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews. They forced them to build cities and to do their bidding. “But, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” (Exodus 1:12-13).  

Enter Shiphrah and Puah.  

Ever-frustrated by the over-abundant Hebrews, the King sent for these two Hebrew midwives. He told them, “When you help the Hebrew women in child birth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” (Exodus 1:15-16)  

Infanticide, horrifically, makes frequent appearances in history. We may recall that Herod once ordered the deaths of all the boys in Bethlehem, two years of age and younger. Jesus narrowly escaped (ironically) to Egypt with Mary and Joseph.  

Herod's shrewd thinking is truly cunning. Children are vulnerable and won’t fight back. Easier to nip them in the bud before they blossom into legitimate threats--or so the thinking went among the Pharaohs and the Herods of the world.  

“The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.” (Exodus 1:8). 

The women feared God. They feared their Maker and did not do what the king had directed. In words later echoed by Peter in Acts 5:29, these women concluded that they “must obey God rather than men.”  

What courage this must have required! What pluck! These two women had conspired together, at the risk of their lives, to disobey the king in order to save the Hebrew boys.  

The king was none too pleased to learn that his plan had been thwarted. “Why have you done this?” he demanded to know. “Why have you let the boys live?”  

The midwives answered, and I quote their clever scheming: “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before we (the midwives) arrive.” (Exodus 1:19) 

Ah, Shiphrah and Puah. Not only are they faithful and brave, they too are wickedly clever, as well. “Hebrew women are strong. They give birth before we can get there. Thus, we cannot kill their children before they take their first breaths.”  

“So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God (it’s mentioned twice in the text!), he gave them families of their own.” (Exodus 1:21) 

Do you have a friend like Shiphrah and Puah? If not, you’d best find one. Each of us needs a friend who will help us to be brave and to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. We need friends to help us remember that we should be fearful of God and not man.  

Thank God for the Shiphrah and Puahs of the world. May we be found to be as shrewd and courageous as they.  

What to Do When the Mission Field Fills Your Church

Some years ago, I served as a youth minister. As I came to learn, working with children and adolescents can be quite the education. Young people demand that we get to the point quickly, and that we make the message accessible and authentic. 

But what I most remember about my youth ministry days was how effective young people are at teaching. And by teaching, I mean teaching me. 

If I recall correctly, we were sprawled out in a circle on the floor of the youth room when I shared the old familiar story about Hannah’s son Samuel and how he became Israel’s prophet par excellence.  

“What does God want us to learn from this story,” I asked the youth. 

A middle-schooler perked up, “You mean besides the fact that we should have more lock-ins? Didn’t you say something about this kid sleeping in the sanctuary of God?”  

I sighed. “Yes, besides the fact that we should have more lock-ins. What is God trying to tell us in this story?” 

A skeptical teenage girl caught me off guard with her observation. 

“Let me get this straight,” she said. “Hannah gave her son to God?” 

“Yes. She dedicated her son, Samuel, to God.” 

“My parents haven’t dedicated me to anything,” she said soberly.  

After a few moments of silence, a high school guy spoke up and said, “I think it’s cool that Samuel had someone to go to when he had a question—when he didn’t know what was going on.”  

A few others nodded in quiet agreement.  

A high school senior then spoke up with a question that sounded much more like a statement. “It was the priest, Eli, that taught him how to listen for God’s voice, wasn’t it?”  

“Yes, it was,” I confirmed. “He taught Samuel how to hear God’s voice and then instructed him to respond to God by saying, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”  

The senior held my gaze for a moment, and then said simply, “Yea. I like that.” 

“I do, too,” I said. “I do, too.” 

This past Sunday our youth led us in worship. Just as it was true during Samuel’s time, God has something to say to us today. Under the leadership of Carol Cloer, our youth have been listening for God’s voice these last weeks in Sunday School and on Wednesday evenings. Their leadership on Sunday helped reveal that God was speaking to us through them.  

“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” 

Are we? Can we say with confidence that we are listening for God’s Word? The story about Samuel and Eli opens with the revelation that, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” I don’t believe for one moment that this is a reflection of God’s absence but is rather an indictment on His people. Apparently, they had a hearing problem.  

And God had something to say to them about it. If memory serves correctly, God took Eli’s sons to task for their evil ways.  

God has something to say to us, and I for one am grateful that He frequently speaks through the youngest among us. I pray that we will be receptive to the message that he sends us through our youth. 

There are ways that we can be like Eli and help shape the faith of our young people. True, our church has employed college students and young people to help teach the faith to dozens of children in our community in After School and in our upcoming summer camp. Yes, both Carol and I will be teaching these Bible stories to the children throughout the weeks they are in camp, but more needs to be done to equip our children to recognize God’s voice and to respond to His invitation to follow Jesus.  

And this is where our entire church can be like Eli. 

This summer, I would like to challenge you to play a role in the mission and ministry that we will offer to our community. There are three levels of engagement that you can choose from: 

1.) Invite your Sunday School class, Circle, or gang of ramp builders to adopt a class of summer camp kids. Ask Kelly how your group of friends can support and encourage these children and their families. 

2.) Tell Kelly that you’re able to commit to volunteering during the Bible story time, or during art or recreation. Learn the children’s names. Take a moment to piggyback on the lesson that Carol and I teach each day. Tell the college student staff member that you’d like to share your testimony with the class one day. 

3.) Arrange to visit and hang out at the conclusion of the day when parents linger for a few minutes of conversation while their kids take their last crack at the tire swing. Introduce yourself. Tell them how glad you are that they are a part of our community and our church’s summer ministry. Go further and make the connection between that parent and the child you helped to paint earlier in the day. Tell that parent how you heard their child make such an astute observation during the Bible story time. Share with that parent how their child taught you about God’s love.  

For years, churches would take mission trips where we would round up children in Backyard Bible Schools to teach them about Jesus. Hear the Good News, brothers and sisters! The children that we used to have to go and find are coming to us! 

To put it simply, the story means that it’s our turn to be Eli. It’s our turn to teach children and youth how to recognize God’s voice and to respond to his Word.  

It’s summer, y’all. And because of God’s rich blessings, our community will be coming to us. They will be worshipping in our Mission and Fellowship Center. They will be learning Bible Stories in our sanctuary. They will be building relationships in our church’s classrooms. In truth, they will be spending more time in our church than we will.  

It certainly would be a shame for God to speak through these children and we’re not at church to hear it.  

Don’t just pick one option on engagement, First Baptist. Pick all three.  

Act Now to Preserve Your Life

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” Jesus in Matthew 7:24

It’s as though Jesus knows what we are thinking. After hearing his Sermon on the Mount, many of us are not so sure that we are willing to walk down the new path that he is bushwhacking.

Jesus’s teachings are hard. They are impractical. They demand sacrifice and a radical sense of trust. His teachings lay the groundwork for a new ethic; a new way of being in relationship with one another. In direct and prophetic rhetoric, Jesus is telling us that he expects his followers to live in a new kingdom, even while they are immersed in occupied lands. And it all feels near-to-impossible.

Can we still say we like Jesus without doing what he says?

This familiar passage about building a house on a strong foundation signals the end of Jesus’s famous teaching in Matthew’s Gospel. Like the teaching that immediately precedes this one about false prophets, the image serves as a warning to his listeners.

First, Jesus tells his listeners to beware of leaders who will seek to dilute his words and to use faith as a means to advance their own agendas.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Jesus in Matthew 7:15

We are to look at the fruits of their efforts to determine if they are true emissaries of Jesus. And if they are not representatives of the Kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating, never fear. They will be “cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Again, Jesus in Matthew 7:19)

Subtle, Jesus is not.

Next, Jesus implores his listeners to take seriously his teachings and to put them to work in their lives. Those who choose to take Jesus seriously here and follow his commands will build a life for themselves that will weather the storms that this world throws at them.

As if that’s not clear enough, Jesus puts an exclamation point on his statement by reporting that, “everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” (You guessed it. Jesus’s words from Matthew 7:26-27)

It’s not enough to simply hear Jesus’s words. It’s not enough to simply call Jesus, ‘Lord, Lord.’ One must act on Jesus’s teachings. In doing so, our lives will bear fruit. But even more than that, in doing what Jesus commands we will wisely position ourselves for life.

Last night, amidst the heavy rain and flooding in our region, I saw this alert from the National Weather Service out of Greenville, SC:

“MCDOWELL COUNTY UPDATE: A landslide has comprised the integrity of Lake Tahoma Dam. MANDATORY EVACUATIONS underway. ACT NOW TO PRESERVE YOUR LIFE.”

Jesus never promises us that the rain won’t fall and that the water won’t rise. He tells us plainly, however, that when the rain does fall, those who have obeyed Jesus’s commandments will be preserved.

Is there a dam in your life that’s about to burst? Are you experiencing a season of terrible wind and rain? It’s not too late to take Jesus’s words and teachings seriously.

Act now to preserve your life.

Summer Time and the Livin’ Is Easy

Although Memorial Day Weekend typically signals the unofficial start to summer, First Baptist Church got a week’s headstart.

No, I’m not referring to the typical summer-like pattern that evolves in our mountains with foggy mornings and afternoon thunderstorms. I’m referencing our children’s campout and sleepover this past weekend. As our 1st Explorers Ministry Director, Kelly Brown, details in his own reflection, the young men in our Royal Ambassador program went on a campout to the Davidson river while our Girls in Action had a sleepover at the church.

On Saturday morning, I drove across Highway 276 to rendezvous with the boys as they began to strike camp after a wet night in the Pisgah Forest. Yes, the boys and their leaders were a bit damp, but the bacon that Chris Moore was frying had everyone in a festive mood and the boys played whiffle ball beneath the drippy canopy of leaves. There was an unmistakable feeling of accomplishment among them, and I delighted in the sense of community that had sprung up among the men and boys. With the smell of a campfire flooding my nostrils, I couldn’t help but smile as the men drank coffee and the boys acted like boys. After a long and at times torturous winter, we had finally made it to summer.

Summer is a time for Sabbath-taking. It is ripe for new rhythms, late dinners and walks along a lush river valley. Summer is also a unique time for service and ministry as the season provides unique opportunities to assist our friends and neighbors while we tell them the “old, old story” of Jesus and his love. At First Baptist, we will strive to honor both rest and mission.

Here are some highlights of what we have planned for this summer:

-Sylva First Wednesdays concludes for the spring on Wednesday, June 6. Our Wednesday night programming in the fall will begin anew on August 22.

-Our joint Vacation Bible School with other downtown churches will run from June 11-15 in the mornings at Bridge Park. There are countless ways that you can serve the children and our families that week. Join us to help lead the children’s small groups, or to provide water for volunteers, or to visit with parents, or to help set-up tables and tents, or to simply be a part of the joyful chaos that is Vacation Bible School. Truly, the sound of children’s laughter is a balm for a sick and weary soul.

-Speaking of children, our 1st Explorers Ministry will again be offering their robust offering to the community with our Summer Explorers Camp. Although you may not have a child or grandchild participating in this wall-to-wall summer ministry opportunity, your Sunday School class can choose to partner with Kelly and our staff to provide unique opportunities of connection with children and their families this summer. I can think of no better ‘home’ mission opportunity than for a group, ministry, circle or couple to adopt a summer camp group of children who will be on campus with us over 40 hours each week. Think of the relationships that could be built and strengthened!

-As a church family, we’ll gather for fellowship on three Sunday afternoons this summer to relax, play and devour ice cream. Yes, we’ll be headed to the pavilion at Deep Creek in the Great Smokies Mountain National Park on June 24 where we’ll eat and play, and we’ll have our traditional potluck picnic at East LaPorte on August 26. But sandwiched between these two events will be a new gathering where we’ll have supper on the church grounds. On Sunday afternoon, July 15th, we’ll enjoy a hot dog supper followed by a veritable feast of ice cream afterward. It’s been some time since we crowned an ice cream maker champion, so get your recipes primed and ready for our contest after supper that evening.

-Of course, it’s not summer without the crack of a bat. Although our children and youth will be at their respective Passport Mission Camps the week of July 4th, that won’t stop the rest of us from taking in an Asheville Tourists game on the 4th of July at 7 PM. We’ll drive separately but sit together. And after the game, we’ll be invited to head out onto the field to take in their fireworks display. Tickets are $10 each and must be purchased by June 4th in our church office.

-Oh, and there’s much more. Our youth will be meeting together on Mondays from 4-6 PM each week, and there will be church hikes and a host of other mission opportunities to be a part of, as well. We know that your family will be traveling and vacationing this summer, but we also hope you’ll choose to broaden your chumminess with our own church family this summer, also.

Summer is a sweet, sweet gift and we’re not about to waste it. So, look around and see God at work in our beautiful mountain home. Feel the mist from a thundering waterfall. Take in an evening with friends by a fire pit. Barbecue on a rusty grill by a cement picnic table in the national park. Listen to the melody of the songbirds. And above all, be thankful.

It’s summer, and the time is ripe to play, rest and serve.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

-Jesus, Matthew 6:22-23

Not too long ago, a major telecommunications giant inadvertently made the search history of over half a million people available to the public. According to Tim Challies, this data contained over 21 million internet searches.

The company responsible for this breach of privacy claimed that they had changed the users’ personal information, but it didn’t take long for hackers to decrypt the account holders’ identities.

One can easily deduce what was discovered.

The leaked data showed that people live separate lives—one public and one private. As Challies puts it, one could “reconstruct a person’s life, at least in part, from what they searched for over a period of time.” The author of The Next Story reflects, “What is remarkable is the way people transition seamlessly from the normal and mundane to the outrageous and perverse.”

Our collective ability to be exposed to whatever we wish for or desire raises a unique challenge. But being able to access this world of information, images and far-reaching content in secret, without accountability, can have lethal consequences for our families, our communities and ultimately our souls.

Who can argue with Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount? “If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

What we see and what we are exposed to affects us. If what we look at is darkness, our true selves will be pitch as night. Alternatively, if we surround ourselves with sources of light, we will be true to Christ’s commandment that we are to be the light of the world. As one of our staff members recently shared, Jesus’s warning to us here in Matthew 6 reminds him of the admonition from the early days of computer technology: garbage in, garbage out. That is, if you put trash into a system you can expect a similar outcome.

As Jesus’s teaching to the crowds in Galilee highlights, this is not a new phenomenon. However, our 21st-century reality creates a new wrinkle. Unlike any other time in human history, you, me, our children and our grandchildren have access to a galaxy of information with a touch of a finger. It once took great resolve and courage to find and research the things that we were curious about and/or desired. Now we can have immediate access to it with little personal risk all within a fraction of a moment. Our technological prowess and ability to access whatever we wish to learn about or see pours gasoline on Jesus’s observation. Our personal devices enable our eyes to be overwhelmed by darkness. And this, in turn, has a cost.

Oh, it’s worse than you think, y’all.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee recently released the roughly 3,500 Facebook ads that were created by a foreign-based entity to influence domestic politics. How did they do it? They created and posted content that made its way on to social media. The content was divisive to say the least. The posts highlighted issues that tear the fabric of our communities apart. They played on fears and terrors of personal safety. They initiated racial and ethnic suspicions. They demonized people groups and sowed seeds of discord in an attempt to divide the American people.

Those who created this content were far more successful than we want to give them credit for. No, I’m not talking about a particular political outcome. I’m talking about the hate that these ad buys yielded. I’m talking about the anger that the images and stories prompted. I’m talking about how our exposure to these messages made us collectively less and less like Christ.

What we see and what we are exposed to can have devastating effects on us. It can lead to infidelity to the ones we love and pervert our sensibilities. What our eyes see and what our ears hear can lead us into the ever-present temptation to damn one another and to create walls between us that prevent us from loving our neighbors. The entertainment that we watch can normalize hate and justify terror. If we immerse ourselves in darkness, why would we be surprised that we’ve become what we see?

The remedy, of course, is easily attained. By being aware of the impact that information, images, and other content has on us, we can choose to limit our exposure to that which has the power to poison our souls. By setting boundaries on what our eyes see and what our ears hear—whether it’s the delicious gossip that is exchanged in the church parking lot, or the fringe news outlet that fuels discord—we can choose light over darkness. By choosing to be thoughtful with our spouses, co-workers, church family, and friends, we can place ourselves in environments that will make us more accountable to Christ’s expectations and commands.

Think about it now, because what seems unthinkable today may be commonplace tomorrow. If your entire digital footprint were exposed and made public, would you want your children to see it? How about your spouse? How about your employer?

Choose light over darkness. For our sake, if not your own.

The Place of Our Resurrection: How Christianity Took Root in Ireland and Bore Fruit Throughout the World

“Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account…I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.”

Thus begins the Gospel according to Luke. Ever the thoughtful physician, Luke sets out to tell the story of Jesus Christ after carefully investigating the sources and eyewitnesses that were privy to the Son of God. And he does so in scintillating fashion.

Listen for it:

“In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.”

Okay, dazzling writing it is not. But it is accurate, and helpful because Luke grounds his storytelling in historical fact. He is reporting to his benefactor—and to us--that Jesus’s life and ministry happened in real time and in history. The takeaway? The only way to understand Jesus is to understand him in the context of real events. Jesus is no parable. Jesus was for real.

I, too, have tried to offer an orderly account of all that I have learned these last few months. Like Luke, I have sought to carefully investigate the sources that tell the story of a faithful people in a land across the ocean at a time of challenge and difficulty. I have read about this ancient people and have studied their mythologies and examined what daily life must have been like for them. With my family, I traveled to this distant land and walked the paths of saints and sinners alike. I touched centuries old relics and explored monastic cities that are but ruins in a wild landscape. I went on pilgrimage. I reflected on the wisdom of heralded saints. I prayed in ‘thin places.’ I marveled at the beauty of the land. I found the place of my resurrection. And I want to tell you all about it.

To do so, I’ll need to start at a place in history that feels exotic and unfamiliar. Beginning Wednesday night, May 9th at 6:00 PM in our Mission and Fellowship Center, I will begin the story of the Celtic Christian tradition with a presentation about the people of the British Isles. We will learn about the tribal, warrior-like people. We will learn about their love of the land and of song and of storytelling.

The following Wednesday, May 16th, we will learn about Ireland’s first bishop, St. Patrick, and the evangelization of the Celtic people. We will try to discern fact from fiction and hold the Saint’s own words with a special weight as we demythologize his role and leadership.

On May 23rd, we will hear how the Gospel caught fire among the people of Ireland and transformed a warrior class into a devout and faithful people who lived out a new form of martyrdom.

On May 30th, we will tiptoe into the ruins of Ireland’s monastic cities to consider how the Irish chose to be church together.

On June 6th, we will conclude our story of the Celtic Christian tradition by climbing into the round towers that dot the Irish landscape to see the changes that were on the horizon.

Ultimately, my presentations will blend my research on Celtic Christianity with my family’s travel adventures into a seven-century journey of discovery that may just give us insight and illumination on how we can more effectively be church today.

I felt a great sense of solidarity with a Cloud of Witnesses who had traveled the same path I hiked when I sojourned to the summit of Croagh Patrick. It was there that I walked a trail that hundreds of thousands of faithful had walked over the last two millennia. It’s hard to put into words what that felt like.

In the coming Wednesdays, however, I will try. 

Taking a Sabbath from Sunday

Let’s face it. It would be easier to skip church on Sundays. Admit it. And yet, the reason we put in the work and effort to attend church on Sunday mornings far outweighs the challenges that we face in getting there. Ginger Hughes, writing for Nurturing Faith Publishing, describes it in a way that many of us can understand and appreciate.

'The Sunday Challenge’ by Ginger Hughes

In just a couple of hours, my house will most likely look as though something exploded.

How do I know? Because it happens almost every week.

Tiny shoes will be dumped out of the basket and onto the floor of the closet in an attempt to find matches. Clothes will be strewn in the bedroom as I try to help the kids get dressed only to realize they’ve grown two inches, and the clothes I’d laid out suddenly don’t fit any longer. The bathroom counter will be littered with hair bows and brushes as we try to tame tresses. Half-eaten cereal bowls will be left on display as we forget them in our mad dash to get ready.

And to top it all off, my ears will be ringing from all of the opinions my kiddos have slung my way: “This shirt is too itchy, Mama! These pants are too scratchy! My hair looks silly like this, Mama!!!”

Yes, Sunday mornings are hectic.

They’re chaotic.

They require “work” to get everyone ready and to church on time (or thereabouts!). And sometimes, after a long week, it’s natural to just want to stay home. It’s natural to want to forgo the challenges of getting ready to go one more place and adding one more thing to the already overbooked schedule.

But if we choose to stay home, we miss out on so many things and so do our children.

We miss out on the experience of collective worship: the act of joining our voices together with fellow believers to sing songs of praise, the bowing of heads knowing that God promises “Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in their midst,” the listening to scripture being read and allowing it space in our hearts.

And our children miss these things as well, even if they are very young.

They miss singing “Jesus Loves Me” and learning that Jesus does indeed love them. They miss simple prayers and learning the stories that will become the foundation of their faith.

Because friends, our children know what we value by watching us.

They know what we think is important by observing where we spend our money and where we spend our time.

Do my children know that faith is important to me? I hope so.

I want my children to hear me pray. I want them to see me read scripture. I want them to see me live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbor. And I want them to see me put forth the effort to go to worship.

I want them to know that faith is the foundation of my life, so I will do the “work” to get us there.

Please join me this week. I’ll save you a seat.

Ginger Hughes is the wife of a pastor, a mother of two and an accountant. She is a Georgia native currently living in the foothills of North Carolina. Her passion for writing is fueled by the desire to offer encouragement, grace and a deeper understanding that we are all God’s children. Her blogging for Nurturing Faith is sponsored by a gift from First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Ga. Published April 29, 2018.

The Hole in Our Prayer Life

You’ve heard this one before:

A man was late for an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking spot. As he frantically circled the block, the man became so desperate that he began to pray. Looking up to heaven he said:

“Lord, have pity on me. If you find me a parking place, I’ll promise to never miss church again. Not only that, I’ll stop my cussing, my gambling, my drinking and my carousing.”

Miraculously, a parking space appeared.

The guy looked up again and said, “Never mind. I found one.”

Isn’t it convenient that our prayer life expects everything without actually contributing anything? I think it was Flip Wilson who once said,

“I’m gonna pray now; anyone want anything?”

Parents, imagine what it would feel like if the only contact that you had with your children was when they were asking for something (it occurs to me that this may be hitting a little too close to home).

The patterns, motives and content of our prayer lives may reveal something unsavory about the health of our souls. It may be time to consider our vital signs:

-For what do you find yourself praying?
-When and how frequently do you pray for these things?
-Have you noticed a correlation or spike in the frequency of your prayers when you need or desire something?
-What have you offered to God?

I fear that if left unchecked our prayer life will reveal a self-centered attitude with God. Our prayers may just reveal ourselves to be superficial and selfish, dictatorial and presumptive. In the framework of Jesus’s breathtaking prayer at Gethsemane, we pray for our will to be done—and we’re foolishly hopeful that God will change His will to accommodate our own.

Y’all, this is not how the ‘created’ are supposed to talk to their Creator. Repentance, humility and respect for God’s Divine Presence seems to be in order, here.

A holy posture of listening to God could be a good first step in strengthening our relationship with Him. In short, we may just be doing too much talking and not enough listening. ‘Monologuing’ with your spouse or best friend may be cathartic, but it doesn’t reveal a particularly healthy or balanced relationship. Just as we would bristle at a friendship where someone simply talks at us, we would be wise to consider that our relationship with God has got to be more than our litany of needs and concerns.

God wants more from us than our to-do lists.

I suspect, however, that the reason we don’t listen to God is because we don’t want to hear what God may have to say to us. That’s also probably why we no longer read the Bible like we should, or why we get so defensive when someone challenges our way of thinking.

Besides, listening is hard work. To be a good and effective listener, we’ve got to yield to the Other. We’ve got to sacrifice our right to fill the silence. Listening means that we tune out the myriad of other competing voices and claims on us. Listening means choosing to be present. Listening means letting go of our fantasies—past, present and future. Listening means creating space to consider and reconsider.

Gratitude and praise are forms of listening. By acknowledging that for which we are thankful, we are looking and listening for the ways God has been present with us. By praising God, we place him above ourselves and naturally turning our attention to the One who has a claim on us.

If I may be confessional, I will gladly admit that as a pastor listening is the most important thing I do each day and by far the hardest thing I do each day. Why? Listening takes time and the right attitude. It means making myself available to the Spirit of God and to others. In truth, it would be easier to see my tasks and responsibilities as a kind of punch-sheet, and hammer away to achieve that delicious moment of completion and accomplishment. But doing so would mean that my work would be my own. Listening means yielding. And I find that my work is far more effective when it is Spirit-filled and Divinely-inspired. In order for God to be present in my offering of service, I’ve got to first listen to Him.

Mother Teresa, I believe, says it best of all:

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.”

Perhaps we should ask for something when we pray—open ears and hearts to listen to God’s voice. 

Explosive Growth, Extraordinary Impact

It was five years ago this spring that our church began a relationship with an individual who has ultimately helped to change lives and enrich families.

Let me dig into the dim recesses of my memory and try and recall how it all came to be.

As I remember it, our Mission and Fellowship Center was nearing completion and our church was excited about the ministry opportunities that the new facility would help to birth. Our process of discernment was extensive as we sought to hear the church’s hopes and dreams.

One of those hopes and dreams was an after-school ministry. Our community was going to be losing a federal grant to provide care for children and youth after school and our church was concerned for the well-being of the families that we were trying to reach. A small group of us met to research, discuss and pray about what it would look like for First Baptist to become leaders in this field. But we could only go so far. We needed outside help.

Kelly Brown’s name came to me from a trusted source. Kelly was currently serving in campus ministry at WCU and might, the source told me, be a good candidate for us. I met with Kelly to discuss a very limited partnership with our church to develop an after-school ministry, and in doing so I had the kind of experience that many of us have had over the years. That is, I found Kelly to be exceptionally relatable, engaging and sincere. I also found him to be curious and intrigued by what we were trying to do here at First Baptist.

Our first experiment with providing after school care was limited. It involved a small group of sixth grade students from around our county. The parents were responsible for their child’s transportation and the scope of our program was minimal. But, it was a start.

In the coming months, our after school hopes and dreams began to bear fruit. Under Kelly’s leadership, the after school ministry grew. And grew. And grew. As confirmation of our hunch months before, parents in our community clamored to our ministry for help with care for their children after school. To assist in our growth, Kelly developed partnerships with our schools so that he could pick up children with our own church bus. Before long, the number of children interested in our ministry exceeded the number we could pick up. A waiting list emerged and our after school ministry was openly heralded in our community as the best choice for childcare to elementary and middle school children each weekday afternoon.

Still, our ministry grew. After school care was a significant concern for parents, but it had a kissing cousin in the name of summer care. Our summer explorers camp experience was birthed from the collective prayers and idea-swapping that was generated on a church-wide mission trip to a church in Washington, DC. Kelly saw what was being implemented to children there and worked with us here to provide a comprehensive camp experience to children in the summer.

The ministry that began humbly now had its own name and logo. 1st Explorers Ministry at First Baptist Church was now a mission initiative that provided care and ministry to preschoolers, to school-age children after school, and to children throughout the summer. Staffed by eager college students and young adults, our director provided creative and nimble leadership to help our church care for families in our community.

Today, our 1st Explorers Ministry enables us to minister to children 6 days out of 7. Our ministry has provided part-time employment to scores of college students. Our ministry has allowed us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ most every day of the year to children that we would not ordinarily have exposure to. Our 1st Explorers Ministry has helped to care for strung-out, cash-starved parents in our community who, without our ministry, had no other choice but to let their second grader stay home alone. And throughout our community, people know our church as the church that loves children and that allows them to play on their playground.

The fruit that our ministry has born is significant, also. Children and families have come to know Jesus and be baptized in his name because of our 1st Explorers Ministry. Children and families, as well as their neighbors, their grandparents, co-workers and friends, have come to know our church and to join us in worship, fellowship and membership. 1st Explorers is one of the many ways that we are doing justice and loving kindness. And we know that because of the gratitude, smiles and hugs that Kelly receives from children, parents and grandparents each and every day he serves alongside us.

First Baptist Church, thank you for your relentless commitment to this still-growing and ever-expanding ministry. Thank you for your patience as we have had to make course-corrections and strive to learn from our mistakes along the way. And above all, thank you for helping to bless our community by investing in our 1st Explorers Ministry Director, Kelly Brown.

On behalf of all of us, Kelly, let me convey our deep appreciation for your commitment to our church and to our community these last five years. We are proud of you, and the work that you help to lead and coordinate. Please know of our love and support for you as we continue to work together to serve, to love and to grow.

May you continue to lead us, Kelly, as we seek to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.