As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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Ok, remember the days of closed book tests (some of you are in school now; I’m sure you remember them!)  Well I’ve got one for you: How would you tell the creation story without opening your Bible?  Not just the “seven days” part, but also the “Adam and Eve” part?

Now here’s the real kicker…  If you had to pick the most important part of the story, the part that has most affected human history and your life in particular, which part would you choose?  Would you choose the part where man is made caretaker of the earth?  Would you choose the part where man and woman were created for each other?  Would you choose the bit with the snake and the fruit as most pivotal for human history?

How you answer this question makes a tremendous difference in how you live and how you relate to God, to your fellow human beings, and to yourself.  Frankly, the parts you choose to focus on can change the meaning of the entire story.  Let me give you an example: if you don’t think much of the “caretaker” part, I’m guessing you’re also someone who doesn’t recycle.  I’m also guessing farmers and ranchers think of that section more often than the rest of us.

The biggest difference, though, comes with my last suggestion above.  If you think Adam and Eve eating the apple makes the most difference in your life, then it means you view the world entirely differently than if you instead focus on God creating us and saying “It is very good.”

This Sunday in Higher Ground and next Sunday in the traditional services I am going to tell several creation stories (or shades of creation stories) and ask which story you identify with.  I hope you’ll consider it between now and then, though.  What you think of our beginning makes a huge difference in who we are now and in who we will be in the future!

I also hope you’ll share your thoughts on my blog, http://ministrygeek.net.

It’s a bit of a (rare) lazy Saturday afternoon and I am catching up on my blog reading from the past week.  I just read this fantastic post about a Biblically inspired alternative to the typical, Modern “mission statement/vision statement” approach to church leadership.  It basically proposes a model based on Abraham, who was given a promise from God and sent forward without knowing where or even fully why he was going.  It’s not that visions and planning are bad, but this ambiguity of perception and trust in God’s leadership despite its inherent mystery (or perhaps because of it!) seems to resonate with postmodernity to me.

Of course there are other schools of thought…  I have come to the point where I cringe every time I hear the word “effectiveness” used in a United Methodist setting these days.  It’s not that I’m against pastoral/church effectiveness, of course, it’s that those who use such terms generally have a very narrow range of what they consider “effective.”  Have we really fallen so far that one of our most respected Bishops can talk so freely about numbers without even giving the standard, half-hearted, United Methodist disclaimer that, “Oh yeah, of course God can work in ways that aren’t numbers, too”?

With statements like the second link forming the very fabric of who we are as a system these days, is there any hope of minority voices like the first link dong any good at all beyond a localized setting (that might then be declared “ineffective” and duly punished)?

I love my tradition, not just the Wesley part, but specifically the United Methodist part.  But there are days I weap for it.  It’s a darn good thing church leadership isn’t up to us in the end.  Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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I’ve noticed that a few farmers in the area have already started to burn their fields.  I always love watching it…  I love the smell and the meteorologist in me likes watching how the smoke rises.  Now I should remind you that I am a true “city boy” and know hardly anything about farming, so forgive me if I speak beyond my knowledge here.  But, while driving by a burning field the other day it struck me that it was a good metaphor for sin and grace.

Think of it this way: if you were to remove from our lives that which is good and right and true, we’d still be left with a little “stubble” at the bottom: our sin.  Our sin, put softly, is that part of us which is unusable, not worth anything.  For most of us it’s not the focal point or the biggest portion, but for all of us sin is present.

Every now and then we take stock of ourselves and identify the sin for what it is.  In those times, if we’re faithful, what we need is a sort of “controlled burn” to singe that sin out of our lives.  It’s painful giving up things like pride or greed sometimes, isn’t it?

But here’s the amazing part– the sin doesn’t just burn off into nothingness.  Instead, the cleansing fire transforms it into rich nutrients that can be tilled back in to make us a better, more fertile person.  That’s God’s grace at its finest!

It’s not a perfect metaphor, and I don’t know if it can be taken much further.  But perhaps it will give you food for thought next time you see smoke in the distant Kansas sky.  As always, I welcome comments on my blog at http://ministrygeek.net.

We heart you too, Tony; we heart you too.

Seriously guys, great show.  It’s nice to actually meet the people who have so influenced my own journey.  Besides, I got my coveted Trucker Frank for President t-shirt– that’s all I was really after.

Keep up the good work, and for God’s sake write more!

As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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I had the privilege of studying the Hebrew language during my last year at seminary, which is the language in which the Old Testament is written.  It is not an easy task to learn a language whose roots are so different than one’s own, but the reward is that an incredible new richness of understanding is opened.  For the Hebrew people, their faith was intimately tied to their language in a way that is foreign to us today.

Last Sunday Pat preached in part on Matthew 22:37, where Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, calling it the greatest commandment: “…love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”  I couldn’t help but steal a moment during the morning to look it up in Hebrew, and what I found adds even more depth.

“Heart” to the Hebrews is only a little different than our modern understanding.  They didn’t think of the “heart” as the center of emotion as we do, but rather the center of a person in a larger sense.  Image a cross between our modern idea of “heart” and our modern idea of “gut,” as in a gut feeling.  Soul has a much different connotation than what we often think.  We tend to have this idea of a soul as being separate from our physical bodies– no such thought to the ancient Hebrews.  Many have argued that a better translation would be “with all your being.”

But the one that caught my attention was “might.”  I can’t think of a better single word to translate the Hebrew, but the shades of meaning are significant.  One of the translation dictionaries describes the Hebrew word as “muchness, force, abundance.”  It does mean “might” as in “force,” but what depth of meaning comes from loving God with our “muchness,” with our “abundance!”

What does this mean for you?  For our church?  For our people?  I’ll leave that for you do decide.  I say only “Love the LORD your God with your very core, with your very being, and with all your ‘muchness.’”  Because remember: that’s how God loves you.

As always, I welcome comments on my blog at http://ministrygeek.net.

As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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As many of you already know, as of July 1 I am full time at Trinity!  It has been a long time in the coming as I finished up school, but we are finally here.  Thank you for walking with me for the last part of my seminary journey!

What you may not know, however, is what exactly I will be doing.  Of course I will continue to do the things I have done up to this point: helping with worship leadership and planning, pre-marital counseling and weddings, relating to our Youth Fellowship, leading occasional classes, etc.  But now I will also join in providing leadership for adult education, community and global ministries, and young adult ministries.  I will also get to join with Pat and members of our congregation and staff in visiting those at the hospital (finally!)

So many transitions are happening this summer!  You’ve not doubt already heard about the other transitions in Trinity’s staff: Lynn Borchardt’s retirement and Jim Rhaesa’s moving into the role of Pastor of Congregational Care.  July 1 is also the date transitions happen in the United Methodist Church in our area, which is, of course, part of our larger church family– my wife Amy is a perfect example of this as she prepares for her first Sunday at Stafford UMC.

I hope you will join me this week in praying not only for our own staff but for those of all churches.  May we all be faithful together!

As always, I welcome comments on my blog at http://ministrygeek.net.

As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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As many of you know, my wife has been appointed as the pastor of Stafford UMC.  She and I will be living in the parsonage there; I will drive into Hutch each day to continue serving Trinity.  By the time this reaches you the movers will be here– that means my life as I write this is all about packing.

In the United Methodist system pastors are itinerant.  It’s a tradition that goes back to the early preachers on the frontier, riding from town to town on horseback with no permanent roof to their name.  These days pastors tend to change churches and towns every few years on average, but there is still the atmosphere that change is always on the horizon.  It keeps fresh faces in front of congregations and it keeps pastors fresh by always giving them new challenges.

It’s not a bad metaphor for how God works in the world and in our lives…  We all say we don’t like change, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit is all about change.  God’s Spirit is often compared to wind: impossible to see but easy to feel– and always on the move.

When we move from one house to another, it forces us to throw out the garbage we’ve collected and look at our lives with fresh eyes.  To some extent it’s a chance to start over, a chance to re-arrange things to fit the world as it currently looks, not how it used to.

When was the last time you “moved” your faith?

As always, I welcome comments on my blog at http://ministrygeek.net.