Saturday, August 30, 2003 

It’s 9:00 at night. I’m sitting in the student center at NIU. I’m supposed to be working on my sermon for Sunday. Instead I’m blogging. I think my priorities are screwed up.

I was flipping through the stations on my radio on the way here and I started listening to a Christian call in show. I usually hate these Q&A shows. The hosts normally have some type of agenda…and normally you can figure it out within a few minutes. This show was no different.

This guy (sorry, I never did get his name) was telling everyone that the “church age” was over. He was claiming that all the churches were in sin (not just the denominations, but the local congregations). They were spending too much time creating their own theology to fit their specific needs and desires. These theologies, in his mind, went totally against the word of God. He felt that because of this the church was run by the devil, and that the reference to Babylon in Revelations was in reality speaking of the church. The only solution was to leave the church (or the local congregation as he put it.) Only true “born-again believers” would see the blatant error the local congregations were walking in and therefore should they should leave, as soon as possible.

Here is the funny part. Once you left, he felt that you should not try to create a fellowship (like a house church); instead you should just stay by yourself. He claimed that Hebrews 10:25 supported this theory. Go ahead, look it up, I’ll wait…

I didn’t see that there either…I think he is making his own theology up! The sad part is that people were calling them, telling him what a great idea it is to be a believer all alone. What a sad thing. Everything that I have studied lately points to the congregation, not away from it. My thoughts are that Christianity is about community, not about a solo thing. Acts makes that totally clear. They were in one heart and mind, they met at the temple, and they met in their houses. I would entertain the idea that the big church thing we have in the west may not be biblical, but the fellowship definitely is. I think we, as evangelicals, have really got this personal salvation thing all messed up. Yes, the decision to follow Christ is ours alone, but once that decision is made, we move from the world of the individual to the world of community. “Love one another”…how can we do that if we are alone. Even the desert fathers in the early church lived in community. Granted, they spent a lot of time in solitude, but they also spent a good amount of time in community. So much so that if one of them was missing from a community meeting, the community went out to them to see if they were ok. That doesn’t sound like a lone gun to me.

The idea of being a Christian without community is an idea straight from the pit of hell. I believe that Satan promotes this to get to us one on one. Granted, with Christ, we can stand up to him. But alone, we are apt to start believing some of the lies that he tells us. It is through community that we “sharpen each others swords”. It is in community that we keep each other in check. It is by ourselves that we start to believe things that my not be God. Anyways, being by ourselves is just out right lonely…who in their right mind wants to experience the things of God all by themselves…it is a whole lot more fun sharing with other what God is doing with you, and observing what God is doing to the people around you.

I’m done ranting…back to sermon writing…



Saturday, August 23, 2003 

Today was my kids’ first soccer game. Life was interesting! Ben’s game was first. Because he is five, they don’t keep score (dad’s on the other hand do, Ben’s team won). Watching little kids run up and down the field with a reckless abandon, not even caring if they are going towards the correct goal will put a smile on anyone’s face. Nathan’s team won a nail bitter (being seven, they do keep score) 2 to 1. Nathan did pretty good, he actually got to kick the ball once! Emily’s team is a tad more professional, being 10 and all. Her team also won, 5 to 0. My little Emily got to plat goalie. This is the first year playing organized soccer, so when the ball came to her, she stopped it from going in the goal, but then was not sure what to do next. Some guy next to me started yelling at her to throw the ball out quicker, and then went on to tell all the parents there that this team needs a new goalie, one who is more aggressive. He then boastfully went on to tell everyone how when he was a baseball coach of nine year olds, he had his team throw at a fellow teammates head so that he would become more aggressive. Needless to say, I wanted to corner kick him right to the next county (in Christian love, of course).

For those who are counting….the Holda Soccer record is 3-0.

For those of you wondering, I just added my sister-in-law’s blog to my list (jen.fleming). In case you’re wondering, this is not a Christian blog. On the other hand, this is definitely a postmodern blog. You know, we Christian leaders love to put out these great brain farts on how church should look, and what we should do to develop community and relationship. Some of us pride our self on being postmodern and being able to think and create like a postmodern (even though many are not). You want to know what a postmodern outside the church thinks about and how they relate to other people, read this blog. If you want to understand what makes them tick and what ticks them off, read this blog. On the other hand, if you get offended really easily and off colored language makes you uncomfortable, then read Mark Riddle’s blog. At least you can get your undies in a bundle by someone who is a pastor.

Oh well, tomorrows Sunday and I need to get up early. Be back later.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003 

I started a series in Acts this week. I was praying about what I needed to preach, and foundational issues kept coming up. I preached on Sunday out of Acts 2…the unity section at the end of the chapter. It was an amazing time because I felt that my message was completely uninspiring. It felt incredibly dead. Fortunately, God showed up and people got affected during ministry time. The really funny part is that people have been calling me this week to tell me how much they liked my sermon…go figure!

Cindy and I started to change some stuff around during the service. We are trying to do this via little steps. This week, we moved the room around and took a coffee break between worship and the message. The break was funny. I have been in churches for years that do this, but this was their first time. People were a little uneasy at first, but they decided that they really liked it. I hope the same attitude occurs when we do other major changes.

We have been having power problems at the house for the last couple of weeks. It seems like anytime we are running a major appliance (air conditioning, dryer) and the water heater turns on, the mains in the house blow. I didn’t think much about it at first (other then to tell the landlord and hope he fixes it), but now I’m starting to wonder. The black out in the northeast got me wondering if this is prophetic somehow and the Lord is trying to tell me something. Not too sure about that, still praying. (btw…Rick Joiner has some interesting thoughts on that).

Oh well…more later…

Tuesday, August 05, 2003 

Well, it’s been a long time since I last blogged. I just haven’t found the time to do it (or the energy). The last month has been crazy. Last week, we were formally asked to take over the Vineyard in DeKalb, IL. After praying about it, we finally decided to do it and we have been moving at full speed ever since. I knew that there was a lot of administrative work involved in a church, but the past week has been overwhelming. We have spent the last two days attempting to reconstruct the history of this church. I have had people coming over to our house dropping off more and more paper! Very little was in order, and most of it was extremely confusing. I think we are beginning to get a handle on it all. The funny pat of it all is that I don’t start preaching there until this Sunday! So much for starting slow and getting our feet wet. Sometime between now and Thursday I need to come up with a teaching for small group and between now and Sunday I need a sermon, not to mention a few more meetings and more paper (as well as trying to make some money tent making). Ugh! I know that God is faithful and that it will all come together by then. Unfortunately, now it seems a bit overwhelming!

More later (I promise!)

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