Hope

Here's a good quote about hope. It comes from a book I just finished, "Preaching from Memory to Hope," by Thomas Long. He is emphasizing the need to talk about the future and the realization of God's complete reign, when everything will be made right. This is what we should hope for. But...

As scientist-theologian John Polkinghorne has claimed, much of what counts for hope in the current social context is "in a negative form--as a desire that certain things not occur." I hope the stock market doesn't crash, I hope I don't go into a vegetative state and die in a nursing home, I hope we don't have another 9/11. This is finally a secular hope, a hope that the party will go on forever, which Kierkegaard recognized as the despair that doesn't even know it is despairing, the "sickness unto death." Thy kingdom come, they will be done?--Oh, I hope not.

Seems pretty true to me. What about you?

Prepare to Fight!

This week we consider Ephesians 6:10ff., which discusses the Armor of God. The most striking part of the passage, to me, is the revelation that unseen spiritual warfare is taking place all around us, for us, and about us.

What do you think about all that?

Family Matters

Soon we are going to make some very intentional moves to better serve our younger families. Through Life Group discussions, based on the recent sermons regarding families, we have had good feedback that reaches across all generations. The desire and the perception of need is broad based.

While we don't know exactly what this new move will look like, it is very exciting. We have presently a lot of very young families; more than we've ever had, I believe.

We need to serve young families, but Randy Harris makes a good and interesting point in God Work:

Most of you have become family to someone who is not your blood because of your relationship in the kingdom of God. For that other person that relationship has become more important than blood. And so these commitments to family are important but they're relative--the ultimate commitment is to the kingdom of God. One of the things I always say when I go into churches is this: If you're still asking the question, "What is this church doing for families," you better start asking the other question, too, "How are these families serving the kingdom of God?" Because the kingdom doesn't exist to serve families. Families exist to serve the kingdom. It is the kingdom that is absolute.

He makes a really good point, and it reaches far beyond serving families. The church serves it's members, but what we are really after is equipping our members to serve the world, thus participating in the missio dei -- the mission of God. Right?

Lipscomb & Ryan

Ryan Chastain from Mitchell is a senior at Lipscomb and has had a tremendous running career thus far. Lipscomb competes as Division 1 school, so he has been able to run at big name schools against big time competition. He has done very well. The pictures below show him as one of the flags that are along the main street that runs in front of Lipscomb.

Lipscomb Scenes

Luke, Earl, Ryan Chastain, Rebecca.