08 April 2013

Identity Preview




 If you come into my office, you’ll see this poster, which I’m holding before you now.  It’s called “New Testament: The Word . . . Made Flesh.”  What you see is a fairly standard depiction of Jesus, with the light of Heaven shining down on him, and surrounded by angels, cherubs actually.  I’m not wild about the cherubs in the image; in fact, the drawing itself isn’t that great as far as Jesus artwork goes.  There are a lot of other Jesus paintings I like better, but I like this poster for more than just the image.  The artist conveys a message in the image, but to see it, you have to take a closer look. 






As you lean in to look at it, you begin to see the texture of the drawing, that it’s kind of grainy.  If it were a photograph, we’d call it pixelated and full of noise.  It’s still a better drawing than I could ever do, so I’m not complaining.  But to see the true identity of this image, we have to get closer yet.






To really see what this is, what the reality of it is, we have to zoom in very closely, and we see not only an image of Jesus, but the entire New Testament, handwritten, line by line, in such a way as to create the details of the image.  This part, in case you can’t tell, is zoomed in on Jesus’ eyes.  The text that is written across this section is from the gospel of Luke.  The print is so small that each millimeter, from top to bottom, contains about 3 lines of text.

There’s a message in the image: the New Testament is all about Jesus.  To appreciate the big picture, we had to zoom in to individual words from the New Testament.  That’s what I’m going to do with my newest sermon series.  Title of this sermon series is “Identity.”  I’m going to show that our identities as followers of Christ are really composite images, made up of more than just the image you see in the mirror.  In terms of your faith, you look at yourself, and you see a Christian.  But to get the whole story, we have to zoom in.  Zooming in on specific words and phrases of the NT will reveal that your identity is composed of many wonderful truths revealed to us in the pages of Scripture.

Here are some of the words we will focus on: Holy, Redeemed, Saved, Dearly Loved, Sanctified, Citizens, Believers, Royal Priesthood, Chosen People, Baptized, New Creation, Ambassadors, Family, Children, Heirs, Servant.


02 April 2013

How to welcome guests at church (and enjoy the service more, too)

I appreciate Thom Rainer's blog; it is full of useful articles for ministers and for Christians in general.  I have copied and pasted a good portion of his article Ten Commandments for Guest-Friendly Church Members.  Here are the ten "commandments" (In KJV English for effect).  Note the gentle sarcasm here:
  1. Thou shalt pray for people in the services whom you don’t recognize. They are likely guests who feel uncomfortable and uncertain.
  2. Thou shalt smile. You only have to do so for about an hour. Guests feel welcome when they see smiling people. You can resume your somber expressions when you get home.
  3. Thou shalt not sit on the ends of the rows. Move to the middle so guests don’t have to walk over you. You’ll survive in your new precarious position.
  4. Thou shalt not fill up the back rows first. Move to the front so guests don’t have to walk in front of everyone if they get there late.
  5. Thou shalt have ushers to help seat the guests. Ushers should have clearly-marked badges or shirts so that the guests know who can help them.
  6. Thou shalt offer assistance to guests. If someone looks like they don’t know where to go, then they probably don’t know where to go. Get out of your comfort zone and ask them if you can help.
  7. Thou shalt not gather too long in your holy huddles. Sure, it’s okay to talk to fellow members; but don’t stay there so long that you are not speaking to guests.
  8. Thou shalt offer your seats to guests. I know that this move is a great sacrifice, but that family of four can’t fit in the three vacant seats next to you. Give it a try. You might actually feel good about your efforts.
  9. Thou shalt not save seats. I know you want to have room for all of your friends and family, but do you know how a guest feels when he or she sees the vacant seats next to you occupied by three hymnals, one Bible, two coats, and an umbrella? You might as well put a “Do Not Trespass” sign on the seats.
  10. Thou shalt greet someone you don’t know. Yes, it’s risky. They may actually be members you don’t know. And you may get caught in a 45-second conversation. You’ll be okay; I promise.
 Most of us don't think about things like not sitting on the ends of the rows; we do it everywhere else (except movie theaters, where we like to sit in the middle.  There's probably a lesson there...), so it's done out of habit, "just in case" we have to go to the bathroom or something.  And it's also human nature to sit in the same place, even if you didn't want to sit there the first time (like the front row of a class); you know that next time, most people will sit where they sat last time, until it's a habit and, eventually, "my" seat.

I'd love to see the back rows, not the front rows, empty, with everyone "scooched" toward the middle.  Imagine what the reaction of guests would be!  Our youth group tried this for a while when I was in high school.  A few bad apples had spoiled the YG's reputation in the worship service, so when our youth minister challenged us to essentially "up our game," we answered by filling the second and third rows, leaving the very first row for people to sit in who made decisions at the invitation.  Keep in mind, this was in a church of 1000+ people, so it was a move forward of about 20 rows, and from the far stage left section to the center section.  Wouldn't you know it, our reputation improved because everyone could see us during the service.  And I honest got more out of the music and sermon by being closer to "the action."  I paid more attention, and the singing sounds much better when all the other voices are behind you.

Just something to think about this week.