Do Something Great

I first read this story a very long time ago and used it in a sermon in 1992 at Springfield Friends Meeting.  I wanted to share it with you today as an encouragement to us all.  Jesus doesn't want us to sit around and complain.  He wants us to get out into the world and do something GREAT in His name.  Enjoy.

A young boy complained to his father that most of the church hymns were boring to him. They were too far behind the times, with boring tunes and meaningless words.  His father put an end to the discussion when he said, "If you think you can write better hymns, then why don't you?"  The boy went to his room and wrote his first hymn.  The year was 1690; the boy's name was Issac Watts.  Among the almost 750 hymns he penned in his lifetime are When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, O God Our Help In Ages Past and Joy To the World.  Feeling bored?  Do something great to serve God.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we were still remembered for your faith 300 years from now?

Do you love the church of Jesus Christ too much to leave it the way it is?

Because of Jesus,

Proud To Be a Christian

Before you start sending me nasty comments and tweets, please read this entire post.  I pray that all USAmericans will celebrate July 4th with passion and love for our nation.  But today is set aside to celebrate and worship Jesus.  That's all I'm saying.  And as always, it is entirely possible that I might be wrong...


Today is the Sunday closest to the 4th of July, and I have already started preparing myself.  It's one of the days- Veteran's Day and Memorial Day are the others- when I know our church service will have at least some focus on patriotism.  I'm just going to admit right up front that this aggravates the crud out of me.  It's not that I don't love my country or support those who serve- I do.  I am a serious student of our history (for instance, I can tell you about Paul Revere's ride!) and the amazing things we have accomplished in our 235 years of existence.  I appreciate our freedoms and those who, from the earliest days of our nation, have fought for those freedoms- and not just on the battlefields.  But...as a follower of Jesus Christ I believe my primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.  It frustrates me to see our churches continually wrapping the Cross in the flag.  It's a matter of principle:  Who is it I really pledge allegiance to- first?


The reason this bothers me so much is because here in USAmerica, patriotism often becomes a litmus test for Christianity.  People assume they know my politics because I am an outspoken follower of Christ.  We have somehow tied the two together in a sort of bizarre tango in which love of country has become more important than the love of God.  I recently read a quote from Shane Claiborne which describes my fear: "It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag.  No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays."  If you look at the way the church is booming around the rest of the world, you will see that we may have the steps all wrong.  Christianity is blossoming in nations where the government refuses to recognize the faith.  It is growing by leaps and bounds in countries where it has been outlawed.  Jesus himself told us that the persecuted would be blessed; he did not mention the patriotic.  When we begin to believe that true freedom comes from our form of government rather than from our relationship with Jesus, we have jumped the shark.  It is a wonderful thing to love our country.  It is absolutely imperative that we love Jesus and love others as he taught us to love.


As long as I'm making people mad, let me take this one step further. Somewhere today, in some church (I just pray not mine) someone is going to sing the great Lee Greenwood song, Proud To Be An American.  It is a magnificent song that expresses our gratitude for our nation in a beautiful way.  But I'm sorry- it has no place in a worship service. We gather to glorify God, not country.  I love my UNC Tar Heels, but the Carolina fight song doesn't belong in worship either.  So to wrap this up, I have re-written Mr. Greenwood's chorus to make it appropriate to use in the worship of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Feel free to sing along...and have a wonderful Independence Day tomorrow.  USAmerica- bless God!

And I'm proud to be a Christian 'cause I know I'm truly free

and I won't forget that I have life because Jesus died for me

And so I'll shout to the LORD, and praise His name 

and share His love today

I'll leave no doubt of whose I am...

LORD take my heart, I pray!

Because of Jesus,

Soul Surfers and Roaring Lambs

A quick note:  I try not to mix my blogs, but if you are not familiar with the Downhere song The Real Jesus, then be sure and visit The 40 Day Adventure today and give it a listen,  Goosebumps every time!  Now on with our regularly scheduled post...




  Today the movie Soul Surfer opens in theaters.  It is the true story of surfing champion Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack and still found the faith and the strength to come back to competitive surfing.  It has an outstanding cast (Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid, Carrie Underwood, Anna-Sophia Robb) and a great story to tell, and I plan to see it soon.  I feel a very strong personal connection to this film.  Bethany is from the Hawaiian island of Kauai- the same island that is the home of my friend Rick Bundschuh and that produced my favorite little band, Spooky Tuesday.  In fact, both Bethany and I wrote blurb reviews for Rick's Deep Like Me that appear in the book.  And we follow each other on Twitter.  I've never met her, but I do feel a connection.

But that is only part of the reason I am so excited about this film. The late Bob Briner, author of the life-changing book Roaring Lambs, often talked about how Christians had abandoned our role of being "salt & light" in our world.  Bob thoughts were that the great culture shaping mediums of our day- books, music, movies, TV and art- were mediums the Church had handed over to "the world."  Oh, we still do all of those things- but we do them for ourselves.  We have figured out a way to be neither in nor of the world- and that is not what Jesus had in mind.  Non-believers rarely visit the Family Christian Bookstore or watch The 700 Club.  The unchurched are not likely to be found in a Left Behind screening or purchasing the latest Third Day CD.  These types of artistry are wonderful and have great value to us in our "Christian Ghetto," but they do little to actually impact the culture around us.  Bob was trying to convey to us all that while we are sheep following the great shepherd, if we want to be agents of change for Jesus we have to let our lives roar.  And that is exactly what is happening with this movie.  Bethany is not a preacher, she is a surfer.  But her faith will roar through this film.  This film is not about Christianity, is it about being faithful and searching for God in the midst of real tragedy and real struggle- and that is the kind of story that will resonate with people far outside the walls of the Church.  And like the Narnia movies and the Veggietale movies before it, hopefully Soul Surfer will encourage major studios to spend big bucks on movies that speak of faith and morality in a language the entire culture can understand.  We need to influence culture, not abandon it...

You want to know what a roaring lamb looks like in our world?  On Wednesday night's American Idol, a young man named Jacob Lusk was preparing to do Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On for Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame night.  Jacob had shown his gospel roots in previous shows, and as he practiced several music business insiders told him it was awesome to see him step outside his comfort zone.  But Jacob felt uncomfortable with the sexual message of the song, and decided to change to a different tune- Michael Jackson's great song Man In the Mirror.  He explained all of this on camera.  He never mentioned God or Jesus, but he did speak very clearly abut being faithful to his beliefs.  He absolutely owned the song, and the crowd loved him.  Randy Jackson applauded him for standing up for his moral convictions.  At that moment, Jacob Lusk's life roared to to the 25 million people or so who watch Idol each week.  And he is still around for next week.

We may not have an audience of that size, but that is beside the point.  The question is simple: Do our lives roar in a way so that the people we encounter every day know that we are followers of Jesus?  Or are your spiritual thoughts and actions reserved for the friends  who already believe?  We cannot change the culture if we leave Jesus at church every Sunday.  Use moments like Soul Surfer or Jacob Lusk to start conversations that might just change the culture you spend most of your time in.  The world is not watching and waiting to see what we do.  The world no longer cares. It's time for us to make a difference in our culture.  It's time for the lambs to roar...

Because of Jesus,

Do Something Amazing

I first read this story a very long time ago and used it in a sermon in 1992 at Springfield Friends Meeting.  I wanted to share it with you today as an encouragement to us all.  Jesus doesn't want us to sit around and complain.  He wants us to get out into the world and do something GREAT in His name.  Enjoy.

A young boy complained to his father that most of the church hymns were boring to him. They were too far behind the times, with boring tunes and meaningless words.  His father put an end to the discussion when he said, "If you think you can write better hymns, then why don't you?"  The boy went to his room and wrote his first hymn.  The year was 1690; the boy's name was Issac Watts.  Among the almost 750 hymns he penned in his lifetime are When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, O God Our Help In Ages Past and Joy To the World.  Feeling bored?  Do something great to serve God.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we were still remembered for our faith 300 years from now?

Do you love the church of Jesus Christ too much to leave it the way it is?

Because of Jesus,

Unexpected Results

Many of my earliest experiences in youth ministry came as a direct result of my involvement with the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends.  In many of the older posts on this blog you can read how that group of Quakers shaped my life and influenced me in many ways.  In 1999, having been away for 5 years, I was asked to return to NC to speak at Young Friends Yearly Meeting, a statewide gathering of middle and high school aged Quakers.  It turned about to be an amazing weekend- but in ways that were totally unexpected!

I planned to take a group of students from FUMC-K with me to Guilford College for the 5-day event, but God had other plans.  The weekend before we were to leave on a Wednesday, I was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, and my leg turned purple and blew up like zeppelin.  I was able to make the trip, but unable to drive, so I went by plane and had to leave the youth at home.  I was very disappointed, as I wanted them to share in this event with these people who had been so important in my life.  In truth, I should not have gone either.  My leg was a mess, I had very little energy, and just walking was difficult.  But I went anyway...

The first few days are just a blur in my memory.  I remember getting to play guitar with Martha Ratledge Farlow for the adult Yearly Meeting session honoring Quaker Lake.  I remember speaking and leading music for the Young Friends, and feeling terribly uninspired about my performance.  Nothing felt right or seemed right, and I felt like I was disappointing those who were counting on me.  On the final night of the event, I had been asked to speak at a gathering of Friends at a meetinghouse in western NC.  All of the youth and adults from the Yearly Meeting sessions had been bused in, plus there were numerous other adults joining us as well.  I had prayed and struggled over what to say to this gathering for weeks in advance, and now it was show time.

Quakers are a remarkable group, full of tremendous spiritual depth and historical significance.  They are also a fiercely independent group, and it is often difficult to get two Quakers to agree on anything.  Tradition is not only an important part of who Friends are, it is often the battlefield on which the strongest discussions take place.  I had decided to try and nudge this group into the 21st century.  I talked of being Roaring Lambs, of allowing our lives to speak to others in the name of Jesus at work, on the ballfields and in our communities.  I spoke of being willing to take risks and to quit being a denomination that insisted of protecting the past when it might be limiting the future.  I told the story of the confident Polish generals in World War II who sent their strongest battalions to the border to face down the invading Germans, fully expecting that they would win the day.  The Polish soldiers- on horseback- met their enemy head on.  The Germans- in tanks- rolled past them and conquered Poland.  I wanted these Friends to realize that regardless of history and tradition, Quakers could not ride into the next millenia on horses while the world attacked with tanks.  The message of Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever. How we communicate and deliver that message has to evolve, morph and change so that it reaches the ears of those who need to hear it.  Many Friends, young and old, stood to speak to the truth of what I had said, and the worship was quite deep and emotional that night. God was present, and the Holy Spirit was speaking to us all.

In the hours, weeks and months that followed I was told over and over again how God had used me that night.  The audio tape of my message became a popular item, and old friends I had not seen in years contacted me to let me know how much they appreciated the things I had said.  I spent so much time that week trying to figure out why God would allow that spider to bite me.  I wasted time feeling sorry for myself that things were not going as planned.  But in the end, God used the one thing I turned completely over to Him to His glory and helped me understand why I had been called back to NC in the first place.  We should never forget this basic truth- God is good all the time...

So the event that almost didn't happen became one of the signature events of my entire ministry.  Who knew?  Besides God, I mean!   Be sure and join me tomorrow as my son Will joins us as a guest blogger and takes a look back at movies from the summer of 2010!

Because of Jesus,

CAUTION: Rant In Progress...

"There are many powerful, popular and famous people who claim to speak in the name of the church.  They would have us believe that Christianity in our nation belongs to a political party.  They tell us what the "church" believes; they tell us what it stands for.  They may speak for the institutional church in USAmerica; I don't really know.  But I do know this-  many of them do not speak in the name of Jesus.  These are the modern day Pharisees, still thinking that the "law" can save us.  If we continue to let them speak on our behalves, we are failing as disciples of the Christ."
                                                                                                                               -WCJ, 1999

The following is just one opinion, offered today to help you think...

For the past several weeks many of my Christian brothers and sisters and fellow bloggers have been caught up in a whirlwind of discussion revolving around the National Day of Prayer, which was scheduled for tomorrow.  On April 15, a U.S. District Judge in Wisconsin ruled that the annual National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.  "It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," wrote Judge Barbara Crabb, who said the Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which bans the creation of a "law respecting an establishment of religion" in the Constitution.  The Internet and talk radio have been all abuzz with stories of how President Obama cancelled the event (which is false) and of plans for protests and assaults on the pagan institutions that would deny us the right to pray on May 6th.  The basic idea is that no one and nothing should be allowed to stop us from praying on our National Day of Prayer.

And you know what?  THEY CAN'T!!!  While I agree that loosing a day specifically set aside for prayer is a bad thing, there is no way in all of heaven and earth that anyone can stop me from praying.  Prayer is between you and God.  It does not have to be sanctioned by the government, the church or any other institution.  In fact, scripture tells us that Jesus will be lifted up through this "persecution" of His people.  But I would argue that for many of the people bemoaning the loss of the NDOP, this has nothing to do with prayer or with following Jesus.  This has to do with politics.  The amount of hatred poured out on President Obama, even though he played no part in this decision, was incredible.  A "prayer" made the rounds on Facebook that hoped for his death.  Threats were aimed at both the White House and the Judge who handed down the ruling.  For many, this decision followed health care reform as another sign of the apocalypse.  Tomorrow, I have no doubt, there will be protests complete with the tearing of clothes and the gnashing of teeth, condemning our leaders, judges and anyone else who may disagree with the viewpoint of certain politician/Christians. 

So here's my question:  Will any of these protesters actually be praying?  Our leaders need and covet our prayers.  Our nation needs our prayers.  If the "Church" (and I include all followers of Christ in this; I cannot conveniently rule out the Christians I don't agree with) wants to make a difference on the NDOP, or any other day for that matter, it will not do so by protesting.  It will not do so by ousting the current President.  It will not do so by threatening a Judge in Wisconsin.  The way to make a difference is to turn this whole mess over to the one who rescues each of us from the mess in our lives- Jesus Christ.  If you want to change the world tomorrow, don't protest-  PRAY!!!  It is a great thing to stand up for a cause in the name of Jesus; you'd better just be darn sure it is a cause that Jesus would stand up for Himself!  Jesus came to save the lost.  Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us.  Jesus said blessed are the meek and the peacemakers.  Jesus told us to take care of one another, to feed the hungry and take care of the sick and the poor.  These are the issues Jesus stood up for.  I see none of these ideals being lifted up by the powerful who claim to speak for the church.  What better way to show the world what a Christ-follower looks like than to shower those we don't understand with the love of God?  If we agree with scripture that God is love, then hatred and revenge can have nothing in common with Him.  We can, and MUST, pray for those who would tell us we cannot pray.  We must set aside our desires to have the power to make the laws of this land more Christian, and instead pray for the power of God to open the eyes of the people of our nation so they might see who Jesus really is.  Faith cannot be legislated.

The 21st century church in USAmerica is in danger of being defined by what we are against and the social/political issues that we have allowed ourselves to be co-opted by.  The church can and should be defined by only one thing- Jesus, the Christ.  So tomorrow, join me as I begin a National Year of Prayer.  Quit complaining about the way things are and pray everyday for the will of God to be done "on earth as it is in heaven."  Pray for Judge Barbara Crabb and President Obama.  Pray for our troops and our local leaders.  Pray for the leaders of foreign lands. Pray for people you don't like.  Pray for your friends, your family and everyone you know.  And then trust that God knows more than you do.  Believe that God is in control.  The love and grace of God, as found in the life and teachings of Jesus, are the only things that can save our world.  Set aside the things of this world and put your trust in the things of God.  Pray hard!

Because of Jesus,

Tim Tebow

Let me begin by saying that when it comes to college football in Florida I am an agnostic.  I pull for the Gators sometimes; other times I root for the 'Noles.  I always hate Miami (and all Big Ten...I mean Eleven... teams and any team coached by Nick Saban...but that is for another time!)!  This post is not about a team or a university.  This is all about Timmy...

Last night Tim Tebow finished his career at UF by leading his team to victory.  He broke the BCS bowl game record for most total offense by one person in one game.  He was honored as one of the best student athletes in the country. And I am almost certain he directed the marching band at halftime!  For the past four years, Tim Tebow has been the face of college football.  He was part of two national championship teams and won a Heisman Trophy (He should have won two- in 2008 he took the Gators to the national title on sheer will.  That ought to be good for the trophy all by itself!).  Tim Tebow has been a superhero on the field (you know the joke- Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas!) and in the class room.  There are few players I have ever enjoyed watching more than number 15.

But that's not all- or even most of it.  His faith has indeed moved mountains, raising money for orphans and leading mission trips (even taking his own coach) to foreign soil.  The scripture verses in his "eye black" are legendary.  He never fails to give praise to God, no matter the situation.  He has proclaimed his chastity as a tribute to God.  He has suffered ridicule because of his faith.  His life seems to be a living testimony to his faith in Jesus.

No one understands better than Tim that while he may know God, he is NOT God.  I am sure he cringes at jokes like this one: 
Q:  Why did God rest on the 7th day?
A:  So that Tim Tebow could check His work!
Much of the world seems to be pulling for Tim Tebow to fail.  They hope he doesn't make it in the NFL.  They seek (and Lord knows they have tried!) to find some major flaw in his character this will expose him as a hypocrite.  Few seem to believe that anyone can be this GOOD.  What Tim understands that so many do not (including Christians!) is this- he is not any different from you and I.  He is human, and weak, and he will fail.  But he trusts God with all his heart, and that is what makes him so strong.  The press may discover that he doesn't read his Bible everyday; they may hear him cussing on TV;  they may find out he had (GASP!) sex in college.  If that happens, people will freak out and scream about how Tim has let us all down.  Let them scream.  It would not change who he is; more importantly it will not change WHOSE he is.  Tim Tebow is, like King David, a man after God's own heart.  And I for one will miss him.  Thanks, Tim, for letting your life roar!

Because of Jesus,