charlieDEAN’S Blog

I downloaded Remedy by the David Crowder Band last night and have been listening to it all morning.  First taste?  I like it.  Just what I’d expect out of Crowder…evolving, but not so far that it’s not “them.”  (At least they put the stupid banjos away!)

Gotta say…I LOVED IT!  Laughed my head off.  For those of you that are newer to my blog…everyday after a new episode of The Office, I post a favorite quote…then you guys get to add yours…  Here’s one of many from last night…

 I’m not superstitious…I guess I’d say I’m a little stitious.

                          — Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Danger on the Road

I’m reading Lauren Winner’s book Girl Meets God (the subtitle is the title of this post).  It’s really refreshing to me.  It’s a biopic about her journey into orthodox Judaism, and her subsequent conversion to Christianity.  Her writing style, in this book, is very much in the same vein as Anne Lamott, Kathleen Norris, & Donald Miller — honest, gritty and yet literary.

Anyway, here’s a quotation that had me thinking.  She’s describing a conversation with a friend:

We meet and walk, and, because it is crisp and perfect out, we sit on a bench in front of some large New Haven church and then minutes later we are talking about tznuit, modesty, what the rabbinic texts say, and how to read them, and I remember this is what drew me to Judaism, in the first place, these words, turning them over like marbles in my hand, living inside these texts like clothes.  Sometimes they are wool and they scratch and you want to take them off and maybe you do but you never stay naked for long.

So, here’s the thing: I’m not proposing that we become rules-obsessed like much rabbinic thought, but there’s this beauty in it — that they love to talk and debate and “turn the text over like marbles in their hands” that betrays a deep dedication to understanding the words of Scripture.  Very cool.

“The trophy that matters is not on our shelves or resumes.  It is the soul that we become.  That is the crown that we will one day cast before God.”

                     — John Ortberg, When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box.

I’ve resisted.  I’ve wanted to write…to say something…to allow my hopes to rise, but I’ve forced it down, to protect myself from getting hurt…

But hope is rising!

Last night’s game was AWESOME!  (I was there.)  I’ve never heard Wrigley Field so loud and fired up and so intense about every pitch!

It happened for the most (and most likely not the last) time the other day…I came around the corner in the basement just in time to hear my oldest son’s friend say, “Why don’t you like your mommy & daddy?” and he responded with “Because they always tell me what to do and we don’t ever do any fun stuff.”  (Ironically, I was working on building a fire at the time so we could cook out and camp in the yard.)

I know that he’s six…and he doesn’t really mean it…and I’m pretty sure he loves us.  But it still hurt a little bit.

Thing is…he has no idea how much we love him…and how his words can hurt.

Then I think…I’m sure this is how God feels about my words sometimes…

Today I took the Chicago architectural tour via the Chicago river.  It was pretty cool…the tour guide talked about 80 buildings in the 90 minute tour.  Anyway, I’m going to try to give you a brief observation about architecture as I understand it:

Modern Architecture– the guide called modern architecture “glass on sticks.”  She showed us that modern architecture has no superfluous design — just glass boxes, mostly.  In her words, modern architecture “wants us to be impressed by it’s structure.”

Postmodern Architecture — the guide showed us several examples of postmodern architecture that is marked by 3 things: 1.  unique tops of buildings   2.  pays homage to different styles of architecture (art deco, classical, gothic, etc.) and 3.  she kept showing us examples of how “postmodern buildings are aware of their surroundings and pay homage to building it sits next to.

To me, the parallels to church scream out…and it’s a no-brainer as to what I think the church should be more like.

I work in a large church…so we have all kinds of discussions like these:

• how do we connect people?
• how do we greet people?
• how do we help people find a small group
• how do we motivate people to serve

So let me ask you something…what are churches responsible for?

I tend towards thinking that church should be much simpler than it is.  Shouldn’t my concern as a pastor be soul development?  The other stuff should happen when people’s souls are changed and they seek to make an impact on the world — why do we have to scheme and plan and strategize?  If God’s doing a work in someone’s life — then won’t they take responsibility for finding ways to serve — for finding ways to “do life” with other people.

Does the church take on too much responsibility for hand-holding?

Do people place tooo much expectation on the church?

Or am I just being snarky?  (snarky — a word I’ve made up…it means exactly what it sounds like!  Okay, never mind, snarky is British slang…)

I was going to write a post about some leadership qualities that I admire the most…like what I look for in the types of leaders that compel me to follow…I’ll do that eventually…maybe in the comments…but first, I’m curious about yours.  Think through different leaders in your life — boss, parents, pastor, etc., and ask yourself, “what is it about this person that makes me want to follow them?”