Welcome to the real world, Pastor Kyle.  That might be how some of you respond after reading this post.  Yesterday, I attended the TEDx Conference at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater.  If you are not familiar with the TED conferences, just use that old reliable resource for information, Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_conference  ) to learn more.  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  The regional TEDx Conferences are designed to promote “ideas worth spreading”.  The audience for this event was a cross-section of people from different walks of life in West Michigan.  The speakers ranged from research scientists to entertainers to artists to designers from around the world.  You can do your own research on TEDx Grand Rapids and check out the speaker biographies if you want.  I am just trying to capture in writing what I experienced during my time at TEDx.  

TEDx did a great job of reminding us that many problems in communities around the world can be solved if people collaborate on finding solutions.  I am a big proponent of systems thinking and community connectedness.  I know that one local church can’t solve all the problems like the orphan crisis or the literacy crisis by itself.  One church can make a big dent, however, when churches learn to work together to solve problems, the impact can be powerful.  It was good for me to be reminded about the joy, momentum, and outcomes that can come through working together to solve problems. Jesus obviously recruited a core group of people to work together in unity to proclaim hope and freedom to those in bondage to sin.

TEDx also did good work stimulating both left-brain and right-brain thinking during the event.  It has been proven that we tend to be more creative and innovative in problem solving when we use our whole brains rather than just one hemisphere.  So, as a local church pastor who needs to think of creative ways to present the timeless, unchanging message of Christ, I appreciated having my creative juices stirred up by the presentations at the conference.  Also, TEDx did good work taking highly academic concepts and making them practical.  The speakers who might have classified as the nerdiest people in the room based on their job titles actually did a great job of presenting real world examples of how the solutions could be applied.  It is always a great thing when a communicator or a teacher can take a complex concept and make it plain.  One example of this was the Microsoft research scientist that described contact lenses with embedded nanotechnology to monitor your body’s vital signs throughout the day.  She said that most vital signs that can be measured in our blood can be measured in our tears.  These contact lenses will be able to provide instant information about a person’s health such as the need for more insulin or some other nutrient.  In short, there were some very creative technological advancements presented at TEDx that also have significant social implications.

People often say things to Christians like, “When you send your kids off to a secular college, be prepared for their faith to be under attack.”  I consider myself to be a well-traveled person that has had many cross-cultural experiences.  I attended two secular universities for my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering.  The TEDx Conference was the most blatantly anti-Christian learning environment that I have ever experienced.  In other words, I have never been in a setting where I felt like my faith was under attack as much as it was yesterday.  It wasn’t just that it was anti-Christian.  It was anti-any faith-based worldview.  Every speaker did not come across this way, but many of them did.  Christianity was reduced to one of many “myths” that people believe in because it is the story that they have been told.  Religious beliefs were blamed for the incorrect perspectives that we have about one another, and these incorrect faith-based perspectives were criticized for having created too much division in the world.  One speaker mocked the whole notion of genuine spiritual experiences by going as far as to make himself into a false prophet, creating his own symbols and slogans, traveling around the world and producing a documentary of people’s responses to him.  The movie will be released this summer.  Jesus was reduced to one of many false prophets that have captured the attention of people throughout the centuries. Instead of seeking “God” moments during the conference, people were asked to be on the lookout for “TED” moments that would spark a creative idea for future implementation.  Also, one particularly interesting innovation was an effort to create a technology-based system that would allow the world to communicate via a common language to help with emergency preparedness or collaborative problem solving.  In a strange way, the Genesis 11 story of the Tower of Babel immediately came to mind.  The overarching theme of these sentiments was that there is no God, humans have everything we need to solve the problems of the world, and if we just work together without being divided by these myths and stories about the so-called divine, we could change the world.

There will be some who read this and say, “So what’s the big deal, Kyle?  Are you telling me that you would rather see people divided over issues of faith than working together to solve the HIV pandemic? Are you telling me that your work trying to encourage more people to follow Jesus should take precedence over getting people to work together across faiths to solve social problems?”  Those questions are not even focused on the deeper issues nor are they the proper way to frame the conversation.

In my opinion, here is the big deal: The biggest lie that people can fall into is to believe that they have no need for God.  The TEDx conference opened my eyes again to the fact that there are many people who are spiritually lost and they have no idea that they are spiritually lost because they have gotten so good at being self-sufficient.  TEDx provided a venue for many spiritually lost people to celebrate their self-sufficiency and mask it in terms like collaborative problem solving and changing the world.  Check out Romans 1:18-32 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 on your own.  For the first time in a long time, I was in an influential academic and social setting that gave me repeated reminders that a Christ-centered worldview is moving more and more to becoming a minority point of view in America. The danger for the Church is that when some Christians consider the increasing cultural apathy about God, they may feel a call to launch a battle against culture or against people living outside of God’s plan.  Yet, I firmly believe that our primary battle is not against culture or against people.  Ephesians 6:10-20 reminds us that our battle is not against flesh and blood.  My battle is not against the TEDx organizers or speakers that promoted an anti-faith-based worldview.  The deeper battle is against the spiritual forces of evil that are still seeking to convince people of lies about themselves and about God.

The subtle hypocrisy of the whole experience also weighed on me heavily.  For several of the speakers, it was apparent that their belief was that faith-based people have marginalized the stories of other cultures in an oppressive manner.  The hypocrisy was evident in that the speakers were doing the very same thing that they accused faith systems of doing.  They were marginalizing any view of the world rooted in an overarching story that centers on God calling created people to conform to God’s standards or depend upon God for guidance.  I knew to expect this going into it.  I even prayed and asked the staff of Kentwood Community Church to pray for some divine appointments along the way.  I had some of those divine appointments that opened the door to some interesting conversations.  All in all, I am glad that I attended.  However, this blog post is a simple attempt to capture some of my general feelings about the event. 

In summary, I know that the early Church experienced much persecution.  I know that most Christians in America do not know what that persecution feels like.  I know that Christians have gotten it wrong at times in history and have persecuted other people groups.  I got a first-hand glimpse at the kind of views that people in my congregation probably run into on a regular basis.  I leave the TEDx Grand Rapids experience more passionate about proclaiming Christ as the only cure for sin.  I leave the experience ready to implement more creative, collaborative ways of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I leave the experience of TEDx Grand Rapids thankful for the awakening that in this so-called “Bible belt” of the Midwest, there is more Kingdom work to be done to help spiritually lost people find their way back home.  I thank God for the opportunity to provide leadership in a Christ-centered local church, and I pray that the congregation will be inspired to tell increasing numbers of people about the true hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

Once again this year, KCC will observe Ash Wednesday by holding a midweek worship service.  Without fail each year, someone asks about why we observe Ash Wednesday.  I appreciate the spirit of the question, and I also appreciate the following entry from Wikipedia.org on the biblical significance of Ash Wednesday.  It reads as follows:

"Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An ancient example of one expressing one's penitence is found in Job 42:3–6. Job says to God: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. The other eye wandereth of its own accord. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (vv. 5–6, KJV) The prophet Jeremiah, for example, calls for repentance this way: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes" (Jer 6:26). The prophet Daniel pleaded for God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). Just prior to the New Testament period, the rebels fighting for Jewish independence, the Maccabees, prepared for battle using ashes: "That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes" (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39).

Other examples are found in several other books of the Bible including, Numbers 19:9, 19:17, Jonah 3:6, Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13, and Hebrews 9:13. Ezekiel 9 also speaks of a linen-clad messenger marking the forehead of the city inhabitants that have sorrow over the sins of the people. All those without the mark are destroyed.

It marks the start of a 43-day period which is an allusion to the separation of Jesus in the desert to fast and pray. During this time he was tempted. Matthew 4:1–11,Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1–13.[17] While not specifically instituted in the Bible text, the 40-day period of repentance is also analogous to the 40 days during which Moses repented and fasted in response to the making of the golden calf."

Here is an email I received from one our congregants this morning:

Kyle, May I respectfully inquire as to the reason behind moving the Ash Wednesday service to the noon hour instead of in the evening.  Many people work during the day and would have to take time off to attend.  I work 15 minutes away and only have 1/2 for lunch.  Ash Wednesday has always been an important part of the church year and I am so disappointed that I will not be able to participate in a service unless I attend somewhere else.  I would appreciate any insight you could give regarding the change in time. Also wondering if we are making Lent and fasting a part of the worship experience ( other than on a personal level) at KCC this year?  I have not heard anything regarding the Lenten season other than the Ash Wed service.

Here was my response;

Thanks for your respectful inquiry.  I hope you know that I am always open to questions of this type.  The primary driver for the time change this year was the 40 Days in the Word experience.  However, to fully understand the impact of that, we need to reflect back on the uniqueness of this calendar year.  I'll try to spare you all of the details, but here is a summary.  The 40 Days in the Word life groups are completing their final group meeting this week.  Many of them meet in the evenings and several meet on Wednesday evening.  Given the fact that we asked the whole congregation to participate in a 40 DITW life group, it felt like it would be asking too much for folks to give up two evenings this week or particularly on Wednesday have to choose between life group or the Ash Wednesday service.

With respect to the start of the year, under normal circumstances, we would have started the 40 DITW sermon series one week earlier than we did.  So, we would have started on January 7/8 weekend instead of January 14/15 weekend.  We started later though because we felt like we needed a weekend to cast the vision and encourage folks to get connected.  That paid off with nearly 300 new connections made into life groups in the month of January for 40 DITW.  If we had started a week earlier, we wouldn't have this  conflict with Ash Wednesday, but we also might not have had the same number of people experiencing biblical community together.  Hopefully, this helps explain why we moved it to a lunch time service.

Also, one additional benefit of the lunch time move is that the folks who normally attend our midweek Oasis service are better able to participate this year.  This was not necessarily a main driver of the change, but once we began to talk about moving it to lunch time, we realized that this could be a big win for many of our older congregants who normally attend the Oasis service but don't necessarily want to be out driving in the evenings during the Winter for an Ash Wednesday service.

In terms of a congregational approach to Lent, we don't have any broad based plans.  We will be including some resources on fasting and other spiritual disciplines in the midweek email and we will reference those resources on the weekend, but we have not established a congregation-wide approach to Lent this year.  I apologize for that.  Admittedly, Lent fell off of my radar a bit this year as we poured so much energy into the 40 DITW campaign.  Thanks for asking.  Again, I always encourage folks to express themselves, even if we end up disagreeing.  I think that kind of communication honors God and frees us to be more authentic.  I do hope that you are able to participate in an Ash Wednesday experience in a meaningful way this year.

In Christ,

Kyle

For some more interesting information on Ash Wednesday, check out the Wikipedia post.

Well, I must admit that I have been dragging my feet this Christmas.  The artificial tree got put up fairly quickly after Thanksgiving, however I was disappointed to realize that the plastic base was cracked.  I borrowed a base from a friend that is not a perfect fit.  The tree has been leaning a bit ever since and after putting the lights and the tinsel on it, I never quite got around to putting all of the ornaments on it this year.  Hopefully, this week will be the week.  I am thankful though that none of the above really matters though.

I am thankful that the lack of Christmas decorations has not dampened our enthusiasm about Christmas.  I am thankful that Jesus came into the world.  I am thankful that our family has been able to read a story together almost every night that helps us recapture the anticipation of the birth of Christ.  I am thankful that this year, we will hopefully celebrate Christmas together at home rather than in a hospital room like last year when Petra was going through chemotherapy.  In fact, that might be the most exciting thing about celebrating Christmas this year compared to a year ago.  We will be together at home as a family.  That matters a lot to me.

Do the decorations need to be perfect? No.  Do I need to receive a lot of gifts? No.  Do my children have to behave perfectly? No.  I am just thankful that in the big picture, Christ came into the world, my wife will be able to celebrate his birth this year without an IV in her arm, and our lives are beginning to return to normal.  What a difference a year makes.  Thank you, Lord for giving us a clearer perspective on what really matters when we stay focused on the big picture.

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” – Matthew 26:39

Recently, I heard a powerful talk by Laurel Buckingham at the Equip 2011 Conference at College Wesleyan Church.  The title had something to do with ministering for the long haul, but he used Matthew 26:39 to talk about leaders being willing to go a little bit farther.  He didn’t stick to the text much as he shared, but he certainly made some memorable points.  Apparently, even though he has been pastoring for at least 42 years, he leads a large, growing church in Canada.  He talked about the need for leaders to keep going farther.  He made a powerful statement that if pastors had more fire, there would be less burnout.  He also credited the vibrancy in his congregation to them having gone from a selfish mentality to an unselfish mentality.  It was one of those talks where I left feeling like, “Wow, I hope I have that much energy when I am his age.”

As he spoke, he emphasized the importance of clear vision and leaders being passionate about the vision.  He also weaved in Romans 12:11 – “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” 

Lord, help me to keep my spiritual fervor as I serve you.  I am thankful for those that share inspiring talks and for the Holy Spirit who is the source of that inspiration.  Lord, I pray that you would consume me with your fire in the days ahead.  Help me to be more about doing your will than my will.  Amen.