by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
Kurt Warner: From Super Market to Super Bowl
The NFL star talks with Steve Beard
Good News, 2013
Being cut by the Green Bay Packers was not part of the plan. Neither was returning to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and working the nightshift at the Hy-Vee supermarket for $5.50 an hour. Needless to say, playing in the Arena Football League for the Iowa Barnstormers and then doing a stint in front of Dutch fans in Amsterdam is not exactly the career path for star quarterbacks in the National Football League.
However, that was all part of the zany agony-and-ecstasy trek of quarterback Kurt Warner, a real-deal quarterback who went from stocking shelves in a supermarket to hurling passes in three Super Bowls with two different teams.
The recently retired record-holding, MVP quarterback is going to be hosting a new TV show about second chances on the USA Network [2013]. Good News editor Steve Beard spoke to Warner about the show, his faith, and leadership in the huddle.
Your new show is called The Moment. Seems like you are the perfect host for a show about deferred dreams and second chances.
I was the guy chasing my dream for a long time and then a number of things brought me to a screeching halt and forced me to work in a grocery store and to travel overseas to make my dream happen. It took somebody giving me a second chance for me to be able to get back in the NFL.
Let’s talk about this new show.
The individuals that are nominated for the show are those that were chasing their dreams and then somehow life got in the way. They no longer could pursue the dream that they’ve always wanted and they had to step in a different direction. Once you step in that other direction, it’s very difficult to get back on track. We come in and we surprise them with an opportunity to chase that dream again. They spend two weeks training with a mentor in their profession and getting back up to speed and learning the ins and outs of that profession again. At the end of those two weeks is a dream job interview for them in which they get a chance to showcase not only their skills in their profession, but more importantly, to really sell themselves and why a particular company should take a chance on them and what they can bring to the company.
It ties in so perfectly with my story. If we’re going to chase our dream, most of us need somebody to open a door for us and give us a second chance. My hope is to be the guy that can help open a door for someone else.
Your career track was seriously a roadmap of heartache and elation. On the way to the Super Bowls, what kept your dream alive?
I never let my circumstances outweigh or crush my dreams. Like you said, it was deferred, but it was never covered up. When I was working in a grocery store, playing football was still at the forefront of my mind. I always kept that dream alive. As soon as you start to push it out of your mind or step down a different path, it’s very difficult to get that back. I never let any of those things be an excuse.
You had plenty of available excuses, though.
I never allowed any of those excuses to dictate my circumstances. I think that was the key for me. What you see with a lot of people is that they make the excuse that it’s somebody else’s fault. But a lot of times, people have stepped away from it and then maybe that opportunity arises and they’re not ready for it or they’re afraid to step into it because they’re going to fail.
It’s easier to sit back in the confines of your garage and create something where nobody can tell you it’s not any good than actually going out into the world and having to compete and pitch your product. A lot of people come up with something to blame for why they’re not where they want to be, and what should be blamed in most situations is ourselves.
All these things underlie The Moment and that’s why I love it so much. Hopefully some of these episodes will be like looking in the mirror for some people saying, “You know what, that’s me. Now, what am I going to do about it? Am I going to just continue to wallow in my excuse, or am I going to go out there and create a second opportunity for myself?”
I can’t knock on everybody’s door. My hope is that people watching at home say, “Ah, this show is enough to throw me back in the ring. This show is enough to inspire me to do something.”
If you wanted to be in a band, pick up your guitar again and start playing and see what happens. If you wanted to be a lawyer, pick up a couple of online classes and start working towards that.
It seems like the rest of life devours our deferred dreams. What did you do when you were tempted to give up?
The one fortunate thing with my dream was that even when I was doing these other things – arena football and playing over in Europe – there was always football that was a part of my life. There were moments of frustration when I would go to a try-out and never get a call back. I’d be thinking, man I couldn’t have done any better in that try-out.
There were moments where I wanted to make an excuse. But these excuses don’t get me any closer to doing what I want to do and to living the life that I want to live. If I’ve got to work nights at a grocery store so I can work out during the day and have opportunities to try out for teams, I’m going to work nights and do that.
I enjoyed going to work every day. I was in a much better place as a father and a husband because I did what I loved to do and I wasn’t just sitting around every day.
The Moment is not a faith-based show, but you are a faith-based guy. How does faith play into the issue of dreams deferred?
I think faith plays into it from so many different angles. As a Christian, the idea of second chances is what the Christian faith is all based on. Jesus came to give us that second chance, that second opportunity. So that’s where it starts. The real reason that I continued to chase my dream was I believe that’s what God created me for.
Hey, I’m supposed to play football, I’m gifted to play football. I believe if I get that one opportunity, I’m going to jump in with both feet and I’m going to take advantage of it and my life is going to change.
God creates each one of us with a distinct purpose. He’s gifted each of us in certain ways: to lead men, to throw a football. And He’s given us different gifts. The key is living in your gifting, living in your passions – what God put inside of you, that drive that He put inside of you. That’s what life is all about, taking that gift and sharing it and utilizing it and having an impact with it.
There are so many people that step away from what they believe they were called to be and to do, and they never really get to enjoy the life that God presents each and everyone of us because they’re not chasing those things.
We allow the world, we allow finances, we allow the big house, we allow the pressures of other people to get our minds away from what God’s really called us to.
Obviously, not everyone can play quarterback in the NFL. But I believe it is essential that athletes, preachers, and role models encourage men and women to pursue their dreams.
The mission that God has given every one of us is to use our unique talents. God says, “I want you to use that because in using that is where you’re going to have the greatest impact for Me.”
It’s all-encompassing what we’re doing with this show, trying to rekindle that fire and that passion that God put inside of every one of us so they can really step into the life that they’ve been called to. I believe that their impact on other people is going to be much greater than just wallowing around in the 9:00 to 5:00 job or in the career that they’ve got now where they don’t enjoy it and they’re punching a clock. They really can’t be the people they want to be or have the impact they want to have in those positions.
You have some of the most incredible records in NFL passing history. They are going to be etched in NFL history forever. But even for you, there was a time when your interceptions outnumbered your touchdowns. How do you get out of that funk and launch your success again?
My life has been about setbacks and breakthroughs. And I believe that the microcosm of life is sports. That’s what sports is about, it’s about ebbs and flows, it’s about highs and lows. It’s about the fact that it’s very difficult, if even possible, to play the perfect game. And so, there are going to be moments that you don’t succeed. But to me, those are the greatest challenges in life. You didn’t play very well last week. Now what are you going to do about it?
This person said you’re not good enough, what are you going to do about it? This team said we’re cutting you because you can’t play. This coach said you’re not good enough to start on his team. When people say that, what do you do with it? Do you run and hide underneath a rock or do you say, “Okay, I hear you, now I’m going to go out and show you.”
That was how I approached it. And I think that’s how all great players and all great leaders and all great people of accomplishment look at it. They don’t look at it like I have to be perfect and if I’m not perfect then I’m going to run away.
All great people realize they are not going to be great every time out. But when I’m not great, that presents to me the ultimate challenge to accomplish something.
What did you learn about leadership in a huddle?
The first thing is that all eyes are on you. So how you respond, what you say, what your actions are, is the primary thing in any kind of a critical situation. I’ve thrown an interception in the Super Bowl and we went from being ahead to being down by 10 points.
We step back into the huddle and all eyes are on me. And I have no idea where we’re going from here. What’s next? How I respond in this huddle is going to infiltrate the entire team.
As a leader, you must understand those critical situations and how you’ll respond. Maybe one time you’ve got to yell and scream and get on your teammates. Maybe one time it’s just, “Hey guys, my fault, but I’m going to make up for it right now.” Maybe sometimes it’s just looking at them with confidence, “Don’t worry about it, guys, I’ve got it covered.” And then there’s other times where there’s nothing I could have said. These guys are scared to death, saying, “Man, you just lost the Super Bowl for us.”
The only thing I could do was say, “Here’s the play.” And you go out and make a play and then you watch them come back, play by play, because you’re responding in a certain way with your action.
In loss and victory, all eyes are on the leader.
Yes. And the second thing I learned being in a huddle is that you can’t lead everybody the same way. There’s a lot of people out there with these leadership books that say, “Okay, here’s how you do it.” Well, I don’t believe that. I believe that the key to leadership is knowing the people – your followers and understanding how to reach each and every one of them. You’ve got to find ways to reach them where they are.
Some players, I had to get in their face. I had to embarrass them because it was that embarrassment that pushed them to the next level. Other guys, if you embarrassed them, they shut down. They didn’t want to talk to you.
You had to put your arm around them and say, “Okay, you know, here’s the deal….” There’s just different ways to lead. Some people are rah-rah people, where you have to yell and scream and emotionally kind of tap into them. Other people, you can yell and scream all day long and it doesn’t change their expression one bit. They want to see you work, they want to see your actions. You have to be in tune with your guys, your team, your group, your business, your employees to understand what drives them.
There are very similar aspects between a football field and The Moment. Part of my process on the show is to learn what helps motivate these people. I’ve got to get them from working in their garage to being ready to present with one of the biggest companies in the country in two weeks.
I’ve got to find ways to push his or her button. I’ve got to find ways to force the issues, to take them places that they’ve never gone before, they don’t want to go, or they didn’t think they could go.
Leadership becomes a huge part of being able to encourage them along the way and find ways to go through those disappointments and those struggles and get them back on track and get them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
They might not like you, but your goal at the end of the day is to accomplish something – not to make them your best friend. A lot of different aspects of that that are difficult, because we all want to be liked; we all like to be everybody’s favorite. But you’re going to be respected more by getting the results at the end of the day than just being everybody’s best friend.
This has been a true pleasure, my friend.Thank you very much.
My pleasure. Take care.
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News. Photo: Courtesy of USA Network.
by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
By Andy Nixon
A glance around any congregation reveals a terrible truth. Too many of us are living like we are less than human. Inside each of us is a struggle between life and death, and at stake is whether or not we will live as the fully human or the walking dead. Think of the people you know with gifts that are undeveloped, friendships and marriages that are less than what they could be, or minds and hearts that are possessed with sinister traits such as jealousy or greed, and our condition becomes apparent. We are the living dead.
The Bible tells the story of our fall, separation from God, and the consequences that form our present, only half-alive, problem. Because of sin, death and evil now have a home in us, and it is in that reality human beings live every day.
What Christians may find surprising, however, is how the secular world tries to tell this story, too. People feel a struggle within. Non-believers know they are not fully alive. They see corrupting behaviors, gifts within them that go unused, and feel resistance when trying to change. All people are struggling to fully live, fighting something or someone that is holding them back. To put it in cultural language, they are zombies – living half-dead, and they know it.
The challenge for the church is to reach these zombies with the Gospel. Christians have a relationship in Jesus Christ that prevails against all that possesses fallen human beings. Through Christ, anyone can experience the transformation from the living dead into the fully alive. This is humanity’s one hope.
Zombie Culture
In American culture zombies are everywhere. While it is true that the original idea of the zombie came from Western Africa and Haitian voodoo culture, in America, the zombie changed into something else thanks to Hollywood. In 1968 George Romero released the movie Night of the Living Dead, and through that movie, the modern representation of the zombie came to be. The movie features all the hallmarks of the zombie tale. A radiation leak on a NASA satellite returning from Venus brings the dead back to life in Pennsylvania, a group of the unaffected barricade themselves inside a house, fight back, and then at last law enforcement organizes a plan to save the day. The zombies were slow and the makeup bad by 2013 standards, but Night of the Living Dead brought the “zombie” into the American cultural mainstream.
Since 1968 our cultural fascination with the living dead has only grown. In film, movies like I am Legend, Zombieland, the upcoming World War Z, and others have made zombies a mainstay of American cinematic storylines. In video games – where dollars spent on production are rivaling Hollywood budgets for films – games like Resident Evil, which has sold 50 million units and spawned dozens of other zombie games, have been top sellers and feature the fight of the living against the undead. On television, shows such as The Walking Dead focus on the same conflict of the living dead versus those truly alive. Zombies are everywhere in numbers when you start to look!
When stepping back and noticing this cultural trend, questions arise. What is behind our fascination with zombies? What does the zombie symbolize for our culture? Why do we retell this story of the living versus the half dead over and over? What are we saying about ourselves as we continually encounter this story?
My answer as a pastor? People want to be fully alive, but do not know how to find that life or live that way. Every person is engaged in a struggle against something that possesses them, whether corrosive behaviors, or evil and death and the fear both bring. The good news is that Jesus too fights against these forces and rightly postured the church to help people become more alive.
A second step into zombie stories reveals a pattern the church should also recognize. Virtually every zombie story is told in the same way, whether it is 28 Days Later or Shaun of the Dead. The typical zombie storyline goes like this:
• There is an outbreak (a virus, accident, etc.). People become zombies. Survivors gather, resist. A plan emerges to overcome. Victory occurs with external help (a cure, military assistance, other survivors).
Sound familiar? In many ways it is the church’s storyline:
• There is an outbreak (sin, evil). People are the living dead, less than God’s design. Survivors gather, worship, and pray. God delivers a plan. Through Jesus’ help, victories occur.
Through the zombie genre, our secular culture has created a story about the human condition. Human beings fear stumbling through life half-dead. We want to live life fully, not as a monster, and through the character of the zombie, the culture is speaking of its struggle. If listening, the church is perfectly poised to offer a cure, and will begin to teach people a way to fully live.
Jesus Christ: Zombie Fighter
Enter Jesus, zombie fighter. He fought the living dead. As the church seeks to engage a zombie culture, it must look back and see Jesus as the one sent by God to battle the evil and death that possess us in an effort to bring us back to life.
Take for example the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in Mark 5:1-5. “They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”
Does this passage introduce us to the first Biblical zombie? Clearly the man is possessed by something making him less than fully human. He lives in a cemetery, cannot be restrained, can break through anything, and has been placed by his fellow citizens in the graveyard as a last resort.
In spite of his possession, however, Jesus sees humanity still in him and takes action. The story continues in Mark 5:6-8: “When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!’ For Jesus had said to him, ‘Come out of this man, you impure spirit!’”
Jesus drives the demons out, where they then enter pigs and force the swine into the sea. But the man is healed, his humanity is restored, and the townspeople, hearing the commotion in the graveyard, come running to see what has occurred. Jesus takes the once living dead and offers the chance, in this case for a man from Gerasene, to become fully alive. Romero would love the scene.
When preaching this story to The Loft – the church I serve with the mission of reaching the unconvinced for Jesus – I summarized the story this way. Jesus takes on the living dead within and around us. He can take on the zombie you and I have become by removing what possesses us, and offer us real life.
A second Jesus story further illustrates the zombie-fighting role of Jesus. Jesus tells this story in Luke 11:24-26. “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
The theme of the passage is that within and around us rages an ongoing battle against what possesses us. In the Biblical story, evil and death are out to grab us, where in a zombie film it may be radiation or a virus. Of course, in the Biblical story, the stakes are much higher. In the passage above, Jesus describes an ever-escalating fight with evil.
As a pastor, I wonder if it is time in our preaching to return to these basic themes of good versus evil, life versus death, and speak boldly about what can possess us. After all, isn’t the church the place where Jesus continues his fight against what possesses us and makes us live half-human?
Let me confess that when it came to preaching about possession or using a text like Luke 11:24, in the past I would shy away. Surely the congregation I serve would think me crazy? But as I read the gospels, saw Jesus in his fight against demons, and watched our culture so easily talk about a human being becoming possessed and changed into a zombie, my thoughts changed. Pastors can speak about what possesses us, the demons within, and our culture is already telling us it is a message the culture is waiting to hear.
Finally, God gave me an experience. On a mission trip to Haiti (the home of the zombie), I got the chance to attend Haitian worship services along with others from our church. As I listened to the preaching, I was taken aback by how freely the pastors there spoke of evil and demons and called upon Jesus to cast out what had laid hold of a person. The worship was vibrant and powerful. I left with the awareness that the vibrancy of the worship was directly connected to the severity of the struggle in which the Haitian Christians were engaged. Upon coming home, it was time to talk about possession, and how good and evil, and life and death are waging war within us.
The Saints
The church is the community of the saints. It is the place where Jesus and believers work together to become completely human. In the zombie film the church is like the place where survivors gather and then work together to figure out what to do.
In United Methodism, John Wesley expected pastors and churches to be about this task when he asked pastors, “Do you expect to be made perfect in this life?” In other words, are pastors going to fight against what holds them back, become more like God’s intention for us, and then work with congregations on how to achieve the same?
This victory over evil and death, of course, only occurs through the power of Jesus Christ. Think of the witness though, as Christians lead increasingly more fully human lives. Others around us will take note and ask the question – How did you become like that? How can I be more alive? Then we have a ready answer – Jesus and the church – a relationship with both helps us live fully human. If we as the church return to this basic task of creating people who are completely alive, the world will see. Because even though it can express through metaphors like the zombie that we are the living dead, our culture has no solution to this pandemic.
The world knows we are the living dead, and it is time for the church to step into the fight and offer the cure. His name is Jesus Christ. He fights zombies.
Andy Nixon is the lead pastor of The Loft, a campus of The Woodlands United Methodist Church in The Woodlands, Texas. Over the last five years, The Loft has grown numerically in worship from 250 to 1,300.
by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
By B.J. Funk
Perhaps someone you know has an annoying, irritating habit. Very likely, so do you – though you probably aren’t aware of it. A very dear person in my life –someone I love – has a habit that, should I say “almost drives me crazy.” I stew when I see it. I sulk. I give her looks of disapproval. The more I pursue an end to her habit, the more she pursues “showing” me that she will not change. I waste valuable time in frustration.
This has gone on for years without even the slightest change. Are her actions hurting me? Not at all. Are they directed at me? No. It is simply a matter of her habit “getting on my nerves.”
Maybe you have someone like that, too. It could be that they pop their knuckles, play constantly with a strand of hair, laugh too loudly, talk incessantly, or chew with their mouth half open. They might intrude into your space constantly, blink their eyes habitually, or bite their lip. When they pray, they could say, “Dear Lord Jesus” after every other word, or look straight past your face when you are talking to them.
Are you thinking about that irritating person? I thought so.
One day, while I was in the midst of anguish over this person, a thought dropped into my heart. I did not seek it nor did I plan it. I believe the Holy Spirit gave it to me concerning this irritating habit. Simple and to the point, it was absolutely profound in content: What has this to do with eternal realities?
The words hit me with a thud, but immediately made sense. If I believe I’m bound for eternity, then that fact should give redeeming and freeing substance to my everyday life. Taking this a little further, if I believe that eternal life starts now, then when I spend so much time worrying over something that irritates me, I limit God’s power and use of me today. Stress and worry can hinder me from hearing God’s perfect will for my life.
Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that they may know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). According to Jesus, we don’t wait until death to begin living in eternal life. We start when we begin to live for God and for His Son. If eternal life is “knowing God and Jesus Christ,” then my job as a Christian is defined. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:12, “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”
What does this have to do with eternal realities? has an amazing calming effect on me. When I am near this person and her habit, I concentrate on this statement. It helps me get things in the right perspective. Shifting my thoughts to the important takes my focus off of the unimportant. Besides, most people won’t change what they do just because it annoys another. If any changing occurs, if usually happens in the mind and heart of the one being annoyed.
This thought can be a guide in other areas of our lives, also. Every day, we have the opportunity to shun worries, fear and difficulties, and pursue eternal life. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:18 that we are to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Praying, What does this have to do with eternal realities? takes our thoughts off of ourselves, our critical spirit, our need to have everything go our way, and places our thoughts on more important issues, like our eternal salvation in the now and beyond.
In the 1700s, fire and brimstone preacher Jonathan Edwards prayed this prayer: “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” Yes, Lord, help us see beyond the disappointments of today, the irritating habits of others, into the glorious eternal life you have for us right now.
by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
Seminary vantage point
Wesley Seminary’s Ministerial Education Fund (MEF) distribution was mentioned in the January/February Good News article: “Money Well Spent? The Future of Theological Education.” I want to share the perspective from my institution. The revised MEF formula is weighted toward both the number of ordinands (based on a three-year average) and the number of United Methodist students who have become Certified Candidates. To begin to understand any school’s distribution would require looking at both the number of ordinands and the number of students. But this mathematical analysis is insufficient. Here’s the bigger picture.
Wesley gives preference in our scholarship program to our United Methodist students and, even as the MEF distribution has declined, we have increased our financial aid to them, totaling $783,958 last year. The UM Church is the principal beneficiary of our Lewis Center for Church Leadership, under the direction of Lovett Weems, with a budget of $533,000. We chose last year to spend $341,000 on programs to prepare United Methodist pastors from the Central Conferences, at the request of their bishops. And we have expanded our offerings in the Course of Study. By comparison, our total MEF distribution was $1,354,000 last year.
Beyond that, 60 percent of our full-time faculty are UM, as are all the members of my senior executive team. At least 66 percent of the members of our Board of Governors are required to be United Methodist and our chair is a pastor who leads the Virginia Conference delegation. Each of us serves the church at all levels and we work closely with Cabinets and Boards of Ordained Ministry.
Committing resources to programs like these – offering preferential scholarships, hiring faculty and staff, and recruiting board members – are all long-term investments that we are able to make because of the surety of MEF support we receive from the church which established us, and to which we are responsible. I know the other 12 proprietary schools of our denomination have similar stories.
David McAllister-Wilson
President
Wesley Theological Seminary
Washington D.C.
Mission statement
Let me begin by saying how much I have appreciated the past few issues of Good News. The November/December issue continues to call attention to the aging and thinning of our congregations.
Dare I suggest that we should examine again our Mission Statement. So long as we focus on “transformation of the World” we will be kept in constant tension – and contention. Our recent national election demonstrated how polarized the citizens of our great land have become.
Our church is divided on similar issues. Our efforts are expended on utopian ideals of social justice regardless of scriptural support, or using Scripture to avoid caring for a hurting society. We can neither ignore clear commands of Scripture regarding abortion, sexual impurity, and homosexual practice, nor can we afford to ignore the commands both under Moses and in Paul’s instruction to the Church to care for the less fortunate.
If we cannot agree on what the goal of the world’s transformation should be, we are spinning our wheels, digging ever deeper into the mud.
I suggest our mission is rather to “make disciples of Jesus Christ totally committed to intimate, obedient fellowship with our Lord and Savior.” Only then will the Holy Spirit’s sovereign will transform our church and have, then, any hope of influencing the unbelieving world in which we live. Perhaps we would do better to remember our first mission statement, Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
Our goal is too small. We are, or should be, seeking to partner with our Sovereign King.
Bill Wood
Brewster, Washington
Pew-warmers
The article, “Will Our Church Go Off the Cliff?,” by Thomas A. Lambrecht in the November/December 2012 issue was excellent. I showed it to my pastor and asked if it could be copied and given to everyone on our Leadership Team. I applaud the efforts of Good News to try to get the UM Church back to its Scriptural roots but sometimes when I come home from some of our meetings I do wonder if the denomination is already too liberal and too infiltrated with the world to be brought back.
I realize that the pastors are urged by the district superintendents and superintendents are urged by their bishops to do everything the bureaucracy sets forth, but at the same time, I wonder why they can’t seem to see (or acknowledge) what is happening.
My first question concerns how we can have “Vital Congregations” without teaching and discipling the present congregation? Possibly over half of our congregations are what many would term “pew-warmers.” They don’t have a vital, growing relationship with the Lord themselves, therefore, they aren’t interested in any reach-out programs. So much emphasis is being put on numbers and “doing” and too little on “being.”
I appreciated the article on John Wesley in the January/February issue. I can’t help but wondering what he would think of what the UM denomination has become today.
Keep doing your best for Him. It encourages me to know there are still some United Methodists out there that believe the Scriptures are the Word of God and are to be obeyed.
Rose M. Doubrava
Ellsworth, Kansas
Not Civil Rights
Bishop Sally Dyck was quoted in the January 14, 2013 edition of Perspective sent out from Good News: “Marriage equality is a civil rights issue; it provides for all what is afforded to some. … Because I believe in marriage, it’s my belief it will be a benefit for this law to pass.”
I was very disappointed in the response to the Dyck statement that no one challenged her statement that “Marriage equality is a civil rights issue.”
Have we like the frog in the frying pan become so acclimatized to the hue and cry of the “progressives” that we no longer react to the erroneous statements made by the progressives?
Were this issue a purely humanist issue, I would not now be commenting. I would have to agree that according to humankind’s laws passed by a culture that largely ignores God and passes laws to replace God’s will, marriage equality is a civil rights or at least a rights issue of some sort.
There is one huge problem that prevents this from being so. God! God created the marriage institution, mankind did not. God defined what constituted marriage, mankind does not get to do so (at least not permanently). God has provided from the beginning the precepts and concepts man is to live by. Mankind should not supplant those God given conditions and definitions. Having tried to replace God all these many centuries, mankind should not be surprised when God changes all of mankind’s meticulously crafted laws that supplant God’s will.
It really doesn’t matter if humanity deems some issue from the Lord, “not fair.” We don’t get to make that judgment against our Lord. Our job is to follow him, not question him.
His responsibility is to “direct our paths” if we will allow by our free will, for him to do so.
Therefore because God’s perfect will supersedes human law and will, “marriage equality” for people who choose marriage outside of God’s institution, is not a civil rights or any other rights issue. Would that Good News had said so.
Byron Fitch
Ritzville, Washington
by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
By Jim M. Ramsay
A church in Alabama was discussing the issue of unreached people groups as part of their mission focus week. Church members were surprised to discover that at the local university, there were more than 70 unreached people groups represented among the student body! Unreached people in Alabama? Indeed. In fact, in my own county of Gwinnett in the metro Atlanta area the 2010 census states that 25 percent were born outside the United States. A local parent told me there are 30 nations represented at his children’s local elementary school. Many people within the American church community are simply unaware of the huge migrations of people from all over the world that have been taking place over the past couple decades.
This has enormous implications for local churches who want to respond to God’s mission to call the nations – people groups – to Himself. There is a variety of people groups now in most communities across the United States. Yet often the church is either unaware or ill-equipped to know how to engage them.
Throughout the Bible, God used the geographical movements of people to grow awareness of Himself. Consider Abram leaving his homeland, the Exodus, the Exile, and the persecution of the early church. Can we equally see the movements of people into our nation as something God might want to use for His purposes – so that more people from diverse backgrounds can know Him and worship Him? If so, what should be the American church’s response?
A comprehensive plan is beyond the scope of this column. But there are some practical ideas that could get the ball rolling. For any church in a university city, it is highly likely that there are students from other countries. According to the Institute of International Education, there were nearly 200,000 students from China and more than 100,000 from India alone studying in the USA this past academic year! The Bible is very clear on how God’s people are to treat people who come from distant lands. Yet statistics suggest that 75 percent of foreign students never set foot inside an American home while in the USA, much less the home of believers. International Students, Inc. (www.isionline.org) is a good resource for getting involved in this area. Many colleges and universities have adopt-a-student programs for international students and are in need of host families.
In most urban settings there are usually enclaves of specific ethnic populations, often with their own stores and restaurants. Those are great places to get to know people and build relationships. People often love to tell how they ended up here; asking them to tell their story is a great conversation starter. For many world cultures, hospitality is a high value, so people from these cultures are usually blessed by the offer and likely will offer it in return. In fact, a sense of rejection can come from the fact that new immigrants often are not invited into homes. They would find that unthinkable should the roles be reversed and a foreigner were to have arrived in their community.
Given increased tensions related to Islam, it is a critical time for American Christians to become equipped to build relationships with their Muslim neighbors. Christians must not give into the same fear that seems pervasive among many Americans. Most Muslim immigrants, many who left desperate circumstances to find their way here, are eager for friendships. A friend once shared that he asked a Muslim in a local community if the Christians spoke with him. He said, “Yes, they sometimes invite us to their churches, but never into their homes.” There are some excellent resources to help American Christians learn how to build deep relationships with people from Muslim backgrounds and engage in constructive conversations about our faith in Jesus. Seminars such as Jesus and the Quran (www.jaq.org) can help Christians gain this understanding.
As members of the body of Christ, we should be at the forefront of welcoming people, helping them in their new home, and sharing our faith in ways they can hear it. If we will embrace the opportunity God has laid before us, perhaps we might experience a bit of Revelation 7:9 in our own communities.
Jim M. Ramsay is director of field ministry for The Mission Society (www.themissionsociety.org).
by Steve | Mar 5, 2013 | Magazine Articles
By Duffy Robbins
Jon is one of those kids who never shows up for prayer breakfast or Sunday school, and always seems to have unavoidable conflicts that prevent his helping out with fund raisers and work projects. Spiritually, he ranks somewhere between “plant life” and “lower primate.”
The picture isn’t completely negative, though. There are two areas for which Jon has shown tremendous enthusiasm: one is food, and the other is girls. Whenever a youth group activity allows for a large gathering of either, you can count on Jon to be there! Jon doesn’t make any pretense about it. He doesn’t have any real commitment to Christ, but he does have a strong commitment to having a good time. In short, Jon is a fairly average teenage guy.
There are students like Jon in the orbit of virtually every youth ministry I’ve ever known. I call them “Come Level” students.
In the last issue of Good News we talked about the notion of targeted programming: We need to work very hard to meet kids where they are – wherever they are – in the odyssey of faith. This means thinking about where our students might be in their various faith journeys, and then developing and targeting programs that meet them in that place. If your youth group is typical, you probably have kids all over the spiritual map!
The first Level of Commitment is the Pool of Humanity, namely the teenage population within your geographical sphere of influence.
Jon is in the second Level of Commitment. These are students in your Pool of Humanity who have some contact with your ministry, but if, and only if, you have something they like on a given occasion. And frankly, sometimes students like Jon discourage us. After all, we’re called to build disciples, and it’s frustrating to invest time and effort on kids who don’t seem willing to get serious about their walk with Christ.
But let’s be honest: first of all, most teenagers on the outside of our ministries aren’t somehow mysteriously born with a felt need for good doctrinal teaching; and secondly, a majority of the students on the inside of our groups aren’t either. If we only target our programming for the spiritual heavyweights, we’re going to touch the lives of very few kids. In fact, what Paul seems to strongly suggest in Romans 1 is that we are – all of us – natural-born experts at avoiding, denying, and counterfeiting any knowledge of God.
At least these kids come. Most of the teenage population never even comes. Let’s be grateful for the opportunity. You can’t embrace someone you can’t touch. When we find ourselves frustrated and discouraged, let’s remember that every one of us reading these words was at one time very likely one of these “Come Level” kids.
“The ways by which the Holy Spirit leads men and women to Christ are wonderful and mysterious,” wrote Anglican Bishop J. C. Ryle (1816-1900). “He is often beginning in a heart a work that shall stand for eternity, when an onlooker observes nothing remarkable. In every work there must be a beginning, and in spiritual work that beginning is often very small.”
Ryle wants us to remember a biblical example: “Do we see a careless brother coming to church and listening to the gospel after a long indifference? When we see such things, let us remember Zacchaeus. Let us not look coldly on such a person because his motives are at present very poor and questionable. It is far better to hear the gospel out of curiosity than not to hear it at all.
“Our brother is with Zacchaeus in the tree! Who can tell but that one day he may receive Christ just as joyfully? …It may be difficult to see how salvation can result from a man climbing a tree. That’s because you see a man in a tree, but God sees a man lost and searching.”
