Life Together in an Election Year

The election season of 2012 will be starting in earnest with a primary election on August 14. As a pastor I am compelled to propose some agreements that would guard the unity of the Spirit within the Church as we move through this election season.


I begin with these words from the Apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus:

“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6

Paul reminds us who follow Jesus that our primary identity and allegiance is to our one Lord who is “above all and through all and in all.” That means that we are first Christian brothers and sisters, united in Christ, before we are Republicans, Democrats, Independents or Americans. Our identity as children of God transcends all those other identifiers. It is important to remember that all the time, but particularly during an election season.

It is important to remember that there are faithful Christians in your church who will be voting for different candidates. There is no single candidate or party that will be “the Christian candidate or party.” There are issues that are important to us as Christians that each candidate and party will seek to address in different ways. And it will be important for us to prayerfully consider how these philosophies, if carried out in our nation’s laws, will make for a more just world that reflects the Kingdom of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, I propose that we live by these agreements out of love for God and one another, and for the sake of our Christian witness in the world.

I agree to have one on one conversations whenever possible with people who disagree with me, and I will “seek first to understand before being understood” (expressing the humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love that Paul speaks of). This means I will resist the temptation to participate in emotionally charged arguments via email, Facebook or blog comments. Instead, I will meet face to face for conversation whenever possible.

I agree to pray for the unity of the church as Christ prayed for the unity of the church in John 17. This is not a prayer that everyone would think the same, vote the same, etc. It is that we would give our allegiance to our one Lord and remember at the end of the day that our unity comes from our being Children of God rather than having an affiliation with a particular political party.

I agree to be responsibly engaged through study, dialogue and prayerful participation in the election process. If I am not registered to vote, I will get registered and participate. (Click here to register to vote).

I agree that if someone does not want to talk about politics I will respect that out of love for my brother or sister in Christ.

I agree not to make personal attacks or accuse another brother or sister in Christ of being unchristian for their political convictions. This includes agreeing not to post vitriolic messages, articles or comments through email, Facebook, Twitter or blogs. There is a way to have passionately held convictions without being mean spirited and accusing people of being evil. Remember that God doesn’t make evil people. We can all be complicit with evil without realizing it. Remember Jesus’ prayer? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” That applies to all of us at times. The power Jesus gives us to resist evil is to first surrender to God ourselves through confession of our own sin and secondly through self-giving service and love. This is the way Jesus disarmed evil (see Colossians 2:15).

Understand that you will not hear support for a particular candidate from your pastors or church staff. But that does not mean we will not participate fully in the election. Our calling is not to advocate for a particular political candidate, but to proclaim the gospel of Christ and to equip the church for Christian service in the world. We fully recognize that there are faithful Christian men and women at Spring of Life who will vote for candidates from every party.

Out of love for God and one another, and for the sake of our Christian witness in the world, I will agree to live in this way and be held accountable for it by my brothers and sisters in Christ.

How about you?

Generosity in July

When Spring of Life Church started ten years ago Carolyn and I met with a group of about 15 people from other churches who either lived in the Lake Nona area or just had a desire to help start a new church. We were entirely dependent financially upon the generosity of Christians from other United Methodist Churches since the 15 of us couldn’t financially support the church’s start up. Other churches had faithfully taught their people how to manage money God’s way – staying out of debt, saving for emergencies and giving 10% or more of their income for God’s work in the world. Because other churches taught their people that this is normal for followers of Jesus, Spring of Life Church was born. Obviously money wasn’t the only thing necessary to start Spring of Life, but without Spirit-led people who had been faithful stewards of what God had given them, no one would be calling Spring of Life their church home today.


Christians from other churches paid $350,000 in 1998 for the 15 acres of property our church building is on. Christians from other churches gave us about $400,000 during our first four years as a church to purchase equipment, pay for staff, rent for worship space and outreach ministries. Christians from other churches gave us over $200,000 for building costs and mortgage support during our first year in the building. That is nearly a million dollars of support from Christians in other churches that helped Spring of Life get her start.

As Spring of Life began to grow and become a church that was sustained financially by the people at the church, I had this nagging question. Will we be the kind of church that teaches people how to manage their money God’s way so that one day other churches and ministries will benefit? Will there be a new church pastor who will go to their mailbox in the future and pull out a check for $35,000 written by a person who learned to manage their money God’s way at Spring of Life? (That happend to us, by the way.) Will orphan children in Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya be empowered and equipped to become secure, confident, self-sufficient and mentor one another as a result of generous gifts from people who learned to manage money God’s way at Spring of Life? Will you become increasingly free from financial burdens so that you can know the joy of giving like never before? I hope the answer is yes!

This is why Spring of Life Church keeps offering the Financial Peace University Course. We believe that when God gets hold of our heart we want to give generously to God’s work in the world. The problem so often is that people are over committed and over extended financially. As a culture we continue to spend more than we have. We are enslaved to debt, and we cannot be the kind of generous people God created us to be. Those who have gone through the Financial Peace University Course are slowly changing that culture.

125 people have gone through FPU at Spring of Life, and 82 of those are regular participants at Spring of Life. While this is an ongoing process, those people have the tools to eliminate debt, live on a budget within their means and therefore plan generosity into their way of life.

Here is where this work makes a difference. When I find out about needs in our church and community Spring of Life is in a position to respond. For example, one family in our church is caring for a sick parent. They needed a wheelchair ramp to get her out of the house and couldn’t afford to have it built. Two guys stepped forward to build it, and the generous financial giving we have seen this July (up significantly over last July) gave the Church the ability to purchase the materials for the ramp. Another woman called the church and shared that her 4 year old son had been diagnosed with cancer and she had missed work in order to take him to the doctor. She couldn’t cover the weeks stay at the hotel they are living in because she fled an abusive relationship. Because of your generosity in July we were able to help her through this difficult spot and refer her to Hailey’s Hopes and Hugs foundation that helps families with children battling cancer.

Last July I would have had to turn down both of those opportunities to bless those families in a practical way. Thank you for your generosity in July. I hope you sense the joy of sharing in the Lord’s work in this way. Keep up the great work you have begun!

And let me challenge you to pass on what you have learned by considering leading an FPU class at Spring of Life. All the materials are new. Dave Ramsey has shortened the course to 9 weeks, updated the course videos and it is better than ever! Please pray about stepping up and being a leader in this area. One of the marks of a disciple of Jesus is not just what you accomplish, but what others accomplish because of you. Email me if you will consider being a course facilitator.

Still dreaming of what the people of God could do for the kingdom of God if they were debt free!

God is a Runner

This morning while running through my neighborhood I passed a home with the front door open and the sounds of a man and woman arguing coming from within. Honestly it made me want to pick up the pace. Who wants to be around a heated domestic dispute, right?


As I ran on past that house the thought came to mind. God is a runner. Only, God runs toward the world’s greatest pain rather than away from it.

It always comes up when our lives are touched by tragedy. Columbine, September 11, Tsunami, Earthquake, Cancer, now Aurora . . . in addition to sadness, anger and fear, in every instance there is that nagging question, “Where was God?” Some conclude that it’s proof that God is make believe at best or doesn’t give a rip at worst. Others say, “Who can understand what God does! We just have to accept it by faith.”

None of those responses takes into account the major storyline of the New Testament, God became flesh and dwelt among us. (For my pastor friends who think running is a worthless activity that shortens your life, I just have to point this out.) God is a runner!

In Jesus, God runs toward the world’s greatest pain, not away from it.

If the crucifixion of Jesus tells us anything, it tells us that God is running toward the world’s greatest pain and not away from it.

Think about that for a minute. God is running toward the world’s greatest pain, toward your greatest pain.

The exact place where you think God has said to you, “That’s it, you’re on your own.” That’s what God is running toward. Your arguments with your spouse, your divorce, your sexual sin, your love of violence, your victimization, your hatred for others, your dishonest businesses practices, your addictive behavior that you try to keep secret, your feelings of inadequacy and your pride of self-sufficiency.

Why in the world would God want to run toward that stuff? This is the mystery of the good news of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul put the answer this way in his letter to the Corinthian church. “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself . . .” 2Corinthians 5:19

Apparently this is what God wants most – reconciliation. He wants it enough to run toward the world’s greatest pain - the places where division seems impossibly more powerful than anything else in the world.

What could possibly defeat the proud and painful divisions that we experience in this world? Christians are foolish enough to say Jesus.

Interestingly, Jesus way of reconciling the world to himself isn’t by pontificating platitudes. He doesn’t do it with shaming lists of “thou should” and “thou shalt nots.” He doesn’t reconcile the world to himself through violence and vengeance. Nor does he do by distancing himself from the pain of our lives until we figure out how to get our act together and come to him. Jesus way of reconciling the world to himself is by running toward the pain. Becoming flesh. Bearing the weight of our evil in himself on the cross.

Of course, as I continued running past the arguing couple in that house the thought occurred to me, “How will the world know that God runs toward the world’s greatest pain if His Body here on earth keeps running from it?” (ouch! Forgive us Lord when we, your body here on earth, run away from the world’s pain).

Paul continues his letter to the Corinthians by saying God has “entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.” Translation: "You are called to be a runner too." As Christ’s body on earth, the Church is called to run toward the world’s greatest pain.

What do we do when we get there? I don’t know. . . How about break bread? Confess our sin. Offer forgiveness. Ask forgiveness. Suffer with those who suffer. Share what we've been given. Place our trust in the Original Runner who trusted God in the face of death and rose from the dead victoriously. Embody Christ and His hope in the midst of the world’s greatest pain.

Run with Christ toward the world’s greatest pain. That is right where God already is.

Dehydrated?

It is as hot as it gets in Central Florida these days. It is estimated that 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated already. We aren't getting enough water on a regular basis to keep our bodies working like they should.

Considering water is the second most important nutrient to the human body next to oxygen, this is not good. The body is made up of about 70 percent water, which plays a vital role in nearly every bodily process; water is essential for proper digestion and circulation, numerous chemical reactions, nutrient absorption, waste elimination and flexibility of the blood vessels.

This week the triathlon team coach at the YMCA gave everyone on the team a "come to Jesus" speech about staying hydrated this summer. One of the guys on the team got dehydrated and had a heat stroke. He is ok, but his recovery is going to take months and he very well could have died. The summary of her speech is, "Drink regularly." She said it is not only important to drink during a workout, but also before and after. And you shouldn't wait until you are thirsty.

Now the pastor in me can't help making a connection to our spiritual life in all this. First of all, Jesus is our source of "Living Water" according to John 4. And I wonder how many of us feel "spiritually dehydrated" because we only drink from this Living Water occasionally, not at all, or only during our worship "workout" on Sundays? It's great that you are drinking that Living Water on Sundays, but you're going to continue being spiritually dehydrated if you don't drink regularly, before and after worship on Sunday.


Being a disciple of Jesus isn't just about going to worship occasionally or bargaining wtih God to get something we want from God. Being a disciple is regularly following Jesus and drinking regularly of His Living Water so that we become who God created us to be. The goal is to be so regularly hydrated with this Living Water that we begin to love the things God loves.

I challenged everyone in worship last week to consider the last time you made the time to encounter the love of God in Jesus. Seriously, how long has it been? That is the only thing that will truly satisfy us in this world that is chronically spiritually dehydrated.

If you are vacationing this summer, do not neglect your spiritual life. Do not take a vacation from worship. Do not take a vacation from meeting with God in reading the Scriptures. And if you've never done it before, start this summer with one of the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Set an appointment wtih God everyday to meet Him and be hydrated by Him. Try the "You Version" app if you have one of those fancy devices. Or ditch the device and go old school - open The Book.

It is dangerous and foolish to not drink regularly in this heat. It just takes some awareness and planning to do it. The same is true for spiritual hydration.


I love the picture of the person handing off water to the runners in the race. It reminds me of the communal nature of our lives both physically and spiritually. Jesus might love you personally, but he never made you to follow him privately. Staying spiritually hydrated isn't possible without a community who will encourage you, hold you accountable and at times give you a "come to Jesus" speech about drinking more reguarly.

Drink well and often this summer (and throughout the year!)

Disagreement and Communion

One of the reasons I am United Methodist is because on any given Sunday former president George W. Bush can share a pew with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They both happen to be United Methodist. That might be awkward, yes. But I believe it is a sign of God’s new creation revealed in Jesus when two people who hold such different opinions meet together at the table of the Lord. For a God who spent a lot of time hanging out with sinners and talking about loving enemies, it makes sense that God might even like to hang out in a United Methodist Church too. We’ve got no shortage of sinners and enemies for God to enjoy.

Last week I attended a day of the United Methodist Church General Conference as it gathered in Tampa. According to the UMC Discipline the General Conference is the legislative body of the church. Every four years, lay and clergy delegates from around the world meet to review the church’s Discipline, adding or editing language as we attempt to be faithful to our mission to make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world. The General Conference is the only body that can “speak officially” for the United Methodist Church.

Riding the bus over to Tampa last Thursday morning I listened to Rev. Adam Hamilton (pastor at the Church of the Resurrection UMC in Kansas City) present a proposed amendment to the United Methodist Book of Discipline that basically served to acknowledge our disagreement in the United Methodist Church over the long held wording in our church’s Discipline regarding homosexual persons. The current wording states : “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.” Basically, Rev. Hamilton wanted the General Conference to at least come clean with the reality that there are some United Methodists (long-time, faithful ones) who are have monogamous, committed homosexual relationships and read the story of God in the Bible in such a way that their life together is affirmed by God rather than abhorred and rejected.

I thought it would pass. But I’ll admit that I don’t know that much about the politics of General Conference. All Hamilton was doing was stating the reality that we are living with in order for us to take steps forward as a church on an issue that has painfully divided and hurt people for nearly 40 years. Rev. Hamilton’s words struck me deeply. “If there were an issue within my congregation where 40% of the people strongly disagreed, then I wouldn’t continue on as if that weren’t a reality.” Exactly, I thought. That’s what we call “denial.”

We can’t heal a wound that we won’t acknowledge is there. In my opinion this acknowledgment would have been a positive step toward coming to the table in order to have an open and respectful conversation in order to understand and appreciate our differences in the context of God’s grace. Perhaps it would have, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr,. been a step toward building the beloved community.

When the petition failed and we were left in the same place we began the Conference, it took me a while to realize what had just happened. Those who were standing at the edge of the assembly in visible advocacy for those who are excluded looked at one another in disbelief. The crowd then moved slowly to the center of the room where there was a large communion table. They began to break bread and share the cup of Holy Communion. Looking back on the event, I can’t think of a more appropriate thing for Christians to do in the face of defeat, misunderstanding, confusion and division. We don’t have the words or actions to transcend such things – those words only belong to the Body broken and Blood outpoured of Jesus. The story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is the only story big enough to handle fractures that seem impossible to heal.

As bread and cup were held high and broken, it was a gesture to say, “One day, by God’s grace, we will become the reconciled community that we proclaim in this gospel of Jesus Christ.” And so, once again, in the midst of our very broken world, this meal was a glimpse and anticipation of God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven.

“For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Ephesians 2:14

One day the people to which God has entrusted the message of reconciliation will be reconciled. Until that day I pray that we keep coming to the table with our differences and with hope.

Garden Dreams

Good theater always takes you to another place. That was the case for me when I got to see the Lake Nona High School student drama department perform “The Secret Garden” this week. If you didn’t get the chance to see it, you’ve got one last chance on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. They are a talented bunch of students!

Of course, I couldn’t help making some theological reflections during this invitation to imagination. Among other things, the garden in the play is a place of death and new life. It becomes a lens through which we can see the world, full of sadness and death that it is. While at the same time the garden is also a lens through which we can see the world bursting with life and new possibility.

It’s no accident that the Biblical writers use the image of a garden to convey the beauty of God’s creation in Genesis and another garden called Gethsemene in the gospels to convey the bitter sorrow of God in the face of death (see Matthew 26:36, John 18:1). But even that garden of Gethsemene isn’t where the story ends. There is yet another garden (we assume it’s a garden because Mary mistook the risen Jesus for the gardener in this story – see John 20:15). In the greatest transport of imagination that the world has ever known, the risen Jesus meets the weeping Mary, symbolic of all the world, calls her by name and inaugurates a new creation/garden that we couldn’t have imagined if left to our own resources.

God has moved from garden to garden, from creation to new creation in order to bring new life out of death. This is far more than a metaphor to give us hope that all our dreams will come true. This is a gift from God which gives us different dreams than we had before. What are these new dreams? Here are two that God has impressed upon me. How about you? What new creation, new garden dreams has the risen Christ given you?

Peacemaking that wields the weapon of self giving love.

Treating creation as a gift to be cared for rather than a commodity to be consumed.

Easter and Improvisation

It has been a few days and I’m still thinking about the implications of Easter Sunday’s experiment at Spring of Life using improvisational theater as a metaphor for responding to the resurrection.

During my Easter sermon I pointed out that Mark’s gospel ends abruptly after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and the oldest original manuscripts don’t have anything past verse 8. Three women come with spices to the tomb looking for a body and leave with spices in hand bound for Galilee to look for a living Jesus. And that’s where Mark leaves us. It’s like Mark is prompting us to pick up from there, respond to the resurrection ourselves, meet Jesus in the ordinary, everyday places of life – in the “Galiliees” where we live.

As an improv actor, one important rule to follow is accepting what you are offered and building upon it. One of the actors with us on Easter said that he listens carefully and treats the offer like a gift. That shapes the way he responds. He’s not thinking about trying to be funny or making things turn out “right.” That kind of thinking creates anxiety and paralyzes the drama.

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are able to make a major liberating assumption: It isn’t up to us to make everything turn out right. That’s God’s job, and in fact, God has already made things turn out right through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Have you ever thought of Jesus’ resurrection in that way? Its implication is much bigger than just good news for Jesus (as in, Yea for Jesus! Your’re not dead anymore!). Its implication is bigger than “there’s hope for life after death” (as in, we get to go to heaven when we die). The apostle Paul talks about Jesus’ resurrection as the first fruit of God’s new creation. Jesus’ resurrection is both the evidence and the promise that God’s reign is coming on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus’ resurrection is evidence that the forces and powers of evil at work in the world have been defeated, and that any evil at work in the world today will not have the last word. We can claim the power of the risen Christ at work within us to make everything turn out right. It isn’t up to us to make everything turn out right.

We can say along with the apostle Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Galatians 2:20

Most of us have a general idea about the way we’d like our lives to go. And when we sense that circumstances beyond our control are pushing us in a direction that we don’t want, we tend to get anxious, angry, depressed and controlling. This is classic non-acceptance. For an improve actor, this non-acceptance will kill the drama. For a Christian, this non-acceptance is really our attempt to be God and it kills the adventurous life God hopes for us.

What makes improvisation fun and adventurous is when the actors accept each offer as a gift without trying to force their own agenda or try to be creative, funny or original. They simply continue the story by responding to the offer in a way that is obvious.

This is fairly easy to do when you get offers that are kind or friendly. It’s easy to accept “kind” offers as gifts. The important next step is to learn how to accept the offers that you think are negative as gifts too. I’m not talking here about just “having a positive attitude.” I’m talking about learning to accept every offer in light of the bigger story of God’s resurrection hope. This is the basis of Christian hope.

Take the example of Jesus being offered crucifixion. He could have rejected the offer and fought to the death like many perhaps thought he should have. Instead, Jesus accepted the negative offer of crucifixion. However, he did so with faith that his death would not be the end of God’s story. Jesus accepted the negative offer of crucifixion with trust in God’s bigger story – something far more substantial than “having a positive attitude.” We don’t need a God who raises the dead in order to have a positive attitude. But we do need a God who raises the dead in order to have hope in the face of death.

This points toward a second major assumption we can make because of Jesus’ death and resurrection: God’s story started before and will continue after evil and death have had their way. Another way to put this is “death doesn’t have the last word.” In his book “Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics,” Sam Wells suggests that we use the word “and” after every negative offer.

Wells writes, “This word, “and,” constitutes a significant statement. It indicates that the sentence is not yet finished. The story is not yet over. There is more to come, even when evil has done its worst. . . . For the power of Christ lies in the fact that he accepted death, even death on a cross; he was able to do so because he believed in the “And.” He believed that his death was not the end of the story: and so it proved.”

Because the living Jesus is at work in us, we are capable of accepting negative offers followed by the word “and.”

Think about a negative offer you have received and consider the way you can now accept it with the word “and” in light of the resurrection of Jesus. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about.

• I’m offered betrayal .. . . . and I will forgive you.
• I’m offered terminal illness . . . . and I will pray to see God present in this suffering.
• I’m offered a pink slip . . . . and I will remember that this isn’t the end of God’s story.
• I’m offered my own death or that of a loved one . . . . and I will remember that death doesn’t have the last word.
• I’m offered injury or other unexpected negative news . . . . and I will enjoy this detour because God will show me things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
• I’m offered physical or emotional attack . . . . and I will take this opportunity to learn to love my enemies better.
• I’m offered the irresponsible choices of a loved one . . . . and I know it is not my responsibility to make everything turn out right.
• I find myself becoming angry at the actions of another . . . . and I will seek first to understand before being understood.
• My teenage child offers me the words, “I hate you!” . . . . and I will love you.
• My loved one rejects Jesus . . . . and even so, God will have his way and get what God wants!

None of these responses are creative or original or clever. They are obvious in light of what Jesus has done through his resurrection from the dead. They are all responses that make sense in light of the new creation that Jesus has made possible through his defeat of evil and death. They are all things that Christians can and should learn to take for granted so that they become a kind of second nature response to the negative offers we receive. The extent to which these responses sound unusual, shocking or abnormal reveals the extent to which we have been formed by the way of the world rather than the way of Christ.

I’m not talking here about memorizing responses. I’m talking about being trained in the habits of Jesus so that these kind of responses become the obvious, “knee jerk,” kind of things we would do when we are given a negative offer.

Now for the next obvious question: How is your training in the habits of Jesus going these days?