City Life

“Why The City Is A Good Place to Raise Children”    

Nice article.  The author, Kathy Keller, is a resident of New York City.  Her husband is Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian and popular Christian writer.  And while the ministry of the Keller family is well documented, Springfield is a far cry from the Big Apple. 

Many of the practical benefits referenced in her publication simply don’t translate.  In fact, I’d say 95% of the advantages Kathy listed wouldn’t be experienced in Springfield, OH.  We are after all, warranted or not, the saddest city in America two years running. 

Even so, the article does generate thought.  Keller contends that children benefit from being exposed to city life, specifically the stark contrast offered between light and darkness.  I tend to agree with her.  Cities of all sizes are wonderful tools of both education and spiritual formation in that they paint clear pictures of brokenness, grace, mercy, and redemption.  

This raises a question.  What does an urban context afford families who are seeking to intentionally raise kingdom-centered kids?  This isn't necessarily an issue of where God calls your family to reside.  Wherever He may place you, your residence at this point is secondary.  Consider the unique benefits of your family investing in an urban church:  

• How could the city actually be a spiritual asset your family?  Put another way, what lessons can your family learn from the city that can't be caught elsewhere?   

• What are some challenges of investing in an urban church?  How is my family prepared to be an agent of change?  

• How am I stewarding this resource for the development of my family? 

I’ve said it before.  Southgate Baptist Church reminds me of the Antique Roadshow.   You may be familiar with the program.  People have unique and priceless treasure buried in their attic.  They bring the items to the Roadshow only to discover that the pieces are worth thousands.  

I would contend that the physical location of Southgate is spiritually priceless but it has heretofore been treated much like a treasure in the attic.  We know its there but we’ve no idea of its value in the spiritual formation of our families.

Opportunities such as these can be unbelievably squandered.  The effects of racism and classism upon the church can be easily noted – it need not be this way.  There are deeper expressions of missional living that need both explored and championed. 

Whether you’re driving in from the burbs, the fields, or the city  – there is work to be done.  There are tangible opportunities for our families to both demonstration and declare the gospel of Hope and Peace in this present darkness.    

I’d love to hear back from you.  Call, email, or post a reply. 
Either way, I’d love to keep the dialogue moving. 

Grace and Peace

Link to Keller's article: 

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/02/15/why-the-city-is-a-wonderful-place-to-raise-children/

The Boys and Their Toys

I’m pretty sure the arms race is fueled from our attic.

The playroom contains an arsenal.  Ninja stars, light sabers, battle-axes, katana blades, Nerf sniper guns, crossbows, Transformer blasters, nunchucks, glocks, pirate swords, batarangs, tridents, reported nukes…

You need it – the boys have it. 

They have it and they’ve tested it. 

Our walls display daily reminders of these epic battles.  

Finally, enough was enough.  Over the weekend I set out to right the wrongs.  Armed with a single sponge brush I was determined to touch up EVERY ding and scuffmark. 

If only it were that easy. 

Better lighting afforded closer examination. 

The scuffmarks had scuffmarks, 

collateral damage in their ongoing skirmish.

Yet while painting I was reminded: with better Lighting comes the realization we bear the marks of warfare. 

We’ve still got scuffmarks.  The subtleties of our rebellion leave their mark and the further we draw into Christ the more unnerving this truth becomes.  No matter how faithfully we’ve walked with God - He is ever calling us into greater depths of communion.  He is still at work in our soul.  And the unbelievable news is that God’s grace not only saves, it sustains.  It transforms.

Know this.  Greater than the shame, guilt, and regret is this truth: God is faithful to complete the work He began (Philippians 1:6).  The very Spirit of Christ will empower us such that our interest in and capacity for righteous obedience will radically deepen.  Indeed, as we submit to our Father varying degrees of Christ’s glory will begin to shine through us as we seek to walk as Christ walked (2 Corinthians 3:17-18; I John 2:6). 

Whatever battle may have beset you, press on.  Whatever sin might be of particular challenge, persevere.  Get up and make the hard choice.  Choose to walk in the light as He is in the light.  It is certainly not with flesh and blood that we strive.  Nevertheless, be assured of our eternal Advocate.  His voice drowns our Enemy.  And as our Accuser has no heavenly audience, let us also turn a deaf ear for in Christ we have been forgiven (I John 2:1; Revelation 12:10). We are freed to follow.

Grace and Peace.

Along these lines, I recommend the current sermon series being preached by Bobby Hile - Walk in the Light.  It is an expositional study of I John and since he’s only three weeks in you’re not too late to follow! 

What Not to Wear: Reflections on I Corinthians 15

What are you wearing?

My sense of style is simply deficient.  I have never retained the rules of proper attire. I would wear white all year long. Or anything stained, ripped and mismatched.   I wear corduroy in July until my wife has to hide it from me.  If I am just running to the grocery, who cares?  And if I am just running out to the car – rules do not apply.  Ask my neighbors.  Picture Cousin Eddie greeting neighbors in his bathrobe, slippers, trooper hat, and boxers. 

I do draw a line at the boxers, but the rest of the picture is me.

I’ve been somewhat of a ten-year project for Janna.  What I now concede is that certain attire matches certain occasions.  There are casual, relaxed, and refined occasions.  And while attending said occasion, it is preferable that one’s attire does in fact relate to it.

Indeed, proper attire is required. 

Paul closes I Corinthians 15 with this fundamental idea (15:35-58).[1]  As Adam’s children, our natural bodies simply cannot withstand all God has purposed for us in His manifested kingdom (15:50; I Tim 6:16).  “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable put on the imperishable.” 

We await a fundamental wardrobe change.  We look forward to an epic makeover, one for the ages: “this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.”  Our physical bodies, corrupted by sin, are incapable of housing the incorruptible. We are in desperate need of an altogether different kind of wardrobe, a glorious flesh that is quite different in its constitution and capacity. 

Paul resolves the material-spiritual tension not by dismissing bodily resurrection but by introducing a secret: Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The faithful will undergo a complete transformation.  The result will be perfection, a reveal more astounding than anything ever seen on TLC.

As the final trumpet sounds, the fullness of Christ’s victory over death will be evident as all the redeemed of all ages “put on” the imperishable.  No longer bound by the natural body but freed to experience the fullness of God’s intent: harmony of both spiritual and physical existence. 

As we put on our Easter best, let us reflect on our future attire. 

The grave couldn’t hold our Lord.  Evil has been vanquished.  God’s eternal intent secured through an empty tomb.  I Corinthians 15 bursts with hope.  Let us then be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain (58).

Grace and Peace

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[1]  The idea of “proper attire” gives shape to I Corinthians 15:35-58.  Those influenced by Greek thought scoffed at the resurrection of the dead (35).  Driving an unnecessary hierarchy between the material and spiritual realms, the Greeks had little use for material existence.  Our bodies were thought to be a temporal necessity awaiting liberation.  Paul doesn’t entirely disagree with his opponents; he only challenges their conclusion.  Indeed, the tension they felt was accurate.  Paul himself affirmed that flesh and blood couldn’t entertain the magnitude of the spiritual realm.  Yet instead of abandoning the future resurrection Paul advances two thoughts:

1. Reflection on creation demonstrates noticeable difference (37-49):
• As there are in creation different types of flesh (humans, animals, birds, and fish), our resurrected body will be of a different type (39)
• As there are in creation different levels of glory (terrestrial and celestial), our resurrected body will be of a different level (40-41) 
• So it is with the resurrection of the dead: a different type of flesh with a different glory.  Paul assured that we would bare the image of Christ (42-49)
2. Introduction of a great mystery, we will all be changed (50-58)
• Affirming the problem – introducing the solution (50-53)
• Demonstrating the fullness of Christ’s victory (54-57)
• Exhorting continued faithfulness (58)