United Church Podcast

The vocational calling of all of God’s people is to represent Him in this world as He brings the kingdom fully to fruition. We are integral to God’s plan to reconcile all things to Himself, and get as many people as possible back to Him.  If you practise the way of Jesus, I believe you want to accept this mandate. You want to see your one more come to know God’s love. You want to invite them to meet Jesus and His people. But we have an issue. Though we want to see our friends, family, and neighbours know Jesus' love for them, we do not share the good news or invite them to worship.  Why? We fear rejection and alienation.  I get it. There have been extended periods in my life while I was a pastor, and the only time I invited others to know Jesus’ love and Jesus’ people was when I was speaking publicly. I have had extended seasons where I did not attempt to interpersonally introduce people to Jesus and His people. 

Life is simply too busy to serve. Consider a typical week: juggling work deadlines, family responsibilities, and social commitments.  By the time the weekend arrives, the thought of adding one more task, like serving at church, can feel overwhelming. It's easy to feel like there's no room left to give  And yet an undeniable truth calls to us—Serving is Essential to The Way of Jesus. I understand this challenge personally. Before I was ever on staff at a church, I served. I remember one particular weekend when I had a major project due at work; we had a brand new baby on the way, I was in a Criminal Justice Master's programme, and I was coaching College and High School wrestling. I felt stretched thin and wondered how I could possibly find the energy to serve at church.  But I realised that in those moments of exhaustion, serving brought a sense of fulfilment and connection that nothing else could. Despite our busyness and challenges, the Scriptures clearly state that the primary way we can mirror Jesus and make a difference in other people's lives is by activating our gifts and serving.  So, how do we overcome these obstacles and create space for service in our lives? Here’s a practical plan to help us do just that: Model Jesus: Follow His example of serving others. Create Margin: Make space in your life by leaning on Jesus. Discover Your Purpose: Understand your unique gifts and calling. Use Your Gifts Well: Serve others with excellence.

As much as I believe you want every guest to feel like your church is alive and they can belong, we have an opposing force to that desire so strong that it is crippling the big “C” Church as a whole—the American way of life.  In his article, The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church, Jake Meador writes, “Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life.” Simply put the American way conflicts with the way of Jesus.  Consider one of the composite characters in the book The Great Dechurching.  The character is described as a 30-something woman who grew up in church.  She meets a less religiously engaged guy; they get married, and, at some point early in their marriage, after their first or second child is born, they stop going to church.  Another case is someone entering early or mid-career, working a high-stress job that they feel demands a 60—or 70-hour workweek.  Add to that 15 hours of commute time, and suddenly, about two-thirds of their waking hours in the week are already accounted for.  After a few weeks of either scenario, and many others we could examine, the thought of going to church on Sunday and creating a hospitable environment for someone else feels like a burden.  The underlying challenge for many of us is that our lives are stretched like a rubber band about to snap, and church attendance and participation end up feeling like an item on a checklist that’s already too long. The merry-go-round of related emotions leaves us feeling guilty but justified. We feel guilty because we know what we should do, but we feel justified because life is what it is. But a vibrant, life-giving church requires more, not less, time and energy from its members. Being a part of a life-giving church invites us to prioritise one another over our careers, prayer and time reading scripture over accomplishment, coming to church and creating hospitable environments over a “slow Sunday.” We host an eternity-changing event every week, and if we follow Jesus' example, we must be good hosts in our homes and not let the American way get in the way of the way of Jesus.

Christianity is fundamentally an outward-facing faith. Based on Jesus' last command on this Earth, I say that we should make disciples of all nations. [Matthew 28:18-20] The beauty of that command is that it is very direct and vague. It tells us what to do. It does not tell us how to do it. This has given the church, at large, the freedom to adapt its local context while simultaneously holding on to the essentials.  Because of our context here in the States, most people's journey toward Jesus begins when they meet a Christian who is an active part of a local church. That Christian invites them to come to Sunday worship. They experience Jesus and His people; we hope this becomes the jumping-off point for their spiritual journey with Jesus.  So, for those of us who have friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers we love who don’t yet follow Jesus, we want to create a church environment that those we love will want to return. 

The American culture is working tirelessly to make your life more siloed, isolated, and disconnected from community so that you will depend on it for your purpose and satisfaction.  In this host culture we all live in, there is no greater problem that we face than a siloed, isolated existence. From the rise in depression, the rise in suicide, political polarization, and addiction, to the extreme beliefs that people hold with conviction no matter how it conflicts with reality… I could keep going — it is all amplified by the extreme level of isolation and disconnected lives our culture wants us to live.  Here is what I find fascinating; I don’t have to spend any time convincing you about this. Nearly everyone hearing this would go yeah. The truth is we all pretty much resent the way this life is but feel powerless to do anything about it. Short of buying a plot of land in South Dakota and starting a commune with a group of friends, getting out of this way of life feels impossible. So, for most people, the answer is just apathy.  I need you to know that what you feel here is not wrong. This way of life that our host culture wants us to live is the opposite of God’s design for us. The Bible, and specifically Jesus, believes that every person should be part of a unified community where they can love and be loved.

You will never be a perfect mother, and you will never be everything your child needs, but you can be faithful to the task of raising your children in the way they should go, loving them in the way that they are, and trusting Jesus with the rest.  So today, I invite you to consider three things I learned from my mother and watch in my wife, which I hope bring new joy to your motherhood journey.  It goes without saying that I am not pedestooling them as the paragon of motherhood, but they are the two moms I know best!

“Giving is the greatest pleasure in life.” - Julius Rosenwald No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, we all want to live like this. We all want to be people who bless others with that level of impact, joy, and dedication. As we read in proverbs earlier, we want to be a soul of blessing. As inspiring as that story is, and just as much as we might aspire to be that type of person, there is an equal counter-motivator we deal with. Giving feels like losing. Whether we are in touch with the feeling itself or not, I imagine if you did a quick inventory of your heart, you would find resonance there. Giving—for many of us—feels like a loss. We might feel we are losing out on something we want or think we need. We might feel a loss of a greater sense of security. Or perhaps a loss of control. Whatever it is, when faced with the prospect treating our resources the way the Bible describes, our immediate feeling is often... loss. To some extent this is natural, when we go to the store and give our money, we get our bags immediately. We see where the $100 or more went. Giving to God might not immediately yield a return, so it might feel like you didn’t get anything back. Even though God promises that everything we give to Him will be returned in exponentially greater ways, our inability to delay gratification has hamstrung us.

We wonder how we will avoid boredom in eternity because we have been taught to believe eternity is an immaterial realm where we don’t eat, drink, play, create or relate—we just worship all day.  Living with those beliefs can leave us feeling confused and unsure about eternity, and no one should have to be unsure of what the hope of eternity is. The Scriptures teach an incredible continuity between this world and the one to come. Discovering this in Scripture has not only strengthened my faith and excitement about eternity, but it has also given me new language to share that hope with those who are far from God, and I believe it will do the same for you. Today, as it has been each week, will not be comprehensive enough to answer every question you might have about life after life after death or, more simply, life after Heaven. 

The problem of Hell in our time is twofold: 1. The Bible is less clear on the nature of Hell than on its existence. 2. The word Hell conjures up images in our mind gained more from medieval imagery than from the Scriptures and the earliest Christian writings. Just as many were brought up to think of God as a bearded old man or the “big guy in the sky” stopped believing in that image and so stopped believing in God, there are many who were taught to think of Hell as a literal underground location full of worms and fire, or as a “torture chamber” and so decided that when they stopped believing in that, they stopped believing in Hell. However, if we are indeed Christians, we do not have the choice to reject believing in something captured throughout Scripture. Even Evangelical Universalists believe in the existence of Hell and that people will go there. So we are left with one choice—search the Scriptures to try and discern the most biblical understanding of Hell’s nature. I believe most everyone wants that understanding to some degree or another. I would imagine, most of all, we want to be relieved of anything that doesn't line up with the Scriptures, like rage-filled preaching about medieval imagery and calling it hell.

In the previous section of John’s Gospel, Jesus spoke directly to Peter. Now, he broadens his focus to include the other disciples, for they, too, are troubled—not because they rush toward pain, disgrace, shame, or crucifixion but because they are confused and uncertain of what Jesus means about His imminent departure.  Jesus’ talk about departure and denial disturbed them greatly. It is no wonder the Eleven are profoundly upset.  The way the disciples are to calm their hearts, Jesus spells out for them—Believe in God; believe also in me. Another way to say it is to trust God and trust me. They can only find real hope and confidence by focusing on God rather than themselves. The reason He gives for leaving them is a promise—He is leaving to prepare a place for them. His departure is to their advantage. Yes, He is going away, but He is going away to make a home for them. The language Jesus employs here—Father’s house and rooms—is used in many Jewish sources when speaking of Heaven. Since Heaven is pictured here as the Father’s house, it is more natural to think of ‘dwelling places’ within a home such as rooms or suites in a large resort, not individual mansions. The point, of course, is not the extravagance of each suite but the fact that Jesus is making such ample provision that there is more than enough space for every one of Jesus’ friends to join Him in his Father’s home.  Interestingly, this begins to answer our question: What is Heaven?