Chuck Rodgers's Blog

Countering Culture

May 29^th, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

Mood: cynical

Take into account what has happened in my life in the last month of not blogging…..

I have seen my daughters come home from college. The oldest, Allison, graduated from college and will turn around to get her masters, MBA, in the Fall. We went down to Southern California to watch that moment which was good for our family. Kayla goes off to Seattle for a photography internship in a few days which means she will be gone for the summer. Derrick has High School, and a job, and great friends. My lovely wife, Ronda, has a birthday today.

We’ll get to do stuff as a family tonight…Cool!!!!

All that said….. I'm feeling a little cynical today, but here goes. Let me know if you think I went a little too far...

To encourage people to give to your church, be sure to put their names on a plaque, or a chair, or a brick in the new building. Forget what Jesus taught in Matthew 6:3-4 when he said, “But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” He didn’t really mean that. He really meant: Make sure you get your name on a shiny little gold plate on a wall or a brick so people can feel good about your philanthropy.

Always, always have little blanks to fill in on your church bulletins. Don’t worry, adults won’t feel insulted to have you read them the answers. They enjoyed it in second grade and they'll enjoy it now. Besides, they aren’t really smart enough to come up with their own way of taking notes so it’s much better if you spoon-feed them the answers.

Something else got me thinking….about the question that's been gnawing away at me for the last couple years. Here it is: What does a follower of Jesus look like in an affluent society?

Here's what I'm getting at:

• I’m becoming convinced that Christianity is not what it appears to be in mainstream America. We don’t make choices that resemble those of believers throughout the world or in the early Christian church. We look and live pretty much just like the rest of society. Why? What have we lost? How can we regain a true passion for knowing and following God?

• Most people (including Christians) in American society spend their lives working in a job they don’t like, for a boss they don’t respect, with people they don’t get along with, to earn money to buy stuff that they don’t even need. And if they do this long enough we call them a success. Self-indulgence, materialism, greed are giant blind spots in American Christianity. How can we reshape our attitudes and lives, in the midst of a materialistic and consumer-driven culture, to reflect the beauty, truth, modesty, wonder and glory of living as children of the King?

I'd love your thoughts.....

Anyone can view this

2 Comments

Where is God when it Hurts?

April 18^th, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

Mood: contemplative

I just spent the last couple days in the hospital with a friend that found out they have cancer throughout their body....Wow...they have two young children and it got me to thinking about stuff with our children. Lots of people have asked me critical questions about their kids and are in seasons of critical care.....what does it look like to be.....

Sitting In God’s ICU (Intensive Care Unit) For Parents

There you sit. You are in the God’s hospital waiting room for parents.

Your family looks more like a train wreck than a family. You have gone through the process of denying your home is in trouble. You’ve tried to ignore the growing symptoms. You’ve looked for help in every book, seminar, or friendly face with a willing ear you can find. You have tried and tried and you don’t know where to turn. It’s almost like a cloud of doom has moved over your lives and you are waiting for the next disaster.

· Do you see a growing anger or rebellion in your child?

· Has one or more of your children rejected your love and leadership and your home has become a place of constant conflict and tension?

· Have your children rejected your efforts at leading them to the Lord? Are they refusing to attend church with you?

· Do you have a growing concern because of the types of people your children choose as friends?

· Are you watching your children lose in the battle for their virginity? Is there a baby on the way or your child has a social disease?

· Have they began to experiment with drugs or alcohol?

· Have you gone beyond praying for your children to be healthy, wealthy, wise and great spiritual leaders to where you are just praying that they stay alive, keep them from getting pregnant, stay out of jail and stay off or get off of drugs.

· Has your son or daughter become in homosexual behavior and you do not know what to do?

· Are you frightened that an accident will happen that takes your child’s life and you are terrified that they will go to hell?

· Do you feel like your faith in God is slipping away or has already left?

· Are you so close to the edge of despair that you are not sure you will be able to survive personally? Financially? Emotionally?

· Have the problems with the children already destroyed your marriage or you are afraid that your marriage will not survive this latest crisis?

Many of us understand your crisis and have lived through, or are living through a similar crisis right now. You feel helpless. And so you wait, minutes tick into hours, hours into days. Sometimes your wait has been going on for years and you are still waiting.

Tic, tick, tick, the painful minutes slip by.

In the loneliness of the ICU for Parents, you wait.... you look at all the books or materials. You find yourself talking about anything that will take your mind off the surgery that is going on in the lives of your children.

In the privacy of your wait, you quickly check off the things you should be doing right now but you give up because you can’t keep your mind on other things anyway. You have no words to speak. Your faith needs life support.

While you wait, the accuser of your soul comes to remind you of your failures of the past, of missed opportunities, of words you should have said, or words you wish you hadn’t said. You begin to play the “if I had only” game. The “should have’s” begin to pile up and you slip into the despair of self blame, self condemnation, depression and hopelessness.

As you wait, you begin to withdraw into your self. Even though there are others in the waiting room of your home, you fail to see their needs, and by your silence their wounds and hurts go untended.

As you wait, your friends try to say the right words but their efforts to love you or help you only make you feel more alone in your regret.

Your child is silent towards you and you wait. You wait for the child to hug you back; or say “I love you”; or come home; to call in; to write a letter to you or e-mail you, the pain of regret begins to consume your private moments and your only outlet in your waiting seems to be for you to cry out to God.

“WHERE IS GOD WHEN I NEED HIM?”

My belief about God is that He is the all powerful creator of everything; He is eternal; immortal, all knowing, ever present...In the loneliness of my spiritual Parental waiting room believing isn’t enough. If my belief doesn’t turn to trust I’m in trouble!

I’ve asked Him for help, begged Him to answer my prayer. I’ve tried bargaining with Him by making promises to Him. I’ve thought, “If He really loved me He would come to my rescue!” I’ve confessed my sin and even made up sins I might have committed to make up for ones I can’t remember. I hoped...I lost hope...I waited for God to show up. But I keep calling His number but He seems like He didn’t answer!

WHAT I DESPERATELY NEEDED TO LEARN ABOUT GOD

What we need to understand is our God, our Father, is in the waiting room waiting too.

As God, He could intervene, could change the circumstances, protect from emotional and spiritual train wrecks. He could keep them from wrong choices and wrong relationships. But a Father, He waits...He never forces or imposes.

He waits.

He waited for you as a person.....

He waited for all persons in all places, and when they rejected Him He cried, “How often I would have gathered you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.

The entire story of the whole Bible is that the God of creation, acting like a father in ICU for parents, offers and waits, offers and waits. Offers and waits.

Are you tired of waiting? Are you tired of waiting on the God of Creation to get off His throne and DO SOMETHING?

He is. He is just not doing what you want, what you believe is best, what you would counsel Him to do.

What IS He doing?

He is being God, being consistent, offering and waiting.

For Ronda and I, we had to go through several stages of parenting before we could even begin to understand a little bit of what God feels and why He is doing, (or not doing).

STAGE ONE- We wanted only what is best for our children.

We wanted to give health, wealth, happiness and protection from evil for our child. We wanted that child to be like God, and be productive and to have someone to love them.

Is that why God gave to Adam and Eve the beautiful Garden of Eden?

Is that why He made it a place without weeds, conflict or disease?

Is that why God met Adams need and gave him a partner and helper in Eve?

Is that why He intimately gave of Himself in His relationship with Adam and Eve?

Is that why He gave them free will to choose to love Him back because He knew that love, to be love, has to be given freely?

STAGE TWO- We wanted our children to know God and to be forgiven from their sin and spend eternity with God, and us, so much that we were willing to give up our own health, wealth and happiness to see our children’s true needs met.

Is that why God, the Son, left heaven and took upon Himself the likeness of men?

Is that why He was willing to come live with us to show us how to love and live?

Is that why He was willing to suffer so we could be saved?

Is that why He was willing to die on a cross, a sinless one, taking the punishment of the guilty so the guilty could be forgiven?

Is that why He was willing to lose so we could gain?

I can’t say that our children learned much from any of our successes as parents It seems that they learned most from our battles and stumbling and the times the Lord helped us get up to try again. From our successes they gave Ronda and I credit, from the struggles they gave God the credit, and glory, and they learned.

STAGE THREE- We wanted our children to know God, to be forgiven from their sin and spend eternity with God so much that we were willing to pray, “Lord what ever it takes. We were willing for them to suffer that they and their children could be saved.

Is that why we sometimes see God answer prayers by taking away our pressures? Yet, sometimes it seems like He doesn’t?
Is that why He sometimes chooses to let us learn the lessons we need by Him allowing us to go THROUGH crisis so we feel His presence and help?
Is that the reason He sometimes let’s us go through the consequences of our choices?
Is that the reason we sometimes go through great crisis so we will understand our need for Him?
Is that the reason we sometimes go through life and even death so others will come to Christ?
Is that why He doesn’t take the evil out of the world but allows suffering to exist all around us like the blackness of night so we could see more clearly the bright light of His love, His truth, His offer of forgiveness and eternity?
Is that why He allows entire cultures and nations to collapse so the rest of the world will be warned and turn to the Lord?

You say, “Chuck, I can understand with my head, but my heart is still broken”. I understand.

I know that I’m often confused. I don’t always understand. I can’t explain. I have very few answers. Sometimes God answers my prayers by giving me what I ask for. Sometimes He seems to show up at the last minute and He gives me what I couldn’t see as the answer, but now that He has shown up, I understand. Sometimes I suffer when others fail. Sometimes I don’t see why people suffer. Sometimes I don’t see His action in my life or in response to my prayers and I won’t until I get to heaven.

But the one thing that gives me comfort. God is right there with me in my Spiritual waiting room. What He chooses to do will always be right. I will understand it when I get to heaven, or it won’t matter to me then....but, God IS God! I can trust Him!

In the middle of my confusion and doubt I can trust Him to love me and my children more than I do. When I can’t understand I can trust....and when I can’t believe or trust, God will still be God.

I love these two statements that express my journey to faith…

“Into every life a little rain must fall...but this is ridiculous!”

Another,

”If I falter, push me on, If I fall, pick me up; If I retreat, shoot me!”

Trying to Trust Him...even when I don’t understand,

A prodigal dad, Chuck

Anyone can view this

Six Reasons Pastors Should Blog

April 8^th, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them, then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until their pastors start to blog.

OK, all that’s overstatement, perhaps. You can still be a good pastor and not blog.

However, here’s why I think it would be good for you and your congregation if you did.

Pastors should blog…

1. …to write.

If you’re a pastor, you probably already know the value writing has for thinking. Through writing, you delve into new ideas and new insights. If you strive to write well, you will at the same time be striving to think well.

Then when you share new ideas and new insights, readers can come along with you wherever your good writing and good thinking bring you.

There is no better way to simply and quickly share your writing than by maintaining a blog. And if you’re serious about your blog, it will help you not only in your thinking, but in your discipline as well, as people begin to regularly expect quality insight from you.

2. …to teach.

Most pastors I’ve run into love to talk. Many of them laugh at themselves about how long-winded they’re sometimes tempted to be.

Enter Blog.

Here is where a pastor has an outlet for whatever he didn’t get to say on the Weekend. Your blog is where you can pass on that perfect analogy you only just thought of; that hilarious yet meaningful story you couldn’t connect to your text no matter how hard you tried; that last point you skipped over even though you needed it to complete your 8-point acrostic sermon that almost spelled HUMILITY.

And more than just a catch-all for sermon spill-over, a blog is a perfect place for those 30-second nuggets of truth that come in your devotions or while you’re reading the newspaper. You may never write a full-fledged article about these brief insights or preach a whole sermon, but via your blog, your people can still learn from them just like you did.

3. …to recommend.

With every counseling session or after-service conversation, a pastor is recommending something. Sometimes it’s a book or a charity. Maybe it’s a bed-and-breakfast for that couple he can tell really needs to get away. And sometimes it’s simply Jesus.

With a blog, you can recommend something to hundreds of people instead of just a few. Some recommendations may be specific to certain people, but that seems like it would be rare. It’s more likely to be the case that if one man asks you whether you know of any good help for a pornography addiction, then dozens of other men out there also need to know, but aren’t asking.

Blog it.

Recommendation, however, is more than pointing people to helpful things. It’s a tone of voice, an overall aura that good blogs cultivate.

Blogs are not generally good places to be didactic. Rather, they’re ideal for suggesting and commending. I’ve learned, after I write, to go back and cut those lines that sound like commands or even overbearing suggestions, no matter how right they may be. Because if it’s true for my audience, it’s true for me, so why not word it in such a way that I’m the weak one, rather than them?

People want to know that their pastor knows he is an ordinary, imperfect human being. They want to know that you’re recommending things that have helped you in your own weakness. If you say, “When I struggled with weight-loss, I did such-and-such,” it will come across very differently than if you say, “Do such-and-such if you’re over-weight…”

If you use your blog to encourage people through suggesting and commending everything from local restaurants to Jesus Christ, it will complement the biblical authority that you rightly assume when you stand on a stage to talk.

4. …to interact.

There are a lot of ways for a pastor to keep a finger on the pulse of thepeople. A blog is by no means necessary in this regard. However, it does add a helpful new way to stay connected to people’s opinions and questions.

Who knows what sermon series might arise after a pastor hears some surprising feedback about one of his 30-second-nuggets-of-truth?

5. …to develop an eye for what is meaningful.

For good or ill, most committed bloggers live with the constant question in their mind: Is this bloggable? This could become a neurosis, but I’ll put a positive spin on it: It nurtures a habit of looking for insight and wisdom and value in every situation, no matter how mundane.

If you live life looking for what is worthwhile in every little thing, you will see more of what God has to teach you. And the more he teaches you, the more you can teach others. As you begin to be inspired and to collect ideas, you will find that the new things you’ve seen and learned enrich far more of your life than just your blog.

6. …to be known.

This is where I see the greatest advantage for blogging pastors.

Your people hear you teach a lot; it’s probably the main way that most of them know you. You preach on weekends, teach during the week, give messages at weddings, funerals, youth events, retreats, etc.

This is good—it’s your job. But it’s not all you are. Not that you need to be told this, but you are far more than your ideas. Ideas are a crucial part of your identity, but still just a part.

You’re some people’s friend and other people’s enemy. Maybe you love the Washingotn Huskies. Maybe you hate fruity salad. Maybe you struggle to pray. Maybe listening to the kids’ band last weekend was—to your surprise—the most moving worship experience you’ve ever had.

These are the things that make you the person that leads your church. They’re the windows into your personality that perhaps stay shuttered when you’re teaching the Bible. Sometimes people need to look in—not all the way in, and not into every room—but people need some access to you as a person. A blog is one way to help them.

You can’t be everybody’s friend, and keeping a blog is not a way of pretending that you can. It’s simply a way for your people to know you as a human being, even if you can’t know them back. This is valuable, not because you’re so extraordinary, but because leadership is more than the words you say. If you practice the kind of holiness that your people expect of you, then your life itself opened before them is good leadership—even when you fail.

For most of you, anything you post online will only be a small piece in the grand scheme of your pastoral leadership. But if you can maintain a blog that is both compelling and personal, it can be an important small piece.

It will give you access to people’s minds and hearts in a unique way by giving them a chance to know you as a well-rounded person. You will no longer be only a preacher and a teacher, but also a person who had a hard time putting up the curtain rods in the bedroom last week!. People will open up for you as you open up like this for them. Letting people catch an honest glimpse of your life will add authenticity to your teaching and depth to your ministry.

Hope this is helpful...from the mind of Chuck.....

Anyone can view this

Beating the Spiritual Blahs

April 7^th, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

You know the feeling.

Praying becomes a laborious duty. Devotions seem dead.

The Bible reads like a jumble of meaningless words. Our relationship with God gets relegated to “the same ol’thing.” That’s when you know you’ve caught the disease I call the “spiritual blahs.” Let’s face it, at one time or another it has infected us all. When we discover this sickness in us we have two options: We can ignore it hoping it will go away. (It won’t). Or we can take steps to find the cure, to renew our passion for God, and to add a little pizzazz to our relationship with Him.

Let me suggest 10 possible treatments for the spiritual blahs. Try one of them or all of them, and see if your enthusiasm for God doesn’t rekindle and burn those blahs away!

• Schedule a lunch date with God. Talk to Him about what is concerning you. Tell Him how you’d like your relationship with Him to be. Ask Him how you can get out of any spiritual “ruts” that you are in. Talk to Him honestly and openly, as your very best friend.

• Make a list of your five favorite characteristics of God and specifically how those characteristics have changed your life. For example: How has God’s mercy affected you? His power? His love? His patience?

• Set new goals for your walk with God. Write down the goals and your plan to move toward accomplishing them. Talk to God about your plans.

• Schedule a lunch date with a Christian friend to talk about what you are thankful to God for. Don’t get sidetracked onto other topics. Spend the entire time talking about God, why you love Him, what is special about your relationship with Him, what He has done in your life and how He has saved you. The list could go on and on.

• Determine to talk to an unchurched friend about Jesus and your relationship with Him. Then do it!

• Embark on a new ministry, something very different from what you have done before. Choose something challenging and interesting to you, something which you will have to rely heavily upon God.

• Take a few days to focus exclusively on how you can serve others. Do one act of service a day for a week. Take your youth pastor a meal one night. Give your neighbor a plate of cookies. Mow your pastor’s yard. Baby sit for a friend. Write a note of appreciation to someone.

• Take a walk and take time to stop and appreciate God’s creation. Notice the trees, flowers, birds and think about how amazingly God put His creation together. Thank Him for all the beautiful things He has made.

• Sing psalms or your own prayers to God in a tune that you make up as you go. (This is best done when others aren’t listening!)

• Ask God specifically and persistently for a renewed passion for Him. Ask Him to help you know the thirst described in Psalm 42:1,2: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

Take one or more of these treatments and be sure to call your heavenly Physician daily, for only He can administer the full cure. And hope to see you this month at Living Hope as we do a series called “Bridges.”

Beating those Blahs! Chuck

Anyone can view this

Deep In The Story of Life

April 3^rd, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

Every time I think about story, it teaches me more about God.

Here's what I mean. At the heart of every story is a transformative event--either a transformation that we see occurring or one that we realize will occur. Typically, movies begin by showing a portrait of a character in normal life, then a crisis that turns everything upside down, then the person's struggle to return to normal, and finally a discovery and a changed life. Written stories follow this basic pattern as well, but usually include a gripping beginning to snag the reader's attention.

So.

That's what we see in the Bible in the book of Ruth as Naomi moves from a full life to the emptiness of loss, into the struggle to find balance again, and then arrives at last smack dab in the middle of a new kind of normal. It's what we see in the life of the prophet Samuel as he moves from normal life serving in the temple, (without knowing God), to a transformative encounter with God that leads to a new and different life (both knowing God and speaking for him). It's the story of Jesus's disciples, of St. Paul, of Moses, of Abraham, of Adam and Eve.

And of me.

The grand story of the stars is the intimate story of my heart.

When I pause and look into his tale, I see the author of time is flipping through the pages of my life changing me into the person I was meant to be all along.

Just some thoughts in my mind,

Chuck

Anyone can view this

Deep In The Story of Life

April 3^rd, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

Every time I think about story, it teaches me more about God.

Here's what I mean. At the heart of every story is a transformative event--either a transformation that we see occurring or one that we realize will occur. Typically, movies begin by showing a portrait of a character in normal life, then a crisis that turns everything upside down, then the person's struggle to return to normal, and finally a discovery and a changed life. Written stories follow this basic pattern as well, but usually include a gripping beginning to snag the reader's attention.

So.

That's what we see in the Bible in the book of Ruth as Naomi moves from a full life to the emptiness of loss, into the struggle to find balance again, and then arrives at last smack dab in the middle of a new kind of normal. It's what we see in the life of the prophet Samuel as he moves from normal life serving in the temple, (without knowing God), to a transformative encounter with God that leads to a new and different life (both knowing God and speaking for him). It's the story of Jesus's disciples, of St. Paul, of Moses, of Abraham, of Adam and Eve.

And of me.

The grand story of the stars is the intimate story of my heart.

When I pause and look into his tale, I see the author of time is flipping through the pages of my life changing me into the person I was meant to be all along.

Just some thoughts in my mind,

Chuck

Anyone can view this

The Song Around Me

March 26^th, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

This morning I was reading through Psalm 32 and I noticed that verse 7 says (about God), "You are my hiding place; will protect me from trouble, and surround me with songs of deliverance." A few verses later it says that his unfailing love "surrounds the man who trusts in him."

God sings around me. He surrounds me with love.

Today I'm going to remember that whatever else surrounds me--stress, frustrations, computer problems, car trouble, bad weather, bad breath and barking dogs, that I'm surrounded by something more powerful. Unfailing love.

And I'm going to listen today too. Maybe I'll hear snippets of the song. A few notes that will teach my heart a new kind of harmony.

And who knows. Maybe others will begin to hear it too.

Some thoughts on my mind.

Chuck

Anyone can view this

Skull Hill

March 22^nd, 2008 by Chuck Rodgers

God’s love is so inexplicable and unfettered and extravagant that it’s a mystery to me. Love dying for his beloved on Skull Hill.

The wounds on his back are crying out. The lashes are cutting deeply through his soul. There’s agony on his face, but it’s a deeper agony than whips or thorns or nails can bring. It’s a growing agony of loneliness. For this man, being despised and forsaken by his friends, by his bride, by His God.

680 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah prophesied it would happen

(Is. 53:3-5)

But how could his wounds heal us? How could his beatings bring us peace.

As a pastors kid my dad explained forgiveness this way….he called it justification….it was like a courtroom decision….

God declaring us not guilty as He allowed His son to be tortured to death in our place. I know where my dad was coming from, but the analogy never resonated with me.

Love isn’t forensic or sterile; it’s sacrificial. Grace isn’t a decree, it’s a gift.

In Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale of the “The Little Mermaid” (not Disney) a beautiful young mermaid has fallen in love with a human prince. The mermaid is a glorious singer beneath the sea, but she gives up her voice to be able to become human and love the prince. The deal is, if she can woo him, then she can remain human and receive an eternal soul. But if he marries another woman, the little mermaid wll turn into sea foam, the fate of all mermaids.

Well, despite all her devotion to him, the prince’s heart remains enamored with a different woman, a princess who he believes rescued him from a ship wreck. However, the little mermaid was really the one who saved him. She wants desperately to tell him that she was his savior and that she loves him, but she has no voice above the sea, no words he can hear.

In the end, all three are sailing back to the prince’s palace for his wedding to the other woman. The little mermaid is about to turn back into sea foam when her sisters swim to the water’s surface and offer her a knife and a choice, if she will take the prince’s life, she need not give up her own. The magic can be reversed, she can become a mermaid again if only she will kill the prince. One of them must die before daybreak.

Everyone else is asleep on the boat. Silently the little mermaid approaches the prince and finds him in the arms of the other woman. Hans Christian Andersen writes this:

The knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid; then she flung it far away from her into the waves, the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glace at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam. The sun rose above the waves, and his warm rays fell on the cold foam of the little mermaid.

The prince knew nothing of her sacrifice, nothing of her love. He didn’t know she ahd rescued him, given up her beautiful voice to become like him, and then exchanged her life for his. All this went on while he pursued another woman. She sacrificed all for her prince because she loved him, yet he never returned her love.

When the gospel is told like that, I can understand it.

God’s love didn’t happen in a courtroom, but on a cross where Jesus threw himself from the ship and into the sea. The story I see woven throughout all scripture is a tale of passion and sacrifice, not a deal brokered between a lawyer and a judge. It was a gift given from a lover to his beloved in one final act of sacrifical love, he offers his life so that she might live.

We have a God who would let himself be nailed to a cross for his beloved. And there he would dare die for her. For us.

Hold onto this moment. See him hanging there, between heaven and earth. Between God and humanity. See him dying there on skull hill. Don’t turn away. Easter will not make sense without this moment

Living Love....Chuck

Anyone can view this