todd nelson

Before you head off into your weekend, here are four things I have read and been thinking about this week. Hope they are as helpful and challenging for you as they have been for me.

Sorry…couldn’t stop at 3 this week!

Have a great weekend!

#1

All who want to live a godly life will be persecuted.

2 Timothy 3:12

I’ve never seen the above verse on a church sign! But maybe it should be.  I am leery of the “bait and switch” approach that happens in this life. Wouldn’t it be great to find some place that under promises and over delivers? That is willing to put the tough stuff up front instead of near the back hoping we don’t notice?

There is a balance we walk as a church for sure. Jesus healed, taught, forgave, and fed. He also rebuked sin, refused to water down the will of the Father, and set the bar high by saying if you want to follow you must 1) deny yourself, 2) take up your cross, and 3) go where he goes.

Maybe 2 Timothy 3:12 doesn’t need to go on the sign, but it doesn’t need to be hidden in the basement either.

#2

If hospitality is about creating genuine connection, and if that connection happens only once the guest has let their guard down, shaming them makes it highly unlikely you’ll ever be able to get that connection back again. 

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Cliche? Yes. True? Yes.

In my experience, the desire of people to change is directly related to their willingness to drop their defenses. And people don’t drop defenses around people they do not trust. Trust leads to connection as the author says above. 

The great job of the church is to be a trustworthy presence in a turbulent world. How? Let me offer a couple of ways.

1) Acknowledge mistakes quickly and humbly. Nothing says trustworthy more than refusing to sweep mistakes under the rug. In fact, mistakes are a great opportunity to build trust. Do we blame others? Cover things up? Or do we face the facts, accept the consequences, and learn from it?

2) Forgive and act as if it is forgotten. No one feels connection when a past transgression is thrown in their face over and over again.

3) Accept people for who they to God instead of what they can do for you. People figure out quickly if they are in a transactional place. Transactional is diametrically opposed to trust.

#3

The only way someone can be of help to you is in challenging your ideas. 

Awareness by Anthony de Mello

The gospel message is that we can’t do life on our own but only through Jesus. It challenges the fundamental idea of self-sufficiency that we cling to like a life raft in the Pacific Ocean after being thrown overboard. No way we let go of our life raft unless we sense that there is a better way. That takes trust. Trust in Jesus often begins through seeing that his people can be trusted.

#4

What it means for the church to be the church, however, is not to pick a side in the culture wars; nor is it to suss out some moderate position; nor is it to be apolitical or quietist. Instead, we learn together, in conversation with the church throughout time, to embody an alternative community that can approach all of life in a different way, a way shaped by the story and practices of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Jesus Changes Everything by Stanley Hauerwas [underline mine]

I am not going to say much about this quote just yet except that it deeply resonates with my soul. Being part of a trustworthy alternative community that offers a different approach to life gets me up in the morning and keeps me up late at night.