Two Different Job Descriptions for the Christian People

It seems to me that there are at least two very different ideas as to what Christians ought to be doing and how Churches ought to be conducting themselves. I think there are Christians and Churches that believe the work of the Church is to help Christian people make it through this world. The other way is for Christians and the Church to talk about a whole different society and to change this one.

The first group believes that the world is here and that Jesus and the faith are to help us live better, to be able to handle the stress and the challenges of this life better, to meet the needs of people as they try to live happily and successfully.  The program life of these churches focuses on those things that will make it easier for the Christian members to handle their problems.  They have child care programs. They have AA programs. They have yoga programs. They have sport programs for the member. They have financial planning program and estate planning programs.  The understanding is that Jesus came so that we might love each other and live better in this society. These church do have a lot of social service programs like can food for the needy, collections of clothing, even rent help.

One of the most obvious type of this church is the Prosperity Gospel which claims that God wants all of us to be successful, rich, happy and blessed. That with faith in God and the claiming of the promise that God has a blessing for you, that blessing will come and it will usually be in the form of a blessing that the world will recognize: a promotion, a bigger pay check, a new car, a lottery win, a new wife, health babies, or some other blessing that is a blessing as defined by the culture in which we live.

The other way of looking at the work of Christians and the Church is to speak the word that this world is not the kingdom of God. That Christ came to show us a new alternative, a different society, a whole other way of living. The Church is suppose, in this view, to be the yeast that is at work changing the world.  That Jesus offers us a new blue print of the world in the Beatitudes.  The work of the Church is to be witnesses to the different way in which life can be lived in faith. Mother Teresa creates a community of care for the untouchables. Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu show us what forgiveness can do. Dr. King lead the way of changing the racial restriction in our society. Pope France is calling for a new economic justice, calling for changes in the way we live to protect the environment and to distribute the resources of the world better.  These church do not want to help members succeed in the current culture but invites them to live in the new reality of the Kingdom of God and to be at work in struggle to change the culture.

One group of Christians sees the Church as an agent of helping members cope with the present work and even to help the needy to cope with the world as it is. They give food to the homeless. The other group of Christians sees the Church as an agent for the transformation of the world, calls its members to the adventure of the struggle against the powers of this world.  It asks the questions why are the homeless still homeless and how can be reality be changed.  One group say that the square peg sinners need to be sanded round to fit in the round holes of the society. The other group is convinced that when square peg sinners get sanded there is no limit to the shapes they may take and the round hole world needs to be radically redone.

Market Focus?

MARKET FOCUS?

 by
Rick Brand

 We were outside the racquetball courts and a newly arrived retiree from up north commented to me that Henderson would never advance economically until it fixed its schools. Such a verdict is not new. In fact it is one of the most consistent mantras of our community. Talk to just about any citizen about Henderson and they will quickly rattle off a string of negatives about our community, always including the matter of poor schools.

 Not long ago the Dispatch reported on a meeting of the Economic Development Commission and the County Commissioners that focused on how to “brand” our community. In that meeting it was commented that Vance County needed to have a focus and a target for economic develop and to market that brand aggressively.

! I do not know how wide spread the comments have been, but two of the wiser people in this community, two who have both led very successful businesses, have observed that Vance County and the EDC ought to focus on marketing to retirees. All of the groups concerned about economic development: The Chamber of Commerce, The EDC, the City and the County ought to be running ads in the AARP bulletin, magazines that target the people approaching retirement, in the newspapers in Boston, New York, Newark and other major northeast areas. This ought to be our number one marketing target.

In my mind there are many pluses that can be highlighted: we have a great lake area; we have two major golf courses; we have a great YMCA and we have an above average Adcock Recreational Center; we have great travel options as I-85 and U.S. 1 go right through our county. (Remember most people in the northeast are used to long commutes. From Brookline to downtown Boston by rail is close to 45 minutes if the T is running on schedule.) We are only three hours from professional football in Charlotte or DC. There are national powers in basketball. We are close to NASCAR racing. We are about four hours from the coast and about four to five hours from the mountains. We have a wonderful climate with all four seasons. There are first class medical facilities within an hour’s drive. There is first class entertainment at the DPAC (and soon at our own Performing Arts Center). There are educational opportunities at the host of universities and schools plus continuing ed at VGCC. There is an incredible Library. And the amount of house that one can buy in our community for the money is way more than the house one could buy in other retirement places.

 For Vance County the great benefits would include new names on the tax rolls. Retirees would not be looking at the quality of schools, though the new property taxes might give the county additional income to improve the schools. The marketing would have to be all along the northeast and would have to be constantly repeated. This marketing focus would have to be aggressive. But Vance County does have these advantages over other communities who are also needing revival. We might have to make some infrastructure additions. But we have already begun to have county water. Contractors would be happy to build “dream” homes. If we are looking for “branding” and a marketing program, I think the suggestion of those two wise successful business people makes great sense. 

Is A Horse a Person? More education Needed....

     The man was explaining why he did not mind paying taxes. He knew that taxes were the way we invest in our future.  We build new roads for future growth. We build better airports. We expand mental health programs to make our future better.  He closed his comments by saying that he believed in paying his taxes and investing in education because he just did not want to live in a community of ignorant and uneducated people.
      The evidence seems to me to suggest that we need more taxes and more investment in education. The evidence just seems to point out that we have, regardless of public, private, home school, or whatever, a growing problem with education.
        a.  The refusal on the part of so many people to accept the work of science and the conclusions of the vast majority of science that there is a problem with global warming and human activities have a part to play in that warming.  Almost 200 countries gathered and agreed that there is a problem and they want to fix it, and we have political leaders and followers who want to refuse to fund our country's part in the solution.
       b. The second evidence for me is the incredible number of people who think the Donal Trump, Ted Cruz, or Ben Carson are equipped and qualified to be President of our country.  When other countries are already passing resolutions to refuse to admit Mr.Trump to their country how will he be able to conduct foreign affairs?  How do you make another country pay for a wall?
       c. But the greatest evidence for the failure of our educational efforts appeared recently when a huge number of people became upset when American Pharaoh did not win Sports Illustrated "Sportsperson of the Year." Somewhere, somehow, the failure to educate our people to understand the basics of "person" is disturbing.  The award is given to a person, not a horse.  It is not fun to live in a country or community with uneducated people. We need to invest more into public education

Same old issues in American Politics

We may find ourselves amazed at what is happening in our political arena in our country at the moment, but while reading an essay by G.K. Chesterton in the Illustrated London News of November 17, 1928 I found the following description of the American situation:

      "The election is not a conflict between Democrats and Republicans, or between Drink and Prohibition or even in the first place between Agriculture and Finance. It is , in the simplest sense of the very strongest phrase, a conflict between light and darkness, between things understood and things not understood; between people who take a certain view of the facts, and people who have never yet even heard of the facts, between principle and prejudice; between cosmos and chaos."

     Chesterton was convinced that America was too large for a campaign to be able to adequately express its ideas and objectives.  The size of the country and the number of people meant that there were just large blocks of people who had no idea what the issues were, no idea of what the candidates stood for and so voted on instincts, fears and prejudices.  His subject was the anti-catholic fears against Al Smith in that election. The great fear that a Catholic president would become a slave to the Pope.  The very "Know Nothing" Party that, Chesterton suggested, was a very apt name for the party because they really did know very little about the Catholic faith and the world around them.

     There seems to be much evidence that we have not moved there far from where we as a country were in 1928.  We have so many new toys and yet we still play the old games.

An annual tradition:

CHRISTMAS SONNET, 2015

It jumped so quickly in the news 

And not for the latte that they brew 

Old Starbuck got their dander up 

Because of some old plain red cup.

In Paris France the blood ran deep 

As music fans were shot like sheep 

On our West coast another scene 

Of guns and hate is now routine.

As leaders from around the world 

The global warming issues swirl 

They search for ways to give to all 

Solutions that preserve the ball

Yet somewhere in this ugly mess 

God’s grace is born for us to bless.

--- -rick brand 

May the season of the year renew your hopes and courage!

Rick

Go Back to England

I heard a story about a man in a check out line in a large supermarket. Behind him was a woman talking on the phone. The conversation was in a language which the man did not understand.  When the woman finished her call, the man turned to her and said, "If you want to speak Spanish, go back to Mexico. This is America, we speak English."  The woman calmly looked at the man and said, "I was speaking Navajo, and if you want to speak English, why don't you go back to England?"

A rather powerful way to remind us that almost all of us are here as the results of some body's immigration into this country.  Almost all of us are here because we have ancestors who came to this country.  Some were brought here by the desire to create their own religious community. Some were brought here by the English to empty their prisons. Some were brought here by ships as slaves. Some came as a result of famine and crop failures. Some came looking for land. But almost all of us are the results of immigration to this country.

Yet now there are some who want to stop this process. They want to build walls to keep people out of the country.  There is even talk by some that we should round up all of the recent immigrants and ship them home.

The great irony of this passion to stop the influx of Mexicans and Latin American people is that all of this focus on the Mexican border ignores the fact that the Hispanics are no longer the largest group of immigrants into our country.  The expenditures of billions of dollars to build a wall on the Mexican borders, (and who really thinks that we could build a wall on the Canadian border as well as one politician suggested) is to try to stop the second largest group of immigrants.

According to the Pew Research center the figures for 2013 show that the largest group of immigrants was Asians. The Asian portion was 35% of the immigrants while the Hispanic percentage was 33% and going down.  Our focus is in the wrong direction if we want to stop the largest group of immigrants now coming into our country.  One does not hear a word about stopping the Asian influx.

The immigration issue is not just a United States issue.  Europe is currently besieged by the flood of immigrants from the Middle East because of the wars and fighting which was unleashed by the USA invasion of Iraq.   This is an issue that all of the nations are going to have to face and find a way of dealing with all these people on the move. It is a position our congress has refused to deal with. But it will not go away.

Put it to use

He was a very well known preacher in his day. In the 1950's he was a special guest at lots of preaching missions. I know he was always a special preacher in the East Tennessee yearly preaching mission in Johnson City, Tenn. His name was Charles Allen, and he was the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas for ages. He proved to me that the Methodist do not always move their ministers every four years.

He once told me that when he found a great story or an illustration, it did not matter what he was preaching he was going to use that story the very next Sunday. He did not want anyone else to use it before he did, and he knew that even great stories lose their power when they are no longer timely.

He told a story about a man in his congregation who made buckets of money. He was super successful in his business and he did some great financial planning. It was a good thing because the man died very young. The business man had set up a trust fund for his son that said that the son would get a regular income, a living wage, as long as he was in college.  So the son spent 48 years in college, earned 11 degrees and did absolutely nothing with any of his education.

It is a painful story because I think it reminds us that all of us have been left incredible resources and opportunities, and the question that has to haunt us all is what have we done with it. What kind of contribution have we made to the betterment of our community, our state, our world with what we have received?  48 years of college for one man is amazing, but 500 years of accumulated wisdom is available to all of us and how have we made use of it?

First Citizens Bank has a commercial that suggests the same thing, "Money isn't everything, but so much depends on what you do with it."  Having the gifts, having the abundance and advantages that we have as citizens of this country, the question is still what have we done with it?  How have we helped the other countries in the world?