dave dack

Sometimes I wish I were the kind of person who just knew everything.

What’s the best way to organize and staff a church?  I wish I could just bam! lay it all out there and explain exactly how to do it and have the numbers/research/what-have-you to back it all up.  “This is exactly what needs to be done,” I’d say.  And I would be right.

I see characters like that all the time on The West Wing.  I know, it’s a TV show that has a prepared script and good actors & actresses.  But still, there are actually people like that - political giants that are impossible to argue with even when you don’t like them, because the just know what to do all the time.

A pastor that I know explained to me what he does when people come into his office with big questions about life and faith.  “Pastor, what is God’s will for my life?  How do I decide such-and-such?”  He ponders the question intently and after a moment, looking straight into their eyes, says, “I don’t know.”  Then he says, “That’s why pastoral advice is free.”

In February I’m going to start hosting a twice-monthly seminar series on understanding the Bible.  I’ll be using a great book by John Stott (called “Understanding The Bible”) as a guide. The series will explore the purpose, setting, geography, and story of the Bible. It will also explain how to read and approach scripture so that we may better grasp the fullness of Christ Himself.

I’m excited about it. I’d like to have it on Sunday mornings when lots of people from UPC could attend, but I don’t think that’s going to work out at the moment.

I’ve been studying for the Bible Content Exam for the last two weeks.  It’s part of the process of becoming ordained in the PC (USA), as several of you already know too well.  This website has all the exams going back to 1988, and I’ve been taking them for practice.  They’re actually great learning tools.

You should try taking one, just for fun.  It’s 100 questions.  70% is passing, from what I understand.

Justin pointed me to this article today. It sums up some of my thoughts from this afternoon.  I tried posting about my own thoughts more specifically, but nothing coherent came out.

I think I need to get lost more often when I preach.

Not “ummm, where was I?” lost, but lost in what’s happening in the text.  I need to stay there, with the words on the page, and not leave them.  I need to get lost in them, like in a great story that lets you read 100 pages before you realize five minutes has gone by.

Sometimes it happens easily, almost on accident.  Other times I find that I’m trying really hard, which rarely works.

Of course I want to stay present with the people I’m preaching to.  I don’t want to stop making sense.

I think I get frustrated when I realize that I can’t preach like someone who has 30 years of experience under their belt.  I want to skip that 30 years and be a more wizened, genuine preacher now.

Two years ago I would not have posted about wanting to be a better preacher.

After talking with some friends last night, I’ve decided to throw Dubuque in the mix of seminary choices.

I’ve realized in the last couple of days how ignorant I am of the reason for illegal immigrants from Mexico. I can’t answer the question, Why aren’t they just crossing legally? Is it our country or theirs that won’t let them immigrate? I don’t know much about the beginning of the issue.

The first post was about framing the situation in a more Gospel-centered way. Maybe I shouldn’t move on so quickly, but I want to begin hashing out practical implications for how churches should respond to 1) immigration reform and 2) immigrants themselves, particularly ones living here illegally.

The PC USA has a Resolution Calling For A Comprehensive Legalization Program For Immigrants Living And Working In The United States. I have yet to read the whole thing, but it seems pretty good to me. “[The resolution] reminds the church that a Christian perspective on immigration challenges us above all to love immigrants, to establish justice for them, and to seek to be reconciled with them in a new and transformed community.” Take a look at it. The PC USA website also explains various pieces of legislation going before congress and how to put in your two cents (usually it means calling your congressman/woman). The Dream Act is one example of that.

For local churches, I wonder how they can help illegal immigrants living near them. Maybe it’s silly, but what about regular classes or seminars that explain to immigrants what their options are? Something where we can help answer the 10 million questions they probably have, especially concerning their kids’ options. In what other ways can local churches help?

I’ve been thinking more lately about immigration reform in this country. It’s a touchy subject, and people have all kinds of different ideas about how to “fix” it, as well as different ideas about how it’s “broken” in the first place.

How should the church approach the issue? I read today part of an article from the October 2007 issue of Presbyterians Today, which outlined the GA’s resolution calling for a comprehensive legalization program for immigrants. The article was titled, “Welcome The Stranger.”

And that’s where I want to start. Understanding immigrants as our (Christians’) fellow strangers in this country is a crucial first step in framing this whole thing properly. Not to be too cliché, but if our citizenship is in heaven then our allegiance must be to God’s kingdom before any other power. We’re supposed to see ourselves as strangers and foreigners wherever we are. I think we need to think of immigrants, legal or not, not as people coming into “our country,” but as other foreigners (like us) coming into the same land we’re in. We need to find face-to-face ways of identifying with them and helping them figure out how to live here.

Immigrants are foreigners here like us (or at least like we’re supposed to be).

The church can’t approach this issue from the starting point of “What’s best for the country.” It has to start with “How are we called to treat foreigners?”

The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:34)

In response to Notes On 2 Timothy 1:8, Micah asks:

“How do you see the role of people who do the very actions you speak of without any Christian, let alone religious, compunction?”

This has proved to be a real doosey. At the end of the day I’ll have to go with, “I’m not entirely sure,” but I’ll share a bit of my thought process to make it more interesting.

I think it’s an issue of misplaced hope. Let me try to explain what I mean…

One the one hand you have a Christian who works hard at bringing healing and hope to others. She feeds the hungry, brings medicine to the sick, etc. But her hope is not ultimately in these things. She doesn’t try to end hunger, for example, only for the sake of ending hunger. She tries to please Christ and follow after Him, which necessarily leads her to such efforts. Her hope is in Christ whom she understands to be the fulfillment of everything, of God’s kingdom. The end of hunger and sickness and violence is found in Christ alone. She keeps in mind the direction in which God’s redemptive plan for all creation is moving. She works for healing because it is part of what happens at the end of the Story.

On the other hand you have a not-even-religious person doing the exact same things with at least the same level of sincere compassion for others. Even if he is realistic enough to admit that humans might never be able to end such things as hunger, he still strives for it. Health, peace, happiness, etc. are the things he is after for others, and that is where his hope is. His hope is in compassion, love, acts of healing toward others, or whatever. But all the things he is after can only be found, can only be realized, in Christ. He is suffering to end bad news but not as a witness to the Good News. His hope is in the medicine, not in the doctor.

That said, the non-Christian’s works are wonderful! Do I want him to stop if he’s not doing it for the sake of the Gospel? No! But I want his hope to be in the right place so that he and God might both receive greater pleasure in his works. But I’m still left with the question, what is his role? Where does he fit into God’s work in the world? I don’t know. Do his good works bring him closer to God than a non-Christian who doesn’t do good things? Maybe, but I really don’t know.

Tell me what you think?

Why and how do we enter into suffering for the Gospel? The why starts with Christ, who suffered greatly both from his own sufferings and from those of the world. He took the suffering of the world onto his shoulders - he touched lepers, healed the sick, spoke with a Samaritan woman, forgave a prostitute. Following Christ will necessarily take us through the same suffering. There can be no participation in Christ without participation in His mission of seeking and saving the lost, of making present the kingdom of God. This mission took Him deep into the sufferings of the world around Him, and if we are to follow then we must go there also. There is no option, there is no one who is not called to do this - this is God’s will for your life and mine, for our life as His church. Sharing in suffering for the sake of the Gospel means sharing the suffering of others and helping to bear their burdens, which they should not be carrying alone. That is a holy life.