James 24:7

Just got word that Eric Metaxas, author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Struggle to End Slavery, will be in the Atlanta area on May 3rd.  He'll be speaking at Sugarloaf Community Church in Suwanee at 11 a.m. in connection with the National Day of Prayer. 

I had been wracking my brain to find a way to get Eric to our area, had our prayer team on it and then "boom", here he is- just around the corner from North River.

Woohoo!

One of the young ladies in my church came in a few weeks ago sporting an abolitionist t-shirt she had gotten at school and talking excitedly about a boy in her school who spoke in assembly about slavery and human trafficking.  She talked about how much money this kid had raised and how all that money had gone to help eradicate slavery.

At the time I had just been boning up on the topic of human trafficking and slavery myself.  I was interested in what she was saying but hadn't made the connection about who it was she was talking about.

I have since learned that she was talking about Zach Hunter, a young abolitionist who began his own campaign a few years ago when he was uh...12.....yep....12. 

Zach's in the 9th grade now, is the youth spokesman for The Amazing Change Campaign, and founder of "Loose Change 2 Loosen Chains," an organization that enlists kids to raise money to help eradicate slavery and human trafficking.  

Only a few years ago, Zach struggled with anxiety attacks.  Now he travels around in his "spare time" speaking to thousands of young people about the issue of slavery. 

He's also a published author.   I read his book, Be the Change, tonight.  The book is an inspiring collection of stories about people who have made a difference in the world. It includes thought provoking questions designed to get people, young and old, thinking about how they might make a difference in the world.  As I read the book I kept thinking about how when I was 15 (oh about 41 years ago) I was trying to figure out how I could get into the Beatles...not the music- the band!

This kid is a marvel.  When I get really sick of being an adult (and believe me I'm pretty close!) I want to be just like him!  (You know us adults...we're smart enough to know that people can't do what this kid is doing.  "In the adult's mind, there are few possibilities but in a kid's mind there are many.")

If you'd like to see Zach's interview on Good Morning America...(yeah, he's done that too!) just go here and be inspired.

I recommend that all parents get Zach's book, read it with your kids and resolve to "be the change" together as a family.

Just for good measure, here's an interview with Zach from Christianity Today.

For those of you interested in the missional church, you could not do better than to visit Allelon.  The good folks there are knocking it out of the park in terms of advancing the missional conversation.  I highly recommend the site.

I appreciate all of the responses I have received with regard to my question as to what a praying church might look like. 

One thing I wanted to clarify: when I asked what a church might be doing to become known as a praying church, I didn't mean that in a "branding" sense.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am pretty hesitant about adopting into the church marketing strategies appropriate to business.

If I recall correctly (and that may be a stretch), I was thinking along a couple of lines.  First, it seems to me that nowadays churches are known by their size (as in "mega" or "small"), their denominational affiliation, or by their level of perceived activity.  (as in "such and such a church is a dynamic church")   Perhaps there are other ways by which churches are "known" but those seem to me to be the most popular ways of characterizing churches.

That in and of itself ought to give us pause.   Does it suggest that churches have become so homogenized that they are not known for anything in particular? 

Second, I believe I was thinking in terms of how a church might distinguish itself from the non-church social/ cultural context in which it finds itself.  It seems to me that sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish Christian folks from other good, moral non-Christian folks.  (Of course, that assumes that Christian folks are good and moral.) 

In thinking about a "praying church", I don't mean to suggest that of all the marks of congregational character a church should pick and choose their "mark of choice" and only become that.  We haven't gained anything if we only retreat into our safe walls and pray prayers that are deaf to the cries of the suffering. 

There may be a bit of irony here.  It may turn out that a truly praying church is not so much known as a praying church.  Rather, such a church, while praying, may be known for how it takes the gospel into the larger community. 

In other words, such a church may be known more by its fruits than by its prayers.

Please keep thinking with me.  Drop me an email through my contact link or just comment below.  (Remember...you have to register to comment to my blog posts.  It's easy)

A while back I taught a class at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, TN on what the care of the hurting might look like in a missional church.  The more I studied the missional church literature the more it seemed to me that prayer must be central to the missional church.   (For a good idea of what the missional church is, check out this link.)

After I got back, I read the first four chapters of Acts (for the umpteenth time) and it struck me that within the first chapter that the earliest disciples were placed in a spot that I describe as the tension between "the enormity of the call and the inadequacy of the called."

Some of these folks had fled and denied during the trial and crucifixion crisis.  Even after they had been taught by the risen Lord, they still didn't quite get it.  ("Are you going to establish the kingdom now?") And here Jesus was telling them they would be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world. 

When confronted with the "enormity of the call and the inadequacy of the called" the church prayed...hard...constantly...together.

During the past couple of months you might say I've been convicted and convinced as to the importance of prayer.    

The call is the same and we are still as doofy as ever.   The world is in a mess and we have constructed the best churches that good management can build.

But where's the power? 

I just don't see how the well-managed, highly programmized church is in any way adequate to the calling.  (Not that God- thank God- doesn't use our meager efforts!)

It seems to me that if our calling is to follow the God who is on mission, that if we are to discern how God is moving in our midst and join God in God's mission, that if we are to be a resurrected community of the resurrected Lord,  and that if our call is to reach out to lost, suffering, broken, breaking, hurting people we had better pray.

All of that has set me to thinking about what a praying church might look like.  

I've put the question to some of our prayer warriors at North River.  I've asked them to respond to questions like this:

What would a church be doing to become known as a praying church?

If being a praying church was a crime, what evidence would exist that we are guilty? 

I'd love to hear from anyone who reads this blog...

How would you answer those questions?

What would you be observing in a church that is becoming known as a praying church?  

Help me think about this, please.   You can comment below (you have to join first) or you can just drop me an email.

I'm not kidding...help me out.  Thanks.

Eric Metaxas, author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, will be on Hannity and Colmes tonight (Friday) at 9:30 p.m.    You can also watch a February video of Eric on CSpan's Book TV here.

Eric's a good guy and if you want to know more about Wilberforce (especially if you haven't seen the movie Amazing Grace) you will want to see this before you go.

There ought to be a campaign to put knowledge of William Wilberforce at the top of our national educational agenda. 

The CSpan interview includes an interview with David Batstone who recently published a book called Not for Sale on the modern global slave trade.

If you want to learn a lot then preach and teach. I can't vouch for those who hear me as to how much they learn but I know I can be in the middle of a sermon or teaching and think: "Man, I can't believe how much I learn from me." 

No..I don't really think that but there is something to be said for learning by teaching. 

We dedicated children yesterday at North River and right in the middle of hearing myself teach I thought: "Wow!  I get this.  I really get this!"

I was talking about those instances in the gospels when Jesus uses a child to teach the adults a thing or two about kingdom life.  In one instance he teaches his disciples not to prevent children from coming to him and points to the child as the model of what adults must become if they would enter the kingdom of God.

In the other instance, he sets a child in their midst after hearing the disciples arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.

Although the text doesn't say as much, I suspect the disciples were thinking about the kingdom of God in terms of kingdoms of this world and the kinds of skills and virtues one would need to rise to greatness in that kingdom. 

I imagine that one claimed to be decisive and that because of that he would be the greatest.  Another probably claimed to be courageous and because of that he would be the greatest.  Still another claimed to be wise and because of that he would be the greatest in the coming reign of God.

That's when Jesus took a kid and placed him before his disciples and said in effect, "Hey, you want to know what greatness in the kingdom looks like, then look at this kid.  You've got to change and become like him if you expect to become great in the kingdom."

Now over the years I've heard a lot of sentimental pap about this kid and what Jesus was saying.  Often people interpret Jesus' actions as speaking to the "innocence of children." 

Harumph!

Most of the people who say that don't have children.  It takes a long time for a kid to grow out of his or her self-centeredness.  (I asked the folks yesterday how long it takes for a kid to grow up and someone yelled, "40 years!")

Jesus was not pointing to innocence when he pointed to that child.  He was pointing to the child's powerlessness, his vulnerability, his dependence.

After all, he pulls this kid out of the crowd as the disciples are discussing the question of "greatness." 

The disciples were thinking in terms of "power enhancement." 

Jesus was thinking in terms of "powerlessness enhancement."

If we want to be great in the kingdom, we have to become as vulnerable, dependent and powerless as children in terms of our relationship to God.

This is just all over the teachings of Jesus:

To whom does Jesus promise the kingdom? The poor in spirit.

To whom does Jesus ascribe greatness? The one who serves everybody else.

To whom does Jesus give the first place? To the one who takes his place at the end of the line.

This is how Jesus even thought of himself.  Take a look at John 5: 19 ff.  Jesus points to his own dependence upon God.  He does nothing and says nothing that he doesn't get from the Father.   It seems to me that if Jesus says this about himself then we ought to chime right in: "Me too".

"I am the vine and you are the branches.  Apart from me you can do nothing."  Remember that?

Oh...let me add one other thought here.  How can we know that we are being childlike?  (Not childish..that's easy enough to discern!)

Well..I think one surefire way we figure that out is to look at our prayer life.  I suspect if we aren't continually seeking God's presence, care and guidance that we are probably pretty much calling our own shots- don't you?

I have been emphasizing the importance of congregational prayer in my sermons lately.  My concern about that narrow topic grew out of the reading and thinking I have been doing with regard to the missional church.  My thinking about that topic has taken me back to the first 4 chapters of the Book of Acts. 

As I  learn more about the missional church and contemplate the earliest days of the church, one phrase rings in my mind: "the enormity of the calling and inadequacy of the called."

Think about it: Jesus meets with his disciples one last time before he ascends to God and tells them that they will be his witnesses starting right where they are, into the surrounding region, over into an area they avoided to a people they despised, and even to the uttermost parts of the world.

That's an enormous calling.

He called people who, in themselves, were not up to it.  He called the very people who had abandoned him and denied him.

That's the "inadequate called."

What did they do?  They didn't seize control and try to manage their way forward and they didn't flee (again). 

They prayed constantly together.

Yesterday we thought about that body of believers as they prayed following the arrest of Peter and John.  Luke records the actual prayer they prayed.  (you can read the whole account here)

In the sermon, I noted 4 parts of the prayer:

1.  They acknowledged who God is (Sovereign, Creator).

2.  They acknowledged what God said through David the Psalmist.  (That the nations and their rulers would be against them)

3.  They acknowledged what God did. (He had a plan that even those who crucified Christ followed.)

4.  They acknowledged what God can do. (He can give them even more boldness to continue proclaiming the gospel and can do signs and wonders to demonstrate his power)

The take away is that in the face of a crisis, they did not shrink back in fear but  recalled the nature of God, the truth of God's word,  God's involvement in the past, and they prayed for greater boldness, for more courage to go on.

When we acknowledge that everything is God's and that God is engaged with us just as God has been in the past, we can pray our way forward undeterred by any obstacle.  We can go on trusting that as the gospel song puts it: "If He did it before, He can do it again!"

I saw the movie Amazing Grace this past week-end.  I thought it was good but could have been better.  But...I am reminded that one can pour only so much into a small container.  Given the richness and the possibilities of the material, the movie makers had to make some hard choices as to what to tell and what to cut.

The movie is about William Wilberforce and his faith-driven and years-long battle to abolish the British slave trade.  

If you want to see the movie, I would encourage you to learn a little about the history and familiarize yourself with some of the main players before you go. 

A good place to start would be Eric Metaxas' new book Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Struggle to End Slavery.  (See a little review in my book review section) You will enjoy the movie so much more if you put in just a little prep time.

If you don't want to read the book, you can go to the movie's web site and check out some of the resources there. 

This is a movie that Christians should support.  Great story.  

This has nothing to do with anything but is pretty clever.  Check it out...here.  When you get in start snooping.