Are You In The Club?

This past week I changed vehicles with my youngest daughter to help her get some maintenance done. I own a 1992 Mustang and she  owns a 2006 Jeep Wrangler (which she saved and paid for herself...proud dad).  I took her Jeep to get new tires and then drove around to do my normal routine.  As I left the church that afternoon, some guy driving by waved at me. I was pretty sure I didn't know him but I waved politely. Then another woman waved at me. I was certain I didn't know her.  It was like I was in some strange movie.  Then I realized that the people waving to me were also in Jeeps. Aha! I recalled a similar time when I rode a motorcycle. Everyone on a motorcycle waved as you rode by. It was the low wave, where you put your hand out as if to give a low five (opposite of high five). You see, bikers can't be cool and wave, so it's not really a wave.
Anyway, it seems Jeep owners have this private waving club as well.  I looked in the owner's manual and it doesn't tell you anything about such a club or how to join. I also am pretty sure the dealer doesn't tell you about the club either, so it's like a secret club. I began to wonder who started this club and how does everyone that drives a Jeep know that you are supposed to wave?
I have a Mustang and I know there are car clubs for Mustangs where people get together and show off their cars, but there is no waving.  Why don't they wave? What about Nissan Altimas? My middle daughter has one of those and there are many on the road, but no waving. I tried it. We waved at another Altima owner and they drove away quickly with a worried look.
It made me think of the church. We have a club called Christianity.  Do you remember the old song that said "and they'll know we are Christians by our love"? It seems like that song should be re-written today with new lyrics. "And they'll know we are Christians by our judgmental attitude!" Of course that doesn't sound so good, but maybe it's more accurate.
We could take a lesson from Jeep owners. Jeep owners don't care what year you joined the club. If you have owned a Jeep since 1980, you get the same greeting as a 2012 Jeep owner. Actually it seems like the newer Jeep gets more attention. I remember when new Christians got the most attention.  In today's church it seems like the new Christians aren't really in the club until they have completed a few Bible Studies. Or spoken in tongues. Or participated in a Mission overseas, etc. You have to pay your dues! Of course, thats not MY church, but I know it happens.
Jeep owners don't care how old you are, or what color your Jeep is. They don't even care what condition your Jeep is in. (minus 5 points for ending in a preposition) They will wave at you if you are having a bad day, if you ran a red light, if you cut them off....  Well, actually for cutting them off you probably get a "special wave", but that's not the point here.
The truth is, this really is not what the church should be. This kind of club is superficial and requires no relationship, but the church can still learn a lesson here.
When will the church begin the club of waving to and welcoming other Christians? When will people identify Christians by their love again, and not by their judgmental attitudes?  If the church is not a building... if the church is really the people... then we will always have some broken pieces. But we shouldn't let the broken pieces hold up the building, and we don't put the broken parts up front for everyone to see. We can work with them, help them to be like new, and then let God fully restore them.
I say the problem lies with the church (people) removing God from the club He started. We stopped following His rules and began to try and fix things ourselves.  Things he originally made. That needs to stop. We should recognize God as the President of our club.  I bet God does the high-five and the wave.

Get Ready To Run

I love to travel. As much as I like to travel, I like to host people that are traveling. When we host people in Orlando, we take them to see the sights of Central Florida. That usually means Walt Disney World, Daytona Beach, air-boat rides to see alligators, or Universal Studios. When I visit other countries, they take me to see their sights. I will be in India next month and have been told we will visit the Taj Mahal.
I was in Rwanda for a church mission trip a few years back. During our time, they took us to see a game reserve. It was very exciting. We were going to see monkeys, zebra, hippos, and perhaps elephants.
Upon entering the park, we stopped several times for the guide to point out various birds. Birds? That is like stopping to show a visitor to Orlando Chuck-E-Cheese on the way to see Disney. Forget the birds! Take us to see big animals we don't see every day!
Next stop, a family of giraffe. Now we are talking! As we drove through the uncharted course of the game reserve our guide told us he had heard of a sighting of Mutwumbe. Mutwumbe was a large elephant who had been kicked out of the herd because he was aggressive. Even elephants have standards apparently. Because he was alone, he became even more aggressive toward anyone that approached him, like a grumpy old man.
We drove to the spot where he was bathing, and had to walk a short distance to find him. There he was. Very large, and in about three feet of water facing away from us. You could hear all the cameras clicking away under the whispers of our group of 10 tourists, not wanting to attract the attention of our grumpy friend.
Our guide addressed the group in a low voice. "Let me call his name so he will turn and you can get better pictures", he said. "Oh, I think we are ok with these pictures" one person replied. Another asked, "is it safe?" "Sure", came the confident reply of our guide.  With that, he turned to shout at the elephant as we anxiously waited to see what would happen. As the guide drew his breath, he glanced our way and whispered "Get ready to run!"
Um, no, wait...was all I could think. And then I thought back to 3rd grade and remembered the survival of the fittest. I don't have to out-run the elephant, I just have to out-run someone in our group.
Fast forward to today. Our church just went through a tough time. We had news crews on our property last weekend inquiring about a breaking story that was not favorable for attracting new members. When our pastor called me the day before to tell me the news, it was like he was telling me "get ready to run". I turned on the news at home to see what was being reported.  Our story was small compared to other news.  Just like my safari story, I saw that we don't have to out-run the news, just out-run the other people that have bigger problems.
As we study the New Testament, we find plenty of warnings for the church about the behavior of the people. These writings are not prophetic. They were not predicting the problems we would face today. They were actual problems the church faced then. But we are to use the teachings and advice for today. It still applies today.
Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to get ready to run. Not to run from the world, but to run into the world proclaiming the truth. That also applies today. What is the church doing today? Are we hiding? Or are we ready to run?

Are We Really Anglican?

Well now it is official. Our church is part of a Missionary Society. I'm not really sure what that is, but some people who understand church law made it happen so it must be good. After all this, I was wondering if we are still an Anglican church. It seems now-a-days everyone has claim to the Anglican faith. Well, not really everyone. The Catholics don't want to be Anglican. In fact, very few people have even heard of it, but who is right?  Who is Anglican? Will the real Anglican Church of America please stand up? Seriously...stand up.
To simplify this, I look at it from a food angle. I love Chinese food. There are many Chinese restaurants in the area. What makes a restaurant a Chinese restaurant? There are four basic types of Chinese restaurants.  First is the sit down and order type. Next we have the "New York style" take-out kind that shows you all the pictures of the food on the board above the counter. The third kind is the buffet.  Last, but certainly not least is the food court "try my sample" kind.  Can you pick which one is the true Chinese restaurant? They all claim to be Chinese restaurants.
Can we choose by the employees? Have you ever been to a Chinese restaurant, greeted by a teenager wearing trendy clothes? ("Welcome to PF Changs, how many are in your party?") Does the cook speak fluent Mandarin? A true Chinese restaurant would have an all Chinese staff, wouldn't they?
What about the food? I spent several weeks in Taiwan and visited China. There is no such thing as Egg Foo Yung on any menu there.  An insider secret here. Most of our favorite dishes in America don't exist in China.  They are made for Americans.
So what does a real Chinese restaurant look like? Nothing like you would see in America, but that's the point.  The Anglican church is as American as rice noodles. Not to confuse you, but that means its not American. The Anglican Church originated in England as the official Church of England. It is the Queen's church. It has spread through the world mostly through missionaries from England (not really important to the story so if you think I'm wrong...tell wikipedia).  You will find Anglican Church services in Africa that look nothing like our services.  Sure they are similar, but similar as in Chinese take-out food is to Chinese buffet food. There are things on the menu we don't have.  For example, I wonder if Chinese Anglican churches serve fortune cookies after communion.  (fortune cookies also not found in China)
Figuring out who is Anglican is as controversial as naming which restaurant is truly Chinese, or Mexican, or pick your fare.             
We have the 1979 prayer book Anglicans. We have the Reformed Anglicans. The Episcopal Church Anglicans. And now all the trendy acronym Anglicans like ACNA, CANA and AMiA. I read all (or some of) the blogs concerning Anglican churches in America. If you think it's just the common church-goers who are confused let me leave you with an example.
Our former Bishop is now the priest in charge of a small Anglican church by the beach, not part of our new Missionary Society. At the same time, he is also an assisting Bishop in another Anglican affiliation, and claims to be seated as a Bishop in our Anglican Missionary Society as well.
If you thought Bishops on a chess board were difficult to understand, this is inconceivable (shameless Princess Bride quote).  Which rules do you follow if you belong to more than one organization? If they are all the same, then why aren't we all the same?
I always say God has grace for the human race. It didn't work out so well for some people in the Bible, but then Jesus came to die for us and our mistakes. Let's show a little appreciation folks. This debate over who is really Anglican is embarrassing.  What happened to taking ground for God's Kingdom?  We can work with the Lutheran church down the street but we can't play nicely with the other Anglican churches because we think they are posing as impostors. Really? Let's stand up....together.

Decorating the Church

One of the areas of responsibility for me working at a church is church decor. If you know me than you can see how God has a sense of humor. Church decor? Really? Quick Bible history inserted here.
The Levites from the Old Testament were the appointed worship leaders in the day. You can read about them in Chronicles (both books) and Numbers. These guys not only played the music, but they were in charge of making the church look good with decorating. Now its my job. Thanks guys!
The idea behind church decor is to stay seasonal. Just like the malls and department stores. The big difference is we don't decorate in advance of the holiday and we stick to one at a time. We decorate for Christmas, just days before the celebration. We don't put out the wise men until they appear historically in the story, which is after the birth.
A quick side note. A pastor once told me that his first assignment as a young priest in a large church was to put out the giant manger scene in the front yard of the church, which happened to be on the corner of a very busy intersection. It was the first Sunday in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. He went to the storage room and put all the stuff out, including the wise men and baby Jesus. When the Senior Priest saw this he immediately shouted at the young priest to get them out of the scene. As the pastor tells it, "the senior Priest called me into his office and said "This is humiliating! Clearly the wise men don't come until after the birth! Now everyone will think we don't know the story of Christmas!" So he went out and took away the wise men and baby Jesus before the whole town would see it. Unbeknownst to them, while they were discussing the problem in the office, a reporter from the local paper shot a picture that was published the following morning on the front page. Wise men and Jesus front and center with the church name clearly in view. 40 years later he is still a priest. Christmas still came.
This week we celebrate Pentecost. I love the images of Pentecost. The color red, Holy Spirit flames, and fire. The Spirit as a bird of peace, and the dove. These are all good images, but why do people insist on using them all together. Come to my church and look above the drums. We have a red banner of a dove barely escaping the mountain of flames below. "Fly higher little bird!" is what a friend said to me.

On the front of our altar, the hanging piece of cloth is officially called a frontal. Aptly named. We use a red frontal for Pentecost. The flames look so slick one person commented that it looks like our church is sponsored by NASCAR. Sure I get that, but once again we have a poor little bird caught it some sort of telephone wire as it was about to fly into the flames. It looks like we are celebrating a sacrifice with a roasted bird. Who makes these banners? Try to stick with one theme. Either the bird or the flames.
A few years back someone on the decorating committee (which we no longer have) recommended hanging red cloth around the cross to look like flames coming out. I rejected that idea saying I didn't think a burning cross was the image we should be going for, especially when all our priests were wearing white robes. Just saying.