We are done with the Keep Faith Weird series, and usually when this happens, I’m quite ready for the next one. That’s part of my personality: look forward, never backward. Keep advancing, because you can’t go back anyway. And I’m usually really, really ready for the next series, because I’ve been studying on it for quite some time.

BUT… There are times when I wish we had more time. And I hear some of you saying, “You’ve got all the time in the world!! Just take it.” Timing may be a better word I’m looking for. This was one of those series that we could have stretched out for months, but maybe it’s better to spread it out over a year rather than tackle it all at once.

I feel like we hit the surface on these 4 key practices that will take our faith to WEIRD places, and now we are moving on. Each one provoked so much conversation in our Connect Groups and among us as staff as well. Each one seems to have layers of understanding and application. In short, it feels like we are leaving a lot of meat on the bone.

This week I challenged our staff to an exercise to help us keep applying these practices:

Take each of these practices and flesh out an application or two to keep in front of you. Maybe put it on your calendar or journal. Once a week, come back and get another one.

For example, Restful Contentment contained the nugget I have all I need to accomplish all He wants, meaning I don’t have to stress, freak out, or worry. The mission He’s called me on, the people He’s put in my path to interact with… God has already given me exactly what I need. Rest in that.

Be content with the gifts and talents God has given me, don’t get lost in the jealousy over the gifts He HAS NOT given me. Otherwise, I’ll miss the miracle God is trying to work through me.

Let me extend that challenge to you. Take a moment and revisit these practices, but fair warning… your faith will be stretched. That it will cause your ‘normal’ faith to seem lacking and empty. It will get weird, but it will be better.

Restful Contentment
The busier I get, the more stupid I become.
Jesus’ yoke is easy and light.
I’m created to live in God’s rest.
My rest comes first from believing.
Anywhere WITH Jesus is better than anywhere without Him.
He can teach me to be content, because He is all I need.
My identity in Christ can’t be touched, or destroyed, or taken away.
I am who I am because of Him. Rest in that.

Radical Forgiveness
Forgiveness isn’t trust, nor is it condoning or forgetting.
Forgiveness IS relinquishing the right for the offender to pay the cost.
Unforgiveness is when I choose to pay that cost.
Forgiveness is NOT reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a two-way street. Forgiveness is one-way.
Forgiveness is not optional for the Christ-follower.
You will never be who God wants you to be with unforgiveness in your heart.
We are most like Christ when we forgive.

Generous Compassion
Compassion starts with seeing people like Jesus sees people.
There are no invisible people.
Bring all that you have to Jesus. He’ll make it work.
He’s given me all that I need to do all that He wants.
Be obedient with what I have and where I am.
Wait and watch for the blessing.
It’s impossible to outgive God.

Messy Discipleship
Jesus dives into the messy.
I have heavenly power to rely on, not human power.
Start with WHO, not HOW and WHY.
Once we see the image of God in another, that will be all the reason we need to get messy.
True discipleship wants to see transformation, not condemnation.
We are created to be sent out, not sheltered.

I’d love to hear your list. And as we begin a new series, let’s not be so quick to forget this last one. I hope 2019 gets weird for us as we continue to be a church that lives out the reality of Jesus for those far from the Gospel.

I was invited to attend the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church here in Topeka by my friend Pastor TD Hicks. The ceremony was Sunday night, 6pm.

Truth be told, I wanted to watch the AFC Championship game, but TD invited me. What do you do when your brother asks you to go? You go.

The service recognized two African-American leaders in our community. One of the highlights of the night was the incredible words of former Judge Joe Johnson. For all the rhetoric that pervades our media, I found his words much needed. Some of his words still ring in my head this morning:

“I was conscious to help the young black man, and sometimes helping the young black man is to make him accountable when he did something he had no business doing.”

“I was told when I started my own law firm that the black community couldn’t pay me and the white community wouldn’t trust me. What I learned was if you fight for justice and win for your client, they don’t care what color you are.”

“I’m old and retired. It’s time for the younger generation to step up and lead with integrity and honor. It’s time for us to give the mantel over.”

The keynote speaker was Mr. Alvin Brooks who reminded the room of the primary motive and message of Dr. King: love. Love of all people.

The music…oh good gracious. I can’t say anything to do it justice. I think the hair on my arms is still standing up.

The other highlight of the evening… TD took a few moments to introduce the visiting dignitaries. I was surprised to find out that list included me. TD called me his “twin brother who I had to move to Topeka to find.” His gracious and warm introduction was not necessary, but I appreciated it. He’s a dear, close friend, a true brother.

I never once felt uncomfortable or like an outsider, even though I was one of only a few white people there and the only white pastor in the room. I didn’t feel that way, not because of the incredible introduction TD gave. It’s because we really, truly are close friends. Before the service, his son came up to Amy and I and gave us the biggest hug…well, the biggest hug that a freshman in high school will give in public. Joan, TD’s wife, sat and talked with us about how crazy she’s going to be if the Patriots go to another Super Bowl. André, their associate pastor, talked to us about his job and how his Christmas was.

In short, there’s a relationship there. I’m not foolish enough to think that these little interactions will solve the racism schism in our country. But I do believe it should give all of us a window of hope to look through.

What are the odds that the son of a Birmingham, Alabama firefighter, who grew up in arguably one of the most racist cities in America, who had relatives on the hoses and wore white robes, would be sitting in a black church on a Sunday night in the city famous for Brown vs. The Board of Education?

Actually the odds are pretty good, because racism is learned and my parents never tolerated any of that in the house. Despite where we lived and our environment, my mom and dad modeled something different. I watched them work with African-Americans, watched them have their African American friends over for dinner, played on the same teams with them, pray with and for them. Don’t think for a minute that they didn’t take some heat for such behavior. They did.

But my parents, even after their divorce, lived out the reality that every person is made in the image of God and worthy of respect. Character means more than color.

So I’m hopeful. Because if the racism cycle can be broken in just one generation with a white boy born in Birmingham, then it’s also possible for a lot of other people as well. And it won’t be the education system or the judicial system or the government that leads the way. It will be and must be the Church. Not the compromised church that is more in love with politics and power, but the real Bride of Christ that is on His mission to redeem the world.

I’m so thankful He’s included me on this journey.

Admit it… you’re singing the song.

I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it’s about forgiveness
FORGIVENESS
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore.
Don Henley, The Heart Of The Matter

I love me some Don Henley. Boys of Summer, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Dirty Laundry.

I digress.

I’m not sure of Henley’s spiritual beliefs, but he pretty much nails it. Forgiveness is the heart of the matter. Is there a more Christ-like action any Christ-follower can do for, and towards, another person? Are we not most like Christ when we are forgiving?

I was talking with a pastor-friend of mine this week. He said the issue of forgiveness was at the core of so many relational problems that he dealt with as a pastor that he preached a series on forgiveness every single year. I feel the same way about The Prodigal Son story. I think it’s the single most important story that Jesus ever told, where again forgiveness emerges as… the heart of the matter.

There is no getting around the fact that as Christ-followers we are called, expected, and commanded to forgive. And the why is easy to see. Jesus forgave us. No amount of “Yeah, but…” stands in comparison to the cross. What could be said to Jesus about forgiveness? “You don’t understand?” “You don’t know what he/she/they did to me?” “The hurt is deep?” “The betrayal was so atrocious?”

But forgiveness is NOT reconciliation. It’s not condoning the action. It’s not removing the consequence. It’s not trust either.

Forgiveness is releasing the demand for the cost of the offense to be paid to you. That’s it. Not forgiving is saying you’ll pay the cost – in bitterness, anger, and hurt.

One last thing on forgiveness and trust. At the end of John 2, Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem. He’s performed some miracles. People are really gearing up to follow Jesus or push Jesus into the limelight. John tells us that while Jesus loved the people, He did not entrust Himself to them because He knew their hearts. What’s that all about?

Jesus knew the fickleness of the human heart. He knew people would have different agendas than He and the Father had. He knew ultimately that humanity could not be trusted at that point. So He held back. Didn’t change the fact that He loved humanity. Didn’t change His course to the cross. Didn’t change the fact that He was going to forgive us. Just meant – He didn’t trust…yet.

Trust would come later. After Acts 2. Giving us both the Great Commission and the power to accomplish it by placing His Spirit in us.

Does that make forgiving easier? Maybe. Maybe not.

There is no denying that forgiveness gives freedom. Freedom to move on, to grow up, to see beyond the moment of pain. Forgiveness brings life and fresh air to our souls. And we are most like Christ when we forgive.

Sunday, 9 AM & 10:30 AM: Preach on Restful Contentment
Next 24 hours: 65 text messages, 47 emails, and 26 phone calls

I’m not complaining. Not at all. It’s a sacred trust being the pastor who people call in the middle of their crisis. It’s both deeply satisfying and incredibly heavy. It’s not something I take for granted – to be invited into these moments. I’ve prayed when families couldn’t speak. I’ve listened when they had no one else to speak to. I’ve been the calming voice in the middle of the storm, and at times I’ve been the clarion siren pointing out the rocks they are about to crash into.

There’s no real blueprint for this. We are completely relying the Spirit to speak, nudge, move, whisper. At the center of this, I understand that my primary role is one of presence. To help us all remember that God is here, in the middle of this mess.

And yes, I get tired too. So if you ever wondered if the pastor REALLY has to apply what he preaches about on Sunday? The answer is yes. Absolutely. Positively. 100%.

I have to BELIEVE that Jesus is in the middle of every storm. That’s His history. He’s got a great track record. So I’m not believing blindly or without confidence. He’s in the storms of my own creation and the ones that are thrown at me. And He IS working. He is working for GOOD. I may not see it… now. So I pray for eyes to see… eventually.

I have to WAIT. Wait for His timing. It frustrates me that God is never early. Never. He doesn’t bend to my timetable. He doesn’t seem to care that I have this all planned out in my mind. He doesn’t seem particularly in a hurry either. I suspect this is due to Him being more concerned about the character He is trying to form in me than the actual outcome of the situation. So, I’m learning to wait. I’m learning to adopt to His timeline, not insist on mine.

I have to EMBRACE. Embrace the moment. Pray that He makes me content. Pray that I find my contentment in Him because He is enough. Have I experienced Him enough to know that He is enough? I have to embrace that in my humanity I need Him.

And I need Him more now than the day I decided to first follow Him.

There is a tension I often see Christ-followers wrestle with.  On one side is this hope and promise of a vibrant faith that changes everything, a faith that is dynamic and life-giving, that gives purpose and is the seedbed of miracles.  There is this desire to grow deep in Christ and have more and more of our lives look like Jesus.  We want a faith that is the rock that will hold steady in the middle of life’s strongest storms.  We see the hope and joy of this faith in the life of others, and we want this.  

On the other side is a deep desire to be… “normal.”  We want to fit in, to be seen as cool or relevant.  We don’t want to be singled out for our faith or called “Jesus Freak.”  We don’t want to be labeled as weird or “super Christian.”  It’s hard enough for us as it is in our world the way it is without adding the extra issues of being a crazed Christ-follower.

Here’s the truth.  Normal doesn’t work.  If normal worked, people wouldn’t be looking for hope and for answers.  If normal worked, why are normal people suddenly not so normal when they encounter hardships and trials?  Normal can’t withstand the hard stuff of life.  Normal ends up being hollow, boring, unimpressive, and unfulfilling.

Do you really want that kind of life?  Is that the kind of life that is worth having?

Yes, living out the reality of Jesus can get weird.  It puts you in weird circumstances.  You’ll have weird conversations.  You’ll be asked to do weird things, and you may even be seen by your peers as a little…. weird.  But I think weird is okay.  

I actually think weird is better than okay.  I think weird is better.    

We are going to look at 4 key ways we can start living out our faith and making our faith… weird.  This is not an EXHAUSTIVE list by any stretch of the imagination.  But these 4 are foundational.

Restful Contentment

Radical Forgiveness

Generous Compassion

Messy Discipleship

We covered Restful Contentment last Sunday.  Access the message here.  Watch it.  Join us the next three weeks.  It’s gonna get weird.  And that’s a good thing.

Because of your generosity in 2018…

We were able to send 17 people to Honduras with Trash Mountain Project.  We helped feed and educate hundreds of kids in the Philippines.  We delivered 65 backpacks full of food per week to 3 different schools in Topeka.  We gave every kid at McCarter Elementary a backpack for school supplies.  We gave away dozens of scholarships for Upward Soccer, Football, Basketball, and Cheerleading.  We supported two missionary families in countries closed to Gospel work.  We painted and cleaned McCarter Elementary as part of the Topeka ShareFest project.  We helped a church in the Hi-Crest neighborhood provide tutoring and technology for at-risk kids.  We also renovated our worship space so we could fit more people in the room.

We are a unique church.  In 2018 we spent 34% of our budget directly on Serve All ministries, and we’ve budgeted even more than that for 2019.  But NONE of it happens without GENEROSITY.  I’m talking about TIME and MONEY.  When God’s people are generous with both the TIME and the MONEY that God has given them, TRANSFORMATION happens. It changes us.  It changes our church.  It changes our city.  We experienced that in 2018, and we have even more in the plans for 2019.

So thank you for a great year this year.  Thank you for being generous with your time and your money.  You helped us flesh out our vision of being a people that lives out the reality of Jesus for those far from the Gospel.

Just a couple of reminders…  If you want to make a year-end financial gift, all you have to do is:

Give online before midnight on December 31st,

OR Mail a check to us that is postmarked by December 31st.

(For our autodraft givers, remember to re-login in January for giving.  We never just assume people want to keep to giving.)

Merry Christmas, Western Hills.  And thanks for being a generous church that loves to bless our city.

This past Sunday we unpacked Advent: PEACE with some help from our friends over at The Bible Project. Like I mentioned in the message, the concept of peace in the Scriptures is so much deeper than just the absence of war. It’s the concept of completeness… wholeness.

According to Scripture, no one fulfills bringing the peace like Jesus does. From a prophetic and theological standpoint, this is fairly easy to see and understand. Jesus by virtue of his life, death, and resurrection, gives us peace with God. The debt we owed to sin is paid by Jesus. As a theological construct this is fairly straightforward, and it is a major reason why Paul (in Ephesians 2) says HE – meaning Jesus – is our peace.

Here’s the problem… How can Jesus be my peace in the middle of the wreck that I call my life? What good is this theological truth in the middle of financial or relational crisis? If I’ve got job issues and kid issues and marriage issues – not to mention the state of the whole world right now, then how useful or practical is this “theological truth” of Jesus being my peace?

This is not a new tension for those of us who live in the 21st Century. In the very time that Jesus was born, they had the same questions. In light of centuries of being under the oppression of corrupt governments, having a lifeless and disconnected religion putting more burdens on families, how could the arrival of a little baby boy be the solution to all of that?

There may be two different ways to look at this.

The first I pose with this question. How many messes in our life are actually out of our own creation THEN we ask Jesus to make PEACE out of it? He’s gracious, and I know He can and will cover them. I can’t count how many of these situations I’ve put Jesus in the middle of, but the truth does remain that so many times Jesus really isn’t my PEACE. He’s my life preserver after I realize the thing I was using as my PEACE (money, position, influence, smarts, other people) failed me.

Christmas can be a great time to ask ourselves what or who really is our PEACE. What are we trusting our lives with? What gives our souls ultimate rest and security? If it is something other than Jesus, we will never EXPERIENCE the PEACE of Jesus.

The second way to look at this has to do with how big is your Christmas story? If Christmas for you is only the manger scene, then you’re missing out. That’s not really Christmas. If Christmas for you includes the whole life of Jesus, the cross and the resurrection, then that’s not really the whole Christmas story either.

This is because the complete promise of Christmas will not be experienced until Christ returns again. This time, not as a baby but as the King of kings and Lord of lords. When every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When He will make a new heaven and a new earth, where death and sickness are no more, where darkness has no place to hide.

And He will be our PEACE.

Til then we live by faith. Believing Him, based on His character that He has already proven. And that gives us temporary peace for now.

For the first time ever, I’m actually going to teach through the Advent calendar. Not having a traditional or liturgical background, I’ve had to do quite a bit of research on this, and it’s been pretty…. enlightening. (Bad attempt at a pun?)

Advent originally had nothing to do with Jesus or Christmas. It had to do with the Winter Solstace. As the time of daylight shrank in the winter, candles were lit to remind everyone that “light was coming.” That’s what advent literally meant: coming. There was going to be a day when it was darkest – Winter Solstace. But then it would get better, because every day afterwards would bring more light.

The four Sundays of Advent focus on four key words that help frame the birth of Jesus. The Bible Project has some fantastic videos on each of these four words. They are really worth checking out.

The Bible Project guys tell us that the word qavah in Hebrew means to wait expectantly. It’s the word for HOPE in the Old Testament, and it’s root comes from the word qav which means cord or rope. When a cord or rope is in tension, you have qavah. So HOPE then is to be in expectant tension.

In the Scriptures, HOPE is very different than optimism. Optimism is looking at a situation and seeing a positive outcome. The reality is, Israel lived some of the most horrific circumstances in history. This is when the Prophets spoke loudest – when they were in exile, being oppressed, being refugees. It was during these times when the prophets spoke of HOPE, and that HOPE was tied to the Lord.

This is THE significant truth to understand. HOPE is anchored on the Lord. Specifically, the Messiah. The Wonderful Counselor. Prince of Peace. Emmanuel. I will qavah on The One – Jesus.

Christmas is a promise of hope delivered. As the angels spoke to Mary, Joseph, shepherds and wise men, they spoke of HOPE coming. This baby IS the HOPE of the Lord.

We look back on what that HOPE delivered: That God kept his promise. That the waiting was not in vain. There is now HOPE for all mankind. And therefore, those of us who follow Jesus are HOPE-Bearers.

In fact, I’d challenge us all to see that as our number one role for the world. We bring real HOPE. A HOPE that no one or no thing can match.

I’ve undergone a huge personality change over the years.  As a kid, I HATED waiting. Christmas, birthday, in line – didn’t matter.  I hated it.  HATED IT!!  I hated waiting so much that I would sneak into where my mom hid our presents – because she had to hide them from us – and I’d get my hands on the package.  I studied the size and weight of the gift.  I shook it.  Sometimes I even tried to carefully unwrap the gift with no tearing so that no one would know that I had sneaked a look.

You know what the sum total of all that craziness ended up being?  Disappointment for me.  The excitement was gone.  The thrill of not knowing, the anticipation… all gone when I knew what I was getting.  And another thing – I ended up being focused completely on what I was getting.  Not on anything else.

It’s a little different now.  I love the build up.  I love hanging with my family, playing games, and staying up until late arguing about college football.  I love going to church on Christmas Eve to sing carols and take communion.  I love the build up to Christmas because it gives me hope.  It gives me joy.  It gives me love.  And it gives me peace.

That’s the spirit of “Advent.”  Advent is a Latin word, and it literally means “coming.” The word was almost exclusively used to talk about the Winter Solstice.  As the days got shorter and the nights longer, people would light candles looking forward to the Winter Solstice.  On that day, the days would start to get longer, the nights shorter. The light was COMING!

Pretty easy to see the parallel of the coming of Jesus!  Advent for us means the coming of the Light of Jesus.  His coming made these four key words a reality for the human condition – hope, joy, love, and peace.

This year more than most, I am very aware of how much we NEED these four words.  I think people spend their whole life looking for these four words, and they never quite get it right.

This month will be a great time to invite your friends to experience Advent with us at Western Hills.  We will learn what eternal hope, joy, love, and peace looks like, as well as how we can experience it ourselves.  I hope you join us.

Thanks to your generosity over the years, we have been able to serve the students at McCarter Elementary in the name of Jesus with no strings attached. It’s kind of awesome to be in the position that whenever the staff at McCarter Elementary sees a need, the first phone call they make is to Western Hills Church.

This year we want to not only answer a need but also continue to bless the school. Above is a list of coats that the school knows its students need. We will be taking the coats to McCarter AS SOON AS THEY COME IN so the school can get them to the kids as soon as possible.

We also want to make sure that every kid gets a hat and gloves. So if you can’t get a coat, could you make some hats and gloves part of your Black Friday list? We will be collecting coats, hats & gloves in the lobby of the church FROM THIS SUNDAY UNTIL SUNDAY, DEC. 16TH. But the sooner we get them, the sooner they can get to the kids.

I was grabbing coffee with a local community leader a couple of weeks ago, and they asked me what’s the incentive to do these types of things because, “It’s never in the news. You guys never get any credit for doing these kinds of things.” I smiled and took a long sip of my salted caramel macchiato.

I gently observed that this is why I love being a pastor, not a politician. Why I love the church more than I do governmental agencies. We can (and must) do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing. No pretense. No aspirations for future benefit or applause. Don’t have to wait to be pushed or pressured into doing it. Don’t even need permission. Just bless people. Just love on them. No strings attached. No agenda.

Our audience isn’t the masses. It isn’t the kids or their parents. It’s not the news cycle. Our audience is One. The One. The One who crafted and gifted His Church to be strategically located in neighborhoods across the world to BE A BLESSING in His name. To live out the reality of Jesus. That’s it.

Pure. Simple. No agendas. No politics. No public relations. Just… obedience.

There was a pretty hefty pause in the conversation as he smiled and took his own long sip from his coffee. “Well said, my friend. Well said.”

I nodded, knowing that the saying it part is easy. Time to move from “Well said” to “Well done.”