Chris Howlett

Adventures in Beeson-land

I honestly intended to write before now, but the last two days rocked my world in a couple of ways:

1. We're taking the class that teaches us how to develop our dissertation. The class, taught by Dr. Verna Lowe, meets 9 to 5 every day (yesterday we met for orientation at 8 a.m. prior to class). Now, 9 to 5 isn't that big a deal, except it does get tiring sitting in the same chair for that length of time. The big deal is the homework. Tonight I got back to the townhouse at 11 p.m. after several hours of writing in the library. Last night, same story. So, needless to say, long days.
2. The content of the class is awesome. We've known about, since before the program began last year, the dissertation requirement. I even knew what project I wanted to pursue: equipping people for ministry using the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool. However, none of us had any idea of how to go about doing the project, research, and writing itself. So the last two days enlightened and encouraged us to really get moving!

Dr. Lowe does a great job walking us through the process and makes it entertaining as well! The second part of this equation is no easy task!

Soooo, hours and hours of writing. By the end of the class the first chapter of our dissertations will be written (at least the first draft). So, I'm happy, and really looking forward to working on my proposal so I can begin to work on the project at Christ Church. Even though I've taught a session of the Strengths Class this spring, I need to completely rewrite it... completely. So, there's still work to do!

The amazing potential of a strengths-based approach to ministry reveals itself through the happiness quotient. I'm not talking about happiness in the sense of a fleeting emotion. I mean true, lasting, life satisfaction and fulfillment. When you engage your strengths on a regular basis, you increase your chances of experiencing happiness. Of course, because God created us in his image, and part of this image is the desire to reach out in love to bless others. So, one of the keys to happiness, certainly not the only key, is service.

Well, sleep beckons! I will write more on this another time. God bless!

Settling In

Well, I have arrived in the Holy City, Wilmore, and have just this moment settled into the townhouse. Rev. Bob Kaylor, of Park City Community Church (UM) in Park City, Utah, was here when I arrived. Rev. Antoni Sinkfield, of St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee is on his way. We three roomed together last year, as well, and found that we get along very well together. 

Orientation is at 8:00 a.m. and our first class begins at 9:00 a.m. So, I am wrapping up a couple of assignments that are due tomorrow... nothing like procrastination!!

Yes, this is a brief and boring post, but I thought I would at least get started. Hopefully tomorrow I will have more interesting things to write about. The class that begins tomorrow is the class required of all Doctor of Ministry students that will teach us how we will be developing our ministry project and writing our dissertation.

Have a blessed morning, day, or night... depending on when you're reading this.

Toward a Theology of Worship

I'm on vacation with my family in Panama City Beach, Florida. It's really, really nice to get away and relax and have some time to reflect. On Sunday morning, we attended worship at Woodlawn United Methodist Church. Later, I discovered that this is the church my aunt and uncle, Sue & Butch Kitterman, attend when they're staying here in the winter. It's a great church with a tremendous outreach mentality that is infectious. We attended "9 Forty," their contemporary worship service held at the Arnold High School  Auditorium (theater) across the street from the church. They hold worship at the school because this service has outgrown their Christian Life Center. This past Sunday there were over 300 people in attendance and one of their associates was preaching. The praise band did a very good job, though their worship leader was gone on a mission trip with their young adult ministry.

So, whenever I am on vacation, I enjoy worship at other churches. It does a couple of things: 

1. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. When it's Sunday I want to be in worship because it's one of the basic purposes of my life, to give glory to God. 

2. It's nice to worship in an atmosphere where I am only responsible for my own personal worship in a community that is led by another shepherd/pastor. I can relax much more than on Sundays when I am the pastor, leading our community in worship. Although I certainly worship every Sunday, when I am not involved in the planning and the message, it is a much simpler experience.

Being in this environment, I usually am a little more able to step back and examine what is the theology of worship evident in this experience? I usually learn something. I am able to reflect on what we do at Christ Church more because I'm not in that Sunday to Sunday cycle. So, this time, I really was drawn to reflect on worship and the meaning of worship. I came up with a few thoughts I want to share.

Worship is Christ-Centered.

The audience is not the congregation. The audience is God. When a community of faith gathers to worship, the focus is on bringing glory to the Lord. This is simple, but often overlooked.

Worship Order Matters

The design of the worship service itself matters because the order of the service says something about what you believe about God and about yourself. Where is the offering? Is there a time of greeting other members of the community? Where does the sermon or message come? How is the reading of the Scripture presented? The ordering of the different elements of worship is important.

Worship is Seeker-Sensitive

Paul's instructions to the Corinthians, ancient Jewish practices, and the testimony of the early church all confirm the reality that it is incumbent on a community of faith to take into account the presence of spiritual seekers in worship. This is undeniable. It has much less to do with music style than it does with other aspects of keeping the uninformed informed about what is happening and why it is happening.

Worship and Communion Go Together

I have been reflecting on this for a long time. Word & Sacrament go together. The only reason we don't celebrate Communion every Sunday in the UM tradition is because of a lack of Elders (priests) in early American Methodism. There were so few to go around, churches usually celebrated Communion only quarterly. It certainly was not a result of any theological reflection on frequent communion. The founder of the Methodist Revival, John Wesley encouraged frequent communion. Monthly communion has become the norm, but is this norm in alignment with the Scripture and historical Christian practice? Not really. This is something to think about.

These thoughts are simply a beginning. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. What do you think is important? Why? How can Christ Church's worship be more God-glorifying and people-inspiring?

QT Combo: lectio divina

This past two weeks I have been talking about two high-impact disciple-making activities: Bible Reading for Growth and Prayer. In my personal Quiet Time (QT), I combine these two activities into one using an ancient bible reading and prayer method called lectio divina, or 'Holy Reading." There are tons of resources out there on this method. A good one is: http://www.upperroom.org/methodx/thelife/prayermethods/lectio.asp

Another is found in a book, Praying the Word: An Introduction to Lectio Divina, by Enzo Bianchi.

The method is simple. Like many worthwhile endeavors, lectio divina takes a few moments to learn, a lifetime to master.

The basic method is:

1. Pray.

Pray a simple prayer asking for God's guidance and direction and for yourself to be open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your reading.

2. Read

Read the selected verse or verses. This needs to be fairly short, no longer than a chapter.

3. Meditate

Don't let that word scare you. To meditate is similar to ruminate, chew on God's word. Focus in on a single verse, phrase, word, or concept from the Scripture reading in which you sensed God's voice. Spend some time quietly, in your mind and heart, repeating it over and over until it flows into prayer, the next step.

4. Pray

Let your meditation flow into prayer. Whatever that concept, word, or phrase was communicating, turn it into prayer. Simply talk to God about what you sensed him saying and how you might live that out in your life that day.

5. Contemplate

Again, don't let this word scare you. While praying, your prayer can turn into a kind of wordless prayer, where your reading, meditation, and prayer merge into an experience of God's presence and love. Indeed, this is wordless prayer. At first, this will not come naturally or easily. That's okay. Contemplative prayer is not meant to be easy or natural, but once you've been practicing it, it becomes more natural, more a part of the natural flow of your being being in touch with the Being of God.

6. Obey

Obey God's voice to you. Trust me, if you give yourself to this process, God will speak to you. You simply need to obey. Remind yourself throughout the day. Turn to God in prayer throughout the day. Ask for the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to change your attitude and actions to reflect the love and beauty of Jesus Christ in your life.

So, lectio divina is not such a mystery. It's easy to learn. Takes time and effort to master. Like many things in life, Just Do It.

Reading the Bible for Growth

I wanted to share the links, plus some others, to resources for reading the Bible for spiritual growth. You can go here to listen to the message “Follow Me I.” In the message I spoke about the necessity of approaching the Bible from the perspective of vulnerability, opening oneself up to the movement of the Spirit instead of using the text for our own purposes. God wants to speak to you through the Word to encourage you to grow into maturity in Christ.

Here are some links and info to help you read your Bible for growth:

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/bcp/

This site offers the daily readings from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office Lectionary. It offers daily Psalm, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel readings. If you follow this pattern you will cover the Bible in two years.

1979 Book of Common Prayer, Economy Green Leather

You can order a physical copy of The Book of Common Prayer.

http://biblestudy.crosswalk.com/readingplan/

This is a great website. You can register and it keeps your place in the Bible where you are reading, you can store notes on the site, set up your own reading plan, and use several different translations.

http://biblegateway.com

Another really nice website with lots of different functions and translations.

http://ginghamsburg.org/tj

This online resource is called the Transformation Journal and is very focused on growing into spiritual maturity. It is put together by a team from Ginghamsburg Church (UMC) and follows a year-long plan. It is a very good resource.

Liberated for Sanctification

One can only do so much in a sermon! Each week there are illustrations, scriptures, and stories that are left on the proverbial editing room floor. This week, with a baptism, receiving new members, and communion, there was not much time for sermonizing. So, here is a Scripture on which I wanted to comment during the message this past Sunday.

“But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.” Romans 6:21-22 (NRSV)

This verse comes in a lengthy section of Paul's letter to the Romans about sin and salvation, grace and sanctification. First off, what is "sanctification"? Certainly we don't use this word very often in everyday speech. When's the last time you had a conversation like this at the water cooler?

"Hey Bob, how's that sanctification project coming along?"

"Oh, pretty good. God is really blessing me!"

No, I didn't think so.

Sanctification is one of those theological words that gets lost in the shuffle in most churches, particularly following the confusion about this word surrounding what was called the Holiness Movement in the 19th century. Since then, it's all but dropped out of the vocabulary of mainline churches.

Sanctification. What is it? Why does Paul call it an "advantage we get"? Is it a one time deal or is it a process? What is the relationship between sanctification and eternal life?

These are big questions. I won't even attempt to answer them all here, but I would like to share about the basics to at least whet our appetite for the fact that what most Christ-followers experience is only a small part of the blessing that God has made available to us in this life.

Notice, first, that sanctification is something we receive. It is a work that God does in us. We definitely must cooperate with this work, just as we do with justification. To be justified is to be "saved" or "redeemed." Most of us are aware this is a gift of God. Jesus laid down his life to reconcile the whole world to himself, including us. We receive this gift of salvation by faith, but trusting in the goodness and grace of God. For most folks, trusting God for salvation is a big deal. It's not automatic, it takes effort and can be a process of turning away from trusting in your own good works and learning to trust in the work of Christ.

Sanctification is the process of being sanctified, being made holy. To be holy is to be set apart for service to God. You see, when God redeems our lives, he doesn't simply want to leave us in the same state of confusion and wrong choices and sin. He wants to change us. His goal is that we would become like his Son, Jesus. Jesus loved people with a pure love, not holding their faults and sins against them. Most of us do not love the way God loves. We love with strings attached, with conditions. We love people who are good to us. Jesus said that even the worst of sinners love those who love them. If you want to be like Jesus you have to love God with your whole life and love your neighbor as yourself. Sanctification is really about love. It's about fully receiving the love God has for you and then living a life of loving service to others. To be sanctified is to accept yourself the way God accepts you, as you are, and to be free to accept others the way God accepts them.

Sin flows from a lack of love. We don't love God, we don't love others, we don't love ourselves. But to be made holy is God's plan for us. It is God's gift for us. He created us to reflect his image to the rest of creation. Jesus came and lived and died and lives again, so we can understand who God is and how much God loves us. When we give ourselves fully to this process of sanctification, we overcome temptation to sin more and more as the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to the immensity of the love of our loving Father in heaven. We sin less and less and we make loving choices more and more.

Sanctification is about freedom. God sets us free from the penalty of sin, that's justification, but he wants us to develop as Christ-followers, growing closer and closer in relationship to him, learning more and more of his love and offering more and more of his love to others. That's sanctification: the freedom to love fully even as I have been fully loved.

Focusing My Life

What’s really most important? What are my top five priorities? In answering these questions you may be tempted to say things you know will sound good to someone else… your friend, your spouse, your parent, your pastor, your small group leader… Avoid the temptation. Be honest with yourself and with God.

We basically have two sets of values: 1. Espoused Values; 2. Enacted Values. Espoused Values are values I believe in. If asked to explain my values, I would list my espoused values. Enacted Values are values I have actually put into action in my life. There is overlap between my espoused and enacted values, but there are also areas of discontinuity. These areas of discontinuity are the areas that my actual, real, lived values do not match up with what I believe to be true and what I believe to be important.

Example. I value health. I believe it is a good thing to be healthy, to exercise regularly, to eat highly nutritious and low calorie food. I believe my body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit and that I am called to honor the body God gave me. Health is an espoused value. Unfortunately, I have struggled since late adolescence for this value to be an enacted value. I am significantly overweight and my lack of bodily health is beginning to interfere with my happiness and fulfillment in life because it is becoming a limiting factor in what I can do safely and injury-free, physically. As I grow older, my lack of enacting my espoused health value is leading to a diminished sense of joy in life.

Another example. I value lifelong learning. God has given us minds that are meant to be used. Learning is an activity we are intended to participate in even after we graduate from school. I believe part of the renewal of the mind God plans for us as a path to wholeness. This is an espoused value and an enacted value. Even before I was accepted into the Beeson Pastor Program, I was a relatively heavy reader. I read in a wide range of topics. I do read fiction from time to time, but most of my reading focuses on leadership, science, philosophy, history, psychology and spirituality. I seek out opportunities for trainings and continuing education events that will enrich me as a person, family member, and pastor.

What are your values? How can you bridge the gap between your espoused and enacted values? Pray for me as I work to more fully live out the value of being a beloved child of God who lives a healthy life, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and physically.

Christ Church Vacation Bible School 2009

Check out this video of our Soccer/Drama Camp VBS!

We had a blast!

Paraclete Revisited

There's no way one message can exhaust the different ways in which the Holy Spirit works in our lives. One of the ways that I didn't really cover in the message is found in the Gospel Lesson for today, John 15:26-27:

But when the Helper [the Paraclete] comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the  Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning (ESV).

The work of the Holy Spirit is to "bear witness" about Jesus. He also notes that this is the work of the disciples, as well.

Think about it. If no one bore witness about Jesus, the Church would have died out in the first generation. The New Testament would not have been written, and most probably we would have never heard of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. I guess most of us would be pagans, and there might be a few Jews.

It is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, through Christ's followers, to bear witness to people in the world about Jesus Christ. The Spirit bears witness through us about the life, the teaching, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, about how God, through Jesus, is reconciling all things in the world to himself, about how God's new age of redemption is changing everything and about how when Jesus returns, God will make all things right and enforce his ultimate rule and reign throughout the cosmos.

Witness entails both the personal and the universal. How God blesses me, and How God is blessing the world. We bear witness to the totality of God's work, but the most intimate knowledge of God's work is God's work in us. So, how has God been blessing you lately? Whom have you told? How can you share your faith through words and actions?

How does the Church, today, bear witness to the universal presence and influence of God? We must remember that God sent Jesus to save, not condemn the world. In our approach to bearing witness does the world feel condemned? Does the world feel loved? Hopefully the latter and not the former.

May the Paraclete, the Helper, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Counselor bless you with his presence and his power. May he enable you to bear witness to the love of God in the world.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today, the message at church was: "How to Make Mom Happy." 

One of the guaranteed ways to make your mom happy is to say "Thank You!" So, I thought I would say "thanks" to my mom here.

Mom... thanks!

Thanks for loving me, even when I was unloveable.

Thanks for raising me in the way I should go.

Thanks for taking me to church.

Thanks for showing me the meaning of grace.

Thanks for being a stay-at-home mom when we could have probably used the money from you working outside of the home. Having you home was worth it to me!

Thanks for teaching me what hard work means.

Thanks for encouraging me to be me.

Thanks for buying my artwork when I was about 10. I didn't become an artist, but it made me feel good, anyway.

Thanks for having a sense of humor.

Thanks for teaching me the value of an education.

Thanks for showing me what service to others is.

Thanks for loving my Dad and being committed to your marriage. That's made my marriage better!
Thanks for having my siblings. They're great! Even if Kenny and I used to fight like cats and dogs.
Thanks for attending all my soccer games when I was a kid. I mean... all of them! I know you probably weren't in love with soccer, but you showed your love for me.
Thanks for making Swiss Steak.
Thanks for reading to me.
Thanks for giving me the gift of life.
But most of all, thanks for giving me the gift of you!

I love you! Have a great Mother's Day!