In a world that celebrates furthering one’s own interests and desires, we mourn the loss of Judeo-Christian values but often propose selfish reasons for seeking their return. We pick and choose what morals dominated the actions of those who came before us. We choose to remember the good times as we don rose-coloured glasses combined with blinders so that we can create a future dream based on a past hallucination to try to exterminate our current nightmare.
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With the passing of my dad halfway through his 94th year of life, I have found myself remembering him in a way that is bad theologically and yet very true. I could never preach this as it could and should be immediately challenged but still I believe buried deep in its wrong interpretation of grace is the truth. If there is anyone I have known in my life that I would say will, without a doubt, be in heaven, my dad is that person. Based purely on the life he lived (bad theology), he will be there!
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Many personal growth, church growth, and outreach how-to books and motivational sermons are “mirrors,” or to bring it back around to the building metaphor, pictures of the décor. They address the appearance. This isn’t a bad thing. Appearance will go a long way when it comes to enticing people to visit your church or ask about your faith. What people see demonstrates the commitment, enthusiasm, and passion of Christ followers.
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I was signing a copy of my book Blueprint (shameless plug by me). The person I was signing the book for has been a window into a world I will never be able to fully comprehend. He is an African American and I am a white Canadian. As hard as I try I will never be able to fully grasp what he and other people of visible minority groups, especially black American males, have gone through and continue to go through. At best I can be understanding while never, no matter how hard I might try, fully understanding. When I started to personalize the inscription…
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