The New Adventures of an Old Preacher

I was first introduced to this marvelous country in 1996. It was April and it was still very much cold and snowy, but that did not prevent the people from melting my heart. Ten years and many trips over including two years as resident missionaries have passed, but we remain connected and dedicated to seeing the church flourish there.

Thirteen of us from Gateway are gearing up to head over this Wednesday to help staff and direct the “little kids” session of Lithuanian Christian Camp. This camp began in 1998 and quickly grew to be one of the most popular and effective ministries in the country. God has allowed me the opportunity to be a part of it every year. It not only ministers to the youth of Lithuania but also Belarus. A large group from Minsk comes over every summer.

This year we are back to two sessions. We started with one and have had as many as three. The need and interest is there for numerous sessions but our resources in money and manpower is more limited.

I am excited that my wife, Terri, is going back for the first time since our move back to the states in 2003.

So, I will not be blogging for a couple of weeks. We do solict your prayers for our travel and for the camp ministry. If you are interested in knowing more about the history of the church and camp you can check out websites here and here.

I will report in upon our return.

Just imagine an aggressive and ambitious young executive- extremely gifted, well pedigreed, highly educated, totally dedicated and very charismatic being groomed and empowered by those who count on his meteoric rise to the top-who gives it all up. He just walks away from the prestige, the power, the pay and the position. The guy must be nuts, right? Why would anyone do something this stupid?

I will let him tell you.

You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day, an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin, a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.

The very credentials these people are now waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash- along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant- dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.
-Philippians 3:4-8 (The Message)

Later in this text the apostle Paul would conclude “all who are mature should take a view of things.” Paul had grown up to true kingdom thinking and had the ability to discern the difference between his former attractive but empty way of life and the more challenging, but more virtuous call of Christ. To him walking away towards Christ made perfect sense. Through kingdom thinking he understood how “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise” and “the weak things of the world to shame the strong” and “the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are.” (1st Corinthians 1:27-2

All who are mature would take this view of things. But unfortunately not many are. From my perspective the church remains populated by so many who seem to stay stuck in a surface level thinking and rarely ever ventures deeper into true kingdom thinking. Consequently we repeatedly fail to free ourselves from the grip of a worldly approach to life, to relationship and to church. Consider:

Whereas we should be thinking in terms of kingdom we think in terms of institution
Whereas servanthood should define us we grasp for power
Whereas grace should govern we create rules
Whereas we should be message-driven we choose to be market-driven
Whereas we should be about relationships we think programming
Whereas selflessness should reign we favor ambition

And it is my guess that most of us would join the chorus of “that’s nuts” if presented with Paul’s choice in a context outside of church.

So how do we change this? How do we grow up like Paul into kingdom thinking? I believe there is only one place to start- Matthew 5-7- the Sermon on the Mount. This is kingdom thinking at its purest. It is a totally revolutionary re-envisioning of who we are to be that is guaranteed to challenge, change and develop maturity. According to this sermon kingdom thinking:

* Honors a different set of values and behaviors- 5:1-12
* Calls for a transforming transparency- 5:13-20
* Elevates relationships above the institution- 5:25-42
* Redefines the parameters of love- 5:43-48
* Demands personal integrity in acts of worship and piety- 6:1-18
* Seeks a clear kingdom commitment- 6:16-36
* Requires honesty and personal accountability in relationships based on how God treats us- 7:1-12
* Demands choices to be made reflective solely of kingdom values- 7:15-27

There is no doubt that this sermon clearly sets God’s way against the world’s way and calls for radical rethinking for all who claim to follow Christ. It is unsettling, deeply challenging and to many- madness- just like Paul giving up his path to Pharisee superstardom. But only by embracing and internalizing this sermon we will grow up to kingdom thinking.

Isn’t it time to do this?

Remember the WWJD fad a few years ago? The quote “What Would Jesus Do?” was found on everything from bracelets to tee-shirts to bumper stickers. It was (and remains) a dead-on approach to practicing Christianity.

Were you aware that this approach was far from being new? It was first championed by Charles Sheldon in 1896. In his much beloved book, In His Steps, he demonstrates what might happen if an entire congregation took WWJD to heart.

Set against the back drop of the “Gilded Age” of emerging American capitalism (where the gap between the rich and poor was even more pronounced than today) this book tells the story of a large, affluent big-city church being challenged and changed by the WWJD proposition. Even though it was written over a century ago it remains ultimately contemporary and completely revolutionary. Here is just an example:

What would Jesus do in the matter of wealth? How would he spend it? What principles would regulate His use of money? Would He be likely to live in great luxury and spend ten times as much on personal adornment and entertainment as He spent to relieve the needs of suffering humanity?…What would Jesus do about the great army of unemployed and desperate who tramp the streets and curse the church?…Would Jesus care nothing for them? Would He go His way in comparative ease and comfort? Would He say it was none of His business? Would He excuse Himself from all responsibility to remove the causes of such a condition?

These questions sound amazingly twenty-first century to me. Or maybe I should say they sound refreshingly first-century.

What would Jesus do? I will let him speak for himself.

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. Matthew 11:5-6

Earlier I mentioned that the fictionalized church of Mr. Sheldon was changed. Some fell away. They could not handle WWJD.

WWJD led Jesus to the cross. It is a given that it will lead us to one too. Will we be willing to pick it up?

Danny Dodd

Here are some of my thoughts from mu upcoming sermon, The Atmosphere of Belonging:

Christ created an atmosphere of belonging which was not based upon pedigree, heritage or an ability to discern and keep a law. It was inclusive not exclusive and was based on principles such as love, grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. It was neither artificial nor propped up by some institutional agenda. It was truly “whosoever will” and not surprisingly it connected.

We must re-imagine the belonging paradigm from our traditional institutional approach of behavior-belief-belong to Christ’s approach of Matthew 11-28-30: belong-belief-behavior.

This creates genuine discipleship out of a relationship with Jesus which is not predicated or dependent upon the whims/traditions/functions of an institution.

Peter is a case study- from his initial invitation to follow Christ in Matthew 4:19 to his affirmation of belief in Jesus in light of others abandoning him in John 6:68-69 to his own encouraging teaching of allowing God’s virtues to shape behavior in 2nd Peter 1:5ff.

Belonging brings blessings of relationship, identity, security and community.

If we can successfully create such an atmosphere of belonging connecting to culture will occur. But we first must demolish all of the institutional barriers of prejudice, class status, pride, pretense and self-serving posturing.

Just some of it. Your comments and critique are welcome.

Now that I have learned the insert picture thing (remember I am an old preacher which means always playing catch-up to technology) I thought I would introduce you to the beauty that occupies my home.

Say hello to (from right to left) Terri, my wife; Taylor who is four; and Jordan who is nine months.