Why We Shoot Our Wounded

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Luke 5:29-31
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Many well meaning Christians have read over the above passage but never have put it into practice. In fact it’s not all that unusual for Christians to in effect shoot their wounded.
Take for example the fallen away Christian – the wounded Christian. The kneejerk reaction at the very least is to turn their back on sinners. The other common practice is to confront the sinner negatively thereby insuring an equally negative reaction by the sinner toward Christianity.
There’s the old adage that says “Hate the sin; love the sinner.” If only we could separate the sin from the sinner in our own minds.

Hiding

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The following is a dream I had this morning just prior to waking up.
He wanted to go on ahead of us. He was a suspicious character, so our plan was to catch him in the act of hiding in the church building. We searched all over the church building for him all night long, but were unable to find him. We checked every closet, classroom, etc. At the point of not finding him, I suggested that in the future we should pay someone to hide in the building and give others the opportunity to find them. Apparently we had problems in the past with others hiding in the church building for deviant means, and needed practice finding them.
I had stayed up all night looking for him myself. Since I had pulled an all nighter I figured it must have been New Year’s. I was back at work the next day, exhausted, trying to change my voicemail. Wishing everyone a happy New Year’s Day.

Questions

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One of my post-camp duties is to put together a camp slide show/video. And it seems to be coming together nicely. At this point I am way ahead of what I was doing last year. It’s interesting that when you get home from camp you figure you might have a few good pictures. But seemingly there are quite a few gems, plenty to make a slide show. The editing will still take time. It’s a constant battle with myself and a combination of motivation and time.
Here are some questions I’ve pondered lately. I’d like to develop them into their own blog entries, but so far they’re just questions.
Why is the Christian army the only army that shoots its wounded?
How does one bottle the excitement and spirituality of camp? If you were to be able to do that and break it out whenever you needed it, you’d probably make a fortune.
Do dreams about going back to school, having a report due, etc., mean that you’re afraid you’re being evaluated in real life?
Discuss….

Why We Do What We Do

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baptism2
A father embraces his son after his baptism. Just a couple of hours before this same father preached a sermon which called sinners to repentence.
This is why we do what we do. The overwhelming joy one experiences when a sinner comes in contact with blood of Jesus.
Reflecting on the past week, I can tell you that between the hours of 8PM and 10:30 PM on June 11th, was probably the most baptisms I had seen ever. 13. 13 souls went to church camp expecting fun and recreation and along the way became new creatures.
Disclaimer: I didn’t take the picture to the right. I wish I had.

The Best Week Ever

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I got back from camp Friday night. I guess my blog would be incomplete without a report about what happened.
The biggest part was the 13 baptisms in one night after an emotional sermon. “Do you love Jesus?” Outside I was rejoicing. Inside I was apprehensive and praying that these kids weren’t just jumping on the bandwagon. I’ve said it before: Decisions based solely on emotionalism will wither and fade when the emotions are gone. I hope and pray that these kids stay faithful.
While I don’t want to limit preachers and how the Gospel is preached, I still have cold feet about it. Granted an emotional sermon might be the only way to reach some people. I just have to have faith that those counselors/preachers talking to these potential converts asked the right questions and make sure these folks were ready for baptism and a lifetime commitment.
Then there’s the pleaser, as another counselor called him. He’s the one looking for approval for everything he does. Emotional? Yes. I figure one of these days he’ll stand up for himself and start making decisions on his own before it is too late.
The kids were great. Bible class was a daily highlight. I was caught off guard with some of the questions.
It was one of the few times that I can be myself and feel comfortable, without necessarily feeling apprehensive about what people think of me or my family. If only I could keep this feeling bottled up for release when I need that extra boost of self confidence.
I made some new friends and said goodbye like I always do, only to return back home with no one to share common memories with. Am I limiting myself by only going with other churches to camp? Am I making the already existent rift with myself and my home congregation even larger?

Preaching

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I was asked to preach during the my church’s unofficial Memorial Day campout. I felt I did a good job preaching in front of 149 people. The audience was overwhelming positive toward me afterwards. I guess I may have surprised some people. I’m usually pretty quiet at church almost to the point of being anti-social.
Preaching takes alot out of me. I stressed that entire upcoming week trying to make sure I didn’t make a fool out of myself. Afterwards I finally felt like I could have fun for the remainder of the weekend.
At this point in my life I don’t think I could take on a regular preaching job. I’m sure preaching could get easier the more practice I put into it. Also I have more personal stressors in my life that would keep me from putting 100% of my efforts into caring for the lost.
Meanwhile I am preparing for the best week ever, or at least this year. Next week I’ll put in another week at Taylor Christian Camp – my 15th year. Camp has changed over the years – and not surprisingly I have changed. I still enjoy it tremendously, but it has turned into more work for myself, simply because I volunteer for more responsibility. “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love,” as our camp director has described it.
I put alot of thought into it, but worry less about it. I have a tendency to go with the flow rather than stress about all the potential problems or having to have things “just right,” such as having the weather just right, at least one baptism, etc.

There’s Only One Candidate

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I have been on 2 men’s church retreats during the past few weeks. During both of them the presidential election was spoken about ever so briefly. Without an blatent endorsement of a candidate, I found the statement of there being “only one” candidate which could be voted for.
The implication was that a good Christian knows which candidate he or she should vote for. And I’m still trying to figure out who that one candidate is. I’m inclined to believe it is McCain, as a matter of default, i.e. the lesser of three evils. Around here dedicated Christian are expected to vote for the conservative candidate on the list. The one who stands again abortion, homosexuality, and other social issues Christians are concerned about.
McCain sparked my interest in the 2000 Republican primary campaign because he was more moderate than the rest. But he has since said questionable statements. My fear is that we’d see a George W. Bush II in a McCain presidency.
My fear is that I’ll be made to feel guilty if I support the “wrong” candidate which doesn’t agree with Christian values. As much as churches should be tax exempt and shouldn’t endorse candidates, I’ve heard many a policital sermon, and seen plenty of Christian Coalition materials in church foyers around election time.

The Dream Scenerio

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There are two different dream scenerios which I am prone to have.
The first dream I’m back in school. Somewhere between high school or college or a hybrid of both. Much of time it is high school, probably because I spent more classroom time there.
Usually I’m trying to find a classroom. Unprepared for a test. Last night it was a little of both. After finally finding my class, I came in unprepared for an essay test which had a bearing on scholarship money for college. After a series of hurdles…can’t find my pencil….having writers block….I turned in a poor test essay.
They say that dreams of school, especially when you’ve been out of school for a very long time (10 years out of college for me), indicate that you feel you’re being evaluated in your personal or work life.
The second senerio has to do with church. Usually something outrageous or wrong is done or said in a public worship service (usually my home congregation). Usually nothing is said. And there I sit, expecting someone to say something…anything but no one does.
A couple of nights ago the dream was something entirely different. During a public prayer someone made reference to a rumor, which could have been considered slander. He was promptly escorted offstage.
I am not entirely clear on what these dreams at church mean, if anything. It may mean that I think something is wrong at church and I’m the only one who is concerned. Or the latter dream it could be that I’m concerned about doing something wrong for fear of spiritual retribution.

Lonely

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For all intensive purposes it was the loneliest night of my life. Friday I decided to drive up a day early for the annual cleanup day at camp. I somewhat expected others to be there. I arrived at 8pm to find the gate locked and no one else around.
Now it’s probably important to tell you that I’m used to living alone. I’ve been doing it for about 2 years now. And yet there are still street sounds and other sounds around to make me know that there are neighbors around.
This time, there was nothing. And somehow I was figuring there would be reinactment of Friday the 13th. I walked several hundred yards from the gate to the main cabin. Luckily it was open, with all the facilities, including a kitchen, shower and beds. It took two trips back to my car to get all of my stuff.
And the place was dark and abandoned. I now know that camp can seem so lonely and creepy without people around.
I wasn’t necessarily frightened, just somewhat apprehensive. I had heard stories about vagrants visiting the camp cabins in the off season to a temporary place to say. And yet, this camp has people up there all the time, seemingly. And I told myself that the gate was locked, so that no unauthorized people would hang around. Still, I’m not sure what I would done if I had encounters a visitor. Probably just ran. I had my cell phone on me. So at best I could find a weak signal while I was running away. 30 minutes for help to arrive. Yeah, I felt really safe.
I stayed in the basement with easy access to the nicer shower facilities across the hall. With only a David Shannon sermon mp3 on my thumbdrive playing on my laptop to keep me company, I settled down for the night. Each little drip or flow of water from the plumbing seemed to startle me.
I awoke at 5AM and decided to head on out to make a visit to the Lafayette Walmart. I figured the rest of the clean up crew would be arriving at around 7AM (many of whom I didn’t know). I thought it would probably be best to re-arrive after the gate was open, rather than try and explain myself to folks who might not know me. I did have permission to stay up there, I just wasn’t trying to have the appearance of doing something wrong.
Even the drive to Lafayette was unusual. In the twilight of dawn, it was still dark enough to make it necessary to use my headlights. And I did get lost, going instead toward Tompkinsville, instead of Lafayette (about 30 minutes out of my way).
If anything it showed me where the life of camp really was. This place, as great of a place it can be at times, is nothing without residents. It is people who bring life to the camp.

Confronting Culture

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Perhaps I’ve grown a bit more tolerant on social issues in old age. I find myself not getting as upset as my fellow Christians. Maybe I’ve become jaded or just not necessarily worrying about things that don’t affect me directly.
Today I attended a seminar meant for church teachers of youth. “How we respond culture” was the theme. Abortion, homosexuality, negative influences in the media were all discussed. The first two have been discussed at length during sermons and Bible classes at church. The third one, especially in the aspect of the internet, not so much.
Parents and Bible class teachers may not know how to respond to the internet in response to their student’s/child’s surfing habits. The problem much of the time is the teen is much more computer savy compared to the adults trying to police it. Teens find ways around the filters and monitoring.
Parents seem to have their hands tied and are unable or unwilling to learn more about their child’s internet habits and therefore fail to do anything about it.
Time and time again I’ve run across a church member’s MySpace page which doesn’t reflect the persona they try to reflect on Sunday mornings. It’s gotten to the point that nothing shocks me anymore. What is discouraging to me is that no one seems sincere about their Christianity anymore. It’s more a projection they want to portray to their parents/youth ministers/elders. And it doesn’t seem to me that anyone is willing to do anything about it.