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Malibu Presbyterian Church Update
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, October 26, 2007
On Monday I asked for prayer for Malibu Presbyterian Church because their building had been destroyed in one of the Southern California fires. Today I want to update you on what’s been happening with this church.
First, the Los Angeles Times ran a wonderful story on Malibu Presbyterian, including the picture to the right, which shows a communion chalice discovered in the ruins of the sanctuary. (This photo was scanned and sent to me by a friend. I can’t find it online. Too bad. It’s a great picture taken by Ken Hively of the LA Times.)
The Times article mentioned that on the night before the fire, Pastor Greg Hughes and his congregation had pledged a half million dollars to an inner-city teen center. They plan to honor this commitment, even as they now have to raise lots of money to rebuild their church campus. What a fine example of faith and faithfulness!
Pastor Greg also wrote an open letter that appears on the front page of the church website. It’s a fine letter, and I encourage you to read it. Here is an excerpt:
Our church remains a vibrant community of faith, alive and well in the Spirit and grace of our God. We cherish our resurrection faith. We believe that in the midst of darkness, God brings forth hope and salvation through Jesus Christ. The Lord will make something beautiful out of the ruins and ashes of our church building. I believe we will mature and grow stronger as a result of this challenge.
Amen to that. Way to go, Greg!
Let’s continue to pray for this fine church as it faces many challenging days ahead. By the way, if you live anywhere near Malibu, the church continues to meet for worship and fellowship. Check out their website for the details.
Topics: Prayer Requests | 4 Comments »
Laity Lodge: Faith, Psychology, Art, and My Wife
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, October 25, 2007
Part 12 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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With this post I want to begin to explain why I believed (and still do believe!) that God was calling me to Laity Lodge. From here on I’m planning to provide, not a chronological description of my discernment process, but a rationale. I want to lay out some of the reasons for this move.
In my last post I mentioned that Laity Lodge was an exciting opportunity for me and my family. Yes, my family would experience the sadness of leaving friends and family behind. And they would not have the immediate benefits I would experience as I began to work for Laity Lodge. But I believed that there were good things for my family if we were to make this move, especially for my wife, Linda.
For one thing, I was convinced that Laity Lodge would be an ideal place, not only for me to use my gifts for God’s kingdom, but also for my wife, Linda, to do the same. This was a crucial part of my decision-making process, as well as in Linda’s. In California, she had many opportunities both for professional fulfillment as a Marriage and Family Therapist and for doing various kinds of ministry (retreat speaking, spiritual direction, mentoring, integration of faith and art, etc.). If I was going to make a move, my new situation had to be right for Linda as well. For me, this was a matter of our stewardship of our gifts, not just mine of mine.
Ever since our first visit to Laity Lodge, Linda had loved that ministry. Its sense of peace, prayerfulness, beauty, and freedom touched her heart. In fact, Linda attended a women’s retreat at Laity Lodge in 2005, where she had a transformational experience of God’s grace. In particular, the speaker for that retreat, Marjory Bankson, helped Linda feel confident in her calling as a minister of Christ. (In a sweet bit of divine providence, next summer Linda will speak at a Laity Lodge women’s retreat, along with Marjory.)
Laity Lodge also offered Linda an unusual opportunity to develop her unusual combination of gifts and interests. She is, as I already mentioned, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has worked for years on the integration of faith and psychology. Laity Lodge has a long history of drawing together evangelical faith and an openness to insights from psychology. In fact, in many of the first retreats at Laity Lodge, Bible teachers were teamed up with Christian psychologists to provide a broad perspective on Christian wholeness.
Laity Lodge provides a safe place for people to share their spiritual journeys without having to pretend that they’re perfect Christians. The willingness of key leaders of Laity Lodge, most of all its founder, Howard Butt Jr., to share their struggles has given permission to others to do the same. The result has been authentic growth in faith and in personal and relational wholeness. Linda, more than anybody I know, is willing to be open and honest about what’s real in her life, even as she encourages others to do the same. Thus she fits Laity Lodge to a ‘T.’
My wife is also an artist, with a special love for watercolor painting. (If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember Linda’s marvelous paintings of the Stations of the Cross.) She has also used art in her teaching in churches and retreats. Experiencing art, she believes, can help people grow in their relationship with God.
So then there’s Laity Lodge, which, more than any similar ministry I’ve ever known, values art and its relationship to faith. For years Laity Lodge retreats have included fine artists who both share their work and help retreatants to venture into new artistic expressions. These experiences have often been transformational for people as they discover new areas of giftedness and grace. Several years ago Laity Lodge built the Cody Center in honor of one of its beloved former directors, Bill Cody. The Cody Center includes a fantastic building for concerts and art shows, as well as two studios where retreat goers can try their hand at a variety of artistic efforts. (The picture to the right shows part of the Cody Center through the trees. In the background you can see the roof of the main building. To the right is one of the art studios.)
I could keep on going here, since Laity Lodge also provides a venue for Linda to teach, to co-host retreats, to meet with individuals as they seek God’s direction for their lives, and so on. You can surely see why I came to believe that a move to Laity Lodge offered wonderful possibilities, not only for me, but also for Linda.
In my next post I’ll explain further why I’m convinced that Laity Lodge provides an opportune context for me to be an effective steward of the gifts God has given me.
Topics: Why Move? | 4 Comments »
Why Laity Lodge? Tying Up Some Loose Ends
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Part 12 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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Earlier in this series, before pausing to reflect on the enigmatic will of God, I was chronicling the process that led me to leave Irvine Presbyterian Church and join the staff of Laity Lodge. I won’t continue to give you the play by play of that whole process, which began in February 2007 and culminated on July 23, 2007, when my wife and I, with the support of our children, said “Yes” to Laity Lodge. Suffice it to say that Linda and I spent much of those five and a half months in conversations: with leaders from Laity Lodge, with close friends and family, with other wise counselors, with each other, with our children, and with God. As I’ve confessed before, there were plenty of sleepless nights for me as I wrestled with my fears and with the Lord. I didn’t begin to feel a sense of peace about the decision to move to Laity Lodge until shortly before we made it.
Since that watershed moment, I haven’t questioned the rightness of our decision, though I’ve sometimes felt overwhelmed by its implications. Moving one’s entire life, ministry, and family from California to Texas has been a staggering task, and it won’t be close to over until we sell our house in California and settle into a new home in Texas. (Anybody need a great house in Irvine?) Even then, of course, we’ll still be dealing with the emotional and spiritual dislocation inherent in such a move. For example, for the first time in our lives, we’re church shopping. Yikes!
At this point in my Why Move? series I want to shift gears from a more or less a chronological sequence to a more or less logical one (logical to me, at least). I want to explain as clearly as I can why I believe that it was right to join the staff of Laity Lodge and, therefore, to move my family to Texas.
But before I get to the logical stuff, I want to tie up a couple of loose ends I have left dangling. First, if you’ve been reading along, you know that my openness to Laity Lodge began with a phone call from Paul, a gracious man on a pastor search committee for a Presbyterian church on the east coast. I mentioned that Paul and I agreed to talk again, but then left the story right there. So what happened with that church?
Paul and I did indeed have that conversation, then a phone interview that included several other members of his committee, then a face-to-face interview with these same folk. At the end of that interview, I told Linda that these were fantastic people from an outstanding church. They had an exciting vision and were the kind of people I’d like to share life and ministry with . . . just like the folks at my own church! Though the east coast church was much larger than Irvine Presbyterian Church, and thus offered new challenges and opportunities, I didn’t sense that this was where God was leading me. So I conveyed this to Paul, who was gracious, as always. Not too long thereafter his church called a marvelous new pastor.
The other loose end concerns my conversation with the elders at Irvine Presbyterian Church. As I noted above, we were engaged in a discussion about whether my sense of calling, which involved more writing and more expansive leadership, could be fulfilled by reworking my job description as the church’s senior pastor. The elders, though personally supportive of me, were also concerned about what was best for the church, as they should have been. This was, after all, their primary responsibility. The elders and I didn’t rush to any conclusions. In fact, when I told them early August that I was going to Laity Lodge, our conversation was still moving forward. By that time it was clear to me that God wanted me at Laity Lodge, no matter what might be worked out at Irvine Pres. The elders received my news kindly and supportively. Nobody chewed me out and said, “So why’d you make us go through this darned process with you?” In fact, as I had said to them along the way, our conversation turned out to be more about the next pastor than about me. At any rate, Laity Lodge was not some escape hatch out of Irvine Presbyterian Church, but an exciting opportunity to which God was calling me and my family.
So, now that I’ve tied up those loose ends, I’m prepared to explain why I chose to join the Laity Lodge team. I could make it simple and say that I did what I believed God wanted me to do. That’s true. But I want to explain further why I believed this. And so I will in my next post.
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One Reason Why God’s Will is Enigmatic
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Part 11 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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In February 2007, I believed I had discerned part of God’s will for me. I knew I was to use well the gifts He had given me for the sake of His kingdom. I believed this would involve some changes in my professional life, so that I could devote more of my time to writing and leadership and less of my time to some of the administrative tasks that are required of many pastors. I also felt sure that God wanted me to be open to Him in a new way, and this way included letting go of the “wineskins” of my ministry at Irvine Presbyterian Church. I still had high hopes that the “wineskins” of my job description at church could be renewed so that I might stay there as pastor. But by late February I was willing as never before to admit that God might have other plans for my life. Willing, yes. Eager, hardly. I loved my church family. And I loved how much my own family felt at home in Irvine Presbyterian Church.
The process of discerning the enigmatic will of God for my vocational life was, as I’ve mentioned previously in this series, a difficult one. It took five months for my wife and me to move from a place of miniscule openness to Laity Lodge to the conviction that this was where we should invest our lives. I wish I could tell you that I spent these five months in faithful, peaceful, trusting prayer. There were some moments like that. But I must confess that a good chunk of those five months was filled with too much worry and too many sleepless nights. When I thought about leaving Irvine and moving to Texas, I did feel considerable excitement about Laity Lodge and its manifold ministries. But counterbalancing that excitement was lots of fear: fear about what life would be like so far from the home my family and I had known for sixteen years, fear about leaving a parish ministry, fear about taking my children away from great friends and a fantastic youth group, etc. etc. Time and again I offered those fears to the Lord, and slowly, very slowly, I began to sense His peace.
One can speculate about why it too so long for my wife and me, with thoughtful input from our children, to decide to move to Texas and join the Laity Lodge team. It’s possible that God had made His will clear all along, and that we were unwilling to see it. It’s also possible that God wasn’t rushing us along because He was interested in more than simply getting us to do what He wanted. I wouldn’t be surprised if both options were true, to an extent. I am sure my own resistance to God’s will made it hard for me to discover it. Yet I am also convinced that God was taking time to with us because He was concerned, not just to get us to Laity Lodge, but also to help us grow as His disciples in the process.
For me, the greatest growth came in my willingness to trust God. You might think that because I have trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior for over forty years, and because I have been a pastor for almost twenty years, I might have worked out my trust issues before. In some ways and some contexts I had done this. But my relationship with God has always involved ongoing growth in trust as I give over to the Lord more and more of myself and my life. From February 2007 until late July, when Linda and I decided to move to Texas, I had to surrender even more of myself than I ever had before.
Ironically, or perhaps providentially, one of the most significant factors in my learning to trust God more was a book called Who Can You Trust? Though it dealt as much with trust in human relationships as with trust in our relationship with God, this book challenged and encouraged me to rely upon God in a new way. Now the ironic or providential part of this story is the fact that this book was written by Howard E. Butt, Jr., the founder of Laity Lodge. His wisdom and openness helped me to trust the Lord in new ways, which in turn helped me to give up the security of my life in Irvine and move to Texas to join the team at Laity Lodge. I’m quite positive that Howard Butt didn’t write Who Can You Trust? as a staff recruiting tool for Laity Lodge. But, in a strange way, that’s exactly what it became in my life. More importantly, it helped me to deeper with the Lord. Sometimes God’s ways are both enigmatic and delightful.
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A Request for Prayer
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, October 22, 2007
I want to interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging to put up a request for prayer. No doubt many of my readers have seen the stories related to the fires in Southern California. You may even have noted that Malibu Presbyterian Church burned to the ground in the still-out-of-control fire in that seaside city. This is sad news, indeed.
The remains of the sanctuary of Malibu Presbyterian Church
I have known Malibu Pres over the years. It has always been a vital, Christ-centered community. This church has a heart for mission, especially outreach to the nearby campus of Pepperdine University. The current pastor, Greg Hughes, is a friend and a faithful, godly man. My heart is heavy for Greg and his flock today. It must be a devastating experience to watch your church buildings burn to the ground.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Greg explained that he rushed to the church at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning when he recieved a call telling of fire near the church. At first he and his colleagues hurried to remove valuable items from the buildings, but then they were forced to evacuate. Greg watched the church campus burn on television. (Another photo of the sanctuary on fire. For the news clip from which I took this still photo, click here.)
What does one say at a moment like this? Here’s Greg’s conclusion: “We didn’t lose any members. We only lost a building. We’re going to regroup. We believe God will make something beautiful out of ashes.”
Many headlines read “Malibu Church Destroyed.” That’s true with respect to the building. But the real church, the people of Malibu Presbyterian Church, were not physically hurt. They are still a strong congregation. Of course they now face major challenges. But the church survives because the church is people, not buildings.
Please join me in praying for Malibu Presbyterian Church and for its fine pastor, Greg Hughes. Let’s add prayers for others in the Malibu area who have lost homes in the fire, and for firefighers throughout Southern California who are putting their lives on the line this very moment.
Added: The Children’s and Family Ministries Director of Malibu Pres has a blog, with some pictures and open-hearted commentary. Thanks, Kristi, for sharing this with us. .
Topics: Prayer Requests | 4 Comments »
Inspiration from the Pray the Psalms
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, October 21, 2007
Excerpt
Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Psalm 111:1
Click here to read all of Psalm 111
Prayer
How I wish to thank You with my whole heart, Lord, with all that I am, unreservedly, unashamedly, without hesitation or qualification. By Your Spirit, help me to do this, for I am prone to distraction, to half-baked gratitude, to guarded praise. Unify my heart, Lord, in thanksgiving before You. May I pour out all that is within me, and may it all be to Your glory.
And then, Lord, may I share my thanks with others, so that they might join me in honoring You, so that You might get the credit You deserve for the good things You have done for me, and so that I might model for others a life of gratitude.
Help Your church, dear Lord, to be a place of genuine, wholehearted, consistent gratitude. May we hold up Your grace for one another, that we might celebrate Your works together.
Postscript
John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 111:1
He very properly begins with heart-praise, because it is much better to praise in secret, and when no one is conscious of it, than to lift up our voice, and shout forth his praises with feigned lips. At the same time, the person who, in secret, pours out his heart in grateful emotions towards God, will also set forth his praises in swelling strains, otherwise God would be deprived of one half of the honor which is due to him. The prophet then determines to praise God with the whole heart, that is, with an upright and honest heart; not that he engages to come up to the full measure of his duty, but he declares that he would not be like the hypocrites, who, coldly and with a double heart, or rather guilefully and perfidiously, employ their lips only in the praises of God. This is a point worthy of notice, lest any should be discouraged, in consequence of not being able to cherish the hope of attaining to that perfection of heart which is so desirable; for however defective our praises may be, they may nevertheless be acceptable to God, provided only we strive unfeignedly to render unto him this act of devotion.
Children worshiping at Vacation Bible School, Irvine Presbyterian Church.
Talk about wholehearted praise!
Pray the Psalms is one of my two devotional websites. The other is Pray the Gospels. Both sites include a daily Bible reading from either the Psalms or the Gospels, along with a prayer and some additional thoughts or questions for reflection.
Topics: Sunday Inspiration | No Comments »
You Know You’re in Texas When . . .
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, October 20, 2007
Never saw this in California . . .
Topics: Texas, Only in Texas | 3 Comments »
The Enigmatic Will of God
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, October 19, 2007
Part 10 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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In February 2007 I found myself in a place I had never been before. My quest to discern how best to steward my gifts for the sake of God’s kingdom, combined with the impact of my sermon on Jesus’s parable of new wine and wineskins, had led me to a place of unprecedented and uncomfortable openness before God. My firmly held conviction that I would remain as the pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church for many years had to be surrendered to God as I sought His will for my vocational future.
The Will of God
God’s will. Now there’s a complicated subject, one I’m not going to get into right now, at least not in any detail. There’s a legitimate debate among Christians about whether God’s will for us is specific and pre-determined, as in “God wants me to serve Him in this particular place”, or whether God gives us a fair amount of latitude to make choices that honor Him, as in “God isn’t so concerned about where I serve Him as He is about how I serve Him wherever I am.” As a Christian with Reformed theological leanings, I tend to believe that God does have a specific will for us, but that He is graciously willing to work with our choices, even when we make the wrong ones. I do not believe that God has one perfect will for our lives, which, if ever we miss it, necessarily dooms us to a second-class life. God’s wisdom and grace make room for lots of failure on our part, thank God!
Much of what God wills for us is exceedingly clear and requires relatively little discernment, except in the question of application. There is no doubt, for example, that I should love my neighbor. The only questions concern how and where and when and whom. After all, I can’t love all of my neighbors since there are, in the words of the classic bumper sticker, “Too many neighbors, too little time.” If you go through Scripture and compile the clear commands of the Lord for us, you’ve got plenty of God’s will for your life. Unfortunately, discussions of God’s will often forget this part, choosing to focus only on the specific questions like, “Which neighbor does God want me to love?”
I do believe that God has a more specific will for us, much as He did for Abram, David, Isaiah, and Paul, to name just a few. In Genesis 12, God didn’t say to Abram, “Get up and go wherever you like.” Rather, He said, “Go to the (specific) land that I will show you.” It’s clear that God had a particular place in mind for Abram. Similarly, there are times in our lives when God answers the “Where are the neighbors I should love?” question in quite detailed and particular ways. I am fully convinced, for example, that in 1991 God was calling me to Irvine, California as the focus of my pastoral ministry. My neighbors to love lived in that city at that time.
Even if God has a very specific will for our lives, this doesn’t mean we necessarily know exactly what His will is. God told Abram to leave everything that was familiar to him and to go “to the land that I will show you” (12:1). Part of God’s will was very clear: Go! But the rest was still hidden: To the land I will show you. For Abram, faith translated into trustful obedience, even though he didn’t know where it would lead him.
The Enigmatic Will of the Enigmatic God
Often God’s will is enigmatic. This has everything to do with the fact that God is enigmatic. According to 1 Corinthians 13:12,
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (NRSV)
If you were to read this verse in the original Greek, you’d find something a little surprising. It reads, “For now we see through a mirror in a riddle, but then face to face.” The Greek word translated as riddle is ainigma, which literally means “riddle.” Ainigma is the basis for our words “enigma” and “enigmatic.” God’s will for us is often enigmatic, revealed in riddles, even as God Himself is enigmatic this side of the age to come. (Speaking of riddles, Jim Carrey made a decent Riddler in Batman Forever, but I still prefer the classic Riddler of Frank Gorshin in the Batman television series.)
Sometimes Christians, especially Christians in the evangelical tradition in which I find a theological home, get nervous when somebody suggests that God is enigmatic. They quickly point to Christ and Scripture as clear and sufficient revelations of God. I would agree that there is a sense in which God’s revelation through the Word Incarnate and the Word inscribed is both clear and sufficient. Children can come to know God through Scripture, and none of us needs to look elsewhere.
Yet, at the same time, I would remind those who embrace Scripture as the inspired Word of God that it speaks of the fact that God exceeds our understanding. “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” said the Lord through Isaiah (55:8). “Now we see through a mirror in a riddle,” added Paul (1 Cor 13:12), who wrapped up the theological discussion in Romans with this exclamation: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (12:33). God has given us all we need in Jesus Christ and in Scripture. But this does not mean that God, including God’s will, is always clear. Sometimes it is, by God’s design, enigmatic.
In my next post I’ll suggest one reason God doesn’t make everything about His will crystal clear.
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GodblogCon – Now is the Time!
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, October 18, 2007
If you’re considering attending GodblogCon next month, now is the time sign up. On Friday the price goes up quite a bit, so get in your sign up now! With your registration, you also get a pass to BlogWorld and New Media Expo. Hope to see you there!
Topics: Recommendations | 4 Comments »
Why Laity Lodge? (continued)
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, October 18, 2007
Part 9 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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In my last post I was telling the story of my first visit to Laity Lodge, the retreat center in the Hill Country of Texas that I had heard so much about when I was a boy. As I mentioned before, on the way to Laity Lodge, which lies twelve miles north of the tiny Texas town or Leakey, and about a hundred miles west of San Antonio, I was struck by the surprising beauty of the Hill Country, a far cry from the Panhandle Plains I had mistakenly thought represented all of Texas geography.
My First Visit to Laity Lodge
Once we turned off the highway onto the Howard E. Butt Foundation property, we descended into a canyon, and soon approached a lazily flowing river. The sign pointing toward Laity Lodge included a surprising direction: “Yes! You drive in the river.” Our host, my friend Dave Williamson, did as the sign said, and turned left into the Frio River. The river, which was only a few inches deep, provided a handy “road” on which we drove for a couple hundred yards.
Leaving the river, we entered the grounds Laity Lodge itself. I was captivated by its quiet beauty. I’d been to dozens of retreat centers in my life, yet I couldn’t remember one that radiated peacefulness in the way of Laity Lodge. Soon my wife and I were sitting on a balcony outside of our room, enjoying the calming beauty of the Frio River (as seen in the photo to the right).
Our weekend at Laity Lodge was delightful. The grounds, as I’ve mentioned, were inspiring. The food was delicious and plentiful. The Lodge staff was unusually hospitable. My sense of Laity Lodge’s uniqueness was compounded when, in his welcome to the retreatants, Dave explained that they were free to attend all sessions and activities . . . or not. “If you need a nap,” Dave said, “take a nap. If you want to go on a hike, go on a hike. We believe God has an agenda for you, but at Laity Lodge, we don’t have an agenda for you.” Even though I was the speaker, the one whose messages Dave was inviting people to miss if they wanted to, I loved the feeling of grace and freedom he conveyed. Laity Lodge was truly and gloriously unique.
A Providential Visit in 2007
Since my inaugural voyage in the Frio River in 2001, I returned to Laity Lodge as a speaker again in 2003. My wife, Linda, was so appreciative of the retreat center that she attended a retreat there in 2005. Both of us deeply valued the ministry of Laity Lodge, and looked forward to future visits. Neither of us, however, ever imagined that we might end up working in this ministry on a full-time basis. But when Dave asked me to speak for a retreat there in 2007, we were glad to be returning to Laity Lodge.
In God’s amazing providence, that retreat occurred on February 16-18, 2007, the week after I delivered my “wineskins” sermon. Given my new conviction that I needed to be open to the possibility that God had something for me beyond being the pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church, and given Laity Lodge’s previous interest in me, I wondered what my new openness to God meant in this situation. I knew that Laity Lodge had hired a marvelous new Director, but was still seeking an Executive Director. I decided that I would not bring up the issue of their search, since I was not seeking a new job and didn’t want to misrepresent my intentions. But if Dave were to bring up the issue, then I’d be honest about what had been going on in my life.
The Ball Begins to Roll
Indeed, Dave did bring it up, though in a light-hearted manner because he respected my previous wishes. “So, Mark,” he said with a sly smile, “are you ready to come work for us as the Executive Director?” I told him I didn’t have a quick answer to that question anymore. Thus we began an extensive conversation. I told Dave where I was in my life. I shared my question of how best to be a steward of my gifts and let him know what had been going on in my life because of my recent sermon on wineskins. I told Dave, much as I had told Paul, the man from the East Coast church, that I wasn’t looking for a job, and that I couldn’t imagine moving my family away from Irvine. Yet I added that I knew I needed to be more open to God than I had ever been before. “If your people want to talk with me on this basis,” I concluded, “then I’ll talk to them. But I don’t want to mislead anyone about where I am in this process.” Dave said he’d share what I had told him with the people involved in the Executive Director job search.
A few days later I heard from Laura, the person overseeing Laity Lodge’s search. She said she would indeed like to talk with me. And so began a process that I had never sought or wanted, and that led to a place I had never imagined. I didn’t get to that place quickly or easily, however. The process was a long and often painful one. Indeed, the decision about whether to join the staff of Laity Lodge was the hardest one of my life, and the hardest one my wife and I have ever made together.
In my next post I’ll say more about that process, and how it relates to the enigmatic will of God.
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Why Laity Lodge?
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Part 8 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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In my last post I told the story of how my sermon on new wine and wineskins confronted me with a choice: either be open to the possibility that God had new wineskins for my life, or be a hypocrite. Since I’m generally allergic to hypocrisy, I chose to be open to changes in my life that I had previously rejected. Specifically, I agreed to have a second conversation with a man named Paul, who served on a pastor search committee of a church on the East Coast. In sixteen years as the pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church, I had never before engaged in such a conversation with another church. But, as I discussed this with my wife, I said, mostly in jest, “Well, maybe this conversation with Paul is God’s way of getting us to Laity Lodge.”
That turned out to be an ironic statement, of course. I had known for over a year that Laity Lodge was looking for a Director and an Executive Director. As I mentioned earlier in this series, they had sent me an attractive information packet, and had made an effort to contact me through Laura, their executive search consultant. Moreover, one of my best friends, who had spoken with Laura, had strongly encouraged me to consider a position at Laity Lodge. “This is perfect for you,” he told me. Nevertheless, I rejected his counsel and I dodged all conversations with Laura. I didn’t want to complicate my life with thoughts of Laity Lodge.
But there was a part of me that felt drawn to this place in Texas, a part I managed to suppress for over a year. My attraction to Laity Lodge requires some explanation, because most Californians have never heard of Laity Lodge, let alone feel some desire to work there. But I had, in fact, heard of Laity Lodge for most of my life.
Early Visions of Laity Lodge
It all began in the 1960s when I was growing up in Glendale, California. My uncle, Don Williams, was a pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. Somehow he became connected with Howard E. Butt, Jr., a groceryman from Texas who, as a layperson, had a powerful ministry of preaching and a passion for lay ministry (the ministry of all of God’s people in the church and the world). In 1961 Howard Butt founded Laity Lodge along the Frio River in the Hill Country of Texas. Not long afterward my uncle began speaking there and at other venues where he teamed up with Howard Butt.
When I was in elementary school, I heard stories from my uncle about Laity Lodge and its marvelous ministry. I never saw pictures of the retreat center, however, so I imagined that it looked like the only parts of Texas I had ever seen: the dusty, hot plains of the Panhandle. Frankly, I couldn’t quite figure out why anybody would want to build a retreat center there. (The photo to the right is not the location of Laity Lodge, but it is rather like what I once envisioned. The reality is immeasurably better.)
Howard Butt Impacts My Life
One time when my uncle spoke at Laity Lodge, he invited his parents to a retreat there. They were both quite involved in their church, though my grandfather had never accepted Christ in a personal way. Christianity was, for him, simply part of a disciplined, decent life. While at Laity Lodge, my grandfather heard Howard Butt preach. When he ended his message with an invitation for people to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, my grandfather did so. Hearing him tell this story gave me huge appreciation for Laity Lodge and for Howard Butt in particular. He had helped one of the people I loved most in the world become a Christian, and for this I was (and still am) profoundly grateful.
On one of my uncle’s speaking trips to Laity Lodge, Howard Butt asked if he might listen to cassette tapes of my uncle’s teaching. My uncle replied that he didn’t have any tapes or any way to make them. This inspired Howard to help my uncle get the equipment he needed to produce cassettes of his messages. While I was in high school and college, I worked for the little ministry spawned by this effort, which further increased my appreciation for Howard Butt, a man I never expected to meet in order to say “Thank you for helping to put me through college.”
Laity Lodge Once Again
I didn’t hear much about Laity Lodge for the next twenty years, until a friend of mine, Dave Williamson, became a Director there in 1999. Dave had been one of the pastors at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, where we met and became friends, even though we never worked on staff together. I was surprised when Dave announced his move to Laity Lodge, partly because I wondered how a Minnesotan transplant to California had ever even heard of the place.
Not long after Dave began at Laity Lodge, he invited me to speak at a retreat there. I was pleased, not only to teach the Bible to a fine group of Presbyterians from Texas, but also to see Laity Lodge at last. My wife joined me there for a retreat in 2001.
On the way to Laity Lodge from the San Antonio airport, I was surprised by how many trees filled the landscape. This wasn’t the Texas Panhandle kind of scenery I had for so long imagined. Though I teased Dave about the smallness of the “hills” in the Hill Country (remember, I’m a California boy), I was impressed by the beauty of this part of Texas.
Yet none of what I saw on the way to Laity Lodge quite prepared me for my first experience of Laity Lodge itself. I’ll pick up the story in my next post.
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The Problems of Wineskins (continued)
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Part 7 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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As I explained yesterday, on Thursday, February 8, 2007, I wrote a sermon based Jesus’s parable of the new wine and wineskins (Luke 5:37-38). In this sermon I passionately warned my flock at Irvine Presbyterian Church about the dangers of “Oldwineskinitis.” I called them to a daring openness to the new wine of the gospel. I had so much to say in that sermon that I included some of what I had written in a Pastor’s Letter, where I called individuals to “to surrender to the Lord all of your wineskins and to ask for the filling of new wine.”
As I finished writing that sermon, I felt strangely moved. It was as if the word I had just written was much more than my best insights into Scripture. I felt as if what I was about to say to my congregation was like a word of prophecy, a clear and direct word from God to my people. I remember praying with particular fervor that God would give us ears to hear what He wanted to say to us. Yet I had no idea how God would answer that prayer in my own life.
On Friday, February 9, I received a phone call from a man who was on the pastor search committee for a church on the East Coast. This was the same church that, a month earlier, had expressed an interest in me as a candidate for their pastor. At that time I had declined to pursue a conversation with them. The man on the phone, Paul, wanted to give it another try. He explained why they were interested in me and why their church might be a good place for me to pastor. At the end of his presentation, he asked, “Would you be willing to think and pray about this? And then could we have one more phone conversation?”
In January it had been easy for me to say “no” to this church. But that was before I had written a passionate sermon on wine and wineskins. How could I turn down Paul’s invitation when I was going to stand up in a few hours and call my people to a bold openness to the new wine of Christ? How could I cling to my favorite wineskin – my pastoral role at Irvine Presbyterian Church – and preach against “Oldwineskinitis”? I realized that I had to say “yes” to Paul or be a hypocrite who had no right to preach.
I told Paul that I wasn’t looking for a new job, that I didn’t want to leave Irvine Pres, and that I couldn’t imagine moving my family away from Irvine. So I wasn’t sure that he wanted to waste time on me. But, I explained, I felt that I needed to be open to the Lord in a new way. “If that’s enough for you,” I said, “then we can have another conversation.” That was enough, so we planned to talk in a couple of weeks. (Photos below: my former office at Irvine Presbyterian Church, where I talked with Paul on the phone. I had a great office, thanks to our architect and a fantastic building committee. The next pastor will be truly blessed.)
What extraordinary timing! Here I was going to preach on being open to new wine and new wineskins and I was having to deal with the very thing I was going to preach. This couldn’t be just a coincidence. It must be God at work.
Now you might think I was thrilled to know that God was busy in my life, helping me to work through a passage on which I was to preach. Were I a godlier person, I expect that might have been true. But, to be honest, I was bugged. I felt as if God had sneaked up on me and cornered me. If Paul had called on Wednesday rather than Sunday, I would have found it easy to decline his offer, and that would be that. But, because of that doggone wineskins sermon I had written, I now had to be open to the potential new wineskins in my life, and I wasn’t happy about that one bit. It made my life much messier and much scarier.
Before I get a hundred e-mails rebuking me for my terrible theology, please understand that I’m not making doctrinal statements here, but personal confessions. I do believe that God’s will is always the best. And I do believe that new wineskins are best, even if they’re frighteningly unfamiliar. But I often find that my thoughts and feelings don’t catch up with my theological convictions right away. They’re generally on the slow track of discipleship. This is a track I’m committed to going down, however, and so I did.
When I got home on Friday evening, I told my wife what had happened earlier that day. I related my phone call with Paul, and my sense that God had cornered me, so that I had to be open to another conversation with him unless I were to travel the unacceptable route of hypocrisy. Linda was impressed by what seemed to be God’s unusual timing, but not altogether happy about the idea that our lives might change in some unexpected way. She loved our life in Irvine, and couldn’t imagine ever moving our family away, at least for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, Linda agreed that I needed to have another conversation with Paul. Like me, she gives God the first place in her life, even when it’s scary.
At the end of my discussion with Linda, as I was walking out of the room, I turned to her and said something I meant mostly as a joke: “Well, maybe this conversation with Paul is God’s way of getting us to Laity Lodge.” Maybe? Indeed!
In my next post I’ll explain further why I mentioned Laity Lodge at all, even in jest.
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The Problem of Wineskins
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, October 15, 2007
Part 6 of series: Why Move? Stewardship, Wineskins, and the Enigmatic Will of God
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When I was in college, The Problem of Wineskins by Howard Snyder stirred up lots of controversy. Snyder had the gall to suggest that many common church structures did not adequately contain the new wine of the gospel, and must change. Church folk tended to be unhappy with this book, while collegians like me loved The Problem of Wineskins.
Early in 2007 I had my own, personal problem of wineskins, but it didn’t have to do so much with the church as with my own discipleship. If you’re just now joining this series, let me say that in 2006 I was trying to discern with greater clarity how best to use my gifts for the work of God’s kingdom. I thought this would happen in the context of my being the pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church, where I had served for over fifteen years, and where I had hoped to minister for many more years to come.
Early in January of 2007 I received an impressive packet of information from a leading Presbyterian church on the East Coast. They were looking for a new senior pastor, and asked if I would be a candidate for the position. I scanned their material for a couple of minutes and noted that they were a fine, evangelical church. But I quickly sent a note declining their interest. Leaving Irvine Pres to become pastor of another church, even a larger and more influential one, simply wasn’t something I seriously considered doing.
Meanwhile, I was working my way through the Gospel of Luke in my weekly preaching. The second week in February brought me to Luke 5:37-38, a passage about new wine and old wineskins:
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
On Thursday, February 8, I wrote the sermon called, simply, “New Wine.” In this sermon I warned folks about the fatal disease of “Oldwineskinitis,” what which kills churches and debilitates disciples. Echoing the insights I had once learned from Howard Snyder, I called our church to a costly, scary openness to the new wine of Christ and the new wineskins required to contain that new wine. Here’s how I ended that sermon:
Some of you might now be thinking: “Wow, pastor, you’ve stepped on enough toes here today for a year’s worth of preaching. Keep doing this, and you’ll be looking for a new job!”
Indeed, I may. I hope not, of course. But let me be very clear about something: I’m not the wine; I’m just a wineskin of this church. And if there ever comes a time when I’m not the best person to help contain and communicate the new wine of the gospel here, then new pastoral wineskins are needed.
If this sermon leaves you a bit unsettled today, remember that Jesus has been unsettling people for almost 2,000 years. I don’t know how we can honestly and faithfully hear Jesus talk about wine and wineskins without being unsettled. Yet if we offer our unsettledness to the Lord, if we invite Him to be sovereign over our lives and over our church, if we open our hearts to Him, then He’ll pour His new wine into us, the new wine of salvation, the new wine of the kingdom.
And this, my friends, is the point. The new wine is the point. The good news of Jesus Christ is the point. The truth of God’s Word is the point. Loving God, each other, and our neighbors is the point. Changing lives is the point. Making disciples is the point. Restoring God’s creation is the point. The new wine is the point. Everything else is wineskins.
Amen.
In my excitement over the implications of Christ’s new wine, I wrote more than could be contained in a single sermon. So I took the personal implications of this parable and put them in one of my Pastor’s Letters. Here’s an excerpt from that letter, composed on February 8, edited and mailed on February 12:
In a larger sense, our lives are wineskins for the new wine of Christ. This means that we need to let the new wine renew and transform, not just the obviously religious parts of life, but everything. We need to ask the Lord: How can my work be an effective wineskin for Your new wine? And my marriage? And my family? And my finances? And my professional goals? Etc. etc. etc.
I confessed in Sunday’s sermon that I am by nature a conservative “old winer.” That’s true for my personal life as well as my church preferences. I tend to hold on tenaciously to my favorite wineskins, including those that may have outlived their usefulness. Thus I am challenged to surrender my life to the Lord, to offer to Him all that I am. I realize that doing this is risky, because God may just have plans for me that require new wineskins. In principle I know that God’s plans are always the best. But in practice I’m more comfortable with what’s predictable and familiar. So I find Jesus’s talk of new wine and wineskins to be personally challenging and unsettling. . . .
Your challenge is the same as mine: to surrender to the Lord all of your wineskins and to ask for the filling of new wine. If you do this honestly, I’m convinced that the results will be wonderful. But I’m also convinced that you’ll be called upon to give up some old wineskins and take on some new ones. This is the hard part, the part we tend to resist. So I pray for you, as I pray for myself, that God will give us the freedom to surrender our lives to him, so that He might fit us with new wineskins and fill us afresh with His new wine.
As I wrote this sermon on the Thursday before I preached it, including the portions that ended up in the Pastor’s Letter, I felt unusually passionate. It seemed as if this word about wineskins was exactly what God wanted to say to Irvine Pres as a body, and to each of us as individual believers.
But I had no idea on that Thursday just how much God wanted to say to me about the wineskins in my life, and how He would use this text to change my life in ways I had never imagined. Stay tuned . . . .
Note: My friend and fellow blogging pastor, Mark Daniels, has sensed God’s call to another church after 17 years of pastoring Friendship Lutheran Church. He is blogging about his experience, which is both like and unlike my own. It’s good to see how God works differently in people’s lives. Check out Mark’s fine post. His sofa analogy is a good one.
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Inspiration from the Pray the Gospels
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, October 14, 2007
Excerpt
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
Click here to read all of John 15:1-11
Prayer
Dear Lord, I want to live a fruitful life. I want my life to count. At the end of my days, I’d like to be able to look back and see that I have made a real difference for Your kingdom. To use the language of John 15, I want to bear fruit, indeed, much fruit.
And so I must abide in You, because apart from You I can do nothing of real value. Oh, to be sure, I can do all sorts of things. But that which really matters comes only as You work in and through me, only as I’m abiding in You. So help me, dear Lord, to make my home in You, to spend time with You, to draw my sustenance from You, to allow You to define me and empower me.
Keep me from the easy temptation of relying on myself. Even as I use gifts You have given me, may I be consciously aware of the source of my abilities. May I rely on You in all things, and seek to live, not for myself, but for You and Your glory.
O Lord, may my life be fruitful for You . . . even today!
Questions for Reflection
Do you really believe that apart from Jesus you can do nothing of lasting value?
How do you abide, that is, make your home in Jesus?
How can you abide in Jesus today?
istockphoto.com
Pray the Gospels is one of my two devotional websites. The other is Pray the Psalms. Both sites include a daily Bible reading from either the Gospels or the Psalms, along with a prayer and some additional thoughts or questions for reflection.
Topics: Sunday Inspiration | 1 Comment »
My New Haunts in Kerrville, Texas
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, October 13, 2007
I’ve just finished my second week as the Senior Director of Laity Lodge. Though the retreat center itself is out in Hill Country near Leakey, Texas (population approx. 350), my offices are in Kerrville, a town of about 22,000 people on I-10, an hour west of San Antonio. (Check this map for details.)
I thought it might be fun to show a few pictures of my new haunts in Kerrville. The first photo is the view from the street as you approach the H.E. Butt Foundation offices. The campus includes several quaint old homes that have been reconfigured for offices, along with other buildings. The sign to the right, which has been around for a while, includes “Laity Lodge” on the bottom line.
Here is a close up of the house in which the Laity Lodge team and I have our offices. This fine team includes: Steven Purcell (Director), Tim Blanks (Director of Operations), Dave Williamson (semi-retired Director and advisor), Ann Jack (Registrar), and Liz Wyall (Administrative Coordinator). We get lots of help from other Foundation employees who are housed in nearby quarters. My office windows are the ones farthest to the right in this picture.
Here’s a view of the inside of my office. I love the light streaming in through the windows. Plus, right outside of the French doors we get visiting deer. Didn’t have that in Irvine! I’m not complaining, though, because I had a wonderful office at Irvine, one I’m proud to pass on to the next pastor. Nevertheless, now I feel blessed to be housed in such a verdant, pastoral setting. It sure helps the creative juices to flow!
But, every now and then I still feel the need to get out into the world. The Starbucks in Kerrville has one of the best outside seating areas of any Starbucks I’ve ever visited, and that’s quite a few stores. This particular Starbucks lies along the Guadalupe River, which passes through the center of Kerrville. Nothing like sipping a latté while sitting on the porch and enjoying the view! A fine spot for morning devotions.
In case you’re wondering, yes, there is a McDonald’s in Kerrville, and also a Chili’s. No there is not an In-N-Out Burger (sigh!). But Culver’s is represented, and their burger comes close to In-N-Out’s. Culver’s burger is called the ButterBurger, which doesn’t exactly sound like health food. No sign of ButterBeer in Culver’s, however.
Topics: Texas | 2 Comments »