randalevan's blog

Thanksgiving 2009

Just created an album of some of the photos from our Thanksgiving celebration.  Check-out the album at the bottom of the right column of my blog, entitled Thanksgiving 2009.

Bonhoeffer on Community, part II.

Here are some other quotes from Bonhoeffer's Life Together, chapter 1:

"One is a brother to another only through Jesus Christ. I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.  This fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity." (p.25.)

Bonhoeffer on Community

In my last post I mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, Life Together, and encouraged those who wanted to go deeper to check out this classic on the Christian Life.  Well, I imagine most of us simply don't have the time to do that...so I want to give you some quotes that continue to impact me from the first chapter of Bonhoeffer's classic.  Here goes...

it's hard to keep going to church

I have been a pastor for a long time.  One of the things I have found to be true as a follower of Jesus is this: those of us who choose to actively engage with Him together with others in a healthy local church have a much more enjoyable, productive, adventure-filled, "challenged-to-go-beyond our-comfort-zone" life than those who try to go it alone.  (*I don't have time to define "healthy" here, but can recommend a great book if you would like to go deeper.  It is "Life Together" by Bonhoeffer. Pay particular attention to Chapter 1 entitled "Community".)

And as a pastor, I have also found something else to be true: it is really hard to continue to be actively involved in a local church!  This has always been the case...ever since Jesus called 12 disciples together to form the first Church.  Why is it so? While there are many, many reasons, I will mention only two: 1. Wherever there are people, there will be conflict, and, 2. Wherever there are Christians, there will be people with unrealistic expectations placed upon other people...I would suggest greater expectations than they place on their work or school associates, and sometimes more than their own family members.

what is going to make me happy?

There's a story in the Gospel of Mark about a paralytic man who is carried to Jesus by his friends on a mat.  (*To read the story, go to Mark chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.)  One of the remarkable things that happens is that Jesus heals the guy!  But He does something else...something that the man didn't even ask Jesus to do:  He forgives him.  Why did Jesus do that?

jesus makes us bigger

a friend and fellow pastor, liz milner, recently completed an internship at a local jail and the experience stretched her faith a lot. as i read her personal evaluation, i felt encouraged to see people in a different way, to believe that jesus is present even when our world feels like it is falling apart, and to face my fears with more courage. i have copied her evaluation below.

¿whatever happened to the american dream?

I was shocked to read in yesterday's Mercury-News that there are over 13% of Americans who are living in poverty.  How can that be?  Whatever happened to the American Dream?  Sounds more like a nightmare to me!

The problem is so large and complex that there is certainly nothing I can do about it.  (*I used to think this way, but somehow, I don't feel like I have a "free pass" to ignore this awful truth about our country anymore.)

I wonder what the church I go to can do about it. If the Lord's Prayer were to be answered, especially the part that says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven", what that would look like?  I don't think there are going to be any people living in poverty when God's will is always done on the earth!  Lord, what would You have each one of us do?

  (*To read the article, please go to: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13307046?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

why did they follow him?

Our new senior pastor, Alex Van Riesen, taught from the Gospel of Mark this past Sunday.  He read chapter 1, verses 16 thru 20.  (*If you would like to hear the teaching, go to vcfp.org, click-on SERMONS, then select "download" under the teaching for September 6th.)

One of the comments Alex made was that Jesus' invitation to Simon and his brother, Andrew, to "Come, follow me, ... and I will make you fishers of men" (v.17) seemed bizarre.  I mean, can you imagine Jesus saying something similar to you...and if He did, you dropping everything to follow Him?  What was it about Jesus' invitation that was so appealing...appealing enough to leave everything behind in order to go and be with Him, to go and learn to do what He was doing?

Alex did a great job talking about Jesus' invitation to His first followers - and to you and me today - that it was an invitation to be transformed, to adopt a different orientation toward life, to discover a new reason and purpose for living.

As I listened to the teaching this past Sunday, a short DVD called "Dust" by another pastor came to mind.  It talks about what it meant for a 1st century rabbi to invite a 1st century Jew to become his disciple.  The pastor's name is Rob Bell, the DVD series is called NOOMA, and I think it is really worth watching.  I will include it here on my blog. Hope you enjoy it, and, that God uses it to increase your faith!

a pastor's dilemma

A friend of mine and fellow pastor, Sean McMasters, made an interesting post on his blog recently that I would like to share with you.  Here's a brief quote.  (*If you would like to read more, click-on the link below.)

"Pastors are caught within a wonderful dynamic: On the one hand I need to be an example of what it means to be a successful follower of Christ; on the other hand I am not, & never will be totally successful. What makes this more interesting is the never-ending appeal of religion; Those who do good are--gooder & I am the gooderest of them all. Right? However, I'm not good.

What is the role of a pastor? To create the "That's it" image? I need to teach Saints & non-saints how to be: Broken, angry, forgive, sexually appropriate, depressed, frustrated, etc. However, do I teach them from the position of: "When I used to..." or "Last week when I..." Don't I have a pious image to uphold, since no one wants to follow a loser? Especially a pastor who wrestles with sin. No doubt there are limits to my involvement with any sin & it's ability to control me vs. my ability to yield to the Spirit. However, we can so easily create a theology of leadership, which says, "Follow me as I follow Christ" because, "I've arrived," vs. "I've been working on this for years, & I'm still walking."

To read more, please go to:

http://offthewahl.blogspot.com/2009/09/pastors-are-caught-within-wonderful.html

jacquie's 5k run - september 2009

Jacquie just ran a 5k race this morning, and I have posted an album.  (*I think it is the second album on the bottom right.)  She did a great job, and then we enjoyed breakfast together with our friends, Kevin and Janice, at the Baylands Park.