randalevan's blog

Exercising our Faith Requires Taking Risks

Wouldn't it be nice if walking by faith was easier than walking by sight? No risk, no worries, and no confusion or doubts. The problem is, then it wouldn't be faith would it? The writer of the ancient letter to the Hebrews described faith in this way: "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." (Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1.)

But what does "confidence" feel like? In my experience, it feels like jumping off the edge of a pool, believing that God will catch...but there is that hesitancy you feel before you actually leap...and...the adrenaline and fear that rush through your veins when you are airborne, inbetween the safety of the pool's edge and God's arms.

I had the privilege of traveling to Spain last month...something that I have been able to do quite often over the past nine years...something that I am grateful to God for. On the way back, I had what I would describe as a "divine encounter"...an encounter with someone who had recently taken "the plunge of faith"...someone who had a message from God for me...that I would like to share it with you.

¿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

"I must contrive to make money so that I may live to work."

I read something this morning at Dana Street Roasting Company in Mountain View that I really liked.  It is from the book 

Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation, by William Placher. The chapter that I enjoyed was by a British writer by the name of Dorothy Sayers.  (*For more on her life, go to: http://www.sayers.org.uk/dorothy.html.)
The chapter title is, "Vocation in Work", and it was written in 1942...in the middle of WWII.  I would like to share with you what Sayers wrote about a certain group of workers who "have never...altogether abandoned the divine conception of what work ought to be."  Although she is writing about artists, I, too, identify with this group of workers.  As a pastor, I have always felt like "I must contrive to make money so that I may live to work."

former vineyard pastor and US director todd hunter becomes an anglican

Meg, a friend of mine and fellow Vineyard pastor, showed me the recent issue of Christianity Today (September 2009) which included an article about Todd Hunter, former Vineyard pastor, former National Director for the Vineyard USA.  Todd has become an Anglican priest, and will soon be promoted to bishop.  My first reaction was shock.  My second was, "ok, so the guy was a Vineyard pastor.  Then he was our national director.  Then he worked for some emerging church entity.  Then he was president of Alpha USA.  Now he's an Anglican priest...well...for a few months before they make him a bishop.  He's got problems."  The third thing I thought was, "What do I know, anyway?!"

empowering the weak to become even weaker

Let's assume I want to lose 20 pounds.  (*Funny, I DO want to lose almost that much!) Let's further assume that I share this desire with my closest friends...people who really care about me and my health.  One day, these friends all get together and decide they want to help me out.  What do they do?  They put their money together and they buy me a Laz-y-Boy recliner, an 80-inch flat screen TV, and a "never-runs-out-of-money-always gets-replenished-automatically" gift card to Coldstone Creamery.  So, are these guys acting like my friends?

Are you an idealist?

Dave Schmelzer is a friend of mine and pastor of the Cambridge, MA Vineyard.  Jacquie told me he had some interesting things posted on his blog, so I decided to check it out this morning.  Here is something Dave wrote on idealism, quoting a man I deeply admire: Dietrich Bonhoeffer:  "One section I found myself going into in a bit more depth than I expected was what I anticipated being a brief word to the wise on idealism.  I'd remembered a striking quote from Bonhoeffer on the subject that has only seemed more profound as the years pass.  As I revisited the quote, I was floored by how much I understood and resonated with a good deal of his comments, comments that hit me hard when I first read them even as I couldn't believe he was serious.  Idealism a bad thing?

One might regard our endeavor here as idealistic.  And one might, understandably, regard it as a pointed critique of churches.  So I'll be really interested in your response to Bonhoeffer's thoughts. If you end up sold that idealism is a problem, how do you recommend keeping big dreams alive without that devolving into toxic idealism?  I'll start with my preface on the matter, and then it's all Bonhoeffer.

It’s tempting to see idealism as right at the heart of starting any community of faith, much less one in these culture centers we’re describing.  And there’s something to that, but it hits its limits very quickly.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, wrote the shocking line, “God hates visionary dreaming.”  I read that just as I was helping start an ambitious ministry to kids in the city with the highest murder rate in the country.  Our team was living in community.  We were all about visionary dreaming.  Otherwise why would we be there?

And yet Bonhoeffer’s line stuck with me, a line written as he was running his own ambitious community—an underground seminary trying to train pastors who wouldn’t bow to Hitler.  His point was that idealism wars with reality, which is warring with God.  Yes, we start with dreams and pursue them, but then we live in the actual as we see what God is actually up to."

If you want to read the whole post, please go to:

http://notreligious.typepad.com/notreligious/2009/07/are-you-an-idealist-.html

Courage and the effect of anxiety on leaders

I have been thinking a lot about courage.  I guess that is inevitable, given the many challenges we all face each day.  A friend of mine recommended a leadership book to me and I have enjoyed reading it so far.  The book is entitled A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, by Edwin H. Friedman.

One of the things Friedman writes about in Chapter 2 is "reactivity", or the effect of anxiety on groups of people: "For example, members of chronically anxious families will be quick to interrupt one another, if not jump in and complete one another's sentences, and they are constantly taking and making things "personal."  Communication is marked more by diagnostic or labeling "you" positions rather than by self-defining "I" statements.  Rather than saying, "This is what I believe," "Here is how I perceive it," "This is what I will do," family members stay focused on one another: "You're insensitive, unfeeling, irrational, missing the point, or just don't get it."  The family is thus easily "heated up" as feelings are confused with opinions.  Those inclined to become hysterical and those inclined to be passive-aggressive will both find their tendencies promoted..."

A Model of Courage

Last Saturday morning I took a quick look at the newspaper before continuing my preparation to teach at our church the next morning.  My topic:  courage.  There was an article that stood out to me about the former president of the Philippines, Cory Aquino.  I was unable to find it online, but found another article by Reuter's that wasn't bad: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56U6IB20090731?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

I may have more to say on courage later in the week.

Yeah, I'm a Tim Keller Fan!

A friend of mine, Meg Venables, knows I like a lot of what Pastor Tim Keller has to say.  So, when she saw that the recent edition of Christianity Today had an article about him and his work in NYC, she put the magazine on my desk.  Well, I read the article this morning while sipping a cappuccino at RedRock and really liked it.  Here's a link if you want to check it out:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/june/15.20.html.

Back from Spain

Just got back from Spain late Monday night.  It was a great trip overall, spending time in the Boston area on the way to Europe followed by visits to both Barcelona and Valencia.

While I hope to be able to post some photos soon (*my friends took pictures and I am looking to "borrow" some of them), let me give you a quick summary of my time in Spain.  It began in Barcelona, where I spent the weekend with my good friends, Marc & Christine.  They pastor one of the Vineyard churches in "la ciudad condal".  We enjoyed several meals together, one of them a fantastic feast of "dorada" (*a white fish that I am not sure how to translate...those of you who have a Spanish/English dictionary can check it out and tell me!) with their children, Marc's mom and his sister.  Their eldest daughter, Anais, together with her husband Jose Luis, was also there.  They have a 3-year old son, and are now the proud parents of twin baby girls.

After an enjoyable weekend with the Perez family, I took the train to Valencia - which is about a 3-hour trip.