The Little Things...

The other day I let a little thing bother me, maybe you can relate. As I opened the screen door to let the dogs out in the backyard a fly decided to come in. Now I know when the flies are buzzing around it is a sure sign that spring is in the air and summer is around the corner, but flies like all other bugs belong outside in God’s great creation, not in my house. You never know how small thing can bother you until you get a fly in your house.

At first I decided I had better things to do than chase it around, and I convinced myself I would get to it later. After all I had a bunch of things scheduled in my day. But, when he buzzed my head a few times I knew I had to take care of this problem before I did anything else. I used to be pretty athletic, but lately I have drifted far into the un-athletic side of the house. I discovered that when you have your eye on killing a fly you find some of your athletic ability. I wonder what I looked like as I jumped, dove, and swatted at this fly that deftly dodged all of my attempts. At first you use your hands, as if you are gonna find some super speed and just whack him. Soon I get smart and get the fly swatter. Of course, this being the first fly of the season, I have to remember where I put the fly swatter last year. When I finally find it I resume the chase. Now, knowing that squashing this invader is my aim I am a little more discerning about where the killing filed will be. A dead fly on the kitchen counter is not cool, so you stalk the critter and wait for an opportune time. The best time is of course when he starts to do that fly thing, you know where he charges the window and continues to bounce off it. This is when I make my move… I will spare you the details of the actual dispatch, but needless to say it required a trip to the laundry room where I could get the windex and clean up the scene of the crime.

This all made me think of how we live our lives. I had plans for the day. I had big things that needed to get done, and I made time to do them. All of a sudden a little thing like a fly hijacked my time. I chased this small thing all over the house. I allowed this small thing that really did not fit into my priorities to capture my time and lead me on a wild goose (or fly) chase. All the time I spent chasing this fly, I was ignoring the things that really need my attention.

Do you find yourself doing this same thing in your day to day routine? At the end of the day do you look back and see that life’s little flies came into your life and kept you from doing the things you wanted/needed to do?

The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians, Chapter 3, verses 12-14: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Are you pressing on toward the goal, taking hold of that for which Jesus took hold of you? Or are you spending your time chasing the little things in life that don’t matter at all?

Removing the Ash Heap

I had a chore to do today that has been looking me in the face for weeks, well maybe even months. I have a place in the backyard where I can burn leaves and sticks. I burned some near the end of the last year, and then added mulch to the heap that would eventually need to be burned also. I finished off the second burning a few weeks ago. This left a pretty big pile of ash in my back yard that needed to be gone before I added to it again.
While I was shoveling it into bags to be hauled off, I was reminded that this was probably a pretty good time to get rid of a pile of ashes. You see, all through the season of Lent we were living on a kind of spiritual ash heap, reminded of our sin, anticipating the coming crucifixion, doing without… Once Easter emerged the ash heap of Lent needed to go. So here I was removing a real ash heap, thinking about the spiritual one that Jesus removed at the resurrection.

One thing I noticed. As I got near the bottom of the heap, I found the original ashes I burned several months ago. The neat thing is that by now they had all but turned to soil. Here the ashes were dark and moist and rich with nutrients, and probably pretty good for planting. All of a sudden it struck me. What was once ash and ruin after time turned into something useful and full of life. This is exactly what happens with the ashes in our life too. The tragedies and trials that occur often become something that gives us strength later on. They can be used as examples, giving encouragement to others who might be going through the same thing now.
The pain of trial, temptation, tragedy, and other disasters in our lives will probably never leave us completely, but given the fact that we are a people who live on the other side of the ash heap, in the light of Easter, there may be a time when the old ashes turn to fertile soil.

Preventative Medicine

Sitting here in the hospital I can’t help but think about preventative medicine and how it applies to the follower of Jesus.

Now, the kind of preventative medicine I am talking about is not the kind I hear about in the hospital from the medical professionals. I have, recently had conversations with people about some topics that are always hot buttons for both followers of Jesus and those who do not. The discussion always goes to whether or not we embrace people who have made mistakes in their past into our fellowship and the answer is always YES… After all we are all the recipients of immeasurable grace from God in Jesus so we should also be graceful.

What always causes a little dissention in the discussion is when we move on to those who are a part of the fellowship who also don’t see anything wrong with what they do. What I am asking, I guess is: Is there room for some preventative medicine? Are we really able to practice loving the sinner and hating the sin? It seems to me, especially in this fluid post-mod society that we are all too willing to love the sin too, for fear of disenfranchising anyone.

I guess the best example from Jesus would be the time he came across the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). We love the fact that the Pharisees were driven away by their own conscience and guilt, but do we pay as much attention to verse eleven? I know we love the first part “Woman, is there no on here to condemn you? No sir, not one, than neither do I condemn you..” this is a fantastic model for how we should approach someone who has done wrong, but the next statement from Jesus carries as much weight as the grace he bestows when he says, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus provides a little preventative medicine to this woman, so that the next time she will know what she has done is wrong.

We could do well to do the same thing. Many denominational principles are so vague that they cannot possibly provide any preventative medicine. This is done on purpose so we don’t offend anyone (but offending God doesn’t seem to matter here).

Can the followers of Jesus bestow grace upon people the way Jesus did? And, can we also provide the preventative care in a loving manner just like Jesus?

The Active Church Goer

I was asked by a friend to describe what I think an active church goer looked like, so here goes...

I believe being active in the church means that you agree to be a part of a fellowship of believers that exist primarily for those who are not yet part of us...

The active church is a group of people who do not fall for the old wives-tale that has been prevelant in the church for the last 50 or so years that says we are a people who are "going to church" and instead the active church goer wants to "be the Church". An active church member is one who is tired of what they have been offered over the years as worship and simply wants more. They gather together and are led by the Spirit in their search to be better followers of Jesus. I think that many Christian denominations have conditioned us to be inward in our journey, looking toward the health of the local church and denomination through membership and programs, rather than being outwardly focused on the people who are traveling this world without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Simply put the active church goer is one who is a part of a Christian community. This community is modeled for us in Acts chapter two. An active church member is not primarily a care giver or a hand holder. An active church is not a nursing home for sedentary Christians, it is a factory for the training, equipping, and deploying of disciples. Active church members are those Christians who realize our mission is to reach out to those who normally would never consider Christianity or ever desire to be a part of a church community.

Active church members take part in fruitful discussion, and are not caught up in the normal gossip that travels around the church these days. Active church members ensure the level of their discussion is deep and thoughtful, and is accessible enough to engage anyone, follower of Jesus or not, in dialogue and fellowship. Active church members are people who have a deep seeded hope to see those who are disillusioned with their current church experience drawn to a fellowship that is missional. Active church members, like Jesus seek those who feel as if they could never "fit in" to most churches to be a welcome part of their fellowship.

To put it plainly active church members are disciples who are fully immersed in the great commission of Matthew 28. Active church members see the primary reason for gathering as worship, the adoration of God. They come together to fulfill the mysterious formula that Jesus spoke of when he said; where two or more are gathered in his name, he would be there. Secondary is the study and fellowship that prepares them to reach out to a dying world with the words of life.

The active church goer is one that you don’t find often in the church these days. Therefore active churches are scarce too. I think the reason so many people are turned off by church is that they do not find active churches out there, if there were more active churches and active church leaders, there would be more active church goers…

What do you think?

May I take your order?

I went in to one of my local fast food restaurants the other day and it made me think about church. I won’t tell you which one it was because I don’t want to color your opinion of the place. But, when I got in there and walked up to the counter it took a few minutes for anyone to acknowledge me. I thought this was a little funny because I was the only person standing there, but I will admit there were a few folks in the drive-thru. After someone acknowledged me I gave them my order and waited. I would have liked my coffee, so I could mix it up the way I like it, and it would also give me something to do while I waited for the food, but the person on the other side of the counter (who was the manager by the way) didn’t think of that, so I waited. At one point a cashier noticed me standing there for a longer than usual period of time and attempted to come and help me. This earned him a rebuke from the manager, who said “I got him”, when in fact he didn’t. I waited patiently, taking all of this in. I eventually got my order from the manager, without much more than a mumbled “come again” and I was on my way.

Now, I probably wouldn’t normally put up with this kind of service, but I was waiting for someone to meet me there, and I was also enjoying this study in human behavior. I began to wonder if some people felt this way when they come into church.

Do they meet self absorbed people who are more interested in having their needs met than helping the first time worshiper feel comfortable?

Even though we have a “commodity” to share with the unbeliever, do they find the church members reluctant to share that with them?

Do people, who come in for the first time find themselves standing alone, waiting and not knowing what is really going on?

There are so many analogies that I could draw here but I think you get the picture. You see I like the food at this particular restaurant, but I know that there are several in the same town that provide what I want so I don’t necessarily have to go back to this one again. Even though this restaurant is closer to my house than the others, it might be worth my while to go to one further away in order to feel comfortable, and receive the service I come to expect. I guess it is the same with the church. You might be the local church, but that doesn’t mean the locals will come. You might offer the same gospel as the other churches in town, but they will probably make up their mind about you long before the Gospel is preached. I have found over the years, that most first time worshipers make up their minds as to whether they are coming back long before they hear the first word of the sermon. The ones who greet the worshiper in the parking lot, or at the door, or make them feel welcome in the seats; they are the ones that will keep them coming back. The strength of your church's hospitality or welcoming program hinges upon the very first people guests meet. Remember, the gathering of the “fellowship of believers” has a lot to do with the fellowship part of the experience..

Gone Fishin'

Just wanted to post something this day while I was thinking about it.

First of all, Thanks to everyone who had a part in our great Sonrise service this morning, great turnout, best ever! Also the other two services were great and I know this evening’s CrossRoad service will be just as great! The Lord is doing great things in our midst.

I wanted to get this thought out while I had it in my busy little brain. When I was pulling out of my road this morning to get to Sonrose, at about 6 am, I was struck by the irony of the truck coming the other way. He was traveling the opposite way I was, and when I got on the main road we passed. He had a red Dodge truck just like mine, but he was towing a boat. Obviously he was heading to the lake to go fishing. I could not help but think that I was doing the same thing. Of course, I had no boat, no tackle, and no gear for being near or on the water, but I was going fishing none the less. I was answering the call of Jesus when he called those disciples so long ago to be fishers of men instead of fishing for fish.

So here we were, two different people, heading out for a day of fishing. I am not sure how he did this day, but I know my day of fishing was very satisfying. In fact, I am just home on a break, in a few hours, after a wonderful lunch with a well loved friend; I will be out fishing again…

What about you? Did you go fishing today? I pray that you had a big catch!

A little bit about me...

I recently took a temprement survey to see a little bit about my personality. I really didn't learn much. What I did learn, however was that there at least is a place in the church for people like me...

Custom Temperament Report for Bob Hoeller

Your Temperament Sorter Results indicate that your personality type is that of The Rational.

All Rationals share the following core characteristics:

Rationals tend to be pragmatic, skeptical, self-contained, and focused on problem-solving and systems analysis.

Rationals pride themselves on being ingenious, independent, and strong willed.

Rationals make reasonable mates, individualizing parents, and strategic leaders.

Rationals are even-tempered, they trust logic, yearn for achievement, seek knowledge, prize technology, and dream of understanding how the world works.

Rationals are the problem solving temperament, particularly if the problem has to do with the many complex systems that make up the world around us. Rationals might tackle problems in organic systems such as plants and animals, or in mechanical systems such as railroads and computers, or in social systems such as families and companies and governments. But whatever systems fire their curiosity, Rationals will analyze them to understand how they work, so they can figure out how to make them work better.

In working with problems, Rationals try to find solutions that have application in the real world, but they are even more interested in the abstract concepts involved, the fundamental principles or natural laws that underlie the particular case. And they are completely pragmatic about their ways and means of achieving their ends. Rationals don't care about being politically correct. They are interested in the most efficient solutions possible, and will listen to anyone who has something useful to teach them, while disregarding any authority or customary procedure that wastes time and resources.

Rationals have an insatiable hunger to accomplish their goals and will work tirelessly on any project they have set their mind to. They are rigorously logical and fiercely independent in their thinking--are indeed skeptical of all ideas, even their own--and they believe they can overcome any obstacle with their will power. Often they are seen as cold and distant, but this is really the absorbed concentration they give to whatever problem they're working on. Whether designing a skyscraper or an experiment, developing a theory or a prototype technology, building an aircraft, a corporation, or a strategic alliance, Rationals value intelligence, in themselves and others, and they pride themselves on the ingenuity they bring to their problem solving.

Rationals are very scarce, comprising as little as 7 to 10 percent of the population. But because of their drive to unlock the secrets of nature, and to develop new technologies, they have done much to shape our world.
The Four types of Rationals are:

Architects (INTP) Masterminds (INTJ) Inventors (ENTP) Field Marshals (ENTJ)

The new shape of things...

I am a news junkie. I know, most people say they would rather turn the news off but I can’t stand to not know what is going on right now. This got me thinking about how we view church these days.

In the past we had three major networks with three major news casts at the same exact time in the evening. Each one had a well known and trusted anchor. We would here the news from the one we trusted the most and we would all politely nod our heads north to south at the proper time and click our tongues at the tragedies of this world that went across the screen.

Now days we do this news thing a little different. I bet if I asked you right now you couldn’t tell me who the news anchors were for the three major networks (CBS, NBC & ABC). But you might be able to tell me who your favorite anchor is on the 24/7 news channels like CNN or FOX (MSNBC doesn’t count, it’s like some churches, dead but doesn’t know it yet.) We like things to be interactive like we get with Ireport (CNN) or Ureport (FOX) where we can be a part of the news. We like to Blog our opinion and instantly email the folks on the morning show with our opinion. We like it fast, interactive, media intensive, but relevant smart and incisive. We know the difference between fluff and news.

This made me think about the changes in our churches lately. It used to be that all our church services were at precisely 11 am on Sunday morning and ended at precisely 12 noon so we could all race to the local diner for lunch. Each sermon had three points, (four if they got fancy), and every first of the month we could expect communion, once a quarter with those churches that don't want it to go stale. Each service followed an order of worship that looked like last week and if Jesus didn’t come back midweek would look the same next Sunday.

Now days we want something different. We want our church to be interactive too. We want a worship space that changes with the Church calendar or with the message series. We want our music to be engaging and our message to be laced with media. We want to stand and shout, and we want to meet the living God, experience the saving grace of our Savior and feel the movement of the Holy Spirit. This aint no place to sush your kids..

I was wondering what you think of the transition of the Church these days. Is it what you thought it would be, or is it different than anything you ever imagined (just like Jesus!!)

Dyson Vaccuum Cleaners and the Church

I was watching television the other day and on comes a commercial for vacuum cleaners. It was the Dyson series of cleaners. Now the commercial was much like other commercials but it had an element to it that is unique. James Dyson is the guy who actually does the commercials. James Dyson is also the inventor of the cyclone style of vacuum cleaner. Here you have the guy who invented the product telling you about the product. Instead of some slinky model, or funny cartoon coming out to tell us how great this thing is, we get the guy who made the thing. It isn’t a slick commercial; he looks like he is standing next to the work bench where he made his first cleaner. He is dressed in a simple open collared shirt and khaki pants and comfortably telling us about the one thing he knows better than anyone else. Since he is the “horse’s mouth” the commercial, all of a sudden has more credibility than an average commercial. This is the expert! This is the guy who spent years developing this thing and now he is going to tell you about it. Now Dyson vacuum cleaners are expensive, but they are good. Could any other vacuum cleaner company get away with charging this much for a cleaner like Dyson and use a standard commercial to promote it? I don’t think so.

Now, think about this from the perspective of the Church. Many times we provide a standard commercial. We sell a particular program or event or worship service. Services are labeled contemporary, edgy, traditional, ancient modern, relaxed etc.. which is just a word to point to a behavior, it doesn’t really get to the real thing does it?

How much more impact would we have if we “advertized” with the inventor of our product (the Church)? How much more credibility would we have with people who didn’t know they needed vacuum cleaners (I mean a church) by having the one who invented vacuum cleaners (I mean Church) present the argument for having one? Too often we tout slogans, programs or whatever that point to Jesus… shouldn’t we just use Jesus? Can the words of Jesus bring someone to your church? Can the actions of Jesus call someone to a life that is greater than themselves? Can the lessons of Jesus solve the really hard problems in a person’s life? Can Jesus still speak to this generation? Of course!

I just think that in our rush to meet the needs of the post-mod world, or the aging baby boomers or the un-churched or whomever, we are all too willing to tout a form of worship or study or community gathering as the end all when we should just invite them to meet Jesus. Are we wasting time getting the lights just right, or the sound in perfect pitch, and all the time missing the movement of the Spirit in our midst? Are we so self absorbed that we need to put our name on every piece of furniture in the traditional church so everyone knows that it is dedicated to the glory of God in memory of dear Aunt Sally? Do we really need another fast talking preacher in an Armani suit to give us the word or can the Holy Spirit still speak to your heart?

Maybe just once we should take a lesson from James Dyson. Maybe we should allow Jesus to step out on that stage or stand in that pulpit or say something on our church sign… Maybe we should just skip the hype and go straight to the inventor. Maybe we should be more aware of the Spirit in our midst, and like Job put our hands over our mouths and listen, and like he says in Job 42:5 – I had heard of you before God, but now I see you!!

Who are you?

Sacraments for the Christian Life

by Ellen T. Charry

Ellen T. Charry is Margaret W. Harmon Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. This article is from the Christian Century, November 15, 1995, pp. 1076-1079. Used by permission

Christians are people who acknowledge that they belong neither to themselves nor to the age, but to God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. They are out of step with a society that prizes individuality and autonomy. They are at odds with a culture in which power over persons and property gauges success and garners respect. Unlike their secular friends, Christians do not aim to be self-created or self-directed. Instead, they are directed by God, whose call to live a holy life dedicated to the rescue of others is laid bare in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is lived in freedom from the norms and expectations of the world because Christians live by divine standards; it is lived in celebration because they claim to live in the reign of God. Christians learn the dimension of that reign by following Jesus around Galilee as he healed, fed, forgave, confronted and taught. Then they dedicate themselves to honoring it.

Reclaiming a vigorous Christian identity is a countercultural act in a culture that no longer grasps the beauty of a disciplined, centered and divinely directed life. A Christian chooses a life that scrutinizes self and society through the Christian filters of the triune God who became incarnate, died on a cross and remains present to a community gathered for holy living. What could make less sense to a world torn by dissension and strife? A decision for Christ and the Christian life becomes a courageous, perhaps even an irrational act.

Yet Christians are as weak and forgetful as anyone else. They become distracted and confused by the call of the world and need to specify and focus their Christian identity. Christians need to be re-Christianized, to have their true identity in Christ made palpable so that they can take it with them when they venture into the marketplace, into the public arena and into the private struggles of their lives.

Most are not up to living the Christian life alone. They need the company of others who aim for a distinctively Christian way of life in a broken world. They need to taste and touch together. Fortunately, the church has the means of focusing Christian minds and upbuilding the community: the sacraments.

Sacraments are concrete actions by which Christians may be marked, fed and touched by the Holy Spirit so that the reality of God and the work of Christ become embedded in the body and psyche. Sacraments recall God’s promises and presence to the worshiping community, binding it together ever more tightly and to clearer purpose. The Holy Spirit is the specific agent of Christianization in the sacraments, binding Christians into the trinitarian life in baptism, and feeding them on the dramatic reenactment of redemption played out through the death and resurrection of Christ in the Eucharist. As Basil the Great put it, the Holy Spirit reaches down from the divine majesty to graft believers into the Holy Trinity by dwelling in them.

Being grafted into the Trinity may be stated christologically without denying the trinitarian implication spelled out in later Christian theology: I am defined by the wisdom and power of God revealed in the death of Christ. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. I die and rise with Christ to new life. I am clothed with Christ to fight the powers of sin and death.

These different formulations all share the view that grace is not simply divine graciousness upon which one throws oneself, seeking mercy rather than judgment, but also divine power that illumines the believer with the divine dignity that directs personal life. The grace conveyed to the believer in sacraments is the presence of God symbolized by water, oil or food, from which the believer takes strength and comfort.

On the occasion of my baptism, a friend wrote: "Try to remember deliberately once a day that you were and are baptized, that your life is underwritten by God and that in a sense this grandest position in life has already been achieved. You can never go higher than simple baptism. In a sense, this is a release from striving. What was sought for long and hard has not been found, it has found you."

Baptism centers a Christian’s life. First, this sacred washing purifies the baptized for a new life dominated by belonging to God. Forgiveness of sin demarcates the past life from a new life of freedom and joy.

Second, the baptized are always in the presence of God and carry the seal of the Holy Spirit around with them. They are ennobled and dignified by the presence of God, and live as signs of God’s self-communication through Jesus. The baptized know that they have been blessed by the divine presence. Their baptism has inaugurated a life of thanks to God.

Third, the baptized are empowered. No matter in which direction they turn, the dignity of God impels them to be agents of reconciliation and empowers them for self-control. They must be alert every time they touch another person’s body, mind or spirit because God now resides in them.

Churches that practice infant baptism are in the anomalous situation of having to catechize the baptized who may have little understanding that they participate in the trinitarian life. I grieve for a lost opportunity whenever I attend a baptism in which the preacher fails to preach on the meaning of the event. Those who were baptized as infants have a right to know what happened theologically: they were "glued" to the maker of heaven and earth by the Holy Spirit.

Participation in the Eucharist revivifies the power of baptism for daily strength and comfort. I once met a woman who told me she became a Christian because she needed a God she could eat, take into herself and be continuously transformed by. Daily strengthening in the Christian life begins with being reminded that through dying and rising with Christ, we belong to God. In re-enacting the Last Supper we participate again in that dying and rising first undertaken in baptism, when we were washed to begin life afresh. In the Eucharist we are fed and sustained in that life, even though our heads turn back to the world and we fall into sin and death.

The gift of the Eucharist concretizes the mutual indwelling of Christ in the disciples and of Christ with the Father, and therefore the indwelling of the Father and Son in the faithful. "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (John 14:23). The bread of life is truly manna in our wilderness, reminding us of God’s love for us and rekindling our gratitude so that we return to God.

Luther put it strongly in his 1527 treatise, This Is My Body: "To give a simple illustration of what takes place in this eating: it is as if a wolf devoured a sheep and the sheep were so powerful a food that it transformed the wolf and turned him into a sheep. So, when we eat Christ’s flesh physically and spiritually, the food is so powerful that it transforms us into itself and out of fleshly, sinful mortal[s] makes spiritual, holy, living [persons]."

Christians are bound together by feasting at the Lord’s table. True, they are bound together by sharing in potluck suppers too, but there is a difference. In the parish hall, they share themselves, the work of their hands, their hospitality at a table set for one another. But the Lord’s table is set by God.

In this shared meal, Christians become sisters and brothers in Christ. In this moment, they venture out from behind the screens of privacy and solitude, out of the fragmentation that characterizes their lives. The Eucharist is the great Christian equalizer. All come hungry, yearning to be fed of God; all leave filled, fed on God’s love. Whatever divides them from one another dies away. No one’s need is greater than another’s. No one’s pain is deeper than another’s. No one’s sin is fiercer than another’s. Issues of race, gender and inequalities of wealth and power cease to exist at the Lord’s table. Here Christians are knit together by their hunger for God and God’s satisfying that need for each and all. Such unity, fleeting though it may be, is a taste of the Christian hope for the time when, as Julian of Norwich put it, all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

A third sacrament that belongs with baptism and Eucharist for the continuous strengthening in Christian identification with God is penance. This was eliminated by Protestants during the Reformation, and Protestants thereby lost individual opportunities for self-examination, reassessment and recommitment in a sacramental context. Group confession of general sinfulness lacks the edge that confession of specific sins offers. Perhaps the deletion of marriage as a sacrament has also diverted Christians from seeing marriage as life in God.

Christians who are bound together sacramentally understand that they are responsible for one another and for one another’s sins, more than a few of which have corporate dimensions. The admonition to the church in Ephesus still serves well: "So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another." Christians’ solidarity and mutual responsibility are made plain in the pastoral offices of baptism, marriage and ordination. In some liturgies the whole congregation places itself at the disposal of those being baptized, confirmed, married and ordained by taking vows to support these persons in their new life and ministry. Perhaps during Lent Christians should volunteer for peer review to see how well they have carried out those vows.

Conversely, being under vows suggests that Christians submit themselves to correction and discipline by the church. The Christian life also directs how treasure and power are to be used. Can we talk about eucharistic living in corporate boardrooms, in Hollywood, on Madison Avenue? There is no absolute privacy in the Christian life.

Christians must work out knowledge of God as the source of direction for their lives and their various circumstances. What means of livelihood are appropriate for Christians? What entertainments befit those who live in the shadow of the cross of Christ? How should they handle failure and rejection, or power over property and persons? A strong sacramental life will call them back to make God their starting place. The dignity and graciousness of God will influence their mind and behavior.

The drama of sacraments as occasions in which the power of God comes to dwell in the believer can become obscured when a church takes its rites for granted or forgets the radical nature of Christian identity. In order to overcome that complacency, Christians must understand the radical nature of the Christian life. Theirs is a daring undertaking; they need an active sacramental life.

Church Avoidance (Data from Barna Research)

(Ventura, CA) With Americans pursuing a growing number of "church" options, some of the traditional measures of church health are being redefined. According to a new study released by The Barna Group, which has been studying church participation patterns since 1984, popular measures such as the percentage of people who are "unchurched" - based on attendance at a conventional church service - are out of date. Various new forms of faith community and experience, such as house churches, marketplace ministries and cyberchurches, must be figured into the mix - and make calculating the percentage of Americans who can be counted as "unchurched" more complicated. The fact that millions of people are now involved in multiple faith communities - for instance, attending a conventional church one week, a house church the next, and interacting with an online faith community in-between - has rendered the standard measures of "churched" and "unchurched" much less precise.

The latest national surveys by The Barna Group address these new behavioral patterns and provide a different approach to evaluating church participation.

New Measures

According to Barna, one way of examining people's participation in faith communities is by exploring how they practice their corporate faith engagement. Unveiling a new measurement model, Barna identified the following five segments:

Unattached - people who had attended neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g., house church, simple church, intentional community) during the past year. Some of these people use religious media, but they have had no personal interaction with a regularly-convened faith community. This segment represents one out of every four adults (23%) in America. About one-third of the segment was people who have never attended a church at any time in their life.

Intermittents - these adults are essentially "under-churched" - i.e., people who have participated in either a conventional church or an organic faith community within the past year, but not during the past month. Such people constitute about one out of every seven adults (15%). About two-thirds of this group had attended at least one church event at some time within the past six months.

Homebodies - people who had not attended a conventional church during the past month, but had attended a meeting of a house church (3%).

Blenders - adults who had attended both a conventional church and a house church during the past month. Most of these people attend a conventional church as their primary church, but many are experimenting with new forms of faith community. In total, Blenders represent 3% of the adult population.

Conventionals - adults who had attended a conventional church (i.e., a congregational-style, local church) during the past month but had not attended a house church. Almost one out of every three adults (56%) fit this description. This participation includes attending any of a wide variety of conventional-church events, such as weekend services, mid-week services, special events, or church-based classes.