![[theBridge]](http://www.thebridgeworship.org/wp-content/uploads/[theBridge].png "[theBridge]")
Archive for category After Words
Fear Factor | Small Screen Communion
Posted by Curtis in After Words, How Great Thou Art on July 5, 2010
Yesterday we thought together about Jesus walking on the water, initially intending to pass by the disciples. One of the insights we discussed was that our Lord cannot be contained by “our boats” and further, that we can so easily put our faith in things “inside the boat.”
As we reflect on our time together, notice this poem entitled “Small Screen Communion”, by Kester Brewin, from his new book Other: Loving Self, God and Neighbour in a World of Fractures, which addresses the role of technology in light of receiving Communion:
iPod, phone
held close
and thumbed,
illuminating so dimly
the lichened branches
fingering the above,
are such small lights
on these paths
at night.
What possible guidance
could they offer?
Yet still
I look,
still we look
so intently
at their ever-decreasing thinness
and ask of them
the same
as wafers
once gave.
- Other, 45
Fear Factor | Storyboard
Posted by Curtis in After Words, How Great Thou Art on July 4, 2010
Here’s Paul’s storyboard images from Sunday’s sermon on Mark 6.45-56, Fear Factor:
Why Baptists Don’t Dance | 1st John 4.7-12
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 21, 2010
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
And the Verdict Is? | John, Jesus and Herod
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 15, 2010
During Sunday’s gathering, we thought together about John the Baptist and Jesus and Herod – and what happens when Kingdom people collide with the rulers of the kingdoms of this world. N.T. Wright asserts that this text reveals both that
“Jesus was indeed doing remarkable things, forcing people to unlikely explanations, and that, as we might expect with the kingdom of God, the kingdoms of this world were force to take notice of it and, it seems, to take evasive action. It puts the question to us, if we desire or design to be kingdom-agents in our won world, on this further side of Jesus’ actual resurrection: what should we be doing, that the powers of the world would hear about it and scratch their heads in puzzlement? And are we prepared for the result?
Mark is quite clear what will happen to people who announce, and inaugurate, God’s kingdom. The present story of John, including Herod’s garbled and muddled thinking, points forward to the greater story that is yet to come. Herod is wrong, but not completely wrong; for in Jesus the resurrection power of God is indeed at work – not because he’s John, back from the dead, but because he is the one through whom, not very long from now, death will indeed be overcome. The mighty works he is doing at the moment, taking on the kingdom of darkness and beating it, will reach their climax in his personal decisive confrontation with that kingdom. But first he, like John, must suffer a cruel and unjust death.”
Christians in many parts of today’s world still face torture and death for their faith. They may take comfort, and the rest of us may be strengthened in our prayers for them, from the strange story of Jesus, Herod and John. The God who called and equipped John and Jesus, and who through them confronted Herod and by implication all other rulers, remains sovereign. Those who watch what’s going on may draw all the wrong conclusions. But God knows what the rights ones are. This God will vindicate and reward those who remain faithful to their calling in the face of intimidation, persecution and death itself.
- Mark for Everyone, 72-73
And the Verdict Is? | Cautious, Careful People
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 14, 2010
Following yesterday’s gathering, notice this quote by Susan B. Anthony: “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations… can never effect a reform.”
What are some ways we are overly cautious? Overly careful? Preserving our reputations?
Do we feel equipped to effect reform?
Sent | Your Baptism is Your Ordination
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 8, 2010
This Sunday we thought together about being church in our neighborhoods. If you’re interested in thinking about that idea more, check out this podcast from Alan Hirsch (click on #2: Beyond Church Planting to Movement Planting). Hirsch is a highly sought after speaker and author of numerous books, including The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church.
This was recorded at the Exponential Conference I had the chance to attend a couple weeks back in Orlando, Florida. It is well worth a listen for anyone who seeks to follow Jesus. As Hirsch says, “your baptism is your ordination.”
Sent | Especially for Those Who Don’t Believe It
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 8, 2010
Sunday morning in the Sanctuary services I shared an excerpt from Rob Bell’s book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. Check it out – and try to imagine yourself as “Person X”:
“Another truth about the church we’re embracing is that the gospel is good news, especially for those who don’t believe it.
Imagine an average street in an average city in an average country, if there is such a place. Let’s imagine Person X lives in a house on this street. Next door is a Hindu, and on the other side is a Muslim, Across the street is an atheist, next door to them an agnostic, and next door on the other side, someone from Ohio.
Imagine Person X becomes a Christian. Maybe she read something or had friends who inspired her to learn more, or maybe she had an addiction and through a recovery movement she surrendered her life to God. However it came to be, she became a follower of Jesus. Let’s say she starts living our Jesus’ teachings, actually taking him seriously that she can become a compelling force for good in the world. She is becoming more generous, more compassionate, more forgiving, more loving. Is she becoming a better or worse neighbor? If we are her neighbors, we’re thrilled about her new faith. We find ourselves more and more grateful for a neighbor like this. We wish more people would be like this.
Let’s make some observations about this street. The good news of Jesus is good news for Person X. It’s good news for Person X’s neighbors. It’s good news for the whole street. It’s good news for people who don’t believe in Jesus. We have to be really clear about this. The good news for Person X is good news for the whole street. And if it is good news for the whole street, then it’s good news for the whole world.
If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.
And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display. (166-167)
Sent | “I’m a Baptist Evangelist”
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 6, 2010
Tony Campolo shares his strategy for airplane discussion (or not):
“I was on an airplane coming from California to Philadelphia. I sat down next to this guy. It was the red-eye special, one o’clock in the morning, and he wanted to talk. He said, “What’s your name?” I said, “Tony Campolo.” He said, “What do you do?”
When I don’t want to talk, I say, “I’m a sociologist” And they say, “Oh, that’s interesting.” But if I really want to shut them up, I say, “Oh, I’m a Baptist evangelist.” Generally that wipes the guy out right on the spot.”
Yesterday we thought together about being sent out by Jesus into our communities with the good news of the Kingdom. Coupling our time together yesterday with Tony Campolo’s thoughts above, are there ways in which we purposely or unknowingly extinguish possibilities to engage Kingdom discussion with others? If so, how could we be equipped to instead use every opportunity to “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… with gentleness and respect”? (1st Peter 3.15)
Six Sides of Cardboard | Keep in Mind
Posted by Curtis in After Words on June 3, 2010
On Sunday we heard from Bartholomew, one of Jesus’ own disciples, who recounted for us when Jesus was rejected in his hometown. N.T. Wright offers some helpful after words to our gathering:
“Christians today need to keep in mind both the big picture of what God is doing in our world and our time, and the many smaller pictures of the individual humans, perhaps at the moment in rebellion against the gospel, who by God’s grace will become people of faith and prayer. James, at this stage, shared the general unbelief of Nazareth. Within 30 years his name would be known throughout the land, and across the world, as synonymous with faith and persistent teaching and prayer – and loyalty to his older brother, Jesus the Messiah.”
- Mark for Everyone, 67-68
Get Up! | More After Words
Posted by Curtis in After Words, How Great Thou Art on May 27, 2010
Remember, this is not the end of your story.