Washington: Day 3, Ruminations

It’s one thing to tour the capital of the U.S. and marvel at its immensity, its inherent power and feel struck by your own smallness and lack of contribution to the course of history. It’s another thing to immerse yourself in the process of democracy, if only for a few hours, like our group from Monticello did today and walk away from it apathetic. First off, you can’t. Secondly, our meetings today and the interaction of our group with our Washington representatives has made me question my own role as a leader and contributor to change.

Our group met with all four or our Representatives from Arkansas today and one Senator, Blanche Lincoln. We will eat with our other Senator, Mark Pryor, tonight. I found the whole process energizing and challenging. Here are citizen legislators, some of whom I disagree with policy-wise, but nevertheless working to represent us. Before anyone complains about politics or religion or the marriage amendment or who votes prolife or prochoice, I think there’s a bigger question.

The New Testament writer, Paul, urges us…

“first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2.1-4)

There are so many political couch pototoes that I know. I can speak with some authority on the subject since I’ve wallowed a pretty good warm spot on the third cushion from the left for myself. I’ve waxed eloquent on too may occasions with mindless drivel of “what should be done” or why “they” are idiots. I’m sure I’ll slip up again. However, let it be said here that my momentum is towards the front door and away from the couch. I’ll no longer offer up pontifications of the sweet bye and bye. Rather, I fully intend to embrace the gifts and offers that God provides to nurture relationships, to influence others, and to get as involved as I can without extending myself into arenas in which belong stronger gladiators.

I ask for your prayer and help. I ask for your forward momentum as well. You don’t belong on the couch anymore than I do.

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

As a Christian leader, I lived under the illusion for too long that doing good unto others was meant to be expressed within the confines of other Christians. The last 10 years of my life has radically changed that perspective. This trip to Washington has solidified many heretofore silently held assumptions as well.

You can’t stand in the shadow of a Lincoln and leave the future to others.

You can’t study the piousness and humility of Washington and consider yourself unable to effect change.

And you can’t read a blog such as this and continue in your ignorance and selfishness. What will you do in your generation to contribute to the lives of others? What are your dreams for freedom? Who will you follow?

For those of you who don’t want to think about such things and just want to look at pictures…

Washington: Day 2

We’re fid’na be late for a group meeting with our fellow Monticellonians, so this will be ultra short. You can go to the Flickr site for updated pictures.

One of my favorite places yesterday besides the Capitol was the Library of Congress. Gimme a laptop, a cup of coffee and the main reading room would be my perennial hangout. Double wow.

Washington: Day 0.5 – 1.0

We arrived in D.C. yesterday afternoon and took a cab to our hotel. It’s right across the street from the Library of Congress. Very cool. One thing we were awed by is just the sheer scope of the mall area of Washington’s power center. At one end of the mall is the Jefferson Memorial, and the Capitol is at the other end. Fronting the mall on the north and south are massive, majestic buildings that house the National Museum of Art, Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian, and well, you name it. When we walked by the J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI HQ) this afternoon, I officially pronounced myself in awe.

We went to Union Station last night to catch a train to Baltimore for the UAM reception, only to discover that it had just left. How dare they not hold it for us?! So we opted for a dinner in Union Station which contains 30 shops or more and several restaurants. We walked back to the hotel in bitterly freezing winds.

This a.m. we got up and went to worship with the congregration of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, which is where Mark Dever is pastor. We enjoyed our worship there, though it was a pendulum swing on the high church scale from where Journey is. Dever is an awesome expository preacher. More on that in a blog entry to come. You might check out his 9marks site when you get a chance. That’s how I first heard of him.

Afterwards, we went to the Air and Space Museum, where we got to see a real Lunar Module, the actual plane the Wright brothers flew for 59 seconds to begin aeronautical history and more. We walked across the mall to the north and entered the National Archives. I could have spent all day there, but we specifically went to see the original U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence was not being shown today as its case was being fixed. We did get to see one of the four copies of the Magna Charta too.

From there, we froze our way over to Ford’s Theater to see where Lincoln was shot and then we were able to go across the street to the Peterson’s house, where he eventually died.

I feel like a walking history book this evening, one that has been left in the fridge for a month. (Have I mentioned it’s cold here?)

More photos here. 

Internet time usage

Thought you’d find this interesting….

[Via compete.com]

Mr. Noble goes to Washington

Carolyn and I will be on a plane bound for D.C. by the time most of you read this. We’re going with a group of local leaders known as Twenty for the Future. The best way I can think of describing them is as an economic development SWAT team.

Each member contributes $1000 yearly, and the money is used for special projects to encourage ED in our small town of 9100. We’ll be meeting with the Arkansas Congressional leaders. I’m hoping to podcast our meetings with these leaders on MonticelloLive next week. More on that later.

In the meantime, we ask for your prayers for wisdom and for grace to conduct ourselves in a way that will foster deeper relationships with those going from Monticello. Stay tuned for our D.C. Diaries here at Notes.

Church organization can inspire… (rated 4 stars)

Elders and Leaders

by Gene A. Getz

Many of you will find this hard to believe, but a book about how to effectively organize your church’s leadership structure can breathe fresh life into your church if implemented.

Few folks stop to consider that the way your church is currently structured may actually be hindering its growth and ministry. It may also be suffocating your leaders, without them even being aware of it.

Getz’s book is, indeed, a primer on New Testament church leadership and structure. I’d encourage it for all new church leadership teams as well as traditional churches who desire to experience a more biblical model of church leadership.

Many times, our churches are structured the way they because it’s “always been that way,” or because they’re simply unaware that the New Testament may, in fact, provide more guidelines for leadership and organization than they’ve considered before.

Our leadership team at Journey is currently reading through this book, and I expect it will continue to reap fruit for us as we seek to lead as servants and shepherds.

See more about Elders and Leaders

Arkansas apostrophe

More proof that a wholesale change is needed in state and local politics…

Looking for the Republican Party ransom note

Richard Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com told activists recently at a conference that the Republican Party has been hijacked and that true conservatives should feel “angry and betrayed” by the “corrupt and immoral” Republican leaders they have had in Washington.

Viguerie said, “Just simply because the Republican Party has a death wish does not mean that conservatives have to go along with it.”

What’s he talking about it? Tell me what you think.

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What a headline…

Sometimes the headline of a post captures you immediately and says all it needs to say. Try this one on for size: “Creating Parents with a Judicial Magic Wand.”

Life tips

Over at this site, you’ve got some rather remarkable “no duh” tips for project management that also have great applications for every day life management. Review a few of them and then list your favorites. Here are mine:

Personal

• You DO have enough time for everything.
• When you plan your schedule for the day, ensure that you leave 20% of your day free.

Business

• Chatty colleagues not only disrupt their own schedules, but also prevent you from completing your task on time. Get them to correct their habit or red flag them when you are working on meeting deadlines.
• Match tasks to capabilities. Each employee in your organization has certain innate talents. Tap them by ensuring that each person performs task that he/she is good at. Research shows that employees perform better when they are assigned tasks they enjoy doing.
• Introduce the email culture. Avoid phone calls between colleagues. Wherever possible, ask your colleagues to contact you via e-mail. Ensure that the e-mail communication is clear, crisp and concise.

Home

• Try not to compulsively clean. It is far more important to relax a bit each day than to live in an immaculate house.
• Get organized. Create a place for everything and ensure that everyone in the family keeps things in their right places. This will save time that would otherwise be spent searching for something.

Disclaimer to Wifey: This is for my encouragement only. There are no imperatives or hints hidden anywhere in this list.

How long do you plan to be at your church?

An interesting article over at MMI relates a new study that says a full 1/3 of your church members may be considering another church to join right now. I’d encourage you to read the article.

As a pastor, it’s a little depressing. Church membership is done a little differently at Journey in that folks travel through our Discovery Group before they join. During that time, we seek to answer questions and explain the DNA of our church. We talk about why we’re structured the way we are, how we’re led, what we believe, etc. We also devote a segment to discovering the potential members’ stories by giving them personality and spiritual gift inventories. These are not used to pigeon-hole them but to help us explain that God created us all differently and that everyone in our church is expected to contribute and serve in some way (some in the church; but more in the community in which we live).

However, I’m also encouraged by the study. Since we’re a small church, that means if 1/3 of folks leave, then we’re still eligible for another, larger church’s 1/3 joining! Our net result will be a gain. Right? ;)

The bigger question I think, is what keeps people attending a church without participating in the life of the church? It’s way too large and complex of a question to fully answer, but here in our little town, I know there are folks who only attend a certain church because it’s where family goes, or it’s because they wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by “switching” churches. Regardless of whether they’re being spiritually fed or whether they’re growing in Christ (or even know that they should be), they attend semi-regularly and consider themselves faithful. You could rephrase that by asking, “Why are the 2/3 NOT planning on leaving?”

Evaluate your church, I say.

• Is its fellowship warm and loving?
• Does it demonstrate and practice its commitment to God’s Word?
• Are the decisions of its leaders and church body made through prayer and in faith?
• Are you growing in love with God daily as a result of being associated with this church?
• Are you held accountable for your own obedience to God’s Word outside the church?
• Are your leaders men and women of integrity, character and love?
• Do your leaders show evidence of spiritual growth over the course of time?

These are just a few questions. Come up with your own.

With a dropout rate of over 80% for Christian teenagers, I think it would behoove every parent and family to consider if the traditional church’s methodology is going to be sufficient to keep your child “in the faith.” The penetrating answer to that is simply… No. But it’s not the church’s fault.

When you expect the church (or a Christian school) to do the faith education of your child, then you are immediately investing in the dropout rate. Yep. Just because your sweet, precious little thing can quote a hundred Bible verses to you today does not mean they have at all assimilated what they believe. It’s just rote memory, in many circumstances. If it’s not being reinforced at home by Christlike living, loving time, and evidence of the parents’ commitment to loving personal relationship with Christ, then there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest it will all fade like the mist later.

So where do you find yourself today? Are you a 1/3-er or a 2/3-er? Or perhaps, you’re considering belonging to a church for the first time in a while? What are the criteria that you’ll need to make a wise decision?

Related Blog Entries:

• TJ Scott has also posted on this article. Great read.