Vacation / Retreat Reflection Day 1

The vacation isn't off to a very promising start. Barry hurt his back this week, so he's laid up. I've decided to hang around the valley until Sunday after Church. I'll go off to Los Angeles after brunch with the friends. But I am starting my reading and reflection on time. This week is going to be a time for sabbath and discernment. Normally I'm very busy and doing all kinds of stuff over the weekend. But this weekend is a bit of a change - a little time off.

So this vacation, like I said is a reading retreat, and a time to just read, pray, meditate and encounter some different thoughts and take time to listen to God. The reading program is pretty strenuous, but definitely manageable and not taxing. Right now I'm finishing up True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In by James Choung. Some of you would be surprised at what Evangelicals have to teach crusty Episcopalians like us about preaching the Gospel. This isn't the typical bridge diagram:



It's something a lot more. It really reflects a Gospel we can believe it. It is a gospel that emphasizes conversion as well as living out the call to discipleship. It's about understanding what really happened. It's a great read. As I read it, it is a great narrative of the basic message of the Gospel. It isn't high theology, it isn't philosophical, but it's a great "get down to basics". We Episcopalians sometimes get stuck in our ivory towers and forget to come down. This helps us do that.

I am reflecting on this right now as I'm discerning more and more of how to direct the Integrity ministry at Trinity Cathedral and working with Young Adults in general. I see a lot of apathy, I see a lot of people just waiting to get out of this world, when that's not the point. Disciples are meant to get their hands dirty and work in the trenches. Recently, I was reading some information about the social work career, and their little advertising thing was "on any given day, a Social Workers is helping ..."

What if we put out something like that ... on any given day a Christian is feeding the homeless, helping a single mother raise her child, helping someone overcome addiction, ... . There's a lot of nasty stuff that's going on not just out there in the secular world, but also in here, in our little Church world. What are we doing to change it? When many of our young adults lose interest and leave the Church only to become an asset for someone else? Anglicanism has a great message for the world, and taught correctly could serve to heal a lot of what's going on in our country.

People call me conservative, strict, evangelical, whatever ... but the point is we are dealing with a dying Church and no one is listening, absolutely no one! When confronted with the fact that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, most Episcopalians shudder in disgust at such an "evangelical" or "fundamentalist" statement. When confronted with the fact that Jesus demands absolute surrender from us, we shudder again at the thought of not being able to do what we want when we want. Anytime someone wants to get a fire underneath the belly of Episcopalians for evangelism, we're called infiltrators from the fundamentalists.

Positioned correctly, the Episcopal Church is in the best position to grow right now and what are we doing about it? We're putting out ridiculously stupid and innane commercials about cutting carrots. We're letting people like John Shelby Spong teach a Christianity so watered down that anyone that believes in it might as well be a member of every religion. We're driving out Christians who want to take a stand on traditional doctrine and faith in exchange for a faith that means nothing and changes no lives.

If this is the way that the Episcopal Church is going, we will soon lose our scriptural warrant to exist. We will no longer have the warrant of a Church because we are no longer following the Great Commission, we will no longer have the warrant of disciples of Christ because we are not making a change and doing what we need to do to build God's Kingdom here on earth.