The Way of Jesus

Props, Signs, and Mirrors

Download "Props, Signs, Mirrors"  July 5th teaching.

Youth Missions Sunday June 28th

Download "Youth at Pine Ridge June 28th 2009"  Back from Pine Ridge Reservation our youth and leaders share about their experiences with Jesus and through Jesus.  Nice work Team!

Good News for Dads

Download "Good News for Dads"  I don't normally give specific messages to correspond with Hallmark holidays, but I made an exception in this teaching.  I briefly address three systemic challenges that impact Fathering in our our context.  I do think these three affect men more than they do women but I wouldn't say they only affect men and not women.  I also make a point to say that I do believe we can talk about gender differences in a way that doesn't reinforce a hierarchical patriarchy.  That fear is part of the problem, leaving men in the dark as to why we struggle with identity issues.  There are some that think men's issues would be solved if society went back to a hierarchical patriarchy, believing it is ordained by God.  I disagree with this assessment of the issues men face and with the theology that is being trumpeted as an unfortunate misreading of God's intent for men and women.  With that said by way of introduction, we need some good news for Dads.  My prayer is that this teaching would plant some seeds that will grow into some extraordinary communal ministries for men and boys. 

peace,  David

Responding to God's Mission

Download "Responding to God's Mission"  We explore three basic questions in this teaching 1) What is God doing? 2)  Where is God working?  3)  Am I cooperating?

Celebration Sunday, June 7th 2009

Download "Celebration Sunday June 7th 2009"  We take a Sunday each year to thank everyone who made the past ministry year possible.  Thanks for serving!

24 and the Christian Imagination on Torture: Part 4

I will pick up my series of posts on 24 and the Christian imagination on torture.  In part 2, I identify four assumptions that undergird the show: 1) Caricature alternatives to torture as timid and out of touch with reality, 2) Limiting the perspective to one day, 3) depicting the results of torture as thoroughly effective, and 4) leveraging the mythic narrative of redemptive violence.

In my 3rd post, I gave one real example to respond to 24's caricature of alternatives to torture as being out of touch with reality.  In this post I will address number 2 and 3 above.

The year is 1998, the CIA targets a terrorist cell of Egyptian militants working inside Albania who have been in touch with bin Laden's deputy Ayman al Zawahiri.  With Egyptian help, the group is broken up, one member is killed, while the others are rendered to Cairo where they are tortured, and two later hung.  Soon after the operation, al-Zawahiri responds with a public statement, threatening retribution for the Albanian incident.  Three days later, the US Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies are blown up, killing 257 people, including 12 US nationals, and injuring more than 5,000 people.  Despite al-Zawahiri's attempt to link the renditions and the attacks, an FBI investigation of the bombings reveals they have been many years in the planning.

Unlike the show 24, the terrorists who were tortured did not help uncover a major terrorist plot to blow up the embassies "Just in Time".  Most investigators admit that it is incredibly difficult to ever know if there really is a ticking time bomb until after the fact.  

The 1998 embassy bombings were horrific.  They are criminal.  They were not stopped even though some were tortured for the purpose of gaining intelligence on future plans.  Those tortured were used to justify the embassy bombings, which gives insight into a universal principal-- inhumane treatment of another escalates inhumane treatment of another.  Violence begets violence.  Or as Jesus stated emphatically, "Those who live by the sword, die by the sword" (Matt. 26:52).  

Here is the problem of the one day perspective presented in 24; in 24, torture works and it stops something horrible from taking place.  Let's assume, despite the evidence, that a 24 scenario is real: torture stops something considerably more aweful from happening on one particular day in history.  But what does that action breed after this particular day?  How many more grievous plans does it seed? How is the torture used for recruiting?  For additional funding?  For future learning and planning?  

The one day perspective presented in 24 is limited and nearsighted, and its depiction of torture as an effective means for information gathering is not adequately supported by actual evidence.  The fact that 24 will continue with another ticking time bomb story next January, is a clue that no one really expects the cycle of violence to end.  No villain seems afraid of Jack Bauer enough to stop planning new ways to blow people up.  Somehow Jack's "do whatever is necessary" stand is not a sufficient deterrent against terrorism.  And sadly the evidence says it is a rationale for more terrorism.  Even on the show 24, the escalation of grievousness increases each season.  The threat level increases rather than decreases. The same tired story plays on and on.  I keep watching it and I keep believing I need Jack.  In fact, I will need him even more because the next season will be even worse.  I don't think FOX will market season eight as "the most mild season of 24 ever." 

Is my supposed belief in Jack Bauer's methods perpetuating the problem rather than contributing to a solution?  How does the cycle of violence end?  Where does it stop?  

The Mills Church: On becoming smaller, particular, and local

The past several years we have deliberated on a name change that could symbolize our history as a church and recognize the renewal and definition that has taken place with our new constitution and by-laws.  The Mills Church is the name that has had the most resonance.  With different groups and people that I have had conversations with there tended to be four responses to this new name 1) “I love it!”  2) “You know I wasn’t sure at first, but it is really starting to grow on me.  I like it.”  3)  “I don’t really have a strong opinion either way.”  4)  How about the Mills (_______fill in the blank) Church.  (We have considered several descriptive words that could be inserted between mills and church.)

If you are hearing the idea of a name change for the first time, do you relate to one of these responses above?  Maybe your response is completely different.  How you feel is important and I’d love to hear your responses.  So far the new feedback from last Sunday has been really positive and those four responses have been representative.  So if your response fits in group #2, unsure of how you feel about the name or the idea of a name change, you shouldn’t feel odd.  It is very normal to take your time to digest a change like this and I encourage you to give it time.  Pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling.  Read these update letters.  We will continue to unpack the why’s, how’s and when’s of a name change over the next several weeks.  And please, don’t hesitate to talk to me.

Our congregation changed the name from Minnetonka Union Church to Minnetonka Community Church in September 1956.  The name was adopted at the beginning of a pastoral transition right before Pastor Ken Churchill’s tenure from 1957-1981.  The rationale for the change:  “It was felt that this name better described an interdenominational church in a rapidly growing community” The Mills Church, pg. 42.

In 1913 and even in 1956 when you said Minnetonka your focal point was Minnetonka Mills.  Now, when you say Minnetonka, you get dispersed from Ridgedale to Shorewood.  It is fascinating to me that the city of Minnetonka is recognizing its lack of a city center and is intentionally addressing this absence in the Upper Minnehaha Creek Corridor Project.  The city doesn’t have a mainstreet but it is seeking to develop a main “green space” with its central feature being the Minnetonka Mills Park across the street from our church.  You can view the plans by going to Minnetonka Mills Park Plans.

I love the pioneering thinking in both 1913 and 1956 around naming this church.  “It was felt that this name better described...”  Over the past three years there has been the same kind of conversations.  “It feels like” it is time again to name this new chapter in the life of our local church.  And one of our priorities in our name is to affirm the local nature of our local church.  We are in Minnetonka, but it is different now.  Minnetonka, as a name, has become generic in its locational specificity.  We recognize that this neighborhood has changed, from “a new and rapidly growing” community in 1956, to the now historic district that invites the sprawling community of Minnetonka together.  We have been doing ministry in the Mills neighborhood for 111 years.  We love that and we are renewing our commitment to be Jesus in this particular neighborhood.  

In a modernized society that has privileged mass production and centralization as the vehicle for maximum impact, we celebrate the small mustard seed reality of the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God germinates in small groups and grows up organically.  It is germinated locally and spread relationally, rather than manufactured for standardized mass distribution.  It is always fresh never canned.  We believe that God desires to partner with local churches.  We believe the church is called to be a sign to the world--putting God’s saving intentions for his world on display.  God’s transformational strategy is local, personal, relational, organic and dynamic.  It starts small and spreads.  We desire to put God’s strategy on display.  And one small way we can symbolize this desire is to make our name smaller, less generic and more local.

shalom.

Introducing: The Mills Church

Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul.  Name changes are an important theme throughout scripture.  They correspond to God’s calling for service and ministry in the world.  Names call us.  

This year we are celebrating 111 years of ministry in the Minnetonka Mills Neighborhood.  Our church began as a Sunday School in 1898 that grew into a congregation.  The first official name chosen for our church was Minnetonka Union Church in 1913.  It was a pioneering interdenominational church.  Very few communities at this time had the vision to be a union across denominations.  As the church grew, and a new chapter began in the 1950’s, a new name emerged -- Minnetonka Community Church (a good 30 years before churches shed their denominationally distinctive names by adopting community church titles.)  When Anna Gardner oversaw the writing of our history book, which recounts our first hundred years, the unifying name chosen for these first two eras was “The Mills Church”.  

I really like that name, the Mills Church.  It locates us in this historic neighborhood, it recognizes the long history of this wonderful local church, and by adopting its name, it can symbolize our renewed desire to be continually called into what God is doing in this neighborhood, city and world.  God isn’t done leading us.

We have had several different teams bring up and discuss the idea of a name change over the last few years.  Finishing our work on our founding documents last year and the collective sense that this feels like “chapter three” in the history of our local church keeps bringing this up as an appropriate consideration.  And the name The Mills Church is what keeps bubbling to the surface.  It’s a name that signifies both continuity and renewal, our history and our future.  These conversations on a name change all affirmed a common sense that God is at work among us in a fresh way, that there is a renewed expectancy and desire to be fully used by God in ways beyond what we can ask or imagine.  This is the prayer that is and I believe will come to mark us out in this new chapter, “God we long for our neighbors, our friends, and those we have yet to meet to come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  We long to partner with you, as you restore our relationships with each other, with you and this world.  Form us and lead us, our Savior and our King, Amen.”

A lot needs to take place before any official change is made to our name.  I introduce this to you today in light of our 50 days of Easter celebration.  We are an Easter people and Easter is the day everything changed.  We will take the summer to communicate as a congregation and formalize our process moving forward.  Our goal is to fully implement any changes made in time for our Fall Kick Off in September.  I am sure you have questions and more will be communicated in the coming weeks.  Please don’t hesitate to call, email, or drop in to talk.  I invite all of us to reflect on and pray the above prayer.  Let’s make it our own and may God take us where he wants us to go.  Shalom.

The Day Everything Changed: What's Her Name?

Download "What's Her Name?"  Day 50 of our 50 days of Easter Celebration and the final teaching in our "The Day Everything Changed" series.  In this teaching we explored the history of Pentecost and the way God has moved his redemptive story from Abraham to the birth of the church up till today.  We looked at the theme of name changes throughout God's story and introduced, according to this theme, a name change to our local church.  This is an important listen.  Shalom.