Hellish Thoughts

In light of a couple sermons I’ll be preaching this year (yes I do know what I’ll be preaching on pretty much all year, yes I am sort of proud of that, hopefully in a good way) I decided I needed to bone up on the doctrine of Hell. It’s one of those many areas where it’s easy to default to Sunday School on and never really think or study about it. Here are my key thoughts and ideas:

Hell is for the Devil and his angels and those who have rejected salvation (and there some other grey areas)

Hell was / will be created by but God. I don’t think it will be run by him or overseen by Him. I don’t think God will be standing around with a hot poker. If it is God who holds the universe together and all creating is sustained by Him I believe Hell is a place that will be sort of self sustaining, sort of a deist approach, God will / has created the place the then stepped away to let it run itself.

Hell is eternal death and separation from God. I believe that the “punishing” purpose of hell is somewhat secondary and coincidental. God created humans and angels to live forever and yet he will not tolerate rebellion forever. This requires, for lack of a better world, and dumping ground for the wicked. I believe hell is a place devoid of God’s sustaining, creative power, His God gifts, his well, anything. It is the universe falling apart but never quite getting there. It is existence plus nothing; it is a process of destruction that never achieves its end. The pain, loneliness, etc are all simply byproducts of being removed from the presence and power of God. Hell is what happens when God forgets about you.

Hell is forever. If it were primarily about punishment or penance then at some point, one would assume the debt gets paid and it ends. If it were about correction I think you would learn in a hurry. If it were simply for total destruction than surely it would be instantaneous. But if it is simply a place God created that is totally without His presence, grace, or sustaining power then it would by necessity be eternal. There is no process to complete (punishment), no goal to achieve (destruction) and no response to illicit (repentance) your just thrown there and forgotten about.

These thoughts are young, feel free to help them grow up.

AJ's Dictionary of Technology

Cell Phone - A small compact device who's primary function is to turn otherwise civilized people into ignorant jackasses.

Ear Piece - An accessory to the cell phone that allows the user to communicate how pretentious and self important they are.

MySpace - Social networking site culture watchers refer to when they want to prove they just don't get it.

FaceBook - A web based tool that allows city folk to share the small town experience of having everyone else know your business and acting politely to people you don't remember.

iPod - A device used to drastically increase the sales of white ear bud's for use with competitors products.

GPS - It's like a map, but smaller, more fragile, more expensive, and for dumb people.

Online Debate - Provides an web based option for people who don't have rocks they can argue with.

.com - signifies a web address

.net, .org, .ca - signifies that A) everythingbeforethat.com was taken or B) they don't get it

Feel free to add on...

Who's Next...

One of my favorite activities as a church planter is dreaming. In this line of work dreaming is not a waste of time, a luxury, or a simple creative exercise. God honoring, Holy Spirit inspired dreaming is, in fact, absolutely essential. Without just sitting around staring off into space dreaming Deep Water would have never been started, most of the the creative and different things we do wouldn't exist and we would run the risk or being "just another" instead of what God has called us to be. And without dreaming I wouldn't be about to sink some serious cash and manpower (personpower?) into what I have begun to affectionately refer to as "the Beer tent".

That said, one of the things I often dream about but don't ever seem to come to any real clarity on is staffing. I often wonder, as we grow and develop what would be the most logical "next hire".

Should we go the more traditional route of a secretary / administrative assistant type set up. Then we need to get an office space, and equipment, and is there really that much admin to do anyway?

Would it be in kids ministry to increase our appeal to young families and to allow greater opportunity for that ministry to thrive despite facility limitations. Of course our vision doesn't really call for anything beyond sunday morning programming though.

Is it worship. Someone who could grab creative ball and run with it and make Sunday mornings everything they possibly can be, someone to front the band and train the tech crew and pump up the video end of things. Of course I love that stuff and am experienced at it and if it's gonna line up with my message I have to be fairly involved anyway.

I could just hire someone I really like, who I think gets the vision and mission of Deep Water and has a well rounded skill set and figure out job description as we go.

Or maybe it's something else, everything else. Small groups, leadership development, connection, compassion, ministry training, administration.

It's not a decision we need to make today, but hopefully soon and when the time comes God will make the path clear. I have no idea who it would be - but man it's fun to dream.

... and friends are friends forever...

One of the cool fringe benefits of following Jesus is the friends you make along the way. Most of my best friends are people I have met while on my journey with Jesus, friends from the church I grew up in, the Bible College I went to, and churches I have served in, and the church I now lead.

However if I had always stayed in the bubble of my own denomination and my own church my my life wouldn't be as rich. This is clearly illustrated by 2 lunches:

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my favorite non-wesleyan brothers in Christ. Brad Somers is a Baptist, a great guy with a great heart for Jesus and he's living that out on a pretty non-traditional way. He's planting a church among the impoverished and addicted in the north end / Gottingen area of Halifax. He challenges me and I'm closer to Jesus for his friendship.

In a few minutes I'll leave for lunch with another of my favorite non-wesleyan brothers in Christ. David MacPhee is a Catholic, a great guy with a great heart for Jesus and he is living that out in a way that is on one sense quite traditional and yet at the same time very uncommon these days. He is joining a religious order - "The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate". These guys take the love of Jesus and gospel (and Mary... I know, I know) to some of the most rough and remote places around Canada and the world. He is giving his life to a fellowship of brothers who are on a mission for Jesus. He challenges me and I'm closer to Jesus for his friendship.

When breeding animals it a well known fact that the more diversity you can get in the gene pool the stronger the resulting offspring. I think that's true of the ecclesiastical and theological pools we choose to experience. We are made stronger by allowing input into our lives from various traditions and approaches to Jesus.

So what friends are you making with people from different Christian traditions? What ways are you drawing on Christian traditions significantly different from your own? Go for it, it will enrich your spiritual life and you will be encouraged as you find that there are solid followers of Jesus everywhere including a denomination you could argue is barely Christian and the Roman Catholic Church.

I Have Solved the Single Greatest Moral Dilemma Facing Christians Today

And what is the dilemma you ask? What do you do with an old Bible. For the clutter-bugs among us the answer is simple - set it on a shelf to decompose. Someone always suggests giving them away but what that usually boils down to practically is either A) dropping them off at the Salvation Army collection box or B) giving that old KJV you quite reading because you can't understand it to the youth ministry in your church so it can be "used" by that 13 year old new christian.

Disposal options are a quandary. Throwing it the garbage is just plain wrong. With other respected items sometimes you burn them (like with a flag) but burning can also be considered disrespectful (like with a flag - I've never understood this). I've herd of burying them and having a small ceremony thanking God for all you've learned from them, almost like a funeral. The one that makes the most sense to me but still never seemed quite right was to recycle them, sort of an "at least I'm caring for the creation" type idea.

But here is ultimate answer. It's ministry that collects old and extra Bibles, Sunday School curriculum, commentaries, etc and ships them to Christian workers in third world countries for them to use. Christian Salvage Ministry of Canada can be found here. You just box up your old bibles and mail them off.

Are they useful to the people in third world countries? Don't know.
Can these people even speak english? No idea.
Is this a guilt free way to get rid of old Bibles you never use and wouldn't want to give to a friend or new Christian? Yes it is!!!

Christian Salvage Mission
120 Lancing Dr. Unit #3
Hamilton, ON L8W 3A1