Becoming Like a Child

By Erik Raymond

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“Jesus was forsaken, abandoned by God, so that his people would never be forsaken or abandoned.”

As a Dad there are many times that I see our children provide direct insight into the heart of humanity in a refreshing way. An example that most of us have seen is a child that does not want to be left alone. They may be sitting in their room playing with a toy and then all of a sudden start crying and yelling, “Dad! Dad! Where did you go?” Our daughter was in a store with my wife and in plain sight of her mom, but mom was not in her plain sight. Suddenly she cried with desperation, “Moooom?! Moooooom!!” My wife answered, “Right here honey.” To which she grabbed her Mom by the leg, pressed her face against her and said, “I thought you had left me here. I thought I was alone.” My wife answered, “No, sweetie, Mommy would never do that. I was right here the whole time.”

Our Self-Sufficiency Has a Leak

As adults we tend to operate with something of a veneer of self-sufficiency that children, particularly younger children have no reference for. They feel alone and they cry out. However, we feel it too, and likewise, our heart cries out for consolation. Consider worrying. If we are worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow (say health, work, relationships, etc.) then we are basically coming to grips with the fact that we want something to go a certain way but are also aware of the fact that we don’t have the ability to make it happen. We feel small and powerless. We become afraid of people and their power. We fear sickness and its power. We fear government and its power. But we don’t cry out. We just sit and stew, maybe complain, sometimes vent, but it is all too rare for us to cry out. The veneer of self-sufficiency keeps us respectable.
At the same time, we know that the tire of our pride has a leak. This is why we love music about brokenness, enjoy watching shows that reveal other people’s weakness and triumph, and deep down we envy others who are able to admit that they don’t have it all together.

God Speaks Knows Our Weakness and Speaks to It

This is one of the reasons why I love the Bible. The Bible knows us. Isn’t that something? As the old Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “I read books, but this book reads me.” And it does (Heb. 4:16). The Bible operates on the presupposition that we are all weak people. All of us, throughout history, have sinned and therefore experienced alienation from God. As a result, we feel alone, vulnerable and somewhat concerned about what is coming down the pike. Therefore, God strikes a nerve when he promises his abiding presence and power with his people.
Consider the church who received the letter of Hebrews. These guys were ostracized socially, religiously and economically. They lost friends, money, homes, jobs and respect (Heb. 10:32-36). From the perspective of the cultural elites around them, they were on the wrong side of history. They needed to either get with the program or get lost.
Look at what God, knowing their situation and struggle, says to them through his word:
“… for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”” (Hebrews 13:5)
The writer of Hebrews quotes a phrase that is oft repeated in the Old Testament. God promises that he will never leave nor forsake his people. Just this phrase is enough to still the raging sea of anxiety from within us. However, there is more here. In English if we use double negatives it has a negating effect, but in the Greek language that this was written in it had an emphatic effect. This writer stacks up the negative like a child building a lego tower. He says, “I will never, never leave you and never, never, never forsake you!” What do you suppose his point is here?
The phrase is used at key points in biblical history:

• When Jacob is fearing reprisal from his brother for his wickedness, he has a dream. God reminds him of his promises and that he “will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen. 28:15). Jacob’s worry is consoled by God’s Word.
• As Joshua is taking over the command of God’s people and he is going to lead them on a conquest into the promised land, God reminds the new leader, “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Josh. 1:5).
• When David is on his deathbed, he wants to leave his son Solomon with something that will encourage him. So he says this: “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished” (1 Chron. 28:20).
• The prophet Isaiah promises that God will have mercy on his people. He will care for them, and so he promises, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them” (Is 41:17).

Promises Are Costly

How can this be? What is the basis for all of this? How can God truly be for us in this way? God always with and for his people? And, we are not very good people either.
Do you remember the words of Jesus Christ on the cross? As he hung there, fixed upon that wooden pole, suspended in air between earth and heaven, writhing with physical pain and being torment by the unleashing of divine wrath. There on Calvary, Jesus Christ was drinking the fully fermented, undiluted cup of God’s wrath against sin. He was looking down the barrel of judgment that was due sin and sinners. He was there, for us. And he said,

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Matthew 27:46)

Jesus was forsaken, abandoned by God, so that his people would never be forsaken or abandoned. God’s promises have blessings and curses attached to them. He bore the curses so that we would get the blessings. God visited him in judgment so that he could visit us in grace.
All of these promises to Jacob, Joshua, David and Israel were tethered to Christ. If he is not abandoned then we cannot be comforted. If the Father does not forsake the Son then he cannot abide with us. God has proven his faithfulness, love, care and promises to us. Picking up on the grammatical force of this verse, the hymn writer said,

“‘The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Become Like a Child

Jesus taught his followers that we must become like little children (Mt. 18:3). This is not about immaturity but rather childlike trust, weakness and the reflex of calling for Dad. When tempted to worry and overcome with weakness, we are not to hide behind the fig leaves of self-sufficiency but cry out like children, “Dad!?” To which he answers, “I am here. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always.”  

Erik is a pastor at Emmaus Bible Church (EmmausBibleChurch.org), a church plant south of Omaha. Converse with Erik on Twitter at @erikraymond. More from Erik Raymond or visit Erik at http://www.ordinarypastor.com/

Pixar's Moral Movie Inside Out

		July 18, 2015 by Dr. Benjamin Wiker For too long—way too long—Hollywood has been giving us kids movies with an increasingly threadbare theme: "follow your heart" (sometimes rehashed as "follow your dreams," or the even more vapid "be yourself"). These themes were meant to carry an intentionally inoffensive pseudo-moral message, boiled down in its essentials to something like, "do the thing you really want to do a whole lot even though others—especially your parents—will be obstacles to your self-defined, self-fulfillment." If we scratch down a bit, we realize the reason for continually recycling this kind of a message. We live in a culture that has rejected the understanding that human life has a definite goal that we, as human beings, should be trying to achieve. We therefore believe that we are goal-less creatures who are free to define ourselves in whatever way happens to please us, blank slates upon which we can scribble anything we want. This view—stretching all the way back to the atheist Machiavelli in the early 16th century, through the atheist Friedrich Nietzsche in the late 19th century, and all the way down to today's secular invent-yourself culture—assumes that there is no God, so we can therefore manipulate nature, including our own human nature, in any way we desire. All that matters is that we each get whatever we want. The Machiavellian-Nietzschean-secular view—we can call it the modern secular view for short—purposely rejected the natural law, Judeo-Christian understanding that assumed that the human moral good was defined by God in creating our human nature as rational animals, male and female, made in the divine image. We see the clash of these two rival worldviews in the debates about marriage. On one side we have the natural law, Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage which is defined by our given sexually complementary nature as male and female. On the other side, we have the claim that marriage is defined in any way any one happens to please. In other words, as far as marriage goes, "follow your heart," "follow your dreams," "be yourself," "do the thing you really want to do a whole lot even though others—especially your parents—will be obstacles to your self-defined, self-fulfillment." The "follow your dreams" approach to kid film-making is not, then, so very innocuous in its pedigree. It's the result of the secular dominance of the culture, which grounds itself on an endless plurality of ever-shifting, endless desires, a culture where there is no right or wrong but only getting what you really want or not getting it. Even more, it creates boring kids movies because there is no definite moral aim that can give a real backbone to the drama. Such movies teach children that the moral life consists in getting whatever you happen to desire—which is an exceedingly effective way to form children into adults who act like spoiled children, and turn our political life into a contest of tantrums. Enter Pixar's new movie Inside Out. Not once do viewers hear the hackneyed "follow your heart/dreams." Instead, we find out why following what one happens to feel strongly about at any given time can be self-destructive, or even better, family-destructive. The focus of the movie is the drama of the passions that human beings, as human beings, have "inside" them—joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust—the passions which determine what comes "out" in our thoughts, words, and actions as they are formed within the natural family structure: a man/husband/father, a woman/wife/mother, and a child of one very definite gender, in this case a girl (Riley). What children learn—and even more, adults who've not heard the moral message—is that our feelings are actually quite complex. There isn't some amorphous inner blob called "heart" which we can follow. We have, in fact, distinct feelings of joy, of sadness, of anger, of fear, and of disgust. They are part of our standard equipment; they are all good, each having its own purpose (including fear, sadness, and even disgust). But we can't just follow our passions because they can also mislead us if we take them as guides to what we should think, what we should say, and what we should do. The passions are instruments that help us think and act well, not guides. We need (to quote Aristotle) to learn to fear the right things, in the right way, and the right time, and for the right reason. In this way, fear helps us do the right thing. Sadness is proper—we should be saddened by things that are bad or evil, or even disgusted by them. While anger is one of our most misleading passions, it is also a proper response to actual injustice, and even a spur to good action. And joy is our controlling passion insofar as our proper moral goal is (again, to quote Aristotle) happiness. Inside Out personifies each of the passions, making them a kind of team (led by Joy) that helps to control the human being from inside—most of the film focusing on the increasingly complex inner life of Riley as she grows from a baby to a teenager. As abstract as this all sounds (and I'm leaving out a lot of thoughtful and entertaining details), Pixar has done an intelligently delightful job of presenting the passions jostling inside people as having real personalities (or we might say, real and sharp qualities). They are not cardboard, preachy-teachy cutouts that make such morbidly dull reading in the worst of contrived and moralistic allegories. They are funny, insightful, and true to life, and carry the drama forward with the usual Pixar excellence. The overarching drama on the outside is quite ordinary. A loving father and mother move with their much-loved daughter Riley from Minnesota to San Francisco because of the father's job change. The little girl, predictably, has trouble adjusting, and gets both sad and angry enough to run away. But in the end, because she misses her parents, Riley gets off the bus taking her back to Minnesota, and returns to her loving father and mother. All very ordinary. The real drama occurs inside, where Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger try to coordinate their respective passions for the sake of the little girl's good. The problems come when the wrong passions dominate Riley's actions—when she gets disgusted and then angry as a baby when her father tries to make her eat broccoli, or when she gets unduly sad and then angry at her parents for moving to San Francisco and therefore tries to run away. The long-term, big-picture message is that, young or old, we must learn to control our passions rather than be controlled by them. Even more amazing and ambitious for a kids movie, Inside Out explores the connections between the various distinct passions and memories, dreams, thoughts, and judgments. It does it all in a way that both appeals to and instructs children, and provides enough food for thought that Inside Out could be used as a kind of introductory philosophical "text" in college—something which, as a college professor, I might very well do! Having some doubts about a college professor assigning a Pixar movie? Well then, perhaps you are not aware that Plato, in his Republic, argued that the utmost attention must be paid by philosophers to children's stories in any political regime because the first years of moral formation are the most important. If Plato were here with us today, one of his first questions would be, "What kind of stories do you tell your children?" I am sure he would be quite happy with Inside Out, especially if he would compare it with the dreary march of soul-distorting "follow your hearts" films that have plagued us for so long.

Trapped Inside My Own Body for 12 Years

Trapped Inside My Own Body for 12 Years

Everyone thought I couldn't hear them, but I did.

Martin Pistorius/ July 20, 2015

Image: Chris Gloag

People often ask how I found God. I was never taught to believe in him. I didn’t read books or go to church to discover him. I simply knew he was with me. My path to faith may not seem so unusual if you know the miracle of my life—a miracle of survival that could only have happened by the hand of God.

I grew up in South Africa, a normal, healthy child, until I came home from school one day in 1988, complaining of a sore throat. I was 12 years old. From that day on, my parents fought for a diagnosis from doctors who couldn’t explain what was happening to me. First I stopped eating. Then I stopped speaking. I lost all sense of time. The bonsai trees I had once tended grew dense as I lost mobility in my limbs. My body weakened as I stopped using it.

Test after test was run, but doctors couldn’t say what had happened to me. They concluded I had suffered profound brain damage due to a degenerative neurological disease, and that I would soon die. I spent my days in a center for children with severe disabilities, and my parents cared for me at home at night.

For the first four years after I fell ill, I was lost in a dark, unseeing world, unaware of anything around me. I was awake but unresponsive. I have no memory of these years. After the medical profession had washed its hands of me, my parents were left to care for me, having exhausted every avenue in search of a cure.

Then, when I was around 16, I started to become aware again. It was flashes at first, moments of awareness that left me almost as soon as they appeared. It took time for me to realize that I was completely alone in a sea of people.

Since my limbs were unresponsive and my voice was mute, I was entombed in my own body. I couldn’t tell anyone that I had returned to life. People knew that I had become more responsive, but they still believed I was severely brain damaged. And so I was fed and cleaned while being sat in front of reruns of Barney. I dreamed of smashing the television screen.

People looked around me and through me. However much I tried to beg and plead, shout and scream, I couldn’t get them to notice me. I had woken up as a ghost.

Angels Beckon

Soon after I started to become aware, God came into my life.

One night I suddenly “awoke” from sleep. It felt as if I were floating far above my bed. Instinctively, I knew that I was not breathing. I could see angels with me, a male and two females. They were comforting and guiding me, and although we did not speak, I could hear their voices. They wanted me to come with them.

For a moment, I wanted to go with them. I had nothing to live for, no reason to continue my journey. But I couldn’t leave behind the family that loved me.

The next moment, breath filled my lungs.

As I became fully aware, the only certainty I could cling to when so much didn’t make sense was that God was with me. Without understanding the rules and structure of the church, without a concept of sin, the Bible, or repentance, I simply believed in him. I can’t explain it, other than that, on the fringes of human experience, perhaps I was in a place in which I didn’t need theological teaching to understand faith. The people around me didn’t know I existed, but God did. And I knew he existed. It was instinctual, not intellectual.

I could see angels with me, a male and two females. They were comforting and guiding me. They wanted me to go with them.

I started praying to God. I couldn’t clasp my hands or kneel, of course. But as I lay on a beanbag or sat strapped in a wheelchair to keep my useless torso upright, I started to talk to him. I prayed for someone to come and move my aching body. I prayed for him to keep my family safe. I prayed for some sign that one day I would be rescued from my silent world.

Sometimes my prayers were answered. Sometimes they weren’t. But when I felt disappointed and powerless, my conversations with God taught me that gratitude could sustain me. When the smallest prayer was answered, I gave thanks to the Lord. Caught in perhaps the most extreme isolation a person can experience, I grew ever closer to God.

I lived for nine years without anyone realizing there was intelligence trapped inside me. During this time my family occasionally took me to church, but formal worship meant little to me. Visiting my grandparents, I would watch as they said grace but felt no connection to the words.

One day, my father pushed my wheelchair into a shop where a woman, seeing my broken body and staring eyes, prayed for me as she touched my head. But all I felt was confusion that a stranger would do this. My faith was so tightly locked inside me that seeing people practice theirs together or in public seemed strange.

Then, in 2001, my most central prayer was answered.

Finding Love, and Church

A massage therapist at the care center I attended became convinced that I could understand what she was saying to me. After she persuaded my parents to have me assessed, I was taken to a specialized communication center. I sat on one side of a transparent screen, praying once again for God’s guidance and grace. An expert sitting on the other side asked me to identify pictures of everyday objects with my eyes. Seeing that I looked at the correct pictures on command, she told my parents that I could learn to communicate.

The intelligence that had been trapped inside me soon became apparent. I quickly learned to use flashcards and switches to communicate. Then I mastered advanced computer software. Within 18 months, I was able to speak using my “computer voice.” I started to lecture about alternative communication and to volunteer. In the years since, I’ve graduated with an honors degree and set up my own business as a web developer, all the while communicating via computer.

During this time, my faith remained an integral part of my life, but I still didn’t feel connected to the church. On New Year’s Day 2008, I met someone who did. My parents and I had Skyped with my sister, who was living in the UK. Her friend Joanna was in the room. She captivated me. We started to exchange emails and chat online, Joanna talking and me typing. We quickly fell in love.

Joanna had been brought up as a Christian and understood much about the church. As we talked and discussed faith, I began to understand more. Six months after we met online, I visited Joanna for the first time in the UK. One of our first activities together was to attend a church service. There, for the first time, I understood that

Two are better than one,

because they have a good return

for their labor:

If either of them falls down,

one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

and has no one to help them up. (Ecc. 4:9–10)

That December, I moved to the UK, where Joanna and I did a Bible study class together. I began with a child’s Bible before moving on to an audio Bible that I could listen to alone. Six months later, Joanna and I were married. The Lord had brought us together, and now he was with us as we were joined in his presence.

Joanna and I continue to attend church. My life, like that of so many people, has become so full of work and commitments that it’s sometimes hard to find the time and space to connect to God. It’s the time and space that I had so much of during my enforced silence. Now I find peace in worship.

In many ways, my relationship with God looks the same as it always has: quiet, private, and intrinsic to my life. Without the Lord, I would not be here today. I have no doubt that it was only his intervention that saved me. It is only through God that I have found my voice.

Martin Pistorius has written about his experience in Ghost Boy (Thomas Nelson).

Anxiety Is a Spiritual Issue

Anxiety Is a Spiritual Issue

How the Bible deals extensively with anxiety—and its roots.

By Rachael Dymski

May 26, 2015

Rachael is working toward her MFA at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. She loves few things more than travel, interior design, running, literature and a good cup of tea. She blogs at ... Read More

One of the easiest ways to disable a person, I think, is to make them anxious.
I am not talking about an anxiety disorder, a diagnosable mental disorder that can be treated by doctors, therapy or medication. (To learn about about anxiety disorders and how to receive help, you can visit NIMH.NIH.gov.) I am talking about a general anxiousness, worrying, asking what ifs that are a part of everyday life. I am talking about the discomfort caused by the mind racing faster than mouth or logic, worrying about tomorrow, worrying about all that we don’t know or about what could happen.
The Bible is far from silent on the topic of anxiety. It says so much about worry, the faithfulness of God, and how we are to respond to it. Here are a few ways the Bible addresses anxiety.

We Are Cared For

Often in the Church, worry is looked upon as a sin. Often, people don’t like to talk about it because it’s almost taboo; those who do bring it up are frequently offered quick solutions of “God is good” or “Have more faith.”
The Bible though, is gentle toward those who worry. In 1 Peter 5:7, the Bible tells us to “cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you” (emphasis mine). In Matthew 11:28, Jesus, with arms wide open, calls for the weary and heavy laden to come to Him, and He will give them rest.
Sheldon Vanauken, the author of A Severe Mercy, wrote that “to believe with certainty, one has to begin by doubting.” In a world where good and evil, joy and suffering exist so painfully close to each other, it’s hard to get very far believing in a Sovereign God without asking difficult questions. Very often, we ask those questions in the midst of pain, grief or anxiety.
How assuring to know we don’t have a God who stares at us from a distance, eyebrows raised and arms crossed, waiting for us to finally figure this all out, but, rather “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). I love the imagery of Psalm 56:8: “You keep track of all my sorrows, you have collected all my tears on your bottle, you have recorded each one in your book.”
I think that God is far more gracious, more gentle and tenderhearted toward our anxious hearts than we understand. Memorizing Scripture gives us a small window into that love, which is a vast and endless sea.
In A Circle of Quiet, author Madeline L’Engle said that we are all afraid of the dark. If worry, after all, comes from a fear of not being in control, then isn’t sleep and loss of consciousness the ultimate act of surrender? Even in darkness though, there is always, always, light. With the blackest of nights come the best view of the stars.
Maybe, even though God made the night and knows there is nothing in it to fear, He gave us stars to light it because He knows we might be afraid anyway.

God Is Always Faithful

If God is sovereign over us, then He also has authority over us, which means then that He is responsible for taking care of us. The Bible says God is faithful, which, if He is, then He is faithful again and again, because the definition of faithfulness is to remain loyal and steadfast.
“The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your Faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23).
When I am worried or anxious about something, I often write it down on a  piece of paper. Then, below that, I write down every way God has been faithful to me in the last six months. By the time I finish that list, the thing I worried about suddenly seems very small. If God has been faithful to me in every other way, surely He will be again.

Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/anxiety-spiritual-issue#iPAZKDqyzsz5gTDl.99

To This One Will I Look

To This One Will I Look
(En Español)
Transcendent, Liberating Humility
Of all virtues, Jesus elevated meekness above the others. Why? Humility is the door opener to grace: no virtue enters our lives except that humility bids it come. Without humility, we have no sense or attachment to our personal need; we see no reason to change or appropriate future grace.
Yet, humility is not only host to the other virtues, it is also the life essence that sustains them. It is humility that recognizes when love is growing cold and humility that confesses our need for greater faith. Without humility, our virtues harden into lifeless statues within the sanctuary of our hearts. Thus, humility sustains the unfolding of true spiritual nobility. It provides increasing wholeness, life and growth to all other virtues.
Consider: when asked by His disciples "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Jesus put a child in their midst. He said, "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:1,4).
What a sublime wonder that, in heaven, the height of greatness is measured by the depth of one's humility. Listen to Wuest's Expanded Translation of this verse: "Therefore, he who is of such a nature as to humble himself like this little child, esteeming himself small inasmuch as he is so, thus thinking truly, and because truly, therefore humbly of himself, this person is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Jesus came not only to bring us to heaven when we die; He came to establish heaven where we live. Thus, He introduces the realm of God to His disciples with the words,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:3).
Beloved, there are no proud beings in heaven. Here on earth we see the strutting pride of leaders and celebrities; we behold pride again in our racial and cultural identities and divisions. We see unrepentant pride in many marital divorces and church divisions; and the offspring of pride - envy and jealousy - in the inordinate desire to be glorified before men. In heaven, praise to God fills the atmosphere, not pride in human achievement.
Jesus said the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit! Not the perfect, but the poor -- those who know they are spiritually needy -- these will find a welcomed home in the kingdom of God. But there dwells not one proud soul in all of heaven.
Hear again the promise of the Lord:
"In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the LORD" (Zeph 3:11-12).
Only the humble take refuge in the Lord. Do you defend yourself? Do you seek retaliation or vengeance for life's injustices? Or, instead, do you take refuge in God? If so, then humility is growing within you. Remember, neither the proud nor the self-righteous look to God; only the lowly trust in the Almighty.
To the humble He gives grace. Grace is not just unmerited favor, it is God's promise to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. When we confess our sins, when we openly reveal our flaws and our ongoing need of divine help, we find the Almighty a ready companion to transform our lives and meet our needs.
Listen again to the promise of our God:
"For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell {on} a high and holy place, and {also} with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite"" (Isaiah 57:15).
Revival cannot be conjured up by man; it doesn't come just because we put a sign outside our churches and advertise. No, true revival only comes from God. Yes, and of all types of people upon earth, God chooses to bring revival to the humble. Indeed, He gives even a greater encouragement: He promises to dwell with the contrite and lowly.
Humility, the door that welcomes virtue, is the catalyst to all things spiritual. God resists the proud, but gives help to, and dwells with, the humble.
Beloved, there is nothing God desires from us except a humble heart. Listen well to this final great promise of our Creator:
Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?"
"For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:1-2).
The great King, the Eternal One, sifts the nations in search of a certain type of person: he who is humble, contrite of spirit, and who trembles at His word. He says, "To this one I will look."
"Lord, I humble myself of my pride and innate tendencies to exalt myself. I long for the secret courts of the Most High and to dwell in the secret place with You. I humble myself before You, O God. Let this day be the beginning of lowliness in me."

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What the Church Can Learn From the Tiny House Movement

July 6, 2015

by Ted Cunningham
If your family downsized, what is the smallest house you could live in? When you think about the rest of the world, that question seems ridiculous. Our family is obsessed with the Tiny House Movement (singles, couples, and families moving into homes ranging in size from 150 – 600 square feet). Our family has no plans of moving into 187 square feet anytime soon, but we are asking great questions.
How much stuff do we need?

Could we get rid of half of what we own? Which half?

If our closet shrunk by 90%, what clothes would we donate to Goodwill?

Could we sleep in a bedroom loft with a four-foot ceiling?

How big do our kitchen appliances need to be?

How many kitchen appliances do we need?

If each person was only allowed to bring one cedar trunk into the tiny house, what would be in your trunk?
According to Wikipedia, the average size of a new single family home is 2,479 square feet, up from 1,780 square feet in 1978. Through the 80s and 90s our houses grew large as Baby Boomers expanded their businesses, companies, careers, and investment portfolios. They created the modern banking system that gave first-time homeowners generous mortgages and waived the traditional 20% down payment so families could afford bigger spaces to store more stuff.
I started church ministry at the peak of the church growth movement in 1996. Most of the conferences I attended were led by Baby Boomers. They taught us how to grow, expand, build, and fundraise. Seminary prepared me to teach, care, counsel, and lead, but I did not feel equipped with a strategy to grow a large, thriving congregation.
Please don’t hear me say I am against growth. I’m not. I just believe we slid into the church growth movement so quickly, that few asked the tough questions like…
What will this do to the soul and tenure of the pastor and staff?
What happens if we take out a huge mortgage and something happens to the economy?
How will our local ministries and global missions be affected if we spend big money on facilities?
Do we need to build huge education space if we’re moving towards small groups?
Whether you are startup church, big church, small church, or you’re considering a building campaign, moving into a new space, happy in your current space, or stuck in your facility for what seems like eternity, all of us can learn some great lessons from the Tiny House Movement.
A tiny house is simple. When you walk into a tiny house, your first thought is, “They have what they need without the extras.” I’ve been lost in hospitals more times than I can count. Moving through multiple wings of a hospital involves many hallways, walkways, and elevators. On a recent hospital visit I found myself outside between two buildings on the way to the car thinking to myself, “I don’t remember being outside on the way to the room.” Large, complicated facilities can be a hassle for first-time guests. Keep the facility simple with easy-to-read maps and signs.
A tiny house is built for function. One tiny house owner recently said, “If it doesn’t serve multiple purposes, we kick it to the curb.” I recently talked with a friend who shared his church’s vision to begin reaching their surrounding community through home groups. The big question was, “What do we do with over 100,000 square feet of education space we built years ago?” If we’re not careful, facilities quickly determine ministry or the lack thereof.
A tiny house is easy to maintain. A generous company came to Branson, Missouri years ago and bought empty theaters for churches. It’s no surprise that our largest vacant theater has 4,000 seats and was built in the 1990s.
When one of our abandoned 2,500-seat theaters came on the market, many of our church members said, “We need to get that theater.” I had to come up with an elevator speech that I could repeat on Sundays. When asked about the property I responded by asking, “Have you ever vacuumed a football field?” “No,” was the usual answer. “Well, that theater has 10 football fields. Can we count on you to volunteer for facilities?,” I asked. Most of my friends responded with a smile and, “I get it.”
A tiny house frees you up. This flows from the easy-to-maintain point and is most attractive to my wife. Gary Smalley taught us years ago, “Every square foot you own owns you.” True. Think of all the time you would free up if you didn’t need to clean thousands of unnecessary square footage at your church. What ministries could you invest that time in? Ask your family tonight what they would do if the cleaning chores around your house were cut in half?
A tiny house avoids insane debt. The elders of our church have not allowed debt for 13 years now. We still meet in rented facilities and I am super grateful. One of our elders is a retired pastor who spent the last 5 years of his ministry mentoring pastors through capital campaigns. He worked for a national parachurch ministry that helped churches raise money. His primary role was to encourage pastors who were ready to give up on the campaign and their ministry. Debt is exhausting, debilitating and can ultimately stifle the growth of your church. Avoid it whenever possible.
A tiny house does not allow hoarding. My wife and I are often shocked by the amount of stuff churches keep in storage. We throw away or give away as much as we possibly can. For years, I was attached to our first church trailer. We used it when we did portable church in a movie theater, but it sat unused after we moved into our permanent facilities. Whenever my wife, Amy, hinted at getting rid of it, my nostalgia kicked in, and I wanted to hide it. Finally, I broke and we gave it to a pastor starting a church in Tallahassee, Florida.
Is it time to do a little “spring cleaning” at your church? If you have used equipment sitting in storage, consider giving it to a startup church. How about wall dividers on wheels? Church planters love and need those! If your church has three vans and only needs two, consider giving one van to a church that has none. Oh yeah, that 6-foot-tall flip phone you used as a sermon prop 10 years ago should be thrown away immediately!
Amy serves our church as the Environments Director. Her passion is creating spaces that are warm and inviting. Facilities are important tools in reaching and leading people. I encourage you to walk through your facility as a guest. Maybe invite someone who has never visited your church to do a walk-through with you. See the space from their perspective.
We can learn a few things from the Tiny House Movement as we plan our ministries and facilities over the next 10 years. If you get a chance, watch an episode of HGTV’s Tiny House Hunters, and listen to the perspective of the homebuyers. It will encourage you as you plan new spaces and projects in the years to come. Try to keep it simple, functional, and easy to maintain as you avoid insane debt and clutter.

Filed Under: Helpful Articles: Ministry Issues

Loving Your Prodigal

By Jeanette Gardner Littleton

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Part of the Teen Rebellion Series

1. Teen Rebellion
2. Relentless Parenting
3. Holding Tight When Your Teen Rebels
4. Loving Your Prodigal
5. Loving — Even When it Hurts
6. Rebellion and Intervention
7. Beyond the Heartache

Series About:

Parenting Challenges

"I don't have to put up with this. I'm outa here!" Amber stomped to her room.
I don't remember what the issue was, but a couple of hours later Amber was gone. Several frantic days later, we discovered that our high school senior was living with two older guys.
Amber isn't the first child, and certainly won't be the last, to abandon the values he or she was raised with. Sometimes children question their faith in a way that can be nerve-wracking for parents but is a natural part of growing up and making faith their own. At other times, kids make a series of bad choices but don't walk away from God. Some kids, however, rebel against parents, God and anyone else who gets in their way.
No matter the scenario, it can be a time of stress, anxiety and heartbreak.

What should a parent do when a child goes astray?

• Don't be too embarrassed to ask for support and prayer.
  When Amber left, I felt like such a failure. But when my husband and I admitted to others what was going on, we found comfort from Christian parents who also had prodigals.
  
• Don't blame yourself.
  When children enter the prodigal world, we tend to think it's because we did something wrong. After all, Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." But this Scripture was never meant as a guilt trip, nor as a guarantee. Sure, we make mistakes, but ultimately kids make their own choices. Young people leave family and faith because they decide to.


• Know the difference between helping and enabling.
  After Susan's runaway son, Jon, was kicked out of his apartment for not paying the bills, Susan welcomed him back home. But Jon often partied all night, and Susan fielded the calls from his employer, making excuses for Jon when he didn't arrive at work the next morning. Finally, Susan realized she was enabling her son's irresponsible behavior. She stopped covering for him and let Jon face the consequences of his actions. Parenting a prodigal often means practicing tough love.


• Don't forget the rest of your family.
  One day I was complaining to my friend Rhonda yet again about our prodigal. "What's going on with your other kids?" she asked. "Yes, you love Amber. But you have two other kids and a husband who need you. Stop focusing on Amber so much that you ignore them." Sometimes we have to entrust our prodigals to the Lord — and let Him work while we continue with the rest of life.


• Realize your parenting has changed.
  "Even if your daughter comes home tomorrow, it will be different," a co-worker told me. "She has emotionally removed herself from your authority. Now you learn how to parent an adult child." When a child leaves a parent's care and protection, the relationship changes forever. We can let our prodigals know we love them, but we have to let go of our responsibility for them.


• Build a unified front with your spouse.
  After Tami left home and got into financial difficulties, her parents decided together how they would field the requests for money they knew would come. They agreed to tell Tami, "I'll talk to your mom/dad about it, and we'll let you know." Also, don't forget to work on your marriage relationship. Make sure you don't spend all your time together talking about the prodigal.


• Set boundaries.
  During a prodigal season, otherwise lovable kids are often at their worst. They may become rude, demanding, manipulative and abusive. Some parents think they have to put up with bad behavior in order to display God's love. That's not so. The prodigal benefits more from the parent who says, "I love you, but I won't tolerate disrespect." Set boundaries in any area that concerns you, especially if your child wants to move back. Make sure your child understands your boundaries and the consequences for overstepping them.


• Deal with your feelings.
  Parents of rebellious kids face many emotions: anger (at the child, at themselves, at a mate, at a child's bad companions), grief, sorrow, depression and guilt. Whatever the feelings, we have to acknowledge them before we can deal with them.


• Remember God loves your child more than you do.
  Parents of prodigals feel helpless. That's why we must lean on God and His grace. He constantly draws them to himself and will be with them even when we can't.


• Look to a brighter future.
  In talking with dozens of parents, I learned that the prodigal season is just that, a season. Amber outgrew her prodigal stage within a couple of years as she realized she didn't like being a "wild child." Sooner or later, most children return to good relationships with their parents and their heavenly Father.

Meanwhile, keep the big picture in mind.
As you continue to love and pray for your child, have faith that your child is God's work in progress.

This article was adapted from an article that first appeared in the Parents Edition of the May 2008 issue of Focus on the Family magazine.

 Copyright © 2008 Jeanette Gardner Littleton. All rights reserved.