The Primary Use of Prayer

The primary use of prayer is not for expressing ourselves, but in becoming ourselves (Eugene Peterson, Answering God, p. 19).

Church of the Week: Crossroads Community Church, Cincinnati

In honor of my son, Aaron, who last week started a new job at Crossroads Community Church in Cincinnati's Oakley neighborhood, I thought this would be as good a time as any to feature Crossroads as the church of the week.

Crossroads is a ginormous non-denominational church with a mission of "connecting seekers with a community of growing Christ-followers." Anyone entering the church from any direction before a worship service is greeted at the door by a friendly, smiling greeter. The hugantic atrium can be disorienting at first, but multiple directional signs, coffee stations, and seating areas make it a dynamic yet inviting space.

The likewise hunormous auditorium, with a spacious balcony, can be entered from any number of directions. A standard of excellence is apparent in the quality of sight, sound, and music, and the casual, accessible teaching and friendly banter from the stage makes the experience much warmer and intimate than you might expect.

The children's ministries--on two levels of the sprawling facility--is also top notch. One section of the check in desk (not far from the information desk) is devoted and clearly labeled for "new families." A full kit, complete with a CD of kids' music children learn and sing in their classes, is provided to parents upon check-in.

But my favorite part of the Crossroads experience is the easy-to-miss chapel off the main atrium (in fact, on my first two or three visits to Crossroads, I missed it).

It's a space that most churches would love to have for their main worship experience, but at Crossroads it provides a gorgeous, adaptable setting for more intimate occasions.

If you're ever in the area, and are looking for a distinctive worship experience, stop in at Crossroads, which has multiple services on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

As For Me and My Mouse, We Will Serve the Lord

Pastors must come to terms with multiple sites and with multiple rites and rituals of remembrance: specifically the real and the virtual. The real world already has multiple sites and rites at which we preside (church, home, "funeral home," cemetery). Where are you and your church ministering in the virtual world? (Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims, p. 76).

A Refusal to Remember

Our planet that gets smaller every year, with its fantastic proliferation of mass media, is witnessing a process that escapes definition, characterized by a refusal to remember. Certainly, the illiterates of past centuries, then an enormous majority of mankind, knew little of the history of their respective countries and of their civilization. In the minds of modern illiterates, however, who know how to read and write and even teach in schools and at universities, history is present but blurred, in a state of strange confusion....[T]he poet....feels anxiety, for he senses in this a foreboding of a not distant future when history will be reduced to what appears on television, while the truth, as it is too complicated, will be buried in the archives, if not totally annihilated.

(Czeslaw Milosz, from his Nobel Prize speech)

A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Wife, blogger, and Christ-follower Rachel Held Evans committed one full year of her life to following all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible—from submitting to her husband (Colossians 3:18) and calling him "master" (1 Peter 3:5-6) to growing out her hair (1 Corinthians 11:15), covering her head for prayer (1 Corinthians 11:5), and caring for the poor (Proverbs 31:25). She did this not to be silly or disrespectful, nor to glorify the Bible's patriarchal elements, but to explore all "biblical" aspects of womanhood and start a real conversation about how we approach and apply the Bible to such things.

Her book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood (How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master) is the result of her efforts. And it is wonderful.

With sincerity, authenticity, insight, and humor, the book charts Evans's efforts over twelve months to experience all the Bible says (or seems to say) about womanhood:

October: Gentleness
November: Domesticity
December: Obedience
January: Valor
February: Beauty
March: Modesty
April: Purity
May: Fertility
June: Submission
July: Charity
August: Silence
September: Grace

Some parts were so good, I had to read them aloud to my wife. At times, I highlighted whole paragraphs (which I just don't do) and made notes in my Bible. I nodded. I cheered. I laughed out loud. I got angry. I got misty. And I vowed to make my wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law read it...even if it meant putting my foot down as the head of the house and priest of the family (that last part is a joke, just to be clear).

So much in the book is worth remembering--and re-reading. But some of the parts that I highlighted and hope to come back to often are:

What we read into the Genesis narrative often says as much about us as it says about the text....A passage that might challenge readers to aspire to the love and mutuality of Paradise has instead been used for centuries to justify the perpetuation of the curse (xxii).

The Bible is a hundred times older than you are. Prepare to be humbled by it (p. 48).

We make the most beautiful things ugly when we try to systematize mystery (115).

When you realize that faith is not static, that it is a living and evolving thing, you look less for so-called "spiritual leaders" to tell you where to go, and more for spiritual companions with whom to travel the long journey (204).

It is a tragic and agonizing irony that instructions once delivered for the purpose of avoiding needless offense are now invoked in ways that needlessly offend (262).

When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded word (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the parts of the Bible that don't fit our tastes (293).

Those are just some of the portions I highlighted. There are many more, and some (as I said above) of considerable length.

(A quick note: the page numbers above refer to the advanced reader's copy; they may not correspond to the page numbers upon publication)

In brief, I want everyone to read this book. Seriously, everyone. Men and women. Young and old. Pastors, elders, deacons. Parents and grandparents.

It's important. It's entertaining. It's refreshing. And it's worth every penny and every minute of the time it takes to read it.

_________________________

(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher, for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”)

Church of the Week: Salvation Army Montclair NJ Citadel Corps

The lovely Robin and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend with old and dear friends at The Salvation Army in Montclair, NJ.


The Montclair Corps was our church home from 1987-1991, while we lived in the area. But the place where we worshiped and served was nothing like this!


A new and beautiful facility was completed--on the same site as the previous structure--a few years ago, and it's just beautiful. A highlight of the entryway (above) is a fountain with verses referring to living water.

The Coffee Booth (below) is a warm, versatile cafe setting just off the lobby.


The most distinctive feature of all, however, may be the underground parking garage, an absolute necessity if the corps was to stay in the same location:


The prayer, music, and warmth of the morning's worship service were moving and effective. For both me and Robin, the ministry of band and songsters and Dorothy Post on the piano were an absolute blessing.


Even the youngest folks in the room were attentive:


And the preacher was, well, let's just say everything else was wonderful:


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