And off we go!
In about 13 hrs, we'll be on our way down to Mexico (with a one night stop in LA beforehand). I'm a little bit anxious, as I am no longer just a team member, but as one of the "adults" on the team, I'm co-responsible for the high schoolers - there aren't any adults (no quotes) along as a security blanket. But then I have to remind myself, whether in hardship or in blessing, or even the blessing of hardship, God will grace us with Him, and that makes all the difference.
I leave you with a snippet from an interview with one of my favorite songwriters, Derek Webb (formerly of Caedmon's Call). For Christians in America, it is so easy to desire the American dream of blessing, comfort, a nice house in the suburbs with 2.5 children and 3 cars, with a picket fence to provide a boundary for the dog. I'll let Derek say the rest:
Stocki: The content of the album is as hard hitting as the production. Sadly, what is the standard Gospel call to follow Jesus is very fresh and somehow quite jarring. What provoked the repentance from the American Dream?
Webb: I think that most Christians in the West believe that the world revolves around them. We are so wrapped up in the idea of our country that we've started to mistake Christianity for a heightened sense of nationalism. It's very much in the whole "God bless America" idea. It makes for bad foreign policy and even worse theology. There's much still to repent of here in the west, and I want to explore that to the ends that I would be a more faithful follower of Jesus, and an honest patriot.
Stocki: Why do you think a Church that supposedly follows Jesus has bought into the American Dream?
Webb: Rich Mullins once said that Christianity is not about you and your perfect wife and your perfect children, carving out a perfect little place for yourselves, far away from any gays or minorities or risk. And I totally agree.
Stocki: Where can we begin to redress the compromise?
Webb: I think the cross is the only place we can go. At the cross we will receive both the humility and the boldness we need to grieve and repent of where we are coming from and where we are, and the hope to move towards our glory.
In about 13 hrs, we'll be on our way down to Mexico (with a one night stop in LA beforehand). I'm a little bit anxious, as I am no longer just a team member, but as one of the "adults" on the team, I'm co-responsible for the high schoolers - there aren't any adults (no quotes) along as a security blanket. But then I have to remind myself, whether in hardship or in blessing, or even the blessing of hardship, God will grace us with Him, and that makes all the difference.
I leave you with a snippet from an interview with one of my favorite songwriters, Derek Webb (formerly of Caedmon's Call). For Christians in America, it is so easy to desire the American dream of blessing, comfort, a nice house in the suburbs with 2.5 children and 3 cars, with a picket fence to provide a boundary for the dog. I'll let Derek say the rest:
Stocki: The content of the album is as hard hitting as the production. Sadly, what is the standard Gospel call to follow Jesus is very fresh and somehow quite jarring. What provoked the repentance from the American Dream?
Webb: I think that most Christians in the West believe that the world revolves around them. We are so wrapped up in the idea of our country that we've started to mistake Christianity for a heightened sense of nationalism. It's very much in the whole "God bless America" idea. It makes for bad foreign policy and even worse theology. There's much still to repent of here in the west, and I want to explore that to the ends that I would be a more faithful follower of Jesus, and an honest patriot.
Stocki: Why do you think a Church that supposedly follows Jesus has bought into the American Dream?
Webb: Rich Mullins once said that Christianity is not about you and your perfect wife and your perfect children, carving out a perfect little place for yourselves, far away from any gays or minorities or risk. And I totally agree.
Stocki: Where can we begin to redress the compromise?
Webb: I think the cross is the only place we can go. At the cross we will receive both the humility and the boldness we need to grieve and repent of where we are coming from and where we are, and the hope to move towards our glory.
posted by Bob at
11:57 PM
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