Words'nTone

As many of you know (at least the regulars to Words’nTone and those who browse into it from time to time) that my seventeen year old daughter was heading to Houston, TX to meet up with a small group of people who would drive to South Dakota to spend time with the Lakota Indians on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.  As a parent, I am thankful to those who prayed for Amanda and the team, and for those who contributed to the costs of the trip.  Amanda has safely returned to Connecticut, with stories and a new perspective on life and in her Christian walk.  Just to let people know, Amanda wrote a brief email that I shared with my friends, family, and colleagues.  Here is that note of thanks…

Hello everyone,

I am back and safely in CT.  I want to thank all of you for supporting me and praying for me (and the team) as I journeyed on my adventure to the Lakota Indians in South Dakota.

Thank you, so very much.

Although I am slightly disappointed that it is just as hot here in CT as it was in Texas, at least South Dakota was cool, and not to mention, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.  God has truly created a beautiful world.

Anyways, just a brief update on how the trip went.  I can honestly say that I learned so much more on this ten day journey than I have in any given month’s time.  In my support letter I talked about wanting to “learn compassion,” however, I found myself growing in understanding.  Perhaps these are not mutually exclusive, that is, to grow in compassion means to grow in understanding.  In particular, I came to understand that the way things are on the reservation are so much more different than in any place I know or have experienced.  They have a mixture of their own Indian culture and the American culture; many Indians practice the Christian faith, but still cling to their Great Spirits.  One of the most impacting things, it was difficult to grasp a hold of that sad fact that the people on this reservation have the fifth highest place for suicides.  This is especially seen with their teenage suicide rates.  They have a drastic need for teachers (and of course this is important to me, because I want to be a history teacher), and they desperately need a stronger youth center, along with adult mentors and friends to show them a better way.

Again, thank you all for your support.  I will be communicating more on my trip, but this was to let people know, briefly, I made it back and had learned a lot, and am thankful for all of your prayers.

Sincerely,
Amanda

While I am on the subject of my daughter, I already mentioned she is taking a summer mission trip in June. Amanda has a great opportunity to live on an Indian Reservation in June as part of a team of high school and college age students. The team will spend about two weeks on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota with the Lakota Indians. Last summer Amanda indicated a desire to learn more about American Indians, and in particular to live on a Reservation. After a wide search we found that the Episcopal Diocese of Texas facilitates a two week trip. Not only does she have to raise the funds for this trip, she must prepare by studying in advance about the Indian culture and the needs they have on the reservation. She has assignments from the sending agency that are a part of the condition to join the team. She has been working on these assignments. Amanda is interested in History (she wants to be an archaeologist and a history teacher) and considers this adventure a part of her educational experience as well as part of her spiritual formation. As her father, I agree. The following is what she wrote in her support letter:

Dear Friends and Family:

Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” And then, almost in the same breath He said, “But go and learn what this means: I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE’” (Matthew 9:12-13). This June, I am embarking on a journey to learn what this means.

I am really excited about an opportunity this summer where I can serve on a mission team going to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The team will be trained and led by Sherry Lucas of North American Indian Ministries (NAIM). In the last eight years there have been eighteen teams, with team members from many different denominations, all serving together to learn what it means to have compassion by showing those who live in Rosebud the love and grace of Christ. NAIM organizes the trips, trains the team, and raises funds for continued outreach and programs on the Reservation. Their website is http://www.northamericanindianministries.org

The trip will take place between June 11th and June 20th. During our trip we will conduct a Bible School, make nursing home visits, host community meals, work with the youth through the youth club and the children’s center, and help with work projects as needed.
The total cost of the trip is $500.00 per person. My goal is to raise this money by June 1st, and hopefully with your help. Because I will be experiencing a new culture I’m not used to, I am also asking for your prayers. Please pray for me as I now prepare individually and, then, grow with the team.

If you are led to support me in prayer or financially, please indicate this on the return slip below. As NAIM is a 501c3 charity your support is tax deductible.

Thank you very much for joining me in learning what Jesus meant when He said to learn to have compassion.

And some of you who read my streams of consciousness know Amanda and might want to help. Please feel free to do so. The address for the mission is below. For those wanting to support Amanda, please mark in the memo of the check “For Amanda Anderson.”

   North American Indian Ministries (NAIM, Inc.)
   P.O. Box 17583
   Sugar Land, TX 77496

Both my daughter and I, along with the Lakota Indians in South Dakota, will appreciate your support…and prayers. Thanks from Amanda’s dad!

Amanda was 9 years old when she went to speak to the pastor’s wife about salvation.  I had no doubt she had already asked Jesus in her heart years before, but Amanda obviously saw a need to make sure and to pray with the pastor’s wife.  I tried, over the years, not to interfere or manipulate my daughter’s spiritual journey, especially when it came to her salvation.  Yes, of course, church, without question, was important and an every week event, with Bible Study and children’s mid-week ministries, and even Son-Singers.  But, I have seen it over and over, parents either manipulate their kids into salvation or the children “accept Jesus” to please their parents, friends, or its expected, or even just for the child’s or teen’s need to be affirmed by their church-family, and in the end, it wasn’t really for salvation.  Too often, it was for the parents to feel better about their kids “being saved.” The problem is, salvation isn’t for the parent’s self-image, nor really for the child/teen’s self-image among the peer groups at church—it’s for the present life and eternal destiny of a fellow human being, who needs Christ for no other reasons but to glorify God and be made righteous—and who just happens to be their own child.  I have tried my best to not put on a show for Amanda or give her churchie expectations.  When it came to her spiritual life—in salvation and in growing as a Christian—I have done the hard thing, acted like a fellow sinner in need of Christ, and then, after she became a Christian, like a brother in Christ.  (This is really hard to do and never really talked about at church much.) Of course I am her father, and of course I set standards and expectations as a parent, but it’s God’s job to bring our children to Christ and to empower spiritual growth.  Whether right or wrong in the eyes of others, this is what I did as a Christian parent for my daughter—best I could.

I am thankful that Christ acted early in Amanda’s life.  I have enjoyed spending time talking about the Bible with her.  I have always shared my thoughts about my Christian worldview on many and various topics.  Someday I knew she’d be off on her own, and finding a college and going (hopefully) in the Fall of 2011, enter as a freshman.  So, I have attempted letting God prepare her for that best I could and hopefully not interfering too much.  After we visited Crown College in MN, the college I graduated from, we shared with me that God was impressing on her that, perhaps, she’d like to go to a country that doesn’t let regular missionaries in.  She even wrote a thank you note to the guy that gave the tour at Crown.  She wrote in part,

Please let Dr. Bedford and Dr. Norby know that, not only did I enjoyed my time with them, learning about what to expect in their programs [the History degree and Teacher Education Degree], but also for helping me focus on my goals.  In fact, Crown’s emphasis on missions and the Doctors linking their programs to potential overseas ministry and vocational possibilities actually helped me make a big decision in my walk with Christ—to live for His purpose only, determining to follow wherever that purpose leads me.  One of the things I thought about after that day at Crown was how I might use a teaching degree to open possibilities in areas of the world that are closed to regular missionaries.  So I am grateful for their straightforward and honest assessment regarding my goals and their degree programs.  It certainly helped me to focus on what I am looking for in my college and degree choices.

I think this is real hard for a parent—letting God do this kind of directing in our young, inexperienced, yet to be adult-mature, teenager.  But somehow in the midst of doing all the parenting right, I need to let God be God in my daughter.  I want her to be a lawyer and then eventually the President of the United States.  She even said she wanted to be President back when she was 6, 7, and 8.  But now—with a little more experience under her belt, some experience making hard decisions (like the one to be involved with her unchurched and skeptical friends from high school rather than involved in a church youth group) and some good critical thinking skills—she is listening to God, looking for a college that will enable her to go and be used in places where Christians are always welcome and serve the people and Christ.  As her father, why would I want anything less for my daughter and sister-in-Christ?

PS This June, Amanda has received permission to leave school a little early for a mission trip to an Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  She leaves for Houston on June 10th and then drives with a team of adults and teens to South Dakota to stay and minister on an Indian reservation for about 10 days.  More on this later…

52. Fifty-two. FIFTY-TWO! Yes, that’s right. I was born in 1957, fifty-two years ago today. It creeps along, sometimes very unnoticed. This march of time thing. Everyone seems to have issues with age. I don’t feel 52, but it does direct my thinking in two directions. I really don’t know what others think about as the big Five O hits, but since turning 50 two years ago now, mostly I think about the time I have left to watch my daughter grow and learn and take on the world. When my age comes into mind, I spend my time thinking about what time I have left to see what happens to my daughter, and of course my step kids. Men in my blood tend to make it into their mid-70s, so I have 24-to-26 years left, and I wonder what will my daughter be doing, what will she have accomplished and be doing with her life when she is 42? What will my step-kids be doing with their lives? That’s one thing. The other is how will I be riding out on these 25 or so years? What little time to accomplish all the things I’d actually like to be doing. Not that I don’t love what I am doing now, but as my kids head to college and its only Lisa, my wife, and I, what can I do in those 25 years to make a difference…change something, make something better, accomplish my long time wishes (which I should post some time in the bear future—maybe when I am 53)? Thanks, mom, for making sure I entered into adulthood in tack. I hope to do the same for my daughter. Although I don’t feel I have been left out of history or the march of time has sped by and I have’t done anything (I have, thankfully), I certainly realize that time and age doesn’t care what your dreams or desires are; nor do they care that you are slothful or diligent—they marches on. Fifty-two years comes no matter what, whether you are accomplishing your possibilities or not. Today at 52, I am thinking about my kids’ possibilities and where they will be in 25 years…and what can I do with these years as well.

A while ago, my alma mater, Crown College, asked me to put a few words together on my “Marketplace Ministry” in a non-church vocational career…or something like that.  Crown has begun a major called Social Entrepreneurship, which caught my eye in a recent email discussion with the current President, Rick Mann (no relation to my own CEO and boss, Joseph Mann, but it is ironic nonetheless).  I keep telling my own kids, my time at college was the greatest time of my life.  And now, as I commented to President Mann, it is nice to see that my own Christian College had ventured into the same journey I eventually ended up in as a grew older in my Christian life—non-church vocational ministry in the marketplace.  Below is the quote that appears in Crown’s most recent alumni magazine, Bridge.

“The Gospel Jesus came to preach to the poor was the Gospel of the presence of God’s Kingdom, the invasion of His rule and reign into the life of this world, into our communities,” Chip shares.  For over 40 years, Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc. (NEON) has welcomed low-income and economically vulnerable families through its doors to find help—help with anything from food/rent assistance to childcare/preschool to job search to energy assistance.  Chip designs, implements, and monitors programs that help low-income people become less dependent on assistance and move toward self-sufficiency.  Chip realizes, “My job, although not directly a vocational ‘church’ ministry, is a fulfilment of the Kingdom of God.”

Now six years ago I finally was able to publish my my work on Philippians.  Every once in a while, I post a portion of the text Words’nTone, but this time I’d like to shamelessly promote the book as a whole.  I appreciate those who have downloaded the free chapter, and of course many thanks to those who have actually bought the book.  I originally wrote the book because a publisher asked me to—but in the end, the manuscript was released back to me (good thing, the publisher went out of business!).  Below is a synopsis of what the book, Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life,is and why I wrote it.

As a preacher and Bible College professor, I had read countless commentaries, and in this case, many commentaries on Philippians.  When I started, I was actually teaching a College Bible course on Philippians and one of the things I noticed was that there was the extremes in commentaries: On the one hand you had detailed, exegetical, very scholarly works, and on the other, lay-works that were short on exegesis and jumped right to interpretation and application.  Most lay-styled commentaries seem very short on how the author arrived at his or her interpretation.  I thought this very unfair to the lay-reader.  So when I was asked to write a commentary on Philippians, I sought to fill that gap and provide a book that helped the lay-reader see how to arrive at one’s interpetation through a careful exegesis of the book—that is, how an exegete works through a text, and in particularly allows the whole of the work (in this case Paul’s Letter to the Philippians) helps to interprete the individual paragraphs.

The Book
Every time the church adopts the surrounding culture’s values, it dies a little. Often it is brought to the brink of the grave. In every age, the church has had to wrestle for its very life. Paul’s letter to the Philippians cuts across the misplaced values of a self-centered culture.

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life is a lay commentary, written in a homiletical and expositional style, that enables readers to hear Paul’s argument through Philippians and how the church’s flirtation with individualism has affected our faith and the life of the church. The danger of our privatized, modern faith is exposed. Both personal and church-corporate solutions to have “the mind of Christ” are given.

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life offers the lay reader insight, and offers pastors and Bible study leaders plenty of expositional depth on Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

Why I wrote Destroying Our Private Cities
I began writing the book while teaching at a Bible college, with many of the chapters completed while pastoring a church, and finishing and editing it while I was beginning a new career field in community action.  Although the book certainly is an exegetical work through Paul’s Letter to the Philippian Church, my influences come from the three worlds of higher Christian educationchurch work, and social action.

• I wanted to write a readable commentary my mother could read without dumbing-down the content
• Our contemporary and privatized spirituality seems divorced from church-life.  It’s not so much loving the church that matters, it’s loving a church that counts
• My transition from a church-centered ministry to a human service-centered vocation gives me a new perspective on faith and church-life
• My respect, admiration, and gratefulness to those in human service vocations—they work so hard to help others, and sometimes with little to no recognition, and equally low pay

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life
Here is a free downloadable chapter, Putting Jesus Back into Our Potential (Philippians 2:5-11).  The book can be purchased on Amazon as well as other book seller sites.

My family and I are back down visiting my father--again for Easter and for the 2nd time in 51 years.  For those who don’t know the story, follow the link below for a reflection of last years first time visit and meeting my father for the first time in 50 years!

See… I met my father today (1 of 3) and then read all three posts.

The contrast was there—after eight years of defending the Community Action mission and its agencies’ existence and worth (which I believe President Bush got wrong for eight years) and then the almost emotional uplift that has come in the new administration’s understanding of the value of Community Action and its potential role in helping move people out of poverty. I expected that contrast. I just returned from three days in Washington DC—a trip I have taken almost annually for the last eight years (7 under the Bush administration and this past one under Obama’s). The conference is set up to help Community Action Agencies across the country to become aware of pending and needed legislation—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We spend time with our legislators and with each other, talking, explaining, educating, and informing of the results of Community Action in hundreds of neighborhoods and regions across the United States. I expected the Bush-era/Obama-era contrast to be there and obvious. That’s one personal reason I wanted to go this year—just to see and feel the contrast, the difference. But that’s not what struck me—that’s not the contrast I saw and felt.

Now just for those who don’t normally read this blog, or “accidentally” google or browse into it, I am a politically conservative, evangelical, former pastor and Bible College professor who now works as the Director of Finance & Planning Services of a Community Action Agency which serves over 4,000 low-income people each year. I have been a pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance and a professor of Greek, New Testament, and Biblical Studies at Prairie Bible College. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Bible & Theology from Crown College (MN) and a Masters of Arts in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MA). And now, after over ten years, I have worked in the field of Social Action, helping design, oversee, and monitor programs that seek to help the poor and working poor to ameliorate their economic and social crises and move them toward self-sufficiency and out of poverty.

The contrast I saw and felt wasn’t necessarily a bad contrast, but it was significant and important to me. The contrast was between the environment and nature of the Community Action conference in DC and the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) annual meetings I attend. ETS is a membership society of Biblical scholars, teachers, pastors and others involved in evangelical scholarship in order to serve Christ and His Church. Each year at its annual conference members who range from pastors to writers, from professors and laymen, meet to share and listen to papers ranging from text criticism, biblical theology, pastoral studies, philosophy, and almost anything pertaining to the Word, the Church, and Biblical studies. (I have had the privilege of delivering a few papers myself.) The crowd was about the same size, but none of the faces matched, nor what was talked about as people stood around and mingled. High theological thoughts were contrasted with vital ideas on how to move poor people into jobs and how best to actually use the “Stimulus Money” that will actually stimulate the economy and help those least among us.

I understand the need for both—so the contrast is not to lift one above the other in importance, but it highlighted the two worlds in which I maintain my spiritual sanity. I am very committed and convinced of the inspiration and inerrancy, and thus the importance and significance of the Bible and the Christian faith. My thoughts on the contrast were how unfamiliar each setting was to the other. I know many on my new colleagues in this field of social action are people of faith, but it was the total separation and distinct unfamiliarity between the two that stood out to me. Almost like there was no connection between the two. I make no judgments here on each group, but I am captured by both and find that, although the crowds of attendees were distinct and unfamiliar, the two groups (“societies”) are intertwined, linked, juxtaposed in my heart, mind, and actions. The two easily highlighted the two equally important commands of Jesus to love God with everything you got and to love your neighbor as yourself. Additionally, the issues of inspiration and inerrancy are linked if for any reason to make theologizing and doodling with God-talk real in the public life of the Christian and the Church.

In the previous post I posted some thoughts on the leap between my degrees and training in theology and church ministry to programs and services to serve the poor.  Here are a few other bits of information that went along with those thoughts.

• From 1997 to 1999 I was a grant writer for TEAM, Inc., a Community Action Agency in Derby, CT.


• From 2000 to 2005 I was the Director of Development & Planning for NEON, the Community Action agency in Norwalk, CT.


• From 2006 to present I have been the Director of Finance & Planning Services for NEON.


• From 1998 to 2000, I served as the Chair of the Southwestern Connecticut’s Welfare-Reform Task Force, a 100 member committee of SW CT’s human service, workforce development, and government entities, given the task to implement President Clinton’s Welfare Reform in SW Connecticut.  I have also served on the Governor’s Commission for Employment & Training, which designed and implemented Connecticut’s standards for employment training vendors and monitoring instruments.


• I have written on the subject of Church and Social Action: “Widows in Our Courts (Mark 12:38-44): The Public Advocacy Role of the Local Congregation as Christian Discipleship” presented at the2006 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Washington DC; “Wasted Evangelism” (Mark 4): The Task of Evangelism and Social Action Outcomes” presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society; and currently researching and developing a paper for the 2009 ETS meeting in New Orleans on the subject “Idolatry and Poverty: Where the private vs. public debate isn’t enough.”

I attended Crown College (formerly called St. Paul Bible College) outside of the Minneapolis area in Minnesota.  I graduated in 1984 with a B.A. in Theology and went on to graduate studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in So. Hamilton, MA.  I have pastored and taught at a Christian college since these graduations and now find myself serving the economically vulnerable through a Community Action Agency called NEON, Inc. in Norwalk, CT as the Director of Finance & Planning Services.  Although a leap, it is really not that fair to take the step from good theological training to helping the poor.  My alma mater, Crown College, has picked up on this leap--they call it “market place ministry"--and have asked me to send them some material for a future article in one of the school’s publications.  Not sure exactly what they are looking for, I kinda wandered about between describing what I do to why churches ought to consider similar approaches to ministry, in particular attacking the issue of poverty.  Here is some of what I sent them.

Over 4,000 low-income and economically vulnerable families walk through our doors to find help with everything from food to rent assistance, from childcare and preschool to job search, and from energy assistance to alterative incarceration.  I work at a Community Action Agency in Norwalk, CT as the Director of Finance & Planning Services.  Our agency’s mission is to help at-risk populations to ameliorate their personal and employment crises and to provide resources to move them toward self-sufficiency.

Our agency, Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc, like over 1,000 Community Action Agencies scattered throughout all 50 States, came into existed through President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark 1964 Economic Opportunities Act and his “War on Poverty.” For over forty-years our agency, better known as NEON, has offered area low-income and economically vulnerable populations a wide range of services and programs: Head Start and pre-school, energy assistance, employment and training, alterative incarceration services, financially literacy skills training, English as a Second Language, comprehensive case management, and occupational skill training.  Our agency, like so many other Community Action Agencies, has a strategic plan that includes goals to be a quality organization, to engage the community to end poverty, and to actually help move families out of poverty.

I remember hearing over and over when I was a young Christian that change for change sake is not good.  Then while teaching at Prairie Bible College (probably sometime in 1991), I heard Leith Anderson say that change is good, even if it’s just for change sake.  At that point in my life I began to agree—just like a garden that isn’t turned over every once and a while, the nutrients don’t get stirred up and in, and oxygen doesn’t get shifted around (poor illustration, but you know what I mean).  But in the end, really there is no such thing as change for change sake—the dynamics of going through the motions of change always produce something; it has some affect on the status quo.  Something changes.  People change.  Lives change.  But I would add that it is important to decide what outcomes are desired first, so the change is designed to bring about those outcomes.

Over the last few years I have heard tossed around the phrase, “Making a Case for Change.” And now, through a strategic planning exercise that our agency has undertaken, we are making a case for change, specifically change that “ends poverty” in our community.  A big goal?  Absolutely!  Each year for the last ten years I have put together community need assessments, which translated into community action plans, which had goals and outcomes to help families with a range of support and resources (e.g., jobs, skill training, childcare and preschool, medical assistance, etc.).  This past year our agency took a good look at the needs of the community and began to produce a 10 and 3 year strategic plan that seeks to engage the community to end poverty in our municipal region.  The process was simple: 1) Look at the data—the demographics, the longitudinal studies, crime, graduation rates, unemployment, employment skill requirements for jobs in the area, languages, cultural backgrounds, etc.; 2) Develop a case for change from the data; 3) Craft a vision in light of the data—what do you want your community and agency to look like?; 4) Develop a method and strategy to bring in stakeholders—staff, the community, clients (some rather call them customers, participants, students, even citizens), municipal leaders, business leaders, other human services providers, etc.; 5) Develop goals and outcomes; and of course, implement the change and leadership development process and a means to measure the outcomes.
I have often said that my job, although not directly a vocational “church” ministry, is indeed a fulfillment of the presence of the Kingdom of God.  My role in the agency mission has been to design, implement, and monitor programs that help low-income people become less dependent on assistance and move toward self-sufficiency—more than just charity.  Most, if not all, my co-workers and colleagues in the social service and workforce development world (here in Connecticut) know that my passion and hard work on behalf of the most vulnerable among us is an outworking of my faith.  The Gospel Jesus came to preach to the poor was the Gospel of the presence of God’s Kingdom, the invasion of His rule and reign into the life of this world, into our communities.

I have always advocated that churches, likewise, should also learn to develop community needs assessments and input the findings into a church action plan with outcomes that help move people out of poverty.  Churches should be on the front lines when it comes to making a case for change.  But I fear the change we desire is more related to “number growth” (head counting), a bigger church budget, a bigger church building…the list goes on.  The church, of all social entities or institutions, is to exist for others.  Granted a component of church life is the nurture and development of Christians, but the command to “Go into all the world and make disciples” implies that the church community was not to be buiding-centered, but to be a disciple-making entity with the goal of going out into the world.  I am learning everyday of churches and church communities that are moving or have moved into this new (really old) direction of engaging their communities to end poverty.  My interests is in how the church—i.e., a local church—can be a people who make a case for change and develop leaders (i.e., disciples) who have a vision to make that change, especially as it relates to the church’s association and role in social action toward the poor.  The church should be asking itself, “How do we make a case for change in ending poverty in our community and how do we engage the community in ending poverty?”

    I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.  I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.  For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.  But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.  I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me.  And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

    But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.  For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.  Indeed he was ill, and almost died.  But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.  Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.  Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me (Philippians 2:19 30).

Biographies, autobiographies, and the diaries of great Christian men and women fascinate me.  Giants such as John Wesley, George Whitefield, David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards captivate me.  I am convicted, motivated and humbled by the accounts of those whom God has greatly used to promote His cause and increase His kingdom.  In eternity I am sure we will learn of countless others unmentioned in the history books and unnoticed by the general public.

Jonathan Edwards, born in 1703, enrolled at Yale at age thirteen.  He was a key instrument through whom God brought a great spiritual awakening to colonies that had become careless about the faith of their forefathers.  His influence was felt in much of New England, New York and New Jersey.  Eventually Edwards was asked to become president of Princeton College, a school then devoted to training church leaders.  The life of this incredible man of God ended one month after he arrived at his new post.  Ah, but what a life!

Jonathan Edwards has been the subject of many biographies.  All seek to discover what motivated him, what drove him, what fed his passion.  For answers, we must return to Yale College and note the aspirations of this young student.  Edwards was convinced he must make some resolutions in the presence of his God.  The list numbered seventy items, all of which he committed to memory.

Resolution 6 summarizes the passion of Edwards’ heart: “Resolved to live with all my might while I yet live.”

In pondering that resolution we must keep two things in context.  First, life to young Edwards was a gracious gift from God.  Second, all of his resolves were made in the consciousness that God was looking on.  His first resolution, in fact, was to “do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God.” Since God’s honor and glory were at stake in his life, Edwards further resolved “to find out fit objects of liberty and charity.” Further, he would “live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life

The cold is getting more and more unbearable for me. Of course the snow is beautiful, but at what cost? Shoveling—backaches. Vehicles to scrap—and break because of the cold. But it is Christmas time and I get to give presents (of course a smaller total this year). My daughter visits her mom and Minnesota family every other Christmas, so she is joininng them, flying out on Tuesday. My stepsons are going to their dad’s on Christmas Eve. So, as a family we all decided that we’d celebrate Christmas on Sunday, today. So the tree is lit and there are presents under it. I just finished putting the stockings together. I love doing stockings. Smaller, more thoughtful presents, some needed, some cute, some gag-ish, but always fun and well appreciated. Stockings are my family’s Christmas trademark. And then there is always the grouch pills that show up in someone’s stocking—the top prize of the year! I always give the “kids” (now teenagers) comic books and a cast model car of some sort. This year Amanda gets a Volkswagen camper, like the one I used to go camping in with my grandma-Kay and pop when I was a kid. Michael gets an old wagon with a surfboard on top. And, Robert (the one who actually collects them) gets an old fashion Pepsi-Cola truck. My daughter always gets something Indian (she is part Delaware Indian from my side of the family) each year. And we’ve started a father-daughter tradition of collecting coins—not so much for value, but for some form or significant reason or memory. So, I have a set of coins, some old (as far back as 1800), some new for her in her stocking. My folks and Lisa’s step-mom will be here; our oldest step-daughter, too. It feels like Christmas. We’ll do church this morning and then after around 2ish everyone will be over and it is present time. Of course there will be food—just a little finger stuff. I already cried, holding my daughter and telling her I love her and am so glad she is my daughter. She was the best present ever! After all the presents are open and stories are told why someone got whatever for someone, there will be joy in the Anderson house this afternoon. Not unnoticed, nor forgotten will be the reason we do all this. We will remember that somewhere out there, long ago, in the back of an inn, in a stable, a young once out-of-wedlock pregnant girl, probably 13 or so years old, with the world on her shoulders, and nearby her faithful husband who kept her from social shame, with the cows and sheep and chickens and the unwashed tired shepherds will worship in amazement at a small, helpless new born babe in a feeding trough who will bear the burdens of this world on his shoulders one day. We will not forget this in the midst of our joy today as my family celebrates our Christmas.

I am continually impressed, and grateful for my daughter, Amanda, as any good father should be of his own daughter.  But I have been disappointed over the years, not with my daughter, but with how she has been treated or missed out on a few important church things every young girl should have the opportunity for.

I was not a Christian during my teenager years.  Far from it.  Not in a rebellious way—although my mother might want to disagree with that.  More so in simply an atheistic worldview way.  I wasn’t much for drugs or alcohol—I enjoyed control too much to let uncontrollable things happen to me.  But I did form a worldview—or a teenage outlook, at least—that there was no God to deal with.  No drugs, but certainly attitudes, emotional baggage, a calculating for advantage and control of destiny, as well as distrust of people were some of the consequences and badly formed habits.  But, enough about me.  I actually want to write about my daughter, Amanda.  A recent Rock the Sound concert provoked some thoughts I’d like to share (be careful, some not so pleasant).

As my Amanda grew up, I offered her a world I didn’t have as I was growing up—a Christian family, a believing father and mother, and as well as a Church life.  I remember thinking what a blessing this was and had anticipated that she’d hopefully not fall prey to some of the things I had formed as an unbelieving child and teenager.  Despite some setbacks, as my daughter approaches 16, I am blessed and grateful that she has a worldview and a personal faith that is strong in Christ.  She made a personal decision when she was around 7 and was baptized when she was 9, openly confessing Jesus as her Lord and Savior before our church family.  She is active in her faith.  I have seen fruit of her confession, as well as growth as a person of character and as a Christian (not that the two are mutually exclusive).  But I have some disappointments and some blessings that I think matter to a father of a soon to be 16 year old daughter.

First a rather big disappointment:  My daughter has grown up to be a smart, independent, and resourceful young lady, filled with compassion, a sense of right and purpose, and a strong Christian character, despite being let down by both the church and adult Christians on a regular basis.  I was hoping throughout the years, as Amanda grew up, that she’d find support and especially older Christian women who’d disciple and at a minimum spend time with her.  Although there were a few ladies when she was younger who gave her direct encouragement and even spent some time with her (thanks Emily!), as she approached her teenage years the pool of Christian women and older teen examples did not produce any who’d take on the task.  In fact I watched as she was left behind by so-called female Christian leadership and watched her deal with hurt from so-called Christian relationships.  Even now, I find that the pool of Christian women—and that pool is readily available and plentiful I have made sure—still has not stepped up to disciple or spend time with her.  (At this point, I doubt she would trust anyone at that level, giving the fact that some of the supposed Christian female leadership in her life have been hurtful rather than, well, godly.)

I am not sure of the cause for this.  I am comforted that God knows best and despite His allowance for the lack, there will be women before the throne of God who will answer for this area I am sure.  Nonetheless, despite repeated disappointment and hurt by older Christian people and especially females, Amanda has held on to her faith.

Now some good observations: On her thirteenth birthday she held a sleepover for about a dozen girls, half from her suburban church youth group and half from her school (an urban school and mostly from unchurched families).  She felt she wanted to introduce her Christian friends to her non-Christian friends.  Without going into details, I watched the evening through the morning hours and was amazed at both how Amanda hosted in such a way to make sure the two groups interacted in positive ways and watched at how unresponsive most of the Christian girls were to Amanda’s non-Christian friends.  In the end, with a one or two exceptions, it was the non-Christian, urban girls who were polite and civil and reached out to the other girls, not the other way around.  At the end of the sleepover, I saw the disappointment in Amanda’s eyes and heart.  She knew the world in which she was more accepted, respected, and placed in high regard was her secular, non-churched peers from her urban school and not her middle to upper middle class, suburban youth group.  It wasn’t long afterward she stopped attending youth group.  (Don’t get me wrong, she still has some acquaintances and casual friendships from the former youth group, but her real friends are her non-churched, even hostile to Christianity peers from school.)

This was driven home at the last Rock the Sound concert here in Bridgeport, Connecticut on November 15th.  Rock the Sound is an attempt at developing Christian entertainment to Bridgeport, Connecticut and over the last few years this has happened.  This year a specific group, Skillet, was among the bands to play at the concert.  Amanda was able to convince three of her close unchurched friends to joining her at the concert.  Plus, I had offered tickets to my stepsons to bring at least one non-churched friend as well.  So there, as a result of my daughter wanting to expose her friends to the Christian world and message, we had a row of twelve seats with 6 unchurched school friends of our kids.  As my daughter sat there with her friends, I wondered how many Christian young ladies had actually brought their unchurched, unbelieving, skeptical peers to the concert?  I wondered how many could, would, or even had non-believing friends that they could invite in the first place?  And if they had any non-churched friends who’d actually say “sure” to going to a Christian concert?  I render no judgment, but given the crowd of screaming youth at the concert, it was a very homogeneous group of Christianized young people—not “outreached-into-the-unbelieving-community-of-young-people.  But there you had my daughter who planned and was able to invite (and got them to say yes) non-Christian friends to a Christian concert.  Of course I was proud, but more so I was so grateful that despite the lack of adult Christian discipleship in her life, she was about doing God’s thing…and is well respected enough among her non-churched peers to be able to get some to join her at a Christian event.  (And this wasn’t her first time—she had done this before at Church events, plays, etc, inviting non-churched school peers.)

It has been and still is hard seeing so-called female Christian women, and especially so-called leaders, pass-by my daughter on a regular basis over the years.  As her father, of course I have done my best.  But I am not a woman or the measure of a godly female character for her.  (Thank goodness for a godly Christian grandmother!) Amanda is about to turn 16.  She has shown, despite having been ignored, hurt, and even ostracized by older Christian females (both teens and adults) over the years, a growth in Christ, a strong maintaining of her Christian faith and character.

I share this obviously because it does matter to me.  But also since now many eyes fall on the Wordsntone site and I hope some Christian ladies will take it to heart and not overlook the young Christian girls who need discipleship.  Also, I wanted you to know how proud and blessed and grateful I am that, despite some hurt, my daughter is entering her 16th year as a godly Christian lady who is able to maintain her witness amid her secular, unchurched peers.

I am a proud stepfather for sure.  My 12 year old stepson, Robert, two weeks ago decided he’d like to try running in our community road race, a 5k.  It would be his first time, no training, just a desire to run with some friends.  He placed first in his category, but overall 69th out of 277 at about 25 minutes.  Not too shabby.  I told him I could find other races.  He wanted me to.  The Fairfield Road Race was a short week away—we signed him up, but this time we bought him running shoes...he raced the other race in his skateboarding shoes!

The day came.  He was feeling good; excited.  Lots of runners encouraged him.  When it was time to line up, he wanted to be at the head of the line—right at the starting line.  Normally a parent is concerned about the finish line, but I was more so, with Robert, concerned about the starting line—because he wanted to be first.  First.  Me first. That’s what Robert is all about.  Not first at the finish line—he understood that wasn’t possible.  But just first at the start.  And that’s the way he is in life.  Always concerned about the start, never the finish.  Me first. I almost was willing to pull him out of the line and make him go back—for two reasons 1) just because Robert needs to learn and 2) he was going to get trampled by a hundred runners quicker, more experienced, and massively taller than he.  But I noticed something I rarely see in Robert.  He looked focused.  I sensed he knew what he was doing.  He was aware of where he was and who surrounded him, but that wasn’t bothering him.  The very much taller men around him made slight comments to each other (I can see that happening) and they stared at this pintsized novice down below.  But Robert grew up a little that day—he was focused.  I trusted that look and bet on him not being trampled to death.

Then the shout, ready. And then the count down 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and they were off...and Robert pacing the large runners immediately with no problem.  He was gone.  3.1 mile (that’s the 5K) to go, so we walked back to the finish line.  The runners that surrounded Robert at the beginning, I had noticed, were among the first to cross the finish line.  To the amazement of many Robert appeared at around the 21.30 mark and then by the time he was in the shoot and hit the finish line he timed at 22 minutes, 12 seconds.  I was so proud of Robert.  But it was not so much for his finish--which was impressive for a second time runner at the age of twelve.  No.  But for his focus at the beginning.  Focus, not first.  A little growing up had happened.  Later at home, I asked Robert why he thought I didn’t stop him from being first (for the reasons I stated above).  I asked, “What do you think I was looking for?” He replied, “Focus.” He had been listening to me all these years.  How about that?  He said, “You knew I was focused.” I smiled and said, “That’s how we finish the race.” I think he caught the metaphor.

I asked my daughter to come along with me to pick out a father’s Day card.  It took fifty years to do this, and I wasn’t sure I could figure out the best one all by my self.  I told her, “They don’t make Father’s Day cards for this.” I meant, they don’t make “Happy Father’s Day” cards for sons to give their dad who hasn’t been around for 50 years and finally met him.  But I figured I’d find something for this very special occasion.  But even the clerk couldn’t come up with one.  We found a few blank-on-the-inside cards, but the pictures were sappy.  I certainly didn’t want sappy.  Then my daughter found a nice one—a wooded picture on the outside and a nice “message on the inside.” But it was a tri-fold and the inside-inside page was not fitting the occasion.  The good thing, the inside-inside page was loose…so I paid for it, went home, and carefully lifted the page off.  And typed my own…and glue-sticked it on in place of the original.  Here’s what I said after 50 years…

Dad,
They don’t make this type of Father’s Day card, but this is a card, nonetheless, that waited almost 50 years to be given.  In God’s good grace He saw fit to bring us back together after all these years and miles of separation.  I am so glad He did. 

So on this Father’s Day, 2008, I wish you the best.  I wish you forty-eight Happy Father’s Days all in one.  May this day bring you joy, knowing that your son is very glad to know you and thinks kind thoughts, good wishes, and tells everyone about you.

Happy
Father’s Day