Pat Robertson, PLEASE STOP!

First, watch this video. It is, to say the least, appalling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhyJpLIpRVA

That video literally broke my heart on many levels. First of all, you have a prominent, ahem, "Christian" leader spewing race-driven hate towards people of other nationalities, and specifically children of other nationalities.  Let's review: Mr. Robertson says that a man doesn't want a "United Nations", or a "blended family" because the children might be "brain damaged", "sexually abused", and will grow up "weird". Wow.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about his response is biblical or becoming of a Christ-follower.

Someone please remind Mr. Robertson that the bible says we are all adopted sons and daughters of God (Ephesians 1:5).  Someone please remind Mr. Robertson that even if someone (especially a child) has mental disorders, has been sexually abused, has mental or physical handicaps, or any other condition, it doesn't matter! We are to love them and "carry each others' burdens" (Galatians 6:2).  Someone please remind Mr. Robertson that ALL of us are sinners, and our sin separates us from our holy God, and that ALL of us are "weird" (Romans 3:23) and that God still loves us in spite of our weirdness! (Romans 5:8)  Someone please remind Mr. Robertson how important children are to Jesus (Matthew 19:14). Someone remind Mr. Robertson what John 3:16 says!

But above all, someone remind Mr. Robertson that it is this attitude of self-righteous, haughty religiocity that turns people away from Christ, sometimes forever. It would be different if this was a private conversation that Mr. Robertson was having, but this is a nationally syndicated television show on which he is claiming to represent Jesus. The worst thing about the video? A lost world looking for hope will see this and think, "If that's what this Jesus guy is about, I don't want anything to do with him." Truth is, nothing could be further from the truth of who Christ really is.  

Share your comments below.

Chad

Taking the Light to the darkness

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


The other night, I went to my garage to get something out of my toolbox.  I happened to have a flashlight in my hand, and instead of flipping the light switch in my garage, I pushed the button on the flashlight and found my way to my toolbox. It wasn't much, but that small swath of light guided me to my destination.  Without it, the garage was pitch black, and there were many things over which I could stumble, fall, and severely injure myself. But lucky for me, the batteries worked, the bulb came to life, and the light of that small tool drove out the darkness enough for me to see where I was going.


That got me thinking about the words of Jesus in John 8:12 -  "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 


Jesus' words about Himself in this passage continue to "haunt" me. Let me explain...those of us who follow Christ read these words and celebrate that we walk in and with the Light, and as John reminds us "God is light, in Him is no darkness at all."  He is our light, shining in a dark world, leading us to our ultimate destiny in Christ.  Our eternal destiny is sealed forever in the Light! While that is incredibly awesome for me, what haunts me about Jesus' words is that I read them so selfishly.  He isn't talking to me.  The first half of verse 12 tells us who His audience was. He was talking to "the people". 


He was talking to lost people.


Jesus has saved me, and for that I am forever grateful and indebted to Him.  But Christianity is not about me!  It's about the great commission; its about literally loving the hell out of people! And the only way I can do that is to get over myself.  I have friends that are lost, and I so desperately desire for them to come to the Light by allowing Jesus into their hearts. I so desperately desire for them to experience the same Light, Life and forgiveness that I have!  I want so badly to share in the love of Christ with my friends.  And I am willing to do anything short of compromising the gospel to see them come to His saving grace. Because when this life is over, Jesus says something else about light and darkness: "the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt 8:12) Then there will be no light.  Complete darkness and torment...forever.  But right now, the Light of the World lives inside of me, and that's why I am so doggedly determined to let Him shine, even in the darkest of places.


I WILL take the light to the darkness.  I WILL take our Christian rock band to bars from time to time, regardless of what religious people think or say. I WILL meet my lost friends where they are, and I WILL love them, because God loved me when I was in darkness. 


Yeah, its that important.

Through the Eyes of the Lost

This week, I was talking with pastor Steve Ayers, lead pastor of Hillvue Heights, our "mother" church. Pastor Steve's guidance and mentoring (along with all the other incredible pastors at Hillvue) have been invaluable to me as Highland Hills Church has navigated the sometimes turbulent waters of our first year.  More often than not, my pastors/mentors/leaders pour some pretty amazing truths into me, and my conversation with Pastor Steve in this day was no different.

During the course of our conversation, he said something to me that resonated to my core.  He told me that I need to see Highland Hills Church as a lost person would see it.  Now, I realize how simple and common-sensical that sounds at first glance. Matter of fact, when he first said it, it didn't really stick out that much at all.  However, as we hung up the phone the Holy Spirit kept bringing those words back to my mind, "See HHCC as a lost person would see it". I realized, perhaps for the first time, that I haven't done a very good job of that.

At all.

If any of you reading this are pastors, you know that Sunday mornings can be crazy hectic!  As worship pastor AND preaching pastor of a fledgling church, Sunday mornings are doubly wild for me!  Right, wrong, or indifferent, my mind is constantly running from one thing to the next. How am I going to transition to the main point of the sermon?  Is my guitar in tune?  Where is the drummer? How is the children's ministry today?  Are we grippin' and grinnin' at the front door?  Does everyone have a bulletin?  Do we have enough 9-volt batteries? Are the bathrooms clean? What announcements need to be made?  Is that a first-time visitor over there? Seriously, WHERE IS THE DRUMMER??

Like the ol' proverbial ton of bricks, I suddenly realized how unimportant ALL of that stuff would be to someone who may have stumbled through our doors, desperately seeking love and hope in a world that offers none.  A drowning man could care less if he is rescued by an inflatable raft or a Carnival cruise ship!

Much like Hillvue, reaching the lost for Jesus will always define who we are at Highland Hills Church.  And in order to reach the lost, we must be committed to seeing our church the way a lost person would.  Lucky for me (and our church), we all know what it was like to be lost!  And we know the single most important factor in connecting with Christ is experiencing His love. I have always found it interesting when the Pharisees asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, He didn't say "quote a bunch of scripture and judge your neighbor"; instead He told us to love God first, then love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And we all have neighbors that are lost.  Its up to us to love them, and in doing so, see what they see, hear what they hear, and feel what they feel.  It just might make an eternal difference!

Chad

A Perspective on Service

At Highland Hills Church, we are committed to the Big Five. What are the Big Five? I'm SO glad you asked! (I can almost feel the HHCC folks rolling their eyes thinking, "here we go again!") The Big Five are faith practices (worship, fellowship, service, bible study, and prayer) that lead the Christ-follower to a healthy, well-rounded spiritual life. We strive to engage in the Big Five as often as possible, and definitely on a regular basis.  The Big Five is not a man-made concept; rather, it comes straight from scripture as found in Acts 2: 41-47. (For more info on the Big Five, visit our "mother" church's website: www.hillvue.com).

The last couple of months, we at The 'Hills have been presented several opportunities to participate in one of the Big Five: service.  We serve God first and foremost (1 Samuel 12:24), we serve each other (Galatians 5:13), and we serve our community.  There is a reason that Highland Hills is called a "community" church. You see, any community is made up of neighbors, and interestingly enough, Jesus has something very important to say about our neighbors. As a matter of fact, when He was pressed by a religious leader for an answer on how to inherit eternal life, one of the two requirements Jesus listed was "love your neighbor as yourself".  We cannot love our neighbors in our community without serving them!  Let's face it, we tend to love ourselves rather easily.  And when we love ourselves, we serve ourselves by making sure we have everything we need.  Yet Jesus tells us that we should make sure our neighbors' needs are being met!  

In the last couple of months, several folks from HHCC served our community by participating in Build-A-Bed Barren County and the Single Mothers' Oil Change at Hillvue.  Both were excellent opportunities to be the hands and feet of Christ while showing His love through our actions.  But as always, there's more to the story when Jesus is involved.  Did you know that there are nearly 100 verses in the bible telling us to serve the poor and hungry? Why is it so important to God that we serve the less-fortunate in our community? The reasons are obvious and many, but for the Christ follower, I believe it boils down to perspective.  

As a child, I can remember singing a song that said "count your blessings, name them one-by-one". In our busy lives, we often forget to count the blessings that God has lavished upon us. And its easy to forget to thank God for them. Matter of fact, we often go to the other end of the spectrum and complain about just about anything. But service to our community changes our perspective!  Do you have any idea how hard it is to complain when you service a car with no brakes that has three child carriers in the back seat?  Do you have any idea how hard it is to complain when you carry a bed into a house in which a child has been sleeping in the hallway for years because the parents couldn't afford a bed?  Let those last two sentences sink in for a minute. 

Service has many benefits for both the Christ follower as well as the folks being served in the community. No wonder Jesus commands us to serve!  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came not to be served, but to serve! Now, let's follow His incredible lead!

Chad