The Beginning and the End

I really don't understand why debates about how the universe/world was created and about the "end times" garner so much media attention, debate, and conflict in our culture and in the church. From my perspective, there really isn't much substance to the debate.

Take the creation, for instance. One side argues that God created the world in seven days, that the earth is only a few thousand years old, and that the theory of evolution is anti-Christian. The other extreme says that things have come to being over millions of years through the process of natural selection and evolution and God had nothing to do with it. It is mere chance. In the middle we find all types of blends between the two poles--allowing for the fact that God may have guided the creation through any number of processes, including evolution.

Likewise, in the church there are two extremes to understanding the end times. One popular view is that the world will come to a violent end, there will be a rapture, a period of hell on earth, a thousand years of peace, and so on and so forth. This point of view is captured in the Left Behind series of books. On this one, there usually is no other side to the debate because Christians who disagree with the Left Behind paradigm really don't know what to do with the end of time and Christ's return.

My take on the whole discussion is that, it can be interesting to speculate on the creation and the end times, but in the end it is a rather pointless and meaningless debate. It doesn't affect our lives as Christians today and is often used to distract us from considering issues of faithfulness that strike closer to home . . . such as the use of our money and faithful stewardship, engaging in an active prayer life to grow closer in our relationship with God, and what it really means to love our neighbor in a violent and divided world.

In the end (no pun intended), the church teaches that God was there in the beginning and will be there in the end. Just as he created all there is out of love, he will be there in the end calling creation back to himself in that same love. As long as we don't remove God from the process in either scenario, how it happened is of little consequence. If we begin to focus on what hits closer to home in our own lives, however, there is opportunity for true growth for us as Christians.

One quick final note: If you would like to study an alternative to the Left Behind model of the book of Revelation, check out Dr. Efird's Bible study on the subject. It can be ordered at: http://efirdbiblestudies.com/. Dr. Efird is a retired professor from the Divinity School at Duke University. His study takes a close look at the Biblical text and he shows where the before mentioned model comes from (a lawyer named John Nelson Darby who lived in the 19th century) and shows that the book of Revelation is really not about Jesus Christ's second coming and the end times, but rather a book of hope to all Christians facing persecution.

Why Write a Blog?

To tell you the truth, I don't know. My wife, Johanna, has been on me for about a year to start blogging for the sake of someone. I just don't know who that someone is. There are tons of blogs out there (it took me 45 minutes to pick a name because so many are taken) and who really cares about my thoughts and opinions? I don't know, but I figured I'd give this a try.

A quick bit about me: I'm 32 years old and am a pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church in Kenosha, WI. I've been serving churches for the past 12 years, dating back to when I was a supply pastor while going to school at UW-Whitewater. I have a wonderful and talented wife named Johanna, a step-son named Grady (who's a really cute and smart little guy), and a son or daughter due to arrive on December 24th. I went to seminary at the Divinity School at Duke University and am a huge Duke Basketball fan, although they've been breaking my heart in the tournament over the past couple of years.

I've picked the name faithful alternative for my blog because there seems to be a lot of polarization and bickering in the church as a whole in the Church's recent history (although the Church doesn't have a history of being of one mind on much for very long) and I think there is a different way to come at things that resemble less of what is known as the right and the left in the Church and the United States. I believe that if this Faithful Alternative is considered, we may find more on which to agree than disagree. In fact, I believe that Jesus came to offer up a type of radical discipleship that was quite different than what Judaism and his contemporary culture had become. This is true today as well. It is very likely that Jesus would not be found in either the liberal or conservative camps in today's culture. I grow more and more convinced that we (including myself) wouldn't recognize Jesus if we ran into him out on the street or in our churches.

And so, I'd like to use this blog as a forum to discuss (not debate) the faithful alternatives that we may often miss in the church and in our culture. I hope to update my blog each and every day Monday through Friday--although if I'm successful at updating a blog daily, the church secretary at Wesley will start to expect me to turn in my newsletter articles on time (which I'm usually at least two or three days late in turning in).

Finally, a quick note--all posts to my blog are my personal opinions and in no way represent the ideas and/or theology of my congregation. I will probably be writing things that I wouldn't preach because I plan to be a bit more provocative here than in my sermons (we'll see how smart that is soon). Likewise, I want to say that I hold no monopoly on the "right" answers. In fact, my opinions and thoughts are likely to change as well as anybodies are through the days, weeks, and years.

That being said--I guess I've finally written my first blog post. See Jo, it only took me a year. :)