Stained Glass Masquerade

March 29, 2008

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain?
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade.

– Casting Crowns

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections

How would you answer this question?

March 25, 2008

“Do you have to believe the resurrection is literally true — that Jesus came back to life in his body — to be a Christian?” Read Al Mohler’s response HERE …

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Theology

Quote of the Day!

March 25, 2008

[T]hey are wrong, they are reliably, verifiably, and factually incorrect. Richard Dawkins is wrong. Daniel C. Dennett is wrong. Christopher Hitchens is drunk, and he’s wrong. Michel Onfray is French, and he’s wrong. Sam Harris is so superlatively wrong that it will require the development of esoteric mathematics operating simultaneously in multiple dimensions to fully comprehend the orders of magnitude of his wrongness.

– Vox Day

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections

A further word about Journeys

March 11, 2008

I’ve just finished reading my copy of Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance by Todd Wright and Marty Duren (see previous post) and I urge every pastor and church leader who’s tired of church as usual, tired of dead religion and dead religious people, tired of denominational “good ole-boyism,” tired of church politics and cold traditionalism, tired of meaningless programs and self-serving bureaucracy and church competition, tired of this managerial pragmatism that’s killing the soul of our calling and ministry, tired of tame and harmless views of the Great Commission, to get and read this book for encouragement, for direction, and to stir your heart again to lead the church to be the church on incarnational mission in the world.

Thanks, Todd & Marty, for sharing your journeys with us, and calling us to the journey as well!

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections

An Open Letter to Senator Obama

March 7, 2008

The Audacity of Hope: A Second-Generational Query

by Sherif Girgis

Dear Senator Obama:

As an immigrant from Kenya, your father found new hope in America’s noble principles and vast opportunities. The same promise brought my parents here from Egypt when I was still too young to thank them. Now you have inspired my generation with your vision of a country united around the same ideals of liberty and justice, “filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

But do you mean it? ….

Read Girgis’s article HERE at National Review Online.

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections

Same-Sex Unions and the Sermon on the Mount

March 5, 2008

In case you missed this bit of profound biblical exegesis and theological scholarship, Sen. Barack Obama (D. Ill.) said Sunday in Ohio that same-sex unions should enjoy state-recognized legal status and rights. That’s nothing new in Obama’s platform, of course. What was staggering, I must say, was this statement he then made: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount ….” Now, if that alone isn’t confusing enough (What part of the Sermon on the Mount might he have in mind, for example?), he then ended that sentence with this: “… which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.”

Thanks to Sen. Obama, we now know that Paul contradicts Jesus on the matter of homosexuality, that the Bible as a whole doesn’t have a unified and coherent message, and that the Sermon on the Mount in particular supports state-recognized legal status and rights for same-sex marriage unions. Wow! Welcome to the wild and wacky world of postmodern hermeneutics and religious pluralism — à la political campaigning — run amok!!

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections

What Makes a Church Missional?

March 5, 2008

“The terms missional and missional church are barely 10 years old, but already they bring up more than half a million hits on a Google search. Churches are inundated with missional books, missional websites, missional consultation groups, and missional speakers. Yet the meaning of the term remains unclear.”

This is a helpful discussion of the matter as we seek to be biblical and faithful in the way ahead. Read it HERE!

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Theology

Only what needs to be done

March 2, 2008

In M. Night Shyamalan’s movie The Village, one of the characters, Lucius Hunt, is asked by another why he is so fearless. His reply is remarkable: “I don’t worry about what will happen, only what needs to be done.”

While here and there one finds notable exceptions, the Church-at-large in our culture seems to be of quite the opposite mind: “Don’t worry about what needs to be done, only what will happen if you do it.” In other words, look out for yourself, your interests, your investments, your future. Choose selfishly, not sacrificially. If it comes to a choice, better to look good (image) than be right (character), better popular than prophetic, better culturally successful than fearlessly faithful!

God’s call to Ezekiel stands in stark contrast to such thinking. The Lord’s first words to him were: “I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day” (2:3). Okay, not quite the comfortable little position to ride out until retirement. Read more

Written by Pastor Haygood · Filed Under Reflections