TREVOR'S WRITING

There was a story that caught my attention a little while back in my city. At first I was happy about the story because it isn't often that homeless people are painted in a positive light. Here is an excerpt from the story: Faron Hall, 44, was given a medal of valour by Mayor Sam Katz at a ceremony not far from the riverbank where Hall often sleeps. Hall saw a boy fall into the river last weekend and dove into the chilly, fast-moving water to pull him ashore. Now the man who has been homeless for about seven years has become the talk of the town. I was excited to see that people would see that homeless people have heart, courage and respect for their fellow man. However, when I saw the same thing on the national news a few days later, as the story seemed to take off around the country I began to wonder...is it really that surprising to us? Is it so shocking that people who live on the street care about people? In the time I have spent around homeless people that is the thing t...

Seeing people is at the same time simple and difficult. I remember when I preached a sermon about 1 1/2 years ago. I spoke on the story of the good samaritan and talked about how we should learn from the people we normally look down on (those on the margins - for me...the homeless). I remember that someone talked to me afterward and challenged me on it. He said he knows a lot of people in the inner-city who are not good people at all, in fact they do a lot of evil things. What are we supposed to learn from them? At the time I said that the evil things are not what we are to learn from them, but that we can find some good. I have always felt uneasy about that conversation because I did not think I answered well. At the end of Tim Huff's book, Bent Hope, Steve Bell writes a Benediction. In it he says that Tim has an innate ablility to really see people. Not their problems and tragedies, not their lies, not the external decoys, but truly see who they are and that they are a p...

I got Jesus for President for Christmas and I really enjoyed reading it. Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw really have inspired me to think more creatively when it comes to politics. It was very interesting to read it during the inauguration of Barack Obama and seeing the hope that people put in him. It would seem that a lot of people really look to Obama as a savior of some sort. Of course there are many others who look at him as something much different than a savior as well. This book argues that Christians should not put their hope in any sort of politician or political system but that Jesus really is the only Savior that we can truly put our hope in. Living like Jesus is the way we are political. Christian's started out as being anti-empire when Rome would have nothing to do with them. Everyone was forced to say "Caesar is lord," but this was the time that Christians took their lives into their hands and instead said, "Jesus is Lord!" I think that so ma...

I have seen a disturbance in the holy water. People come to the altar to worship, but who are they worshipping. I heard a story recently from another youth pastor (thanks Jon). There was a young boy who decided to become a Christian, and give his life to Jesus. He was very excited to tell people and one of the first he wanted to tell was the worship pastor. He walked up to him and excitedly said, "I gave my life to you today!" The pastor was a little taken aback, "do you mean you gave your life to Jesus today?" "Yeah, that's what I said, I gave my life to you." The worship pastor was a little confused and asked, "son, do you think I am Jesus?" "Well, you are aren't you?" the boy said, "I mean...we sing to you every Sunday." This is a somewhat humorous (although disturbing) misunderstanding. But, I think I have seen this type of confused worship in many ways. Churches grow because people like the preaching, or because t...

Our Sr. Pastor mentioned in his sermon a while back that Jesus was 33 when he died.  I guess it struck a real cord with me because I am still thinking about it, I guess the fact that I am 34 has something to do with it.  I wonder at the things he accomplished, things that have had some staying power ( 2.1 Billion people claim to be his follower).   This has stirred me to reflect on my life, what have I accomplished in my 34 years? As I think about that I realize that the things that I pursue as "great things" are not very much like what Jesus considered to be great.  Jesus didn't start any programs, he only spoke to crowds that gathered around him naturally (he didn't do any advertising).  Jesus wasn't a dynamic personality, people were drawn to him because of who he was, not because he was a great leader, or a powerful person.  The only group he formed was a group that just kind of wandered around with him seemingly aimlessly.  He avoided crowds, had a quiet per...

Over the last few years I have been really thinking about the church, is it what God wants it to be? What is it that should change? What is it that should not change? As I have done this I have explored the concepts that emergent village explores, reading books by Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and others. A lot of what they have to say, really connects with me, but I have always been left with a feeling of uneasiness in many ways. I have kept reading them and enjoying their thoughts, but lately I have become more and more int erested in the church/christian concept that is called Missional. Over the last few years I have heard missional talked about quite a bit, and have often wondered what it meant, but never took the time to really look into it. A few months back I decided to check out some definitions. When I clicked on friends of missional I was really blown away! The definition of a missional community fit so well with the thoughts that I have had about the church lately. Thi...

About a year ago, I read Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and I remember being so overwhelmed with all the things I felt I needed to change in my life. At that point I made a decision to take one thing from each book that I read. I couldn't handle more than that. A few weeks back I finished reading Ronald Sider's book, Rich Christians in an Age of Poverty . I once again could have been overwhelmed, but I decided to take one thing, (I might cheat and take a few) here is the thing I am taking from this book. Sider talks a lot about living more simply and giving more to help the poor (especially giving to micro loan organizations), he mentions in his book that he thinks that most of the people reading the book could go 2 years without buying new clothes. I have decided to take the challenge (many people I know, especially the youth from my church, are thinking - hasn't he done that the last 15 years already?). Regardless, here are the items in my closet that I a...

I posted a few weeks ago about Rob Bell and Don Golden's book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians. I really appreciated Jearim's comments (on my Facebook ) about confession and the scripture that he used was very inspiring to me. I finished reading the book a while ago and really appreciated it. I realized that the whole idea of confession and repentance are extremely important to Rob, and that in fact may be one of the main points of the book. The whole book is about how followers of God throughout Biblical history have fallen into exile because they choose not to cry out to him, and when they do, God rescues them from that exile. This is near the end of the book: ...in exile we can slip into despair, or we can reimagine everything. Confession. Repentance. A fresh start. A clean slate. We cry out in our exile and God hears us and we experience rebirth. (p. 174) According to my understing of the book the difference is that compared to what I have learned there is a deeper understan...