Wade Poe

Another world shaking idea that surfaced with deconstruction and rebuilding is being strong in my trust and dependence on God and seeing how different that is from being a big fan of "church" or "going to church" or things like that. In the past, the two were inseparable.  In fact, you showed your trust and dependence on God BY being a big church fan and making sure you supported everything about church.  As a student of history and sociology, that makes 100% sense, but it's still very misguided, to me. _______________________________ It's almost like students in most public schools these days learning and/or having classroom activities that prepare them to take "the test" at the right time.  You know, the test the government has schools take, essentially to show they're still qualifying for government money to keep flowing their way. There's nothing wrong with prepping to take a test, but when your entire system is wrapped around that part...

"... a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.   You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.   Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Jesus' words with the woman at a well in the gospel of John are probably some of the most striking that shook loose my ideas about church, God, and all things religious. There's a long history between the Jews and the Samaritans between the exile and regional power struggles with non-Jewish nations that's worth reading into - and it set up the history for a part of this exchange between Jesus and a woman that had a lot of husbands. The basics are that the Samaritans had their own temple/worship facility they...

So what is the good news of God in Jesus? It is that the life that was lost in Adam in the garden of Eden and the resulting sin that was brought into the world has been handled.   Jesus came into the world, died for our sins - all of them, past, present, and future - and after the resurrection, sent the Holy Spirit, so the life that was lost has been restored. Anyone who trusts in what God has done in forgiving all sin through Jesus can have him come live in them through the presence of the Holy Spirit and he will, forever. And that's it. ___________________________________________ What does that mean for us?   It means that God has reconciled us to himself.  We can simply acknowledge what he's done, accept it, and live in the peace with God he has provided. For the first Christians, mainly Jewish people by background, it meant they no longer needed to have a priest offer sacrifices on their behalf for forgiveness of sin or anything like that.   Jesus was the final h...

Prayer requests are one of those amazing things that bless people in deeply personal ways. And they're also a way to see where we are in our understanding of God, each other, and life. I used to like taking prayer requests at the beginning of a class time until I realized that, for some, it was feeding into an idea or view of God that wasn't healthy or helping.  That and it took almost half the class time before it was over each week. I'm pretty sure those two paragraphs are probably really offensive to some people.  Like, how dare you speak of prayer and praying for people with such disdain?  And I do understand the offense.  I get it. What strikes me is that through the New Testament, how little of that kind of language or talk exists, relatively speaking.  Their focus is WAY less on getting their personal needs met, to the degree it doesn't exist. When Paul or others actually talk about what they're praying for regarding the people they write, it's often very...

When the Israelites were freshly out of slavery in Egypt, you'd think they were going to be excited about it from that day forward.  But you'd be wrong. It wasn't long before they complained to Moses that he'd brought them out of slavery BUT hadn't made them comfortable or hadn't made it easy. "At least back in Egypt when we were slaves, we had fish and onions and cucumbers and other nice foods we like to eat." In other words, yes, the idea of freedom is appealing and excellent in the abstract IF all my baseline needs that I had met by my slave masters continue to be met while I learn about and figure out my way in my new freedom and get to place where I can manage "on my own". In other, other words - "Yeah, we complained about the slavery, but looking back we'd rather have it than have to figure out what to do 'on our own' - this freedom comes with too much responsibility!" And boy howdy is that true.   A lot of people...

What's the big deal IF the main message of a church is community and relationships?   Is it not the case that sometimes what you get people's attention with *at first* is community and relationships?   Can it not be: having  good feels a safe place to raise our kids and grandkids a place to contribute and feel ownership a place to serve a place to have friendships or at least somewhat meaningful relationship  a place to savor our heritage or history with others a place to call our own, etc  ...can't those things be the thing that attracts "outsiders" to come to us and, if they're not  believers , open up a time to witness to them about God and what he's done for us in Jesus? In other words, can't you do the old "bait and switch" thing?  Well, sure you can.  If people would at least TRY that, it would be great.  "Here's a nice softball team for you to play on.  And by the way, have you met our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" First...

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Paul's words here in Colossians 4:5-6 remind me to relax.  Growing up, it was the opposite - I had to have an answer for anyone and everyone AND for any question that might be asked. But that was my "church" helping me hear Paul differently than what he was saying.  Later, when I read what Peter said about sharing the hope we have and not all the perfect answers, I began to suspect better. When your world is framed by "church" in the pop culture, religious sense, you hear everything  through that worldview - all questions are heard through the assumption of church and answered in such. So, for me, most all the interactions I'd have with "outsiders" or "lost people" were about how my tribe did or does baptism, worship services - with singing without ...