Challenging Churches
For centuries, the Episcopal Church and the Church of England and the church catholic from which it came, have challenged Christians to look at the time leading up to Easter as a time of taking on some things and letting go of others. Many of you are now forgoing chocolate, or soft drinks or meat, etc. while others are taking on Bible reading, attending worship more often etc. This week I ran across news of two other more unusual challenges coming from churches not given toward keeping Lenten discipline.
From Oklahoma City comes word that INTEGRIS Health Sponsors Church-Wide Weight Loss Competition that came out of Health Summits for African Americans. African American pastors in the area are challenged to create teams that will lose weight and come in for monthly weigh-ins from February 1 through October 31, 2008. The weight loss will be based on a percentage of the total amount lost by the team, because all churches are not the same size.
The "openly edgy" Relevant Church in Ybor City, Florida (Tampa/St. Petersburg area) is currently in the midst of the 30 Day Sex Challenge in which unmarried persons are challenged to give up sex for 30 days, while married couples are to commit to having sex every day during the 30 days. The St. Pete Times has the article God wants you to have sex, the church has website resources online at 30daysexchallenge.com. The website says, "For far too long the church has remained silent on the subject, leading many people to believe that God is against sex, which is completely counter to what the Bible teaches." And the church's blog is posting daily updates, with stories from persons taking part in the challenge here Where Culture Meets Christ and also has download able guides for participants. A TV news story on the challenge is posted below.
The weight loss seems like a genuine attempt to improve the physical lives of the faithful. While I have no reason to believe that Relevant Church is being disingenuous and offering a program merely to grab headlines, they certainly seem to have tailored the campaign toward making the news and have gladly helped getting news stories out (see their YouTube Channel).
Another way to Challenge
I don't think any make-one-change-for-the-whole-church challenge is a good idea. Maybe some folks need to lose weight, others need to recapture intimacy in marriage, while others need other things like reading the Bible, prayer time, or other more traditional spiritual practices. I prefer the time-tested idea that we challenge one another to take on something meaningful for Lent and then worry neither about what each other is doing (or not doing), nor do we concern ourselves with how to make the nightly news. It's not that I think the church has nothing to say about caring for your body or about sexuality. I just think that each of us is in a different place and we should find ways to honor that and find ways to challenge one another to try to live out our faith in our own unique ways. What do you think?
peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor
From Oklahoma City comes word that INTEGRIS Health Sponsors Church-Wide Weight Loss Competition that came out of Health Summits for African Americans. African American pastors in the area are challenged to create teams that will lose weight and come in for monthly weigh-ins from February 1 through October 31, 2008. The weight loss will be based on a percentage of the total amount lost by the team, because all churches are not the same size.The "openly edgy" Relevant Church in Ybor City, Florida (Tampa/St. Petersburg area) is currently in the midst of the 30 Day Sex Challenge in which unmarried persons are challenged to give up sex for 30 days, while married couples are to commit to having sex every day during the 30 days. The St. Pete Times has the article God wants you to have sex, the church has website resources online at 30daysexchallenge.com. The website says, "For far too long the church has remained silent on the subject, leading many people to believe that God is against sex, which is completely counter to what the Bible teaches." And the church's blog is posting daily updates, with stories from persons taking part in the challenge here Where Culture Meets Christ and also has download able guides for participants. A TV news story on the challenge is posted below.The weight loss seems like a genuine attempt to improve the physical lives of the faithful. While I have no reason to believe that Relevant Church is being disingenuous and offering a program merely to grab headlines, they certainly seem to have tailored the campaign toward making the news and have gladly helped getting news stories out (see their YouTube Channel).
Another way to Challenge
I don't think any make-one-change-for-the-whole-church challenge is a good idea. Maybe some folks need to lose weight, others need to recapture intimacy in marriage, while others need other things like reading the Bible, prayer time, or other more traditional spiritual practices. I prefer the time-tested idea that we challenge one another to take on something meaningful for Lent and then worry neither about what each other is doing (or not doing), nor do we concern ourselves with how to make the nightly news. It's not that I think the church has nothing to say about caring for your body or about sexuality. I just think that each of us is in a different place and we should find ways to honor that and find ways to challenge one another to try to live out our faith in our own unique ways. What do you think?
peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor
posted by King of Peace @ Wednesday, March 05, 2008
1 Comments:
At 3/05/2008 7:11 AM,
Anonymous said…
I think that if my husband and I were to have sex for 30 days in a row for Lent, then I would want my chocolate back that I originally gave up! The lack of chocolate can create some major headaches...:)
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