Eureka Christian Church

Reflecting Christ's Light from Our Doorsteps to the Ends of the Earth

Vocation and Work

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Christians and Illegal Immigration

What does God want us to do about the illegal aliens who are risking life and limb to travel to the U.S.?

The recent surge of people seeking to enter the United States whether legally or not has created much “soul-searching” among Christians. Some believe we should close our borders and refuse to allow immigrants to enter. Others — as the question indicates — want to find a response that would be faithful to our Christian beliefs.

The Old Testament — in several places — admonishes the Israelites to remember that they were once strangers in a strange land, and therefore they should treat resident aliens with kindness and generosity (see Leviticus 19:10, 33-34; 23:22; Deuteronomy 14:29). And the prophet Ezekiel even envisioned a time when the aliens would become citizens.

When we turn to the New Testament, the passage that comes immediately to mind is Matthew’s account of the “last judgment” which reads, in part:

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you … for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me … (Matthew 25:34b-35; emphasis added).

On the whole, it seems to me the Biblical record is clear: we should treat the migrants with love and seek to do all that we can to make their lives here as bearable and sustainable as we can.

But it seems to me that we must do more than that. Our welcoming love and care for the migrants must be accompanied by an effort to attain justice and draw closer to the biblical concept of shalom.

Andrew Whitehead in a book entitled American Idolatry writes: “Part of our loving the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant is recognizing our own complicity in the systems of injustice that create and perpetuate their marginalization and suffering.”

Whitehead reminds us that we need to do what we can to bring greater justice, economic stability, and safety to the migrants’ homelands and thereby reduce the need or desirability of migration.

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How can the congregation better support our leadership?

You all do all the managing, planning and preparation for the service to keep us in good spiritual health.  What can we, the congregation, do for you, the leadership, to keep you well?

“Where two or more are gathered in my name, I’m right there in the midst of them.”  It’s a truly awesome thing we do, when we gather to worship!  There are many of us.  We preach, teach, pray, make us aware of outreach, play instruments, sing, operate sound equipment, prepare communion, serve communion, prepare bulletins, greet, count the offering, and open and close the buildings.  We keep the buildings clean and in good shape, and we keep the grounds looking beautiful.  We do all of this so that we can gather in God’s name! 

What can we do to keep the leadership well?  We can show love.   Many of us are already doing that.  Take credit!  Most of us are familiar with Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages, 1992.  We each have a particular way of showing love, so use the “love language” that is natural for you! Here are some ideas:

          *Words of Affirmation.  Was something meaningful to you in worship? Tell it.  Say it.  Write it.

          *Acts of Service.  Many, many of you are contributing to worship itself.  Some contribute their time and energy in cleaning, mowing, and repairing.  And, there’s always planning and teaching.

          *Quality Time.  Be totally present when you’re interacting.

          *Physical Touch.  There are always hugs, pats on the back, hand squeezes.

          *Gifts.  You already do this.   There are gifts from the garden.  Baked dishes.  A flower or two.  Small things that show your appreciation.

A final note:  If and when you might have some constructive observation or criticism, take a hint from Dale Carnegie—yesteryear’s How to Win Friends and Influence People—make a sandwich:  Wrap your criticism/observation/beef in between words of affirmation.  It goes down better that way!

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What is the meaning of life?

What is the meaning of life?

This a question that most of us have asked many times.   When we’re disheartened and disillusioned.  When we’re young and overwhelmed with life-decisions.  When we lost someone who gave us the world.

Many of us have been taught from childhood that God is Love.  Pure love.  It was God’s creative love that gave life to the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.  To fireflies.  And cockroaches. And then, our God of Love made us “in God’s own image.”  God intended us to be made of Love.  It’s up to us, then, with God’s help, to live out that Love.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like this.”  A lost lamb and a caring shepherd (Luke 15:3-6).  A lost coin and a determined widow (Luke 15:8-9).  An injured traveler and a helpful stranger (Luke 10:25-37).  All of them are opportunities for Love and Gratitude.

Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote a book about this question, Man’s Search for Meaning.  He wrote, “When we look for meaning, we’re considering the question of continuing to live despite persistent world-weariness.”  He then turned the question around:  Rather than “What can I expect from life?” to “What does life expect from me?”

There’s a story in one of Robert Fulghum’s books. (He also wrote, All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.)  A Greek teenager, in post war World War II, found a smashed piece of the mirror from a motorcycle wreckage of a hated Nazi.  He filed the sharp edges down, so that he could keep it in his pocket.  He carried that piece of mirror the rest of his life, taking it out in idle moments to reflect the sun and to angle the light into the darkest, most inaccessible places he could find.  He knew that he wasn’t the source of the light.  “I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know, but light. . .is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.”

Perhaps you can find meaning for your life in some of these thoughts.

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How do I respond to people I completely disagree with?

How can I respond in a faithful, caring way to people I completely disagree with?

Disagreements are a difficult part of our human experience, but for Christians and for the church, they have always been with us. We need only look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians or the writings of fourth-century Christians about the relationship between Jesus and God during the First Council of Nicaea to see that Christians have disagreed strongly with each other about many things throughout history. So, your question is a good one; “How do I respond to, or affirm someone with whom I disagree?”

One suggestion I will offer is to remember that the view that someone holds that differs from yours is not the only thing that determines who that person is. Regardless of whether you disagree with who that person votes for, their views on social issues, their faith or absence of belief, or any other concern, you may still be alike in more ways than you are different. In a 2009 TED talk, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke about the danger of a single story, or the danger of allowing only one part of a person’s identity frame our perception of that person. Here is a link to that TED talk, and I highly recommend it.

If you are someone who believes in the mission of the church, Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn write about the implications of covenant relationship in their book Disciples: Who We Are and What Holds Us Together. They write,

This means, of course, that a church built on covenant must accept, even value, a diversity of perspective. The commitment we make is not always to agree, but to walk together as we attempt to discern where God would have us go. If the church is a purely voluntary association, then when we disagree we can simply take our marbles and leave. If, however, the church is a covenantal society constituted by God’s initiative, then we stay at the table, especially when it is tough to do so.” [1]

These are challenging words from Kinnamon and Linn, but for me they describe part of the “heavy lifting” of discipleship.

[1] Michael Kinnamon and Jan Linn, Disciples: Who We Are and What Holds Us Together (St. Louis: Christian Book Publishers, 2019), 14.

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We are special, with one-of-a-kind DNA. What does this mean for me?

Of all the millions, billions, and trillions of atoms floating around the universe, God made us here and now with a one-of-a-kind DNA and a brain to gather memories. We are special. What does this mean for me?”

Your recognition that God has made us and that we are special is true and Biblical. And you are wise to ponder what that means for your life. Does your life have purpose and if so, what might that purpose be?

The Psalmist recognizes that we are made by God when he says in Psalm 139:14-16, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Another Psalm that speaks to the issue of God’s recognition of us is found in Psalm 8:3&4. Here the Psalmist ponders the great wonders of the universe and our existence in that universe, “When I look at your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” These passages from Psalms help us realize that we are wondrously made by God and he/she continuously has us in mind.

However, we might then ask, as you are doing in your question – so what?

In Colossians the apostle Paul tells us in 1:16, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible…everything got started in him (Christ) and finds its purpose in him (The Message).” Therefore, it appears that we can look to Jesus Christ to find our “so what,” or our own purpose(s) here on earth. Again, we turn to the apostle Paul for help. He writes in Ephesians 1:16, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone (The Message).”

In terms of specifics, I believe we need look no further than the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapters 5 – 7 to discover how God wants us to live our lives here on earth. There is plenty of “purpose” and Jesus explains this to us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us to be salt and light for others, to go beyond the ten commandments by paying attention to what is in our hearts, to love our enemies, to pray to God and depend on him rather than worry about anything, and to treat others the way we would want to be treated.

A good book that will help you continue to explore and discover God’s purpose for your life is, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

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Online Services and Empty Pews

How does our pastor feel about—and deal with—empty pews when on-line services are so convenient?  We are encouraged to meet with others…Hebrews 10:25

Whether it’s because of health challenges, the cost of gas, the fact that you’re out of town, or just feeling too anxious or depressed to be around a lot of people, we do understand that many people have perfectly good reasons for worshiping online rather than in our building on Sunday mornings. To  be 100% transparent and honest, it’s not very fun to preach to a half-empty room. Ask any pastor anywhere, and they’ll admit that it is much more life-giving to lead worship in a sanctuary full of engaged people.

But aside from a pastor’s personal concerns about empty pews, there is something deeper here too. The writer of Hebrews did encourage us, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (Heb 10:24-25a). But this passage isn’t just about getting together for the sake of being in the same room on Sunday mornings. Our real goal is to be an encouragement to each other, helping our fellow Christians love and serve in Christ’s name.

In the 21st century we have all sorts of technologies that expand our abilities to encourage each other in faith, way beyond just being at 302 S Main St on Sunday mornings. We can emulate the early church found in Acts 2:48, devoting ourselves “to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Being a committed Christian is way more than sitting in a pew: it can also take the form of joining outreach ministries, delivered meals, or church maintenance projects. It can look like encouraging emails or text messages, or even online worship. God doesn’t just want your attendance, God wants your whole self, the whole week long. As pastors, if you’re committed all week, but miss Sundays sometimes, that’s a tradeoff we’d happily take.   

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How do I find my life’s purpose?

How do I find my life’s purpose? What is God’s will for my life? For my work? How do I find my calling?

Gordon Smith notes “our unique calling will be based on our gifts and abilities, will grow out of our deepest desires, and will always involve some response to the needs of the world.”(Courage and Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential, pp. 33-35). Frederick Buechner (Listening to Your Life, p. 186) states: “the place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” David Benner writes, “We are all called to Christ-following and loving service of God and neighbor. But the specific call that is rooted in your unique identity, gifts and personality will be found as you come to know both God and self in Christian community” (David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself) [p. 89].

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What will I do for work?

What will I do this winter for work?

I think I hear in your question not only uncertainty but maybe even a little fear, and I can understand why. Having a seasonally-dependent job means the loss of that job when the seasons change. Which also, obviously, means a loss of income. And that is scary. So what can you do? While this is not my area of expertise, I have some thoughts:

Find a winter-specific job to supplement your other income. For example, you can join the IDOT “Snowbird” program. Retail and package-delivery services also hire seasonal workers, at least during the holidays. These are just a few ideas to get you started; I am sure there are others.

Manage your cash flow to take you through the winter months. My sister is self-employed and never knows just how many clients she will have from month to month. Because she has owned her business for over twenty years, she has been able to chart her cash flow and can now anticipate which months will be lean. What this means in practice is that she sets aside funds during months of higher income to use when she has less money coming in. Perhaps something like this will work for you too.

Expand your employment options. Is there a specific certification you can earn or more education you can complete that will make you a more viable candidate for different employment opportunities? Think about the skills you already have and build on those. If what you are doing now is not enough to meet your financial needs throughout the year, then perhaps a change is what you need most.

These are all specific actions you can take to manage the fear (and possible reality) of not having enough income. In my experience, taking action has been the best antidote to fear.

I can get myself absolutely tangled in knots of anxiety, worry, fear, you name it. So much so that I can’t think of anything else except for this thing I’m stressing over. And what has this done for me? It hasn’t solved my problem, that’s for sure. Instead, I have poured so much energy into being afraid and anticipating all the things that can possibly go wrong that I haven’t left any energy for actually dealing with the problem. However, when I have been able to channel all that energy into making a change or doing what needs to be done, I have realized that—yes!—I can do this! Perhaps you don’t struggle with fear like this. But if you do, maybe this will help.

And one more thing. For me, life has been much more satisfying when I have found meaning and purpose in what I do. Sometimes we talk about having a sense of “call” in our work; that’s what this is. Doing something with our lives that makes a difference. What do you enjoy doing? Where do you feel like your gifts can be the most useful? These might be good questions to ponder and pray about. When I am living out my call, it doesn’t feel like work.  It just feels right.

“Find a job you enjoy doing,
and you will never have to work a day in your life”
Mark Twain

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How can I grow my mowing business?

How can I help grow my mini-mowing/yard work bisness [sic]?  (I am just a kid.)

This is a great question! It speaks of your work ethic, your determination, your independence, and your sense of responsibility. I bet your parents are very proud of you!

How can you grow your mowing/yard work business? Work hard and do good-quality work are my first responses. Mow when you say you are going to mow. Communicate with your customers if you know you might be delayed. (For example, if you get sick or overwhelmed with homework or if your family goes out of town.) Do a thorough job. Clean up after you are done. Pay attention to the things your customers have asked you to do or not do—for example, don’t weed-whack the flowers they asked you to leave alone.

Your customers will appreciate all your efforts and, perhaps more importantly from a business point of view, they will stay your loyal customers. Some businesses are really good about getting new customers, but they do not do enough to keep the customers they already have. You can’t grow a business that way. You grow a business by keeping the customers you have and adding new ones.

Which brings me to the next thought for growing your business: ask your current customers for referrals. If they are pleased with the work you have done for them, then they will be more than happy to let their friends, neighbors, and family know about your business. You might even want to create fliers or business cards for them to hand out. One word of caution, however: don’t add so many customers that you can’t continue to offer good-quality work to your current ones. There is a sweet spot here—having enough customers for your business to thrive, but not bringing in so many new customers that the quality of your work suffers.

And one last thought: be open to new possibilities. In addition to mowing, maybe add weed pulling in the summer, leaf raking in the fall, snow shoveling in the winter, or hedge trimming in whatever season hedges are trimmed. Pet sitting might also go well with a yard business because you’re at the house already—might as well feed and water the animals!

Good luck!

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Why in Bible times was the role of pastor always filled by a man?

Why in Bible times was the role of pastor always filled by a man?

            My understanding is that religious leaders were men rather than women because all of society was androcentric, or male focused. That fact was true not only for the people of Israel, but for the people throughout Mesopotamia. It may not be surprising to find that as Judaism and Christianity evolved in such an environment, they became androcentric, or patriarchal in nature as well. It simply reflected the water they were swimming in and the air they were breathing. And the fact that women had so few rights helps explain the concern the prophets and Jesus held for widows; they were among the poor and dispossessed without the men on whom society had made them dependent.

            During the time of the Old Testament, only men who were descended from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses and Aaron could be priests, and they had to be the first-born males in their families. Simply being male did not qualify a man to be a priest. Only specific males could be priests.

            The situation changed for early Christians after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Initially after the death and resurrection of Jesus, his followers thought of themselves as Jews and not as creators of a new religion. Worship was conducted in the homes of believers, and neither the roles such as deacons and bishops, nor the hierarchy that exists in the church today existed at first. Some prominent women participated in worship, but it doesn’t appear that they led worship as the church was evolving.

            Disciples of Christ today are among the denominations who affirm the gifts that women have for ministry. Eureka Christian Church is blessed with such women, and our Regional Minister and our General Minister and President are capable and extraordinary women who faithfully serve us well.