All posts in Community

Speaking about people and communities we have knowledge of comes with the possibility and responsibility of actually affecting change in the area we’re so willing to critique.. and I would suggest that’s where the rubber meets the road.

I’m becoming far less comfortable with making statements about “The Church.” I’m realizing that I just don’t have the capacity to hold together, in my mind, the enormity of the word. In fact, the smartest, wisest and most invested women and men I know delicately and humbly approach the term “The Church” and rarely to level some sweeping criticism.

Thoughts like “Christians think this” or “The Church needs to stop doing that” will always be true insofar as the sample it points at includes, because of its enormity, some Christians who do think that and perhaps whole Church communities of people who are doing something that ought not be done. But it also misses just as many.

So, perhaps it is more accurate and responsible to talk about our church rather than talking about the monolithic, faceless thing called “The Church.” Perhaps it is more honoring and even effective to talk about men and women we actually know instead of the blob of nameless automatons we often men when we speak of “The Church.”

Speaking about the people and communities we have knowledge of comes with the possibility and responsibility of actually affecting change in the area we’re so willing to critique… and I would suggest that’s where the rubber meets the road. What if the filter through which we ran our critique of any people was whether or not we had not only knowledge of but influence among that people? Isn’t most of what happens outside of that mostly complaining?

Certainly there are exceptions, but I’m trying to apply this filter to more of the way I critique my world and particularly “The Church.”

42 days ago / Tagged: Church, Complaining, Religion 5

CMY(K): People Are Not Their Problems

In writing the letters that make up part of the CMY(K) project, I wanted to model an approach to pastoral practice that emphasized the Person rather than the Problem. Eugene Peterson makes a compelling argument in his most recent memoirThe Pastor that far too much ministry focuses on relieving people of their problems; constantly calling attention to some issue or another. I’m certainly guilty of this, myself.

But I am not defined by my problems and bristle at the thought of being primarily seen in the dark light of what is wrong with me.

The proper focus of Christian discipleship is the growth and shaping of a whole person who is loved by God as they are. Discipleship is not the resolution or eradication of an individual’s set of issues so that they can become acceptable to God and His people.

In other words; in answer to questions I’ve been asked such as..

“Do you deal with homosexuality in your church?”
“Do you deal with doubt among your congregates?”

I would have to answer “No.” Not because sexual identity is unimportant or difficult to address or because everyone in my congregation is unshakably confident in the things they believe. But because I don’t want to “deal with” issues. I want to “deal with” people. I want to do my best, according to what wisdom I’ve been granted, to help them hear, interpret and then act on what they are hearing from God; trusting that He, in His wisdom, will speak to them about what specific things He is working on, shaping, changing or removing.

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You can pick up all three CMY(K) ep’s at iTunes
You can find more about the CMY(K) project at http://cmykproject.info/
You can dance if you want to. You can leave your friends behind here.

63 days ago / Tagged: CMY(K), Counseling, Discipleship, Therapy 1

You were part of this community when I first showed up. I left for a few years but when I came back you were still here. A lot else had changed and a lot of folks weren’t around anymore but you were. That made me feel like I had come back to the same place; to the same church. Like I had actually come home to something I could count on.

Several months ago, we bid farewell to a long-standing member our our church community. His departure was strictly geographical in nature; no ‘weird church drama’ involved. A small group of us (7 men or so) with whom this brother was particularly connected gathered to formally send him on the next part of his journey. Each of us shared some word of wisdom or encouragement (along with some legendary jabs) over the course of about 3 hours. Among them all, one comment stuck with me as most prominent.

While the wording might not be exact, the sentiment ran something like this:

“You were part of this community when I first showed up. I left for a few years but when I came back you were still here. A lot else had changed and a lot of folks weren’t around anymore but you were. That made me feel like I had come back to the same place; to the same church. Like I had actually come home to something I could count on.”

I can honestly say that our church community has been held together not so much by the most talented or even wisest among us but by those who have faithfully weathered the years and chosen to remain.

Perhaps this goes without saying but this is not just about church culture..

-It’s about being the teacher who, even after years the political and cultural devaluing of your job, simply won’t quit on kids or their education.

-It’s about being the politician who, despite the force of currents moving against you, continues to act with sincerity and integrity.

-Its about being the divorced husband or wife who, despite all the awkwardness and frustration, continues to make time with their children the highest priority.

-It’s about being the friend who is there for your friends 5, 7, 10, 20 years later.

There is simply no replacement for faithful presence; it is perhaps the greatest gift a person can offer another person.

67 days ago / Tagged: Community, Friendship, new iPad 3

CMY(K) – Resurrection (“Y”, Track 1): Letter To A Christian Friend

Most of the songs that make up the CMY(K) project are written for and about friends. I am posting the letters I’ve written to these friends letting them know about their song. Below is the letter I wrote to a friend for whom i wrote the song “Resurrection,” which appears on the EP entitled “Y.”

I wrote the song “Resurrection” with you in mind. Below is a letter explaining a bit more of why.

The christianity you grew up in almost killed you. In fact, it may well have at some point. You were given hoops to jump through and lists to memorize lest you be unprepared to meet the ills of this depraved world. Regardless, you were ill-prepared. In your christian training, favor was hard-earned and easily lost. You had the horrible misfortune of never having earned it to begin with so that when you floundered, it was only what was expected of you. You never measured up but for short seasons at a time, at the end of which you would inevitably be found lacking in either faith or character once again.In a culture that generally values getting it right, you’ve often gotten it quite wrong. You have lived long seasons of expecting the other boot to fall; never believing that, even when good fortune is granted you, it will last. Sadly, you’ve been right about many of these seasons and that has verified the idea that, at least in some way, you are cursed.

But I do not believe your christian training provides light enough by which to accurately read the story of your life. I do not believe that yours is the story of a man who “can’t hold it together,” though much has fallen apart in your hands. I do not believe that yours is the story of a man who is constantly sabotaging his own good fortune, though you have often done that as well. I do not believe you are a man whose past mistakes will forever haunt and corrupt the landscape of his future. I believe that yours is a testimony of boundless mercy; of inexhaustible grace; of getting second chances seventy times and then seven times that.

On one hand the sad reading of your life is accurate: How many times has your life nearly imploded? How many times have you shot yourself in the foot or jumped ship on something good because of some irrational fear? How many times have you schemed your way into some corner from which you believed the only escape was yet another scheme into another corner? How many corners have you found yourself in?

In fact, you have found yourself even recently in yet another corner. But this time you didn’t scheme your way out. You stopped. You waited. You got caught holding the bag that contained all your failures. In part you stopped because you were exhausted from the chase and had lost faith in your own plans. But more importantly, your exhaustion from running all these years allowed the better part of you to overpower the lesser part of you and move you past fear toward trust.

In the past, you believed being caught would have meant being exposed and that being exposed would mean shame, judgement and punishment. But that is not what you have found in being caught. Being caught in this corner has meant experiencing the firm grasp of God and those He’s given to you. That grasp can feel like a kind of violence at first. But that it has not harmed or restricted you: it has held you still and in place long enough to hear the voice of the Father and His Family saying “You are a son and a brother. With you we are well pleased.”

You see, what your christian training failed to teach you is that failure is not a dead end, it is a doorway. Through the doorway of failure you have found mercy and grace. And though your former religion may have in fact killed you, it is by mercy and grace that you are being made alive again.

Only because you have failed as a friend have you come to know who your true friends are and that the foundation of those relationships cannot be shaken by your performance.

Only because you have failed as a son have you come to know that the love of a Father is unmoved by performanceand that you, in fact, do have a true Father. (This also means that you can BE a true father).Only because you have failed as a christian have you come to know that God never asked you to be a ‘christian’ to begin with. He has pursued you. He has caught you. He has held you together. He has kept you. None of this because you have done well and have therefore pleased the Father with your performance. All of it because you are His. And that is all he has asked you to be.. to be His and to know that He is pleased with you.

—

You can pick up the EP at iTunes.
It is also available at my web store.
For more on the whole CMY(K) project, read the artist statement.

Resurrection from Justin McRoberts on Vimeo.

LYRICS:

It’s not about the drinking
It’s all about being drunk
It’s not with whom you’re sleeping
It’s with whom you wake up

It’s not about the wars you fight
It’s whether or not you win
Not so much about being right
As not letting all the wrong ones in

We all wan’t that resurrection
But we don’t want to die
We all wan’t that sweet salvation
Without the bitterness of sacrifice

It’s not about forgiveness
But making sure they know
You’re the one they’ve injured
But you’re too strong to let it show

It’s not about believing
It’s about making it look good
So when you loose your reason
You just keep doing what you should

90 days ago / Tagged: CMY(K), Failure, Grace, justin mcroberts, Religion 0

Sunday Reflection: Why I Don’t Hate Religion

I am a Christian. I am a religious person. In fact, wish I were more so. I wish I more religiously cared for my own mind and body; more religiously cared for my family and more religiously served my neighbors. I wish I more religiously acted on the decisions I make when I have the eyes to see and the ears to hear clearly. I wish I more religiously practiced and acted on what I believe to be True and Good and Beautiful. I am a religious man because I practice what I believe and only wish I were more faithful to my religion.

Perhaps obviously, I’m responding to the viral video entitled “Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus.” Even side from the generally false and far-too-easy accusations leveled against “churches,” the young brother’s poem is an example of what I find worst in religious practice: reactive emotionalism. I believe I understand what he’s reacting to. The cross-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, communal practice of Christianity is often messy and sometimes downright ugly. Yet I would suggest that the thing to do in response to poorly practiced religion is to work at practicing it well and helping others to do the same.

Serve the poor.
Support single mothers.
Visit and encourage the imprisoned.
Pray.
Study.
Sing.
Heal.

All of which are outward evidences and practices of inward convictions and beliefs

Religion is exactly that; the outward practice of my inward conviction and belief. It is the pattern created by regularly and consistently (and communally) acting on what I believe. Without the outward work of my life (my religion), the inward conviction I have regarding the Goodness, Truth and Beauty of God in Christ is meaningless (James 2:14-26). I practice my faith regularly and consistently instead of allowing it to be an emotionally-rooted and nearly thoughtless sequence of reactions, each with a life-span roughly equivalent to that of a YouTube video’s popularity.

123 days ago / Tagged: "Why I Hate Religion", Jesus, Katy Perry, Religion, YouTube 24

I had hiked to the top of the hill to catch the sunset and found a very tall, wooden cross planted at the summit. In the wood, folks had etched their names, scripture verses, words like “Christ 4 Life!” or “I love Jesus!.” Others had etched crosses into the cross, which seems.. well, like quite a redundancy. And while I didn’t actually scoff at anything on the cross, I might as well have. I often don’t notice until after I’ve done so, but I have a natural propensity for filing certain expressions of faith under categories of “unhelpful” or “juvenile.”

Earlier in the day, I had written about the grace upon which the christian community is founded. During the piece, I wrote that “if God is planning on judging His children according to the rightness of our theology, we ought to all be very concerned.” The line was bouncing around my head and on my walk down the hill, it came collided with the list of judgements I’d made about those etchings.

I was reminded that I belong to a tradition in which even the most juvenile expression is, on some level, accepted; that it is by the same grace that my expression is accepted. After all, what is more juvenile than being judgmental?

162 days ago / Tagged: Community, judgement 0

Here are a few Thanksgiving thoughts I’ve put together from notes to a recent sermon. I hope to have the audio in hand shortly and will likely post it to Facebook and Twitter.
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“Thanks”
“Thanks” is short for “Thank you,” which is, itself short for “I thank you.” With every reduction, a human element of the phrase is eliminated; first “I,” then “you.”

The english word “thank” comes from the same root as the word “think,” which means “to hold in one’s mind” or “to perceive.” So, at least part of what I am saying when I say “thank you” is that I see the person at the other end of the exchange. I am acknowledging that they are more than a vehicle for the distribution of goods and services; more than just an instrument of economy.

Recognizing the human on the other side of a gift exchange means recognizing a gift as the result of choice. The gift-giver chose generosity and kindness over selfishness and greed and I believe that it is worth noting whenever someone chooses their better nature.

“No problem”
In his insightful book “The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor,” author Mark Labberton laments the cultural shift from responding with “You’re welcome” to responding with “no problem,” writing that “The phrase assumes that the service offered is primarily measured by the cost to the one serving….”

I can think of ways I’ve expressed this sentiment:

No problem.. It was on my way
No problem.. I had an extra
No problem.. Because you’ll pay me back
No problem.. It didn’t cost me anything

But if it was a problem, the chances that I’d do it take a dive.

Labberton goes on: “The fact is, however, that a lot of the service we need to receive and offer is really going to be a problem… Our lives are meant to carry and share in the problems of others.. That’s called love… Our goal is not to keep the cost of love as low as possible.”

Which is why, along with the author, I prefer the words “You’re welcome.”

“To say ‘you’re welcome’ carries with it an acknowledgement of the dignity of the person who thanked you, your intentionality as the giver and even the value of the gift.”

I would take this a step further and suggest that it is this sentiment “you’re welcome,” that frames the entire exchange. In offering a gift or my time etc,.. I am actually offering a part of myself; Instead of giving according to the toll it takes on me I give according to the relationship I have or desire to have with the recipient, welcoming them into my life, even if in a small way.

As a christian, I find this expressed in these timeless words from John’s apostolic letter:

“We love because He first loved us.”

I am welcomed by God through Christ. And in Christ that welcome comes at the cost of the Cross. This frames the way I now offer myself to my world. I give of myself to a world that is welcomed into relationship with God; I get to extend that welcome in acts of generosity and kindness. When those acts are seen and I am thanked for them, I then have the opportunity to proclaim that welcome aloud.

175 days ago / Tagged: Thank You, thanks, Thanksgiving, You're Welcome 1

So, you’re right. They are wrong.

So what?
What now?

It seems to me that the value of “rightness” or “being right” is measured by it’s impact or effect on people. To be right about a diagnosis benefits the patient. To be right about geography benefits those on the trail or in the car. So, what good is it to be right unless I can offer my insights in love and charity? There are no points to be earned by being right. What good is it to be right if I do not have relationships to offer such insights to? To use a terrible example: What good is it to be right about the best or only exit out of a burning building if the people in that building don’t trust you to lead them out?

It is not enough to be right. Trusting, loving relationships give right-mindedness a purpose and a place.

200 days ago / Tagged: love, Righteousness, Trust 5

CMY(K): Heaven Knows (“M”, Track 1) Letter To A ‘Stuck’ Brother

Most of the songs that make up the CMY(K) project are written for and about friends, each of whom has or will receive letters about the songs. I’m posting a few of those letters here. ”Heaven Knows″ is written for a young brother I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for years and seen wrestle with the authenticity of his faith. This is the letter I wrote to him about the song:

Brother,
I wrote the song “Heaven Knows” for and about you.

You deeply desire to know and speak Truth. Your feet search for firm ground to stand on. You’d rather say nothing at all than echo the insane speculations of overconfident, arrogant and uninformed religion you remember from your past. These things are honorable in you and worthy of celebration. They are also evidence of a Divine work in you. The hard part of that work has been that it has meant years of restlessness and an inability at times to act with confidence.

You’ve engaged in many great conversations, read many insightful texts. Yet, more recently, the words of others have begun to fall short of your heart: you’ve not been moved and comforted by the same conversations and ideas you had been moved and comforted by previously. I believe that this because it is your heart that needs to speak rather than be spoken to. The time has come to act on what you do know rather than wait for further instruction, the next revelation or some deeper insight.

Until now, you have been full of words but few to none of them have been yours much less God’s. You have had little to no internal room for your own words because of the cacophony of voices swirling in you. Even the words you did speak were often arrangements of words you received from parents, your past or your former religion. But the time has come for you to speak your own words and to do so in confidence. You’ve come to know that the ground is there to stand upon and that the Truth is not as evasive as it once appeared.

You are not being asked to name anything. The time for conclusions and ‘naming’ has past (and another season like it is yet to come). For now, you are simply being asked to bear witness to what you have seen and let everything else be everything else. You are being asked to act according to what you know is True, regardless of the incompleteness of that knowledge. Just as Phillip was bid by the Spirit of the Lord to “Go South” with no further explanation, you have your own “Go South” to obey.

So, I wanted to give you a way to see and remember that work begun in you is real and that it will be brought to completion; a way to see remember that your circumstances, present or past do not direct your path; Your circumstances are not concrete; they are malleable. The thing, moreso than any other that you are being asked to bear witness to, the thing that must direct your course of action henceforth is your identity in the Father, who calls you “son.”

Thomas Merton writes “God is not a ‘what,’ not a thing …there is no ‘what’ that can be called God. There is ‘no such thing’ as God because God is neither a ‘what’ or a ‘thing’ but pure ‘Who.’ He is the ‘Thou’ before whom our inmost ‘I’ springs into awareness. He is the I AM before whom, with our most personal and inalienable voice, we echo ‘I am.’”

You are not stuck. You are not paralyzed. Not anymore. You have come to a moment you do not recognize; one that you were not prepared for. It is a pure moment… a moment without further breakthrough… no more revelation.. no deeper enlightenment.. You know everything you need to know. This moment is not about deeper knowledge, it is about the choice to act on the knowledge you’ve been mercifully granted; that you are a son of God.

Justin

—–

You can pick up the EP at iTunes.
It is also available at my web store.
For more on the whole CMY(K) project, visit the CMYK info page .

Heaven Knows

You have asked me to feed them
With my blood and my bones
But my body is burdened with concerns of my own

Heaven knows that I want to
I want to but I just can’t

You have asked me to follow
To believe and obey
But the very thought of it is what keeps me away

Heaven knows that I want to
I want to but I just can’t

“Do you want to get well?”
It always seemed like the strangest thing to ask a man

224 days ago / Tagged: CMY(K), Discipleship, doubt, Faith, Thomas Merton 9

Reflections on 9/11, Part 1: Solidarity

I have been on vacation for a few weeks and plan on returning to blogging regularly now that I’m back. I’ll be continuing the CMY(K) blog series, highlighting key songs from the project, as well as picking up the “No, YOU Shut Up” series. For the time being, I’m posting a few reflections that will eventually be part of teachings I’ve prepared for this Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

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During the months and years following September 11, 2001, one of the more prominent sentiments was a kind of national solidarity. Our common sense of injury and offense bound us together as Americans. “We” had been attacked and “we” would respond, “we” would recover and “we” would remember together. We had good reason to lock arms with American neighbors of every stripe and consider more deeply the brotherhood of US citizenship. But reflection on the event also provides entry to a broader form of solidarity. On Sept 11 2001, we had a stark and tragic look what it is like to live somewhere like Bosnia, Northern Uganda or any number of places where events of quite similar offense and terror are more regular features of life.

We did suffer a terrible and reprehensible act of violence. Similarly, Bosnians suffered the a reprehensible act of violence when nearly 30,000 Muslim brethren were exterminated in 1995. We were made to feel vulnerable and unsafe, just as Rwandans in 1994 suffered the slaughter of over 800,000 fellow Rwandans (nearly 20% of their population), many of them children, in less than 100 days. I do not at all mean to lessen our own national tragedy. I only want to set in the context of others in the hope that, as we reflect this weekend, we might allow our injury and offense to move us past nationalism to a wider value of human life.

While the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is certainly a time to reflect on what it means to be an American and therefore a member of the American family; it can, and perhaps ought to, also be a time to reflect on what it means to be a human; to share the same fears, hopes and needs and fragility as every other blessed soul on the planet. To put a finer point on it: allowing our reflection on this great tragedy to end only in a deeper sense of national pride and ownership will not be a mistake.. but it will be sadly short-sighted.

253 days ago / Tagged: 9/11, Solidarity, Terror, Violence 1