You walk into a bookstore and look around to see if anyone else is present.  Seeing no one, you ask the clerk if they have a specific magazine.  The clerk also looks around before dipping down below the counter and coming up with the request.

The clerk quickly puts the magazine in a sack and rings you up.  You leave quickly, knowing that you will read it later in the privacy of your own home.

This scene could easily have happened at the Lifeway Christian Bookstore on Northwest Expressway in Oklahoma City. 

What is the magazine?

It sounds like I'm describing pornography but the offensive material is really the latest issue of Gospel Today, a Georgia-based magazine. 

It seems that the latest issue's cover story features women pastors in America.

Lifeway Christian Bookstores are run by the Southern Baptist Convention which has prohibited the ordination of women since June 14, 2000.  Since this is contrary to their beliefs, they have every right to self-censor within their bookstores.

However, when you make a big deal about something (Last Temptation of Christ, anyone?), more often then not, you create interest.

As I was reading 1 Timothy chapter 2 this morning, I came across the passage concerning women being silent and wives having no authority over their husbands.  This has been an oft quoted passage in the debate on whether or not women can serve as clergy.

As a strong supporter of women clergy (I don't just believe in them, I've seen them), and as a United Methodist (a denomination that ordains women), I find it interesting that this chapter gets quoted so often concerning issues of authority but no one really gets upset about women braiding their hair or wearing gold jewelry or expensive clothes.  All of these are also prohibited in this chapter.

Women can also claim salvation through childbirth in this chapter which seems to contradict the whole salvation by faith doctrine.

If you are a literalist (which I'm not), you should at least have the integrity to follow the whole book.  Otherwise, it just seems kind of silly.

Like putting a religious magazine under the counter.

Do you remember where you were on the morning of September 11, 2001?

I was at the Bishop's Retreat at Canyon Camp with many of my fellow United Methodist Clergy in the Oklahoma Conference.  I was eating breakfast with Bishop Blake and several other pastors when Jan, the director at that time, came up to the bishop and told him that an airplane had flown into one of the towers.

We made our way to Hardt Lodge where there was a television broadcasting the news and all of us just stood in a circle around it and watched silently.

When we began to realize the severity of what was happening, Bishop Blake cancelled the rest of the retreat and sent us back to our churches stating, "Your communities need your presence right now."

We had a prayer service that evening in our Piedmont sanctuary and around ten people were there.  We still had no idea what this would mean for the world and over the first couple of days there was a great sense of unease.  What would this mean for our children?  My daughter Kyla was only two months old at the time.

But it was good to pray and it was good to offer sanctuary to those who needed it.

One year later, we commemorated all of those who died on 9-11.  We invited all of those families of our volunteer fire department as well as those professionals in our congregation.  We also invited police and highway patrol.  We had a lot of people show up for that memorial service.  I think we needed to honor those that had died in the rescue attempt just as we remembered those struck down.

We played the song, "Into the Fire" by Bruce Springsteen in worship that morning while we put the lyrics on the screen.  He wrote it as a tribute to the rescue workers in New York City.  Part of the repeat in that song says, "Up the stairs, into the fire" driving home just what they were doing that day.

I'm still moved by this song years later.  I especially find a Christian meaning in the chorus which says: 

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love...

As we consider the anniversary of that day, I'm still haunted by the images of the burning towers and the second plane hitting the south tower.  I wonder about the hate that drove foward this awful undertaking.

As a Christian, my response is to seek peace in the world by easing the hate of others.  That often takes a lot of listening - sometimes to things I don't agree with, don't understand and probably don't like.

But the cross of Jesus Christ is more powerful than hate.

Even my own.

So when I have my doubts about this I pray.

When I was about 13 years old, I was sitting on the steps in Bishop's Hall of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church.  The second service had already begun and I was waiting on my parents who sang in the choir.

I had already sung in the 8:30 service earlier that day and usually hung out and visited with those remaining who were on their way out.  Heaven forbid that I attend two services!

Strangely enough on this day, I was alone rather early.  I heard some steps coming in from the stairs off the tunnel entrance which comes from the street.  I was struck by the appearance of a strangely dressed young woman who looked to be around 30.

Her apparel seemed almost biblical.  And she was barefoot.  Since we were a downtown church, I assumed that she was coming from the street and possibly homeless.

I believe that I said hello as she came in.  She asked me the location of the sanctuary and if it would be okay if she entered dressed as she was.  I stammered a bit.  I'm not sure why but it all seemed a little surreal.  I'd never seen anyone enter the church barefoot before.  In fact, in those days, everyone dressed up quite a bit at that church.

Noticing my discomfort, she asked if it would be better if she put on some sandals while drawing them out of a satchel she carried.  For some reason, this relieved me and I smiled and said that it would.  Then I directed her to head up some more stairs and around a hallway to the sanctuary.

Then she left, up the stairs and out of sight.

When I couldn't see her anymore, it was like a spell was broken.  All of the Sunday school stories about Jesus welcoming people hit me like a ton of bricks and I had the strong feeling that I didn't do a good job in being a host to this stranger.

I ran up the stairs - she couldn't have been that far ahead of me.  I didn't see her.  I went into the back of the sanctuary and looked for her to no avail.

I never saw her again.

I've thought about that encounter many times in my life and I always remember the verse from Hebrews 13:2 which states, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it." (NRSV)

This Sunday, September 14th, we'll look at the notion of radical hospitality.  It is good for us to practice because you just never know...

Have you ever been a part of a congregation when you felt that everyone was just playing at being the church?

It is clear to me that some churches get stuck from time to time.  Usually this happens when someone has a territory in the church that they defend at all costs.  I've seen this happen with kitchens and with wedding coordinators and even with the thermostats in sanctuaries!  So it doesn't hurt for a congregation to re-evaluate on how they are doing from time to time.

As we prepare for moving into a new building, we will gaze in the mirror a bit to take an honest look at what we do well and what we could be doing better.  This is not a scary process if we all realize that we don't have to be defensive!

The United Methodist Church has a mission statement.  It says that our purpose is to "Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World." 

That sounds pretty cool but how good a job are we doing here in Piedmont?

The material we will use for our self-examination will be a book by Bishop Robert Schnase of the Missouri Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church entitled, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.

These five practices are:

• Radical Hospitality
• Passionate Worship
• Intentional Faith Development
• Risk-taking Mission and Service
• Extravagant Generosity

Starting September 14, for the next 5 weeks, I will be preaching on one of these themes.  Furthermore, our adult Sunday school classes will each be studying this material in class.  We will be starting two new Sunday school classes at this time as well if you do not currently have a class that you attend.

I would encourage each person to find a class (at least for these 5 weeks) so that you can be a part of this conversation together.  Your voice is important!

On Saturday, October 25th, our congregation will have a day apart in order to process this material and see what we would like to put into place.  I know, this sounds like a radical idea - actually implementing what we discuss on Sunday mornings!

We'll be having this day at the Catch-a-glimpse retreat center near Cashion.   I hope you will mark your calendars and plan on joining us for a fun-filled day!

If you would like to participate in a daily meditation of prayer and study during these next five weeks, you may wish to order the book entitled, Cultivating Fruitfulness which can be ordered online at the link provided or purchased at Cokesbury at 6907 N. May (across from Ted's).

We're building the new church to change lives.  We owe it to oursevles to make sure we're doing just that!

Okay, the subject is sensationalistic because as far as I know, there hasn't been any vandalism going on in the new church.

But we're planning some.

Kind of.

When I was the pastor at Drummond, we painted one of the walls of the youth room with chalk board paint.  The idea was to allow youth to have some creative outlet and draw during Sunday school or youth group.

However, the youth became possessive of what was put on the board.  They were kind of tyrannical about what sections could be used and which drawings could be erased.  So what was drawn effectively became a mural for the youth room rather than a functional chalkboard.

This Sunday, September 7th, you will have your own opportunity to draw or write on the church walls.  However, it won't be our current facility, it will be in the new church.

But isn't writing on the wall wrong?

Only if it's destructive (or if you don't have permission of the wall's owner).

We will begin our worship service that evening in the back of the sanctuary at 6:00 pm for Charis Worship.  In the middle of the service, we will then get in our cars and drive to the new church facility where we will take sharpies and write or draw on the (currently) exposed beams.

Following this time, we will all share in Holy Communion together in the new fellowship hall - it will be the first time we celebrate the sacrament here!

So, yes, we are asking our people to write on the new church (prayers or scriptures anyway).  You may or may not sign your name.  Then in the coming months, they will be covered up as if they were never there.

No one will see them again.

But you'll know they are there - kind of like faith.

I think it will be special to those that participate to realize that their prayers are behind the walls.  What you write may even have an impact upon those working on our site over the next few months.  Ultimately, it is a symbolic gesture that states that our church is one built on our prayers and the word of God!