Well I must first of all apologize for not writing during this past week. Sickness and life happened and blogging was one of the unfortunate casualties of last week. I am a bit on the mend now, and ready to share what has been placed on my heart.

I have recently been blessed by a number of good books, and I am in a sense in the middle of reading about four of them. It may seem a bit spastic to be in the middle of four different books, but as long as they are not to similar in content, my feeble brain still somehow makes sense of them all. One of those books just happens to be Everyday Justice by Julie Clawson, and it has really gotten me thinking about my everyday choices. I have worked with fair trade coffee c0ops in the past like Equal Exchange and 963 Missions, but I rarely thought about my purchases much beyond that. But our choices matter, and they have a real impact on someone’s livelihood.

The choices we make, the things we choose to purchase, the shops and boutiques that we frequent are a direct advertisement for the way in which those products are farmed, produced, assembled, or what those products help fund. I would have to say that in the past most of us would get a free pass for our ignorance, but there is simply no excuse any longer. We have access to the world like never before, and we have access to how the world operates. With the tiniest bit of research you can find out where your coffee beans were grown, where you the cocoa beans that make your favorite chocolate are grown, and the labor that is involved behind every stitch of your clothing.

The information is there, so you have to ask yourself if you really care. Do you care that the individuals who made your t-shirt are working for little or no pay and are often beaten and forced to work in despicable conditions? Do you care that the coffee you drank to wake you up this morning was farmed by a family that is barely able to survive day to day life? And if you don’t care about your fellow man, then I’ve got nothing for you, but if you do care than this is a call to wake up. As Julie writes in her introduction it can be quite overwhelming to concern yourselves with everything that you wear, consume, or purchase. So start small. Take notice of where your purchases come from.  Here are a few lifestyle choices from an article in Relevant magazine that you can adopt to make some positive changes around the globe:

1. Stop Keeping up with Jonses

2. Pay a Fair Price for Your Coffee

3. Buy Slave-Free Chocolate

4. Eat Sustainably

5. Conserve Energy

6. Support Sweatshop-Free Clothing

7. Reduce the Waste You Create

8. Campaign for Conflict-Free Cell Phones

Philippians 4: 10 states, “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.” Well the time for concern is now, and there are multiple ways in which you can express it. You can make small changes in your life to help have a big impact on the lives of others. Wake up, and throw your ignorance card away, now that you know you are responsible to act!

March 10, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this week’s blog. I have the honor of being a sponsor for a young man at my church as he goes through confirmation, and one of our tasks as we meet together is to read through the book of Luke together. Our reading for this last week, really struck me in a neat way, and I am happy to share a few thoughts with you today, as muddled as they might be.

We were reading in the 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters of Luke for this week, and I was blown away by Luke’s telling of the calling of the disciples in chapter 5. The chapter opens with Jesus teaching the people from Simon Peter’s boat, and following his teaching he asks Simon Peter to head to deep water to catch a few more fish. Simon Peter listens to the advise of Jesus and proceeds to catch more fish so that both his boat and that of his partners begin to sink. Now here is the part that really spoke to me, immediately after this experience, Jesus asks Simon Peter, James and John to follow him, and they do. Verse 11 says, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.”

How incredible is that. So many people are prone to follow Jesus, to seek him out, when their lives are in shambles, when they are at their wits end. Instead we see these fisherman, after the catch of their lives, just walk away from it all. Now I don’t know about you, but I would have wanted to tell all my fishing buddies this little tale. I would have wanted to make a profit off of the incredible catch of fish. This was their livelihood, this wasn’t a weekend get away up at the lake. And they walked away.

I can’t help but think of all of the times that I wanted to bask in my own glory. Any time that I have had accomplishments in the past, I have always wanted to stick around and receive the complimentary pats on the back, that I thought I deserved. But that is not the example that is lived out for us. What would you be willing to walk away from? It is easy to walk away from heartache or difficult situations, but what if God asked you to walk away from your success as well? I hope that I can be as obedient as these disciples to be ready, to be prepared to follow not only in failure, but also in success.

The “greatest catch” wasn’t the pinnacle in the lives of these disciples. Jesus was leading them to something so much more rewarding than fishing for fish, he was leading them to fish for men. Regardless of your job or your career, if you dare to call yourself a Christian in this world, I pray that your true successes would be measured on how you share the love of Christ with your families and neighbors in both word and deed; and not on how high you can climb the corporate ladder or the size of your catch!

February 24, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

I do Children’s Chapel on Wednesday morning with the children in our Child Care Center.  Yesterday I took in a toy keyboard without batteries.  I told them I wanted to play it for them (well, not actually “play,” but just push randomly on the keys!) but it didn’t work.  I put a crayon in the battery compartment, but acted surprised that it still didn’t work.  They told me to try batteries but I ignored them and tried money.  I also tried holding my cell phone against it.  They continued to tell me to use batteries.  They were so relieved when I finally got smart enough to listen to them and use batteries.  I told them, then, that God was like a battery.  We might try other things to give us power–like money or gadgets–but only God in our hearts could really make us work.  I hope, during this Lenten season, that I will finally get smart enough to let God will be my battery.

Feb 18, 2010

I grew up in the Catholic church throughout my childhood and into my teenage years, and am thankful for my upbringing and the tradition and discipline that it added to my life. There are certainly things that I did not completely agree with, but overall I am very thankful for growing up in an active Catholic church, and even attending Catholic school until our move to West Virginia in the 5th grade.

One thing however, that I could never wrap my mind around was the Lenten Fish Fry madness that takes over during this time of year. I was always a bit puzzled by the call to withhold from eating meat, but given the green light to gorge ourselves on fried fish. Where was the sacrifice? Where was the meaning, the purpose? I am sure there are deeper meanings to this tradition, they were simply always lost on me. I also always tried the practice of giving something up for Lent, be it sweets, soda, television or other “sacrificial” tasks, and I use that term very loosely. Heading into this Lenten season I was trying very hard to find something that I could give up or refrain from that would be both challenging and bring me closer to God. What I ultimately chose to do, was give up eating lunch throughout Lent and continue to eat sensible breakfasts and dinners.

I have attempted different types and lengths of fasts in the past. Some have been more difficult to keep than others, but they all have ultimately made me step back and acknowledge the many blessings that I have  and be grateful for the provision that is in my everyday life. In a fasting book that I have it states, “Fasting at its core, is not a discipline of withholding. Fasting is a discipline of making space for God.” The goal and task then, is to use my lunch hour to find God. It means that when I head home for lunch, I get to serve Abby and the boys, it mean I get to listen with a more attentive ear, it means that I get to spend time with God in prayer and reading that I would normally devote to eating.

Our Friday small group recently finished a book called The Rest of God, by Mark Buchanon. The main objective of this book is to encourage its readers into establishing a time of Sabbath into their lives. One of the chapters talks about the joy of feasting on the Sabbath, and how it is so hard to do this in our American society when everyone of our meals is a feast in and of itself. I hope that by offering up a meal each day to God, I can step back and be grateful for His provision in my life. That I can learn to appreciate the extra time that I will have to devote to family and to God.

Whether or not it is your custom to give something up for Lent, I challenge you to make it a real sacrifice that will not only bless you but your relationship with God and others as well. Fasting is as much about the attitude in which it is done, as  it is about that from which we are refraining. Don’t simply give up meat to gorge on fish, or say goodbye to the television to spend another few hours online. Make this Lenten season count by slowing down long enough to truly fast!

February 17, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

Isn’t it amazing how God’s Word can hit you right across the face from a passage written thousands of years ago. I am continuing my study through 1 Corinthians, and at the opening to the 11th chapter the words from Paul for the church at Corinth could not be more appropriate for me if I had called Paul on his cell phone and asked him for some words of wisdom on my drive to work this morning.

1 Corinthians 11:1 states, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” Paul states these words with boldness and confidence that he is living the life that God has laid out for him. Sadly, I can rarely state those words. And last night I was reminded in a pretty painful and embarrassing way.

Our oldest son Gideon woke up at around 12:30 last night and could not go back to sleep. Abby dealt with him beautifully in the night as she always does, but at close to 1:30 Gideon came back into our room and pleaded to climb into our bed, insisting that it was wake up time.  Now I love my wife, but I have a hard enough time sharing a bed with her, I like to sprawl, let alone a squirmy 3 year old as well. We asked a sobbing and pleading Gideon to go back to bed, and here begins my lesson in humility. Gideon began to cry loudly upon his return to his room, so I quickly scooped him up before he could wake up his little brother, and asked him to sleep on the couch. The bit of patience that I keep in reserve for this hour of the night quickly vanished and I found myself more tense than a bull riders buttocks. How is my son supposed to calm down when I am setting such a poor example.

Throughout today, I have been contemplating my failure as an example for my son. How can I ask my son to display patience and an even-keeled demeanor if he is not witnessing it in me? I so badly want Gideon and Abel to be men of kindness, patience, gentleness and grace, but are they seeing this lived out in me? I so want the young adults of our church to passionately pursue God and hunger for justice and righteousness, but are they seeing this lived out in me?

At a recent leadership retreat here at Central I was able to share the following questions: If everyone gave and served and prayed exactly like you, would the church be healthy and empowered? Or would it be weak and listless? To take that a step further, if your spouse listened, and served, and loved exactly like you, how would your marriage be? If your kids displayed your patience, and forgiveness, and the words that came out of your mouth, and your thirst for God, would they be where you dream for them to be?

I know that I have a long road to walk before I can consistently say, follow me, as I follow the example of Christ, but perhaps through prayer and grace I will get a little bit closer today. Are you living a life to be imitated? If others were to follow in your footsteps would they be closer to who God is calling them to be, or further away?

February 10, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

As I continue through the book of 1 Corinthians I was reminded of a verse that has brought me much comfort in my past, and can hopefully be of comfort to those of you who are facing difficult situations. 1 Corinthians 7:24 states, “Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.”

This verse has comforted me through some difficult seasons in my life. It has given me that eternal perspective needed to persevere in hard times, and try and find the glimpse of light in the darkness. To place this verse in its contexts, Paul is writing about marriage, and whether or not we should pursue such matters in our lives. Paul is telling the church in Corinth to be wary of how marriage can divide our interests between God and a spouse or family. But he writes on two separate occasions to remain where God has called you.

I certainly think this is needed advise for the crumbling landscape of marriage, but also in other life circumstances as well. It all boils down to our trust and faith in God. Do we trust God enough to have faith that He is in control, and that there just may be a higher purpose to our pain, to our circumstances, or to our surroundings. I have recently been told of a lot of family tragedies in our church family, and it is hard not to think about the suffering of so many in Haiti. It is not our job to make sense of everything around us. It is not our job to have all of the answers for ourselves, or those that we are trying to serve. But we are called to stand firm, to trust, to remain where God has lead us. We may not always see the silver lining, or the light at the end of the tunnel, but if we can keep our eyes transfixed on the Author of Life than we can endure any and all things.

In all of my readings about the current persecuted church, and persecuted Christians from the past, often they considered it a true honor to be found worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. Now I know that in my faith, and my life I have a far ways to go to get to that attitude of the heart. But perhaps today you need to hear that God can be trusted. That this too shall pass. Be strong and stand firm.

May you be encouraged from the lyrics of Andrew Peterson’s, Faith To Be Strong:

Give us faith to be strong/ Father, we are so weak/ Our bodies are fragile and weary/ As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead/ Give us faith to be strong

Give us faith to be strong/ Give us strength to be faithful/ This life is not long, but it’s hard/ Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able/ Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us peace when we’re torn/ Mend us up when we break/ This flesh can be wounded and shaking/ When there’s much too much trouble for one heart to take/ Give us peace when we’re torn

Give us faith to be strong/ Give us strength to be faithful/ This life is not long, but it’s hard/ Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able/ Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us hearts to find hope/ Father, we cannot see/ How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom/ And as hard as we try, Lord, it’s hard to believe/ So, give us hearts to find hope

Give us faith to be strong/ Give us strength to be faithful/ This life is not long, but it’s hard/ Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able/ Lord, give us faith to be strong/ Give us peace when we’re torn/ Give us faith, faith to be strong

February 3, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon and all of the stores filled with ridiculous stuffed animals and candy, it is hard not to think about love. At least the world’s cheap imitation of love. I have been spending some time in Paul’s letters these past few weeks, and I am always floored by the love that he has for the church, and the people who make up the church. In most of Paul’s letters to the early churches scattered around the Mediterranean, he writes with such deep love and devotion, that it honestly shames me a bit.

Paul on most of these occasions, is writing to churches that he did not spend more than a few months or weeks with in ministry. He is writing to them to urge them on, and to say the difficult things that they are in need of hearing. I was discussing 1 Corinthians 4 with a friend of mine the other morning and we were blown away by Paul’s call to judge with-in the church. To expel the wicked and immoral from the midst of the early church.

We were floored by this for a bit, but in the end I thought about community, and the kind of love that doesn’t let his brother or sister walk into self-destructive or community-destructive behavior. Paul is exclaiming that we need to hold one another accountable and embolden one another to live lives that are honoring to God, and respectful and loving of those around us. Community looked different for the early church, than it does for us today. Love and friendship was not so easily dismissed or attained. You can live your life with a very false sense of community in today’s world of social networking and mobile devises, that make you feel like you are connected. Rebuke, discipline and accountability cannot take place through a cell phone.

Loving someone purely and completely doesn’t mean that you are going to always tell them what they want to hear. It doesn’t mean you are going to pat your friend on the back when he mistreats someone or intentionally damages the worth of another. Real love, lived out in community, holds each individual to a higher standard, as you are representing not just yourself but the community as a whole.

I pray that as Valentine’s Day approaches that we can all think about, pray about, and make some changes in our lives to love with boldness, humility and grace. May we see ourselves as true community, and not just simply worry about self-destructive behavior, but about family-destructive, community-destructive, and church-destructive behavior as well. We are all connected through the grace of and love of the Father in whose image we were made. Let us start to live like we believe this!

I had the privilege today to be a part of a luncheon about hospitality hosted by our Center for Congregations here in Evansville. This is part of a series, and today we focused on what we could glean on hospitality from the Benedictine Tradition, with a focus on The Rule of Benedict. I cannot say that I had any “wow” moments but I did have a chance to sit back and think a lot about what being hospitable truly means. In a culture of social networking, and not knowing our own neighbors, it seems to be changing for this generation.

Sadly I believe we have lost the art of hospitality and conversation. You don’t have to have things in common to carry on a conversation or approach a stranger, but I feel like we are suffering as a society because we are losing our touch with true community. It was refreshing to hear the sisters talk about their community in Ferdinand, IN, The Sisters of St. Benedict. The love, respect, commitment and stability to one another was beautiful to hear lived out in practical ways. It is our job as Christian brothers and sisters to see Christ inside each other, whether it is our first encounter or our seventy-first.

A quote from today was, “the present moment is the most important moment in relationship.” How quickly we are to move from one tangent to the next. We have become quite talented at our multi-tasking, but it has placed a burden on our welcoming spirit, and it has damaged the very nature in which we deal with people. Sadly, I am just as guilty. There have been times that Abby has called me at the office, and I have tried to carry on a conversation with her, while emailing, and looking over my to-do list for the day. Sometimes she will snap me back into the moment, but our relationship is not strengthened by my lack of attention. There will always be something that needs to get done, or requires our attention, but true hospitality can set those things aside to focus on the person, the child of God, that is in their midst.

The more I think about the luncheon today, and my own life, I find how often I forget to show hospitality to the people I love and see most often. I should be most hospitable and welcoming to my wife and my kids, to my co-workers and friends that I see on a weekly basis. So often we only reach into our hospitality bag of tricks when “guests” are present, or we are put in the role of greeter. Sadly we often miss the everyday opportunities to see Christ in our kids, in our spouses, in our extended family. Hospitality happens when we slow down, and look for Christ in the stranger, in the sibling, in the secretary where you may work. Hospitality happens when we throw off the harmful baggage of multi-tasking and live in the moment. When we cherish a conversation, when we look someone in the eye and truly listen, when we extend a hand of love and not a hollow greeting.

I challenge you this week to live a life of hospitality. Not simply when you have guests, or when you are at your house of worship, but in the ebbs and flows of normal, everyday life.

January 20, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

I had the honor and privilege to travel back to West Virginia this past weekend. We gathered with my parents, and siblings at Ogelbay Resort, outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, and oh how the memories came back. I grew up playing soccer at Ogelbay as a kid, and attending leadership training events there with Young Life as a teenager. Until we were on the grounds of Ogelbay, I had forgotten about all of the fun times and memories from my many visits, and I was a little taken aback by all of the thoughts and images that have flooded my mind since.

As some of you may know, I have moved around quite a bit, both as a child and certainly as an adult. And as blessed as I have been in my short life, moving around the country has stolen a bit of my memory. I realized this even more, as my family and I laughed our way through trays and trays of slides from when my siblings and I were all little children. I was amazed at how little I remembered. There were the big moments, but the little things, the layout of our old homes for instance did not register in my mind. My how fleeting life truly is.

I have been thinking a lot today about memories, and the journey that I have chosen to walk. Life is so very fragile, and memories are so very fleeting, it truly makes you want to hold on too today. I am uncertain if I will have the same opportunity to sit around with my boys Gideon and Abel with their wives and children and laugh at the very memories that we are creating today. I am however certain that I want to make our memories count for something. I have big dreams for my sons that are beyond themselves. I have big dreams for our family and my church that will last longer than a moment. But as it says in the book of James, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Our hopes and dreams are not always God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. Just as the imperfect life that I have lived, and the broken pieces and dreams that I have left along the way, are not what God had intended for me either. All we have is today! This very day that we are living can become one of the most memorable and momentous if we desire it too. Live today as if will be your last. Don’t hold on to anything too long, and don’t forget to give yourself away to today!

January 13, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

I just finished reading a book I would highly recommend.  Three Cups of Tea is an enjoyable read about the real-life adventures of Greg Mortenson in the tribal area of Pakistan, building schools.  The book came out in 2006, quickly became a best-sellers because of its compelling story, and in now readily available in paperback or at the library.  In late 2009 Stones into Schools, his second book, came out and continues the story of his work as it moved into Afghanistan.  The one person I know who has read it said it was every bit as exciting as the first one, which she found amazing.

One thing that makes the books so timely is the fact that Afghanistan and Pakistan are so much in our news with the “War in Terror”, and the areas he worked in are the very rugged areas in the high Himalaya Mountains that seem most susceptible to recruiting and harboring anti-American terrorists.  The people and the world in which they live seems remote to our experience in every way, but the book helps us see the human values and aspirations of most of these people are not that different fromour own.  Mortenson’s book is now required reading for American military personnel assigned to Afghanistan to help our soldiers understand the area in which they are serving.  The approach that Mortenson pioneered, beginning nearly a decade before 9-11, has helped to shaped a new strategy of our forces and diplomatic efforts.  While there may be some people who are so intractable in their anti-Western positions and hell-bent on violence that searching them down and stopping them by whatever means may be the only way to end their evil deeds, they are an small percentage of the populations even in these areas.  While we may have to fight them, we can learn to work with the vast majority of these people and together forge a peaceful path toward development,  justice and mutual respect.  It is in some ways the kind of change in strategy that made a difference in Iraq.

Beyond this, what makes the book and Mortenson so interesting is the power of human relations when people meet one another honestly, respectfully on the common ground of their humanity.  In this setting people can respond in compassion to the needs of another with hospitality and generosity in a way that can naturally become a mutual experience of up-building and truly loving relationships.  The people of one remote village saved ”Dr. Greg” by nursing him back to life when he wandered into their villiage lost and exhausted after a failed 2-month adventure to try to scale the second highest mountain in the world.  Dr. Greg vowed to repay them by meeting a need they saw as most pressing:  having a school to educate their boys and girls.  Out of that has come a major movement that is changing history.

In the why and how of this story I see a profoundly spiritual side.  In fact, I would say the book illustrates lived-out Christianity.  Jesus met people in just the way the village leader of Askope responded to Mortenson–and as he later responded to the village.  The interactions were based on simple respect, caring and the honoring of the God-given humanity of another, the same way Jesus responding to Zacchaeus, the Samaritan women at the well, and so many others in the Gospel narration. 

The book makes me think not only about far-away people and places but also about what I am doing in my own setting with the people I may meet by chance to see the Christ in them and let the Christ in me respond to them.  I am well aware I have a lot of room to grow in that, but it is the direction in which I want my life to be headed–more importantly the direction in which I think God wants me headed.

Pastor Joe Easley

January 8, 2010