Aaron Stern's Blog

My Interview with Margaret Feinberg

My friend, Margaret Feinberg, has a new book and 7-session DVD Bible study called Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God (releasing Christmas Day). It is a personal invitation for you to toss back the covers, climb out of bed, and drink in the fullness of life. As you may or may not know, Maragret and I have worked together on different projects in the past and I’ve been a fan of Margaret Feinberg and her books for several years.

I recently talked with Margaret about her new book. Here are some highlights:

Where did the inspiration for the Wonderstruck book and Bible study come from?

Have you ever had one of those seasons where everything goes wrong, and when you think it can’t get worse, it somehow finds a way? My husband, Leif, and I had just gone through one of the roughest years of our lives. In the aftermath, as we processed the pain and loss, I had an unexplainable desire in my heart. I began praying for the wonder of God. In essence, I said, “God reveal yourself, your whole self to me. I want to know you as Wonderful. I want to know you as I’ve never known you before and see you in places I’ve never recognized you before.” God did not disappoint.

What do you mean by “the wonder of God”?

Sometimes talking or writing about wonder feels like tying kite strings to clouds. It’s ethereal, and you can never quite get a grip on it. But if you look in the dictionary, the two main definitions of wonder are: “being filled with admiration, amazement, or awe” and “to think or speculate curiously.”

Those definitions come together beautifully in our relationship with God. That’s why I define the wonder of God as those moments of spiritual awakening that create a desire to know God more.

In other words, the wonder of God isn’t about an emotional experience or having some cool story to tell your friends, but the wonder of God makes us want more of God—to go deeper and further than we’ve ever been before.

Why do you think we so easily lose the wonder?

It’s amazing how quickly we can grow numb to the wonder of God in our lives. I think there are a variety of reasons. Paying bills. Getting that degree. Providing for a family. Raising kids. Caring for aging parents. The list goes on.

All too often we find ourselves head down, pushing ahead, just trying to get through. Somewhere along the way, a gap begins to develop between God and us. A drifting takes place. We’re not only less aware of God’s presence in our lives, we’re less expectant. And so even when God does show up, we miss him. We pass by unaware. We’re spiritually asleep and we don’t even know it.

Yet I believe that as followers of Jesus we’re meant to live wonderstruck. We’re invited to live on the edge of our seats in wild expectation of what God might do next. I want to live with this kind of divine expectation, that wide awake spiritual hunger, searching for God in how ever he may want to reveal himself.

Why you do you encourage people to pray for wonder?

This is an incredibly powerful prayer, because praying for wonder invites us to change the posture with which we live our lives. When we pray for wonder, we’re asking God to expand our capacity to see and savor the divine gifts all around and take us deeper in our journey with Christ and in the Scripture than we’ve ever been. A prayer for wonder essentially says, “God, I want more of you! Take my breath away!” And leaves us living expectant for how God will answer.

Follow Margaret’s snarky, funny, and inspirational posts on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog. You can learn more about her book by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck where she’s offering some crazy promos right now with up to $300 of free stuff. I’ve seen the book for as low as $7.95 ($14.99 retail) on Barnes & Noble for all you savvy shoppers.  

Paul's Letter to American Christians: by MLK

As I pause and think about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. today I am challenged by his courage and resolution to stand up for truth in the face of intense resistance.  The following excerpt was delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on November 4th, 1956. I pray that it reminds us to lean into and lead others toward Jesus in this present generation of Christianity.

I can imagine the Apostle Paul writing a letter to American Christians in 1956 A.D. And here is the letter as it stands before me:

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to be able to come to see you. I have heard so much of you and of what you are doing. I have heard of the fascinating and astounding advances that you have made in the scientific realm…I have heard of your great medical advances, which have resulted in the curing of many dread plagues and diseases, and thereby prolonged your lives and made for greater security and physical well-being. All of that is marvelous.

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

Let me rush on to say something about the church. Americans, I must remind you, as I have said to so many others, that the church is the Body of Christ. So when the church is true to its nature it knows neither division nor disunity. But I am disturbed about what you are doing to the Body of Christ. They tell me that in America you have within Protestantism more than two hundred and fifty six denominations. The tragedy is not so much that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that most of them are warring against each other with a claim to absolute truth. You must come to see that God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist; He is neither a Presbyterian nor a Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to see that America.

There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church. How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning to sing praises, you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America. They tell me that there is more integration in the entertaining world and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How appalling that is.

So Americans I must urge you to get rid of every aspect of segregation. The broad universalism standing at the center of the gospel makes both the theory and practice of segregation morally unjustifiable. Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ. The underlying philosophy of Christianity is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of segregation.

I must bring my writing to a close now. Timothy is waiting to deliver this letter, and I must take leave for another church. But just before leaving, I must say to you, as I said to the church at Corinth, that I still believe that love is the most durable power in the world.

So American Christians, you may have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries. You may be able to break into the storehouse of nature and bring out many insights that men never dreamed were there. You may ascend to the heights of academic achievement, so that you will have all knowledge. You may give great gifts to charity. You may tower high in philanthropy. But if you have not love, it means nothing.

I must say goodbye now. I hope this letter will find you strong in the faith. It is probable that I will not get to see you in America, but I will meet you in God’s eternity. And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy, to him be power and authority, forever and ever. Amen.

Rethink Social Media

As we enter into the days around Christmas and relatives arrive or we travel to be with family and friends and the eggnog begins to flow I would like to encourage everyone to rethink your use of social media.  Though Twitter, facebook, blogs and a plethora of other things can be useful tools they can also contribute to the depersonalization of relationships.  Instead of being fully present at the annual family drive looking at Christmas lights or interacting with the person directly in front of you we often are snapping twitpics and dialoguing with those who we don't see or maybe even know.  So during this celebration of the One who entered and fully engaged our world extract yourself from the Twitterverse, go on an iPhone fast or a facebook diet and be personal and present to loved ones that you can see and hear.

In this short video N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar, discusses why he doesn't utilize social media.  Maybe we should be as thoughtful.

 

Pause and Produce

Rhythms in life are so important.  In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible God establishes rhythm.  He creates and works for six days and on the seventh he rests.  The amazing thing is that God didn’t have to rest…he can’t tire.  So He his communicating something much bigger than a six day work week.  He is setting a pattern we are to mimic. Leviticus 25 highlights the seventh year as a year for fields to rest and rejuvenate.  God is saying that rhythm and rest provided the needed time to produce again.

I ran across this video recently.  It communicates the value of time off in an incredibly powerful way.  We need to pause.  God made us to pause.  Not just to sleep but to create again.  Check it out.

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Mountain Dew and Easter

 Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. The day in the Church calendar that indicates the first day of Lent. For Lent I am giving up Mountain Dew.  For those of you that know me, that is a big deal...I love Mountain Dew!  I actually believe it to be the nectar of heaven.  Before you call me crazy or say "about time" hear me out, there is a method to the madness.  Below is an excerpt from a post from my good friend, Glenn Packiam about the history and purpose of Lent that will help give meaning to this oft overlooked tradition. 

HOW DID LENT BEGIN?

In the Old Testament both Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (I Kings 19:7) seem to have had 40-day periods of fasting for the purpose of devoting undivided attention to God, preparing them for a special work. Jesus, on the precipice of beginning His ministry, fasted for 40 days in the wilderness where He was tested and proved ready to begin. As a result, when the church leaders in the mid-2nd century were preparing candidates for baptism, they required the candidates to undergo a 40-day period of reflection, examination, and preparation before they were baptized on Easter morning. As early as the turn of the 3rd century there began to be a more formalized period of repentance and reflection before Easter as evidenced by one of St. Iraneus's letters to the pope, though it seemed to last 40 hours rather than 40 days. The various ways of observing Lent became more homogenous after Christianity became legalized in the early 4th century, and even more so after the Council of Nicea in 325AD, making it the 40-day period we are now familiar with. It was Pope Gregory the Great in the early 7th century who moved Lent from beginning on a Sunday to begin on a Wednesday (called Ash Wednesday) so that the Sundays during the Lenten season could be mini-Easters, or mini-feast days.

WHAT'S THE PURPOSE FOR LENT?

The purpose of Lent is prayer, self-examination and repentance, sacrifices and acts of service in preparation for Easter. It's main components, historically, have been fasting and prayer. Like any other occasion of fasting, the goal is to let go of things in our lives that are not inherently harmful or destructive in order to give our attention to Christ in a special way. It is a letting go of the good for the sake of the laying hold of the best that Christ has offered. For the great part of church history, Lent has been about dietary restrictions, with Sundays being the "feast days" where you get a brief reprieve. 

It is a way to "know Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings"(Phil. 3:10-11), to share in it with Him, so that we might experience the life, the resurrection, of Easter in a fresh way. It is a way of preparing us to live in perpetual Easter-- the life of Christ springing up anew in us as we lay down and let go of control and selfishness.

So, what should you give up? Whatever it is that you feel has more of a hold on you that it should, or simply anything that would represent a sacrifice, and the elimination of which would free up time and energy to focus upon Christ.

I hope you jump in, voluntarily give something up as we focus on Christ and look forward to Easter. What are you giving up for Lent?

Time for a facebook Diet?

As you know, I left in June for a six week sabbatical. I returned a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to a little blogging.

My sabbatical was amazing -- I am a huge fan.  Not only was it a break from work and all that comes with pastoring people and being a part of their lives, Jossie and I and our boys were able to take some time away from Colorado Springs.  The time together as a family was invaluable and the joy of being present as a dad and husband for many days in a row was my favorite part.
 
It was incredible to see what floated to the surface without the pressures of daily work and the requirements of maintaining normal life – changing the oil, mowing the lawn, reading the mail, or running other sundry errands.  To alleviate most everything and have few responsibilities was an incredible gift of space.  I read a lot, slept a lot and Jossie and I talked, prayed and processed about many things that will impact our hearts and lives for years to come.  I returned not only physically rested, but mentally invigorated, emotionally refreshed and spiritually challenged.

When I started sabbatical, I assumed I would jump right back into everything I was doing when it ended.  Life would resume as normal. Instead, I have found it an interesting process to re-enter my pre-sabbatical world.  Just like it took time to decompress, it has taken time to fully re-engage.  Naturally it takes time to get back into the swing of things but as my email inbox starts to get back to a normal level, I am finding that my time away had a profound influence on my thought processes and perceptions of some things I do.  I am not fully interested in jumping into how everything was before my sabbatical. It took me a couple weeks to check facebook and I haven’t posted a blog or twittered nearly as much as I used to. It’s not because I don’t like these things anymore or that I won’t use them for personal or vocational use, I just find that they’ve taken a different place in my life.
 
I won’t check facebook nearly as often as I used to not because it’s not enjoyable but because I would rather spend more time with people face to face than in sound bite interactions in cyberspace.  Facebook is a useful tool to connect with people but the problem comes when it is at the expense of those who God has put directly in front of us.  In an attempt to connect with everyone I wonder if in the end truly we truly connect with no one.

We can’t recapture time so we must treat it with care.  Priorities and values will drive how we use it.  So I suggest that personal relationships are of greater value than virtual ones.  I love what my good friend Glenn Packiam says about Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools.  They are only frosting on the cake.  They cannot replace the cake.  So invest in the right relationships first!

I also recommend allowing for space in life and relationships so we can see what God is up to.  With all the flittering (and Twittering) around from network to network, following of celebrities, acquaintances and enemies it is easy to never be still enough to know where God is at work.  I so deeply want to be who God has designed me to be and do what God has called me to but it is going to take being attentive to where God is.  Eugene Peterson hits the target when he says “most people are dominated by a sense of self, not a sense of God.”  If we are to be God-dependent and Spirit-directed people we must have space in our lives for more than just ourselves.

So bear with me as blogs may be fewer and farer between and facebook comments less frequent.  But I pose the same questions to you.  Are you missing out on what is right in front of you for that which is less real and less near?  Is your social networking frosting or cake?

See You in Six Weeks

Tomorrow I am starting a six week pastoral sabbatical.  At New Life Church a sabbatical is given to every pastor for seven consecutive years of work.

A pastoral sabbatical is more than an extended vacation or a time to catch up on some sleep.  It goes much deeper than that.  For those unfamiliar with the practice of sabbatical and its origination then this description will be helpful.

God models work in six days and rest on the seventh in the Creation account.  He commands it in the Ten Commandments by calling His people to keep the Sabbath holy.  God establishes a weekly rhythm that keeps His people centered around God and His work as well as engaged in the letting go of things so they are not enslaved by the taskmaster of time and productivity.  The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan is a great read on the subject of Sabbath.  I highly recommend it.

In keeping with the rhythm of productivity and rest, Leviticus 25:3-5 says “For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.”

Not only was rest a discipline to be practiced every seven days but a practice to be embraced every seven years.  A continued reading in Leviticus even describes a rhythm of every seven  cycles of the seven years.  There is something to this 6/1 pattern.  God gives his people instruction to let their farmland rest.  After six years of producing crop and taking nutrients from the soil, the ground is to lay fallow for a year so that it can be rejuvenated and made ready to produce crop for another six years.  This extended Sabbath for the land is an essential metaphor for sabbatical.

If the land is to stay productive, it must rest from its primary function for a season in order to continue its primary function for the long haul. I love what I do and I love being a pastor.  I have been in pastoral ministry for over ten years and I believe I will be in full-time vocational ministry for the rest of my life. In order to do that well, times like this are necessary for gaining strength from heaven to complete the journey.
 
Here are a few things I am looking forward to during my sabbatical.
 
I am going to be disconnecting from functional roles and fully engaging relational roles.  We must balance life well everyday but a sabbatical gives the opportunity to focus on the roles for which I am indispensable.  I am dispensable as theMILL pastor (someone could fulfill the job description, probably better than I!).  I am indispensable as a husband to my wife, father to my boys and ultimately as a child of God.  There is no one that can give my unique, Aaron Stern, affections to them.  This is a time to focus on the relationships that matter most.  As I do, it will make me better at my other roles that are secondary.

I hope to be proactive, not reactive.  My close friend Glenn Packiam recently went on sabbatical and wrote about the reactiveness of our lives by saying “I don't want to live reactively-- responding to questions or emails or texts. I want to initiate relationship. I want to dust off the art of pursuit. Living in a relationally reactive way has made my love lazy. To be free of contact that I do not initiate is to be free to pursue.”

Life is full of things tugging on me so, in an attempt to be responsive and not reactive, I won’t be checking my Facebook, twittering, or doing anything related to work.  Shocking, I know.  Withdrawals?  Maybe.  Good?  Most definitely!

Some have asked if I will be nervous leaving theMILL for that long.  The answer is an easy and confident “NO.”  I feel lucky to have an exceptional MILL staff and leadership team in whom I have full confidence.  I have no doubt that they will carry the weight of leadership for the next several weeks with grace, being directed by the Spirit of God.

Thank you all for making it easy to do this and thank you to New Life for making a sabbatical possible.

See you in 6 weeks.

Merry Mountain Dew Christmas

As many of you might know I am a Mountain Dew fanatic/ addict.  From my vantage point it is the nectar of heaven and a rich source of vitamins (check the ingredients - orange juice is #3!).  So for my final blog post of 2008 I give you a glorious Mountain Dew Christmas. I hope you find it to be as amazing as I do.

I pray that Christ would be central in your celebrations.  That you would find incredible joy in family, friends, food and of course a cold can of Mountain Dew!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving is a Cure

Thanksgiving is so great!  Turkey, football, naps, pilgrims, cranberries, family time, oh it is so great!  And I certainly have so much to be thankful for.  I have an incredible wife, three amazing boys and a fourth on the way, a roof over my head, cars that work, a Starbucks down the street, a job I love, fantastic friends, a country that provides personal freedom, good health (thank you Mountain Dew!) and most important – a faithful, loving God.  The list really could go on for pages.  Thanksgiving is the obvious holiday when we take time to remember what we have and give thanks for our many blessings.  To forget would be a travesty, but as I have thought about thankfulness this last week I realized that thanksgiving is a cure to many greater ills than just forgetfulness.

Independence/ Pride - gratitude helps us to stay dependent and humble because we remember that we receive so many things from others and ultimately everything from God.  Pride finds a home when we think that life and all that we have is about us.

Discontent – those who can never find contentment are often spoiled, bored and/or hard to please.  Thankfulness reminds us of what we have, not what we lack.  We can spend all of our time dwelling on what we don’t have and never enjoy the gifts we already possess.

Sin - Romans 1:21 says that iniquity flows from the thankless heart.  When we stay grateful we keep perspective on God, ourselves and others and as a result will find it more difficult to hurt any of them.

Anger – anger is directed toward the past and any wrongs you feel may have been done to you.  As you express gratitude to God you affirm his goodness in the midst of any pain, grief or disappointment.

Fear – fear is directed toward future events and the unknown.  Thanksgiving roots you in the present and keeps you from anxiety (Philippians 4:6).  We find trust and confidence in a God who has been faithful and always will be.

 

So let Thanksgiving be more than a holiday on just one day of the year.  Let's make it an attitude of the heart.