Blog – Page 25 – Joel Bidderman

Oscar Romero: a step back

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.No statement says all that could be said.No prayer fully expresses our faith.No confession brings perfection.No pastoral visit brings wholeness.No program accomplishes the church's mission.No set of goals and objectives includes everything. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.We may [...]

2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00By Joel|prayer, The Dangerous Kind|

A Living Together Reality: Meditations on Community Part One

A few weeks ago I grabbed lunch with a friend at Red Robin. Munching on Buffalo Chicken Strips we were talking about the churches that we were serving at, and about where the Lord is leading in those place. Community is the word that came up. God has me (and some leadership of our church) parked on that, and what it looks like in discipleship. My friend then mentioned another conversation that he had where the person shared his dislike of the word community: arguing that it is a buzzword, and not found in the New Testament. While "community" is mentioned once in Acts, depending on your translation, the word 'family [of believers]' appears a lot. [...]

2014-08-26T03:23:50+00:00By Joel|Abandonment, discipleship, Jesus Shaped Community, The Dangerous Kind|

Any Opportunity for the Incarnation

Today is Christmas Eve, and below I am posting a video containing one of the Christmas songs that I've written over the years. However, I use the word "Christmas" gently, lightheartedly and passionately all at once.Gently, because yes, I know the arguments behind the calendar days on which Christmas and Easter holidays occur as having pagan roots, I know the realistic theological and historical argument that Jesus was not born on December 25th. I use it gently because I don't want to come across as one who thinks that December 25th by its very nature is a magically holy day. It is a normal day that has been made holy, by the intentional and cultural meditation on [...]

2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00By Joel|Advent, Christian Music, Christianity, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, memories|

Coffee and Resting in Restlessness

Great are You, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; Your power is immense, and Your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise You – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that You thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising You may bring us joy, because You have made us and drawn us to Yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in You (Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 1, Chapter 1).This morning about 5:30 my baby girl awoke hungry, and since the past couple of days she's been [...]

2014-08-18T22:34:43+00:00By Joel|Advent|