Weeping over the City and a New Website

Weeping over the City

As a part of my first calling as a Minister of Word and Sacrament, I was sent to Zambia to teach for nine denominations in this African nation. It was a wonderful and eye-opening opportunity to a church that is growing, is vibrant, and often functions on a minimum of resources.

As a part of this fellowship program, I was challenged to develop a 2.5 month itinerary of travel through the Global South visiting ministries and other sites. I visited ten different countries (depending on how you count them). One of those nations was Israel, and despite the violence that was happening in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem in which I stayed for most of my time there, I had to see the Old City of Jerusalem. The photo at the top of this blog post shows a view similar to what Jesus might have seen when he wept over the city of Jerusalem. I took this from just outside the Church of Dominus Flevit (the Master wept) on the Mount of Olives (pictured below). The church is a teardrop-shaped church marking where Jesus might have wept. Luke 19 documents our Lord, our God, the brother to whom we have been adopted, weeping over the city that hosted the Temple that was to be make God’s name known to all the world. Luke writes,

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (NRSV)

The city is now built-up, and the mount that once hosted the Temple hosts the Dome on the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque.

I’m a leader in an ancient Middle-Eastern religion; I’m a pastor within the Christian Church. I stand on the shoulders of giants including a Lord and a majority of apostles who were all martyred for their efforts to make God known. I wonder today whether Jesus looks down upon his creation and the church that is now intended to make God’s name known throughout all the earth and weeps over many of the views upon which his eyes are set. As Christians in some parts of the world are martyred for their faith and often live on very meager resources, the church in some parts of the world seems in disarray — without focus, without discipleship, without acknowledging that the one and only living God has visited the earth. Too often, it seems focused not on Christ, who is head of the church, but on the desires and interests of its members.

A New Website

Having served the church in New York City; Zambia (Africa); Manama, Bahrain (Middle East); and central Montana, I’m well aware of the many demands that are placed on pastors. I’ve, also, recognized that pastors spend a lot of time developing resources for their church that could be useful for the greater church. Most of these will never be made available in any published form. This website is intended to be a start to a much greater project. I intend to publish some of those resources that I’ve developed here for others to use — not because they’re perfect or any better than what others might develop but because they’ll offer a start that others can develop into something greater and, perhaps, share with others. My larger hope is to create a website where anyone can publish resources, updates can be captured, and resources can benefit the church universal. My hope is that some of these resources will build-up the church and that pastors will be more able to lead their congregations in making God’s name known throughout all the earth.

I’ll, also, blog some things here, and I hope to import my blog from my time in Africa here as well.