The Big Letter

Friends in Christ,

For the last 6.5 years, it has been a blessing and an honor to serve as your pastor. I have endeavored to do everything in my power to serve faithfully, and I can only hope and pray that my time here has been spent nourishing what was handed to me and planting seeds that God will water and grow to bear fruit in God's own time.

The decision to leave New Hope has easily been the most difficult and heart-wrenching decision Rachel and I have ever made. We have been embraced by your love and fellowship and been supported from the first day of our time in Chattanooga. It is not with ease or lightness that we leave behind such a gathering of the saints of the church. At the same time, we feel certain that our next step as a family carries us beyond the bounds of Chattanooga, and thus we have made the decision to move.

Our life has certainly changed since we arrived. We recognize that our two children drastically change the way we make decisions, and family is a very important part of our lives. As our children grow, it is more and more difficult to be a day's drive from grandparents, and so we have made the decision to move to Columbus, Ohio in the hopes of allowing our children to grow closer to their grandparents and for us to draw from the support of nearby family.

This move also allows me to pursue my dream of becoming more deeply involved in the mission work of the global church. From my time at seminary, I have a deep interest in how the church actively serves in the world, and I have a long-term goal of working with a mission agency such as World Vision. To that end, I'll be pursuing a business degree in the hopes of gaining corporate knowledge and experience that I can combine with my ministry and mission knowledge and skills.

I know that the transition will not be easy for the congregation, but I also know the Presbytery will do its best to support and encourage New Hope as it visions ahead for what God might have in store for this congregation. Many of you may have questions for me or questions about the future. I will do my best to be available and answer those, and I will keep the congregation in my prayers.

It is my genuine hope that someone more able than I will come along and help navigate New Hope through the challenges and opportunities that await, so that the Word of God will be richly proclaimed in Word and in deed, that this place on this busy corner will not only see a clear vision for its future but also pursue it with defined steps that will ensure the sustainability of the ministry in this place. May God continue to bless this congregation, that it may be a blessing to others.

Thank you, each and every one of you—for your time, your service, your dedication and faithfulness, and for your love and support. Where my efforts have been fruitful, I give thanks to God for his grace and wisdom. Where I have failed, in my leadership and in my proclamation, I humbly ask your forgiveness. I pray that the congregation will grow in faithfulness, and that the Holy Spirit will lead you all into the abundant and eternal life Christ freely offers to us.

In Christ,

Rev. Keith Jones

May Letter

Friends in Christ,

Spring is here, and with its arrival my yard once again is filled with an abundance of flowering things, none of which I planted. The grass, which I did plant, has mostly enjoyed its brief life in my lawn and then died. Just like the old saying 'You can't step in the same river twice', you can't mow my yard the same twice, because there are always new weeds and ant colonies and who knows what else out there.

As I mow, I think about the idea that there were no weeds in the Garden of Eden. To our modern eyes there were probably weeds, but at the time, it was just an abundance of creation. Only when we selected what a desirable plant was did we create weeds, which were suddenly undesirable. If our idea of a perfect lawn was that it was simply green and uniformity did not matter, then there would be no weeds. To Caleb's eyes, dandelions aren't weeds but objects of wonder and delight. The whole concept of a weed is a mental construct, a category in which we place plants that we think don't belong.

It's easy to do the same with people. In our minds, we construct images of normal people. Typically, this includes people that look like us, and may include people similar to people we are already friends with. It's easy to make an ideal community that includes people who look and act like us, and to treat the others as weeds, less-than-desirables.

But the diversity of the world is, I believe, something wonderful in God's eyes, because each and every one of us is made in the image of God. It's a human idea that we should look or act the same. To God, we are all beautiful (though tainted with sin and in need of redemption, which he has graciously provided in Jesus Christ) and treasured.

So may we endeavor to see people as God sees us, worthy of love and affection and attention. May we recognize our propensity to label some people as 'weeds', and may we instead look for the wonder and delight in each.

In Christ,

Keith

December Letter

Friends in Christ,

Can you imagine Joseph, Mary's willing husband, hunched over a monitor telling Mary when she's about to have a contraction? Can you imagine Mary trying to decide whether to let the nurses take the Son of God into the nursery at night so she can get some sleep? Can you imagine the look on Jesus' face when they slip the anti-theft device on his ankle?

It's hard for us to imagine what that scene in the stable was like so many years ago. We speculate on the surroundings and who was there, but the reality is that we simply don't know. We have the Gospel accounts, but anyone who claims to know for certain more than that has seen better scholarship than I have.

The actual event happened years ago, but the cosmic ramifications still reverberate in our hearts and lives today. Almighty God taking on human flesh and dwelling in our midst matters more than we can begin to understand. Not only do we have consolation in knowing that God understands what it feels like to be human, but also we can have hope for the future because of the sinless life and perfect sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered.

Christmas changed everything, and each Christmas is a chance for us to remember the perfect gift that we have been given. Each Christmas is a chance for us to look forward in hope, to peer boldly beyond the horizon of today, through the veil of death and into the realm of the eternal, where God sits upon his throne and beckons us closer. Each Christmas is a chance to look around at the present, to celebrate our blessings and examine our shortcomings, working to make our lives a pleasing offering to God.

As we celebrate Christmas, may we celebrate the strength and wisdom of God that came down to earth in the form of a child, and may we give thanks that God is a God of redemption, peace, hope, joy and love.

In Christ,

Keith

November Newsletter Letter

Friends in Christ,

Less than a two hour flight from Miami, there are kids running around naked in the slums of Port au Prince because they don't have any clothes. I think I knew that Haiti would be poor, but I was unprepared for the level of poverty in parts of Haiti. It is amazing to see the spirit of life in the eyes of the children, especially considering their surroundings. Looking at such a situation, it's hard to imagine anything other than despair, and yet there is life there.

It always seems easy to choose despair. Modern media certainly makes it easy for us—the news seems to be a non-stop option for reasons for despair. CNN had a countdown clock to the second of when the debt ceiling would be breached and the world would be thrown into chaos—they were counting on your anxieties keeping you glued to the screen. Our own city has plenty of options for despair in the midst of violence and inequality. You can choose between crime, hungry kids or countless other options as reasons to give up hope in the future.

But we're not a people called to despair. The Holy Spirit always prods us to choose hope—God reminds us of our ultimate destination, and he reminds us that we are to spend our time wisely on earth, looking for signs of God at work and joining in with what God is doing as he builds his Kingdom. We don't just huddle in the corner and wait for heaven—we're called to let our hope be a living hope, an active hope, a hope that gets its hands dirty in the mess of the world and shines light into the darkness of despair.

God is at work in Haiti. Even in the slums of the poorest country in the western hemisphere, God is working to shine the light of redemption, one transformed life at a time. God is at work here, too, through the ministries of congregations and individuals willing to get their hands dirty amidst the chaos with which the world threatens us. Never lose hope, and never stop working as an agent of change and hope in our world. In the end, God wins, and we're called to participate with joy in his eternal victory march!

In Christ,

Keith

October Newsletter Letter

Friends in Christ,

You have nothing that God needs.

Before God created the world, he wasn't sitting in heaven pining away for companionship. Within the Trinity, God has infinite community and love. God didn't need creation—it was an intentional act of divine grace, an overflow of boundless love.

God has created each and every person on this world intentionally. None of us are an accident. God wanted to create us, and he wants the best for us—he wants to welcome us into the infinite community and love that he experiences in the Trinity. He wants us to join the overflowing joy of eternal life.

And he wants you to experience that here and now, in this life. We aren't meant to sit around and wait for heaven—our lives are meant to be busy creating heaven on earth, joining in with God's ongoing renewal work. God wants abundance and joy and peace and growth for you.

I say all of this because we're going to be talking about money in October, and the church hasn't always been great about explaining why we give money to God. We're perhaps guilty of leading people into thinking that God needs your money. God doesn't. God wants you to give money to the church because it will teach you how to handle money and how to be grateful. Scripture teaches us that giving money is one of our many responses to the God who gives us everything, including our money and our ability to work. Giving away money is a bold statement of faith in the God who provides. Putting God first in our lives includes putting him first in our finances, which is just as important as putting him first in our marriages and jobs and relationships and play. God must always come first.

As other pastors have said, “God doesn't need something from you. But God wants something for you.”

God loves you and wants abundant & eternal life for each of us. May we respond with grateful praise.

In Christ, Keith

Growth

Friends in Christ,

  Talk of the fiscal cliff seems to be dominating the news.  It looms larger and larger each passing day, and none of our elected 'leaders' seem that interested in compromising one single inch in order to avoid fiscal calamity.  Tax rates and budget cuts that will affect real people seem to be little more than bargaining chips cast on the table in hopes of one party 'winning', neglecting the fact that the people seem to continue to lose.

  The sad thing is, this is all our own making.  The fiscal cliff didn't invent until Congress invented it a few years back, devising something that would be such a threat that it would drive the parties to find a common ground between their battle-hardened positions.  As humanity tends to do often, we selected gratification in the moment and chose to push punishment a little farther down the road.  Congress ignored future pain and selected present satisfaction.

  Humans have been doing this since the beginning of time--rather than accept the difficult now, knowing that it will lead to growth and eventually help build us into the people we want to be, we choose to take the easy road today, knowing in the back of our heads that we'll suffer in the future, but we weigh the present with more gravity than the future.

  Our spiritual lives aren't any different.  We consider engaging with the spiritual disciplines, making the hard choices now, but we opt for entertainment today, often engaging with things of little or no spiritual substance. It's easier.  But those choices have consequences--and we won't grow into the Christians we want to be, that God wants us to be, unless we choose to do some of the hard work now.  It's not going to be easy to make time to pray and study Scripture, but to develop your prayer life and know Scripture well in the future, that's what it takes now.

  I'm not master or expert at this.  I often choose the easy way out, opting for entertainment.  Not all entertainment is bad, but to continue to elevate it over spiritual disciplines time after time stunts our growth as Christians.  It manages to block part of what God wants to do in and through us.

  So let's make the hard choices and choose to study, choose to discipline ourselves and live like Christ now, trusting that God will do a work in us that will grow into the future.  The effects of our present choices are magnified in our future.  So let us praise God now, do the work of discipleship now, and entrust our future to God, knowing he will continue to grow us up as Christians.

In Christ,
Keith

Football and need

Friends in Christ,

  I grew up in Cincinnati, which means that grew up cheering for the Cincinnati Bengals, that team that plays in the National Football League.  (I hesitate to call them a professional football team.  Anybody who has followed the Bengals for several decades knows that 'professional' isn't the most appropriate moniker for them.)  Cheering for the Bengals is not an easy task--it's a bit like cheering for the antelope in a National Geographic special.  Every once in a while the antelope will make a sharp turn or a dash for safety and you think it's going to get free... and those specials always end with the lion gnawing on antelope remains.

  A few years back, the Bengals decided they needed a new stadium.  They threatened to move to California if they didn't get one, so the city buckled and handed them a gold-plated deal, one that has financially backfired on the city.  Their budget is now severely affected by the promises they made to keep up the stadium, and the lion's share of the profits find their way into the owner's pockets, rather than the city's pockets.

  Now, when the city was being sold on this deal, two things were mentioned over and over.  One was the emotional impact of the team leaving.  (Hard to imagine this was a winning argument!)  The other was the economic impact of the team leaving.  The team does have a positive effect on the city--affecting everything from hotels to bars and restaurants to merchandise to jobs held within the stadium.  There are tax revenue and parking fees and many other channels through which money flows back to the city and to other businesses.  I'm not going to deny this.

  But I wonder if anyone talked about the economic impact of what might happen if the city's money was poured into the local schools, particularly the poorer schools.  How might those children have benefited from funds that were given to a football team?  Who knows what impact those dollars could have had ten, twenty years down the road?  Perhaps some children would have received an invigorating education that was otherwise missed, and in their rising above poverty, they might have lifted countless others with them.  Who knows what might have happened?  It might have transformed a city--and Cincinnati would have been the city that said no to football and yes to children.  I imagine that the billionaires who run the NFL would have found a way to get by.

  Whenever we spend money, there is an opportunity cost.  There is always something else that money could go toward.  This cost will always exist, whether it's the money we spend on rent or on a milkshake at Steak & Shake.  We can guilt ourselves crazy if we like, or we can see the opportunity to examine how we spend our money & ensure that we are being faithful stewards.  May we be sure that we are giving generously, freely, working to fight poverty and hunger.  There is nothing in the Bible that says we can't spend money on ourselves--but faithful stewardship demands that if we have money to spend, we must be willing to give some to others in need.  We need to leave some behind so that others might glean from it.

  It's a delicate balance, and the best thing we can do is make sure our priorities are correct.  If our hearts are focused first on Christ Jesus as Lord of all of life, then that mindset will guide us when it comes to spending money.  We'll know when we need to save and we'll know when we need to invest in the lives of others.  It's not always an easy decision, but the more thought we give to our money will help us be more faithful in our use of it.

  May we consider the cost and give generously, following the example of the Lord, who has given us more than we deserve.

In Christ,
Keith

Wednesday Letter

Friends in Christ,
  I love the South.  Years ago, the end of November would find me huddled up in jackets and lumbering through the snow to get where I needed to be.  Checking the weather was a depressing task.  Now, I check the weather to see whether or not I'll need a sweater, let alone a jacket.
  But the cold is coming.  Winter has a way of sneaking up on us.  (I know, winter doesn't officially begin for another three weeks.  Tell that to the folks getting snow in the Northwest.)  It gets a little colder every day, but often not enough to notice, and then suddenly you find yourself walking outside and wondering how it got so cold so quickly.  The reality is that the weather was changing every day, but just in such small increments that it doesn't seem to be changing at all.

  I think the same holds true for our discipleship, particularly our prayer life.  When we pray, we are waking ourselves up to what God is doing around us.  The more often we pray, the more often our eyes and our hearts are opened to God's work in the world.  If we focus ourselves on improving our prayer habits, spending a little more time in prayer every day, then we'll notice a change in the way we see the world.  It won't be immediate, and many of the changes may be imperceptible, but years down the road we'll suddenly realize how different our life is.  It's not the work of one dramatic shift, but a thousand little ones.  In the conference I attended this spring, Eugene Peterson said that not everything is prayer, but everything can be prayer.  It's all about our attitude and our willingness to focus on God in the midst of our lives.

  There's an old saying that the best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago, and the 2nd best time is now.  So how will you devote yourself to prayer now, that years down the road, your life may be centered around an awareness of God's presence?

In Christ,
Keith

It's Wednesday!

Friends in Christ,
  Have you ever been to the wilderness?

  I've wandered out in the woods.  I don't know if anyone would call it wilderness, but I've been hiking and camping deep enough in woods that the anxious thought occurred to me that if something bad happened, I'd be in deep trouble.  (Yes, that's how my mind works... I tend to think of the worst.  I'm working on it.)  It's beautiful out in the backwoods, and yet there's a loneliness evident.  In order for someone to reach you, they have to work pretty hard.  It's not going to be easy or fast, and in many ways, that's wonderful.  We are usually so connected that getting away can be good for the soul & mind.

  I was reading Neal Plantinga's Beyond Doubt this morning and was struck by the reality that Christ comes out into the deep wilderness to save us.  It wasn't easy for Christ.  Our sin had led us deep into the woods, making easy rescue impossible.  We needed drastic intervention from God in order to restore our relationship with God.

  Thinking about hurricane Isaac as it unleashes its fury upon the Louisiana coast, the helicopter rescues of many flood victims come to mind.  People are stranded on rooftops, threatened by rising water, and they have no help of salvation unless someone makes a great effort to reach them.  I read this morning the haunting story of people being trapped in their attics by the rising floodwaters--there is no place left to go, no way out, unless help arises.  May we be in prayer for those threatened by this storm, and may we pray for those who put their own lives on the line, who risk everything to save others.

  Christ came into the deep wilderness to save us from sins.  He came searching for us, no matter how far we had gone.  It doesn't matter where we are.  It doesn't matter what addiction we are fighting or what sin we are wrestling.  Christ comes to save.  It doesn't matter if we believe that we are separated too far from God. God pursues us, rushes after us, to lead us home.  God's love will not let us go.  And so God pursues us, crashing through the woods, parting the waters, so that we might know that we are loved.

  We once were lost, but now are found.  May our lives give thanks to God.

In Christ,
Keith

Wednesday Letter for 8/15

Friends in Christ,
  I was listening to a sermon this morning and it mentioned our unwavering hope in Jesus Christ.  I like that.  I can't say that I have unwavering hope, but I like the idea of striving for it.  It got me thinking about what causes my hope to waver--and I realized that my hope wavers when I stop focusing on Christ and invest my time and energies in trying to do everything myself.

  I want the best for this church, and believe that the best for this church means that each and every one of us keeps our eyes focused solely on Christ.  When we do this, and live a life that testifies to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over every part of our lives, I think we are living as God wants us to live, as a community.  When we spend all our time worrying about the future, stressing out about what seems like a never-ending list of things worthy of stressing out about, we take our eyes off Christ and look at ourselves.  We get distracted when we notice how imperfect we are, how blemished we are, how sinful we are.  When we look at Christ, we see ourselves in a different light--we see ourselves as clothed with his grace and mercy, covered in his love, immersed in his light.  Then we are encouraged to go out, to share this with others, because we're not worried about ourselves.  It's not about us!  When we keep our eyes on Christ alone, our hope doesn't waver!  It remains steady and strong, because we trust that he holds all things together and will bring us through every trial--not remove us from every trial, but bring us through--by the power of his love.

  So I hope that I can keep my eyes fixed on him.  I hope that my hope will not waver.  And I will pray for you, too, to have unwavering hope.

  I'd invite you to come and walk the labyrinth if you have time.  If you don't have time, it might be worthwhile to make time for it.  Spend your time in the labyrinth focused on his love--let all your thoughts about yourself slip away and just bask in the radiance of his eternal glow, of the mercy he pours out upon you.  Just like I want to lavish love on Caleb, God wants to pour out his love on his precious children.  That means you--not everyone else other than you, not all those other people more worthy of God's love--God wants to pour love upon you, to bring you joy and blessings, even in the midst of the trials of life.

  So let God love you.  I promise it will change your life.

In Christ,
Keith

A Letter

  At the conference in NYC I attended in February, Eugene Peterson talked about how he used to write a letter to his congregation every Wednesday.  At the time, I thought it sounded like a great thing to do.  As with many great ideas, it stayed there in NYC as life encumbered my schedule and I wondered what I might write about every week.  I remember reading a quote from Thomas Friedman (I believe) who responded to an inquirer who had thought that being a weekly columnist would be the easiest and greatest job ever by asking them what they would write about this week, and then next week, and then the week after that, and then the week after that...  the point being that the first few weeks may roll easily off the mind, but the next one, and the next one, and the next one are far more challenging.  I won't promise this will be a weekly installation--but perhaps some may find it helpful.

Friends in Christ,
  I am blessed enough to have a spiritual director who hasn't yet given up on me, despite my irregularity in devoting time to the spiritual disciplines he recommends.  He's not a legalistic sort of man, which is a gift because I don't believe Christ calls us to a legalistic faith.  That said, I do believe we need to be rigorous in pursuing spiritual practices that help us grow in faith.  We each need spiritual disciplines--we don't all need the same ones, but we need to ensure that we don't take faith for granted and avoid any commitments because we don't want to be legalistic.  It's a fine line to walk, but the faith Christ calls us to, as I understand it, requires work on our part--not to earn Christ's love, but to let is consume and infect every part of our lives, influencing every single thought and deed.  Our status before God is not dependent on our faithfulness, but our ability to be used as agents of the kingdom in the world to spread God's grace to others does depend on our faithfulness.

  Today, the particular passage I was called to meditate upon was Romans 2:4, in which Paul reminds us that God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.  Many of us lament Paul's ability to be clear in much of his writing, but I think this verse is rather clear--God pours out kindness and love upon us, and this should lead us to repent.  I was listening to one of Perry Noble's sermons in the car this morning, and it was discussing how important it is that we view repentance as transformation of the heart, not just our actions.  Repentance demands more than just ceasing a sinful action--it requires that our hearts turn back to God.

  So God's kindness is poured out upon us, intended to lead us to repentance.  In other words, while we were still sinners, God died for us.  (Romans 5:8)  We don't initiate God's action--we respond to it.

  What does repentance lead to?  I think the answer lies back in the Psalms.  Psalm 40:8 says that 'I delight to do your will'.  That sounds to me a lot like a heart that has been transformed by the grace of God poured out!  If our hearts are transformed, we then live out a life that follows God's will--but only after we have experienced God's kindness and grace, and only after our hearts have been transformed.  I think we often try to follow God's will while our hearts are still caught up in guilt and anxiety and fear, and we struggle to understand and to live faithfully.  If we first let the grace and love and mercy of God pour over us, maybe then we'll be better able to follow God, for our hearts will be immersed in wonder at the free grace of God.

  I haven't perfected this, and it's a process that takes a lifetime.  But let's focus on God's kindness first, and let that change our hearts, that our hearts may then lead us out into the world, to follow God to the places he leads us, to serve and love God by loving and serving others!!

In Christ,
Keith