Visit to the Buddhist Monastery

Today Tom and I visited the Buddhist Society of America's monastery in Kent, NY, about 30 minutes north of Ossining. This Buddha statue is 37 feet high, the largest in America or Europe!

As I was taking pictures, a diminutive Buddhist nun motioned us over, and, in broken English, asked us to assist her. Our act of "Christian compassion" for the day was to carry two statues and two boxes of books to the office one story down.

The goal of Buddhism is to teach people how to overcoming suffering through learning detachment from desire. It was both ironic and amusing, therefore, that our visit to the monastery was preceeded by a spectacular breakfast and follwed by a trip to the mall. I'm not sure how detached I felt, but I sure was fulfilled. That's appropriate for a Christian, since our goal is engagement, rather than detachment. After all, "every good and perfect gift is from above..." (James 1:17) and should be received with gratitude and joy!

Another great day filled with adventures, conversations, and surprises!

1st Sunday of Sabbatical

The bagel place my brother wanted to take me this morning wasn't open yet, and it was too early for the 8:15 service at his church, so we decided to swing by The Maryknoll Center, the headquarters of the Catholic Mission Society of America.

What most interested me about this was the extent of Chinese influence on the Center's architecture. The reason is simple -- the Society's early missionary efforts, around 1918, were directed toward China. Schools, orphanages, homes for the blind and aged, leprosariums, as well as churches, were early priorities. From the very beginning, the Maryknoll missionaries sought to develop an indigenous Catholic clergy. It was fascinating to look at international missions from a Roman Catholic perspective.

After our Maryknoll walk-around, we then headed for the service at Tom's church, St. Paul's on-the-Hill (yes, that's the actual name). And, before too much longer, we drove from Ossining to Manhattan so we could attend The Journey church. What a contrast! From liturgical service to Sunday morning rock; from an older congregation to a distinctly younger congregation.

My head is swimming with the goodness and grace of a God who inspires such diverse worship and ministry. So often, we wade in our own pool and call it the ocean, when we have not explored the wonders of the deep. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond finding out" (Romans 11:33, NIV).

Experimenting with My Netbook

Here's the first picture I'm posting using Susie's camera and my new Picasa account. I'll try to post some pics every few days while I'm on my sabbatical.

Aren't they cute?

The Greatest Challenge

The greatest challenge churches face is to keep from becoming internally focused. Most churches spend 95% of their resources--their time and money--on themselves. This is our default position. It is what we will return to time and again if we do not intentionally focus on reaching "outsiders." By "outsiders," I simply mean those who are not yet followers of Christ.

Too often we operate on the basis of personal or group preference. We ask, "What is best for me or my family? What is preferable for my Sunday School group?"

However, what would happen to us if we began to make our main question: "What would Jesus want us to do?" Jesus was always the friend of outsiders. He said, "I came to seek and to save that which is lost." Shouldn't we do the same?