"Resolution"

To all the KING'S Men...

K now Christ!

I nvite others to join God's team!

N urture your faith through prayer, worship & daily Bible reading!

G ive your time & money to support God's work in your congregation!''

' ( ' = a sign of "possession" and it's about "belonging"---who we are and whose we are!)

S peak well of your pastor and the men in your life! KING'S men...that's who we are!

Or think of it this way..."one man at a time...no man left behind..."

And if that doesn't strike you...try the ELCA's Lutheran Men in Mission "vision" statement...

"That every man grow in his relationship with Jesus Christ

through an effective men‘s ministry in every congregation."

KING'S Men...I pray that we all sense God's Holy Spirit leading us to be just that...

As people enter a new year, many find themselves barking out one resolution after another. I'm not even going to make a list of all the resolutions made on 12/31 or late in the afternoon on 1/1 because most of them are already undone...we've all been there...done that!

I did a quick look in five or six of my Bible translations, though...The Message, the NIV, the New Revised Standard Version and even in the People's Bible along with New King James Version...and as I tried to locate references to the word, "resolution," I found none.

The word, "resolution" does not appear in the scriptures! (If you find a translation where it does, please let me know!)

But, I'm not alarmed nor discouraged. After all, who needs a new year's resolution to begin to live a certain way or change a certain behavior, when Christian men like us are already given license to be reformed, transformed, conformed and informed by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God who is Jesus? But, if you are in compelled to look in the mirror of your own life and heart and if you desire to make positive adjustments in your doing and being...then consider some of these things before you leap...

When Paul wrote his letter to his friends at Ephesus, he reminded them that the world was dangerous. In fact, he called "his generation"---evil. He also reminded them that standing with one another, supporting and nurturing each other was a critical component to daily life in the Body of Christ. About 2000 years later, we see the world is not that much different...

• Of the men who married between 1970 and 1974, just 46% were still in that marriage after 30 years;
• Of the 72 million children in America under the age of eighteen, 33% of will go to bed tonight without a biological father in the house;
• Children in female-headed families are five times more likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade, and have signs of emotional problems compared to families where a father is present;
• More men in our culture will know that JFK and Marilyn Monroe hooked up once or twice than those who know Lydia was a seller of purple and provided a Jesus-style hospitality as reported in the Acts of the Apostles;
• By the time a child reaches the age of 6, he or she will have spent more face to face time with the TV or computer than they will with their father for the rest of their lives.

This may not sound like an overt list of evil, but this is a tell-tale sign that much in our life and culture is broken. Today in the news, a man with a good German Lutheran name (Schrenker) from Indiana was reported to have stolen investments monies from clients, his wife was filing for divorce, the local agents confiscated his 6 computers, his files and he was found at a road side rest in Florida after flying one of his two planes south, parachuted over Alabama (the plane was on auto-pilot and crashed in Florida) and then took a motorcycle out of the storage facility he rented and drove to Florida and is now in a Gainesville hospital after slitting his wrists. Was this guy a member of one of our Lutheran churches? I don't know and even if he wasn't, there had to be one nearby and so I ask, "how did the Christian men in his corner of the kingdom fail him?" "How did he fall through the cracks?" Is this just the first of more desperate actions to come by the men we know? What do we resolve to do about this?

Perhaps now more than ever, it is time for our pastors and our lay men to bond together to see that every congregation in our synod show signs of an active and engaging men's ministry. I'm not going to list all the ways that you can or should do this. Each congregation must prayerfully discern what is the best way to move forward in the context they find themselves. This blog-site is filled with stories and ideas and this blog-writer is willing to come and visit with your men (and pastor!) to find ways in your setting to train and support the ongoing work of men's ministry.

What are we RESOLVED to do? Who are we RESOLVED to become? When will we be RESOLVED to act? Why would we be content to be RESOLVED to do something else? And as the old Jewish proverb reminds us..."If not me, who; if not now, when?"

It is true that the word, "resolution" does not appear in the scriptures...

But the resolve of God in Christ is clear...we have been...

• created in the image of God to bear fruit in the world;
• wiped clean in our baptism from the stain of original sin;
• claimed by God and made members of the Body of Christ;
• gifted with the Holy Spirit with a power that the gates of hell cannot keep out;
• sent into the world to be light, leaven bringing hope and love to all around us.

Perhaps our new ELCA vision statement makes it more clear...

"God's Work. Our hands."

One of my favorite quotes is from St. Benedict... "ora et labora." It simply means, "pray and work" and that in the end is my daily resolution...it is the rythym of life...it is the path of God that gives meaning and purpose to life and reflects the resolve of Jesus whose prayers and work led him to the cross so that sin, death and the will of the evil one would no longer bind our hearts, minds and hands...

May your resolution be a revolution for you, God and the world...

One man at a time; no man left behind,

Brian