the challenge of recession

"The tottering economy gives faith groups new pastoral challenges, greater charity obligations and emptier offering plates. How they respond may define them for decades."
TIME Magazine, December 22, 2008

dear friends

I’ve been holding on to some big news for quite some time now but I guess the time has finally come to share it with you all. For the past ten years it has been my honor to serve alongside The Salvation Army in striving to share the love of Christ through faithful service to those in need. During that time I have built some of the most meaningful relationships of my life, had my entire theology turned on its head, and been challenged to follow the pattern of servant ministry that Jesus modeled himself. They have been ten of the most challenging yet meaningful years of my life and I am thankful for the time God has given me to learn a style of ministry that I hope will impact my life and ministry forever.

For the past two and a half years, Jamie and I have been struggling to keep our heads above water ministry wise. Our division got new leadership and, right or wrong, we just didn’t share a similar vision for ministry in the city of London or in the community of Tottenham. This summer I was informed that I was to be moved back to headquarters fulltime in the Spring of 2009. While this decision is not necessarily the wrong one for our division, we do believe it to be the wrong one for our family for many reasons. Most notably because just don’t believe it to be the direction that God is calling us or gifting us. The past five years or so have given us a real love and passion for local ministry, and it’s where we believe our heart and gifts lie. And so we began to search and pray about where God might be calling us next.

After much prayer and searching, I have decided to accept a ministry position at a church on the outskirts of Washington DC. We’ve made two visits to the church now, have stayed in the homes of two of its members, have enjoyed meals in a number of homes, and have had the chance to visit with more people than I can even remember. It was quite a vetting prospect for us and them. In addition to that, I’ve been communicating with the Senior Pastor for about three months now. He is a good man and definitely has a heart for mission.

On one hand, it hasn’t been an easy decision for us. We poured blood, sweat, and tears into our local ministry and know that we are the only link many of the people in that neighborhood have to a local church. There’s no doubt that, though we strived to plant seeds, many of those people will never again connect with a church in a meaningful way. But as that particular decision was taken out of my hands, the only decision left was whether or not to look for a new ministry with the Army or to begin a new ministry elsewhere.

I have said all that I need to say concerning the Salvation Army. If you know me or have read my blog, you know that I am very passionate about the Army but also very frustrated at much of its methodology and, in my opinion, lack of forward thinking. But those things have been said and I have zero desire to leave in a blaze of proverbial glory or by burning bridges on my way out. The truth is that the past ten years of working with the Army have been some of the most important of my life. I’ve had the chance to make some of the most meaningful relationships of my life and have truly encountered people who have been inspirations, mentors, and dear friends. And that is what I’d like to write about over the next couple of posts. More importantly, our decision to leave the Army comes down more to the opportunities that exist for non-Officers in local leadership than anything else.

As Jamie and I began to search for a new ministry, we had a few specific prayer requests and a few desires in our hearts that we probably did not have the faith to pray for. I’m astounded and quite humbled to tell you that God seems to have addressed and fulfilled them all.

I will be serving in this church as the Pastor of Worship and Missions. I already have an amazingly talented team of musicians and artists to lead with and look forward to getting back involved in music fulltime. On the other side I have people who are incredibly passionate about mission. The church already runs a fulltime food pantry, a ministry to a bunch of homeless campers in a nearby wooded area, a holiday food and gift drive, a yearly coat drive, two overseas mission trips, and they also financially support seventeen missionaries around the world. I’ll be overseeing all of that while also looking for better ways to engage the needs of the local (mostly Hispanic) community. I was specifically looking for both roles in a new ministry position and am beyond excited to get started.

I’m also very happy to say that the church is diverse both in age and in culture. Several of the staff (including the Senior pastor) are African American along with several of the elders, deacons and members of the congregation. Several other cultures are also represented in the church. Though I didn’t actually have the faith to pray for that one, God definitely knew the desires of our heart and, thankfully, provided in this particular area. And for those who were sure I’d end up at a Gen-X church next, I told you so. This church manages to span the full range of ages and, somehow, has also managed to hold onto its twenty and thirty year olds. I’m thrilled to say that there is a good group of young adults as well as young parents mine and Jamie’s age.

The other blessing is that the church is able to provide in such a way that Jamie will be able to take as much time off as she needs. The past two and a half years have been particularly difficult and though, once again, I did not have the faith to pray for this one, God knew what was needed in this area and we thank him for that provision.

Two amazing “coincidences” have also taken place through this church. The first comes through a young woman named Amy Williams. For the past five years Amy has been working at our former camp (Camp Allegheny) in Western Pennsylvania. If you look her up on facebook, you’ll see that she and I share twenty-three of the same friends! All from Camp Allegheny! Unbelievable!

The second is that a gentleman in this church sits on the advisory board of the local Salvation Army Corps. : ) There is a stigma attached to “leaving a church”. Most of us are familiar with that stigma. But Jamie and I have no desire to be a part of it. We’re not called to be Salvation Army Officers, and that makes it very difficult to find opportunities for local leadership. It really is as simple as that. So while I’m sure the Devil would love to use this as a point of contention or division, we don’t intend to let him and, furthermore, hope to rub his face in it a little by finding ways to work alongside the Army in the coming years.

Though it would be impossible to thank each and every one of the people we’ve encountered over the past ten years, I do hope to write a few thoughts on specific people over the next few weeks. Until that time let me just send out a big thank you to all of you who have played a role in our lives during that time. From friends and colleagues, to young people and mentors, you are the reason that the last ten years have been absolutely life changing for Jamie and me. Without a doubt, wherever we go, you play a part in all that we do and we thank you for that.

The 31st of January will be our last day as members of the Salvation Army, but not our last day as supporters of it. Thank you in advance for your prayers over the next few months as we look to get resettled and begin a new ministry in a new community. May God bless you, your families, and your own ministries, wherever they may take you, and may you always be found loving Him and loving your neighbor with all your heart, mind, and soul.

In Christ
Tim & Jamie Miller

hollywood hair

Today I went for a haircut. My normal barber is on holiday (and as he’s Greek, I’m betting he’s in Greece, which is not a good thing at the minute) so I had to find someplace else to go.

I landed in a Paul Mitchell’s which actually went by the name of Hollywood Hair. I had visions of running into Bret Michaels (as opposed to Brett DeMichaels….totally different guy) but had no such luck. Mind you, I’m not a Bret Michaels fan, still, it would have made for a very interesting haircut had he made it and I might have been able to get in a couple of digs on him for writing “Every Rose”. However, Bret Michaels was not needed because Hollywood Hair was tacky enough on its own.

I suppose they were going for “classy”. They offered me something to drink when I came in (one of those pretentious little drinks that Jamie and Becca….and pretty much all of my Americans friends love to mention on their facebook updates) and took my coat. Then, because there weren’t enough stereotypes in the place, they sent over an Italian man named Antonio to cut my hair. Antonio looked a lot like Russell Brand, if you’re familiar. He had long black hair, tight black jeans, lots of weird bracelets, an earring or two, and some groovy facial hair. He was on his game.

He came over, got a little too intimate with my head, and then asked, “How you like your hair?”, going on to make a few suggestions. I informed him that I was just looking for a simple haircut; number two on the sides and back, and even it out on the top. “You like it cut up to here?”, he said, motioning with his finger to describe how far up the side of my head he might use that number two. “Do whatever you do”, I said, “I’m not real picky”. And so the haircut began.

During the course of the haircut, I got the same questions I always get from somebody I’ve just met and am forced to spend some time with. “Where you from?” “You like George Bush?” “You vote for Obama?” “You like it here?” “Why you leave America?” “I would like to go to America.” “I have friends in (fill in the blank)” And then we usually cover one of the three major American theories; Who shot JFK? Did America really land on the moon? Do you think George Bush faked 911? Antonio also suggested some coloring. “It bring out your highlights”, he said. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to my gray highlights or what, all I new was, I wasn’t getting any coloring. I managed to make it out with only a haircut, a decent one at that, and a reminder of why guys like me don’t go to Paul Mitchell and why we definitely don’t go to places called Hollywood Hair. Still, I do think that I’m looking rather fabulous. At least from the ears up.

That’s all for now. More soon.

CHRISTmas

Dear Church,

This is not an alarmist’s post! Let’s start with that. No doubt, like me, you’ve seen email forward after email forward warning of the dangers that the church faces by the cruel hands of everybody from liberals, to homosexuals, to communists, and beyond. Take heart, this is not another dire post!

But this is a challenge to be a people worthy of the name of Christ.

I read on CNN this morning that The American Humanist Association plans to unveil a bus campaign in Washington next week in which they will run a holiday add that reads the following:

“Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness sake.”

Now, my inbox will, no doubt, be flooded with emails over the next few weeks warning me to take up my Bible and my gun, and to lock myself inside the four walls of my church, and to not come out until those adds are taken down! I’ll probably also be encouraged to write my congressman asking him to personally see that those adds are taken down. I might even be asked to boycott buses which have those specific adds on the side. I, however, want to challenge the Christian community in a different way; How about we simply be Christ like about it?

First of all, how about PERSONALLY strive to “bring back the Christ in Christmas”? Not by boycotting certain stores, or picketing bus terminals, but by seeing to it that we follow Christ’s example over the Christmas season, that we honor God with our families, and that we serve our fellow man. As so many before me have already stated, Christmas has become a time where, at worst, we go into debt, stress ourselves out, and rise to our absolute materialistic peak! At best it’s become a time when we go into debt, stress ourselves out, and rise to our absolute materialistic peak…..to celebrate Jesus’ birthday! Want to celebrate Jesus’ birthday? Give to the needy. After all, when we give a Christmas present to the least of these, we give a birthday present to Jesus himself (Matthew 25)!

Spend this Christmas teaching your children about the real meaning of Christmas. Serve the needy, spend quality time with your family, and spend quality time with your family serving the needy. Which would mean more to you as a parent; your child having memories of Christmas with lots of presents? Or your child having memories of Christmas where, as a family, you made up food and gift baskets together, and then played secret Santa (or Jesus?), dropping those baskets off on the porches of families in need? Could there be a better way to honor the Savior this Christmas, and could there be a better way to spend the holidays with your family? Surely not!

For more information on how you can celebrate a more ethical Christmas (free from candies and presents made by child laborers), check out a new site called FreeChristmas.org. This site gives a lot of great information on ethical gift giving, and lots of great resources for families, churches, businesses, and even schools.

Want to put the Christ back into Christmas? Start in your own home and then spread those Christ like actions out into your communities. Do that and you won’t have to worry about “defending the gospel”. Your actions will do it for you!

Btw, thanks Lucy!

thoughts on politics UPDATE

The article below is now being featured on Crosswalk.com.

thoughts on politics

I’ve been trying to write a post on politics for weeks now, thus the silence on my blog. It’s so hard to do the 2008 election justice. And it’s so hard to write this post without bias. In the end, I’ve decided not to try. So the following are my thoughts, scattered as they may be, on what is a historic moment in the history of the United States, but also on the words and attitudes of my fellow Christians during this time.

First, I have known for quite some time that people believe what they want to believe. Is Obama really a socialist? Only if you believe that public schools, a military that fights wars on your behalf, infrastructure built for you, and social security are socialist programs. On the flip side, is John McCain the next George W. Bush? I wouldn’t call a guy who, up until two years ago, was pro-choice, was calling leading evangelical ministers “agents of intolerance”, was and is a war hero, opposes the torture of war prisoners, and would give his right eye to meet Bush out back in a dark alley the next George W. Bush. But people believe what they want to believe. And they do so to justify their own desires. I’m speaking in general terms here, but the majority of people I know don’t watch speeches to help form their opinion, they watch speeches to help them justify it, waiting and watching for any little phrase or slip up that can be used to validate their choice. I recently read the following by conservative columnist David Brooks in the New York Times and I couldn’t have said it any better myself:

"(Ronald) Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition lately, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely.”

Second, in the past few years my hope in the church has been gaining. Maybe it’s because my role has put me in touch with so many churches who are at the forefront of something new and who are looking to reclaim the prophetic social reform witness of evangelicals from the 19th century. But for the past thirty years, no thought has been allowed by the evangelical community when it came to politics. We were taught that there were only two issues when it came to God and politics: homosexuality and abortion. And while I do believe that these two issues are important, I also think that they’ve allowed us to pass the buck when it comes to our responsibility in loving our neighbor. This year I’ve watched as a great number of young and old Christians alike have risen up and voted for something different. Now before anybody gets upset at my suggestion that “voting democrat” is something positive in the life of the church, let me be clear in what I’m really saying; what’s positive about this is that the church is beginning to realize that there are many, many social issues that we are responsible to respond to. I believe that we are finally beginning to let loose of canned answers and really think through our faith and theology, and that gives me hope. In the end that may not cause us to vote for a democrat in every instance, and if we’re educating ourselves and paying attention, it shouldn’t. But as I stated above, a socially conscious church is a positive witness in an unjust world. I believe that if we were leading the way in all the social issues – human trafficking, the environment, fair trade, human rights, etc. – our stance on abortion would not be seen as an affront to people’s rights, but would be seen as a part of our consistent stance FOR the life and well being of others. It would be seen as loving our neighbor.

When all is said and done, I hope a few things for the church in its response to faith and politics:

I hope that it will grow in wisdom, and wisdom always involves the making of a decision based on as much evidence and understanding as possible.

I hope that the church in America will remember that WE are the church, and that WE are the kingdom, not our country. Am I proud to be an American? Let’s just say that I’m a little prouder today than I’ve been in quite some time. But my allegiance isn’t to a country, it’s to a King and a Kingdom. I’m blessed to have been born in America. Blessed beyond measure. But in the end, America is not the Kingdom in which I have placed my allegiance. It is simply my earthly home.

And I hope that we can be constructive instead of destructive. I’ve watched the rhetoric being tossed around over the last few days in relation to an Obama win, and it hasn’t been pretty. In fact, it hasn’t been very Christ like at all. Obama won’t be everything that the evangelical community would like in a President. But he will bring some issues to the forefront that we should be fans of. Take it from somebody who threw words like “socialist” and “communist” around in 1992 in relation to a possible Clinton Presidency; the four horseman are not in sight. Life will go on. And Obama will bring some issues to the table that we can get behind. And when it comes to those issues that we cannot get behind, we’ll need to stand up and make our voices heard. Just like we should have been doing for the past eight years.

Third, and as a member of the international community, I’m proud of my country today and hopeful for what this new presidency will mean for the world. I’ve never seen an international reaction to a U.S. President like I’ve seen to this one. And while there will be some cynics out there who will read this to mean that other countries see an opportunity to take advantage of America, the truth is that most of them now see an America who may not be so quick to take advantage of them. More importantly, they see the America that the rest of the world once believed in. I once heard Bono say that America is not a country, it’s an idea. In doing so he said what so many people have believed about America; that it represents the hopes and dreams of the world. That it SHOULD go without saying that all men are created equal. That race and birth rights should have no bearing in one’s right to the pursuit of happiness. To the rest of the world, if a black man can be President of the United States of America, then anything is possible. I join the international community in celebrating this hope that the world CAN be a better place.

And finally, I could not finish this post without a nod to the black community. I cannot imagine what many of you must be feeling right now. In my lifetime, I never thought I’d see a black President. In fact, Jamie and I have been discussing for years now which would be first; a black Vice President or a female Vice President. The discussion of a possible black President never even entered our minds (though at one time, I did hold out some hope for J.C. Watts). I celebrate with you today and also ecstatically celebrate the turning to a new chapter in our nation’s history. Racism in America is not dead. But we’re much further along than I realized. That gives me hope and, again, makes me very proud of my country. As I walk through London over the next few months, people can say anything they want about my country. But America is the first country in the world to have been able to set its racism aside enough to elect a black man as President. In the five years that I’ve lived in London, I have not advertised my citizenship. But you better believe I will today! Say anything you want! Walking on the moon and helping to win the World Wars pale in comparison to what we’ve accomplished this week. I’m so ready for this new chapter. And I’m so ready to raise my daughter in a country where she will be able to see a strong, educated black leader in front of her (possibly) ‘till the age of eleven. What can it do for the mind and heart of a young child to see a constant positive image of the black race in front of her from day to day? I grew up in a world where the black community was most often portrayed in a negative light. But to have such a strong positive representative of the black community in front of her throughout her childhood…gives me hope that maybe color (race) blindness IS possible? On the top ten list of gifts that I would love to give to my daughter, color blindness has a firm position.

For those of you who read the above thoughts and disagree, I do hope that you will be constructive in your dialogue, rather than destructive. We have a real opportunity to be a witness right now on the world stage. I do hope that we will take it and leave behind the temptation for bitterness and vengeful dialogue.

Dr. King, I wish you were alive to see this. One more underdog rises up.

brad reynolds - anyway

I won't vouch for the music itself, but I love the lyrics. The second verse in particular, is one of the gutsiest verses I’ve ever seen in a Christian song. If you ask me, it ranks right up there with the best of Derek Webb and Larry Norman.




He’s been sleeping on the sidewalk
Since the money went away
Can you love him anyway?
Really love him anyway?
He lost his mind but finds the time
To bum a dollar everyday
But my Jesus says to love him anyway

(chorus)
‘Cause love is the only evidence against us
That tells the world we’re guilty of a change
And there is not a one who lives among us
Who wasn’t lost somewhere along the way
But judgement turned to mercy
And mercy took our blame
When it all comes down to loving anyway

She did not want to be a mother
She still supports her right to choose
Can you love her anyway?
Really love her anyway?
She hates what you believe
And proudly shares her point of view
My Jesus says to love her anyway

So open up your heart and let them see
How it feels and what it really means


So drop that stone of condescension
And don’t forget to mention
That Jesus chose to love us anyway
Excuse me Mr. Christian
I sure hope you were listening
When Jesus said to love them anyway
‘Cause no matter who we are
Where we’ve been or how deep our scars
Jesus came to love us anyway
Hey there sister Christian
I sure hope you were listening
When Jesus said to love them anyway