One proud papa and mama

Yesterday, our son, Brad Crofford, graduated summa cum laude (4.0 gpa) with a B.S. in Politics and Law from Southern Nazarene University. He also received one of only two President’s awards for academic achievement, service, and modeling the ideals of SNU. Amy and I were happy to have our older son, John, come from Wisconsin for the ceremony. Brad’s girlfriend, Emily Papp, from Des Moines, Iowa, also attended.

Brad will be attending the University of Oklahoma beginning in August, pursuing an M.A. in International Studies.

God has been good to our family!

L to R: Emily Papp, Brad, Amy, John, Greg

L to R: Emily Papp, Brad, Amy, John, Greg

Making a difference in West Africa

Responding_to_the_Call-thCan one little girl from an obscure village in Côte d’Ivoire make a difference? Read Responding to the Call: The Story of Jacqueline Dje Dje (Nazarene Publishing House, 2013) and you will answer with a resounding “yes.”

Amy Crofford* has written 6 missionary books for NPH, and in some ways, this is the best of the lot. Where other books have centered around the lives and experiences of Western missionaries, this biography revolves around the first ordained French-speaking  female pastor in the Church of the Nazarene in West Africa.

The reader is quickly caught up in young Jacqueline’s quest to fulfill her call from God, setting out in search of a denomination that will allow her to preach and shepherd God’s flock. Obstacles are not easily overcome, but with a patient spirit and a quiet determination, Jacqueline first conquers academic disadvantages to graduate from the Bible Institute. Later, she overcomes longstanding cultural biases, planting a new church and eventually receiving Nazarene ordination as an elder. To discover the moving ending to her story, the reader can find the book here or ask to borrow it from the NMI President at a local Church of the Nazarene near you.

While strong overall, the book has its weaknesses. It’s not clear what connection two profiles of other female African Nazarene pastors have to the main narrative. Also, some missing details will leave the reader in suspense, like the name of a “life changing book” that someone gave Jacqueline. More information, please!

Whatever the book’s flaws, Rev. Jacqueline Dje Dje’s courage shines through. She became a pioneer for other Nazarene women called by God to pastoral ministry. (A French translation of the book is planned). One serendipity is that by presenting the story of a female pastor overseas, perhaps the American Nazarene reader will be more open to considering some of his or her own biases about what gender a Nazarene pastor in the United States should be.

*Full disclosure: The author is married to the owner of this blog.

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Image credit: Nazarene Missions International

Hate sin and love God by loving others – 1 John 3:7-18

The chapel of NTCCA was full as Greg addressed graduates, their families, and friends

The chapel of NTCCA was full as Dr. Crofford addressed graduates, their families, and friends

Note: This is the graduation address I presented at the commencement exercises of Nazarene Theological College of Central Africa (Lilongwe, Malawi) on 4 May 2013.

Scripture reading: 1 John 3:7-18

Text: 1 John 3:8b – “God Son appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (Common English Bible).

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“Hate sin and love God (by loving others)”

I.  INTRODUCTION

(salutation and all protocols observed)

We are gathered together today to honor the achievement of the graduates of Nazarene Theological College of Central Africa, both campus and extension students. You have persisted through many hours, days, and months of study, and all for one reason: To better equip yourself for the ministry to which our Lord Jesus Christ has called you in his church. Today, we pause on this auspicious occasion to say two words: Well done!

Many of you have already been involved in ministry in the local church. Some of you will be taking the role of pastor for the first time. At such a moment, what words of wisdom does the Bible have for you?

We have heard the Scripture reading from 1 John 3:7-18. In the passage, two commands repeat themselves:

1) hate sin;

2) love God, by loving others.

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A mini U.N. in my closet – but at what price?

One of two shirts I often wear, made in Bangladesh

one of two shirts I often wear, made in Bangladesh

A factory in Savar, Bangladesh collapsed Wednesday. More than 3,000 workers were inside, making clothes to fill orders placed by stores like Walmart, working at monthly wages equivalent to only $ 38.00 U.S.  When the building began to shake, chaos ensued as people ran for the doors. At last count, more than 350 were killed, crushed under the weight of a building shoddily constructed but only days ago certified as safe by engineers.

The commercial asks: “What’s in your wallet?” But the tragic news from Savar begs a different question: “What’s in your closet?” Looking at shirts only, I discovered in my wardrobe “made in” tags from:

Bangladesh

Vietnam

Hong Kong

Macau (administered by the Chinese)

Lesotho

Nicaragua

Kenya

Guatemala

Pakistan

India

Bottom line? I have a mini U.N. in my closet, but at what price?

The “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt. 7:12) ethic of the Christian faith teaches us that sin is not just an affair between us and God. Sin always has collateral damage, affecting others. Sometimes, sin insidiously weaves its way into the economic structures of our world, producing what theologians call systemic evil.

The factory in Bangladesh paying its workers little more than $ 1.00 per day is there in part because of the shirt hanging in my closet. If I and countless other consumers had chosen to buy shirts only from stores who outsource to safe manufacturers that pay fair wages, then Wednesday’s tragedy may have been avoided.

But let’s face it: We want cheap shirts and pants and running shoes and power tools, and the list goes on.

I have seen the face of evil, and it is me.

James 4:17 teaches that if we know to do good yet refuse, then we have sinned. So let’s get practical. Solving all systemic evil is overwhelming, on that we can agree. Yet surely we can light a candle and not just curse the darkness. Short of becoming Amish and spinning my own clothes, how should I react to the systemic evil in this instance?

1) As a regular customer of Walmart, I can tell them that I am sorry for having participated in this tragedy by buying their clothes from Bangladesh. Further, I can invite them to join me in demanding changes.

2) Until those changes take place, I can find a store that guarantees its products were produced responsibly in safe factories that pay a fair wage. Will I pay more? Most likely I will, but here the Golden Rule applies again. If I were working in Pakistan, Kenya, or anywhere else, would I want to receive a fair wage?

3) Finally, I can buy local products on purpose. When I buy things made close-by, I can be more sure that those who made them were fairly compensated. Also, by helping a local company grow its local market, they will spend less on transporting the goods far away. This in-turn will reduce the energy used and therefore the greenhouse gases produced to transport it to far away customers.

Systemic evil includes all of us, yet we can loosen its clutch if we are intentional. Like Jesus, let’s remember that loving “the least of these” (Matt. 25:31-46) means loving those who make the things that I use every day.

Theologian’s apple crumb cake

Maybe the first word of this blog’s title is a bit of a stretch to make it fit the “Theology in Overalls” theme. Truth be told, there’s nothing original (or sinful) about my cake. You can find the recipe over at Amateur Gourmet.

On second thought, there is something a tad original about it.

I had just put it in the oven to bake for the prescribed 30-35 minutes when (horror of horrors) I realized a small detail: I had forgotten to add the 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. Amy informed me in no uncertain terms that cake needs baking powder to rise. Time to get creative!

Turns out this white stuff is pretty important when baking. Who would have thunk it?

Turns out this white stuff is pretty important when baking. Who wooda thunk it?

Out of the oven came the pan, and I dumped the whole thing (wondrous crumbly/buttery topping and all) into a large mixing bowl. Into the mix went the forgotten white magic from Royal, then back into the fiery furnace.

Thirty minutes later, tuh-dah! Here’s the result:

Crumb cake, sans topping (it's hiding inside)

Crumb cake, sans topping (it’s hiding inside)

Serve with Five Roses tea (milk and sugar, please) and other than the missing topping, not bad, if I say so myself.

Seeing God from the lookout…and the street

Columbia Center, Seattle

Columbia Center, Seattle

When it comes to skyscrapers, I might as well admit it: I’m a soft touch.

Maybe it’s because of my NYC experience as a four-year-old. My Dad, Mom, my brothers and I headed north from Flemington, New Jersey to Manhattan. From the 80-something floor of the Empire State building, we looked out over the sprawling metropolis. My head poking through the railing, I looked at the vehicles so far below, then exclaimed: “Daddy, look at all those Matchbox cars down there!”

As a student on Boston’s South Shore, I trekked more than once to the Prudential building, in search of the same perched-above-it-all thrill. Then just last week, Seattle’s Columbia Center beckoned. From the 73rd floor of the 76 floor titan – the tallest in the West Coast region of North America – I spied the comings-and-goings of harbor boats in Elliott Bay, elevated highways snaking south toward Normandy Park, and Mt. Rainier foggy through the mist. Even on a cloudy day, it was worth the admission price.

Yet most of our life is lived down on the street. In Seattle, it’s down in Pike Place Market where they throw you the catch of the day…and you drop it. Or back in Boston, when you leave the Prudential building, the same subway that deposited you near tony Beacon Hill takes you back to Eastern Nazarene College winding through hardscrabble neighborhoods like Roxbury. Even the storied Empire State Building that summer day in ’67 sheltered in a stairwell a derelict man, sleeping away his hangover.

There are days when I see God from the lookout. Through prayer, Scripture reading or the well-crafted phrase of a praise song or sermon, I momentarily rise and glimpse the majesty of the vista. Perched above it all, the rays of the sun seem warmer, clearer, more pristine. There, the sweep of God’s plans fit together in unity, a well-choreographed dance scene from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

Most days, though, I’m at street level. Instead of pondering the greatness of God, I’m frantically looking for my car keys or fretting about whether the money is going to run out before the month does.

Yet the amazing thing about the God we serve is that God is not confined! At the top of the skyscraper? God is there. Down on the street level where we suffer? God is there, too — Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.

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Wesley Hill in praise of celibate gay Christians

Dr Wesley HIll of Trinity School for Ministry

Dr. Wesley HIll of Trinity School for Ministry

Discussion in the United States of same-sex marriage shows no sign of abating. As society at-large debates the topic in terms of equality, many Christians are turning to pastors for moral guidance on this issue and the broader question of homosexuality.

One important book for helping both those who are attracted to others of their own gender and those who love them is Wesley Hill’s Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (Zondervan, 2010). The impact of Hill’s book lies in his refreshing transparency. He opens his story matter-of-factly (p. 13):

By the time I started high school, two things had become clear to me. One was that I was a Christian. My parents had raised me to be a believer in Jesus, and as I moved toward independence from my family, I knew that I wanted to remain one – that I wanted to love, trust, and obey Christ, who had been crucified and raised from the dead ‘for us and for our salvation,’ as the creed puts it. The second thing was that I was gay. For as long as I could remember, I had been drawn, even as a child, to other males in some vaguely confusing way, and after puberty, I came to realize that I had a steady, strong, unremitting, exclusive sexual attraction to persons of the same sex.

So begins the courageous narrative of a celibate gay Christian, one who has wrestled and continues to wrestle with what he calls his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor.  12:17). Hill’s purpose in writing is to encourage others – particularly in the church – who share his struggle to speak of it openly: “In so doing, they may find as I have, by grace, that being known is spiritually healthier than remaining behind closed doors, that the light is better than the darkness” (p. 17).

Continue reading →