Last night was our second opportunity to meet with a few others, break bread around a delicious stack of homemade burritos, spend time in prayer, in the Word, and in praise. At the end of the evening, one of our friends said, “So is this something I can invite someone else to?” I responded with the affirmative. “Good. I know a couple people who have been looking for this for years now.”

I didn’t pursue the conversation, but internally I desperately wanted to know what he meant specifically. What was “this”? When we began our church, we wanted it to focus not on the time when we got together, but our common life throughout the week. Our gathering together on Tuesday nights was simply a manifestation of our desire to be with each other, and our worship to God during those times was an overflow of our times of worship throughout the week. What was “this”? Was it the event we had just unknowingly created? Or was it the communal life, anchored in our time together on Tuesdays that several of his friends are searching for?

I read last night that by the year 2010, 100 million Christians will not be affiliated with a traditional “congregation”. (Barna research). What will they find when they leave their churches? Will they still be Christian? Most people think so; they’re just disillusioned about church. I pray that they do not fall through the cracks, but are desperate enough for community life that they try new things – things like the simple church we are experiencing with such joy. 100 million Christians…that’s a lot of living rooms.

Hello, my name is Mark, and I am a Bibleholic. It is my holy…Bible obsession. Here’s a bit of that history:

I pretty well grew up with one or two bibles throughout my childhood. I remember the only reason I was ever given permission to get a new copy of the Holy Bible was when the first blew off the top of the car as we left the church parking lot. Ouch.

When I made the jump from just hearing God’s Word to reading it myself, I bought a brand-new copy of the Life Application NIV Study Bible. It was awesome. A new craving in me awoke. Now all I could do was think about the intricacies of the NIV, comparing it to the words I had heard preached from the NASB and KJV all my life. Now the words made sense to me. It had come alive.

Coming to college as a bible major is what truly did me in. I read some books on the pluses and minuses of each translation, and it struck me that I was focusing all my energies at trying to interpret a text that, at least thought-for-thought had already been interpreted. Over the next several years I found myself loitering in the bible section of any book store I entered, occasionally buying another “back-up copy”. I counted the other day and between my wife and I we had almost 20 bibles (including the Nestle-Aland Greek texts). Now there is 21. In the mail today I received a TNIV mp3 Bible. The whole bible on just a few CDs. Now I can listen to God’s Word while jogging, eating a hamburger (with two hands) and as I fall asleep.

Is it really so good to have God’s Word so readily available to us? I assume Martin Luther was reacting to a culture that kept the Bible as far away from the common man as possible. But with the printing press and the internet now so readily making available a “Holy” book accessible to in magazine, software and ipod formats, I begin asking questions. I’ve even see a bible cover with bright pink fur.

How incarnational is the word “Holy Bible”? In what ways does a text inculturate itself so that it seems approachable and attractive to its culture? As Martin Luther, I would have been pleased to see a Bible in each Christians hand - but how would he feel seeing another 15 dusting on the shelf?

I’ve been thinking about knocking on my neighbors doors, picking up their extra bibles, and handing them out to new people in this city. What an opportunity! It brings God’s Word to new people, it causes the bible hoards (like me) to take a closer look at the one remaining copy I didn’t give away. It even offers me a chance to join my neighbors in an effort to see more people made aware of the “Holy” words from God. Now to raise up the courage to go knocking…guess I’ll have to take my holy-bible earphones (batman!) off first.

The gray hair is upon us…and so is ACU Lectureship. It is good to be a part of a body of believers that is bigger and older than I am. It gives what I do meaning, it surrounds me with those who have a deeper story to tell, a story that has impacted an entire life, and the lives of those around them.

This past decade has been one of unity for Lectureships at ACU. In 2000 our President came before members of African-American colleges and churches associated with Churches of Christ, and publicly apologized for something he did not personally have anything to do with. Until the ‘60’s, ACU was blatantly and then covertly opposed to having black students attend the university as students. In 2000, forty years later, apologies are finally uttered.

In 2003, Churches of Christ and International Churches of Christ gathered together for a discussion. Over the past 20 years, these two groups have grown further apart, watching the other in judgment and suspicion. In ’03 reconciliation happened. We saw tears, shared hugs, and caught each other up on ministries and victories from both corners of the Kingdom.

This year at ACU’s Lectures, we have a similar opportunity. Independent Christian Churches (close cousins to Churches of Christ of whom ACU has its roots) are here to begin the discussion: what does unity look like for us as we mourn our 100 years of division?

Unity is only possible when we believe in its opportunities. The class is just about to start as I write this. What could the spirit have in store?

I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between “Just in Case” and “Just in Time” learning.

For most of my life, I’ve sat in Sunday School (or any school for that matter) just sitting there like a sponge…a bump on a log. The whole thing was pretty predictable, the teacher would handout a worksheet, we’d read through the specific Bible text for that week, then we’d trudge through the worksheet, painstakingly filling in each blank and circling each correct answer. I’m not sure if the phrase was ever actually used in a class, but as I look back on those educational experiences in my faith, I want to call them “just in case” learning experiences. “Just in case” you ever need this information…

Something I’m just truly experiencing for the first time this year is something I’ve heard called “just in time” learning. Closely related to mentoring or coaching, the “teacher” sits down and essentially asks, “what issue in life do you want to work on today?” That brings my learning up to speed, makes it relevant, pushes me forward in life. The information I take away from that sort of dialogue will not sour, it will be utilized before the day is up, because it was something that was already on my mind - something I had already noticed a need for in my life’s toolbox. Learning that occurs “just in time” to use it.

So do we need both kinds of learning? Are there more than what I’ve listed here? Which technique did Jesus use? This subject has been eating at me today; so maybe I’m up for a little “just in time” learning!