Joshua Graves: Exploring the Collision of Culture & Faith » Rochester Church

MEET YOU FURTHER ON UP THE ROAD

josh — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Sunday night, friends and family came together to “send the Graves family off Nashville style.” For Michigan folks, it was pretty convincing. It was quite a scene. I told Kara, on the way to the gathering, that “there’s little chance I’ll cry tonight.” When I walked into the room to see everyone who’d shown for the event, I made myself a liar almost instantly.

The room consisted of cowboy hats, boots, sweet tea, great country music from Mitch Washer and Paul Bobo . . . Ashley Harrison, childhood friend, brought out tears with his remarks and slideshow/video at the end . . . but the Barton family stole the show.

Not known for their musical abilities, the Barton Family caught us off guard.They took classic Motown music (Seger, Motown, Madonna) and turned them into country songs about Josh and Kara. The highlight for me was John Barton’s remake of a well-known Marvin Gaye song. The lyrics will give that song away.

When Josh gets to preaching, we get spiritual healing . . .
Makes us feel so right . . . eous
Helps us walk in the light
Spiritual healing in the body (that’s Christ’s Body),
it’s something that’s good for us
Get up . . . Get up . . . lets all go to church
Wake up . . . wake up . . . cause Josh’s preaching works.

A close second was Barton’s re-do of a Madonna song called, “Like a Theologian” . . . here’s an excerpt:

Like a theologian (oooohh), preaching for a really long time
Like a theologian, quoting Brueggemann and N.T. Wright,
quoting Henri Nouwen, Barbara Brown Taylor,
Did I mention Brueggemann?

We’re heading down the road in a few days for a new journey. We’re taking the friendships and memories from Rochester Church with us to cherish every day. Ministry is a job almost impossible to explain. Because, in most ways, it’s not a job, it’s your life. It’s people. Stories. Difficulty. Joy. Celebration. Disaster. And in the midst of all if it you forget that as you’ve been giving yourself away week after week after week, others have been doing the same for you and your family.

A Theology of Celebration

josh — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:53:00 +0000

This guy knows how to celebrate . . .

I’m going to “out” myself and other ministers. Most of us don’t get real excited about weddings. Funerals are a different matter (something about captive audiences). For one, there are usually complex family issues at work in weddings that are beyond the scope of any one professional (minister, counselor, etc.). Second, there’s almost always a decent amount of drama leading up to the wedding (poor planning, volatile relationship, nervous groom, etc.). Third, sometimes you feel like a mascot (”Now where did I put my monkey suit?”). Fourth, you know that at least a third of the weddings you perform are likely to end in divorce (Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians). I like to go 3 for 6 in softball . . . but not marriages.

Sometimes however, God sends people our way like Shaun and Jessica Hover. Shaun came to Rochester Church in the wake of a friend’s tragic death (Nic Paradise). Nic was part of our family. On a Sunday, after I preached we laid hands on Nic, asking God to continue God’s liberating work from addiction. Several people prayed.

Early the next morning Nic died in the bedroom of his apartment. Shaun found the body. I arrived shortly after. I’ve never seen someone minister to a grieving family, fiance, and friends the way Shaun did in the coming days.

Fast forward. Shaun was baptized. Spent several months doing discipleship training in Los Angeles. Served in China, Thailand, Spain, and India mentoring dozens of young adults from all over the U.S. who’ve come out of addiction, broken homes and identity crises.

In the midst of all that, he also managed to fall in love with a girl from Colorado (Jessica). This weekend, I’ll perform their wedding. I would not miss this wedding for a Tigers seventh game in the World Series. It will be one of the highlights of my time in ministry to date. There will be lots of tears, dancing, laughter, music, and stories. Lots of dancing (did I mention that?). It will be a Jesus Wedding in every sense of the word. It reminds me that, as followers of Jesus, we need a theology of celebration. Celebration does not come naturally in white suburban culture (unless we’re talking about our kids or sports ironically).

In the book, Sex God, Rob Bell describes the chuppah (pronounced hoopah) practice common to Jewish weddings. In some strands of ancient culture, a man and woman would place themselves under the chuppah, a cloth covering, which signified the covenant being instituted. Upon making the vows, the couple would then go to a nearby home to consummate the marriage (they were more concerned with living pure before God than the State of Michigan). In a moment of social awkwardness, the young couple would enter into a home to physically consummate the marriage, while everyone else waited outside (can you see Aunt Myrtle waiting anxiously?).

When the newly consummated couple emerged from the house, hopefully at least twenty minutes later, an intense celebration would take place. This was more than cake and punch on a Saturday afternoon in the church fellowship hall. This was laughing, crying, dancing, and consumption of large bottles of sparkling grape juice. A party that could last up to seven days because they had a theology of celebration that exposes our busy, over-scheduled, serious, palm-pilot driven culture.

I think the remedy for some of the depression weighing us down is a healthy dose of . . . celebration.

The Graves Family and Otter Creek

josh — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:38:00 +0000

Today, Kara and I made public our new adventure (not to be confused with the Lucas Adventure). Beginning late summer, Kara and I will join the mission of the Otter Creek Church in Nashville, TN. This was a very difficult decision. We prayed. Cried. Discussed. Listened. Sought wisdom from mentors. Prayed some more. We feel God has called us to this new leadership role.

Leaving Rochester Church and Rochester College will not be easy. This has been a formative church. I was baptized in this church. I was married, to Kara, in this church family. Kara feels at home here; she has tremendous relationships. Both of our families live here. Yet, we believe God is working in all of this.

I will serve in the role as preaching and teaching minister. I will be the point/lead for the preaching and teaching that takes place at OC. In addition, I will be working alongside David Rubio, well-known OC youth minister, who will be transitioning to a new role. David and I will form the Otter Creek preaching/teaching team. David will also work in adult ministry. The team approach has worked well in the other churches I’ve been closely connected to (me and Patrick at Rochester; Rubel Shelly and John York at Woodmont Hills). I look forward to working with the OC shepherds as well as David, Janet, Melanie, TJ, Doug, Phil, Murray, Steve, Vicki, Donna, Emma, and Becca.

The Otter Creek elders have a vision I’m excited about joining. I will write more about this in the coming months. They want to continue to be Christ’ church in the community, taking risks to see more people come to see the Jesus Story as The Story.

The Rochester Church leadership team (elders and ministers) has been a rewarding team to work with. We’ve taken a lot of risks, doing things that most churches (in our denomination) are not willing to do for the sake of the kingdom. It’s been a great joy to work alongside the elders along with Patrick, Jason, John, Chris, Dana, Karen, Sara, Kelly, Trudy, and Beth. Very few people get to wake up every day loving their vocation.

The immediate real adventure, becoming parents, should happen any day now. Just as we get the hang of that, we’ll begin the journey to join the Otter Creek family for this new chapter.

Life . . . Today

josh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:44:00 +0000

My friend Wade Hodges made a big announcement today. You can read about his courage to hear God’s call on his life by clicking here. Wade–you have lots of people who believe in the ways God’s gifted you. Count the yes votes, and don’t worry about the naysayers.

—

Our small group is reading Sex God right now. I read the book when it first came out a few years back. I think it’s a fantastic work about the “endless connections of sexuality and spirituality.” If you have not read it, you’ll love it. I know few folks who read Bell and fail to learn a great deal about the collision of scripture and life as we know it.

I particularly appreciate Bell’s dichotomy of the temptation to be an angel (soul with no body) and animal (body with no soul) in light of God’s work of creating humanity (body and soul). While I wish Bell would’ve at least footnoted C.S. Lewis (the 20th century “catalyst” for this anthropological distinction), I think Bell’s right on. While many Christians bemoan the “animal” messages of our culture (What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), the church offers an equally toxic one. Instead of talking about the possibilities of being human, we settle for stuffing sexuality and spirituality deep inside.

I also love this line from Bell. “Lust makes a promise it can’t deliver on.”

—

One of our students at Rochester College (and dear family member at Rochester Church) lost her stepmother in a car accident. Sara (pronounced Sarr-ah) Ageno is from Jinja, Uganda. When she was a young girl, her biological parents were both killed in a similar motor vehicle accident. Another family from her local church took her in. Now, her second mom’s life has been taken. Pray for Sara. Pray for peace. Pray for mourning. Pray for her to ask big questions. Pray for her to take those big questions to God.

—

I preached from Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32 today. It’s a remarkable prayer really. Walter Brueggemann says it is the only real full prayer in all of Torah. The thing that blows me away about this prayer is not that Jacob has the chutzpah to pray it (compared to some other stuff this is actually pretty mild). The thing that blows me away is that God goes along with this con-man, huckster. It seems God would rather work with a shady somebody than a pious pretender. I needed to hear that today. Because, before I’m a minister, I’m first a follower.

Imagine Christmas

josh — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:43:00 +0000

Last year’s Imagine Christmas at Rochester Church was my first (and perhaps last) singing performance. P-Middy is playing the guitar, trying to keep up with the nervous novice (c’est moi).

Check it out.

For tickets to this year’s show, click HERE. Read about the great event HERE. Chris and Vicki Lindsey (et al) are incredibly talented.

Witnesses

josh — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:35:00 +0000

“The life for which God has been preparing you for is, by the grace of God, slowly being taken from you.” –Walter Brueggemann quoted in Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor

—

I love thinking about Sunday Worship as the dress rehearsal for the rest of the week. Sunday morning worship is the time when all of God’s actors come together to receive their script for the week. This morning, at Rochester Church, we came together to pray, to listen, to confess, to sing, to worship, to be still, to laugh, to hug, to catch up, to encourage, to remember, to hope, lament, to pause . . . but most of all to hear from the still small voice of God. The real test of today’s worship will be the manner in which 900 followers live out their mission Monday morning.

After a long week of reading, writing, studying in my doctoral class at Columbia Seminary I really needed to worship with my local community of faith. I preached in all three today on the meaning of “witness” in Acts 1 and tried to connect that with the film Mr. Holland’s Opus. All three services were powerful in their own ways. I was especially touched in Mosaic (our third service) when, as I preached, I looked into the eyes of many of our family members and witnessed a great deal of energy, conviction and hope.

I saw Henry Oyer . . . a Kenyan who one day hopes to return to Nairobi to work with “street kids.”

I saw Tom Ngobi, Sara Ageno and Priscilla Batzamuliza . . . three Ugandan students who’ve blessed my life beyond words.

I saw Lori and L.J. Manry . . . home on furlow from the mission field.

I saw Bert and Ann Bryan . . . two of the best leaders our church has.

I saw John and Sara Barton . . . two of the best partners in ministry anyone could ask for.

I saw Andrew and Eli . . . two young men who’ve overcome addiction, now claiming God’s grace for their life.

I saw Kara . . . my baby-mama (I’ve been waiting to say that on this blog for a long time) and closest friend on the planet.

I witnessed a room full of people with real doubts, struggles, and concerns coming together to claim the promise that God is with us when we are with each other. Just as he was all over the world today . . . Jesus was among us, inhabiting our words, prayers, speech, and silence. And, sorry Lebron James, we all are witnesses to his justice and mercy.

WE HAVE DONE IT OURSELVES

josh — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Lao Tsu once wrote:

Go to the people
Live with them,
Learn from them,
Love them.
Start with what they know,
Build with what they have,
But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task
Accomplished,
The people will say,
We have done it ourselves

—

Last night, during our mid-week service, several of our college students participated in our Can I Get a Witness? series; discussing their six-week immersion into life in Uganda with the Jinja Mission Team. They told stories, read poems, testified to the difficulty of being American in Africa, bore witness to the love and hope springing forth from poverty and H.I.V. . . . I could not be more proud of these emerging leaders and their commitment to live for the sake of others. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Instead, ask what makes you come alive . . . because what the world needs is people who’ve come alive.”