No Exceptions Ministries, Inc

Ok, people.  It’s time for some real talk.   Words can be triggering.  I know this.  But at some point we need to REDEEM THE WORDS rather than exert all of our energy avoiding what may be misunderstood or offensive.   Here’s what I mean: ‘Church’.  Yes the word is misused.  And yes, its misused form has been abusive.  But rather than dream up endless alternative terms, let’s REDEEM THE WORD to its original meaning.  The Church is not a building, nor is it a container for a religion.  It is those members of the collective family of God, across all time and space, who assemble together for mutual edification and encouragement.  It is essentially a family meeting.   ‘Evangelical’.  Yes the word has mutated into representing a decidedly western, punitive theological system that is works-based and legalistic.  But we can REDEEM THE WORD!  Its original meaning is simply to share and reveal the Good News.  And what...

The God of the Illuminated Journey The faith we experience is not our own or somehow under our manipulative control, to expand or shrink based on our effort or will, but originates from the Source: Father, Son, and Spirit.  As that faith grows, changes, and matures, it remains HIS faith at work in-and-through us.  We cannot multiply it or enlarge its borders.  We cannot order its comings and goings as if it were our subject, obliged to obey our command.  We simply discover it a little bit more each day.   We have, through the fear and intimidation of fundamentalist evangelicalism, substituted the journey with a destination.  By centering the argument on the false dichotomies (or, stated more accurately, false dichotomies as evangelicalism understands and articulates them) of heaven vs hell, saved vs unsaved, right vs wrong, the sunrise has been forfeited for a light switch.  Rather than experience Father, Son, and Spirit through a gradual unveiling of ...

Much of social media is devoted to a ‘my experience’ style of conversation. In some ways functioning as a public diary, its pages have become a convenient receptacle for otherwise internal thoughts, musings, admissions, and admonitions. Which produces a bit of a two-edged sword.  While it — I believe, correctly — bolsters the idea that everyone has something valuable to add in the marketplace ideas, it misleads us into thinking this should be universally applied to all subjects. Or stated more plainly: yes, everyone ‘has something to say’…but not necessarily something to say about each and every subject that comes up.  But because we’ve overemphasized the value of our opinions to such a degree that we feel entitled - or even pressured - to opine on just about everything, it results in us running our mouths (or keyboards, as the case may be) on things we don’t know anything about. Or at least, we don’t know anything about beyond our own experiences.  I’ve read several post...

Like most people, I suppose, most of the criticisms leveled at me are, if I admit it, quite fair. Am I too quick to argue and defend my ideas rather than listen? Sure. Do I have a — completely undeserved — aristocratic bent from time to time? Yes, I own that. Do I love words to such an excessive degree that I frequently use far too many of them to make my point when fewer would do perfectly well? Ok…ouch! But yes, this is 100% true. It all the more shocks me then that the criticism most often charged against me is not at all true: “Matt, you’re just cherry picking scripture to make God in your image rather than allowing yourself to be confirmed to His.” The accusation is indeed so inaccurate that I, perhaps naively, wonder if it is because I have not adequately explained myself. So let me give it a whirl… ALL SCRIPTURE [γράφω - graphē] IS INSPIRED (literally ‘god-breathed’) is a far cry from equal, inerrant, infallible, or universally applicable. Scripture never bestows those a...

Beloved, oh how we love our counterproductive extremes!  Rather than find the truth that lies most often in the middle, we seesaw back and forth from one excess to another, missing out entirely on the balance the Spirit is ever-faithful to reveal.  Perhaps this is nowhere so obvious as it relates to ‘charging’ for anything in connection to ministry services.   Side A:  Insists that a professional clergy class, separate and distinct from the common/lay practitioner, is a God-ordained necessity for the functioning of the church.  To justify their wage, they typically require advanced education, special anointing or spiritual powers, and a veneer of selflessness that makes those same laymen count their lucky stars that they aren’t called upon to suffer as a vicar of Christ.   Side B:  Its adherents are equally insistent in their belief — that the ministry of the gospel should never have a price tag.  To expect compensation or fiscal participation fro...

Perseverate - to repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased.  To extend focus past the point of productivity.   To ignore the evil in the world is a form of denial no less destructive than the opposite extreme: to perseverate on it.   Our 24/7 news cycle and its nearly instantaneous flow of information in real time is the perfect storm for perseveration.  Packaged for the express purpose of captivating — and maintaining — attention, the barrage of media assaults our senses without reprieve.   Until we shut it off.   So what then is a person of conscience to do?   The answer, I believe, is found in pondering these two passages in tandem: Matthew 6:22-34 (NASB) 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is th...

Are labels themselves the problem or is it our tendency to use them to define us - and justify our actions to both ourselves and others - rather than as an aide to understanding?  Conversation necessitates agreed upon definitions, which in a sense are just ‘labels’ by another name.  Without them, meaningful discourse is next to impossible.  Spend any length of time on social media and that lesson will be obvious.  So perhaps it’s our intended use of the labels that warrants reconsideration more so than the concept of labels itself.  Maybe, just maybe, all labels should have the implied limitation: in so far as conscience allows. For example… My political label is conservative.  As my voting record, candidate preference, and ideological outlook reflect, that is a fair definition of my politics.  But my ‘conservatism’ must bow to the supremacy of Christ.  So the label is then valid only in so far as conscience allows.  When conservatism attempt...