A Devotion from Tim Maudlin

Aug 12

Editor's note: Every two weeks, the Church Anew leadership team gathers for prayer, reflection, and visioning. This devotion was shared at our last meeting in July with Pastor David Lillejord, Pastor Matthew Fleming, and Pastor Gail Bach by Mr. Tim Maudlin. We'd like to share our second-half of 2021 intentions with you.

Good morning Pastors David, Gail, and Matthew. Thank you for the opportunity to share devotions today as we plan for the remainder of 2021 and 2022 for Church Anew.

The recent St. Andrew summer newsletter previewed the August sermon series, “What’s the Point.” In the spirit of this series and Pastor Lillejord’s preaching tradition, I have three points:

Point 1: My personal updates from my Church Anew blog dated December 28, 2020 about my “Playlist” and “Playbook.” As you may recall, the blog transcribed my devotions from our Church Anew planning session for 2021.

Point 2: The point of Church Anew as an illustration of the loaves and fish miracle and God’s multiplication of blessings.

Point 3: The blessings of Walter Brueggemann’s blog contributions, the implications of his insights for us, and gratitude for him as a person.

Point 1: Pastor Lillejord’s preaching consistently reminds us to “Keep the main thing the main thing; don’t major in the minors.”

My daily faith playlist begins with morning prayers, continues with prayers and dialogue with my wife throughout the day, and concludes counting our shared blessings of the day in evening prayers. During the day and while often walking on the nearby regional hiking trail, I listen to contemporary Christian songs. My updated song playlist now begins with two new songs. I invite you to hear Jesus’ two greatest commandments from Matthew 22:36-40 in the first stanza of “Act Justly, Walk Humbly” lyrics:

It all comes down to this
What you require of me
Love my neighbor as myself
All you above all things.
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with you God.
It all comes down to this: To be Your hands and feet
Good News to all the world
All the truth will set you free.

My Church Anew Blog in December 2020 was entitled “Do Justice, Love Mercy and Kindness, and Walk Humbly with God.” According to these verses from Micah 6:8 on which these lyrics and my blog was based, I am each day reminded and invited to make my daily decisions reflecting that which God hopes for me as described in Micah 6:8.

My invitation to you: consider Micah 6:8 as a parable framework and criteria for living out your faith in daily life.

The second song on my updated playlist for my wife and me to “Keep the main thing the main thing” is entitled “As for Me” Consider these lyrics:

Your love, oh Lord, is strength to my soul
Hope for tomorrow, it won't let go
Your presence is the joy of my life
To You I lift my eyes

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
We will sing of Your love forevermore
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
Serve the Lord

Your word alone, a lamp to my feet
A light to my path as You're leading me
Your ways, oh Lord, are higher than mine
To You I lift my eyes
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

These lyrics, taken directly from Joshua 24:15 serve as another guiding light and pledge for my wife and me.

My wife recently retired after 38 years on St. Andrew’s music staff. Her ministry as the Starlight Singers director of more than 50 3, 4, and 5-year-old children for 15 years and her leadership as the choir pianist for 36 years illustrates her joy of singing and music, with many playlists and her uplifting, faithful playbook.

My invitation to you is to consider how God is calling you to serve the Lord now.

I have two coasters on my home office desk. Next to the “So for me and my house” coaster is another coaster which serves as a meaningful reminder of our family’s call to serve. This coaster has embedded the mosaic on the flower of the Church of Multiplication on the Northwest Stone of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The church is allegedly at the site where Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000 and later where Jesus appeared to His disciples and then commissioned Peter as leader of the church.

My question to you: how are you a multiplier for Christ?

Point 2: What is the purpose of Church Anew?

The mission statement of Church Anew is “To offer dynamic learning opportunities to ignite faithful imagination and sustain inspired innovation.”

My wife and I are grateful for everyone who has faithfully made the mission statement a living reality. Church Anew has become a faith multiplier for the sake of the Gospel. Church Anew lives out the loaves and fishes miracle on a daily basis. When Church Anew was launched a few years ago, who would have imagined the miracle of the global movement God chose to create through it? Church Anew is now a blessing for more than 150,000 in more than 100 countries around the world!

Now speaking as a Regent of St. Olaf College, Chair of the College’s Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community Advisory Council, and along with my wife, sponsored the launch of the Lutheran Center, I am grateful that for the second consecutive summer the Lutheran Center has co-sponsored eight St. Olaf student internships, including five in North Minneapolis, two with Church Anew, and one working at PROP, our community food shelf which also provides counseling, financial, and other support.

As wonderful multipliers of what St. Olaf and the Lutheran Center hope to nourish and support, thanks to all for your impactful contributions to Church Anew in 2021.

Point 3: A special offering of praise to God for Walter Brueggemann and a further illustration of Church Anew’s mission.

When in 2020 the pandemic was accelerating and the Church Anew blog was imagined and launched, Dr. Brueggemann’s insights and inspiration became a fundamental centerpiece of the blog. He is another spirit-inspired example of God’s love, wisdom, and encouragement. Now I invite you to prayerfully consider the implementations of Dr. Brueggemann’s insights for your life.

The first excerpt that I’ll point to is from Walter’s “God of the Second Wind”. Walter writes:

I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God all my life long (Psalm 146:2).
Praise is a willing act of acknowledgment of our complete reliance upon the creator who gives breath. With the gift of breath, we can hope. That passion, moreover, cannot be smothered out, not even by the most vigorous, cruel efforts. For that reason, every breathing human person always remains a potentially subversive agent in the world.
Now it is the work of the faithful to create policies and practices, institutions and a culture in which the deprived of breath can live and stand on their feet. It is the work of the church to relay that second wind from Jesus to those most short of breath.

The second excerpt is from “Gratitude as Subversion”.

Gratitude is the hallmark of the Christian life. It is an acknowledgement that we are on the receiving end of life, and it is the generous creator God who is on the giving end of our life… Gratitude is a form of vigorous resistance against the seductions of the transactional world, empowering us to live apart from both pride and despair, apart from the toxic ideologies that beset our economy.
Gratitude is an act of subversion that sees our neighbors as common recipients of the gifts given to us and through us to the neighbors.

The third excerpt is from Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22:

Gratitude is the active embrace of the truth that we live by God’s good gifts that are generously and freely given to us… By both word and material gesture the faithful articulate and exhibit their glad dependence upon the God who gives life.
A life given over to the telling and the giving may become unencumbered by either pride or shame, unencumbered enough to be lost in “wonder, love, and praise.” The ones who steadily practice thanks can, with the Psalmist, gladly affirm:
He raises up the needy out of their distress,
and makes their families like flocks (v. 41).
It is no wonder that the final word of this Psalm is that we may “consider the steadfast love (tenacious solidarity) of the Lord” (v. 43). We have nothing better to think about!”

Now for my questions for you, dear reader:

Do we willingly and consistently praise God from whom all blessings flow?
Is gratitude a hallmark of our lives?
Do we actively practice gratitude in telling and material giving?
Do we “do justice, love mercy and kindness and walk humbly with God?
Is your life “unencumbered enough to be lost in wonder, love, and praise?

•••

I’ll conclude with a blessing for each of us, today and always from Valerie Bridgeman’s “May God Strengthen You.”

May God strengthen you for adversity
and companion you in joy. May God give you the courage of your conviction
and the wisdom to know when to speak and act.
May you know peace.
May you be gifted with deep,
true friendship and love.
May every God-breathed thing you put
your hand to prosper and succeed.
May you have laughter to fortify you
against the disappointments.
May you be brave.

Tim Maudlinchurch anew

Tim Maudlin

Tim Maudlin, a retired venture capitalist, is Co-founder of Here is MPLS and an independent director on the corporate board of four different global companies. For the last 25+ years, he has had board leadership roles with national, non-profit organizations affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, including with Augsburg Fortress d/b/a Media 1517, Luther Seminary, St. Olaf College, Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community, and Church Anew. Locally, Tim and his wife are active members of St. Andrew Lutheran Church and his community engagement includes advocacy for high-impact experiences of emerging and future leaders, keeping families in their homes, innovative faith initiatives and communities, food and social services support, cancer-related programs, and refugee re-settlement. Tim has a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Olaf College and a Masters of Management degree from the Kellogg School, Northwestern University.