Forever Settled: The Greg Griffey Story

At some point we all leave home. We begin our own lives, chart our own paths, and develop our own thoughts that more times than not differ greatly from those who raised us. Still, no matter how far we go, there remains the fact that you can always go home. But what if while away, your home were to leave you? This is the question third year student Greg Griffey seeks to answer as he considers the theological future of Appalachia.

Born and raised in the southwestern corner of Virginia, Greg grew up in the Independent Baptist tradition which he refers to as “bluegrass gospel” remembering that in these appalachian churches, “a call to ministry was a call to preach.” So when at the age of 20 during a Wednesday evening prayer meeting Greg made his calling into vocational ministry public, his pastor immediately asked him to preach the next Sunday. By the age of 25 Greg had already secured a very successful career in Appalachian baptist life. He had been a pastor, youth pastor, and even hosted a weekly radio program showcasing his preaching titled “Forever Settled.” While anyone meeting Greg today understands just how appropriate such a title is, at the age of 25, Greg was becoming more and more unsettled.

While on the radio, Greg was also serving as a youth pastor at a Southern Baptist Church. Always concerned for justice, Greg began to write opinionated responses to the local newspaper dealing with a wide range of social issues. When his prophetic boldness led him to the topic of homosexuality, Greg not only found himself out of a job but “the baptist who saw and affirmed my call were now telling me not to come back.”

So Greg left, came to Wake Div, and began to discern just what he wanted out of life. Today Greg is on path to become a hospice chaplain and is in process of becoming ordained by the United Church of Christ. While away however, Greg has begun to discern the special place he has in his heart for Appalachia and has considered a return to his roots but fears that perhaps the region has changed. Greg notes that historically the geography of appalachia has shaped its theology but with the rise of strip mining, technology, and corporate commercialism, the land and theology he loves might be slipping away. Ironically, Greg longs to save the same small churches and theology that rejected him years earlier and has even devoted his third year project to exploring such themes. He is tentatively titling his work Faith to Move Mountains: How Geography Shapes Theology in Appalachia and claims as home changes “I’m called to change with it but I still grieve the loss.”

We all leave home for a reason but what do we do when home begins to leave us? Greg Griffey is “forever settled” on finding out.

For more on Greg and to read his thoughts, check out his blog at religiomusings.wordpress.com

Image of Chatham Hill Church, Southwestern Virginia, Greg Griffey

Pew Survey Discovers Serious Flaw In Religious Education

Perhaps you have heard the news. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has revealed that American Christians, whether they be Evangelical, Mainline, or Catholic, have less knowledge of basic religious concepts than American Atheist, Jews, and Mormons. The survey asked 32 questions related to the core teachings, history, and key figures of the major world religions with atheists and agnostics getting an average of 20.9 questions correct, while White Evangelical Protestants (the highest scoring Christian group) answering only an average of 17.6 questions correct.

In addition to these general findings, the survey also revealed information on specific religious knowledge held by most Americans. For example, 89% of Americans know that public school teachers cannot lead classroom prayer, while only 23% know that the Bible can be read in public classrooms as a source of literature. Also, 82% of Americans know that Mother Teresa was Catholic, however, only 16% know that salvation through faith alone is traditionally a Protestant and not Catholic teaching. 72% of Americans see Moses as the leader of the Exodus, while only 8% even knew that the medieval philosopher Maimonides was Jewish. That one got me too...

The reality is that as people of faith, this survey should disturb us and serve as a wake up call for how we address religious education in our communities. In our increasingly global and pluralistic age, Bible stories told from a flannel board or movies depicting the blonde-haired and blue-eyed British Jesus will no longer cut it. Our churches must begin to rethink how they go about communicating the basic elements of our faith and their peculiar teachings that might make up their denominational identity. However, as the Pew survey has shown, not only do American Christians have little knowledge of their own faith, but they comprehend the faith of others even less. Because if this, we must begin to see Sunday school, or whatever form education might take, to no longer be limited to simply instruction on the Christian faith. Knowledge of world religions, their basic teachings and practices must become a serious aspect of Christian education in the local church if we are to maintain any relevance in the 21st century.

A sample quiz that mirrors the one used in this survey can be taken online at www. pewforum.com.

Article originally published in the tablet

Raleigh to Winston-Salem with Shane Claiborne

Long story short, yesterday my colleagues and myself had the privilege of driving neo-monastic and founder of The Simple Way Shane Claiborne from a conference we were all attending in Raleigh to a speaking engagement at Wake Forest University. Now I have always admired Shane however when I learned that we would be spending a little time with him, I was a little uneasy.

If you know me, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for the finer things in life. I can often be spotted in a bow-tie or a pair of designer jeans and I knowing I was about to meet someone that has literally “sold everything and given to the poor” I was feeling very vulnerable. Honestly, I think I was expecting a speech about the rich young ruler who couldn’t enter the kingdom of heaven because he unable to part with all his stuff. Needless to say I was worried...

Shane blew me away. I’m not sure I have ever met a more gracious, authentic, or humane human in my entire life. We drove Shane (and got him lost) in my pastor’s new Volvo sedan and our pastoral staff was well dressed in clothes that were hardly used. Shane was dressed in clothes that his community had made themselves and had dreadlocks halfway down to his waist. As we got 20 minutes outside of Greensboro I finally broke. I told him as plainly as I could that he was Shane Claiborne and that I might not ever get the chance to talk to him one-on-one again and that if he didn’t mind I would like to ask him a few fairly serious questions. Shane didn’t mind and this was the first thing I asked.

In doing what you do, is there anything that you have discovered that is distinctly human that can be applied in any geographical area to any particular group of people?

Shane’s answer was so simple. I did not no if I should laugh or sit in awe. I chose the latter. Shane said that all his community is trying to do is love and be good neighbors. According to Shane everything else they do stems from this. Sounds pretty cliche right? I mean did this guy seriously just have the audacity to tell me to love and be a good neighbor?

For some reason Shane’s response to my question hit me in a way that I can’t quite explain. For the first time, this concept was real. I truly felt as if Jesus himself had just spoken this word to be and the reality is that if Jesus we’re physically walking the halls of Wake Forest today he would probably look a lot like Shane. Love and be a good neighbor.

“Love others as much as you love yourself.” This was another challenge from Shane. I love myself a lot. After talking to Shane, I felt that I have spent a great deal of my life loving me way more than I love others. He tells me this as I had just left a family vacation in which I ravished the Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew outlet malls. The application was simple, do for others not what you would have them do for you but rather what you already do for yourself.

So today I give you the same challenge that I have been given. Love. Love others as much as you love yourself and be a good neighbor knowing that everyone is your neighbor. Even if you feel that someone is 90% wrong, this still means that they are 10% right and that 10% can be a powerful thing when leveraged (another Shaneism).

So may you love and be a good neighbor.

What are practical ways we can all do this?

Center

Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives

You’re the center of the universe
Everything was made in You Jesus
Breath of every living thing
Everyone was made for You

You hold everything together
You hold everything together

Christ be the center of our lives
Be the place we fix our eyes
Be the center of our lives

We lift our eyes to heaven
We wrap our lives around your life
We lift our eyes to heaven, to You

God wants to be at the center if everything we do. He wants to be the reason for everything that we do. Is God currently at the center of your life?

What do you think keeps you from allowing God to truly be the center of your life? Take a moment and ask God to reveal the things in your life that you place at the center of your life instead of Him.

Reflect on the lyrics of “Center” by Charlie Hall. Consider asking God to become the center of your life and the reason for everything that you do.

If you decide to do this, you must truly be willing to let go of your own life and let God rule.

Are you willing to let God have all of your life whatever the cost?

Read: Jeremiah 29:11-13

God has an amazing plan for your life but you must remember that it is God’s plan and not your own. Do you trust God enough to seek His plan for your life? If so, you have cut the cords, raised the sail, and are beginning the epic voyage of follow Jesus.

Pray and ask God to forgive you for placing other things at the center of your life. Ask God to reveal His plan for your life and that he gives you the courage to trust Him and to let Him be the center of your life.

Healing Is In Your Hands

No mountain, no valley
No gain or loss we know
Could keep us from Your love

No sickness, no secret
No chain is strong enough
To keep us from Your love
To keep us from Your love

How high, how wide
No matter where I am
Healing is in Your hands
How deep, how strong
Now by Your grace I stand
Healing is in Your hands

Our present, our future
Our past is in Your hands
We’re covered by Your blood
We’re covered by Your blood

How high, how wide
No matter where I am
Healing is in Your hands
How deep, how strong
Now by Your grace I stand
Healing is in Your hands

In all things, we know that
We are more than conquerors
You keep us by Your love


We don’t have any say so in the kind of life we are born into. The world tells us that we pretty much have to play the hand we’re dealt and make the best of it. Through Jesus however, life can be everything we dream of.

Think back to the passage in Romans we read yesterday. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing we have ever done or ever will do can change that!

Reflect on the lyrics of “Healing Is In Your Hands” by Christy Nockels. Probably the most amazing aspect of a relationship with God is the healing and freedom that He provides. When we decide to accept and follow Jesus, the bible teaches that at that very moment, we are healed.

Read: Isaiah 53 and carefully reflect on verses 5-6.

This passage is a prophecy about Jesus. It speaks to the truth of what happens to the person that has accepted Jesus as their savior. See, God loves us so much that He sent Jesus, His own son, to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Even more than that, this passage says that by that same act we have been healed, set free, and made new!

Read 2 Corinthians 5:17

We have been made new! We have been set free! Whatever you have done, when you accept Christ, it is washed clean!

Pray and thank God for the gift of Jesus. Thank Him for the healing and freedom that comes from accepting Jesus as your savior. Ask God to give you a deeper understanding of what this means.

How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way...

Reflect on the lyrics of “How He loves Us” by The David Crowder Band. Do you always feel like God loves you this much? Yesterday we learned how much God longs to spend quality and intimate time with us each and every day. Still, it is sometimes easy to feel like God is far away and not too concerned with our issues here on earth. When we feel this way, its good to be reminded just how God feels
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Read: Psalm 139

In this Psalm we learn that God already knows everything about us. He made us and he is “intimately acquainted with our ways.” We also learn that regardless of where we go in life, God is still there seeking and pursuing us. Why does God do this? Because He loves us! The Message translation of the Bible puts it this way.

“I am an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in.”

But how great is God’s love for us? Read Romans 8:35-39 and let it assure today of your heavenly Father’s love for you.

Pray and thank God for His love for you. Ask Him to continue to reveal Himself to you along with the great plan He has for you. Ask that as you continue to seek Him, He will continue to make His love more and more real in your life.

Sacred Space

Last week I wrote 5 devotions for our beach retreat. This is the first...

"Sacred Space"

Listen to song here

Where I find a quiet place.
It's where my soul finds sacred space.
It's where my knees touch the ground.
It's where peace is found.

In You, Jesus.

It's where my heart is purified;
the only place I feel alive.
It's where my Father beckons me.
It's where this child is meant to be.

It's where I run.
It's where I hide.
It's where You hold me safe inside.
It's where I live.
It's where I breathe.
It's where I look upon Your beauty.
It's where I fall.
It's where I rest.
It's where I find You loved me best.

It's where I tremble with Holy fear.
It's where my questions disappear.
It's where my feet begin to dance.
When I realize where I am.
I'm in You, Jesus.

What do you do when you need a break? Is there anywhere you go or anyone that you talk to when you are sad, disappointed or angry. Who do you share your deepest secrets and desires with? If something great happens, who is the first person you tell? Who or what is it in life that holds you together?

The bible tells us that this is who God wants to be for us. God wants us to share everything with him. God wants us to talk to him all the time. God wants us to tell him when we’re happy or excited and when we’re sad or angry. God wants to be our friends (see John 14-15)!

Do you have this kind of relationship with God?

When was the last time you spent time alone with God? We’re not talking about Sunday morning or a little prayer before you go to sleep. When was the last time you spent quality time alone with God?

Read: Isaiah 26:7-9

Does your soul yearn for God in the evening? Does your spirit long for God in the morning? Is God’s name and glory the desire of your heart? Why do you think the prophet Isaiah would write such words?

Read: Colossians 1:15-17

Isaiah knew that God had created everything even himself. Isaiah knew that if he was ever going figure life out and make it trough he would have to spend time with the one that hold all things together.

God doesn’t want us to spend time with Him and worship Him because he wants to check up on all our fun. God wants to be our friend and walk through this life with us. God wants to guide us and show us the right paths to take and right choices to make. He loves us and wants to show it! This is why Isaiah could declare that he longed for God and that God was his joy.

Read over the lyrics of Sacred Space by Steve Fee. God wants to be this for us and so much more. Will you let today be the day that you begin spending regular, quality time with God?

Read: Psalm 27 and let it be your prayer this morning. Ask God to forgive you for not spending enough time with Him. Let God remind you how much He loves you. Ask God to give you a desire for His glory.