Fashion Advice

Over the past year, my kids have essentially two sets of clothes.  The uniforms they wear for school.  And the clothes they wear every other day.  Their standard clothes on the weekend are Chubbies shorts and a Volcom shirt for Foster and a Chiefs jersey for Keating.

I love chubbies shorts, I love Volcom shirts, I love the Chiefs…but if I had to choose the only thing for my kids to wear…it wouldn’t be that…or at least not everyday.

We all have gone through some sort of journey where our parents or grandparents or someone else guided us and taught us…then at some point, we took on those responsibilities for ourselves.  We started to make our own decisions and choices.

When I used to dress my kids and didn’t let them decide, they wore the coolest clothes…alas, they now decide.  I have given them their own ability to choose clothes.

All of us go through a journey to launch, and it is leading up to our independence, we are being coached or led until we get there.  As followers of Jesus, we believe that our coaching or leading that is done in the faith never actually ends.  We should always turn to our God and King to help us make wise decisions.

The struggle is many of us think we know best…and we don’t want to consult from anyone else, especially an ancient book or divine creator.

In the 1985 book, Habits of the Heart, sociologist Robert Bellah wrote about American society and our movement towards hyper-individualism. In it, he said that radical individualism was the defining reality of American life. People were so absorbed in themselves that they saw everything in terms of how it would satisfy their personal needs or desires, he called it the “imperial republic of self.”

That has become the most important.

That has become what we follow.

That has become our devotion, passion, and faith.

Quick reminder, this observation was 40 years ago.

And Bellah argued that this individualism was so dominant in our culture that it was invading the Church, even shaping our ideas about faith. He quoted a young nurse that he interviewed, to whom he gave the name “Sheila Larson”:

“Sheila” said,

“I believe in God. I’m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice … It’s just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other. I think He would want us to take care of each other.”

Now, several of those ideas or the core theological tenants of “Sheilaism” that Sheila clings to are great; love, gentleness, compassion…but others are problematic; my own voice is my guide…

When I was proofreading this to Sarah, my son Keating walked by when I read that last sentence and said…”That Sheila sounds like a cult leader”.  I guess I’m glad my kid can identify a cult and cult leader…hopefully to not get caught up in one…instead of trying to start one…

…anyway…

Likely none of you are going to be members of First Sheila Church…but we have all slowly adopted a faith that is no longer guided by a divinely inspired text or thousands of years of tradition or following after Jesus prompted by a Holy Spirit, bringing our God given brain to the journey.

We’ve traded that in to follow ourself, our wants, our desires, and those that speak the loudest or most convincing in our life and support our already established ways.

The church of me.

The church of my 24 hour for profit news source.

The church of the podcaster or blogger I follow.

The church of my political party.

The church of the social media algorithm that feeds on my weaknesses and desires.

We curate a faith that fits what we like, and what we don’t like.  We customize a faith that fits us and are completely satisfied with it…and we can’t believe anyone else would choose something else, or think anything differently.

 

But.  I think there is something better for us.  We need a guiding way, we need direction, we need a way to faithfully follow what God has for us.

 

Yesterday we shared about Josiah finding the Torah and fundamentally changing his life and what he was responsible for after encountering God’s word.

When he had the guidance of God, he couldn’t stay the same.

We say all the time that, “With Christ Comes Change”.  Whenever we encounter God and God’s word, it will fundamentally change us and we will feel a responsibility to change what we are responsible for.

We completely understand here at The Chapel, that we are a unique worshiping community…not only because we have dogs outside and likely people coming from pickleball or on their way to mimosas after worship…or maybe all of the above…but also because we are a church, an ecumenical Christian community, meaning we have people from all sorts of traditions, that worship here and call this place home.  As we say at the beginning of every service since we started here in 2020, we are the church, and in the name of Jesus and everyone who calls this place home, you are welcome here.  Because the thing that unites us is around the idea that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and we are called to be his disciples as we follow him and his ways. No matter if you’re local, from another community, or worship with us online, we hope that the transformation that happens in following Jesus here not only changes us, but transforms the world around us wherever we go. This means, that if we believe that Jesus is the word made flesh, we should live out what Jesus prays,

God’s Kingdom come, God’s Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

With Christ comes change.

I shared this quote yesterday, but it is worth sharing again.  Church leaders, theologians and faithful followers of Jesus have repeated countless times over the years this important perspective. Often attributed to Augustine,

“In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In everything, love.”

At The Chapel, we have intentionally chosen, we will not be divided by trivial non-essentials.  We will not fight over things that do not have eternal significance.

We will unite as people who are journeying to follow after Jesus.  The temporal and fleeting voices of our world should not and will not get the final say.

Jesus will.

And we will love fiercely and listen carefully as we follow Jesus along this journey.

Here at The Chapel, we want to be people who faithfully follow after Jesus, who know the love of God the father, and trust in the comfort, power, and guidance of the Spirit.  We want to engage in our faith, participate in the holy conversation, wrestle faithfully with scripture and live it out.  To be known for loving recklessly and generously, and uniting together under the banner of Jesus to proclaim and live out the kingdom of God here and now no matter what.

God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  

Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue to talk through some of the foundational beliefs so that we can all rally around the essentials of our faith.  Our hope is that even in the midst of lots of differences of experiences, religious traditions, cultural preferences, or anything else that could divide us, we will continually rally around the essentials and under the banner of Jesus, trusting in his ways so that we can be more like him.

So I will continue to advise my kids on their fashion choices…sometimes they’ll listen and other times they won’t.

Let us continue to go to our God and the scriptures for the wisdom and discernment we need…I am well aware, sometimes I’ll listen and other times I won’t.

My goal is to follow God’s ways more than mine.

That way I can be more like Jesus each and everyday.

Read on below for things to know in this New Year.

This Tuesday, January 7th.  We are back with our Tuesday Noon Prayer Hour.  We are excited to begin the New Year with some intentional prayer focus.  Join us that day for the beginning of a prayer season with 21 Days of Prayer.  The 21 Days of Prayer will include gatherings at The Chapel Monday-Friday at noon for 1 hour of prayer as well as some prompts and suggested resources.  We will not gather on Saturdays or Sundays at noon (besides our normal worship at 10am on Sundays).

When we finish our 21 Days of Prayer we will kick off our weekly Bible Studies.

Bible Studies will kick off the last week of January.

Men’s Bible Study in Exodus will start at 8am on Wednesday, January 29th.
Women’s Bible Study in Exodus will start at 9:30am on Wednesday, January 29th.
Young Adult (20’s and 30’s) Bible Study in Exodus will start at 8am on Thursday, January 30th.

We will also begin a Fasting Experiment in February.  Similar to our Sabbath and Prayer, we will do some teachings on Sunday, video curriculum through the week, podcasts, recommended books, and other resources.  More details to come!

I hope to see you this week for prayer or on Sunday for worship or another time throughout the month.  More great things to come at The Chapel in 2025.

Like always, if you are out of town, under the weather, or just need to worship from home, you can watch all of our worship services on our live-stream on our website, thechapelatseaside.com,
on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheChapelAtSeaside 
and our Vimeo page, Vimeo.com/thechapelatseaside.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Blessings,

Andrew