Sometimes we do a heck of a job…

I hope you’ll humor me for a little bit, I know this is a Christian website and all. You and I both have done it and will do it again. We substitute words like heck, shoot, darn, frickin’ (I’m calling you out, Marshall) and my personal favorite, junk! My friends Michael and Jesse in Odessa, Texas use to say sack instead of something else. Oh, come on, don’t pretend like you haven’t said razzle-frazzle or something along those lines.

Why do we do that? Why not just say what we mean? I’ll tell you why, not because it’s right or wrong, but because we’re not willing to pay the price it would cost if we used the real word. If you’re a Sunday School teacher you can say “shoot” but I don’t think the Children’s Ed. Director would be too happy if you said what you meant, what do you think?

And we live like that, too. We live slang Christianity. It’s called religion, it’s not the real thing but you can use it as a cheap substitute because it doesn’t cost near as much. Giving a little extra in the offering to help reach the “disenfranchised” gives you a nice warm fuzzy feeling but it’s not the same as touching a leper. Coming to church in a fancy suit isn’t the same as coming to Christ, but people use it as a substitute every Sunday. Really, we aren’t Christians, we’re church people. That’s a darn shame isn’t it?

We don’t identify as much with Christ as we do with some denominational set of doctrines or an organizational man-made hierarchy and that’s acceptable, right?

Why don’t we do this instead? Let’s live what we mean, get our hands dirty, stain the knees of our fancy suits washing the feet of the world. Instead of just inviting someone to your church on Sunday invite them into your home and feed them from your table. Instead of just giving an extra couple of bucks to the local food bank, why don’t you make some sack lunches and go find some homeless people and share the love of Jesus?

It may cost you a little more, but Gosh, it’s a great feeling.

Feel free to comment.

-Armando

Peter may not be a loser-boy after all...

We judge Peter so harshly. When you think of him the first thing you think of is the fact that he denied Jesus three times. In the story that culminates up to that moment, Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to be betrayed and handed over to the Romans for execution and that all of the disciples are going to abandon Him. Peter, in what we all have considered to be an act of empty bravado stands and declares, “If every one deserts you, even if I die I won’t.” (Paraphrase)

Then we hit the skip button and go right to the moment where Peter denies Him, not just once but three times. What a loser. He gets in the game and drops the ball. Of course, we like that because it gives us a great person to point at and justify ourselves when we do something stupid, but wait a minute. Back up to the garden, when a WHOLE TROOP OF SOLDIERS come to arrest Jesus and Peter, old sorry chicken-hearted, afraid of little girls asking questions, loser boy Peter steps in front of Jesus. One man, with one sword against armed soldiers, while everyone else is running away, stands there, just like he said would, cutting off ears.

I am absolutely convinced that Peter would have died that night with blood on his sword and made his words true if Jesus hadn’t changed the rules. Peter was playing by all the rules he knew, but Jesus changed the game in midstream. It’s like he tucked the ball against his chest and was getting ready to run to the end zone and then Jesus told him to dribble it and do a lay up. What?

Peter’s denial at the fireside was the only response that he had the capacity to make. He had already offered his unconditional, at all cost, loyalty to Jesus. He said “I’m a man, all I can offer you is my life. That’s it. Here it is.” And Jesus, without explanation, told him “No thanks.” What do you think you would have done?

I would have probably done the same thing, maybe you would have, too. Feel free to leave a comment, we're all interested in your response.

-Armando

I thought we had met before.

You know how it is when you think you know someone and you just bowl right into a conversation. I walked up to this guy at a conference in Dallas, Texas and told him he did a great impersonation of a chicken. He looked at me like I was crazy. I had confused him with Jerry Dillon from Madison, Miss. who had preached a message about a snake in the hen house. Well, this guy looked kind of like him, so I walked up and, well, stuck my foot in my mouth.

Oh, I'm doing it again, sorry. This blog thing is familiar enough that I forget that I'm meeting new people. So, let me introduce myself. My name is Armando Heredia. I live in Louisville, Ky with Tinakay, my wife of 13 years and my three boys, Jonathan, Benjamin and Brian.

I moved to Louisville two years ago. I feel like God is calling me into a national and global ministry and came to Louisville because 65% of America's population lives within 500 miles of Louisville, Ky. There are 21 state capitals within a day's drive.

I am an artist, writer, story-teller and videographer. I have been involved in youth ministry since 1990. I had the privilege of working next to a very passionate visionary named Dan Smelser for 14 years in Odessa, Texas.

Thank you for reading my blogs. I hope that I can be a blessing to you and that you will feel free to comment on things I write that you agree or disagree with.

-Armando

Cemetery In The Rain

I walked around in the cemetery in the rain yesterday with a Canon XL2 on my shoulder. I'm working with several photographers this week to create a video for a message my Pastor is going to speak on Sunday. The monuments, the epitaphs, the cool gray concrete and granite, the weathered white marble, it was incredible. The wind whispered about the brevity of life, the leaves rustled on the ground, reminding me that seasons change and life is a process of living and dying and living again.

Cemeteries aren't really for dead people, you know, they're for the living... for us to remember and memorialize, to the best of our abilities, some person that had a significance in our lives. That's why we carve memorials in marble and granite and not in wax. There were some beautiful monuments, ornately carved, all trying to make eternal proclamations about a finite being, some who lived ninety years others who lived three, a short dash between two dates.

My friend Dan spoke at a funeral and he said, "Some people die and leave this earth in an exclamation point, some in a question mark, but for the believer, death is just a comma."

I saw one epitaph that said "Trust In God," and in the end, what else can we do? Here's the deal, though, I don't want to wait until the end to trust in God. I want to trust him during the dash. Nothing more can be done when the song is over, so I want to sing with Him right now. I am different than Him, he is holy, I am not, He is infinite, I am finite, He is awesome, I am awestruck, and in that difference, as our voices blend, we sing a two part harmony.

Here's the first stanza of a poem or a song that I felt inspired to write. Copy and paste it into the comment section and add your own stanza to it. Let's write a song that is the voice of the Bride, singing with the Groom. If you're a musician or a singer and would like to compose a melody to what we make and record it, send it to me and we'll play it here on this blog.

My voice is weak, a melody floating from lips of clay.
His voice is strong, speaking light into the day.
He is before and after, I'm in between.
I am creative, and He is the Creator.
I draw a picture, He makes everything that is seen.

-Armando
Visit my website.

Here's the video clip that I put together. Photo's supplied by Mike Ekbundit. I shot the video using a Canon XL2. The song is called Goodbye and it's by a group called Plankeye. I found the photos of the leaders and their info online. Fun, fun.

Final Thoughts and New Ideas

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Final Thoughts

My time blogging is coming to a close. This is the first time I have ever blogged and I was a bit skeptical about it, but I can say, I enjoyed the experience and the chance to share some of my life with all those who have made it a point to read. I appreciate the comments and the helpful tips I have received along the way. Thank you for your words.

I think 99&9 is a great forum for people affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church. I am several generations deep in Oneness/United Pentecostalism and I have found that no matter where I go in the world I find myself gravitating to the people I feel I know best. I have taken quite a journey the last ten years of my life. One that has taken me from growing up in a small-town UPC Church, to Bible College, Christian College, Catholic College, State University and Graduate School, at a prestigious—if not stuck up—major research university. I have traveled to almost thirty countries, meet a lot of interesting people, been involved in politics and social movements and in the process found myself over-whelmed with both pain and joy. Although I often feel religiously and politically homeless I wouldn’t give up the strength, that finding out for myself has brought me.

A Puzzling Subtitle

The subtitle to this blog, "With a Rock Band", is just as puzzling to me as it probably is to most of you. The only half explanation is that I have, for the past year, been working on a part-time basis—while in graduate school—with the band Kings of Leon. They were born and raised in the UPC and have had much said about their Pentecostal roots in Rolling Stone and other music mags. It’s been an interesting experience and I can truly say they have become some of my good friends. My job—if it can be called that—has been to offer solid advice in shaking times. I don’t know if I’ve been very successful, but in certain moments it has felt very meaningful. However, my presence in Nicaragua has nothing to do with my work with KOL—except that it made uncomfortable conditions look attractive in exchange for some temporary anonymity.

Speaking at UCA

Tomorrow I am going to Managua to speak to a class of English students at the University of Central America. I am supposed to talk about my vocation, although I’m still trying to figure that out. One of the young men from the church (Juan) is going with me. So after the class we are going to find out what it will take for him to enroll in university. He’s twenty and just completing High School. He’s had a hard life, but he’s taught himself English and with the help of the church has left a life of drugs and crime behind. I am going to do what I can to pay the 40 dollars a month to get him into school. He wants to be a Pentecostal minister and I hope I can help make his desires come to reality.

New Ideas for an Old Mission

My experience working with the local congregation here has given me a lot of ideas about possibilities for Pentecostals. The excitement with which this church received my father was humbling and I think that so much could be gained by both parties if more young people made it a point to come work and stay with their brothers and sisters all across the world. Many mainline denominations have sister district or church programs where US churches connect themselves with congregation in other countries. Many US UPC churches support the foreign missions division, but it seems that there is little real community between people in the US and abroad. Books like Philip Jenkins "The Coming of the Next Christendom" have enlightened me to the changes that are taking place in the global Christian community. I think that many churches would profoundly benefit from exchange programs where young people wanting to work in the ministry could test their commitments in a cross-cultural setting. I realize the AIM program exist, but It would be interesting to see people change places and find out what those experiences would do in the global church. I’ve been thinking a lot of about these sorts of things and I hope to continue my work with Granada UPC into next year in order to put some of these ideas into practice.

I think churches in the US would benefit by giving directly into the lives of Pentecostals abroad, education and basic economic resources could be shared and provided for, while Pentecostals abroad could offer the encouragement of their stories and their commitments in the face of a lot hardship. I would be very interested in others thoughts about such a program.

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Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

bittersweet

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

My dad flew home today. We went and stayed at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Managua last night and it was a bittersweet gift. As much as I enjoyed the nice beds and ice cold A/C I knew that it was going to make the next month—back in the real world— just a bit harder.

My dad spoke this past Saturday at the Church in Granada and it was a very interesting experience. The translator did exceptionally well for the circumstances and I think most people got what he was saying. At one point my dad used a rhetorical question and the translator translated it as a question and the people answered in unison throwing my dad off for a second (it was funny) part of the joys of cross-cultural evangelism