The reading and Gospel I chose for today’s service are not your typical funeral readings and Gospel.

I listed to what you all said about Mary on Sunday, and what Fr. Stan had said. I don’t know the right word to capture my impression of Mary’s life, to adequately describe it.

Impressed? That doesn’t quite capture it.
In awe? Still not right.

Perhaps it is too difficult to put a word on Mary’s witness, the way she worked toward perfection in the Christian life; the ways she achieved it.

The reading and Gospel focus on the word love – but that is only one translation. The other translations change that word to charity.

It isn’t charity, like having empathy for someone, or giving a donation, or feeding the hungry, or clothing the naked – of course those are important acts of Christian charity.

Mary’s charity was different. It was true charity – charity of the heart. That is the charity Jesus gives us as the model for the life we are to live in God; in God and with God, where Mary is today.

That charity recognizes more than need. It sees the value of every human being in light of Jesus’ presence in them. It sees innate human value. It sees that we are not just people, but one people who share equally in God’s great love.

Mary lived that message of love – of charity. Because she did, there are no words to adequately describe her Christian life, her charity. We stand, without words. We stand in hope and prayer; that the example Mary left, her Christian way of life, her charity, her love will fill us and prompt us to do the same.

Mary knew what Jesus asked of her. He asks it of us too. Let us live as Mary did; eager to fulfill all that Jesus calls us to be. Amen.

FRACKVILLE – Ann Marie Wycheck, Frackville, has never been in a major car accident.

Neither has Helen Hopko or Al Gursky, both of Frackville. Or Dorothy or Walter Jaskierski, Saint Clair.

But that didn’t stop them from having their cars blessed Sunday after Mass at St. John the Baptist Polish National Catholic Church.

Parishioners joined in the parking lot with the Rev. Robert P. Plichta to say a short prayer and have the priest perform a blessing ritual.

“I think we can all use a little prayer over our cars to be blessed,” Wycheck said as Plichta made the Sign of the Cross at a nearby vehicle.

“This will help a lot to give me peace of mind when driving,” Hopko said.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Gursky said. “Every little bit helps when you think of how people drive, how dangerous it is.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported more than 37,000 motor vehicle fatalities in 2008, and the U.S. Census Bureau reports that there were an estimated 10.6 million motor vehicle accidents in 2007. Both statistics are from the most recent year data were available.

Plichta said he started this tradition at the church last year, performing the blessing on the Sunday closest to the feast day of St. Christopher, which is July 25. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers.

“For people, it’s important to ask God for protection,” Plichta said.

He said he also says a brief prayer each time before driving.

“In Poland, there was twice where I didn’t say a prayer, ‘under thy protection …’ and I had two accidents – somebody hit me, I hit somebody. Minor. But now I say every time,” Plichta said. “It’s important for somebody who believes.”

Plichta, who is originally from Poland and served a congregation of more than 17,000 in Gdansk, said while in Poland he saw many people who had accidents, then came to get their new cars blessed.

“It just helps give peace of mind to some people,” Plichta said.

He said anyone wishing to have his or her car blessed can contact him at the church at 874-1960. Get your car blessed

If anyone would like to get their vehicle blessed, contact the Rev. Robert P. Plichta, pastor of St. John the Baptist Polish National Catholic Church, Frackville, at 874-1960.

Jesus’ preaching attracted enormous crowds, and the Bible often records the positive reactions of those crowds to his teaching. Matthew 7:28 tells us, “…the crowds were amazed at his teaching.” Matthew 22:33 says, “…the crowds were profoundly impressed.” Mark 11:18 says, “…the people were so enthusiastic about Jesus’ teaching.” Mark 12:37 says, “The great crowd enjoyed listening to Him.”

These crowds had never heard anyone speak to them the way Jesus did. They were spellbound by his delivery.

To capture the attention of unbelievers like Jesus did, we must communicate spiritual truth the way he did. I believe that Jesus – not anyone else – must be our model for preaching. Unfortunately, some homiletics classes pay more attention to Aristotle and Greek rhetoric than to how Jesus taught.

In John 12:49 Jesus admitted, “The Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” Notice that both the content AND the delivery style were directed by the Father. This is extremely important to note. We often overlook the manner in which Jesus preached.

There’s so much we can learn from Jesus’ style of communication, not just his content. But for now I want to briefly identify three attributes of Jesus’ preaching.

1. Jesus began with people’s needs, hurts, and interests.

Jesus usually taught in response to a question or a pressing problem from someone in the Crowd. He scratched where people itched. His preaching had immediacy about it. He was always relevant and always on target for that moment.

When Jesus preached his first sermon at Nazareth, he read from Isaiah to announce what the preaching agenda of his ministry would be: “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Notice his entire emphasis on meeting needs and healing hurts. Jesus had Good News to share, and people wanted to hear it. He had a message that offered practical benefits for their lives. His truth would “set people free” and bring all sorts of blessings to their lives.

Our basic message to the lost must be good news. If it isn’t good news, it isn’t the gospel. We must learn to share the gospel in ways that show it is both “good” and “news.” The gospel is about what God has done for us and what we can become in Christ. A personal relationship with Christ is the answer to all of man’s deepest needs. The good news offers lost people what they are frantically searching for: forgiveness, freedom, security, purpose, love, acceptance, and strength. It settles our past, assures our future, and gives meaning to today. We have the best news in the world…

A great read for we in the PNCC who so value the Word and its sacramental value.

He did capture the sense of “at home” I find in PNCC Parishes — down to earth people, a mixture of backgrounds and classes, all coming together to worship God without much in the way of snobbishness. It is people unafraid of their blue collar, factory, farm, coal miner, meat packer backgrounds, regardless of where they are in the present day. They embody the PNCC motto: Truth, Work, and Struggle. The PNCC also works because it is Catholic, with consistent worship from town-to-town, parish-to-parish. That works for me, as for anyone whose background and tradition is Catholic worship (or who are seeking that stability). I understand Brother Stephen’s point about certain “boutique” churches being an adventure from location to location, pastor to pastor — a disconnect from authentic Tradition and a source of confusion for seekers.

I received a press release a few days ago from Church Growth Mastery entitled The Answer to Church Growth. The press release noted: “Most Churches in the U.S. have an average membership of 60-75 members.” A citation from The Hartford Institute for Religion Research notes in its Fast Facts section:

Q: What’s the size of U.S. churches?

A: The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Notice that researchers measured the median church size — the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger — rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches. But while the United States has a large number of very small churches, most people attend larger churches. The National Congregations Study estimated that the smaller churches draw only 11 percent of those who attend worship. Meanwhile, 50 percent of churchgoers attended the largest 10% of congregations (350 regular participants and up).

They do note that 59% (177,000) of all parishes were small, with 7 to 99 members. The statistics exclude Roman Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

On the hopeful side, we might consider that this represents an affinity for smaller “boutique” churches, a niche. On the down side, it may represent the last of the “hangers-on,” keeping the doors open until the last member is buried (but who will bury the last member). In the end it still comes down to what each parish does, what it represents for its community. Is it open, welcoming to newcomers, or a closed society. Does it proclaim Jesus first and above all. If it is closed, or puts any message before its proclamation of Jesus, it is already cold and on the way out.

I doff my cheesehead hat and salute the witnesses in Wisconsin who saw past the sheep’s clothing to the wolves lurking beneath.

It was a nice invitation, not unlike many I’ve received before. Every summer, a number of Christian music and arts festivals convene around the country, featuring musicians and speakers and attracting tens of thousands of young people. I have spoken at many such events over the years and, in fact, met my wife, Joy Carroll, at the Greenbelt festival in England! I’m guessing I’ve spoken there as many as 10 times. Joy is helping to organize an “American Greenbelt” for next summer called the “Wild Goose” Festival, an image that in Celtic spirituality signifies the Holy Spirit.

So when Lifest, a Christian festival in Wisconsin invited me to come and speak this summer, and the date was free, I accepted. Bob Lenz, who directs the annual gathering, is a wonderful man with a big heart and a powerful ministry among high school kids that has saved many from suicide. He’s the kind of guy you want to say yes to. It was put in the calendar.

Then a firestorm erupted. A local Christian radio station, which had always supported Lifest, and a local pastor started circulating attacks against me, suggesting that I was a communist, a deceiver, and, worst of all, an adviser to Barack Obama. My favorite was that I was an “avowed Marxist” and that any young person that heard me would be in “spiritual peril.” They were especially concerned that “the social justice message and agenda [Sojourners] promote[s] is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government.” Does that sound anything like the language of a certain Fox News talk show host who has recently come after “social justice” Christians and me in particular? Oh no, they insisted, this had nothing to do with Glenn Beck.

The intimidation of Bob Lenz and Lifest began, insisting that I be canceled or they would face pull-outs and protests. A letter was sent to local churches to call for my cancellation and, like Glenn Beck, the authors just made stuff up. Under a great deal of pressure, Bob called me to discuss what to do. He believed that these people were spreading lies and didn’t want to capitulate to their threats. But they were really stirring up trouble, and people were coming after him personally. I decided to call the president of the radio station myself, to ask him what his concerns were, and to offer a dialogue with his board or anybody else he wanted while I was in Wisconsin. But he refused the dialogue unless the station’s demands for my cancellation were met (sounds like Glenn Beck again).

He said he was against the “unholy marriage between the government and the church.” Me too, I said. When I told him how I successfully worked with the Obama administration to preserve religious freedom in hiring for faith-based organizations who receive any public funds (such as World Vision and The Salvation Army), and spent half of my time on health care in preserving the rule against federal funding of abortion, he became silent and kept moving on to “other issues” – the last of which was Sojourners supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I reminded him that there actually were Palestinian Christians, and that most mainline evangelical organizations now support a two-state solution, he got silent again. But he refused to change his position about me not speaking, and his final reason was that I had supported the Bush administration’s faith-based initiative! So my openness to a previous president’s ideas for faith-based partnerships in alleviating poverty was the reason I shouldn’t speak at Lifest? This was getting quite silly. But when the wild and fabricated charges they began with all fell flat in face of the facts, they were left with not much of an argument. But they stuck with it and pulled out of the festival.

I didn’t realize how big a deal this had become until I got to Wisconsin. Green Bay and Milwaukee television stations were there, with the story already in their local media and newspapers. I arrived to a series of press interviews and meetings with local pastors who were very sorry about all this and expressed hope that I would still come back to Wisconsin (I assured them that I loved their state and would love to come back).

Finally I got to speak to the young people, which was the reason that I came in the first place. I told them that I came because of them and the hope their generation provides to me. And that I liked the title of the talk I was to give: “The Call to Jesus and his Kingdom of Justice.” So that’s what I talked about to a very enthusiastic response from the thousands of young people who were there – the crowd made even larger because of the controversy, of course.

I said that when we have controversy and conflict in the church and speak badly of one another as Christians, it actually turns people away from Christ. And I said what unites us is not our different cultures, nationalities, or political views. What unites us is the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom, and their job as a new generation was to make that clear. When I quoted Jesus’ opening sermon at Nazareth and concluded that “any gospel that isn’t good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus Christ,” they all cheered.

The front page of the local paper in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I boarded my flight for home the next day, led with the story of the night before in nearby Oshkosh by saying, “Jim Wallis shared his Bible-based message of serving the poor Friday night to a large, welcoming crowd at Lifest despite a small number of boos at his introduction.” They reported what Bob Lenz courageously said in his kind introduction: “This is my brother in Christ,” he told the crowd. “I think he has a message for God’s church. Part of who I am is because of this man.”

I told the young crowd that heeding what the Bible says about serving the poor and seeking justice was not about social action or politics, but rather about nothing less than restoring the integrity of the Word of God in our lives, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Their response to that indicated that many young people today are no longer stuck in the old arguments and divisions in the church.

Most seemed to feel that the controversy and protest looked pretty foolish and unnecessary after the event had taken place. Many thanked Bob for standing firm against some pretty nasty attacks and pressure. But if the attackers had succeeded with intimidation to cancel a speaker they didn’t agree with, there is no doubt that the tactics of distortion and intimidation would have been repeated in other places. That is, after all, how some media celebrities now make their living, and they are encouraging others to follow their example. The newspaper article ended with my saying it was time to “replace the gospel of Glenn, Rush, Sean, and Bill with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

When I got to the TSA agent at airport security, she looked at my ID, smiled, and said, “So, you’re Jim Wallis! I hope you felt very welcome here; many of us are very glad you came.” I did feel very welcome and am very glad that I came.

Last year, hundreds of churches took part in the first national “Back To Church Sunday,” which saw members invite more than 700,000 friends and family. This year, an estimated 1 million “unchurched” and “dechurched” people will be invited to the special day.

A survey by Outreach, Inc., a California-based church marketing company supporting the initiative, found that last year’s participating churches increased their weekend attendance on average by 19 percent.

“A recent survey of 15,000 Americans indicated that 67 percent would be open to an invitation to church coming from a member of their family,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, an organization dedicated to church health and effectiveness. “‘Back To Church Sunday’ is a great opportunity for reminding and refocusing church members to reach out to their unchurched family members.”

In a separate study, the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey showed that 83 percent of American adults identify themselves as Christians. In contrast, another survey that same year by the Barna Group, a leading research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture, indicated only about 20 percent of Americans attend a church on any given Sunday.

When Mount Sterling First United Methodist Church in Mt. Sterling, Ky., participated in “Back To Church Sunday” in 2009, response was well beyond expectations.

“Our sanctuary was full,” said Debi Lambert, the church’s evangelism and outreach leader. “We saw our attendance that day increased 40 percent over our normal attendance for that time of year.”

Unchurched families that visited that Sunday have become members, Lambert said. Others attend periodically. That’s why the Mount Sterling church anticipates an even greater response to the 2010 event. “Everybody at church has gotten on board and is excited and involved,” Lambert said.

Inviting newcomers is only part of the campaign. Churches are also encouraged to make their facilities visitor-friendly, paying attention to details important to those who haven’t tried church in a while.

In support of “Back to Church Sunday,” Outreach also supports the “Back To Church Sunday” Facebook page and a roster of participating churches on the Back to Church Sunday website. When churches go to the website and register their participation, their names and locations are added to the roster.

From friends at the Captura Group: Lost in (Machine) Translation

Last March, I shared a theory of mine that most Hispanics expect Spanish language websites to be poor quality and, as a result, use the English-language version of a site even if Spanish is their preferred language. Expectations tend to be low because often the Spanish-language version of a given website tends to be inferior to the English version.

With Google’s free machine translation software, Google Translate, showing up on an increasing number of websites, I’m afraid that Hispanic online expectations are at risk of declining even further.

Google Translate is Free. Or is it?

Many marketers and web managers looking to reach Spanish speakers online view Google Translate as the silver bullet. Copy and paste a little snippet of code into your website and presto, your website is now available in Spanish (or any other language). As a result, you can now find Google Translate on many websites including those of countless federal, state and local Governments.

What you will also find on these websites is a lengthy disclaimer that prominently states that content translated by Google may not be accurate, reliable or timely. These disclaimers also completely absolve the website owner of any and all liability that may arise because of inaccurate machine translation. I want to be very clear: website owners are consciously using a system to translate their websites and in the same breath, acknowledging the system may not provide accurate, reliable or timely results.

I believe the cost of potentially inaccurate, unreliable or dated content on any website is simply too high for my clients. Even the smallest translation mistake can destroy the credibility of a website and the organization behind it, severely impacting valuable goodwill.

So no, Google Translate is not free. In fact it can be very costly…

Absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, when I was designing the Polonia Global Fund website, we hired translators (how I came to know Dr. Felipe Korzenny and the Captura Group) to build basic translations of our main informational pages.

It is particularly incumbent on us as Christians, and especially as members of the PNCC, to show respect for seekers from different backgrounds, cultures, and particularly languages. That respect is given through the proper and respectful use of language.

A person’s connection to their culture, and particularly to family and God, is best expressed in their native language. Bishop Hodur and his successors understood that among God’s gifts are the cultures and nations of the world. God’s grace is expressed in particular ways through the lens of culture, which then gifts the entire Church with a deeper understanding of salvation. They knew that there are nuances, even in God’s Word, based on culture.

We need to speak God’s word and give His message in clear and convincing ways which are understandable among the cultures we encounter. They too seek a portion of the one, holy, catholic, apostolic, and democratic Church. Let us give reason for the hope that is in us, and let us do so with respect.

The Hymn of Faith of the PNCC, in Spanish, as recently approved for publication:

Himno de la Fe

A ti venimos Señor Dios
Antes de su Altar.
Conoces bien nuestras almas
La respuesta al suplicar.
Sáquenos de necesidad
Bendícenos, O Padre Bendícenos

Antes de la cruz, preparados pues,
Al servirle con devoción.
De Sangre y de Lágrimas
Una humilde resignación.
El pueblo suyo somos Señor
Sálvenos, O Dios Bendícenos.

You’ve probably heard the many negative media reports about the evangelical church, such as:

• Christian young people are leaving the Christian faith in record numbers
• The divorce rate among Christians is as high as those of nonbelievers
• Christians today are watered down in their beliefs and actions

But are these truly accurate?

In “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media” (Bethany House), sociologist Bradley R.E. Wright, PhD, shatters these popular myths, along with many others. Using the best available data, he reveals to readers why and how many of the commonly shared statistics are incomplete and inaccurate.

He discusses the different dynamics of how statistics are often misquoted as they get passed on and how even Christian leaders will pick statistics for their usefulness rather than for accuracy.

And he highlights the problems caused for the church by the continuing emphasis on negatively slanted statistics.

“My goal is not to show the Church in a particular light but rather to let the data speak for itself,” he says. His book describes how Christians are doing in six areas: church growth, what Christians believe, their participation in church activities, family and sexual issues, how Christians treat others, and how others perceive Christians.

As Wright has examined the data, he finds a richer, more nuanced story about what’s happening with religion in America. Though Wright focuses on Evangelical Christians (because that is his vantage point as one himself), he also analyzes Mainline Protestants and Catholics. As a result, many of the ideas in this book apply to American Christianity more generally.

And the result is some surprisingly good news for Christians….

Do you want to learn how to strengthen partnerships between religious and labor leaders? Understand the fundamentals of Direct Action Organizing? Design creative interfaith actions? Develop strategies for building your organization? Develop effective fundraising strategies? Frame the message about religious values and workers rights to the media? If so, then this training is for you! Stay tuned for registration details…

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
thou who leadest Joseph like a flock!
Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
before E’phraim and Benjamin and Manas’seh!
Stir up thy might,
and come to save us!
Restore us, O God;
let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

The founding members of Coptic Solidarity, held a conference, June 19th-20th, to launch the activities of their new organization.

The gathered members elected Adel Guindy as president, and a ten-member Executive Committee. Attending and speaking were Dr. Dwight Bashir, deputy director of USCIRF; Tina Ramirez, congressional fellow; Taniel Koushakjian, director of Grassroots at the Armenian Assembly; Pierro Tozzi, senior legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund; and Dr. Walid Phares, professor of political science and senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Coptic Solidarity’s overall mission is to “empower the Copts in Egypt to help them attain full and inalienable citizenship rights and equality, under secular constitution and laws; drawn in accordance with current international standards set by Human Rights conventions.”

For more on the persecution of Coptic Christians (and the reason for the Coptic tattoo tradition) see Missing the point of Coptic tattoos from GetReligion.