Mic'd Up: Ridiculous and Redemptive's Keynote Address

If I could host a Ridiculous and Redemptive Conference, this guy would be your keynote speaker.

Joe Bankard doesn't just get the nod because he is one of my closest friends.

He doesn't earn our attention on the heels of his recently published book.

He doesn't make this short list because he is a Philosophy professor that finds himself discussing elevated topics like: "Moral Instincts and the Problem with Reductionism."

No. Bankard gets the nod because he lives the Ridiculous and Redemptive ethic. This guy is able to crack up, dress up, and bug out with the best of us.

But he is also a deeply committed follower of Christ.   He lives Kingdom priorities as consistently as anyone I know.  And his words challenge me to be more faithful.  They will challenge you as well.

A couple of weeks ago now, Joe was given the chance to preach at his church in Boise, Idaho.  His sermon, "Things I Wish Jesus Said: 'There is Nothing More Important than Your Nuclear Family'" moved me deeply.

In the same way that MLK Jr. used the parable of the Good Samaritan to ask "Who are your neighbors?" Joe uses Luke chapter 9 to ask the question, "Who is your family?  In less than 22 minutes, he was able to capture and delineate what I currently understand to be my life calling: to broaden my concept of family and to be present with the motherless and fatherless.  

I am inviting you and challenging you to listen today.   <<CLICK HERE>>  Be sure to listen to the sermon from 7/28/2013.

In his teaching, Joe reminds us that the task of redrawing lines around family is not the role of a single family pastor or of that one crazy family in your church that adopted 18 kids.  It's going to take all of us.   Each of us that identifies with the name of Christ has a role to play in welcoming God's children that lack family here on earth.

It can look all kinds of ways.  It can be mentoring youth (through UrbanLife, please :).  It can look like inviting the lonely neighbor out to pizza with your own family.  It can look like fostering a baby (like Angels Foster Family Network) or a teen (like Casey Family Programs) with the targeted support of a private family service agency. It can look like providing diapers and respite for a struggling single mother in the church or neighborhood.  It can look like faithfully giving and writing to a Compassion kid abroad in a way that mitigates disadvantage and suffering that come with poverty. It can look like an unexpected invitation to a Thanksgiving meal or a regular weekday dinner.
It should look like all of these things and more.  And when it does, the world will see the church at its best.  The children and youth that we befriend will experience the church at its best.  People will see the church living and laughing and embracing like an extended family.

May we find more and more ways to re-draw the lines around traditional family.  Let's do this until every single child knows they are a child of God and are loved unconditionally.

In the end, it may be the most redemptive thing we could do.                       Ever.