The Church Transforming: Part 3

The last two weeks, I've been writing about a paradigm shift in the way that the church exists and operates to perform its mission.  Keep in mind as you read that I'm learning as I ponder along.  I don't have an idea where my thoughts and research will lead, but I hope it brings us to a better understanding of what the church can and should be for the future.
One primary question I'm seeking to answer is to what extent the mainline institutional church can coexist alongside or with a church model that is more organic and missional.  To answer this question we must first recognize that these two types of community structures have often co-existed in different forms and to different degrees.  For instance, within many mainline institutional churches there are gatherings and groups that may function in missional and organic ways.  Examples of this can be groups that go on mission trips together, certain small groups that operate and function without much structure and embody certain theological priorities.  My observation is that the mainstream institutional community tends to accommodate larger, more anonymous, and more loosely connected gatherings of individuals.  The extent to which these communities maintain a sense of closeness, mission, intimacy, and urgency usually depends on the strength of missional organic communities within the institution.  Depending on the nature and size of a gathering, there are natural tendencies that help determine whether a community becomes more institutionalized or organic.  There are of course major exceptions.
Take for example the Wesleyan societies in 18th century England.  These gatherings were institutional in their function but missional in their orientation.  They were interpersonal, but not in a fluid and flexible sense.  The content of the relationships was predictable and repeatable for the sake of the mission.  People came to meetings and answered the same list of questions each week, performed the same tasks for holy living each week and had their sharing and actions recorded to evaluate growth.  Many large churches today have programs with a strong mission of "disciple making" that is done in a very organized and institutional way.
The reason I point this out is to acknowledge that a strong mission can be supported by institutional means.  But the biblical mission, as I see it, is not only missional, it is missional in an organic way.  In other words, what matters is not just what we're doing, but how we're doing it.  It must also be stated that most instances of missional church that are carried out by institutional means that I find are alternative communities - meaning they are not mainstream.  I'll talk more about that in subsequent posts.      

The Church Transforming: Part 2

Last week I briefly defined two concepts of church, Mainline Institutional and Missional Organic.  Now, I want to explore further the value and necessity of each.  The scriptures themselves came into being through a combination of these two distinct kinds of community.  There were moments in Israel's history and in the history of the church where community was more organic, alternative, and radical in its way of thinking and way of life.  These were moments of great creativity, risk taking, and discovery theologically and they found voice mainly through rich narrative and story telling, mostly oral.  This is where stories like those in Genesis, Exodus, and the accounts of Jesus' ministry were originally shared before they were written down.   But at other moments, the biblical communities of faith became more organized, established, and grounded in belief and practice.  The life of faith became more orderly and disciplined and was expressed in carefully written versions of the oral traditions that gave them birth.  Our bible represents these oral traditions from an organic time of community being written down and organized by a institutional time of community.  So the question is not which type of community of faith is best - they are both necessary for the faith to remain fresh and relevant and for it to have consistency and longevity.  Rather, the question that needs to be answered is when and in what place are these types of communities most valuable and appropriate.  It should also be observed that the ebb and flow between more organic and more institutionalized communities of faith through the ages seems to happen because it has to - not because someone wants it do.  Like the protestant reformation, the Davidic Monarchy or the Methodist movement, each shift happens because the time is ripe for change, there is a powerful tide that demands a transformation.  I believe we may be in the beginnings of one of those tides in the life of the church today.  And our task is knowing whether we are to fight it, or join it.  

The Church Transforming: Part 1

Several months ago, I compared the institutional mainstream (IM) church to the Jews of Paul's missionary journeys in the book of Acts (Go to the Gentiles). I've been thinking more about the radical disconnect that exists between today's IM church and a truly missional organic church. First, let me define what I mean by those two categories. The IM church, is institutional because its structure and operation is based on a business-level organizational model. Hallmarks of the institutional church are that they depend on buildings, highly qualified staffs, procedures for assimilation, and program-based ministries. By mainstream, I am generally referring to a category of denominations that reached their climax of effectivity in the United States between the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries. This includes Episcopalian, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist and United Methodist. Mainstream protestant churches are distinguished by their worship style (around an hour, once a week on Sunday Morning), their wide appeal theology, and their local church organizational structure. What I mean by the "missional organic" church is something entirely different. By missional I mean that the aim of this church effort is to fulfill a dynamic mission rather than to sustain and institutionalize a cultural practice. The participants in a missional movement are unified first and foremost not by affiliation (dogmatic, cultural, socio-economic) to an organization but by a common aim and cause. By "organic" I mean that the structure and support of the gathering grows and adapts to the dynamics of the mission. An organic church is more dependent upon inter-relationships than upon buildings, staff and programs. It relies on the flexible and strong bonds between its individual members to sustain its mission. Now, these definitions can certainly overlap. There are IM churches that depend heavily upon a mission and relationships and there or missional organic churches that may have some level of structural support. The question that I want to pursue is how the Missional organic church and the IM church can and should relate and interact. Can they coexist in active partnership? How do they support one another? What other historical examples do we see of similar relationships existing (i.e. The establishment of special orders of monks and nuns within the Easter and Roman churches, the Wesleyan Methodist movement and the Anglican church in 18th century England, the Base Ecclesial communities of Latin America and the Catholic church).

The Unstoppable Church

"And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22

When the church knows who she is - she cannot help but transform the world.  When the church knows who leads her - nothing can destroy her mission and charge.  The church is the body of Christ, the fullness of God who fills everything.  The church is not a shadow of Christ, an imitation of Christ, or a disciple of Christ - the Church is the living body of Christ.  When the church, that is its substantive members, make Christ head and Lord of all, she naturally takes on the actual form of Christ's body.  This body is consistent with what we see the body of Christ being and doing in the New Testament account of Jesus of Nazareth. It is also consistent with the form of Christ that is revealed in the Old Testament law and prophets.  This body that is the church does not act LIKE Jesus, it IS Jesus.  After the incarnate Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit was given to the gathered believers to create in them the church - the embodiment of Christ's own essence.  And since every authority and power on earth and in heaven, both now and in the future, has been placed under the dominion of Christ by the Father, there is nothing that can overcome the church and there is nothing that the church cannot overcome.  The church is God's ongoing revelation in the world.  It is God's presence to the nations, God's open door to all who seek life.  Jesus' ministry is meant to continue through his manifestation in the church.  Jesus' sacrificial love and service, his prophetic word to religious leadership, his abiding hope in the face of death through his resurrection are all to be expressed through the community of believers.   These tasks cannot be duplicated, imitated, or re-created by human efforts or by institutional organization.  They must naturally occur by the indwelling Spirit of Christ being himself within the community.  Only when Christ is being Christ's body in the church will it overcome all things and refuse to be overcome by anything but its submission to the will of God.  By submitting only to the will of God and by making Christ Lord over all, you make the church all that she is meant to be.

"Letting myself be loved by God is the most important reality in my life" - Brennan Manning 

There is nothing more important than being loved by God.  It is the most basic ingredient to life itself.  To be loved is to bask in the good intention and attention of the lover.  It is to receive the irrational and unmerited affection of another.  To know the love of God is an act of faith.  It is the way of salvation, healing, strength, and peace.  When we are truly love by God not just in principle but in our experience, we are free.  Free from shame, anxiety, and emptiness.  Believe it and you will live.

Preserving Corporate Worship

When an individual at their height of faith reaches an acknowledgment, celebration, and gratitude of all they know God to be, he or she worships.  When individuals bring not only this deeply personal expression but also the same recognition pertaining to God's activity and character among others and the community as a whole, it is corporate worship.  When corporate worship takes place there is not only a cumulative affect, but an exponential one.  The truth of God grows drastically beyond ourselves and into the realm of God's love and action in the world around us.  Just as a body at work depends on the natural harmony of its parts in concert to function, the church needs worship in community to accesses the subconscious salvation story in its diverse members, coming together in manifold witness.  Worship, when done in Spirit and Truth is effortless.  It happens in response to an awareness of God (which usually does require some effort to achieve).  It is like the rain that falls when the conditions are right - it cannot remain in the clouds as it was, it must transform and become something new.  So corporate worship is a building block of the body of Christ.  It allows persons to become new creations, and to do so together provides mutual encouragement (watching God minister to others), unity and mutual love (through shared experience of the living God), and creates an alternative community based on the truth that the LORD alone is God (that salvation does not exist apart from God).  Of course, none of these life altering and Kingdom ushering consequences of worship occur if worship becomes what it so often is in the institutional church: something painfully less than a vulnerable realization of God's own divine presence.  Most commonly the expressions of God's presence themselves get in the way.  The music, the sermon, the space, the clothing, the style, the order, the personalities in leadership.  All represent the intention to acknowledge and honor God's presence.  All run the risk of stealing our attention from the One Thing altogether.  For this reason, the primary aim for both leaders and participants in corporate worship at every turn must remain a tireless pursuit of encountering the Spirit himself.  Only then will these noble expressions fulfill their purpose, keep in their designated place, and provide a meaningful path to the goal itself - the Godhead.  

Desert Faith

blue bird's flight against blue sky

a world below its own expectation 

vast of grey and shadowed oaks 

tell the disappointment of the ground

underneath flow streams so cool and distant

no root can reach their surging swell  

clear fountain, flushing life into the pain

lifting dry and hardened earth - above 

will you come? sighs the space-between 

will you be unbroken?

there, a whisper leaves a treasure     

enough maybe to fly tomorrow  

The Enemy of Perfection

In this human existence, there is no such thing as perfect - but God's love makes that fact tolerable.  In a fallen world, there is no perfect product, no perfect idea, no perfect relationship, no perfect effort.  In church there is no perfect program, no perfect sermon, no perfect worship service.  We are constantly swimming in a life of imperfections.  Yet from the moment we can think and act we are conditioned to pursue perfection.  A 95 isn't quite 100, our bodies don't look like the airbrushed ones in magazines, our families don't operate like the ones in the TV shows.  And so we constantly seek to be more, to be better, to be closer to perfect.  The whole idea is that we can somehow "arrive" if we work hard enough.  We can achieve perfection in our education by getting the highest degree, or in business by getting the next promotion, or in sports by reaching the next level.  But perfect isn't there when we arrive!  Ask anyone who's "made it"!  Perfect is just a mirage to keep us chasing, the end of a rainbow that can never be reached.  The Good News is that God doesn't ask us to be perfect as the world sees perfect, He commands us to be perfect as He is perfect - in love.  To experience the freedom of the Christian life, we must abandon the paradigm of pursuing advancement, achievement, and success as if these paths can satisfy the longings of our souls.  They cannot and will not.  When I stand before my maker (both now and at the end) I will not be judged by how closely I came to being what my fallen mind or this fallen world considers ideal.  I am seen through the lens with which God sees all creation - that of a relationship of love.  My 6 month old son is perfect to me.  Not because he doesn't cry or spit up or have leaky diapers or sleepless nights, but because in my love for him, I am satisfied with his very existence as my child.  My love will not be dictated by whether or not he becomes flawless in the areas which babies tend to have "issues".  May our hearts, energies, ideas, and efforts go toward being perfected in Love with our Savior, not being perfected into the image that our confused minds and world would have us seek.

Anchored in Grace

Once while tent-camping, I awoke after a rainy night to puddles around the edges of the tent and water dripping through the top of the tent.  Due to haste and laziness, the tent had not been secured effectively with stakes at either the base or across the rainfly.  Though the tent looked good the night before, it only took some moisture, wind, and my restless movement through the night to make my shelter a pathetic sponge to the rain.  Since then I've always been very careful to make sure my tent is tightly anchored at all the important places.  I wish I could give the same attention to my life of faith:  Learning to drive my roots into the trustworthy bedrock of Christ.  Alas, I take shortcuts instead of putting in the proper time and energy to ensure that my soul is anchored in the firm ground of God's love and power.  When skies are clear and the breeze is light, my shelter works just fine without being adequately staked.  But when conditions become less than ideal, my refuge from the elements can quickly become a sad excuse for a dwelling.  A camp that is not secure is no camp at all.  For me, these anchors always include prayer, study, and Christian accountability.  Prayer keeps my imagination, outlook, and sense of reality rooted in a living relationship with my maker, savior, and friend.  Study aligns my efforts, ideas, and attitudes with the word and will of God.  Christian accountability offers me mutual support, alternative perspectives, and a tangible sense that I'm not alone.  Like soil that holds, they have to be consistent and strong.  To neglect any one of them loosens the hold on the Rock and risks my slipping into the mercy of the conditions around me.  These anchors cannot be afterthoughts.  They are not optional enhancements that one can choose to employ if they have extra time.  Prayer, study, and christian accountability are what make the difference between a sturdy shelter and a flimsy toy that can easily rip, tear, leak, or fall under pressure.  Lord, give me the discipline to regain a well anchored camp that can withstand the onslaught of challenging conditions.           

Faithfulness as Success

"Well done, good and faithful servant!" - Matthew 25:21

Faithfulness is what God asks of us, it is what determines whether or not we've accomplished our purpose, and it is what earns the reward of our Maker's approval.  It is a spirit of faithfulness that produces obedience.  The difficulty with faithfulness to God is that it is terribly narrow minded.  The first call to faithfulness toward God is: "There are no other God's before me".  Faithfulness toward God means that there is only one master, one Lord, one to whom we are called to be ultimately faithful.  Thankfully, God's infinite wisdom and love directs us to be the best person we can be when we are faithful to Him.  Our righteousness in relationships with others is at its richest when we are being faithful to God and God alone.  Still, it is impossible to be faithful to one God without simultaneously being unfaithful to a host of others.  I cannot be faithful to a God of generosity and a god of greed at the same time, either he will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other (Matt 6:24).  In ministry, I struggle with such singular and focused allegiance.  I want to please God and please the people around me.  I want to speak truth without hurting anyones feelings.  I want to make kingdom-of-heaven building decisions and still appease the kingdom-of-this-world.  The harsh truth is that I can't.  I have to make a choice: Who will I be faithful to?  And because the only one who has ever been able to make my life provide real and lasting good for myself and the people around me is Jesus Christ, I'm going to be faithful to Him.  Even if it means I'm unfaithful to some other power, value, or norm.  Even if that power, value, or norm is embedded in the attitudes of the people I care about and serve.  For I cannot be eternally faithful to anyone I love and care about if I am not first faithful to the God who knows how to love them perfectly and into wholeness.  God, grant us the grace to be faithful to you alone in our families, our church, and our world.

Journey toward Wholeness

There are things about me that I sometimes wish would just magically be changed.  Vices, struggles, characteristics of my fallen state that I would rather not have to deal with.  There are powers that rage within me that reek havoc for myself and the people I care about.  Why was I made this way?  Why can't I pray my way out of this difficult condition of the body, mind, or soul?  I even become frustrated and angry with God that I'm not "fixed" when I ask to be.  Shouldn't God be just as interested in delivering me from human weakness as I am?  But I'm finding that the Lord doesn't always heal and transform me according to my specifications and timetable.  My creator's idea of making me whole might even be more advanced and informed than mine!  He knows my inner-workings, my intricate design, my inside and out.  Sometimes this means that I need to expand my expectations of what God's healing might mean for me.  It might not include an instant and drastic miracle with satisfying before and after photos.  It may not even look like a steady improvement between what I was and what I will be.  God's ministry to me may hurt, it may require deeper faith, it may demand a higher level of humility, discipline, or inter-dependence with others.  God may not give me easy solutions to a complex issues because my journey to wholeness may bear more fruit over the long haul than in the short term.  And while I believe that we will be made whole in the blinking of an eye at Christ's triumphant return, perhaps it is more important in this life to follow in faith the wisdom of an eternally Great Physician than to be set on experiencing the perfect health we're so intent on achieving.

Lean On Me

"Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" Gal. 6:2

In the church, we like to appear as if we have it together.  I've never seen a place where it's more important to people to APPEAR perfect.  The reasoning ends up something like this - If Christians have come into contact with the God who desires us to be whole and who is capable of anything, then it only makes sense that we should be "put together" if we have put our faith in Him.  If we appear that we are not "put together", it would not only reflect our failure in faith, but perhaps even God's failure to make us whole.  So even when we are broken, lacking, and mired in life's struggles, we choose to look like Jack and Jill the perfect church-going saints of the neighborhood.
This flawed approach to our self-presentation within the church is not only dishonest, it stops short the power of grace in our lives.  The scriptures are clear:  we are sinners, weak and poor, in need of a strong and righteous God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.  This fundamental identity as needy and dependent people who are redeemed by the Savior is the basis for being members in the church of God.  The point at which our neediness for and dependency on God becomes masked by a masquerade of normalcy is the point at which we remove ourselves from the penetrating reach of transformative grace.  But when we come in the raw - placing our insufficiencies, insecurities, and indiscretions before others who bear the same - we leave room for divine love to redeem and save.  To bear one another's burdens suggests that we all have burdens and that the purpose of the church is to have a place - not to hide or deny them - but to share them.  This can only be done in the context of a community of trust, respect, and mutual knowledge of the endless affection of an eternal God.  But when it is done, when we lean on the Spirit of Christ in one another, we experience a release from the bondage of having to maintain a false sense of achievement and an invitation to the freedom of boasting in nothing but Christ crucified.  Not only that, but we become an image of the invisible God to a world where masks are more naturally displayed than the truth of our faces.

Please swallow your pride
If you have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show

Power Made Perfect

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Could it be that God can use my weakness more effectively than my strength?  That it is actually through the exercising of my weaknesses that I develop a true dependence upon the ability of the God rather than the ability of myself?  That what God asks of me is not to be good at anything but relying completely on Him?

Recently, I've felt a strong calling to work on things in life and ministry that I am simply not good at doing.  I sense a divine urging to pursue ends that require gifts and strengths that I lack.  I am not good at following an effort through from beginning to end.  I'm not good at building personal relationships past the surface using my own initiative.  God is calling me to follow some things through and to build some relationships beyond the surface.  The thing is, if I were to answer that call and follow that urging, I would either need to be given gifts that I do not currently posses, or watch God accomplish what I cannot naturally accomplish myself.  I am uncomfortable with this.  I enjoy doing things I'm good at that come to me without much effort.  What I would rather do is play off of my strengths: work to make the environment ripe for me to accomplish things out of my power rather than my weakness.  I don't want to deal with the frustration, impatience, and discipline that come with doing things I'm not particularly good at.  

Spiritually, this line of reasoning translates that I would rather be dependent upon myself than upon God.  Whether I do something because it's easy for me to do or because I'm forcing myself to do it, I'm not depending on God.  The only way I can move into obedience is to enter the trenches of faith and have the active trust to rely on God with every step.  If I'm called to follow through on some tasks or relationships better, the key is not pressing my will into action - it's meeting the Spirit of empowerment in a way that will allow God's power to be made perfect in my weakness.  This looks like prayer.  It looks like partnering with people who stretch and teach me to rely on God.  It means being willing to humble myself and wait for God to work according to God's own prerogative.   

One Simple Aim

Life becomes much more manageable for me when I simplify my priorities.  Over the past few months, I have been finding my way toward one simple aim (really two in one):  To please Him and to find pleasure in Him.  To simplify all of my efforts and pursuits to this is to truly walk a way of peace.  Two of the most basic human motives  are to find pleasure and to please others.  But when I try to please myself with anything that is not eternal, I am disappointed.  When I seek after those things which have the power to destroy life or those things that cannot continually sustain life, I eventually find myself needing repair or wanting more.  It isn't fair to me or to the things (or people) I seek to expect from them something that only God can provide.  The same can be said for that desire to please others.  Surely, I can make people feel good or satisfied on some ultimately superficial level, but I can never give them that which will quench their deepest human thirsts.  The kinds of troubles that result from seeking satisfaction from and for anything but God are manifold.  In short, they will always leave us hallow, wanting, and frustrated.  But when we become single minded in our goal to find pleasure in the reality of our Creator, and when we endeavor to please our maker in every effort, we begin to taste the fruit that was made to satisfy.  To be pleased by God is to find His mercies in all things, but to never forget that they originate in Him.  The beauty of my wife and child are His beauty.  The fill of a feast at mealtime come from His grace and creativity.  The belly laugh among friends comes from His creation in us alone.  We can find all of our pleasure in God.  Likewise we can please Him in all things.  When we serve our neighbor we do it to serve the one God.  When we order and maintain our lives in the most mundane activities, we do so for the love of Christ.  By the very living of life, we choose to honor the giver of every good gift.  There truly is wholeness in simplicity.  To find our pleasure in the Lord and to please Him with every step, is to know the fullness of life.  Indeed, heaven itself will consist of nothing less than finding our ultimate satisfaction in God and giving ourselves back in return.
 

God Is Jealous For You

"I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God" Exodus 20:5

Jealousy is perhaps the most intimate of emotions.  One cannot be jealous for something or someone they do not feel personally belongs to them in some way.  For God to say that He is Jealous for you implies that He feels that you belong to Him.  This belonging is personal.  Jealousy is not something we can theologize or turn into doctrine, it is a raw feeling of zeal and pursuit between the lover and the beloved.  Don't forget the connotation that jealousy has in our minds today.  There is no doubt that it is as corruptible as anger or desire.  But in almost every case I can think of where jealousy is bad, it has begun to overrun the reality of a situation.  Like when a man or woman becomes so possessive of another person that they become blinded to the truth of their love.  But what if, in a relationship of deep love and commitment, true infidelity were a chronic and frequent behavior?  What if the lover watched with their own eyes the beloved turn to rival lovers time and time again.  Wouldn't jealousy be the only natural response to such blatant disregard for a promise of love and faithfulness?  This, I believe is where God's comment about His own character is immortally burned on the world famous 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20.  God is jealous because he holds out the hope and expectation that vows are to be kept.  Like when someone says in prayer "Oh God, thank you for saving me, I give my whole life to you.  You are my Lord"  and then turns around and allows ANYTHING else to dictate their behavior and attitudes.  God should be jealous!  God's love, affection, and personal desire for us would be either shallow or cold if he were not jealous when we found our hope, life, and salvation in things other than himself.  I, for one, often make the mistake of assuming such a ridiculous possibility about our God: That God's love for me is like the love an assembly line worker has for yet another product rather than the love a lover has for the beloved.  The truth is this: God is so personally attached to me being in an ongoing, faithful relationship with Him that when I disregard that relationship or make it play second fiddle to anything else, He becomes fiercely jealous.  God is jealous for you.  Are you taking your relationship with Him seriously enough?

 

Lets Be Real

Some of the most amazing moments of musical worship that I have ever experienced take place while I'm driving in my car.  I can sing with abandon, tears streaming down my cheeks as I reflect upon the abiding goodness of God.  But almost without fail, when another vehicle approaches my drivers side window, I quickly gather myself and act as if I'm not having a powerfully authentic meeting with the maker of the universe in my vehicle.  Apparently, it is more important for me to appear "normal" to strangers than to exhibit any real vulnerability and uniqueness.  This is just one of countless examples of how my social inhibitions relegate the Spirit of Christ that is within me.  Another example occurs in my daily interactions with acquaintances and casual friends.  I have often longed to share with someone, anyone, what is going on within my soul during times of intense inner-stirrings only to respond to the question "how are you?" with "fine...small talk, small talk, small talk".  Its gotten to the point that I'm sick of trying to whitewash my raw humanity.  I realize that I am not the only one who lives my life with such bland, surface dwelling interactions with the world outside my closest friends and relatives.  This is how I was trained to act around people.  But what if the Christian's most ripe opportunities to proclaim the Good News with their lives came at these moments?  What if by our attempts to appear radically un-extraordinary, we were denying others insight into our human struggles and revelations that often unveil the incarnate presence of God?  I would invite you to try with me the bold exercise of being who you truly are.  Not to annoy or inconvenience others but to stand out as a witness to them of your need for, and insights about deeper realities.  For the truth is that God is moving in the hearts and lives of His people far more powerfully than most of us have the guts to reveal to the world.  Perhaps the very way you or someone else will experience hope, humanity, grace, or mercy is by watching you be courageously real.  Give it a shot and pay attention to what happens. 

Downsizing the Church

If the mainstream church in the United States is going to actually thrive in the next generation it will need to drastically downsize.  Most of the Christians that I know want the church to grow.  They are willing to reach new people and try new ministries.  They may even be willing to spend more energy, time, and money to experience the gospel among new people.  What I haven't seen a readiness to downsize their church experience.  There is a blind expectation that we (the institutionalized mainline church) can both reach the "unchurched" AND remain who we are: A cruise ship designed to provide the very best religious and social experience possible: A great staff that runs great programs and professional quality worship on a great campus.  If the mainstream (middle class) church actually reaches people unlike them, there will be no sustainable way to maintain that kind of lifestyle.  Granted, some churches will be called by God to reach out to other persons who have similar tastes and abilities to finance such an experience.  But most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, will hear the commission to go to "all people" which will include not only those who are unable to afford capital campaigns but also those who are socially intimidated by walking into a building nicer than the nicest homes in their town.
 Let me take the example of how my denomination likes to start new churches.  We like to spend a few hundred thousand dollars up front to help a church pay a few staff members, rent a space to worship, and provide programs/supplies for its ministries.  Over five years the hope is that the church will develop a giving base that can sustain the purchase of a property, the building of a church, and the expansion of a staff.  The goal is to make more churches that look like the ones we all want to become: coffee bars, digital signs, and beautiful spaces for worship and classes.  Most of the time it just ain't gonna happen.  Can we learn to downsize our church experience and be okay with just God and our sisters and brothers in Christ?  Would you still go to church if there were no organ, rockin praise band, or air conditioned rooms with padded seats?  Could you be a part of a growing church that didn't have a huge VBS set and ski trips for the youth?  The future of your church may depend on your answer.  

The Kingdom Virus

From Wikipedia: A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Most viruses are too small to be seen directly.

"Virus" has become an almost entirely negative term.  Viruses kill, destroy, and steal life.  But what if a virus could enhance life?  Imagine for a moment that there was a virus we wanted to catch.  A disease that would heal, transform, and strengthen.  This virus would be something that could only be passed if you came into contact with an infected individual or colony.  The more aggressive the infection was in the individual you encountered, the more likely you would be to catch it yourself.  Now imagine the possibility of an outbreak: everywhere you went, there was the chance of transmitting the virus.  Aggressively infected individuals were in public places displaying symptoms of their condition.  Over time, entire communities would have the virus within them, affecting them, transforming them one cell at a time.  Such a scenario may be too hard for you to enjoy picturing, but in many ways, it's what I believe the church is called to be: a colony of those aggressively infected by the person of Jesus Christ who go out into the world to infect others.  Over the years, we in the north american church have done a tremendous job of safely containing something that is meant to be wildly contagious.  We keep it to ourselves, we allow symptoms to arise only at certain times and locals, and we do little to allow it to deepen its impact on our lives.  God's intention is for the church to be a movement of faith, hope, and love that spreads across the earth.  And while there is a frantic search for such things among the masses, Christians can't seem to allow the infection they've caught by grace to do what it does best: Multiply and transform.  The key I believe is first creating an environment where the person of Jesus Christ is able to thrive within it's hosts, our lives.  We then become so overwhelmingly inundated and overcome throughout our being by Jesus Christ that wherever we go, He cannot be withheld.  This happens through authentic practice of His presence and sharing life with others who carry Him in themselves.  If Christ's Spirit is in its very essence contagious, what is keeping your communities from being infected and changed for the Kingdom of God?  Are you managing the power of the Almighty in your life through religion, self-will, or sin?  

     

The Power of Small

"And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons." Mark 3:14-15

What would it mean to adopt a Christ-like method of faith community?  It would mean spending our lives completely enmeshed in the lives of others.  Sharing every meal, traveling every road, spending every night - together.  Christ choose the most relationally intensive method of community possible to spread the good news.  And while he taught workshops and offered free healing and feeding parties to thousands, the ones who carried the message were the ones who shared every moment with him for three years.  They knew one another in the raw.  They were familiar with one another's vices, problems, unique gifts, and idiosyncrasies.  They shared their pasts, their fears, and their hopes with full disclosure.  While this might not look like the best business model on paper, its really the only way to do discipleship.  The only biblical way to teach and equip people to become agents for the gospel is to draw them into meaningful, committed relationship of intentional faith development.  Disciples aren't accidents.  They are people who others have poured themselves into with love and faithfulness.  These kinds of relationships don't happen on Sunday mornings where hundreds or even dozens gather to listen to special musicians and speakers.  It doesn't even happen in bible studies that people attend every few weeks in smaller gatherings.   The model that Jesus set included twelve people who spent every waking moment with him for several years.  I often find people wanting to grow in their faith in a way that won't disrupt the rest of their lives.  They want to attend a class that will "introduce them to the bible" or they want to become involved in a ministry that will "give them a chance to serve".  There is nothing wrong with these endeavors, but they will rarely result in disciples.  Knowing other Christians won't make you a better Christian.  Worshiping next to other Christians won't in and of itself draw you into the depth of faith.  The best way to become all that Christ wants you to be is to learn and share consistently, vulnerably, and frequently with the "Body of Christ" through some kind of small fellowship.

"Oh Lord, your first disciples left everything to follow you.  If you are calling me to a deeper relationship with you, give me the strength to make the kind of commitment I need to make.  Put a desire in my heart to grow in you above all things.  In Christ's name.  Amen"

Knowing the Supernatural

My wife woke me early wednesday morning with an intense look on her face.  "Ray, come here. You have to come see this".  I followed her to the window in our bathroom and this is what we looked at together.  From where we stood, it looked like a 90 foot illumined cross standing in our neighbors front yard.  That night, before I went to bed, I had asked God for an increase in faith.  This was yet another powerful "sign" in a string of supernatural happenings in my life this month.  It turns out that we had a full moon that night and in that particular moment this is the way it shined through our bathroom window.  It was also God showing off.  Please keep in mind, I've been "demysticized" by the modern seminary experience.  I'm an educated theologian that has learned that every story of the supernatural can carry symbolic meaning for a deeper purpose.  I've often heard stories "less educated" Christians share about encounters with God that are supernatural and I think to myself "I'm sure that is true on some critical narrative level".  But I'm coming to believe that sometimes, God just chooses to do some crazy things in our everyday experience to encourage us and get our attention.  God's character is to be active through deeds of redemption, transformation, salvation, and liberation in people's lives.  That often happens in hidden, invisible, and subtle ways.  But sometimes, God wrecks shop.  Sometimes, God does things in our natural experience that are beyond our expectations and understanding so that we might know divine power and love.  This early morning sign of God's love through my bathroom window is an encouragement from God to me.  God is encouraging me to expect more from him, to stop limiting, boxing-in, and compartmentalizing him in my neat little sections of existence.  My God is too big, too creative, and too willing to be known to be limited by my concepts and religious knowledge.  I want to know the God who exists beyond my understanding and explorations.  I want to know the supernatural God.

"Lord, I love it when you blow me away.  I am so glad that you reveal yourself in ways that make me feel small.  In those moments, my faith increases, and I hope anew for your Spirit to do mighty things in my life, in the church, and in the world.  Keep showing off I pray through the name of the incarnate deity, Amen".  

Leaning Hard on the Spirit

"Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28
  
   I am truly alive when I lean hard on the Spirit.  When I live trusting that God is real and powerful and willing to work in and through me, I experience true freedom.  Each circumstance and moment that I place in the capable will and love of God is sanctified and emboldened by Him.  To lean is to rest, to depend, to transfer burden and weight onto another.  To lean is to take some of the pressure to stand off of yourself.  Conversely, any and every moment, interaction, challenge, and task that I do not trust Christ with becomes an opportunity for my flesh to reign in fear, uncertainty, insecurity, and strife.  To not lean is to allow all of the pressure, strain, and weight to be my sole burden and responsibility.  But because I do not want others to know that I'm depending on myself and not on the Spirit of Christ, I've learned to lean on Christ as if he were made of cardboard.  Gingerly, hesitantly. always making sure I'm there with my own energy and wisdom as a back up in case there is any moment when he looks like he can't pull it through.  It is time for me to be honest with myself:  Faith is not just knowing God is there.  Faith is throwing all of my weight on the promise that God will reign in and through my life in every moment I submit to Him.
     The church of the last century has done a great job making faith into an easy thing.  "Just say these words and you'll reach the fullness of God's intention for you! Speak the sinners prayer and you've arrived on the mountain".  No.  A prayer of confession and trust in forgiveness is only the beginning.  The gospel calls us to lay down ALL things before Christ.  I want to lean hard on the Spirit of God!  I desire each moment to be a new adventure in witnessing first hand the character and particular power of the Creator in my life!  When we lean hard on the Spirit, he can do more with us.  When we hold back, leaning on our own power and will, there is less for God to work with.  The level at which I trust God with my life is the level at which I experience God's power and love in my life.

"Oh God, forgive me for leaning too hard on my own strength.  Its not working for me very well.  I am tired and beat up because of it.  I want to lean fully on your grace.  I want to put all of the weight of my life in your care so you can do things that only you can do. Help me to trust you, through the power of the Faithful One, Jesus Christ. Amen."        

Seeking The Word

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." John 1:14

Most of us wonder if God really has something to say to us.  Something that will have an impact on our lives.  If we conclude that God may have some word to share with us, we then wonder what it is we must accomplish in order to hear what he has to say.  Must we be silent for hours and listen for a whisper buried deep in our minds?  Must we learn the "god" language so we can understand?  Must we find some key to open some door that will lead us to some message?  I have tried all of these things in a diligent effort to have the chance to hear a word that is really from God for me.  But what if a word from the Lord was not as hard to hear as we thought?  What if it was nearer to us than we imagined?  What if God has already done the leg work to meet you where you are and speak right into your ear?  "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."  The truth is that God's word - his heart, expression, outpouring character, thoughts, and personal feelings - have broken right into our present reality.  God has translated himself into our language.  Not only that, God has then come in familiarity and permanently put himself at arm's length from you.  God is not a fleeting hidden code that slips through the fingers only once pursued for a lifetime.  God is not like the great wild mountain bull elk reclusive in the craggy peaks of a distant land.  No wonder most of us don't live our lives as if God was speaking to us in every moment!  We understand his word as a diamond in the rough! And while God's word is no less precious than the finest jewel, it is more like the air you breath.  Right there.  And yet we chase, struggle, and exasperate ourselves, usually opting to only seek it in the most dire circumstances when a journey like that will be worth it.  In Jesus Christ, the word of God has entered our very experience and existence.  God has taken the fullness of eternity, presented it in our likeness and then placed it in our own neighborhood.  And then we operate daily as if such a tremendous treasure wasn't even there.  May we never again wonder if God wants to speak to us.  And may we be careful not to focus our eyes beyond the truth that stares back at us only inches away.  Everything about your life matters to God.  Would you like to know what God has to say to you about it? Reach out, listen, and believe in the God that speaks.

"Loving Father, you are closer to me than my own skin.  You've humbled yourself through your son to be here with me and speak your word of life in my every circumstance.  I want to hear you now and listen to the sweetness of your voice my whole life long.  Through Christ I pray, Amen."

        

Freedom of Humility

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" James 4:6

To humble oneself is to become free.  Long ago, Adam and Eve took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to become like God.  This was an entering into bondage and oppression to sin.  This desire to become like God by knowing good and evil is a fundamental hinderance to experiencing fullness of life.  God made us to be dependent, needy, and ignorant.  Not because He wanted us to be weak or powerless, but because when we stand in proper relationship to an almighty and all knowing God, that is what we are and should be.  Whenever we seek to be independent, to need nothing but ourselves, and to know all things, we jeopardize that intended relationship with God.   We build our existence on lies rather than the truth.  This sets us up for tragedy.  To trust in that which is mortal, perishable, limited, and failing is to build my house on that which will - in due time and under due pressure - crumble to the ground.  It is to place my bet on a horse that cannot even finish the race without injury to self and others.  You see, God intends us to be dependent, needy, and ignorant because his plan is to provide us with everything we need.  Not that we would posses it for ourselves but that we might find it in him and thereby be in fellowship with him.  Dependence, neediness, and ignorance are only negative terms for those who have no provider, no lover and no teacher!  There was one person who had for himself all independence, who needed nothing at all from any creature, and who knew all things in heaven and earth.  He is the Messiah.  And yet in Jesus Christ we find one who chose to humble himself in the form of a slave.  Let's be real with ourselves: all have taken from the tree and all have pursued self-sufficiency and endless knowledge.  There is no going back.  But like Christ, we can chose humility.  Just as we chose self over God and others, we can choose to spiritually cover ourselves in sackcloth and ashes and to repent.  We can resolve to know nothing and need no one but Christ himself.  We can take on the attitude that Christ adopted, that though he was in the form of God he did not count it as something to be exploited but humbled himself (Phil. 2).  By choosing humility we come closest to realizing the perfect relationship with God, self, and others that our Creator originally desired.  We free ourselves from the tyranny of being right, of taking care of ourselves, and of being responsible for determining good and evil in every situation.  By choosing humility we open our lives to the possibility of being provided for by the one who lacks nothing, of being taught in every moment by the maker of all things, and of receiving constant affection by the lover of our lives.

"Almighty God, I have chosen to try and be god over my own life and other's lives as well.  I have been more arrogant than I know by pursuing self-reliance, perfect knowledge, and independence apart from you.  Forgive me for wasting my life in such ways.  I long for the likeness of your son to reign in me through the power of my baptism.  I long to be in relationship with you the way you intend.  Amen."      

Practicing His Presence

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" Psalm 122:1

I don't spend enough time being aware of God's presence.  In fact, I probably spend under 5% of my waking day enjoying the fact that my maker, my provider, my savior, my friend, and the lover of my soul is waiting to spend one on one time with me.  Imagine if I spent that little time with my computer or my phone!  I'd never get anything done! Imagine if I spent that much waking time with my wife!  Our marriage would be falling apart!  Imagine if I spent that little time doing chores around the house!  Our place would be a mess!  And yet somewhere inside of me is the idea that I can get by with spending such a tiny amount of my day with Jesus and have him still be my Lord.  I just won't happen.  Don't hear me wrong, this isn't about duty or holy obligation.  This has nothing to do with religious activity.   It is nothing less than a matter of life and death. The fact is that my soul is wasting away without it's source.  My heart is not beating without its first love.  My being is starving without its bread of life.  I cannot live without practicing his presence.  It would be one thing if being in the presence of my God was virtually impossible for me.  On Mount Saini, Moses had to hide his face from the Lord and only the high priest could enter the holiest place where God's presence dwelt.  Elijah waited in the cleft of the mountain for the Lord to pass by for just a moment.  The Psalmist longs to make the journey to experience God's presence at the Temple for a short pilgrimage.  Experiencing the actual presence of the Almighty has historically been a rare and dangerous endeavor, something that most people would never undergo.  But this is not the case for me.  Because of Jesus Christ, my God is constantly accessible.  I can sit with him, talk with him, listen to him, and be held by him all of the time.  I have no excuse.  He is more available than my computer or phone, more ready to listen than my friends or family, more patient and compassionate than even my wife.  But he gets 5%.

"Oh God, you are here with me now.  You are always available in your infinite love for me.   I don't want to close my awareness off to you anymore.  I want to be with you now and stay with you.  For I am alive in your midst.  Life is but a fleeting longing when I ignore your presence.  I will draw near to you now..."

Standards for Successful Church

"But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love." 1 Thessalonians 3:6a

What makes a church successful?  What makes them stand apart from other churches?  Is it outstanding programs and ministries?  Tremendous growth trends?  Increases in pledges and monetary giving? Professions of faith and baptisms? Missional activity? Paul sent one of his finest, Timothy, to check in on the church at Thessalonica.  It was an audit of sorts.  He was worried that the fellowship there may have faltered a bit due to all of the difficult times.  Thankfully, Timothy came back with a wonderful report! Membership had increased 10% since Paul was last there!  Adult baptisms were way up from the previous year!  To cap it off, the Thessalonians were starting a new building program that would house new youth ministries! No. There were two things Paul was hoping he would find in the church in Thessalonica in order to deam his mission there a success.  Faith and Love.  Thats it.  These are the two things that led Paul to name this church his "glory" and "crown of boasting" (2:19).  Above all things they displayed faith in God and love for God and one another.  If this is what the scripture clearly tells us is the highest calling of the Church of Jesus Christ, why are we spending our energy, resources, and time doing anything else?  Could it be that God has priorities for His church that we have deemed too simple for our ambitions?  Are we after something other than His desires?  The time has come (and has always been) for those who call themselves the Church to focus on what really matters: The heart of Christ that commands us to love God and one another through faith in him.  If we do not occupy ourselves on this first thing, than we can never expect to have "all these things given to you as well" (Matt 6:33).  Once again, we've got it backward.  We think that if we "get them in the door, get them involved, and get them to give" we'll have a lasting church!  Yet it seems all people like the Apostle Paul seem to care about is that our faith would become famous among neighboring countries and that our love for God and one another would sound forth to the edge of planet (1:8).  Want more from church?  Share faith and love with someone today.

"Oh God, I have spent so much time and energy on the wrong things.  I've modeled my christian life after the world's aims and methods rather than learning from your word.  Call me again to the simple truth of your gospel.  It was love that rescued me and love that the world needs.  Help be to live with such faith in this moment.  Amen."

The Time Has Come

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news." Mark 1:15

We live in a culture of next.  I've spent the first 28 years of my life preparing for what is next. If I float along with the mainstream, I'll spend the next 28 preparing for something else.  We are perpetually "on our way" to a destination we never arrive at.  The church is no different.  Christians are always working to become more holy, educated, sanctified.  We need to feel more, do more, know more in order to really live the Christian life out.  We'll really be able to live out the Kingdom once the secular world straightens up!  Once we get our country back on track then we can live out the Kingdom of God!  Biblical culture will have nothing to do with this unholy "next".  The New Testament it is always about what is now.  The gospels tell us that Jesus preached a simple message: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news." Since Jesus has come, there is no waiting for something else.  All that has needed to occur and take place has occurred and taken place in him.  There is nothing more lacking, no loose ends that need to be tied up for the Kingdom of God to intersect with who and where we are right now.  It has been accomplished.  God's intention is possible for our lives, communities and world because he sent Jesus to usher in the Kingdom.  There is nothing else that needs to happen.  If you repent and believe you don't have to be more holy, educated or sanctified to live in the Kingdom.  If you repent and believe you are ready even if the secular world and the public schools are not.  If you repent and believe in Jesus Christ there is nothing more that needs to be done for the Kingdom of God to crash into your world and make its residence.  It's heartbreaking to think that the very message that Jesus himself sought to proclaim in his earthly ministry is one that is too radically simple for us to accept as Christians.  We get it backwards.  We try and make everything ready in our lives, our jobs, our homes, our families, and our country so that there will be room for Jesus.  But Jesus didn't come so that we'd get everything satisfactory for him.  He came because we couldn't get anything satisfactory for ourselves.  He came so that wherever our lives, jobs, homes, families, and countries are we would turn to him, repent and believe.  I am worn out of trying to get my life ready for Jesus when he came at just the right time - when I was still a sinner to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  What is stopping you from living out the Kingdom now?  What are you waiting for?  All that needs to be accomplished has been fulfilled in Christ.  Repent, believe, and live as a citizen of the Kingdom that will never pass away.

"Sovereign God, you are the loving ruler of a Kingdom that is not of this world.  In your son, you have brought that Kingdom here where we are so that we might live as it's citizens today.  Forgive me for missing the point.  Help me to have trust in Christ as the fulfillment of all that is needed so that I can live out that Kingdom that reigns forever.  Amen."

Love Above All

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1.

     Psalm 136 lists 26 examples of why God's love endures forever.  Each example is followed by the chorus "His love endures forever". The examples include God's major actions in human history up to the point when the Psalm was written.  For me, the point of the psalm is simple: God does everything because he loves.  He created in order that he might have the opportunity to share love.  Every action, thought, and impulse God has toward humanity is based in love.  Power, justice, goodness, compassion, wrath, discipline, holiness...they all are rooted in love.  There is no other single concept that could so scandalously be synonymous with divinity (1 John 4:8).
     But these facts cannot seem to purge my consciousness of the notion that God may be rooted in something else.  Like power, or justice, or expectations on my life.  Lets be honest, I forget that God loves me.  Not in a theological sense, but in the way that I relate to him on a daily basis.  I forget that everything that happens to me happens in the sight of a God who loves me.  I forget that love is not rooted in my productivity as a disciple or my growth as a pastor.  It isn't based on my success as a father or my compassion as a husband.  God's love for me is not contingent upon how hard I try or how many people I share his mercy with.  It doesn't depend on what other people think of me or my hidden thoughts that I want no one to know about.  God's love for me doesn't end because I sometimes don't want to be loved or because I live like one unloveable.  It doesn't cease because I screw up or give up or stop up.  It doesn't quit because it becomes weary of loving me or because it finds something more easy to love somewhere else. No.  God is love. And that fact has nothing to do with me.
     God loves me because it is his essence and character.  God loves because he created to love.  Period.  That is why the psalmist repeats the phrase 26 times.  Maybe he or she forgot too.  No matter what God does in our lives and in human history, we can follow it with the promise "his love endures forever."  We cannot change the fact that God loves us.  But we can live in the freedom that comes with trusting that love defines our relationship with him above all else.  Try and believe that.  One day at a time.

"Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go,  today your love is reality.  May everything else fade away.  Only then can I begin to live in the fullness of your intention.  With my tiny heart and life...I love you too."

Question to readers: What notion of God gets in the way of knowing his love for you more perfectly?

For me: putting the idea that he expects a lot from me ahead of his pure love.  

The Daily Display

"For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh" 2 Corinthians 4:11.

I have often longed for the Christian life to work differently than it does.  If I were in charge, we would be able to die once to the old life of sin and death, never to face the pains of its existence again.  We would die to the human will of selfishness, insecurity, and pride and we would continue on in this life only in the life of Jesus.  If things worked this way, every Christian would appear radically different to the world!  We would be truly set-apart in the eyes of those who seek life! More importantly we would not have to ever taste the bitterness of having to hurt ourselves and the ones we love.  Alas, I am not in charge of this Christian journey and its inner-workings.  No, I am not God.  God has us being given up to death for Jesus' sake always.  That means that each day, each moment, our lives are meant to be a living testimony of the power of Christ's death.  Our weakness, our vices, our tempers, our prejudices, our nastiest thoughts and actions all speak to the world (and to us) the great need for Jesus on the cross!  Each time I display my broken humanity as a Christian, I am exemplifying once again why God sent his son to suffer and die!  The rub here comes in this fact - Christ did not stay dead.  He is no longer on the cross.  He rose from the grave in victory and lives today with with Father in power.  Had Christ stayed on the cross, our faith would be void of its power.  Yes, Jesus had to die on that tree, but he could not stay there.  For neither death nor sin has the victory over him.  Likewise, we do not only display the death of Jesus in our bodies.  Each time we are given up to death for Jesus' sake the ultimate purpose is that the life of Jesus would be made visible in us.  This is where dead stones become living stones.  This is where someone goes from being an example of why Jesus bled to an example of why Jesus rose.  When we allow the power of his death to bring about the power of his life in us, then we are truly sharing fully in our savior.  So it is indeed proper that I will daily exemplify through my existence the reason that Christ died.  This is always a cause for grief.  But I will always display the glory of a forgiven and sanctified sinner who lives the very righteousness and power of Christ in my mortal body.  And this is always a reason for great rejoicing.

"Thank you Lord that the Christian life does not work as I wished it did.  For you give me the opportunity each day to share in the life and death of your son Jesus Christ.  Each time I display my brokenness, may it be a witness of Jesus' crucifixion so that when I am renewed and redeemed again your life might shine through even me.  Only by your power, Lord, only by your power.  Amen."

The Good Shepherd

"Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out...I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgement." Ezekiel 34:11,16

I love it when God takes matters into His own hands. God's people had demanded that they be able to lift up human leaders so they could be like the rest of the nations. God allowed this, anointing kings and calling prophets to the task. But most prophets and kings cared little about how God desired His people to be led. They cared about the same things most people care about - power, popularity, and filling the bellies of their own families even at the expense of others. This led to a pattern of horrible leadership that bred social injustice, greed, and oppression, not to mention the blasphemy of sinful people using God's name to promote their own agendas. This passage in Ezekiel exhibits that God so loves His people and so desires that they be led to eternal life that He refuses to allow humans to lead them astray. "Enough of this! I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out! I will bring back the ones who have run far away because of your corrupt leadership, I will mend the backs you've broken under the weight of economic and social oppression, I will revitalize the ones you've stolen livelihood and self-worth from, and those who have benefited from the injustice against my people, I will give you the chance to seek my mercy by filling your lives with the destruction you've brought on the vulnerable." This scenario plays itself out time and again in our world. This is not a biblical story isolated to Ezekiel's day. We demand human leaders whom we can lift up and follow only to find ourselves time and again beneath their feet. Let me be clear that I am not blasting big government or the heavy hand of politicians. I am trying to point out a culture that puts its hope in sinners rather than the everlasting God of love. Even when we subscribe to this culture God's voice speaks clear into the darkness we've had a hand in creating. God takes matters into His own hands, seeking the scattered, binding the broken, healing the sick. But God doesn't stop with those who've been victimized by the powerful. He also comes to us when we're they ones who've exploited others in an effort to satisfy our insatiable appetite for power, worldly wealth, and fading glory. He loves us too by bringing us back to the place where we are in need of a Shepherd who's in the business of lifting up the lowly.

"Lord, you are the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. I give you thanks for finding me when I was far away, for healing and strengthening me and even for humbling me when I have sinned against you and your people. Forgive me for seeking other shepherds and for trying to take your place as one myself. Free me again to lie down in your green pastures I pray in Jesus name, Amen."

Ministry the Jesus Way

"As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people.' And immediately they left their nets and followed him." Mark 1:16-18.

There is a right way to do things.  The manner and method matters.  Christians have been getting the recruitment thing wrong for a long time.  Find ways to get people to come to church who haven't been, give them a positive experience during the service, follow up with a nice letter, hope they come back, maybe make a phone call, and give them a chance to walk to the front when they are ready to make a public commitment.  God has done amazing work with these efforts for many years despite the fact that they're completely unbiblical.  When it came to making disciples we have no record of Jesus ever inviting anyone to church.  He never closed his sermons with an alter call.   He didn't wait until after the synagogue gathering and bait the hook over coffee. The fact that he didn't do these things matters.  It means that those who call themselves followers of Jesus probably shouldn't be too concerned with doing them either.  Jesus was out for a walk among real people, took the initiative to go to Simon and Andrew's place of work and there on their turf came clean with his intentions.  Simon and Andrew then left their vocation and heeded his offer.  There are some major lessons here about how to do ministry the Jesus way.  First, doing ministry the Jesus way means being out in the world (not in the church) and going to where people are (not expecting them to come to you).  Second, doing ministry the Jesus way means being upfront about what your intentions are.  No gimmicks, no persuasion, just an honest offering of a serious proposal.  Third, doing ministry the Jesus way means accepting people's "yes" and their "no".  Andrew and Simon said yes.   Many, who had other things on their minds and hearts besides following Jesus, said "no" (e.g. Matthew 8:21-22).  Their "no" wasn't a rejection of Jesus but a statement that they weren't ready to accept the proposal in the full.  Doing ministry the Jesus way is about authenticity, personal relationships, and mutual commitment.  In my experience doing ministry in the way of the institutional church can be just the opposite. Not always transparent, somewhat pressured, and often impersonal.  Two thousand years later, this is not a better way.  The church has not evolved.  For all those seeking to live the Christian life, it is crucial that we do ministry in the way of Jesus.          

"Oh Lord, you came to earth to seek and save that which was lost.  Thank you for not waiting for us to do the impossible and come to you.  Teach me what it means to live and love in the Spirit of your son Jesus.  Give me the courage and commitment to take the risks that are necessary to do ministry the way he has taught me to.  I pray trusting in the power of His name.  Amen."

Peace be with you

"When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said 'Peace be with you.'" John 20:19.

For most of my life, peace has eluded me.  Know, of course, that I am not alone.  Because of the fall, our default condition is not peace but chaos.  Within us rages a constant swirl of confusion and dis-ease which we spend our energies and time trying to cover, ignore, and mask.  There are more ways to turn our faces away from the reality of the chaos within us than there are people on this planet.  I know because I have several ways unique to me.  Think about it.  If you weren't reading this, watching TV, eating every few hours, being sociable, staying busy, checking facebook, and occupying your time sleeping, what would you be doing?  You'd be going crazy.  I met a man several weeks ago who told me that he was on the verge of handing himself over to satan.  He was in a state of absolute turmoil and confusion.  Nothing he said made sense.  I asked him where he was living.  "I've been living in my van alone for the last 2 months".  No wonder he was going crazy!  He was left alone with the chaos that rages within each of us for 2 months! This wasn't a retreat he was on or a journey of self-actualization, he was running from his chaos right into the thick of it.  Indeed, if any of us peel back the layers of stimulation, productivity, self-medication, and mind numbing activity that we have been trained to pursue, we will find a deadly storm within.  This inner-chaos becomes evident to us when these layers deteriorate or we are shaken enough in our lives to allow the deep rumblings to find a crack and reveal themselves.  Usually, when we sense this unrest we find a way to cover our discomfort with new layers, only heaping more band-aids on a gaping wound that won't stop bleeding.  That is where Jesus comes in.  "Peace be with you".  Can you hear his voice speaking that to your unrest, your chaos, pain, and confusion? "Shalom Aleichem".  That's more of what it sounded like when Jesus said this common Hebrew term.  It's super loaded language (like most hebrew), but I like to think of it as, "Posses completeness.  Lack nothing of your inner longings.  Peace" I need Jesus to say those words to me.  Like a scared disciple locked in a room of limited existence I need him to face me and speak those words to my chaos.  "Peace be with you."  Medications with brutal side effects that treat the symptoms of a disease are a waste of time and money when the cure is standing right in front of you. 

"Oh Lord, I have covered my need for you with countless layers of thin lies so I can make it through the day believing I have peace.  I'd rather really have peace than to keep appearing like I do.  Give me the strength to peer within myself and be honest about my dis-ease.  Speak your word of "Shalom" to me now.....I receive it by your grace...Amen"

The Father's Love

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is because it did not know him." 1 John 3:1.

I am unworthy to be called a father.  After all, the one who fulfills the term "father" was the one who creates each child and gives up His son that we might have life.  "Father", in its purest form is perfect love, and there is no man who is worthy of such a title (Matthew 23:9).  And yet God has chosen to call men like me to become fathers.  He has given the unworthy the greatest gift and responsibility: the care of another life.  Twelve days into parenthood, I have already failed many times as a father.  I've been given glimpses of how destructive my shortcomings can be in the life of a little child.  All of this is too fearful and wonderful for me, that God would trust me with a little one like my son.  And then I think of those fathers who will fail more than I do by not being present, by being abusive, or by being cold.  And it dawns on me that though God gives children unto imperfect and broken men, God never relinquishes His own fatherhood over those children.  Even when I fail to be a father, God does not.  And then it dawns on me, that even when I am an imperfect father unworthy to bear the same title that He has defined in perfect love, I am still a child of God.  When I cannot be a father in the holiest sense of the word, and there will be many times when I cannot, it suffices to allow Him to be father to both my child and to me.  For I have seen myself more childish in parenting than I ever remember being as a boy.  What great freedom there is in the truth that our childhood in God the Father does not depend on us.  Rather, it depends on his great love that has been lavished upon us.  This is not a matter of activity but identity.  How wonderful that the worst case scenario is that God alone will be father of all!  So when I feel that I have failed in my behavior to attain the image of a father, I must remember that I have been made with Christ a child of The Father.  And there in that place I have some hope of allowing the likeness of God's son to live through me.  Only when I become a child of God can I be a father to my child.  The moment I forget who I am as God's is the moment it becomes impossible for me to be Abba.   For I am unworthy to be called daddy.  But I am undoubtably a son of the most high God.

"Oh God, thank you for sending your son so that I too might be able to call you Father.  Thank you for sending me little ones in my life to remind me that I am always your child.  Jesus reached the fullness of his purpose by simply being your son.  Help me to do the same, even to the end that I might be a father in your image.  Amen"

Go to the Gentiles

"Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.  When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles'" Acts. 18:5-6.

The established, institutional church (e.g. First United Methodist Church) today is the "Jews" of Jesus' and Paul's day.  Those religious folk who have a culturally motivated, in-group sense of what it means to be on God's team.  Thats the kind of person I grew up being.  I'm the Jew in this story.  The gentiles are those folks outside the religious institution.  The people who do not follow the cultural expectations and social club etiquette that the established church requires of its "members".  Gentiles are those outside the church's notion of what it means to be on God's team.  Paul was committed to giving the Jews a shot.  After all, they are God's chosen people! He preached the gospel to them first.  He preached it clearly, boldly and without apology.  He did not try and make it easier to swallow, follow, or accept.  He certainly did not mold its message to fit into the Jew's cultural worldview.  It seemed that each new town Paul went to, the Jews of the area were opposed to his message.  Probably because it required them to change their ideas, behaviors, and attitudes.  They were just fine as they were, they had the truth already, why did that need something else? Paul finally had enough of this.  He shook the dust from his clothes and said "From now on I will go to the Gentiles".  I'll go to those outside of the walls, those outside of Christian culture, those outside "church folk".  Thank God Paul did that.  Otherwise, there may be no church today.  The church has been, for 99% of its existence, a Gentile church.  The problem is, we've returned to a religious life that looks a lot like the "Jews" of that time.  And the gospel message - when it is preached clearly, boldly, and without apology is opposed and reviled by many church people.  We want a message that strokes our egos and makes us feel entitled, not one that causes us to question our priorities and calls us to repentance.  And at some point, God will call the Apostolic Spirit to move beyond this kind of church and reach out to the Gentiles of todays world: those who've rejected Christianity, those who Christians have rejected, and those who couldn't give two flips about the church.  Perhaps that is where the next revival will take place.  That is, of course, unless the established church today decides to receive the one true gospel and allow it to transform their lives with the fullness of its power.

"Oh God, you established the church just as you chose the Jewish people long ago.  But we are prone to wander far from your truth.  We become so busy building up our temples and churches and finding the right kind of people to put in them that we forget about your call on our lives.  We are more concerned with maintaining our little world than going out into the big world you commissioned us to serve.   Lord, I hope it is not too late for your church.  Help us to hear and receive the gospel so you don't move on to more unexpected, but willing people who know they are in need.  In Jesus name, Amen."

My Right Hand

"I keep the Lord always before me; because he as at my right hand I shall not be moved" Psalm 16:8.

The words of the psalmist are true.  I wish they were always true for me.  I do not always keep the Lord before me.  When I do, I am alive with the life of Christ, immovable by the drives of my flesh and the powers of the world.  The "right hand" refers to political and military support against foes.  The right hand is the primary blow, the strong force against the enemy.  The enemy, in my case, is the old self.  That person that I am without God.  Selfish, impatient, discontent, rude...the list goes on.  When I face that enemy with the Lord at my right hand, the battle isn't even fought.  The old self runs away with his tail between his legs.  When I fight that battle alone, without the Lord at my right hand, the enemy laughs with delight, for the battle has already been won in his favor.  This parenting thing has made it abundantly clear that I do not keep the Lord always before me and at my right hand.  Those first 3 days of Asher's life were a true test of where my life in Christ really is, and it was a test that showed me how far I have to go.  In the midst of an entirely new world run by a helpless and beautiful child I practically waived the white flag and let the old self make residence.  I was outside of my spiritual structure and strength, left to battle alone.  Needless to say, I ended up black and blue, with more than a few scars on my family as well, and all while the Lord waited for me to call upon Him to go before me and be my right hand.  Trying to fight any spiritual battle with my own spirit rather than the Spirit of God is a total joke.  But when the Lord is at my right hand, there leading the way and speaking truth, I am grounded in love and those things of the Spirit flow out of me.  You know: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Suddenly I'm not just a tolerable person who has moments of self-willed Jesus imitations.  I am naturally and freely Christ's own body to my son, my wife, and the world.

"Oh Lord, may the psalmists words be true every day of my life.  How I long to keep you always before me and at my right hand so that I will never be moved.  Thank you for showing me the futility of my self-will once more.  Thank you for being available to me again when I finally called on your name.  Through the risen Christ, please give me the wisdom to never leave your side, for there are important people around me who you have called me to love and serve by your power and in your name."    

God's Politics

"The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts" Psalm 46:6.

American Christians have lost their sense of where God belongs in human politics.  I'm not sure we ever had that sense in the first place.  We casually minimize Him so that He might fit into our narrow, selfish notions of what it means to make order out of chaos.  I've seen it from every side. A prideful insistence that God's way is my way.  God is often reduced to ammunition that we can use to fire upon those who disagree with us.  "The way I think the problems should be solved is the way God commands that they be solved".  This nonsense is idolatry defined.  God is not a pawn.  He cannot be contained into political ideology.  His solution to the world's problems between nations, people, and systems is not what we expect.  Palm Sunday and the cross prove that.  To think that God is pleased to see individuals or political parties win human battles against one another's sin soaked reasoning is immature faith.  God is way too big, far too powerful.  Every Christian sense of politics must begin with the idea that God is sovereign above every human power.  There was a time when God anointed kings and rulers to speak for Him.  Jesus fulfilled that line and still sits on the throne to this very day at the right hand of the Father.  Jesus is ruler, teacher, king, and ultimate authority.  All of that has been given to him by the supreme God.  God has a solution and an answer to every chaos the world faces.  It is His son.  This Christian's politics must first be Christ himself.  God's politics is not about morality, policy, parties, or individuals.  It is about the crucified Lamb.  Only then can we have any faithful sense of what it might mean to answer the call to respond to the chaos of the world and be agents of God's order.  

"Supreme God, I have been guilty of putting my faith in the way of sinners.  I agree with certain people's views and I hope to see them use power to make things the way I think they should be.  Forgive me.  Help me to see that you are above every power.  Show me what it means to allow Jesus to be more than my religious savior, but my social, economic, and political one as well.  May your voice speak to these broken nations, that we might melt in humility and follow the way of your Son Jesus Christ."          

The Power of Resurrection

"Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame".  (1 Corinthians 15:34).   Lets face it, we live as if the mighty works of Jesus Christ never happened.  Like the church in Corinth, we go on behaving and treating one another as if the resurrection were just make believe.  Bickering, name calling, finger pointing.  Guilty?  People love to argue about whether or not there is proof of a physical resurrection, as if believing that there was or wasn't is a scientific issue.  It isn't.  It's an issue of a much deeper reality.  The people to whom Paul was talking were people who claimed the Christian faith, argued about the physical resurrection and yet lived just as they did before they knew Jesus.  The bottom line is this, if you are still treating your God, friends, family, strangers, and enemies like you did before knowing Jesus, or if you treat them the same way people who don't know Jesus do, you aren't living out the power of the resurrection.  The fact that Jesus rose from the grave means that I no longer have to live as a slave to sin. It means that I have access to a new personhood and essence through Jesus Christ.  Believing in the resurrection means tapping into the reason why the resurrection happened, not believing in some historical occurrence.   The resurrection happened to give life to that which had died.  We die to sin, we live in Christ.  We die to self with Christ on the cross, we live in Him through the resurrection.  This is not a dogmatic issue.  Its a practical one.  Am I living my life in this very moment by the power of the Risen Christ or by some other power?  If I am not dying by the power of the cross in this very moment and living by the power of the resurrection in this very moment than my faith is in vain (15:1-2, 10, 17).  When we sin as Christians it is evidence of a lack of living faith out.  We are indeed forgiven when we ask and given new life once again and again, but our goal is always to accept the fullness of grace that is offered to us.

"Lord, forgive me for so often living out my faith in vain.  I profess you with my lips but I deny you with my life.  I turn to you and admit once again that I have no power to live the Christian life apart from your Risen Son.  Bind me to Him again I pray, as the vine and the branches are bound together.  That I might know the resurrection and be Christ himself in the world around me.  This I pray because this is the reason which you died and rose again.  That I might have life.  In Jesus name, Amen".  

Easter and Asher

Yesterday, before my newborn son was fully 1 day old in this bright and frightening world, we read to him the Easter story.  We sang songs of the resurrection hope in our hospital room and I preached to him because he was the most important church for me to be with that Sunday morning.  Later that night outside our house, as he and I were beneath the dusk, I told him about the beauty and brokenness of the world he was entering.  There is so much that I look forward to when it comes to being a father.  Everything will be new and amazing because of Asher in my life.  But today, I am most excited about story telling.  For some reason it doesn't feel like I need to wait for Asher to be old enough to understand the english language to begin telling him The Story.  Not just because he will develop language skills by listening to adults speak or because the sound of daddy's voice is comforting.  Telling the story is as important as hearing it.  If the story can't be told to a little one like him, it is really no story at all.  And hearing the story before we can piece together its full meaning is not something unique to babes.  But as much as I will enjoy telling the story to him every day, he will undoubtably teach me its meaning and purpose more than anyone I've ever known.  Hallelujah.        

heart on his sleeve

"she wears her heart on her sleeve".  I never knew if that was a good or bad thing.  I guess I can think of times when it's been an unwanted thing, like when you're too concerned with other things than to hear someone's heart.  As a pastor, I'm still trying to learn what it means to share who I am with the world around me.  Sharing who you are can be a dangerous thing, not only to yourself of course, but to others as well.  The institutional church doesn't always make this easy, nor does a world where we keep all things that really make us who we are to ourselves.  This blog is a place where I intend to stretch my heart those terrible few inches: from where it usually hides itself deep within, only expressing itself through complex systems of filters and treatments, to a place where it is more honest and raw.  I simply ask that if you can sense me making that plunge that you would try ever so slightly to do the same.  Its always better to do dangerous things with someone else.