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."