Epic

Frustrieren

Während einiger Zeit jetzt habe ich geglaubt, wie ich in einer Fremdsprache spreche, jederzeit, das ich um Kircheführer bin. Ich spreche über den Arbeit Gott habe getan in meinem Herzen im Bereich des Ministeriums, aber alles, das ich neige zu erhalten, ist das obligatorische lächelnde Kopfnicken, das von einem unbelegten Stare begleitet wird.

What I often see, and how I often feel like I sound when talking with other Christian leaders.

Homeless Man; Part 1

Watch for part 2 of this 6-part series next Sunday.

Global

What an amazing time we are living in, wherein we can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a worldwide audience without leaving our living room.  Can't wait to share with you some new ideas that I have.  You'll find out more soon.

Blog visitors since July.  Click to enlarge.

Mosaic

Last spring Lynn and I spent a Saturday in Columbia S.C. with a group of church planters. This gathering was brought together and hosted by a new friend of mine named Jeff Shipman. He is an apostolic leader of a church in Columbia and has a great vision for helping church planters live out their calling.

This morning I was reflecting upon something he said that has really stuck with me. His words stay with me because I tend to be a bit (okay a lot) myopic in my views about church and ministry, and what he said pushes against that tendency in me in a healthy way.

In this blog I've expressed frustrations with the American expressions of church around us. I've talked about ways to do worship gatherings differently. I've spoken favorably of the house church movement while cynically describing the more traditional forms all around us. But there is one truth that I've not done well at affirming. A mosaic is much more beautiful than a uniformly painted wall.

The truth is (and Jeff is so good at making this clear) that if we are going to see the Kingdom of God infiltrate our city, we need a mosaic of ecclesial expressions because different expressions will reach different people. The forms of church that I envision incorporating into a new faith community in the future will probably not reach baby boomers. But guess what...Jesus died and rose again for baby boomers too. So as passionately as I am thinking about ways to reach 20-somethings with a worship "service" that would seem bizarre to boomers, we need people who are thinking about ways to reach 50-somethings with expressions of church that will most resonate with that generation of people.

As intrigued as I am with the house church movement as a means of reaching a generation of young people who search for spirituality in authentic, relational community and through social activism, there are still people who will drive to the First ______ist Church on the corner to find answers for the spiritual stirring that is beginning to happen in them. We need that church to be there and to be missional.

I love Jeff's approach. They draw circles on the map, identify the population and the churches within that circle, and then find ways for all different kinds of churches under different denominational signing to work together in assuming evangelistic responsibility for the people living in those circles. Jeff knows that he needs the other churches, regardless of how their expressions of church life may differ from his.

I (we) would do well to learn from him.

Pelosi and the "Friends of God"

Last night Lynn and I watched the HBO documentary "Friends Of God".  If you haven't heard about this, it is a road trip documentary produced by Alexandra Pelosi who is the daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  Knowing the family name of "Pelosi" I kind of knew what to expect when I turned it on.  As the final credits rolled and I made my way down the hall to the bedroom I muttered to Lynn, "If I wasn't a Christian tonight, after watching that, I wouldn't want to be one tomorrow."

I know there was an unspoken agenda behind the documentary.  Alexandra did do a good job of not revealing her bias (except regarding evolution) but I'm sure that there was some creative editing done in the cutting room to produce a finished product that would cast Christians in a negative light.

Nontheless, It wasn't what I didn't see that bothered me.  It was what I did see.  And what I saw was a sampling of the nations most combative and un-Christ-like "Christians."  Nearly everyone they featured was screaming about the ills of society, picketing, boycotting, marching, doing everything that Pharisees do and none of that which Jesus would actually do were he here in the flesh today.  There was the older gentleman in the pickup truck with "Jesus saves" messages plastered all over it who had a conversation with Alexandra that went something like this:

Old guy:  "You're a winner if you're saved!

Alexandra:  "So would that make me a loser if I'm not?"

Old guy:  "Absolutely...without Jesus you're a great big loser!"

Nice

And then I almost threw up when she interviewed the now-fallen Ted Haggard.  During the interview he and two other young guys were standing outside the church and Ted said something like, "Evangelicals have better sex lives than everyone else."  He then turned to the guys and asked them each how often they had sex with their wives.  With goofy pre-pubescent grins they both said, "Every day!"  Yeah right.  He then asked each of them, "Your wife has an orgasm every single time, right?"  Again they replied, "Absolutely!"  Yeah right.

I guess my biggest frustration with the whole thing was with the ideas that Christian leaders from Jerry Falwell to the Patriot Pastor had about how to see the Kingdom of God come to this nation.  For them it's all about picketing, protesting, politics, and petitions and declarations of "warfare" against the homosexual and abortion agendas in our country.  They spend all of their time screaming at the darkness for being the only thing that darkness can be...dark!  Instead, they should spend their time being that which Jesus told us we could be...light!

Here's a thought.  George Barna estimates that there are about 12 million people in America who are genuine followers of Christ.  How about if we all just put down our megaphones and picket signs, fired up the bar-b-que grill, and invited the neighbor we don't know over to our house for dinner and then began a friendship - a real friendship - with that person.  Through the genuine love of Christ expressed to our neighbors, we 12 million could become 24 million relatively quickly.  How about if we stopped marching against and started serving the people who offend us so deeply.  How about if we gave ourselves to creating environments of kindness, acceptance, and love rather than creating groups of political lobbyists?  If we hate abortion so much (as we should) perhaps we should spend less time marching and more time teaching our daughters how to dress modestly, our sons how to keep their pants on, and then adopting some unwanted children into our families.

I've been trying to find some focus for my early morning time with God.  I've just been skipping around in the Bible and not really praying with direction.  Last night changed that.  I'm going to return to the Gospels and am going to build a study around observing how Jesus responded every time he interacted with someone outside of his circle of disciples.  Should make for an enlightening study.

If you're interested in watching the documentary yourself, it airs again tomorrow (Saturday, January 27th) at 10:00 am on HBO.

Free Hugs

The Problem With Prairie Dogs

In 2002 Lynn and I moved to Illinois to begin a new church.  One of the most difficult tasks that church planters face is the formation of a worship team.  This proved true for us.  However, in 2004 God brought together four amazing people who not only became the core of our worship team, but brought immense joy and laughter into my life.  Matt, Ann, Amber, and Joe are people who will always make me smile when I think of them.

Matt and Ann have since relocated to St. Louis.  But Amber & Joe remain at our church as the worship leaders.  They have recently formed a new band called, "The Prairie Dogs."  The name is partly derived from the name of our church which is New Prairie Community of Faith.  Under their own new label - "Flightless Records" - they are producing their first worship CD.  You can visit their webpage here.

I'm really proud of you guys!  I can't wait to hear the finished product.

Oh...and the PROBLEM with Prairie Dogs?  It's that they are in St. Louis & Carbondale; too far away to join us in our ministry here in Columbus.  Dang.

Living In Christian Exile

I recently made a post here in which I spoke about how I'm finding that I fit less and less within the boundaries of the typical church world.  I was scanning my blog list over lunch and ran across this post from Gary Means on his blog, Poor In Spirit.  I so clearly resonate with his thoughts here.  Let me share with you an excerpt, and then encourage you to visit his blog to read the post in it's entirety.

I really don't know where I fit anymore. My faith is in a state of liminality, which is a cool word that I just learned on Grace's blog. Liminality is "a period of transition, during which your normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to something new."

I have so many concepts in my head, many of which seem to be competing. First there are all the old tapes which tell me that the institutional church is the place where the Body of Christ is able to gather enough resources to make a difference in the lives of individuals, the congregation, and the community. It the place where, in theory at least, we find fellowship, encouragement, edification, inspiration, affirmation, accountability, etc. 'No one can be a Christian apart from community." is a phrase that comes to mind.

But my experience in the institutional church has been mixed at best. The growth I experienced in my faith has been more the result of my own search than anything I found sitting in a pew or Sunday School classroom....

So I don't know where I fit. My theology has been changing over the past few years. And my sense of call is shifting. I am not liberal, although I am starting to lean more that way in some areas. One conservative friend suspects that I am dangerously liberal (my words). However, there are elements of my faith that would definitely be considered conservative by some liberals, even though I don't call myself a conservative. I certainly am not fundamentalist.

This is a journey that many of us seem to be on.  Here's the link to continue reading what Gary has to say.  I'm with you brother!

When They Don't Believe Right

Every so often I stumble into a conversation on the pastors forum at Pastors.com that leaves me shaking my head in both frustration and disbelief.  Let me tell you about the most recent example. 

Yesterday I visited a thread in which the person initiating the conversation asked, "How are you dealing with the influence that large numbers of people who join themselves to your congregation who love the church environment but resist basic beliefs like the exclusivity of Christ and the coming judgment of God?"

Good question!  After all, if a church is truly being what Christ intended it to be (a beacon of light to help lost people find their way to God) then that church will consistently have people among them who believe wrong things and do not believe right things.

Here is how one fellow pastor responded to his question:  "Make it clear from the pulpit, in membership classes, and in other forms of communications (blogs, church communications, small groups, etc.) And make it clear that if you disagree, then this church is not for you. I know - sounds harsh. But you got to protect your church family and keep everyone on the same page."

I don't know this person.  For all I know he may be a fantastic pastor leading a faith community that makes God smile.  I'll take some time to read his blog soon.  However, when I hear a pastor make this kind of statement, I immediately form these conclusions in my mind about his church:  Everyone attending the church is a "doctrinally correct" person who doesn't rock the boat or ask any uncomfortable questions.  And there must not be any lost people coming to church or participating in the life of the church because they are not really welcome to engage in the faith community until they begin towing the doctrinal line.  I read those responses and picture in my mind a small clan of people isolating themselves from the "dangerous" world outside, hermetically sealed for their protection.

I couldn't resisit posting my thoughts in the thread.  Here is what I said: 

Faith is a journey.  It would be nice if getting people to believe the right things were as easy as teaching Jujitsu to Neo.  You know, you plug a cable into their head and do an instantaneous download.  But that's just not the case.  Salvation and spiritual maturity is a process, not an event followed up with a weekend doctrinal intensive.  I guess the question is, are we willing to walk with folks in the right direction even though they may not yet believe right?  And if so, for how long?

Should we ever just tell them to go away until they start believing the right things? I don't think so...not as long as they're willing to continue walking with us...in the right direction. The comment was made about "protecting the church" but my question is how do you balance "protecting the saved" with "loving the lost?" Seems I remember Jesus talking about the good shepherd leaving the 99 unprotected for the sake of saving the 1 that was lost. To set our focus on "protecting the church" from the wrong beliefs of the lost means that we'll never allow lost people to come and do life with us so we can lead them to the truth.

I believe that some of the sentiments expressed on the forum clearly demonstrate why the church in America is diminishing.  We've set up a system in which we say to the world, "Jesus will save you from hell.  We can tell you how "be saved."  Come to our church faithfully every week, believe what we tell you to believe, do what we tell you to do, don't ask too many questions...epecially ones that may cause us to examine what we believe, and give us large donations when you're here.

I'm thankful that the church where I'm presently on staff is one where people, regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey, are welcome to come and do life with us and hear the truth in a clear and loving way. How else can people wandering in the darkness of deception find their way to the liberating truth of the Kingdom? 

Authentication

One of the most frustrating things for me over the past couple of months in this new job in Columbus is the number of username/password combinations that I have to keep track of in order to do my most basic tasks.  I have eight unique systems that I have to access with these combinations.  I can't remember how many times I got "locked out" due to entering the wrong combinations before I finally set up a notepad file on the computer listing them.

I've finally gotten back into a routine of getting up at 5:30 to connect with God through prayer and scripture.  This week I've been living in 1st John which is really a book about authentication.  How do we "authenticate" those who say that they are Christians?  America is full of people who label themselves as such with their words, yet their lives are desperately inconsistent with their proclamation.

In the book I'm currently reading, The Shaping of Things to Come, the author talks about this at length.  He quotes one person who summed it up by saying, "Your actions are speaking so loudly I can't hear what you're saying."

John offers us a way to authenticate those who would say with their words that they know God and are followers of Christ.  Quite simply, do they live their lives in obedience to the commands of God?  If someone truly knows God, then a pattern of sin cannot continue residence in that person's life.  If a pattern of sin continues, then that person doesn't truly know God and is deceiving himself as well as others.

As I've read the first three chapters I've gotten the sense that this "obedience to the commands of God" isn't centrally focused on a set of moral behaviors.  It's anchored in the command of Jesus Christ, that we love God and love one another.  John focuses on love as the starting point, not behavior.  Genuine Christ-like behavior emerges out of genuine love.  Changed behavior is the product of genuine love.  Genuine love will never be the product of behavioral change.

Therefore the clearest authentication of our proclaimed identity as someone who knows God and follows Christ is made through observing whether or not our lives emit the aroma of love toward those around us.  If we love people, then we know God.  If we do not love, then the love of God is not truly in us.