The Image of God

We are in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 states so, and while some heretics will claims that the fall removed that quality of us, but Genesis 3:22 states that after Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

implying that man and woman became even more like God with the knowledge of good and evil. The banishment from the garden was to keep them from eating of the tree of life. If that wasn't enough to show we are still in the image of God, see that Genesis 9:6 speaks of murder being wrong on the basis of us being in the image of God.

But that's not my point today. Rather, think of the ramifications that we are made in the image of God. First of all, there is nothing in the scriptures to make a claim that this is true only for those who are in Christ. This is true for all. How should such knowledge impact evangelism and discipleship? Does the knowledge that something of what God is is written on everyone, from the honored to the lowest of us all, impact how we treat one another? Does it impact how we "do church"?

If we come with the mindset that the image of God is on everyone, shouldn't an emphasis then be on seeing that image revealed? Doesn't it increase the honor we give one another, the respect?

Integrity on Christmas

I've debated for a couple of weeks even doing this post, but the issue of integrity among followers of Christ is a growing concern. Particularly, the integrity of intellect.

It's a post for another time all the anti-intellectualism and anti-science sentiments among many Christians. But if, as many claim, Christianity is reasonable, let us act with integrity on many common practices and beliefs.

First of all, the assumption is that all Christians celebrate Christmas. Not so. I grew up in a Christian faith system that did not set aside special holidays (for as Paul writes in Galatians 4: "how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years!" ESV). The Puritans, who were an influential part of English and American history, thought Christmas as too pagan. There may be many others I'm not aware of, denominations that don't celebrate.

Second is the perception that Christmas is fundamentally a religious occasion and has been since the day of the apostles. Yet:
>In 245, the theologian Origen of Alexandria stated that, "only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod)" celebrated their birthdays. ("Natal Day", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911.)
>In 303, Christian writer Arnobius ridiculed the idea of celebrating the birthdays of gods, which suggests that Christmas was not yet a feast at this time. ("Christmas", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.)
> More recently, Christmas celebration was banned in England from 1647-1660, and was banned in much of the New England colonies in the 17th century, including Boston from 1659-1681

Christmas was "out of favor" in the early years of the U.S. where after the American Revolution it was seen as an English custom, not a religious obligation. Congress actually convened on Christmas day in 1789. The first state to make Christmas a holiday for its workers was Alabama in 1836 -- it wasn't a federal holiday for DC workers until 1870 and didn't become a holiday for all federal workers in 1885. And it wasn't until 1893 that all U.S. states and territories had made it a holiday for all its workers.

So what led to the "return" of Christmas in the 19th century? Some big religious revival? Nope. Christmas literature become popular in the U.S. and England in the 1820s and 30s. This was the time of much of our Christmas themed stories and poems, most famously Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (1834) and Clement Clarke Moore's A Visit From Saint Nick (1822). Most of this literature had no or only passing mention of religious motivation for Christmas. Even then, Christmas was largely a non-event for most Americans until the 1860s (Daniel Boorstin, The Americans). And some actually credit department stores like Macy's of New York for that popularization of Christmas. So the tradition of retail stores "creating" reasons to buy gifts is tied to Christmas (consider that the next time you complain about the commercialization of Christmas).

There are other aspects of Christmas celebrations that we need to watch - the date itself is fairly random.

The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that, "to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67).

And De Pascha Computus, a calendar of feasts produced in 243, gives March 28 as the date of the nativity.

You know the fable for the three wise men -- check the bible, the true story is they arrived months later (the shepherds weren't still there like many of our nativity scenes), scripture mentions that the wise men arrived at a house (not a barn, in other words, Joseph and Mary went home w/Jesus), and there were three types of gifts. No mention that there was three wise men -- the number is actually unknown.

The need for integrity is great. Many churches use Christmas as a time for evangelism and revival. If the integrity on the facts are poor, what does that say of our witness? If we are sloppy about the history and practice of Christmas, if we are to practice it at all, what's that say when we teach about why Jesus came? We need integrity about it all.

Systems

There's a saying: "your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting".

I look at churches that struggle for volunteers, while all the creative and resourceful duties at church belong to the professionals. "Your system ..."

I see churches that overmanage, requiring spiritual gift assessments and meeting with potential volunteers to counsel them on involvement, then they wonder why so few members initiate action. "Your system ...."

I see the vast majority of churches having as their most resource intensive activity being Sunday "worship", where the majority of the crowd sits in the pews being entertained. Then you have those who wonder why so many of the church members don't evangelize their neighbors or serve in some capacity in the community, why they don't seem to be growing in Christ. Essentially why they aren't "active" members of the church. Well, you teach passivity on Sunday. Your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting.

Training Circles

Sorry not to be "around" much. I keep thinking of this site for one set of thoughts, but God has been clear that there are interconnections where I don't see them at the time. So I should have been posting here more, perhaps, but not seeing the connections.

In this journey to restore my own heart, see others restore theirs, to find more specifics on my calling, one theme has continuously resurfaced -- church. A few months ago, I tried to walk away from thinking so much about church and how it impedes people from walking in their calling, and how it could help, just to go and act. To move toward what I thought was more my calling, to help others find theirs.

Wasn't sure exactly how that looks. If you saw The Mask of Zorro you may remember the scene with the training circles. The circle started out large, but as the new Zorro was gaining skill, the circles shrank. "This is your world" the old Zorro said. And each new circle represented his world shrinking.

As you journey into calling, discovering your calling is like that. You get a general idea, and act in that. As you learn and experience, the circle shrinks. It's like knowing you want to teach, and in walking in that the circle shrinks and you discover you want to teach adults, then it shrinks again and you find you want to teach young adults, then college students, then it's teaching literature, and on it goes until you discover you want to teach 19th century English literature to seniors in their final semester. The circles shrink as you discover yourself.

All that to say that I wonder if I forced my circle to shrink around the wrong center. After trying to move away from "church" (see some of my posts around August), I wonder if I should have moved more away from "institutions" and more toward community. One key on this was the last few weeks (the 'distraction' that took some time from blogging) is working with some friends on "Redemptive Tribe" (I put the link there for those reading this a few weeks from now, but for now I believe the settings are still "private" while we build some content). This is a collaboration site for those "friends of Ransomed Heart interested in redemptive community". I'll probably write more on some of the thoughts it has stirred as we seed the site.

Is all this God drawing me back in a circle with the center he knows is my deeper desire?

So, how was your Thanksgiving?

Yesterday

Yesterday, I had coffee with another man.

"David" has an adult son and daughter. His son works for an internationally known ministry in North Carolina. Dave himself has worked for a number of Christian ministries over his career, mostly in community development and CD consulting, dealing with places in Africa and Asia mostly.

Dave, age 54, doesn't go to church anymore.

You see, Dave was active in church for years, but as he grew to know what God made in him, what made Dave unique in his father's eyes, he stepped toward that. But the churches he was a part of wanted to plug and play him in what they wanted to do. Dave has grown and matured and knows his part in the kingdom, but apparently that's a threat to local churches he just need someone to feel their predefined roles. Dave was even told "we know you don't like doing this, but you are good at it so it must be what you are to do here". It was killing his heart.

So he left.

Online, in ministry (I've volunteered with Ransomed Heart and The Noble Heart ministries) I've come across dozens of men like Dave. Men called by God in a direction that brings them in conflict with their churches. Some stay for their families' sake. Some stay as their ministry creates the church as a kind of mission field for them. Others leave.

The "church" was meant to equip. Somewhere along the way it placed itself in the place of God. If the church returns to equipping men, then the work done by the church will be the work the members are called to do. Not what some committee decides.

How to settle disputes

Core beliefs

I posted last week's "why some theology matters" to a social network site I'm helping to seed before we open it up to like-minded others to join. A friend Reggie posted a good reply, including this list of core beliefs that matter:

The Good Heart (Core)
The Larger Story
God's heart (The Prodigal, The Shack, etc.)
Warfare (there is an enemy)
The need for healing (the wound)
Uniqueness of our Calling
The value of Relationship
Hearing God (This does happen)

And actually within a couple of days I was rereading from John Eldredge's Walking With God the section entitled Not Every Gospel is Equal (page 164ff). He makes a similar point. Now, he spends most of his time undoing the damage done by "judge not lest ye be judged" mentality (in context, that is a statement about making right judgments), but in the end he has his three core points: the heart is central, intimacy with God is the goal, and restoration of the person matters.

If restoring heart is a goal, if it is the mission, then understanding your beliefs on the matters of the heart, God, and relationships are key. Understand that, then understand who your allies are, and what your mission is. If your heart matters, then who you allow close matters as well.

Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

See you next week!

Why some theology matters

I know I got on a theology kick this week, but let me bring it around.

Our belief in who God is, how he made us, and view of the relationship between God and us matters. It matters to how we view God, how we view ourselves, and how we interact with God. God created us as freewill creatures (I know, now I'm risking circular logic here). If we have freewill, our choices matter, and our views matter. They influence how we act and interact.

These things are worth debating, especially if a group is to be a long term community. How the community views these matters helps form what the community is, what it does, and how it relates. While a group that wants to be a redemptive community does not need to agree on all theology, I think it does need to agree on these fundamental points. Thus the need for discussion, even debate on these matters.

But of course, the individual needs to know their own viewpoints. This effects how one interacts with God and others. If I see all who don't know Christ as fundamentally depraved, that effects how I interact with them. However, if I see them as a worthy human in need of healing, wholeness and holiness, that causes me to act more gently and tenderly towards them.

And it is interesting that when two who profess Christ get together and differ on these matters, I think some of the most heated discussion can occur. It is because I think we put so much of our security into our view of our identity, and these matters get to the core of our identity. Let God or another shake it, and we become scared -- who are we if we aren't x? But letting go of false teaching on these matters and embracing the truth allows us to become more fully who we are.

I don't know how a person can become all that they are meant to be without the divine truth in these matters, nor do I believe a group can become community without a basic like-mindedness in these matters.

In the Image of God

Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
-- Genesis 9:6

We are in the image of God.

Some, surprisingly, would dispute that. They would say that with the fall, the image of God upon us, or in us, (or whatever the appropriate vocabulary), was removed.

Interestingly, Genesis 3 says, that with the fall, we were even more like God

And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil." -- v22

With the fall, we became more like God. One of the earliest forerunners of the law, the instructions on murder (Genesis 9:6), was put in place due to humanity's stance as being in the image of God.

That is a powerful piece of knowledge. That implies the capacity within us for great good, or in our corrupted state, with our free will, the power for great evil. That is a great responsibility we have. But many of us don't realize our power. Our authority. So evil runs almost out of control in our world, the defeated Satan has his way because we don't realize our authority in the name of Jesus. We sit on our butts often not knowing our power to do something about it, both physically and in the spiritual realm.

You have a place. You have a role. And you have the authority to create change. Paul writes in Ephesians that God had something for you to do prepared in advance of you. Will you seek it out and discover it?

The Noble and Good Heart

I was in a discussion a couple of days ago about the nature of man before Christ, and the philosophies even spilled into what one believes about our nature after we are within the body. Since the story we believe effects the story we live, I thought I'd shoot down some of these mythologies this week.

While these mythologies come from a proof-texting and out of contexting of scripture, all these false teachings can be shot down with just a single passage of scripture.

Jesus teaches the parable of the sower, and this is one of the few we have recorded his explanation of it in detail to his disciples. Look at the explanation in Luke 8:11-15.

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Whether your theology holds here the "word of God" is Jesus, or the written or spoken word of the good news, it still holds. Those with a noble and good heart receive it.

Psalm 139 tells us that we are in the womb we are wonderfully made. By God. In other words, if there wasn't a basic goodness to us then that would have been the way God made us in the womb. So if there is nothing good about us, before we hear the word of God, then that would be the way God made us? That would mean that God made evil.

But no, God doesn't make evil, he makes free will. God wanted community, wanted love from others, so he created others. But love and community from others without the freewill to choose otherwise is hollow, so he created freewill. It was a freewill creation that betrayed him and led 1/3 of the angel armies in rebellion, and freewilled creations that betrayed him in the Garden. Evil was the consequence of the freewill.

So as freewilled creatures, even before we hear the word, we have the choice of picking between good and evil. Typically, we pick some of both, and most of us from the evil table pick things that "aren't that bad". This I don't deny. But there are a number of honorable men among atheists even. There are a lot of legalists, who try to follow a law rather than rely on the grace of God, who do a lot of good in this world.

I think if this were not true, this world would have become a living hell a long time ago.

And yes, there's a difference between us being righteous before God and us doing some good. I do not deny that, and I'm not saying we can win God's favor through our attempts at being good. But as God's creation, as God's beloved, as people knit in the womb by God, we have a freewill to choose. This is true even of those who've never heard the word. We are not evil, yet neither are we righteous without God.

But with God, we can be considered fully good and righteous:

But the Scriptures speak often of good works and do not hesitate to apply such terms as "good," "blameless," and even "worthy" to mortals:

He [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 11:24).

Both of them [Zechariah and Elizabeth] were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly (Luke 1:6).

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man (Luke 23:50).

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed (1Thess. 2:10).

But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage (Luke 20:35).

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy (Rev. 3:4).

Leadership

My thoughts lately have turned to leadership.

I've been what some would say is the leader -- sometimes, that's just really the manager. I was in Boy Scouts and served as a patrol leader, senior patrol leader, and as a chapter chief in the Order of the Arrow. In the latter, I put together the first camporee for our district in a few years. Except for that latter one, in many ways I was in the role but not so much in the function perhaps. I was probably more of a leader at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in 1981, doing the function without a role.

Since high school, I've had a number of leadership roles, and many times functioned in those roles, and functioned as a leader outside of the role. When I try to function as a leader, I usually end up trying to manage more than lead.

I've tried to repress the leadership the last couple of years, however. Some of it is due to control issues, sometimes on my part, often with someone else feeling usurped. And maybe for a season that was right.

Clarifying my thoughts on leadership more this past week has been Seth Godin's book Tribes. The challenge is to be a leader in the way you are, not as a role. Modern leadership is in bringing together communities, and typically standing back and letting it happen. The community may have a mission, or simply a common interest. This kind of thought toward leadership is kind of fitting with some "apostolic" gifting some in the last few months have said they see in me. I try to see what that means ...

Now is the time

Men of God, this is our finest hour! I remember the day Bill Clinton was elected. I was totally depressed as were all of my friends. But I also remember this nagging thought that maybe this was God's way of awakening His Church. And yes it was. Over the next 8 years a massive movement of prayer and fasting began. Well over one hundred thousand people did 40 day fasts. Over 1 million men met in Wash DC to publicly repent and to our hearts and eyes back to God.

I believe we are experiencing the fruit of those years today. Look at what is happening in the Church today. George Barna says millions are leaving churches because their passion for Jesus has reached a level that the churches can't support. Worldwide, people are coming to Christ at a faster rate than ever before in the history of man. Movements like Ransomed Heart are seeing men awakened, coming alive and learning to fight for freedom.

I believe this is another step in the progression God is taking with His Bride. He is getting our eyes off politics and inviting us to "Real Change", that which only comes from a heart that has been redeemed, restored and is now fully alive. When a man's heart comes alive, and He walks in the love of His Father, that changes him beyond recognition. We have all seen this personally in our own lives and in each other.

So I say it again, this is our finest hour. We who have experienced this heart level change are to be the leaders/warriors in this movement of God. We will see more and more people become dissatisfied with politics, churchianity, etc and they will be looking for the real thing. So let's go get 'em, Sons of Scotland!
-- John Hard, Birmingham, AL

I hear the bemoaning of the election results from my friends and allies, but a couple, including John (quoted above) have the right mindset. So many have spouted off by electing who we have, we will reap what we sow (allowing the election of Obama), but the truth is the results are reaping what we have sown.

By focusing on the battles the church has chosen, she is losing the war. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about society transformation by effort, but it is about life transformation. Lives transformed becomes the salt and light that in great enough numbers transform society.

But don't misunderstand "numbers". It is about one man, or one woman, whose life is transformed, standing in the gap. Churches have focused for so long on numerical growth, but how many of their converts stand in the gaps? They've focused on turning out numbers to support a cause, but one man, or one woman, standing by another is what it takes to transform another.

Let me put this perspective on what I mean -- I know a group of six or eight men in Arizona who support a village in Nigeria. They find out about this village when it was "dropped" by a large church as it "realigned" its budget. These six give more money and visit this village more often than that large church.

In other words, we don't need a hundred million warehoused in churches. We don't need hundreds of thousands receiving a newsletter. We will create more change with hundreds with passion.

God created within you something special. What has he called you to do, not what your pastor or some Christian activist rallies you to? Be who God calls you to be.

Growing churches

The Gospel is like a seed, and you have to sow it. When you sow the seed of the Gospel in Israel, a plant that can be called Jewish Christianity grows. When you sow it in Rome, a plant of Roman Christianity grows. You sow the Gospel in Great Britain and you get British Christianity. The seed of the Gospel is later brought to America, and a plant grows of American Christianity. Now, when missionaries come to our lands they brought not only the seed of the Gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So, what we have to do is to break the flowerpot, take out the seed of the Gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.
–Dr. D.T. Niles of Sri Lanka

Imitation is the bane of modern Christianity.
- Reggie Britt

Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost make the point in The Shaping of Things to Come that in their native Australia, the form of Christianity that is prevalent relates to at most 35% of the population, and about 45% in the United States. And both numbers are shrinking. The typical method of church planting is too much like trying to plant cuttings from previous plants. A plant may take in that situation, or it may not. Studying church history, this method seems to have been pretty much used since the 4th century.

While Niles speaks in terms of national churches, his final comment on culture is right. And wrong in some ways too. Rather than culture, the individuals who join into a church need to shape that church. If the body consists of its parts as Paul writes, shouldn't the arrival or departure of an individual impact that church? Shouldn't the growth of an individual impact it? Too often, people come and go from a church and it just goes on as before -- short of the coming and going of the clergy class.

If the church is to be the body, the individual has to matter. Corporate and individual must intertwine tightly. If the church is to have impact in a culture, then the shape and form of church must grow from seed within that culture -- holding to truth -- but letting form and to an extent function be shaped by its environment.

Why Men Hate Going to Church

David Murrow wrote a book by the name Why Men Hate Going to Church a few years back. There was a short burst of interest in Christiandom, but like so many fads, the interest faded and the problem continues: men don't go to church. Statistically, only 40% of those in churches on a given weekend are men. Some denominations the numbers are worse, some better, but in no case do men outnumber women in any denomination.

As a former men's ministries director of a church, as a member of the leadership team of another, and as a member of a men's ministry leadership team at a third church, I'd like to offer some perspectives on the issue.

First of all: wrong issue. The concern shouldn't be if men are or aren't going to church. It should be about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Are men becoming disciples of Jesus? If the women's numbers are padded by "social" Christians, the problem is quite different -- like who do you move those "social" Christians to a truer faith? Let's consider the right issue. Sadly, there are no clear statistics, just anecdotes, about the devotion of the individuals.

Is it even an issue at all? Some statistics say 40 to 45% of Americans are in church on a Sunday. Those numbers of held since 1960. But there's a problem with those numbers -- the number of churches has grown by only 25% of what is needed to hold those numbers. Moreover, if you multiple the average reported attendance (reported by churches) by the number of churches, the percentage in church on a given Sunday would be about 17% of the population.

Bottom line: people lie about their faith. Are women more likely to lie? Is that why there is "more" faith statistically among women?

Is it an issue at all?

My conclusion: I think it is, but don't trust the statistics. I think the result of looking to the statistics will end up treating the symptoms, not the cause.

Second of all: what is the cause?

I think it is multiple reasons ... one is the feminization of Christianity. That is a solvable one -- get back to the roots.

Another is related: churches aren't men-friendly -- you have "Jesus is my boyfriend" music for one. But this is a trap. Many have seen this, and their solution -- shorter sermons, shorter services and the like. My thoughts on short services -- that's garbage. Men will sit through 3 hour football games, sit in deer stands in the cold for 6 hours, go to 2.5 hour movies. Length is not the issue.

But the bottom line: the system is designed for the results you are getting. Men aren't going to church because the system is designed to repel them. Some of the system elements:

1) The system is designed to create dependence on itself
-- you sit staring at the back of the heads in front of you pretty much the whole time. You are dependent on someone to tell you what to sing, tell you what to believe (thus the sermon), to control everything.
Men aren't designed to be dependent on anything but God and the church ain't God. Men are designed to be mutually dependent in community, I believe, but that's not a dependency on a pastor who is dependent pretty much on our accolades and "tithes". Much more mutual than that.
2) The system is designed to control
-- the head is to be Christ, but we've managed to put a layer there. We delegate listening to God's direction to professionals. It's a system that belittles men's abilities. It limits them.
3) The system is designed to limit
-- men want to make a difference. Yes, you can make a difference in the kid's program, but those roles are oft designed to be interchangeable. You don't make the difference uniquely with who you are. Men don't want to simply make a difference, they want to be the hero, the difference maker.

What's needed is a new system. Or maybe it is an old system, that dates back to the time of Jesus. A system that eliminates bureaucracy, where if there are professionals they are not controllers or leaders, but enablers (positively speaking) and coaches. Where men listen to the Spirit themselves, not to the pastor, for direction. Where the relationship with Jesus is not filtered through priests, pastors and/or elders. Where Jesus is the head, unfiltered by a clergy/laity hierarchical divide.

The army of God is ready to move. Not sit in the warehouses at major intersections in our cities.

See also The 800 lb Gorilla

Real Church

Well, life happens so so much for extra posts this week ...

Last Saturday was our first meeting of a new church, one trying to be "organic" as it is labeled. Being our first meeting, we shared a meal, talked about what brought us to Colorado, which one story had God so much in it it just prompted other stories of God acting. A couple of people had stories on how Satan tried to block their participation, either in the conference that we initially met at or that week's meeting.

I think to the passages that talk about the purpose of gathering -- to encourage one another, to edify one another. These stories and time with people ... this was great. Never went to a "service" like this. And for those who insist that meetings are for "worship" (find a scripture that says that that applies to the New Covenant): Real honest stories that I think glorified God more than a song, a prayer, three more songs,a sermon, another song, song, and closing prayer.

The weekend before I was at a Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp. I was on the work crew. We went out on Wednesday, and met as a group daily in our time there, twice on Saturday. Our Friday-Sunday morning meetings were practical matters, prayer, and talking about how we felt the Spirit moving, while Thursday's meeting did the same with some more stuff since we had more time. We had an extra meeting Saturday to talk about how we saw God move that weekend. Smaller groups met at other times spontaneously, and we had our work together too. Again, for a weekend we were a "church" that met daily. And again, I think was more glorified than a month of Sundays in a typical traditional church.

That's not to say a group gathered for traditional church couldn't experience the same -- there just has to be as much time if not more looking into the faces of your brothers and sisters than staring at the back of their heads while the professionals and semi-pros "perform", time spent talking about God and what he is doing in lives today and what he has done this year (not what he did in the first century and before), in a way that encourages and edifies.

Wound thoughts

With a recent Boot Camp, that organic conference, a meeting with a man named Bart, and beginning a new church with others, a lot of thoughts float through my head. After being off-schedule for two weeks, I think this week will be off in another way -- extra posts to catch up.

This thought came during a meeting with Bart on Friday at CPK. Readers of John Eldredge's Wild At Heart and especially those who've been to a Wild At Heart Boot Camp know of what is called a wound. These are more or less psychological wounds that change who we are and keep us from the glory God intended for us. Typically these come in our youth from our dads or a father figure. As I heard my Psych 101 professor said one day "we all spend our entire lives recovering from our childhood".

One such wound with me was what was essentially a poor example of a friend my dad was to other men. That combined with other "wounds" kind of resulted in a "vow" that friends and friendship had to be earned. One way that came was being the guy with answers and provoking ideas. Talking with Bart on Friday about what I liked to do, I came to realize that despite about four years of awareness of that, I still practiced a behavior that resulted from such beliefs -- reading almost exclusively non-fiction.

So I'm weighing a strategy of breaking that -- right now I'm thinking I might give up reading any non-fiction book (other than the Bible and referencing commentaries and the like and possibly work-related books) for a year. I'm leaning toward making it simple -- doing it for a calendar year starting Jan 1, 2009.

Let you know the final call on that and how it goes.

Erwin McManus' Wide Awake

A bit off schedule this week, with posts a little later. Forgive me on that.

I've digested just about everything Erwin Raphael McManus writes. He is one writer (along with some like John Eldredge and Brennan Manning and a couple of others) that I buy the books of without checking reviews. When his Wide Awake came out as his first book in some time, and given the topic being one near and dear to my heart, I eagerly anticipated reading it.

And I must say, I was disappointed in this book. It does have a strong start -- making a inspired case that we are to be creative and we are to impact our world. But when it moves to giving direction on discovering what that is for yourself, what impact you should have and how to get there, it reads like so many good sounding sermons -- sounds good, but how do you live that? Or as one of my favorite characters in Braveheart, Stephen, says "Fine speech, now what do we do?". In the end, when it comes to this book, I think William Wallace's response is more useful than anything this book offers "Just be yourself".

But God is an amazing God. An author I've grown more and more to appreciate, Bill Johnson, put out a book awhile back called Dreaming With God that covers similar subject matter. I'm about midway through it, and so far I've found it more useful. We'll see if Johnson's writing keeps it up through the rest of the book, and either way, I'll post a review when I've finished it.

As for McManus, I'll likely pick up his next without recommendations or checking reviews. No author can score a home run every time, call this one a single from an author I'd say has previously never hit anything less than a triple.

New post

Got back Sunday from my fourth Wild At Heart Boot Camp. You think, why four? Well, of course there is the first, and way back there once was a requirement to make two boot camps to go to the Advanced Camp. That's two. The last two I've volunteered at, first in Oct '06 and then last weekend on the work crew.

Great time hanging out with the work crew members in down time, what little we had. Some great guys. There's talk of a reunion next month for those of us along the front range. I assume the guys from Oregon, NY and Arizona are welcome to fly in if they wish.

I think there were three great "wows" from the weekend. Fourth if you count John Eldredge's great quote "Rescue sex is almost as good as makeup sex". Now how many "men's retreats" can you go on and hear that kind of advice?

Great "wow" number one: the fall foliage was peaking. Such beauty. I'll probably edit this post later or add one to embed some photos I took of it.

Great "wow" number two: God speaks. Actually I hear his voice regularly, but usually something extra comes through at these boot camps. I don't know why God doesn't speak these kinds of things elsewhere -- is it something with me that I'm only willing to listen at a Ransomed Heart event? Or is there something about the situation that God just can speak clearer -- is the lines of communication clearer? Really need to figure that one out, because I can't wait between events like this to hear like that.

Great "wow" number three: Such men on the work crew. There were two men on this crew I knew before -- Bill from Castle Rock who I met at a previous event and had lunch with a few weeks back, and one of the leads Scott who was a "wingman" on my previous volunteering with Ransomed Heart. In no time we bonded. Why can't the church be more like this? Well, in part, we were the church of course. But why can't the "church" as most think of it be like this? I cling to the belief it can ... and continue to suspect the "institutional systems" about her interfere with her full functioning. But I love how she often performs despite those handcuffs.

Organic Conference -- questions answered

Some have inquired for more details, mostly from where this blog feeds to. So, quickest to respond to them all from here.

First of all, how did I hear about it? I signed up on this website to find organic churches. Back in August, Milt Rodriguez, a partner to Frank Viola, contacted me about my interest and the potential of hosting a conference and help with local details. Couldn't help, but was interested in the conference.

Milt, Frank, and a couple of others in different parts of the country are looking to help hook up some interested in organic church in different parts of the country. Since starting that website linked to above and fueled by interest sparked by Frank Viola and George Barna's book Pagan Christianity?, they've had several thousand inquiries around the U.S. from folks looking to connect with others interested in organic Christianity. Colorado Springs had a pretty decent concentration, so it was picked for one of the early conferences.

So what happened? Well, we met with Milt from Friday night to Sunday morning in someone's home (thanks Edith for hosting!). Friday night was for two and half hours, and a bit more than half the time was spent on introductions and why the interest from everyone, while the second half Milt did some teaching on Christ and Christ in us. Milt on the weekend was trying to really drive home that it was about Christ, not church. A secondary theme was that he also heavily emphasized was that there is mystery to it all, and that God still uses revelation -- it is a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Saturday morning continued in the teaching of mystery, more on Saturday with the emphasis on reconciliation - that fact of equality due to each of us having Christ in us so we each have valuable contributions -- we don't need the preacher to reveal God for us, we each have it in each other for that. He tied it back to Genesis 1 and 2. Great teaching (though a couple of the finer points I have a bit of an issue with -- but it was those finer points) about the work of Christ about restoring to the original intent of Genesis 1 and 2. I really liked it because too many preachers make it all too simple ... and trying to explain the points Milt made here in this short account won't do justice. It really is about being separate and joint at the same time, and the Trinity being one and three, et al.

So, anyway, setting a stage about Christ in us, we in Christ and how we are one and Christ is one ... Saturday afternoon was about answering questions. This was the open forum for Milt to answer questions about organic church. Interestingly, little was about practical matters as I suspected. I think most had read enough of the available books to get the practical matters, so we got to heart matters and brushed some theological matters about it. Saturday night was more of the teaching that draws us to Christ first, and a little instruction about how to spend the first few months together -- things like taking time to detox from traditional church, focusing on relationships with one another. That continued a bit Sunday morning, and we also got to the practical matters of organizing who goes where in our trial attempts at forming organic fellowships.

That is it in a nutshell, short of the time we spent just talking with one another over our long lunch and dinner breaks.

Milt's website is Rebuilders. That first link will take you to a joint resource with his allies around the country -- I'd advise that as a place to start unless you might be in Colorado or Utah (Milt's based in the Western Slope region of Colorado).

My reaction -- I'm diving into this. I've been to so many churches that promise "authentic" fellowship. I think organic type fellowship holds the best hope for that. I look forward to this attempt we're making, with some caution, but no plans to hold back.

Organic Conference

It has been more than a year since regularly "attending church" (if we are the church, how do we attend ourselves?). This past weekend I attended an organic church conference with a number of other folks interested in organic church here in Colorado Springs and along the Front Range. Looks like an outcome is two somewhat connected communities, one along the I-25 corridor of the town, one along Powers Blvd (for those not familiar with the Springs, the area is really stretched n/s, but it is typically quicker to go n/s than east-west because of I-25 on the west side and Powers on the east -- nothing really comparable to those two going east-west).

We've got an outside "consultant" -- a church planter if you will -- who is helping direct this from experience. He'll be back in a few months, but for now, we "detox" from institutional church and just gather and build relationships. Lots of things are banned for now that sounds almost heresy to do so -- no bible study, no theological discussions, no "prayer requests" at gatherings -- it's about relationship with one another and Jesus for now.

Excited, wary, and a number of other emotions. We'll see what happens.
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Reminder -- I'm out of town and away from a computer from Wednesday late until Sunday. So this will likely be the last post of the week unless I do one Wednesday for some odd reasons.

Boot Camp

Well, a week from today I'll be helping prepare Frontier Ranch to host another Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp.

For those unaware of what a Boot Camp is, I believe the best selling Christian book title this century outside of some Bible translations and Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life is probably John Eldredge's Wild At Heart. Years ago, John and his ministry, Ransomed Heart, started offering men's retreats in the mountains of Colorado to help men explore more deeply what it means to be a man and to become fully what God intended. These have helped hundreds if not thousands of men, and the impact of these men have improved the lives of thousands more. For example, if you read Donald Miller's To Own a Dragon (Miller's more famous books are Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and one of my favorites Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance), you see his journey in dealing with an absent father and realizing the impact of the lack of a male influence had on him. He specifically mentions Wild At Heart and his trip to a boot camp in that book and the impact it had in sorting out his journey.

I first made a boot camp in May 2004. Great time of listening to God, and unpacking who I am and how the events of life have shaped me. I went back in January 2005 and volunteered in a role for the October 2006 event, and a few weeks back got recruited to return as part of the work crew (the manual labor for the event).

The power of the event seems to vary for each man. I think the honesty of each man who speaks (John, Craig McConnell, Bart Hansen, and in the past Gary Barkalow) in their journey holds the greatest power to me. I've gained from each time I've gone, first with the teaching and stories, then as a volunteer with the interactions of others and their stories. This is a weekend into what the movement of Christ should be.

reduced load

Normally I post here on Sunday or Monday (as well as Wednesday or Thursday). My batteries for this kind of thinking and inputting are a bit drained right now, so I'm going to skip today's.

Lots going on right now, but honestly I think I will be able to post what is normally my second post of the week later, and hope to post the first one of next week as scheduled. The second post of next week will probably be skipped. This weekend I'm attending a conference on organic church (Friday-Sunday) that has the hoped for outcome of planting a couple of churches in the Colorado Springs area, and then the following weekend I've got a long weekend volunteering with Ransomed Heart for a Boot Camp (leaving Wednesday, back Sunday).

The trouble with words: "reforming" the church

"Reforming the church"

Isn't that more of the same of what's wrong? If the problem with the church is an inordinate focus on the church, rather than Jesus Christ, how is an additional focus on the church via "reformation" going to solve the problem?

I like Jesus' comment to Peter at the end of John's gospel where he essentially gives Peter the MYOB lecture, with, "What is that to you? You just follow me."

What is "reforming the church" to me? I think if we follow Jesus, imitate Jesus, emulate Jesus, etc. that the reformation will take care of itself one life at a time.

This was a comment to Monday's blogcast, and I thought I'd respond to it as the more I thought of it, the longer it got.

Reforming is a poor word that has gotten watered down in use. Reform is to "re-form", or rather, to form again. But how often is reformation a tearing down from the start? Luther certainly didn't "reform" the church. What he did was the equivalent of giving a car a tuneup. He may have changed some spark plugs, messed with the timing, but he didn't reform the car.

No, the last reforming that happened to the church was in the 4th century. We got the institutionalism of the sermon, we got the building formalized into the "traditions" category, we got the separation of clergy and laity - a step back to imitate the old covenant priest system that Jesus eliminated, and a bunch of other reformations. We went from participatory gatherings for the purpose of encouraging one another and spurring on to love and good deeds to the "Show" that gets labeled worship. Hmmm, worship in the new covenant was clearly described as service to God, not a service for God's entertainment.

Ok, I've ranted in this blog before about that. But the answer is not the MYOB, you follow God your way, I'll do it my way that so many are tempted to practice either. Scripture is clear that we are in this together. One does not journey alone. There are too many one anothers; there is mentions of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (and few who wear any of those titles are that in the biblical sense) given to the church; and much more.

What should the church look like? The problem with answering that is that Jesus did say he will build his church -- it isn't my job. So while recognizing "church" as it is isn't what God intended is one thing, to "cast a vision" of what it should be like is probably just as wrong. And what it looks for one set of people in one locale in one culture in one time in history is probably fairly unique. We get too much cookie-cutter in churches, which I believe feeds the largest reason 80% of church plants die in the first couple of years -- we follow someone else's pattern rather than listening to the Holy Spirit. Our churches are man-made, not God made. How many times did the Israelites use the "Jericho" method for conquering a portion of the land God told them to take? Once. What about that Gideon strategy that works so well, with the trumpets and the torches in jars? Wildly successful, used only once. Again and again, yet why do so many say "looked, God blessed it when they did that way, we'll do the same". Umm, would read your Bible? GOD DOESN'T DO THE SAME THINGS THE SAME WAY TWICE.

No, reformation of the church is less about structures and methods, and about process. We need to be communities that listen to God and let God form us. In the first century, those communities seem to be centered and organized geographically, but nothing in scripture seems to bind us to that. We have the benefit of faster transportation, so for one person their church may be organized by whose their neighbor, for another God leads them to community by common ministry passions, another is around a recreational passion. With phones and the internet, others may find their church almost virtually. The process, follow God, follow the Holy Spirit, and let Jesus form our churches.

Another thing on that process -- I don't believe God intends for one church to function independent of another -- not talking a hierarchy, but rather -- to use a modern concept reflected in the ancient -- a network. Evidence suggests that in the late 1st century to late 3rd century, there might be a church that meets in one home in one city, but the churches in the homes together were the church in that city. Somehow, they were interdependent -- the home church was a cell in the greater body of the church in that city. Again, should that be our model ... maybe not around geography again -- modern technology has allowed the geography barriers to fall, so we again need to listen to the Holy Spirit about what to do in this day and age and our cultures.

So, to return to Monday's "blogcast", IF God has placed a desire in my heart about "church reformation", it is about being a leadership role in this reformation of process of forming and being the church. To hell with those stodgy institutions whose purpose seems more tied in perpetuating themselves and "a system" than following God.

Dadgummit

The first weekend of October, I'm serving on the work crew for a Wild At Heart Boot Camp. A prep assignment was to become familiar with one the resources Ransomed Heart offers because part of the duty of the work crew is working the resource tables. I've got most (I don't have Raising Girls -- I have one child, a son, so I didn't think it necessary to have Raising Girls). I'm behind in listening though, as I don't commute to work anymore and find that a good time to listen for me.

So I was listening to a recording called Unveiling Your Purpose. Wonderful recording, most I had heard though at a Calling Intensive I went to. There was one statement though that I didn't like, though I know it likely true. The speaker spoke of desires, and how there is much good to do, and much that may catch our attention for a day and make us think we must do something, but what we need to pay attention to is what do we keep coming back to, what lingers with us.

Dadgummit.

That makes me face a hard one. For years a recurring theme has been church reformation. I was always attracted to the latest trends for awhile, though I realize most of those now was the "church growth" garbage -- which is so much about the ABCs -- attendance, building, and cash flow. I thought about a career switch to church planting at one point. But it has become refined, realizing that a driving force has been wanting to see people come fully alive. The last few years, a focus has been in development -- developing the heart, learning how people discover what makes them come alive, etc.

I thought this was all headed toward living my calling in an arena similar to a life coach. And being this is a kind of first cut of "history", maybe it still is. For my readers, I provide this kind of honesty in my journey so those looking back on the end story don't see it as "so simple" and wondering why it can't be so simple for them. It's not simple.

So, where is it heading? I don't know, but this recurring theme suggests something with church reformation to me. And that leads to the 'dadgummit'. Sure I'd like to see churches focusing on what I think they should be doing, which is encouraging and equipping the saints. Church has become too much about show, about numbers, about being a club, just about everything but body that helps people become fully what God intended them to be. That latter point is what I think the intended outcome of encouraging and equipping was supposed to be.

What would be nice would be that the whole "church" thing was about equipping me to help people hurt by church. That's simpler than church reformation. I can visualize how that would work. But visualizing church reformation ... how would that occur?

Maybe I'm wrong in interpreting the past -- that would be nice. And I'll be talking to others, of course. Maybe they can help me see another view on it. Or maybe that speaker is just wrong. (I hope he doesn't rid this blog ...)

Definitely, this will be continued.

The Noble Heart

I wanted to use today's blog entry to celebrate the "official" launch of Gary Barkalow's new ministry, The Noble Heart. Many may know Gary through his work with Ransomed Heart Ministries the last few years. Gary felt the call of his life at this time in his journey may be better served with a slightly different focus than Ransomed Heart would provide him to do, so he's stepped out to start The Noble Heart.

The description of The Noble Heart's ministry from the website:

The Noble Heart is a ministry helping men and women find this life, the life of their heart, in God. Its purpose is to help us understand and walk in God's process of restoring, revealing and releasing the heart. Each of us possesses a sacred destiny, an aspect of the glory of God, which is needed in the Larger Story we have been invited into. A Story in which there are no spectators, bystanders, benchwarmers, or civilians. We, through the work of Christ, are designed to have a powerful life.

Go with God, Gary. I look forward to the ever increasing glory of God that will shine through you.

inside out

for as he calculates in his soul, so is he

Proverbs 23:7.

Who we are we are from the inside out. Jesus made this point in saying if we wash the inside of the cup, the outside will be clean. The point of arguments against legalism is that legalism is an attempt to move from the outside in.

Who you are is how you think. Do you wish you weren't a bitter man? Until you stop thinking like one, you won't stop. Wish you had more friends? Until you think of yourself first as a friend, why do you expect any different?

Until your thinking changes, no amount of training, no amount of gaining experience, will get you to your desired work. You've got to think like what you want to be. In recent years (decades?), in some lines of thinking in Christendom has focused on being rather than doing. (In some cases, there is a recognition that being leads to doing, others, sadly not). What we need is to see, and I believe Solomon and Jesus agree, is that we need to think first, then being follows, then the doing. Perhaps this is the reason Paul told us to take capture of every thought?

The Story So Far, Part I

I recall from a seminar where Dan Allendar spoke about the importance of story. Of course, illustrated by story. Story, I believe, is the real way to walk with God and learn from others.

With that, I start a sporadic series called "the story so far". Just how did I get where I am with knowing what God has designed in me? Maybe this series will help others.

I could start anywhere, but I'm not going to bind myself to making this chronological. So I'll start well into my story, around 1996. I had been a Christian since 1981, and that whole time I understood Ephesians 2:10 (For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do) as a command to the church. The collection of God's people is created for work prepared in advance. But in a Sunday school class on Ephesians, that got challenged. Ronnie (the teacher) proposed, against the traditional interpretation in our faith tradition, that what God created us for and prepared us for is in fact individually meant.

This idea pretty much blew me away. And raised a lot of questions. Mostly centered around 'how do we determine what we are created for?'.

This actually led to a few years of frustration -- initially I pursued it as many do, through spiritual gift assessments along with personality assessments. What a waste. Spiritual gift assessments pretty much only measure what you've already tried to exercise, while personality assessments are tainted by our wounds and the poser (that which we pretend to be).

Many readers may have heard of SHAPE as a guide to determining roles in the kingdom. (For those unfamiliar, it is Spiritual gifts, Heart (passion), Aptitudes, Personality, and Experience) And in that, there is some value. In talking to others and from experience, I really think you can drop all but the H and the E. Spiritual gifts are ultimately determined by experience and heart anyway (what have you done and did you enjoy it?), personality will shape your experience, and aptitudes (skills) I think is really just a godless way for churches to put you to work. Once H and E are determined, you can learn the skills you need. Ok, time to get back on track. As I said, I really think you can drop all but the H and the E. I discovered this by a challenge (I think it came through John Eldredge's Journey of Desire, since rereleased as simply Desire), a challenge to look at what my passions had been in my experiences.

Ok, still frustrating, but it seemed like progress. The problem was I had volunteered and done such a diverse set of things and enjoyed them, but over time they lost the appeal. For example, while in Dallas I was pursuing volunteering in benevolence, but moving to Cary NC, I tried benevolence volunteering there but it just lost passion for me. I kind of stumbled into helping a fairly new church with men's ministry, and in writing a draft of a vision of men's ministry and stepping back I saw it. In my volunteering, I'd always risen quickly to leadership, but not standards stuff. I was always building, creating or reforming ministry with an unspoken principle in mind -- I always built structures around individuals, rather than coming up with a structure and recruiting to it. The structure was intentionally fluid, adapting to the people.

See the vision for men's ministries that I came up with had to do with unleashing men to make a difference. In building the structure around individuals, it had been about fully utilizing the potential of the individual ...

to be continued sometime ...

Jim and Casper Go To Church

Just wanted to recommend Jim and Casper Go To Church by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper to my readers. Jim is a Christian and Matt an atheist who visit a number of churches to get Matt's reaction to the presentation the church makes.

Churches invite people to visit their services to check them out, so what kind of message do churches make? Some common themes, some specific to types of churches emerge from the visits. What I find most interesting is Matt's observations that the format is the basically the same no matter what purpose comes through (except for the house church he attended) -- one of many observations that prompted Matt to ask "did Jesus really tell you to do it this way?". Another interesting one is the observation of the vagueness of it all -- sermons that left Matt asking "what's the call to action?".

I don't want to spoil anymore ... if anyone who has read it wants to discuss it, feel free to contact me ...

Integrating the pulls against me

One thing that I've struggled with is "integrating" the passions, interests, and talents. Jesus did say his yoke is light -- I just don't think that I need strain to balance diverse interests. Those who've been wildly successful typically are focused with a passion, not splitting them. Maybe that's an illusion - maybe they just aren't as successful in the others and the one they are known for overshadows the rest.

One big theme has been a desire to see others step fully into what God calls them to be (more on this in a future post in the "The story so far" series I'm planning). Yet the past year has been a lot into "church" structures (as long term readers know). Some of that is that I've seen too much the church has interfered through bureaucracy and other items to keep men and women from being what God intended. But it seems to be a distraction now.

A third factor came to play last May. God clearly spoke that my intellect is not to be neglected. For the last few years I had assumed that my earning of a PhD was more a reaction of wounding. One of the few ways my dad showed pride in me had been in academics, and in digesting the work and words of John Eldredge (Wild At Heart, the Wild At Heart Boot Camp, et al), I had thought the PhD was just a result of vows from the wounding. But sitting on a couch talking to someone I knew through an online discussion forum while at a retreat, I got socked in the gut by the guy's words. He's sitting there telling me he's amazed by my faith "despite" my education and intellect. Not that I've ever been open about my education -- humbleness or false humility had kept me hiding it. Yet this man saw through that and could tell I must have advanced degrees, and was amazed at the work God had done in me "despite" it. God followed up on that: clearly He doesn't intend to waste my education. So how does it factor in?

This isn't the first time I've faced such questions -- it has occurred in two ways in the past. Spiritual gift assessments would show a multiple set of gifts, and I faced the question what roles used all that? I sliced that Gordian when I discovered that passion and desires, not talent, is the real way to determining what's place in God's story. The other was looking at what those passions were -- I had done such a diverse set of things in the past, and enjoyed much of all of them (college ministry, benevolence ministry, teaching, men's ministry, et al). I found the common theme -- I always organized (or reorganized) and executed it in a way that made use of those volunteers I had. I found way to unleash who they were, rather than creating a system and fitting square pegs into round holes to get it implemented.

Past experience tells me the way to go is just to keep walking with God, and trust Him to show the way. It is great to have that confidence. Just gets frustrating at times, and even hesitant to step a direction because it doesn't satisfy all "requirements".

So, I guess for now I can just end this with ... To Be Continued. Together we can find out how it will continue, because I don't know myself.


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Some admin notes: I was thinking of really trying to make this just twice per week, once on Sunday/Monday and then on Wednesday/Thursday. Then ideas flooded in. I think this will be at least that often.

I'm going to kick off a sporadic series "The story thus far". This blog is supposedly about "Journeying through life, trying to restore others hearts as well as my own", so if I'm journaling about finding my heart it makes sense to add some background -- like how I got to where I am now. Might help explain some of the topics I pick, and what may be to come.

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Do we equip the church, or does it equip us?

On Tuesday I was talking with my friend Gary about many things, including the issues related to my Open Letter from Monday. He told me about a time that he was doing a retreat in Canada on calling and there was a recurring theme in Q&A -- all about how to go about getting permission from their pastors and/or churches to do what was on their hearts to do. (BTW, Gary said his response was if God was telling them to do it, why do they need support from their church?)

I've personally seen this, and heard similar stories. Men and some women who want to do a certain ministry or activity, only to be told by their pastor that it doesn't fit with them and the vision of their church (or mission or purpose of their church). I've been told a couple time by pastors that if I feel called to do what I had just shared with them, maybe it's a sign that I'm not supposed to be with them. I think this is a phenomenon that has grown in recent years as churches have imitated the business world in all the wrong ways -- coming up with vision and mission statements and focusing on accomplishing them.

Strange. I wonder what Bible they are reading?

Throughout Paul's letters, in Hebrews, in Acts, I see a recurring theme -- the church or its "leaders" are to equip the saints. The meetings are to edify and encourage one another. Our communities are to encourage one another to love and good deeds. I don't see anything about meeting the vision of the pastor, or the leadership team. The pastor role is actually mentioned all of once in scripture, and it is in the context of the pastor being for the equipping the saints for service.

Jesus said to the original disciples that they shouldn't lord it over others like the pagans do. But when a pastor or other leader says "we don't do that here" in reference to a good work someone wants to do, how is that not an example of lording it over? If a person is called of God to do something, shouldn't those around him or her help that person confirm it, then support it as God leads them to?

Instead, we get leaders who define roles and encourage service, but only in those predefined little buckets they create? Paul said God works within us to will and to act for his good purpose. Why can't leaders and churches trust God to do what He says? What a church needs to get done will get done what God wants if we trust Him to move and work within His people.

Christianity and the Cult of Celebrity

Trying to settle into a Sunday or Monday and Wednesday or Thursday posting pattern ... but came across this article and thought it fit well here.

Consider this a bonus post.

Christianity and the Cult of Celebrity

An Open Letter to the Institutional Church

Dear I.C.,

We had a great run, didn't we? For most of some 30 years, I was there with you most Sundays (yea, there was that time I was in Sweden for a few months I didn't show up). And you were good to me for most that time.

Through you, I met some great people. Ronnie who taught me about relationships. Bill, who lived service. Marie, dedicated to prayer. Dan, Chris, Dave, Mark, Steve, so many. And Bruce, who taught me to challenge my beliefs. Especially ones that are commonly accepted. Hmmm.

And through you, accomplished some good. What a run you and I had. Officer in Christian clubs, starting a college ministry, starting a benevolence ministry, even starting a men's ministry. Leader's team for a church plant. Planning about four retreats.

I know that inside your doors, many have come to know Christ, or at least met some people who knew him, or maybe some people who knew people who knew him. I came to love the word of God with you.

But along the way, I saw too often others who made you the focus, and too often I have made you the focus. We measured accomplishment in terms of the way institutions do, through "objective" numbers. And when I moved to Maryland, I saw how so many thought in terms of your maintenance and preservation, not in following Jesus. Four years later, I see this even more, with every "church" visited greeting me with the marketing survey (is this your first time? how did you found out about us?).

And discipleship within your walls -- it came as increasing and measuring knowledge. Knowing about God replaces knowing God. Thanks to God himself, that has been redirected in my own life by some so called "parachurch" organizations and the individuals I met due to them, but that learning to know God and to walk with him for so long made it even more distasteful to be in your walls.

At first, this just created anger within me. How could you masquerade as the bride of Christ? I thought of what a more appropriate form of church could be, discussed that with others. Anger probably wasn't the wrong emotion, but it led to the wrong conclusions. The answer isn't in your reform, but in how I viewed church.

Jesus said he would build his church. Luke records in Acts that God added daily to the church. The church is the body. Anyone who professes Jesus and becomes his disciple is in the church. One does not go to church anymore than one goes to themselves. The manifestation of the church in my presence is the other disciples around me that I interact with. No more, no less. No membership in a club or institution that calls itself "church" changes that, and no lack of membership means I'm not a part of the church.

Now, I know I used to blame you for limiting me. I was not a "professional" minister or the like, so you wouldn't let me do certain things. Yes that hurt. And seeking your "endorsement" and support of activities that God was leading me too and getting rejected hurt as well. But realizing that I share in the blame. You are caught in systems to maintain who you are, and I accepted that, and submitted to that. I thought I needed to get your support to build my numbers -- and yet concern of numbers is just another manifestation of your system, isn't it?

If Jesus is the head of the church, and if my mediator and high priest is Jesus, and if I am a part of a royal priesthood, then my acceptance and support should come from Him. Not you. So I forgive you, I.C., for expecting something from you that should come from God.

Well, where do we go from here, I.C.? Well, true church is community, of disciples who mutually support and edify one another. So from time to time, I may grace your doors in order to interact with other disciples as a part of that. Or I may not, finding my community elsewhere.

Anyway, I'll see you around.

Mark

Stumble-It
Technocriti

The Heart determines success

A few years back, I used to have an e-mail list (for the younger set, it was a kind of pre-blog alternative). I'm working on a longer blog post now that is taking quite a bit of thought and prayer, but so that I don't go so long between posts, I thought I'd pull out some of them from my archives:
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A number of years ago, sociologist Charles Garfield studied two groups, Olympic athletes and NASA astronauts to determine what made a successful athlete, and what made a successful astronaut. Another study studied commercial airline pilots and nurses, a field dominated by men and another by women respectively, to try and determine what factors could balance the two gender wise. All the studies determined it wasn't raw athletic ability, courage, strong academics or other traditional factors that determined success. The number one factor in all cases was simply passion, the heart to want it. In the case of the nurses, the report showed two case studies, one woman who was bright, who had full ride scholarships, parents that supported her, just everything going for her, but she didn't make it because she was just looking to qualify for a job. Another woman, who had dropped out of school, had two children out of wedlock, and worked at a diner with no one but herself as support and a mother willing to babysit. She was determined to become a nurse, and today she is.

Harold Whitman once said "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive". If you want to impact your world, if you want to have meaningful, fulfilling success, just have the courage to follow your heart.

"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life" -- Proverbs 4:23

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" -- Proverbs 13:12

"I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly" --- Jesus

School's started and my son's heart is good

After much apprehension, my son's made it through two good first days of fifth grade.

Why?

He has "fans". No kidding. A third or fourth grader even came up to and asked him "aren't you (for his privacy sake, I'll leave out his name)?". "yea, I am". "I loved you in last year's fourth grade play. You were so funny".

He has a love of drama, and loves to perform. His elementary school skews toward arts and drama (not really a magnet at this level though) and the arts and drama teachers there and those who help love his boldness on stage (no stage fright from this kid), his ability to project his voice, his ability to lend humor to his roles, et al.

Is a career in theater, or acting, realistic for him? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe writing will where he ends up. Maybe not. But we all need to just pursue where our hearts lead. If God put certain desires in our heart, we need to trust him to use that as guidance. Certainly some desires become corrupted, become twisted, but the pure desires in us, we need to pursue.

We adults need to recall what that was that stirred us when we were young ... maybe that's the path back to our hearts.

Getting personal

When I rebooted this blog in what, without looking it up, must have been in late June or early July, I kind of hinted at getting more personal with my thoughts and my own journey. Really haven't done much of that yet.

Part of the reason for my longest break between posts in quite awhile has been this recommitment to getting more personal. Takes courage. Plus, I don't think my wife wants me to get more personal here than I've gotten with her. She doesn't want to read here what I haven't already expressed to her.

So, diving in here, let me just break the surface a bit here ---

This week is the week of another Ransomed Heart Boot Camp. At one point it had looked like I was going to be on the work crew ... but post the Advanced in May I was kind of feeling another event may be too soon. And then I got a call from one of the staff where they talked about hearing from God that I shouldn't be doing it this time. It was great to hear from someone I barely knew confirmation of what I was feeling.

I really wouldn't have been there spiritually this weekend for it. I'm still sorting through so much of what is next in my life. So much to clarify.

Last week may have brought a hint at progress in one area.

When we left Maryland about 54 weeks ago, we were determined to find something quite different in a church community. No more churches that have become stagnant institutions, or wishy-washy vision by consensus, or a number of other issues we've had. It is interesting that scripture states very clearly that gatherings of the church is about mutual edification and support, not worship. That the functions of apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors and teachers are for the equipping of the saints, not the lording over them. And many other aspects you may have read in this blog.

Well, we spent some time looking. But it seemed fruitless. So we took a break from looking, kind of deciding to detox. Been detoxing longer than I thought, but moving back toward some sense of community we've been really looking to God to help us with a strategy, a way to prevent being sucked into the Matrix. It has really been good to be away, as individually and together we've come to realize we may have stepped out of the Matrix, but the Matrix is so much a part of our thinking that getting it out of us has been work. The process has been freeing for sure.

What gave a glimmer of hope? May not lead to anything, but a church planter reached out to me last week about some possibilities in Colorado Springs for some organic church. Been praying and thinking about it, and we'll see what happens.

Reimagining Church

About six months ago, I reviewed Pagan Christianity in this blog (see Red Pill Redux). Pagan Christianity reviewed the origins of church practices, revealing many very common ones as arising from society and adapted from the culture.

Frank Viola has written a constructive sequel and excellent companion to that book, Reimagining Church. This time, Viola (sans George Barna) has written a volume that examines a bit more what church should be rather than what it has become by outside influences. There is a bit of counterargument in the book, anticipating the objections, but for the most part Viola has written a positive, constructive approach to complement Pagan Christianity's more deconstructive subtext.

Viola paints a picture of church as community, where it is truly every member ministry and there is nothing resembling the modern church hierarchy's that put layers in God's people between God and man. He reexamines what the functions are in the church, taking us back beyond our preconceived Western mindset that reads our culture into the words. He makes his case well, without anger.

I would encourage the readers of this blog to get a copy and post your comments and thoughts as you read it. Like Pagan Christianity, you are unlikely to find this in stores, but it is available online through Amazon, CBD (cbd.com), and Frank Viola's ministry (best price when I ordered it)

Towards a more biblical model of the church

Richard Halverson:

When the Greeks got the gospel, they turned it into a philosophy; when the Romans got it, they turned it into a government; when the Europeans got it, they turned it into a culture, and when the Americans got it, they turned it into a business

If most churches (American anyone) were examined by a naive person unfamiliar with them, what would they compare it with? Reggie McNeal proposes (Present Future) that our churches as they are are properly compared to social clubs, while many besides Halverson have made the comparison to a corporation, with the senior pastor as CEO, other pastors and staff as upper management, and those sitting mostly idle in the pews as the clientele.

The Bible though most often refers to the church as a family. Yes, it refers to it as the body of Christ, an army, and many other analogies, but family and familial references are most common. But what would we say about a family that gathered once per week to stare at the back of heads, only one person really shared, and the gathering was strictly scripted? That would be labeled as more than just dysfunctional.

How do we move back to a more biblically model?

A new view of "church"

Those who know me know that I believe there is something fundamentally off about church as it is practiced in America. There are really too many points to make about what is wrong to summarize here, but you can find many a thing looking through the history of this blog.

I've come to realize through a transition in thinking that the alternatives I was advocating were wrong, at least in the details. This was really climaxed in thought in May. If there was one spark in this shift, it was sitting around the fireplace at Ransomed Heart's "Advanced Boot Camp" with a group that included a couple of my regular readers of this blog, and Craig McConnell. Craig and I have had off and on conversations around this topic and some others, but it had been one on one. I don't know if Craig's thinking had shifted, or he brought out a nuance of it in a group, or I had never noticed his use of some words, or just what, but something he said struck me. It was the way he used the word "church", talking of it breaking out at times when disciples are gathered. Now, the way he used it and means it may differ from the reaction and resulting developing conclusions I've come to, so please don't treat my words and thoughts as his. His contextual use of the word "church" and the way I took it (he could have meant something entirely different) is the topic here.

So just what does it mean, "church". There's an analogy I read in the preface or intro to Frank Viola's new book Reimaging Church that describes beautifully the kind of shift in thinking. Early scientists trying to study our solar system were baffled in trying to compute orbits and the like. Until Galileo. The problem was that early astronomers were trying to make their computations geocentric, that is, centered around the earth. Galileo proposed that they should be heliocentric, that is, centered around the sun. Galileo was treated as a heretic for his thinking, due to a false belief that the Bible taught that the earth was central.

In many ways, I think I've been trapped by some remaining "geocentric" thinking. So I've proposed or sided with new ways of structuring church, new hierarchies, etc. I've advocated some great concepts, like organic church, but treating it as a different way of structuring things. That misses the point, I now think.

Now, after that discussion around a fireplace, I picked up a copy of Jake Colsen's So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore I had owned but not read yet, followed by reading The Shack by William P. Young. Both are novels, but they expose a different way of thinking. Looking at church as much more relational, much more embedded in life, rather than a separate entity shoved to a building on a street corner that one visits occasionally, or even a separate structured time in a home.

What is this new view of church? It is really hard to put into a few words. The words one would like to use are often loaded with alternate meaning that will throw off the reader. Other words are entirely biblical, but in practice their meanings have been twisted. But let me attempt it anyway, and I invited conversation to help express this better.

In some ways, the church as the body of Christ is an extension of the Trinity. When we look at the scriptural descriptions of the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we don't see a hierarchy, but rather a community which complements each other. As we read through something like I Cor 11-14, we see a community about the mutual edification of one another. Paul in his Corinthian letters doesn't address a hierarchy, but charges each member to be about what he describes to do.

And while we see regular meetings, I don't think the regular meetings are central. Jesus is. It is about relationships, to one another and to God. If meetings are central, relationships aren't. The meetings feed the relationships. They help maintain them. Interesting, there isn't a single description or instruction about the gatherings being worship, but there are plenty about edification, encouragement, spurring on one another to love and good deeds ...

When it comes to hierarchy, it is every member ministry. Some do have roles, but Paul described them as for the equipping of the saints, not lording over them. Jesus even described that we shouldn't be like those who lord it over one another (Matthew 20:25, see also I Peter 5:3).

What it really comes down to is this: if we are following Jesus, our communities will arise as they should in our contexts. That, I believe, is what happened in the first century. Looking at what happened then should be limited to seeing how they contextualized to their society being the body of Christ.

The problem is, many of us have such an embedded thoughts influenced by the way things have become rather than what was intended. I still struggle with this, and at times, struggle with being "anti" the way things have become.

Every Story Follows the Same Basic Plot IV: Restoration

See Part III
See part II
See part I

Finally, every story ends or will end with a sense of restoration. In Gladiator, Maximus defeats Commodus and restores the Senate, and in his own personal story, Maximus reunites with his wife and son on the other side of death. In Walk the Line, in the Thanksgiving Day scene, after his father demonstrates contempt for Johnny Cash again, June Carter comes to "rescue" his spirit. In the Lord of the Rings, the one Ring is destroyed and Aragorn takes his place as king. In Prince Caspian, Narnia is restored with a son of Adam on the throne again. In God and man's story, Jesus dies, is buried and is resurrected, beginning the restoration of the relationship of humanity and God that is ongoing.

Restoration is available, it is there. Often in our own stories that we are now living, we must find a way to recognize the real truth of the shattering and how we are striving.

Every Story Follows the Same Basic Plot III: Striving

See part II
See part I

Once the Shalom is shattered, then follows the striving. The story continues by either a striving to restore Shalom in a false way, sometimes by killing the pain of Shalom lost (addictions, etc).

In Walk The Line, Johnny Cash looks first to his music, then to drugs. In the Lord of the Rings, many in the story want the power of the Ring itself to use to restore things. In the story of man, God provides a covenant and a Law as a tutor to the time of ultimate redemption comes, but man puts hope in law-keeping at best, his own ability at worst.

In the lives of individuals, the striving comes in various forms. It may be religion, it may be drugs or alcohol, sex, work, living vicariously through their children, et al. Often it is by trying to control something in someway. Usually it is really a form of distraction.

Brennan Manning has labeled this kind of striving as playing the "Impostor". John Eldredge labels a person in this state as a "poser". This stage of the story is when we try to deny, cover over, or fake our way through our wound. Often the characters in the story are even unaware of the falsehood of their approach.

See Part IV

Every Story follows the same basic plot Part II: Shattered

See part 1

In any story, there is something that shatters the Shalom, the peace, the ideal state. This too can be implied before the beginning we see. In the movie Gladiator, it came when Rome moved to depend on a Caesar rather than the Senate, and in the story of the main character, Maximus, with the death of the Caesar he pledged loyalty to. In The Matrix, it happened before the opening scenes when the machines took over. In Walk The Line, it happened when Cash's brother died in the accident. In God's story, it happened with the angelic rebellion, and in man's story with the Fall.

The shattering happens in many ways, but generally it involves a wound and loss. A boy becomes orphaned in a way -- either through the actually loss of a parent, or in the practical loss of a parent to alcoholism or other means. A young woman suffers a breakup from a lover. A man loses a friend. We become in someway an orphan, widow(er), or stranger.

See Part III

Every story follows the same plot part I

A couple years back I heard Dan Allender speak on "story". This was after the release of his book To Be Told (recommended reading). Allender spoke of the importance of knowing your own story and sharing story.

In this seminar, Allender spoke over several sessions on how every story follows the same pattern, and seeing this in our lives can benefit us and help us see the direction God has for us. And make sense of our lives. Interesting, this isn't in his book or fully shown in the workbook, though some elements are there. In the interest of popularizing this for others benefit, I want to share it in my own words. I break this up in four parts:
1) Shalom
2) Shattered
3) Striving
4) Restoration

Part 1, Shalom

In every story, there is an opening period of shalom -- of peace, tranquility, of harmony. It may be implied -- generations ago, there was a great king who ruled in peace; when a person was young, he lived with a model family; once upon at time there was a happy princess. In God's story, there was "In the beginning". Not Genesis 1, but John 1. John 1 starts in a time predating Genesis 1, with "in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God". There was the Trinity, before anything was created living in harmony. Or, if you want to go to Genesis 1 to the story of man, there was the Garden of Eden. In the movies, we can turn to movies like Gladiator, where they speak of a Rome that once was, and is to be again. In the movie Walk the Line, we see young Johnny Cash and his brother planning and dreaming in their bedroom.

Every story has a Shalom, or the echo of one that was there sometime before the beginning of the story that is implied in the story.

Part II

Godly organization

I may have written about this before (edit: yep, in January), but I wanted to return to it with a new approach and some new thoughts.

Dee Hock, former high muckie muck with VISA International (the credit card guys), coined a term called "chaordic". It is order that arises out of chaos. Numerous late 20th and early 21st century innovators in the greater church have embraced chaordic as an approach to church growth and new church plants.

Basically, it is allowing organization to naturally arise by focusing solely on a common mission complemented with commonly held values. Some would interpret much of what happened in Acts and what Paul did as just that: Paul would preach in an area, stay to disciple awhile, then return months or a year or two later and recognize the leaders (elders) that were there already. Yes, most interpretations say appoint, but I would say they are probably right in that Paul probably simply recognized those who were leaders who were of good character and influence and appointed them.

Some also refer to this kind of organization as organic, others use terms like endoskeleton (as opposed to the institutional approach that resembles an exoskeleton). We can all observe that when we are in a small group of friends or in a small group of coworkers thrown together for training or such, there is a naturally occurring organization that arises. I think back simply to my bunkhouse at Advanced Boot Camp in May: when we were thrown together for the practicums on the four streams, we managed to quickly organize and get moving without predetermining a structure or organizational philosophy. (ok, maybe the Holy Spirit was involved there in seeing that happen -- but doesn't that sort of reinforce my point?).

Anything is possible with God of course, but some observations are that "natural" organization is best with smaller numbers. And it would seem that smaller churches are most effective. Generally, if a church is growing, it is growing faster if it is smaller -- two five hundred member churches that are growing grow faster than one thousand member growing church, and five 100 member churches faster than one 500 member church. Moreover, (I'll have to find the references for all this) the smaller churches tend to grow with new converts, the large with "transfers". So the real growth rate is much better with the smaller.

Another observation made by some organizational experts is that formal structure tends to occur when a group hits 20 or so. The larger the organization, the more "structured" in man's eye it gets. Is this good? Look at the business world -- the fastest growing businesses are always the smallest. Few Fortune 500 companies even sustain 3% annual growth over a long duration. More jobs are created "per capita" by small companies than large ones. One case in point -- San Diego lost several huge aerospace employers in the eighties, but the city's unemployment rate didn't spike long term as a result, despite the lack of new business moving in or other large employers hiring in large numbers. What happened, it was discovered years later, was that many of the unemployed started small businesses, and that ended up absorbing the unemployed rapidly. Small is beautiful, as my friend Greg says.

Another thought on organization -- we may think of the small as unorganized, but is anything unorganized really unorganized? The analogy is looking at a piece of land as "undeveloped". Ever realize that is an insult to God? It is undeveloped only in the eyes of man. God has spent centuries invested in that land, hasn't he? If we are a God led people, can we really ever be unorganized in our units? And aren't we more unorganized when we rely on man made bureaucracies?