Filed under: Bio, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: convictions, disciple, Following God, God, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Jesus-followers, Spirituality
I spent a lot of time the last few weeks thinking about living as a part of a missional community. How is that began, how is it done, and maybe most importantly, how is it sustained? I was really challenged to get my personal convictions set down so that I can filter my life through them. I know for myself, I have been defined more by institutional (church) convictions then what God has placed in my own heart. In order for me to really live, I need to strive after being the person God calling me to be.
After sharing these with my wife, it was really good to hear that she really liked them and felt she could share them with me (good thing for our future happiness and our marriage 
). I though I would share them here and then develop them over the next few weeks with you. Hopefully this will do 2 things. One, help me flesh this out in my own life, and Two, challenge others (you) to think through your own personal convictions. I’m beginning to believe more and more, that until individuals really have a handle on their own personal calling, we are unable to live missionally either as individuals or as a community.
All of these come from the context of desiring to put the reality of the Kingdom of God on display for others around me to see and experience. Also, I want to be known more and more for what I am for and what I give to others, and less for what I am against or what I desire from others. So having said all that, here you go:
1. The world doesn’t understand grace, I need to live it out for them to see.
2. Church is who we are and what we do together, not where we go or how we gather.
3. I’m blessed to bless others. I need to constantly be looking to give something back especially to the community I live in.
4. Loving my wife and kids takes priority over everything else and shows off Jesus in the process.
5. Following Jesus is meant to be done together. We need others to walk with us on the journey.
6. Injustice and oppression breaks God’s heart and it needs to break mine as well. When I see it (locally or globally) I need to respond.
I really appreciate whatever feedback you can give me on these, wether you agree or disagree with them. And perhaps even more, I’d love to hear what convictions you come up with to guide your life. I’m looking forward to developing each these in the next week or so. Stay tuned…
Filed under: Bio, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: Christianity, God, incarnate, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Love, loving others, Messy people, Missional, serve, Spirituality, toxic people
We all have “those” kind of people in our lives. Wether they are friends, family members, or ex’s, there is always that one person who has made bad choice after bad choice to the point that their lives are in ruin. Many times we label them with words like leeches, losers, or just plain toxic, And if “yours” is like “mine”, then you know that when they call you, their life is in a state of crisis, and more often then not they need some kind of help. To be totally honest, I hate answering those phone calls, I dread returning those messages, and I make excuse after excuse to put it off. Yesterday I got one of those calls…
He needed a ride to get some money or he were going to be kick out of his one room studio. It was an emergency. I had things to do, I had to go to work in a few hours, and I really had no desire to again enter into his life and be confronted with all of the chaos and hurt. I really just wanted to say I was too busy to help.
So, at 8:30 in the morning, I drove downtown to pick him up and hear the whole story. He had gone on a drinking binge (again), got in a fight with his girlfriend, and she left, taking what little they had. This caused a downward spiral into a deeper multi-day drinking binge, and now he was broke, lonely, and on the verge of being homeless. I had already resolved not to allow myself to believe his excuses, or to lend any money, but there was something about the way he kept telling me, “I really f-ed this up”, that made me realize that God was already working here.
I wish I could say that in our brief time together in the car he surrendered to the way of Jesus, miraculously was healed of his alcohol addiction, turned his life around, and found a few thousand dollars on the street. Instead, we found a way to get him enough money to pay this months rent (he even offered gas money to me), and we had a few disjointed conversations about God and His love for all people. He gave me the classic line that he was already on his way to hell, but he didn’t understand why bad things happened to the “good” people he knew. He’d given up on God but he didn’t understand why God had given up on others. Amid his ramblings I tried to share that God did care about him, and that He wanted the best for him, to experience real life. It was in the middle of this that he uttered these words that nearly brought me to tears, “I know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Wow, are you serious! Really. I didn’t want to be there. I really didn’t have any hope for him, and would have done anything to avoid being there. And yet, in spite of myself, God allowed his love to be incarnated in me! To this hopeless man, I appeared as the love of God. What an honor.
I dropped him of at his apartment, told him I loved him, and that he would be in my prayers, and that was the end of it. I don’t know what will happen next, I don’t even know how much of his story was true. But I do know that God’s love showed up in my car yesterday, without me even really wanting it to, and it got me thinking. How many other people in my life are searching desperately for the love of God, but no one is showing up to revel it to them? How many of us miss out on chances to be Jesus to others because we’re to busy, or because it is too mess?. And how many people are just waiting to be able to say to us,
“I know that God loves me, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Filed under: Book Review | Tags: Christianity, Hypocrisy, Missional, Post-Christian, Review, Spirituality
Since one of my resolutions for the New Year was to spend some time reading each day, I expect to finish a few books this year. I figured that this would be a good place to review the books I’m reading as well as hear your thoughts on them. I’m definitely not comfortable as a book critic (in fact I failed that part of English in High School), so please bear with me. I hope these attempts will be of some benefit, but we’ll have to see
UnChristian (What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…And Why It Matters)
By David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
In the latest study from Barna Research Group, Kinnaman focuses on what 16-29 year olds feel about Christians from both inside and outside the church. I wish I could call the results surprising but they only serve to verify what many of us already feel. Christianity has a major image problem. The people that should have the market cornered on being known for being loving, forgiving, life-giving revolutionaries are in fact best summed up by words like: hypocritical, anti-homosexual, sheltered, judgmental, too political, and too focused on obtaining converts. Only 16% of those surveyed outside of Christianity have a favorable impression of Christians, and 49% have a bad impression of evangelical Christians. Obviously if an entire generation feels this way about Christianity we have seriously failed in representing the real grace-filled gospel of Jesus.
UnChristian is basically two books. Much of the book is spent on discussing the results of the research which while interesting is some times belabored and repetitive. At the end of each chapter various Christian leaders lend their thoughts to the major issues discussed. This is by far the strongest part of the book. The perspectives offered are diverse and insightful and help to reenforce the challenges and opportunities facing Jesus followers who wish to change these perceptions. In my opinion these dialogues speak to the direct issues of the book, and should have made up more of the finished product. I even found a new author to read, Margaret Feinberg. I have no idea who she is, but her insight and wisdom reveal her as someone to be read and respected.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders about the perception problems facing Christianity in the future. It would be especially insightful to those who have not realized the gravity of the challenges facing the church, or who have yet to acknowledge that a serious problem exists. On the other hand readers who either come from these age groups or who have been students of the emerging cultures will find little to surprise them. The research will confirm much, but offers few new insights into how to challenge those perceptions. The book is a fairly quick read, and worth reading if you have the time. The commentaries highlight the opportunities ahead and offer hope to those who wish to repaint the image of Jesus to the world He loves.
Filed under: Missional Living, Quotes | Tags: Authentic Christianity, Blogs, Faith, Jesus-followers, Spirituality
I have a confession to make.
One of my favorite blogs to read is for moms, and about moms. Part of that is because the author is a friend of mine who I have known since she was in Jr. High, and it’s great to see her grow and mature. Plus I like to keep up on what is going on in the lives of three of my favorite people in the world. The other part of it is that Emery is such a talented writer that I often read her posts wondering at her ability to turn everyday challenges and triumphs into such beautiful word pictures. Last week she wrote a post in which she shared some of her struggles with the tension of being an authentic Jesus follower in a consumeristic culture. Her thoughts challenged and encouraged me because much of her thoughts were my thoughts, and I think many people thoughts. God is doing something new around the country and around the world. Thats not to say that the old is wrong or outdated, but that God is birthing something that is calling people deeper and deeper into bringing HIs kingdom here in new ways. I have Emery’s permission to repost her blog here. So spend some time with it, share your thoughts, and maybe, if you have time in your online reading schedule, head on over to her site, Moms Are For Everyone, and get connected with her, Chris, and Ezra, and what God is doing in Oklahoma City. Enjoy:
It is going to be SEVENTY SIX degrees here today. 76!!
Tomorrow?
Chance of SNOW.
We had a picnic with the neighbors today and I had a tank top on and felt HOT. Ezra’s cheeks turned bright pink like he’d gotten too much sun. Yet tomorrow, I will be watching rain and snow from my window- cranking up the heater and feeling like I am in the Twilight Zone.
Oklahoma weather is bizarre.
I must openly admit to the cheese-ball card I’m about to play here and tell you that, yes, I’m moments away from relating these crazy weather patterns to the patterns of my heart/mind over the past few days.
I am losing steam.
My desire and passion to get out and find a job and do new things is fading and I am feeling like my old self again… tired, unmotivated, sad.
Summer yesterday, Winter today.
I have been beating myself up about these things. Telling myself I am not a good Christian, a good wife, a good mum, a good friend. Ezra has started conversing non-stop in the body-cringing frequency of a WHINE. I am quick to lose my temper and my days feel like years. I never go outside. I wonder if God thinks this is stupid. I suddenly wish I was an outdoors-y type of person… leading Ezra on adventures through the woods and taking family camping trips into the middle of nowhere with nothing but tents and food… adventure in our faces and sunsets on our backs.
Why am I feeling this strange tension all of the sudden?
I think it has a lot to do with the recent realization that I have led a completely SAFE and completely SHELTERED life up to this point… and that no one who’s ever contributed to the world could describe their lives as “safe”. I am so blessed to have had such a life, but when you are an American who has always had everything you’ve ever needed, it doesn’t leave much room for FAITH or total dependence on God. I’m suddenly not okay with being a couch potato Christian. This suddenly seems ridiculous to me, but it’s the life I have been living for as long as I can remember.
The God I believe in is not a safe God. He is adventurous and dangerous and wild. He asks you to do ludicrous things with no promise of pleasant outcomes. He calls you to risk your life for others; calls you to lay it all on the line so that He can shine through you. He demands great sacrifice and obedience.
Going to the grocery store is the adventure in my life. And I feel like I don’t even know God because I’ve never really had to know Him. (Is any of this making sense? Didn’t I start this post off by talking about the weather?) All of these thoughts seem a bit scary to me. And they are so loud inside my head I can’t think of much else.
Back when life was tumultuous and my heart was at a constant breaking point… back when I was fighting for the man I loved… I felt God near. It was the most difficult yet sweetest time of my life. Because I needed Him. I woke up each morning feeling like I wasn’t going to survive if He didn’t spoon-feed me my next breath.
I NEEDED Him.
So, I am praying. I am praying that God would use me in a great adventure. That He would find me ready and able when and if He ever needs me. I am praying for the motivation to get out of my house. The motivation to volunteer or spend myself on account of someone else. Because right now, I don’t have that motivation. I don’t have any desire to walk out of my front door. And I NEED that to change because the adventure I so desperately want to be a part of isn’t just going to come knock on my door and ask if I’m not doing anything later. And I honestly think that’s what I’ve been waiting for all this time…
I woke up in the middle of the night last night feeling panic at the thought of all of this. Like I’d messed everything up and wanted nothing more than to start it all over again. Regret. The WORST feeling in the world. And something in the atmosphere of my house didn’t feel right… there was something heavy and oppressive in the air and I felt scared and hopeless. I tried to pray. I felt a strong urge to grab the dusty Bible on my nightstand. I wished that I had more of His words memorized in my heart so that I could recall them to my mind in the dark.
I prayed that God would forgive me, change me, calm me. I told the darkness in my bedroom that He is Faithful and Good. I whispered it to my quiet room and tried to believe it. My chest started to feel a bit lighter and the atmosphere began to shift. I prayed some more and finally fell back asleep.
So, to the inky stuff inside my heart:
God is Faithful. God is Good.
The weather could change again tomorrow, but those things never will.
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible, Christianity, Christians, God, Grace, James 2, Jesus, Judgement, Love, mercy, Post-Christian, Spirituality
This might be beating a dead (or dying) horse, but here goes anyway.
As I was writing in my last post, I want to be known by what I do and what I am for. To often our society stereotypes and categorizes people and beliefs by what they are against: Republicans are against big government, Democrats are against the wealthy, Christians are against homosexuals, and reasonable people should be against any coffee shop with stores on every corner. OK maybe not that last one, but I think you get the point. Perhaps we define ourselves and other by what we are not because its easier to see what we hate in others then in ourselves, and by extension can say “I’ll never be/do that.” Yet the reality is, that all of us, when faced with the right circumstances are capable of the darkest evil. In my reading today I came across this thought in James 2.
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Wow, mercy triumphs over judgement. I may be reading too much into that, but is it saying that rather then judging people by what they do or think, we are called to speak and act out of mercy?
And what is the law that gives freedom? As I understand scripture, it’s grace. The new law of Jesus is based on the fact that all of us are offered forgiveness that we do not deserve. That we all blow it and fall way short of what God created us to be. James seems to be reminding followers of Jesus that, as those who have been forgiven solely because of God’s love, we need to treat others the same way. How quickly do I forget. If anyone in the world should be agents of forgiveness, love, and reconciliation, it should be Christians who rest their entire faith and eternity on these things.
Perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. Rather then being know for what we (Christians) are against, we need to stand for what we are for. How much different would our world be, if, when people thought of Christians, they thought of the most loving, forgiving, inclusive, and creative people they knew. Maybe, it’s time for us to reframe our culture’s view of Christians. Maybe it’s time we take a stand for who we are. It can be done, but it can only be done by each of us living it out. What are we waiting for?
Filed under: Missional Living, Quotes | Tags: Busyness, God, Pleasure, Quiet Time, Spirituality, Worship
I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple days about about how I worship God in the midst of my busyness. How do I, as a lover of Him, bring Him glory and pleasure when I don’t really have time to breathe let alone go to a worship gathering, remember to pray, or spend some time reading my Bible. Sure I have time in the evenings after work, dinner, and getting the kids to bed, but then I am so freaking tired all I want to is veg out. I’ve heard the old, “wake up earlier”, “if you really wanted to you’d make it a priority”, and “do it anyway till you like it” theories, and there is probably truth to them, but things just don’t seem to work that way in my world. Can anyone else relate to this busyness dilemma? Am I suddenly a second class follower of Jesus? Is God frustrated at me just as I am frustrated with my schedule? I think part of the guilt/conviction I am feeling is do to all the “spiritual success” stories I hear about “Super-Christians” and their awesome 3 hour quiet time, but another part is do to my limited (and incorrect) view of what worship and connecting with God really is. Spend some time to read this quote from Michael Frost’s book Exiles:Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture a couple times:
“G.K. Chesterton was noted as having quipped, ‘I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin.’ Like a child giggling with the attention paid by its parents, God derives enormous pleasure from receiving attention. The Scottish athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, portrayed by Ian Charleson in the film Chariots of Fire, is quoted as having said, ‘I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”With this kind of faith exiles should be able to acknowledge that the whole of our lives can be God-directed and therefore God-glorifying. When our chief end is to please God, running fast isn’t about personal glory or being the best in the world; it is about giving pleasure to God. Likewise, a life lived in order to give God pleasure will mean that our choices, our preferences, our desires become subservient to our greater end.
Thus, loving the Lord, or enjoying the Lord, or obeying the Lord, or even accepting the Lord’s salvation in the first place–all these are means of serving the chief end, which is to please the Lord. Nurses please God when they perform the Gold-glorifying work of healing the sick. Teachers do it when telling the truth to students. Runners do it when running fast. And as we cooperate more and more with God’s unstoppable goal of self-glorifying, we bring increased pleasure to God and to ourselves. Like Jesus, we will literally glow.
Why is it that many worship pastors seem to suggest that the primary way we give God pleasure is through sung worship? Was Liddell worshipping God on the track at the Paris Olympics? Do I worship God when I meet with my local politician to raise his or her awareness of global poverty? Do we worship God when we choose to protect the environment over which we’ve been granted stewardship? I think so. Our whole lives are to be lived in praise of God, as expressions of God’s glory, adding to the enjoyment that God has in God’s self and in the outworking of the divine purposes on this planet.”
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, and whatever you find yourself busily doing this week, may you do it all well, to the pleasure of God. And in that, may you find great pleasure in spite of the busyness. Much grace to you.
Filed under: Missional Church | Tags: Christianity, Church, Cultural Change, Post-Christian, Spirituality
I just sent this little tidbit out in an update letter to some of my friends, but as I thought about it more I’d really like to hear your thoughts on it. As we engage the world around us we must always remember that each of us comes from a particular world-view (or paradigm) that shapes how we approach life, respond to challenges and relate to others. As you may know a paradigm is an assumed or underlying grid of values and beliefs about life and reality . Whether we are conscious of it or not we all live with them (Cross your arms, now cross them in the other direction. I rest my case), and the “church” has been no different. The Western church has, for the most part, been operating from the same given paradigm since Constantine (AD 312). With the legalization of Christianity the church went from a rag-tag group of underground, persecuted, marginalized, Spirit-empowered people living out a subversive faith to a professionalized and legitimized institution who’s role became to educate people in and validate a new comprehensive Christian world-view. There is nothing inherently wrong with this paradigm, but, as well all know we are no longer operating in a “Christian culture” where the church is accepted as the guardian of truth and hope. In fact we, in the West, now live in an increasingly post-Christian culture where knowledge is relative, value is based on gratification and consumerism is the new religion of choice.
When any paradigm shifts (be it in business, culture, art, or technology) there are basically four possible responses:
Maintain a marginalized state-Hold on to the past and become increasingly irrelevant to changing culture
Embrace the center of culture-Become very relevant, but compromise on values
Create transitional environment-Move forward in small increments (Become a bridge to new forms)
Become a transformational model-Lead culture by bringing strong values with relevant expressions.
Each of these responses has it’s own inherent values and pitfalls, and each can be a valid response to change. In fact I would bet that each of us could think of instances of each model in existence today. What we must remember is that while one model might be preferential to who we are and how we process information, the other 3 are equally important for others. Let us never think that there is only one correct response to change. What we all must come to grips with is that change is occurring, and for the “church” to be an effective entity with maximum impact in culture, we must each make a conscious decision how we will respond.
Filed under: Bible, Missional Church | Tags: Bible, Forgiveness, Grace, Hypocrisy, Judgement, Spirituality
Last week we had some great thoughts on forgiveness, judgment, and grace. It’s so freeing to see Jesus through fresh eyes. One of the things we’ve spent a little bit of time talking about on Sunday evenings the last 2 weeks has been different types of judgment (Thanks for pointing this out Omar). Is it OK for me to have a problem with the way some followers of Jesus represent God? How am I supposed to respond to this? If Jesus didn’t come to judge and I am sent the same way what do I do? I’ve really been thinking about this the last week, and just about fell off my chair when I read this “contradiction” in the Bible (gasp). So having said that what do we do with passages like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts:
John 9:24-41
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”\
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
What!? For judgment He came into the world? Isn’t this exactly opposite what Jesus says in John 3 and 12? And yet to me it all makes sense.
Heres the rest of the story for context and some other “judgment” verses for you to add to this:
Before I spew my thoughts I’d love to hear yours. So hook it up and write it down.
Oh, one more thing. We are not meeting this Sunday evening for discussion (we’ll be out playing), so if your part of the actual Sunday gathering feel free to post your thoughts here and come hang out with us. If your a virtual part of our community we want your thoughts too even if your too far away to come play Next week I think we’re going to jump into Jesus’ words in the gospel of Luke and spend some time with that account of Jesus’ story. It should be fun.
