My Life as a Wrestler

Pastoral Authority

2012-02-07T14:23:00.003-06:00

In light of the last few posts (read them if you haven’t already) how might we begin working to a more redemptive understanding of what pastoral authority might look like. I have been around plenty Pastors over the years that demand submission, respect and obedience. This may seem to have the appearance of Godly wisdom but is not. As James 3:13-18 says:

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

In many ways what James wrote is a development of what Jesus had said to his own disciples in Matthew 20:25-28

25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

New Testament authority is power under not power over. Power under is demonstrated in humility and love. This did not mean that Jesus was just a pushover who let anything go but rather when he had to address sin in his own disciples it came from a place of love and it was received.

The people that I have consistently looked to as spiritual authorities in my life over the years have been a great example of Jesus kind of authority. They could address sin in my life and call me to account because I knew that they loved me and truly cared for me. The truth is that if you get any joy from confronting someone about sin in his or her life then you probably aren’t coming from a place of love and humility. If you are truly loving and serving the people you pastor then confrontation isn’t going to be tied to your personal success or the success of your organization but rather to the health of that believer as well as the surrounding church community.

The Goal and Role of Leadership in the Church

2012-02-07T13:36:00.002-06:00

I think one of the ways in which leadership can get twisty is when there is not a fundamental understanding of why that leadership is there to begin with. Leadership in the church should not be seen as an end unto itself but rather as part of the process of the life of God being cultivated in people.

Here are a few ways that the role of pastor is seen in many churches today:
The Pastor as Priest: Some leaders see themselves as priests, mediators between the people of the congregation and God.
The Pastor as Policemen: Some leaders see themselves as policemen sent to enforce the rules
The Pastor as CEO: Many pastors have so bought into the models of business in the surrounding world that they see themselves primarily as CEOs running a business.
The Pastor as King: I actually heard a quote from a local pastor who got up in front of his church and told them, “This church is the kingdom and I am the king.” Though his statement seems frightening I think there are many pastors that think themselves above the people and actually see the church as their dominion.

If one starts out with any of the above understandings of pastoral ministry then it is no surprise when churches get run like businesses, mini-kingdoms, courtrooms, or gatherings where the only guy who is qualified or gets to do ministry is up there on stage.

I think we need to start with how church leadership is defined in the Bible. For example let’s look at Ephesians 4:11-16

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

He Must Increase
John the Baptist once had his own followers questioning the ministry of Jesus because Jesus was now beginning to gather more disciples while John’s group seemed to be dwindling. John’s response? “He must increase, I must decrease.” This mentality has to be the foundation of pastoral ministry. Our ministry is not to cause people to be dependent on us but rather to be dependent on God. I love what Paul writes as the goal of the 5-fold ministry: to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

So from this vantage-point leadership is not an end in and of itself but rather working towards equipping others and helping them grow in the knowledge of Jesus and the love of God. It is interesting that the Apostle Paul, for all of the churches he planted, did not stay very long at any of them. The longest he stayed at any one church was in Ephesus where he lived for around 3 years. This itself is a testament to what Paul was doing. He was trying to teach them to live around the reality of Jesus as King.

In the church I pastor I try to keep mindful of Paul’s approach. I would hope that if I died or suddenly got called to relocate somewhere else that the church I pastor wouldn’t shrivel up and die.

Starting in the right place is a start but that still doesn’t answer the question of how pastoral authority should be expressed within church. But I think that we are doomed to end up in the wrong place if we don’t at least start in the right place.

Related Audio:
The Kingdom and the Empire

Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll, and Spiritual Abuse in the Church

2012-02-07T10:48:00.001-06:00

Mars Hill, lead by Mark Driscoll, has become one of the fastest growing churches of the last decade. Not only have they been extremely successful in Seattle but in franchising Mars Hill to other cities and states around the country through multi-site campuses. Mark Driscoll has led the way for a new generation of Calvinists who are edgy in their style and dogmatic in their doctrine. Throughout his career he has become as well known for his inappropriate comments as he has for his beliefs (he has frequently had to make public apologies for his remarks about women, homosexuals, and worship leaders).

I first ran across an article on Mars Hill Church about 12 years ago when the church was just a few years old. I was struck by their unique approach to ministry, their emphasis on theology, and their intentionality about reaching out to young men (something for which the church at large has not done so great). I remember being really inspired by what I was reading about them back then. Since then I have also read books by Driscoll and listened to several of his online messages, which I have found very helpful in my journey as well. However, in the last few years I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the tone and direction of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill. The brash off-the-cuff comments that seemed cute 10 years ago have come to seem immature and sometimes even destructive to others. When I add to that his increasingly dogmatic embrace of Calvinism, I find it very hard to get much from his ministry these days.

However, what concerns me more about Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill than their theology and style is the increasing number of reports of abusive and controlling leadership. I read an article yesterday entitled Church of Cult?: The Control-Freaky Ways of Mars Hill Church. The piece looked at how Mars Hill has enforced “accountability” and discipline through a very authoritarian and hierarchical leadership structures. It’s really the same old story of abusive leadership in the church that seeks to control every aspect of people’s lives under the guise of discipleship. But the end result has nothing to do with freedom or learning to live by the Spirit but rather a legalism and abuse that choke the very life out of the believer.

My Experience With Abusive Authority in the Church
One of the hardest experiences of my life came as a new Christian when I got heavily involved with a church that, in many ways, reminds me of Mars Hill: an incredibly gifted preacher, a well-communicated vision, passionately held convictions, as well as controlling, authoritarian leadership structures. I was a part of that church for about 4 years but it has taken many more years than that to get over the damage caused. In that church discipleship was a huge emphasis, but along with discipleship there was a huge emphasis on submission to authority. When I read about how leadership at Mars Hill was trying to tell people who they could and could not marry I am reminded of similar comments made to Dina when we were dating that we were somehow missing God and they knew better for us (I’m really glad that we didn’t listen to them).

Had I not had some relationships with pastors outside of that church who could speak the truth to me I think I would have ended up either becoming a legalistic controlling leader myself or would have just quit Christianity all together. I came very close to completely quitting church because I saw all the damage that had been done to myself as well as others in such a short amount of time. Every time I would approach the pastor about something that I might disagree with or have a question about I was just told to submit to authority. My faith became increasingly performance driven. I only thought God loved me if I was praying enough, reading my Bible enough, serving the vision of the church enough. I was becoming insecure in my walk with God because I was so afraid I wasn’t following the rules enough.

Things came to a head for me towards the end of a crazy week of “revival” at that church. What had started earlier that week with an extended prayer meeting had turned into 24-hour prayer meetings at the church. But this was no ordinary prayer meeting. The pastor’s office quickly became the “holy of holies” in which only the most spiritual people could enter. Those who did enter were given titles such as “guard dog of the revival” or “gatekeeper”. All of the decorations and pictures in the church were taken off of the walls so they wouldn’t compete with God’s glory. In fact, they wouldn’t even let people set foot in the church without taking off their shoes saying that the church was “holy ground”. I could go on because there was much crazier stuff than this that took place but this will do for now.

About four days into this revival I came home and told Dina something which became a true epiphany for me, “I don’t feel the love of God in this.” In spite of all of the craziness, legalism, and abusive leadership I was hearing the voice of God. I knew something wasn’t right. I knew I couldn’t stay any longer. Within another month I had quit my job (I was full-time staff with that church) and we ended up leaving that church. This of course meant that I ended up on the churches black list because I was in rebellion. People who had previously been friends wouldn’t speak to me for years. I would hear rumors from other pastors as to why I had left the church. One rumor was that I had moral failure in my marriage. Another rumor was that my band was into voodoo (I am not making this stuff up). But in the last 5 years I have had many people apologize for shunning me as they have eventually come to an awareness of the destruction wrought by the same abusive authority in their own lives.

I have come to realize that those who have to demand submission are usually very insecure in their leadership. Those who have to control, manipulate, and guilt people into action are not helping people submit to God but to fear man.

There was a movement that popped up in that church towards the end of my time there called G-12. G-12 ended up creating a very hierarchical system of accountability, which expanded the spiritual abuse that I had experienced. The basic premise of G-12 was that the Jesus pattern of ministry was to disciple twelve disciples and that his model should be our model in the church. Under the G-12 (government of 12) model, the pastor would have twelve disciples (the pastoral staff) and, in turn, each of those twelve would gather twelve more, and so on. The G-12 emphasis really began to make the church look and feel like a cult. I remember bumping into people years after I left that church. I would ask them how they were doing and they would get a glazed look in their eyes and mumble the G-12 vision to me as if some kind of automated response and move on.

The G-12 model ignores the fact that Jesus did not choose twelve disciples for a church growth strategy and He didn’t lord authority over the disciples either. He led his disciples by serving, by loving, by relationship. Jesus was not a control freak and he wasn’t insecure in his authority. In fact, after 3 years of ministry he could trust his entire ministry to his disciples.

I know that Mars Hill is different than the church that I was a part of but I am very concerned by the warning signs. Back in the late seventies there was a movement called the Shepherding Movement that gathered quite a following and yet wounded many a believer with authoritarian leadership, strict accountability, control and manipulation. I pray that Mars Hill doesn’t become the next shepherding movement of our day.

Related Posts:
Jesus is not a Control Freak

Related Audio:
The Kingdom and the Empire

Wrestling With the Issue of Slavery in the New Testament

2012-02-06T13:08:00.001-06:00

It was not too long ago in our nation’s history that the institution of slavery was both accepted and approved of by many Christians. What’s even more distressing is that they supported slavery while finding ample scriptural backing in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. I have never met a Christian in my life, or even heard of one for that matter, that supports slavery. Why? Because in spite of the scriptures that seem to be either indifferent to slavery or to endorse slavery most people have seen that the greater narrative of scripture is a movement from slavery to freedom. It is quite interesting that for all of the Christians in South that held slaves the abolitionist movement that worked to free slaves was also heavily inspired by the scriptures. I am certainly glad that the abolitionists won out and I am also encouraged by recent movements to combat human trafficking and slavery around the world. As with the abolitionists much of this movement is carried on today by Christians.

So I want to turn attention to some verses on the topic of slavery from the New Testament and then put forth a way of understanding these scriptures that doesn’t help slavery flourish.

Jesus’ words on Slaves:

Matthew 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.” (NAS)

Matthew 24:45-46
45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.” (NAS)

Paul's words on slaves

1 Timothy 6:1-2
1 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves. (NIV)

Ephesians 6:5-9
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. (NIV)

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Titus 2:9-10
9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Peter on Slaves
1Pet. 2:18-21

18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (NIV)

I want to say that I don’t believe that any of these verses are a flat out endorsement of slavery but they certainly are not a condemnation of it either. It seems that both Paul and Peter see that the main issue is that if you are a slave you can still live to the glory of God and God can even use your life to effect those who are your masters. That said, it is awful hard to read such verses which never condemn the institution of slavery at all.

However, as with the women in ministry issue, I think it is necessary to look a bit at some other things Paul wrote as well as his actions. The truth is that while the Apostles didn’t condemn slavery outright there is no evidence that any of them had slaves themselves. One of the best places to see how Paul actually dealt with slavery in person can be found in the letter he wrote to Philemon.

The primary issue in Philemon concerns a slave named Onesimus who ran away from his master Philemon and was helping Paul in his ministry. Paul refers to Philemon in the first verse of the letter as a dear friend and fellow worker. We also find in verse 2 that the church meets in his home. So Philemon was a church leader and a fellow worker in the ministry with Paul and he had slaves (or at least one slave Onesimus).

Here’s what Paul writes concerning the slave:

12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self. 20 I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. (Philemon 1:12-21 NIV)

When it came to a situation involving a slave with a Christian master Paul encourages that the master free the slave and welcome him as a brother. Why would Paul take this stance after everything he said? Because he saw the trajectory of what Jesus accomplished as breaking down every wall that separates us from God and one another. This is no where clearer than when he writes in Galatians 3:28-29

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The kingdoms of this world major on divisions: slaves and free, men and women, Jews and gentiles but Paul sees the only identifier that matters as being Jesus. While Paul doesn’t attack the institution of slavery that was rampant in the world he does try to remove it when he has the authority to do so. Paul sees that in Christ slaves become brothers with their masters. That was revolutionary then and the implications are still every bit as revolutionary today!

We should expect to see that the community gathered around Christ should not major on the things that separate us in the kingdoms of this world but rather on the One who has torn down the walls that separate us both from God and from others. In my opinion this too has implications on the issue of women in ministry as well. Though Paul said some things which seemed to be very harsh towards women in certain situations he certainly had no issue with women like Priscilla, Junia, and Lydia serving in very prominent leadership roles within the church. This leads me to believe that what he was writing about in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 and in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 were not for all Christians at all time but rather had to do with specific situations going on within specific churches at that time.

Gandalf World Tour

2012-02-04T22:48:00.001-06:00

So on a lighter note... Folks that know me know that I am really into Lord of the Rings. Years ago I watched the complete trilogy in extended versions in a movie theater in Baton Rouge leading up to the world premier of Return of the King (something like 13 hours of Lord of the Rings in one sitting). For Christmas this year I got not one but two Lord of the Rings Pez sets (with Pez dispensers for all of the main characters). But perhaps my nerdiest action related to Lord of the Rings has been my recent participation in The Gandalf World Tour.

A few months ago I was looking for info on the upcoming theatrical version of The Hobbit when I read about the Gandalf World Tour. The tour consists of people who sign up to take a foot tall figure of Gandalf around and take pictures at whatever local attractions one's area might boast. It sounded kind of interesting so I signed up. I had forgotten about signing up until I got an email a few weeks ago that my shift was coming up. Gandalf had made his way from San Antonio to Houston and I was next on the list. So I got Gandalf about a week later and took him around for some pics. I will include a few here but most of the pics were chosen for the Gandalf World Tour site (that gives me some real nerd cred!).

Click on a pictures below to see larger versions of the photos.

Theology Needs Pastors

2012-02-04T01:17:00.000-06:00

I love having this blog as a place to process and dialogue on matters of faith. I find that on this blog I am consistently being challenged by the comments of others and learning as we wrestle through theology together. But I have to say that wrestling with theology on a blog is completely different from the dynamic of wrestling through theology as a pastor.

Blogs tend to work well for opinionated outward processors like myself. Anytime I have an idea or an insight I can throw a few paragraphs up on the web in a matter of minutes. But I am learning that connecting theology with real people in the church is a lot more difficult. This week I have had two very eye-opening conversations with people from my church. In these conversations questions of theology were brought up but in the context of many other rather heartbreaking issues. What was needed in these conversations wasn't some pat theological stance but rather someone who would listen, and enter in to their struggles. I realized that a good dose of humility is needed in any conversation about theology, truth, or scriptures particularly when it is tied to very hard situations in life. At the end of the day I want these people to connect with the One who is the Truth more than siding with whatever understanding I may have on smaller truths.

While pastors no doubt need to have good theology, I am convinced that theology needs more input from pastors and practitioners as well. One of my favorite authors is N. T. Wright. Wright is not just a brilliant bible scholar and theologian but he has also been very active in the church throughout his career. He truly loves the church and this comes through in his writings. While some Bible scholars are content to hide away in the world of academia, Wright makes sure that even the most lofty ideas of which he writes can connect with everyday people in the church.

Pastoring is teaching me to put relationship over beliefs and to love and walk through theology with people rather than just trying to give people the right answers. I am still a work in progress on this but I am thankful for the opportunity to grow in this area that pastoring affords.

What About Women in Ministry?

2012-02-03T12:11:00.001-06:00

For the last few weeks I have been teaching a class on How to Read the Bible For All It's Worth (partly inspired by the book of the same name written by renown Bible scholar Gordon Fee). For this coming weeks teaching I wanted to look at how we might wrestle with some of the passages from the Bible that are a little more difficult. So for this week's lesson I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject of women in ministry.

I have to say that I never really thought much about women in ministry at all (for or against) until about 5 years ago when the greater Vineyard movement began to really wrestle with this idea on a national level. The church of which I was a part at that time held to a soft complimentarian view on this subject meaning that women could serve in most aspects of the church except for being the senior pastor and perhaps even on teaching the whole church (I am not sure if that was the actual view or just how it worked out). I would say though that after years of wrestling with this issue from both sides that I have come down to more of an Egalitarian position on this subject which sees that both men and women can serve in any capacity in church even as a senior pastor or teacher for the whole congregation.

The bulk of the controversy on this issue arises from two passages written by the Apostle Paul. These passages are: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-14

At first glance these scriptures seem very harsh. Forget about women ministering in church these seem to say that they must keep their mouths shut the whole time. I don't know of any churches that seem to take Paul literally enough as to make women completely silent in church (this would go for churches that are hard complimentarians as well). So most churches soften Paul's meaning while trying to keep some semblance of what he is getting at.

I realized this morning that the controversy of women in ministry is making its way into the national conversation due to some comments by John Piper on why the church needs to be more masculine. I read a little on this at Scot McKnight's blog: John Piper, What He Said

One of the best papers that I have read on the subject of women in ministry is by Frank Viola. Go check out his paper Reimagining a Woman's Role in the Church

Have you ever looked into this issue?
How have you wrestled with it?
Where have you landed on the subject?

The Meat is in the Streets

2012-02-02T23:48:00.001-06:00

John 4:27-38
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

I have been working on a message on the above passage for this coming weekend and I got to tell you that I am getting pretty stoked!

I love the story that unfolds here (it actually starts at in John 4:1). A Samaritan woman who is both estranged from God as well as her own people encounters the love of Jesus at a well in the middle of the day. The disciples show up at the end of Jesus’ conversation with her and express their concern that he hasn’t eaten anything. He then tells them that his food is to do the will of God and to finish his work.

How many times have I heard Christians talk about how they want to learn the deep hidden meanings of scriptures, the meat of God’s word. Well as John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement once said, “the meat is in the streets!” That’s what we see here in this scene. Jesus is so excited about what the Father is up to that he has forgotten about food altogether.

This is the first time in the Gospel of John that we see the Spirit of God working among those who weren’t Jews. Jesus, in this moment, is seeing the very promises made to Abraham being fulfilled right in front of him as those outside of the Old Covenant begin to get in on the blessings. Jesus then tells the disciples the gloriously good news that the fields are ripe for the harvest even though it’s not even harvest time. In fact he tells them they are going to reap fruit where they haven’t sown. How cool is that?

I love what this all communicates. You see Jesus wasn’t trying to talk this woman into believing. He didn’t giver her 4 spiritual laws or even lead her in the sinner’s prayer. He just came alongside what the Father was doing and joined in. God gave him insight into her situation which unlocked her heart and she believed.

I wonder if perhaps this is closer to how evangelism should be done. What if instead of trying to reason or argue people into accepting Christ we just listened for what God might be saying in our conversations with folks? What if instead of getting hung up on all of the barriers that seem to be separating people from God we just paid attention to what God might be doing and joined along in that? This is the confidence we are left with in this passage. God has already been working on people’s hearts before we even came on the scene.

What’s interesting in this passage is how the disciples totally miss out on what God is doing. They are focused on food and are probably distracted by their own prejudices. They probably don’t see God moving because that was the last place they would have expected to see him moving. But Jesus sees... and by the end of his conversation the Samaritan women sees as well.

I'll close with a prayer...
I pray that God would open up our eyes to see what he is doing in all of the random and mundane acts of life. I pray that we would not get so preoccupied with our own appetites and prejudices that we are oblivious to what God is up to. I pray for grace to be still and listen wherever we might find ourselves. I pray that we might reap where we haven’t sown. Help us Lord.
Amen

How Should Christians Read the Old Testament?

2012-01-27T11:39:00.007-06:00

One of the biggest questions that most Christians have when it comes to reading the Bible is in regards to how and what to apply to our lives today particularly when it comes to the Old Testament. It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to realize that many of the rules from the Old Testament seem difficult or impossible to follow or just downright strange in a modern context. So for many people the solution is to simply pick and choose which rules to follow based on what seems right or practical.

Usually Christians agree that following the Ten Commandments is a good idea and yet I don’t know of any Christians that really follow all ten. For the majority of Christians it is nine commandments because no one really follows Sabbath keeping the way that God had intended for the Israelites to follow Sabbath observance in the Old Testament (meaning refraining from all work at sundown on Friday and all day Saturday until sundown). The way that most Christians get around this one is to make Sunday the new Sabbath though a refrain from activities really isn’t practiced by most. And this reveals one of the most common approaches to how to apply the Old Testament – it’s simply a matter of finding functional equivalents to translate the ideas from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. This way of translating Old Testament into New Testament reaches into much of the way that people have come to understand church: the pastor becomes the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament priest, the church building becomes the New Testament equivalent of the temple, and tithes which funded the Old Testament priesthood and Temple (along with other initiatives to provide for the welfare of the poor and the stranger) easily gets applied to running it all.

Then there is another approach to the scriptures which often goes hand in hand with what I have listed above which is to apply the blessings and curses listed in the Old Testament to a New Testament context. This is demonstrated in preaching that urges people to give or pray or fast so that they will be blessed and not cursed. It is my opinion that these approaches to the Bible are built on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Covenants. In this post I want to offer what I see as a better way to navigate through these issues that both affirms the authority of scripture as well as one that will lead to flourishing and growth as people of the New Covenant.

So the first question I want to deal with is what was the Old Covenant? What were the terms of the Covenant? And what from that covenant is applicable in the New Covenant?

The Covenant God made with Israel was part of his rescue plan for humanity. The world had been caught in a downward spiral of sin since the fall (Genesis 3) but God was determined to have the world and his people liberated from the clutches of sin and rebellion. God’s rescue plan started with his promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 when God promised to Abraham that he would bless him so that all the nations of the world would be blessed through what God was doing in that relationship. It was Abraham’s descendants that became the people of Israel. They formed their identity under 430 years of slavery in Egypt until God was ready to move forward with the next phase – the Exodus. God raised up Moses as a deliver or his people who, through miracles, signs and wonders (the climax being the Passover) broke the Israelites out of slavery and set them on the path to the promise land. It was in the wilderness of the Exodus that God then made the Mosaic Covenant that would truly set Israel apart from all the nations of the world. This special relationship wasn’t just for the sake of being special but had at its core the continuing of God’s rescue plan begun with Abraham to bless the whole world. At one point God even tells them that they are to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation. In other words, their relationship with God was to show the other nations what God was like and to lead them to God.

This special relationship was codified as a Covenant which included the Ten Commandments as well as 600+ other laws that would govern everything from their diet to worship to the ways they cared for the poor. The Covenant was modeled after Suzerain Vassal Covenants of that day in which a weaker people would seek the protection of a lord or king in exchange for serving him. Though the set of laws governing the covenant was rather complex the underlying idea was pretty simple: if they obeyed the rules they would be blessed, if they disobeyed the rules they would be cursed. For the most part the blessing and curses had to do with land and prosperity. Blessings= land and prosperity while the curses= exile, lack and want. This is why most of the prophecies from the Old Testament tend to focus on either being rewarded for being faithful to the Covenant which meant prospering in the land God gave them or the judgment for not being faithful to the Covenant which would result in exile, want and lack (a failure of the crops to produce, or plagues of locusts etc.).

This simple understanding of the Old Covenant is immensely helpful in how to approach the Old Testament. To illustrate this I want to look at 3 passages from the Old Testament that seem very popular in modern Christianity.
The first is Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I have seen this scripture on cards and bookmarks, as well as worship songs inspired by these words and the message is pretty clear – God has good plans for us. Yet if we read the verses in context we find that this scripture is about the Old Covenant.
Jeremiah 29:10-14
10 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

With an understanding of the Old Covenant we can see that this fits in the framework of the Old Covenant blessings and curses. As a father myself there are times when I have to punish my children. When I ground my son I tell him that I am punishing him because I love him and that when the punishment comes to an end he will have a fresh start with the hope that he learns to live life a better way. This is kind of what God is getting at in these verses. The Israelites had not obeyed the terms of the Covenant and were beginning an exile in Babylon. God tells them that this exile will be 70 years but closes by saying that he has good plans for them that they would prosper and that they would return to the land (blessings). When read in context we can see that the encouragement of 29:11 was directly related to the Old Covenant. I might add that reading this in context makes me a little reluctant to choose this as my life verse!

Another scripture that I have heard used quite a bit in my journey is 2 Chronicles 7:14
“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Again, if we take this verse on its own we miss the Covenantal language that frames it. Let’s look at it by including verses 13

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

God is again speaking in the language of The Covenant. What is being said here is that if they find themselves in a drought, or with a plague of locusts it means they are not remaining faithful to The Covenant. What is then required is repentance and return to covenant faithfulness, which will be followed by God reinstating the blessings (healing the land).

Finally let’s turn to a very popular passage that I have heard cited in many a sermon on tithing – Malachi 3. I will cut to the chase and put this one in context from the beginning:

6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.—Malachi 3:1-12

Do you see the pattern here? The Israelites were under a curse (God’s judgment) for not being faithful to The Covenant. The prophet is calling them back to covenant faithfulness as demonstrated in returning to God and following the Old Testament Law, which includes bringing the tithe to the storehouse. And as with the other verses we’ve looked at this if they choose to follow the Law they will be blessed (the land will bear fruit and the other nations will see the blessings).

Are any of the verses speaking directly to us as Christ-followers in a New Covenant? No. Theses blessings and curses were tied to following the Old Covenant. I will close by looking at a passage from Galatians written by a guy named Paul who used to follow the Old Covenant Law fervently before becoming a Christian.

Galatians 3:10-12
10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “Whoever does these things will live by them.”

In his letter to the Church of Galatia Paul is instructing the church on what place the Old Covenant Law has for followers of Christ. His conclusion is that unless you follow all of it you are guilty of all of it. So how much of the Old Covenant’s blessings and curses are for us? None. To try to follow any of the Old Covenant Law that Jesus himself has not explicitly carried over into the New Covenant is to step from freedom back into slavery. This isn’t simply a matter of grace verses works but of understanding that we are part of a whole new covenant based on God’s faithfulness in Jesus.

There are, no doubt, some questions that will be raised by this approach but I will turn to those in a future blog post.

Related Posts: Taking Care of the Temple
How Did the First Christians Read the Bible
The Bible Made Impossible - A Review
Book Review - God Without Religion

The Story Behind Our Stuff

2012-01-11T11:06:00.002-06:00

I listened to a very interesting story on the This American Life Podcast yesterday that was put together by a die hard Mac fanboy who set off to answer a nagging question: where does it all come from (specifically iPhones and Mac products). The quest lead him to do some investigative reporting on the ground in the center of China's largest consumer products producing city. What he found as he looked into the lives of the people working in these large production companies shocked him. I won't give the whole story away, rather I would urge readers of this blog to listen to the story and maybe come back here for some dialogue.

I am particularly interested in wrestling with what Christianity can offer this situation. What bearing does living as kingdom people have in this situation?

2 Years of Northshore Vineyard's History in 20 Minutes

2011-12-30T23:10:00.002-06:00

This coming week we will be celebrating the 2 year anniversary of Northshore Vineyard Church. To commemorate our first two years I have put together a short film containing photos, video, and comments from members of Northshore Vineyard. Take some time to watch it when you get a chance.

Related Posts:
The Importance of Partnership
Where is Your Church Going to Be?
The Connected Church
From Church Staff to Church Plant

What Does Christmas Really Mean?

2011-12-24T09:36:00.001-06:00

photo by Crispin Schroeder

This time of the year it is quite often to see the phrase "Keep Christ in Christmas" on church billboards and even commercials. This phrase is no doubt a response to much of the consumerism that surrounds the advent season in modern America. But what does that sign really mean? What does Christmas really mean?

As a pastor who is now responsible for putting on Christmas Eve services every year I often finding myself wondering which aspects of the Christmas story to emphasize and which aspects of our culture's version of Christmas to incorporate. Let me say from the outset that I love the season of Christmas, the lights, the music, the parties with friends and presents on Christmas morning (which is a lot funner with kids of my own now). I realize that the above are all pretty much cultural aspects of the season which have little or no attachment to the actual story of the advent of Christ but they are fun anyway.

When it comes to the actual story of Christmas I am struck by several aspects:
1. God With Us - I love what Christmas says about God and how he loves us not from a distance but by entering the world we live in the humblest of ways- by being born to a teenage couple in a stable. Christmas is the very first act of God removing the distance that has separated us from Him and His purposes.
2. The Incarnation - I love that the Christmas story speaks of God being formed in Mary as well as pointing to a spiritual life in which Christ can be formed within us.
3. The Characters - I love that the cast of characters gathered around Jesus are not the powerful or rich or well to do but rather shepherds, and astrologers from the east. Not the type of folks that anyone would suspect getting in on the birth of Christ. I often wonder what this might look like today.
4. The Glory of God - In the Christmas story we get a glimpse of God's glory, which for the first time is not in a tabernacle or temple but rather in human flesh. Like the cross 30 years later the wisdom of this glory eludes many as God's glory isn't demonstrated in smoke and fire or even physical might rather in humility and love.
5. The Response of Faith - What's amazing about the humble cast of characters involved in the Christmas story is how they each responded with a "yes" to God's invitation. Nowhere is this more apparent than when a teenage Mary, after hearing the words of Gabriel telling her she would be pregnant with the savior replied, "may it be to me according to your word." The Christmas story is only compelling because the cast of characters said yes to what God was doing. God invited them into the story of setting the world right and of transforming them within and they responded in faith.

These are a few of the aspects of Christmas that really get me excited. What about you? What does Christmas mean to you?

Related Post:
They Kept Shopping

Some Good Friends Working Together for the Good of Others

2011-12-22T21:22:00.000-06:00

Conversations Along the Way...: Working Together for the Good of Others: This is a blog about a good friend of mine who has started a non-profit in order to provide food and critical vitamins to malnourished child...

The Unspectacular, Mostly Hidden In-Breaking of God's Kingdom

2011-12-22T18:49:00.001-06:00

For the past 2 months the community of Northshore Vineyard has been going slowly through the Gospel of John. 2 Weeks ago we looked into Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding feast. One thing that struck me about this miracle was how the kingdom of God was how the kingdom of God showed up and the relatively small group of people who were even aware of the miracle.

In the story (John 2) Jesus and his disciples are at a wedding when Jesus' mom tells him that they have run out of wine. So Jesus tells the servants to go fill up 6 ceremonial washing pots with water. The servants do that and then Jesus tells them to take some of the water turned wine to the head of feast. They follow his directions and the head of the wedding party remarks about how amazing the wine is saying, "normally people at a party serve the good stuff first and then when folks have had plenty to drink they bring out the cheap stuff and yet they saved the best stuff for last."

In this story the bride and groom, the head of the feast, and the rest of the guests get to have really great wine but none of them realize the miracle that produced it. In other words, the kingdom broke through in their midst and they didn't even know it. The wedding party got to benefit from God's kingdom in their midst though most didn't even realize what God was even up to. What's more is that the ones who were used to perform the miracle were the servants. The servants weren't wedding guests or in any place of honor. Like any wedding reception they would have simply been in the background serving people and cleaning up after the important guests. Yet these are the very ones by which Jesus worked his miracle. Jesus didn't lift a finger to fill the pots or touch the water. He simply told them what to do and in doing so he performed a miracle through their obedience. And when God's kingdom broke in it was these humblest of people at the party who got a front row seat. Even Jesus' own disciples were more bystanders in this particular miracle.

In the past week I feel like I can truly identify with these servants at the wedding feast. I have been witness to God showing up and meeting people's needs in so many amazing ways that have nothing to do with my resources, gifts, or talents. I am feeling both humbled and awed by what I see God doing. Like the wedding party I see the kingdom of God breaking through and people benefiting from what God is doing though many don't even have a clue as to the miracles happening in their midst.

Jesus once said that the kingdom of God is like yeast in a lump of dough. The dough is obviously rising and changing as a result of the kingdom but the process remains hidden and mysterious. The more I look at the ministry of Jesus I realize that this is the case time and time again. Even in the birth of Jesus we see that the ones who get in on the incarnation are not the rich, the powerful, or even those who were looking for Jesus but rather humble shepherds. So often we expect for the breaking in of God's kingdom to be spectacular. And though it some times does come spectacularly, I believe that God is often moving in much more hidden ways that we miss in our busyness.

I pray that you and me both would have eyes to see the in-breaking of the kingdom all around during this season of advent. As the humble shepherds or servants at the wedding that we may be made aware of what God's presence in our conversations, our time with family, and the seemingly random encounters with those who cross our paths.

Audio related to this post:
Water Into Wine

Sharing Struggles - How to Teach the Bible Better Pt.5

2011-12-22T10:46:00.000-06:00

One of the biggest difference in teaching the Bible verses teaching anything else is that the Bible is not simply a collection of historical facts but rather a narrative of salvation that invites us to both participate and be transformed. One of the greatest temptations that is faced by anyone in the teaching ministry is that of simply conveying facts, doctrine, and theology apart from personalizing the truth in one's own journey. The people who hear the messages we bring each week don't simply need to hear truth but to hear of how we have struggled and wrestled with the truth ourselves. To hear of how we have found victory as well as how we have missed the mark in our own journey.

For most of my first decade as a Christian I rarely ever heard any pastors admit their struggles from the platform. So I walked out of the shiny happy church gathering on Sundays thinking that I must be one of the only people struggling on the inside. The truth of a transformed life seemed very illusive in part to the lack of being able to see the process behind the scenes. I was listening weekly to pastors telling me what I should do with my life but rarely ever hearing of how they struggled with following Jesus in their own lives. The reality is that every Christian struggles with faith and sin and working out their salvation but if this struggle is never mentioned it will make the very message we teach seem either theoretical or unattainable except for spiritual giants.

One of the greatest lessons I learned about speaking came from my time at the Kenner Vineyard. Phil Jeansonne, the senior pastor, made a point to share his own struggles within the delivery of each weekly message. I found that this was one if the biggest ways that the messages connected with myself and others because Phil wasn't portraying himself as someone who had it all together and had mastered spirituality but rather as someone who was struggling to work out his faith as much as anyone else in the room. In fact when I first began to speak occasionally at the Kenner Vineyard, Phil would always make sure that I would share from my own personal wrestling with whatever was being covered that week. I thank God for this part of my journey towards learning to teach better as it has truly helped me to connect with folks at various stages of faith.

I think many pastors want to be known as people of unwavering faith who pray all the time and never lack joy or peace or clarity on anything but that kind of thinking has more to do with ego and insecurity than wanting to connect people to God. I am thankful that the New Testament is filled with stories of Christ followers who had all kinds of struggles in their journey towards Jesus and the kingdom. Stories of men of God such as Peter who experienced great heights with God and amazing lows gives me hope that God can continue to form me into a "rock"no matter how much I fumble in my own journey. The same can be said of our preaching and teaching. If we never let people in to our own struggles with anger, lust, ego, jealousy, we will just be placed on a pedestal and are only setting up people for real disappointment when they realize that we are in fact human and still mess up as we follow Christ. But when we share from our own struggles in the midst of teaching we are inviting people to journey after Christ from right where they are. This doesn't negate the message of transformation, if anything it begins to crack the door of the heart open so people can truly experience truth and freedom.

How have you benefited from preachers and teachers who share from their own struggles as they teach?

Related Posts:
Bungee Jumping Feels Like Suicide
One Word

The Teacher as Pastor – How to Teach the Bible Better Part 4

2011-12-21T08:34:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite books of 2011 has definitely been The Pastor by Eugene Peterson. In The Pastor, Peterson reflects on the joys, challenges, and trials of pastoral ministry. One aspect of the book that I have found particularly insightful concerns the subject teaching/preaching the weekend sermon.

Peterson writes of how he struggled with getting so caught up in studying and preparing his weekend message that he was not spending much time during the week with the people of his congregation. Fortunately he caught this early on and made a habit of letting the relationships with people in his congregation inform his teachings.

This may sound like a simple no-brainer but I can attest that it is so easy to get caught up in studying the Bible or the busyness of life and forget that the weekend message is about connecting real people with God. If I am not spending time with the people in the church I pastor it is so easy for my teachings on the weekend to become abstract and unconnected to real world issues. However it is quite a different thing to walk with people through sickness, loss, relationship issues, and even joys and answered prayers during the week and to let those relationships inform my Sunday message.

It is one thing to preach on the atoning work of Christ, the incarnation or justification but it is quite another thing to wrestle with these concepts from the vantage point of the single mom working hard to provide for her kids, or the family that has faced the loss of a child, or the ones struggling with addictions or depression. To allow the teaching process to be informed by the very people that will hear the message is a crucial part of not only communicating more effectively but of pastoring.

Not all pastors are good teachers and not all teachers are good pastors but I feel that we must strive to see teaching the Bible connected to pastoring. This does not happen by isolating oneself in a library of Bible commentaries but by immersing oneself in the very community of faith with all of its quirks and challenges.

The Pastor as Worship Leader

Learning From Listening - How to Teach the Bible Better Pt.3

2011-12-20T07:42:00.000-06:00

One of the biggest factors in my continual growth as a musician has nothing to do with playing music myself but rather listening to music. Every time I go hear a good live band it inspires me to write better music, play better, try new things with my music. In fact many times I find one of the most helpful ways to start off a band practice is by getting the musicians to sit down and listen to some good music together. This has a way of waking the band up and getting us inspired to play music before we even pick up our instruments. The same is true for those who wish to teach and preach, we must learn to listen to great speakers.

I read a book by Mark Driscoll a few years back in which he talked about this aspect of speaking saying that he became a student of the comedian Chris Rock (this may also explain why some of Driscoll's comments are so edgy that they continually land him in hot water). As far as Driscoll is concerned good comedians have a lot to teach us about timing, delivery, and connecting with an audience and are thus worth serious consideration. While learning from comedians is helpful I would also recommend becoming a student of the style of other preachers and teachers who inspire you as well. Think about who it is that connects with you and take notes about why they connect with you. You don't even have to agree with a persons theology to learn from their style. In fact I would recommend listening to people you don't agree with theologically who are good communicators. This aspect of teaching is about learning to connect better with your audience and there are plenty of amazing teachers out there from a variety of theological backgrounds that you can learn from.

In closing, here is a list of some communicators that inspire me for various reasons from various different fields. I don't necessarily endorse their beliefs but learn a lot from the way they communicate:

Mark Driscoll - I love his way of connecting with a crowd. He's edgy and brash and sometimes that works phenomenally.
Rob Bell - My favorite nonlinear communicator. This dude speaks like an artist. And his messages hit you with the same kind of power as art, much more subtly and subversively than typical messages.
Tim Keller - Keller has built a successful church in one of the hardest places to build a church - New York City. Keller's style is conversation but chock full of well thought out theology.
Greg Boyd - Pastor from Woodland Hill Church in Minneapolis, Greg Boyd is a great example of being passionate about what you preach. One does not usually associate passionate speaking with theologians but that's what you get with Greg Boyd - a brilliant theologian who is also a very passionate communicator.
Stephen Colbert - great inspiration on wit.
John Stewart - Stewart has mastered the art of engaging with people (even those with which he disagrees) and saying so much without saying a lot. He is brilliant in the way he communicates (much of this probably has to do with the team that works with him writing behind the scenes).
Jimmy Fallon - This guy is just amazing at what he does.
Ira Glass (This American Life Podcast) - Host of This American Life podcast Ira Glass is the moderator that makes me want to hear stories.
Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich (Radiolab Podcast) - This duo really works well in hosting the Radiolab Podcast.
Martin Luther King - One of the greatest communicators ever. King remains a fine example of connecting not only with those within the fold but the outside world as well. He was a genius at connecting with the hearts of people in a way that was truly inspiring. While he certainly offended some his style of communication invited many more in which is not easy to do with such volatile issues as with which he dealt.

What about you? Who inspires you to speak? Who have you learned from?
Martin

Preaching What You Practice - How to Teach the Bible Better Pt. 2

2011-12-19T17:20:00.001-06:00

In the last post from this series I wrote about the benefits of a team approach to coming up with the material for the weekend message. In this post I want to offer some insights from the world of music that have helped me become a better public speaker.

I once saw a documentary on the legendary bass player Jaco Pastorius. He talked about practicing bass in his head for several hours a day. My bass player at that time used to joke quite frequently about how much he practiced in his head (his excuse for not picking up his bass an doing the hard work of actual practice). The truth is that most of us aren’t at the level of musicianship of Jaco, so practicing in our heads won’t work nearly as well as actual practice with our instruments. While practice makes perfect sense for musicians I don’t think it is nearly as common to apply this principal to the realm of public speaking. But speaking in public is every bit as much of an art as playing music in front of people and it takes just as much work if one is to get good at it.

In a typical week I will spend around 6-7 hours studying and preparing my message for the coming weekend and another 3-4 hours in practice speaking it. Why so much time in practicing it? Because it is only through practicing the message that I get a sense of how the thing actually sounds. Practicing the message is particularly helpful for me because I developed much earlier as a writer than a speaker. When I first started speaking at my last church 5-6 years ago I would frequently have 15-17 pages of notes; the words written out just the way I thought they sounded best. The only problem was that I frequently sounded like I was reading notes (which is okay for professors or politicians but not so much for pastors.) The same can be said of musicians who play with their eyes stuck to the page versus those who have practiced the music enough that they are freed from the page. The later is free to express certain aspects of the music in the moment such as slowing down in certain sections or improvising over the melody in other places. Practicing the message out loud over and over helps to internalize the message or to know the music by heart, so to speak, so that in the actual moment of delivering the message, the words can be liberated from the notes and delivered with spontaneity and care for that particular context.

Practicing a weekend message will feel weird if you have never done it (my kids have walked in on me on many occasions when I am preaching to myself and I know I must look a little strange) but the repetitions will really help you identify the sections that are worded wrong or places in the message when things drag or if there is just too much content.

If I am going to play a new song at a gig I have no problem playing it through as many times as it takes for me to get comfortable before hand. The same goes for teaching. One must practice the message until it begins to feel comfortable. This doesn’t mean you don’t need any notes but it will probably mean you don’t need as many as you think. I have found in the last 2 years of speaking every weekend my notes have been whittled down from 15 pages to 2-3 pages of mostly bullet points. I still think writing every word out can be helpful in the beginning but don’t underestimate the power of actually practicing what you preach or should I say preaching what you practice!

How to Teach the Bible Better Pt.1 - The Teaching Team

Remembering Our First Christmas in Abita Springs

2011-12-17T10:55:00.000-06:00

Last December we celebrated our first Christmas in Abita Springs after living the previous 7 years in the New Orleans area. Though Abita Springs is not all that far from New Orleans geographically speaking it is a considerable distance concerning attitudes and culture. This became very clear to our family when we pulled into our drive way on a Friday evening last December. We noticed a minivan parked in front of our neighbors house and some people shouted out from the darkness to us telling us "Wait! Don't go in your house yet!" Our first thoughts were that there must be a break in or burglary in our home or somewhere in the neighborhood so our first reaction was to run inside and check on everything. Noticing everything seemed alright we thought that one of our neighbors must have some kind of physical emergency. So we ran back outside only to find that these people who had shouted out to us were singing Christmas carols. We got a real kick out of that once the adrenaline settled down.

How to Teach the Bible Better Pt. 1 – The Teaching Team

2011-12-15T10:44:00.003-06:00

I thought it might be fun to do a series of blogs on teaching the Bible, specifically how to teach it better. I want to say from the outset that I am not writing this series of posts because I am some qualified expert at teaching the Bible but as one who has really been wrestling with this issue myself quite a bit in these last two years of being a pastor who teaches from the Bible on a weekly basis. So, I will share some things that I have learned, some things that I am striving for, and some of the issues that seem the hardest to deal with when preaching / teaching each week.

Today, I would like to toss out something that I have found to be very helpful in teaching from week to week—the teaching team. During my first year as the pastor of Northshore Vineyard Church my messages were, for the most part, topical in nature and crafted alone. The biggest challenge to me during the first year teaching/preaching at Northshore Vineyard was that my process of studying and putting together the weekend messages was carried out in so much isolation. This was very difficult since I am such an outward processor who creates and learns from bouncing ideas off of others.

In January of this year I decided to try something different. I put together a teaching team made up of some of our core team members who had been very involved in planting this church (currently our team is made up of six people including myself). We were getting ready to kick off a series on the book of Philippians so I bought commentaries on Philippians for all of the teaching team members and we began meeting one morning a week for a discussion around breakfast. During a typical teaching team meeting everyone gives me feedback on the message from the previous weekend (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and then we have a discussion about the text for the coming weekend as well as any creative ideas on how to present the message. We are now coming up on about a year of doing the teaching team and I have to say that this has been one of the most helpful ways to not only come up with teachings but to also get perspective on how I am communicating as well.

Below I want to summarize what I see as some of the benefits to this approach.

1. Feedback - I have encountered many folks in ministry who are not very effective communicators. I believe that much of this is due to the fact that they don’t get regular honest feedback on how they are doing. This is one aspect I really love about our teaching team. We have such a diverse group of people on the team from various religious backgrounds, with very different personalities and giftings that provide me with a real good picture of how I am communicating and coming across on a weekly basis. For instance, two of the members of our team grew up nominal Catholics who came to faith in Jesus only in the last 10 years as adults. They both have a real heart for the unchurched or dechurched people that visit Northshore Vineyard each week. If I communicate things in a way that only a seasoned Christian would understand they have no problem calling me on it. I really appreciate this because as someone in ministry who reads a whole lot of theology booksI could easily find myself teaching in a way that alienates those who are just checking things out or who have no background in Christianity. Some of our teaching team discussions become quite lively when discussing these aspects but I am a much better communicator as a result.

2. Processing scripture together – If we truly long for folks in church to interact with others as they read the Bible it would make sense to interact with others as we pastors wrestle with the scriptures ourselves. I love hearing how different people on our team process scriptures and what stands out to them. It helps give me a more broad view of the different ways that people connect with the Bible outside of my own perspective on things.

3. Equipping others – I would like to think that this team approach is equipping other team members to be good teachers of the word as well. It is my hope that members of this team will one day be a regular part of delivering the weekend teachings and not just in emergency situations when I can’t make it but rather because we have been proactive in valuing team ministry. I think this is ultimately better for the church for a variety of reasons. First it fights against personality driven teaching. Secondly it puts into practice the idea that kingdom ministry is about equipping and releasing others. Finally it is healthy for the body as it brings diverse expressions and giftings to the role of teaching outside of the senior pastor’s giftings and personality.

Summary: The way or process that gives rise to the weekend messages is every bit as important as the message itself. I believe it does those of us in ministry well to wrestle with how we can incorporate central values such as community and equipping others for ministry into the very process of studying the Bible for teaching.

Speaking of feedback, I would love to hear your thoughts.

How have you benefited from a team approach to ministry?
How have you grown by getting feedback from other trusted friends?
How have you found getting the perspectives of others helpful in the way you communicate?

Making Room for Differing Opinions in My Life

2011-12-13T21:02:00.002-06:00

I became a twit a few years ago, or should I say a tweeter. While I have enjoyed Facebook, Twitter offers a different sort of charm as it is can be configured as a personalized stream of news, inspiration and opinions.
When I first joined Twitter I followed folks that I respected, or who believed what I believed about the world, politics, and God. But at some point I really felt like my personal news feed from selected sources tended to lead me towards a very myopic view of the world. So one day I decided I would follow some people who I don’t really agree with on many things and to follow some organizations that hold very different views on what is important in the world. I am amazed at how much I am challenged in a good way by some of the people that hold to a very different view of theology than I, as well as by looking at world news through the lens of other political persuasions or cultures.

What do you think? Is it helpful or healthy to create space for differing opinions in your life?

I welcome your answers as long as you agree with me ;-)

Taking Care of the Temple

2011-12-12T15:41:00.000-06:00

Over the years I have often heard Christians say, “I’m taking care of the temple brother!” This expression, borrowed from 1 Corinthians is used as a scriptural justification for working out or eating healthy. And while there are certainly benefits to working out and eating right statements like this make me kind of cringe because I think they are missing the whole meaning of what’s behind Paul’s use of the term.

In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul writes:

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

I have used the NIV rendering of this verse because it makes it clear that the “you” here is really what we in the South would refer to as “Ya’ll”. Paul is not making an appeal here for individuals to think of themselves as the dwelling place of God but rather the community of believers as the dwelling place, the temple of God. Why is this important? Because the bulk of 1 Corinthians is dealing with the very issues that separate believers from one another, the divisions that keep us from being a kingdom people gathered under the lordship of Christ.

Paul goes on to write

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

The issues for the Corinthian church weren’t a matter of people not taking care of their physical bodies but rather operating according to a wisdom that is of the kingdom of this world. Paul frames his argument with the very real divisions that had sprung up in Corinth by some being in the “Peter” club, some in the “Apollos” club and some being in “Paul’s” club. Much like today groups were gathering around their favorite preachers of the word. I can imagine the arguments that must have gone on between these groups:

“We follow Peter ‘the Rock’ the one who was with Jesus in his ministry who walked on water and on whom Jesus promised to build his church!”

“Well we follow Paul who encountered the risen Lord and had a life-altering change of heart and who has planted more churches than any of those other disciples!”

“Forget Paul and Peter! Apollos is such a brilliant evangelist! Have you heard him speak? He is amazing!”

But as far as Paul is concerned this kind of “wisdom” is no different from the divisions one would see anywhere else in the world. It is after all the way the world works. The indictment is that these divisions are not simply a matter of personal taste but rather a barrier to people experiencing the life of the kingdom and even more so the world seeing the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

As Paul’s letter to the Corinthians continues he takes issue with them not only for their divisions around the leaders they prefer but around other divisions such as on the use of spiritual gifts in the church service, the way they practice communion in which some people were eating all the food and drinking all the wine so that when the poor showed up they are left out. These are the things that destroy the temple because people are failing to act like a community and are instead just acting like a bunch of selfish individuals who are not even connected to one another. In the end it is nothing but the plain old wisdom of the world repackaged in Christian jargon.

You see when we begin to see the church as the gathering of believers around King Jesus, then we can’t simply treat our relationships with one another as if they are simply like any other relationships in the world. We together are the temple! This means that we must take great effort to keep our hearts free of offense, to seek to walk in forgiveness, to deal with our own selfishness because we are not in this alone!

Jesus once told his disciples, “The world will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another.” It’s no surprise that Paul delivers the famous “Love Chapter”, 1 Corinthians 13 as a summation of everything that he has been trying to say to the Corinthian Church. When we as believers are walking in love with one another we are truly moving against the wisdom of this world and are beginning to show the world what it looks like when Jesus is king.

I am convinced that this remains one of the most underrated keys to evangelism. If the world truly sees a group of people who are living the love of God with one another will they not want to be a part? Sadly much of the church has become known more for what it is against, for its divisions, for its mean spirit, for its holier than thou attitude rather than its love for God, the world and one another.

I will close this post with the words of Paul to challenge us all (myself included) to truly take care of the temple.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love one another. Follow the king!

Audio on this Subject: Let Love Rule , One Mind

God With Us

2011-12-08T16:58:00.000-06:00

This is my first Christmas song I wrote circa 1999. For those wishing to download the original studio version of this song by my band Mary's Den you can download in on iTunes

Lyrics:

Two thousand years ago you came

Into our world as just a baby

To live and die just like a man

To show how much you loved us

You were light shining in the dark

And the darkness could not understand

You were far too supernatural

Wrapped up in ordinary man

You are God with us

Not God in the heavens with a stick

Waiting to beat us down

Every time we come around

You are God with us

Not some old statue in a church collecting dust

Or some fairy tale that someone dreamed up

Show me the way

I really cannot comprehend

The world you left behind

The streets of gold and crystal rivers

Angels singing in the sky

You traded in your kingly robes

For human flesh and dusty roads

You took the lowest path you could

But at the cross you won the world

You are God with us

Not God in the heavens with a stick

Waiting to beat us down

Every time we come around

You are God with us

Not some old statue in a church collecting dust

Or some fairy tale that someone dreamed up

Show me the way

Jesus would you show me

I believe you are the way

Racism in the Church is Anti-Gospel

2011-12-03T09:05:00.002-06:00

Luke 5:27-32

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

One of the most scandalous aspects of the ministry of Jesus was table fellowship. Jesus had quite a reputation for celebrating the kingdom with the wrong kinds of people: tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners. These meals were not random events for the Messiah who simply needed to eat but rather actions that revealed the kingdom of God every bit as much as any of the other miracles Jesus performed whether healings, deliverance, or the feeding the five thousand. In celebrating these meals with the “wrong” people Jesus was making the statement that the kingdom was not simply for the followers of the Law or ethnic Jews but for anyone who would follow the king in his work.

The apostle Paul picks this theme up as a main theme in the book of Galatians. Paul writes in Galatians of a time when he, the freshman apostle, had to confront the senior most apostle Peter to his face. The issue was Peter’s hypocrisy. Though Peter knew the only identifier in his life that mattered was Jesus he was acting otherwise. This was particularly evident when it came to mealtime. Peter had no problem eating with gentile believers until Jewish Christians showed up from Jerusalem. Then Peter would separate from the gentile believers so as to keep himself “pure”. Paul has to call Peter on this issue because it is not a simple matter of doctrinal preference but rather it is fundamental to the gospel itself.

Paul sums this whole argument up in Galatians 3:26-28

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Jesus is the only identifier that matters! Once one has been baptized into Jesus Christ every other identifier in life becomes secondary from race to gender to social status. We all get in to the promises of Abraham through Jesus! This is really good news!

This brings me to a story that I read this morning of a church in Kentucky that has forbidden interracial marriages or couples from their church. Here is an excerpt from the story

In early November, Thompson [pastor of Glunare Free Will Baptist Church, Pike County, Kentucky] proposed the church go on record saying that while all people were welcome to attend public worship services there, the church did not condone interracial marriage… The proposal also said "parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services" or other church functions, with the exception of funerals.The recommendation "is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve," the copy supplied to the Herald-Leader read.

I am really puzzled by the reasoning behind this decision being that it promoted greater unity in the church and the community. Really? It sounds more likely like the church is actually pandering to anti-gospel ideas both in their church community and in the surrounding community.

These types of issues have been present since the early days of the church but we cannot afford to treat these issues of unity in Christ as peripheral for they are central to the announcement of Jesus as king.

Scot McKnight - Is the Sermon on the Mount Gospel?

2011-11-22T10:12:00.000-06:00

Scot McKnight has an interesting blog on how we should read the Sermon on the Mount -- Is the Sermon on the Mount Gospel? I have heard so many folks come up with vastly different approaches to how we should read the Sermon on the Mount. McKnight suggest we approach it through the lens of Jesus as the Messiah who invites us as followers into his kingdom.

Ghosts Upon the Earth, Gungor – A Review

2011-11-19T13:22:00.000-06:00

Speaking of Theology through the arts…

Recently I came across another great example of a band that is not just producing good songs of faith but songs that are filled with well-thought-out theology. While Gungor has released great albums in the past their most recent offering shows both musical and theological growth. One of my biggest challenges when writing songs of faith is how to catch some of the more epic themes from the Bible in a song that is only 3-4 minutes long as well as how to communicate these ideas not simply in words but musically as well. Gungor’s Ghosts Upon the Earth deals with this challenges by arranging a collection of songs into the narrative flow of scriptures. The resulting album is built around the themes of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. This approach has worked as well as anything that I’ve heard before.

As for the music these songs are really creative in their instrumentation, arrangements and styles. Gungor’s layering of diverse instruments from banjoes, acoustic guitars, cellos, and xylophones is reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens yet this is no Sufjan rip-off project. In fact, Gungor actually succeeds where Stevens, in my opinion fails sometimes, by creating more depth and dynamics in their arrangements. There are also moments on this album that seem heavily influenced by Nickel Creek, but again without coming off as a band with an identity crisis. For all of their stylistic meanderings, Ghosts on the Earth is a much more cohesive set of songs than their last album—Beautiful Things.

What I find fascinating is the compelling way that Gungor presents narrative theology (the understanding of the Bible as one cohesive story that finds it fulfillment in Jesus) throughout this album. Since Ghosts Upon the Earth was more of a concept album there was no rush to get to the more hopeful and upbeat songs too early, rather Gungor takes their time in exploring all aspects of the narrative from creation to fall to redemption and beyond. The resulting work rings with authenticity throughout and brings the listener gradually into a hopeful place of worship as restored people in a new creation. While there are great moments throughout, this album is best appreciated as a complete work rather than as individual songs. I would recommend setting aside a little time to get quiet, put some headphones on, and just listen. You won’t regret it!

Theology Through the Arts

2011-11-16T20:52:00.000-06:00

Here is a great video clip Jeremy Begbie on theology through the arts. I have a few books from Begbie that discuss theology and the arts but I had never actually heard him play piano until I heard him play a piece by Frans Liszt to close out a theology symposium at Wheaton College on the work of Bible scholar N. T. Wright. I was caught off guard by how the piece he played seemed to say something abut God and theology that the words of all of those amazing scholars couldn't. I have really wrestled over the past few years with how bring to bear well thought out theology in the worship songs I lead and the songs I write and perform outside of church. I see this as one of the most necessary pursuits of musicians of faith in our modern context. The truth is most folks that walk into a church don't really care for wrestling much with theology and won't really respond that well to lectures on theology. But music has a way of connecting with anyone at a heart level. The truth is that folks who attend church likely experience as much or more spiritual formation by the songs sung in worship as they do by listening to a message from a pastor. Begbie has some great thoughts here on music and theology that would do a lot of worship leaders and musicians some good to check out.

The Ability to Choose Well

2011-11-10T11:18:00.002-06:00

Radiolab has become one of my favorite podcasts in recent years with its variety of interesting stories on science. Of particular interest to me have been the various episodes that have looked into the workings of the human mind. One such episode entitled How Much is Too Much? looked at how our ability to make healthy decisions is greatly compromised when our minds are trying to hold on to too much information at once. On the podcast they interviewed Baba Shiv of Stanford University who conducted a simple experiment which illustrates this phenomenon. In the experiment subjects were asked to memorize a number and then walk down the hall to another room to recite it. Unbeknownst to the subjects some were given a 2 digit number while others were given a 7 digit number. But on their way to the other room they passed by a person sitting at a table who offered, as thanks for participating in the experiment, either a piece of chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit salad. Those who were trying to remember a seven digit number were more than twice as likely to choose the chocolate cake as those who had memorized the two digit number.

The reason given for this phenomenon is that the rational part of the brain that would keep a person making healthy decisions is greatly compromised once a number committed to memory is seven or more digits. When that happens the emotional mind takes over which is more concerned with immediate gratification. This phenomenon can be seen in any area where humans are offered more than 7 choices at once because human working memory is only capable of holding up to seven numbers or ideas at once (this is one reason that phone numbers don't exceed 7 digits).

I can't help but wondering if this further illustrates why trying to live a deliberately simple and uncluttered life might not simply be better in financial terms but also concerning the emotional, physical, and spiritual aspects of a persons life. It also is no wonder why stress often creates such a hospitable environment for sins of the flesh.

Check out the podcast when you get a chance...

How Did the First Christians Read the Bible?

2011-11-07T11:12:00.001-06:00

I love watching a good movie particularly when a movie involves an unexpected twist in the plot. When the plot heads in a sudden and unexpected direction it causes the viewer to look back on the whole of the story up to that point in a completely different way as some of the basic assumptions held are turned up on their head. A great example of this can be seen in The Matrix. When Neo, a computer hacker living out a mundane existence in the corporate world discovers that what he thought was the real world was really an elaborate computer generated reality it becomes a pivotal twist in the plot that neither Neo or the viewer could see coming and it completely alters the way Neo will live his life from that point forward. From that point on Neo can never be the same as that revelation has fundamentally changed his view of both reality and his own purpose.

One aspect of the scriptures that is lost on most folks in the modern world is just how unexpected the coming of Jesus as the Messiah was to the disciples in first century Palestine. The authors of the New Testament whether Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter or even Paul had been raised in a religion that had saturated their imaginations and hopes in the story of God’s faithfulness to Israel. They had grown up year after year with the rhythms of Judaism shaping their spiritual formation from Sabbath keeping (based not only on the Mosaic Law but on the creation story where God rested on the seventh day) to the festivals throughout the year such as Passover, the Festival of Booths, Pentecost (Festival of First Fruits) that celebrated how God had heard the cries of his people and intervened to rescue them. On top of this there was the expectation and hope that God would send the promised Messiah who would set Israel free from here oppressors (at that time the Romans)—Someone like Moses to lead Israel on a New Exodus, one from the line of David who would rule in righteousness a kingdom without end. But that hope for the Messiah was for a mere man who would likely lead an earthly rebellion against their oppressors. Sure enough in the years prior to the first century there had been many would-be Messiahs, men who lead revolts and rebellions to set Israel free only to be crushed by the firm fist of the Empire.

And it was in to this environment that God sent the Messiah. Yet he was not anything that they could have ever expected. A man? Yes, but so much more than a mere man! As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:7-10

This is the wisdom God prepared ahead of time, before the world began, for our glory.

None of the rulers of this present age knew about this wisdom. If they had, you see, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as the Bible says,

Human eyes have not seen,

Human ears have never heard,

It’s never entered human hearts:

All that God has now prepared

For those who truly love him.

And that’s what God has revealed to us through the spirit!

What Paul is saying here in these verses is that no one saw this thing coming. Even though there had been a fervent expectation for the Messiah, everyone had been caught off guard by the wisdom of God in sending his own son into the story as the Christ. While Israel had awaited someone who would set them free she got a much bigger Messiah with a much bigger mission coming to set not just Israel but the whole world free!

If we are to be true students of the Bible we must ask the question, “How did the first disciples of Jesus read the Bible?” The answer to this question would be similar to the way anyone reading a story or watching a movie is compelled to understand the story once there has been a major twist in the plot. With the coming of God’s own Son Jesus as the Messiah, these thoroughly Jewish disciples could no longer view the story up to that point in the same way. The disciples had to reconfigure their whole understanding of the story of Israel around the person and work of Jesus.

For most of my Christian journey I have been encouraged to read the Old Testament and New Testament as distinctly different stories but this is not how the first disciples and the authors of the New Testament read the Bible. The books of the New Testament are chock full of references to the Old Testament scriptures as well as parallels with Old Testament stories. The disciples did not throw away the Old Testament because Jesus came on the scene, rather all of the sudden they began to see the story of God’s faithfulness to Israel with a whole new set of eyes—The story of Israel was a series of signposts pointing to an ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

Why is this important to understand? Because we must learn to view the Old Testament the way the early disciples did, to see it through the lens of Jesus the Messiah, the resurrected King of all! Apart from this understanding of scriptures we can make the Bible say all kinds of things that it was never intended to say. The more I am coming to understand this way of looking at the scripture the more I see the Bible as a rich and layered story about Jesus. What’s more is that this way of reading the scriptures draws one more into relationship with Jesus while keeping one from the pitfalls of both proof-texting to back pet agendas as well as a liberalism which would seek to make the Bible a set of inspirational stories only. The Bible must be understood first and foremost as the story of Jesus. My prayer is that this becomes more and more the way that the people of God learn to read the scriptures.

Note: I discuss some of these issues in a recent podcast from Northshore Vineyard entitled The Word that Transcends the Story You can also download the audio from Northshore Vineyard Church

The Bible Made Impossible - A Review

2011-11-04T18:21:00.000-05:00

“God said it, I believe it, that settles it!’

“BIBLE—Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth”

“Vote responsibly—Vote the Bible!”

“Confused? Read the directions [picture of the Bible].

“Have you read my #1 best seller [picture of the Bible]? There is going to be a test.—God

“Have truth decay? Brush up on your Bible!

“Got scripture?”

You have likely seen one of the above slogans on a billboard or church sign at some point in your life. While these sayings are no doubt a little cheesy, author Christian Smith sees them as symptoms of a problem that has become entrenched in the modern evangelical church—biblicalism. Smith defines biblicalism as a theory about the Bible that emphasizes together its exclusive authority, infallibility, perspicuity (clearly expressed and easily understood), self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability. As Smith sees it, this approach to the Bible makes the Bible impossible to understand or apply and many times makes an idol of the very book that would point us to the God. Smith takes on this subject as well as what, in my opinion, is a much better way to approach the scriptures in his new book, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicalism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture.

When I first became Christian I was taught (both by the words and actions of the Christians of whom I was around) that the Bible is the highest authority, that it is infallible, and that anyone can read it and hear from God with little outside help. So… I jumped right in to reading what I could, which was usually a few verses here, and a few verses there. Sometimes I even tried the method of asking God to show me something and then seeing what random page I would land on when I opened my Bible. This worked particularly well one time when the Bible fell open to a passage from Isaiah 55:12 that said, “You shall go out with joy…” Well, I did my best as a single college guy to follow the prompting of scripture by asking a girl named Joy out on a date.

While this approach to reading the Bible seems kind of silly now, it was actually quite normal at that point in my journey. Heck, I was just doing what I saw others do on a regular basis. It was quite a regular occurrence to bump into people who had a real gift of taking obscure passages from the prophetic books of the Bible and turning them into personal prophecies of success, prosperity and healing. I even have cassette tapes with many such words that were given to me personally.

In my years as a Christian I have been around folks who have used the Bible to make a case that God intends that we all be vegetarians and others who say that God doesn’t want us to eat wheat (I guess we have to modify that part in the Lord’s Prayer about “gives us our daily bread”). I have heard scriptural justifications for why we need to pay taxes as well as scriptural reasons as to why we don’t need to pay taxes. I have heard those who use the Bible to say that America is the New Israel and others using the same Bible to make the case that America is the Whore of Babylon. I have heard messages, again based on scriptures, on why dating is wrong as well as messages on why dating is perfectly acceptable. These are just a few things that I have encountered personally but let’s not forget world history.

Not to long back in our history some folks in the United States who owned slaves had very scriptural reasons for doing so (and not just from the Old Testament mind you) while others found a basis for freeing slaves in the same holy book. There have been folks who have found reasons to take up arms and go to war as those who see passivism as the only scriptural option. I could go on but the point I am making, which is made quite well by Christian Smith, is that Biblical authority isn’t nearly as cut and dry or black and white as many assume.

Smith points to all of the division in the church over scripture to make the case that biblicalism is not only an erroneous way to approach the scriptures but also causing the fragmentation of the church. In other words, if the scriptures were as easy to understand and as universally applicable as we have assumed then there should be less fragmentation and much more unity throughout the church. And yet the biggest champions of Biblicalism seem to be the ones causing the most division. Perhaps the problem has to do with the basic assumptions that people bring to the scriptures that don’t come from either the scriptures or from the authors from which they were written.

Smith argues for a much more Christ centered and Trinitarian reading of scripture that grounds everything from the Old and New Testaments in the person of Jesus. In other words, everything in the Old Testament is pointing to and finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. This certainly seemed to be what Jesus was getting at in John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” (NLT) In fact, as Scot Mcknight points out in The King Jesus Gospel, this is exactly how the early disciples learned to view the story of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament. Though Peter, James, John, and Paul had all grown up with certain ideas about God from Judaism they ended up viewing them through the lens of Jesus Christ and his work. For the early disciples this meant that everything from Passover to the Exodus, from the Law to the Temple was fulfilled in Jesus. Sure this didn’t solve all the problems for how to read the scriptures but gave them a new framework on how to begin asking questions of what it meant to live as followers of King Jesus. This helped the early disciples particularly when it came to matters of whether believers needed to be circumcised, keep Sabbath and issues of table fellowship (as presented in Galatians). Christian Smith makes the case that far from being a “liberal” approach to scripture this approach is actually much more faithful to the intent of scriptures and much more evangelical (at its best).

It was quite helpful reading this book on the heals of finishing Scot McKnight’s latest work, The King Jesus Gospel, and while in the middle of reading Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright (I would highly recommend reading all three together). Reading these three books simultaneously is almost like sitting at a round table discussion with each author sharing their unique perspectives which are all united by both a highly Christological and narrative reading of scriptures.

While this book was very insightful, I wished it had been a bit more concise and to the point (Smith certainly included a lot of research which made it thorough but a little too dense of a read for my taste). Looking back on my own journey I really wished that someone would have given me a few of the simple tips mentioned in this book for how to approach the scriptures. It would have saved me a lot of silliness and would have maybe gave me more clarity when I encountered Biblical abuse in the church as well. It is refreshing to read the words of someone who, while believing in scriptural authority, also understands that the ultimate authority resides in JESUS THE MESSIAH.

Continued Musings on Mumford and Sons...

2011-11-04T10:43:00.001-05:00

So I was reading a blog post this morning on Mumford and Sons and got about halfway through only to realize that one of my past blogs Musings on Mumford and Sons and a Vineyard Conference was quoted quite extensively. I had written that post shortly after being introduced to Mumford and Sons at a live gig in Phoenix, Az. and so the post was more of a first impression of an up an coming band. So it was great to read A Deliberately Spiritual Thing today, an article that delves a bit deeper into the lyrics and spirituality of Mumford and Sons. Check it out when you get a chance.

The Pastor as Worship Leader

2011-10-31T16:28:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of months I have been slowly reading through Eugene Peterson’s memoir, The Pastor (slowly so I can allow plenty of time for reflection). I find that Peterson’s observations on pastoring have a particular relevance in my life as I seek to live out the vocation of pastor in my own context. I am particularly intrigued by the way he sees the primary role of a pastor as leading the congregation in worship of Jesus.

Peterson shares a story of how he and about 15 other area pastors were invited by a psychiatrist to spend two years meeting once a week to learn the basics of diagnosing and helping people with emotional, psychological problems. The psychiatrist invited the pastors to be a part of this mentoring group as he saw them as being on the front lines of encountering people with issues. Peterson writes about how those 2 years were tremendously helpful in coming to understand some of the issues people were facing whether addiction, abuse, depression, or grief. He even writes how at one point he was tempted to quit being a pastor so he could devote more time helping people overcome their issues. Yet it was at this point Eugene Peterson had a sort of epiphany:

Peterson writes,
In the Tuesday chairs [the meetings with the psychiatrist and the other pastors] I was learning to understand people in terms of their problems; in the Sunday chairs I was learning to understand people in terms of God’s grace working in them. The epiphany was not in the observation itself, but in the realization that I was gradually becoming more interested in my congregation as problems to be fixed than as persons made in the image of God, capable of living, just as they were, to the glory of God…
…Incrementally, without noticing what I was doing, I had been shifting from being a pastor dealing with God in people’s lives to treating them as persons dealing with problems in their lives. I was not being their pastor. I could have helped and still been their pastor. But by reducing them to problems to be fixed, I omitted the biggest thing of all in their lives, God and their souls, and the biggest thing in my life, my vocation as pastor.
Once Eugene Peterson began to embrace the calling of being a pastor he truly began to see one of the highest acts of that vocation in leading his congregation in worship, which for him included the whole of the weekend church service.

Perhaps if I had grown up in a more liturgical tradition I would have naturally thought of the whole Sunday service as worship from the songs, to the sharing of the word, to communion, and prayer. But somehow in all of my years in more nondenominational expressions of church I have somehow come to associate leading worship with just the songs of worship—The Pastor preaches and teaches and the worship leader leads people in worship! Yet as I have pondered these reflections of Peterson I have found myself being challenged to look more at every aspect of a church service as leading people in worship. So if I lead people in singing to God, then I am leading folks in worship. If I lead people in reading aloud from the scriptures then I am leading people in worship worship. If I share the gospel story with the people in the congregation then it is to lead them into worship. This may seem like a no-brainer to some but has really been a great way for me to approach our weekly gathering at Northshore Vineyard.

Chili

2011-09-22T09:12:00.001-05:00

I haven't been too active either following blogs or writing blogs lately as life is pretty hectic right now. But I thought I would share a link to a story that came out in the Times Picayune on the subject of chili here. Northshore Vineyard is in the process of putting together a chili cook-off for October 23. Somehow word of this event made it to the food columnist of the Times Picayune and I got a call last week for an interview on the subject of chili. READ THE STORY which features some musings on chili and if you scroll down towards the bottom you can find my recipe for Pork Chili Verde. Or you can cut to the chase for the PORK CHILI VERDE RECIPE HERE

2011 Alpha Promo Video

2011-09-09T09:23:00.002-05:00

The following is a promo video for our upcoming Alpha Course at Northshore Vineyard. If you are in the area we would love for you to be a part.

Reflections on One Long Hot Summer and Romans 8

2011-09-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

One of my absolute favorite chapters in the whole Bible isRomans 8. If I was to be strandedon a desert Island and had to choose one chapter to take with me, it would beRomans 8. Romans 8 has so manywonderful words on grace, creation, new creation, hope and ofcourse—Jesus! One of my favoritesections of Romans 8 comes in verse 22-23

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in thepains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves,who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly forour adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

Something about these words of creation groaning and weourselves groaning in the pains of childbirth seems to speak to me with a much greaterpunch in the dog days of summer of late August in Louisiana. The first part of the summer is alwayshot down here but in July most of the really hot days are alleviated byafternoon showers, which, though making things steamier, provided a pleasantrespite from the oppressive heat. Howeverthe last few weeks of August seem to have a way of becoming nearlyunbearable. With the last days ofsummer comes a low level depression that sets in as people try to avoid beingoutside for more than a few minutes at a time and find themselves cooped up inhomes and offices all day.

There have been several days in the last few weeks when Iwas bound and determined to do a little reading on the back porch and enjoy thesounds of birds and insects and the beauty of trees in the early hours ofmorning. And yet my weak will gavein and retreated to more hospitable climes within just a few minutes. And yet it is in those moments,sweating under the oppression of summer, that words penned by the Apostle Paulin Romans 8 begin to speak to me with particular clarity… creation is groaning…I am groaning… all of us are groaning. I find that by the last 2-3 weeks of August I am longing and groaningalong with the world of nature around me for the cool of autumn. I can’t help but wonder if this longing for summer to be overisn’t somehow part of the very narrative of redemption and new creationembedded in the very seasons of our world. As the opening verses of Psalm 19 declare:

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of hishands. ² Day after daythey pour forth speech; night after night they revealknowledge. ³ They have nospeech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. ⁴ Yet theirvoice^[b] goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of theworld.

I am writing these words on that first cool day that hascome in 5 months… that day that I have been groaning and waiting for. And it is every bit as wonderful as Iimagined. Yet I don’t want tosimply enjoy this day but rather to let it be a space in which I can rememberthe bigger narrative, the groaning of creation that will once be liberated bythe return of Christ. I wan to usethis day as a springboard to join with creation in praising the King. So here’s to a beautiful day at the endof a long summer and here’s to the beautiful day of which we still eagerlyawait when our King Jesus will once and for all set things right.

Our First Family Stop Action Video

2011-09-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

What's a family to do when stuck inside for days during a tropical storm? How's about making a stop action video! The kids and I put this together over the weekend. It's our first attempt at stop action video and it involved around 800 individual photos (shot with Nikon D40). Music: "Mirando" by Ratatat.

You Can’t Handle the Truth… Apart from its Context

2011-08-26T12:46:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of movies but I have a confession to make… I have never seen some of the most well-known movies in our world such as Casablanca, The Godfather, or The Terminator. While I haven’t seen these movies I am familiar with some of their greatest lines such as “I’ll be back”, “Here’s lookin at you kid”, and “I’m going to make you an offer you cannot refuse”.

If you ask me what The Terminator is about I would give my best guess that it is about some robot from the future that has come to save earth from some other bad robots. I’ve been told that this summation of The Terminator misses the plot pretty bad. For me the line “I’ll be back” is just some silly line from a movie that I might say when I take a quick trip to the grocery store for some eggs before breakfast. That line is one many iconic lines from movies that has somehow managed a life of its own in American pop-culture that for many, such as myself, has nothing to do with the actual movie.

However when I hear other famous lines from movies that I have actually seen, I don’t just hear a random movie quotes but I am reminded of the story in which those words take place. Take for instance the line “You can’t handle the truth!” That line brings me back to the scene from A Few Good Men where a proud Col. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson, is finally pushed to the tipping point by the questioning of a cocky young Navy Lawyer played by Tom Cruise. “You can’t handle the truth” is the very climax of a story about honor and justice and government cover-ups. For me that line doesn’t have a life of it’s own but rather finds its significance in a compelling story.

For the last 8 months our church has taken a very slow and deliberate look into the book of Philippians, a book which has so many lines which have become popular in modern Christianity such as “to live is Christ, to die is gain”, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”, and “My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.” For 8 months we have looked not just at the words of Philippians but at the story of Philippians… and it is a great story! A story of a guy named Paul who planted a church in Philippi with a handful of women. A story of a church that is beginning to suffer the persecution of Rome under a crazed emperor name Nero. A story of a guy in prison 800 miles away from one of his most dearly beloved churches who is all alone in prison without food or possession yet is being visited by a friend from Philippi who is bearing gifts to take care of him in his time of need. A story of the gospel going forward even in the most inhospitable of circumstances. A story of the grace of Christ in the midst of trials and suffering.

After going through this series I can honestly say that I will never read or hear the words “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” in the same way again. These lines as with the other famous and not so famous lines from Philippians will never be simple inspiration sayings for me. They will always take me back to the story. And the story gives me as much hope as the words themselves.

I have seen so much misunderstanding and bad theology come from a failure to understand the stories of the Bible. When we take lines from the Bible apart from their context in the story they end up having either negligible effects in our faith journey or simply get relegated to the realm of pop-culture along with lines from movies, poems, and songs. I feel like much of the surrounding world has been shortchanged on the truth of scriptures because the church has not done a very good job on telling the stories of the Bible. I can only hope that this trend is reversed because I have seen in my own personal life and in the life of the church of which I am a part that knowing the story anchors the words of scripture into the actual everday realm in which people have been seeking to live out their faith for thousands of years. The reality is that apart from the story we can’t handle the truth.

Why "The Best" is the Enemy of Good

2011-08-04T11:32:00.001-05:00

On more than a few occasions in my life (mostly in church services) I have heard the inspirational proverb “Good is the enemy of the best!” The wisdom contained in these words is that one should never settle for good but hold out or seek the best. While on the surface these words sound quite wise and reasonable I want to give an apologetic for how the opposite is true—sometimes the best is truly the enemy of the good.

The problem with “Good is the enemy of the best” is that that mindset can cause people to live continually striving for perfection, for distant fantasies that may never be, or by simply weighing themselves down with unreasonable expectations of how they should be performing. However this mindset is manifest it becomes both a heavy burden and a barrier to experiencing the good all around.

Larry Mullen Jr., drummer of U2

I heard an interview one time with Larry Mullen Jr. the drummer of U2 in which he was asked about his drumming philosophy. He told the interviewer that his philosophy had to do with coming to terms with his own limitations as a drummer and sticking with what he is good at. This approach to playing drums could almost seem like a cop out by someone who is too lazy to do the hard work of getting better on the drums ,and yet by sticking with what he is good at he has been able to be a part of one of the greatest bands in the history of rock-n-roll. Larry Mullen Jr. has found out what he is good at and how he can use his gifts to contribute to something much greater and far-reaching than merely his own quest to be the best.

Stepping out to plant a church is a risky endeavor with all kinds of pressures from putting together the weekend services, to attracting new people, to reaching out to the community, to pastoral care, community development, Bible studies, budgets, building issues, administration etc. I find it so easy to come under the tyranny of trying to be the best in all of these areas when frankly I don’t know much about much of it. I am coming to terms with the reality that I am not a great administrator, I am not real good at handling real estate deals, and I am not the most business-savvy person I know. But I am a pretty decent musician/worship leader, a good communicator, and not a half-bad as a pastor. How many times do I wear myself out by trying to be the best in all kinds of areas of which I am not even gifted? How many times do I miss the goodness of the moment because I am so often pushing myself to be better? How many times to I fail to celebrate the good because I have just moved right on past it?

I hear pastors all of the time who are driven by a quest to be the best. But the problem with “the best” is that it is a mirage that keeps moving further and further towards the horizon as we chase after it. If being the best and having the best are what you are after as a church then you will never be satisfied, there will never be enough people showing up on the weekend, or a good enough building, or the right kinds of programs and classes in place. It is a trap!

I am kind of getting over being the best (can we call this recovery?). Like Larry Mullen Jr., I just want to be good at what I do and to contribute to something larger than myself that helps people to experience God’s goodness. I am finding that when I live in this kind of reality I begin becoming awake to goodness all around me and that I begin to truly enjoy all aspects of my life more (even the mundane everyday stuff of life).

Perhaps you may be a stay-at-home mom reading this blog who struggles with wondering if putting your career on hold was a good thing, that maybe the world of diapers, Nick Jr., nap times is somehow not the best use of your life. Maybe you feel as if you have somehow settled for something less than the best.

Maybe you have been working the same job for years and now you question if staying with your company was the best idea after all because it meant saying no to other opportunities. Maybe you struggle with regrets that you may have missed out on something amazing in your employment.

Maybe you have given your best shot at being an artist or a writer or a musician but it has never worked into a financially viable option for a career.

Maybe you struggle with other questions of how you may have settled for less than the best in your life.

Well… is it still good enough to just be a mom that loves your kids deeply and takes care to raise them as best as you can even if nobody else sees you? Can you work that same old job you have been working for years and find pleasure in just doing it well? Will you still write good songs even if only a handful of people may hear them? Can you still create art just and write poetry just because you like to, just because it is good? Can you find joy in simply loving and pastoring people into relationship with God even if it never turns into the next mega-church?

Maybe seeking to do good and to appreciate goodness isn’t a copout at all. Maybe it’s actually a better way to live!

A Daisy in the Cracked Sidewalk

2011-08-01T18:21:00.001-05:00

On Saturday August 2,1997 I found myself dressed up in a tuxedo writing the final words to what would be the hardest song I ever sang in my life. I wrote the song Daisy for Dina on our wedding day. The chorus "You're a daisy in the cracked sidewalk..." seemed like such a fitting line for my Dina as it speaks of something beautiful and unexpected breaking forth from what could hardly be called ground, of life coming forth in the most unlikely of places. Dina is this to me.

14 years ago she said, "I do" and joined me on what has been one crazy adventure. 14 years into this marriage I find her more beautiful than the day we were married as God's love has made a mess of her heart and life. No one really knows what they're getting into when they write love songs in the springtime of infatuation. I certainly didn't. Since the day I first penned those words and did my best to sing without letting my voice crack from the nerves and emotions it has at times been a very challenging journey. In the early days of our marriage I really wondered if we would make it at all as the issues within both of us began to come to the surface. In hardly no time at our the idealism of our romantic love was waking up to the reality that marriage was going to be a lot harder than either of us had imagined. At times our marriage felt a lot more like war than love. But here we are, and all of the fights, and struggles have not compared with the joy and love that God has brought about in us. I am truly a better man because of Dina and those words that I wrote 14 years ago are as true today as ever.

Arminianism Myths and Realities Review Pt.2 - Free Will

2011-07-25T15:31:00.000-05:00

Note: this is the second part of a review of Roger Olson’s – Arminian Theology Myths and Realities in which I am looking into the theological issues that he raises in the ongoing debate between Calvinism and Arminianism.

In chapters 2-3 of Arminian Theology Myths and Realities, Roger Olson looks at whether Calminianism is an option (a synthesis of both Calvinism and Arminianism) and whether Arminianism is even an Orthodox evangelical option. Olson, for reasons that I won’t rehash here, does not see how one could actually believe a hybrid of Calvinism and Arminianism as he makes the case that one will eventually come to places between the two theologies where there is no compatibility whatsoever.

I was actually a little surpsied in chapter 3 to find that Arminianism has been considered to be a heretical teaching by many in the last few hundred years. Perhaps my surprise on this issue is due to my being on the periphery of this debate for most of my Christian experience but I will have to admit that my little understanding of Arminiainism never once made me question if it was on Orthodox Christian theological option. As with chapter 2 I am not so interested in going over his case for Arminianism other than to say he makes a good case for it as a solid Orthodox way to be a Christian. For me the real meat of this book comes in the next chapter when he hits the classical point of disagreement between Calvinism and Arminianism—free will.

In chapter 4 Olson takes on the objections that are raised mainly by Calvinists against Arminianism for its emphasis on free will. Many from the Calvinist tradition see the Arminian emphasis on the free will of man as being both incompatible with God’s sovereignty as well as creating a works based righteousness (which would seem to oppose the absolute need for God’s grace in salvation). This is due in part to the misunderstanding that Arminianism starts in the place of trying to prove the human philosophical concept of free will. For the opponents of Arminianism this smacks of humanism and secular philosophy.

Olson makes a very compelling case that Joseph Arminius wasn’t starting with trying to prove human free will at all but rather with a certain view of God’s nature and character. Because Arminius started with the idea that God is good, loving and just he ended up following the logic (as evidenced thoroughly throughout scripture) that humans in fact have free will by God’s grace to respond to his love and goodness. Arminius could not resolve the deterministic view of God as put forth in Calvinism because it ultimately makes God the author of sin and evil and raises serious issues not only about God’s love and goodness but His justice as well. For God to be loving his creatures must have the choice of responding to that love rather than simply being pawns moved about a cosmic chess board by the arbitrary and capricious whims of their creator. As Olson writes, “Arminianism is all about protecting the reputation of God by protecting his character as revealed in Jesus Christ and scripture. (P.100)”

“Arminius’s most basic guiding principle in these debates is that God is necessarily and by nature good; God’s goodness controls God’s power. And God’s goodness and glory are inseparable; God is glorified precisely in revealing his goodness in creation and redemption. (Roger Olson, P.103)”

As Olson sees it both Calvinism and Arminianism start with a certain fundamental view of God that is at the core of both theologies. For the Calvinist the fundamental view of God that is at the core of its theology is that of God as almighty and holy. For the Calvinist every other attribute of God is secondary to God’s holiness and omnipotence. Because God is all-powerful he must then be in control of everything thus the resulting theology built around this concept of God results in the belief that God creates some to be saved and some to be damned and that God actually controls everything in the created world even evil and sin. For Arminius these ideas of God cut against the picture of God that is revealed is scripture and particularly in the person of Jesus. If Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the father then serious doubts are cast on much of the determinism of Calvinism. For Arminus Jesus shows us the beautiful picture of God’s goodness, love and justice. Arminian theology starts with the belief that God is good and loving and that even his power and might are subject to his character. This runs contrary to the accusations of Calvinists that Arminianism is rooted in humanistic philosophy.

The other aspect of free will that I will look at in the next post is how both Calvinism and Arminianism deal with how humans respond to God. For the Calvinist a human response to God comes from God’s irresistible grace. Arminius sees God’s grace at the core of any human response to God but he does not see that grace as irresistible lest God would be violating the will of the one’s he loves which would malign his own nature and character. I will dig more into this in the next post.

You May Be Arminian If…. Pt.1: Common Ground

2011-07-23T11:15:00.001-05:00

I recently picked up a copy of Armininian Theology Myths and Realities after hearing a great interview with it’s author Roger Olson on the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast. In this book Olson attempts lays out some of the fundamental tenents of Arminian theology as well as some of the general myths associated with Arminian Theology. I would like to devote a few posts to the topic of Arminian theology as I work my way through this book.

In chapter 1 Olson deals with the myth that Arminianism is the opposite of Calvinism. Quite to the contrary Olson finds that there is much common ground between the two theologies. Here are some of the aspects of common ground between Calvinisim and Arminianism:

Salvation by grace alone – Both Calvinism and Arminianism hold to the doctrine of salvation by God’s grace alone and not by works. “Arminius stands firmly in the tradition of Reformed theology in insisting that salvation is by grace alone and that human ability or merit must be excluded as a cause of salvation. It is faith in Christ alone that places a sinner in the company of the elect. (quote by Carl Bangs)” So while there may be many strong differences between Calvinism and Arminianism, the Arminianists are definitely in the Protestant camp.
The sinfulness of man – Another point of common ground between these two theologies would be the total depravity of man. As Arminius wrote, “In this state, the Free Will of man towards the True Good is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except as are excited by Divine grace.” (P.56)
The glory of God – Olson also finds common ground between the theology of Arminius and the Reformed confessional statement–-“What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Arminius’ statements on the chief end of man are no doubt similar, “In this act of mind and will,—in seeing a present God, in loving him, and therefore in the enjoyment of him,—the salvation of man and his perfect happiness consist.” “For what purpose or end has God restored the fallen to their pristine state of integrity, reconciled sinners to himself. And received enemies into favour?—We shall plainly discover all this to have been done, that we might be partakers of eternal salvation, and might sing praises to him forever.” (P.51)

Reformed and Reforming - In the end Olson sees the theology of Arminianism as being a correction on Reformed theology not a departure from it. In another sense it is Arminius’ efforts at continual reformation of Reformed theology that keep him perhaps more true to the spirit of the great reformers.

Thank God For Bad Pastors!

2011-07-22T14:03:00.000-05:00

Throughout my faith journey I can recall many authors, teachers, friends, and pastors who have influenced my spiritual walk in a positive way. There are authors like N.T. Wright, Eugene Peterson, and Dallas Willard who helped me to connect the dots of spirituality and theology. There have been people in ministry who God has sent into my life during difficult seasons who have really helped me to know Christ. And through it all there have also been friends who have wrestled with God, trials, and heartaches with me along the way. Yet this list is incomplete because it fails to recognize the positive impact of bad pastors in my life. That’s right, the positive impact of bad pastors.

I think most folks would prefer to grow in their faith when life is good, when the bills are paid, when the kids are healthy, when relationships are peaceful… but the truth is, as with Israel of the Old Testament, that the last place for spiritual growth is when things are going well. Growth in our faith comes in the context of trials, questions and conflict. A faith that has not faced discouragement, loss, and disillusionment is not really faith at all but naïve idealism. Like it or not it is within trials and confrontation that we grow to know and become more like Jesus.

Throughout the history of the Bible and of the Church as well faith is never an easy road. This goes for Abraham who had to believe God when everything else seemed contrary to his understanding of reality. This was also true for Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers, accused of rape, and locked in prison for years. The same was true of the apostles who not only had conflict with Rome but with one another. I am convinced that even David would have never turned out to be the celebrated king of Israel had he not faced 10+ years of being hunted by Saul—10 years of wrestling with God and his call on David’s life. As Gene Edwards so insightfully noted in Tale of Three Kings, God used Saul to get at the Saul inside of David.

In my own journey it has been my experiences with conflict, legalism, manipulation, disillusionment and so on that have actually forced me to reevaluate much of the theology and practices in the church. All of my black and white ideas about faith as well as my ideals about ministry and the church needed to be broken, as well as my own confidence in them. This breaking didn’t come in times of peace and blessing but in conflict and tears, in times when I wanted to write the church off entirely. And yet it was in those very times that I began to experience the Pastoring of another. It was also through these times that I realized my issue wasn’t the Saul out there but the Saul within me.

Since I have been a pastor I have heard so many discouraging stories from people in my congregation recounting issues with former pastors concerning moral failure, legalism, abuse of power and so on. I have to admit that after hearing so many stories like these that I have at times begun to feel very scared that I might somehow become another one of these pastors that will bring further hurt into the lives of these believers. Not too long ago I was discussing this fear with a friend of mine who is a counselor. He asked me to reflect on the some of the bad experiences I’ve had with folks in ministry, whether pastors, or other ministers that I had looked up to who had fallen from grace. The question he then posed was what difference it had ultimately made in my faith. The truth is that as long as I have kept my heart open to God’s work, He has actually used even bad pastors to work his purposes into my life. Looking back I believe that had I not had some of those very difficult experiences with folks in ministry early on in my faith I would not be where I am today.

In the end I take comfort in the words of Jesus, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). I am sure as my journey continues, now as a pastor myself, that I will be considered by some to be a bad pastor (that is likely the case even now). While I hope I will never fall into sexual immorality, or become an abusive leader, I know that at my best I will still end up hurting some people along the way. While I will endeavor to be a good pastor my hope is that I can lead people to know the one true Pastor and Shepherd and that even when I do stupid or hurtful things that folks will listen to and follow Him. I trust this will be the case because it has been true in my own journey. Though human pastors have failed me, though people in ministry have let me down, one Shepherd has been leading me, guiding me, and protecting me through it all.

Missing the Point - Jesus!

2011-07-21T18:39:00.000-05:00

I came across this video on Mike Friesen's Blog thought I'd repost it here. Leonard Sweet talks about the absence of Jesus in the church. Sometimes we can get so distracted by our activities for God, our programs, and as Sweet points out, even the Bible that we miss the point of it all--Jesus!

^{John 5:39} "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me..."

Can the Internet Helps Us Be Better Christians?

2011-07-21T17:33:00.000-05:00

For all of the bad stuff on the internet I am pleased to see more and more that there are some very engaging and redemptive conversations going on between Christians in the online world. In just the past few days I have been a part of many blog discussions about central issues to the Christian faith where all parties were generally respectful and where folks were really endeavoring to move towards the truth. Okay, so maybe this isn’t the norm in the blogosphere but it is a window for me in how the internet can be a part of building community and vibrant faith in the lives of Christians. In another sense I think the internet is helping Christians who may feel all alone in their particular way of pursuing God to realize that there are thousands of others out there who are wrestling with the same ideas. Sure the downside is that lunatics are finding out their not alone either but I think it is still a good phenomenon for Christians. How has the internet helped you in your faith journey?

Can a Blog be Updated Too Much?

2011-07-21T17:30:00.004-05:00

I love reading blogs and even writing them though I frequently hit stretches of my life when it is difficult to do either. Conventional wisdom says that one must frequently update a blog to keep one’s reader’s attention but I wonder quite often if blogs can update too much. I say this because there are many blogs that I follow, some of which post so frequently that I cannot keep up. So sometimes the quantity of posts actually drives me away from reading because there is just too much to go back and read through to get to the current posts. This might not be a problem if I only read 2-3 blogs a week but I currently try to follow about 15 different blogs a week on a regular basis plus the handful that I stumble upon frequently. What do you think? I'd comment more but I have another blog to post and about 10 others to read...

How to Respond to Religious Bullies, Some Thoughts on Mark Driscoll

2011-07-19T11:14:00.002-05:00

Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, Seattle

In the past week there has been quite a controversy surrounding a Facebook update from Seattle mega-church pastor Mark Driscoll in which he posted:

"So, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you’ve ever personally witnessed?"

For those familiar with Mark Driscoll this kind of comment is nothing new as he has developed quite the reputation for saying controversial things (and quite a record for having to apologize for the things he’s said). Yet for some Christians these kind of judgmental and hateful words were the final straw that demanded a response en mass.

Rachel Held Evans, author/blogger

I was introduced to this controversy at Rachel Held Evans’ blog where she compared Mark Driscoll to a bully and encouraged her readers to stand up to him by writing/emailing the church and the elders to call Driscoll to accountability and repentance. While I frequently read Rachel’s blog I have never seen a topic garner so much feedback in such a short time—some 513 comments and 9,000+ shares on Facebook. Apparently she was not alone in feeling that Driscoll needed to be confronted for his history such inflammatory and hurtful words (I will not rehash his past comments as Rachel Evans has quite a sampling of them on her blog).

While I have read a couple of books by Mark Driscoll in the past and really enjoyed them (partly for his edgy and in-your-face style of writing) I have come to feel troubled both at his way of communicating as well as his theological bent which, in my opinion, is quite destructive in the long run. It seems to me that in recent years Driscoll’s attempts at being edgy have actually caused a loss of credibility in his message. In the media Driscoll has continued to occupy the place reserved for reality TV divas that people watch not for their insightful social commentary but for the over-the-top drama that they seem to stir up in every situation in which they insert themselves. This is heartbreaking because Mark Driscoll is truly one of the most effective Christian communicators of my generation and yet he has continually chosen to go down a path that, in my opinion, distracts people from the good news of Jesus Christ.

So when Rachel Evans asked her readers to stand up to this bully I was ready to join in the charge… at first that is. Yet once I gave it more thought I became a little bit more conflicted with what the right response might be in this situation. While I certainly don’t agree with his statements, I don’t know if a mass protest is the most redemptive way to deal with these issues or if it will truly work for a change in his heart. Sure, after a few days of comments and thousands of emails Driscoll did apologize for what he said (well, kind of) but I can’t help but wonder if this was just another “I’m sorry” or if there is truly a commitment on his part to change.

The great modern philosopher Bono once wrote, “They say that what you mock will one day overtake you, and you become a monster so the monster will not break you.” My concern is that in our attempts to confront a bully we may just as well end up moving in the same spirit. When this happens everyone loses.

When I consider this situation I take comfort in the life of the Apostle Paul. Before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was a fervent persecutor of the church. He preached against Christianity as a heresy, hunted Christians down and even consented to their executions by his tribe of religious zealots. Paul only became the famous Christian apostle, church planter and author of nearly half of the New Testament after he had encountered the grace of Jesus Christ. What caused Paul’s change of course was neither persuasive intellectual arguments or protests, or even the example of Christians around him, it was nothing short of encountering God himself.

As I look back on my journey with Christ there are definitely some stretches of which I am very embarrassed—the years when I was quite the jerk to anybody outside of my very narrow view of Christianity. I look back now and cringe at how I used to love arguing with people about anything from abortion to evolution to sexuality and how self-righteous I felt when I encountered resistance thinking that I was being persecuted for Jesus when in reality I was being persecuted for being an ass. However something happened to me. Even in my zealous self-righteousness I began to experience the unrelenting grace of Jesus Christ. I have come to realize that God has loved me in my worst sins when I wasn’t a believer and didn’t have any hope in this world as well as in my moral arrogance when I gleefully persecuted Christian and non-Christian alike who didn’t believe the way I did. It is precisely this unrelenting grace that has changed me and continues to form me within.

So as much as I want to confront Mark Driscoll, I wonder if perhaps I should trust him to the grace of God. After all that grace changed the apostle Paul… and a former fundamentalist like me.

Maybe this line of thinking is just a copout from someone who isn’t a big fan of confrontation. Maybe a very public outcry is exactly what needs to happen in this situation. What do you think? How ought Christians react to fellow Christians who say ugly and hurtful things in very public ways?

Related Post: Mark Driscoll vs. The Shack

Book Review - God Without Religion by Andrew Farley

2011-07-08T08:39:00.002-05:00

In God Without Religion Andrew Farley invites the reader to step away from the trappings of religion and enjoy the life of grace-filled freedom that God intended in the New Covenant. Though this book is a very easy read it is packed with sound theology and solid exegesis of scriptures that confront many of the erroneous interpretations that have become commonplace in modern Christianity. As Farley sees it many Christians are trying to live a mixture of two different covenants—the Old Testament law and New Testament grace which go together as well as oil and water when in reality we should only be under the covenant of grace in and through Jesus Christ.

Farley takes issue with many of the practices that have become commonplace in modern Christianity such as tithing and following the Ten Commandments (of which he says in reality most folks only follow 9 because we don’t really keep a biblical Sabbath). Our tendency is to fall back on the law because we don’t trust ourselves to the grace of Christ to lead us into freedom and thus we end up with something far less satisfying than what God has for us namely a rules based religion instead of a grace-empowered relationship with Christ.

While I could write more on the content I have posted a clip of Andrew Farley in which he sums up some of the main topics covered in God Without Religion.

By the way I did a message not too long ago called BEWARE OF DOGS! where I specifically dealt with the tithing issue as well.

Guitars, Jesus and the Life of Faith

2011-05-27T08:55:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine has a running joke with me that he is going to turn me in to guitar protective services for abusing my guitars. Yes it’s true that all of my acoustic guitars bear the same scars on the top from years of gigs and worship services. I haven’t been abusive to my instruments intentionally (as I am not playing punk rock at this stage in my life) but I have not left my instruments locked in a closet either—I have used them to make music, to write songs, and to create music with others.

I watched a documentary on a Luthier (guitar maker) by the name of Danny Ferrington who has made guitars for some of the best-known artists in rock and country. At one point in the documentary he showed a picture of a guitar he had made for Johnny Cash. As with most of his guitars it was exquisite in its design and inlay work but the back of the guitar was chewed up and splintered from the constant friction generated by Cash’s belt buckle. Ferrington was asked if he was disappointed in how this masterpiece of a guitar had been treated by Cash. But Ferrington was just happy as a guitar-maker that Johnny Cash had connected with that instrument in such a way that he played it that he played it all the time. In the end Ferrington made the point that no matter how beautifully designed a guitar is by its creator its main purpose is making music—a guitar is meant to be played!

Jesus once compared the life of faith to salt and light. Both salt and light do no good if they are hidden either as a lamp under a bed or salt in a shaker. The truth is that the Pharisees had an exquisite system of complex belief but rather than bringing out the God colors and flavors in the world around them they were just keeping their faith hidden in their own little club like a beautiful instrument that is never taken out of its case.

We are invited by Jesus to join the music of new creation not to simply construct a complex system of beliefs and doctrines that we can take pride in. The reality is that a faith that works to engage life will not make it unscathed anymore than a guitar that is regularly played will retain its original external beauty and yet the true beauty of faith is not in perfectly constructed doctrines but in the song in which it participates.

No Formula

2011-05-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

I hope to post some of the songs I have written along with the lyrics. This is a song I wrote several years ago and recorded for my album MOVE. Lyrics and video with the song below.

No Formula

Sometimes it seems like the empty places inside

Stretch on for miles

And there seems to be no place from where a song can rise

And nothing for love to hold onto

And it seems I’ve been looking

Like reading a book that when I’m done I think I would learn

But the pages are torn and the edges are worn

And I still haven’t figured it out

There is no formula

There is no manual

There is no equation

That can make sense of all that I can’t understand

To fill in these spaces I’ve made with my hands

With my righteousness wrong

And my wrong sometimes right

And my heart that’s grown weary from fighting the night

Though my heart longs to search all the infinite depths

Of loves intimate sacred reward

I am so much defeated by repeated attempts

To work love like it’s some kind of job

And you seem to get so blessed by messing up all

Of my brilliantly well-crafted plans

So that I have to know you not just with my mind

But by getting your dirt on my hands

There is no formula

There is no manual

There is no equation

That can make sense of all that I can’t understand

To fill in these spaces I’ve made with my hands

With my righteousness wrong

And my wrong sometimes right

And my heart that’s grown weary from fighting the night

Should Christianity Concern Itself With Predicting the Future?

2011-05-23T11:11:00.004-05:00

I came across an interesting blog post today reflecting on science and religion in the aftermath of the failed apocalyptic predictions of Herold Camping. In the post Time, Duration and Prediction: Some Thoughts After Armageddon, astrophysicist Adam Frank makes the case that the reason we give science such and exalted place in our world is precisely because it has been proven to be such a good predictor of natural phenomenon. Through science we can predict eclipses, hurricanes, and even the likelihood of a person’s risk of disease. As Frank sees it religion has been shown time and time again to be a lousy predictor of natural phenomenon as demonstrated most recently by Camping’s failed claims of the end of the world. Regrettably I think I would have to agree with him on this if only based on all the crazy and failed apocalyptic predictions I’ve seen in my short time on earth.

I tend to think we Christians are at our worst when we try to either predict natural phenomenon or when we try and interpret natural phenomenon on behalf of God. Whenever we expend much of our energy in either of these pursuits we begin to miss the point of simply and humbly following Jesus in the here and now.

Do you agree with Adam Frank’s post or do you think he’s just trying to make excuses for why we don’t need religion?

P.S. Since I published this yesterday Herold Camping has come out publicly with further insight into why his prediction of Judgement day was right and yet how the end of the world won't really come until this October 21. Read article.

The Fear Factor in Spiritual Growth

2011-05-23T07:41:00.002-05:00

Today I have a blog posted over at Not the Religious Type called The Fear Factor in Spiritual Growth. Check it out when you get a chance.

The Dangerously Good News of the Gospel

2011-05-22T23:24:00.003-05:00

For the past several months Northshore Vineyard has been going a few verses at a time through the book of Philippians. The passage we looked at church this morning (sermon audio here ) concerned the Apostle Paul’s continual fight against a works based righteousness that was threatening to creep into all of the churches he had planted. In Philippians 3:1-6 Paul gives one of his strongest warnings against those who would try to add to the gospel of Christ by works of the flesh. It is tempting to see the issues that Paul was addressing in these scriptures as merely issues facing the early church and yet I can’t help but think that these issues are still alive and well today. While modern day churches rarely have folks coming in trying to persuade folks to get circumcised, the temptation to add our own efforts to the work of Christ is always there.

In my early years as a Christian I really struggled with a works-based righteousness. I had come to think that prayer, worship, service, and giving somehow made me more acceptable to God. This caused my relationship with God to be a continual roller coaster. When I was reading my Bible, praying, giving and serving in the church whenever the doors were open I felt that God was somehow impressed by my performance but when I would stumble and sin I would run from God (like Adam and Eve) thinking that I needed to hide for a bit until my feelings of shame would subside and then I would get back into trying really hard to do better.

In many of the churches that I was a part of in my earlier days as a Christian it was quite normal to have a 15-20 minute message on giving before the offering plate was passed. One of the typical messages that I heard at least 8-10 times a year was based on Malachi 3:8-12

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?

“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

The message communicated with these verses was that if you wanted to be blessed or if you didn’t want to be cursed you would give more money. I surely wasn’t a big fan of being cursed and was quite fond of being blessed (especially financially).

The thing is that as I continued my faith journey I finally started learning something about how to study the Bible (which can be very dangerous indeed!) The number one rule of studying the Bible is to try and understand the scriptures in context. Once one has made a reasonable effort to understand what the scriptures meant to the original audience, in context with other scriptures and the grand narrative of scripture then one can move on to how to apply those scriptures to the current modern context. And yet when I began to do that with these verses from Malachi I began to realize that what I had been taught so many times was not appropriate for one in the New Covenant. In Malachi 3 God is getting on to Israel for not living up to the terms of the covenant he had made with them. This would be no different than someone violating the marriage covenant by sleeping around. God was rebuking then because they were no longer participating in their part of the agreement. That’s the meaning of those verses. But to apply those verses that were based on the terms of the Old Covenant to our New Covenant life in Jesus is to bring legalism and works based righteousness into our experience. This simple illustration is no different from what Paul was confronting in his churches, it’s the gospel of Jesus Plus and it really isn’t the gospel (the good news) at all!

The last time I remember hearing this message on Malachi 3 was some 10 or 12 years ago and I had finally had enough of it. I looked at Dina and said, “I quit!” I told her that we were not going to tithe anymore for at least a year. Dina was very scared at first thinking that somehow we would be cursed but I had come to realize that in Jesus I am not cursed. In Jesus I am freed from the curse! In Jesus I am as blessed as I will ever be! So that day Dina and I embarked on a wonderfully scary adventure of giving in a way that participates with Jesus instead of trying to add to the work of Jesus. Instead of giving out of guilt and manipulation, instead of giving to try and be blessed and not cursed, we began to invite God into our finances. Each month we would take the money we had set aside to give and ask God how we could best spend it for his purposes. Many months we just gave our money to the church but on many other occasions we found all kinds of opportunities to participate in the generosity of Christ. On several occasions we paid the bills of people who had their electricity turned off or bought groceries for those who didn’t have enough food or diapers for a single mom who couldn’t afford them. When we stepped away from legalism we didn’t become less generous but more generous. We weren’t giving to get blessed but giving because in Jesus we are blessed! Even though we were two poor college students we began giving at a whole new level of sometimes even 20 percent of our income each month.

The truth is that anything we do in church can become legalism if we are not careful. Though prayer, worship, serving and giving can all be vibrant expressions of faith in Jesus, none of these things get us points with God. Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is our high priest, our mediator between us and the Father. As New Covenant people when we pray we are entering into the intercession of Jesus before the Father. When we worship we are entering into the worship of Jesus before the Father. In Galatians 3 Paul talks of how when God approaches Abraham with a great blessing (Genesis 12:1-3) that Abraham simply responded in faith. According to Paul this response of Abraham to the blessing of God made Abraham righteous. The same is true for us today with Jesus. We simply respond with faith saying yes to all that Jesus has done and all that he continues to do. This is the good news! But it seems too good to be true doesn’t it? There is something within us all that wants to add to the simple sincere response of faith to who Jesus is yet to add anything to what Jesus has done is to take away from what he has done and to return again to the slavery of which Jesus came to save us.

Grace is a dangerous thing. Grace was dangerous when Paul encountered Jesus on his way to persecute the church. Grace was dangerous when Martin Luther encountered it as a monk reading Paul’s writings on how we are saved by grace through faith, lest anyone should boast. Yet the offer of grace is open to any who will be crazy enough like Abraham to simply believe, to simply follow God into his wonderful plans.

How have you lived a Jesus + faith in your journey?
Do you struggle with getting your identity in what you do rather than what Jesus did?
How have you found grace to be dangerous in your own journey?

Wrestling With My Daughter's Education

2011-05-20T18:05:00.003-05:00

Note: this is previously published post that ran on this blog August 30, 2007. I often meet parents that are struggling through the questions of how to educate their children. This post gives a look into how Dina and I have wrestled with what the best educational options for our kids might be. We continue to wrestle with the best options but this captures part of the journey as we try to live out the calling as kingdom people in regards to this issue.

-----

A few years ago it was getting very near the time when my daughter would be attending kindergarten. No big deal right? Well, for my wife and me, it was a big deal. We had lots of big questions, some which were spiritual, some concerning education, and some concerning the general safety of our daughter.

While I have many good friends who home-school their children, we quickly ruled that out as an option. For one, it seems to take a high level of gifting and patience (neither of which we had in great supply) to teach your own children in an effective way and secondly, we really wanted our children to have ample opportunity to learn how to interact with others. So the next option we considered was private Christian schools. Again, we had a couple of issues there as well. First, after years of doing youth and college ministry I had noticed that many of the kids that went to Christian schools were often very ill-equipped for the real world and many times were much less than adequate examples of Christ-followers than their counterparts in other schools (though I do know plenty of kids that turn out well in the right type of Christian education). This left us with one remaining option - the dreaded public school system.

Our objections to public school went something like this,
“Don’t kids kill each other in the public schools?”
“My daughter will be offered drugs!”
“The education will be second rate!”
“Can’t we as her parents do a better job teaching our child than the government?”
“Won’t she get contaminated with anti-Christian ideas and philosophies?” and so on…

The objections in our minds seemed to be endless.

However as we struggled with these issues one phrase of Jesus kept coming to mind – “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden (Matt 5:13-14.)” In spite of all of our questions I could not shake the firm conviction in my soul that I wanted my daughter to learn to be a Christian, not isolated and shut off from the world but, in the real world. Our struggle finally gave way to an abiding sense of peace that putting our daughter in public school was the right thing for us to do.

For the most part the first year went off uneventfully. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of education and our daughter seemed to really enjoy it as well. That is, until another kid attacked her with some scissors one day. Though our daughter was not seriously injured, suddenly all of our fears were confirmed. We just knew everything was too good to be true. We began to seriously question whether we had done the right thing. This minor crisis began to cause us to really question what we believed about God, about family, about education, and very much with what we thought God had called us to do. We reluctantly decided that we would keep our daughter in school. However,what we were about to find out is that our child’s education was not simply about her or us but something much bigger.

Dina (my wife) met with the principal a few days after the scissors incident. She went in to get answers about how something like that could happen to our daughter but was caught off guard when she heard herself asking the principal if there was a mentoring program in place for at-risk kids in the school. Though there was no mentoring program in the school at that time we could both sense God moving in our hearts and in this situation to get something started. While I will spare the details of what transpired over the next few months, we were in fact able to get a mentoring program in place in that public school. The mentoring program, Kids Hope USA, pairs churches with public schools to mentor at-risk children (http://www.kidshopeusa.org .) We are now starting our third year of Kid’s Hope in my daughter’s school with around fifteen mentors from our church that will spend one hour a week throughout the school year mentoring a child.

Last month Dina attended a meeting with the teachers the week before school started to connect with them about Kids Hope USA again. When the principal introduced Dina, she recounted how when my daughter had been attacked by a scissors-wielding child that she figured that we would either pull our daughter out of school or get a lawyer and sue the school. She recalled being taken aback that we would actually respond to the situation by trying to help the school out by mentoring children.

So all of our wrestling with these various complex beliefs ended up coming full circle. Through the process, Dina and I realized that there was more to the school question than simply education and spirituality. In this wrestling match, God wanted to get at something in both of us and bring his kingdom to bear in our small corner of the world. I write this not to boast or say we did anything extraordinary but simply to illustrate the struggle of wrestling with our worldview and our values. I am thankful that we did wrestle with these issues rather than simply follow the dictates of the “Christian” culture or surrounding society. I suspect there are several kids that get mentored each week who are glad we wrestled too.

I have come to realize that education is far more than academic, far more than book knowledge and the regurgitation of facts. Children are educated by everything they experience whether at home, in a classroom, or just learning to get along with people who are very different from them. Like any parent I want my daughter to learn how to read and write and do math but I also want her to learn how to get along with a diversity of people from differing races, religions, and backgrounds. I want her to grow up thinking that normal Christianity is experienced not in hiding from the world but in engaging it. I want her to have a faith that is not cowering in fear of the darkness but displacing darkness with light. The smartest kids in the world are at a disadvantage if they don’t know how to engage with the world around them. And kids who come from devoutly religious families are certainly going to have a hard time in college and the surrounding real world if they have simply been hidden from it for their entire childhood.

These are issues that we have wrestled with and will continue to wrestle with as long as these children are in our care. There may come a day when we feel God leading us to homeschool our kids but for now we sense God with us in this current educational path.

I Blame Jesus

2011-04-11T14:37:00.004-05:00

One of the biggest issues I have been wrestling with in recent weeks through all of the debates on heaven, hell and eternity has come from one of Jesus’ sayings in Matthew 7. In verses 7-11 he takes our normal human love, marred by sin as it is, and then uses that as a starting point for understanding God’s love for us.

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

I have always loved these verses for how they draw us into relationship with our loving, heavenly Father. What a beautiful way to think of our relationship with God--as children running to our Father with all of our needs. And yet I also find these verses problematic in that Jesus not only shows us a specific application of truth but also shows us a way in which to think about God—if you being evil are capable of love then how much more your heavenly Father who is love personified?

Shortly after the birth of our first child Tevia I became aware of a kind of love that I had never experienced before. The first time I remember experiencing this love in a profound way was about 1 month after she was born. I had been gone for a few days leading worship at a youth retreat and when I returned I found that she was sick. This was the first time in her life that she had been sick. Something came over me in that moment and I picked her up and took her into a room away from everyone else and began to pray for her. Immediately God healed her. While I was thankful that God healed her I was even more in awe of how I felt about her in that moment. Up to that point in my life every one else I had ever loved had required an act of my will but in that moment the love I had for her was instinctual, a part of my being. It wasn’t something I could turn off any more than I could make my own heart stop beating. I just loved her and couldn’t imagine that she could ever do anything that would make me not love her. It was in that moment that I remembered the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:7-11. I realized that as intense as the love was that I was feeling for my daughter it was nothing compared to the love God has for me and all of his children.

The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-11 starts with our human understanding of love on such a basic level (children with their father) and works its way out from there. In a way it would be much easier if Jesus had never said things like this, if Jesus had never encouraged us to run to God for whatever we need just like children to a loving father. Without these words of Jesus we might not have such a clear picture of how much God truly loves us. And if we didn’t realize how much God loves us, then we would never even bother grappling with issues of whether or not there is a literal hell and just who might end up there. I have really been enjoying the lively theological debate that has sprung up in the last few weeks over universalism, inclusivism, heaven, hell, eternity, predestiniation, free-will etc. but in the end I don’t blame Rob Bell for this conversation... I blame Jesus!

I blame Jesus for not only teaching us about love but actually showing us what love looked like—a love that entered into the world in which we live, a love that welcomed outsiders and that challenged the institutions of the day, a love that was demonstrated in laying his life down for his friends and forgiving his enemies even as he hung dying upon the cross. Is it any wonder why we have difficulty with reconciling certain aspects of truth in the scriptures? We wouldn’t have these problems if we just cut the gospels (and Jesus) out of the Bible. But I am a big fan of keeping both in!

I have read some wonderfully insightful and well thought out posts on heaven, hell, and eternity in the last few weeks by folks like Scot McKnight, Tim Keller, and Rachel Held Evans as well as a host of other lesser known bloggers and I still am not quite sure where I land on all of these issues (the wrestling continues). But at the end of the day I am confident that God is love... beyond all comprehension, beyond anything we can even imagine. My hope is that in all of our wrestling with these theological issues that we will allow our lives to be ever filled and shaped by God’s love and that we wouldn’t become so distracted by debates over the hereafter that we fail to truly love God and others in this moment.

I want to close this with a prayer from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Twitter, Social Media Without All the Relational Baggage

2011-04-08T09:42:00.001-05:00

I decided to give up Facebook for lent. So in the past few weeks I have engaged a bit more with Twitter (I know this is kind of like giving up beef for lent only to eat fried seafood every night.) I only went through moderate Facebook withdrawals and have learned to lead a quite happy life without it though I will likely return to Facebook in a few weeks.

What I've Learned as a Tweeter

Though I have had a Twitter account for a couple of years it has remained mostly neglected because I just didn't really "get" it until recently. I read a very insightful interview with Twitter’s founder recently in one of those magazines you find on an airplane. When asked about the difference between Twitter and Facebook he likened Twitter to a person’s own customized news feed. Twitter isn’t about relationships as much as information. This idea really helped me to understand what I might get out of Twitter that blogging, RSS Readers and Facebook don’t offer. So armed with this idea I began following interesting sources of information. Initially I only followed people that I really liked but then realized that Twitter could be a great place to learn to get a wide variety of perspectives from others that I might not normally choose to consider. So I have have chosen to follow an eclectic blend of news sources, Sci-fi aficionados, non-profit humanitarian organizations, comedians, social commentators, and more than a few rather geeky science feeds on physics, asteroids and theories that are way over my head. Oh, in this mix I also follow a few friends and fellow bloggers but that seems almost more incidental in the Twitter universe.

At first it was a little weird to post something on Twitter and get no feedback whatsoever when the same status update on Facebook might have drawn 15 comments but again I had to realize that Twitter isn’t so much about social networking as social informational networking. And this is why Twitter is not such a drain on time because it really doesn’t scratch the itch for human interaction much at all (though it certainly can lead there). I read a great post (Twitter vs. Facebook) by Frank Viola on this subject in which he compared Facebook to a class reunion and Twitter to a roundtable discussion. I think he’s on to something. I tend to think of Facebook as more of a party and as such it likely appeals more to extroverts and outward processors. Twitter on the other hand is not only a great stream of information but is a lot less taxing on those who are not so much into parties and crowds, those who might be more introverted or at least partied out. Twitter seems to give a person more power to interact in places they choose without always having to navigate the uncomfortable issues that arise in the highly social world of Facebook over misunderstandings, strong opinions, those who want to "friend" you that you don't want as friends, the steady stream of invitations to play games and support causes that one has to constantly reject etc. I will likely go back to Facebook but I suspect I will use it much less in the days to come because even though I am more of an extrovert and outward processor sometimes I just don't feel like going to a party. Sometimes I just want to sit on my back porch and read.

How have you processed the differences between these two types of social media? Are you drawn to either one of them more? And do you think this has anything to do with your personality and the format of these social media tools?

By the way, you can tweet this blog or post to Facebook by clicking on one icons at the bottom of this post. Go ahead try it! Really!

Wisdom Begins in Wonder

2011-04-07T09:11:00.004-05:00

photo by Crispin Schroeder

Wisdom Begins in Wonder

The journey of wisdom begins not with reductionism,

The breaking down of truth into its smallest components

Or beliefs crafted into bullet points to fire at those who might oppose.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

All the years I tried to gain understanding
Looking through the lens of a moral microscope,
Searching for a truth
That I could finally hold and control and call my own.
And yet the truth shunned my advances.

Because wisdom begins in wonder.

I’d rehearsed all my lines, readied for the trial,
The script of sentences on my tongue,
To shine truth’s light on all the squint-eyed sinners.

Yet no sooner did I learn that in being right I could be so wrong.

For wisdom begins in wonder.

In moments of transcendence

When a melody rescues me from small thinking

In times when the beauty of a sunrise fills my heart with warmth

When I’ve stood by the ocean or on a mountainside
or gazed at the starry night sky

Or in the quiet when I have felt my life held
In the grip of a love incomprehensible

Only then, plunged into mystery and beauty,
In awe of the Holy,
Do I take my first shaky steps on the path of wisdom and understanding,

For wisdom begins in wonder.

----------------

The above was inspired by some reflections on The Fear of the Lord. I recently revisited Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places where I found the following quotes:

“The moment we find ourselves unexpectedly in the presence of the sacred, our first response is to stop in silence. We do nothing. We say nothing. We fear to trespass inadvertently; we are afraid of saying something inappropriate. Plunged into mystery we become still, we fall silent, all our senses alert. This is the fear-of-the-Lord.” (P41)

The Gifts of the Spirit and Centered Set Faith

2011-04-05T23:24:00.004-05:00

Note: This post discusses Centered Set Christianity. If you have never heard the term before you may want to read In or Out or check out Dave Schmelzer's Bounded and Centered Set Thinking

In the last week I have had several conversations with other believers concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit (tongues, prophecy, healing, wisdom etc.) This discussion continued in our home group tonight as well. This is an interesting subject because it brings such strong reactions whether from those who have baggage from seeing abuses first-hand in Charismatic/Pentecostal Christian gatherings, or from those who stand outside of those traditions who are just afraid of what they associate with more Charismatic expressions of faith, to those who wholeheartedly embrace spiritual gifts no matter how crazy they may seem to others. As we conversed on this subject at our home group I couldn’t help but think of how a centered set understanding of faith might be helpful when it comes to the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts and practices in the church.

One of the most famous instances of the Holy Spirit showing up in the Bible is recorded in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. This was the first recorded instance of people speaking in tongues in the whole Bible. Acts 2 records that as the disciples spoke in tongues, the crowd around them each heard them proclaiming the wonders of God in their own language. This was no small deal because it was quite the international crowd (made up from folks of upwards of 16 different nationalities). Immediately after that Peter preached a sermon and some 3,000 people became Christ-followers and joined this newly birthed entity called church.

What strikes me about this original encounter is that the Holy Spirit wasn’t just putting on a show with tongues but was rather leading people to Jesus. In other words the Holy Spirit was doing just what Jesus did in his earthly ministry—breaking down walls and reconciling people to God (the walls or barriers that day were language, culture and religion). Sure it must have looked awfully crazy, but it was craziness with a point and that point was Jesus. Most people I run into in various aspects of life truly want to experience God. They are dying to have some kind of spiritual connection in their lives. They don’t want religion whether it’s the stuffy traditional type or the crazy bounce-off-the-walls type, rather they want to experience true relationship with their creator.

In my years as a Christian I have been a part of many charismatic gatherings where spiritual gifts were strongly emphasized and yet most of the time these meetings were not the sorts of places that outsiders would ever feel welcomed or even begin to know how to make their way in. Somehow the emphasis on gifts had become a barrier to the very mission of the Holy Spirit—leading people to Jesus. It is interesting to note that the day the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church nobody had any idea how it would look and yet there was no doubt when it happened that it was God. In modern times what has been associated with the gifts of the Spirit has often had as much to do with a certain type of religious culture as with the Holy Spirit and as such has become just another bounded set version of Christianity. (This is not to say that God never truly shows up in these areas because he does but there is often a whole lot theatrics and culture added as well)

While there is always a temptation to avoid anything having to do with gifts of the Spirit because of all of the abuses out there I am more interested in how we can begin helping people everywhere—whether in or outside of church encounter God in meaningful ways without having to control or put our own religious-cultural packaging on what that should look like. In other words how can we help people experience God (the Holy Spirit) and thus help adjust the trajectory theirs lives so they are heading towards Jesus. This is more of a centered set approach faith that removes religious/cultural boundaries to help people encounter God right where they are. In my estimation this seems more in line with the ministry of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that we read about in the Bible but I am just thinking out loud here.

What do you think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a centered set approach to faith?

The Best Rule Ever!

2011-04-04T19:33:00.000-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to attend of a meeting of youngish leaders (I put “ish” on because they included me;-) The gathering was of about thirty people from different parts of the country and from various ministry backgrounds from church planters to worship leaders to those who work with nonprofit groups. The guy who organized the meeting gave us instructions in an email a week or so before we arrived. The event had one rule, just one – NO COMPLAINING. I have to say that in all the meetings I attended I’ve never seen one that was so intentional from the outset about not complaining. Looking back on the gathering I think this is the best rule ever. From our opening session right up to the late night conversations on the last night everything stayed on such a positive and productive track.

How many times have you been in meetings that have turned into a whole lot of whining and moaning about what’s wrong with everything? I’ve been in more than a couple myself… truth be told I’ve done my share of whining too.

Having a “no complaining” rule isn’t denial of problems but rather it forces one to work on problems from a positive place which, in turn, is much more conducive to solutions that are fair, just, innovative and loving. I read an amazing quote by Ghandi that I used to keep on my office wall, “Be the change you want to see.” The truth is that when we are in a posture of grumbling and complaining we will bring no redemptive change in the world around us because we feel somehow that we are the victims of all the problems around us. Yet when we stop complaining and start doing something, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, we ourselves begin to change and to effect change in the world around us. I’m convinced that I want to try enforcing this rule more in my own life but also in meetings with those who lead with me.

What are your experiences with groups of people and complaining?

Insights from Stage Theory for the Love Wins Conversation

2011-04-01T10:35:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago I said I was going to write a review on Bell’s new book Love Wins but there are already so many great (and not so great) reviews out there that I think I would rather dialogue on the issues that this book tends to bring up concerning theology, Church, and culture. Over the couple of years I have participated in a very insightful conversation on a blog called Not the Religious Type. I was fascinated by the blog and read it for a few months before I purchased the book on which the blog was base: Not the Religious Type by Dave Schmelzer (a Vineyard pastor in Boston). Not the Religious Type is one of the most helpful books I’ve read in many years in the way it helps Christ-followers to perhaps a more redemptive path of grappling with theology, Church and culture. The book is worth the price for the chapters on Stage Theory and Centered Set Christianity. I am posting a video on Stage Theory that Schmelzer produced which explains the basic idea as it applies to one’s spiritual journey. Please watch the following video as Schmelzer explains the theory much better than I do below.

Concerning Bell’s book Love Wins, it seems that reactions to his ideas very easily typify the different stages referenced by Schmelzer. So on the one hand you have a very Stage two reaction (rules based) by folks like John Piper and Justin Taylor and then you have an equally strong Stage 3 (rebellion against stage 2) by more of the emerging church crowd. I can only hope that these conversations can lead some of us more fully into the stage 4 understanding that truth is much bigger, deeper, profound, and mysterious than we tend to make it. As Schmelzer and company argue Stage 4 is truly the only way to reach our world that is increasingly characterized by a Stage 3 rebellion against the Stage 2 institutions which have ruled for hundreds of years. I would be interested to get feedback from anyone who has watched the above video (or is familiar with Stage Theory) on any insights that it might bring to the conversation that has been going on around Love Wins.

Community Reminds us of What is Important

2011-04-01T00:15:00.000-05:00

This week I had the opportunity of getting to make some new friends in the national Vineyard movement from scholars to church planters to worship leaders. While I came away with many insights after a few days of meetings one of the key truths that stuck out to me came from the very context of community in which all of the conversations and good ideas arose. I realized that one reason I need community around me is to keep me mindful of the important things that I seem to so easily forget when I am wrapped up in my own world. Each of the diverse and passionate voices had a way of prodding me towards truth and helping me gain fresh perspective.

How about you? Have you experienced this in your relationships with others?

Subversive Words: Everyone Has Something to Teach Me

2011-03-21T09:45:00.003-05:00

This last week as I was studying for a message I was putting together on Philippians 2:3-4 I revisited a really good book by Henri Nouwen called Creative Ministry where I came across this amazing insight:

“…As long as we want to change the condition of other people because we feel guilty about our wealth, we are still playing the power game and waiting for thanks. But when we start discovering that in many ways we are the poor and those who need our help are the wealthy, who have a lot to give, we become true social agents and do not give in to the temptation of power, because we have discovered that our task is not a heavy burden or a brave sacrifice but an opportunity to see more and more of the face of Him whom we want to meet.” From Creative Ministry by Henri Nouwen (P88-89)

I was struck when reading this of how many times I have reached out to others from a place of subtle arrogance thinking that I had something to offer only to find that the impoverished and the outcasts really had a wealth to teach me. Nowhere has this been more noticeable than in the area of short-term missions. How many times have I gone on missions trips as the Biblically literate, affluent American who is there to help these poor folks in the third world only to realize that I was the one in need of their prayers, their ministry, their simplicity of faith.

While Nouwen’s example of ministering to the poor is certainly striking it can bring with it the temptation of not realizing this truth in every one of our daily relationships with others whether our children, coworkers, neighbors or even our enemies. I read a quote by Catherine Doucette that sums this idea up quite well, "Every person in this life has something to teach me, and as soon as I accept that, I open myself to truly listening." These are truly subversive words that have the potential of absolutely wrecking the pious religious ego behind which each of us have a tendency to hide.

Sometimes we are so obsessed with looking for God in the Bible, in Church, in religious activities that we miss his face and his voice in others. May God give each of us the grace today to truly enter each and every relationship we have as students rather than experts as those willing to receive rather than those who have so much to offer.

The Reality of Hell to Which the Imagery Points

2011-03-18T12:02:00.002-05:00

So in the last 2 weeks there have been ongoing conversations regarding the afterlife, particularly the nature of hell and who it is that is going there that have been brought to the forefront of evangelical Christianity by the recent published book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived by Rob Bell .

There have been quite enough comments on Rob Bell’s book on various blogs (I’ve even commented on a few blogs myself) so I will not get into those issues at the moment though I should be receiving the book any day now and will review it shortly. For today I would just like to talk about how I have wrestled with this question and where I think I come down. The following is a picture of how I have come to see hell (please watch the N.T. Wright video as well at the bottom for something more theologically articulate).

In the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the movie opens up with a scene of two Hobbits - Smeagol and Deagol fishing in a river. Deagol catches a fish that is so large that it drags him into the river. At the bottom of the river his eye catches the shine of a ring which he grabs and brings back to the bank of the river. As he gazes at his newfound treasure his friend Smeagol is overcome with jealousy and ends up fighting and then strangling his friend for the ring. Yet, unbeknownst to Smeagol this is no ordinary ring but an evil ring that will ultimately destroy his life (which is exactly what is portrayed in the montage that follows). Smeagol becomes obsessed with this ring to the point that it drives him away from others, leads him into darkness and makes him a shadow of the person he once was to the point where he forgets the taste of bread and even his own name.

This is such a profound picture of the effects of sin in our lives. Most people have known someone who has been caught in the grips of addiction who has become only a shadow of his or her former self, doing things and going places that no person in his right mind would go or do. And yet this is truly the trajectory of a life that is consumed by sin and that has rejected God. Sin ultimately makes us less human and, if not dealt with, will eventually mar the very image of God right out of our lives. Perhaps this is more the reality of what hell towards which the hellish imagery of the Bible is pointing.

This view would be more in line with the likes of what N.T. Wright talks about in the video below (and of which he has written about in Surprised By Hope). Check it out and leave your comments of how you have wrestled with the idea of “hell” and who it is that goes there.

Grace Proceeds Peace

2011-03-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

I am just now beginning to really process the various experiences from my recent trip to Israel and Jordan. I hope to write a few blog posts on insights that I came back with in the coming days.

The Western Wall, Jerusalem

One of the most insightful parts of the trip was a debate I attended one evening on the subject of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The debate was held in the hotel in which we were staying and featured a Palestinian Christian University Professor on one side versus an Israeli Jew and owner of the Hotel on the other side. While this event was billed as a debate it was very cordial as these two men were also good friends.

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

While I won’t go into all of the various issues covered in the debate, I realized for the first time just how complex these issues really are. It seems that many of us in the West, particularly in America have a way of oversimplifying issues that are not as black and white as we might imagine. These are complex problems that involve aggression, religion, oppression, displacement of people, erecting of barriers, economic stability, and water rights, issues that go back thousands of years. As the debate went on, I began to realize why peace in the Middle East seems so illusive.

The best part of the debate was the closing comments of the moderator (a seminary professor from the States). He closed by noting that the Apostle Paul began almost every one of his letters with “Grace and Peace” not “Peace and Grace” because for true peace to come it must be proceeded by grace. Grace is offering someone something that they don’t deserve and didn’t earn. This is what Jesus offers to us and is the basis for the peace we receive in our lives when we surrender to him. As Irish rockstar Bono noted, grace breaks the cycle of Karma. This is what makes the good news such amazingly good news – we don’t get what we deserve! Instead we get more than we can ever imagine in Christ. When we live in this reality of God’s grace towards us we become people of peace and conduits of grace to others.

So, this day, may we come to more fully realize the grace of Christ in our lives so that we may bring his grace and peace to bear on the world around us. May the grace of God bring unity amongst the various factions of Christianity and may that same grace break the cycle of distrust and aggression between Israel and Palestine.

Amen

Not Be Moved

2011-03-16T19:11:00.002-05:00

In the aftermath of Katrina I didn't write many songs. Music seemed almost inappropriate in those first months. But one day about two months after the hurricane I stepped into the auditorium of the church and sat down at the Fender Rhodes and for the first time began to let my bottled up emotions out. I was in there for probably an hour just singing and crying my prayers to God. The song that came forth that day sat basically untouched until a couple of months ago when some fellow Vineyard songwriters helped me finish it off. This song seems particularly relevant in light of the recent events in Japan. I hope to post a video with the song but for now I will simply post the lyrics. The song is called Not Be Moved.

Not Be Moved

Through the storm and the flood

Though my dreams suffer harm

There’s a rock that will not be moved

Though my eyes blur from tears

And the cries burn my ears

There’s a rock that will not be moved

Not be moved

There's a rock that will not be moved

See me through

You’ll see me through

You’re the rock that will not be moved

Though the winds and the waves

Come to sweep us away

There’s a rock that will not be moved

When our sorrows enlarge

It won’t change who you are

You’re the rock that will not be moved

Not be moved

There's a rock that will not be moved

See me through

You’ll see me through

You’re the rock that will not be moved

Video #2: Caesarea

2011-03-02T09:14:00.001-06:00

Here is the second video I have put together from my trip to the Holy Land. This one is on Caesarea, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea built by Herod.

Aquaduct that delivered water to Caesarea from some 20 miles away.

Roman theater.

Ruins of Herod's fresh water swimming pool overlooking the sea.

Video #1 From Trip to the Holy Land - Sea of Galilee

2011-03-01T07:58:00.003-06:00

This is the first of a few videos I will be putting together from my recent tour of the Holy Land.

I Want to Be A Jedi When I Grow Up

2011-02-05T09:11:00.003-06:00

Ezra with his first light saber Xmas '08

For the past few years whenever I have asked Ezra what he wants to be when he grows up, he has responded with, “a Jedi” (duh! What else would anybody want to be when they grow up!) Ezra hasn’t believed in Santa Claus for quite sometimes but has been known to get in arguments with other kids at school on the existence of Jedi Knights. I have noticed his belief in Jedis wavering a bit in the last year and last night I broke the news to him over dinner that Jedis aren’t really real. He seemed mildly upset but he has held no grudge. I’m kind of sad as a parent because this just means he’s getting older and all that wonderful “magical thinking” is beginning to wane. This in no way diminishes our shared love for Star Wars though.

I saw this commercial today which reminds me of Ezra’s “Jedi” years.

The Importance of Partnership

2011-01-27T11:47:00.004-06:00

From our sendoff weekend (11/09) at the Kenner Vineyard Church. Our sending pastor Phil Jeansonne and his wife Deborah... true partners in the gospel of which we are very grateful.

Two weeks ago I launched into a series on Philippians. I am enjoying it immensely and amazed at just how relevant I am finding this material to things I am experiencing today. One central concept that Paul mentions in the opening verses of Philippians is that of partnership in the gospel. Paul had a special relationship with the church in Philippi that was built around being partners in the work of the kingdom. While understanding this concept of partnership is hugely important in understanding the letter to the Philippians I am also finding that it is so crucial in the life of a church and particularly when it comes to church planting.

It’s been a little over a year since Dina and I were sent out from the Vineyard Church of Kenner to plant Northshore Vineyard in downtown Covington. I am very much aware, as we continue through the various stages of church planting, of just how important this idea of partnership is for us. I truly don’t think we would have survived this first year without the support (relationally, spiritually, and financially) of our sending church or without such dear companions in this work who have joined us.

It is quite scary to step out into church planting because you are leaving your comfort zone and stepping into a new place that you can only imagine in part with various trials that one has never imagined. However, one of the scariest aspects of church planting that I have seen all too often is when a couple or a church planting team are basically going it alone without any support, connection or partnership with others outside of the church plant or when they fail to develop partnership within the church plant.

In the opening words of Philippians I see how Paul, imprisoned far away from Philippi in what would seem the bleakest of circumstances, had his spirits lifted with incredible joy because they had sent him a gift to take care of his needs in prison. They were truly partners in the work of the gospel. But more than the financial gift (which was hugely important) Paul’s spirit’s were lifted because the gift was evidence that they had his back, that they were in it with him, that they weren’t going to let him go it alone.

I started off this week feeling very stressed and overwhelmed by all of the stuff on my plate. These days I frequently feel like I am being stretched in many ways to do things I’ve never done. While I feel the grace and peace of God to do these things, this grace and peace isn’t coming simply in my own individual relationship with God but in my connection with others who are partnering to do this work of the kingdom. In the midst of my stress I have had a few conversations with people in our church that have blessed me tremendously, people who bring me the same kind of joy (on a smaller scale) that Paul must have felt in that Philippian prison, folks who I know are with us not because I have pressured them or guilted them or even asked much of them but because they have been compelled by God to join with us in this work. The various people I have talked with this week likely don’t even know that anything profound was taking place in those conversations but I have truly experienced God’s grace and peace moving towards me.

Also read Hear the Soldier Groan "We're Going At It Alone"

You Are Not the Point but a Point

2011-01-26T23:03:00.002-06:00

Several years ago I had a conversation with a missionary who was working in Nairobi Kenya. She mentioned how everything was going quite well until Christian television began broadcasting in that country. The problem is that much of the Christian programming that was being broadcast in Kenya was of the prosperity gospel variety and was threatening to undo much of the work of faithful ministries that had been laboring there for years with its message of God wanting to make people healthy, wealthy and prosperous as evidence of their Christian faith. She told me of how the pastor of her church went from being a simple devoted follower of Christ to a person who would rail on his congregation weekly telling them that they needed to give more money so that he could drive a Mercedes like the pastor down the road. She even showed me an article from the newspaper in Kenya that noted that the most lucrative job in the country was being a pastor. Recently I have heard similar reports from others who have been doing missions work in Zambia. I would venture to guess that what these missionaries are reporting in Africa is no doubt happening on mission fields around the world as this very Americanized perversion of the gospel makes its way through numerous TV and radio stations making inroads in to the developing world. When I hear these stories I can’t help but think of how easy it is to miss the point of the gospel.

What if God's blessing wasn't meant as his approval of our faith, or even as an end in and of itself? What if there was more to the Gospel then just being healthier, wealthier (materially speaking), than having whiter teeth and fresher breath? If we can step back a moment from this cultural lens of viewing the Bible I am convinced we will find a completely different story.

When God Launches a Rescue Plan
Way back in the book of Genesis we find the beginning of God’s rescue plan for the world. How does God start this plan? By initiating a relationship with Abraham that, like leaven in bread, will eventually permeate the world. When we look at the call of Abraham we see a window into how God blesses and how he intends blessings to work in the grand scheme of his rescue plan.

Genesis 12 states

¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
   and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
   and you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
   and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
   will be blessed through you.”

In my years as a Christian I have heard many a pastor talk about the blessings of Abraham as a way that God wants to bless us: God wants to bless you! God wants to prosper you! God wants to make your name great! Yet unfortunately many pastors miss the underlying idea that God was blessing Abraham so that he could be a blessing. In other words, the blessings of Abraham were not to simply end with Abraham but to continue through him and (in Jesus) to bless all the people of the earth. When we fail to realize this core concept of blessed-to-be-a-blessing then our spirituality becomes self-centered and selfish because the blessings stop with us. One need only look at the narrative of the Old Testament to see that this was the error that Israel frequently made. Though God had wanted Israel to be a nation of priests that would lead others to God, they often mistook God’s blessings as simply a validation of their special relationship with him. This frames the understanding of Jesus' words on being salt and light in Matthew 5:13-16. Salt is no good sitting in a shaker on the shelf. It must be poured out to do its work. The same is true for a lamp. A lamp hidden in a closet will do the room no good at all. Jesus' words were an indictment of Israel's failure to stick with the plot and purpose. Yes God blessed them and wanted to continue to bless them but it was so that all the nations of the earth could get in on those very blessings of being reconciled to God.

While I am a firm believer in God’s blessings I can no longer go along with believing that God’s blessings are an end in and of themselves. When God blesses you or me it is not simply about showing us he loves us but rather intended to make us into a blessing so that others might experience God’s love, mercy, compassion, generosity, etc.

I’ve prepared the following diagram to demonstrate this idea:

I don't know how many times I have heard the line "if you were the only person on planet earth Jesus would have died for you!' While I agree with that line it seems to leave things in a very individually focused place as if you or I are the point of all of this. The truth is that God offers us salvation, love, peace, healing not only so we are reconciled to God but so that we can then become part of the rescue plan; the rescued become the rescuers! If we forget the second half of this principle on blessing then we may experience the blessings of God but we will never grow into the fullness of life that comes through participating in the mission of God. One of my favorite New Testament scripture that demonstrates this you-are-not-the-point idea is when Paul talks about his own becoming an apostle:

1Cor 15:9-11

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Paul, was a guy who encountered the grace of God in a profound way. In the midst of persecuting the church, ripping apart families of Christ-followers, and consenting to the death of none other than Stephen, he bumped into Jesus. When he ran into Jesus, he did not run into wrath or judgement but overwhelming and unfathomable grace. And though it must have felt amazing for Paul to be forgiven of such massive sins he didn't just sit on his forgiveness as if that was the point. What we see in these verses is that Paul was not only saved by grace but driven and compelled to do amazing works by grace. Paul understood that Jesus didn't simply die to forgive his sin but rather so he might get in on the good work of bringing Christ's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. This is why one will consistently find loving God linked to loving people.

You are not the point, but a point in the ongoing story of redemption that God is continuing even now. Help us Lord to not forget that! May His story continue to us and through us this day!

Former Terrorist Becomes Christian Leader

2011-01-24T16:24:00.000-06:00

I’ve been reading quite a bit this last week of a religious fundamentalist terrorist who abandoned his life of terrorism after having what he describes as an encounter with Jesus. This terrorist was notorious for terrorizing Christians in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. His most famous act of terror came when his followers publicly stoned a Christian relief worker who was heading up a ministry to feed poor widows in the Jerusalem metropolitan area. Oddly enough though, his conversion to Christianity came right in the middle of one of his terror campaigns when he describes bumping into Jesus himself. Whatever happened the churches of the area were not quite ready to welcome this “former” terrorist into their midst thinking that it could be yet another one of his ploys to persecute Christ followers.

Though the above story reads as if it could have come from recent headlines it is in reality based on the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Too often we read the words of Paul without reading his story, without understanding just how scandalous it was that this former religious fundamentalist terrorist became one of the greatest missionaries of Jesus in history. When one first gets acquainted with Paul’s story before reading his letters, one will find an experience of God’s grace deep in the core of his being.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 (NIV)

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

I find it interesting that when Paul bumps into Jesus while on a mission to persecute Christians he doesn’t face the wrath, anger, or judgment of God, though quite deserving of it, but rather faces incomprehensible and utterly scandalous GRACE. This experience of the grace of God would go on to permeate every letter Paul ever wrote and would compel him to go to the greatest lengths to tell anyone about what God had done.

Paul’s story shows us that the same Jesus who died for the very ones who were persecuting him is still reaching a hand of mercy out to the ones, like Paul, who seem to be the furthest away. That grace, that mercy, when received leaves an indelible mark upon one’s heart from which there is no recovery, ever… it is truly AMAZING GRACE!

Why "Why" Matters

2011-01-06T11:30:00.000-06:00

I revisited a talk that I heard a few weeks ago from TED Talks by Simon Sinek. In the talk Sinek explores why certain people and businesses succeed while others that may seem even more funded fail. As examples he uses the Wright Brothers, and Martin Luther King Jr. Sinek makes the point that what set both the Wright Brothers and Martin Luther King Jr. apart from many of their contemporaries who were trying to do the same things is that they kept the "why" ahead of the "what" meaning that they consistently stayed aware and communicated why they were doing what they were doing above and beyond merely what they were doing. As a result, people who were driven by the same core convictions gathered around them. As Sinek states in this talk, "Martin Luther King said 'I have a dream' not 'I have a plan'" In essence King was always communicating the why up front as opposed to many in the political world who simply offer a 15 point plan.

I suspect this phenomenon is why Barack Obama won the presidential election because his whole campaign was primarily about the "why"--hope, change. While I would consider myself a conservative (or at least libertarian) on most political issues I have to admit that I could not get very excited about John McCain during the last election. Perhaps this was because he failed to resonate with the core passions of people. I suspect that this too is why George W. Bush was elected as well because compared to many of the others he came across as someone who was authentic, caring, and uncompromising--intangibles that resonate with the "why" part of people. Further, this valuing of the "why" over the "what" is probably partly why the same ones that voted for Bush and Obama become disillusioned so quickly when the "why" doesn't come to pass.

So, my takeaway is that I agree with Sinek on most of what he is saying because I have noticed the same tendencies in my life. Yet, I don't think it is healthy or productive or redemptive to have a "why" without a "what" (reason for doing things but no meaningfully thought out plan as to what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.)

Check out the talk and leave some feedback.

The Walmart Christmas Commercial I Referenced in a Recent Blog

2011-01-04T23:10:00.002-06:00

The Connected Church

2011-01-04T10:18:00.002-06:00

I have rarely posted links to messages that I have delivered at Northshore Vineyard but today I want to toss up some material from my message from last weekend called Love in All Directions . I wanted to post about this message because in many ways it has been a development of ideas I have wrestled with in the last few years on this blog. I recommend listening to the message when you get a chance (also find it on the Northshore Vineyard Podcast on iTunes).

I developed the following diagram for understanding various different expressions or philosophies of church.

This diagram gets at the vertical an horizontal aspects of the Christian faith.

The vertical axis deals with a person or church's relationship with God at the top and then the depth of that encounter in the heart (which can also be thought of in terms of transformation).

The horizontal axis is about our relationships with others. On one side I have the church signifying the community of faith and on the other side I have the culture. While culture here includes the stuff of culture such as music, movies, etc. I am using this word also more generally to refer to the community outside of the church.

When you put the vertical axis and the horizontal axis together then you can plot different types of churches based on what their philosophy of ministry is. There are no doubt sociology and religious studies professors out there who have come up with ideas that might be more scientific but this kind of diagram has really sprung from my years of wrestling with church (much of it on this here blog). I will now turn our attention to some various types (or should I say stereotypes) of churches as plotted on this diagram.

THE SUBCULTURE CHURCH
The subculture church exists in the quadrant of Christian Community and God. This type of church is defined by very tight community. Much of this is due to seeing the outside culture as something to either retreat from or battle. A subculture church will be markedly different from the culture, so much so that a person who has not grown up around the subculture will have a very hard time connecting. For instance a church's worship may be composed of songs which were all written hundreds of years ago and are played on a pipe organ (while I am using a more traditional example the same could apply to a very wild and less traditional service as well). Though the music may be beautiful and the lyrics quite meaningful a person outside of that subculture will have no grid for that kind of music in ordinary life because it is not common in the culture at large.

When I was on staff as the worship pastor of the Kenner Vineyard I would find myself frequently hanging out with two or three sound guys at a time after our worship band practice. While I know a little bit about running sound, I don't have much technical understanding so when the conversation would inevitably shift to technical matters I would feel cut off from the conversation. Though I was sitting right there with these sound guys their use of the terms decibels, megahertz, signal path, compression thresholds, noise floor, diodes, and capacitors would create distance between myself and them. Immediately I became an outsider. In the same way a subculture church creates distance with a use of terminology that is very hard for outsiders to comprehend from using the King James version of the Bible or simple insider language with words such as sanctification, lost, or hallelujah (without any attempts to define them for outsiders).

The strength of the Subculture Church is that it forms tight community and yet this is also it's weakness. Subculture Churches are bound to whither and die because they have no meaningful connection with the outside culture.

THE SEEKER CHURCH

In the early nineties Willow Creek Church in Chicago emerged as a pioneer of a whole new way of doing church that didn't seek to retreat or battle the surrounding culture but rather to connect with it in a meaningful way. Throughout the nineties many churches adopted this approach as they realized the weakness of the Subculture church model. Seeker churches have become the largest churches in America in the last 20 years fueling the whole mega-church phenomenon. A Seeker Church takes great care to connect with the culture. This means that the worship service in a seeker church will not sound all that different from the kind of music people tend to listen to in everyday life. Seeker churches also make a point to steer away from insider language that might alienate those who have no grid for church or Christianity. The strength of seeker churches can be seen in their results as some of the largest churches around the country are of this philosophy of ministry. The downside of the seeker model of church is that while it is great at connecting with those in the culture it often is not so great at making disciples or bringing folks into authentic Christian community.

THE DR. PHIL/OPRAH CHURCH

This church exists in the quadrant of the culture and the heart. A good example of a gathering that might exemplify this philosophy is Alcoholics Anonymous. While I do know of very Christ-centered AA meetings, many AA meetings give little more than a nod to God (in terms of admitting that there is some nebulous higher power out there). While AA does a great job on connecting with the culture and dealing with the internal issues that fuel addictions there is not typically much emphasis on relationship with God or growing in Christian faith.

THE HOSPITAL CHURCH

The hospital church lives in the quadrant of the church and the heart. Hospital churches have sprung up to help heal those who have been wounded both in the church and in the culture. Years ago I found myself in one such church after having gone through some really rough times in church. I came in bruised and beat up and ready to give up on church but I found a place of healing. A hospital church is big on grace, low on expectations, and genuine in their relationships, which is their strength. As most hospitals, they are not so concerned with connecting with the culture but rather taking care of the ones who show up. The weakness of the hospital church is that it has very little sense of mission or outreach outside of healing the wounded and once people get healed up a bit it doesn't make much sense for them to keep sticking around (this would be like coming to a hospital after being in a car wreck, getting treated for your injuries, going through rehabilitation, and then wanting to keep staying in the hospital once you were healthy).

THE CONNECTED CHURCH

As I have wrestled with the type of church I wanted to plant and as I still work to direct our fledgling congregation I would say that I want to be a connected church. A connected church is marked by its connections to the Christian community and the surrounding community, to God and to the heart. I desire that Northshore Vineyard would be a place that connects with people right where they are but begins to bring them into meaningful community around Jesus. I want this church to be a community that takes the inward journey seriously as well, a church that sees the healing of internal emotional issues as a part of discipleship. I want our church to be a place where those who have been beat up and battered by religion could not only find healing but also be mobilized into mission to bring that healing to bare on the broken world around us.

Being a connected church is much harder than living in any of those 4 quadrants because it means living in tension. It is much easier to live in the black and white world of the subculture or to just flat out rebel against Christian community altogether but we will endeavor to live at the intersection of God, heart, church and culture.

Have you experienced any of these types of churches before?
What do you think about being a church that lives in the tension, the intersection of these lines?

Jesus is Not a Control Freak

2011-01-03T19:48:00.003-06:00

Last week as I was preparing for my weekend message at Northshore Vineyard I came across a passage I have read hundreds of times and of which I have even heard countless sermons in my years as a Christian. Yet this last week as I was reading the verses of Jesus’ Great Commission I caught some things that I had never noticed before.

Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

There were two main things that stood out to me in these verses. First, I had never noticed the line in verse 17 “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” At first this seems kind of crazy. Think of it, these disciples had been with Jesus for 3 years—the healings, the teachings, and not to mention the death and resurrection of Jesus himself… and still there were some of them struggling with doubts. The second thing that got my attention is that even in spite of some of them doubting, Jesus still handed over the ministry to them. Remember that those were the last moments of the earthly ministry of Jesus as he was just about to return to heaven. This picture in Matthew 28 gives some amazing insight into Jesus’ ministry. Jesus spent 3 years with 12, mostly uneducated, fishermen, a tax collector and one guy who ended up becoming a traitor (Judas). Jesus brought these guys into his life and ministry through both the good and bad and then simply turned it over to them and encouraged them to continue in his ministry of the Kingdom.

While Jesus was many things—a great teacher, a healer, a prophet, and God incarnate, one thing we can see in these verses is that Jesus is not a control freak!

What do you think?
Do you ever struggle with doubts? Does this perhaps give you a little hope in your own spiritual journey?
What does it communicate to you about God that He gives entrusts his ministry to normal people, many of whom don’t even have all of their doubts worked through yet?