Archive for Current Events

A Reminder About the Reality Behind the Images

November 10, 2009 at 2:49 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship

Ian sent me a link to a music video that a friend of his directed.  It’s not knew, and some of you may have seen it on VH1 awhile back.

I’m sharing it because it’s all about the reality behind the carefully wrought facade of the internet.  A facade that I and most every other male on the planet (and a good number of women too) buys into.  So watch closely, but listen even closer.  You will hear your own thoughts and justifications and struggles in the lyrics.  If you’re like me, you will need to repent and weep again at your complicity to another’s nightmare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHO2nJIIdwM&NR=1

Hopefully, you’ll also move past your grief and take it to prayer.  A prayer that simultaneously finds peace in God’s grace and grace which motivates to justice. Justice for deliverance for everyone – the girls and women, the families, the pimps, the producers, the consumers, and the economic conditions which lead to this kind of slavery.  A justice which seeks to address the sins of our past, not just find forgiveness from them.

Let’s not just pray about deliverance for people from afar, but – if God wills and directs – it might be time to start walking around our 2 in order to share the good news and offer actual deliverance for those caught and abused by these and other sins.  Did you know that they recently busted groups in and around Pearl Lane using the apartments to run prostitution rings?  Is it time to walk into the shadow world to bring the light?  Let’s talk and pray and discover the Lord’s will and timing for this.

If you are caught in this particular sin, know that you are not alone in this community of believers.  Together there is a path to walk.

If you want to get involved in the solutions to the problems that you and I have participated in and propagated, then check out some of the local options:

I’m sure there are others, but these are  two I know about.  Innocence Atlanta is a group you can volunteer with and give to.  Tapestri is specialized for immigrant and refugee women in our immediate area, and could use donations for their important work in reaching and working with women who have been abused, trafficked, and enslaved.  They also offer training in how to identify victims of trafficking and abuse to help set them free.

Trafficking, prostitution, violence and the perpetual abuse and degradation of women and the needy have always been practiced in the world.  God’s call to deliver his gospel and freedom is ours to go out and share.  But as Dorothy Day and other icons of our faith have taught us, the goal is not success in solving the problems but in faithfulness to stand up and witness.  To go out and speak the truth of God’s way.  To pay whatever price that requires.

Don’t just be sad about your weaknesses and moral failings.  Don’t just be over-joyed at God’s on-going grace for his people, even when we fail.  Let us all ask the Lord how to get in the fight and be a witness for his love and power to those who need him the most.

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Clarifying Community

September 16, 2009 at 2:13 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged , , , ,

In Life Together Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it has sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.” (Life Together, 26-27)

Getting more particular about this dream world Parker Palmer wrote about the modern myths of community in A Place Called Community. Here they are in a summary by Augsburger:

Myth 1 – “Community is a creature comfort, a consumer item; it is one more luxury that can be bought in retreats or seminars, purchased with small town property, obtained by paying membership dues at a country club or fitness spa, or even by joining a church.
Community is not a commodity; it emerges from common struggle for integrity, shared commitment to justice, joint covenants to work for wholeness and mutual respect. It is created when we step forward to serve, to right wrongs, to heal hurts. (italics in original)

Myth 2 – “Community is a utopia of easy access to others, of unconditional social acceptance that happens when we find the right people; a panacea for our fears and anxieties if we can afford to live in a gated community, enjoy a vacation in a timeshare that offers a paradise of fun, or join a club that promises fellowship and the agreement and acceptance of those with similar values and lifestyle.
Community is a collision of egos, a furnace for welding steel-hard opinions, a crucible for melting the hard ores of self-interest into common goals. It offers the pain of not getting our own way, the promise of finding a third way together.

Myth 3 – “Community is the fulfillment of our individual goals, an extension of our egos, an expansion of our hopes of finding people just like ourselves, a confirmation of our cherished but partial view of reality.
In true community we do not choose our companions, we receive them as gift; we cannot sort, select, and assemble our kind of people, they come to us by grace. Likeness eliminates challenge; uniformity reduces growth; sameness frustrates creativity.

Myth 4 – Community is achieved by the pursuit or the creation of an extended family of loving people who provide the nurturance and support our family of origin failed to supply.
Community is not a supra-familial network that fulfills our dreams of familial perfection of solidarity or supportive parental permissiveness; it is a network of fallible individuals and flawed families seeking together to learn how to work through the various issues they carry with them.

What is vitally important for our community to remember right now is, “Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” (Life Together, 27)

What I loved most about Sunday night was people sharing honestly and letting our tensions and confusions be spoken out loud. In some cases we strained relationships by disagreement. This is good. Actually, it’s beyond good it is a true sign of real community shinning forth. Park Palmer wrote, “We might define community as that place where the person you least want to live with always lives.”

It’s my opinion that modern day believers in the information age live in a world of ideas and concepts and symbols. This is both positive and negative. One of the negatives is that we are not always prepared for the hard knocks of reality when they impact our thought-world. This is especially true when we are talking about “community.” Our utopian, self-serving, individualized focus on our self-actualization works against the most basic ideas of biblical community. When we come into natural, unavoidable conflict our first “fight or flight” instincts are to either pound others into our view and/or move away to find our ideal somewhere else. When we do we blame the faults of others, never ourselves. And we have a country of church-shoppers.

But true community, as Palmer writes, is more akin to a contact sport. It is something that crushes us to free us. Community is something like marriage on a massive scale. It comes with all kinds of dreams and fantasies about romance, sex, good conversation, and shared hobbies. But this never lasts. What lasts is sheer commitment, learning how to fight fair, and the constant humiliation of asking for forgiveness, being forgiven, and seeking to put the other above yourself. Anything less than stubborn, tenacious, teeth-grinding determination to not let go doesn’t work.

This is why the “calling question” is so central right now. It frames and grounds the question of community in the right place. Any other question pushes us into making decisions based on a self-serving modern myth. If the vision of the church is biblical, if our callings can be nurtured and expressed in that vision, then we can know that we have to work together through all the hard and difficult times of being immature, sinful people seeking to love as Jesus loves. If there is a disconnect at the level of vision and calling, then people need to find a group of believers who they can share the “big picture” of vision and mission with. It is the big picture context that unites our little pictures and in which the slow grind of fitting lives together takes place.

But once these things are shown to us by the Lord, then we have to be “all in.” Sharing life with one another is no longer optional. Doing the hard work of tearing down walls, confronting hurts and insults, etc is essential. Community is not a place about “me.” It’s a place about “us in Christ.” This is because our God is about making a loving Kingdom that accurately reveals Him. A Trinitarian Godhead is, by definition, an intricate, loving unity – a complex oneness. This is what his Kingdom-In-Christ is about, and what we have to commit to. To do so we have to confront our myths and walk in the reality and truth of what is required of us; however painful, uncomfortable, and insulting ”other people” may be.

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Clarifying Community Development at OTC

September 15, 2009 at 3:05 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged , , ,

James William McClendon tells a very convicting story in his Systematic Theology text, the first volume which is about ethics. It is the story of a conversation between Clarence Jordan, the founder of Koinonia Community in Americus, GA (where Jake Warren lived and worked) and his brother, Robert Jordan, who would become a state senator and eventually sat on the state’s Supreme Court. However, before all of his fame and success his brother Clarence asked him to be the community’s legal representative.

The community needed legal help because after they were excommunicated by the Southern Baptist Convention for “persisting in holding services where both white and colored attend together” there came a time of huge persecution: vandalism, cross-burnings, beatings, bombings, boycotts, and sniper shootings. They needed help and Clarence asked his brother to be that help.

“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”
“We might lose everything too, Bob.”
“It’s different for you.”
“Why is it different? I remember; it seems to me, that you and I jointed the church the same Sunday as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me about the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ What did you say?
“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”
“Could that point by any chance be – the cross?”
“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”
“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer not a disciple.”
“Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”
“The question,” Clarence said, “is do you have a church?”

(excerpted from Dissident Discipleship by Augsburger)

I find this conversation very convicting and enlightening to my soul. It is a question (Do you have a church?) that I ask myself all the time, and one that I hope will explain my position on the place and importance of community development in the vision of the church.

It was clear on Sunday night that we have tensions and concerns about the place and importance of community development. Some are more focused on its essential essence to the church, others not so much. Here is how I think about it.

The gospel is holistic in that it makes claims and demands on a person’s (and the Church’s) whole life. It is not only individual (a personal gospel) but it effects all of life (has social impacts) and requires believers to take the whole teachings that Jesus taught out into the world to reveal his glory to the “world” (especially to the people and places he plants his church). In this understanding the category “community development” is not an optional choice within the life of the church but the very situation and circumstances in which that life is lived out and defined.

The danger of defining it as an optional part is that it lets people think they don’t have to “do it.” It opens the door to the false idea that they can select something else from the disciple’s menu more to their liking.

On the other hand, there is a danger that disciples can fool themselves into thinking that the social dimensions of the gospel are what matter most. This false dichotomy cuts the work off from the full life of the church that Jesus taught. Instead of relationships, sharing and living the gospel together, baptism, faith, discipleship, etc. we get programs and tasks.

The category of activities we call “community development” is not the gospel. However, you cannot have a biblical version of “the gospel” without the focus, activities, fear & faith that “community development” draws the church into. This is especially true of the full-orbed “asset-based community development” taught by the CCDA and to which we adhere.

I fully agree with Bill Field’s summary on Sunday night about the calling, purpose, and function of the church as being greater than the category “community development.” However, I also see it as more than just a description of activity, but is a lens and focal point to keep the church from a selfish, self-absorbed, me-directed, false gospel. While not a biblical word “community development” is a biblical concept and central to a life of faith as described everywhere in scripture.

I think that discipleship or “equipping” is a more biblical word and description. However, in our individualized, me-first thinking the Bible’s idea of equipping is totally mutilated without the focus that community development gives to the church’s purpose and mission. At the same time, there are so many places to express his life and love within a church on mission (international missions, teaching children, helping with finances, developing leaders, etc).

Does this make sense?

So what does this mean to the individual at OTC? It means that the Lord has graciously given us a way to obedience. It is an obedience that doesn’t take us to the cross, but onto the cross. None of us volunteers for the cross – this is why Jesus is essential. Yet, even when we say “yes” to focusing our lives and following Jesus (using the category of community development as a touch-stone); we still fail, get fearful, confront sin, find victory, etc. In other words, we mature. And maturing is not an option for a disciple, it is the definition of discipleship.

At the same time, no one at OTC will “volunteer you” for community development.  I will never compell anyone to an obedience that is only an act of love when it is freely given to God in response to him.  While no one will be volunteerd, I will not stop talking about it or holding up the importance of taking Christ’s love into the world. 

In a culture of privilege, privatized faith; dueling demands and huge competition for our time, attention, and energy; we desperately need community development as guide and helper to stay on the narrow path Jesus calls us to. It will offend and terrify us. That is part of the point. It will also bring freedom, joy, faith, and glory to God because he is the only one than can truly bring it about.

It is in this context that all that the Bible calls us to has significance – marriage, parenting, loving, growing, preaching, repenting, confession, baptizing, communion, prayer, worship, Sunday service, calling, Bible study, right doctrine, confronting false teaching, sharing the gospel, being a church of the nations, freedom from sin, church discipline, forgiveness, hospitality, generosity, risk taking…

In the context of going into the world as Jesus commanded to do the things that he commanded we grow into following the Jesus of scripture vs. the Jesus of America. Let me end with a quote by Augsberger:

“One can be familiar with the Jesus story, be an admirer of Jesus as a uniquely self-aware yet selfless person, know a great deal about the historical Jesus, be taught helpful perspectives on who Jesus is from the practice of a religious faith, and love Jesus in an experience of personal piety, yet fail to enter the encounter of discipleship in which one recognizes Jesus not as the popular; the mythical, the devotional, or the civilly religionist, but as the one who said “come and die.” Only when one encounters Jesus as Jesus will one feel the rush of surprise. “You’re not Jesus Christ. You’re JESUS THE CHRIST!”

(Dissident Discipleship, p.24-25)

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Short, Rambling Teaching on the Holy Spirit

May 12, 2009 at 2:00 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged , ,

First and foremost the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons making up the One God.  He was present at Creation (Gen 1:2), at Cross (Heb 9:14), at Witness (Rev 22:17), and is essential in our perseverance in life (2 Tim 1:14).  1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:16, and Ephesians 2:21 (among other scriptures) clearly tells us that we are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in his people.  This indwelling is what marks us as his unique people (Ephesians 1:13-14, also Acts 2/Joel 2:28-32, Acts 10, 2 Co 1:22, 5:5, 1 Thessalonians 1:5).  He is our confidence is sharing God’s story with others (Luke 12:12), our source in prayer (Rom 8:26, Eph 6:26, Jude 20), our teacher (Luke 12:12), the prophetic voice of the church (Acts 20:23), and the giver of gifts for ministry (1 Co 12:11).

For those who have not been taught about the ministry of the Holy Spirit it is often new to hear that Christians are encouraged to keep on being filled and renewed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18) and that we are called to pray for spiritual gifts in order to minister his love and grace to others in power (1 Co 12:31, 14:1, 12).  It is vital to know that the gifts of grace given by the Holy Spirit are used in an orderly manner (1 Co 14:26-33) for the building up of the entire church (1 Co 14:12). 

They are not a “badge” to exalt one person over another.  They are not possessions to be coveted or horded.  The one who graciously bestows these gifts of grace is the person of the Holy Spirit. (1 Co 12:11) Scripture teaches us to eagerly desire and ask for spiritual gifts. (1 Co 12:31, 14:1) But we ask knowing that the Lord has the freedom to say “yes”, “no”, or “wait”.  Often the waiting is a matter of character and maturity in us.   That is, the need for more mature, humble, loving character. 

While the giver of the gifts is God himself and he gives them for building up and commands that they be used in an orderly manner, we also have to be aware that one of the hardest aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a congregation is that we relinquish a great deal of our preferences in his Presence.  Let’s use this last Sunday as example.  We had an order of service, a testimony, specific songs, a great sermon <grin>, table talk, etc.  As it turned out it was the Lord’s good pleasure to change it all.  We stopped to minister as we perceived his leading.  It was still done out of and for love.  It was orderly.  But we must be clear, we weren’t in charge.  He was and is. 

For a more thorough and orderly teaching on the Holy Spirit, please go to Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.  Dr. Grudem use to teach at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and wrote the systematic theology text that we use as a congregation and a Free church.  If you are the type of learner who doesn’t like (or learn best by) reading, you may want to check out Wayne Grudem’s teaching on MP3 here:

http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/MP3-Audio–Multimedia/All-Speakers-Lectures-and-Sermons/Wayne-Grudem/Scottsdale-Bible-Church–System/

The specific teaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit can be found here.  Be sure to look for “Wayne Grudem” as there are several teachings listed on the link. 

http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Baptism/Baptism-of-the-Holy-Spirit/

I want to thank Ray Dillon for giving me the links to Grudem’s teaching. 

 If the person, work, and ministry of the Holy Spirit is something new to you that you would like to learn more about, please let me know.  It is one of the teaching blocks in our 2oolbox, and we can offer it if there is a need/desire.

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Reconciling All Things

May 6, 2009 at 2:10 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship

My good friend, Jim Wehner, gave me the book, Reconciling All Things – A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace, and Healing by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, for my birthday.  This is an amazing book that I think every Christian should read.  There is so much wisdom here.   Wisdom about a calling and practice that is so absolutely counter-intuitive that without it we are virtually guaranteed to make decisions that seem right to our nature but are actually counter-productive to God’s work. 

In the life of our community we are in the midst of one of these confrontations.  In writing about the kind of leadership that embodies reconciliation Katongole and Rice write about Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. :

“When I (Chris) visited their ministries, we walked within a matter of minutes among people of every hue adn social class, from the Potter’s House (coffee shop and bookstore), to Joseph’s House (hospice for those dying of AIDS), to Andrew’s House for visiting guests, to Christ House (residential medical care for homeless men and women), to the Festival Center (discipleship training center).  There Gordon Crosby sat quietly waiting for everybody to show up for noon prayer.  In the midst of all the ministry, all the carre, all the swirl of activity, the inward journey remains central as the outward.“  (pg. 132 italics added)

This is one of the balancing/tension points in CCD (Christian Community Development) :  the inward-outward focus.  We saw the requirement for both in our solemn assembly Sunday night.  Josh’s poem about the “burning fire” consuming lives and communities in Chamblee-Doraville and the “water” that flows in and through us was balanced/in tension with the healing, confessing, fear, insecurity and brokenness that came bursting forth from all of us. 

What is important is that we have both without loosing either.  But here is an important point of “order.”  We don’t do the inner work to get ready and prepared to the outer.  It is only in doing the outer work of being engaged and involved personally/bodily that the inner work has any real context.  Otherwise the inner work is prone to a narcissistic, therapeutic emotionalism.  Yet, without the inner work of growth, confession, and healing the outer work becomes mere social work or a codependent, twisted form of martydom/works righteousness. 

As I reflect on Katongole and Rice’s work (which I haven’t finished yet because I keep getting overwhelmed and having to close the book every page or so to pray) I see the necessity of  both in CCD because at the heart of CCD is incarnation leading to confrontation and transformation.  A confrontation that costs us deeply as it did our Lord.  

“Leaders who grow to belong to the gap [in our case the familes and communities in our "2 miles"] are those who journey far enough to feel its deep pain, to lament it, to learn its story deeply.  Always bringing the pain of their context back to God, their response grows deeper over the years, drawning others with them into a distinct way of life.  The leader has not come to the place of brokenness for a brief detour but to “offer [their] bodies as living sacrifices” (Rom 12:1).  In belonging to the gap, everyday leaders take on the deep pain and brokenness there.  Their very bodies and journeys become sites of the old and new in contention.”   (pg.132-133)

Let’s keep both the inner work of healing and unity as we are fully engaged in the outer work of CCD.  Working together overcomes a false distinction because as both work together they bring about the other.  The outer work transforms us in lament and hope.  The inner work heals and renews and fills us with joy and purpose to express love (the outer work).  Ultimately it’s not the task of a particular ministry at a point in time, but the Lord’s loving, confronting Presence through our actual bodies and lives that is the most important work. 

The million dollar question is:  are we engaged in the lives of the people in our “2″ closely enough to have THEM wipe away our tears as we tremble, rage, and are broken by (and ultimately resurrected from) the struggles, injustices, and indignities of living?

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Act now and you too can enjoy amazing success!!!!

February 19, 2009 at 7:32 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged ,

I love the amazing, unexpected, brilliantly loving and bizarre way in which the Lord directs our lives! We were at Pearl Lane after the hail storm yesterday when, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in a fit of divine energy, Heather uttered in an otherworldly language a prophetic call that spoke directly into the life of another soul. She said – grab your journal because you’ll want to write this down as it is one of the keys to amazing spiritual vitality and Kingdom renewal. It will revolutionize your life and set you on paths of discovery and grace that will literally re-write your understanding of reality — She said, “Would like to come over for some soup?”

I know! Wow!! Who’d have ever thought to do something so audacious, so counter-cultural and risk taking as to ask someone over for soup!? Here is where it gets good. They said, “Sure.”

I know! Two separate lives suddenly linked across an incredible chasm of time, schedule, and circumstance. But it doesn’t end there. They actually come over! We actually had soup together!!

In this midst of this mind-boggling event deep and profound things began to happen. We start talking, and this other person really did need a friend to listen to her. Our boys offered unexpected blessings by greeting her with warmth and affection, taking her around the house, and foisting Valentine’s gifts on her. We start talking. Not about the weather but about hurts and pains and confusion. Deep wounds that were thought to be healed, but had only been partially healed.

I sat – no joking here – spell-bound by hearing the story of a life that in a million years I never would have imagined this person – who I knew somewhat – had actually lived. I’d had never met a recovering alcoholic, call-girl, mistress, pilot before. It took me straight to the feet of God’s grace and magnified his love and mercy in my mind to an unimaginable degree.

We were able to pray together. When she left there was a tangible presence of the Lord and his peace in our house. All because of those few, amazing, God-inspired words: Would you like to come over for soup?

I know that many of you won’t believe me, but it works. All you have to do is make some soup with a little extra for guests. Utter the secret code words (which I think are a translation from some Templar rite embedded in the mathematical code of the Old Testament) and sit back and watch what happens.

All kidding aside, it was an amazing evening that came about because we had a little extra soup and Heather had the desire to be generous and hospitable. Give it a shot. It really will re-define your reality.

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Unexpected moments

February 12, 2009 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Adventures, Current Events ·Tagged , ,

I don’t know if I will ever get use to the way the Lord works.  The more and more I do ministry in the places the Lord calls me to the bigger things seem to be.  By bigger I mean more intense, more unexpected, more difficult, more joyous, more surprising.  Yesterday was another example. 

I walked one of the kids home to pick some stuff yesterday afternoon.  We walked past a group of men by a dumpster who were obviously drunk and animated.  It’s skinny white guy and tiny latino 3rd grader walking by.  After we pass the kid says, “I hate drunks.”  Not knowing what was up I start asking questions about it and how it feels.  It doesn’t take much to get him going about the noise at night, the fear, the regularity of it.  He talks about being robbed and how it was the scariest moment of his life.  As we were walking it seemed like literally every guy we passed was drinking or carting around something to drink.  In all the years we’ve been around I’d never seen so much alcohol being hauled about.

This is a great kid.  He is full of life and energy.  He has a single mom and older siblings.  He constantly makes contact with me.  Leaning up against me.  Jumping on my back – typical young kids stuff.  It’s fun to horse around with him. 

And as he is talking about his life I start getting angry/depressed.  I realize, once again, how far apart our worlds are even now when I’m less than half a mile away.  I just want to get them out and help them find peace.  I don’t want him to wake up in the middle night and be afraid.  So I’m about to ask him if he prays when he’s scared when we meet up with some of the other boys and they run off. 

So I go back into the ministry center for round 2:  middle school girls’ homework help. 

We sit around and yak and they eat and we talk about school and junk (by junk I mean boys).  Then – I really don’t know how or when it happened – they start talking about feeling ghosts and demons around them at different times.  They are immediately dialed in when we start talking about what the Bible teaches about all of this. 

Then one of them talks about being good and God waiting for us to ask forgiveness so that we don’t loose our place in heaven.  So we open up the Bible and talk about the fact that God loved us when we were at our worst (Rom 5:10, Eph 2), and do we think he is MORE upset when we want to do good but make a mistake?  We talked about what real belief is and what happens when we open our hearts to God in the truth of the gospel and turn to him.  And how amazing that is and how the Lord promises to get us all the way home. 

It was fun.  It was intense.  I had these piercing brown eyes locked on me the whole time.  I heard stories and stories.  Again I was about to ask them if we wanted to pray when the room filled with kids escaping the rain and making Valentine cookies and everything else. 

So I walked home – in the rain – tired and happy and sad and encouraged and confused.  An hour or so later some friends came over to talk about life and living. 

After Heather went to bed I stayed up.  I just couldn’t find sleep.  Nor could I think or process or find peace or answers.  All I could figure out was that “you just have to be there.”  It’s not about plans or answers or solutions (although I’ll never stop seeking, planning, hoping), it’s about presence.  Presence in people’s lives.  Unexpected moments of grace and vulnerability and honesty. 

As sharp as the pain is sometimes, I wouldn’t trade it for the numbness that I use to live in for anything.  The only thing worse than thinking of the fear that comes for these little ones is having never known them or being able to care for them – even in oh too brief moments.

The Apostle Paul teaches in Rom 5.3 that suffering is essential to worship.  Not in a masochistic sense, but in the encouragement it gives us that we are actually in the fight.  That we are part of the kingdom of love moving into the darkness of the world to love.  And the darkness fights back.  But it only fights if we are “there”, where we are suppose to be, loving people as he calls us to.  This brings maturity, endurance, character, and hope. 

I know this in my head.  I don’t feel any joy from this. I just know its time to worship.  To lift these young ones up to him.  To trust in his plan and ability and not mine.  Because I don’t have one.  I’m just there and I don’t want to be anywhere else.

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Then it hit me. It’s about virtue!

October 3, 2008 at 6:28 pm · Filed under Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged , , , , ,

So I’m praying about where we are as a community, what is next, and, to be honest, what is going on right now.  I’m doing my philosophy homework for seminary.  And it “clicks”.   There is the answer in Aristotle and MacIntyre.   It’s SO cool!  That’s what God’s doing!!  It’s all about virtue. 

 

Now let’s see if I can explain it without writing a dissertation. 

 

Our transformation into a truly multiethnic, diverse community is a movement from clueless idealism and a kind of pragmatism about “growth” to a change of ethos and the accumulation of virtue.  By virtue I mean those internal dispositions and values which prioritize:  Christ, what he taught, and the purpose and form of life that he calls his people to.  It is not just that we do or say certain things—that can just be mimicry.  It is that we believe them.  We own them deep down in our souls and they direct our decision-making, our understanding about life, and the purposes we live and sacrifice for. 

 

As evangelicals, we are establishing practices which follow the trajectory of our commitment to Christ, Kingdom, and the primacy of scripture.  We are turning the good news of reconciliation, the gospel (2 Co 5:16-21, Eph 2:11-22), into actual practice.  By “practice” I mean ways of thinking, expressing, giving, and receiving love.  We are attempting to inculcate within our community the means, language, structures, goals, and virtues which bring about God’s will of reconciliation (across cultures, economics, gender, ethnicity, etc.). 

 

To do this means some uncomfortable moments, challenging things never challenged before, confronting fears we would rather not confront, stepping into things we feel either defenseless about or overwhelmed by.  We have to talk about race, racism, prejudice, division, wounds, scars, and difficult things.  We do this in order to be transformed into a people who can think, talk, and act according to the Lord’s higher standards of love.  We are not solving a problem of someone insulting someone else.  We are being re-made so that when (not if) it happens that we can deal with insults and injuries in a healthy, honoring, truthful way.  We are being transformed for our own sake, but also for those who will be brought to us.  People who have been injured by racism, and people who have (knowingly or unknowingly) perpetuated it.  We are transforming “taboo” into redemption. 

 

The truth is that we cannot be a “community” as Christ defines community without dealing with these hard realities and uncomfortable situations.  At the same time, by stepping into them we are that community. Perhaps we are not fully mature as a community (which we aren’t), but the fact that we are putting our efforts (however nascent) to doing the Lord’s will the Lord’s way means we are his community.  After all, a writer is not someone who writes a best seller.  A writer is someone who writes.  It’s who they are what they do irrespective of results.  A “best seller” simply makes them a profitable writer or a struggling writer or whatever adjective applies.  Unless they are actually doing the thing called “writing” they are not writers; no matter what they think or desire or want to be true.  A Christian community is one that is reconciled and one that is about reconciliation in relationship with the Lord and with all those who are his.  These are two parts of one whole not two distinct parts we get choose or prioritize.

 

So, what are these virtues we are practicing and appropriating?  Don’t take this as exhaustive, but here a few that come to mind:  

Speaking the truth in love (honesty and courage)

Listening because we know we will hear Christ through others in the community (humility and expectation of the Divine in the everyday) 

Readiness for correction without defensiveness (forgiveness, humility, love)

Responsive to the needs of others in giving time, talent, treasure (Generosity, Hospitality)

Stepping out of our comfort into following the Lord into new waters (Risk Taking) 

 

By embracing, practicing, failing, and trying these again and again and again, we are transformed.  We don’t just have disembodied doctrine or religion; but embodied, lived-out Kingdom life.  In doing these things we legitimately are (to use St. Patrick’s missionary method) that “alternative village” alongside the world that invites people in to a new life.  A life that is whole and accessible and possible.  

 

A life that is available for all people under the Lordship of Christ. 

A life that is ONLY accessible because of Him.

A life that He will bring about as we willingly follow him in virtue

(if not in the completely in the “now” of this

age, certainly in the “then” of his return) 

 

So the discussion and the on-going things we will be doing abou reconciliation, race, etc are not secondary matters, but primary matters essential to the vision that the Lord has given of all people united in love under his grace.  This is something rare in the church.  It is not something we can do in and of ourselves, but something that will come about by trusting him and following him, by talking with one another, by listening closely to the “others” in our community (who are really us but are practically “other” because we don’t know or understand one another) by encouraging one another, by forgiveness, risk taking, hospitality, and generosity. 

 

So hang in with us.  Don’t be easily discouraged.  Don’t wonder when we will get “past” reconciliation.  It comes about as we live out the virtues Christ requires applying them to love and unity (not uniformity) among our diverse community.  It is not always “hot” or “urgent”, but it is always present because it is always essential to the Lord’s purposes in this age. 

 

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What will you do when I call?

August 7, 2008 at 2:34 pm · Filed under Adventures, Current Events, Discipleship ·Tagged , , ,

O.K., you’re sitting at home and you get a call from me.  “I’ve just met someone who needs a place to stay tonight.  Can you feed ‘em and give them a place for tonight?”  I tell you what I know about them.  What do you say?  What would you need to know?  What if they’re homeless?  What if they’ve just gotten out of prison or rehab or whatever?

I’m asking because this happened this week.  Someone from the fellowship helped a woman out at a gas station.  He gave her my phone number and she contacted me about getting some help to get out of the heat.  I took a sister along and met with her.  We listened to her story, and checked it out.  Everything checked out.  She got a good word from a former pastor north of Atlanta.  In fact this is the type of situation tailor-made for evangelicals.  The woman had a job and was trying to survive the next week until she started working again.  She wasn’t consistently homeless, just in a tough stretch.  She was organized, articulate, and kind.

While I didn’t have any money to get her a room in a hotel, I did know people who had homes with A/C, so I prayed (I prayed a lot from the moment of the phone call, throughout the initial discussion, and in looking for solutions).  One couple consistently came to my mind because they didn’t have kids at home, and because I had this sense that they could minister to her.  So I called.  This was my first ever call like this.  I essentially asked, “Would you be able to open your home tonight to a stranger?”  Lord bless ‘em, they talked and prayed and said “yes.”  I was so impressed.  They had so much going on.  I mean really BIG stuff going on.  But they felt like they should. 

I’m asking all this about hospitality because I am hoping that you’ll have the conversation now so that you’ll be ready when I do call to know what you want to know, to know your fears, your boundaries, etc.  I would never demand that anyone participate in such a thing.  If it’s not love and a gift of faith to the Lord it’s no good to anyone.  It may be that being hospitable this way is a longing and a desire in you, but at the particular moment it isn’t good for you or your family.  That’s cool.  It may be that there isn’t a snowballs chance in the Sahara that you’d ever do anything like this.  I’d love to talk with you about it.  Regardless of whether any of us actually do open our homes to a stranger, we still need to be sure we know the Lord’s word and will on the matter, that we think through the implications and wisdom for discerning a particular decision, etc.  That’s what this note is intended to inspire.  What would you do?  What would you want to know? 

As it turns out, when I asked the woman what she wanted to do she felt really uncomfortable going into a stranger’s house.  Not because of fear, but because she didn’t want to be under a microscope.  She didn’t want to be interrogated about her life and decisions.  She was tired in every sense of the word. I was amazed, but listened.  I talked about the family, and even told her that I would ask them to give her space.  She was sure and asked if I couldn’t get her a room.  I told her I did get her a room.  She looked so miserable. 

It was fascinating for me to watch because I grudgingly admired the spark of independence and defiance that I saw.  There was some steel inside of her that made me know she wasn’t a broken husk(even though I thought she wasn’t thinking clearly and was making a bad decision).  I changed tack and asked her how we could bless her if not with food, shelter, and safety.  She asked for a tent and a bike.  My eyes got a little big because we hadn’t talked about Communicycle or the re-cycled bike program.  Turns out that Josh and Margaret also had an old, leaky-when-it-rained 2-person tent (she said, “I can get a tarp for the rain”).  Communicycle worked late, late into the morning on Tuesday night/Weds morning to put together a bike for her.  When she saw theh bike for the first time today she cried.  It felt really good to see her ride out withe her new bike and tent.  It felt great to - ultimately – be able to bless her. 

Back to my point:  One of our core practices – the concrete expressions of what it means to love the Lord and other people – is hospitality, especially hospitality to strangers.  If this is to become more than rhetoric on a web site we need to be talking and praying and preparing – talking about our understanding and fears, praying to grow and for praying for opportunities, and preparing our homes should the Lord bring someone to us.  Heather and I talked about it.  In fact we would have let her come to our house the next night if she needed it. 

I’d love to know what you talk about, and how you process all of this.  If not me, please talk with others in the fellowship about all of this.  It’s important.  It’s central to who the Lord is asking us to become.  We are not being called to solve short-term problems only (like a room for a night), or to be professional, or set up systems of care.   All of those can be good they’re just not what the Lord is asking of us.  What he is asking of us is to open our hearts and lives to actually love actual people.  Not theories, problems, theological categories, or good intentions, but people.  Complex, inconvenient, different people. 

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A slice of the absurd

March 13, 2008 at 7:32 pm · Filed under Current Events, Musings ·Tagged ,

With the dedication of the Communitas Building coming up I have been thinking back over the past 3 years and laughing.  When I think of what got us started in our transition back then, and where we are now all I can do is laugh at the absurdity and rightness of it all.   When we transitioned from the big building in Dunwoody with million dollar homes across the street to the industrial warehouse and immigrant groups we have been called to serve I marvel at the Lord. 

I never imagined that this whole journey could be summed up with the words spoken to the very first disciples, “Follow me.”  Nothing else describes what the Lord has done over this time than that simple, faith-filled, blissfully ignorant phrase.   

“Follow me.”  The Lord doesn’t have a recipe or a one-size-fits-all vision for all people, all cultures, all time.  Sure, the message of his love is timeless and moves across all cultures and people.  But not how he puts his Kingdom on display and gets his message of hope and reconciliation across.   

“Follow me.”  Not follow the latest and greatest fads.  Not get a guru or a consultant or method or technique.  I think that if people were to simple try and recreate what he has done through us (i.e. adopt a school, find an apartment complex, partner with ministries that distribute furniture, repair bicycles, teach about great Christian thinkers, and start conversations in coffee houses, etc) that it would fall apart.  I am glad that we have some experience to share with others whom the Lord is calling into similar ministry.  I’m just saying that copying another ministry uncritically isn’t just lazy, but dangerous if it is an attempt to short-circuit any aspect of following him alone.     

“Follow me.”  I am convinced in my little mind that the Lord calls us to himself and wants us to pray, believe, and respond to his leadings in what he wants to do with a community of faith.  It really isn’t up to us.  He is the Savior and Lord, and as such we love, obey, and respond to him whether it always makes sense to us or not.   

“Follow me.”  I shared in the last blog how the Lord has guided us through the contributions of other people in our community that are not necessarily in leadership roles.  They are normal, everyday people who he has spoken to in dreams, interests, and passions (and, yes, I do believe that people in church leadership are abnormal in both the funny and the sad meaning of that word).   

I look back at the actual expression of what the Lord is doing here and, I have to confess, I don’t get it.  I don’t know how he is going to change the world through talking, bikes, and furniture; but I believe that he is.  I don’t understand how getting smaller, less comfortable, less safe will translate into bringing him praise and glory, but I believe that it will.  The only word that seems to fit right now is absurd.  It’s all outrageously, hilariously, wonderfully absurd.  I love that about our Lord.  He always uses the foolish things, the small, the insignificant, the bizarre to do his will.   You need to know that when I use words like insignificant and bizarre that those aren’t bragging words for me.  Some people take great pride in being different.  When I use words like these it means counter-intuitive, risky-with-an-edge-of-foolishness (as opposed to a calculated risk), and confusing.  But, there it is.  “Follow me.”   

So we have tried to follow.  I’m sure we’ve missed some steps.  But even so I trust more in his ability to do his will and use us in that service than I trust our ability to follow well.  And I hope that we always will.  I pray that we will continue to believe in the body of Christ.  That this belief will be expressed in the time, attention, and energy needed to listen and to believe in people.  I pray that our plans will always focus on building disciples who know and practice listening so that we always have a healthy dose of the absurd to keep us from co-opting the idea of faith and re-defining it to mean him following us and our plans.

So as we dedicate this building and this vision this Saturday, I hope it will be with a clear commitment to following.  He is Lord.  He is good.  It is our privilege to put him on display however he chooses to be displayed – even if it means rusty bicycles and old furniture. 

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