Archive for Uncategorized

Castrated Christianity?

September 25, 2009 at 2:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , ,

In Luke 10:8-9 Jesus gives his disciples instructions as they go out to represent him. He tells them, “Whenever you enter a town and [its people] welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there and say to them, ‘the kingdom of God is near to you.’” His first command is to receive hospitality, then offer to heal/serve, and then announce what it all means. Metzler, commenting on this passage writes, “The verbal witness is needed to explain and reinforce the living witness.” (From Saigon to Shalom, p.115)

This missionary formula for identification and incarnation is lost in a communication age where the gospel can become a sales pitch, a commodity, a lucky charm, or speculative philosophy. Soren Kierkegaard tried to get this idea across to the church in his generation. He gave them a metaphor of a class of male performers called castrati who are castrated to keep their voices higher than normal.

“A man is castrated in order to make him a singer who can take higher notes than any normal man can take: and so with these preachers: from a Christian point of view they are castrati, are deprived of their real manhood…but they can take notes higher and more fascinating than any true Christian.” (From the Journals of Soren Kierkegaard, excerpted from Dissident Discipleship, p.179)

It is artificial to cut off the proclamation and explanation of the high and glorious meaning and implications of the Christian life from what is actually lived out by the community of faith. It makes for beautiful art. But it costs so much to do so. It proclaims something that cannot be reproduced. And it is the Lord himself who commanded us to “Go, make disciples of all nations.”

This same order of priority (eat, heal, explain) is also important for the community of believers. This is because witness is not an individual act, but a communal one. We are not inviting people into a kingdom of principles and disembodied doctrine, but embodied relationships-of-the-kingdom that we live together. We show and offer what we know and live, not what we hope to be true in some future place, or was true in the distant past or among a few special cases like St. Francis or whoever. Anything less than real communion-in-community is an inadequate witness in this generation. People have to see the whole thing for there to be any real meaning to the gospel. It is living life together, going together, and inviting people into a lived-out life with God that people will see, hear, and taste the gospel.

So we eat, heal, and announce to one another. We eat, heal, and announce to those we are called to love. We are witnesses in that we share what we know, not just what we have been told or hope to be true. We must not be castrati.

Leave a Comment

Fish Spew: A Jonah-induced confession

March 19, 2009 at 6:57 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

I’ve been thinking about Jonah, since last Sunday. Specifically how Jonah being swallowed by the big fish wasn’t God’s judgment. God’s judgment was the storm and Jonah’s death by being bound and thrown over-board. The fish, as Bill taught us, was God’s salvation.

One of the profound realizations I took from last Sunday is how easy it is to confuse the means of God’s salvation as being his judgment. I do this a lot in my marriage, parenting, pastoring, and friendships. Once the romance and emotion wears off they all feel like death to me because of the heavy price I have to pay in giving up my selfishness, my personal preferences, and taking hits to my ego. However, all of these are actually the means of God’s salvation for me. They are the tools the Lord uses to change me into the image of Christ.

I think about this idea of confusing the form of salvation with judgment when I think about race and racism.

I have never known racism. I’ve been harassed and embarrassed in my life by being called Jew-boy and Christ-killer; but those were isolated moments not the norm. Ironically, there is a reflex to apply this same conclusion to others who may have had to endure more, but it’s still just part of being in a fallen world. But I have to remind myself that it is impossible for me who grew up in the majority to know what it is like to be on the outside. I can’t treat others people’s experiences as being the same as mine because unlike my experience theirs weren’t occasional exceptions or merely isolated, personal tragedies.

Knowing this, and knowing that some form of racism is almost universal for non-white races, forces me to confront some facts. For me, the individual is everything to the point where is not “white” identity, only individual merit and achievement. Where I think about the people around me without questioning the rules and economics about who can and can’t live around me. Where “market forces” are just a snazzy, evangelically friendly form of what a previous generation justified as “Social Darwinism.” I find myself looking for the simplest solution or sound bite to a complex problem like race and division.

I think about my desire to be fully immersed and conformed to the image of Christ. But what if my “full immersion” isn’t into Christ? What if it is full immersion into a middle-class, white version of Christ? If it is into “whiteness” how would I, a Christian who is middle class and white, be able to tell the difference? Only by talking with those who love the Lord and who have the blessing and the vantage point of being outside of my category. By being outside they can help guide me and direct me from compromising my faith by mixing it with things in our culture and world that don’t belong.

Thinking about these things I find myself back in the belly of a big fish. But rather than a cloying prison of kelp and fish guts, it is my salvation-that-looks-judgment. I’m wrestling with reality I know (the world I am apart of) and the reality I am learning about (friends who have endured scorn, shame, threats, and derision because of what they look like). I have been a part of this problem. Even if I claim it has only been by omission (not doing something) instead of commission (doing the worst thing – actively hurting others) I have still have some complicity.

I think he is showing me this because the Lord is calling us to something profoundly different than everyone come to church and act white (but we’ll call it Christian). I’m not sure what “profoundly different” is yet. But I hope that the Lord will take all of us together into his salvation and spew out something that more resembles his will.

Leave a Comment

Practicing Discernment

January 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

O.K.  So we’ve laid a foundation on discernment that, hopefully, takes the idea from the obscure and the mystical to one that is a wholistic part of our lives together.  One that moves the concept from out-guessing or manipulating God to one that is an integral part of our loving, every day commitment to his priorities and purposes.  One that is grounded on his ability to speak more than our ability to listen.  One that relaxes all the religious impulses to engage in false, temporary bursts of piety-for-our-own-purposes, to a more restful, trusting, faith-focused confidence in our Lord. 

How do we DO it? 

The first thing to remember is that we are, in Christ, an organic, wholistic “body” that is interdependent.  We need each other, especially those parts that seem less “honorable” (1 Co 12).  Everyone matters in the community, and everyone needs to be paid attention to in what they are sensing from the Lord and experiencing in their lives.  In this sense discernment requires healthy, active community life.  As a participant in community life it means not just blowing people off, but paying attention, really listening, and really praying.  If we see patterns in people’s lives or feel a “prompting” (an intuition, a can’t-get-rid-of sense of importance, or even an not-sure-maybe-maybe not- perhaps- I- should- share- it- idea about something) then we take it to people who we trust, who have proven by experience that they know how to listen and perceive,   or who have positions of servant-leadership in our lives.  At the point of sharing you have done your duty.  If “it” persists then you persist.  If it seems like it is getting to point of obsession or you have OCD tendencies (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) then we talk and pray about it. 

What happens after you share? 

If it is an elder we talk about them in our meeting as part of our calling to guide, guard, and nurture.  We pray.  We look for patterns.  If not sure we wait.  It may be the first bit of information that is one piece of a puzzle the rest of which will come in the right time through other people.  If it is a ministry team leader or someone else they will pass it along if they feel like it is important (or ask you to). 

Here’s the hard part:  people who “hear” too often get possessive and directive about the information.  Usually this is a character flaw (the need to control and be in charge masked as the prophetic).  But sometimes it is real urgency.  Regardless it needs to be shared, albeit with a sense of humilty and honor to those the placed over us.  We are all called to “speak the truth in love.”  People need to share.  Servant leaders need to listen.  If people push too much, servant leaders gently push back.  If it doesn’t work servant leaders try to lovingly disciple.  It is quite common in situations like this that the character of the one who can’t “let go” is the whole point of the exercise. 

I would summarize it like this:

We live our lives together in praise and service to the Lord. We have small groups we share life with, especially what is going on inside of us.Sometimes the Lord gives us things to share, and we need to share them. Sometimes things “get hold of us” and we need to pass the burden along.  Sometimes the Lord blesses us to see patterns that we need to share. Sometimes particular circumstances arise in which leaders ask us to intercede and pay particulare attention if the Lord gives us a scripture, an insight, whatever.  We share them, especially with the elders. The elders pray, add it to their larger perspective as care-givers for the congregation. The Lord has sovereignly placed these in their position and will speak to, in, and through them. This means we can let go, and follow the Lord. 

This doesnt’ mean that elders are faultless or immune to wrong decisions.  It means that we live together, work together, and serve together each in mutual submission within different roles as the Lord gives them.

Examples:

In 2004 the church fasted and prayed as a means of listening purposefully and intently about the frustrations we were experiencing as a body.  People prayed, journaled, and shared.  A pattern emerged that we shared after the 40 days.  Eventually we sold the building and moved into a new phase of ministry.  But the process entailed dozens of people from throughout the body not a select few, not just the leaders or the opinionated. 

As a leader I often undergo areas of temptation or pain in my life.  Rather than just being more of “my stuff” I was taught that as part of a body it might not be mine, especially if it is “out of the blue.”  In times like these I have learned to stop and pray.  To ask the Lord if I am sharing another’s burden.  I ask if I need to contact anyone in particular or just pray.  Sometimes a name or a face “pops up”.  I call them to see if everything is O.K.  Sometimes it is a very timely interaction.  Sometimes it isn’t.  But the point isn’t to be “right” it is to be involved, aware, and active with one anothers’ lives. 

Let me know if you have any questions

Leave a Comment

The Idolatry of Ministry

January 23, 2009 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , ,

I was in a prayer meeting with friends. Well, prayer meeting is a misnomer. These are true brothers with whom I depend on for sanity and sanctity. Anyway, we were sharing about what’s going on: family, demands, fears, loss of control, far-reaching life-altering changes in our lives. As we started praying I had a thought I had never held until that moment. I chose to think it was the Lord prompting my mind, but whatever the source the thought stopped me abruptly. Instead of lamenting and asking for faith and favor in the trials I started to give thanks for them. The thought that came unbidden to my mind was that the battle between family demands and ministries ideals and desires kept us from making ministry an idol.

I’m a romantic idealist who has screwed up enough to be a cynic. But the fact is that I am a dreamer. It is, I hope, a great strength to see things that should/could/might be. But it is also a weakness to live in the world of ideas and ideals. My wife, my kids, my relationships ground me. They force me to remember that all the law is summed up in loving God and loving others – that is, in relationship not in plans and visions. As soon as vision and plan out-paces real people we get into all the rebukes Jesus leveled against the religious leaders of his day (and which have applied to me as well). So instead of being tense at having my ideals thwarted I find myself worshipping out of the Lord’s sovereign grace and mercy which keep me humble, focused, and responsive to him (instead of myself). It is, in the words of Chris Heuertz, a burden that saves.

In his excellent book “Simple Spirituality” Chris Heuertz tells a story of Sadhu Sundar Singh. “[Singh] told of a journey in Tibet where the temperature suddenly dropped and he feared for his life. As he went on, he stumbled over a body covered in snow and barely alive. Sadhu Sundar Singh told his guide they would carry this man to the next village to help save his life. The guide refused, fearful for his own life; he left the freezing man and the sadhu behind.

“After a long and treacherous journey, night began to fall and the sadhu finally came upon a village only to discover the frozen and dead body of the guide. The sadhu’s companion had died within shouting distance of the village.

“It was the weight of the man that the sadhu had carried which had created enough body heat to keep both him and the victim warm enough to survive the journey. They both made it safely to the village because they had one another. The sadhu commented, ‘No one can live without the help of others, and in helping others, we receive help ourselves.’”

In commitment to family and relationships we stay grounded in the bigger, more important things of God.  It is the weight and the burden of loved ones which keep us from being truly frozen and dead, especially for those of us who romantisize the sacrifices of ministry as noble martyrdom when they’re really just my stupid pride and vain imagination. 

found in Simple Spirituality, Learning to See God in a Broken World by Chris Heuertz (IVPress), 2008.

Leave a Comment

It takes more than a church. It takes The Church.

November 20, 2008 at 3:21 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

A couple of weeks ago one of our partners in ministry, Cross-Cultural Ministries sent a note in their donor summary.  It said:

 

“What would happen if you weren’t here?” he asked me.  What a question!  I’ve pondered that question and shudder to think of what would happen to him and others if Christ Jesus had not led and kept us here.

 

“He came to Pearl Lane in the 5th grade, mother separating from his stepfather, yanked away from friends & school that he liked, and moved into sharing an apartment.  Angry, isolated, loud, and intelligent he became the class clown and terror in the school.  But he came to our center. 

 

“He found acceptance and demonstration of love.  He was given a trombone by a Christian who heard that request.  He now is receiving trombone lessons from a college music professor!  He comes to be part of whatever is going on at the center rather than join a gang.

 

“Thank you so much for your support so that we can be here for this 7th grader and others.” 

 

It’s an encouraging story.  When I read it I thought back to that first trombone almost one year ago from today (you can read the story of “Trombones for Jesus” on the Nov. 30, 2007 post) What was so great about reading this is that it again reinforced the importance of the larger Church, the people of God, not merely a single congregation.  It’s easy to lose sight of this in the hectic, focus and isolation of church life.  But here is a ministry that is teaching us about some aspects of community development, where we met the boy in the story and were blessed to respond.  Yet, it took other folks from other churches to fill in the blanks we didn’t possess.  All of this serves to let this young man know that there is truly a Savior that all his smaller clusters of followers serve.  It is beautiful.  

 

The task of loving, caring, demonstrating, and transforming is so huge, especially in places like Pearl Lane that have so many challenges (and strengths, truth be told).  It really is something that requires all people following the Lord.  It is a kind of cooperation and team work that a proprietary attitude will prevent. 

 

It’s a great lesson about how to love better. 

Leave a Comment

If you’re curious about what “it” looks like…

August 22, 2008 at 6:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

It is so easy to get lost and confused in making the steps from vision to practice, rhetoric to right thinking and right living.  What is it that we actually DO in our quest to bring God’s vision for us to pass?  When do we go from intention through transition to doing “it”?  Is it in relocation?  Is it in joining a ministry team and getting involved?  Is it in leading people to Christ? Is it in great sacrifices and cultural transformation? I think that it could be all these things, but none of these are the essence of “it.” 

I was talking with Mary Hinkle this week.  She was so excited about things going on in her relationship with some of the older girls from Pearl Lane.  As she shared I was so excited because Mary was describing “it.”

Mary knows the girls from Pearl Lane, but didn’t really know them personally.  She was happy that they were willing to help with VBS.  The girls were leaders over groups of younger kids and did a great job, especially because we were so short handed.  As a thank you she asked them out to dinner.  Mary recalls how awkward and difficult that first outing was.  They stayed close together and were hesitant and critical about the things they weren’t used to.

Mary asked for they’d like to help organize clothes for the garage-sale-like clothing store we do with Cross-Cultrual Ministries at Pearl Lane.  They went by the building to take a look and met Josh and Margaret working on re-cycling some bikes and thought that was really cool.  They said they’d help and came back with Mary the next night.  They sorted all the bag loads and picked out clothes for themselves, but not just for themselves.  They picked some out for other girls who needed some things and for a new baby that was about to be born. Mary was really blessed to see their caring, committed hearts toward others. 

To Mary’s surprise they asked to come to church that Sunday (they’re still coming, btw).  One thing that strikes them about the church is the friendliness of everyone, especially the respectfulness and good humor of the men they see on Sunday. 

Mary regularly askes them to join her in her running about.  They went down to Midtown, met Mary’s son and walked all over Piedmont Park together, and got coffee at a cafe.  They went to a jewelry wholesale place and started do work with beads doing their own jewelry.  They went to the Chamblee centennial celebration together and one Sunday showed mary around Plaza Fiesta.  They’ve prepared meals together and Mary has learned some of their favorites.   

Mary is amazed at how close the community is at Pearl Lane.  How much they know and care for friends and neighbors.  When they go to Mary’s house they ask her about her neighbors, who the are, does she know them.  The contrast is stark and convicting.  They are seeing both the good and the bad of what life is like outside their neighborhood.   

Last Saturday it all of suddenly went very deep very fast.

They were sitting around doing jewelry and talking when the conversation went to relationships, dating, church experiences, family stuff.  They asked deep and penetrating questions.  Mary got to share her life and the Lord’s grace.  To hear Mary describe it there was a joy, a connection, and a vitality to it.  Yet It was all so – natural.  Friendship went deeper and Mary’s love and respect (which was already there) grew exponentially. 

So here are some things I want us to be aware of: 

Mary too a chance and reached out to say thank you (risk tasking).  She invited them into her life, heart, and home (hospitality) and gave/gives the best of her time and attention (generosity).  If it gets difficult she perseveres and works things out (forgiveness).  But these girls are not a project, a target, or an outcome.  They are her friends and she dearly loves them. 

What Mary didn’t do:  start a Bible study (which is usually perceived as wanting get together to demonstrate how ignorant the other person is), start a program, rush/push/demand, share the gospel without know or caring about the person.  It wasn’t a hit-and-run spiritual strafing where Mary dives in and swoopes back out to the suburbs for a safe landing. 

It’s love and friendship.  It’s so simple.  So profoundly, counter-culturally simple.  “It” is love stripped down and basic – spending time together, person-to-person, laughing, sharing, learning, respecting, growing.  All our rhetoric about vision, mission, core practices, reaching the disenfranchised and poor, swimming against culture and incarnating the Kingdom comes down to this – putting yourself in a position to fall in love with people the Lord has directed us to.  Not just because they need him, but because we need them to show us the parts of the gospel we can’t grasp because of where and how we live.  The Lord wants to bring ALL of us alive together.  At least that’s how I see Mary’s story. 

Peace

Comments (2)

A New Blog to Check Out

July 13, 2007 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

My friend Rusty Pritchard has a new blog.  You can see the link on this page.  Rusty is a great guy.  He loves the Lord,  his wife and his kids, is humble, has a Ph.D. in econmics, and works for the Evangelical Environmental Network.  He understands many of the complex issues facing God’s creation and our care of it.  You can check it out by clicking the link on the blogroll list on the right side of the main page.  

Leave a Comment