I Am Alright...Thanks for your Calls

I was not on the bridge when it collapsed here in Minneapolis. I work very close to the University where it happened, but was at work at the time (working late). I was on the bridge with my family a couple days earlier, so there is an added weight to the disaster for me, but we are all fine.

Thank you everyone for your calls, I am sorry I did not post earlier or send out an email. I didn't even think of it since I had already spoken to so many people on the phone.

I can't wait to be home and see everyone. Take care. Remember, picinic at my parent's place for labor day!

K

Disappointing God

A question for anyone who might be bothered to ponder it...

Can we disappoint God? Can we let him down?

We can certainly fall short of his wishes for us and we seem to be in constant rebellion against him, but those are the things we do or fail to do. Those are our failings, they do not dictate his response to us. When we are let down by a loved one, our disappointment is our response to an unmet expectation. We thought they were going to do something and they did not or we thought they were not going to do something and they did it. The disappointment is what we bring to the table when expectations are not met.

Here is an example...Three Nails (the community that I am a part) is having a potluck dinner and I send out an invitation (usually an evite) asking people to respond and include what kind of dish they are bringing if they plan to come, thus ensuring that we will have a variety of food. Now, if this is the first time I have planned a potluck, I might expect everyone who is coming to respond to the evite and include a dish and then I might assume that everyone who come is going to bring that dish. The reality may be that only half of the people who come had responded and of those people only 75% brought a dish and only half of those were actually dishes that people said they were bringing. At this point I have been let down and I am disappointed and frustrated with much of the community that has gathered. On the other hand if this is the 20th time I have organized such an event, I would have no such illusions as to the outcome and would be planning on some folks not bringing a dish or bringing something other than what they had said they would bring. I would be much less likely to feel disappointed or let down in this case.

So the question now becomes, "Does God expect anything more that what we have to offer?"

I believe the answer to that question is a simple "no." He loves us and we respond to that love, nothing more. He knows what we are bringing nothing to the table, that is why he sent his son to die for us.

I could springboard off of this and go on for hours, but I will spare you; I have already written quite enough. I will leave you with these thoughts and offer the conclusion that we cannot disappoint God and allow anyone who would like to comment to do so.

The Importance of Spiritual Disciplines

So, I am at this conference in Florida that will go unnamed (the wifi at this place blocked my blog, I must have sworn in it somewhere) and the first speaker was fine, but said the same thing that every speaker I have ever heard talk about church growth has said, "The key to being an effective minister is personal quiet times." I am going to go ahead and take the liberty to include all spiritual "disciplines" into this statement...and for the record, this particular speaker set the bar at a 1 hour daily quiet time.

The focus of this particular talk was that we, as ministers, need to be at the feet of the master and in the word in order to have the kernels of wisdom needed to minister effectively. That we can gain lifetimes of wisdom by learning from the testimony of the scriptures.

Seems like a fine talk, one that most of us in Christian circles have probably heard numerous times...here is my issue: All we need to minister effectively is the Spirit working within us and through us at the behest of the Father on account of Christ's death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. Reading the Bible, Prayer, Fasting, etc. are all good things that are necessary to the life of the believer, but they are not things we do in order to gain Christ. And if we are talking about ministering effectively, what else do we need to minister well? If there is anything we need to do beyond responding to the call of the cross in order to be used by God, then we are screwed.

The Spiritual "disciplines" are not disciplines at all, they are not something we train ourselves to do becuase we do not get anything from doing them. Let me say that again, we do not get anything from doing the spiritual disciplines . We sit at the feet of the Lord in prayer, fasting, and we read his word purely for his sake, not ours. We do it in response to the incredible, generous, and totally undeserved love that he has first shown us. It is only on account of his first loving us that we can ever hope to come to him in worship. Any benefit we perceive getting out of these actions are benefits that we have already freely received on account of God's work, not ours, regardless of whether or not we read the Bible, pray, or fast.

Firefly/Serenity

Alright, I must tell the world about this. If you want to know about leadership development and what a true priest, pastor, leader looks like, watch the "Firefly" series. It was put out by FOX a few years back and only lasted a season becuase they never gave what may be the most important show of all time a chance.

If you want a movie about the power and necessity of love and our lack of control (even as Christians) over sin, then watch the movie "Serenity," that came out as a conclusion to the series (hopefully there will be more to come, but who knows).

The movie has all the same characters as the series and it is wonderful. Give it a shot, especially if you have Netflix. Well worth your time.

If you watch it and love it and want to talk about it. Email me or respond here and we will talk. It is incredible and a tremendous resource for the church.

Are We Able to Let Go?

We are seeing a continuing shift of center of the Christian Church. More and more of our brothers and sisters in Africa and Asia are coming to know the Lord while the Western church communities are in decline.

Along these lines, there is an excellent opportunity offered by an African theologian Kwame Bediako in his book, Christianity in Africa. Bediako suggests that the shift in the Church is not from the West to the South and East, but a shift to include them.

The universal church does not need a linear unidirectional theology eminating from one center, but a pattern of centers understanding theology in context and culture creating an overlapping system of theology that makes room for different perspectives and understandings.

I think this is of the utmost importance for us in the West because if we are not willing to let go of our staunch propositional beliefs and our hold of the center of our faith, then we are going to be left behind instead of joining in the ever increasing universality of God's Church as described in Rev 7.

I hope we can let go of our own agendas and really ask ourselves if we can trust that God is just as much in the midst of communities in different cultures and traditions. Can we really let go and be a unified Church? And if we are able to accept the beliefs and interpretations of those in other countries, can we also do that for those here at home? Are we willing to let go of control and allow belief in Jesus to be the basis for our communion? Or are we going to make dogma the basis?

What If We're Wrong?

I continue to go over the issues plaguing The Episcopal Church. I consider the looming split in our communion over the issue of sexuality (and I am convinced it is an issue of sexuality and not an issue of the authority of scripture) and I wonder why the Communion cannot even entertain the idea that we may be wrong.

We no longer worry about whether someone has been baptized more than once, we are simply concerned that they are baptized. We believe that only one baptism is necessary, but if the church decided that we must be baptized again as adults, would we split over it?

The Trinity is one of the most confusing doctrines in the church, if some of us decided we believed in modalism, would we split?

These are issues that were such a big deal to the early church that they wrote responses into the creeds and yet now I doubt it would create the crisis that we have today.

What if we're wrong?

When Did Church Growth Become the Focus?

I have spent most of my Christian life convinced that the most important factor in a church is growth. Everyone insists that numbers are not what is important, but it is all we care about. There is no way around the fact that ministers with congregations of 4000 feel better about themselves and their ministries than those with 40 people. Something must be wrong with the community if it is not growing, right? If there is not multiplication or growth then someone is not doing their job or some strategy or approach is not working, right? IF this is the case, it is time for a new pastor, right? Is that not the impression most people get? The pastor's job is to "get it done."

When did church growth become the focus of our Christian communities and, more importantly, of our pastors?

We are told to bear good fruit by Paul, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23). There is nothing in this list about more Christians or church growth. How do we get from this description of fruit to an understanding of fruit being people (see also Eph 5:9)?

What about the Great Commission, "As you are going make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded" (Matt 28:19-20). Make 2, 5, 500? When I think of Jesus' life I do not think of chruch growth. I can think of a number of situations where he was less than sympathetic to some who were interested in his message. Jesus seemed to be much more concerned with his 12 and especially his 3 than he was with growth. I have heard stories of whole stadiums of people being converted in a couple hours at evangelical rallies. Surely Jesus could have converted the whole world in the 3 years of his ministry or at the very least the 33 years of his life? Why didn't he?

What about the Great Commandments? “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39). Doesn't sound much like church growth to me.

Let me be clear, I am not saying that church growth is unimportant, nor am I saying that God does not care about an increase in the Kingdom. Of course he does. What I am asking is why our pastors and priests focus so much on strategies and methods and ways to grow our churches and why they (we) stress out so much about how many people are coming to church?

Maybe the question can be asked simply, "Why do we default to church growth as our litmus test?" If we are part of a loving, joyful, and peacful congregation, but are not seeing growth, why do we immediately think something is wrong? Do we leave room for God to be in control and consider that we do not see the bigger picture?

Control is at the heart of this issue I am conviniced. I can think of nothing more contrary to the gospel than control. If we are God's servants who desire God to be in control of our lives and the world, then any attempts by us to maintain or take that control is outright rebellion. Why are we strategizing so much about church growth and correcting the weaknesses in our communities that limit church growth? Why are we continually looking at the biggest and "most successful" churches to see how they do it? How does that have anything to do with being the church? (I am indebted to PZ on this point, thank you).

What if we believed that pastors and priests are called to the ministries that they are a part of? What if we believed that God was in control of our lives and our churches? What if we believed that church growth was his department? What if our desire was not church growth, but to be faithful in the little things of each day? What if we actually did not worry about tomorrow, but let it worry about itself (Matt 6:34)? What if we gave up on our 5 year, 10, year, 50 year strategic goals and instead focused on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? What then?

Educating Ourselves Out of the Kingdom

I recently spoke at a Junior High retreat where I was responsible for communicating the gopsel message to a group of teenagers. By the end of the retreat there was an opportunity to say yes to the gospel (pretty standard formula) and many responded.

Often times, at retreats like these someone will tell those who made "first time decisions" that if they died tomorrow they would now go to heaven. This statement is made assuming that they do not stop following Jesus or believing that he is Lord. This is the context into which I was first introduced into the Kingdom of God and while I have my own issues with it, I do not deny that this kind of experience affected the outcome of my life completely and totally.

Flash forward to adulthood.

We now have huge divisions in the Church over sexuality (especially the Episcopal tradition). We even find ourselves saying that those who believe that same-sex unions are valid and God ordained are not Christians and do not follow Jesus anymore. The funny thing is, many of them probably came into the Church much like those kids this weekend and much like me. When they told us we were going to heaven as long as we continued to follow Jesus, it wasn't dependent upon our interpretation of passages in Leviticus or Romans about sexuality, it was on our interpretation of certain passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (and some less controversial passages in Romans).

I am finding a discrepancy in the reasoning of the Evangelical tradition that tells a seventh grader, "if you were to die tomorrow you would go to heaven," and then tells them when they are adults, "you think homosexuality is okay so you cannot be a Christian, you clearly do not believe in the authority of scripture or Jesus." What about the verses in Leviticus about wearing clothes of two materials or those in Corinthinas and Timothy about women in ministry? How can we be so quick to cast people out of the church when they have not renounced Jesus or his forgiveness on account of his death and resurrection? Are there not things we do now that we will find out later were sinful even though we thought the Bible was okay with it? Does that mean we no longer love Jesus and that we can no longer be part of the same church or serve under their authority if they happen to be a bishop?

If this is the way we are going to handle the church entrusted to us, maybe those evangelical retreats need to be long enough to make sure new believers know every correct interpretation of the scriptures before they leave the building. Since this is not possible by any means, should we then start telling them that they need to make sure they come up with the right interpretation as they study the scriptures and walk through life lest they run the risk of educating themselves out of the Kingdom?

We need to trust that God is in control of his church and that those who faithfully follow him will be led into all truth. Otherwise we are lost.

The Wheat and the Chaff

"The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them." (Luke 3:15-17)

This is always preached as Jesus separating people from other people as he separates the wheat from the chaff. I find that Protestants (myself included) seem to be very ready to separate people and judge between who are Christians and who are not and this is one of the passages I find used in this way more often than not.

The thing about this passage is that John is responding to people who desire the Messiah and who desire to repent. They are tax collectors and soldiers (the dregs of Jewish society) coming out to see John and inquire about him. There is no rebuke here, there is only the preaching of the good news.

What if this passage is not talking about the judgment of people as much as the ultimate separation from our fleshly, sinful selves from our holy sanctified selves on the last day. What if the winnowing fork is not separating the sheep from the goats, but rather the holy and redeemed us from the sinful and dark us once and for all.

As far as the analogy is concerned, it makes more sense, doesn't it? The wheat and the chaff are part of one plant, just as the good and the bad are part of one person. There are not Christians destined for glory walking around with sinners damned to hell hanging on them awaiting separation. Instead, there are people who desire God and who seek him out and they will find him because he wants to be found. On the last day there will be a judgment and there are plenty of passages to talk about that, but why not take this one to talk about the freedom that Christ brings to separate us from our darkness that destroys us?