Week 8 brings me to start by quoting a passage some of the guys in our church dialogued about on Saturday morning:
Christian faith is about Christ, not about experiencing Christ. There's a difference and it matters. We put our faith in a person, not an experience........
We do experience Christ in our faith and that's a very good thing, but it's not the really important thing in Christian faith or even in Christian experience. The person in whom we have faith is the really important thing in Christian experience.
Its a great quote. Its a thinking quote.
I grew up in a tradition that seemed to worship doctrine over Jesus.
You could be a hard, difficult, angry man .... but if you were solid in your doctrine everything was good! I came across many men like that. Full of truth, but no grace.
Doctrine was everything.
For years I've been puzzled by this reality.
It's like churches called "Bible Church" or "Baptist Church"!!
Why are they not called "Jesus Church"?
Do we worship the Bible, or worship a sacrament? No. We worship Jesus Christ.
But recently I've been rethinking my attitude towards the elevation of doctrine.
Listen again to our Saturday book:
More than any other religion Christianity makes a big deal of doctrine.
Most religions are fundamentally a way of life, but Christianity is fundamentally a faith, because it's centered not on how we live but on what we believe about how Christ lives (and died, and rose again).
So today at church a girl walks up to me and thanks me for the past 2 years. She has been a part of our church while attending a nearby two year YWAM mission project. Specifically she wanted to thank me for every week teaching from the Scriptures and not trying to just be topical or relevant.
Interesting that it came a day after discussing this topic.
Interesting that most of our critics see us as anything but doctrinal!
Here's the kind of church we have worked hard at being for the past 7 years - a church that elevates orthodox doctrine heard in fresh and creative ways, leading people to Christ, and from that knowledge of Christ come to a vibrant, life changing experience with Christ .... from the outside in.
Maybe our presentation of doctrine has not been wrapped in the same wineskins as a previous generation or other churches, but we are a solid doctrine teaching church.
Final quote from our book [Good News For Anxious Christians @ Phillip Cary]:
The work of the church is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, which forms hearts by the word of God, so that Christ may dwell there and make a lasting change in people's lives. This has been the work of the church from the beginning, since our Lord poured out his Spirit upon his Body at Pentecost. We need not worry that the Holy Spirit will cease to accomplish the work for which he has been sent, no matter how many falsehoods and failures we see in the life of the church.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
I got robbed in Nairobi!
Week 6 and I've just returned from a quick trip to Nairobi, Kenya.
Again I return because too easily I forget how the majority of our world brothers and sisters live.
Seems rather ironic that we have to spend nearly $2K on trip costs to remember that over 70% of the world live on less than $2 a day.
Ask the four young guys who lead the Furaha Community Foundation that we partner with in the Huruma slum or any of their 23 employees and they will tell you that for "mzungus" (white people) to care enough about them to visit them ...... is better than sending more money to them. In a culture where relationships are more precious than money somethings truly are priceless.
As I return from another trip it is too easy for me to ignore how far away we were.
Eerily we flew over Cairo, Egypt as the country below us was sitting on the edge of a revolution. Just hours earlier we had flown at 36,000ft over Darfur seeing its sprawling sand hills - unable to see the pain on a people who had and are experiencing modern day genocide ..... sadly the world flies over it too with politicians ignoring the reality. We watched as Vienna lit up in the early evening and its huge cartwheel shaped road pattern distinguished it from the other European cities we passed. With nightfall on us we landed in the cosmopolitan capital of the world - London with its 9 million people representing over 270 nationalities.
The sad thing is I'd seen it all before and the awe of how far we were from home and what we were seeing no longer gave me chills.
Some say familiarity breeds contempt. For me, it just breeds ordinariness.
Maybe that's sadder.
When the sense of wonder, awe and excitement get diluted, life shrinks down to your size.
When life becomes your size - ordinary is too grand a word to describe the pettiness of your existence.
Of course, where ordinariness is the norm, faith is extinct.
Faith only exists in the world of extraordinary. Ordinary has no need of faith - it is content to remain where it is.
That is always the challenge of Kenya.
How do you prevent the regularity of visiting robbing you of the faith needed to visit?
Same is true in your life, in your context.
The challenge is to prevent the theft.
The need is to be wise to the thief.
The technique is to protect your soul.
Again I return because too easily I forget how the majority of our world brothers and sisters live.
Seems rather ironic that we have to spend nearly $2K on trip costs to remember that over 70% of the world live on less than $2 a day.
Ask the four young guys who lead the Furaha Community Foundation that we partner with in the Huruma slum or any of their 23 employees and they will tell you that for "mzungus" (white people) to care enough about them to visit them ...... is better than sending more money to them. In a culture where relationships are more precious than money somethings truly are priceless.
As I return from another trip it is too easy for me to ignore how far away we were.
Eerily we flew over Cairo, Egypt as the country below us was sitting on the edge of a revolution. Just hours earlier we had flown at 36,000ft over Darfur seeing its sprawling sand hills - unable to see the pain on a people who had and are experiencing modern day genocide ..... sadly the world flies over it too with politicians ignoring the reality. We watched as Vienna lit up in the early evening and its huge cartwheel shaped road pattern distinguished it from the other European cities we passed. With nightfall on us we landed in the cosmopolitan capital of the world - London with its 9 million people representing over 270 nationalities.
The sad thing is I'd seen it all before and the awe of how far we were from home and what we were seeing no longer gave me chills.
Some say familiarity breeds contempt. For me, it just breeds ordinariness.
Maybe that's sadder.
When the sense of wonder, awe and excitement get diluted, life shrinks down to your size.
When life becomes your size - ordinary is too grand a word to describe the pettiness of your existence.
Of course, where ordinariness is the norm, faith is extinct.
Faith only exists in the world of extraordinary. Ordinary has no need of faith - it is content to remain where it is.
That is always the challenge of Kenya.
How do you prevent the regularity of visiting robbing you of the faith needed to visit?
Same is true in your life, in your context.
The challenge is to prevent the theft.
The need is to be wise to the thief.
The technique is to protect your soul.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Where the Gospel is lived.
Week 4 brings new perspective.
Sunday's preach was on the topic of immigration. Speaking into a very real issue, at a very real time for a very real reason - the Gospel.
The Gospel is about real life, not really about heaven in the future.
The Gospel is about transformation and God's rule and reign now.
His rule and reign in a world that rejects it.
The Gospel is all about real issues in real time.
So, the Scripture's teach that Christ followers are "strangers in a strange land" (1 Peter 1 & 2).
To understand this brings new perspective on how Christians engage with the issue of immigration - both documented and undocumented.
Scripture is teaching that because of the distinct and different lifestyles of Christ followers, a lifestyle that is different that the majority of people - the society in which they live will view them as strangers.
Now here's the twist. In our country, if Christians lived as Christ expects us to we would be living at the margins of our society .......and who would we meet there - the immigrant!!
This is the charge, or should I say the opportunity.
If Christians lived as Christ expects us to live, a mass of people who politicians have turned to to help win the past three elections and bring them to the White House, would have to engage justly and fairly with the immigration issue.
As long as Christians - who should be the loudest voice standing with the migrant - stay silent; politicians can ignore it.
Ours is the Christian generation that can accomplish historic things.
This is the generation that could abolish world famine; this is the generation that could eradicate malaria as a killing disease; and ours is the generation that could create an equitable and fair immigration policy for the US.
What an opportunity!
It comes with the challenge for Christians to live on the margins as Christ expects us to.
To live the Gospel!
Sunday's preach was on the topic of immigration. Speaking into a very real issue, at a very real time for a very real reason - the Gospel.
The Gospel is about real life, not really about heaven in the future.
The Gospel is about transformation and God's rule and reign now.
His rule and reign in a world that rejects it.
The Gospel is all about real issues in real time.
So, the Scripture's teach that Christ followers are "strangers in a strange land" (1 Peter 1 & 2).
To understand this brings new perspective on how Christians engage with the issue of immigration - both documented and undocumented.
Scripture is teaching that because of the distinct and different lifestyles of Christ followers, a lifestyle that is different that the majority of people - the society in which they live will view them as strangers.
Now here's the twist. In our country, if Christians lived as Christ expects us to we would be living at the margins of our society .......and who would we meet there - the immigrant!!
This is the charge, or should I say the opportunity.
If Christians lived as Christ expects us to live, a mass of people who politicians have turned to to help win the past three elections and bring them to the White House, would have to engage justly and fairly with the immigration issue.
As long as Christians - who should be the loudest voice standing with the migrant - stay silent; politicians can ignore it.
Ours is the Christian generation that can accomplish historic things.
This is the generation that could abolish world famine; this is the generation that could eradicate malaria as a killing disease; and ours is the generation that could create an equitable and fair immigration policy for the US.
What an opportunity!
It comes with the challenge for Christians to live on the margins as Christ expects us to.
To live the Gospel!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Week 2 or 3 ...spirituality is living more than lessons.
Week 2 or is it week 3?
Begun running some bigger distances than I have for a couple of years. Wondering/testing if this is the year I try for another marathon.
So I pulled out a new type of marathon training plan - the Hansen plan.
In my 14 weeks training plan I will cover a total distance of 622 miles.
The last time I did a marathon I ran 3 days a week and covered a total of 380 miles.
The short of the Hansen - kill you before the race date so you'll never actually run a marathon!
Or .....run 622 miles so that when you run a 26.2 mile marathon it will feel a mere walk in the park.
So I've begun.
I'll give it a few weeks trial and see how my body holds out. Then decide.
But interesting methodology.
Run double what I've run in training before - and yet - while my other training plans had four runs that were either 18 miles or 20 miles in total the Hansen plan only sees me reach 16 miles (still 10.2 short of marathon distance)!
The philosophy includes you may not do a big 20 miler, but when you do your 16 miler, the runs you've put in the days before and the days after will make the 16 miler feel like a 26 miler without the actual pounding of the concrete and the wear and tear on your body.
So now, as a church pastor, I have to now try and link this methodology and my attempt to train with it, to something to do with Jesus!!!
Here's the best I can come up with:
......nope, got nothing.
But then maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe this constant need to try to spiritualize everything, misses it.
Maybe its the doing itself that is spiritual not a lesson you can learn from it.
Maybe its not about finding a spiritual parallel but living spiritual in whatever parallel you are in.
Maybe my marathon training can be spiritual.
What I won't now do is list a whole number of ways it can be. That misses it as well.
What I will do is take on the challenge of this training wanting to know God in the midst of it.
Spirituality is living more than lessons.
Begun running some bigger distances than I have for a couple of years. Wondering/testing if this is the year I try for another marathon.
So I pulled out a new type of marathon training plan - the Hansen plan.
In my 14 weeks training plan I will cover a total distance of 622 miles.
The last time I did a marathon I ran 3 days a week and covered a total of 380 miles.
The short of the Hansen - kill you before the race date so you'll never actually run a marathon!
Or .....run 622 miles so that when you run a 26.2 mile marathon it will feel a mere walk in the park.
So I've begun.
I'll give it a few weeks trial and see how my body holds out. Then decide.
But interesting methodology.
Run double what I've run in training before - and yet - while my other training plans had four runs that were either 18 miles or 20 miles in total the Hansen plan only sees me reach 16 miles (still 10.2 short of marathon distance)!
The philosophy includes you may not do a big 20 miler, but when you do your 16 miler, the runs you've put in the days before and the days after will make the 16 miler feel like a 26 miler without the actual pounding of the concrete and the wear and tear on your body.
So now, as a church pastor, I have to now try and link this methodology and my attempt to train with it, to something to do with Jesus!!!
Here's the best I can come up with:
......nope, got nothing.
But then maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe this constant need to try to spiritualize everything, misses it.
Maybe its the doing itself that is spiritual not a lesson you can learn from it.
Maybe its not about finding a spiritual parallel but living spiritual in whatever parallel you are in.
Maybe my marathon training can be spiritual.
What I won't now do is list a whole number of ways it can be. That misses it as well.
What I will do is take on the challenge of this training wanting to know God in the midst of it.
Spirituality is living more than lessons.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Week 1 Non Violence: A Dangerous Idea!
I know its only the first week of 2011, but here's my best book so far in the new year:
Non-Violence:The History of a Dangerous Idea @ Mark Kurlansky.
Maybe as we start a new year we need to revisit how we live in a world that annually is growing more violent than the years/centuries before.
Kurlansky is not writing from a Christian perspective but he does quote a powerful divine decree "those who take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Does it not seem ironic that a nation that purports to hold to Christian heritage holds the most powerful military force in the history of humankind!
The classic pamphlet on this subject was written in 1815 by David Low Dodge, the man who is considered the first American peace activist. A devout Christian, who at the end of the 1812 war formed the New York Peace Society. Risking the accusation of being disloyal and unpatriotic (how things never seem to change) he postponed his publication until the war was over. It's title was "War Inconsistent With The Religion of Jesus Christ."
Here's a most thought provoking quote from his writing:
Perhaps the most fascinating and disturbing insight that Kurlansky reveals is that throughout history though most religions shun warfare and hold nonviolence as the only moral route toward political change - governing people have always shunned nonviolence and co-opted religion and its language into their violent campaigns.
"If someone were to come along who would not compromise, a rebel who insisted on taking the only moral path, rejecting violence in all its forms, such a person would seem so menacing that he would be killed, and after his death he would be canonized or deified, because a saint is less dangerous than a rebel. The first and most prominent example was a Jew named Jesus!"
Ouch!!!
Gets you thinking about what it means to be a follower of the rebel Jesus.
Non-Violence:The History of a Dangerous Idea @ Mark Kurlansky.
Maybe as we start a new year we need to revisit how we live in a world that annually is growing more violent than the years/centuries before.
Kurlansky is not writing from a Christian perspective but he does quote a powerful divine decree "those who take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Does it not seem ironic that a nation that purports to hold to Christian heritage holds the most powerful military force in the history of humankind!
The classic pamphlet on this subject was written in 1815 by David Low Dodge, the man who is considered the first American peace activist. A devout Christian, who at the end of the 1812 war formed the New York Peace Society. Risking the accusation of being disloyal and unpatriotic (how things never seem to change) he postponed his publication until the war was over. It's title was "War Inconsistent With The Religion of Jesus Christ."
Here's a most thought provoking quote from his writing:
"The professed object of war generally is to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace; but war never did and never will preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace, for it is a divine decree that all nations who take the sword shall perish with the sword. War is no more adapted to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace than midnight darkness is to produce noonday light."
Perhaps the most fascinating and disturbing insight that Kurlansky reveals is that throughout history though most religions shun warfare and hold nonviolence as the only moral route toward political change - governing people have always shunned nonviolence and co-opted religion and its language into their violent campaigns.
"If someone were to come along who would not compromise, a rebel who insisted on taking the only moral path, rejecting violence in all its forms, such a person would seem so menacing that he would be killed, and after his death he would be canonized or deified, because a saint is less dangerous than a rebel. The first and most prominent example was a Jew named Jesus!"
Ouch!!!
Gets you thinking about what it means to be a follower of the rebel Jesus.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Day 364 Disequilibrium
Day 364.
So my Executive Minister had a listen to my controversial Christmas preach (the one where I talked about how Jesus failed) and he told me that I did well at creating disequilibrium.
Disequilibrium [noun] - the loss of equilibrium attributable to an unstable situation in which some forces outweigh others.
Was he telling me that my thesis was 'unstable'?
Or, was he telling me that the forces of insightful new truth outweighed the forces of suggestive heresy...... or vice versus?
But I've found that disequilibrium is an ideal state for re-creation.
I wonder if this was the reality in Genesis 1 - the formless and empty of verse 2
The tōhû wābōhû, a state of disequilibrium (wasteness, emptiness and darkness) was primal conditions for God to move and bring design and shape to. This is precisely the territory that God's creative power manifests itself in.
Sunday's.
Ever entered a Sunday service and everything from the past week is sticking to you. All the junk you picked up as you tried, but could have tried harder, to not conform to the world. Ever entered a Sunday service just desperate to reorient your life back to God and his ways.
I often enter a Sunday feeling formless and empty. drained and bruised by a week of real life living.
Primal conditions for God to move and re-create.
Maybe a state of disequilibrium is the best way to enter, but not leave Sunday.
So my Executive Minister had a listen to my controversial Christmas preach (the one where I talked about how Jesus failed) and he told me that I did well at creating disequilibrium.
Disequilibrium [noun] - the loss of equilibrium attributable to an unstable situation in which some forces outweigh others.
Was he telling me that my thesis was 'unstable'?
Or, was he telling me that the forces of insightful new truth outweighed the forces of suggestive heresy...... or vice versus?
But I've found that disequilibrium is an ideal state for re-creation.
I wonder if this was the reality in Genesis 1 - the formless and empty of verse 2
The tōhû wābōhû, a state of disequilibrium (wasteness, emptiness and darkness) was primal conditions for God to move and bring design and shape to. This is precisely the territory that God's creative power manifests itself in.
Sunday's.
Ever entered a Sunday service and everything from the past week is sticking to you. All the junk you picked up as you tried, but could have tried harder, to not conform to the world. Ever entered a Sunday service just desperate to reorient your life back to God and his ways.
I often enter a Sunday feeling formless and empty. drained and bruised by a week of real life living.
Primal conditions for God to move and re-create.
Maybe a state of disequilibrium is the best way to enter, but not leave Sunday.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Day 360 My soul needs me to write.
Day 360 and I'm only 5 days away from finishing my 2010 blog.
Doubt I'll attempt a daily blog in 2011. I'll keep it going .....but watch for something more and something new coming in social networking.
Writing.
It's interesting that in the digital age the most popular website is a site that sells books - Amazon.
Social networking might be pushing us to short grammatically flawed sentences for our texting or Twitter pages - but real books with real English and real sentences aren't about to go out of fashion.
Recently I came across an good article on writing in the ODE Magazine. It highlighted three rules for writing as a spiritual practice:
1. Don't write what you know.
2. You can't write what you don't know.
3. You must write.
Over this past year I've come to appreciate these three frustrating yet inspiring rules, and come to appreciate that like meditation and prayer no one can do it for you.
This is what makes writing such a spiritual practise.
So, my blog writing this past year was actually more for my soul than anybody else's. Difficult to tell whether the frustrating times did more for my soul than the inspiring times.
I'll keep writing in 2011.
My soul needs it.
Doubt I'll attempt a daily blog in 2011. I'll keep it going .....but watch for something more and something new coming in social networking.
Writing.
It's interesting that in the digital age the most popular website is a site that sells books - Amazon.
Social networking might be pushing us to short grammatically flawed sentences for our texting or Twitter pages - but real books with real English and real sentences aren't about to go out of fashion.
Recently I came across an good article on writing in the ODE Magazine. It highlighted three rules for writing as a spiritual practice:
1. Don't write what you know.
2. You can't write what you don't know.
3. You must write.
Over this past year I've come to appreciate these three frustrating yet inspiring rules, and come to appreciate that like meditation and prayer no one can do it for you.
This is what makes writing such a spiritual practise.
So, my blog writing this past year was actually more for my soul than anybody else's. Difficult to tell whether the frustrating times did more for my soul than the inspiring times.
I'll keep writing in 2011.
My soul needs it.
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