This is the American Dream: Work. Buy. Display. Repeat. -C. S. Lewis
(from Jason Evans)

Merry Christmas regardless. Today we remember a child born long ago, recognize his arrival, and adore our king!

Was irritated and angered...
Yesterday I was driving thru our community, and I stopped at a traffic light. Next to me pulls up this vehicle and on the back of it are three of those cling on ribbons supporting our troops in this Iraq thing. One I hadn't seen previously.

It was yellow, had the words, "Pray for our troops," and the prominent image across the entire ribbon was the cross --> that would be the cross representing Jesus Christ and the gospel message.

Here is my problem. Why are we as Christ followers NOT outraged by this kind of thing? Have we slipped so far into believing that we are a "Christian" nation that we now believe this is a holy war? Have we slipped so far into believing that our country represents the gospel for the entire world to see that we have utterly forsaken the gospel message?

Reminder --> America does NOT equal gospel. America does NOT represent Jesus Christ.
News flash --> Jesus Christ was born to lowly peasants in a manger. He came to the least and the lowest, and he came to save us from our hopelessness and grabs for godliness in forms of powers and principalities.

If we believe this is a holy war, then... (sigh)... I will refrain from words except to say - God help us! (and yes, I am outraged that we don't speak out against this kind of thing because it utterly destroys our witness to the gospel message.)

For kicks and giggles...


I inked it for a mallsearch I was involved with. It's a 'tongue of fire' tribal design. I was thinking of doing it for real, but Torie said she'd make me wear long sleeve shirts for the rest of my life.

could gospel be like good t.v. ???

Last night I watched a Sunday nights episode of "Boston Legal." I nearly cried, laughed myself silly, and yet was deeply captivated... all within 40 minutes (without commercials) of television. Tonight I watched last nights episode of "NYPD Blue" as well as "The West Wing."

I was deeply moved with each of the above. It seems that television, much better than the church, has captivated its audience (us) with good stories (much like our lives) along with a good mixture of both thoughtfulness and emotions, and usually the mixture is pretty true to life in terms of the rationing of each.

So, I am wondering if we as the church have usually run the error of either being too intellectual such as the Calvinist (my tradition) or too emotional without good thought such as the Pentecostal?

What if we could tell the stories of our lives and the stories of the lives of others with the same kind of skill that the writers of good television stories use? Perhaps we are simply too scared to be this real with people? Or perhaps their passion for their art of television runs deeper than our passion for seeing real lives transformed into more intentional kingdom creatures?

...?

death penalty vedict...

If we cheered over the Scott Peterson death penalty today, we're really not 'pro-life.' We may be anti-something, but that doesn't mean that we defend life in all cases. We still like to take justice into our own hands... I am saddened that we cheer or believe real justice takes place when we kill people. Perhaps it is our best form of justice in this world... perhaps. But regardless, it isn't the way God intended...

Love 1 another - page 1
I keep wondering... what if we got serious about loving one another? We've been moving thru I Peter (in the Bible) over the past couple of months, and Peter continues to use language that talks about how we are to treat one another... such as "Love one another deeply from the heart." The book is filled with this kind of language.

Somehow we've put so much emphasis on "Love God" and we've put so little on "Love one another." I'm beginning to wonder if we've messed up the "Love God" part by putting so much emphasis on it, and in turn we've failed to adequately "Love One Another."

What if the first command isn't actually primary to our understanding of faith but... what if love of others/neighbor is of equal significance. Somehow we've put a level of priortity on the first part, and I wonder if we put too little emphasis on the second part; I'm not convinced that was ever God's intent.

What if we really cared about fellow man/woman/child as created in God's image... what if we utterly detested all war, all poverty, lack of adequate water supply for millions of people and lack of health care... what if we cared as much about those things as we do about funding another church building project?

Sympathy & prayers

Got this e-mail while doing early Christmas in Green Bay. Please keep the Doll family in your prayers...

Hello All,

Sorry not to be able to send you each a personal email or phone call but I know you will understand.

Ron’s mom, Jean Doll passed away suddenly this morning (Friday) at about 7:30 a.m. At this point, it appears she had a stroke complicated by an intestinal blockage. Of course, arrangements are still pending. Since we will not have computer access at Dad Doll’s, please check on line as the obituary will be posted on the Cadillac News site: http://www.cadillacnews.com/obituaries

It is a great comfort and gives the family peace that we know she is with her Heavenly Father, free now from her Parkinson’s disease. We are also very thankful for the support and prayers of all of you, our friends and family.

Ron and DeAnna

emerging church...

In the West Michigan area we have a group of about 40 people (10-20 usually show up each month) gathering. We're mostly pastors, youth pastors, social workers, church planters.. u get the idea.

For the past year this group has been pretty informal - gathering with coffee or breafkast/lunch set before us, and our primary intention has been to support one another. Now it looks like we'll be starting more formal conversations around particular topics. We may even form some kind of advisory group... Here's the question for the moment?

So, we can keep using a useless title sush as "ooze group." We can use something like "emergent cohorts" or "emerging church." Or we could do something like "LetUsLoveOneAnother," create t-shirts, and put "Let Us Love..." On the front, and "Love One Another" on the back. Or maybe it would be a reminder to those of us who know about our group/conversation... We're really about the things of Jesus rather than being cool. (oh, but I do love cool)

I know this all sounds corny, but it has to do with a blog that I read by Doug Pagitt. For much more intellectual conversation around this matter, refer to Doug's blog. :)

the dive

three new posts.

HUGE POST on Romans 12-13!

Here is some stuff from a study I'm doing on Romans at JCC. It's a hefty post. Students of N.T. Wright will identify his heavy influence--that's not a bad thing. After you read this, let's talk about it in the comments...


Romans 12-13
God’s Call on the Life of His People
God’s righteousness is not about getting people into heaven. It is about so much more than that. It is about God doing the unexpected and the undeserved thing to rescue the world He loves. It is about rescuing humanity from the divisions, violence, injustice, and perversions that mark its inability to live rightly with each other and from the idolatry, hypocrisy, and self-dehumanization (i.e., refusing to reflect the image of God) that mark its inability to live rightly with God.

As God rescues people from their rebellion and ruin, He calls them to re-present His new life (i.e., the life of the age to come) within the present age. Such a re-ordering of life presents great challenge: 1) for people who have previously been formed according to the pattern of the present age, and 2) for people who are surrounded by a culture that is formed according to the pattern of the present age.

How is such a challenge to be met? It is to be met by a community that 1) is transformed into the likeness of the Messiah from the inside out (mind and body) as it offers itself in worship as a living sacrifice, 2) demonstrates love and unity for each other in their life together, and 3) demonstrates love and respect to those who are not yet part of the family.

Life: Worship and Transformation
Romans 12:1-3 and 13:11-14 share a similar enough theme that we can identify them as ‘brackets’ to this larger section. They are both concerned with living within an alternative kind of life—a transformed life, a life offered up to God as an act of worship, a life lived not in the darkness of the present age, but in the light of the age to come.

The first section (12:1-2) is a very familiar set of verses, but what is missed in most translations is something very important to Paul’s view on the world—namely, his view of the present age and the (present and still coming) age to come. What is often translated as “do not be conformed to this world” is more accurately put as “do not be conformed to the present age.”

For Paul, “the present age” is always understood in contrast to the ’olam haba, “the age to come”—that is, the ‘age’ when God has put the world to rights and reigns without opposition or rebellion over the whole world. The church, then, for Paul, is to be the community of the age to come that lives within the present age—the foretaste of the reign of God. It’s worship, it’s priestly work, then, is to embody that life (i.e., ‘living sacrifices’ that discern and do ‘the will of God’) before the parts of the world that remain in rebellion and enslaved to sin within the present age.

The final part of this section (13:11-14) forms the other bracket, and calls again for the church to be the people of the ‘olam haba, the age to come. The language used here is of living in the day as opposed to living in the darkness—of putting on the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, as in putting on armor against the powers of darkness in the present age. While in fact Jesus is the protection for the people of God, we can read this passage to suggest that putting on the character of Messiah (ala the ‘renewing of your minds’ in 12:2) is itself a kind of protection—preventing us from returning to the captivity of sin ‘in the flesh’ (that is, ‘in Adam’).

Framing in what is to come in 12:3-13:10, Paul orients his readers toward the foundational activity of living the transformed life of ‘the age to come’ within the present age. This then, will be further developed with respect to relationships with those both inside (12:3-13 &13:8-10) and outside the church (12:14-21 & 13:1-7).

What difference would it make to think of our worship as “the whole of our lives as the embodiment of the age to come”?


Why do you think it is important for Paul to include body and mind in the relationship of worship and transformation?


Why do you think it is so important for us to think in terms of our identity as people of the age to come living in the present age? How can we start to think this way again?

Community: Love, Unity, & Life Together
Romans 12:3-13 and 13:8-10 are both concerned with how God’s people are to demonstrate the life of the age to come in relationship with each other. Of course love, a deep mutual concern for each other’s well being, is emphasized, but it is not left in the abstract. In 12:3-13, Paul outlines the shape of this love with respect to our attitude toward ourselves with respect to others (12:3), to our contribution (via spiritual gifts) to the care of the whole body (12:4-8), and to the specific ways that genuine love is demonstrated (12:9-13).

In 13:8-10, Paul ties his instructions for the demonstration of love in the Christian community with his earlier discussion on the fulfillment of the Torah. As we saw earlier (5:5, 8:3-17), the Spirit enables those who are ’in Messiah’ to fulfill the greatest commandment (Deut 6:4). It is here that we see Paul suggesting that the Christian community is now able and expected to fulfill the rest of the Torah—that part summed up by the command, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

There is, then, no place in the Christian community for ways of relating that represent the present age (i.e., arrogance, adultery, deception, murder, theft, covetousness, malice, contempt, disrespect, strife, etc. see Romans 1:26-32). Our life together is to re-present the life of the age to come even while we live in the present age.

Romans 12:9-13 is often read apart from 12:3-8. What might be gained by reading these sections together? What do they have to do with each other?


How does Paul’s distinction between those ‘in Adam’ and those ‘in Christ’ help make sense of his instruction about how those ‘in Christ’ are to relate to each other?


Where have you seen the command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ embodied and fulfilled in the church?

Outsiders: Love and Respect
Romans 12:14-21 and 13:1-7 both address how God’s rescued people are to relate to those ‘outside.’ As a people who have been rescued from captivity to sin—those who are now ‘in Messiah’—we cannot relate to those who still remain ‘in Adam’ in any way other than the character of Messiah.

To our neighbors(12:14-21), some of whom may be hostile toward us, we demonstrate love by blessing them instead of cursing them, by sharing in our neighbors joys and sorrows, by living in peace with them “so far as it depends on you” (i.e., not being the cause of strife), and to refuse the pursuit of vengeance. In other words, to refuse to participate in the cycle of evil at work in the world—thereby perhaps breaking that cycle.

To those in authority over us (13:1-7), we show nothing but respect for them—understanding their place of authority under the sovereignty of God. The perspective of “the people of the age to come” on the authorities in “the present age” is that they have their authority (through perhaps not their endorsement) given to them by God.

The attitude toward authorities is not one of violent rebellion (or any other posture contrary to the character of Jesus), but one of obedience—insofar as those authorities require order and behavior that is consistent with God’s concern for justice and peace. Under authorities that do not act accordingly, the Christian community’s disobedience (as in Christians’ refusal to worship Caesar when Rome commanded it) is to be done without participating in the cycle of evil (i.e., violence, private vengeance, bribes, etc.).


Where has the Christian community’s attitude toward 'outsiders' failed to live up to its intended standard? When we have failed to ‘love our enemies,’ what have been some of the causes for our failure?


Have Christians ever used ‘loyalty to God’ as an excuse to engage in destructive (evil) action in opposition to authorities? What are some examples?

Anna, Johny & Jaden riding on the apple orchard wagon... does God create cute kids or what!

~ three goofy kids at the apple orhard ~

Some Thoughts from Sunday Night

I want us to think specifically, though, about suffering that we go through because of our loyalty to Jesus.

I think we need to start out by saying thank God that we don’t suffer—because we’re really too weak. I really wonder how long it would be before we caved if we really had to suffer because of our allegiance to Jesus.

Suffering, in and of itself, is not virtuous. There’s nothing good about suffering on its own. There are people next Sunday night over at Fairhaven who are going to be praying for the persecuted church around the world. We ought to join them in prayer for our brothers and sisters who are suffering.

I have heard people say that it would be a good thing for the church in America to experience suffering because of their loyalty to Jesus. Maybe that would do some good, but will it really take such an experience for us to start being serious about following Jesus?

We really need to be careful about what we ask for.

Another concern I have about suffering because of our loyalty to Jesus leads me to wonder whether our lives are different enough from the surrounding culture to set us in position to suffer because of our allegiance to Messiah.

I heard a radio commentator this past week in commentary on the election talking about the fact that ‘evangelicals’ look more like most of American culture now than they did twenty years ago. They spoke of the present similarity in music, clothes, language. Have these been the only areas of difference in the past 20 years? We don't look so strange to the rest of American culture anymore, I guess.

Is that a good thing?


Let’s think through this passage in 1 Peter together and draw our attention to what the cause of suffering might be and what our response might look like as apprentices of Jesus.


1 Peter 2:18-25, The Message
18You who are servants, be good servants to your masters--not just to good masters, but also to bad ones. 19What counts is that you put up with it for God's sake when you're treated badly for no good reason. 20There's no particular virtue in accepting punishment that you well deserve. But if you're treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.21This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.22He never did one thing wrong,Not once said anything amiss.23They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. 24He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. 25You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.



When we suffer because of our allegiance to God, we don’t stop doing good.”If you’re treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant, that is what counts with God.”This includes how we respond to those who are mistreating us. You don’t engage in the cycle of evil. You continue to share in what is good and creative.

Rom 12:14-21
Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. 15Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. 16Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.17Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. 18If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. 19Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."20Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. 21Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

When we suffer because of our allegiance to God, we trust God to set things right.“Messiah suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.”This is very counter-intuitive, but think about Jesus. Of course, Jesus stood up for others who were suffering injustice, but he never stood up for himself. Instead, he trusted that God would vindicate him and set things right.

This is where our view of the present and coming kingdom of God is so important. You can live differently in the present if you are clear about what will be in the future.

-A future where God renews everything that was broken.
-A future where God makes sense of everything that doesn't make sense.
-A future where God heals all wounds in humanity and the rest of creation too.
-A future where God removes all evil, and its companions of death, suffering, and sorrow.

This cannot lead us into some kind of “I can’t wait to get out of here” mentality. It must lead us to engage in the present—in the midst of a world in which suffering is a realty, in the midst of a world in which our allegiance to Jesus is going to cost us something because it will put us into conflict with the powers that are at work in this world.

We must stand alongside those who are suffering, and this means that we too will suffer—and it will be because of our loyalty to Jesus—but it will also be a sign to the 'powers' that their days are numbered. We do not fear them because they are already beaten. They are on borrowed time. And we undo them in the present to the extent that we stand next to Jesus as he stands next to those who are suffering.

I don’t know what this might call you into, but I know it is going to call us into some uncomfortable things. You cannot be an apprentice of the Suffering Servant and not expect to suffer yourself. That is a delusion the church in America has too long believed. We cannot afford to fool ourselves any longer. Starting with me.

Starting Sunday, November 7, we will be meeting an hour earlier.

Dr. Donald A. Carson is a name most of us don't know; he's a professor in New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity in Illinois. He's a distinguished writer and evangelical voice. He's also recently written a book about the emerging church. And to say that he is critical may be an understatement.

Here's the thing... all things that have created change within the church for the past 2000 years have been opposed. While gathered with friends in Santa Fe last week, I heard much talk about listening to voices that push against us. That's good wisdom. We need people to push back.

We also need to know that God has been in our midst over the past decade as the Spirit has prepared our hearts, minds, and lives for living a gospel message that is dangerous, a gospel message that conflicts with what we have been swallowing for much of our lives.

As followers of Jesus >>>
God has called us to be 'set apart.' He's called us to be apprentices of his Son. He's called us to push against the status quo and to be peacemakers and lovers of people.

Let us go forward. While listening to the voices of such people as Carson, let us be reminded that as lovers of Jesus, we are called to be 'one.' Unity among believers is not an option for the church of Christ. For those who have learned to embrace denominations and division for the sake of 'truth,' we can only say, "Go get 'em." For those of us who really believe that unity is not optional, let us go forward, knowing full well that the risen Jesus prayed that we would have the same unity that he experienced with the Father & Spirit.

For all the crap we get, and for those of you who have been called heretics, I simply encourage you to go forward. There is a sweet, sweet spirit in the air... (pause) The Spirit IS in our midst.

Shalom.

Emergent gathering in Santa Fe...

Kathy and I returned to Glorieta, New Mexico for the second year of gathering as 'friends' of Emergent. It was good; it was excellent. The food, drinks, and weather were all typical of the area. The friends were even better...

It is an incredibly good experience when people gather knowing that a living passion for Jesus is beyond question for their lives. At the same time, all questions, all thoughts, all ideas about how to increasingly follow Jesus are open to discussion and deep thought.

Without writing about every detail of the gathering, I describe it this way...

It was about brothers and sisters in Christ gathering for the sake of learning how to better love Jesus.

At the end of the week, we left one another having experienced deep friendships, incredible vulnerability, deep love for one another, and stories about the Spirit in our midst.

For pasts of four days we lounged around tables, and we ate and drank with the aromas of fresh bread and the best of wines lingering in the air and their flavors resting on our tongues.

The Pastor?

I was in the locker room with a bunch of pastors the other day, and I overheard a bit of conversation about 'job descriptions' and the need for churches to have a 'senior pastor.'

It's been three years since I was a part of the traditional church, and the entire conversation seemed odd. I am beginning to believe that we need those things only because we've forsaken much of the servant role that Jesus embodied. Neither concise job descriptions nor the directorship of senior pastors are significantly important if we are foremost about the things of Jesus.

And here is another thought that is brewing in my mind... The other day I led a seminar on 'Helping Your Youth Pastor Succeed.' The whole thing went well, but now I am wondering why we have given God's people (other than pastors) the title of 'volunteers.'

I wonder if the term demeans those who are actively involved with the organized church?
I wonder if it suggests that they have a choice if they want to be involved?

It seems that people who are serious about following Jesus would have a necessary need to be involved. It seems involvement, to some degree, reflects the condition of one's passion for Christ. Perhaps we should consider this term 'volunteers' and replace it with something more biblical, something more life-giving?

~The McLaren Library~

I noticed today on Brian McLaren's website that Off the Map has made available a collection of there times together. There are links of video, audio and articles that has been made available. I watched a couple of the videos today and the quality is great. Check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Click here for a link to the video files.

I found the the content of this post at David Finch's blog this morning. Thanks David!

Where is our hope?

Reflecting on what I posted last night in regard to politics and gospel, and thinking about what our community is looking at Sunday night ( I Peter 1:13-25), I ran across the following:

"Through him (Jesus) you believe in God, who raised him fro the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." (vs 21)

So, what would it look like if our hope was entirely in God and not in nations or political candidates? When the Israelites were looking for political strength, they entirely missed the physical presence of God in their midst. Are we doing the same kind of thing?

Is our hope really in God? Certainly a question that still rings true today.

Just wondering if we sometimes get political parties, elections, and the gospel messed up and mixed up? Someone noted tonight that Kerry is having a hard time because Bush is 'eradicating evil, and how do you run against that?'

Regardless of politicals, it sounds like the job of someone else much bigger than us... and even he still allows it...

the dive

This is something that I shared at a recent water's edge gathering. It was something I experienced and wrote about while on vacation a few weeks ago...

So, I just want to get these thoughts down before they are lost into the bankruptcy of my memory. Bugs again crossing the screen of my laptop just outside the Dells of Wisconsin where we are camping.

We set up our camp this afternoon. We got it down to about 20 minutes with unhooking from the truck, hooking up the electric and water, and getting the beast level. We proceeded to the kiddy pool and swimming pool for an hour only to return with a note attached to our trailer. It read: Please come to the office asap. Sorry, but you have to move to lot 79.

So, we decide to ignore the note for a couple of hours while we went into town. It wasn't that we wanted to ignore them as much as we wanted to enjoy the last couple hours of afternoon sun. We got back to the campsite around 7:30, and we headed to the office.

Turns out that there was a group of tenters near our site, and someone had supposedly reserved the site for their 35 foot 5th wheel to be close to the group of tenters. There were a dozen open sites around us, but apparently he insisted that he have the site he had reserved. I don't entirely blame him, but a bit of grace would have prevented us from a 40 minute ordeal of moving, and it really didn't move him any closer to his fellow campers.

Anna, Jaden, and Kathy headed off to the playground while I finished the move, chopped some wood with much intensity, and swore every word imaginable in my mind. I was absolutely awestruck by their total lack of grace toward the campgrounds.

Jaden is now trying to drink my Labatt Blue. I thought beer was an acquired taste that two year olds wouldn't have. O.K. I brought the boy inside the trailer to mom.

I was also amazed that they had NO concern or thought that it might take a young family a ton of effort to move the trailer for the sake of being 30 feet closer to their friends. I was reminded of my own selfishness in regard to our initial attitude of ignoring the note on our camper door. I was even more amazed by the selfishness of the campers. More than anything else, I hope they don,t claim to be Christ followers.

I know we don't earn salvation. Grace isn't earned. Yet, when our lives don't reflect our talk, I am beginning to believe that our supposed claim to follow Christ is also nearly worthless. The depths of my heart and soul hope that I don't display this kind of selfishness in my life. If I do, I hope you, friends, and family tell me so. Anna does it pretty regularly on little things. This incident just seemed to be a big thing.

Total reckless abandon for oneself. Those kind of people make the world suck. Period.

This incident wouldn't be complete without noting the ending. Just as Kathy and the kids returned from the playground, my hatred percolating to its fulcrum, a four wheeled vehicle from the campground pulls up to our site. Without so much as a word, the campground staff member begins to unload firewood and carry it to our fire pit. After two armloads, I mentioned that he had given us plenty, and his response was, "It's going to be cold tonight."

I have not a doubt that this guy was, at least in part, God's way of restoring a bit of my hope in humanity, perhaps only restoring my hope in people who really live lives that reflect the life of my Christ, but it was restored to some degree nonetheless.

Mom is frustrated with the boy in the trailer. I better go for now.

We had a late dinner of incredible muskmelon and over-ripe sweet corn that we had bought at a little stand alongside the road today. No complaints here. We held hands and prayed as a family. I began, and I couldn't think of anything other than that guy giving us the firewood, and I simply asked that our lives be more like he was to me tonight.

Where were you when I was hungry, when I was thirsty, or when I was in need of reassurance that we really were created in the image of God. And I somehow, somewhere heard God whispering, "I sent the man with the firewood."

Well, I think I'm finally over the jet lag from the trip to Boise and Eagle. First, a couple of pictures, then some thoughts. There's no hope to write it all out, but I'll try to include a few of what were highlights for me.

Here's me halfway up the Bogus Basin road. I think this was just under 4000 feet altitude. Incredible.


Here's John at the end of the Bogus Basin road. Above 5500 feet. Mile high, bro.


Here's Mark Priddy sharing some introductory remarks. Mark, Gary, and the rest put together a truly excellent format for this forum.


Here's the folks who led our singing on Friday morning. It was a bald-friendly gathering.

Highlights
1. Alan Roxburgh. Attention, all emergent folks. Alan has something to say to us. It involves the phrase, "Get over it." If you would like to know what he means by that, give him an email. I think we really need the kind of wise and loving challenge that Alan offered at the forum.

2. George Hunsberger. I think George was hitting people in places they didn't know existed. He presented some very important and extremely well thought out ideas about missional churches and evangelism, and when he was finished the room let out a collective "Whoa," ala Neo in the Matrix. Seriously, George was like, "Any questions?" and you heard crickets. I was hoping people would respond, but I really think many of us were just blown away. I honestly think George was taking some people into uncharted territory. It was good, really good. I was really overwhelmed as I thought through some of the possibilities and implications of the things he was saying.

3. Rembrandt's & The Landing Place. So Mark Priddy starts out our tour of the coffee shop and community center that they're putting together there in Eagle, and he's telling all of these stories in classic Priddy ADHD randomness (God love him!), and it is just beautiful. To see how God is bringing things together for these people and how they're really living out a life of discerning the Spirit's direction, it is absolutely beautiful. Seriously, spend the 300 minutes on your cell phone and call Mark. Or better yet, take a trip over to Eagle and see for yourself. Mark says that it isn't a model. I think what is modeled here is a group of people listening to where God is sending them and responding in trust the whole way.

4. Gary Waller, Ryan, & whoever else was involved in the planning. I thought the structure of the singing, the liturgy, and the presentation/dialogue format was well done. The guys at my table, Wes, Mike, Steve, Tod, and Mark (when he was around) really found the table discussions to be some of the best parts of the conference.

5. Jon Myers, travel companion. It was good to travel with Jon. I got a little possessive with the car keys, but Jon didn't complain about my driving at all. We were driving up in the Bogus Basin, trying to get to the top of the mountain. We got about 3/4 of the way there and I was ready to turn around (it was about 20 miles of hair-pin turns uphill all the way--and me afraid of steep heights, definitely testing my fear factor), but Jon said, No, let's keep going. We did, and I'm glad. Driving down the mountain was fantastic. Poor Jon had to stay in the passenger seat the whole time.

this Sunday - Labor Day weekend

We are going to be moving our worship service to a campfire at the home of Travis & Heidi Swierenga. Since a large number of people are away on vacation, we will spend time together around the campfire.

Date: Sunday, Sept. 5
Time: Beginning around 7 p.m.
Location: 10313 Tyler Street, Zeeland MI

[From Hudsonville – Take Port Sheldon west to 104th Avenue. Turn north (right) onto 104th. Turn right (east) onto Tyler. Their home is on the left side (north).]

Tonight I was watching a bit of the Olympics, and I thought: There is so much good will toward fellow men and fellow women exhibited during these games. It's profound. For two weeks every two years we realize that men and women from all corners of the earth are created in the image of God... and then we return to war after those two weeks as if the Olympics were a commercial interuption to our real lives.

What if Christians decided to be Christ followers... what if we were serious about being people who forever changed this earth? What if we heard those words from years ago, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God."

And then I really pause to ask, "But why haven't we taken this seriously?"

I've been posting the stuff from the training that John West and I are putting together at the on a mission from God weblog. Check it out. There are three weeks worth of material posted.

Jaden, my almost two year old couldn't sleep tonight. Mom brought him down to me as she headed to bed, and he's now leaning up against me - making little snoring sounds and holding his favorite blanket around his neck as we sit on the couch. He's beautiful. He's a son of God - a child of God. He is beautiful.

Over a family picnic early Sunday afternoon, complete with burgers, brats and corn on the cob, I was asked if I would prefer that the war with/in Iraq be here rather than on the other side of the world (?). If I could chose, I doubt that would be my choice. Yet, it seems that we set aside, or at least forego, the things that break the heart of God when we talk politics.

Thousands have died as we attempt to secure our own safety. We quickly claim to be blessed people who live in a free nation. I wonder if we are broken people in need of a savior?

Different in a Good Way

To be ‘in the world but not of the world’ is a phrase we have become so comfortable with that we might be in danger of ignoring it altogether. I wonder if one reason we have become so comfortable with the consumerism, individualism, and the other ‘gods’ of our age because we have lost our sense of being ‘a body of people sent.’ Do we see ourselves as a missional community?

Part of being missional is identifying the places where the good news of the kingdom of God challenges the assumptions and practices of the other would-be ‘kingdoms’ of the age. We might ask, “In what way is God calling us to live differently than our culture?” We might ask, “What ‘normal’ ways of living does the gospel call into question?” We might ask, “What ‘alternative’ ways of living does the gospel call us to embody?”

Being an alternative community means that we are to be different—to offer a different ‘way of being’. In doing this, we cannot settle for the superficially different ways (i.e., ‘Christian’ versions of ‘secular’ products & entertainment, t-shirts, bumper stickers, & wrist bracelets). We need deep and fundamental difference in the quality of our character & of our lives together.

We need to be different, but being different doesn’t mean being weird in the superficially weird ways that we usually think of being different.. It means we might need to take a hard look at the ways we value privacy and autonomy over the good of others and seek ways to involve ourselves in the practices of hospitality and confession. It means that we might need to take a hard look at the ways we relate to other people in economic, transactional ways (i.e., “how can this person help me get what I want?” “what do I need to do so that we’re even?”) and seek ways we can both give generously and receive graciously. It might mean that we need to take a hard look at the reason we feel we need to ‘own’ everything we use and seek ways we can share our possessions with others.

These are not easy things to do, but I believe that they may be some of the most important things we must do as students of Jesus. We need people who will get together and ask the tough questions of each other—not just to make new rules to prevent us from having what we want to have and doing what we want to do, but to free us from the compulsions and addictions that enslave us and prevent us from faithful life in God’s kingdom.

Will you be a part of a group of people who are different in a good way?

On a Mission from God
a study led by Joel McClure and John West

Missional Spiritual Formation
As we interact with each other we will:
- recognize that we have been called not only as individuals, but more importantly as a people
- understand our Mission as a people
- recognize our need for training for the mission
- begin training together
- begin setting outposts of the Kingdom in our normal everyday lives.
Tuesday Nights in August, starting August 10 at 6:30pm (we will have a meal at 6:00pm) at Jenison Christian Church.
We are asking that you sign up for this study by July 30. You can sign up by emailing Joel here.
Dinner and childcare (up to age 3) will be available.

Returning to our leased space... we are unofficially returning to 'the space' for a gathering time on Sunday night.  Munchies will start around 5:30 p.m.  Potluck worship stuff will begin around 6:00 p.m.  (Hopefully all of the remodeling, permits included, will be finished before the end of August.)

For those of you who have not yet read this recent Brian McLaren article. 
(remember this is the sole property of Brian)
 
Bless This House? Why efforts to renew the church are often misguided.
by Brian McLaren, Leadership columnist

I often hear someone say, "We're exploring new ways of doing church." Or "We're seeking church renewal." Or even "We're developing a postmodern church service. It's very cool. We're very innovative." In all these ways, my colleagues and I, for all our good intentions, show that we may not be likely to succeed. 

These efforts overlook one small detail. Whatever we change (style of music, style of preaching, use of art, candles, incense, etc.), we're not changing the thing that needs changing most.

Which is? One might recall Jesus' words about saving our lives and in the process losing them. Could it be that the church is as it is in so many places not because of a lack of effort or a lack of sincerity or a lack of spirituality (or even a lack of money, commitment, or prayer), but rather because our sincere efforts, passionate prayers, and material resources are all aimed in the wrong direction—the direction of self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, self-improvement?

What if saving the church is a self-defeating mission?   

Lesslie Newbigin often spoke of the greatest heresy of monotheism (in its Jewish, Christian, and Islamic forms): cherishing Clause A of the Abrahamic call while conveniently suppressing, forgetting, or ignoring Clause B. So, we want to be blessed (big, exciting, vibrant, wealthy, healthy, wise). We want to be great (a great nation, a great denomination, a great congregation). To this end we pray and pay and read and plead and strive and strain and yearn and learn and groan and labor. And we give birth to wind. 

Meanwhile, might God be otherwise occupied, scanning the earth for people who will also cherish Clause B: to be made into a great blessing, so that all people on earth can be blessed through us? Are we seeking blessing so as to be a blessing to the world God loves? 

Do you see the difference between renewing the church as our mission, and blessing the world?

Our persistent "bless-me" bug, like a nasty flu into which we keep relapsing, creates what some of my friends have called "the great commotion," a close approximation of the Great Commission, but a miss nonetheless. Seminar junkies accumulate plastic-covered notebooks that could fill an oil tanker. Authors like myself write books whose combined gross weight may exceed the weight of our congregations after a pot-luck dinner. But not much changes. 

Our efforts are all bent to renew or strengthen the current systems, which are perfectly designed (as Dallas Willard has said) to deliver the results we are now getting. 

So if we are a self-centered church in America, it is because our systems—including our theological systems—are perfectly designed to produce such a church. It has been said that the greatest obstacle to the coming of the kingdom of God is the church, preoccupied with her own existence. Could our preoccupation with making better churches rather than better blessing the world be the heart disease that plagues us? And could our Clause-A theological systems be the high-fat cause of that heart disease? 

This is what's really going on beneath all the superficial talk of "emerging church." Far more than cosmetics are under consideration: the very purpose of the church, the gospel, and the pastorate are being re-thought. If that doesn't disturb, surprise, or excite you, you don't understand what is being said. 

Everywhere I go, on the fringes and in unexpected places (including in all the wrong denominations where this sort of things shouldn't happen), I discover churches and leaders who are grappling with these deep questions. They want to be blessed in order to be a blessing to the world. Their dream does not stop with the church. They're thinking about God's kingdom coming on earth as in heaven. 

These are good signs. Hopefully, the early signs of even better signs yet to come. How ironic if the church were to find life by losing it, by giving it away. 

Brian McLaren is pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland.

Just being Real...
As we talk about kingdom, heaven, and life, I was reminded of an e-mail I got from a friend a month ago. She is an American who I call Mega; she is currently living in Greece as she is involved with YWAM.

She wrote: One evening while we were together, Theodore told me that he felt like there was a part of me that I was holding back, a side of me they hadn't seen from me or that I wasn't letting them see. That statement really made me think about myself, about the person I am, about the person I show to other people. I've always been mindful of being respectable, of being careful not to offend others or make a spectacle of myself (usually). And why? Because I care about what others think of me. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it can be sometimes if I care too much and act in ways that aren't true to myself. I wonder if I have unknowingly lost a part of who God has made me in my endeavors to be respectable. Have I hidden a part of God’s original design because I fear what others might think? Do I miss out on great moments in life because I’m scared of looking silly? Though I haven’t yet figured it all out in my head and my heart with God, if I am truly honest I’m afraid my answer to those two questions might be yes.

All this talk of heaven... just got a phone call from my mother. She's in the 'know.' She's a mom. Anyway, called to tell me that a young man, a 23 year old, a former student at the church where I was a youth pastor for a while. He was fighting cancer, and his fight came to an end a couple of days ago. My heart breaks. It breaks with the kind of tension that likely caused the temple curtain to break in two as the Christ died.

This isn't the way things are meant to be. No. It's been years since I've seen Josh. He was a good man, a young man with athletic ability, a great football player. He was a blond haired kid with looks that likely melted many girls hearts, and yet he possessed a compassionate heart. The little I knew of Josh - he was a lover of people. That likely came naturally, or at least with the love of God. His parents are both sincere lovers of people as well - reflectors of God's love.

Two weeks ago another friend, Laurie, 46 years old and mother of two boys, ages 20 and 14, and an incredible wife, also found goodness in death. Still, at that funeral as well, my soul was thankful but restless. This isn't the way things are fully meant to be.

Let us long for a better tomorrow. Let us seek passionate friendships. Let us be lovers of people, and let's allow our hearts to continue to break in the midst of the pain and brokenness of creation. For when this creation is fully restored so will be the bodies of Josh and Laurie. I long. I long. (Hear me from the depths of my soul!!! YES, MY SOUL IS SHOUTING.) I long for that day.

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:18-21)

Today, as flags wave and fireworks blast to celebrate the independence of this land, we gather together as citizens of another realm. And so we must ask ourselves this morning, What does it mean to live as a citizen of heaven in America? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in this country?

Today, as we celebrate the independence of our country, we must firmly state that we are Americans second, and students, apprentices, and disciples of Jesus first and above all else. We have only one non-contingent allegiance, to the Creator—all other allegiances, professed or otherwise, are, and must remain, contingent upon that.

Further, we must declare that we are citizens of heaven, first and above all other citizenship. To declare this is not to hate this or any other nation, but to love all peoples and desire good for all nations.

It is to say that we have been de-nationalized for we find every human being to be our brothers and sisters and fellow countrymen.

It is to say that we desire God to bring healing and blessing to America as well as Mogadishu, Somalia; Astana, Kazakhstan; Karbala, Iraq; Port au Prince, Haiti; and Darfur, Sudan.

It is to say that the hopes and dreams and rights and liberties of Americans are no more important to us than those of all people of all nations—that we desire all peoples to have a future and a hope, and to live under the shalom of God.

It is to say that we long to see the world as it one day will be: a place with no borders, no security fences, no hatred or violence against our fellow human beings, for “for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea,” and “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD ,' because they will all know [God], from the least of them to the greatest.”

It is to say that the value of the life of an American is no greater or less than that of a Somali, an Afgan, or an Iraqi. We love all men and women equally for “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Paul’s words to a small group of Jesus’ disciples in the Roman colony of Philippi challenged the claims of Caesar and his Rome upon the peoples of the Roman Empire. They echo through the centuries to call all disciples of Jesus to worship no nation or ruler, but to live to announce the coming kingdom of God that all nations and rulers and all people might enter into and receive it.

I Don't Believe in Heaven

I don’t believe in heaven—not the heaven that many people seem to believe in today. A recent article on heaven in ‘The Lookout’ (a weekly publication of Standard Publishing) betrays how far off we have gone from a biblical imagination of the future. The author writes some very good stuff about how our citizenship is in heaven. I was reading it and thinking, “Right on, man!” But then I read this: “When Jesus returns, it will be to take us to our real home.” Huh? What about resurrection? What about the renewal of all creation?

What bugs me about that ‘this-earth-is-not-my-home-I’m-just-a-passing-through’ kind of thinking is that it is just not consistent with what the prophets hoped for. It’s not what Jesus hoped for. Jesus didn’t pray, “Father, take us off of this dirty old planet.” He prayed, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The prophets never looked ahead to some distant, beyond-the-stars existence, but rather a this-world-put-to-rights kind of existence.

When Jesus returns, it will not be to “take us to our real home.” It will be to make this creation the home of God himself. Read Revelation 21 and you will see that the bride (also symbolized as the holy city or New Jerusalem) comes down to the earth—-not up, up, and away from the earth. And the great hope of that chapter is found in the statement, “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God” (Rev 21:3, The Message, italics mine).

Heaven is the 'realm' of God. It is the 'realm' in which God’s will is completely done. It is not a place somewhere beyond the edge of the universe. It is the unseen reality that is all around us. It is hidden, or veiled, at the present, but one day will be un-veiled. The Apostle John had a word for this: Apocalypse, or Revelation. John’s Revelation does not break camp with the prophets of Israel. He alludes to them over 500 times! His hope, therefore, was consistent with their hope—that God would ‘return’ to heal and restore his broken and wayward creation. He did not imagine the end of the space-time universe. He imagined the restoration and healing of it. He imagined our new place within it as resurrected, re-embodied people.

I am convinced that we need to re-think our thinking about heaven. We need to get off the escapism-train and start listening to the hope of the prophets who looked forward to a time when “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them…. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11). I’m looking forward to that.

Location information for June 13 & 20

Due to reconstruction of our newly leased space, we will be meeting at the home of Jerry & Ruth Vanden Bosch this coming Sunday as well as June 20. Our gathering time will be the standard 5:30 p.m. for food and 6 p.m. for worship/shared conversation. Their address is 4372 Shady Oak Ct., Hudsonville. (It’s the same location where we’ve been most of the past three years.)

Also, we have been invited to worship with Southside Vineyard of Grand Rapids this coming Sunday morning. They have a guest pastor/professor who will be speaking on the kind of kingdom stuff that we have been talking about over the past year. Their summer worship time begins at 10 a.m., and childcare is provided. If you are interested in going with us or meeting us, our family will likely be attending.

Gathering of Friends...

Two days ago I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with a few West Michigan friends: Joel McClure, Paul Worster, and Denise VanEck. It was good to sometimes slow life to a pace that kept the noise of distractions away from the conversation. We were able to simply talk about what God is doing in our lives, our families, and our faith communities.

Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to have several significant conversations with Denise beginning at the Emergent convention in Nashville (as well as running across a busy street to flag down her airport shuttle). During our conversation on Wednesday we talked about the Emerging Women Leaders Initiative which is loosely connected with Emergent. Denise participated in a recent gathering of this group... down in Georgia. I will guess that this 'emerging women' conversation will become really exciting stuff for the church over the next decade(s). I encourage you to check out the link above.

One final thought for the night: Denise has brought another quality of goodness into my life. I have grown to appreciate and love her as a sister in Christ! I have little doubt that she is not only a women passionate for Christ's church but for her children and husband as well. Continue to run the race well Denise!

Night ya all!

Some of our friends are putting this together:





Theology for the sake of the world. Tom Wright wrote (in NTPG) that theology in the early church had to do with mission and suffering--not abstract hypothesizing. It's good to see we're starting to see that come back into play.

Check out the Theology Studio site and think about making time to get back to Cincy.

The following comes from a friend of ours...

As you well know by now that I am reading children's literature. C.S. Lewis is the man but anyway since I have been thinking about children's stories and rhymes and the such. I thought it would be neat to write an emerging church version of our deeply held reformed children's rhyme, complete with motions.

(Kid speaking as he puts his fingers together with his 'pointers' facing up like a Charlie's Angel's impression) "Here are the doors and here is the steeple, open the door and see all the people"

(Emerging guy) "Why are the doors always closed? and if you opened them the why are they hanging from the ceiling like sleeping bats?"

(The little kid a little confused as he had been taught to repeat this rhyme at church in a sunday school class... he went on anyway) "Here are the doors and here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people" (of course as you know the kid moved his fingers in a way that when he opened his hands all of the 'bats' were gone)

(Emerging guy always with a chided remark followed by somewhat deep questions) "Must have been a night service kid, sorry. Where did all of the people go?"

(The little kid did not hesitate because he didn't know the crack about the night service was a crack at all) "Well... my Dad is watching the NASCAR race and my Mom is doing Mom things." (This was a good answer thought the little kid as most kids do after talking about Mom and Dad)

(Emerging guy still seeking the inner meaning asks) "Why then do they still have a night service?"

(The little kid getting quite frustrated because usually she is the one asking all of the questions blurts out in a loud voice) "I don't care!"

(Emerging guy finally after receiving a sad but satisfactory answer replies) "How true" (as he shakes his head)

You can read more of the thoughts of Chad Postmus here!

The Archives Are Working!
Hey! I just realized that our archives are working. Huzzah, hooray, and so forth...
They were non-functional for...well, since the beginning I think. Anyway, they work now, so you can go check them out if you feel like it.

Oh, and let's have some more comments. Yes, I'm talking to you.

Represent, Cooperate, Invite

Several ideas started coming together for me after the Newform Conference. Some of this started in the little piece I wrote last week (see the On a Mission post below). Well, I was thinking more about this phrase George Hunsberger used (a phrase that we're going to get familiar with this month), "a body of people sent." I was reflecting on the question, 'What are we sent to do?' What is the nature of our sent-ness? I came up with this set of ideas:

Kingdom Metaphor / Action / Quality / Other Description

1. Kingdom Colony / Represent / Faithfulness / life shown
2. Kingdom Agents / Cooperate / Blessing / life shared/given
3. Kingdom Heralds / Invite / Welcome / life extended/offered

Kingdom Colony: A body of people who demonstrate what life together with God as king looks like. Colonization is not isolation, but dynamic engagement with surrounding culture in order to subvert the present order. It is what Rome did with Philippi (among others), and what Paul used to describe the task of the believing communities there.

Kingdom Agents: A body of people who see their activity as subversive action. Our good deeds have a larger agenda than benign social action. We want to see God's rule and reign become a reality where we are. This includes everywhere from home to work to nation to planet. It is social justice grounded in and springing from kingdom theology.

Kingdom Heralds: (There must be a better word than 'herald') Here, I think of the servant/messenger in Jesus' parable of the king who threw a great banquet. We invite people to the party--into the life that is truly life. This is not conversionism, but evangelism in its original sense of 'heralding' good news about a new King. Today, in the ruins of Christendom, this invitation only has weight insofar as it is demonstrated by the Colony and its Agents.

I'm sure that this is not original, but it seems to shed a bit more clarity (for me at least) on our identity as 'a body of people sent.'

Dad is going to marry...
Those words instantly moved Anna, my 4 1/2 year old, into a frenzy last night. Then I asked her if she wanted to come along to the wedding. Her crying, screaming, and physical reaction only intensified. She quickly ran up to her room.

After giving her several minutes to calm down, I went up and sprawled out next to her on the bottom bunk of her bunk beds. She buried her head in her pillow and wanted nothing to do with me. It all seemed odd - extremely odd. She's level headed, thoughtful, and rarely acts with emotions that can't be explained.

Finally I asked, "What's wrong Anna?" And after fighting back tears, her response was simple. "I don't want you to marry someone else. (pause) You are already married to mom."

SIGH from dad. Sigh that things would be o.k. with Anna. Sigh that she had terribly misunderstood her dad. Sigh that she didn't understand that a pastor-dad can 'marry' someone without tipping the world of the family into the garbage can. Sigh that I was just plain dumb for thinking she would understand what I meant when I said, "I'm going to marry."

I hate the English language. Idiots must have created it. BUT - perhaps we are just as stupid with the way that we pretend to be 'church.' We go to 'church' to worship. We spend zillions of dollars on 'church' buildings. We proclaim the name of Christ using our language and definitions, and yet we wonder why the world outside of the 'church' doesn't get our language.

Back to Anna. I crushed her spirit, temporarily destroyed her trust in me, our family, and even mom. I think it's restored. Still, a part of me hurts that I created, although not intentional, that pain in her life. ... And I wonder what pain I am creating somewhere as a result of a word that has not been understood correctly or a poor choice of words on my behalf?

To be a sent people... We better be aware of our words, and we better get beyond preaching in the 'church' and learn to live our words with our lives.

I've been sick with a baaaaaaaaad sinus infection for the past four days. I'm on the mend thanks to some antibiotics.

I'm still stewing on some thoughts from the NewForm conference. I'll share a few of them here tomorrow. They mainly flow out of one thing that Todd said (that we need to start by thinking clearly about the kingdom) and one thing that George talked about (being "a body of people sent").

Here are some of my reflections on mission spurred on by George Hunsberger at the NewForm conference...

On a Mission
I was in a meeting recently where someone remarked that they were so tired of rewording mission statements that they were ready to be done with mission statements altogether. I sympathize with the frustration. Even being the ‘word-nazi’ that I am accused of being, mission statements, purpose statements, vision statements, and the like seem pretty irrelevant if they are as ignored as they typically are. After rewriting them enough times, you ask, “What’s the point?”

More important than having a mission statement is having the sense that you are on a mission—that you are participating in something bigger than yourself and working for a purpose that is good and right and lasting. Mission statements can be very helpful in bringing clarity about our quest—our assignment, our mission—but without a sense that we are actually on a mission (God’s mission in particular), statements are about that mission are meaningless.

So our real challenge is to start seeing ourselves as a people on a mission--and that is to say that we are "a body of people sent" (that was the title and subject of George's presentation). That mission begins by God’s initiative, and therefore it is God’s mission and we are invited to join up with it. We do not have the prerogative of making one up for ourselves. We can certainly talk about the specific ways we will live in and from that mission (mission statements will reflect this), but the mission has already been given. We have already been sent.

The job of leaders is to remind us that we are a sent people—a people on a mission. Being on this mission involves three primary actions. First, it involves representation—simply living as a faithful people. We are sent to ‘colonize’ (see Phil 3:20-21) our neighborhoods and workplaces and schools by simply being ‘heaven-ized people’ together in those places. We are to be the present representatives of what life-with-God-as-king looks like.

Second, being on this mission involves participation—active cooperation with what God is doing in the world. We are not just to talk about what should be; we are to be actively engaging in what God wants done. We look where there is injustice, violence, destruction, and suffering, and we work to bring justice, peace, healing, and wholeness. Being on this mission means that we are pulled forward by God’s desire for the healing of our broken world.

Third, being on this mission involves invitation—calling people to receive and enter into the rule and reign of God. We are not calling people to make travel plans for the afterlife—we are calling people to align themselves with God’s kingdom, and thereby enter into the life that is truly life. We do this as our lives together (representation) and our engagement with the world around us in the reality of the kingdom of God (participation) present a tangible and attractive option to the people around us.

I spent last week in Nashville at the Emergent conference. I'll post more about it later, but it was very good. This week I was part of a conference exploring new forms of being the church. Thus it was called 'NewForms.' More on that later as well.

I've been thinking about the war a great deal lately. I've been seeing church signs stating things such as 'Thank God for your freedom.' Don't get me wrong. I am thankful, but the kingdom on the United States of America will pass away too. Only one kingdom will prevail, and only one kingdom will rule forever. So to whom do you pledge your allegiance?

I got this email from Randy this morning...

THIS Sunday night we will be meeting at the home of Jerry & Ruth Vanden Bosch! (4372 Shady Oak Ct. Hudsonville, MI 49426) It’s part of our ‘Don’t go to church – Be the church’ thing.

We’ll be eating, enjoying the springtime, maybe singing, and perhaps playing some volleyball or chasing kids around the yard.

Three things I need from you:

1 – If you receive this and are interested in joining us, RSVP back to me by either e-mail or my cell phone. We need an idea for the grill food. J

2 – Take some food thing to share. We’ll be having burger & dog kind of food. So, take something that is good summer food.

3 – Invite friends.


Dog kind of food?

---

The newform conference is being hosted by Allelon and Journey. I'm going to be there. Are you?

Your Kingdom Come in Our Creativity
We were talking through the Lord's Prayer this past Sunday night, and I shared some thoughts about how homogenization and commodification steal away creativity which is, I think, a central feature of our identity and life as beings created in the image of God. Okay, now that's going to need some 'splaining.

God creates. God creates human beings. God creates human beings in his image. Now, people have argued about what that phrase, 'in his image' means for years, but part of what that communicates is that in some ways God has made us like him. We bear the marks of personality, capacity for personal relationship marked by love, and creativity. Creativity is the ability to bring into being something which is an expression of yourself. Whether it is an expression of your interpretation of life through art, or an expression of your applied learning through invention or engineering, creativity is about unique expression of the self.

Creativity involves breathing life into something. God spoke the universe into life and life into the universe. God spoke and created plants and animals and fungi and all kinds of living things. God breathed life into human beings. The universe itself is one unique expression of God's being.

Again, creativity is about unique expression and it brings life.

Now, let's look at what is happening in USAmerican culture. We have a giant movement of homogenization--making everything the same. Even the variations have this kind of homogenaic imperialism about them. "Do you want to be a rebel? We have you're wardrobe ready at Hot Topics!" "Do you want to be a sexy teenager? We have your prepackaged life...I mean, look...at A&F." "Do you want the good life at a great price? We've got your Kenmore appliances at Sears."

I think there are many people who sense what all that Mall of America culture is doing--it is stealing life. It is robbing people of any need for creative self-expression. Everything is already color coordinated and pre-packaged. Not only do you not have to make your own clothes (something that even my mom did when she was a teenager), you don't even need to go to the people who make the clothes (in fact, you couldn't if you wanted to!). You have mega-companies doing all the deciding for you. They even tell you what to wear (think of GAP commercials).

No more thinking. No more creating. No more self-expression. Only consuming and advertising for more consumption. Humanity is suffocating itself here in USAmerica.

Now think about art. When art is commodified, mass produced, and mass-distributed, it loses value. There is something about millions of people buying Thomas Kinkade prints that robs them of value. What was art is now wallpaper. Creativity is suffocated by cheap, readily available, mass-produced images. Not only do I not know what that painting or photograph at Target is about, I really don't care as long as it matches my sofa.

This attitude is nowhere more diabolically present than in what we USAmericans call a "worship service." To pick on music alone would be unfair, but let's look at it a minute. How many truly creative, unique, self-expressions of worship in song are shared in believing communities on any given Sunday (or any other day for that matter)? I would guess that the percentage is shockingly low. How many communities have songs that tell of their unique interaction with God and his faithfulness to them? I guess that it is very few. In fact, the good, creative stuff usually ends up in the playlist of thousands of other communities who have abdicated their creative self-expression for the convenient creativity of others. Vamping off of someone else's experience with God is what many communities end up doing. What was art is now wallpaper. (Maybe we'll have a book called "Wallpaper Worship.")

Now, I don't doubt that people can be encouraged and helped by the stories and songs of other communities, but when we completely abdicate our own songs and stories, something is robbing life from us: death is creeping in.

So then, take the next step and think of creative self-expression of worship in things other than songs. The reality that for many people worship is (only) singing betrays the fact that we have lost creativity. Some people told us that worship is singing. Others went further and told us that it was singing in a certain style, etc.

I hope you can see what I'm getting at here. Breathing life into a community happens not when we take on someone else's format, music, teaching style, etc., but when we honor the latent creativity (in whatever forms it takes) in the people who are already there. I think when that happens, God's revolution has come to that people: God's Life floods into that community in refreshing and unexpected ways.

Emerging communities need to be careful that they are not vamping the experience of other communities. Yes, we can learn from others. Yes, we can share and benefit from the creativity of others. But let's not do it without expressing the unique creativity
that flows from our own experience with the Creator and his creation. Let's respect our own unique vocation as creative kingdom agents and help each other to discover and embody our particular expression of our calling.

Evangelism, Not Conversionism
Evangelism is a word that is thrown around quite a bit, and what we usually mean by it is “converting people to our way of thinking.” Biblically speaking, that is not entirely what evangelism is. Simply put, evangelism is proclamation of good news. The good news that we are to proclaim is not that people can go to heaven when they die (I know that may sound shocking to you!), but that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is King over the whole earth and is inviting everyone to live cooperatively under his ruling and reigning (his ‘kingdom’) by following in the Way of Jesus the Messiah.

What we are calling people to do is not to simply agree with our way of thinking, but to enter an entirely new order, or way, of life. We are saying that this world and its present order, or approach to life, is on the way out; and that anyone who implants their life in the present order is not only headed for a ruined life, but disconnecting themselves from the very Source of life. We are saying that there is a new order that is breaking into the present order, and will one day completely replace it. In this new order, people of all nations, races, languages, and cultures can live connected to the very Source of life by placing themselves in the Way of Jesus—becoming his students and partners in God’s mission of healing all of creation.

We are saying to people who are in captivity to the present order that "God isn’t mad—he’s sad" (thanks Jim). We are saying that God misses them and searches for them like a shepherd searches for a missing sheep, or like a woman searches for a missing coin, or like a father searches for a missing son.

For far too long, we have trivialized the gospel. We have allowed our message to be truncated into a message about making arrangements for death. We have turned evangelism from announcement of God as King over the whole world and calling—both through our words and the quality of our lives together—for the world (individuals, communities, societies, etc.) to live accordingly, into a neat little formula for securing eternal self-preservation in unending, non-embodied, spiritual bliss.

God wants every part of his creation to experience the goodness of his rule and reign. Right now, much of creation finds itself in the situation of the prodigal son: the inheritance has been spent (or nearly so), pig food is passing for meals, and the faded memories of a life long past are stirring up a longing for even the lowliest place in the father’s house. Our task is not to point out the terrible state of the prodigal—he already knows that—but to join the father in his search and join him in his embrace and celebration when the prodigal does come home.

Just in Time
Ever since I heard the term with regard to business inventory, the phrase ‘just-in-time’ has intrigued me. In business, ‘just-in-time’ inventory means scheduling materials to arrive exactly when they are needed in the production process. It places a greater dependency on suppliers to deliver on-time and requires much greater flexibility and adaptability because you do not have the inventory lying around. The benefits are the elimination of stockpiling of inventories, and the ability to adjust quickly to changing needs.

While ‘just-in-time’ is not a perfect system for all businesses, it seems to me that it is often precisely the way that God provides for us. Remember when Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God? What did he tell them before they went? He said, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic” (Mark 6:8). They were to trust that God would provide for their needs just in time as they carried out his mission.

So many of us work to make sure we’ll have enough—“planning ahead,” we call it. Jesus sends us on our journey and we want to pack our bags full of food and clothes, cash and credit cards, just in case, but Jesus says, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff….”

So the disciples went out with nothing but their staff in hand. What happened? Mark says that “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them” (Mark 6:12). They saw God provide precisely what was needed ‘just-in-time.’

I wonder what would happen if we started thinking and acting according to ‘just-in-time’ rather than ‘just-in-case’.

Trusting that God will accomplish his agenda in his time requires, not sitting back and letting God do everything (the way of passivity), but working out (the way of cooperative activity) our vocation with the confidence that the necessary resources will be made available as they become necessary—just-in-time.

Found this NT Wright quote here (via Bill Bean):
"Easter is about the beginning of God's new world. John's Gospel stresses that Easter Day is the first day of the new week: not so much the end of the old story as the launch of the new one. The gospel resurrection stories end, not with "well, that's all right then", nor with "Jesus is risen, therefore we will rise too", but with "God's new world has begun, therefore we've got a job to do, and God's Spirit to help us do it". That job is to plant the flags of resurrection - new life, new communities, new churches, new faith, new hope, new practical love - in amongst the tired slogans of idolatrous modernity and destructive postmodernity."

Plant the flags of resurrection today.

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One more quote... This is what I brought to read at our potluck worship last night. Again, from Tom Wright:

”Who are we? We are a new group, a new movement, and yet not new, because we claim to be the true people of the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the creator of the world. We are the people for whom the creator god was preparing the way through is dealings with Israel. To that extent, we are like Israel; we are emphatically monotheists, not pagan polytheists, marked out from the pagan world by our adherence to the traditions of Israel, and yet distinguished from the Jewish world in virtue of the crucified Jesus and the divine spirit, and by our fellowship in which the traditional Jewish and pagan boundary-markers are transcended.
“Where are we? We are living in a world that was made by the god we worship, the world that does not yet acknowledge this true and only god, We are thus surrounded by neighbours who worship idols that are, at best, parodies of the truth, and who thus catch glimpses of reality but continually distort it. Humans in general remain in bondage to their own gods, who drag them into a variety of degrading and dehumanizing behaviour-patters. As a result, we are persecuted, because we remind the present power-structures of what they dimly know, that there is a different way to be human, and that in the message of the true god concerning his son, Jesus, notice has been served on them that their own claim to absolute power is called into question.
“What is wrong? The powers of paganism still rule the world, and from time to time even find their way into the church. Persecutions arise from outside, heresies and schisms from within. These evils can sometimes be attributed to supernatural agency, whether ‘Satan’ or various demons. Even within the individual Christian there remain forces at work that need to be subdued, lusts which need to be put to death, party-spirit which needs to learn humility.
“What is the solution? Israel’s hope has been realized; the true god has acted decisively to defeat the pagan gods, and to create a new people, through whom he is to rescue the world from evil. This he has done through the true King, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, in particular through his death and resurrection. The process of implementing this victory, by means of the same god continuing to act through his own spirit in his people, is not yet complete. One day the King will return to judge the world, and to set up a kingdom which is on a different level to the kingdoms of the present world order. When this happens those who have died as Christians will be raised to a new physical life. The present powers will be forced to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and justice and peace will triumph at last.”
(NT Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pp. 369-370)

Rich Mullins is playing over the stereo downstairs in the family room. One of the beautiful things about this old farmhouse is that sounds travel. Rich is singing; Kathy is cleaning in the kitchen, and Anna is playing. All can be heard. I love hearing those sounds.

I don't know if you ever had the opportunity to experience Rich Mullins in concert, but he was incredible. He was odd. He was imaginative. He pushed his audience. He mocked the church; he made a Christ follower feel eerily uncomfortable; he made people think... he often asked if the people of God were becoming the kind of people that Christ and the Scriptures require of us.

Kathy and I were just conversing about water's edge... we've had the opportunity to become a bit too comfortable in recent months - perhaps even the past year. We are moving friends. I sense we are uncomfortable with not 'gathering' on Sunday nights. I sense the Spirit of God among us. I smell his goodness.

Sometimes we wonder why people are not so inclined to join us... perhaps we shouldn't take this too hard. If we are attempting to be a group of Christ followers who are different, who challenge the current forms of the church, then perhaps we are doing just a bit of what Christ requires of us.

It seems odd to me that Christians in America have allowed themselves to be defined by the size of their church, the quality of their pastor's sermon/speech, the denomination they attend, or the amount of good informative biblical information they were fed at the worship gathering. Hear me out...

Why don't we put more stock in the quality of our relationships, the ability of those relationships to grow for a lifetime, the gays and lesbians (social outcasts) who we are hanging out with in our society, the ability for us to be truly giving people... I am not saying water's edge is doing this stuff so well; I am just asking why these are not the 'true marks' of the church. If we are serious about the gospel, it just seems they are more biblically in line with the heart of Jesus... that's all.

Please read Joel's thoughts below. I believe they fit well with these thoughts...

In Him.

Structures and Following the Spirit
When Jesus gave his apprentices his direction immediately before his ascension, he said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses….” The effectiveness of the church in its mission of bearing testimony (in word and deed) about the kingdom of God and about Jesus depends upon the presence and direction of the Holy Spirit.

We must confront the frightening possibility that we might not really trust the Spirit to lead the Church where it must go.

We must ask ourselves whether we, individually and together, have been intentionally seeking to follow the leading of the Spirit or stubbornly plodding along in a direction of our own.

We must discern whether we have been depending on ‘sound’ business strategies, capitalist marketing techniques, and established institutional structures and forms to keep the status quo, or whether we have been depending on the Spirit to provide ‘just-in-time’ direction and resources so that we can both hear and live out our vocation as the people of God.

Certain things many of us do in the way of programs, procedures, etc., are done because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Even in 'emerging' circles, those with 'traditional' backgrounds tend to go into 'default mode' when we get lazy. Of course, change for the sake of change is often disastrous, but so is staying the same for the sake of staying the same.

Some people have advocated that churches need to change to ‘keep up with the times’ or to 'be relevant.' The extent to which this becomes a 'driving force' it is clearly a kind of idolatry--taking our cue from culture (which ironically makes us irrelevant).

We must be a people that is willing to change to keep up with the Spirit—to ‘keep in step with the Spirit’—this includes changing structures, programs, locations, and whatever else God directs.

I have the sinking feeling that our remembering (recollection of past), thinking (perceptions about present), and imagination (assumptions about future) are shaped more and more by the un-stories of consumerism, capitalism, and individualism/tribalism, and less and less by the story of God--and that is just in the church. My hope is that we can turn this around, and that we will start to recapture the waiting imagination (i.e., hope), exhibited by the prophets and the first disciples, in our individuo-communal lives--that we will let our remembering, thinking, and imagination be shaped by the Spirit and the Story--that we will not act from our power and our motive and our agenda without testing it (together) under the direction of the spirit.

Paul wrote to believers in Rome, "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life" (Romans 8, MSG). What would change if we would let this scripture read us, not just as individual disciples, but as communities of disciples?

The newform conference is being hosted by Allelon and Journey. I'm going to be there. Are you?

Resurrection
Resurrection is at the core of our faith and hope in Jesus. It is strange that it is also one of the least talked about topics in the church today. Sure, we talk about Jesus' resurrection, especially around Easter, but I believe that it is no longer held consistently in our thoughts and in our imagination. Our neglect of the resurrection has left us in pretty poor shape when it comes to understanding where we and this world in which we live are headed.

The resurrection that Jesus experienced was the beginning of what God is going to do with the whole world--that is, to bring life where there was death, healing where there was brokenness, and vindication to those this world has condemned. As Paul says it, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). The resurrection means that God is going to do for us, and indeed for creation itself, what he has done for Jesus.

The resurrection means that the creation is not evil (as the Gnostic heretics of the second century suggested), but that it has great value to God, and because it has great value, God is going to renew it and bring life and light to all those places where death and darkness now seem to reign.

The resurrection means that we too will be renewed in such a way that the pain and death and decay that we experience in this present age will be done away with as the age to come enfolds our very lives. This will not be some kind of disembodied, floating-spirit kind of existence. No, the resurrection means that God will bring us to life again as beautifully recreated embodied-spirits--fully animated by the Spirit of God himself.

The resurrection means that what we do here and now matters. In one very real sense, the resurrection has already begun within us. This is what Paul was getting at when he said that "if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him" (Rom 6:8). The resurrection life begins in the here and now as we share in the death and resurrection of Jesus by our very life together in him. So get busy living the resurrected life!

A friend of ours...

Jim Best and his family, friends from the east side of the state (Michigan), experienced a house fire this week. He and his wife have started a missional community; they are incredible people with huge hearts and a huge passion for God; click on the link here... for Jim's blog.

If you read what I wrote on Feb 29, you might, as I have been, scratch your head and wonder what the implications might be for church budgets and giving, etc. I am getting more brave now, so I am going to put out a suggestion to which I welcome response (and, where necessary, correction).

Recommendation 1: If churches insist on teaching tithing, then they ought to start appropriating those 'tithes' in ways that are clearly consistent with the use of the tithe in the scriptures they quote. That will mean that, since we no longer offer grain, livestock, and cooking oil, the money will go to support those who cannot support themselves (this could justifiably include paid staff, local and global missionaries, and people who are unable to provide for themselves, such as some senior citizens, the unemployable, etc.) and to throw parties.

Recommendation 2: If churches insist on having additional conveniences such as buildings, flashy brochures, etc., such expenses would be afforded by uncoerced 'non-religionized' giving that is beyond the 'tithe'. This would prevent churches from neglecting those in need in the name of 'church-growth'.

Is Water's Edge going to do this? I don't know. I hope we will be courageous enough to recognize the extent to which the American church (in general) has neglected those who cannot provide for themselves because they have been handcuffed to the American dream of the pursuit of happiness (or property, as I think the author intended). I am not saying that churches should not own buildings or spend money on shiny brochures. What I am saying is that we should not have such things at the expense of neglecting our responsibility to those who are truly in need.