Am I Out of My Mind?

I am leaving tomorrow morning for five days in Miami. It is our national young adult -post high Convo. I am the Internet/Web coordinator (or as Andrew Careaga called us in a recent magazine article- Jesus Geek). The address is www.convo2003.org- surf on over and see what happens during the week- I wish I knew. Maybe I can introduce blogging to some more people.

But Miami? In July? Leaving the cool (?) comfort (at least the lower humidity) of Minnesota to go to Miami in July. I am looking forward to it and seeing some new ways to use the web to share the Good News. If anyone has any ideas what we might do, drop me a note.

I will try to keep blogging here with insights- if I can come up with any. But will keep you all posted.

What Do I Believe?

Pen at The Gutless Pacifist has challenged the blogosphere to a "spirited conversation." He has an excellent post on his response to a young man searching in his faith. It will be interesting to see what happens next. I'll think about it- and maybe get some of the young adults at Convo to think about it.

The Book of Life

Fred Peatross over at Future Margins had a wonderful post this morning. He talked about all the reams of knowledge that Biblical Scholars have developed over the years. He wondered how some of this intellectual knowledge has any impact on the suffering and the lost. His ending line was a classic:

The church is cluttered with shipwrecked scholars who thought the Bible was written for understanding and didn’t recognize it was written to give life.

What he is talking about is the depth of study and scholarship that, in many ways, is the result of the modern understanding that knowledge is important and even powerful. If we can only know all that we can know, we can overcome all problems. They take the life out of it, though. Modern fundamentalism falls into the same difficulty.

Not that scholarship is bad. It certainly can help us discern depths of meaning in the Bible that we might otherwise miss. But if it is simply for the sake of knowledge, it is not life-giving.

In the end it is all about Jesus. He is in the book. Which is reason enough to read it.

Rest in Peace

Katherine Hepburn, 1907 - 2003.
She made the movies great!

Deja Vu
All Over Again

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. — General Omar Bradley

Got that quote over at Eclipsoul, a blog by Nate Wildermuth who describes himself as Christian - Pacifist - Anarchist - Radical - Skydiver - Harmonica - Faith - Love - Hope - Peace. He has been in the military and at West Point and has come to see himself as a Conscientious Objector. He has even posted his CO packet on the web. Currently he is waiting on the slow process of the military to come to a decision on his application.

Considering that all the way back in March when this blog was born, the theme of the world was the war in Iraq, and part of my posting at the time was my struggle with a war that seemed to be justified, coming across this web site was a real kick in the pants. It took me back to those wonderful days of yester-year known as the Sixties and early Seventies. It was December of 1969 when the draft lottery took place and I was a soon to be graduating senior in college. I had thought little about my own future at that point. Sure, the Vietnam War was raging but it was far away, mentally, physically, emotionally. Sure I thought I was a pacifist. But at that point I had no reason to think about it- other than to protest. Yes, I had supported McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. Yes, I was opposed to the war and war, but it had nothing to do with me. That changed when I realized that I would be drafted. What was I to do?

Hours were spent in prayer and a lot of discussion with a lot of people. I don't remember any more what all the links and networks were that I followed, if any. All I came to know was that I could not, as a Christian, a follower of God, be a part of the military. I really understood that I was a pacifist.

Fortunately I was granted the CO status, was drafted, and did my two years alternative service, first in a home for the handicapped and then as a youth center director for the city.

Reading Nate's blog and his CO application reminded me of the power of the Gospel when faced with such decisions- literally life changing decisions. Nate thought he had made a choice that was the one for him. He has now discovered a different choice. His struggle, prayer, the wrestling with God (and probably the US Army) reminds me that sometimes when faced with doing what we feel God is calling us to do- and be- we have to make hard choices. They didn't look like that to me as a 21-year old college senior. Seeing them now, in someone else, I can see the power of God at work.

As I said way back in March, my struggle today is not with pacifism. I still am a pacifist, although, like Stanley Hauerwas has been quoted as saying, that is as much so others will remind me of what I say I believe when I am tempted to live another way. My struggle is that I know I am capable of NOT being a pacifist. I am capable of living and acting in ways that are contrary to my stated beliefs.

Thanks, Nate, for your witness that has brought me back to who I like to say I am.

Bedroom or Boardroom
I guess this is a rant....

Okay, I'll add a comment on the previous sex discussion. Found this quote on Chad Canipe's blog.

The Church is uncommonly vocal about the subject of bedrooms and so singularly silent on the subject of boardrooms.
—Dorothy L. Sayers

That about sums it up for me. When Jesus talked about sex-type issues he was putting all of us in the same boat of sin. Don't think you are better than the adulterer because you haven't done that. Remember the last time you looked with "lust" on a woman. That's the same as doing it. Or don't think you are better than the CEO of Enron. Remember the last time you wanted that you looked with "greed" on someone else's house or car. That's the same as doing it. Don't think you are better than that common murdered you saw get arrested on TV tonight. Remember the time you said something hateful about the guy who cut you off on the highway. That's the same as doing it.

I agree that sin needs to be named. I also agree that we are dealing with types of questions that were unthinkable in Jesus' day. And I also agree that we have found ways to sin that can have a greater impact on the whole world than anything even Herod could have done.

Perhaps instead of picking on others who have different understandings of sin, we should listen to each other. I don't see sexual sin as easily as I do alcoholism, for example. I am more sensitive to the presence of addiction to chemicals and the resulting behavior than I am to sexual temptations. At youth camp one year one of the counselors noticed a particularly suggestive top a girl was wearing. The counselor couldn't believe that I, the director, would let that happen. I had never noticed. No one else noticed the Budweiser T-shirt on one of the guys. I did.

So maybe we need to talk together about all the realms of sin that each of us is sensitive to. I need to listen to those who are able to see and name sexual sins and take their sensitivity into account. I need to hear the words of a friend who can see the depth of the sin of gambling and take her sensitivity into account. I need to hear the words of a prophetic type like Stanley Hauerwas who names the sin of violence and war and take his sensitivity into account. I would hope that when I speak words of the sin of other areas where I have a sensitivity that others will listen and take my sensitivity into account.

The danger of elevating one sin or one type of sin to the top of the list is that we can easily let other sinners off much too easily. And the sinner that I am usually ready to let off the hook is myself. I do not believe that sexual sins are the worst. I do not believe that homosexuality is a sin that we should elevate (or denigrate) to some SuperSin status. Nor is abortion or war or greed or lying or dishonoring your father and mother or a parent being so strict that they drive their children away. Sin is Sin is Sin is Sin. And as I remember in a sermon somewhere- right at the center of sIn is I.

I guess the one other thing I believe is that sin is probably not the center of our message. Greg Laurie in his book How to Share Your Faith tells the story of approaching a street-corner evangelist in Hawaii. The guy was raving and raging about the wages of sin being death. Laurie went up to him and told him that he thought that was being unfair to the gospel. Especially since the rest of the verse says that the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus. The man turned to Laurie and told him he was a sinner to.

The gospel is a challenge to all of us to accept the free gift. It is about the love of God. Sometimes we have to point out sin. But I have a hunch that sometimes what we need to do more is offer people our hand and friendship in love and grace and let them know how we have overcome the sins of our lives in Jesus. That is a whole lot more hopeful than talking about how bad someone else is. 'Cause that someone else is me.

So, enough of a rant. We won't get rid of sin. We won't stop sin. All we can do is become a community of brothers and sisters who have found a better way. Then become a community of sinners that helps other sinners find out where the grace is at.

A Love Poem from God

He Asked for Charity

God came to my house and asked for charity
And I fell on my knees and
cried, “Beloved,

what may I
give?”

“Just love,” He said,
“Just love.”
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
--from Love Poems from God:Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky

A Spirituality for the Road

Len at NextReformation had a good post on June 25 about spirituality as it relates to the changes and work of the emerging church. Here is part of it:

Ultimately we do need a true spirituality, a spirituality for the road, an outside-the-walls, tested and proven spirituality that goes beyond individuality into purposeful relationships of love and grace and giving. There is a spirituality of the safe places, and a spirituality for the road. There is a spirituality that is good enough for Sunday mornings, and a spirituality that will endure on the street. There is a spirituality that is adequate when we are in large and impersonal gatherings, and another for the face-to-face and open heart encounter.

In these chaotic and uncertain times, when so many things we depend on are changing or have ceased to exist, we long to see something new revealed. And we long to be part of the of something that is truly life giving, truly God centered, and truly liberating. We want to see His kingdom come.

But it will only be born as we let go of fear, as we let go of our own addiction to control, and as we learn to embrace insecurity. Only as we release our hold on the things of this world can we embrace the new thing that God is doing. Letting go of the old things will bring fear if we are not deeply rooted in a different reality. And if we walk in fear, we won't even recognize the new thing when we see it. Fear is a binding and blinding force that causes our sight to turn inward.

I like how he contrasts the spirituality that most of us are used to on Sunday mornings and the spirituality that can survive on the streets of the postModern world. I wonder if that is why so many of us can fall into the trap of compartmentalizing our lives. We have never learned how to develop a spirituality of the street or of the face-to-face and open heart encounter. We have made spirituality a nice pious thing that has to do with saying your prayers and being good. Nothing wrong with that. It just doesn't hold up well in the daily light of life.

Which made me think of a book I read a number of years ago. The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham. I have to dig it off the shelf and do some re-reading. Basically the authors took the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-Step programs and put it together in a book that is full of insights and stories. Reading Len's post brought that to mind because if you work the program of the 12-steps you will develop a spirituality for the streets. It is a spirituality that moves beyond fear as a blinding force and not only causes us to look inward, but also outward to the others still suffering.

With all the stuff around here about sex and Harry Potter (just one more attempt there to get noticed by the search engines) it is easy to get sidetracked away from our basic purpose as Christians- to make disciples and to make one you have to be one and that takes discipline as Len also points out. The spiritual disciplines are the foundation of being disciples. I keep blogging away so as to find new insights. I leap around the blogosphere seeking stories of spirituality and find myself growing in my disciplines. What I am finding cannot be held within the Sunday morning ghetto or just be found in world-renouncing Quietism. It begs to be let free, exploding from the church with power and hope. Maybe we are getting somewhere after all.

Sex Sets Record
No Film at 11:00

Just a quick note with more comments to come later...

I think yesterday proves Richard's point about sex. Thanks to his post on sex that I linked to, there was a record number of visits to this site and a record number of comments for any post. Gee, Richard, maybe we've found the secret to getting people to visit our web sites. :>)

A Trinity Poem

Jonny Baker linked to Steve from Small Ritual who wrote this poem on the Trinity last Sunday.

three is the magic number
calling us out of individualism
insisting on relationship
i to you
we to another
trinity seeding networks
until all the cosmos joins in

one to create
one to save
one to sustain

one to author
one to fight
one to enliven

one to conceive
one to die
one to resurrect

one to plan
one to act
one to explain

one's sufficient
two's company
three's community

trinity expose our self-reliance
trinity break open our exclusivity
trinity seed our joining tonight

amen

Jesus and Sex

Have to at least jump in with a thank you to Richard over at connexions. In a series of excellent posts starting with a tongue-in-cheek statement, he has brought all of us up short with his insights into our Christian sexual obsession. Here are a few quotes to get you interested...

--with tongue in cheek-- A careful reading of the gospels makes it plain that sex and sexual morality was at the heart of the ministry of Jesus. His absolute condemnation of sexual sin, the many parables and stories he told about sexual behaviour and the way that he refused to have anything to do with those whose sexual lives were anything less than totally pure all point to the priority of sex as the lodestone of Christian morality. Twenty-first century disciples of Jesus will want to emulate his priorities, and Christian pronouncements about morality will reflect this. permalink
-------
If sex was not a priority for Jesus, why does it occupy so much of the churches' (and bloggers') time? I'm convinced that part of the answer lies in our continuing "conformation to the world". Western Christians may claim to be in Christ, but we still share the world's obsessions: sex and wealth.
We talk about sex the most because, frankly, sex is interesting. Exciting, even. There's no thrill in listening to a condemnation of greed, or pride, or gluttony. In any case, condemning those sins leads us to condemn ourselves.
-------
So I have a suggestion to make. Let's give the same priority to sex that Jesus did -- you know, like, none at all. Remember Jesus' words about specks and planks? Let's take them seriously and work on the planks in our own eyes before we trouble about the specks in other peoples. Or we could just continue in our sin, smugly ignoring the greed and covetousness most of us are a part of. But I hate to think of the consequences of that. permalink

Thanks, Richard. My thoughts exactly. Perhaps we are also afraid that if we don't condemn all those sexual sinners people will think we are like them. Or perhaps we all are as a culture still stuck in those adolescent years when bodily functions of all kinds are the center of jokes, cruelty, or just plain embarrassment- at least for the boys cabins at camp.

As to those filled with greed and lying, well, they may only be helping to better the economy or get rid of evil dictators or... (oops, I have a hunch I just started meddling.)

A Great Deal of Prayer

And this was in the latest edition of Internet for Christians newsletter..

An Awful Lot of Knee Hours

How long does prayer-meeting last in your church? Do the fidgits set in after ten or twenty minutes of prayer? We'll estimate the average prayer meeting at an hour. How much longer do you think the world's longest prayer meeting lasted? Multiply an hour by 24; then multiply that by 365; and then multiply that by 100. That tallies up to 876,000 hours. The longest prayer meeting in the world actually lasted longer than that! It began this day, August 27, 1727, in Herrnhut, Germany, when Moravians under Count von Zinzendorf commenced an around-the-clock prayer chain that lasted more than 100 years!

The result of that prayer was the beginning of the Protestant Mission movement, a deep faith that in its witness influenced the Wesley brothers and the development of the Moravian Church, and a world-wide Christian fellowship that, while remaining small (and often unknown), continues to have an impact. One of the places that considers itself a spiritual descendent of Zinzendorf is the 24-7 Prayer Movement in England. It is truly inspiring and exciting to to see this happening.

The world-wide Moravian prayer watch still continues, by the way, in different parts of the world each day.

As a Moravian, and a Christian, I often in prayer wonder what would happen if we would take that kind of bold step again. Maybe watching the 24-7 Movement will give us all some new ideas.

(The above info on the Moravian prayer meeting is from CHI NOTES: A JOURNEY BACK TO OUR CHRISTIAN PAST. CHI Notes, newsletter of Christian History Institute, offers interesting "morsels of courage, faith, hope and love," and a glimpse into our rich Christian past--20 centuries of church history. Subscribe at the address below and start enjoying this informative and inspiring newsletter now! Be sure to visit the CHI Web site to find daily updated stories, key church events, "Glimpses" bulletin inserts, Early Church video scripts and more. Chi Notes (subscribe online): http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/BETWEENF/Guestbks/notesubs.shtml. Subscribe by blank email: chinotes-subscribe@chinstitute.org Christian History Institute: http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/.)

God Over Country Flag Flap

This came through in my daily email from Crosswalk Religion Today Summaries.

A Christian businessman in Pennsylvania is causing a flap in his community for flying a Christian flag above Old Glory. Greg Podlucky, the owner of the Le-Nature's beverage company, has been flying the flag for months now, irritating some residents of Latrobe, located in Westmoreland County, local TV station WTAE reported.
The United States code reportedly states that the American flag always comes first on the flagpole. "Nothing flies above the American flag," said veteran Dick Johnston. "But this guy just don't want to cooperate with us."
Another Latrobe resident Steve Semnisky added: "In my estimation, it's a contempt for the city of Latrobe and contempt for any citizen. He's doing it and he knows that it's not right and why he won't change it. I have no idea. It's sad."
But Podlucky said his flag move wasn't meant to offend anyone. He said his inspiration was a Bible distributed by President Roosevelt right before World War II. In that Bible, there's a picture of the U.S. flag being flown under the Christian flag, Podlucky said.
The American Legion has tried to convince Podlucky to switch the flags, but Podlucky reportedly said it's "God over country." "That's a fine statement to make," Semnisky said, WTAE reported. "But that gives no one the right to fly the flag above the United States flag." Semnisky said his family plans to boycott the popular Le-Nature's, and many others in Latrobe said they'll do the same. from Charisma News Service

As one who tends to be patriotic and who still gets goose-bumps and takes off my hat when the National Anthem is played, I continue to be saddened whenever the flag becomes an issue of who is first- God or country. We call ourselves "one nation, under God" but often only when God is on our side. We certainly are afraid of anyone who would actually believe that we are "under God." Instead of boycotting and villifying someone like Greg Podlucky, we should thank him for reminding us of the true meaning of the American flag- freedom, even the freedom to be religious, to live out one's own interpretation of the pledge of allegiance or just to disagree.

It also points out the power of symbols, like a flag. In our postModern world, symbols will only get more important. We need to know how and when to use them in ways that are healthy and point us to the realities they stand for.

A Day Off

Took a day off yesterday from blogging. It's amazing how guilty I felt. Like I wasn't doing my part to keep the blogosphere filled with words. In many ways this doesn't feel like work (it isn't!) so I just do this each day. But I think getting the other blog set-up and posted with daily journals left me with not much to say yesterday. Next I will probably work on moving this blog to Moveable Type. It sure is a lot easier.


Large Church, Small Church, or...

In the typically roundabout blog way here is a quote that I found from Pen at Gutless Pacifist who got it from Len at NextReformation who got in from an article at CoolChurches.com:

If the megachurch is the legacy of the Baby Boomers, the legacy of the next generations may be just the opposite -- smaller churches designed to feed the need for close-knit, authentic relationships. The trend, if it is one, doesn’t show up yet in church statistics. But, according to consultants and researchers, there are early indications that many new churches are being designed to stay small. “You don't see many church planters today who have their sights set on huge congregations or buildings," says Carol Childress, a researcher who carries the title of “knowledge broker” at Leadership Network, a Dallas-based think tank for innovative churches. "Unlike many Baby Boomer pastors who were set on starting and growing big churches, today's church leaders are not concerned with becoming big but rather with growing authentic disciples of Christ,” says Childress, whose job it is to spot trends in church life.

Echoing Pen, I do applaud the movement toward smaller churches. From an anti-institutional point of view it is a good trend. We have talked often around the emerging church blog world about how becoming institutional is the problem of churches and denominations. Small churches with the opportunities for close personal contact and relational evangelism and discipling can revolutionize the church.

BUT

a significant majority of churches today are small and do not offer those opportunities. Small churches in the modern world paradigm are often family-based units that are hard to break into- or out of. Small churches in the modern world paradigm are simply institutions that want to protect tradition, building, and be ministered to. The emerging small churches will have to be careful that they don't become a next-generation of the same old thing. Some more from the original article:

"Smaller is working," says Bill Easum. "That's because it is the way the church spread the fastest in the first century -- organically instead of institutionally." Easum is one of the few ready to predict a major shift: "I believe the megachurch will be replaced by smaller congregations that meet in multiple settings."

As usual, Bill is right on target, I believe. The change I see in the emerging small church is an organic one. It is not based on institution but relationship. It is not necessarily based on location. It is willing to move and adapt as needs change or even to be a house-church movement. It is willing to be non-churchy, and even multi-tasking. It is also, I think, willing to serve as much as to be served. A big shift in the post-modern paradigm. And one more quote:

And the skills required to lead a smaller, more relational church are different than the skills required to preach to the masses, Childress adds. "These churches will require lots of relationship building, lots of leadership skills, perhaps less emphasis on proclamation and more emphasis on teaching Scripture, but in a more conversational, participatory, storytelling sort of way."

Here is where the key to the growth of the emerging small church movement may lie. The skills and passions of the leaders and all participants of the movement. It will not look like church in the modern world, even when it has the trappings of that church. It will be an organic community that has no - or few - "professional" leaders who do the ministry. It may have more bi-vocational pastors. It may often be led by non-seminary trained spiritual friends. It will be somewhat fluid and open to the leading of the Spirit. At least it will start that way. Just like the 1st Century Church did.

From Discipling to Evangelism

I was pondering my own ministry last evening as I thought about the evangelism course I am teaching at the church. I realized that almost all of my ministry for most of the past 30 years has been in disciple-making. Sure, I have done the ministry stuff- visiting, etc. But my main work has been in helping people who already believe to move beyond simply believing to being disciples. I had been reacting inside to the fact that I have led very few people to Christ, even though I myself was not born and raised in the church. Never was in one until I was 15. But when I got into ministry it was not as an evangelist. It was as a discipler. Then I realized that I have been obeying the Great Commission. I have made disciples as I journeyed through my life. Wow. What a neat insight.

Thanks to the great blessings of God's gifts in my life, I have had a great time leading people deeper into being Christian. Things like mission trips for youth before they were commonplace. Helping develop Cursillo in my denomination and seeing remarkable results as people discovered Christ's call to ministry in discipleship. Sitting with friends and just having the mentoring and caring relationship that allows them to grow. It has been great.

But in the past few years I have been feeling the calling or push into church planting (whatever that may come to mean) or at least some form of relational evangelism. I have been reading and trying to work it out. I have been looking for ways to find out if I can do it. I have been spending a lot of time in prayer. One of the significant things I have realized about being an "evangelist" is that it happens outside the church. Yes, I know there are probably people in the church who haven't yet Jesus as their Lord, even though they may think they do. (Just think about that pastor in the news the other week who claim he didn't believe in God- and his church supported him.) But that is not the mission field. Not in this postModern world.

To be outside the church is a tough thing. After 30 years of being in the church as a pastor/discipler that is a scary idea. The world is different from the one I started in ministry in. How do we convince the church (i.e. the institution and denomination) that evangelism is harder to do from the church now than it has been in centuries. Many posts around the blogosphere in the past month or so, including here, have spoken to the issues and problems of the insitutional church of the "modern" world. It
becomes clearest when we begin to talk about going outside the church to find the people who are looking for directions and spiritual friendships. The church gets scared. It becomes harder and harder to do discipling in the church. Let's not even talk about evangelism. I get scared.

Yet I also get excited. The possibilities are endless and truly life changing for the people out there as well for the church. I will continue to ponder this, seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2- A Pattern for a Sermon

Working on the Bible Journal that I am doing along with a course on evangelism, I had these thoughts from Peter's sermon in Acts 2. It is the first Christian sermon, or at least the first proclamation of the Christian message. There is a very good "outline" in that sermon.

Step One: Go back to the root, the foundational witness that they already understood as true. Since Peter is speaking to people who already believe in God and the Hebrew Bible, that is where he starts- their foundation. He quotes from Joel - there is no special group that receives the Spirit. Sons, daughters, young, old, even servants. ALL will preach. Nature itself will be shaken by the power of God’s Spirit
He makes it clear that salvation is of God- and for anyone who calls on the Lord. It will take Peter a while to understand that one himself.

Step Two: Then recount the story of Jesus.
It was done within God’s purpose
And God’s purpose is stronger than death!
Peter connects Jesus back to the history and tradition of the people of Israel through David.
This amounts to reading history with new eyes- the eyes of the resurrection itself. It was such a change that everything that came before it is changed as much as everything that comes after. In fact the resurrection rewrites history.

Step Three: WE ARE WITNESSES.
Personal testimony enters here. It is the Holy Spirit that is allowing/giving this
It is Jesus that we are talking about. He is Lord and Christ.

Step Four: Issue the call. This is often a missing piece of witness- issuing the call. We will deal more with that later in the journaling. The call is issued with a PROMISE attached- you will receive the Holy Spirit!

One of the things we all need to do is know the foundation and story of Jesus so well that we can connect it to our witness- how Jesus has worked in our lives. If we are part of Jesus' People, we are witnesses to the resurrection. We just may not be able to put it into words.

Now this 'pattern" is not a hard and fast outline to preaching or witness. It is the order that Peter used because of his circumstances. Since we will more often than not be talking to people we know in our own native language and culture, our witness to the resurrection will probably be the first point of our witness.

In any case, just a reflection on how Peter preached in a pre-modern world.

No, Not Another Harry Potter Post

After reading a truly inspired post on Gary Kotter and the Theologian's Drone over at Living Room, I decided that I will not, repeat not, have a Harry Potter post. Nor will I shamelessly use the name of Harry Potter in hopes that some search engine will link to my blog and send thousands (well, 3 or 4) to read my insights that aren't even being posted.

Unfortunately, this post is 24 hours too late for our blog friend Mean Dean at Blogs4God to have found it for his Compendium of Christian POTter-heads.

So, if you are reading this thinking I am about to say something profound about Harry Potter, sorry.

After all, I still haven't seen Matrix Reloaded, Bruce Almighty, or Titanic.

A Love Poem from God

A Plague

What a cruel act to be untruthful.
Earthquakes happen in the heart that hears sounds
that are amiss.

Havoc is created in the mind that can no longer trust someone
once loved, and schisms devour alliances
that helped support
our life.

Words can enrich and be as wonderful as spices mixed into the days
we imbibe with all our senses.

There are the fields in the soul- lush organic meadows, though sounds
and words that fall there
can be, at times, a
poison.

A plague is spread by one
who cannot tell
the truth.
Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
--from Love Poems from God:Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky

Thanks, Bene

A truly inspiring and courageous post from Bene Diction. Thanks!

More from Leading Dying Churches

Thanks to Darryl for pushing the envelope at Leading Dying Churches. Today he quoted one of my mentors, Bill Easum...

Faithful congregations intentionally go out from the congregational mission post to make disciples; congregations that omit this purpose are unfaithful. No individual, congregation, or denomination is excused from this mandate, because disciple-making is the reason the Church exists. Take disciple-making away and our congregations have no justification for existence. (Bill Easum, Unfreezing Moves)

This adds on top of a post Darryl had earlier in the week..

We have two impediments (at least) to dying churches today. One is the myth of holy leaders. We've made this professional class of church leaders who've become accustomed to pastoral ministry as not only a calling, but a career. I'm not sure the church is worried about our surivival - we come and go anyway - but we probably are. We're not quite ready to get over ourselves...

The other impediment is that of holy places. We love our church buildings. Because most in the church think of the church as a building, we talk about wanting to keep the doors open and we can't imagine giving our buildings up.

Which brings me to another quote from the book from Inter-Varsity Press: Jesus with Dirty Feet: A Down-to-Earth Look at Christianity for the Curious and Skeptical by Don Everts. This is from the chapter titled :: Church-The Tribe ::

All of those steepled buildings you see around town?
Turns out none of them are churches.
(Those signs out front certainly are misleading!)

It turns out that church has never been a building.
Church is all those Kingdom Dwellers put together.

The plural of "Jesus Follower" is "church."

Those steepled contraptions?
Those are just how the church gets out of the rain.
Jesus with Dirty Feet by Don Everts, IVP

Great stuff to make us think. All this fuss over a rain-shelter?

Actually I am enough of an ancient-future person to know that sacred places have power and value. After all the disciples went to the Temple to worship. The difference may be that those disciples also met in the homes on a regular basis. The ate together, prayed, sang psalms and spiritual songs, and helped the poor. When the church ONLY gathers one day a week and ONLY in that sacred place they have lost the disciple-making imperative that makes them a church. When we rediscover the breadth of the church and the myriad possibilities of living as Jesus Followers, we will have died to ourselves and rediscovered the church.

Holistic Spirituality

Darren at Living Room has had a series of posts on Holistic Spirituality. He writes:

The model is pretty simple - and identifies four main ways that people tend to connect with God. We each tend to be strong in at least one area and often are weak in one also.

So far he has posted on the first three quadrants, Truth, Wonder, and Action.

One of the important things we all need to discover is that not everybody thinks (or acts, or prays) like we do. Personality, style, experiences, etc. all play into how we see and respond to the world. That this affects our spirituality and approach to spirituality should be more obvious than we are willing to meet. We often end up thinking that the one we are more comfortable with is THE best and even right way. Thanks, Darren, giving us this introduction into the wide range of spirituality.