One of the great things about being at the Ecclesia Network last week was the challenging teaching from Dallas Willard.  He really pushed me on some of my thinking and caused me to think outside of my normal boxes.  This was refreshing!

One of the biggest critiques I have of many of the pastors conferences out there these days is that its just the same people saying the same things.  I guess this isn’t really mean to call out those who are on the speaking circuit.  I’m more critical of those who attend every conference on the circuit.

While I like to be critical of the speaking/conferences I realized again last week that my reading patterns can be accused of the same things. I can get into a rut where I am reading things that merely reinforce my already held beliefs rather than reading men and women who challenge me and stimulate me to think beyond my current framework.

So, I’m trying to read outside the normal “missional” context more.  With that in mind, I finally picked up Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison.  I’ve been meaning to read this for a while now and, while I am only 30 pages in, I am so glad I did.

One of my favorite quotes so far…

“We are certainly not Christ; we are not called to redeem the world by our own deeds and sufferings, and we need not try to assume such an impossible burden. We are not lords, but instruments in the hands of the Lord of history; and we can share in other people’s sufferings only to a very limited degree. We are not Christ, but if we want to be Christians, we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer.  Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brethren, for whose sake Christ suffered.”  (14)

He also has some great stuff on trust and community,

“Nothing we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We often expect from others more than we are willing to do ourselves… The only profitable relationship to others – and especially to our weaker brethren – is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them” (10)

“When we trust, we have learned to put our very lives in the hands of others…we now know that only such confidence, which is always a venture, though a glad and positive venture, enables us really to live and work…trust will always be one of the greatest, rarest, and happiest blessings of our life in community, though it can emerge only on the dark background of a necessary mistrust. We have never learned to trust a scoundrel an inch, but we give ourselves to the trustworthy without reserve.” (12)

Good stuff! Love the Hoff!

Edwin Friedman spoke the following at the Baccalaureate address to Albert Einstein High School in 1964:

“The universal ingredient and force which permeates all of life – namely change – is changing for the faster, and this means that it will become more and more necessary for each of us to be more resilient and flexible, more spontaneous in dealing with the new and unforeseen, and it will become less and less easy to find security and stability by just adopting the traditional customs and ideas and attitudes of the past.” (From the book: What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?)

Sounds applicable to the church eh?

In his excellent book The Monkey and the Fish, Dave Gibbons asks three questions as he talks about the massive shift that is going on in our world. How are we to figure out how to navigation this rapidly changing world as followers of Jesus and as faith communities? Alan Roxburgh has referred to the kind of change we are in as “discontinuous change.” This phrase is defined by Webster as, “Non-incremental, sudden change that threatens existing or traditional authority or power structure, because it drastically alters the way things are currently done or have been done for years.”

In light of this, Dave Gibbons brings up three excellent questions that I think we would do well to spend a lot of time pondering the answers. In answering these questions, we begin to get an understanding of where and how God is calling us to love and serve others.

Where is Nazarath?

By this he inviting us to look for the broken places in our world. He writes,

“Who in your community is the outsider, the misjudged, the misunderstood. Maybe the one who seems weakest? Who are the strangers and the friendless? Focusing on them as a church may mean you won’t grow fast. And you may lose some people. But your church will be fulfilling the most beautiful expression of who God is.”

The fact is, far too often we want to serve and love those who are “cool” and “fun” to serve. We wouldn’t say this outright, but just take a look at our churches. What would it look like for us to intentionally step into the “Nazaraths” of our communities as Jesus did? This would have to be intentional because, frankly, its not going to happen unless we make a decision for it to happen. Our normal way of life will not lead us down this path automatically.

What is my pain?

It’s funny, I talk all the time about understanding our giftedness and talents as we talk about understanding and discovering God’s calling for us as individuals and as a church. I think this is legit because of the amount of time Paul spends talking about spiritual gifts in Romans and Corinthians as well as the leadership gifts in Eph. 4. But, Paul also talks about God’s power being made perfect in weakness and that God will use the weak of the world to shame the wise. By asking this question, we begin inviting God to use the broken parts of our lives to love and serve others. This is actually kind of counter-intuitive and that’s exactly why I think its so important. Gibbons writes,

“And I’ve realized again and again that my pain was a gift from God. As I’ve met people around the world and shared my pain with them, it is the pain that draws people in, far more so than my limited talents, skills and accomplishments. It disarms all the things that can be used to divide us – race, economics, culture, politics, nationalism, dogma, language.”

What is in my hand?

This last question helps us stop comparing ourselves to others and it allows us to stop saying, “if i/we only had…” Instead, Dave writes,

“instead of dangerously comparing myself with others, what is within my grasp relationally, historically, and resources-wise right now?”

The simple point is this, God will provide us all that we need to accomplish his purposes.

I encourage you, spend some time journaling (if you do that kind of thing) and praying (I hope you do that kind of thing!) around these three questions.  I think you’ll be surprised with where God takes you…

I read Lesslie Newbigin’s chapter on Leadership from his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society once every few months. It’s that good. Here is an excellent excerpt:

“The task of ministry is to lead the congregation as a whole in a mission to the community as a whole, to claim its whole public life, as well as the personal lives of all its people, for God’s rule. It means equipping all the members of the congregation to understand and fulfill their several roles in this mission through their faithfulness in their daily work. It means training and equipping them to be active followers of Jesus in His assault on the principalities and powers which he has disarmed on his cross. And it means sustaining them in bearing the cost of that warfare…”

Here, he is trying to emphasize that gospel calls all of us to a new way of living and the task/calling of the minister is to keep the community focused on that very thing. He continues later in the chapter,

“[Jesus' call to repentance] involves, in fact, proving that the world’s idea of what is sin and righteousness is wrong. The conversion for which Jesus calls, and which the Spirit now effects in those who turn to him, is a radical new way of understanding: it involves at the same time a demand for total-self-surrender and the gift of utter security. It involves both calling and promise, demand and gift, at the same time. And it concerns the whole of life – the public life of the world, the nation, the factory, the society, and the personal life of each believer. There can be no muffling of the call to conversion, but equally there can be no limiting its range, no offer of “cheap grace” which promises security without commitment to that mission for which Jesus went to the cross. There bearer of this call has to be a community which is both committed to that mission and also enjoying and celebrating that security.

One of the things I have been constantly challenged with is the way that so many of us seem to all too easily accept the way of the world without even knowing it. The gospel critiques our individualized life-styles and calls us to repentance. The gospel critiques our consumerism. And calls us to repentance. The gospel critiques our selfish way of life. And calls us to repentance. The gospel critiques our ignoring the poor. And, it calls us to repentance.

Sometimes I get sick of how long of a way I still have to go, especially in the areas I just mentioned.

That’s why I love what Newbigin says in this section. Yes, the gospel critiques the way of life in our (and all) society. But, at the same time, it brings us security, safety and the comfort of an all-loving God who embraces us and calls us His children.

May we continue to be people who are both painfully aware of how the culture infects our way of life and may we be actively repenting and walking in the way of the Kingdom. At the same time, may we be a people who are wonderfully aware of the all encompassing love of God. In the words of Paul, may we all be able to comprehend how deep, how wide, how high is the love of God.

Like many others, I read Donald Miller’s book, “Blue Like Jazz” in about three sittings.  That’s not only cause it’s an easy read, but mostly because he’s a great story teller.  I enjoyed Don’s first book a lot (I can call him Don, after all, like everyone else who reads his book, I feel like I know him).  But, I’ll admit I mostly enjoyed Blue Like Jazz, it wasn’t too life changing or transforming for me.

But in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, he really struck a chord with me.  In fact, I was hooked on the first page where he wrote,

If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for a few years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when we drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers.  You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d just seen.  The truth is, you woldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back.  Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful.  The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either…

For those of you who know me, you’ll know why this paragraph struck such a chord with me. The last five years I’ve been living with a deepening and growing discontent with our consumer driven and (especially) suburban world.  I’ve asked myself over and over again, “What are we doing?”  It seems like the answer constantly is, “I don’t really know” or “watching TV” or “stuff.” (My life included, I’m the worst of the offenders!)

Don gets at the heart of my question. After all, I’m not really concerned about what you are doing right now. Well, i am concerned about that a little considering you are reading my blog…

“What story am I living?”

Now, a good, aware christian can answer this question by saying “I’m living as a witness to the risen Messiah, Jesus Christ, in all the areas of my life.”

Yes, that’s hopefully true.  I think that should be the core of our story.  It should be the foundation.

But, I think more of us need to answer that question more specifically to our personal lives and callings.

I think that some of us are living great stories and we are really unaware of how great they are. An example of this might be someone who is working as a teacher.  I sense it would be easy to miss just how significant of a role you have in the shaping so many young people in significant ways.  That would be an easy story to miss when students are driving you nuts or you  have spend your evenings grading papers during the all the Phillies playoff games.  Being aware of the story you are living would (hopefully) make the sacrifices worth it.

Others of us are living short-term stories in the context of a larger story. By that, I mean that we’re living one story to get onto a larger, more meaningful part of the story.  A good example of this might be someone in college or finishing up a graduate degree so they can pursue a specific calling.  Knowing your greater story makes all the late nights and mind-numbing reading worth it.

Others of us are blessed enough to be living significant stories. Maybe we’re building a family. Maybe you’re a social worker in a bad area of the city. Maybe you are serving the handicapped.  Maybe you are trying to bring together a broken family.  Maybe you are counter culturally living your faith in a difficult work environment. The possibilities are endless really…

As I read Don’s book, he wrote in a such a way that really helped me look carefully at the story that I am currently living. Honestly, it gave me such important perspective that my wife and I have been able to finally see a glimpse of what we want to do in life beyond web-designing and starbucks. We’re living in a short-term story at the moment and if God is really leading, I won’t wake up at 4:30am on February 11, 2018 and go to Starbucks (that’s the day I turn 40).

Rather, we’ll hopefully be living a different story by then.  Honestly, that makes all these mornings at 4:30am worth it.  And, if those dreams come true, I’d be more than willing to wake up at 4:30am if I had to!

(Note: just for the record, the story I am talking about should, Lord willing, include us still being at The Well).

I am just getting into the book Sin and Salvation from Lesslie Newbigin.  It’s not one of his more famous books but I recently heard it described as the most important book that he’s written.  He actually wrote in response to a need when he was a missionary in India.  He wrote it for “village teachers of elementary grade who – although without training – have to bear a heavy share of the responsibility for the pastoral care of several thousand village congregations in the Tamil country.” Upon hearing that, I decided I needed to read it. Also,  it’s an old book, written in 1956.  (The copy i am reading looks about that old). So you know its good (be sure to read that last sentence with a good Will Farrell / Anchor Man accent.)

The introductory chapter did not disappoint.  In fact, it is strangely familiar to Scot McKnight’s description of the Gospel in his book Embracing Grace (which is also a great book). Now, I’m not saying Scot stole this stuff from Newbigin (you didn’t, right Scot? :-).  I just think its great that they follow along some same lines.

The reason I love this section from Newbigin so much is that over the last few years I have become more and more convinced that the gospel that focuses only on sin and salvation of mankind is just too narrow in scope.  I’ve come to believe that the Bible talks primarily about how God is fixing a broken cosmos, not just broken people.  Of course, I believe that in God’s creation of the world mankind was put at the center of it.  So, you can’t talk about the salvation of the world without talking a heck of a lot about the salvation of mankind.

I think that Newbigin address this well in this introduction. He talks about how “Man is in a constant state of self-contradiction.” This contradiction expresses itself in four main ways:

1. Man is in a state of contradiction against the natural world.
2. Man is in a state of contradiction against his fellow-man
3. Man himself in a state of inner self-contradiction
4. Man is in a state of contradiction against God

Then goes on to write this fantastic paragraph:

All nations and tribes and people shall be gathered together in one fellowship to worship God; all war and hatred shall cease; there shall be no more sorrow nor sighing, death itself shall be done away; even the wild creatures shall learn to live at peace – the wolf with the lamb and the bear with the ox; all the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God; God himself shall dwell with them and be their God; all the glory and honor of the nations shall be gathered into God’s holy city, and nothing unclean or impure shall ever enter. It is in such words that the Bible describes to us the fulfillment of God’s saving purpose. All mankind shall live together in one holy family, as children of the Father, in new-created earth and heaven. This is salvation. Because we have received the first-fruits of it, we long for its completion. We know something of salvation now, because God has given us the earnest of it; we shall not know it fully until He has completed what He has begun.

Great stuff from Newbigin.  Of course, he’s pretty much quoting scripture here…

In my sermon this week, on the parable of the Foolish Rich Man, I referenced this quote from Tom Sine’s book, The New Conspirators. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is wondering what kinds of things are going on in some awesome Christian communities these days.

Tom writes,

“If our view of the Good Life is focused on accumulating consumer goods and experiences for ourselves, instead of looking for opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others, we could totally miss what this journey is really all about. We are indeed called to live under God’s rule, practicing economic generosity and justice-making with all that God has entrusted us.

We are invited to join so many who have gone before in discovering that the good life of God is to be found not in seeking life but in losing our lives in service to God and to others.”
- Tom Sine

“The initial locus and primary focus of [pastors] work is in their offices. Time-management studies again and again have confirmed that pastors invest a large percentage of their time in their offices – in meetings, in doing administrative work, and in taking care of administrative details…Pastors continue to spend so much time their offices because it is a familiar and habitual behavior pattern that has been nurtured and reinforced for many, many years. And the foundation underlying that behavior pattern is an understanding of the nature of leadership that is no longer helpful.”

- Kennon Callahan, Effective Church Leadership

Of course. I wrote this post from my office (which is actually a starbucks).

The Furious Longing of God

I’m almost embrassed to say that I have never actually read a book by Brennan Manning. From what I gather a lot of his books are the same lyrics but just to a different tune. If that’s true, its just fine with me because he’s writing about something that seeminly takes a lifetime to grasp. And, if I can summarize this book (The Furious Longing of God) in one sentance, its this:

God loves you like crazy.

To me, that’s one message that we just can’t hear enough and can’t be reminded of enough. Someone, i forget who, once said that “Sometimes we need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed.” Brennan Manning seems to take this advice and I’m thankful.

God. Loves. You. Like. Crazy.

We’d do well to let this messages sit with us every morning for the rest of our lives. Not suprisingly, Manning alludes to the fact that many people who give him a hard time for talking about God’s love too much. I guess I understand where they are coming from (maybe) but man, can we really talk too much of God’s love?

When it comes down to it, this is a good book for what Manning intended it for. I don’t think he was writing a comprehensive theological treatise on the love of God. I think he’s trying to write something that makes you begin all over again to come to terms with the fact that God love you like crazy.

If that was really his goal, I think he did well.

I’m happy to suggest this book to people who are having a hard time wrapping their minds around God’s unbelievable love for them.

I’ve been working with someone in our church to take a long hard look at the culture and practices of we’ve developed in our church around the issue of spiritual formation, spiritual direction and discipleship. In this, I’ve been doign some reading about how other denominations and traditions have approached this topic throughout the history of the church. One book that has been immensely helpful is Gary Moon and David Benner’s book Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls. In this book, they give an overview of how spiritual direction is approached from different traditions.

One thing that has surprised me has been how almost every tradition has a strong emphasis on some form of confession. Now, this probably shouldn’t have surprised me. But, its no secret that evangelicals are not known to place a high emphasis on confession as a regular practice in the Christian life. Perhaps we think we will become catholic or something. But, while it was talked about on some level, it was not and has not been something strongly emphasized. This is true for us at The Well. We don’t, not talk about confession. But I am realizing we aren’t intentional enough about it.

David Fitch in his book The Great Giveway writes about this a bit in his chapter on spiritual formation. This is a long quote, but i think he hits the nail on the head…

“But we cannot do therapy like this sitting in the pew. Because evangelicals are so sermon-centric, we are tempted to think that good therapy happens by taking good notes in the pew. But ironically, the more we concentrate on good biblical instruction as central to the Christian life, the less we talk to each other about our lives and especially about sin. MOst of our small group processes are either inductive Bible studies or involved more intense, scholarly study of the bible that never deals with the emotional and character issues that are destroying our lives. It is a testament to how unsafe the church has become for sinners that we rarely discuss with each other our sin and failures and seek the healing of the HOly Spirit. Rarely do we have confession and repentance in our small groups. We need to find safe places where we can share our lives, confess our sins, receive scriptural wisdom, and be prayed for. To do this, we cannot just get together and simply share our sins and quote bible verses at each other. We must retrieve from therapy the needed skills to practice biblical confession and bring it under the lordship of Christ. This is the utmost of importance to the future of spiritual formation in the evangelical church.” (195)