Where do we go from here?

At what moment do you see change? At what time do you realize something is different? In my life I often can only see change several years down the road. I only realize my thinking is different well after the thinking has changed.

When this happens I find it impossible to really know when the change began or even if the totally change has ended. I think it matters though. I think we need to sit down from time to time and just be amazed at where God has taken us.

I find that it is too easy to forget the progress of the journey. I find that when I do I become discouraged because it always seems like there are more miles to come. This week I am reflecting on my journey, where I came from and where I’ve been.

Several years ago, long before anyone had given me the key phrases and words to be used, I sat with a friend with a deep conviction that the way we were doing church was foolish if not counter productive.

We were ministering in a small town in western Kansas. The man who is a mentor started out with a severe case of distrust. You see he knew I was a Church of Christ minister and one to many run ins had told him that I, in his words, was a sheep stealer. If you understand the Church of Christ paradigm than you know what I mean, he believed my focus would not be on lost souls but in an attempt to get those who attended his fellowship to attend mine.

In our time together we shared our frustrations. We envisioned a place where all would feel welcome, where the lost and hurting would actually experience acceptance. We called it a church without walls, a phrase that came from someplace, I can’t remember what book or the author’s name. We tried to establish such a place, to build in the small community’s park.

It really was what some might call a miserable failure. No one came. It was still far too churchy. Taking a church worship outside the building into a park didn’t really do what we hoped it would do. The beauty is it was and is a part of the journey.

I learned something even though I didn’t realize what I was learning. At the time I saw failure, embarrassing failure. It was failure on a grand and colossal scale. I saw a lot of effort put into something that did nothing and yet today, several years later, I worship at that place. No, not the perfect place, but a place more like that place than I would have ever dreamed.

Do I still do things that I could measure as total and hopeless failure? Without question. How wonderful to discover that this is not what the story is about. The story is not about failure, it is about journey, because one day’s failure is what brings another’s success. I think more churches should embrace failure. Too many things are avoided because no one can guarantee success.

Thomas Edison said, “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward” and that is why I call this my backtrack journey.

Small Stages

As a kid I dreamed big dreams. If I was shooting baskets on our neighbor’s goal it was always the last second shot, a game winning buzzer beater. That is what we do. No one typically dreams small dreams. WE dream them large. Everyone thinks they will be discovered and end up on a cereal box don’t they? Don’t we dream of making an impact, a difference?

What happens to that dream? Do we still deep down believe we could be discovered? Somewhere inside do we still think we have what it takes?

Why did God gives us this dream? Does the dream still exist inside of you but it has taken on new meaning and direction in Christ?

I think the church needs dreamers, those with big dreams who want to make a difference. Those who want to be counted on for the final bucket. I wonder if we try to hard to make kids be realistic, son not that many people make it as a rock star, only a very few ever play in the NBA and oh by the way if you have your father’s genes you will most likely ride the bench at the JV level.

Instead shouldn’t we be encouraging these dreams but instead help our kids to shift their focus? We can all make a big difference in small ways. Maybe we just need to shift the measure. Jesus said His kingdom was like a mustard seed, something small when it begins but something that ends up rather big.

Maybe we need to nurture those mustard seed dreams and instead of dousing them with reality maybe we should marshal them and redirect them and give them a God centered focus. Those are dreams worth having aren’t’ they?

The stage may start rather small but who is to say what the outcome may bring.

Digging for Gold

A lot of pyrite has gotten thrown in with the genuine gold, plenty of dingy coal with the bright diamonds, but we can have or accept none of the treasure they bore without shouldering the entire load. (Also, only time will tell how much trash our own generations are adding to the load, and how little gold.)Rodney Clapp

I don’t know about you but I loved what he said. I’m not sure I have thought about it this way. Digging for gold takes effort and perspiration. Many hours are poured into the discovery of that first nugget. A lot of silt and debris is washed down the slurry in hopes that the glitter of gold will appear.

I guess I have decided I need to be more willing to go through the goo. When I see things going wrong, or at least as I perceive as wrong, I usually changes courses. Clapp makes me ask if the mistakes and the missteps are just dingy coal that must be dealt with to get to the diamond.

In my masters program I took a class on church conflict. I assumed I took it to learn how to avoid or minimize church trouble. After dealing with my share of church trouble I wonder if Clapp isn’t onto something. Maybe I needed to go through some pyrite to come to a place where we have gold. Maybe learning about conflict is only good enough to let you know you are in it and to inform you of what will most likely be to come. One of the statistics from the course was how few church conflicts are resolved in a positive way. Maybe the statistic was the problem. Maybe the majority were successful, some treasure was found while shouldering the entire load.

I’ve got to be willing to dig for gold. Gold as a fellowship, as an individual, and to see the possibility of gold in others lives. I am thankful for Clapp because he has taught me to see something different. Jesus said the harvest field was ripe but he didn’t say the fruit falls from the vine and walks over to the barrel for deposit. In any harvest a lot of chaff is left along the way.

May I enjoy today’s slurry.

Remakes

I was watching Superman recently, no not the new one, the 70’s version where Lex Luther is the zany evil villain and his side kicks are lovable buffoons. As I watched and laughed I couldn’t help but think of last years Superman Returns.

I started to think about the differences in the two movies, the way the characters have such a different feel. Superman’s harmless persona Clark Kent doesn’t come across as so harmless. Each character seems to take on a darker image. The original movie is campy and fun. In each Lex has impressive plans that revolve around real estate but they are treated very differently.

The destruction that comes in last year’s movie seems darker, more somber and cold. What does this say about our culture today? I found myself thinking of the Batman TV show. I was thinking of the booms and bam’s and the sappy super villains. It was simple fun and yet Batman Begins had no such fun, only darkness and sorrow, an emptiness that wasn’t seen.

What does it tell us about our culture today? What does it say about expectations and dreams? What does it tell us about our perceived needs?

I don’t know for sure but I am positive someone has already thought about it. I have been rolling it around my head for awhile, what do you think? What can I learn that will help me be a better minister in a world where Superman has an edge?

Wind (conclusion)

I think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. I have to imagine that it felt a lot like he was socked in the gut when he returned to find his closest companions sleeping during his time of need. I have to think that the second time had to be worse than the first. An excuse could be made that they didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, they were a little confused at this stage of history, but once he chastised them you would think they would try harder.

Jesus told them that he was filled with sorrow and it was serious anguish but maybe they didn’t grasp the brevity, but to fall asleep twice? I have to think that it felt like a sock in the gut.

I have tried to take as much as possible from what Jesus does in this moment. First, he is not afraid to tell them how he feels. I remember calling my friend who told me he had my back only to leave the church the next week. I called him and told him I wished he had never told that because I actually believed it was true.

What really strikes me though is what Jesus does after the initial blow. Yes he shows his disappointment. Yes he tells them to be careful about their flesh but this doesn’t keep him from returning to God in prayer. This has been the challenging observation. I often allow the blows to redirect my energy, to take me away from the task at hand, to keep me from focusing on God.

He didn’t allow these disciples actions to take his focus from God. I allowed this mans actions to cloud my judgment for weeks to come.

The last thing that has helped is to see that while Jesus is disappointed, e is not surprised. He warns them that our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. How many times have I allowed my flesh to control a situation? How many times have I said something that came from my flesh instead of the Spirit? When I am confronted with Jesus words I see myself.

This doesn’t make it okay, it doesn’t sweep the events under the rug, it just gives me better understanding. It forces me to see that in the end Jesus promised these same men His Spirit. He charged them with leading His church. He was able to get past the punch to the gut because He was able to see bigger and better things.

I have a phone call to make. Thank God he is still teaching me, I hope I am always willing to learn.

Orthodoxy

What is orthodox? Is there really such a thing? People often fight for something because they believe it is the way it should be but does that make it true?

It seems to me that people often times fight for things that are orthodox to their own experience.

I can’t help but think of those early Jewish Christ-followers as they insisted that Gentile converts be circumcised. Yes they believed that Jesus was truly the Messiah, but they also believed Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. It doesn’t seem hard to understand how they would still find it necessary for a Gentile to convert to Judaism; I mean Jesus was their Messiah.

Weren’t they simply fighting for orthodoxy? Their orthodox understanding of what Jesus was Jewish Messiah, and what that would mean?

Paul was given the task of showing the early church that their orthodoxy was not His orthodoxy. What a tall task. His challenge was to show the Jews that the Law of Moses, what gave Jews their identity, was never intended to be the focus. Throughout the New Testament pages we find a discussion about what is orthodox.

Paul writes to the church in Rome to explain that there is no difference between Gentile and Jew, everyone sins and falls short, and the Messiah is the answer for all. Paul moves Jesus beyond his Jewishness and the Jewish understanding to show that God had always planned to open the kingdom to a larger group. Paul works to explain that God used the Jews to usher in this age of Christ.

In the end Paul shows that all of us, even Abraham, were Gentiles at some point in need of access to God. Paul works to show the early church orthodoxy.

I simply say this to say we must be very careful in how we defend orthodoxy. We must watch how we view success and what gives us pride. It is too easy to defend what we expect and believe to be orthodox expectations when the early church never measured or believed the same.

We should allow the pages of the New Testament to remind us that moving from what you know as orthodox to what is truly orthodox can be difficult. It is a task filled with paradigm shifts but it is a task each must be willing to take.

Maturity

Mature, you know the spiritually mature. It is a word I have heard a lot lately. We need to be maturing our people. Sounds really good I don’t think anyone will disagree but what do we mean when we talk about mature?

I had a person recently tell me that it is biblical and I had to agree but I wonder about how some see maturing taking place. What kind of definitions have you heard lately? What is yours?

You see someone came to me to question how we were maturing our fellowship of believers. I appreciate the question because it is always good to ask. I realized in the discussion that we had some areas we needed to focus on. It was good but as we began to talk it also seemed clear to me that maturity has taken on some interesting legs.

Let me know if any of this sounds familiar. It seems to me that people measure maturing by how much what is said and done sounds like ones personal experience. The more this experience reminds me of the church I went to the better we must be doing at maturing. I suppose this could be true but I have my reservations.

“The church I came from had small groups,” someone said. “You really need those to mature someone.”

My response is, “Okay, maybe but tell me about your last fellowships small groups. What impact did they have on your maturity?”

“Well, we had some really close friends. We had a lot in common. We had some really deep discussions about our needs and problems, we grew close.”

Now I understand we need close friends, church is people, but if having friends is maturity then most bars are maturing their patrons. They are very close and they have great discussions about life’s struggles. I know because I spent many lost years frequenting them.

I think we have some strange definitions about what it means to mature. I hear people equate knowledge with maturity, attendance with maturity, worship execution with maturity, and having friends but how does the Bible define maturity since it is obviously a biblical principle?

In the parable of the sower recorded in Luke 8 Jesus shows us both the mature and immature. I want to focus on the last two soils, those in the weeds and those on good soil. I always point out in teaching this parable that the weedy soil didn’t fall away, it just failed to mature, to bear fruit. The Greek word used is “telesphoreo” which is defined as “to bring young to maturity.”

The mature in the passage are those who bear fruit with patience. I wonder if a lot of what we call maturing is actually just insuring that people stay immature?

In my office discussion I told my friend that I believe maturing someone means taking them from selfish to selfless. I told him I new we were not perfect but I do think we are trying to meet this goal in a biblical way. We give people opportunities to be selfless, to model Christ.

I wonder if in many ways the church bows to weedy soil. I wonder if the church often finds ways to keep weedy soil weedy. Does this happen because of attendance numbers? Am I off base?

I see those fingers pointing back, I really do, but does that make it okay to cow to weedy soil, and if I am right to call immature maturity?

Venting Still

Now I will vent about me.

I too am part of the problem. I have thought these thoughts and had these rants but I have not always had the guts to say something about it in a Christ like way.

You see I can hide in my online world and rage against the comfy machine and yet I can still not help others see that this isn’t what is was supposed to be about.

I get mad at people who to be honest don’t know any better because they got the idea that church was about cozy confines and coffee bars from the church.

Why should they think differently if it was the church that told them this is how it was to begin with?

Guess what? I am just as guilty because instead of lovingly saying this is what I think it is really about I have hid in my office ranting on a machine in a cyber world where those who agree say preach on my brother and those who don’t like what I say are thousands of mega bites away and no bother to me.

I feel like that entire thing where my mom always told me that pointing a finger at others means you have three pointing back at you, the thumb is not a finger you know. My get of your tail sounds good in my safe and fake cyber universe but to actually teach and lead others to see this is what it is about is not so easy.

We begin 2007 with a sermon series entitled “Making Noise” at our fellowship. This week God keeps yelling in my ear, teach them Darin because they just don’t know. The seduction of Christianity is all about me is all over the TV and the bookshelves. The Jesus who wants you to have a new car is preached in every car and is called Christianity.

Maybe you need to do some ground work, you know that thing called teaching, before you go off like some self righteous zealot.

You know who I feel like? I feel like Moses when he thought he would help his people out by killing the abusive Egyptian foreman. My rant is about as affective. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that God had to say, why don’t we do it my way instead of yours. I guess I should just be thankful that he didn’t use a burning bush, I don’t think the carpet it the building could take it.

Pray for me that this Sunday when we talk about what it means to be a Christian, one who goes where Christ goes and says what Christ said and does what Christ did that I will do it with just the right amount of teaching, love and direction.

Our church does a lot so I have actually been dealing with people who think our focus is way off. Look at me, its time to do more then cyber complain about it.

I’m Venting Here

Okay, I am going to throw this out onto the World Wide Web because I have to say it to someone.

I am so tired of people complaining about my church doesn’t do enough to help this that or the other. Let me say it again. I am beyond tired of people who ring their hands and say woe is me why aren’t we doing more.

Give me a break. You sit on your backside on the nice pew or if you are really cool the interlocking chairs and drink your cup of café latte from the warm and inviting church coffee shop while you park your car in the six acre parking lot so you can see your preacher on the jumbotron.

 

So you want to be in a place that spends lavishly on ambiance and that is the only place you would go because you love the people who already go there but when something doesn’t get done for the least of these you start to moan?

 

Hello, you are a part of the problem. McFly, picture me knocking on your forehead. It is your desire for more comfort and a better sound system that keeps the church coffers empty to do something.

 

If I hear another we really should do more all the while as I sit on my can I am going to break something.

 

Stop waiting for it to get better and start doing something better in your own little corner of the world. Stop enjoying all the perks of the posh life if you don’t understand that the two come hand in hand.

 

Start connecting with the fact that the foxes have holes and birds have nests but the guy who we CLAIM to follow had no place to lay his head.