Pentecost

The pouring out of the spirit on earth is the presence, in our sphere, of the sheer energy of heaven itself. The gift of the spirit is thus the direct result of the ascension of Jesus. Because he is the Lord of all, his energy, the power to be and do something quite new, is available through the spirit to all who call on him, all who follow him, all who trust him.
- NT Wright

Discipleship (from spiritual awakening, conversion, to maturity) is birthed in the Spirit, but it is also very much maintained in the Spirit. And while there are other forms of learning, discipleship involves a growth into the “deep things of God” (1Cor. 2:10) and this simply cannot be achieved without the ongoing role of the Holy Spirit.

As such, we partake of the divine dance that is intrinsic to the life of God. And we share in the divine life through the Spirit. In other words, Christian life must be lived for the glory of God, under the saving lordship of Jesus, and in the power of the Spirit. Biblical discipleship is Trinitarian or it is not biblical.

- Deb and Alan Hirsch, excerpt from Untamed

Accounting

Recently I had a situation where my relational inventory was taken, and by those taking the inventory, I was found lacking.

Because I write to process, this is what I wrote in my attempt to sort through the emotions of that event:

I read the emails once again, trying to understand, but knowing the pain that will wash over me each time that I look.

I tell myself that I am whole enough to deal with this. I know that I am ultimately loved. I can deal with this from the basis of that reality.

I try to objectively understand the flood of emotions. What is it?

Guilt?
Shame?
Accusation?
Defensiveness?
Pride?

Am I having trouble accepting the truth? Or am I having trouble rejecting the lie when it is spoken to me in words that confirm the accusations that the enemy already whispers in my ear?

Is it a lie or the truth when the failures and weaknesses are real?

So I go back and read again, even though I shouldn’t.

I bounce back and forth between what I feel and what I know.

Yes, I am guilty. I have not measured up. But I don’t want to live in the world of keeping track and measuring up. Is this a cop-out?

If you are keeping score, I will eventually fall short. You don’t have to prove it. I already know. I already know that I am never quite enough of what I should be.

Yes, I could be more, I could be better. But so often I am not.

You Aren’t The Boss of Me

The complex theories of leadership, government, and church organization that have developed as a “scriptural explanation” attempting to support and justify the traditional and desired systems is sometimes astounding to me.  I really have trouble believing that when either Jesus or Paul talked about the church that they ever imagined the denominational structures and corporate entities that we now call church.

Instead, I believe they were typically explaining how the people of God should live and relate to one another and to the world around them.  Rather than live according to the spirit of their words, we have attempted to extract rules, orders, and structures of authority from various passages of scripture.

The discussion in the comments of the post More Thoughts on Not Starting a Church explored nuances about leadership at a depth that is more insightful than most discussions I read about leadership in the church.

Some random thoughts as I read through the comment thread…

• The complexity of the structure determines the complexity of organizational leadership that is necessary.
• Organizational leadership does not equal spiritual authority.
• Spiritual gifts and maturity do not equal spiritual authority.
• Organizational leadership may be positional, but relational leadership is not.
• Relational leadership is fluid, mutual, and voluntary and is dependent on and always mindful of Jesus as the Head and Leader.
• In our society, it is difficult to use the term leader without assuming an elevated status.
• It is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive to use influence (maturity, gifts, talents) to serve in a way that empowers others and does not create dependency or position.
• We learn from and are inspired by the example of others.  This is one of the ways we are encouraged, edified, and grow.

It may not be possible to develop an across-the-board definition or method of leadership in the church, particularly when we consider the variety in degrees of organizational structure.  However, I do believe that is possible to define the fundamental basic values of leadership, power, and authority that we find in Scripture.  How those values are worked out within relationships and structures will likely be a topic of continued debate and discussion.

Any further thoughts?  What is the bottom line for you?

There Is No One Like Our God

Ascension Day

• Ascension Day marks the day when Jesus Christ ascended up into Heaven.
• It was 40 days after his resurrection from the dead.
• Forty days from Easter, April 12, 2009, is today, Thursday, May 21.

Ascension is the culmination of the incarnation.

From before creation, it was established that union with mankind would be accomplished in Christ.  The ascension completed the work of our adoption. Because of the bodily ascension of Christ, we are now lifted into and included in the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” – John 14:20

This is truly beautiful!

More Thoughts on Not Starting a Church

From the previous post:

“…how do we facilitate people caring for each other and growing spiritually together and see over time whether or not church life emerges from that reality?” – Wayne Jacobsen

I want to share a few thoughts about structure and organization, particularly leadership and relational structure.

Institutional systems confer social power and concentrate it at the top…

Because of human nature, we should be very wary of such power in human hands.

It almost always corrupts and damages the relational fabric that constitutes the church.

- Alan Hirsch

Some interesting thoughts by Pete Rollins about the nature of leadership and relationships within a faith community:

…as soon as a group begins to identify itself as a community, people begin to have pastoral expectations. The result can be an unreasonable pressure on those who organise the meetings and the slow formation of hierarchical leadership structures in order to meet those needs.

The following idea first struck me as too individualistic…

However, if a group refuses to offer pastoral care and makes it clear that it is not a community, rather just a collective of disparate people exploring faith and life, the fewer expectations are generated among people. This direct denial of community can turn out to be the most fertile soil for real community to develop indirectly.

But listen to what occurs in the vacuum created by requiring care to occur in the context of relationship:

For if there is no ‘group’ who cares about the person sitting beside me then there is more need for me to care about that person. If there is no pastoral support team in place then I need to be the pastoral support. The refusal to offer pastoral support thus generates a potential place where pastoral care is distributed among everyone.

It is a common feature of religious life that we often seek a leader to tell us what to do. In these situations I would argue that it is good to have a leader who refuses to take on that role. Who, by doing so, forces the other to take responsibility for themselves.

The truth is that many of us seek a particular kind of leader, namely one we can lead. What this means is that we want someone to tell us what we want to hear, but that we want them to take on the responsibility for our actions rather than embrace that responsibility ourselves. The leader who refuses to lead short-circuits this manipulative game and invites people into taking on the responsibility for their own decisions.”

It makes sense that real community can develop when we learn not to transfer the responsibility for our relationships and caring to either an organization or a leader figure.

That Radical Wayne

Continuing on this topic…

An interesting blog post from Wayne Jacobsen about NOT starting a church.

A few quotes:

I am convinced real church emerges as an organic outgrowth of relationships people are already sharing. So the question is not, how do we start a church, but rather, how do we facilitate people caring for each other and growing spiritually together and see over time whether or not church life emerges from that reality?

I really don’t think we need to start churches. Jesus started the only one that matters at Pentecost 2000 years ago. We just need to live in that reality instead of starting more institutions that only further divide the body.

What should you do? Follow him. If you don’t know what that means yet, just live in his love and love others around you. In time it will be clear what he wants you to do. If you don’t know now, other than to follow someone else’s form, then maybe you are moving ahead of him.

We are not told to plant a church, for he said he would build his own. He’s good at this. He knows what to do. Just help others as God gives you grace. Don’t try to start something. Don’t try to ‘get people’ to do anything. Live your life before them until they are hungry enough to ask for help. Then help them learn to live loved and follow Jesus. And the gospel will spread…

What do you think?

The Fine Print

• No church is perfect.
• We are all part of the body of Christ.
• There are sincere believers in every congregation.
• Many pastors are humble, devoted, and committed to serving their congregations.
• Unity and fellowship are important, whatever that looks like for you.
• Sunday morning attendance might not be “community”, but over a period of time, it can foster a sense of connection and history with a group of people.
• While the institution may be flawed, typically the people gathered within it constitute the family of God.
• God is at work both within and outside congregations.
• The world desperately needs for the church to reflect the love of God.
• Part of reflecting this love is the love we have for one another.
• Love your tribe.
• Hopefully you and your tribe can love the world together.

Not Dead Yet

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” – Mark Twain

Citing statistics from the ARIS study and the Pew Research Center, the decline of church attendance and affiliation is a hot topic in the news lately. From USA Today to Newsweek, articles are being written about “The End of Christian America.”

“Young Christians are sick of pablum. It doesn’t work anymore. They are tired of rabbinical hair-splitting, empty liturgical apparatus, Sunday school minutiae, the ghostly voices of the old regime; they reject stuck minds and methods and by their indifference to structures and traditional authorities have declared them bankrupt, cancelled.”

- Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God

Somewhat surprisingly, in Charisma, J. Lee Grady recently said,

The charismatic movement as we know it has ended.

A “new generation” church is emerging.

No one has coined a term for this movement yet, but it is growing—and it represents the future of Christianity in our country.

Apparently he doesn’t read my blog. I said quite a bit about this topic in The Future of the Church and, from a charismatic perspective, Extreme Charismatic Makeover.

He also seems unfamiliar or unaware of the emerging conversation and the growing Post-Charismatic conversation. Charismatics are notorious for not realizing that christianity exists outside of their industry circles.

They are not the only ones. Many denominations and congregations can be like people who live in houses without ever looking out the windows. As long as everything is fine inside the house, they are unaware of problems or changes. If there is disruption to their house, they come running out with apocalyptic warnings.

Another quote that I read recently along these lines…

“The problem for the western church today is that people have done what the church told them to do, they have done what the preachers told them to do, they have followed the program, the bizarre religious ritual with its Bible labels. And they have found no glory, no river, no great dance.

Everyone in the western world seems to know this but the church. People are not listening to the church. And it is not because they hate God. It is because they have listened, and they have done what the church told them to do, and it has left them empty.

Could it be that the disinterest of the world in Christianity is owing to the fact that the world sees the religious nothingness it produces and wants nothing of it?”

- C. Baxter Kruger, The Great Dance

It doesn’t have to be this way. The church has an incredible opportunity at this time to redefine itself and its message to something that more accurately reflects the heart of God, to offer to the world a spirituality that is actually good news and brings life and love that can truly transform.

God forgive us for representing christianity as a lifeless form of dogma, tradition, and religiosity.

Review: The Furious Longing of God

This latest book by Brennan Manning is simple and beautiful in its expression of God’s love. The message he so poetically portrays is one that you will want to read deeply and repeatedly. No matter what page or chapter you turn to, Brennan’s words will quickly draw you in to the heart and passion of relentless, furious, Love.

“God Almighty shares through His Son the depth of His feelings for me, His love flashes into my soul, and I am overtaken by mystery. These are moments of kairos — the decisive inbreak of God’s fury into my personal life’s story.”

Living loved:

“How is it then that we’ve come to imagine that Christianity consists primarily in what we do for God?”

“Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.”

Reflecting love:

“I’ve decided that if I had my life to live over again,…I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth.”

“What would I actually do if I had it to do all over again? Heeding John’s counsel, I would simply do the next thing in love.”

Loving others:

“To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary.”

“This is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.”

This is just a small sample of the love story shared in the pages of this short book. It is a book that you will want to leave on your coffee table, to share with others, and to give as gifts, knowing that as you share the book, you are sharing the most important truth there is, “Abba, I belong to you.”

(This book was a selection for review from the ooze viral blogger network.)