What if the world saw what the church, the people of God was doing and said, "Isn't she beautiful!" What if the church took seriously the life to which Jesus calls all disciples to reach out to the lost and be compassionate to the marginalized? What if the church stopped measuring itself by the three Bs, buildings, budgets and butts? What would the church look like?
Over the last two days, 2,000 people have been wrestling with this question at Mars Hill Bible Church, in Grandville, MI.
Lots of people have been talking about this in churches across the globe for the last several years. Walt Kallestad wrote a book called, "Turning Your Church Inside Out". I don't think that even starts to get at what these questions are asking because behind them are still concerns about the 3 Bs.
In the opening session, Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill said this, "The Church is the only organization that exists for non-members." Is that possible? Can we put our trust in the God of the cross to the point that we actually believe and follow this? Isn't it possible that discipleship is less about the number of people in a worship area or sanctuary on a Sunday morning and more about the number of lives affected by the gospel in their ordinary lives during the week?
I am going to be posting a number of reflections on what I took in from this conference over the next few days. I am not going to promise any answers because when I look back at my notes, there are probably 10 times more questions than there are answers, but I hope to create space for us as a community of readers, believers, humans, or what ever else we may be, to discuss what it might mean for us as humans, created by a God who comes to us over and over again, to engage and live faithfully in the world in which this God loves.
It's late, so this is it for now. Please join the conversation and ask your own questions!
Peace to your house.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Christmas!!!
I thought I would post acouple of pics from Christmas Eve. One is Erica, and our little chickens that we had for dinner. It looks like she already ate one of the legs. We have a habit of taking pictures of food. I guess we'll remember them that way. On the right is the Americana Christmas picture, which may be our Christmas card picture
for next year...you never know.
Christmas Eve was an exhilerating day as my first year in ministry revved up for all of the glory of Jesus' birth. After five services, two sermons and Christmas at home between two of the evening services, I was exhausted, but had not experienced such an amazing Christmas like it.
On Christmas Day, we headed over to the great state of Wisconsin to share the day with Erica's family. It was a great opportunity to snap a family picture with all four generations, ages 93 to 7 months old!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
I love/hate the internet/technology!
I am becoming increasingly convinced that technology has both a saintly and satanic side to it. It seems that every device or website that I discover and fall in love with (i.e. cell phone, wireless Internet, MySpace, Blogger, NY Times, YouTube, etc..) it will eventually turn on me. I was once naively convinced that technology was supposed to make our lives easier, more streamlined. I am no longer convinced. I think instead, perhaps technological devices have been created in order to unnecessarily raise our blood pressure, so that the pharmaceutical companies make more money and the ad agencies that produce all those crazy commercials get more famous (although I don't know how famous the actors for the Erectile Dysfunction commercials are going to get). It all may just be a conspiracy. Or, maybe not...
Immediately preceding this writing I spent the last hour and a half trying to convert this very blog over to the new "Google Blogger". Yes, I fear there has been another cyberspace corporate merge. I love Google, but I am waiting for them to get rights to implant little microchips in babies as the exit the womb. (I hope they will give me credit for that idea when the deal goes down.) Alright (did you know that "alright" is not a word?), back to technology. Three weeks ago I saw that I could change my blog over to a new and improved version of Blogger and so I did. I'm a sucker for new and improved things. When I did my blog didn't show up, and I got a message that they were unable to convert my blog over at this time, but I should check back later. Three weeks later, nothing. So, I go on with the old version, pissed really that I can't get in on this new and improved thing, with all the great special features. It looks like I should be able to convert over at some other time, Google wants all of their bloggers on the new system asap. I think instead, I will be a hold out. Maybe in 20 years, I will be the only one on the original Blogger system, just to prove my point. I could never hold a grudge against a person I knew for that long, but I imagine I could against a machine. Who knows.
On the bright side of technology, I finally entered the world of MySpace in the last couple of weeks. It is one incredible world! I really shouldn't be so amazed by it. But I can't help but be because when I created my account less than three weeks ago there were over 131,000,000 signed up. In that short time, there are now a whopping (drum role please...) 142,000,000 people on this crazy structure! You can find almost anyone under the age of 40 in there. I think it is great!
No matter your technological persuasions, just don't be naive to the fact that it is the best and worst resource we have. Cheers!
Immediately preceding this writing I spent the last hour and a half trying to convert this very blog over to the new "Google Blogger". Yes, I fear there has been another cyberspace corporate merge. I love Google, but I am waiting for them to get rights to implant little microchips in babies as the exit the womb. (I hope they will give me credit for that idea when the deal goes down.) Alright (did you know that "alright" is not a word?), back to technology. Three weeks ago I saw that I could change my blog over to a new and improved version of Blogger and so I did. I'm a sucker for new and improved things. When I did my blog didn't show up, and I got a message that they were unable to convert my blog over at this time, but I should check back later. Three weeks later, nothing. So, I go on with the old version, pissed really that I can't get in on this new and improved thing, with all the great special features. It looks like I should be able to convert over at some other time, Google wants all of their bloggers on the new system asap. I think instead, I will be a hold out. Maybe in 20 years, I will be the only one on the original Blogger system, just to prove my point. I could never hold a grudge against a person I knew for that long, but I imagine I could against a machine. Who knows.
On the bright side of technology, I finally entered the world of MySpace in the last couple of weeks. It is one incredible world! I really shouldn't be so amazed by it. But I can't help but be because when I created my account less than three weeks ago there were over 131,000,000 signed up. In that short time, there are now a whopping (drum role please...) 142,000,000 people on this crazy structure! You can find almost anyone under the age of 40 in there. I think it is great!
No matter your technological persuasions, just don't be naive to the fact that it is the best and worst resource we have. Cheers!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
The Way We Speak Affects Our Relationships
What difference do words make anyway?!
I have been thinking a lot about language lately. You see, I just got out of seminary and I realize that I have been tooled with a particular language that is really only relavent in seminary. What conception do most people have when they hear terms like apocalyptic, liturgical, perichoresis, grace, forgiveness, the peace of Christ, eschatology, or even theology? My observation is that not too many people have a real strong concept of these terms at all, nor should the terms matter so much at all. What matters is what they mean. After living in the People of Hope ethos for the past three months, I am starting to see the light on the power of language; not the kind of language that includes multiple $100 words, but the type of language that strikes at the core of a community's being and therefore transforms community into a new way of being. I am not saying that I have found the keys that unlocks this treasure box of meaning, but I am starting to see the treasure that lies inside. My point is, people listen to others who speak in a way that communicates that the speaker cares that the people understand what that one is saying; not just that the speaker looks smart.
I think I have spent the better part of the last decade trying to speak so that people think that I am smart. Unfortunately, and admittedly, I don't sense that I cared as much if people understood me as much as I cared that they respected my intelligence. What arrogance!
As I continue to be shaped by this amazing community of people here in Rochester, I am finding that although I was a bit leary of it at first, there is no more powerful language than a language of love to shape how people interact with one another. After studying the Bible, and thinking about Jesus for quite some time in school, you would think that I would be a quicker learner....guess not. This langauge can be learned in formal educational institutions, but it may be more likely found and experienced in communities who see their mission as love for one another and those they encounter because they have experienced Christ's love first hand.
I have been thinking a lot about language lately. You see, I just got out of seminary and I realize that I have been tooled with a particular language that is really only relavent in seminary. What conception do most people have when they hear terms like apocalyptic, liturgical, perichoresis, grace, forgiveness, the peace of Christ, eschatology, or even theology? My observation is that not too many people have a real strong concept of these terms at all, nor should the terms matter so much at all. What matters is what they mean. After living in the People of Hope ethos for the past three months, I am starting to see the light on the power of language; not the kind of language that includes multiple $100 words, but the type of language that strikes at the core of a community's being and therefore transforms community into a new way of being. I am not saying that I have found the keys that unlocks this treasure box of meaning, but I am starting to see the treasure that lies inside. My point is, people listen to others who speak in a way that communicates that the speaker cares that the people understand what that one is saying; not just that the speaker looks smart.
I think I have spent the better part of the last decade trying to speak so that people think that I am smart. Unfortunately, and admittedly, I don't sense that I cared as much if people understood me as much as I cared that they respected my intelligence. What arrogance!
As I continue to be shaped by this amazing community of people here in Rochester, I am finding that although I was a bit leary of it at first, there is no more powerful language than a language of love to shape how people interact with one another. After studying the Bible, and thinking about Jesus for quite some time in school, you would think that I would be a quicker learner....guess not. This langauge can be learned in formal educational institutions, but it may be more likely found and experienced in communities who see their mission as love for one another and those they encounter because they have experienced Christ's love first hand.
Monday, November 20, 2006
The Ever Expanding Web of Relationships
In the last couple of days I have connected with some friends from my past. I talked to my friend Melanie. She and I met when we were in high school at a church leadership event in Chicago. We went to college near one another and stayed in contact until a few years ago. We have talked once in the last three years, until last night. I am in awe of relationships that pick up as if no time had passed at all. That's how my conversation felt last night.
Yesterday afternoon my good friend from seminary, Kevin, stopped by as he was driving through Rochester. We had lunch and talked as always about how we might be used as pastors and servants in the church. We wondered together what the church will look like at the end of our careers and the role of mega-churches in the religious landscape. Heck, in our position, it is hard to know where we will be at this time next year let alone in forty years.
Last night, I gathered with new friends, people who go to the church I serve and we wondered together what it looks like to live out our faith as the letter to the Ephesians spells it out. We wondered if the body of Christ was limited to the Christian church and what that means for our relationship with Jews and Muslims who also confess that God is God. We were challenged by people in the group who wondered if doing the living of faith was more important than the thinking of faith, whether the conversation became to intellectualized. I was really proud of the group for being able to hold a variety of opinions in tension and live together in faithful community. I was amazed by the closeness through faith that I experienced with this group who were relative strangers to me. It seemed that the body of Christ was living in faith together in that coffee shop yesterday afternoon.
Relationships are ever expanding and contrasting. There was a time when I felt like I had a relationship piggy bank and when it was full, I would have to empty some out to keep on making new friends. What a silly idea! Although it is true that it is quite difficult to have really deep relationships with lots of people, our connection to others, our relationship webs are vital to our health and wellness, both physically and spiritually. My heart mourns for the elderly who find themselves lonelier and lonlier as age grows and friends die. I mourn even deeper when our society devalues the elderly because they are unable to do what they were once able to. In the west, we seem to have a very difficult time giving value to people because they are people, God's beloved people. What might it look like if our society slowed down half a pace to recognize the beauty of the other, the life that the other lives and spoke a word of grace and compassion to those who feel the deep despair of loneliness? The letter to the Ephesians talks about the body of Christ which is knit together by ligaments. Shouldn't we as part of the body feel the arthritis of loneliness in another part of our body? My prayer is: Healer of our every ill, fall afresh on me, on this body so that we with you will be alert and attentive to the pain of our own body.
I am so thankful for the body of people who surround me each day, week, month or year. For new relationships and the ones that have been evolving over so many years. The web looks delicate, but in many places is strong and reassuring. Even in those places where it seems the connection is gone, one visit to that place in the web reassures me that mending is possible and in many cases even eagerly awaiting a visit to reconnect and continue the relationship.
For me, I see the body of Christ in every relationship I have. Where there is love and hope and peace, mysteriously Christ is in it. I don't think I'd want it any other way.
Peace to your house.
Yesterday afternoon my good friend from seminary, Kevin, stopped by as he was driving through Rochester. We had lunch and talked as always about how we might be used as pastors and servants in the church. We wondered together what the church will look like at the end of our careers and the role of mega-churches in the religious landscape. Heck, in our position, it is hard to know where we will be at this time next year let alone in forty years.
Last night, I gathered with new friends, people who go to the church I serve and we wondered together what it looks like to live out our faith as the letter to the Ephesians spells it out. We wondered if the body of Christ was limited to the Christian church and what that means for our relationship with Jews and Muslims who also confess that God is God. We were challenged by people in the group who wondered if doing the living of faith was more important than the thinking of faith, whether the conversation became to intellectualized. I was really proud of the group for being able to hold a variety of opinions in tension and live together in faithful community. I was amazed by the closeness through faith that I experienced with this group who were relative strangers to me. It seemed that the body of Christ was living in faith together in that coffee shop yesterday afternoon.
Relationships are ever expanding and contrasting. There was a time when I felt like I had a relationship piggy bank and when it was full, I would have to empty some out to keep on making new friends. What a silly idea! Although it is true that it is quite difficult to have really deep relationships with lots of people, our connection to others, our relationship webs are vital to our health and wellness, both physically and spiritually. My heart mourns for the elderly who find themselves lonelier and lonlier as age grows and friends die. I mourn even deeper when our society devalues the elderly because they are unable to do what they were once able to. In the west, we seem to have a very difficult time giving value to people because they are people, God's beloved people. What might it look like if our society slowed down half a pace to recognize the beauty of the other, the life that the other lives and spoke a word of grace and compassion to those who feel the deep despair of loneliness? The letter to the Ephesians talks about the body of Christ which is knit together by ligaments. Shouldn't we as part of the body feel the arthritis of loneliness in another part of our body? My prayer is: Healer of our every ill, fall afresh on me, on this body so that we with you will be alert and attentive to the pain of our own body.
I am so thankful for the body of people who surround me each day, week, month or year. For new relationships and the ones that have been evolving over so many years. The web looks delicate, but in many places is strong and reassuring. Even in those places where it seems the connection is gone, one visit to that place in the web reassures me that mending is possible and in many cases even eagerly awaiting a visit to reconnect and continue the relationship.
For me, I see the body of Christ in every relationship I have. Where there is love and hope and peace, mysteriously Christ is in it. I don't think I'd want it any other way.
Peace to your house.
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