In the opening session of the conference, Rob Bell made the claim that as the body of Christ, we are the Eucharist. We have our bodies and our lives broken or given and our blood poured out for the sake of the world. This is a defining experience and activity of the Church. Paul explains this phenomenon in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12. As followers of Jesus, we give our life over to death for Jesus' sake, so that others may have life. In this way, the Eucharist, the good gift or the thanksgiving is not only a gift that benefits the Church, but it is made visible to the world through Christ's work in those who participate in the Eucharist. If this is indeed the case, then we are joined to Christ's suffering, we are commissioned by God through the elements to respond and join ourselves to the suffering of the world.
Martin Luther takes this notion of joining Christ one step further in his treatise "The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods". "The significance or effect of this sacrament is fellowship of all the saints...To recieve this sacrament in bread and wine, then, is nothing else than to receive a sure sign of the fellowship and incorporation with Christ and all the saints...This fellowship consists in athis, that all the spiritual possessions of Christ and his saints (all those who believe in Christ) are shared with and become the common property of [the one] who receives this sacrament. Again all the sufferings and sins also become common property of [the one] who receives this sacrament."
We are incorporated in a mystical way into communion with Christ and all believers and are mutually included in the blessings, sufferings and sins of those who participate in this with us. In light of the fact that Luther was arguing for the proper understanding of the worldview of Christendom and today we are most certainly living in a world that has rejected the notion of Christendom, I would argue that our participation in the Eucharist places us in communion with the suffering, sins and blessings of the world which God desires to reclaim, reconcile and re-create anew.
So what does this mean? It means that in a very practical way, the Church is not fully participating in the Eucharist, and perhaps not even being faithful to Christ unless the members of the Church are in communion with those in our world that are suffering, poor, oppressed, rejected, neglected, abused, disempowered, discriminated against, etc. God uses the Church to bring hope, peace joy, love and wholeness to all the world because she is the body of Christ who has already experienced the power of the Gospel. The way that any of this happens is through the Church, the people of God.
More to come tomorrow.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Isn't She Beautiful?
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.
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.
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.
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