My Person of the Year

Time Magazine's PERSON OF THE YEAR is "The Protester."  I guess I can understand why "The Protester" was chosen and not Steve Jobs...although I have more of an affinity towards Steve Jobs.  I assume that their "person of the year" is the person who has the most influence on the year, was most newsworthy, and will have the most lasting influence.  And, while Steve Jobs did some great stuff in 2011 and his passing was definitely newsworthy, one can argue that much of his work and influence covers the last decade, not so much the year.  The protesters, in contrast, were quite a phenomenon for 2011.  It is clear that their influence on "The Arab Spring" will be felt for years to come as the dust settles throughout the Middle East.  On the home front, it has been the Occupy Wall Street protestors, from coast to coast, trying to confront the social and economic inequity that affects our nation greatly. 

So, yes, "The Protester" makes sense.  Impact on the calendar year.  Lasting impact around the globe.  Newsworthiness.  How they will impact history.

That, and we'll put Steve Jobs in second place.

Well, what about my PERSON OF THE YEAR.  I decided I'd go with some of the same qualities that I think Time Magazine uses.  This person would be newsworthy to me...the focus of much of my time and attention.  This person would need to have made an impact on the year...there were changes or movements that this person was intimately connected with.  This person would be someone whose actions or choices would have a lasting impact on myself, my family, or my job.

This narrows things down dramatically and there are some runners up who didn't come out on top:

Gail Grossman (my mentor) -- Gail is a layperson I met with 10 times over the course of the first half of the year.  All of our meetings were by phone.  While her help was enlisted to address some of the financial difficulties at Girdwood Chapel, what she ended up doing with me is helping us figure out a long-term ministry plan and get the ball rolling.  It's because of her that our small group ministry is taking root.  She was also influential in the start of our "Friday Night Live" youth nights and our Tween Group.  I can't thank her enough.

Mark Scandrette (author/Christ-follower) -- I read his book this year...and it changed the way I think about discipleship.  It's not that any of what he said, as far as the individual pieces are concerned, was new to me.  However, the way he put it all together was exceptionally helpful.  I just want to jump in and put it all into practice and once and need to take a breath as I realize that it's a marathon and not a sprint.  I think this book is something I'm going to have to take out again and again and again.

Jon Stewart (TV Personality) -- OK, so Jon was probably not really in the running for PERSON OF THE YEAR for me.  But I want to take a moment and recognize that, The Daily Show is one show that I catch 3-4 times a week...and it's only on 4 times a week. This year, perhaps more than any other, I have gotten totally frustrated with the world of politics. I know many accuse Jon of firing his shots from the left, but I seriously believe he's frustrated any time politics is put ahead of people and he tries to shine a light on it.  He recognizes the lies that this world tells us through the media.  Some of it is painful to watch.  Much of it is uproariously funny.  But his show has made me want to live into the notion that all politics is local.  It's about people.  It's about the people I know and meet and eat with and love.  This year, more than any other, I've been shaped by this.

Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) -- I am an Apple fan boy.  I type this on a MacBook Pro.  This year I got an iPad and and iPhone.  Much of my time is spent on a device that this guy thought up and brought to production.  He has had a lasting effect on how I communicate and the ways in which I use technology for my job...for pastoring people.  This year I mourned his death.

But with those three finalists out of the way, it's time to introduce my PERSON OF THE YEAR.

Drumroll, please.........


MY PERSON OF THE YEAR IS JULIE DOEPKEN, MY LOVELY WIFE.

Here's how it is. 

This year we celebrated our 20th anniversary.  She's been instrumental in what I do and think and who I've come to be over those 20 years.  Moreover, this year was a big year for her.  Not only did she complete her hours of education for her teaching certificate but she performed her student teaching and jumped through hoop after hoop of administrative requirements.  This was a Fall fraught with turmoil and conflict as we navigated the rough waters of her job...much of it related to a killer schedule.   Together we struggled and made decisions about what was best for us as a family. 

Over the last four months in particular, Julie has been "newsworthy."  Her work and her education, the struggles and the great joys, were what we spent time talking about.  She got up early to get to work.  She worked after everyone else had gone to bed.  She was a focus of our family and the rest of us rallied to enable her to complete the job before her.

All the while she managed to mother our five kids and be a wife to me and be an active member of our church community and the Girdwood Community as a whole.  This was no small task.

And it will have a lasting effect on all of us.  She exhibited both strength and humility...a fine example for me and our kids.  Her choices in her job will have a positive effect on our economic situation...especially important as I move from full time to 3/4 time employment in the church.  Almost always, she was an example of grace under pressure...and Lord knows we had enough pressure.

I thank God for her.

So, with that in mind, I declare that JULIE DOEPKEN IS THE PERSON OF THE YEAR...at least "my" year.

(And she should be pleased as can be that she, too, beat out Steve Jobs.)

"The Incarnation of the Piper"

I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. 

Sydney Carter

The Liberation of the Incarnation

Among other things, Jesus liberates by mediating God’s Presence to us.  In the midst of our pains and prisons, Jesus liberates us through Presence.  God’s Presence is a subtle, unique, and powerful kind of liberation.  It does not promise to change our circumstance, instead it transforms the way we relate to our circumstance.  It gives clarity, acceptance, and hope in the midst of the storm.

Shane Hipps

"The Xmas Borg"

Image via Wikipedia

The following is an excerpt of an article by Jeffrey Weiss found over at RealClearReligion.

[The "War on Christmas"] is the battle by Christmas against any other religion's tradition. I defy Bill O'Reilly and his compadres to locate the smallest corner of our nation immune from the months-long drumbeat of Christmas stuff. For us, the holiday seems closer to Star Trek's Borg Collective ("Resistance is futile!") than anything I can find in the Christian scriptures.

...so much of Christmas in America has nothing to do with Christ or Jesus. If there was a war, it was waged long ago amongst Christians. And the majority of them decided they also wanted a cultural holiday that distilled an essence from Christmas and left most of the God stuff behind. In my mind, I think of that holiday as "Xmas."

Look at our cultural holiday touchstones, all the way back to Dickens's Christmas Carol. What are the books, movies and TV specials that come back again and again and again? It's a Wonderful Life. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Nutcracker. Frosty the Snowman. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. A Visit from St. Nicholas. The Nightmare Before Christmas. And on and on.

There's only one example I can think of in the entire popular pantheon that includes enough actual theology for a short sermonette: Linus giving his unapologetic recitation from the Book of Luke in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Let's not blame this on the ACLU or the Supreme Court or Barack Obama. The decisions about which of the many, many holiday-timed specials became perennials were made by the marketplace and over decades. Most attempts by Christian religionists to create entertainment that was explicitly Christian and transcendentally popular have had little success beyond preaching to their own choir.

The Incarnation -- According to Michael Spencer

“...the incarnation is the complete refutation of every human system and institution that claims to control, possess, and distribute God. Whatever any church or religious leader may claim in regard to their particular access to God or control over your experience of God, the incarnation is the last word: God loves the world. God came into the world in the form of the people he created, the human race (including you and me), who bear his image. God's creation of humanity in his image gives hints of who he is, since we all are marked by his fingerprints.

But as flawed humans, we give only a vague hint of God. Our broken reflection of God's image is easily drowned out by our broken humanity. then, two thousand years ago, God came in his fullness. He came to all of us in Jesus. The incarnation is not owned, trademarked, or controlled by any church. It belongs to every human being. The incarnation is not something that requires a distributor or middleman. It is a gracious gift to every person everywhere, religious or not. God gave himself to us in Jesus.”

― Michael Spencer, Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality

C.S. Lewis and The Incarnation

"Lying at your feet is your dog. Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress. Some of us love dogs very much. If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men, would you be willing to become a dog? Would you put down your human nature, leave your loved ones, your job, hobbies, your art and literature and music, and choose instead of the intimate communion with your beloved, the poor substitute of looking into the beloved's face and wagging your tail, unable to smile or speak? Christ by becoming man limited the thing which to Him was the most precious thing in the world; his unhampered, unhindered communion with the Father. "

C.S. Lewis

Prayer Celebrating the Incarnation

All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, because you are the Almighty Word of God!

All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, because you are the Word made flesh. You are Emmanuel, God with us!

All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, because you, the all-powerful Word of creation, became weak and vulnerable.

All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, because you became human in order to be with us, so that you might reveal the Father to us, and so that you might save us.

All praise be to you, Lord Jesus, Word of God Incarnate, Savior of the world…and my Savior too!  

Amen.

By Mark Roberts

"The Incarnation" -- In Spoken Word

"Christmas in a Nutshell"

State of the Church -- Presented at Girdwood Chapel Charge Conference

State of the Church

Presented to the Girdwood Chapel Charge Conference

21 December 2011

by Pastor Jim Doepken

You already know this, I hope.  But we have some wonderful, holy, good things going on right now: 

·      We have a Food Pantry that is meeting more need than we knew existed and we’re trying to be part of the solution to the underlying problems of economic need in the community. 

·      We have a discipleship group that has been a wonderful exercise in following Jesus with the hope of expanding it to more groups in the coming year. 

·      We have bunches of youth coming to the Friday Night Live events and also to the Tween Group which meets before it.

·      We have the stirrings of a men’s group…a long way from our Women’s Bible Study…but we can dream.

·      We’re in our new space and have seen it used for outreach to Alcoholics Anonymous, Cub Scouts, an art program, and one wedding.

·      We have a real good spirit to this place, a Holy spirit of care, acceptance, love, and grace even though we are a pretty diverse lot.

With all of this going on, it’s a shame that our economic realities often take center stage and color how we view the many wonderful things we have happening.  But, alas, it’s true.  We are struggling, financially.  We have commitments to the United Methodist Development Fund and to individuals.  Moreover, we have a building that still needs work to be truly finished.  We’re doing a lot of ministry.  But we’ve taken on a lot of responsibility to get here.

It’s this present reality that has shaped much of our discussion over the last four months as we’ve explored the possibility of moving to a ¾ time pastoral position.  It has weighed heavily on the leadership of the congregation and also upon the pastoral family.   But, throughout the discussions, we’ve been clear that all of us in the conversation love the church, love each other, and hope for a better future together where the celebrations of our ministries aren’t followed by a caveat concerning financial problems.  We pray this is the case and we’ll work for this future in the grace of God and the love of Christ.

We have our work cut out for us.  “I” don’t have my work cut out for me.  “Our leadership” doesn’t.  It’s all of us.  It’s the whole body which is the church in this particular place that has our work cut out for “us”…the whole body, with kids screaming, parents overburdened, faces smiling, hands serving, “Eagle’s Wings” singing, and hearts open to the will of God. 

I pray that we’ll be able to creatively work on this together.

While the Discipleship Group has been my primary means of working on the discipleship of the members of the church over the last several months, it has also been my primary means of spiritual growth and I thank those who have journeyed with me.  I hope others will join as we move forward.  It’s a good thing to follow Jesus more closely in one’s life.

As for continuing education, I received training from the Jurisdictional Leadership Team in January and, for the first half of the year, I met with a ministry coach via phone.  The Discipleship Group, the Tween Group, our Lenten Small Groups, and our Stewardship Drive all have their roots in discussion with my mentor.  In the coming year, I’ll be heading to General Conference in Tampa to meet with United Methodists from around the globe.   This will be my education for 2012.

I think it’s important for me to say that I truly thank God for Girdwood Chapel.  I thank God for my experiences.  I thank God for the people. I thank God that I’ve grown as a pastor here while always believing that it’s a “good fit.”  I thought that 11 and half years ago and I think that today.

We will share many more memories and celebrations over the coming months and, potentially, years.  Let us band together and meet our financial difficulties head on so that our collective ministry can take center stage.  For that is where we really shine as a light to the community.

Peace

Jim

Receiving Christ

“What is uncertain is not the ‘coming’ of Christ but our own reception of Him, our own response to Him, our own readiness and capacity to ‘go forth to meet Him.’”

--Thomas Merton

via

Question: What limits are we to put on love?

I ask this question because this week's theme in worship is LOVE ALL.

And, while I think that's a "nice idea," should there be some limits to that love?

Or, if that question seems a bit rough, what if we asked, "What are the boundaries to love?" Are there no boundaries whatsoever, or, for the sake of self-preservation do we need to put up safeguards to reign in our love? After all, it would seem that in Christ Jesus we see what happens when someone loves without boundaries.

What does it mean to really "LOVE ALL?"

So, what do you think?

"There Has Only Been One Christmas..."

Christmas Tree by ~DreAminginDigITal on deviantART

"There has been only one Christmas.  The rest are anniversaries"

~W.J. Cameron

Envying the Shepherds

14 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS!!

I think we finally have our schedule set up, with leaders and musicians and practices and gatherings on the horizon.

I think today we may finally get our tree set up.  I'm not sure our kids will let it slide another day.

I think this week I might have time to get some gifts together...finally.

I think adding Charge Conference, our main administrative meeting, the week before Christmas is going to add a burden that didn't need to be there...but really "needed" to be there because of scheduling issues.

I think I need to read this quote again from Jeff Monroe.

Friends from Europe were visiting and after a long day we were discussing what to do for dinner. Sergio, whose family is from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, said, “My father was a shepherd. Like him, I am a simple man. If I have some bread, a piece of cheese and a glass of wine I’ll be happy.”

My father was a shepherd! Have you ever heard someone say that? How many shepherds or shepherds’ sons do you know?

Later that night, a smiling Sergio had his bread, cheese and wine. And I learned a lesson about joy. There is a relationship between joy and simplicity. The more we have, the more cluttered our lives become, the more difficult it is to find that elusive combination of delight, satisfaction and well-being known as joy.

Here’s my life too often: I have 300 channels on my television and am bored that there’s nothing on. I have hundreds of Facebook friends but precious few people I really share my life with. There are multiple cell phones, land lines, televisions, PCs, laptops and an iPad in my house, yet I feel increasingly out of touch. And Christmas? Well, Christmas can become a seemingly endless must-do list of tasks that have little relationship to joy. Amid the often unfulfilling complexity of modern life, I am reminded of the elegant simplicity of figures like the shepherds in Luke 2, who cannot contain their joy after what they’ve seen in Bethlehem. I envy them.

Yes, there are times in my own life that I envy the Shepherds.  Even as I pastor, or shepherd, a people I can seem so far removed from the hands-on journeying and guiding that seems so basic to the role.  Too much to do.  Too much to think.  Too many places to go.

And this Christmas season doesn't seem to help.

And so, for today, I'll envy our Shepherds.

Put the Xristos back in Xmas :)

From the Good Folks at Occupy Advent.

No "Sweet Little Jesus Boy"

Is Your Baby Jesus Too Safe? 

Christmas Eve I saw a stable, low and very bare,

A little child in a manger.

The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care,

To men He was a stranger,

The safety of the world was lying there,

And the world's danger.

-- Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, "The Stable"

via

Pregnancy and Advent

I found this yesterday and it stopped me in my tracks--

“Wendy Wright, in her book of reflections on keeping watch in the season of Christ’s coming, says this, “Of all types of waiting, the waiting of pregnancy is most like the waiting that we do during Advent.

The waiting of pregnancy is like the waiting we do for God.

Advent is a season of waiting; we wait for the coming of God.

We need him to come. Our world is messed up and we are messed up. We lament our condition and long for God to set things right, to make us better.

So we pray and watch for signs of his presence. We do all we know to do so that we are open and ready. In the midst of hardship and disappointment, we continue to wait. We wait in hope. We believe that something is happening in our world, something is taking shape in our lives; something large, light-filled and life-giving. Even in December’s lengthening darkness, this seed of joyful hope grows within us.

We are pregnant with it.

In our waiting, we are enlarged.

God is coming!”

(From Living the Christian Year, page 35.) via

"Vulgar Grace"

So...just what limits do we want to put on grace?  Who is it that we would exclude?  Who can we not forgive?  So much of our grace is "safe."  So much of it is "pristine" -- "sterile" even!  Even as I pastor I recognize I surround myself with the easy candidates for grace.  Most of the people in my life are pretty easy to love.  Not everyone.  But most.

So it is with great interest I read the following today.  This account from Brennan Manning's All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir is stunning.  I could sit and read this again and again. It really tests the limits of my own understanding of grace and it makes me question whether or not the grace in my life has become too sterile...too safe.

Grace is vulgar.

Enjoy.

My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — “Please, remember me” — and assures him, “You bet!”…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…

Sin and forgiveness and falling and getting back up and losing the pearl of great price in the couch cushions but then finding it again, and again, and again? Those are the stumbling steps to becoming Real, the only script that’s really worth following in this world or the one that’s coming. Some may be offended by this ragamuffin memoir, a tale told by quite possibly the repeat of all repeat prodigals. Some might even go so far as to call it ugly. But you see that doesn’t matter, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand…that yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful.

Now go back and read this again.

And again.

How "vulgar" is the grace in your life?

Are you "Real?"

How have you experienced this type of grace?

via

Time for Presence

Image via Wikipedia

The evangelization of the world is not primarily a matter of words or deeds: it is a matter of presence — the presence of the People of God in the midst of mankind and the presence of God in the midst of His People.

--Robert Martin-Achard

"Keep Chi in Xmas"

It's a simple reminder at the start of Advent, that the "X" of "Xmas" originally had nothing to do with taking "Christ" out of "Christ-mas" but using a Greek symbol to represent "Christ." John Byron says:

So next time you see Xmas in a store don't tell them "hey, put Christ back in Christmas." Instead you might thank them for partaking in a ancient Christian tradition of referring to Christ with a Greek letter. I doubt many will know what you are talking about. 

The Bible, The Christ, and Evangelicalism

Pastor and professor David Fitch offers the following critiques of evangelicalism, as based in his book The End of Evangelicalism. This is found over at "The Other Journal."

TOJ: You claim that the evangelical belief in the “inerrant” Bible has not really been about the truth but about “being in control of the truth.” It appears that just as evangelicalism continues to fracture into different hermeneutical camps, large church personalities have effectively replaced denominations in defending doctrine. Over this next decade, how do you see the fight of inerrancy shaping up?

DF: There’s a splintering of evangelicalism, and strangely, I would say that the majority of evangelicalism realizes that “inerrancy” is an apologetic strategy whose time is over. It is a strategy that in fact undermines Scripture by defining its authority via a reference point outside itself, by what is an “error” and who gets to define “error,” as opposed to what Scripture is in its relationship to the Incarnate Christ. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t surprise me if the New-Reformed movement among evangelicals makes inerrancy once again a shibboleth to determine who is a true evangelical. Once this happens, I think we’ll all be energized to expose the defensiveness in this move and move on to a true faithfulness.

TOJ: Another hallmark of the evangelical is the “decision for Christ,” but you write that this decision has effectively been “separated from one’s embodied life.” Could you explain that further, particularly how such a deep and personal decision has found such tragic separation?

DF: I refer to it as a separation because speaking of a decision for Christ doesn’t mean anything anymore. I am sure that is an overstatement. But what I try to show in the book is that the decision for Christ has become a master signifier that creates a fantasy, as if to make a person feel good for what he or she has done. Yet it demands nothing of this person. In essence it does what any good master signifier must do—it enables us to “believe without believing,” in Žižek’s famous words. It allows us to be Christians without it meaning anything material to our embodied existence. Nonetheless, conversion is at the heart of Jesus’s call to follow him. We need to recover conversion. I go much deeper into this whole phenomenon in the book. 

You can read more of the interview following the link above.

A Communion Story -- "There's More"

Image by Avondale Pattillo UMC via Flickr

This past Sunday our focus was on World Communion Sunday.  I know most churches do this back in October.  But we had stuff going on.  Now's when it fit our schedule between sermon series.  And, regardless of the timing, it was a day to remember what communion means for our little church and for the Body of Christ around the world.

This is about uniting Christians.  This is about keeping the memorial feast of Christ.  This is about being fed and feeding the world.  This is about community.  It's about communion.  We are made for it.

Well, the sermon was done.

The confession was done.

We had taken up the offering.

And now we were into communion.

I've said, this is the high point of my Sunday.  I love it.  I love presiding.  I love serving.  I love partaking.  I love being at Holy Communion.  And, in particular, I love the way we do it at Girdwood Chapel, where everyone's welcome...especially the kids.

Well, on Sunday one little girl decided to come up on her own.  She's only about one and one-half years old. She didn't want to wait for her mom for the bread and so she walked on down the aisle, following dutifully after some of the other kids.  I leaned down and handed her a piece of bread and said, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you."

Now, this is where the story ends for most 2-year-olds.  We try to have real good bread during communion and most kids of that age just like to have the bread and go.  And that's fine with me.  I think it's wonderful. I think it's holy.  What's funny is that the little one stared at me as I was ready to move on to the next person in line.  She stared at me with a look that said, "There's more."

She wasn't "done" with communion until she dipped the bread in the juice.  After that, she was content to go back and sit with mom.

What's so great about this story is that it shows how the practice of Holy Communion shapes us.  There's memory associated with it.  There's a ritual that even a little girl who's not even two years old can pick up and learn and participate with the grown-ups.

I know that there are many denominations where a "closed" communion is practiced and the thought of having kids this young come up would be completely foreign.  But for us, this fits right in with who we are.  And, my prayer is that, as this little one grows up, it will fit right in with who she becomes.  I pray that, wherever she finds herself twenty years down the road, she'll see bread and cup lifted up and know that it's God free gift of salvation for her.

Swinging the Doors Wide Open For Communion

This past week I commented on a blog post over at Internet Monk about communion, whether it should be open or closed.  In light of the fact that I'm talking about communion in church today, I thought I'd post my response:

I’m a United Methodist and, unlike some UM churches, we swing the doors wide open for communion every week. Everyone’s invited…young, old, baptized, unbaptized, sinner, saint, member, visitor. We do the whole liturgy every week. I often say “This is Christ’s free gift to you whether you’ve been here for 60 years (our organist) or 60 minutes.” We serve by intinction and serve good bread. When kids come forward they often ask for “a big piece” and I occasionally say, “If we all knew we needed a big piece of Jesus the world would be a better place.”

Communion is formative for us. We use it as a theological stepping stone to ministries of outreach and giving.

It’s also a celebration for us. We enjoy that time together. It’s a party every week with a mix of denominations and nondenominations present. Said one of our more conservative evangelical folks, he views it as a little foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

A few years ago, during a visioning process, we asked folks in the congregation to come up with two things they think are most important about our faith community. Most everyone put the following: the presence of children and family AND Holy Communion.

I like [what was said in another comment] about telling people that it’s open to all but to not feel obligated if folks aren’t seeking Jesus. I could do better in the explanation.

I know this style isn’t for everyone and, frankly, might not work in many other UM churches. But it seems to work here and helps define this congregation in powerful ways.

Girdwood Chapel has been formative to my understanding of communion as well.  I believe everything I wrote above.  It's the highlight of my Sunday.  I love being there and I love presiding at communion.

I believe this is what we're made for.

Christ, Culture, & Making Disciples

Being trained in the school of Stanley Hauerwas, where the role of the church is to set up an alternative culture that shapes people in ways that counter the ways that culture shapes them, I found the following at NextReformation.  I thought it was helpful this morning as we prepare for another discipleship class after a week where prayer has been emphasized.

If culture is a cultivating force, then the assertions follow:
1. we are always being discipled. The only question is what or whom is forming us.
2. we will not effectively maintain a discipleship “program” or curriculum without addressing the larger context of formation (the dominant culture)
3. an effective discipling movement must succeed at some level in generating an alternative culture.
4. The Church is intended to be a discipling movement, and therefore, is intended to be an alternative (kingdom) culture.
5. Culture is maintained by language and practices. An alternative culture must have a unique linguistic fund — a grammar of its own. It must also maintain shared covenant practices.

There ya' go.  

So, how do we provide alternative languages and practices in the church to make Christian disciples as opposed to more disciples of the dominant worldly culture?

Here's Where I Find Myself Distancing Myself from Evangelicalism

Well it's ONE of the places. 

It's where evangelicalism has been so very focused on personal salvation as opposed to entering into the salvation story of God's people. 

I thin David Fitch hit the nail on the head as he described Scot McNight's book, The King Jesus Gospel:

I think pretty much everyone knows by now Scot McKnight’s contention that evangelicals equate the word “gospel” with the word “salvation.” Hence, according to McKnight, we evangelicals are really “soterians” not “evangelicals”. According to McKnight, the NT gospel should not and cannot be reduced to “our plan of salvation.”(39). Scot shows in King Jesus Gospel that the gospel according to the NT is best defined out of 1 Corinthian 15.  Here the Gospel is the telling of the whole Jesus Story as the completion of the Story of Israel, the lordship of Christ over the whole world. It is the summoning of people to respond to the completion of the promise to Israel in Jesus Christ as Lord.  Through the proclamation of the gospel, we are invited to enter into this grand work of God in history in Christ. Out of all this, we are saved and redeemed (here’s where salvation is part of the gospel but not to be equated with the gospel). Without the Story (of Israel), Scot says, there is no gospel (36). So Scot singularly does one thing in this book, he shows how “individual salvation” is part of the wider gospel. It is not the whole gospel. The salvation we as individuals receive is something we receive as we participate in the wider work of God in the world to bring in His Kingdom in and through Jesus Christ. Even this “personal” salvation is much bigger than “justification by faith” although it certainly includes that!

Is There An "Extravagant Hospitality" Illustration in Here?

"New Monasticism" What Is It?

As someone who appreciates the writings of Shane Claiborne and the New Day Movement and others, I found this cartoon by ASBOJesus to be pretty cool.

No Man Is Worse...

No man is worse for knowing the worst of himself. 

—Henry G. Bohn

True Faith

I've used this quote before. It's a good one.

Via

Focus on a "Couple of Things"

                 Image via CrunchBase

Steve Jobs, the biography by Walter Isaacson, is out.  I saw one of our parishioners at Costco carrying in and surprised I didn't have a copy in my cart as well.

Eventually....

In an interview Isaacson talked about the effect Jobs’ cancer had on his life focus.  It brought a lot of things into focus for him.  This is what Isaacson says:

He talked a lot to me about what happened when he got sick and how it focused him. He said he no longer wanted to go out, no longer wanted to travel the world. He would focus on the products. He knew the couple of things he wanted to do, which was the iPhone and then the iPad.

I've not read the book, but one thing you can say about Steve Jobs is that he was focused.  Sometimes it got in the way of relationships.  Sometimes it got in the way of business partnerships.  But the guy was focused.  Here was someone who wanted to "make a dent in the universe" and he was willing to let everything that would get in the way be pushed aside.

And, I think we can argue that the "couple of things" Jobs was focused on, the iPhone and the iPad, were game changers.  They changed the playing field of cell phones and computing.

If you could focus on just a "couple of things" that would really put a dent in your universe (if not the entire universe) what would they be?

For me, the two things over the last 10 years have been my family and my church.  That's kind painting with a broad brush there.  But I'm not sure I've been more focused than that.

What if, instead, I narrowed it down?

What if my "couple of things" were quality time with my kids and preaching?  Arguably, I could use work on both.  And both could make a dent in my own universe.

Revolting Through Orthodoxy

“In an age which has jettisoned all its traditions, the only rebellion possible is orthodoxy.”

Peter Kreeft

(HT/SD Smith)

God Gives Himself Fully

"An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others."

 

A. W. Tozer

 

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Zombies Attacked Our Church Sunday Night

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Well, to be honest, they weren't actually "zombies."  They were persons acting like zombies.  And, to be clear, they weren't the "Night of the Living Dead" - type zombies either.  They were very much alive, but infected by some horrible virus that turned them into rabid monsters.

But, why were they in church?

A new outreach program?

An odd sermon illustration?

The result of a particularly bad worship experience?

Not exactly.

I have always thought it best for clergy folk to hang out with non-Christian, or at least non-church going people.  Too often we can get wrapped up in our own religious worlds and forget that there are folks out there who believe differently or believe nothing at all.  And it's a good thing for us to find a group of people we like to interact with who aren't going to be the people you see in the pews (or chairs, as it were) on Sunday morning.  They have different expectation and can offer different perspectives that aren't so rooted the usual religious stuff.  It's not so much about evangelism as it is relationship and friendships.

I like hanging out at the coffee shop.  It's "The Grind" and is run by a guy known as "Gator."  I like sitting there, coffee in hand, iPad on lap, interacting and chatting with the folks who make their way down to get a latte or Americano or just to tap into some WiFi.  Gators's a great guy and I've loved the staff he's had work in his shop.  So, I go and sit and make small talk.  The point, really, is not evangelization, but friendship and keeping me from being so insular in the work of being a pastor.  I enjoy those folks.  I call them "my coffee shop friends" and I do care about what they have going on in their lives, how their various businesses are going, and what brings them joy.  And I truly believe they care about me and what I have going on.  I love it.

Well, Gator is a creative guy.  He's somewhat of a nerd and a fan of pop culture, things about which we have wonderful discussions.  Well, he's also a man obsessed with making a movie.  He has a storyboard that flows through several notebooks, each scene mapped out entirely.  It started, first, as kind of an Alaskan wilderness survival movie, since that's something he knows a few things about.  But, it evolved into something more than that.  The reason persons were trying to survive in Alaska is that there has been an outbreak of some virus that causes those infected to turn into rabid-Zombie-like creatures. 

I got involved because Gator said he'd like me in his movie.  He wanted to have a scene with zombies breaking in the door of the church were I and some others have gathered for safety.  I would be all dressed up in my clergy attire...what Gator calls my "uniform."  The scene was to have me holding back the door with zombie hands trying to get through.  And then three zombies would breach the door and run towards the folks gathered at the front of church where we we have a couple of guns and an ax.  There would be, he assured, no zombie contact.

I didn't want to do this in the new church since I'm not sure I could have handled the imagery in that space I've worked so hard for.  But I also didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to support Gator and his friends and participate in something that was going to pull in community members I've only shared coffee with and, frankly, whose company I enjoy very much.

So, Sunday night we filmed the scene in the old church.  We had two of my girls with me.  We had four other church folks and several of the coffee-shop crowd, including three zombies.  The zombies had chocolate syrup for blood, since it was filmed in black and white.  People acted frightened behind me.  I learned more about holding a shotgun than I'd ever learned before.  And, in the end, the zombies never touched us.  It was over in 90 minutes and then Gator apparently spent all night piecing together 90 seconds of video.

In advance, I did tell a couple of our church leaders that I was going to do this at the old church.  I thought I should explain myself to a few folks first.  I'm not sure everyone would have appreciated this.  But I had fun and I think some of my non church friends appreciated that the church was able to help them out.  I got to share some of my life and what's important to me while they got to share some of their life.

That's why zombies attacked our church on Sunday night.

And it was a blast.

What's Wrong With the World? I Am.

Cover of What's Wrong With the World

When a newspaper posed the question, “What’s Wrong with the World?” the Catholic thinker G. K. Chesterton reputedly wrote a brief letter in response: “Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely Yours, G. K. Chesterton.” That is the attitude of someone who has grasped the message of Jesus. 

– Tim Keller, Prodigal God

This is How Disciples Are Made

Loved this video.  I think it illustrates quite well the paradigm shift many churches, denominations, and individuals are talking about.  It's looking at a more missional understanding of church. It's a little "American-centric" at the end...but if we overlook that I think it's helpful.

Enjoy.

Practicing the Way of Jesus: The Jesus Dojo

So, we're looking at Mark Scandrette's book, Practicing the Way of Jesus for our discipleship group. It's in the very first chapter that he really got my attention for what it missing in contemporary discipleship and what we need to replace it.

So many of us want to live in the way of Jesus--pursuing a life that is deeply soulful, connected to our real needs, and good news to our world. Yet too often our methods of spiritual formation are individualistic, information driven or disconnected from the details of everyday life. We simply are not experiencing the kind of transformation that is the historically expected result of the Christ phenomenon. If Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated and taught a revolutionary way of love that is actually possible, alive with healing and hope, then we need a path for experiencing that revolution in the details of our daily lives. Simply put, I believe we need to recover a sense of immediacy and action in our spiritual practices. Perhaps what we need is a path for discipleship that is more like a karate studio than a lecture hall. (14)

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Obviously, Wesley's class meetings and the current practice of Covenant Discipleship comes to mind. Also the new monasticism that is embodied in the work of Shane Claiborne or Elaine Heath. But, where I've always struggled is, outside of having to go join up with a group of like-minded monastics in some inner-city mission, how do we incorporate this into the life of the church today. I'm hoping Scandrette helps.

He says this is like Jesus teaching in a karate dojo. In a karate dojo, people don't just sit at the feet of the master with a textbook in hand, learning all the facts about karate.& Instead, they do it.

You can't learn karate just by watching, and we can't learn to follow Jesus without practicing to do what he did and taught. Jesus didn't just communicate information or ideas, but declared "I am the way" and invited his disciples into a new life that was fueled and inspired by his example, teachings and sacrifice (John 14:6).... So a Jesus dojo is a space where a group of people wrestles with how to apply the teachings of Jesus to everyday life through shared actions and practices. (p. 16)

We'd like to have that space. We need to have that space. For it's in that space that the proverbial rubber meets the road and discipleship happens to change lives.

That's what's at heart here. Those of us who say we're following Jesus, should really live our lives in a different way. At the end of the day, we need to say that following Jesus made a difference in our lives today...that it mattered. People are skeptical of faith that isn't exhibited in life and, for much of the church, me included, there has been a disconnect between what we say we believe about Jesus and what our lives look like. There hasn't been much of a "Jesus-Shape" to our lives.

Knowing the transformational promise of the gospel, it is fair to ask whether a person who claims to have a relationship with Jesus exhibits more peace and less stress, handles crisis with more grace, experiences less fear and anxiety, manifests more joy, is overcoming anger and their addictions or compulsions, lives more consciously or loves more boldly. (14)

It is fair to ask this. It is fair to ask if life is different because you are madly in love with the Jesus who first loved us. And, if it's not, then it's fair to explore how it is that life can be different.

That's what our new group is exploring.

In a twist of the Apple Computer marketing phrase, we don't just want to "Think Different," we want to "Live Different."

Practicing the Way of Jesus

We have a new discipleship group that has started at Girdwood Chapel, I've run around in circles trying to find the coolest name for it.  I first thought about calling it a "Life Group" since it was for a lived-out faith in the real world.  Then I thought about a "Journey Group" -- it trains us in the faith that we take on the journey life.  But now that we're actually meeting, it's beginning to be called "Discipleship Group" -- because, well, that's what it's about.

I have not done a very good job making sure we have a discipleship model in place at Girdwood Chapel.  It's not easy and, frankly, with all of the time and energy that we've needed to direct to the building it's seemed like there hasn't been any time to take on a pretty labor-intensive class on top of everything.  Whether or not there were excuses before, there are no excuses now.  Construction has slowed.  It's time.  Finally.

So, we have a group that's beginning to take shape.  Right now we're meeting after our 10 AM worship, during Sunday School time.  It's just a small group...but, then again, that's where real growth seems to occur.  All along as I've been "selling" the idea to the congregation I've been telling them that my vision was NOT of a Bible Study and NOT of a book study and NOT of a prayer group but that it would incorporate some aspect of each of these.  My vision was to have a group where we could help each other live into the life that Jesus would have us live, right now.  My vision was about trying to get our religion out of our heads and our hearts and our mouths but to get the faith of Jesus Christ into the way we live in the world.  My vision has been for a holistic faith.  And, I've been honest, my vision has been for there to be two of these groups next year and maybe more after that.   It's time to have our faith make a difference in our lives.  It's time to have some of that Wesleyan "practical divinity."

And, while, we're NOT a book study, we're starting off with a book study.  We're looking at Mark Scandrette's Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love.  I was sold merely by reading the back of the book.  There Shane Claiborne says this book:

is an invitation to love creatively and recklessly, so that we might do something to interrupt the status quo, surprise the world with God's goodness and fascinate the world with grace.

Another quote from the back:

This book provides something we urgently need today: a practice-based approach to spiritual formation...not merely engaging in pious practices, but 'learning to dance to God's song.'

And one more:

Mark Scandrette is a voice for all who are 'sensing a pull toward a spirituality that is more holistic, integrative and socially engaged.'

Practical, wise, thoughtful, grace-filled.

How bad could it be to start here?

I'm eager to practice the faith that I believe...or at least practice it better than I do now.

Follow Jesus...Literally

Via With a HT/Lisa Talbott

The Pastor as Artist

Eugene Peterson has this to say:

Being a pastor is an incredibly good, wonderful work. It is one of the few places in our society where you can live a creative life. You live at the intersection of grace and mercy and sin and salvation. We have front line seats and sometimes we even get to be part of the action. How could anyone abandon the glory of that kind of life to become a management expert? We are artists not CEOs. The true pastorate is a work of art – the art of life and spirit.

Now I need to ask myself if I'm a "good" artist or one of those artists someone might look at and say, "my three year old can do better work."

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True Evangelical Faith

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Below are words of Menno Simons (1496-1561), yes, the founder of the Mennonites. These words exemplify the notion that evangelical faith is one that is lived out in community and service. It is "incarnational."

Too often evangelical faith has been concerned about what one had on the inside (Jesus) and not how one loved because of the acceptance of Christ's first love of us. What's going on inside of us in faith will be shown with what we do with our bodies and our lives.

True evangelical faith is of such a nature it cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love;

it dies to flesh and blood (1);
it destroys all lusts and forbidden desires (2);
it seeks, serves and fears God in its inmost soul (3);
it clothes the naked (4);
it feeds the hungry (5);
it comforts the sorrowful (6);
it shelters the destitute (7);
it aids and consoles the sad (8);
it does good to those who do it harm (9);
it serves those that harm it (10);
it prays for those who persecute it (11);
it teaches, admonishes and judges us with the Word of the Lord (12);
it seeks those who are lost (13);
it binds up what is wounded (14);
it heals the sick (15);
it saves what is strong (sound) (16);
it becomes all things to all people (17).

The persecution, suffering and anguish that come to it for the sake of the Lord’s truth have become a glorious joy and comfort to it.

What's cool about these words is how all-encompassing Menno's views faith are. There are aspects of sanctification in the individual life. There are aspects of peacemaking, justice, evangelism, and healing.

Too often Christianity has been concerned only about belief and not about life. The two are connected. Wesley, of course, got this as well. But here it is from another source.

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Rethinking "The Front Lines" of Ministry

Jason Byassee, of Duke Divinity School has put a lot of thought into the notion of ministry being "The Front Lines" of religious work. It's a pretty common metaphor, that I know I've used myself once or twice. The image is that of pastors going off to seminary or Bible College or some education where they are given some knowledge and some training -- sort of "The West Point" of the religious system. And then the pastors become the infantry, heading out to do battle with the devil and the social ills of the world while some of the shots are called by the bigwigs, conference leaders, denominational administrators, the "generals" of the General Conference who never set foot out there in "the trenches of ministry." After all, what do they know about life on the front lines with the MRE rations of church pot-lucks, armor that can't protect against the weapons staff parish committees throw at their pastors, and ineffective "field manuals"?

A couple of problems here:

1) It's a little over-dramatic and violent considering parish ministry.
2) It claims that the work of seminary, and indeed, denominational leadership is not real ministry.

So Byassee offers a medicinal image to take the place of the more militaristic one:

The academy is like a laboratory where we try new things. Some blow up, some disappoint, others contain promise to offer cures. Then the pastor is the physician that Origen discusses in the “Philokalia.” The physician must know all the herbs in the garden, and she must know the precise malady of the patient. Then she can mix up the proper cure for whatever illness she faces. The herb garden is the Scriptures, the concoctions are their mixture in the tradition (a little Esther, some Revelation, and voila!), and their proof is in the health of the church. Both lab researcher and general practitioner are trained as physicians and aim to be healers.

This image still ranks the parish and the academy appropriately. It also judges the academy by how innovative it is in bringing forth new (and old) things for the sake of the church. And its telos is in the health of the body for which we all care.

It’s far from perfect, I grant. What do you think would be better?

Do you have something better to offer?

Following Jesus Without Converting to Christianity

Image by jakebouma via Flickr

The quote below is from Gavriel Gefen's "Jesus Movements," in Mission Frontiers, May-June 2011 (p. 7).  I found it over at NextReformation.  What I find particularly interesting here is the notion of following Jesus -- and not following him lightly -- without feeling a need to convert to Christianity.  Such a notion flies in the face of much of my own education and formation, where belief in Jesus and being part of "Christianity" (and, by default, a church) was a no-brainer.

I have, over the years grown in my understanding of what it looks like to be a Christian and not be part of a church.  I'm pretty comfortable with that at this point.  However, I'm not sure I've ever thought that one could be a follower of Jesus and actually not consider themselves to be part of Christianity.

Interesting quote.

“There is a growing phenomenon taking place concurrently within at least every sizeable region of the world today. People within numerous different tribal cultures and also people within the cultures of each of the major world religions are increasingly accepting Jesus without converting to Christianity and without joining churches. ” They are encountering Jesus in ways that change their lives forever, without them leaving one group for another.

“They are learning to discover for themselves what it means to be faithful to Jesus within their own cultures and within their own birth communities. Conversion for them is believed to be a matter of the heart and not one of joining a different, competing cultural community.

“It is usually the case that after a number of these individuals within the same community are following Jesus, they begin meeting regularly as a small group. Over time this expands into multiple small groups among the same people group or within the same country. Eventually, it becomes established as a full-fledged movement of believers in Jesus that is outside of Christendom. It becomes a Jesus movement within another tradition. Does this mean they are living their lives outside the boundaries of biblical faith? Or, are they merely living beyond the boundaries of Christendom as a competing community?

“How did Jesus live as a son of Israel? Did he create a separate and competing community from the one that was already there? Did he tell people to leave their synagogues? Did he start his own synagogues?”