Some Things I'm Learning About

Image via WikipediaI saw a couple of blog posts last week from clergy type folk talking about what it is that they are learning about at this point in their ministry.  I thought I'd share some of the stuff I'm learning at this point.

1)  MISSIONAL THEOLOGY -- How the church participates in the MISSIO DEI -- The sending of God.  This is looking at the church as a place from which we are sent.  You have the church gathered (on Sunday AMs for instance) and the church sent (as we go from that place).  So primacy is placed on how people are the embodiment of Christ on the "other" days of the week.

2)  COMMUNITY BASED MINISTRY -- I think this comes before the missional theology.  For the last few years we've been working to turn Girdwood Chapel outward and be a place that is involved in ministry in the community.  Now that we have a new building, we're looking at how that space can be used to "be Christ" to the community and how we can love our neighbors through that space.

3)  MONEY --  We are in debt as a church.  I'm learning about the various ways we got to where we are and am part of conversation about how to get out, knowing that we need to continue to be involved in ministry as we do this.

4)  SMALL GROUPS -- Yeah, I've always known they are important for "disciple-making" and support, but it is taking on an urgency as I question how good a job we've been doing at making disciples.  And since I've been around over 10 years I can't say I haven't had time.

5)  ADMINISTRATION -- You don't go through a church-building process and not learn some of this.  There is a whole lot of coordination that has had to happen to get us where we are.

6)  RELYING ON THE POWER OF GOD -- The longer I've been in Girdwood, the less I've felt like I have the tools, the gifts to make stuff happen.  When I first came into ministry in 1994, I was pretty sure I could do this all myself.  I don't have that belief anymore.  I am dependent upon the power of God to do anything.

7)  TAKING CARE OF MYSELF -- I'm 41 years old, gettin' on 42 (where I think I'm supposed to learn the meaning of life, the universe, and everything).  I'm overweight.  I'm in a high stress job as I enter into people's pains and have administrative responsibility for a 1.5 million dollar facility and the care of the spiritual lives of about 75 persons, not counting community responsibilities for those who won't ever come to church.  Our family's been struggling with schedules with our 5 kids.  I haven't been real good at delegating.   I need to do better at taking care of myself. I'd like to be around for a while.

8)  JESUS -- Yeah, not a bad person to learn from.  But I'm finding the current sermon series on the person and work of Jesus to be refreshing.  Tough stuff.  Good stuff.  


I'm sure I could think of others if I took more time.  I'll probably do a little more reflection on this over the coming week and come back with some revisions. Now I need to go and get ready for worship.

God is good.  All the time.

And he ain't done with me yet.

A Word to The Church From Stephen Colbert

Cover of I Am America (And So Can You!)

I believe it was the tiger-Philospher Hobbes who described human life as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  Religion allows us to ignore all that by praying.    

Stephen Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

(Another quote I got from Jesus Died for This? by Becky Garrison

I, Too, Am a "Spiritual Nincompoop"

photo © 2004 Dawn Endico | more info (via: Wylio)
I have found a wealth of quotes reading Jesus Died For This? by Becky Garrison and I'm going to share many of them here.  I loved this one since it says what I tried to say last Sunday morning in this space.

When I peruse the titles in a Christian bookstore, I feel like I am the only klutz in the kingdom of God, a spiritual  nincompoop lost in a shipful of brilliant biblical thinkers, and ungodly midget in a world of spiritual giants. 

Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality

"The Category-Smashing, Life-Threatening, Anti-Institutional Gospel"

This is the first page of Becky Garrison's book, Jesus Died for This: A Satirist's Search for the Risen Christ.  I loved what I read of this on the plane today.  Good stuff.

Although I possess this inborn hunger to connect with the Jesus whom I encounter in the Gospels, I often wonder if he's truly present when Christians gather together in his name.  Are we really trying to put his teachings into practice or playing the Sunday morning God game?  Watching the Christian cliques gather -- the holy hipsters, the Promise Keeper/Suitable Helper couples who put Ken and Barbie to shame, the prayerful powerbrokers who keep the minister and the church coffers on a tight leash -- reminds me that I'm not the "right" kind of Christian.

How could I ever be one of God's girls when my deceased dad was a renegade Episcopal priest and college professor?  The Rev. Dr. Karl Claudius Garrison Jr. might have hailed from the Bible Belt, but he sought salvation from a bottle of Southern Comfort.

Then again, take a good look at Jesus' crew.  They were the unclean, the unchosen, the unloved -- the very people discarded by the religious establishment.  What a bunch of missional misfits.  No way would they be allowed to play on most Christian teams.

Here's what I don't get:  Jesus' life, death, and resurrection turned his followers' lives upside down.  So if those disciples were willing to give up everything they had, including their lives, to follow Jesus, then why are many Christians, myself included, such misguided messes?  In the words of Mike Yaconelli, the founder of The Wittenburg Door and my first editor, "What happened to the category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional gospel that spread through the first century like wildfire and was considered (by those in power) dangerous?  What the J is going on?

Good stuff.

I keep coming into conflict with the notion that my Gospel...indeed, my ministry and my church...is too safe.

But what would it like to make it more "dangerous?"

Holy Mischief

photo © 2007 Scot Campbell | more info (via: Wylio)

It's time we untangle the narrative of faith from the fundamentalists, pious self-helpers, and religio-profiteers.  And let's do it with holy mischief rather than ideological firepower.

Geez Magazine

Importance of Community -- Trying to Build a Toaster

Image via WikipediaI was reading over at Kruse Kronicle yesterday about a TED talk by Thomas Thwaites...a nice British-sounding name for, apparently, a nice British guy.   Here's a guy who looked at the world around him and, in a great moment of reflection, wondered how all of it came to be.

In particular, he looked at a toaster and pondered all the many pieces that have to come together to make that toaster that sits on your (or my) kitchen counter.  Think, for instance of all the parts and pieces.  Think of the molds that need to be made, the materials mixed, the wires pulled and tested, the coils.  Think of the regional and international trade that comes into play just to acquire the metals and plastics and everything.  I mean, really, this thing sitting on your kitchen counter is full of parts from all over the world that people had to make from some raw materials and fashion into this contraption that you can buy for $25 and pops up your Pop-Tart in the morning.  No more roasting it over an open fire to get at that Brown Sugar and Cinnamon goodness.

Here's the video in full:



Here's a shorter version if the 11 minutes seems too long:



But what I think is so great about this is what we can learn about community and discipleship.  As I think of the saints in my life, the great Christian disciples I have known, I have to realize that that completed body of work, their life, is the result of so many other persons and tasks and practices and influences over the years that have made them what they are.  For them to become the disciples they grew into being would be like one person trying to build a toaster...it really can't be done.  And, even if it could be done, it would probably be a poor imitation of what true discipleship, true sainthood, looks like.

In short, we need community.  We need it for discipleship.  We need it as we go about the process of making disciples in this world of ours.

It takes a whole economy to build a toaster.

It takes a village to raise a child.

It takes a community to make disciples.

Discipleship in Small Groups -- Quote

photo © 2008 The Sharpteam | more info (via: Wylio)

The longer I walk the spiritual journey, the more I realize that--while every square inch of our lives is potential ground for the movement of God--profound change and growth most often happen in the context of relationships with others. 

I'll even go a step further: I've come to believe that if you're seeking a sustained experience of God--not just a flash of insight or inspiration (though those are certainly nice things)--the best place to look is a small group that meets regularly. Worship can be powerful. Your own prayer life can be committed. But there is absolutely nothing like meeting with people who dare to share their lives over a longer duration of time.  There's just something about being real with others, slowly lowering defenses and letting yourself be known and liked, and learning to trust others with your stuff that clears the way for us to experience God. It's pretty amazing. Spiritual experiences can't be guaranteed anywhere, but my money is on small groups.

This is a quote from Trey Hall of Urban Village Church. 

(HT to my two colleagues, Jenny Smith and Jon Disburg).

Discipline -- From Henri Nouwen

Image via Wikipedia“The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word-that has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus,” the question is, “What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?” If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life.

“By discipline, I do not mean control. If I know the discipline of psychology or of economics, I have a certain control over a body of knowledge. If I discipline my children, I want to have a little control over them.

“But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means “the effort to create some space in which God can act.” Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life; discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on…”

Nouwen, From Solitude to Community to Ministry

(HT to NextReformation)

The Purpose of the Church

Cover of C.S. Lewis"The Church exists for no other purpose but to draw men into Christ. . . If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other reason."

C.S. Lewis

(HT to Jared Wilson)

Fundamentalism -- Quote from Rachel Held Evans

This is from her book, Evolving in Monkey Town.

I was a fundamentalist because my security and self-worth and sense of purpose in life were all wrapped up in getting God right—in believing the right things about him, saying the right things about him, and convincing others to embrace the right things about him too. Good Christians, I believed, don’t succumb to the shifting sands of culture. Good Christians, I used to think, don’t change their minds …

I was a fundamentalist not because of the beliefs I held but because of how I held them: with a death grip. It would take God himself to finally pry some of them out of my hands.

What's Wrong With The World

photo © 2008 woodley wonderworks | more info (via: Wylio)

"Dear Sir: Regarding your article 'What's Wrong with the World?' I am. Yours truly,"
— G.K. Chesterton

 

(HT to my friend, Rev. Tim Powers)

Missions and Missional -- What's Important to Us?

photo © 2003 Dave Gilbert | more info (via: Wylio)
Ernest Goodman at Missions Misunderstood recently wrote:

There are too many ‘experts’ using the word ‘missional’ to refer to traditional missions or serving in the local elementary school. Without a radical shift in the basic understanding of what it means to be on mission, we’re just doing more of the same.

He’s right, but it is not just about orthopraxy. What is missed to often in the missional discussion is that it is not about what we do or how we do it, but about who we are. Missional is about a Jesus followers DNA. It is about a life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence.

So then, where does this leave me as pastor?  See, I'm not sure I've been doing a very good job at either "missions" or "missional."  Most of our "missions" have been one-day, brief experiences.  You know...come together, do something good for someone, go home.

How do we go about transforming "our existence?" 

I want to be part of a church where the entire DNA has been transformed so that every breath is seen in the larger missional context of the church.


(HT The Blind Beggar for the above quote)