Response to Dan's Post on The Simple Church

Hey Dan,

This book did change how we are doing church. It surprises me to say so. I read it by accident. I'd never have picked it up on my own. Here's a quick summary:

1. Each month is themed from a Classic Scripture (one everyone knows about and should read for themselves). And all themes fit into our four basic mission pieces -- Love God, Love People, Serve Locally, Serve Globally. This month's theme is Blind Obedience and the story of Abraham. Next month is Forgiving Abuse and talking about Joseph. March is The Cross. These are simpler stories than I have been using. These are the basics, though they are tremendously deep.

2. Twice a month - home groups meet. We started three. I think this is the actual key to the whole thing. Not so much that home groups are the key, but that the three people I would pick as reproducible leaders all said "yes" to leading a group. They meet with me weekly and are both the leaders of the church and the leaders of dynamic home groups. Two of them are also highly involved -- one locally and one globally. The other is an older man who provides maturity and stability and encouragement to our leadership.

3. Monthly Community/Global Focus -- this month it was our New Life for Haiti Banquet. February is a Men's conference on Fatherhood that one of our guys has put together. March is a fundraising for a scholarship for a graduate of the high school for behavior disorder kids. I highlight the daylights out of these events.

4. I've made bookmarks with specific Bible readings for the congregation. They need to read 10-20 chapters per month. Very doable was my goal.

5. The first Sunday of the month is followed by a potluck lunch.

6. The youth groups have picked up on these themes as well. I suggested it to them, but also told them it may be too much to ask.

I'm writing this more for me than for you. In other words, I'm not telling you how to do it, rather I'm reflecting on what just happened. I'm as amazed as anybody.

A couple of questions arise.
1. Why didn't I do this earlier? I don't know. I think its too simple.

2. What was the key to it happening this time? I don't know. I would say the three leaders being available. I've invested in leaders since the beginning, but I've seen little to no reproduction. Could be right place, right time.

3. Could this work in other churches? I don't know. I think a lot of things can work if you have reproducible leaders and you put them in a position to reproduce.

Buechner on Incarnation

The Word become flesh. Ultimate Mystery born with a skull you could crush one-handed. Incarnation. It is not tame. It is not touching. It is not beautiful. It is uninhabitable terror. It is unthinkable darkness riven with unbearable light. Agonized laboring led to it, vast upheavals of intergalactic space, time split apart, a wrenching and tearing of the very sinews of reality itself. You can only cover your eyes and shudder before it, before this: "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God... who for us and for our salvation," as the Nicene Creed puts it, "came down from heaven."

Came down. Only then do we dare uncover our eyes and see what we can see. It is the Resurrection and the Life she holds in her arms. It is the bitterness of death he takes at her breast.

Via Danno from Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary.

Reminder for Spiritual Renewal

As I prepare to go for my first consulting gig, I have no doubt that the place to start is spiritual renewal and the passage of Scripture is Isaiah 6. Due to sin, despair, even religious repetitiveness, we forget how present God is. When He shows up, when we recognize His presence, we are cut to the quick. Our sin and our doubt, once our blanket, are thrown off and displayed before us. Now naked, our shame pours out of crack in our soul, as we stand before the Greatness that is God. All of our senses, smell, touch, sound, sight, taste, and even more, as we sense something beyond even our physical senses -- all of our senses testify to the truth of God's exceeding glory, which takes us beyond sin and beyond despair.

Then as we suffer the death of our despondence, God asks, "Who will go for us?" We do not move until called. But we do not sit and wait. We beg for God's presence to drive away the darkness that has inhabited our lives.

Tomorrow at church, the question we have been asked is this: what do you give to the One who already has everything? My answer: We rise up and live free, throwing off all that we feel bound by but which has really lost its power over us. This is character, refusing to be bound, refusing to respond with fear, refusing to feel ashamed or small, and refusing to continue in sin.

How to "Live the Life"

Looking at chapter 6 of the Sermon on the Mount. It looks like an introduction to what a life lived should look like (since chapter 5 showed what it should not look like.)

Word Biblical Commentary says, "Although dikaiosune can also mean "almsgiving" and thus some have tried to associate this verse with vv 2-4, the formal analysis shows that v 1, rather than being a part of the section that follows, is better understood as an introduction to all three sections. The deeds may be thought of as the Christian's self-offering in "spiritual service" and may correspond to the demand of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5) to love God with all your heart (prayer), soul (fasting), and might (almsgiving), with the order changed to move from easier to harder. The phrase "before others," is intensified by the following "to be seen by them." This is an emphasis found in all three sections. Those who do their righteous deeds in order to be observed by others are described as "hypocrites" in each of the three following sections (vv 2,5, and 16)."

It seems that each of the righteous acts done with the proper attitude bring reward to the doer. I assume that reward is life, not as in length, but in fullness.

"The word hypocrite in Hellenistic Greek commonly meant actor, i.e., one who performs in front of others, pretending to be something he or she is not."

The point I see is that fullness of life comes from God as a gift. Through our anger, lust, etc, we strive to take life, and as we do take what we can get, we forfeit what God would give us. It is either/or. You have to trust God and let go of your own options. So God would have you pray, give, and fast. These are really interesting because praying is seeking what God would have you do rather than what you would choose to do. Fasting is giving up a normal amount of something rather than our typical desire to gorge on something. These are all three specific actions that take us in the opposite direction of our typical desires.

Divorce

I remember the first time I preached about divorce. That morning one of the members invited her son to hear the new young preacher. He was very recently divorced. Jesus says basically, Don't. It doesn't feel fair. The level of suffering involved in the whole process is so painful. And Jesus says Don't.

Separation is never the answer. Not just in marriage, but period. Jesus whole mission is reconcilation. How can division ever be the right move? There is obviously no sense of hope when the couple decides to divorce. But Jesus says there is. Will it ever be what you hoped? No promise. Paul tells us to stay with an unbeliever in hopes that he will believe.

I've seen hope turn to hopelessness even in staying together. But no hope at all is worse. You have to believe there is something inside the other person, something... You have to hope, and you have to dive for it and bring it back up.

A New Way to Live

The Sermon on the Mount is telling us there is a new way to live. This blows me away, and time after time, I look at it, and don't really take it as serious as I should. We break it all apart and get hung up and the immensity of it.

Don't be angry, Don't lust -- We stop and say, "There is really no way, unless God changes my heart, which I wish He would, but He hasn't. Not like that." It just continues to be a bludgeon. I can't get my arms around it. I can't ...

Don't divorce, Let your Yes be your Yes -- Seems like miscellaneous category. Not even in the same league with anger and lust. I've not been divorced and don't think my marriage will. What's the big deal about promises?

It has struck me that maybe these are ways people live, or look for life. People really do think they have some ideas of how to look for life -- lottery, retirement, parenting, job satisfaction, drinking, sexual conquests, gambling, free time, ... And Jesus said the wise man builds his house on the rock. He is at least here, telling us what not to pursue to pursue life.

Angry -- pushy, self-righteous, arrogant and not treated with enough respect, unforgiving, important, ...

Lustful -- sexual fantasy, constantly weaving sexualness into all activities, commercials do this all the time, a lot of video games do this. It is a way of living life.

Divorce -- not so much a way of living life, but a decision that the current relationship is a dead-end to life. A decision that for me to have life, I'm going to have to start over. There isn't enough here to work with. Maybe this extends to "I'm going to move to a different town." Or a new job.

I Swear -- maybe this is the "Go to guy." Responsible to the max. I can "Get R Dun." You can count on me. This is great up to a point. I want my kids to be people you can count on, but maybe this is the Savior complex. "I'll fix it." It is not your kingdom. You are not THE Go To Guy. There is another. You have a role. Play it. I've made this mistake a lot. I say I'll call, I'll visit. And I don't.

Not angry doesn't just mean nice. Can't you do the right thing, stand up for the right thing, hold your ground, protect the innocent, without getting mad? Reminds of the movie "The Punisher." The bad guys killed his family, like all of them, cousins, aunts, uncles, ... all of them. In front of him. He's mad. He keeps punishing the bad guys. But 2/3 of the way through the movie, they flash back to all the killings. And I say to myself, "Oh that's right, he's mad. That's why he's punishing them." Not being angry doesn't mean not protecting your family, not standing up to someone being rude, ... Anger just really doesn't help. That flash of warning from anger may be a useful signal to us. But letting rage out of hand just makes us do foolish things that does not resolve the problem.

We may be angry with someone who has been really awful to us. But holding on to that anger doesn't do anything for us or even really for them. There are some people who have really hurt Danelle and I, at a lot of different times in our lives. Mostly, I really can't think of one we haven't, we've moved on and looked for opportunities to reconcile. WE ARE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO PUT OURSELVES IN A POSITION TO BE ABUSED AND EVEN MORE CAREFUL WITH OUR CHILDREN. Jesus says be innocent as doves and shrewd as snakes.

The goal of life is reconcilation. The goal of life is people who can live with each other. The goal of life is join Jesus and the rest of those who follow in a joint life together for all eternity.

This is the opportunity. It is found here in the Sermon on the Mount. We have to look this over very carefully, and assume that we aren't lost in looking for life.

Be Perfect

I was thinking about a sermon idea based on Jesus' statement in the sermon on the mount, "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

What a statement! In my cynical, sarcastic mind, it at first feels like some kind of cruel trick. What does he really mean? I can't be perfect. Maybe that's his point. Or maybe, maybe he sees something we don't see. He sees a life that is more. He sees a life that can be. We always have to pause and point out it can't be perfected in this life, but maybe it is a life to be lived. Maybe we try too hard. We can't be perfect so we have a tough time living free and good.

Now even saying that what I have hated in my life is guitar players that say, "You just have to feel it," which I've said myself about rhythm. But you can learn it. You can feel it. You just have to let go some. The other problem is how to let go. There are many times I've let go and felt a fool. I may have to rethink those fool moments. Maybe they weren't as bad as I thought. Maybe the freedom I felt made those around me feel too exposed.

I watched American Idol tonight and I absolutely love Taylor Hicks. He is so possessed by the song. It expresses itself through him without him having to make the effort. I want to live like that. Maybe I can.

Vulnerability

Is this the keyword to Christian spirituality? Vulnerability? Almost, but not quite.

There is something in the broken human heart that desires to satisfy the self. When pushed, it changes from self-satisfaction to self-protection. As I was thinking about the book of Revelation and all the scary developments and all of the anarchy, Christians tend to want to become defensive. As our culture gyrates wildly, Christians get defensive about culture. As any relationship starts to get a sharp edge, most people draw back and become self-protective.

And in Revelation 10, John takes a small book from the rather large angel and eats it. It is sweet in his mouth but bitter in his stomach. The idea of becoming Children of God is sweet. The idea of following in Jesus path is bitter.

Looking at the core pieces of Christian culture, what do they say about defensiveness or vulnerability? Communion -- celebrating Christ's death. Dip the body in the blood and eat it. Baptism -- drown the old man. kill yourself. Feetwashing -- this may be the epitome. We start to feel like a doormat with so much vulnerability, but Jesus says yes to the doormat of wiping feet, but don't just let people wipe their feet on you, wipe their feet for them before they ever ask! The whole sermon on the mount is intentional doormat stuff.

What was John to prophesy to the nations after he ate the scroll? That time was coming to an end. That anarchy would push us to become self-protective and at some point that would mean to do what we needed to do to survive. But following Christ would mean be vulnerable and to do it intentionally. And this is the path that leads to a true wholeness.

The obvious response to Jesus is love. It is demanded over and over that we love God and love one another, even our enemy. But we do not know what that means. So I'll start with the word vulnerable.