Goose, Goose

The following is a paraphrase of a parable originally written by Sorenn Kierkegaard, the famous Danish Christian philosopher. It can be found in Steve Chalke’s book Intelligent Church.
“Sorenn grew up in the countryside surrounded by farms that reared geese (among other animals). Each spring he would watch as a new gaggle of goslings was hatched and began to be fattened for the table. Over the course of their short lives these geese would gorge themselves at constantly refilled troughs of grain until they were so fat they could hardly walk. He imagined that they believed their lives to be perfect, as every need they had was catered in abundance.
When autumn came, the truth became apparent. The wild geese that had spent the warm summer months in Denmark would gather in preparation for their southerly migration. As they assembled to fly south they would circle in the skies above the farms, calling out to any stragglers to join in their flight. At this point the farmed geese would lift their heads from the feeding troughs and look into the skies, heeding the call of their wild cousins. For the first time in their lives they would become animated, running as best they could around their enclosures and attempting to fly. Of course, their gluttonous diet and life of luxury meant that they were far too fat to get airborne – but still they would try. And then, as quickly as the commotion had started, the wild geese would fly off and the fattened farm geese would watch them briefly before returning to their grain to continue eating their way to their deaths.”

So then, herein lies the challenge for us and our churches in the 21st century. Are we wild geese or farm geese?

Does God trust you enough to let you fail?

“What son is not disciplined by his father?” ~ Writer of Hebrews

Does God trust you enough to let you fail?

I have been taught from the time I was little that I needed to trust God.  But does God trust me enough to let me fail?  I have five children (1 son and 4 daughters) and on most days the workload is plenty big enough to keep my wife and I out of trouble.  Our goal as we teach our children is for them to learn from their mistakes when they are young so they will grow up to be productive and mature adults.  If I always coddle my kids and never let them experience the pain of failure, how will they ever learn the joy of hard work and success?

As God’s children, most of us are taught by our churches growing up to be spoiled rotten.  I’m sure that God wants all of His children to grow up to be productive and mature people of faith.  So then why would we expect God to give us everything we want and never learn the pain of failure?

My youngest daughter is just getting the hang of walking.  I watch her fall down over and over again.  But this is essential training so that she can learn balance.  If she doesn’t learn to walk, how will she ever run?  Does it hurt me as her father to see her fall?  Of course, but what kind of father would I be if I always carried her everywhere and never let her learn on her own?

Likewise, how will we ever grow up in our faith if we are coddled by our Heavenly Father and never encouraged to walk on our own?  How will we ever learn to be responsible and mature if we always expect God to remove the consequences of our own actions?  God wants us to grow up in our faith.  He wants us to be spiritually healthy and well balanced.  So then, does God trust me enough to let me fail?

Food for thought.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I must confess, first off, that my wife is a black Friday shopper.  Personally, I think the whole thing is completely ridiculous, but my wife uses the opportunity less as a money saving effort and more as a chance to connect with her 4 sisters (so she says).  Now, as I tend to be critical of many things, I have to admit that my wife did manage to wrestle a small flat screen TV away from a less deserving 10 yr old customer in the middle of Wal-Mart at 4:45 in the morning (not really, that just my dramatized version of how things went down).  So I guess my family can’t cast the first stone.  But I am so glad that K-mart decided to stay open all day on Thanksgiving so that weary Americans could forgo that silly family meal thing and, instead, seek out their true first love-Consumerism.

Everybody I know complains about how ridiculous it is for ordinary people to get caught up in the Friday frenzy just to rush into stores that are inevitably out of the item you sat vigil for in the parking lot.  But alas, it seems this, ultimately, is not a question of economic status as much as it is the American desire to save a buck.  Does the average American child really need more toys?  Does the average American homeowner really need a digital photo frame to display pictures?

After the Thanksgiving meal, the wives pulled out the store fliers and began to plan their attack, while all the husbands sat watching the Lions loose again, but more interested in a bad game that shopping.  As I think through the items the stores were holding out like a raw steak to a hungry lion, I realize that not one person in the room needed any of the items being strategized over.  We are so lame!

We constantly talk about American excess, but its always someone else- not us.  My family is very good at being good stewards of our resources.  But we still can’t resist the thrill of the chase.  My wife purchased the TV as a replacement for the prison TV ( no lie, the plastic case is see through) we received from my wife’s brother.  We would not have purchased it if it weren’t so cheap.  But we bought one anyway (it became my gift from the family, Merry Christmas to me!).   How convenient.

So, for those of you who partake in the festivities, was it worth it?  Were you able to get what you went in for, or did you settle for something else?  And for those who remain on the sidelines… does your heart still race as you look through the flier or hear about the sales coming up?  Do you still purchase or receive items you don’t really need?  How do we get beyond the hype and hysteria and return our focus to contemplating the true purpose of the holidays?   Your thoughts?

“Let’s go to a place where we can be alone and get some rest.” ~ Jesus

What a great invitation… for those who have the time.  Lets be honest, I have 5 kids.  I own a house in the suburbs and work 2 jobs to keep it so my wife can stay home with the kids.  The lawn needs to be mowed.  The leaves are falling and need to be cleared.  The gutters are filled with leaves and need to be cleared out.  The garage needs to be cleaned out.  My son’s bike needs to be fixed. The list goes on (and my wife would love to add to it, I’m sure).  I spend several hours a week doing good things for other people to make their lives better.  And as I ponder my growing list, it becomes painfully obvious that there never seems to be enough time to get all the stuff done that comes with doing life in the 21^st century.

Besides, I’m a doer.  If there’s one thing my parents got through to me was the importance of being productive- to make your life count- even if by the sheer number of things you get accomplished in the time you are given.  I have found myself busy lately doing lots of things for God, and have found there to be little time left for God.  It seems odd that there would seem to be a lack of time to actually rest in the presence of God- to grow my friendship with Him- to quiet my heart and still my restless mind, and to allow Him to take up my worries for me.

It is striking how out of balance my life seems at times.  I’m not the person I think I should be, and that just drives me to do more.  And then I hear the voice of Jesus calling his very first students in the midst of their busyness to rest with him.  This call is not something new.  This is something that I have heard before.  I’ve spent time studying it- pondering it- contemplating it.  And then the busyness returns and I am left to the mercy of my schedule of good things.  And once again his invitation fades into the background, well below the noise of other “important” things that demand my attention.

I recently returned from a spiritual retreat.  Yes, once again my schedule got the best of me and I was forced to retreat and recover the voice of God in the stillness.  And as I contemplated on the story of Adam and Eve, it struck me.  God had created this amazing paradise- a garden- for the first family to live in and enjoy.  But the real kicker was that the presence of God would enter the garden in the cool of the evening and walk with Adam and Eve.  I can’t even comprehend what that must have been like.  But this is the picture of the creation the way God originally set it up to be.  I noticed that God never asked Adam or Eve to do great things.  He simply asked them to tend the garden and be available for their daily walk together.  His presence with them was the climax of their day.

As I contemplated this it hit me, God is more interested in our being present with Him than what we ‘do for Him’. This may come as a surprise to many, because somewhere along the line, many of us have confused doing great things for God, for a relationship with Him.  And when we choose that busyness over relationship, our neighbors and friends are not likely to see that inner relationship shining through our busyness.  And then we look just like everybody else.

In the end, our mission must be to allow the presence of God to take center stage in our lives and homes so that others will be drawn to Christ through us.  It is not as much what we say or do, but Christ living in residence within us that is the hope for the world.  So may we be ever returning to the start and accept what God has for us in the here and now of our lives, and leave the busyness for another time.

The Infamous Swear Jar

Ever utilized a swear jar?  I have to say that in spite of my colorful
language usage in high school, I was able to conquer that habit
without the help of an outside aid.
Our faith community will be moving to an off site location in a couple weeks and we have received the blessing? of a building in which to meet.  Now I have to say that I was very leery of having a building to call our own as it has the tendency to define your future much more than we often realize.  Certain factors such as the size, location, layout and even the look of the building can have a tremendous impact on a new faith community. We learned this reality in our last mission in Illinois.  But perhaps, even more importantly, inheriting a building can have a negative impact on how we express our faith as well.  Our words often betray us.

In the Old Testament the tabernacle contained the sanctuary, where the presence of God rested.  But when Jesus have up his life on the cross, the curtain that separated that holy place from the greater community was torn right down the middle and the presence of God was unleashed and no longer subject to a physical space.  Then the New Testament is very deliberate in pointing out the fact that the sanctuary has moved from a room in a building to the heart.  However, our language and practice often betrays this transition.   Most churches still call the main meeting room a sanctuary.  This allows us to become very attached to our buildings.  Instead, our lives should mirror what
happened when the curtain was torn in two.  The presence of God has been released into our hearts and we now carry that presence outside of the building and into our homes and neighborhood and workplace.

So back to the swear jar.  We have been joking all summer since we decided to use the building that we should have a swear jar with special rules…

• whenever someone refers to the building as “the church” it will cost them $1

• whenever someone refers to the. Room in which we will meet as the “sanctuary” it will cost them $1

This exercise will allow us to maintain our focus on the building
being used as a public space and not as a religious security blanket.
I think its a small thing, yet a much needed preventative measure to
ensure that we refrain from developing an unhealthy attachment to the
building.   Its ok for the building to have a deep meaning in the life
of a faith community, but in the end we don’t worship the building.
Your thoughts.

Vacation

I just wanted to write a brief note to let everyone know that I will be posting the next article after the first of August. Unfortunately, I have not had time to write in between prepping for our group’s off site launch in September and our upcoming vacation.  If you have something you would like to submit in the mean time, feel free to drop it by on my email.

Thanks.

On Loving Our Enemies

Our group has been wrestling through what it means to actually live out the teachings of Jesus in real life.  Last week we talked about the difficulty of actually loving our enemies, as Jesus so plainly taught and lived.  In speaking of a difficult situation in which a coworker belittled her in public, a friend managed to keep her cool and handle it through HR, but then vented to her understanding husband.

She wrote, “The red headed “Sargent [bleep]” in me would like to peel his skin off with a dull spoon and feed it to him….after he is buried in sand, to grind into his wounds, with flesh eating bugs. As he is eating he can taste the bile flavored rot his useless body is and know it will not nourish the bugs, but make them die a slow agonized death as well as he.

But, the “[named] good girl” says I should pray for those who persecute me.”

I just love the candor.  It’s so hard in the heat of the moment to actually live what Jesus taught.  Her experience is such a great example of the honest battle within each of us to lash out in the heat of those unguarded moments, which seem to unravel us and give others a chance, for ever so brief a moment,  to peer into the window of our true selves.  But as we practice the discipline of loving others, our mind also shifts to the reality that we are, after all, called to love our enemies- even when we may not want to.  In some ways it does become easier with practice, but as we can all agree, it is always a struggle.

May we continue in our struggle to love as Jesus loved.

Your thoughts.

The Body Pt. 3

The suburbs can be very Politically correct.  Even as a follower of Jesus, I find myself not always sharing my faith because I don’t want to offend others.  I don’t mean beating people over the head with my faith- just not talking about God at all so as not to be deemed “offensive.”  As I talked with my wife this week I realize how disingenuous that is- to have a great group of people to share life with, and to not make that available to others.  We often talk about how hard it is to get our neighbors to let us help them when they need it.  Even simple things like shoveling snow or raking leaves.  We are so conditioned to be self-sufficient that we bristle at the thought of being unable to “carry our own weight.”  But as my wife and I discussed this fact, we realize that we are just as guilty.  Just one example… Last fall our leaf blower broke down, and, instead of asking our neighbor to borrow theirs, we went out immediately and bought another one.  Then later that winter, we offered to clear the snow from the same neighbor’s driveway and almost had to argue with them for them to allow us to help.

Once again I am reminded of Ghandi’s statement, “We must become the change we want to see in the world.”  If I want to teach our neighbors to depend on others, we must be willing to set the example and depend on them when we are in need.

Over the summer, our faith community is collectively participating in a series of missional experiments designed to help us get out of the rut of seeing church just as a place you go, and engaging our friends and neighbors as we go about our lives.  Our group has moved off site from the church building we were meeting in as a way to help us reengage our faith life without the trappings of a building.

Well, the opportunity has come about for us to utilize a building rent free when we relaunch in the fall.  We have been hesitant to fall back into seeing the building as “church,” however, we have come up with a way to combat that.  We are planning to open the building up as a community center that our group serves as “tenants” in.  This will allow us to host events that will directly benefit a local neighborhood and bring the community together.  This way we can start to bring the positive change we want to see in the community and keep the building from being a potential barrier to bring that change.  Then the neighborhood can reap the benefits of a “church” being active and alive in the community, which is the real mission that God gave the church in the first place. I’ll continue to provide updates as we go along.

The Body Pt. 2

“The body of Christ is not a metaphor. Christ and the church are a single reality.  Jesus Christ inhabits a body, and we are it.  The church is the actual body of Christ present in the world, His physical presence on the planet.”~ Frank Viola (Reimagining Church)

A body is a warm, breathing, full of life, highly functional- organism. Sorry, but unfortunately, that just doesn’t describe most churches I have visited. Many churches’ only resemblance of a body is one downtown on a slab. They seem cold, dysfunctional, self-absorbed, lacking energy. This of course is not representative of all, but you have, I’m sure, stumbled across one like I’m describing. As I reflect on it, its like something out of some fifties B scare flick.

We all know the church isn’t a building, but why do we live as though it is? The lion’s share of resources goes to keeping the building and property up. Everything happens “at church.” But wherever the church has been most successful at its God-given mission, it’s always described as ‘alive,’ life-giving,’ ‘contagious’- all indicative of life. The first church was full of life and people couldn’t get enough of being together- so much so that they met daily in public spaces to serve as a public witness that something new was at work in the world. I want to be a part of something that is so relationally alive that it’s infectious.

I am a friendly person. I have friends (I think). But I would love to be part of a group of people that allow me to be myself- to share my true feelings (not in a girly way, you know what I mean) – to explore the deeper issues of life and to wrestle with being a person of faith in 2009.  But when most people gather “at church” we spend less than 5 minutes on average actually communicating directly to each other.  So those precious moments get spent on life altering issues such as the weather and the kids, because we don’t really know each other.

So, because I am not one to point fingers, Let me share some of the things we are doing to restore the church to the living, breathing organism it was meant to be. We host a weekly gathering. But we are seated around tables. We have no stage- no pulpit, pews, or choir loft or other signs that we are gathering “at church.” We have a band- but it is not the focal point- it is off to the side. We break bread together at each table. We have a prayer focus. I serve in a role I call a “catalyst.” I prepare a creative lesson plan in which I introduce the topic for the day with background on the scripture, and then provide questions for the groups to discuss. We read the scripture, and then break into our groups to wrestle with the passage. When the groups are finished we part with a blessing and then people stay around and discuss life together. Oh, and did I mention, this all happens around world class coffee? It’s the glue that holds us together (not really- its Jesus- but the coffee is really good!)

But it doesn’t end there. We are involved in each other’s lives. We are learning to share life together as we struggle through the rat race that is the suburbs. It’s a shared life that I, unfortunately have not experienced outside of my friends in college. And, coming this summer, we will be dividing into missional groups to begin wrestling through what it means to be the church at work, and at the grocery store, and at soccer practice. I have to admit it’s a very different life than the one modeled for me “at church” growing up. Its messy- we all have rough edges and baggage. But as one goes- we all go. I could go on for a year, but you would get tired after a while. I want to be the body of Christ to my neighbors and my coworkers and even my enemies. Maybe my experience is similar to yours. Maybe you are seeking the same thing I am. Maybe you are further down the road and have something to offer the discussion. What has been your experience? Too harsh? To kind? What are your thoughts?

The Body Pt. 1

Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and
each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.~ The Apostle Paul

I’ve always heard that the church is Christ’s body.  And each week when everybody comes “to church” we are his body.  Its a no brainer when his “body” gathers for “church.”  Jesus is at the church building when the “church” is “at church.”  But what happens when everybody goes home?  Is the “body” dismembered?  Is it just a “spiritual” reality?  Is this why we are taught to bring outsiders “to church”- so they can see “the body” all together?  Is this really what Jesus had in mind when he gave up his body for the church?  And are we being his body just because we are all gathered in the same place for a worship service?  And what does it mean to be a member of a body?

Paul said we, all together, are Christ’s body.  Based on the language he is clearly saying that each community of faith is an expression of Christ’s physical presence in that area.  And yet, each local body has a deep connectedness to those all around the world.  But, from how the church functions in our culture, it appears that it is just a part-time reality.

In my experience, when the church (the people) gathers at church (the building), we usually lack the type of oneness that the Bible describes as crucial to being the body of Christ.  Our language betrays us.  We even describe our faith community as a place that we “attend”.  The church service is not designed at all in order for people to be together in community.  We tend to be passive spectators of a show  (much like the local school musical) that is produced and presented by very few people- seemingly for our benefit.  The proof is in how we describe a “successful” service- ‘It moved me,’ ‘it connected with me,’ I really liked _______.”  I’m pretty sure that the purpose of meeting together was in order that I becomes we, and then we become one, in order to be formed into a unified body in which Christ becomes present in some mysterious way that I just can’t explain (we’ll leave that up to the guys with advanced religious degrees).

So when we talk about reaching the emerging generations with the good news, it can’t just be about how much better the “service” we “attend” is.  It has to be much deeper than that.

I’ll finish my thoughts in part 2.  Your thoughts…