We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone…. [we] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. -- A.W. Tozer
Today I feel like my house - full of a bunch of unpacked boxes and full of a lot of still-empty cabinets. Nothing in it’s place...or getting there anytime soon.
Isn’t that life? Isn’t that the whole “in this world you will have trouble..” part that Jesus was speaking of? I’m fairly certain it is. More certain that I hate it. And you know what? Most days I am quite okay with it, because I generally understand that my life is a but a breath, and only God can hold things together...including me.
Today, however? Today, I hate it. I really stinkin’ hate it. I’m full of hopelessness and a deep sense of no control. So, how did I respond to this today? Well, today I ignored it all, trying to fix everything. Every single thing that I know is hopeless. See a problem developing here? I’m pushing 30 for crying out loud...have I learned nothing in this life?!? Apparently not.
Today, I am still stressed - I am still worried - I still feel hopeless. I am extremely frustrated and fatigued, and my fatigue frustrates me. My faith is microscopic, wounded and crippled. The good news today? God is exactly who he says he is, despite my crappy, oh-so hopeless circumstances. So, I call it a night and wait for tomorrow (which has enough trouble for itself....gee, I love scripture), and more importantly wait for a Father to reveal Himself to me. The same Father who cares about me feeling hopeless and stressed and wounded.
Stumbled on this a while back and have been thinking about it lately. I think there's a lot of truth to it.
"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other."
- Mark Twain
I know I've fallen into this quote more than a few, uh, million times in my life. :)
I read this post from Bob's blog a while back and thought I'd share it here. I found it to be pretty interesting...so much so that I'm putting the entire post in this entry (sorry if this slows your uploading, folks). I'm not entirely sure where I fall in regards to all of this, seeing as I agree with a lot of what he's discussing, as well as seeing that Easter is a pretty big deal for churches. I still think 99.99% of me leans with Bob on this. Read for yourself and please, for the love of the easter bunny, leave a comment and let me know what you think.
As we journey through Lent toward Easter, I want to be mindful of the dangers that surround this season and threaten the soul of a community and the soul of a pastor. What danger? The temptation to bait and switch.
Every year I need to remind myself that Easter is not a marketing opportunity. The resurrection of the Son of God is not an opportunity to market our programs or build “my” church, even under the guise of concern for lost.
And as I feel the pressure to create a winning, life-changing sermon for those who may only come this one time a year, I especially have to remember: It’s not about me. (Please wait a minute while I repeat that to myself a few times.) Why? Because heaven forbid we should ever do community in such a way that communicates that our main avenue for people coming to Christ is hearing the Gospel preached from the mouth of one person, rather than hearing it preached from the mouths (and lives) of the whole community. If, in your community, more people are becoming Christians on Sunday than during the rest of the week, I think you may have a problem.
Times like Easter and Christmas are dangerous for us because we begin to see them as something different from what they really are for the life of a community. This is where a more robust engagement with the Christian calendar really helps. It focuses our communal life on the events of the life of Christ all year around, and keeps us from seeing “two big outreach event Sundays!” every year in Christmas and Easter.
Yes, a lot of people come to a Sunday service once or twice a year, and they are more likely to come on Easter than just about any other time. And yes, the Holy Spirit is amazing, drawing people to Himself even through our goofy Easter pageants and songs (or our smoke machines and laser shows, if that’s your thing).
The danger in giving in to the impulse to do something radically different, humongously big and special at these times is what we communicate both to our community and those we are inviting to become a part of our community. What we subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) communicate to our people is that their job is to invite people who are not in our churches to come on Easter Sunday morning so that the pastor and the drama team and the worship guy and (possibly) the Holy Spirit can take a whack at them.
I know that’s overstating, but believe me—I’ve been there. And that’s what “event evangelism” and “big” Sundays communicate, I think. Regardless of what we teach about reaching out to others, what we say through our Sunday Show actions communicates that it’s not the job of the average person to introduce people to Jesus. Leave it to the pros with the degrees and the training and the gifts. In other words, “You get ‘em to church, we’ll get ‘em to Jesus!” How empowering is that for people?
I would much prefer we both explicitly and implicitly communicate a model that includes befriending people; enfolding them into the rhythms of our lives; sharing the highs and lows (and how our faith informs those) with them; and integrating them into home groups, dinner times, and the big and small events of our lives. How natural would it be after all that love and enfolding that they become a part of our community, even before they believe? And when they believe, they believe because they’ve seen and tested the reality of a life of faith, as opposed to simply watching a special Sunday morning service where the band rocks extra hard and the pastor has a few more funny stories than normal.
Easter is dangerous because it’s here that the attractional model reaches its zenith—or maybe its nadir—every year, as thousands of churches try to do “something special” in the hopes that their people will invite others to come and be bait-n-switched into a relationship with Jesus. And we all see what other communities do and are tempted to compete in the misguided effort to keep up.
Yes, I said “bait-n-switch,” because that’s what it is. If we’re not careful, we could end up really disappointing some people. How? By “offering” them less on subsequent visits. Less pizzazz, less oomph. I’d be pretty disappointed if I got Cirque Du Soleil the first time I went to your church and the next week I got Phil and Ted’s Bargain Rate Circus.
I was super impressed to see another church planter dial it down a couple of years ago after hearing about the disappointment of some people who came to Easter services one year and came back the next week to a completely different (and less exciting) show.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take advantage of increased visitor attendance and preach the Gospel and hope that God does something amazing in people’s lives. I’m just saying that if your strategy is to wait for someone to wander within range of your homiletical cannon and then fire on them in hopes of scoring a hit, or worse yet, doing some cool things in the hopes that they might be lured within range, then I think there’s a better way. Less defined, less able to be controlled by the pastors, less likely to be bragged about at pastor’s conferences or to be written about in a book, but better—people loving people into your community and into relationship with Jesus.
It doesn’t take mailers, banners, lightshows, and lasers every week; just a bunch of loving, welcoming Christ followers. People who genuinely care. People who are seeking relationships with other people and sharing life with them. A competent all-community gathering where things work well, so as not to be a distraction from what God wants to do that morning, sure. But less of a focus on Sunday mornings as the center of community and more of a focus on the spiritually-forming life of the community that revolves around Jesus Himself.
And all of this is vital for us to think through at Easter because I remain convinced that what we win people with, we win them to.
Now, I normally hate the "let's win 'em" statement, but I like the last part of what he says here.
In case you were unaware, Lent has officially started. Christians will, for the next 40 days, follow Jesus through his suffering and ultimately his death. We do this in order to truly have something to rejoice in this Easter. Lent gives us the opportunity to do some things that we're normally extremely horrible at: grieving and remembering.
Henri Nouwen has this to say about it, and I think it's worth sharing.
A Prayer for Lent, by Henri Nouwen
How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I rejoice fully in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death? Yes, Lord, I have to die - with you, through you, and in you - and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess...I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.
A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee; Image Books, 2002
Parallel factors are destroying the church in our context. We have pressing needs and we don't know how they will be met. Where will I get my significance? What can I do to make myself feel that I count? Who cares about me and understands me? Where can I find intimacy? We are a well-fed prison camp. We have everything we need materially - housing, food, computers, cars, entertainment, travel - but inside we are isolated and empty.
Worship then becomes the way we try to deal with our emptiness and our isolation. The point about our worship is to make us feel better; the point about God is to make us feel good. So we abandon scripture reading, because that's boring . We abandon the gospel story, because that happened a long time ago and doesn't look very relevant. We can go through a whole worship service without hearing any reference to the fact that God created the world, delivered Israel, sent Jesus to live and die for us, and raised him from the dead. The Israelites forgot the gospel and gave up on God's written word because they were so concerned with their personal needs. The same thing has happened to us.
There is a tragic paradox here. We need to be brought outside ourselves by seeing our lives in the context of a bigger picture, a bigger story - the gospel story. But we are so overwhelmed by our emptiness, isolation, and insignificance that we don't pay attention to the bigger story. All we want to do is think about ourselves in need, so we turn God into someone whose focus is on meeting our needs. We make God a quick fix. But quick fixes don't work.
"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."
Henri Nouwen
...I want to be more like this type of friend in 2009.
So, I've posted earlier entries on this blog regarding living life as Jesus would and called them "Gut Check." These were posts that dealt with things that I personally struggle with doing as a Christian. But, I don't know if I've ever really posted any opinion(s) that I have on the church, partially because I have some guilt with it and more so because I know several of you that read here are directly involved in church leadership. But, blog communities are supposed to be the most authentic, right? Well, here goes...
I came across an article yesterday morning that really confirmed a lot of things that I've been thinking about church since I moved to Arizona just over two years ago. The article was titled, "How Many Christians Does it Take to Unscrew the Church?" (you can read it by clicking on the title)
Let me say that my church history (if you will) would be that I came from a church with 100 attendees on Easter that had a very inward-focused congregation to a much larger church of ~1200 attendees that seemed totally outward/community-focused. It was definitely a big culture shock for me. What I found with this experience, along with many others since, is that I feel that what we're making "church" in our culture is a far cry from what Jesus designed it to be. Keith Giles gives his take on this in the article, and says that we have changed the model of church to an organizational one versus the organism model that God designed it to be. Here's a quote from Giles:
I know that Jesus had something amazing in mind when He designed His Church. It wasn't meant to be a burden to His people. He modelled and inspired a family of faith where everyone was gifted to serve and empowered to encourage and heal and edify and inspire the rest. Of course, the problem is that we have chosen to try it our own way and this is what we get - tired and empty and run down.
...then I have a question for you all. especially for Christians who were, directly or not, saying that it was "our job" as a believer to vote for McCain:
Anyone ever said the statement, "it just wasn't in the cards"? I know I have. Or, how about "this is just the hand I've been dealt"? Again, check yes for me on that one.
Of course, the "cards" being mentioned are circumstances or environments in our lives. We try to work with the ones dealt to us, or the ones that we dealt ourselves. We come to accept these cards as being a situation or circumstance that we are meant to be in.
"What am I grateful for?" This is a question I try to ask myself when I feel like I've been dealt a bad hand. Most often I come up with a few things, and ultimately end with a prayer that can, on some days, be as sarcastic as it can be serious, and that's "God, thank you for at least waking me up today," or "thank you for where you have me."
That makes me think a little bit today, which is always a good thing. :) What about that statement, "thank you for where you have me"? Is that it? Just being grateful for the cards that were dealt? What are we to do with them? Are we just happy and thankful where we are, or are we to look deeper and see what God has in the deck?
I've been feeling some stress lately, and I know that a lot of my friends are as well. Current times are tough, and it seems like one thing after another takes us down the road of panic and fear faster and faster.
Fear is a big deal. Anxiety is a huge problem in our world. I'm pretty sure I've experienced some sort of panic attack in my life. Paul said that God did not create in us a spirit of fear; but one of power and love and self-control. (2 Tim 1:7) So, how come we still have it? It must be that in this fallen world, we are prone and conditioned to fear first instead of seeking the kingdom of God. Jesus told us in the sermon on the mount, which would be the moment in history that he unveiled, if you will, what the kingdom of God looked like. We can pick it up in Matthew 6:25.....
25 "Therefore I tell you,do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Now, from what I've read, when something is repeated like this is in scripture, it's pretty important! Do you think Jesus may know our tendencies? I think he just might.....
The statistics are pretty staggering. Of all the worrying we do, it is broken down like this:
40% of worry is about future events that never happen 30% of worry is about past events that have already happened 12% of worry is about "petty" issues 10% of worry is about needless health concerns (which probably worsen health btw) 8% of worry is about legitimate concerns.
Of course, a worrisome person like me would say, "See, eight percent is real...". I think it paints a pretty good picture of how little control we have of anything in this world.
Look here at Paul again...he says this in Romans 8:35-39:
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written,
"For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, from what I'm reading here, we should not worry. It seems to be reiterated over and over again in scripture. Do a search of the Bible and see how many times the phrase "Fear Not" is said. *hint: it's a lot.*
Man, all I know is that it's hard to live this way instead of spending all of my days worrying about what's to come in life.
Does anyone else struggle with this? Should it not be a little easier to read these words and then rely on God to be himself in the midst of our worries, legitimate or (most often) not?
"Just because I’m leading and people are following doesn’t mean that I’m leading them in things that matter to God."
This made me think, as I talk about/listen to matters of leadership quite often. It seems, sometimes, that we measure a leader's success (in the context of church leadership) as their ability to lead, cast vision, and for people to be on board. What about things that matter to God? Do we factor that in as an integral part of our critique? I fear that I don't a lot of times.
What do y'all think? I know most of you guys/gals reading are involved in leadership in some form or fashion....
I haven't done a book review in a few years, so I'm feeling fairly nostalgic by doing this...
Whatever you're reading right now, put it down. Get yourself a copy of TrueFaced and make it the very next book you read. Dallas Willard says, "TrueFaced is one of the best books on practical theology I have ever seen."
TrueFaced, by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch, addresses the most basic motives faced by every follower of Jesus: the distinction between our determination to please God or to trust Him. Thrall and Co. draw on the metaphor of two rooms in our pursuit of God at the end of two roads: pleasing God and trusting God. They both sound good, right?
The first, at the end of a well-traveled road (pleasing God), is the Room of Good Intentions, entered by turning the knob of Effort. This room is filled to capacity with tired, cynical, well-intended Christians sporting various masks, who are determined to work on their sin to achieve an intimate relationship with God. Excellence is used often to describe the intentions. These folks are sincerely determined to be godly. No one in this room is interested in hearing about your struggles, trials or failures. To be welcome here, one must hold their cards pretty close to their chest and give the appearance of sufficiency and that everything is fine. I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine, fine, fine all the time, time, time.
The second room lies at the end of life's path with the motive of Trusting God. The path to this room is definitely less worn than the other. In this room, inhabitants have embraced the concept of Living Out of Who God Says I Am. To enter the Room of Grace, one only needs turn the doorknob of Humility. In this room, people have cried out, "Alright, listen! I'm not fine! I haven't been fine for a long time. I feel guilty, lonely and depressed. I'm sad most of the time and I can't make my life work. And if any of you knew half of my daily thoughts, you'd want me out of your little club. So there, I'm doing not fine! Thanks for asking!" Instead of working on one's own sin to achieve intimacy with God, in this room, people stand with God, with their sin in front of them, working on it together with Him. I don't think it's a coincedence either when trusting God also pleases God....
The goal of TrueFaced is to help us discover the freedom that lies in allowing ourselves to be authentic before God and others, trusting them with who we really are. A prayer one might pray before entering the Room of Grace might go something like this: God, if anything good is to come out of this whole deal, you will have to do it. I can't. I'm so tired. Please God, you will have to give me the life I am dreaming of. I can't keep doing this anymore. I'm losing confidence that this life in you is even possible. Help me. You must make it happen or I am doomed.
We've all been part of a community, a church, or a small group where we've felt the pressure of presenting a strong, fine front. One where we don't have the freedom to share sin or failures; where we have to put on appearances and pretend we've got it all together. Sadly, I believe these groups are far more common than the alternative. The effect is subtle, but grossly counterproductive to introducing people to the Kingdom of God. For reasons too numerous to count, Christians have fallen prey to the lie that we must appear fine, strong, good and often, productive. We don't want people to know we're flawed. I think for me, my flaws and imperfections serve only to draw attention to the fact that I NEED a perfect father. Those that appear flawless, often draw perceptions that something's not entirely right, and make genuine, authentic connection near impossible.
One of the primary postures you must take when reading TrueFaced is to understand that this book is for you. Don't read it with others in mind. God can do precious little in establishing an intimate relationship with you if you're thinking of others while reading this book...
What a freeing thing to truly trust in a grace-giving God who declares me as his child without conditions. There's nothing I could have done to earn His love, not by works or performance. I've often found myself traveling down the road of wanting to please God with my performance. I must realize that I don't need to perform for Him to call me valuable. I serve Him because he has called me valuable, long before any "performance."
I'll have to say that it's not an easy walk, this road of trusting....I'd love to have company on it.
Please check out my San Diegan friend, Steve, and his Do What's Right campaign here. I love the idea of this, and am excited and hopeful that it really takes off. Check it out and comment back with your thoughts....we should get some conversation going around here. I feel as if I just post stories for reading enjoyment, which is fine. But, let's get some dialogue going here, people!
I wanted to give a nice little plug to my new friend's website. The organization is Findingbalance, and it was founded by Constance Rhodes (you can read about her and her story on the site). Findingbalance is an award-winning site created to offer countless avenues of help and advice for those who struggle with disordered eating, or for those who know someone who does. The site informs people on EDNOS, which stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, along with many other aspects of disordered eating and body image. This is something that affects 3 out of 5 people in this country, both men and women. Enough of my rambling there....just check out the site and read her blog
Constance currently hails from Nashville, TN. She came out to my workplace to share her story, as well as offer encouragement for the staff, which is a monthly thing for us. I accompanied Andi with leading worship, and she did an amazing job. We played an original song of hers, and it was fun to sing on a song that was directly coming from the one who wrote it. There were several moments throughout all of the chapels (4 total in 2 days) during worship that were just very sweet and reverent. I think sometimes we get caught up in the performance of things beyond the required "performance" of playing/singing etc. that we can lose track of the One we worship in the first place. There were several pauses of silence, and they never felt uncomfortable.
I enjoyed listening to Constance's story (heard it four times and it never got old) and got a lot out of it for myself. Believing something other than the truth affects us all, whether it deals with eating and body image, self-esteem, our perceptions of value, etc. This life can take an amazing turn, however, once we understand and trust in who God already says we are.
We took a picture on the final day she was here, so I thought I'd share it with you all. It looks as if that tree is swallowing us...
I find myself struggling today with some things, especially related to worship leading. This is kind of a big deal to me, considering that part of my actual vocation is worship leading and being creative. I'm struggling with all of that today and am questioning many things about myself in the process like, "is this what I'm even supposed to be doing...both in my job and in the church?" I guess it's an identity crisis of sorts.
So, if you pray, I would ask for your prayers on this. Pray for wisdom and the ability to hear clearly what God says about me and not what I think about myself. Pray that I can trust if I do hear...
Have you ever said this? "I just can’t worship with that kind of music."
If you haven’t said it, I’m sure you’ve heard it, especially, if you are a worship leader. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before. I know I’ve definitely thought it. I love a lot of the music of today. I especially love acoustic-driven music that is not polished, but that has a raw quality to it. So, when I have gone to tradtional worship services in the past, it’s been a challenge for me to worship God in that setting. If you’re thinking that I’m unspiritual because of this, you are very right to think it. I visited a traditional(in regards to worship music) church service a couple of years ago in Arizona when God opened my eyes to this. I was sitting there during the music and thinking about how I would do the song differently, and God basically slapped me in the face. I felt Him say to me, "Josh, worship me. If you can’t worship me with this music, don’t bother worshipping me with your music." I walked away from that a changed person and worship leader. I wonder about our current church now. I've not heard testimonies of people who have worshipped and connected with God for the first time, even though they don’t really prefer the music style that we bring. That's not saying that it hasn't happened...I just don't know for sure. If that is happening, then I would consider that aspect of our services as success. I mean, that is what it's all about. It’s not about the methods or styles in which we minister and praise. It’s about the Holy Spirit speaking to us and guiding us to the Father.
I feel that there is a danger that is gaining momentum in our Christian culture. I’m afraid that the younger generations could be/are being affected by this danger. The danger is conditional worship. It’s where worship only happens when the lights go off and the cool loops or videos play, or not until the big build after the bridge of the song. For the record, these things are not bad ideas at all. When used properly, there are so many things that can enhance the experience and touch the senses, but we need balance. We need to learn and disciple our churches to worship God no matter what the circumstances. We need to learn to worship God under a tone-deaf worship leader or an organ. We need to learn to worship God without music. And I'm not saying "we" here to be condescending at all. I am included in that word each time it's used for sure.
Paul said in Colossians 2:16 -
"So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ." (The Message)
To come to church and expect God to do something big corporately, is a growth in maturity in our worship. There are too many people that are coming inspecting, instead of expecting. I remember going to a student conference with my brother-in-law and his youth group where there were approx 10,000 students worshipping in a massive arena. That was amazing, but, for me, it wasn’t the best part of the weekend. The best part was going to a traditional worship service the next day and worshipping the same God with a different song. I mean, we went from Chris Tomlin and Switchfoot to hymn books, folks. That’s the best thing we could learn that weekend. That no matter what the conditions, no matter what the style, and no matter what the song, God is God outside of our preferences.
you WON'T be disappointed! The song below is "Albertine," which is the title track from her record. It is the name of a girl she met in Rwanda while doing some work there. Listen to the words, folks.
journeying....sometimes aimlessly it seems....but journeying nonetheless
i am husband to April, father of Russ (our wiener dog) and often a screw-up. i work at a christian treatment center in AZ for young men and women struggling with eating disorders. i oversee the chapel services there, and get the privilege to lead worship everyday there. i try to closely follow Jesus. usually, i end up straggling behind at a substantial distance, which of course makes me, well, normal...
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