Under the Grace

I confess I know little of what Jesus must have been like when he walked this earth, what he is, and what he will be on the day we are joined as one. His brutal, forceful love calls the dying who walk toward darkness without end. His call is to light. This is the near-death wandering of humankind. Wavering between two worlds: a darkness of loss that severs the Promise through an enshrinement of self, or the brightness of day where every lonely shadow is less then a memory. The brightness of God in Jesus.

What kind of love could motivate the gift of our dear Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of love drew our dear Abba to give, not from his storehouse, but from his very self. What must Father have been saying to broken women and men in this once-for-all expression of character and commitment… the cross? What can this say about the objects of His affection?

His was not some theological decision–a plot–to free humanity from sin. As if the obstacle was some cerebral-philosophical puzzle or maze. Our nature was marred by the brokenness, not of theology, but of a tragic loss of love. To us is the decision of knowing and being known.

There is a thread that runs from the heart of God, through the cross of Christ, that would sew us to our Father in Heaven. He would have us become one inseparable unit. The pain of our sacrifice is the pain of His Heaven-needle piercing our heart. Leaving us unalterably His. And He ours.

Ministerial posturing is disturbing. You know, when a pastor speaks like a pastor to lend credibility unto himself. Or when we do religious things in our religious way because that’s what religious people do (religion sucks).

Bill Kinnon says that Apostle does not equal CEO and I’m inclined to agree. He links to Alan Hirsch’s Field of Dreams Part i. Bill begins by rightly pointing out that Alan’s website is butt-ugly. But I like ugly cause look at my website. Someone has the gift of discernment… no? Bill goes on to say Hirsch is right on just like I thought he was in his book The Forgotten Ways.

Perhaps we’re focusing too little on this little person called Jesus Christ who’s loving Father sent him to earth. Maybe we should begin to serve each other and the peeps out in the world just like Jesus did. Yes? No?

Maybe all this “authority” and “structure” is killing life. Yes? No? Maybe the Lord just wants people who want to be a broken pot for him. People who don’t care about positions or authority or buildings but who are preoccupied with helping the little people. Maybe an apostolic ministry will be an outgrowth of loving Jesus and people. Possibly.

Be the change you want to see. Read it here: Be the Change.

I’ve been reading Ben Gray at openswitch for a while. He’s a youth pastor (so he has significant experience with the institution), he’s a talented self-taught web designer and the kind of guy I think I’d enjoy chatting with outside this expansive web world.

Most of the time he talks about tech stuff but occasionally he’ll comment on matters related to vocational ministry or church life. To some degree I stay in touch with the world of youth ministry through him because he seems to see the world of ministry kind of like I do.

It appears that his frustration with the machine just boiled over:

The church today is big business. It has profit margins, a paid CEO and subordinates. It even has a marketing strategy. It’s goal is to attract customers by providing a better product than any other church in town. And believe me, it needs those customers because it has business expenses. It has bills and salaries to pay. Without paying customers, the church will go out of business.

Is this what Christ envisioned when He died on the cross? Did He really envision this marketplace of buying and selling that now embodies the church today? I shudder to think.

I can’t find much in the post that I disagree with. The only caveat I’d offer is that there are a lot of vocational ministers who got into the role never expected to further machinery. They got in for good motives and they continue with good motives. It’s just the role that makes you something you never expected.

More and more people are getting tired of or disenfranchised with this thing we’ve called ministry… this thing we call church. Which is really not the church to begin with.

I was having a conversation with someone I recently came to know. He was saying how much work had to be done on the building where I work and how we needed to appreciate it anyway because, after all, it was still God’s house. Actually, it’s not. The house God lives in is you and me. We’re his building. We’re dealing with a serious case of church confusion.

I think we’re seeing the significant beginnings of a silent revolution. I believe and hope that the church will look entirely different to a lot of us in a few short years. And what a relief that will be.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what it really means to live in fellowship with Jesus and his people. It’s resulted in some significant changes in my life… particularly in light of my background (faithful church attender, pastor type). I thought what Erin had to say in the kingdom or Kingdom? Which Ya Gonna Build? comments was insightful in this regard. Here’s what she had to say:

I think there simply are differing mindsets about what Kingdom means. To many it means creating a kingdom where we Christians can live our lives free from the stain of the world. The more *Christian* institutions (schools, radio, gyms, coffee shops, florists, theater…) we have, the less we have to deal with unclean people. So they literally BUILD a kingdom out of buildings and businesses. Separate.

Then there are the rest of us.

Donít get me wrong, I used to be a frequent beneficiary of said businesse…but it broke down somewhere along the way.

Why have we gotten living in the kingdom wrong? Here are some thoughts:

The Peter Syndrome
Perhaps we’re trying to pull a Peter and build a shelter where God’s Spirit shows up. The difficulty is that the Spirit of God isn’t geographically isolated. Buildings and memorials can never sustain the spontaneous work of the Spirit. Peter didn’t get it and neither do we. We’re trying to build memorials and our Father has prepared a lifestyle for us. Lifestyle, not buildings.

Temple Confusion
We don’t live like we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It’s funny that for all our teaching we still seem to miss the fact that we belong to him. I used to sing a simple song:

I am yours, you are mine
I’m the cup, pour out your wine.
I’m the candle Lord and you make me shine.
I am yours, you are mine.

I’ve gotta say that for all our church-going we seem to miss church-being. We’ve lost belonging. I’ve lost belonging. This simple, “I am yours, you are mine” kind of living is vital to a fulfilling Spirit-led life. We’ve forgotten that we’re the temple. You can’t go to God’s temple anymore because everywhere you go, the temple is.

Insulation and Isolation
Do we trust that our Father’s power is powerful enough to work in and through us? Do we believe that “He who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion?” Or are we trying to quantify, contain, and theologize. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for right thinking and for biblical thinking. I just think we lose something when we become fixated on the rules.

Erin is right. We have built a kingdom that prevents right living. I can’t believe how much money goes toward heating, cooling, repairing, staffing, programming, and renovating our buildings. I’d like to see us defined by the love that we have for each other, not the fact that our buildings are functioning properly.

Christianity is in need of an infusion of simplicity. We’re mired in effort, not motivated by love. We’re confused about kingdoms.

I forget how I came across Molly’s blog but I’m glad I did. She’s asking the kind of questions that I think will make a difference in the life of her children. As near as I can tell, she’s attempting to shepherd her kids while simultaneously “stumbling out of the evangelical/fundamentalist subculture.”

As far as I’m concerned, there’s a fine line between consistently loving and disciplining our children and pleasing ourselves as selfish parents. Much in the evangelical model hasn’t done a great job of showing parents how to love their kids into the kingdom and into good behavior.

Having said that, I’m a big believer in limits. I want to be careful not to say no when I don’t mean no because it sends a mixed message to my kids if they cross the no-line and I don’t stick to what I said to begin with.

Bottom line: I desire to show my kids that I love them and I’m broken about the way I behave sometimes. Unfortunately my parenting can be more about me and less about those beautiful little kids Father gave us to shepherd and love.

Let me wrap this up by saying thanks to Molly for encouraging me to respect and love my children while I seek to train them to know Him and be polite! If you feel inspired you could encourage her because I think the “Raising Kids God’s Way™” crowd has pounced on her (not that there’s anything wrong with raising kids God’s way).

Someone was talking to me today about a pastor who likes for all “his Christian schools” to be within “one of his churches.” Holy misappropriation of ownership Batman! I found it impossible to contain my disgust. Are you kidding me? This is the kind of hooey that passes for kingdom living these days. We’re gonna build our own churches… our own schools?

I get it. We work to extend His Kingdom. But is Christ’s Kingdom a physical institutional structure organized under a certain franchised evangelical paradigm? Honestly, my eyes start to glaze over when I think about stuff like this. At a certain point you give up on the machine, quit church as we know it, and start to live out the gospel to the best of your redeemed-yet-fallen ability and trust the grace of Jesus to pick up the pieces.

I suppose a lot of us deconstructionist-burned-out-churchers are looking to work more directly with this thing called the Kingdom of God. We want to live within the Kingdom as subjects of the King. I’m not saying I’m actually doing that, only that I’ve had enough of the hierarchical “God called me so you listen” model.

Michael Spencer, of imonk fame, is transitioning from deconstructing evangelicalism to building a Jesus Shaped Spirituality. His post, The Intentional Jesus Visits Your 40 Minute Worship Music Set, is like a cool breeze on a sweltering-hot day. I’ve done a cut-and-paste job on a couple of key ideas:

The cross, resurrection and arrival of the Holy Spirit are the critical center of the discipleship process, but the intentional ministry of Jesus to and with his disciples provides much of the raw material we need to examine to answer questions about what does it mean to be a disciple.

If we don’t understand this, then several things happen:

We will start promoting the epistles over the Gospels.

We will reduce discipleship to believing in Jesus.

We will become pragmatists, doing whatever “works” in our culture to reach the ends we’ve chosen as “Christian.”

We will adopt extraneous ways of hearing and seeing Jesus’ ministry that will make his teachings and actions increasingly meaningless and unimportant.

Spectator, entertainment-oriented, consumer oriented Christianity will replace the like and call of the Kingdom of God.

I am disturbed by my own participation in the stage/audience model of spirituality. We come to hear our own personal holy man speak and feed off his thoughts about God’s thoughts for the whole week. If we’re super-dedicated we’re there Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday night.

Jesus claimed that he was the vine and we are the branches. I’m trying to say that I want to be connected to Christ directly. The Scriptures teach us that there is, “One God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.” I would like to do more to promote our simple connection to Father through Christ. I’d like to rest in that reality today. And tomorrow.

More from Spencer…

I think we’ve badly missed the boat on that one and the kind of disciples the American church is producing shows that we’re producing passive consumers of church culture, not Kingdom agents living out their faith in the Gospel of the King.

More help with the struggle to discover body life in a quote from So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore? (page 123 of PDF).

No institutional arrangement will ever contain all that the church is. Don’t look for it institutionally; look for it relationally. Certainly the New Testament talks about the priorities of that church—Jesus as its sole head and focus, daily encouragement among believers, plural and lateral leadership, open participation, and an environment of freedom so people can grow in him.

I’d like to honor a friend of mine who died of heart complications. They were trying to get him into surgery when he passed out of this life and into the next. I knew and appreciated Steve in my college years. We did music together and laughed a lot together.

Steve had an innocent heart for Jesus, Father’s dear Son. I loved his uncomplicated take on life and his walk with Christ. He is survived by his wife Veronica. Father’s peace to you my sister and your family.

From Wayne Jacobsen’s So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore?:

Seeing the church as a reality instead of an activity will allow you to celebrate the church however she expresses herself around you.