Genuine Church

"Genuine church life is born when groups of people are intoxicated with a glorious unveiling of their Lord. Jesus Christ is the only foundation upon which an authentic church can be built" -- Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto page 143.

I have just finished reading Jesus Manifesto and many times I nearly signed in and offered some thoughts along the way. I waited to complete the reading to gain a full understanding of the perspective the authors offer to us. The above quote is one of two which have captured my heart and mind. The other I will write on later.

I have spend years studying, going to seminars and conferences, picking the brains of those around me, and any other way to gain information about this thing called the church. Over the years I have come across some really great programs, and have used many of them. I have a long list of things which "successful" churches must do if they are going to be great churches. I have to confess there was even a time when I did the whole Rick Warren Hawaiian shirt thing. With all this information out there, and with a number of churches who seem to be successful at drawing numbers of people it seems the whole church thing should be simple.

One problem, anyone who has ever worked to see the church become all that it can be knows this is not easy work. Often the programs come up short and the church no matter the size seems to fall short of being the embodiment of Christ. Perhaps the goal is too lofty. Maybe it just is not possible to experience the genuine church as described by none other than Jesus himself. What if the problem is not the possibility, rather the problem is us. A quick study of the New Testament would reveal there was not a set of programs, or even conferences to attend. I am not sure there were even Hawaiian shirts in those days. Yet the church of Jesus Christ exploded onto the scene. What was it that caused the church to be the church in such a way? The people of the church had an all out intoxication with Jesus Christ. Jesus was the center of peoples every moment. There was no division of life, church and Jesus. I guess today we might say they were an organic whole.

Not a program. Not a technique. Simply Jesus. In the Western world we have become so intoxicated with all kinds of things. Unfortunately Jesus is often left off the list of intoxicants. We will never experience the fullness of Jesus, the genuine church, unless the people who would be identified by Jesus Christ return Jesus to the intoxicating center of their being.

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

There might be a temptation to sent this along to someone in a church. Perhaps you might send it along to your pastor. Before you send it to anyone do your work first. Wrestle with the place Jesus has in your life. Are you intoxicated with Jesus?

The Voice of God

I guess I have always thought of the voice of God to sound a lot like James Earl Jones, or after Bruce Almighty, I gave allowance for Morgan Freeman. All throughout the scriptures we hear see people saying the Lord spoke to them, and even in our day we have people using similar language. All along the way failing to describe what it is that God sounds like. How do we know the voice of God versus all the other voices which are swimming around in our lives? In our current age they tend to reserve special rooms for people who insist they hear voices. Is the voice of God like the movie Field of Dreams, or is it more subtle than that? Just how is it that we can know when God is speaking to us?

First we must recognize an audible voice is only one way in which God speaks to us. God speaks to us through other people, the the Scriptures, through our thought lives. We can have times when we keep seeing the same message showing up in various places and ways. God communicated with us through dreams and visions, as well as through movies and books other than Scripture. We must not limit the ways God can speak to us. Still we are left to ponder how do I know what is God communicating and what is something else.

Our great challenge is we might not ever know 100%. However, there are some activities we can employ to test what we think God is telling us. The most effective way to test is through the regular practice of spending time with God. Romans 12 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and then we will be able to test and approve God's leading. The transformation requires an investment of time and effort, training ourselves to be in conversation with God.

When there is a specific leading we want to test form our ongoing conversation with God, the first stop is the Scriptures. God will not call us in a direction that is contrary to what has been offered to us in the Scriptures. If we are feeling lead in a direction, yet it does not line up with the Scriptures, we can know this is not a leading of God, but from some other place or person. After the Scripture alignment test, we move to the test of community. While each of us must decide personally what we are going to do with Jesus, there is nothing private about our journey. Following God through Jesus Christ is always to be done in the context of community. When feeling a leading from God we are to test the leading with a community of believers whom we trust to speak truth and offer good counsel. This must be a group of people whom you trust and have an ongoing relationship with. If these folks reach consensus about the leading of God, this is another positive.

The next step requires the most risk, go. Once you have tested the leading or communication from God with the Scriptures, and have trusted your community, step in faith. At this point there is still no guarantee you have heard God or not. However, you have employed some steps which help increase the probability greatly. Once you take the step of faith it is imperative to remain in conversation and connection with God and your community. This will allow for mid-course correction or a complete all stop in the event it becomes evident our understanding of God's leading has missed the mark somewhere.

Many people get paralyzed waiting to be sure what they feel, think, hope and dream are from God. They will spend their entire live wanting to make sure they have it right before they take action. This is a great tragedy, and what is killing the witness of Jesus Christ in many places. We are going to get it wrong from time to time, possibly more often than that, yet it is easier for God to use us if we are in motion already. Take a step of faith, if it doesn't work, seek forgiveness where it is needed, repent when needed, keep seeking God, and keep seeking out. The more we engage the process, the more we have conversation with God, the more clear the voice of God becomes. The more clear the leading of God becomes.

What Are You Expecting?

There is a simple yet profound question which lies beneath most of American culture, "What's in it for me?" When we get a new work assignment we wonder what we will gain. If someone asks for our help somewhere in our minds comes the thought of what we might gain. Whether in direct and grand ways or in small subtle ways this has crept into most of our lives. Unfortunately this has happened with our journey with God. As we consider walking with God, and ways in which God calls us to follow we can often slip into a mindset which asks, "What is in it for me?"

This question first shows our very need for God, and we enter in to relationships thinking about what we can gain. It also highlights the fact the we are so prone to missing the point. There are amazing benefits to following God through Jesus Christ. The benefits are more numerous than I can list on this page, yet is that why we follow? It seems as though if we follow God for what we get in return we are simply in another consumer transaction. Our struggle is made deeper when God does not deliver like we thing God should. We feel like we have done our part and God seems to fall short on His part. Somehow we feel like we have been short changed by God.

This all comes back to one issue, the Lordship of God in our lives. On the day when God gave up his only son that we might have life it was not lets make a deal day. God did not say if I sacrifice my only son will you follow me? If you follow me, I will make your life all that you want it to be. it may seem absurd to even think about that, yet that is often how we live. We expect God to function the way we want God to function because we think we are in charge. Very easily we slip into the thinking that I have paid my dues to God now it is time for God to deliver the goods and services on my terms. Problem, we are not in charge. God is King, Jesus is Lord, that means God is in charge not us. If we are following God expecting certain returns we often will find ourselves disappointed. The only expectation we can have in following God is relationship. Because of Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection, we can have relationship with God. Not simply relationship but a relationship where nothing stands between us and God. We are not in charge of how that relationship works as we are the created and we respond to the creator.

What are you expecting from God? Are you following God expecting to get something in return? Are you obedient to the call of God expecting God to function in specific way that is to your liking and pleasure? Perhaps it is time for all of us to offer our lives broken and incomplete to God with our any expectations of what is in it for me.

Discernment

Wow it has been a while since I have posted here. After an extended break I am back, so the rants, questions, challenges and theological banter will now continue.

This Sunday at Cortland UMC we kicked off a year long discernment process. We are seeking God to find what the next faithful step is for our community at this time. Often in the church when we speak about discernment, it is not discernment we are actually seeking. A normal pattern is to have the senior leader, of a small group of leaders have a mountain top adventure to hear from God what the vision is. Upon receiving the vision the individual, or small group return to the community and begin the process of selling the vision. This is not discernment, this is sales and marketing. Discernment is a much more difficult process to start and engage, however there is no sales pitch needed.

Discernment is, according to Webster's, the process of grasping and understanding that which is obscure. The end is not known at the beginning, rather there is a journey, or a process, to discover what God is reveling. All to often whether as a church community, or as individuals we get the end picture in mind and seek after God to make it happen the way we see it. The journey of discernment is one by which we engage a process of events and activities to hear better what God is speaking. The starting point is the Scriptures. From there we add prayer, and community interaction. Before discernment has run it's course there needs to be a testing of everything. This process will take much time.

Time is why I think most people and churches do not engage true discernment. The other significant reason is because of fear. We become afraid of what God might lead us to next. Once we know what that is we then must choose God's way or our own, to whom will we be obedient?

I am excited about what God is doing. I long to see what God will show our community as we seek together. Additionally, I long to see the ways in which God is going to mess with my life as I engage the process.

The Rest of The Story

Monday morning after Easter. Many will look back at yesterday and celebrate a wonderful time at church coupled with quality time spent with chocolate bunnies and other confections of the season. There may have been some who had a profound spiritual experience yesterday which took Easter well beyond that nasty plastic grass, and a dinner fit to feed a neighborhood. In my time I have had opportunity to celebrate Easter 34 times, and over the last few years I have begun to wonder more about the Monday after.

Celebrations of resurrection are wonderful, and often is the church at its best. Many people come out to church, possibly the only time all year, to do what a good citizen would do. Even the hardiest church attender who has not missed a day of church since the Nixon administration attends and comments how lovely the church was and how nice it was to see the church so full of people. To the pastor who could mistakenly think all the people are there to see them. All the people gathered run the risk of missing the point. So you might ask what is the point?

The point of the whole thing is not Easter Sunday. The real point is found in the Monday after. Resurrection is not true only on this one day of the year. Further we are called by Christ to live as resurrection people everyday of our lives. Yet all too often we have a wonderful day celebrating Easter but when Monday morning comes around the option is there to return to a pre-resurrection life, or even worse life as usual. The resurrection of Jesus was offered by God to all humanity to so that everything would be changed.

So the real question is not how was your Easter. The real question is how is the rest of the story going to be written. I am not suggesting that we all know how the rest of our lives are going to be played out. I am suggesting we can know because of the story God has written through Jesus Christ, our story will be forever different. Will the story after resurrection Sunday look the same as before? I hope and pray that it will not. May God mess with our lives. May we be people of live and hope rather than gloom and death. May resurrection be the core of our beings not just once a year, but every moment of every day.

Holy Week, The Death of Church

The single most important week of the year is upon us. This week we track Jesus as he moves from the upper room, to the cross, to the grave, and finally to resurrection. Without these events which we celebrate this week, the Church would be pointless. This is also the week where many people who have filled in the box Christian on the questionnaire remember there is the place called the church where the Christians gather. The rest of the year with the exception of Christmas unless it doesn't fit the schedule, many live lives disconnected from Christ and the church which he founded. Then Holy Week comes and there seems to be a remembrance of being Christian.

It might seem that my tone in the above paragraph is sarcastic or condescending. This may be, however it is not my intent. There is no redemption is being condescending toward the way people have chosen to carve out their lives. Rather I want to offer another option for how we interact with Christ through the church. It begins with a confession. I am going to be so bold as to offer a confession and apology on behalf of the church. For far too long the church has not looked like its creator intended it to. There has been more concern over human developed rules and regulations than following the works and teachings of God through Jesus Christ. It seems as though more attention is paid to who is wearing what clothes, or if the people are behaving as is considered to be appropriate. Basically, the church has become stuffy, judgmental and missing the point. I for one say I am sorry to all the people who are turned off by the church.

It is a tragedy that we in the church have not been able to keep the life of Christ so visible in our community that we actually turn people off to God. It is not the fault of those who attend church once or twice a year that their memory of being a Christian is so short-lived. It is the church which has faltered. In many cases we have taken the most exciting invitation of hope, and made it mundane, boring, or even irrelevant to most people's lives. No wonder people have trouble remembering they are a Christian until the egg laying bunny shows up. Christmas and Easter Christians is the lingo used in church circles to describe the folks who only show up twice a year. I was taught all through seminary and my early years as a pastor to have a mild if not full out disdain for folks in that category. I am deeply regretful to say that for years I was sucked into such reasoning. Now, I see things a little differently.

I am sorry the church has so lost is way that it has become boring, and just another thing on an overloaded to do list. It grieves me to think the church has become a place where we talk about Jesus but never live like Jesus. People hold the church to be a optional part of their life because the church has allowed itself to become trivial to the day-to-day life of those who would follow Christ. Perhaps it is not the individuals who need to remember they are Christian. Perhaps it is the church which needs to remember what it is about.

I wonder what would happen if in the next few days churches all around the world used the events of Holy Week to truly follow Jesus. That on Thursday night, we would dine with Jesus at the table celebrating the God who brings people from captivity to freedom. Then of Friday as we reconnect with the death of Christ, we would nail ourselves and the church to the cross and let it die. What if we crucified the church and buried it Friday night? Then on Sunday morning allow God to bring forth new life. I wonder what would happen if churches didn't just talk about the resurrection this Sunday, not just experience it like a TV show. What if the church of Jesus Christ embraced new life and vitality.

May we the church die this week, so that we might experience resurrection. May we no longer serve the forces of injustice, and may we no longer trivialize the most important message for all of humanity. The life and work of Jesus Christ is too important to reduce it to human derived rules and regulations. It is time for the church to be free. A place where Christ is not simple talked about, or simply celebrated, rather a place where Christ is embodied. May the Spirit of God sweep through our churches, revive us, make us whole again.

Health Care and The Church

So I wonder if there is anything else happening in the world other than the United States health care bill, Tiger Woods return to golf, or NCAA basketball? These three things seem to fill the news airwaves no matter where I turn. Tiger and basketball will pass within a month, the health care bill, that will take longer to work with. Many people have many opinions about the health care bill, and there is no shortage of people who are willing to share the opinion with great energy and certainty. Being the pastor of a church many have asked me what I think about the health care reform bill, and have left unsatisfied with my answer. My intention in writing today is not to offer my opinion on the bill, if you think you have figured out my stance could you email me and let me know what my stance is cause I am still sorting that out and could use some help.

Much in terms of resources and energy has been spend and will continue to be spent of the issue of health care reform in the United States. Left in its wake are the real issues of health care in our world such as eliminating preventable diseases in the developing world, or getting the care to people in areas of the world experiencing disaster. It is amazing to me how self-centered and Amerocentric, not sure that is even a word, the whole debate is. Whether we have private or state-run health care the fact remains we have a health care system. There is actually access to care and preventable diseases are not running out of control. The over whelming majority of people do not have their very life threatened daily by a mosquito. Once again our American arrogance is showing a little more than I am comfortable with.

What does this have to do with the church anyway? The title if the entry is Health care and The Church, when do we get to that? Right now. No matter what particular version of the church you are engaged in there are people who hold opinion as to the greatness of the health care reform situation. At the core of the divide is a common thread, the role of the government in the day to day life of an individual. There are certain ways people feel the government should function but at the core all sides of the issue are creating the same challenge. They expect the government to be the ultimate source of security, direction and function. Biblically there is a word for this, idolatry. The church of Jesus Christ in America is relinquishing to the government the role and responsibility that the church has been given since the beginning.

Governments will do what governments do. No matter what decision is made there will be people who agree and others who do not. A policy enacted today can be changes the next, or when those on the other side of an issue gain "power". The reality is the government cannot save us, nor can it destroy us. Through the centuries governments have come and gone, and the styles of government have come and gone, and come around again. In it all there still remains the church of Jesus Christ. Pilate couldn't stop it, nor could any of the early Roman leaders. Stalin, Hitler, or any other world leader has been able to stop it. Sure there have been times when it has been more difficult to be a follower of Christ, and yes there have been countless numbers of people who have been put to death for their faith. None of this has stopped the church of Jesus Christ. Through it all God has remained God, and the call of the people of God has not changed.

What is the call of the people of God? Love God above all things, with everything within and outside of you. To share the story of God and humanity with all people everywhere. To bring good news to the poor, naked and blind. And to not stop until as many people as possible experience the Kingdom of God in their midst. No matter what our national health care plan is, the calling of the people of God does not change. I wonder what would happen in people in the church of Jesus Christ spent less time debating a government policy or plan, and invested their resources, time, talent and treasure, into being good news to the poor, working to eliminate preventable diseases all around the globe? Is health care like we have in the United States a divine right? Do we have to carry a little card proving our health care coverage to be fully embraced by the Kingdom of God?

When it comes to health care and the church, what a government does or does not do should not change what we do. Let us stop worrying about a Republican or Democrat plan. Let us stop worrying about who has coverage or not. May we, the church of Jesus Christ, work to see all of God's children have the opportunity to have live. Whether in the United States or any place in the world, let us not rest until preventable diseases stop killing people.