Enchanted Community

BLOG 3/29/15. (CONTINUED) CHURCH LEADERSHIP: PRACTITIONERS OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY.

We live in a culture of discontent, replete with a large slice of cynicism, and this is often quite understandable. When it comes to the phenomenon of that which designates itself as the church of Jesus Christ, and pertains to be the community of those who believe in, and follow him, … then those observers who are ‘outside’ deserve to see something that has integrity of purpose with the life and teachings of Jesus—especially should this be true of those who are its ostensible leaders. So what might be the basics as to what that would look like?

You must understand, that Jesus, himself, gave almost no instructions about the form and structure of the church, or the community of his followers. That is pretty much the role of those on whom he sent is own Spirit, and who are the authors of that whole segment of the New Testament which we designate as: the epistles/letters, and which were primarily addressed to the early Christian communities by its acknowledged missionary founders.

Inarguably, then, I would begin describing the qualifications for church leadership with an awesome mandate from Paul to the church at Philippi on the Macedonian/Greek peninsula. It is written as a guide for all of the Philippian Christians, but it would have been especially a qualification for those who would be its leaders: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, …” (Philippians 2).

That kind of demonstration of true humility certainly eliminates all of the posturing clergy, and the power-grabbing individuals within Christian communities that one so often encounters along the way. Humility and the servant spirit would lead the list of those whom the community to look to as its leaders.

The other most helpful description of those who are chosen to be, or aspire to be the church’s leaders, comes from Paul’s letter to his missionary (and church planting) aide Timothy. Those leadership persons should be: (note) 1) above reproach; 2) responsible in their family relations; 3) [From this point I defer to Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message] “cool and collected, accessible, and hospitable. He must know what he is talking about, … he must know how to handle his own affairs well, … he must not be a new believer, lest his position go to his head, … Outsiders must think well of him … ”

Just this much of the New Testament on leadership gives us enough to work on, and would eliminate a whole host of ecclesiastical egos, whom one encounters along the way. What Paul describes are visible, necessary, modest, Christ-incarnating lives of ordinary folk. They are anything but self-important. They are those who model Christ in the daily vicissitudes, not only the Christian community, but to those outsiders who are looking to see if this ‘Jesus thing’ is authentic. They are not so much religious as they are truly human New Creation folk.

It also puts in perspective a point that will get me into trouble: Such maturity and character is not the product of a theological degree. Seminaries have their role, but one proves leadership “in the trenches” of real life. There are a whole lot of poor lost souls inhabiting theological schools looking for themselves, who have never functioned fruitfully in Christian communities. To call them Masters of Divinity could be considered laughable. There are, to be sure, those in such academies who are wonderful Christian folk, but who have never exposed themselves to the scrutiny of those outsiders, or proven themselves to those inside the Christian community. Most true leaders in Christian communities are not the clergy, but humble flesh-and-blood followers of Jesus in daily life. They are those whom the cynics could look at and see something of Jesus.

BLOG 326/15. PRIMARY QUALIFICATION FOR CHURCH LEADERSHIP: PROVEN-NESS.

I had arrived at my first experience of being a solo pastor in a small, de-spirited (maybe pitiful would be a better description), somewhat troubled Christian congregation. The church had called me because the presbytery told them that they needed a pastor. For myself, I had jumped through all of the ecclesiastical hoops of the Presbyterian tradition: college education, a divinity degree, formal ordination, etc. and had spend several years as denominational campus minister at a state university. None of that had prepared me for what I was to encounter in that church which was the ‘denominational franchise’ for the mill village community in that small city.

Being accustomed to the somewhat unhindered and purposeful dialogue with students which I had enjoyed in campus ministry, I sought to ‘connect’ with this new congregation by engaging them in some dialogue, discussing their Christian faith with them, finding out about their lives and daily experiences. I found a few marvelous followers of Jesus, with real servant spirits, … but for the most part it was pretty sterile. Many were also wary (suspicious?) of clergy, with whom they had some not-too-happy experiences—clergy were unreal to them. I also found that they had no flesh and blood models of what a vital, living Christian person even looked like. They chose leaders, not because of any spiritual qualification, but because that was what was needed to keep the institution functioning. Christian example had little to do with it.

And, face it: they didn’t understand me. They weren’t at all impressed that I had been to a seminary, nor did they care. They didn’t know what seminaries were all about—it was a different world from theirs. That was one more cultural separation between me and them. But the reality that caught my attention was that they had almost no living, breathing models of robust Christian faith whom they really admired. I on the other hand had grown up in a home where my own father was a beautiful, modest, self-effacing disciple, who as a practicing mechanical engineer, had come to Christ, and intentionally disciplined himself to be formed by the life and teachings of Jesus. He was always a model to me. He was authentic and convincing to the core in his Christian profession.

Paul, the apostle, could tell the Corinthian Christian folk to be imitators of him, as he was of Jesus Christ. He could tell the Philippian Christians: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” God’s people need models of his New Humanity, his New Creation folk. They need to know how that produces those who are the incarnation of his own glory. And the fact that so many of the folk in that small congregation had no such models, and the awareness that they never discussed Christian faith with one another, gave me the clue that has been at the core of my life in the Christian community ever since: If these folk had no Christian models that they could imitate, or admire, or be formed by, … then by God’s grace I wanted to be at least one that would be that visible model before them. I would, by God’s grace, not only teach publicly, but one-on-one would model and coach these folk into their own Christian maturity. It wasn’t always without conflict. Yet, that in turn, resulted after a year or two of tough times, in the congregation making the determination that they would only choose their leadership on the basis of Paul’s own insistence that such leaders prove themselves by their maturity of knowledge, but by their practicing that faith in their very real daily lives. That principle ultimately produced a Christian community that has had incredible impact on the neighborhood, and in which untold scores of lives have been transformed. I am convinced that this is critical. It is ‘humanly possible’ to create a religious institution and get members, … but it requires patience and proven-ness and the empowering of God’s Spirit to create disciples who embody the life and teachings of Jesus. Only such should be even considered as leadership for the Christian community. (To be continued in next blog: What does that look like?)

BLOG 3/22/15. PREDESTINATION: DO YOU WANNA GO THERE?

OK, I’ve heard a lot dumb sermons in my life (and probably preached a few also), but one of the Biblical passages that comes close to the top of the list of those that are wrenched out of their setting, and bastardized, and totally misused would have to be the one that contains the passage: “And we know that for all those who love God all things work together for good, …”—but right here those ‘dumb’ sermons put a period, when actually there is only a comma—and so the passage continues: “… for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). This piece of the larger passage is yanked out and used as some kind of a placebo to explain any kind of difficult or unexpected or unexplainably tragic event. But that kind of cut-and-paste interpretation misses the wonder of this passage

Don’t leave! It begins to get interesting if one is really curious. First of all there should arise in any thinking person: What in the world is the purpose of God? Keep going: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” No question that there is a whole lot of mystery when it comes to God’s design in his dealing with humankind. We humans cannot fathom God’s foreknowledge, and we cannot even figure out why we who embrace Christ have had our eyes opened to the wonder of his love.

But one thing is unmistakable, and that is that the ultimate design of God is his purpose to “create all things new” in and through Jesus Christ. That’s where predestination is going. God is working his purpose out in this broken world. He has invaded his rebel creation, which had rejected him, and in love brings the inauguration of a whole and radically recreated world in which the guilty can be forgiven, and in whom he can display his divine nature and purpose (glory). That is what this passage says. It says that God is working his purpose out, and calls humankind to hear his invitation of love and grace, and to reject and abandon that screwed-up dominion which seeks to be its own god and goddesses.

So here is the reality of Easter. Jesus Christ, who is at the heart of it all, and is the Predestined One, has been declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead. He, then invites us to embrace him and his New Creation, and to become a dynamic part of that predestined reality in which is life, and meaning, and reconciled oneness with the Lord of all and the Creator.

But note: this invitation has consequences. It is not at all a safe and comfortable bit of religion. When one is called into God’s New Creation, it is necessary that they also forsake the old creation with its idols, and false gods, and violated way of life. Jesus never mutes the cost of following him. “Unless a man forsake all that he hath he cannot be my disciple.” “If any one will follow me, then let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” His invitation into his embrace of love also includes chastening: “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every one whom he receives” (Hebrew 12:6). This is necessary simply because we come to him with so much of the crap in our thinking and behavior from our former way of life, that is all inimical to his predestined newness for us.

All that said, the result though demanding and not safe, leads to indescribable new life in the Spirit, and to freedom, and to joy, and to intimacy with God that is unimaginable. This is what predestination is all about—yet the gate is narrow that leads to eternal life, so don’t jump before you look at the consequences, and the demands of the gospel (as well as the promises). This isn’t about ‘church membership’ … it is about radical New Creation for which Christ suffered and bled and died, and all of which was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead.

BLOG 3/15/15. “RESCUE THE PERISHING:” … ANOTHER DIMENSION

Back in the ‘heyday’ of gospel meetings and traveling evangelists, we used to sing a gospel song: “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying … Jesus is merciful! Jesus will save.” At that time we had a vision of poor lost sinners needing forgiveness for their misspent lives so they could go to heaven when they died, … or something like that. But there are more macro dimensions of ‘lostness’ than simply the individual—there is social and generational lostness, and it should be a demanding issue for the church’s presence and mission to our own society today.

Here’s what triggers this thought in me: in recent days there have been reports of  studies by the political scientist Robert Putnam (author of Bowling Alone) that have raised the issue that the large majority of those who attend college are also those who have grown up in homes where their parents went to college, and where there was structure and expectation and parental encouragement. And what of the rest?

Consider that there is the emerging Generation Z (or the iY generation born after 1990), which numbers something like 26 million, and is about the largest generational bubble since the Boomers, … but in which a frightening percentage are those born out of wedlock, or are the product of single parent homes with little structure, little true love or affection, frequently with no male figure present, with little discipline, and less expectation. It is these who are unlikely to have any conception of college, or of responsibility, or hope, and so are being formed by gangs of friends, or whatever they can pull up on the iPhones. We dump these young men and women on the school systems, where they are unprepared for any academic discipline, but which may be the closest thing they have of association with responsible adult figures.

These are the perishing who need to be rescued. This a whole dimension of our own social and cultural darkness. This is a huge area of need in our society. And where is the church? There was a time, in centuries past, when the church saw education as a fruitful mission enterprise, and where being an educator-teacher was considered a significant Christian calling to places of influence. Now the educational scene is a battleground between political factions, and where teachers are placed in a dismayingly near-impossible role of being the adult figures to these lost Generation Z kids—and maybe the only caring adults in their experience. The program Teach America has produced some good results, but it is not nearly adequate given the scope of the problem, what with all of the socio-economic-cultural decay.

Our churches have traditionally seen cross-cultural missions as sending folk to other nations to plant churches and to herald God’s love in Christ, … but the mission field that stares us in the face here and now, and is on our doorstep, is itself cross-cultural, is a generation of unloved, unstructured, lonely, hopeless, and morally ambiguous young men and women—which should break out hearts.

And I don’t have any answers, or brilliant suggestions, … except that the communities of Christ’s people need to wake up to the heartbreak of such a cultural tsunami that none of us will escape. I can only refer back to the model of my mentor John Perkins, that we need to literally move into the area of greatest need, with our ministry of reconciliation, and there to share the resources that will provide the demonstrations of incarnational love to those who so desperately need that gospel, that rescue, that will give hope and meaning and motivation and the embracing love of God—maybe as school teachers or community organizers.

It is also true that the more encouraging part of Generation Z is more entrepreneurial, more change-focused, and more digitally adept and has the potential of being something of a creative force with vision of how to bring about a whole new social reality. Am I Utopian? Perhaps, but then many of the Silicon Valley folk were told that their ideas were insane before they were proven to be correct, and so have changed our future. Come Holy Spirit!

BLOG 3/11/15. THE KINGDOM OF GOD … AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Pope Francis I ‘gets it’ and will shortly be releasing a papal encyclical on the environment. I can hardly wait. As a card-carrying (but probably somewhat compromised) Protestant I can hardly wait. Even when I find myself in some disagreements from time to time, I find that those papal encyclicals are worth reading. They are usually well-researched and rich in thought-provoking resources. Then there is this pope himself, a most unusual guy. He s the first Jesuit pope, and Jesuits are not shabby thinkers, and they are tough. Plus, this first Jesuit pope took as his papal name that of another fascinatingly eccentric and creative figure: Francis (as in St. Francis of Assisi). Now if you want to talk about an environmentalist, all you have to do is to read the histories, or biographies, of Francis of Assisi. He was so attached to the environment that he has actually been accused of being a pantheist because of his calling all created things—streams, trees, birds, etc.—his brothers and sisters. One has only to look again at his classical hymn: All Creatures of Our God and King to sense this unique relationship.

Yet St. Francis saw what so many of our present skeptics about environmental concerns (global warming, pollution of the atmosphere, what we dump into the ocean, etc.) in society, and yet who profess to be ‘Christian’ seem to miss. When Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God, that kingdom was 180^o away from any disembodied, otherworldly, bland religious mysticism, … or pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by escape from the calling to be agents of God’s New Creation here and now.

You see, Jesus’ primary message was that in himself God’s New Creation was being inaugurated. That ‘kingdom’ language was somewhat familiar to the Jewish community which Jesus was part of. Centuries before Jesus, the prophets dropped all kinds of clues about God’s design to make all things new, to send an ‘anointed one’ (or messiah, or Christ) to both reconcile the his estranged human community, … but also to inaugurate the recreation of all things into their total shalom, or harmony, what with love for each other, but also love for God’s creation. The prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven” has all kinds of implications. It is vastly more than simply my personal salvation and forgiveness of sins (though it is that, for sure).

Now, take note: In those first three gospel narratives, written primarily to the Jewish community, the writers appropriates this kingdom of God terminology, since it would have been somewhat familiar to his hearers. But, then, John writing to a more Gentile audience uses the term: eternal life to speak of the same eschatological reality, i.e., the in-breaking new age of God. Paul speaks of the same reality with his usage of new creation as synonymous with kingdom of God. In other places the very word salvation carries this huge meaning of the restoration of all thing to their intended design. Sometimes the word righteousness is used in this sense. Or, perhaps: the age to come now being experienced by the Christian community.

What all of this implies for us is that all of those who embrace Jesus Christ, first of all renounce all attachment to the destructive implications of the dominion of darkness, and become those who, with Christ, set about demonstrating God’s love for, and purpose for all of creation, which purpose will be consummated at the end of this age, but is all in process here and now (“the already-but-not-yet-kingdom”).

And, do you know what? Our stewardship of the environment is very much a part of that, and yet the dominant order has become so callous to that, that we hardly give second thought to the pollution and destruction taking place. Yet no thoughtful believer in Jesus Christ can write this off as some liberal political agenda. So, I’m thankful for Pope Francis, and for all of those who understand our role in being agents of a holistic new creation in which every thing we touch and influence in in the context of God: “I will make all things new.” And, in the end it will be so.

BLOG 3/8/15. THIS OLD … CHURCH (SAY WHAT?)

I am a great fan of the television program: This Old House, which, despite my being somewhat questioning of the unholy amounts of money they must spend on some of those projects, am still fascinated with the sheer craftsmanship displayed as they restore once grand old houses. Each program begins with Tom Silva  going around the foundations of the old houses and being alarmed at all of the inadequate, or termite infested sills upon the house sits. Then he and his colleagues will walk through the house and discern where there is insufficient framing to maintain the weight of the upper parts of the house, etc. The solution is to brace the structure and then rip out all of the stuff that is a detriment to their ultimate goal.

What’s interesting is that the Apostle Paul used a similar metaphor when he likened the church to a building that must be built on the one true foundation, which is Christ. So what would it look like for a church to be built on that foundation? Primarily, Paul had in mind that the focal point should be Jesus Christ and all that he was, and taught, and did to accomplish his mission of making all things new. Paul also pointed out that to seek to create a church on anything other than this essential focus on Christ and the mission of Christ, was to build with shabby foundations of wood and hay and stubble rather than silver and gold and precious stones—and that it would all ultimately be tried with fire (I Corinthians 3:10 ff.).

But that basic discipline requires a clear understanding of how we do build that proper way. And the very basic, sine qua non, requirement is that a church be built on every member being the fruit of Christ’s commission to: “Go … make disciples of every people group, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Sound simple? Sound obvious? Well, obviously somewhere that got lost. In my career I have seen scores of what are called: Congregational Information Forms, and which spell out what a congregation is looking for in its pastoral leadership. Disciple-making hardly ever even makes the list. More astounding, few theological training schools include any significant training on making disciples.

So you come up with church institutions, which have no design to be forming men and women into the image of Christ, or of causing every member to be equipped to maturity in their day by day ministry in all of the diverse settings which such members occupy. After all, the purpose of Christ calling each of us is so that we may be recreated into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29 in loc.)—And that recreation consists of his likeness in knowledge, in behavior, and in intimate relationship with the Trinitarian community. And, my dear blog readers—that doesn’t just happen without intentionality on the part of the community leadership.

I am a veteran of decades of church leadership, or church renewal training conferences, and it took a while for me to realize that the same people turned up again and again. They were in moribund, or rudderless, or bland churches, … and thy knew that something needed to change, … but then they went home and reverted into the same patterns of institutional life, never realizing evidently, that healthy structures begin with healthy foundations of mature disciples, and this is a patient, one-on-one engagement of one mature Christian brother or sister teaching and coaching and modeling discipleship to another. This is contra what I call theoretical church renewal, or church leadership. One can know all the theories, and have read all of the books that currently portend to be helpful, …but this old church is refounded through intentional disciple-making. What you find in strong and healthy Christian communities is that someone ‘hunkered down’ for the long haul and made disciples, … or laid foundations of silver and gold and precious stones. It’s not glamorous, but that’s how it happens: intentionally, patiently, gently but creating Christ in another. Old church can be made new … but theory won’t do it!

BLOG 3/4/15. THE HAUNTING TRAGEDY OF NOT BEING LOVED

How convenient it is to become immune to the human tragedies on our doorstep. We can read of atrocities committed by those of ISIL and wonder how such inhumanity can take place. Or we can read of the of the huge number of refugees from that war now living in Jordan, and be overwhelmed by the sheer scope. Then, too, we can wonder what is the attraction of that terrorist organization that lures kids from Europe, from the UK, or from the United States to join in such horrors. But there are humanitarian tragedies right on our doorsteps what with all of the kids who have never been loved, who are the product of the irresponsible sexual passions of irresponsible parents, or of parents who have never known loving parents of their own—and maybe kids who have been bullied at school without recourse, and they become angry. There is that entire segment of our emerging generation that has never known stability, or structure, or love—youth who have never been hugged, or told how much they are loved.

This is not an economic thing. Many of my own generation, who grew up in the Great Depression, in which our parents struggled to make ends meet, yet at the same time we experienced structured homes, and parents who loved and cared. We also had neighbors who knew each other, and felt some responsibility for each other and for each others’ families. Yes, we had tragic lapses, and occasional crimes, but basically there were caring school teachers, parents who provided for us sanctuaries of love, and also who insisted on disciplines that formed us into responsible adults.

Then I have known more than a few who grew up in the housing projects, and in houses that weren’t homes, and who were left to find companionship with other rootless and undisciplined folk in gangs. I have even become a surrogate parent to some of these, and have heard their stories, and what it meant to them to have someone who really cared for them when their own biological parents were hardly a factor in their lives. It would be quite understandable, if you had never been loved, and had little hope of anything other than seeking momentary thrills, … to see some adventure in Syria, or in some gang episodes, some risks that would take the total boredom out of life, or give you a place to vent your anger.

We are at a moment where none of us live in isolation from this emerging generation, of which a sizable factor in all economic segments are pretty much left to theirs own devices—maybe to be raised by what they can access on social media. To live hopeless, and loveless, and meaningless lives is hell. Where there is no family, then gangs become the family, and the enforcer of their own moral (?) codes, and where any deviation from the gang norms can be dangerous.

Why am I saying all of this, which is so obvious? Why am I preaching to the choir of those who subscribe to my blogs? Answer: Because we Christians are called to be those messengers of hope, of love, of God’s purpose to make all things new—to be children of the Light in the cultural darkness and corruption and human tragedy—not in the abstract, but by putting all of our best loving and creative skills to work to actually form a new generation out of one with so much stacked against it. There are good examples out there, like, for instance, school teachers who daily engage all of this difficult set of rootless, and unloved, and on-their-own young men and women. Maybe their word of love, or a hug would surprise the kids, … but at least they would know that there were those who cared and are willing to engage in costly love. I’m saying this do a bit of consciousness raising. It’s a huge issue, and politicians expostulating on all kinds of irrelevant issues, unfortunately, are not apparently going to be much help. It would seem that the church’s mandate to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” is apropos to what I am addressing here, … and a big hug to you, too!

BLOG 3/1/15. WHAT COULD STEVE JOBS TEACH THE CHURCH?

I’m not proud. I don’t mind learning lessons from such an irascible (often disgusting) genius as Steve Jobs. After all, he, against all advice and odds, put together a whole new world of information technology, design, and marketing that makes it (according to today’s business reports) the wealthiest company in the world. Here’s his principle that I want to focus on here: Jobs felt that about every ten years his company should re-invent itself. It needed to rethink its mission, and the market, and all of the pieces of culture coming around the corner, and so form the company to effectively be there before anyone else. His accurate evaluation was that a company does something successfully, and then settles down to enjoy its accomplishments, and becomes content in being what it is, rather than looking for the next challenge, and so it loses its edge. He did not want Apple to be one more computer company among many. He wanted it to be the very best, operating way out in front. Very few understood him, and he had to terminate reluctant staff who didn’t have his passion for innovation and design. Wow! Turn the page.

What about the church? Does it need to periodically reinvent itself, and remember again what it is that Jesus had in mind for those people he ‘called out’ (the word: church actually means a people called out for a purpose) to be agents of his New Creation. Reading the biography of Jobs alerted me to all kinds of things, and it slammed me with full force when I read a major news report this week that “fewer people are attending church” than in previous days. Sound innocent? It’s not only not innocent, it is totally mindless. Since when did Jesus ever call a people to attend a place? When did Jesus ever summon a people to be the passive consumers of institutional religion, and ‘churchy’ activities? The answer: Never!

Now, I can’t mimic Steve Jobs, who had a very colorful and vile tongue when he thought some proposal was crappy—but it might help get the attention of huge segment of the church who want a secure and permanent sanctuary, and predictable church activities, so that they can experience some nebulous sense of spirituality, without any responsibility for the mission for which Jesus came, taught, suffered, died, and rose again. His Great Commission doesn’t say: “Go into all the world and create religious places and then invite people to attend them.”

Rather, he says: “As the Father has sent me, even so do I send you.” Our calling by Christ, his calling to every one of us is to mission. God know this about us, he knows that we resist long-term obedience. He commanded Israel to observe those periodic disciplines of remembering who they were, and from where they had come, and to be continually reforming themselves to accomplish these costly ends. There was the sabbatical year (every seventh year) and the jubilee year (every 50^th year), when they would essentially reinvent themselves, and remember what it was that God had called them to be and to do in the world. But they conveniently reinterpreted this and created easier substitutes.

Look around you. Look at comfortable church institutions that have long since ceased (if they ever did) equipping men and women for their mission into the (often very demanding) disciplines of 24/7 life, … or for their role as the demonstrations of the radical demands of the gospel of Christ, and the willingness to lose our lives in the process. What is the solution for such misunderstood or misdirected or forgetful churches? Would your congregation, or Christian community, be up to the rigors of reinventing itself, and re-covenanting to accomplish the mission of Christ every ten years? Or, maybe to observe a Jubilee year and divest itself of all of its sanctuaries and prestigious accouterments, and begin again as those who are passionate about obedience to the teachings of Christ? I can tell you one thing: You would lose a whole lot of ‘hangers-on’ and religious folk along for the ride. You would p— a lot of people off. But you might have integrity again. You might become a highly fruitful colony of Christ’s people again. Thanks, Steve!

BLOG 2/25/15. DISCIPLES IN THE ABSTRACT?

I frequently reflect on the oxymoron exhibited with all of those church-ified folk who took their baptism vow to “be Christ’s faithful disciple” (or something close), … and yet who seem totally indifferent to their neighbors and associates who, behind those, maybe, charming or sophisticated personalities are living in their own nightmare of fear, of meaninglessness, or maybe hopelessness. I wonder what such church folk think as the ostensible followers of Jesus Christ—Jesus who was passionately focused on his calling to seek and to save those folk who were living in their existential lostness.

I cannot force my way into the lives of my neighbors, most of would not even be able to articulate, much less confess, the existential reality of their “lost in the cosmos” sub consciousness. A few decades back there was a grunge-rock group known as Nirvana. Its leader was a druggie, and something of a ‘Pied Piper’ by the name of Kurt Cobain. Cobain was the nemesis of all of the well-scrubbed and proper reporters on cultural realities. Ultimately, Kurt Cobain took his own life, but in his autobiographical account published after his death, … and at the very end of that account he was describing his emotional state, and he made a poignant one-line confession that haunts me to this day: “But what I really need is God!” I doubt if Cobain could have articulated exactly what he meant by that, but there is that universal and haunting need for meaning and acceptance and hope that is only found in God. Who was Cobain around who incarnated a life that found its center and creative source in God?

Or, wasn’t it T. S. Eliot who wrote that: “The wilderness is not off in some far-off desert clime, but the wilderness is sitting next to you on the tube-train”? Yet, if one is only a disciple of Jesus in the abstract, and essentially disconnected even from the guy sitting next to you in the church pew, … then one is missing the whole point of Jesus and of his mission. And yet, when one reads the accounts by Luke of that early church in Jerusalem, which was essentially an outlaw group, one reads that the word of Jesus went everywhere, and day by day men and women were being saved, and the number of disciples multiplied, so that even priests and leaders of the hostile Jewish community were coming to faith. How do you account for that?

You account for that by the fact that no one was a disciple in the abstract. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer would write two millennia later: “When Jesus calls a person he bids them come and die.” When one accepts the requirement of following Jesus: that all of us, every one of us, is to be part of the church’s contagious presence in the realities of daily life, so that our faith is such a winsome and convincing demonstration of authentic New Creation life, that others will be made curious, and perhaps ask what makes you tick—even if it costs us our life! One could wish that Kurt Cobain could have been in contact with someone who cared about him for Jesus’ sake.

I once asked a friend, who was the leader of a mission effort in the thick of the rebellious youth culture, and which mission was seeing remarkable fruitfulness, how he explained such an remarkable awakening in so many fractured young folk? His response was that he was convinced that where the darkness is the greatest, that is where God rejoices to work the most powerfully.

God does in fact call us to gather together as his people, but the purpose is in order that we continually re-evangelize, encourage and equip each other for our weekly mission. We are probably more truly the church when we are scattered during the realities of the week than when we are gathered on a Sunday morning (or whenever). It is God’s calling to every single believer, however gifted, or timid, however modest one’s circumstances, to be a child of the Light, and to pray for the most unlikely of our neighbors and working associates and classmates—always aware that God has put us in their company, not as a hidden and passive religious persons, but as the incarnation of Christ’s mission to seek and to save the lost—that wilderness sitting next to us.

BLOG 2/22/15. REFLECTIONS UPON MY 87^TH BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was my birthday and I got Facebook greetings from scores of friends, and from around the world. One question, that I got frequently was: “What are you thinking on your birthday?” So let me reflect for a while with you. For one thing, I look back on all of those many years, and on the engaging of life with all of its pluses and minuses, joys and agonies, … and all I can see is God’s faithfulness in making each new passage a growth passage—often to my total surprise—and astounding me at how He could answer my outrageous prayers, and walk me into experiences that I could never have imagined. (And, this is not to mention that God provided me with an incredible wife, who was the perfect complement to my fickle personality, and was a remarkable source of wisdom.)

But then, too, I have—for whatever reasons—always had a vision for what kind of influence I would have on those younger than I, or on the next generation. There is a humorous tendency among those of my age to only reminisce on the past, or to share their infirmities. I have certainly lived a whole lot of history, but think that my focus on the emerging generations comes from several psalms that I have recorded in my prayer journals:

“So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” (Psalm 71:18)

“Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree … They still bear fruit in old age.” (Psalm 92:12-14)

Somehow, if my life is not an encouragement and a model for the generations behind me, then I think I have not fulfilled my calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and to make disciples, and to be a resource for those who come after me. The question always comes: Who are the models of wholesome, authentic, New Creation persons to those just emerging into their most formative years? If one is totally centered on his/her own fulfillment, and his/her own accomplishments, or on their survival in distressing circumstances, and responses to impossible challenges … then, those following have no positive models. The apostle Paul was unabashed in saying: “Be imitators or me, even as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1). Or: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:7).

Or, another factor is that I spent the first twenty years of my teaching career in the church in college and university communities, where I was continually confronted with a younger set of men and women, who were insistent with their questions, and challenging when they saw contradictions and inadequacies in me and my teachings. I learned from them, and was refined by them. For whatever reasons, I have been energized and motivated by keeping my focus on, and my passion for the emerging generation, … and that keeps me excited about tomorrow.

Or, maybe one more ominous and haunting reason is: somewhere back in my reading I have retained a quote (which I cannot track down, or Google, but I certainly did not invent it). It was a reflection on the life of someone who had recently died: “… and someone asked: ‘What did his life mean?’ And the answer came: ‘It meant nothing at all. He did nothing, and was nothing.  His life was like a pool, green-grown and stagnant.’” I certainly do not want my life to be like a green-grown and stagnant pool.

I want my life, to my dying breath, to be forming and energizing the emerging generation. I certainly am learning from them, but I also want them to be blessed and formed by my life and teachings.

Those are my birthday reflections. “The future is as bright as the promises of God.”