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church journey

the blindness is deeper than imagined

It’s tough work dealing with the staining that we’ve taken from the practices of church businesses and the christian subculture, and not everyone comes to the same conclusions. Think of stained wood. Stain seeps into the grain and goes deep. It is not removed by a simple sanding. It may take a long time – several applications of stain remover, and several sandings – to ever get it out. And even then, you may always deal with a residual. This is how I think of our challenge in the church today, after 1700 years of this yuck. The better foundation we allow God to lay in us now, the farther along will be the generations that follow.

My experience detoxing is teaching me that we seriously benefit from thinking long and hard about ALL the issues with church businesses. I’m finding that a huge hurdle for many is cutting the heart strings attached to the business – personal identity in it, a paycheck, a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in the roles played, etc. These are things given by God in the context of our earthly labors (Eccl 5), but they get us twisted up and confused when done in the context of the kingdom of heaven. I want to take as much time as needed for God to unravel it all inside of me. I want to let heavenly light ruthlessly expose blindness, which runs much deeper than I imagined. This detox journey isn’t a switch to a different methodology (eg, from institutional church with leadership hierarchy to home-based church with everyone on a level playing field), but a major cleansing and revitalizing of our hearts and thinking. There’s a complete language that has to be unlearned, and a new one to replace it. I only see pieces of where God is taking us. Sometimes I get spun up wanting to begin building again with these alone, but then I’m thankful for friends that remind me it would only mean facing tear-downs again, and that it really is His church, He’s the head of it, He’s the one true discipler of it. It’s His Spirit that causes it to grow. There’s a significant risk of syncretism with a rush to presume arrival rather than fully embracing the journey.

A design flaw in the very idea of church businesses is the need to gain legitimacy by providing some kind of goods or services – like solving other people’s problems & puzzles, being their answer, a benevolent mediator, an institution to depend on – which is what earthly work is all about, designed by God for earthly life. But when the same ideas are applied to the kingdom of heaven, wrong things happen that we didn’t foresee – such as the blunting of our awareness of their need to know and hear God’s voice for ourselves. I doubt many in the church businesses intended this. I didn’t either, but I contributed to it nonetheless. John the baptist knew better – he didn’t get between the Groom and his bride. When we love Jesus and his church, we have the same response as John, “I must decrease, He must increase.” Beware the trap of being the answer to someone’s question.

My encouragement to those of us on the detox journey is to be ruthless about getting free from the church business mindset. Consider taking 2-3 years off this activity. If you aren’t there already, consider gainful employment in a “normal” job outside the christian subculture. I have yet to see anyone truely clear themselves of bias regarding church businesses and the christian subculture as long as their livelihood is tied to it. And then try simply asking God what’s important to him. Let’s humbly posture ourselves as those who know nothing, and see what God will do. Let’s not be in a hurry. I have never sensed that he is.

At times I have suggested that starting church gatherings is tough work and not everyone is the pioneer that it requires. I’m rethinking this. Could it be that the common (mis)understanding of what church gatherings “should be” has over-burdened the many into thinking they’re dependent on the few to do it? Did Jesus really intend for “two or more” gatherings to be that difficult? 10 years into detox and I’m seeing brand new areas of blindness in me. If you can organize a birthday party, you can gather with 1 or 2 others and share your thoughts regarding God and church. If you can call a plumber to come fix a leak in your pipes…if you can use a map to drive anyplace you’ve never been….if you can hear a new word and begin using it in a sentence…if you can try out some new software on a computer…if you can walk into a new restaurant and order off the menu….then you can find 1 or 2 people and begin talking about your questions regarding God and church and ask him to show you his answers. Jesus said, “where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” And presto, you’ve got a church gathering!  It’s so easy to make this WAY over-complicated.

My wife and I began with the two of us. We had just moved to the area and knew nobody. We’d helped plant a few church businesses in previous years, but now felt like we’d been on the wrong bus. So we spent Sunday mornings at a nearby food court in a mall, sipping tea and coffee and talking about God, church, his word, worship, the Spirit, what’s a Christian, you name it. It went on for 2-3 years. One thing led to another and for the last 6 years we’ve been gathering with 4-5 families at least a couple times a month. We’ve done two annual retreats together. We’re growing into more of what it means to be the church with each passing year. We’re connecting with others all around us who are on the same journey. We’re living faith on the front lines, and seeing God use us for his purposes. Our kids are growing up together under this entirely simple concept of church life. We’re learning things we can’t even articulate yet. Growth happens and sometimes we only know it in the rear view mirror – “hey, we’re not as bitter as we used to be…” We’re not clever, and we’re only a slice of the pie of what it means to be the body of Christ.

It’s my view that it could be generations before we have many post-detox “elders” among us. Now is the time for letting the purifying finger of God leave no stone unturned in our hearts, so he can lay a foundation that others will stand on. My prayer is that my children’s children know the answers to these current struggles by the time they are 5 years old :-).

Categories
just thoughts

just say no to a christian subculture

In an email to a friend, I recently wrote: “Let’s quit doing the Christian subculture – things that pull us out of the world that Jesus so naturally lived in. We lose, and those who are trying to be saved lose. He wants our lights to shine on top of the hill, not hiding under the sofa.”

About 10 years ago I read a book by John Fischer called, What On Earth Are We Doing that was formative in my early years of breaking away from the Christian subculture. It’s a quick read (189 pages), which are the only ones I seem to get all the way through, and I still recommend it on this topic. From the introduction, John writes:

“Now, enterprising Christians create and market thousands of products and services to a Christian market eager to pay for a safer version of contemporary culture – a sort of decaffeinated world where Christians can have their Christianity and their culture, too. This book is concerned about the emergence of a Christian subculture that encourages us to see ourselves as separate from the world not by beliefs and attitudes but by definable practices, identifiable markings, and cultural artifacts . . . I believe Christ established the church (his body of believers on earth) not to develop its own separate customs, civilization, and achievements, but to infuse the customs, civilization, and achievements of every age and society with people who love and fear God. In opting to abandon the world for our own safer version of it, we are failing to deliver on this vital aspect of our presence in the world.”

And that was published in 1996!

We need more like John.

Categories
church journey

giving money to missions work

Recently we came to another twist of this topic of giving money to others – what to do about giving to people who are involved with “missions” work. We’ve been assisting some people we know, and highly respect, who have chosen to live in other countries to work out the purposes and roles they believe God has given them for spreading the gospel. But something about supporting them financially was bothering me and felt inconsistent with the things God is teaching us.

A quick review: I believe that applying ourselves to work, ie. “a job”, is an important and godly part of life. It started in the garden (Adam), it’s been called one of God’s gifts in the book of Ecclesiastes (ch 5), and Paul warns that those who don’t work shouldn’t eat (2 Thess), and that Jesus’ followers should be “doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives” (Titus).

Now, when I came to see church businesses as a creation of man, soon to follow was reconsidering this whole idea that following Jesus can be a career path. Of course, it certainly is for many today, but it’s a concept that for many is getting unpacked, unraveled, and critically examined under the microscope of new testament simplicity and a passion for living by the Spirit of God. There are times in my life where I was supported by church businesses in either a full- or part-time capacity, and many other times when it was like a second job but without pay.

But there came a time when I found myself thrust by God out of hiding in professional church businesses to discover life as a participant in the mainstream of what most people in our communities are living, which includes working for a living.  This started about 20 years ago, though I’ve had a few dabblings back in the pursuit of so-called “full-time Christian work” along the way. God has been my Counselor and Guide, which is really good, because I’m not very clever when it comes to careers. We have a Father that remembers we’re made of dust. I love to tell the details of this story, and will do so in another blog entry soon. It’s amazing to see what kindness God has shown me and my family in regards to work and career.

So, about missions work: My thought is that when we’re a follower of Jesus, wherever we are, we’re a “missionary” – meaning we have a mission to be fully alive in who Jesus is making us to be, and to be about the work of advancing his kingdom in our domain. I’ve come to believe that our highest aim is to find productive work, that is, to learn the way of faith and personal growth in providing for ourselves through creative work outlets according to the common understanding of “work” in the community where we live. By this we engage in our community such that our faith is essentially “on the line” and real, for all to see. And by this, Jesus gets to reveal himself through us to others (Eph 2, Jesus shows “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us…”)

In my study of what people did with money in the new testament, I come away with the sense that people mostly gave financial help to others who were in temporary times of need, not in the way of “full-time” support. To be consistent, this is what my wife and I have decided to do henceforth.

Categories
church journey

beware the yeast of church growth ambitions

A friend and I went to a conference last weekend called “Organic Church Movements” in Long Beach, CA. We had a great time, we made new friends, and even connected with some old ones, which was a blast. It was great fun meeting people from all places on the journey of getting stripped down to the simplicity of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, each other, and being the church. People seemed to be there for many different reasons: some looking for the next trick to church growth, or feeling undone by God and seeking answers to big questions, or perhaps just curious. Everyone was finding acceptance. I wonder if one of the primary works of the Spirit at these events is to gather the most diverse group of Jesus followers I’ve ever seen under one roof and reveal his love and grace to them, and through them to one another.

I want to describe a primary impression I came away with, and to frame it up, bear in mind that I felt propelled to go around meeting lots of new people to seek out what God was doing in them. Every meal, every break time, every session, I’d be striking up conversations with someone new (or circling back to a few to see what clarity God may be giving them to their questions) and we’d ask each other a bunch of questions. One question I was asked several times was “how many groups meet in your area?” I found it interesting how convoluted my answer was:

“Well, there’s this group we gather with 2 or 3 times a month, and we’ve met another group north of us that has met regularly for awhile too. Some friends on Bainbridge Island did a couple gatherings, and that’s where we met a family from back on the Eastside, whom we see semi-regularly. Then they found out about the group up north, closer to their house, and this as worked out great for them. But we still see them now and then, along with one of the other families they meet with. The Bainbridge friends moved to Olympia, and we regularly hook up one way or another. They’ve met a couple other families in Olympia – we may see one of them next weekend – and they may begin gathering regularly with them and others in Olympia, but of course we’ll still see them, too. Let’s see, there’s a group of us guys that get together a couple times a month, and there’s a new friend who just recently came, and we think we’ll see him more often. He and his wife are part of a couple other families we know who are just beginning this detox journey, and they’ve started talking about some kind of regular gathering. But actually, they’ve been doing various meetings at one of their homes for some time, and in fact my wife has regularly met up with some of those ladies for years. And then there’s the web of friends that each of the other families in our regular gathering meet up with. A lot of them go back many years to one of the local churches, and then a small home gathering that was going for a few years after they left that church. This was all before we moved to the area 10 years ago. So while we’ve been meeting for about 6 years, many folks go back much farther than that…”

It’s a really messy answer! [In fact, a messy answer is now one of my first clues that there’s a problem with the question.] I shortened it up with each telling, but it made me realize how, as God is expanding his kingdom in our midst, it isn’t following nice, clean lines.

Apparently, clear relational boundaries among people, that define how they will relate as the church, is not a priority to God.

This doesn’t make it very easy for us to work it in the ways of church/business growth principles. But then, it’s not our business to work, now, is it?! It’s God’s business to grow, and our part is being a follower of Jesus.  I am now realizing how I’ve missed so much of what God was trying to do in and through my life for so many years because I was focused on the standard “grow the business” concepts for growing whatever ministry I was involved in.  More and more, I’m finding myself saying “beware the yeast of church growth ambitions” – numbers focus, neat packages, entreprenurial business energy, etc.  After so long at it, our church life is such a mixture of kingdoms, and I’m convinced we are just going to have to let God separate it all out for us, and it’s going to take some time. My children’s children will be light years ahead of us, and these present struggles will be child’s play to them, yet they will have their own dragons to slay. I only hope to make our progress solid so they can stand upon it rather than re-hash it.

Language is one of the challenging parts of this journey. The words I’ve used for decades don’t work, but I don’t have all the new ones yet that communicate the essence of what God is revealing to us – which we don’t understand fully anyway. And we’re seeing how important it is that we don’t try too hard at that, until the Lord brings clarity. So we stumble along, trying out new words for things, and the articulation is getting better with time.

One of the phrases I heard last weekend was how we get “re-calibrated” to Jesus on this journey. I like it. In other words, Jesus is the cornerstone of this house called his Church, and he never moves. In the hands of men, the house has been remodelled so many times that the structure has gotten pretty shakey, some parts are sagging and even caving in, and sometimes it can even be hard to tell what it used to look like or where the foundations are anymore.  The solution seems to be letting him have the wheel so he can help us rediscover Cornerstone, get ourselves realigned to it, and let the Master Builder do his job. We, his servants, are rediscovering our job again, too.

We simply cannot do this without knowing God’s voice. One of the easy traps we fall into is glomping on to some other voice than the Lords – what we can see and touch – for our instructions. We look to our intellect, do our bible analysis, draw conclusions from our “vast knowledge,” and set our course.  I’ve screwed up in these ways and so many more. I’m tired now! I’ve birthed a lot of Ishmaels. All I want to do now is hear God’s voice and follow. I don’t care if it seems insignificant in human terms. Like Jesus said in John 17, I want to be able to say to my Father in heaven, “I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do.” And I hope to hear him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” Keep me there, Lord Jesus!

Categories
church journey

go ahead, detox!

I recently had an email exchange with someone who is in a gradual process of detoxing from the church business model to more organic church gatherings, and it reminded me of the pitfalls, dangers, and scary times that this process can bring. I have a lot of compassion for those who go down this road with us, though I still highly encourage it.

One of the temptations, especially if you’re someone who has been engaged with church planting, is to put the internal growth parts at arms length, and think of it as merely learning a new methodology. A methodology is something you can take a class to learn, or read a book, or go see it in action somewhere to get the idea, then off you go implementing it.

But the experience that my wife and I over the last 10 years has taught us that the difference is much more than on the level of methodology. I find nothing sacred about being in houses as opposed to commercial buildings. I’ve seen people simply reproduce in houses what’s traditionally done in commercial buidlings, and in my mind, they are missing the wave of radical cleansing and revitalizing that the Holy Spirit is doing among the church. There’s a lot of egypt that God has had to get out of us (and thankfully, still is!) long after we got out of egypt, if that makes sense.

I believe that allowing ourselves whatever time He allots for detoxing from all of the “business” mentality (entreprenurial energy) that is so prevalent in contemporary church planting/church growth is critical. It all needs to be surrendered to Jesus, so that when he’s got something for us to do, let his voice be the one we hear and obey. Having a history in church planting, church movements, parachurch movements, etc., will present some additional challenge in identifying what is really driving us. Paul seemed to have had about 17 years of detox (Galatians), which makes sense when you consider how steeped he was in the contemporary religious methods of his day (“a Pharisee of Pharisees”).

For those who find themselves on “the journey,” my hope is you let God be ruthless and thorough with the “un-learning” and “re-learning” processes. And then, I hope you tell your story! Those of us who want to be closer to God need to hear it.