Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The most religious show on TV....


The Simpsons
No doubt about it. I'll happily loan you my copy of "The Gospel According to the Simpsons." For all the shortcomings the show may have, it nevertheless makes more references to God, Jesus, faith, and the church than any other show. Yep, even more than 7th Heaven. To be sure, the Simpsons are laughably irreverent and make fun of Christianity - but let's be honest, we've earned it. I always enjoy a good chuckle at my own expense (as you know if you've heard me preach).

If you want to read more about the Simpsons' favorite Christian (and a character we probably resemble more than we want to admit), take a peak at this story about Ned Flanders

"tasting" God

I read this full article during my sermon on Sunday. Here are some excerpts. Great thoughts. I think this concept of "tasting" God through being with others is so important. Hmmm, sounds a bit like small groups.


From "All Things Considered" aired on NPR on May 5, 2008 •

Until recently, I thought being a Christian was all about belief. I didn't know any Christians, but I considered them people who believed in the virgin birth, for example, the way I believed in photosynthesis or germs.

But then, in an experience I still can't logically explain, I walked into a church and a stranger handed me a chunk of bread. Suddenly, I knew that it was made out of real flour and water and yeast — yet I also knew that God, named Jesus, was alive and in my mouth.

That first communion knocked me upside-down. Faith turned out not to be abstract at all, but material and physical. I'd thought Christianity meant angels and trinities and being good. Instead, I discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subversive practice: a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the despised and outcasts are honored.

I came to believe that God is revealed not only in bread and wine during church services, but whenever we share food with others — particularly strangers. I came to believe that the fruits of creation are for everyone, without exception — not something to be doled out to insiders or the "deserving."

But I learned that hunger can lead to more life — that by sharing real food, I'd find communion with the most unlikely people; that by eating a piece of bread, I'd experience myself as part of one body. This I believe: that by opening ourselves to strangers, we will taste God.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I'm just passing through



Somebody put this sign up on the church grounds yesterday. The secretary walks in and asks if we're moving out. It's funny on alot of different levels, not the least of which is because of the recent rumor that has surfaced about the pastoral staff secretly trying to sell the church.

I started thinking about this sign and I realized that there is some profound truth to it. We don't own this church. It's not actually our church. We don't have any claim to it really. This is God's church.

I should probably stop at this point and remind us all that nowhere in the New Testament have I been able to find a verse that refers to a building as a "church". The word is used almost exclusively to refer to a body of believers. WE are the church. This building is not the church. In fact, if the building were suddenly leased out from under us tomorrow, we (the people) would STILL be the church.

But the bigger point for me is this great reminder from one of our neighbors with some space to rent is that we are just passing through. God asks us to hold all things lightly, including our space. It's not for us really. It's for the glory of God. And if God would be glorified by this space being used in radically different ways, then radically different programs would be entirely appropriate. Because its not OURS. It's Gods. It's not for US. It's for the LEAST OF THESE. In a very real sense, we're just leasing it ourselves. And as we remembered quite clearly in a sermon from AMOS last month, if we don't use this "leased" space appropriately, it's entirely likely that God will find a different leasee!

So, who's gonna call the number on the sign and find out what they're asking?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

dearly beloved...

I've got the incredible privilege of performing the wedding for my dear friend Sarah this weekend. Here's what I love about weddings. In Genesis it talks about the two becoming one. In Jewish tradition, the most sacred and important prayer has a line that says, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." That word "ONE" is the same word used in Genesis to describe what a man and a woman become. ONE. Then in the gospels, its written that Jesus is praying to his Father, praying for his followers, for us, and he prays, "May they be ONE as you (God) and I (Jesus) are one."

Think about that. We believe that God exists as a single diety, in three persons. The trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in one. But the key word is ONE. God is one. The relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is so close, so connected, so intimate, so completely united, that really the only word to describe it is ONE.

That's what happens in a wedding. The two become one. In theory they become so completely connected, so united, so intimate, so close, that the best word to describe them is ONE.

Rob Bell talks about this and says that God designed marriage to be a picture, a window, a reflection of something deeper. God intended marriage to show us how God desires to be connected to us.

I can't wait to watch Tim and Sarah look at each other as they say their vows. Because I know what I'll be seeing is the way God looks at me. And you.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Instant Access

Today was really fun. There wasn't really a planned sermon. I just invited folks to send text messages to me with questions or comments and I tried to answer as many as I could. I had 10 before I even started the sermon.

Some were really funny: "Rank your top 3 biggest sins" (thanks Jeff). In case you missed it, my answer was "1, 2, and 3". I was laughing hard before i even got up for the sermon.

Some were serious: "how would you say that you know God exists to a college student who doesn't believe God exists."

Some were hard: "what does missional mean and are we (as a church) defining it correctly." Of course I referred people to this blog for more information.

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. Sorry to everyone we couldn't get to. Please feel free to email me, or post them here. We'll do that again some time this summer.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

what the heck does "missional" mean, part 3...


The last entry talked about having a “missionary stance.” What does that mean?

Think for a bit about what you might do if you suddenly found yourself a missionary in a foreign culture. What would be the things you would focus on first?

First, you’d probably have to learn the language of the locals. It wouldn’t really be enough to learn it in a textbook. You would have to get out on the streets and learn how people really talk. You would have to learn their idioms and the figures of speech. You would have to get a feel for their sense of humor. Bottom line, you would have to be able to talk their talk.

Then you would have to learn to walk their walk. In other words, you would have to go hang out where they hang out. Learn what they like to do. You would want to know about their music, their art, their expressions of creativity. You would want to have a firm grasp on the ways they express spirituality, fear, hope, despair, longing, and meaning. You would have to learn about the ways they approach birth and death, and what happens after death. You would have to discover the ways they think about right and wrong. You would have to figure out the way they approach truth (for example, in many cultures, there is nothing contradictory about believing several different things that might seem to be in tension with each other).

After doing all that, then you would have to prove yourself really. I mean, if you don’t demonstrate a way of living that seems to be a genuinely better alternative, how could you ever hope to convince them of the validity of your message. So you would have to show them love, sacrifice, and presence. You would have to prove that you care about them more than you care about yourself. You would have to pour your life into their lives.

Finally after doing all that, you could begin to explain Jesus in a way they might understand – which of course means you would have to explain Jesus in their language, using their metaphors, and working within the framework of their culture.

So hopefully the metaphor is clear.

We live in an increasingly foreign culture. It’s not a Christian culture anymore. It’s a secular culture and we are the aliens here. And we are sent by God into this culture to be missionaries.

That’s our purpose. So every one of us, as individuals, are called to be missionaries in the immediate contexts in which God has planted us. You are called to live a missional lifestyle. And the church is called to be a missionary community in the foreign culture in which we live.
(note: if you doubt the whole foreign culture idea, go sit at Kopi CafĂ© for a few hours and just watch and listen; go to the Canopy Club one evening for a show – watch and listen)

So, as missionaries, we have to first learn the language of the culture around us. Obviously, I’m not talking about English. But what I am talking about is the way that those outside of the church talk about spirituality, morality, values, meaning, God, hope, death, after-life, whatever.

The flip side of this coin is that we have to start understanding that the words we have used inside the church are virtually meaningless to the generations of people that have grown up in a non-churched culture. Words like sin, grace, salvation, redemption, hell, forgiveness, - they don’t convey much of anything to the foreign culture in which we live. That doesn't mean the concept cease to be true. It means we have to find new ways of expressing our brokenness and God's way of dealing with it.

So we have to learn a new language. We have to discover new metaphors, new stories, new illustrations.

We also have to learn how to BE Christ followers IN the world. We have to learn to go onto their turf and engage them in their terms. We have to hang out where they hang out and love them and serve them right where they are. We have to prove our love for them by showing up for them consistently. To quote McNeil: “They won’t hear our truth until they see our love.”

And finally, we have to learn how to be PREPARED to invite people into grace and love whenever the opportunity arises. This is the heart of being a missionary. We love people because they are worth loving. We love them because God loves them. And as our demonstration of love builds a bridge of trust, we then can speak the truth of God’s saving grace into their lives.

So what do you think of this idea of living like missionaries?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

What the heck does "missional" mean? PART 2

From the website: friend of missional (which you should visit frequently!)

What is Missional - A Short Answer
"Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.

"Missional is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life. A life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower."

---Rick Meigs



To put it one way: Missional is the shift from "Come and See" to "Go and Be".

As the above quote demonstrates, a "Come and See" mentality to church basically refers to our (often subconscious) belief that if we build a better church, people will come. If we have the best programs and the best music and the best sermons, then people will come to us and that's how we'll make disciples.

But the last decade has taught those of us in the Church a very sobering lesson: For all the energy put into church growth in the last 30 years, the end result has been DIMINISHING RETURNS. We simply cannot be faithful to Jesus' command to "Go and make disciples" by depending on a "come and get it" approach. Even if we build it, they aren't coming. No matter what we build.

I see that as a good thing. For 2 reasons: First of all it is presenting the church with the crisis it needs to realize that a different approach is needed. But more importantly, it is helping the church rediscover it's BIBLICAL mandate for existence: Being Missional is about REDISCOVERING what we are supposed to be.

And the answer is "Go and Be."

If we can tear ourselves away from the desire to have the latest and greatest programs and the coolest worship services and the greatest facility, we will find so much freedom to faithfully follow Jesus into the world. Our commitment then, is to BE the church IN the world.

Now let's personalize that: What does it mean to be a MISSIONAL CHRISTIAN?

Primarily it means to understand that God has created you, and gifted you, and called you to be a missionary in YOUR context. It means that whether you are at work, out with friends, on the golf course, or in your backyard, your focus is on loving your "neighbor" as much as yourself.

Maybe a few stories will help:

Mike likes to go the coffee shop every Thursday morning to read the newspaper. One day an elderly lady seated beside him asks him a question. At first Mike is bugged - this lady is interupting his personal time. But then Mike feels this little tug in his spirit, puts down his paper, and enters into a conversation with a woman who is desperately lonely because her son never calls or visits. Mike is living missionally.

When Rick's new neighbors move in, he goes and knocks on the door and welcomes them to the neighborhood, he talks about football and fishing over the fence, he invites him to the Jupiters for a beer and to get acquainted. He invites them over for barbecue and listen to his lame jokes with grace. When he tells Rick about the problems he is having at work, Rick talks about his struggles also and how God has helped you through them. When the wife’s dad dies, Rick lets them know he is praying for them. When he asks about what Rick does with his spare time, he humbly tells him how he mentors a local high school student, helps at the overflow homeless shelter, and has a wonderful community of faith that you love being involved with. Rick tries to live a modest, low consumption lifestyle before his neighbors. He prays for them regularly and is always ready to talk about why he is living the way he is. Rick is living missionally.

What do you think?

Friday, May 2, 2008

What the heck does "missional" mean???? PART ONE

So if you hang around FirstChurch much, you probably have heard us use this phrase "Servant-Missional" to describe ourselves. I was pretty excited when I got here and saw that word in the official mission statement. It's the big buzz word in church leadership circles.

But one thing became pretty clear to me as I talked to people here about it: We are really pretty confused as far as what that phrase really means.

Over the next week, I'll be posting a number of entries designed to help address this question.

Alot of people in our church, it seems, use the word "missional" to describe the very good stuff that our Mission Committee does. The basic idea is that we are a church that, among all the other things we do, ALSO does some very good mission work. So we are "missional".

Now let me right off the bat say that our church really does some great stuff in the community and in the world. In fact, I had a conversation with a guy who is an active member of a local Catholic church. And he told me that, "You Presbyterians really set the bar high in terms of community involvement." The people on our various mission committees are fantastic people with hearts of gold. And they are working their tails off to help out the local and global missions we support. That's all great stuff.

But there is another way of looking at what it means to be "missional." In fact, it may even be more helpful to start with a different word that I believe conveys the same concept.

Let's use the word: MANDATE.
A mandate (in terms of Christian Theology) is a directive or an order from God that must be obeyed. Our mandate is our obligation, our duty, our responsibility, our main task, our purpose for existence.

Which kind of begs the question: What is our mandate?
I think our MANDATE is pretty clearly laid out in a couple of key scriptures.

1. Matthew 28: 19-20 (The Great Commission) - my translation: "As you go, make disciples among those who are not like you."
2. Mark 6:9-10 (The Lord's Prayer) - Your kingdom come, Your will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven.
3. Mark 12:30-31 - Jesus tells us that the 2 greatest commandments (on which everything else is built) are to Love God and Love your Neighbor.

Our Mandate (our marching order) is the wrapping together of those concepts. In sum, that means that we exist in order to Transform our Community. We transform it by going into the world and befriending those who are far from God. We transform it by removing any and all barriers that keep people from becoming followers of Jesus. We transform it by fighting to change the structures, systems, and problems that keep people from experiencing a healthy and whole life.

But the bottom line is this: We're not here for ourselves. Our Mandate makes it clear that we are here for those who are not a part of our "club."

So to truly be missional - we must completely and consistently align everything we do around that driving Mandate!

If this intrigues you (or bugs you) check out the link on the right (or click here) to a website called Friend of Missional

Thursday, May 1, 2008

childcare on a pastor's salary



So somebody asked me recently about one of my sermon titles. They couldn't figure out how the title connected to the message. I told this person that I didn't have any idea how the sermon title connected either.

Which is kind of like the above picture.

Anyway. Tonight we've got this banquet to kick off our Mission Drive. I'm actually pretty excited to have another opportunity to tell people about the Malawi Project we are launching. The part we're featuring tonight is this concept of Trust Groups that are at the heart of the micro-finance partnership we are developing with Oppotunity International in Malawi.

Here's a sneak peak:

The trust group model basically looks like this: A group of 10 to 20 people from a village all get together and each take out small loan to help them start up, or improve their personal businesses. But the kicker is that each member of the group guarantees every other person's loan. So if one member is falling behind, everyone else has to help them catch up. The result of this model is you've got a whole group of people who are committed to helping one another succeed and who are there to help pull one another along should someone stumble.

Which makes me wonder: What if we did spiritual formation like that?