Tyranny of Mission (Updated)

Back in June I was thinking about the difference between churches that are missional in nature and those who are relational in nature. Well I have discovered something new about this issue this week.

We have a made a change in our church for this fall, something that always bring the anxiety of the system to the surface. True to form the reactions have come, not from the majority but the vocal minority, and they are not happy. We have stolen time from them we have taken their space, we have neglected their needs. Uhhh guilty as charged? From their point of view.

What I have discovered through all of this is that they are ruthlessly missional. (Now I have to be careful as to how I use this term. In Christian circles missional means carrying on the mission of Christ to redeem creation for the kingdom of God. It involves touching the whole life, spiritual, physical, relational. It means going towards others and not expecting them to come to us. I use the term a little looser than this. I see these people as being missional from the stand point that they have a goal they want achieved, a mission to be accomplished.) Not in a healthy way, but in a manipulative manner. If they do not get their way they are more than willing to break relationships, or so goes their threat. They have an agenda and that agenda has priority over anything else. Oh they raise the cause and flag of relationships as long as they get their way. And while they are hurt, frustrated, angry, injured, or the damaged party, they expect that we (aka, the wrong) have to pursue them and assuage their pain. They want the relational bennies but they do not want to give in return.

To be missional requires maturity. It requires the ability to listen to and share opinions. It requires the strength to disagree but retain the relationships with those who do not see things as you do. It also requires that if things do not go according to how you want, then you will not hold others hostage or complain to others in a less than a gracious way. to be missional requires we live and react in the manner and steps of Jesus.

Dear Jesus, please save me from HGTV

I love my wife. She is awesome. One of her many talents is creating a beautiful home. Really. I thank God Almighty for her.

But can I get delivered from HGTV? You wouldn't think this was the most toxic channel on the dial. For crying out loud every program is rated "G". And it's not like the thing is on 24/7 at our house. Just a few programs daily, but it is enough. O Lord it is enough. And it isn't the one about looking for a new house, cause that ain't gonna happen.

No it is the ones that show how "easy" it is the make a room look fresh and whatever the room is supposed to look like. A couple of those shows and the next thing I know I am painting the dining room, and rehanging the curtains. And then I am re-doing the family room and now we are wall papering the entry room. That will throw some romance in your life - I am telling you! Oh and get this I get to strip the railings going up the stairs next because we are painting them white. Why I have no idea. I have learned that even when I ask I have no idea. Cross my heart and hope to die this is all because of channel 41, HGTV. I know that in the not too distant future I have my own landscapers challenge coming.

Dear Jesus, save me from home improvement. Amen.

Arrogance of the Present

"If you are standing on some one's shoulders it's probably a good idea not to kick him in the head."

Some times when I read I see myself, not the self I like but the real thing. You know the one I am talking about, the one who has all those traits we usually like to ignore or justify as being appropriate when we exhibit them. I saw that trait when I was reading The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch this morning. I love this book, it is challenging and thought provoking. But every once in a while he does what I do and what a number of the current writers seem to be doing now - exhibiting the arrogance of the present. There is an assumption that if those who came before us knew what we knew or had the level of awareness or perception that we do then we would not be in mess we're in. He rightly points out the pitfalls of Christendom but he almost goes too far. Christendom has been around for 17 centuries. And for all its ills the church has survived. The church will always survive. If we have not killed it in the past 20 centuries we are not going kill in the 50 years. The church has more than survived, it has grown and expanded. It has brought medical care to those areas without it, brought new technology and crop management to impoverished areas. The gates of hell... Has the church make mistakes? Well yeah. Wait till you see the ones we make in the next 20 years.

But I do this. I was born in 1955 into a church that never sang anything unless it was found in a book and the only screens we had were on windows to keep the insects out. Youth ministry was done by dedicated parents and volunteers. The sound system was one microphone and a few speakers. Local missions was going to the city jail or rescue mission and doing whatever they needed done. What makes the way I do church so much better? Why do we think we are so much smarter or more in tune with what God wants? So I have 32 channels in my church with video screens and media shout or small groups and whole menu of local options to serve for the kingdom? The church I was born into loved Jesus. They loved me. They honored the generation that came before.

The arrogance of the present whether it is in my church or the emergent church or the mega-church is attitude we can ill afford to maintain. Cultures change and therefore the ways we operate must change as well. But we make these changes in humility. The people who came before us were followers of Christ. We are not smarter, we stand on their shoulders and we are beneficiaries of the lessons they learned, often the hard way. We ought to be grateful, aware, but grateful.

I pray that this arrogance may be a momentary bump in our road. But I am not sure it will be.

What are you thinking?

As I have said one of the true benefits of this sabbatical is the extended time to read and think. I have also had the opportunity to discuss these thoughts with others. Which brings up this thought. I wonder what the leaders in my tribe are reading and thinking about what are the trends they are seeing and what are the issues that burn in their hearts?

I am serious. If these things have been published, either I wasn't paying attention or missed it. And I am asking not to find fault or toss barbs. I am truly interested. I know they read. So what are they reading? Is this something I need to read? Where can we have discussion about these books and/or issues?

I will ask them.

Questions from my church

In preparing for a series this fall I had the congregation last Sunday, in my absence, write down the questions they would like to ask God. They came back with some great ones. Here they are:

Questions to God:

• Why did you choose me to become a Christian?
• Are you disappointed that Christians don’t agree?
• Have I been your servant in mode to honor and praise you and your kingdom?
• Why don’t you fix it all and make it all right?
• Why did angels fall only once? Could more angels join Satan? Could they again?
• Why did my daughter die and why is my son’s affliction continuing unabated?
• Can I serve you better as a single or as a couple?
• What is the origin of Sin and why does it exist?
• How can I please you more and know your will?
• When will the Cubs actually have “their year”?
• What happened to those who died before Jesus arrived?
• What will happen to wicked people after judgment day?
• Why is there suffering in the world?
• Do you think God wanted the earth to be this way?
• Why was St. Paul such a jerk?
• Why don’t you give us a Bible update like an addendum and take out all the bloody cruel war crap in the Old Testament?

I think they are very interesting. This is going to be a great fall.

Sabbatical reading

One of the best things about my time on sabbatical has been the books I have read. This time has allowed me to read some books I have wanted to get to for a while. I didn't get all the ones on my list read, but the ones I did were awesome.

Here is a partial list of what I have read so far:

1. "A Failure of Nerve" by Edwin Friedman. This was published after his death and is his magnum opus
2. "Integrity" by Henry Cloud. I am embarrassed to admit I was not expecting much from this book because I prejudge the book by its author. It turned out to be so good I am going to take my staff through it for our retreat.
3. "and you call yourself a CHRISTIAN" by Dr. Robert Lupton. This slim volume is powerful and thought provoking. it will challenge how you exercise compassion ministries.
4. "Eat This Book" by Eugene Peterson. He has not written a clunker yet, and this one is better than "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places". I would hand this book to any Christian to challenge their Bible reading patterns.
5. "The Forgotten Ways" by Alan Hirsch. I am in the midst of this one now. it is challenging, dense and very well written. It also makes me think.

Oh by the way, "The Bourne Ultimatum" was the best movie of the summer. Not a book and it was "off the hook".

Another question about worship

I tend to think out loud. In fact it might be fair to say that I rarely have a private thought. That is just way it is.

So then, here is a question that has been rolling around in my mind to which I have no answer - when is a church too big? This is worship question, not about administration or about meta or mega churches. If worship is about intimacy with God and perhaps with one another when does size begin to interfere? I was at one of the several mega churches last Sunday and this place is big. Even their bathrooms are big. The sanctuary seated in the thousands, and the lobby, narthex, whatever they called it, was big. No actually it passed big. They super sized everything in the building. Which is impressive and fun and intimidating. But it was not a place I felt connected. That may well be do to the fact I was a visitor. But there was so much space that there was no sense of being one with another.

The church I serve is smaller, by a factor of 10. Our sanctuary seat 300 or so. Is that too large to create connectedness? I don't think so but then I am used to the space. Maybe if I worshipped every Sunday in the mega church their worship would shrink in my perception. But if connection and community are essential to worship when is "big" an issue? We are obsessed with growth in the church. The model we admire are almost always the congregation that exceed the size of most towns and villages. We are taught that if we follow the right principles and practices we too can grow. But what is the trade off? What do we lose if we become a church of thousands? (I am in no danger of that happening in the near or distant future.)

I am asking because I do not know. I wonder and have suspicions that are not based on anything. I know that Israel was not a little intimate group, nor was the 3120 who gather in Acts 3, but what about Philippi or Colossea? I don't know, what do you think?

What is worship about?

I am going to wander about once more on my sabbatical and attend a church I do not serve. I have a couple in mind and will make the choice tomorrow. But there is an observation that has stuck with me in each of the services I have attended. I use the word stuck because that is how it feels. It sticks in my mind and soul.

This thought, this observation is that our current worship does not really need God.

In the churches that I have been to, we sing well, the Bible is read, and Jesus is referenced, and we pray. And then there is the sermon, which is well crafted, and is creative and effectively presented. This message calls me to do something, to behave in way that is better than my current pattern. It is a morality call. Ethical and beneficial. I have been called to a better husband and father, to be a better Christian by reading my Bible, to be more caring toward my neighbor. All biblical themes, and all correct. But we didn't need God to do this. He could have been far away and we would not have noticed.

Now understand that I am not pointing fingers at the churches I have been to, I am wondering if we are any different at my church? Do we in worship pull the curtain back and show those who are there that Yahweh is present and active in our midst. Do we show them that this is not a presentation but an encounter with the living God? We are not called to be moral, we are called to be holy. We have a mandate to be righteous, which is at times a slippery term. We are to surrender and follow Jesus.

I am going to once again lead my congregation in worship in a few weeks. How will I do this? How will I pull back the curtain, how will I lead them into the presence of Yahweh? Prayerfully, humbly and with a sense of my own failings. All the churches I have attended have been good, if not great churches with great pastors. There is no sense that I have the upper hand here. I just have a deep feeling that will not go away.

He said yes.

He went, he saw and he got offered the position. My son is going into youth ministry.

He is going to be the associate youth worker at Modesto Covenant Church. The trip went well. It is a two year position, initially. He is moving 2000+ miles from home. He is an adult. Oh he has graduated from college, held a full time job for over a year now. But he has lived at home and has yet to get the gang of picking up after himself and keeps trying to get anyone else to do his laundry for him. This is going to good for him. We will miss him. (But not so much the residuals he heaves in his wake.)

And I am excited for him, now that the decision has been made. I think he will do a good job and will discover much about who he is, and what God has in store for him. He is also going to a good church, one who has a passion for ministry and knows how to treat staff as professionals. As a Dad that is important for me because I know that there more a few of the other kind of church. His first experience has the opportunity to be a good one. Oh, I know he will be frustrated, that is a part of life and is a part of his make up. But he will not be in an environment that routinely create frustrations.

So in a month he will launched. A new adventure begins.

Do I or Don't I

I put my oldest son a plane for the west coast yesterday morning. He is flying out to interview for a youth ministry position with a church. We left for O'Hare at 4:00 am so conversation was little lean since both of us were quasi conscious. But he was excited and nervous and mildly caffeinated. But he asked me again was I excited that he was doing this?

Well am I? Yes and no. If I am going to be honest, it is yes and no. Which is odd since I love being in the ministry. I cannot conceive of any other path for me. But I also understand the price of being in the ministry. I know the joys and the sorrows of being one who is working for the church. I know how great the church can be and I know how difficult - awful - the church can be.

It is not like my son is blind to all of this, he grew up in the midst of this soup. He knows the pitfalls and he has received the blessings. He has watched people come through like heroes and behave in horrendous ways. He also knows what working in the "normal" world can be like. In his current position he deals with the all the nonsense that people are capable of. He has some awesome stories. (Perhaps once every 3 years a pastor ought to have to work in retail for 3 months to get a little reality check?)

Right now I want the issue to be clear for him. If it is right I pray that God makes the crystal clear, and if is not, that would be clear as well. I do not want to keep him from problems or trials, I just want him to do well.

So am I excited? Yes...No...I am not sure. Yeah, I am...

If I were king for a day...

One of the local radio personalities often refers to his hope that he will be elected king of our nation some day and he gives us the reasons he would be a choice for such an office. After hearing the news today on both TV and radio and looking at the news outlets on the web I too would like to be king for only a day and for only one binding proclamation.

That one irreversible law would be this - no one would be able to do any campaigning for any elected office until the first day of the election year. This means that we would not have to hear from any republican or democratic candidate until January 1st of 2008! Which is perfect because with all those bowl games no one would hear from them until at least the 4th or 5th of the month. In our day of communication, given the web, the TV outlets, the mass mailings, the radio station, pod casting why isn't 10 months more than enough to get all of this done? Seriously. This is August of 2008, the election is 460 days away. Go home and get a life. Do your job, get a job. Anything but run around and yammer about what you will do if you are elected. I don't care who it is, Clinton or Thompson, Giuliani or Obama, enough already. Go home, do your laundry, mow your yard, play with your kids, just go away for another 5 months. We have other things to worry about. Michael Vick and Barry Bonds and the poor Lohan girl who is self destructing before our very eyes.

Running for office was never supposed to be a full time job. The election is 460 days away I am sick of these people already. May they learn a life lesson - less is more. I care about the future of our country, I am an informed voter. But I will see you in January - not moment before, until then - go home.