In some recent conversations with people who were not critical, but just asking questions about my involvement in the emerging conversation, the question has come to me, “why am I doing this?”  and “who is this for?” which has lead to some serious self-examination on the issue.  I’m continuing to ask these questions of myself and I don’t know that I’m all the way to an answer, but here are some initial thoughts:

1)      I’m doing this for my own survival in faith and in the Nazarene tribe –

To keep with the Ruth/Boaz story and my role as a bit of Naomi in it… I’m doing this not just for Ruth and Boaz, I’m doing this so I can survive.  I want to live a faith that is holistic and larger than me and is more about preservation.  I want to live a faith that continues to change me more and more into the image of Christ.  I want to live a faith that calls me to make a difference in big and small ways.  I want to be a part of a community that does the same.  I want to be a part of a community that is not just founded on caring for the “least of these” but lives it.  I want to actively shape the community through my involvement and my experience.  I want to be a part of a community that will be a viable community for my children and grandchildren as well.

2)      I’m doing this for the growing number of ministers (youth and other) that are feeling a disconnect from church “the way it used to be”

This is not a deconstruction statement.  It is a realization that there are all kinds of people with a call to full time ministry who don’t know if they can live out that call in the same kinds of ways that the generations before have.  This is not a condemnation of those who have gone before, but a recognition that the world we live in has radically changed and so have the people – people that God calls.

3)      I’m doing it so that the many friends I know that have stepped away from church (and in part at least faith) can have a place to return to

I love my friends.  I truly want the best kind of life for them.  Few things pain me more than to hear about those who have given up hope in the church community as a substantial place for worship and growing in their faith.  Notice that I didn’t say they have given up on worship or on growing in their faith, but rather on the church as a place for that to happen.  This kind of giving up generally shows up in two ways: the first being that they just walk away from church all together; the second being that they keep attending church but have no hope for it.  I desperately want them to find a church community on their local level that is truly representative of a God and Christ who is bigger than their wildest dreams, capable of calling them to things they would never have imagined and will confront them in their deepest places with a grace and love that transforms.  I want them to hope for and believe in that too.

4)      I’m doing this to do SOMETHING

I’ve been a part of the “emerging church” conversation since 1999, my first year in full time ministry.  A significant part of my own journey has been some deconstructing of the church, my own faith, my ecclesiology, etc, etc.  So too has the deconstruction been a part of the overarching conversation.  I firmly believe that the conversation cannot stop at deconstruction.  We, as followers of Christ, must DO something as God reveals to us a bigger picture of the Kingdom.  I personally want to take ownership for doing what I can, how I can, through what means I can, as God has called and placed me.

5)      I’m doing this for my kids

Part of my own call to following God in the way of Jesus is a call to living a sustainable faith.  In other words, I desperately hope that my children will see modeled in me a faith that isn’t tied to certain types “ways to do church”, but rather they will see modeled in me a faith that is Kingdom oriented and represents the best kind of life, a lifestyle that is sustainable not only by me, but by them and their children and their children’s children.

6)      I’m doing this to pave the way for those who can do greater

I also recognize that part of the leadership that I can provide to this conversation is merely the trust in relationships I have with others so that when people come together there is a sense of safety.  I am not the most creative innovator, nor am I necessarily called to be.  What I can do however is prepare the way for those who come after me to operate in a safe and fruitful environment of committed relatioships.

7)      I’m doing this because I love Jesus and the Kingdom

Perhaps this should have been the first point on here, but I made it the last because it is the most important.  I am doing this because I believe that what it means to follow God in the way of a living Jesus is to embrace and to join the always unfolding Kingdom of God in this world.  My faith compels me to ask questions of myself, my community and my future about my faith.  May God’s Spirit continue to guide us as we seek to love him with all that we are and to love others.  

Wow!  I have rarely laughed so hard, been so jaw-dropped suprised and so silent-head-shakingly stunned as when I read this list of the top 10 worse Jesus films from the mighty Wittenburg Door Mag that lives on in cyber world.   

I don’t know how I’ve missed some of these, but I’m glad that I did. 

Among those who are in church planting and church health circles, there has been much buzz about understanding and utilizing social networking.  With the boom in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other platforms of connection, people are wondering not if, but how these social networking theories can be applied to other avenues, such as church.

To go along with this new understanding of how culture is changing and connecting, there is another growing issue in established organization and businesses: decentralized authority.  While we may not like to acknowledge it, this issue is not only changing the way that businesses communicate and deal with structure and system, but is also changing the face of politics and church as well.

For most of us while we may not articulate this all in the same way, we do know that this is happening and is a part of our culture.  In fact many of us are already an active part of this cultural change in way or another.

For those of us most interested in church, we see these two formational forces come together in the house church movement.  There is a fascinating article that talks about this here.  I highly recommend the read as it does a fine job of describing the phenomenon.  Andrew Jones also picked up on this article here.

I have a friend named James.  I’ve known him for over 10 years.  We first met when I was living in KC, going to seminary and we were both attending KC 1st Nazarene.  Now we run into each other nearly every Sunday at Jacob’s Well.

James asked me to post a link on my site to a camp that he is attending this summer, Camp Barnabas.  Their site says, “Camp Barnabas exists to provide awesome, life-changing opportunities to people who have been robbed of them by disability or disease. Each summer we offer acceptance and love to more than 1,300 campers with special needs, empowering them to live lives of ability.”

A quick James story:  I was walking down the hall at JW and saw James approaching me going the opposite direction.  We greeted one another and then as we approached each other in passing James reached out his hand to touch my forehead.  Now, for those who really know me, you’ll know that I have a larger than average personal space bubble and that I can’t stand it when people touch my head, especially unexpectedly.  My reaction to James move towards my head was an immediate “head-jerk” reaction away from him.  James stopped and said, “wait, I just wanted to do this” and put his finger on my forehead signing the cross.  He then put his hand on my shoulder and said a short silent prayer for me.  He quickly moved on his way.

Me, I was grabbed by the show of love and care from James and by my own initial reaction to James’ reaching out to me.  I also sensed in that moment that somehow Jesus himself had just touched me, stopped me, prayed for me, shared presence with me.

Thanks James for being you and I hope you have a great time a camp this year!

Was near Chicago this weekend at Olivet Nazarene University, my alma mater, for an NYI regional event (Celebrate Life).  I flew into O’Hare, picked up some others who were flying in to be at the event, went to lunch at Giordanno’s.  So far so good. 

Drove the hour and a half to campus then realized that I had brilliantly left my cell phone at the restaurant.  OK… so I only use it all the time and was only expecting about 4 phone calls and had 3 people expecting phone calls from me.  And did I mention I manage my 50+ emails a day on it?  Oh, and that it’s not mine, but rather the company’s?  So I track down the number of Giordanno’s and call them.  They had the phone in their office. 

THANK YOU GIORDANNO’s!!  Not just for great pizza, but also for not selling my phone or keeping it as your own. 

I turned around and drove the hour and a half back up there, retrieved my phone, ate dinner there (silver lining!), then drove the hour and a half back.  I am so dumb.

Special thanks to Jeremy Bixler who was willing to be a true friend and ride with me and only mock me occassionally.  Also because he introduced me to the “Mighty Shake”.  Well done, Jeremy, well done.

My wife and I were having a conversation one day with one of her friends from work about spirituality and religion.  Carol’s friend described another acquaintance as “one of those born-againers”.  Carol mentioned to her friend that we were some of the “born-againers” too.  Her friend quickly responded, “No you’re not!  You don’t tell people how sinful they are all the time.”  It is with that interesting perspective on Christians that I begin this post. 

What is it about Christianity that makes people so put off, so sure that we are just ready to judge them and separate ourselves from everyone else?  While I have seen some instances of this strong judgmentalism, I often do NOT see it, but see the opposite, Christians loving and caring for their friends and the world, wanting the best for them. 

A few weeks ago (April 4th broadcast) on one of my favorite podcasts, “This American Life” they told the story entitled, “Brother Born Again.”  This was an audio highlight of the film by the same name.  In it the sister, who is the documentor, talks about her relationship (and her family’s relationship) with her older brother who had become a Christian.  She tells the story about his spiritual experience and his subsequent moving to a commune farm on an island in Alaska.  She approaches the story and her brother assuming that he would be the one to judge her and that he is the one that has created separation between her and the family.  Interestingly, as the story unfolds and the documentor sister progress in their questions and quest to find out more about her brother she realizes that it has not been him who has been creating the distance or making judgmental assumptions, but the other way around. 

Most fascintating in this very well done piece is the struggle you hear as the brother and sister process their faith and relationship.  It is fantastic!

I found myself cheering for the brother, hoping that he would not be a complete judgmental and overbearing idiot.  He is revealed to be quite thoughtful and faithful, while struggling through some fundamentalism doctrine.  I also found myself cheering for the sister and her quest to right relationship with her brother.  There is something in her tension that leads me to believe that more is going under the surface. 

Anyway, if you are a fan of good story, you should check out the podcast. 

The first place I go with people when starting to talk about ministry is to the incarnation.  All ministry is going to where people are, emptying ourselves, investing in relationship, loving, being.  I’m always looking for new ways that ministries and churches are being incarnational in their approaches to ministry. 

I recently had the opportunity to be in Manchester, Connecticut and had a great conversation with Wayne Keller who is a pastor and also a division director for Marketplace Chaplains USA.  They supply chaplains to businesses across the USA.  How’s it work?  Basically a business contacts them about providing a chaplain for their employees.  They find a pastor in the area who can spend a few hours a week at this place of business.  His/her job is solely to build relationships and be available if someone there wants to talk, pray, etc.  For those of us with youth ministry background its the Young Life model applied to businesses.  I love this idea!  They are incredibly sensitive to not be agressive about sharing their faith, preaching, praying out loud and singing Carman songs. 

A few things are particularly fascinating to me about this:

1)  According to Wayne, while most of the businesses that called them when they started were those with Christian owners, the momentum is shifting away from that.  Most of their new business friends are non-churched owners who are looking for ways to invest in their employees as whole people, beyond just health care and a paycheck.  The realization of business owners that they can invest in people in this way is great!   It also makes me realize that while the initial rush of people into churches post-911 (particularly in the East where the attacks were closest) , starved for some kind of a spiritual answer, for some way to process, has subsided, it is still there lingering under the surface. 

2)  I think this is a great model for pastors to enter the work place as people who care and are interested in relationships.  What an open door to new relationships!  I wonder if some people I know might be interested in this kind of minsitry (whether formally through this organization or not).  I see this as a great way to “go”.

I just finished up at Tim Keel’s Intuitive Leadership Conference here in KC.  It was phenomenal.  God has truly gifted Tim with the poetic ability to put words to the things we are experiencing and feeling.  The conference is a follow up/supplement to Tim’s book which I highly recommend.

Here’s a summary:

In the first session Tim talked about what it means to be lost.  He asserted that being lost is more than just a disorientation of place but also a feeling.  Tim talked about how the more stressed we become the less able we are to orient ourselves to our surroundings and to the reality we find ourselves in.  He continued…

“Is it obvious enough to say that we are leading churches at a time, living at a time, when most of the maps that have been used to orient us have become outdated and that to look at them disorients us even further.  The more we rely on what’s come before the more disorienting it becomes.”

This was a great set-up for why so many of us have struggled with leadership and leadership books and models and programs in the past and perhaps why its important to be re-thinking what leadership means in the time and place we find ourselves NOW.  Indeed in so many ways we are all lost.

He ended the time by talking about the need for us to re-orient ourselves to the places where we are today and asked the open question… “where are you?”

In the next three sessions Tim talked about the ways in which we engage the world and the “sweet spot” of balance we find in the in between of three areas: culture/context; theology/gospel; structures/systems.  In talking about culture and context Tim brought us back to the beauty and reality of the narrative that we find ourselves in.  He spoke about doing the missiological work of truly engaging our culture and context and leading it in creative and imaginative ways. 

I had to miss the theology/gospel session, but gathered that they spent time talking about the need to re-language the presentation of the gospel away from a gospel of escapism (God is going to take us up to heaven, so hang on) to a gospel of engagement (God is at work here already, how can we be a part of helping bringing heaven to earth). 

In talking about structures and systems Tim showed us how most the structures that we have built ministry and pastoral leadership upon were birthed out of times of stability.  But that is not the time we are living in now.  Instead of a time of organization and specilization we are moving into a time of creativity.  In this time we must re-orient ourselves to appropriately engage the world we are in.  He suggests some changes in posture for us in leadership away from just pastor as teacher.  He named:

-         From Answers to Questions: A Posture of Learning

-         From Head to Heart: A Posture of Vulnerability

-         From Spoken Words to Living Words: A Posture of Availability

-         From Preparation to Meditation: A Posture of Stillness

-         From Control to Chaos: A Posture of Surrender – the question is can we resist temptation to control something before something great comes out of – Chaos is always the necessary pre-condition of creation.

-         From Programmer to Environmentalist: a Posture of Cultivation

-         From Defensiveness to Creativity: A Posture of Trust

-         From Work to Play: A Posture of Joy

-         From Resolution to Tension (and Back Again): A Posture of Dependence

In the final session this morning Tim and Brian McLaren shared about leadership.  It was mostly questions and responses and was excellent.  Perhaps the most helpful comments came on the “how do we do this?” question.  Brian encouraged us to be in relationships and to tell our stories and the stories of those we know so that we invite others into the reality and pain of each other.  It is in this compassion for one another that we begin to see the ways in which we are connected and impact one another. 

Great stuff all around.  Of course these simple notes are just an attempt at reporting and are hugely brief and generalized.  Please take the time to read Tim’s book and engage with these ideas at that level. 

Last weekend I was back home in Flint, Michigan for another Discipleship Summit.  I took my youngest son, Isaiah with me.  Of course we spent a lot of time with my family.  Isaiah had a great time being the only cousin/grandson from out of town for the weekend.

I got to spend some time with my brother, Kevin.  He and the youth ministry that he is a part of had just completed the 30-hour famine.  They had a great time serving, learning and raising funds for a great project in North Malawi.  The group set a goal for funds to be raised and my brother promised that if they made their goal he would be dying his hair the color of their choosing.  I called the Tuesday before I came and the report came back that it did not look good for the group to meet its goal.  The hair seemed safe.  In fact even after the initial count of funds the goal seemed quite out of reach.  But,  in a some what miraculous turn of events the money poured in and the hair had to be changed.

Thankfully I was on the scene to record my brother’s turn from brown hair to green.  While I am both proud of my brother and a tad incredulous that this happened, I can’t help but applaud his commitment to teenagers, to the gospel and to being a part of making a difference in this needy area in Africa.  It made me
wonder what I’d be willing to change or give up for the sake of the gospel.  Thanks Kevin for modeling a passion for change (in more ways than one)!

I mentioned in the midst of this process that Kevin could just keep with the theme of change and go just a few blocks down and get a tattoo as well.  He responded that would have to be another fund-raiser.  I’m putting in the first $10.00.

Just ran into an interesting article about truth on TechCrunch, an online magazine about the technology industry.  There is an ongoing debate as to the effectiveness and truth of Wikipedia.  Truth, in all her beauty, has appeared again center stage as people argue over who she really is and who should be in control of naming something true or not. 

It’s fascinating to me that in this age of post-modernity where people have claimed for years that truth is defined by community, that this issue has arisen at this time in this way.  The quote of the article comes towards the end in the writers assessment of this debate…

“But the truth is that Truth itself is always evolving, even the experts’ notion of it.”

Two main things stick out to me here…

1)  It is becoming apparent that even in an era where the community that you are with sets the parameters for what is true and what isn’t, there are people within your community that have more of a say or are more of an expert.  Which makes me wonder how we talk about and live out Scripture, God and, yes here’s the word, truth?  What metaphors continue to be helpful and which seem to fall away? (i.e.  truth is like a building with foundation, truth is like a web where part can be destroyed but it doesn’t wreck the whole web, etc.)

2)  What is the role of truth in our faith communities?  How do we view it?  If this debate was on the Bible instead of Wikipedia, which side would we fall on?  Which side would YOU fall on?