identity of spiritual community

Yesterday I was listening to a podcast over at the Spectrum website that was a panel discussion of sorts on George Knight's new book, "The Apocalyptic Vision and the Neutering of Adventism". Having only read a few introductory pages this morning I'm in no position to authoritativly describe the book's content or purpose. But, from what I hear, it's arguing that in order to have a reason to exist, the Adventist church must be faithful to the sense of urgency about Christ's second coming that was present in it's infancy. This, and other related doctrines, were the impetus for the formation of this now global spiritual community. Evidently, Mr. Knight feels that we must be true to our distinctive message (albeit in a Christ focused graceful way) in order to not whither into uselessness. It sounds like he feels that trends to downplay a focus on the Adventist interpretation of the profecies of Daniel and Revelation relating to "end time" events will ultimately result in the demise of our reason for existence.

Some of the discussion in the podcast seemed to go in the direction of recognizing that this is about understanding our identity as a spiritual community. Furthermore, what does it mean to be true to the historic and original versions of Adventist identity?

Do we need to believe exactly the same things as our forefathers or can we progress in our beliefs in ways that honor their beliefs, but adapts to our experience and culture just as they were responding to their own? Does our reason for existence in our current world cease to exist if the basis for our sense of identity grows/changes from the original definition?

In other words, is preaching that Jesus is coming soon (based on the above mentioned Biblical profecies) and other related Adventist doctrines really what it takes to be an Adventist?

I find this to be a fascinating discussion. I love the hope that Jesus will come to set things right eventually, but I've grown weary and disinterested in the idea that I have to maintain a sense of urgency about it. I have a hard time believeing that each momentous world event may just be the thing that causes "the end" to transpire. When generation after generation continue to promote these claims without the "great event" taking place, it begins to take it's toll. In fact, I almost have to hand it to those folks who can maintain that sense of urgency long term.

But what if that sense of urgency can be redirected? What if we can honor our theological history as Adventists in a different way?

What if our urgency was to work towards being the presense of Christ in this world now in more practical and relevant ways? Maybe embedded within Adventist doctrines are seeds of hope for the world that honor it's history, but look different now.

Okay, enough thinking out loud for now. I'll talk more about the book after I finish it.

incarnating the church

Continuing the theme from the last post, I wonder how incarnation concepts apply to change and progress in the church?

When we think about influencing "the world" for God, we talk about this idea of incarnation-where you become a part of a culture not entirely your own and basically be an influence that is acceptable most of the time to the culture. There are times to make counter cultural stands for sure, but much of the time it's about engaging the culture and serving the culture.

What about change in church life? I feel institutional church life is largely about how to build the institution with others from the world who can be made to think and believe like the church. I long more and more for church to simply be a body of people who are on a mission to bless the world (even those who won't become members of the institution) and partner (not compete) with other religions and faiths in announcing God's kingdom work in the world (all what I believe to be in line with Jesus' mission when He was on earth).

Typically pastors are taught to act like CEO's and to guide a church to where he/she envisions the church should be. I have a problem with this though. I am not the CEO type. Furthermore, the vision and dream I have growing in my heart for the church goes against so much of traditional church thinking and practice. In fact, it may counter some church theology since practices are often the result of theology.

I know increasing numbers of pastors whose visions for the church and their seeming ability to accomplish it are incompatible. So they simply leave the pastorate to serve God's kingdom another way. I do not judge these folks and affirm how God leads them.

But, what if there's a calling to incarnate church culture? To work with a people whose beliefs and practices at times go counter to where you see the church should be going for the purpose both of serving these people and dropping seeds and hints of a different direction and purpose for the church. When do you work counter to church culture and when do you go along with it? What do you do if things that are a big deal to the church go directly against what you believe to be God's purpose for the church? Do you stand up and fight and likely destroy any possibility of change or just go along with the flow quietly spreading salt and feeling like no change is happening either?

In the end, I think there's value to the church incarnation perspective. But it's not easy, at least the way we as pastors are taught to think and practice. The biggest battle is likely with self, not the church.

IN but not OF the world

This classic line from the lips of Jesus still challenges people today. Recently I posted the following question on Facebook, "What does it mean to be IN but not OF the world? What do we actually mean by this? Is what we mean by this the same thing that Jesus meant by it?"

I was surfing another blog at the Spectrum site where my friend Ryan Bell responded to a similar question in this way, "the tension might be described as being an oxygen-breathing creature in the water, but not of the water. Being in the water, he said, requires getting wet. But it does not require drowning."

I really like this analogy. The creatures pictured above go up for glorious moments of freedom above the water's surface, but that's not where they live. The environment and culture in which they spend the majority of their time is in the water with many other creatures. In fact, they couldn't survive above the water any more than they can survive below without air. They live in a tension between two worlds-that of air and that of water.

I think the final application to the above statement by Jesus is really about tension. There probably isn't a formula that can be applied across the board. Each must wrestle with what it means to get wet in this world and yet still breathe heavenly air.

finding meaning

This past Saturday my church family participated in the age old sacrament of sharing in what's called the Lord's Supper. I've often mused and wondered what makes this so significant. How am I supposed to feel from this activity? What difference does this make to me or God? Am I supposed to feel really bad about my sins? Am I supposed to try to scan my life for stuff I can improve on (don't have to scan too deep for this)? I often end up feeling like I should be generating some sort of feelings (cause I don't have them) that are spiritual and sacred.

This week I sensed a possible breakthrough. I've been thinking a lot lately about the purpose of the people of God being to bless the world around us and to watch for opportunities to cast the vision of God's world made perfect (evangelizing about the coming Kingdom restored).

I've felt for a while that the Lord's Supper and Footwashing (a practice my church observes prior to sharing the Lord's Supper based on Jesus washing His disciple's feet) are nothing more than rituals and ceremonies.

I think that ritual and ceremony are for both remembering and imagining? We remember our heritage for the purpose of living in the present. This requires imagination. We have to wrestle with current realities in our world while we remember our historical stories and imagine better futures.

This weekend I asked myself, "What does the communion service have to do with blessing our world"? So, I challenged church members to use the foot washing ritual as a time to imagine specific ways that we can serve and bless our community this week.

During the Lord's supper, I again challenged people to imagine that this bread is not the body of Christ. We are! The bread is only part of the body of Christ as it becomes part of us. Maybe then, the Lord's supper can simply be another imagination catalyst for what it means to truly BE the body of Christ in our world. Or, simply a time to share ways we've been practicing serving our world. Or maybe even just shareing ways that we see Christ's life becoming evident in our local society, not just our church family.

The interesting thing about human nature is that when we do things together (especially acts of service) our capacity to be closer and more intimate is heightened. My wife and I often attribute certain elements of our friendship to the fact that we enjoying doing lots of different things together. It's after doing things together, that our friendship is strengthened and we have lots to share and talk about.

Could it be that the Church can truly commune together around Christ's life only as we practice being the Body of Christ in our communities and cultures?

In short, maybe the rituals of Footwasing and Communion have deeper meaning if they're focused not so much on our own personal spirituality, but on being a blessing to others.

holy huddling

Tomorrow is holy huddling time for me and my tribe (church family). While this may sound sarcastic, I think this is a healthy way to view our church gatherings. As long as we remember that huddles are not the point of a game. Playing the game is the point and huddles simply assist the better playing of a game.

My challenge as a pastor right now is, how can I encourage people to view their holy huddling for what it is and what it is not?

Or how can I encourage people that the majority of their spiritual/ministry energy is best spent outside of the huddle? Churches so often (I think) begin to view the holy huddling as God's great purpose and hope for the world. We think God's work is being successful when the huddle is growing and bustling.

But what if God isn't calling the huddles to grow so much as he's calling us to engage our world for him as He grows His kingdom in the world?

As more people are being blessed. As we use our unique gifts and religious perspectives to bless the real world around us, not compete for market share trying to increase the image of our huddle.

Let's go get em....

podcast along similiar themes

Here's a podcast by Jim Hendersen about helping the church move away from the religion business to a service focus.

a book of encouragement

A couple of years ago I read Reggie McNeal's other book, The Present Future, and really enjoyed it. Naturally, when the Christian book store salesman informed me that Reggie had a new book out, I gobbled it up. Today is the conclusion of this gobbling.

I don't know how to do proper book reviews (and don't even know if that's my intent on this blog) but I'll give this a go.

Reggie makes the case that the people of God are called and sent by God on a mission. A mission to bless the world for Him. The message that the purpose of the church is not the church comes through loud and clear in this book (probably a reason I like this book so much).

Reggie says the church needs to undergo 3 shifts in thinking and practice to be the people of God in our world.
1. Move from an internal focus to an external one. He helps us remember how much of "church" life is really focused inwards (worship time, prayer concerns, budgets, buildings with policy manuals to keep the public out, keeping people busy with "church", etc.) and that all these resources can be focused towards the community in which the church finds itself. Furthermore, the purpose of the external focus is NOT to bait and switch people into church. It's simply to bless them like the Abrahamic covenant and Jesus' life indicate. Then, as relationships grow and develope, the opportunities to share the reason behind why we do what we do will be immense.
2. Focus on people development, not programs. He classically says in this book repeatedly, "Don't hear what I'm not saying!" Programs are not the problem if they serve people. But when programs are the measure of success and we simply get people serving them, then we're not helping people grow and become the children of God that He came to bring life abundant to. All we end up doing is making Christians tireder and poorer.
3. Transition from church based leadership to community biased leadership. It's time that leaders exist for more than running the church. Let leaders be leaders to and in their community.

Reggie gives lots of PRACTICAL imagination starters on how to implement these ideas and begin nudging the church towards this way of being what he calls a Missional Community (MC).

This leads me into another thing I appreciate about Reggie's approach. While he recognizes and supports the growing non-institutional version of church, he also sees value in the traditional institutional model of church that so many find themselves in (some love it, some hate it). In other words, he believes that the institutional church can move towards being a Missional Communty just like more organic forms of church. He offers tips for how to begin leading in this transistion.

For starters, what get's rewarded gets done (this is a prominent theme in the book). New scorecards need to be created. Measure new things. Celebrate new things in church life.
How many people are serving in the community rather than how many are attending church.
How many people are growing in their personal life (overcoming addictions, marriage improvement, etc.) rather than how many are attending church programs.
The list of different ways to measure things is sprinkled heavily throughout the book.

At this point, not knowing how much to keep saying about the book, let me suggest you read it or read this other great review on it (link below). Furthermore, listen to the following inspiring videos in which most of the ideas are unpacked.

Video 1

Video 2

Great review of this book.

discussion material

Last Wednesday was the cheap day ($1.64 including tax per film) at the local movie shop. I had long wanted to see the above documentary on the electric car. However, other titles captured my attention and I left with 4 documentaries and one other movie (Not Easily Broken).

Often, watching theatrical entertainment leaves me with an empty feeling wondering, "Why did I spend the last two hours doing this?" This last week was different! These films became fuel for discussion between my wife and I (good discussion). I feel enriched. I don't know how much of the above commentaries are absolute truth or not, but I believe that they at least point in the direction of truth on the various of issues of concern (Wal-Mart Problems, Electric Car Story, Limited Global Energy Supply, Credit Card Company & User Abuse).

It does help with my growing sense that there's room for improvement in my life regarding how I live in this world. It also will tie in with my next post regarding the belief that there are areas of concern in our world that the Church could be putting a lot more energy towards rather than just things that build it's own institution. Okay, enough on that. Time to go to the next post....