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....

who helps who?

As with many of my books, I started my journey between these covers over a year ago, but became bogged down due to the author's "big" language (not an easy read). Some pages have more footnotes than text.

However, the title and message of the book are of special interest to me and now that I've begun a sermon series on work it is timely to begin "working" my way through this volume. The big point appears to me to be that the clergy/laity distinction is not Biblical. That the whole people of God are called and ordained to minister for God.

Today, the following quote from this book impressed me. "Rather than having the church assist them to do the work of ministry, leaders are assistants to the rest of the body to empower them for their service in church and world."

You may feel like yawning and saying, "that's what I believe already". But, do we really? If beliefs are the underpinnings of our actions, do our actions and church structures reveal beliefs that truly see all members of the church as the "real" ministers?

Would anything about our modern "church" life look any different if we really believed this idea?
If so, how might it look different?

Should we be supporting the ordained, or ordaining the ordinary?

work-it's dignity

What does this mean? What is work? What's its value? Why do we spend the majority of our waking ours engaged in this practice?

I'm "working" (no pun intended) on a sermon series on work. I give much credit to this effort to a fellow colleague in pastoral ministry, Ryan Bell, who has prepared an insightful series of sermons on work that have "scratched part of an itch" in my thinking about life in our world and how spirituality integrates with it.

This week the focus is going to be on Genesis 1 and 2 and the respective 2 Creation stories and what they teach us about work.

Story #1. God creates humanity in His image as His crowning work and blesses us with the responsibility to be co-rulers with Him in the care of God's good creation.

Story #2 God partially creates the world, but then pauses to create humanity because He "needs" (or wants) help to continue His good work.

In the one story humanity is portrayed as an image of God called to do God's work of ruling.
In the other story humanity is portrayed as a product (by God's power) of the same stuff as the rest of creation-dirt. Then we are called to till (or serve) our fellow creation by which we are surrounded. We are called to be co-creators.

Now, what is an important part of "creation" in our world today?
Social systems.
Agricultural production and care
Material production.
Service industries.
Family care.
Procreation.
Environmental care.
Spiritual guidance.
Politics
Art
Music
Anything that creates and highlights beauty
ETC!
I'm simply grasping to think about all the aspects of our world that "make the world go round" in a positive way.

The ultimate point I'm trying to get to is that much of human work is really a dignified Godly calling because it's participating in what He's created us to do. It's what He does.

This isn't to brush aside the fact that much human work is extremely undignified. But it's highlighting the idea that following God's call and blessing can be an integral part of what takes up the lion's share of our lives.
What if we truly viewed work this way?
How might this cause us to live our ordinary lives?

building on yesteryear's stories

A few months ago I had the privilege of attending a conference in Ohio called Innovation. At least half of the speakers really "spoke"to me. One, however, rose above the others. He was a young Adventist history professor from Loma Linda University (I believe).

His talk, Adventism 3.0, was built on the idea that like progressive, ever developing computer software, Adventism has been ever progressive and developing (versions 1.0, 2.0, and now 3.0). And by Adventism he's referring to Adventist theology. The concept of "present truth" has driven the search for how to truly follow God now, not just ancient tradition. He believes that Adventism has had to "adjust" it's theology in response to current experience that no longer works for it. Does that make the historical story of Adventist theology wrong or indicate that God must not have been guiding in the begginning. Absolutely not! God gently guides us in spite of our viewing Him and life through a "glass darkly", and I think may even allow us to percieve truth in a certain way to get us through a certain point in our experience.

What I find so refreshing about Julius is that it appears that he has a deep love for God's work through and in Adventism. Rather than throw it out because he believes differently than some of the more fundamental sides, he believes the historical story and beliefs of Adventism are great platforms for advancing fresh practical ministry to our sin wracked world.

For example.

2nd Coming Doctrine.
Rather than allowing our sense of urgency for Christ's 2nd coming to get us paranoid about every natural disaster and trying to make as many as possible believe doctrinal points exactly like us, we set about to work towards what it means to BE the presence and Body of Christ in our local communities-because the world urgently needs Christ's presence NOW.

Sabbath Doctrine.
Rather than focusing heavily on the "right dayness" of which day to go to church, use the principles embedded within the Sabbath to propel us to work for rest, equality, justice, and environmental responsibility-all ideals which are part of Godly ordained "rest".

And the Sanctuary Doctrine.
Here's one that I often wonder what practical application this has for today. I know as Adventists we have beliefs that tie this to what God is doing now in Heaven. But it often feels so "out there" to me. Julius has an interesting idea for how this historical belief can have "a" practical, current, earthly focus. I'll reffer you to his blog post for you to check this out.

HELP!

A word for desperate times.

Dallas Willard's thick masterpiece pictured here is one that I've been enjoying for "years" (ah, 3 or so). For some reason I haven't sat down and read it cover to cover. I'm only a little over halfway as a result of taking bits and bites from time to time.

Today I reflected on a couple more pages where he's expounding his ideas on the Lord's Prayer. The lines "have mercy on us" and "lead us not into temptation" were the phases to be unpacked.

In our modern society (or postmodern depending on what lingo you prefer to use) having mercy on someone simply means to give them a break. But apparently mercy meant something deeper in yesteryear. Mercy was more like pity. Most of us do not like to be pitied. It's embarrassing and humbling. It reveals our inadequacy. To ask God for pity is to swallow our pride and recognize our need of His mercy.

In keeping with the spirit of that line, the next follows suit. I've often wondered what the purpose of asking God not to lead us to temptation was. Why would God lead a person close to sin? Dallas says that temptation, while certainly including temptation to sin, is a broader term. It refers to tests and trials in general. Peter was very confident about being able to withstand the temptation that Jesus said he was going to fail in. Yet, he did indeed fail.

To ask God to spare us from temptation is to recognize that there are dangeraous trials in this life that, without God's intervention, CAN do me in. To believe that God will spare me does not mean He won't allow them to come my way. But it does mean I can trust Him to pull me through them and to spare me from the "lion's share". To forge ahead like Peter with a false sense of security is most assuradley a recipe for disaster.

So, I guess the 4 letter word in the post title above is pretty important for keeping my relationship with God in proper perspective.