imagining how the church can reorient around mission

“By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I have been a Christian for a long time now. I became an ardent follower of Jesus at 21, 40 years ago. During those days there was fresh fire and unquenchable faith. There was also not just a little bit of arrogance and desire for certainty. Also, during those days I listened to several Bible teachers on the radio (that’s what you did then). One of those was John McArthur. He was sure and brave…and “biblical.” Everything I was looking for. But, even in the cocky, more youthful version of me, I quickly began to sense his hard, and non-humble take on things. He was the only one “right” in the world. I also quickly discovered that he had a very unyielding theological grid in which he read the Bible through. This came off as very ungenerous and very ungracious toward others. It became most evident to me in a book he published called, “The Charismatics.” A book in which his deductive approach (I’ve pre-settled the issue, now I will interpret the Bible to prove my opinion) was clearly exposed. It was incredibly stilted in its hermeneutic. After combing through it several times, I reasoned that it was nonsense. He built a fence of fear around the full-life of the Spirit for scores of good-hearted Christians who hung on his words as gospel. Even as a young pastor, I intuitively felt like there was something more going on. Almost a vendetta. I turned the radio off. I stopped listening. read more

One of the continuing commands in the Old Testament was to remember from which you came. It was a warning built around the idea that if you don’t remember, you will forget that once you were immigrants as well and treat those who are now immigrants with dishonor and show them no compassion. Hmmm…

God tells the nation of Israel, read more

I have begun to describe myself as “post-deconstructionist.” That is not to say that I am done deconstructing ideas, because they are ever-evolving and refuse to behave, but I am observing what seems to be a sort of an addiction to deconstruction.

My friend, David Swanson wrote this a couple of years ago on FB: read more

I posted a blog last week about the desperate need in the church for a reawakening to the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. Some might call that a revival. Perhaps that is the right word, but what I do know is we cannot hope for the supernatural work of God by employing human strategies and maneuvers.  Listen, we are not gonna out organize, out build, out cool the world. Even if we could, it would not bear fruit that remains.

I will say that something amazing is percolating at Immanuel (the church I am part of), and in some ways, I cannot even tell you why. It isn’t like we are doing anything really different. Maybe it is just us keeping our ears and eyes a little more sensitive. I will let you know more as things unfold. read more

I am involved with a group of church leaders in which we are dreaming of how we can multiply the Gospel in our city and beyond. It is a collaborative effort with many other churches here in Spokane. This morning was a gathering of the Immanuel Network, a smaller iteration of the larger movement (The Pacific Northwest Planting Movement).

One of the leaders shared about how his church is experiencing a Holy Spirit revival. Please know that I usually am a bit dubious of “testimonies” like this. I suppose because I have seen so much nonsense in the church connected to the sentiment, “The Holy Spirit led us.” (God save me from myself) read more

In my sermon prep today I came across this piercing paragraph from the always prophetic Stanely Hauerwas (his commentary on Matthew).

“Rightly reading the signs of the times requires a church capable of standing against the legitimating stories of the day. American Christians often think that if we had been confronted with someone like Hitler we would have been able to recognize that he was evil. Yet in many ways, the church in Germany was a church more theologically articulate than the American church has ever been; still the German church failed to know how to adequately challenge the rise of Hitler. It failed because Christians in Germany assumed that they were German Christians just as American Christians assume that they are American Christians. Churches that are nationally identified will seldom be able to faithfully read the signs of the time.”

Please, please don’t read this as some overt political statement from me or some kind of Hitler/Trump equivalency. If you do, you are missing the target.

It is actually an ecclesial statement.

How does the church remain faithful in the midst of so many counter-stories, particularly “nationalism”? How do we maintain our equilibrium in the midst of so many different and competing narratives?
How do we maintain our equilibrium in the midst of so many different and competing narratives?

BTW – this commentary was written in 2006 if anything he was referring to George W Bush. Hehe!

r

Your kingdom come, your will be done in Spokane as it is in heaven.

In Spokane as it is in heaven! That is how I always pray the Lord’s Prayer in regards to our church.

So, what is it like in heaven? What will that be like? I think each one of us has the ability to conjure or imagine what it might be. Fortunately for us we get glimpses into what that might be like in the latter portion of the book of Revelation.

 “I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.  I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.” Revelation 21:1-5 (Message)

Really that is my vision for Immanuel. To live into that… In Spokane as it is in heaven.

About a few years ago now, we did a multi-part series reflecting this idea entitled “The Reconciliation of All Things.” We tackled subjects of kingdom misalignments in our city, such as broken relationships, racial tension, class discrimination, gender inequality, the environment and several other culturally significant (and charged) topics. We brought in presenters for each topic who were considered “experts.” It was an attempt at the very least to sensitize us to the misalignments in our world and in the best case, equip us to be agents of shalom in our city.

The reality is we live in a world that is disjointed or as the theologian Jürgen Moltmann would say, “…out of order.”

If this is our vision then, how does it work itself out in mission? At least part of the answer to that question would be, our mission is to vigilantly observe where the misalignments are and locate ourselves into those places as people and as a community of reconciliation.

That is our calling.

In II Corinthians 5:16-20 the apostle Paul writes,

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

It tells us that God has committed to us the message of reconciliation and that we are his ambassadors.

So what I’d like to lay out in this short essay are the four forms that this reconciliation occurs in the context; Immanuel Church, the West Central neighborhood and the larger city of Spokane.

RESTORED LIVES

I use the word restored not to infer that everyone was once Christian and just fell away. It is more to help capture the idea that there is a Gospel story or narrative if you will. See, the Gospel doesn’t begin with bad news, but with good. It is a narrative of God’s loving gestures to us that culminates in the Christ event. In other words, the Gospel didn’t begin the last days of Jesus’ life and in his resurrection, but rather it began in Genesis 1. You know the story. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In that creation event, we see that each creative act God performed was described as good. In fact, when it describes the creation of humanity, it is described as very good. It says that humanity was in a perfect environment. Eden. If you are familiar with Scripture you know that that did not last though. What comes next is what is described theologically as the Fall. It’s found in Genesis 2:15-17.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’”

It says “death” will come upon humanity if disobedience happens. So restoration, if seen through this lens, would be for people to be moved back into right relationship with God. Restoration means, to be sure, a rescue from estrangement from God to life eternal, but also must include the idea of being healed of our brokenness, made whole…having the potential to experience God’s shalom through Jesus Christ.

My hope then, is that people would be restored to that right relationship to God. Or another more straightforward way to say it is, I want to see people become Christ followers. The sad fact is in Western culture we do not see many people become Christians. Not long ago I surveyed 10 or 12 different local pastors and asked them if they had seen any type of conversion growth in their church at all in the last year. I allowed them to define what conversion was in their own terms, whether it was as following Jesus, or getting saved, or converting or some other descriptor. The sobering results, though nonscientific, were that few of them were seeing anyone become Christian. Now, it must be stated that these leaders are some of the strong leaders in our city. They’re the good guys. Trying to do church in a way that reflects Jesus. Yet, none of them were seeing anybody (or at least very few) become Christian. I believe this is endemic in the west. The sobering fact is when we see churches that are growing, though there are exceptions, almost all of them are experiencing what we call “transfer growth.” In missiological circles, we call this “rearranging of the furniture on the Titanic.” If this trajectory continues the church in the west is headed toward obsolesces.

Looping back to the text we just read from II Corinthian’s, Paul makes it clear in verse 14 that “…it is Christ’s love that compels us.”

That really is my story. I became a Christian in my early 20s, but the seven or eight years just prior to that I lived a significantly self-destructive life. When I encountered Jesus, when I realized that I was loved and that there was a purpose in life, it changed everything. I could no longer go on living the way I once did. And, I fervently wanted others to know about this love.

Our love for Jesus inspires us to fulfill our mission. Everyone matters to God. God loves every person who has ever been born. God made some people that I don’t love. I can go further, God made people that I don’t even like. But God loves them. The most dreadful human you can imagine is still loved by God. And because God cares, it follows that we must care as well.

I think the missionary theologian Lesslie Newburgh put it best. He writes,

“Anyone who knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior must desire ardently that others should share that knowledge and must rejoice when the number of those who do is multiplied. Where this desire and rejoicing are absent, we must ask whether something is not wrong at the very center of he church’s life.”

We, Immanuel, must resolutely and unapologetically be about the restoration of all people to a right relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.

Peace to each of you!

r

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

If we are told by Jesus to seek the Kingdom, doesn’t that infer it must be accessible in the present and, if so, describes our daily quest?

Thanks to my wise wife, I am trying my level best seek to understand before being understood when it comes to folks who have and are endorsing Donald Trump. I am truly trying. That is the reason I stopped posting about the election or Trump some time ago. I would hope that those same people would attempt the same exercise when aggressively speaking out against those who are resisting the incoming president. If you think it is just sour-grapes, you have remarkably missed the reason.

Just a short note: I am fasting from Facebook and Twitter for Lent. If you normally interact with me through either of those, you may want to call or send an email.

If you are reading this on FB or Twitter it's because I can send things to both through my blog.