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Resource from Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
There is probably no more controversial writer in the Christian world today than Brian McLaren. I say that up front because there may be some people who wonder why anyone at Wayfarer would ever read one of Brian’s books, given his reputation as someone who pushes the boundaries of theology. The reason is that we like to be challenged. While we don’t believe in everything Brian writes, he certainly makes you think about what Jesus and the life of faith should be all about, and that thinking process is something that helps us (or at least me) move toward God. Brian’s latest book, Everything Must Change, is, in my opinion, perhaps the most controversial Brian has ever written, as you might guess from the title. But in the midst of all the thought-provoking Brian does, I found a resource that I thought was worth sharing. Brian tried to sum up what Jesus’ message about the kingdom of God calls us to do, and he did so with some challenging statements.
*Don’t get revenge when wronged, but seek reconciliation. *Don’t repay violence with violence, but seek creative and transforming nonviolent alternatives. *Don’t focus on external conformity to moral codes, but on internal transformation in love. *Don’t love insiders and hate outsiders, but welcome outsiders into a new “us,” a new “we,” a new humanity that celebrates diversity in the context of love for all, justice for all, and mutual respect for all. *Don’t have anxiety about money or security or pleasure at the center of your life, but trust yourself to the care of God. *Don’t live for wealth, but for the living God who loves all people, including your enemies. *Don’t hate your enemies or competitors, but love them and do to them not as they have done to you – and not before they do to you – but as you wish they would do for you.
Do these statements match what you think should be true of a person in the kingdom of God? What fits, and what doesn’t? Take a minute to think through these and see if they fit your picture of the kingdom Jesus came to begin and bring.
(Citation: Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2007) 99-100.) -- Peru giving challenge update (2.20.08) GREAT JOB! Once again, you stepped up HUGE! We raised a total of $4,258.08 through Monday night, and more money has come in via PayPal this week. So not only are we going to provide facilities for 650 children to learn about God, go to school, and eat healthy meals for six months -- we're also going to be able to go above and beyond to minister in other needy areas of Peru. And that's not all. Engage attenders have sponsored 18 children through Compassion over the last three weeks. This completely changes the future of 18 kids. They now have hope. They now have the chance to get an education. They now know that someone cares for them and wants to see them succeed. The Engage team is so proud of how you have responded to this giving challenge in Peru. Once again, our community of 300 people in Greenville has proved that we care about our world, and once again we have taken the Lovevolution full circle by bringing God's love to others. We want to make sure you know how thankful we are to be a part of a message and a movement that shows God's love in such powerful ways. As we celebrate this giving challenge, we want to leave you with one more. If you haven't yet sponsored a child through Compassion, consider doing so. You can pick up a packet at Engage or go on-line here to find out more. Thanks again for being a part of the Lovevolution and bringing it full circle to Peru! -- Breaking myself As I continue to read John Ortberg’s When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, we at Wayfarer are in the midst of putting on the (un)Breakable experience. This series, which we are preparing and presenting at CrossRoads Community Church, is designed to be a time when people can break up the hard, barren ground in their lives, break down the pretensions and illusions in their lives, deal with the places where their lives have broken down, and then break through with God’s help so that a new taste of the Kingdom of God breaks out in Greenville. I found a resource in John’s book that I believe will help to us become breakable. John lists some things that can help us evaluate and take care of our souls, which he calls our inner selves based on Paul’s declaration in 2 Corinthians 4:16. While tending to the inner self looks different for everyone, there are some common things that John contends can help all of us: Self-examination and confession Friends who love you enough to speak truth to you Time to be alone and listen to God Examination of your calendar and checkbook Key questions, such as: How easily discouraged do I get these days? How easily irritated am I compared to six months ago? Attention to your secret thought life. What is your mind drawn toward – really? Where do envy or blaming or judging or lusting rob your inner person of life and joy? I thought that was worth sharing, especially for those of us who have gone through the (un)Breakable experience and are looking for some next steps to becoming breakable for God. (R.N.) (Citation: John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2007) 51-52.)
-- Rich toward God Christmas means presents, and one of my presents from my new wife this year was an Amazon gift card. I used it to get the latest book from John Ortberg, who is one of my favorite writers. In this book – When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box – John helps us see what our lives really should be about and how we can orient our lives in this way. According to John, our aim in life should be to be rich toward God – to be a source of pleasure for God, to make God smile. It’s an inspiring picture and at the same time a daunting goal. He describes what it means to be rich toward God this way: Being rich toward God means growing a soul that is increasingly healthy and good. Being rich toward God means loving and enjoying the people around you. Being rich toward God means learning about your gifts and passions and doing good work to help improve the world. Being rich toward God means becoming generous with your stuff. Being rich toward God means making that which is temporary become the servant of that which is eternal. Being rich toward God means savoring every roll of the dice and every trip around the board. Even though one of my new year’s resolutions (at least on Lindsay’s blog) is to win the lottery, the truth is I really want to care about being rich toward God. I’d never heard the goal of life explained quite so powerfully, but it’s an image that I want to hold onto in 2008. (R.N.) (Citation: John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2007) 27.) -- The sin of squandering I ran across this quote when reading this week and thought it was worth posting. C.S. Lewis defines sin in a way that is far different than most people would but in a way I find true and compelling: “Sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us – an energy which, if not thus distorted, would have blossomed into one of those holy acts whereof ‘God did it’ and ‘I did it’ are both true descriptions. We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.” (Citation: C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer: Reflections on the Intimate Dialogue between Man and God (San Diego: Harcourt, 1964) 69.) Max Lucado used this quote to introduce this story that shows how this works in our lives: “While serving in Brazil, I oversaw our small church’s benevolence ministry. Needy people walk the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Often they sought our help. We resisted giving them cash but occasionally had no other option. More than once I spotted a person we’d helped earlier in the day staggering from the influence of alcohol. I’d growl at the sight. ‘I gave him that money to buy food. How dare he use it to get drunk.’ Was I wrong to be ticked? No. He misused the gift.” (Citation: Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005) 58.) Too often we think of sin only as doing the wrong thing. When I was growing up, that meant drinking, smoking, cursing, drugs, etc. When my parents were growing up, that meant those things plus dancing and playing cards. For people growing up now, it may focus on what video games you play or websites you visit. And those things (at least some of them) need to be avoided, if not all the time then at certain stages of our lives. But there is another category of sin that we too often missed, and that’s the kind Lewis was talking about – misusing God’s gifts. Squandering is a sin. Sitting around is a sin. Waiting on sky-written permission from God is a sin. To use Lewis’ language, poisoning the wine is a sin, but so is leaving it in the cellar. It is to be enjoyed and shared. So as we start a new year, let us stop squandering. That’s a resolution worth pursuing in 2008. (R.N.) -- Fully Human I’m enough of a book geek that I read everything in a book. I’m the one guy who reads the preface, the afterword, the footnotes, and even the thanks page. I don’t know why this is; I guess I just don’t want to miss anything. But every once in a while, this little quirk pays off, and I actually stumble over something worthwhile. That happened today as I was reading Rob Bell’s latest book Sex God. In the book, which I’m still working through, Rob talks about the connections between sexuality and spirituality. It’s an important subject, and I’ve really enjoyed Rob’s insights so far. In the end notes for chapter 3, Rob had an aside that intrigued me. Amidst the Bible references and citations, Rob talked about what it really means to be human. “I’ve heard people say, ‘I’m only human,’ as if it’s a bad thing. But being human isn’t a bad thing; it’s a good thing. It’s what God intended.” (184) Rob uses this idea to talk about how our sinfulness – which we sometimes call human-ness – is really not that. Instead, sinfulness gets in the way of our humanity. As Rob says, “The temptation was, and is, to trade our full humanity for something else.” (184) I know this is true for me. I grew up in an atmosphere where we were taught to avoid things that were sinful and even things that were close so that we avoided the “appearance of evil.” I remember being at a wedding reception where my parents insisted that I drink a Coke, not a Sprite, so that no one thought my drink was some sort of clear liquor. (Of course, I was about 15 at the time, so no bartender in her right mind would serve me liquor. And I know now how often mixed drinks feature Coke, so that kind of negated the whole thing. But it still happened.) So being human isn’t about sinning, and it isn’t about being so afraid about sinning that we avoid doing anything. Then what does it mean to be fully human? Here’s Rob’s description: “Thinking and laughing and arranging and creating and relating and designing and nurturing and responding and reacting and pondering when googling became a verb and wondering and exploring and meditating and acting and making long lists of verbs and calling and talking and feeling and sharing and doubting if this paragraph is ever going to end and teaching and learning and jumping on a trampoline and sighing and celebrating and dancing and turning to the person next to you and saying: ‘This is living.’” (183) Rob leaves us with a question that’s definitely worth pondering. “You can make your own list because you know what it is that makes you feel alive, what it is that feeds your soul, what it is that reminds you that the goal is to be fully human. What’s on your list?” (183) - R.N. (Citation: Rob Bell, Sex God (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2007) 183-4.) -- Self-reflection Again, we dig into the end notes of Rob Bell’s Sex God for an exercise that I found fascinating. In the book, Rob talks about how one of the barriers that keeps us from being fully open and vulnerable with someone else inside of marriage is that we are not fully open and vulnerable with ourselves. To help us do this, Rob suggests the following exercise: Ask yourself the following questions and write down whatever comes to mind. Get rid of your edit button. No one’s going to read this. You’ll throw it away afterward. Maybe. But seriously, try this. Write out your answers to these questions: What is frustrating me right now? What am I angry about? No, don’t go to the next one, go back. Listen. Reflect. Be honest. Give yourself time. The book will be here when you get back. What am I scared of? What am I dreading? What am I anxious about? What concerns me? What is stressing me right now, the smallest thing that I don’t want to write down because it seems so dumb but it actually is stressing me? What am I looking forward to? Today, tomorrow, next year? It’s amazing how many people do this exercise and discover that there are all sorts of things below the surface that they weren’t aware of. It can be jarring to learn about yourself. To learn that all sorts of things are brewing on the inside that we’ve missed. (Rob Bell, Sex God (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2007) 199-200.) -- Response to the book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? By Philip Yancey My summer reading project this year has been Philip Yancey’s latest book on prayer. I always look forward to reading Yancey’s work, because he is probably the best Christian writer out there at breaking down complex subjects in a readable, digestible style. And in this book, he takes on an incredibly weighty topic. He seeks to answer difficult questions such as why we should pray, whether prayer makes a difference, whether prayer changes God, why God does and doesn’t answer prayer, and how we should pray. The book has so much meat in it that it has taken me months to dig through, and I’m still not done. But there is an incredibly helpful section that is worth sharing. In chapter 19, Yancey lays out several things that we should pray for and why these prayers honor God and help us better connect to Him. Here are these subjects, along with a few of Yancey’s thoughts about each one:
As I’m sure you can tell from these excerpts, Yancey does a great job in this book of thinking of prayer from all angles. I hope you’ll look at this list of kinds of prayer and begin thinking of ways you can begin (or continue) to use them in your connected times with God. All quotes from Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2006).) -- Response to The Deity Formerly Known As God by Jarrett Stevens All of us have a spiritual heritage, and much of mine comes from a church called Willow Creek up in Chicago. For three years, I was part of a community called Axis, which was designed for college students and 20-somethings. For about the last year I was up there, the main teacher at Axis was a guy named Jarrett Stevens, who I always thought was very insightful and funny. Well, God moved me back home to South Carolina, and I jumped into the Engage community, which has formed my spiritual heritage even more. But a few weeks ago, I saw that Jarrett had written a book called The Deity Formerly Known as God. I grabbed it, and now I’m finally getting to read it. The book reminds me a lot of the first Engage series we ever did – God is – because it deconstructs several faulty, destructive images of God that so many of us have and instead points us to constructive, healthy pictures. Why is this important? I’ll let Jarrett spell it out: “Contrary to the beliefs of many late-night blinged-out televangelists, Jesus really does wreck a lot of what we call life. He wrecks the comfy, cozy lives we build for ourselves. He messes up the neat little boxes we try to fit him into. He wrecks the subtle yet destructive images of God we’ve spent our whole lives building. Ultimately (and I hope), if we get close enough, Jesus wrecks us too.” (87) Jarrett’s approach is really creative, and I wanted to give you a taste of it. The first image of God he destroys is that of the cop around the corner. In doing so, Jarrett gives six of the commandments from the cop that he grew up living under (27):
Jarrett closes this by asking us to think about what our personal commandments are. I think that’s a great question. Mine might include:
These are just a few of the pseudo-commandments that I now realize I need to overcome if I am to embrace God as He really is and to follow Him. Slowly but surely, I’m sifting through my personal baggage. So it begs the question: what are your personal commandments? All quotes from Jarrett Stevens, The Deity Formerly Known as God (Grand Rapids, Mich., Zondervan, 2006) -- Response to No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke What is postmodernism? How does it affect the church? There’s a lot of discussion about this nowadays, especially in the church. Rarely is the analysis as succinct and on-point as what John Burke presents in the second chapter of his book No Perfect People Allowed. I had never heard of John before, but the title of the book caught my eye at Christian Supply, and the review on amazon.com got me interested enough to get it. (Rabbit-trail recommendation: Quick plug for Christian Supply – they are a great supporter of Wayfarer Ministries, and they do a lot, often behind the scenes, to support and unite the kingdom of God in our area too.) The set-up for the book is John’s explanation of the growth of postmodernism, both in culture and in the church, and the way that affects the church, specifically when it comes to five areas: trust, tolerance, truth, brokenness and aloneness. This is an important subject, and I wanted to dive into more detail on them. (Since a lot of the brokenness and aloneness issues that John talks about result from the trust issue, we’ll group those together for space reasons. I’ll also take them out of order to clarify the relationship between these.) TRUTH: The most common description of postmodern thought is that it does not believe in absolute truth and therefore absolute moral standards. This definition is too simplistic, but it does at least point in the direction of the trend. This is why postmodernism scares so many in the Christian religion and why many in the old guard would argue that there cannot be a postmodern church. I would disagree with this idea of what the postmodern church looks like. It is not a body that refutes all absolute truth – if it were, it wouldn’t be following Jesus. But a church with a postmodern mindset is absolutely necessary to reach a generation that is skeptical about the way churches too often look. (The tolerance and trust sections will talk more about why these reservations are sometimes unfortunately well founded.) The postmodern mindset that is growing in prevalence in culture today will not accept Christianity as a list of propositional truths, as it has too often been presented. But I think, and John does too, that it will accept absolutes that may be more clearly described as realities. For example, gravity is a truth, but even more it is a reality that we live underneath. The existence of God is a reality that we live underneath, whether we recognize it or affirm it or choose not to. The offer of grace through Christ is a reality that we live underneath, whether we recognize it or affirm it or choose not to. John does a good job of explaining how the church can present this: “Since neither modern nor postmodern culture holds a lock on truth, this cultural transition offers an opportunity for Christ-followers to assess what the Scriptures really teach about truth. Fundamentally, truth is not primarily propositional, but personal. Jesus said, ‘I am the truth…’ The best way to help emerging generations find truth is to introduce them to him.” (42) A presentation of Christianity as a belief system feels plastic to postmoderns, and they often chafe under such a structure – especially since some branches of the Christian religion are too willing to call ideas absolute truths when they are in fact debated by people who are committed to following Jesus wholeheartedly. TOLERANCE: As some in the Christian religion list their propositional truths, they do so in a way that is easily labeled intolerant by the outside. Sometimes this label is unfair, but not always. Those of us who are Christians must take a new look at the way we express what we believe and what we do in the name of our belief if we are to reach the postmodern generation. As some Christians express their belief in propositional truths, they often appear from the outside to be accusing, browbeating and even hating people who disagree or who act in ways opposite of what they believe. To be honest, such a view is often correct. Such an approach simply won’t work with postmoderns. As John points out, it brings to mind the attitudes that led to genocides in Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Rwanda and the Middle East. This may be a bit of a logical leap, but it’s not as big of one as some Christians would like to think. John writes, “How we are perceived is every bit as important as the truths we espouse. ... The attitude of the church will either convey the person of Christ and his attitude, which was outrageously accepting of and attractive to the ‘sinners’ of his day, or our attitudes toward others will reinforce a stereotype that does a disservice to Jesus.” (40) John diagnoses this embrace of tolerance as a grasp for unity in an increasingly segmented and polarized society. The us vs. them political atmosphere we live in and the media’s targeting not of a mass audience but of segmented demographics demonstrate the chasms that have opened up. So tolerance is the quest to get along by accepting everyone’s ideas. It is up to Christians to show a better way – unity through Christ. John frames the task this way: “Leaders must learn how to communicate just how tolerant and loving God is (which we will always fall short of adequately representing) while not compromising God’s righteousness or holiness.” (39) TRUST: John points to many causes of broken trust in our world today. With divorce abuse in many forms now common, the authority figures that were once trusted are now just as often eyed skeptically. The church is not exempt from this – nor should it be. The televangelist scandals of the 80s began the trend, and the more recent sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church – and the especially disturbing cover-ups that went along with it – have made the Christian religion just another institution that has violated the trust of many people. So how do we as Christians respond? Confession and authenticity are key. When we mess up, both individually and corporately, we must admit our wrongs and repent. We cannot cover-up or keep it under wraps. We cannot pretend the institution is perfect; it’s not. And we must be very careful about putting personalities on a pedestal. The only true authority is Jesus – not an evangelist, not a preacher, not a believing athlete or musician. Instead of trying to get postmoderns to trust what someone is saying, the church should be pointing them to trust Jesus. He is the only authority figure who will not disappoint. -- Jesus of Suburbia, part 1 As part of my job, I’m always looking for new books to read and new ideas to think about. To be honest, some books are better than others at doing this. But one of the best collections of ideas I’ve run across lately is Mike Erre’s book The Jesus of Suburbia. In this book, Mike directly and thoroughly contradicts the watered-down version of Jesus so many of us embrace – the faulty picture he calls the Jesus of suburbia – and points us instead to the uncivilized Jesus who really is. If you’ve been following our ministry very long, you know how important this quest is to us. It’s why we love books like The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus and why the first devotional book we produced, God Is, addresses so many of these misconceptions. So Mike’s book definitely resonates in some profound ways. As he writes, “If we understand (Jesus’) birth as revolution, then we may glimpse the revolution that his life will bring. Jesus has been, and always will be, a threat to the established order of things.” (13) So how do we embrace the Jesus who really is instead of the Jesus of suburbia? Mike has several ideas, including: We won’t shy away from problems and difficulties. “We do not do justice to what it means to follow Jesus Christ. His revolution demands our complete surrender to him, and our obedience doesn’t guarantee a problem-free life. In fact, it may lead to just the opposite. We must be very clear about this, for Jesus asked his followers again and again to count the cost of following him. If we did the same thing, invited people to consider what it really means to follow Jesus, then perhaps our churches would have fewer consumers and more disciples.” (29) We won’t wait idly for Jesus to drop a life-plan into our lives. “If you are paralyzed by the will of God, do something. Doing anything God-honoring is far better than doing nothing at all. And you’ll be amazed at what God does when you step out in obedience to what you already know to do.” (32) We will avoid empty religion. “Often-empty religion is more spiritually dangerous than outright immorality. Here’s the crazy thing: Jesus told the Pharisees they were missing him because of their religiousness. Religion got in the way of finding and following Jesus Christ. They were so focused on doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things, keeping score and pronouncing judgment on others, that they missed Jesus entirely.” (43) We will love the world and love other people. “The real test of spiritual maturity is not how much we read our Bible or how many people we lead to Christ; it is how well we love. And this is the rub: some of us, if all we were called to was an outward show of loving behavior, might be able to get away with it. But to be turned into people who really give out of love, serve out of love, submit out of love, speak out of love, and obey out of love – who among us can claim competency when compared to that standard?” (50) And that’s just from the first two chapters. Some more thoughts from the rest of the book are in the following post. All quotes from The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre (Nashville, W Publishing, 2006) -- Jesus of Suburbia, part 2 Earlier, we posted some great thoughts from Mike Erre’s book The Jesus of Suburbia. The book is so chock-full of thought-provoking ideas that I wanted to write a follow-up post to share some more. Mike tries in his book to illustrate the difference between our one-sided, faulty pictures of Jesus and the Jesus who really is. This isn’t an easy thing. “We simply don’t know how to carry truth and love together. We either elevate truth over love and beat people over the head with judgment, condemnation, and religion, or we are so accepting that we abandon the radical nature of Jesus’ message altogether.” (65) This dichotomy may be why, as Mike says, “The circle of those whom God loves has always been bigger than the circle the church has drawn. That is the scandal of grace.” (75) As he points us to the importance of love to Jesus, Mike constantly draws us away from rule-centric pictures of faith. He writes, “I am concerned that we have added too many things to the lists of essentials and now require followers of Jesus to assent to a theology as part of their trust in Jesus. I don’t believe this was Jesus’s intent for his followers, nor was it the practice of the early church.” (94) Mike continues, “The Jesus of Suburbia would have us believe that what we need is more doctrine – if people just knew their Bibles better, we would have stronger Christians. Perhaps. I think the real Jesus would call us to something far more dangerous: to actually live in the truth we say we believe.” (96) As you can see in comments as pointed as this, Mike doesn’t shy away from controversial ideas, and he’s not content with a theology that believes all the right things. To put it another way, we need to move beyond considering the truth of God and start to live in the reality of God – which includes not just ideas but also the presence of God. Mike puts it this way – “Jesus never called us to be believers – he calls us to be followers who believe.” (105) By making this change, we stop stuffing Jesus into a perfectly defined box and instead start to revel in His majesty and glory. Worship becomes less about saying or singing the right words and more about having the right attitude. We celebrate God’s mystery instead of trying to eliminate it through systematic theology. As Mike writes, “Our boxes, our language, our finite minds are simply not big enough to comprehend the true and living God. We are most in danger when we think we have him figured out. How does God grow people? Often by reminding them how big he is and how small we are. By introducing mystery and tension and difficulty into life so that we might be forced to move beyond trusting our faith and religious systems to actually trusting him.” (133) There’s much more in the book, and for me to try to hit the highlights wouldn’t do justice to the depth of ideas that Mike includes. So discover the book yourself and think about what it means for you to turn away from the Jesus of Suburbia and instead follow Jesus as He really is. (R.N.) All quotes from The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre (Nashville, W Publishing, 2006) -- Static (4/13/07) On this Friday the 13th, I had the good luck (bad pun, I know) of running across an interesting book chapter that reminded me of a lot of the things that we talk about at Engage. Often, we'll talk about how the good news of the gospel is not just about going to heaven -- about how it means much more about being a part of a domino effect in our world here and now. So I was going through my e-mail today and saw the first chapter of a book called Static from Ron Martoia. I thought I'd link to it and make it available to you. If you find it interesting, check out the book and let us know what you think. (R.N.) -- With us (1/2/07) Christmas is always one of my favorite times of year, but in the days following Christmas it seems like there are chores to do. When I was in college, that always meant packing up to go back to school; now it means putting away decorations and getting end-of-the-year tasks knocked out. Even now, my living-room table is covered with Christmas gifts that I haven't yet put into use. (What am I supposed to do with a second Chick-fil-A calendar, anyway?) Sometimes it's enough to make me think that all these gifts aren't necessary. Honestly, they're probably not, but I think there is still great value in them. Whenever I see a gift, whether it's a Chick-fil-A calendar from my grandmother, a picture from Lindsay, or an ornament from my folks, that person's love is with me. In this way, the gifts of Christmas remind me that the child of Christmas, Jesus, is Immanuel -- God with us. This thought was sparked today as I read Erwin McManus' book Soul Cravings. If you've been around Engage for a while, you know that Erwin is one of our favorite people to read and listen to. I'd encourage you to check out any of his books, including this one, or his podcast through Mosiac Church.) Erwin had a great way of describing how God's love necessitated His being with us, and I thought I'd post it her for you to read: "This is the story of God: He pursues you with His love and pursues you with His love, and you have perhaps not said yes. And even if you reject His love, He pursues you ever still. It was not enough to send an angel or a prophet or any other, for in issues of love, you must go yourself. And so God has come. This is the story of Jesus, that God has walked among us and He pursues us with His love. He is very familiar with rejection, but is undeterred. And He is here even now, still pursuing you with His love. ... "If the message that God wants to get across is just about getting our beliefs right, then He didn't need to come Himself. If God's entire intent was to clarify right from wrong, no personal visitation was necessary. If the ultimate end was simply to overwhelm us with the miraculous so that we would finally believe, then even God's taking on flesh and blood and walking among us were far from necessary. There is only one reason for God to come Himself, becuase in issues of love, you can't just have someone else stand in for you." Thank God that He stands with us through Jesus. (R.N.) -- Irresistible Revolution (10/31/06) A couple of weeks ago at Engage, Allison Pennington, who volunteers at the Engage info table, gave me a copy of a book called The Irresistible Revolution. She said the book had impacted her, and she wanted to make sure that we were aware of it. So I asked her to share a few thoughts about the book with the entire Engage community through the Afterparty. Here's what she came up with: Several weeks ago in an Engage talk, Chad Norris challenged us all when he asked who among us were ready to begin a journey to reflect Jesus. It hit close to my heart, as I have been praying about that very thing. I am ready to stop just believing in Jesus, to stop just hearing about Jesus. I feel like I’ve heard a thousand sermons about this man Jesus, but so what? How has it affected my life? Am I living any different? And if I am ready to start behaving like Jesus, where does one even begin? Prayer of course and the Bible are two important steps to make, but what if you’re looking for something else to help? It may be something like Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution. Shane doesn’t throw a bunch of dos and don’ts at you, which makes his book different from the beginning. He simply tells you the story of how he came to meet Jesus, and how he began to behave like the Man he had met. The book is both deeply disturbing and extremely motivational. It was like taking a journey, and with each part of the book I completed, it motivated me to act more like this Man Jesus I had met as well. I looked around me in my community and asked, “How can I be Jesus to those already in my life?” Are you ready? Are you serious about this man Jesus? Are you done just hearing about Him and are ready to start acting like Him? Then let Shane tell you his story, and when you’re done reading his story, begin creating your own. (Note fro Allison: The Irresistible Revolution is available in bookstores for $12.99. If this is something you feel can benefit your walk but you can’t afford that price, please come and find me at the Engage information table on Tuesday nights. I believe in the message of this book and will do what I am able to make sure all who are interested in this book can get a copy.) -- Justice in the Burbs (10/27/06) I'm a podcasting geek. I love searching iTunes to find different podcasts that I can listen to and learn from. Since so much of my job revolves around editing, I can sit at my desk and listen while I work, and it's always good to have some new episode of something to keep me awake and alert as I edit. I counted, and as of today I subscribe to 19 podcasts -- either about sports or about the Christian life. I've found that podcasts are a great chance to hear teachers like Erwin McManus, John Ortberg, Andy Stanley, and Bill Hybels -- people I respect but would otherwise hear once a year at most. One of the podcasts I subscribe to -- and honestly, it's at the bottom of my priority list every week -- is the Emergent Village podcast. Emergent is a group that tries to look at theology and Christian practice in a fresh way. The podcast is pretty raw -- sound quality isn't always great, and sometimes I just delete it after trying to listen to five minutes or so. This week, the Emergent podcast is from Will and Lisa Samson, whom I had never heard of before. It sat in my iTunes queue for a while, but last night as I ran some errands, I tuned in on my iPod. Will and Lisa have written a book called Justice in the Burbs, and in this podcast they're talking about why they wrote the book, what's in the book, and more. I honestly wasn't expecting much from this podcast, but there were two ideas that really struck me that I thought I'd share. First, they said that they believe it's harder to be Christian in the suburbs than it is in the city. By this they meant that it's harder to notice and serve the least of these and to live in community when you're living in the suburbs, where life is oriented around convenience and then isolation. (This may have struck me because I was listening as I went through a drive-through, the ultimate suburban experience.) I lived in Chicago for four years, one in a city setting and the other four in a suburban setting. The city atmosphere makes you think about issues like homelessness and poverty in a different way, and even after I moved into the suburbs I continued to visit the city to serve, thanks in large part to the heavy emphasis on service that my church there had. In my opinion, the upstate is very much a suburban area. (I know that both Greenville and Spartanburg are focusing on developing their downtowns, but those are still very small areas where very few people actually live.) So as we seek to encounter Christ and His people, we face the difficulty of overcoming our suburban constructs and mindsets. So should we move to the city? Should we go to live in areas like Hampton Heights in Spartanburg or City View in Greenville? Not necessarily, according to Will and Lisa. They talked about a conversation they had in which someone told them that perhaps Christians can have a greater impact by staying in the suburbs than they can by moving into the city. This is a thought that goes against what many preachers, including many in the Emergent movement, might say. But an inner-city worker told Will and Lisa that, when a person or a family moves downtown to work with a certain organization, that organization gets the influence and effort of that one person or family. But if that person (or family) serves while staying in the suburbs, he (or they) becomes in some sense an ambassador who can inspire more suburbanites to break out of the convenient isolation and get involved. In other words, intention transcends location. I hope these thoughts get you thinking like they got me thinking. What's your intention when it comes to serving others and bringing justice? How are you living out your intention? How can you bring justice where you are right now? Where else do you need to go, either in moments or for a longer term? How can you overcome suburban barriers to being followers who look like Christ? These are the questions I'm asking myself after listening, and I think they're good ones for the Engage community as a whole to consider. (R.N.) More info on Justice in the Burbs and Emergent: www.emergentvillage.com -- The life of a Wayfarer (10/12/06) Our next series at Engage, starting Oct. 31, will be Tales of a Wayfarer. We'll be talking about what it looks like to live a life on adventure with God. I was reminded of this kind of life at the Catalyst Conference last week during a talk by Louie Giglio. Louie was talking about the characteristics of this kind of life. I thought I'd share some of my notes with you: God lovers: People who are dangerous for God are moved by an intimate connection with the God of the universe. This love is the fuel for our journeys. As the Bible says, Christ's love compels us and drives us. Even more, we are God-lovers because we know we are God-loved. Culture pacers: We run after whatever our God is. But God-lovers can be inside of culture and still remain true to their love of God. Culture pacers do whatever they do in the name of Jesus. Louie was honest in saying that things can go haywire for us in culture, but he said that's not a good enough reason for us to stay out of culture. Our goal as the church (and one of our biggest goals at Engage) is to equip people to leave the four walls of the church and go into culture to lead us. Hell raisers: Hell should shake when we move as God-lovers. Our spiritual mission is so powerful that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Inside traders: Louie used the picture of someone who has a stock tip and acts on it. You don't know for sure that the tip is right, but you're pretty sure it is, and it causes you to live differently and take action because you're convinced about a sure outcome. We have inside knowledge about the end of things from God, and it should cause us to take action. We'll continue to dig into the Cataylst notes in the coming weeks for more insights, so stay tuned. (R.N.) -- Something more (8/25/06) Yesterday, the Engage team sat down to begin to break down the fall season and especially the Dumpster Diving series. It's always an exhausting process to try to come together with a unified plan for each week of Engage, and to work on six weeks at once honestly leaves most of our brains feeling like mush at the end of the day. But before the mush struck, we made a lot of progress, and we're all really excited about the plan we have in the works for Dumpster Diving. This year at Wayfarer Ministries, our vision is Something more. We're always going to be looking to take one more step to make what we do the best it can be, to take one more step in our personal lives, to take one more step toward God. I think you'll see that reflected at Engage this season. We're going to take some chances, and we're going to try to make Engage better than it ever has been. Last spring was a great season, but we want to do something more than what you saw the last time we were together. You'll see that reflected in the Afterparty and in a lot of other places both inside and outside the room as well. We hope you're looking forward to the fall, because we sure are. We can't wait to see God do something more in our community. (R.N.) -- Holy week (4/3/06) Last spring we started a new tradition at Engage of taking a week off during the spring season. It's more than a spring break -- it's a strategic rest period. We try to do it close to Holy Week so that people can take part in special opportunities that their churches have during this season. Some of the times I've learned the most about other traditions have come during this season. One year, I went to a Stations of the Cross service at a Roman Catholic Church. It was a great reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made and how that sacrifice was motivated by His love for me. Another year, I went to a Seder at my church -- a meal that took the traditional Passover service and showed the echoes of the Messiah throughout it. We hope that you'll take advantage of opportunities like this during this season, and we feel like giving you a Tuesday night off is a way to help you do that. This week, on our podcast we're going to upload a classic message that Dave Rhodes did at Engage two years ago when Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ was released. Dave's message focuses on Palm Sunday. I don't know about you, but growing up Palm Sunday was always the day that the preschoolers got branches to wave in church. It was, in some sense, a celebration of Easter being only one week away. But when you read the story, especially the version in Matthew 21, you start to see how the celebration was misguided. The people shouting Hosanna had a Jesus-we-want, like we've been talking about in The Intersection series. They wanted a power player who would drive the Romans out of Jerusalem once and for all. They wanted another David. When they realized Jesus was something much different, they turned on Him. As you listen to Dave's message this week, think about whether you've made Jesus into a Jesus-we-want. And then rejoin us on April 11 as we continue to seek the attitude of Christ at The Intersection. (R.N.) -- Buzz (2/27/06) Whether we mean to do it or not, it seems like every Engage season is defined by something. In past seasons things like sets, technical improvements, and programming have gotten our full attention. But this season of Engage seems to be a season of buzz. More than we can ever remember, people seem to be excited to be a part of Engage. And we're doing what we can to add to that buzz -- through the burst lunches and by making every Tuesday of Engage something that people will be excited to come to. But buzz happens best not from what we do but from what you do. Tell people about Engage. Get them to the website. Get them to listen to the podcast. We believe that if someone gets a taste of Engage, chances are that he or she will want to know more. We're doing all we can to provide these tastes, but you're going to be better waiters than us. So help us spread the buzz about Engage. We want everyone to be a part of it. (R.N.) -- It's time (1/27/06) I knew when David Reichley and I took a trip over to Grace Church today to drop off some set stuff that it's finally time for the Engage spring season to get started. To be honest with you, I couldn't be more excited to get rolling. We've had so much fun planning out the series for the fall and coming up with creative ways to help all of us encounter God. Believe me when I say that it's going to be a great season. Sometimes it's easy for us to kind of rest in our bubble here on staff and miss just how much God is using Engage in people's lives. Thankfully, we get to hear stories of how God is using Engage, whether they come through e-mail, conversations, phone calls, or even letters. Earlier this week, our staff headed up to Furman to say hi to some of our Engage folks and try to create some buzz for the new year. It was a great time filled with laughter, encouragement, and excitement. (By the way, thanks to Merianna and Esther for helping us organize the gathering at the last minute.) They're ready to get rolling, and I know the same thing is true for everyone else. So let's get to it! We'll see you Tuesday night at Grace for the start of another great season at Engage. Come, bring your friends, and get ready for all God has in store for us over the next few months. I don't know about you, but I can't wait. (R.N.) -- The break (1/13/06) We often get asked why Engage takes a six-week break over Christmas and into the New Year. Well, part of the reason is to allow the team here to recharge its batteries creatively so that we can charge into the spring season full-bore. Part of the reason is to give us a few weeks to focus on some of the other projects we have going on around here. All of us on staff miss Engage and can't wait to get rolling again. But we know we need a break if Engage is to be all we hope it will be. It's the same way in our lives with God. There are times when God calls us to charge forward, full speed ahead, into the challenges and adventures He sets before us. But that's not what God wants from us 24/7/365. He also gives us seasons of rest and restoration. Think about Elijah being fed by ravens in the desert or even the angels ministering to Jesus after He was tempted by the devil. We'll be ready when January 31 rolls around, and we hope you will too. Until then, enjoy taking a Tuesday night off to hang out with friends, go out to dinner or even go to bed early. God wants all of us to take time to be restored so that we can fully embrace Him and His mission. While we take a break, here's a resource from Brian McLaren's book The Last Word and the Word after That. The second half of this book depicts a group of five friends gathering together for a weekend of community, celebration, encouragement, and prayer. One of the practices of the weekend was for each of the friends to answer “the five queries.” These questions aren’t just useful within the plot of this book; we can use them in individual journaling and reflecting or in group settings. Note that these questions are not for beginner groups – they call for vulnerability only appropriate in a group that has been bound together over time. Here are the questions along with one character’s explanation of how these questions help a group with the practice of love. (153, 156) *How is your soul? “When we ask how it goes with our soul, we’re asking how our soul is faring in love.” *How have you seen God at work in and through your life since we last met? “When we ask where God has been at work since we last met, we’re looking for movements of love toward God and the other.” *What are you struggling with? “When we ask what we’re struggling with, our struggles always deal with obstacles in the pursuit of love.” *What are you grateful for? “When we ask what we’re grateful for, we’re focusing on our receptivity to God’s grace, which flows to us in a thousand ways, even when we’re suffering.” *What God-given dream are you nurturing? “When we ask about God-given dreams, they’re always dreams of loving God and others.” (R.N.) -- Charity and Compassion (12/2/05) It's the Christmas season, and that means that in addition to shopping through gifts, most of us are sorting through requests for donations. From Salvation Army kettles to Operation Christmas Child boxes to angels on a tree, there are countless ways to share with others at this season. That's a great thing, but it can also be confusing. How can we choose where to give our time and/or money? A few years back, one of the leaders at my church in Chicago shared a great way of thinking about this. We can choose to do acts of charity -- putting our time or money into situations that need help. This is of course necessary, as we all realized in the aftermath of the tsunami last year or Hurricane Katrina this year. But there is a higher way -- compassion. While charity is an act, compassion is a way of life. By embracing compassion, we are embracing the ones God is calling us to help in consistent, repeated ways. As we do this, we begin to bring change to their circumstances, and we also begin to bring change to our hearts. So how can we practice compassion? One way that we've found is through Compassion International, a ministry through which you can sponsor a child in another country on a monthly basis. Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, has started a ministry to AIDS patients both overseas and now here in America. And our community has a thousand places you can invest. Over the past five years, we have seen the Engage community show both charity and compassion. It's one of the things we as a team are most thankful for about this community. This Christmas, let us continue to seek to become people of compassion. (R.N.) -- Karma (11/16/05) OK, I'm behind the curve a little on this one, but I finally caught a few episodes of "My Name is Earl" the other night. If you haven't seen the show, it's about a redneck (I don't think he'd quarrel with the description) who comes to believe in karma. Basically, when he does good things, good things happen to him, and when he does bad things, bad things happen. Earl had spent most of his life doing bad things, but he is trying to turn over a new leaf and right the wrongs -- 250-some-odd on his list -- that he had done. The whole concept of the show reminded me of a quote from U2 frontman Bono that we used in a recent writing project. Here it is: “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma.” Saying that the idea of karma is central to all religions, Bono explained: “What you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called grace to upend all that ‘as you reap, so you will sow’ stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff. ... It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.” (Citation: Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas (Riverhead Books, 2005), via preachingtoday.com.) Last night at Engage, we talked about how legalism can be a gutter. That's where karma ultimately leads us, if we follow it to its full conclusion. Thankfully, there is a better way of life. We can trust the grace of God and listen to His Spirit as He leads us in wisdom. That's a life of freedom instead of chains or bargaining or whatever else you want to call karma. The other night, I saw how Earl was imprisoned by his list. That's not the kind of life God wants us to lead. He wants us to live in grace. (R.N.) -- Catalyst Rewind (10/20/05) It's been a crazy fall season for those of us on the Engage staff. But one of the highlights so far has been our visit to the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. This is always one of the highlights of our year, since we get a chance to be fed by some of the best Christian thinkers out there for two days and also to hang out with all our friends from Dash Student Leadership, one of our writing partners. I could recreate all my notes from Catalyst, but it would take forever, and most of them aren't legible anyway. But I thought I'd pass along some thoughts from Donald Miller, who you may know as the author of Blue Like Jazz or Searching for God Knows What. (If you don't know Donald as the author of those books, I can't encourage you enough to get them and read them.) Donald talked about paradigm shifts we must make as we work with people who are hostile to the gospel. Because he is a college minister in Oregon, this is not just an intellecutal topic -- it's something he must wrestle with everyday. Here are his first three suggestions. 1. Other people exist. Are we treating them like people? Do we see their stories, or is our life about us? Donald suggested we should look at life as a story about God that we get to be in on, and he said that we bring peace by treating others as more important than ourselves. 2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them. The big question many people have about the gospel (I would add that this will become a growing issue here in the Bible belt in coming years) is not necessarily whether it is true or provable but what kind of person it creates. Donald says a little bit of love here goes a long way. 3. Unless people understand that God loves them, they won't listen to God. The reality is that the burning question of every soul is, "Am I lovable?" and only a relationship with Jesus offers the hope of love. There are other paradigm shifts, but Donald didn't get to them in the time he had to speak at Catalyst. Hopefully, the full list will emerge in book or article form sometime soon. (R.N.) UPDATE: Eric sent in a link to the full list of 13 paradigm shifts. You can find it here. -- Response to the book God Is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg (9/21/05) There are a select few authors whose books I will buy pretty much no matter what. They’re the names I search for at the bookstore or on amazon.com. Erwin McManus. Brian McLaren. Donald Miller. John Ortberg. While I encounter the others on my person hit list as authors, I first came to know John as a teaching pastor during my time as a member at Willow Creek Community Church. Every Wednesday night, I’d get to hear John as he pointed me (and 4,000 of my closest friends) toward God as revealed in Scriptures. When I moved back to South Carolina, I started a black market of John Ortberg message tapes. His insights and wisdom, mixed with entertaining storytelling and humor, were addictive. I don’t get to hear John preach much anymore – although if you want to hear him, you can listen or even watch at his church’s website – so his books are my best chance to hear him. His latest is about the presence of God. As always, John takes deep theological truth and makes it relevant and real for his audience. The truth of omnipresence and of the Holy Spirit becomes real as John writes, “God is closer than you think. He is never further than a prayer away. All it takes is the barest effort, the lift of a finger. Every moment – this moment right now, as you read these words – is the 'one timeless moment' of divine endowment, of life with God.” (14) God Is Closer Than You Think starts with the reality of God’s presence and leads into ways that, as Brother Lawrence demonstrated, practicing the presence of God looks like in everyday life. It includes looks at hearing the voice of God, ways to order our day to practice God’s presence, spiritual pathways and how loving others relates into intimacy with God. Throughout the book, John makes sure that the reality of God’s presence in us and around us does not remain just a theological idea. It is to John (as it should be) a call to a different kind of life. Love the people around you, because they are the image of God. Don’t let sin cloud the connection between God and you. Choose to be present with God and others. Let’s use two quotes to reflect how John takes the presence of God into real life. “If our eyes could see clearly, if our hearts were working right, we would fall to the ground in amazement at the sight of a single human being. They are the miracles. They are the God-carriers.” (116-7) And then, “God doesn’t reveal himself to us just to make us happy or to deliver us from loneliness. He also comes to us so that we can in turn be conduits of his presence to other people. He invites us to join him in making things down here the way they are up there. This news is the best news the human race has ever heard. It is not just good news for the world around us; it is good news for us.” (176) Chris Brooks referenced a quote from this book last night in his Engage talk. In another area, John talks about how to practice the presence of God throughout the day. In the section on how to embrace God as you wake up – even if you’re not a morning person. Here are his three ideas. (75) *"Acknowledge your dependence on God. I won’t live through this day banking on my own strength and power." *"Tell God about your concerns for the day, and ask him to identify and remove any fear in you. I often do this with my calendar for the day open before me." *"Renew your invitation for God to spend the day with you." - R.N. -- Quotes for the wall (9/15/05) Chris Brooks' wife is working on an interior design project for our new office, and she asked each of us on staff to submit one or two of our favorite quotes for it. We thought we'd share them with you as well. “No thought you have ever had of God is better than God really is.” – Brian McLaren “If your concept of God is radically false, the more devoted you are, the worse off you will be.” – William Temple “Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing his name.” – Erwin McManus “I want a lifetime of holy moments. Every day I want to be dangerous proximity to Jesus. I long for a life that explodes with meaning and is filled with adventure, wonder, risk, and danger.” – Mike Yaconelli “Our goal must not be to populate the Christian religion but to bring people into a genuine relationship with God. We must make a clear distinction between the religion of Christianity and the revolution that Jesus began two thousand years ago.” – Erwin McManus "It is not going to be easy to listen to God’s call. Your insecurity, your self-doubt, and your great need for affirmation make you lose trust in your inner voice and run away from yourself. But you know that God speaks to your through your inner voice and that you will find joy and peace only if you follow it.” – Henri Nouwen “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “And now Lord, with your help I shall become myself.” – Soren Kierkegaard -- Response to the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (9/1/05) If you haven’t heard of Rob Bell yet, you will soon. He’s the pastor of Mars Hill Community Church in Michigan, one of the fastest growing and most innovative churches around. I first heard of Rob when someone in our office ordered the Nooma DVDs that Rob has released. The videos are 10-12 minute illustrations with teaching points in them. They’re great discussion starters for small groups or Sunday school classes. We’ve used a couple of them at Engage, and you’ll probably see them pop up again sometime. OK, off the rabbit trail and back to the book. I was pleasantly surprised by Rob’s writing style – it’s very conversational and easy to read. The book seemed less like sermon text and more like the things Rob would talk to you about if you sat down for a meal with him. The book is what you’d expect from someone’s first book – wide-ranging, with thoughts on sin, the church, mission, the Bible and basically the essence of what it means to be a Christian. So it covers a lot of ground, not going into great length or depth in any one place. But what Rob has to say is really good. One of the strong points of the book is the way Rob uses his study of the original languages of the Bible to bring out things that often get lost in the English translation. These fresh insights really made me feel like I was reading something new and original – always a good sign for book. Rob definitely has something to say. It’s his heart on these pages, not just some stuff he put together to get a book on the market and a notch on his belt. Rob also gives an open window into why he and his church take such an unconventional view of the gospel. “Times change. God doesn’t, but times do. We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating, letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be.” (11) Rob definitely shares some ways of thinking with guys like Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet, but he expresses his thoughts in a way that’s more experiential than theoretical, dealing with things as realities instead of just ideas. Rob’s not looking for a debate over postmodernism or predestination, although he addresses many of these issues. He’s looking to point people toward the life of the kingdom of God. I could say more and quote a lot more, but the book should speak for itself. It's an entertaining read and also an important one. That's a hard combo to hit, but Rob did it first time out. - R.N. |
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