Life Update

So, what's been up over the last year?

In brief, in May 2008 (I think) I was contacted by a church in Dunn, NC, looking for their first full-time Associate Pastor, with responsibility for music, youth, and children's ministry. I, of course, had never considered youth or children's ministry as possible avenues of service for myself. In fact, in seminary, the only two things I "knew" where that I wasn't being called to preach or to be a youth minister. Shows what I knew!


It's a church of 85 or so attenders, with a choir of 15, youth group of 6, and children's ministry (k-5th) of 20-25. I moved in mid-August and started working officially in September, and it feels like I've not had a moment's rest since! This is not really good - I'm going to have to do better Sabbathing - but it has been interesting and exciting. In a lot of ways, it feels like the culmination of work I've been doing in bits and pieces for the last 15 years - I get a use for skills I learned in pastoral care as a chaplain (esp. as it's an older congregation), a use for musical skills I hadn't used in awhile (I'm having a ball planning worship and rehearsing a choir again - I'd really missed that), skills learned dabbling in college ministry the last couple of years, things learned working with the education ministry at my old church (Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship, Lexington SC), where I was part of a small, semi-missional church where I learned a lot of other things that I'm now putting to use.

The difference is, while I was a chaplain and a church pianist and a volunteer college minister, I was doing these things in bits and pieces, at different times and places. Now all those bits and pieces get to be used in the same place. I feel more whole and fulfilled than I have in years.

It's a good church. It calls itself missional, which it's not. We have a project every month or so where we have an emphasis on a particular project or need, and raise money for it, fairly successfully. There are also times of service - and the church works pretty hard on some of them, like Operation Christmas Child, or putting together packages for Meals on Wheels at Christmas, or supporting a food bank. But the service times, while good and valid, aren't relational - we rarely meet the people we're ministering too. As a result, though there's some talk about the least of these, we're rarely meeting or going to church with people "not like us".

But there's a lot of good things going on, and a lot of potential for better (more relational, loving, Kingdom-serving things), and some of us (I like to to think I'm included here) are starting to get the mental and emotional shift necessary to understand giving not as giving money but giving your whole self, even as Christ gave His whole self to us.

READ MORE HERE

Running Mad 2 - A Place to Stand

This post references stuff from my earlier Running Mad post, specifically the following section (italics are me quoting myself) [I often feel like I have about 4 different trains of thought going on at once, so this isn't that unusual for me!]:

"Still trying to let this be a spiritual process of discernment and growth, and not get too bogged down in my many questions. What kind of job should I pursue? Am I chickening out by deciding to look at only associate minister positions rather than senior pastor roles? Should I be thinking about church planting? Do I have the right to take unemployment while choosing *not* to pursue another chaplaincy position? Should I only look at full time church positions, or should I be open to part time church and part time chaplaincy? Should I move, and how far away is too far? Should I look for ways to pursue missional/emergent callings - like missions work, new monastic communities, etc., or just try to incorporate those leanings into more traditional (and more settled, and better paid) church work? Etc. In my prayer time I hear the words 'Everything must change' - but what does that concretely mean? And how do I balance being as pro-active as I can be, while also letting myself be led?"

The last week or so has been busy, mostly in good ways, but busy, and sort of turbulent emotionally and spiritually. Again, mostly in good ways - but all in ways that seem significant, worth attention. I've been doing some unpacking, praying, and processing for the last few days, and feel like I have gotten to something I can stand on - hence the title of the post. But outlining that, clarifying it, is gonna be a bit of a ramble.

By the way, he said (rambling, not getting to the point), I blame high school speech and debate. As a 4 year member and co-captain of the debate team, I was trained to see multiple sides of every issue - and to be able to support any side at need, with logic, rhetoric, and impassioned reason, so that all who heard me would agree with me. Sometimes, that works too well on myself - I convince myself of whatever side I'm coming from at the time - then I look at another side of things, and convince myself of that one, too!


Exasperating sometimes (also fun, sometimes, to exasperate others), but it's also sometimes good theology. Much Christian theology, after all, requires an embrace of paradox and ambiguity. How can God be One and Three? How do you become great by being a servant? How can Jesus be fully human and fully divine?


Okay, I seem to be digressing. But there is a connnection, and it comes back to this idea of embracing paradox and ambiguity. One more example, then: Christian theology is built on the idea of revelation - that God seeks relationship with us, and seeks therefore to be known by us. As Jesus said, as Judaism has said - God has acted in history, and God's acts reveal to us things about who God is and what God is like. God has sent prophets, to continue to speak and reveal who God is and what God is like. That climaxes in the coming of Jesus, who while being as human as you and me is also as divine as God. Jesus and God are one, Jesus says. So by looking at who Jesus is and what Jesus does, we get the best revelation of who God is and what God is like. In Jesus's speaking truth and acting in compassion and seeking for justice, grace, mercy - love - in defying the powerful, healing the broken, befriending the lost and lonely, aiding the poor and hungry, finding the value in the "discarded", dismissed, marginalized people - these traits are traits of Jesus. This is what Jesus is like. This is what God is like.


So...revelation...it's central to Christian theology, to any theology, really. And if you believe that God has revealed stuff, then you can be confident in that - really, really confident - and find a faith that you can wrap your life around. Not just a convenient cultural faith, but something so profound, something from God, something that you have to listen to and allow it to change you, not counting the cost.


But interestingly, one of the the things _Revealed_ over and over agin, throughout the pages of Jewish and Christian scriptures, is how limited our knowledge is. Over and over again, in different ways, we are told this. Isaiah 55 puts it like this: "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

There are other ways its expressed - the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, for example, or the famous "we see through a glass darkly" from 1 Corinthians 13. In the NAS, it reads like this: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known." And a few verses before that, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part"...though love never fails.


God thoughts and ways - God's words and actions - are different from ours. God is different from us because God is better - wiser, smarter, more compassionate, more powerful, more giving and forgiving, more loving than we can imagine. Fundamentally, God is beyond us. The normal theological term for this is that God is transcendent. The very revelation of the community of believers over the millenia is that God is beyond what we can grasp.

And yet, Christians do have a belief in revelation - a belief that though we finite beings cannot cross the gap between us to grasp the infinite, still the Infinite One can, and has, crossed the gap for us. Anything we learn this way remains partial and incomplete - it's notable that the NT so highly praises humility as a fruit of the Spirit, when neither Roman culture nor ours puts much stock in it. And yet it remains revelation, and, Christians affirm, the greatest expression, the most complete revelation, the place where Infinite and finite beings most fully connect...is in Christ Jesus. That revelation can be phrased lots of ways - one way is to say that Jesus, called Emmanuel ("God with us"), reveals that the transcendent God is also immanent, powerfully and intimately present with us.

Healthy Christian faith, it seems to me, lives in the paradox and embraces the tension. God is far beyond us, and intimately with us. We must be humble, and remember that we know only in part - and still be so confident of Christ that we are willing to die for him, and that while we live, we shape our lives to further his Kingdom.

Confident...sure...humble...limited.

So what does this have to do with what I started with? Discernment - understanding the will of God for a person, time, or place - isn't so different from revelation, really. I am called to be humble, obedient, corrigible, to be willing to say at any moment "I'm wrong" or "This was right but it's not any more", or whatever.

I'm called to keep asking my questions. To obsess over them, even - sorry, folks, but I don't think we're meant to be without questions. All the time, we are to be working out our salvation (a word with many meanings, all related to healing, health, and wholeness - as we see in our word "salve". It speaks not simply to "forgiveness of sins", but to becoming a whole person, in body, mind, spirit, and in relationship to God, self, others, and the world.), working it out "with fear and trembling."

I'm also called...and so are you...to faith. To embrace the paradox, to not fear what I don't know, to be willing to take up my cross even if I don't know where I'm headed, to be willing even to suffer for the sake of the Kingdom of love, of God, of salvation...to be willing to take risks, boldly, confidently, freely.

Where can we stand? In the fulcrum, in the eye of the storm, in the place of convergence, always emerging but never fully formed, carrying the cross....dare I say it, reformed and always reforming...

Stand on the paradox.

READ MORE HERE

But God...

Awhile back, I posted about a project called Nieucommunities. The following devotional is written by someone at the Nieucommunities site in the West End of Glassgow, Scotland.

(The following is not written by me, just shared by me because I liked it.)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

Meditation

But God… We all have them, right? Those times in our walk with God when loving him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength seem effortless. Fully alive moments of success in relationships or service that make our passion for God so real…our calling so clear…our ability to sacrifice so natural. Moments when we can almost hear our Father in heaven saying, “This is my son…my daughter…in them I am well pleased!” We actually feel the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

But then, there are other times…times when love grows cold…times when each step stirs fear, indecision, and doubt. They are the seasons of death and darkness…seasons of the cross. But God… Our community in Glasgow is walking through one such season. We witnessed and endured brokenness in ways that we always hope as children of God we won’t have to experience. In many respects, we watched the ministry God built slowly disassemble before our eyes. It is a season of asking many questions about our calling, our purpose, and our reason to exist.

But God… It is in these times that it is the hardest to believe that he has not made a mistake—that “we are his workmanship.” In these times, it is the hardest to believe that we have a purpose“— good works, which God prepared beforehand.” It is hard to walk the steps laid out for us.

But God… A thought, an idea, which I hold in my mind and heart, fuels my passion in the hardest of times. It is as if Paul writes these words for me at this pivotal moment between what was and what is. Between what has been and what will be. It is my Lord Jesus walking step by brutal step toward his greatest moment of darkness and his greatest gift of love.

But God… It stirs the heart in the deepest place. Could it be that God is still intimately and strategically moving in and out of our lives, shaping and forming all that we are, fixing that which was broken, finding that which was lost, making us into what he has always dreamed we would be? Could it be that the weight of this world does not have to rest on my shoulders…but that it rests on the crucified shoulders of this “great love with which he loved us?”

But God…

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Daniel Vestal, CBF, and the Missional Movement

This is a copy of an e-newsletter sent out by the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - some reflections from Daniel Vestal on the relationship between "Baptist" and "Missional." I can't find this online - I'm sure it's on the CBF website somewhere (see links on the right), but I can't find it. (Updated 3/11 - the day after I post this, Churchworks sent out a link to the column. You can find it here to read it with appropriate formatting and everything.) I think there's some interesting stuff in it, so I'm posting it in its entirety. Feel free to comment - I'll probably have comments of my own at some point.

I couldn't get it to post with formatting included, so I've reformatted a bit to try and get it back to its original appearance. Hopefully I've avoided creating errors. If you'd like me to forward the original email to you, send me a note and I'll be happy to do so.

-Chris (what follows is from Daniel Vestal - as always, I don't necessarily endorse everything, I just think it's worth reading)

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Being Missional and Being Baptist
By Daniel Vestal
March 5, 2008
As I interact with Baptist congregations, it is encouraging to see how many of them are seeking to define themselves as missional. Yet I often hear the question asked, "Does being missional have anything to do with being Baptist?" And the opposite question is asked, "Does being Baptist have anything to do with being missional?" The following reflections are an effort to explore the relationship between the two.


Being Missional

The word missional is a relatively new word in the Christian vocabulary. It is an adjective to describe a Christian or a church that discerns God’s mission and is discovering what it means to participate in that mission.

God is on a mission to transform the world through Jesus Christ. God’s mission is to create a global community of justice, peace and love. We are invited to participate in God’s mission by following Jesus Christ and being a continuation of Christ’s presence in the world. As individuals and as congregations we participate in God’s mission when we:
-depend upon the power and leadership of the Holy Spirit
-engage in spiritual formation and make disciples of others
-embrace a biblical world view by seeking and serving the Kingdom of God above all else
-think and act locally and globally with the least evangelized and most neglected
-embrace and serve those who are poor and who suffer
-practice authentic community and celebrate God’s blessings

Being Baptist

I have written a number of sermons and articles on what being a Baptist means to me, but in all honesty, being a Baptist doesn’t have a lot of meaning until one decides to become a part of a church. Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ is a personal decision but it is never intended to be a private decision. We are meant to live in fellowship and unity with other Christians, encouraging one another, supporting one another, worshipping God together and serving Christ together. This community, this fellowship, this togetherness is what the New Testament calls the church.

But here’s the problem: What kind of church? What kind of Christian community is one to join and be joined to as a Christ-follower? It ought to be clear that there are many different kinds of churches where genuine followers of Christ come together for fellowship, worship and ministry. We need to be clear about this because I can remember a day when people would say, "My church is the only true church." Hopefully that day is over. But having said that, let’s ask the question again, "What kind of a community am I to join as a Christ-follower?"

Without giving a lengthy version of Baptist history or beliefs, let me offer a few statements that summarize this tradition called Baptist. It is a tradition that was birthed about 400 years ago and has resulted in thousands of churches being started.
-Baptists have believed that salvation is experienced by the grace of God as an individual freely and voluntarily trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. No one can trust Christ for someone else. No one can be a proxy for another’s faith and commitment. Neither can we coerce another person to trust Christ. It is always voluntary.
-Baptists have believed that after trusting Christ, one should publicly and freely confess faith in the waters of baptism. Baptism is a voluntary act of obedience to the command of Christ.
-Baptists have differed over the mode of baptism, although most have practiced immersion. But the important thing to say about baptism is that it is a public act of confession.
-Baptists have believed that every person who trusts in Christ is competent both to respond to God and represent God to others. Every believer is a priest who can go directly to God. Every believer is a minister who is gifted by the Holy Spirit and is called to use those gifts both in the church and the world to further Christ’s mission.
-Baptists have believed that the Scripture is the inspired Word of God and is authoritative for our faith and practice. However, Baptists have also believed that every person is free to read, interpret and apply the Scripture as the Holy Spirit leads them. This means that Baptists have resisted the use of human-made creeds to force conformity of belief. Their source of authority has been the Bible and not a human interpretation of the Bible.
-Baptists have believed that every church is autonomous and ought to be free of eccelastical control or government control. In a Baptist vision, there is no such thing as "the Baptist church." There are only Baptist churches and each church is free to determine its ministry, plan its worship and choose its leadership.
-Baptists have believed that just as churches ought to be free of government control, so government should be free from the control of churches. This means that Baptists have rejected a church state just as they have rejected a state church. They have argued for a free church in a free state.
-Baptists have believed that individual Christians and local churches should voluntarily work together for the sake of the Gospel. This is sometimes called the "associational principle" and it has resulted in many remarkable, collaborative ministries. Cooperation and voluntary connection is as much a part of Baptist history and identity as individual autonomy and freedom.

Being Missional and Being Baptist

Now what does all of this have to do with being missional, particularly in the 21st century – a century that is sometimes called post-denominational? There are many missional churches that are not Baptist, and of course there are Baptist churches that are not missional.
-In a missional church that is Baptist every person will be valued because each is a priest before the Lord and a minister of Christ. There are no "first-class" and "second-class" members. Distinction between "clergy" and "laity" is not that important or significant. The ordinances of baptism and The Lord’s Supper can be administered by any member of the congregation if the congregation so chooses.
-In a missional church that is Baptist there is no hierarchy of authority. Rather there is shared decision making and shared ministry. Baptists have varied in their history on the role of elders, pastors, deacons and other leadership. But in a Baptist vision there is equality and an egalitarian spirit that permeates the entire congregation.
-In a missional church that is Baptist the Scriptures will be central to its life and ministry. Because Scripture is authoritative, Bible study is important. Because Scripture is authoritative, Bible truth will be sought and applied more than the opinions or interpretations of other people.
-In a missional church that is Baptist differences of understanding and interpretation of Scripture will be respected. People will be valued even when they differ from one another. If we accept freedom of conscience and the priesthood of every believer, we must expect differences and learn to love one another across those differences. The church that has a strict/narrow spirit and communicates an attitude of "my way or the highway" is not true to a Baptist vision.
-In a missional church that is Baptist there will be voluntary cooperation with other Christians to fulfill Christ’s continuing mission. Although we believe in the priesthood of every believer and the autonomy of every church, that doesn’t mean that we act in isolation from other churches. Rather we cooperate in a spirit of mutual trust and respect. We realize that the needs of the world require cooperation and collaboration.

Can you imagine the transformation that would take place in the world if Baptist churches discerned God’s mission in the world and discovered their participation in it? It would be revolutionary. Can you also imagine the energy that would take place in Baptist churches if they discovered and interpreted the Baptist vision for the 21st century in missional terms? It would be revolutionary. In Cooperative Baptist Fellowship we are working and praying for such transformation and energy.

Daniel Vestal is executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, serving since 1996.

Copyright 2008 The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

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ONE and Jesus pt 1

My post from yesterday was about ONE's general purpose statement - which is about committing one percent more of the US Budget to fighting, not poverty or inequity generally, but "extreme poverty" - poverty that is life-threatening, based on disease, lack of access to clean water or food, etc. ONE hopes to wipe out that kind of poverty.

Many Christians often cite, without much understanding, Jesus's statement in the gospels (Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7) "the poor you will always have with you" as a reason not to try to reduce or attack poverty. This is bogus. (Yeah, I was going to say something longer and more scholarly, but decided to cut to the chase. Yep, even I can do that occasionally.) Three things inform our understanding of what Jesus is saying here - the immediate context, the wider context of Jesus's teachings, and the wider context of the Bible generally. (This is the long and semi-scholarly part.)

In the first place, look at the immediate context. We're getting close to the crucifixion, Jesus has been dropping hints left and right and sometimes saying outright that he's going to be murdered soon. He's headed toward Jerusalem and death. In the midst of this, a woman comes with an alabaster vial of precious and costly perfume and pours it on his head. (Culture people, culture - this isn't our culture!) Kind of reminds me of Psalm 23 - Jesus is in the valley of the shadow of death, soon to be in the presence of his enemies, but "my head you've annointed with oil; my cup overflows." This woman shows tremendous reverence and honor for Jesus, using this tremendously costly gift, not for her own benefit, not holding any of it back for later, but breaking it and spilling it out to honor Jesus.

As Jesus tells the grumbling disciples, this woman did a beautiful thing, one which would be remembered wherever the gospel was told; as indeed it has been, for the last 2000 years. Indeed Jesus, who we know feared the death he was going to face, saw this woman as doing "what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial." Can you imagine how moved Jesus must have been by her costly gesture? "She has done a good deed to me." Nothing was going to save Jesus from the crucifixion to come, but this woman ministered to him. Jesus was surrounded by disciples who continually "didn't get it," who would shortly betray and abandon him in various ways, who refused to believe or understand his statements about his upcoming death. How alone he must have felt! And how comforting, for a moment, to have this woman give him this gift, letting him know that he was not alone, and he was so highly valued as to be worth this gift. Maybe, just maybe, this whole Incarnation and death (and Resurrection) would be worth the pain and heartache.

Then some of the disciples spoil it, by criticizing her! They think it's *wasteful* of her! Can you imagine?!? None of them are being helpful to Jesus as he's going toward death, only this woman is; and they attack her for it!?

My hunch is, as so often was the case, the disciples were trying too hard - showing off for their teacher (rabbi) as it were, trying to "prove" they'd learned their lessons well. Jesus taught so often about the poor - so they're parroting lessons they've heard but not understood, complaining that this perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor, rather than "wasted" on ministering to the soon-to-be-crucified Jesus.

Wasted. On Jesus.

Can you imagine?

So what is Jesus's response? It's not, as many Christians make out, "Forget the poor, you'll always have them around, that's no reason not to give extravagant gifts to your spouse and your kids! GIve them nice trips, and forget about the poor - most of 'em are just lazy anyway!" No, Jesus says "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me." Not "don't help the poor," as we know from Jesus's many sermons on that theme (more below); not "don't help the poor," but, "get a grip, guys, I'm about to die! This woman is the only one acting like she cares! Back off!"

I hear Jesus being in a lot of pain and fear and heartache at this point.

Note how Jesus frames this. It's not Him saying ignore the poor while spoiling your loved ones with extravagant and unneeded gifts. It's Him saying there will always be poor, and you can and should help them, but my need is imminent, and this woman is not being selfish and keeping this perfume for herself and her own vanity, she's ministering (doing a good deed) to me.

As we look at the immediate context, it's clear that Jesus isn't repudiating aid for the poor; he's telling the disciples that they don't know what's going on, and that if they'd learned the spirit, not just the letter, of his teachings, they would know this woman had done a beautiful thing.

To be continued...

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The ONE Campaign

I've just signed the ONE Declaration committing myself to help fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty.

I'm asking you to make that commitment, too, by adding your voice.

I think your name belongs on that declaration, too. You can put it there by visiting:

http://www.one.org/declare/

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - one by one. So far, over two million have signed the declaration in support of a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world.

Together as ONE we can make a difference!

Thanks!

READ MORE HERE

Missional? Emergent?

It occurred to me that, again, lots of my friends and family aren't all that familiar with terms thrown around in the last post, like "emerging church" and "missional". Since I'm likely to use them a lot, I was going to link to their entries on wikipedia. But glancing at them quickly, I'm going to refrain - as it turns out, I don't think their descriptions are very good. They seem very one-sided and written by people suspicious of the terms. (You can still read them if you want, but I'm not going to help you do it. :P Except for making it easy to get to wikipedia.)

So, since it's late and I don't want to write out comprehensive descriptions myself, which would also be one-sided - anybody know where there are really good definitions of the terms? You can get a fair bit of info from checking my links - there are several missional/emergent-influenced groups mentioned to your right, especially the Emergent Village. But that itself is only one expression of the emerging church or the missional life. Though this, from EV, seems like a pretty good description of missional as commitment to God's world:
"We practice our faith missionally – that is, we do not isolate ourselves from this world, but rather, we follow Christ into the world.
We seek to fulfill the mission of God in our generations, and then to pass the baton faithfully to the next generations as well.
We believe the church exists for the benefit and blessing of the world at large; we seek therefore not to be blessed to the exclusion of everyone else, but rather for the benefit of everyone else.
We see the earth and all it contains as God’s beloved creation, and so we join God in seeking its good, its healing, and its blessing.
PRACTICES:
To build relationships with neighbors and to seek the good of our neighborhoods and cities.
To seek reconciliation with enemies and make peace.
To encourage and cherish younger people and to honor and learn from older people.
To honor creation and to cherish and heal it.
To build friendships across gender, racial, ethnic, economic and other boundaries.
To be involved at all times in at least one issue or cause of peace and justice."

Cool. Whereas the wikipedia article implies that missional doesn't include 'teaching' or encouraging 'holiness' or 'disciple-making.' Which may or may not be true of individual strains, but is not my understanding or experience. My experience is that there's lots of teaching and theology; and as for calling for holiness or disciple-making, it's more fair to say that there's a different understanding of it. Say, rather than teaching somebody to recite the four spiritual laws, or that they're not supposed to dance or , you try to model loving God, loving neighbor, forgiving enemies...you know, Jesus stuff. And you build relationships with people without first requiring that they live as if they were saints - which is not the same thing as not talking about holiness, or virtue - though as I say, I've no doubt that tendency is there for some. Overall, though, I find that the missional understanding calls much more fully for holiness, as it encourages taking Jesus' most outrageous commands seriously, and encourages living them out all the time, not just on Sunday morning or Wednesday night.

Any better definitions of missional out there? How about emerging/emergent?

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