Occasio

Telling a story vs. joining a story

My friend Jeff Chandler is a graphic artist and works for an advertising agency. He sent me this great post from an advertising website. In a time when everything seems to be market driven (including the church), it's a refreshing look at entering into the lives of real people. As a church we need to think about the difference between "telling" a person's story and "joining" a person's story. From the post:

Telling:

• All about the storyteller
• One sided communication
• Story is potentially unwanted
• Story is, well...a story

Joining:

• All about ALL participants
• Two-way communication
• Story is living and evolving
• The story keeps going when you stop talking

If the church would stop "talking" and start "joining" in the stories of real people I don't think we would ever have to have another conversation about evangelism. Growth and evangelism are not goals (though that's what the contemporary church in a free market economy tends to make them), they are products of a healthy community of Christ-followers who are deeply aware of their own stories and how those stories intersect with God's story. We don't need to "bring" God anywhere, we need to "join" in what he is already doing.

Here's the full post.
 

No "them," there's only "us"

It was easy to lead worship this past weekend. Our congregation is working carefully through the book of Acts and Pastor James was preaching on chapter 15. In this text there are some Jewish believers who think that all of the Gentile believers must be circumcised to be part of the new movement called the church. It's a messy and confusing time of uncertainty and ambiguity. Christianity is in its infancy and the law of Moses is the only thing the Jewish Christians know. Should this be imposed upon the Gentile converts?

The elders gather in Jerusalem and listen at length to the counsel of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and others. In the end, the elders decide that circumcision should not be a requirement; it should not divide the two groups. They send a brief letter to the church in Antioch with the following instructions: "You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality."

It's odd that all kinds of things we would like to see in that list are not there: go to church, read your bible, pray every day, memorize the ten commandments, don't drink alcohol, don't watch R-rated movies, don't pierce or tattoo your body, don't... don't... don't.... The prescriptions the elders do make all relate to temple worship of non-Christian deities - they are already contextualizing the gospel. The greatest danger to the young believers would apparently be to syncretize their new faith with the gods of a pagan culture.

I wonder what requirements we impose on new believers in the name of biblicism? Are we sure we're not just justifying our "law of Moses?"

Again, it was easy to lead worship. The dominant message of the Acts 15 text is that of unity. Gentiles and Jews are brought together under the cross and through the creative power of the resurrection. A key moment in the text comes with verse 9. Peter declares to the council, "God made no distinction between us and them." This is a new humanity! (Eph 2:14-15) The result is not that all individual distinctiveness is removed, but that joy is found in what is held in common. God has replaced that which divides us with unity in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. As we prepared for communion we prayed, "There's no 'them,' only 'us'."

Of course I had this video in mind. It's a beautiful rendition of "One" complete with orchestration. Check for a couple of things as you view this U2 performance: watch the crowd at this opening ceremony for the 2003 Special Olympics, and "no 'them,' there's only 'us'."

Ancient Spiritual Practices for a 21st Century Church

Imagine this scene. Teens silently form a line in a hallway, patiently waiting late into the night to enter a room in which they will experience an ancient spiritual discipline: contemplative prayer. When they emerge from the prayer room an hour later, many have tears in their eyes, smiles on their faces and peace in their hearts. They have just walked a prayer labyrinth, an interactive eleven-station experience in which the participants learn to practice the presence of Christ.  Scenes like this are happening again and again in churches, camps and conferences all over North America.

So begins an article I recently wrote for the Christian Leader, the monthly publication of the U.S. Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church. If you are interested in reading more about how ancient spiritual practices are being used in contemporary churches, you can find the article here. If you would like some resources for this topic, click here.

I also published a condensed version of this paper though Fresno Pacific University's Scholars Speak feature.

“Yahweh” and The Jesus Prayer

We had a great worship service yesterday. Our style is typically “contemporary” (I really don’t like that word but it seems to be one that most people understand, though often with misconceptions); I lead with acoustic guitar but try to be creative and incorporate all art forms, not just music.

So yesterday we continued our Lenten series with a twist – we went “unplugged.” We tried to get rid of the distractions that even a worship service can bring. No drums, no stage lights, no color washes, no images of any kind – just white text on a black screen. This is very hard for me because I’m so visually oriented. Our little worship combo included guitar, piano and violin and focused on quiet, reflective music and practices.

A highlight of the service was the incorporation of The Jesus Prayer. This prayer emerged around the sixth century from the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Prior to 313 A.D. the church was persecuted and Christians suffered for their faith. When Constantine legalized Christianity it became the faith of the Roman Empire. Almost overnight Christianity was ushered in as the official state religion. In response to the shallow faith experience that this shift brought, people began to relocate to the desert to discover again the power of suffering and self-denial in spiritual formation. Out of this movement came The Jesus Prayer.

While this prayer has had an evolution of form and practice, many people recognize it as a variation of the Kyrie. On Sunday we used the text, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We not only used this at several different points in the service, but also practiced the prayer repetitively during communion. One way to recite the prayer is to pray it rhythmically while breathing: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” on the inhale, “have mercy on me, a sinner” on the exhale. I am trying to spend ten minutes a day this week with this practice. While that will result in 100 or so repetitions, the Desert Fathers were known to repeat the prayer thousands of times a day. The goal is to let the prayer work its way into the very heart and soul of spiritual formation.

For the sermon, Pastor James has been working through a sequence of Lenten messages from the book, At The Cross: Meditations on People Who Were There, a series of devotions given on Good Fridays in St. Andrews, Scotland. This week we focused on Peter’s failure before the crucifixion of Christ. Our need for mercy, repentance and forgiveness is no less or no greater than Peter’s. We all know the desperation that comes from failing Christ.

We closed the service with an acoustic version of “Yahweh,” U2’s psalm/prayer/confession for dependence on our Creator. It’s a cry for renewal and transformation. We have used the song in worship before, but this time I introduced it as "Peter’s song." What would Peter have thought standing on the beach before Christ, after the denials and after the resurrection? Certainly he remembered that his feet had carried him far away from Christ, that his mouth had recanted and rejected his Lord, and that his hands had wanted to respond with sword and violence. As the sun rose the morning after a hard night of fishing, would Peter have understood the newness of the dawn after the pain of failure and denial? I think so.

Watch the live clip of this song from Chicago here.

Don’t forget to see U23D and make sure you stay for the credits – a beautiful live rendition of “Yahweh” with stunning and purposeful graphics.

Take these shoes, Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes, And make them fit
Take this shirt, Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt, And make it clean (clean)
Take this soul, Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul, And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh, Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh, Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands, Teach them what to carry
Take these hands, Don't make a fist (no)
Take this mouth, So quick to criticise
Take this mouth, Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh, Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh, Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take this city, A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city, If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart, And make it break

God's Christmas graffiti

Merry Christmas! Last night I gave a meditation for North Fresno Church's Christmas Eve service. The inspiration for the short devotional came from a sermon by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Christmas Day of 1999 in the National Cathedral (see The aWAKE Project). He noted that the birth of Jesus is like God's graffiti announcing, "I love you with a love that cannot change."

For most of us the Christmas story has lost its jarring sense of surprise. It no longer shocks us like it should; like graffiti scrawled across a freeway overpass, school building or sanctuary wall. If we forget about the cards, carols and dramatic presentations we're left with a very simple text full of odd twists and surprises.

If you are interested in reading an abbreviated version of my message click here (this is a piece I published through Fresno Pacific University's "Scholars Speak" forum). Here is an excerpt:

Where would God show up? I do not know, but there is one thing I am sure of: He wouldn’t be in the places or with the people I would expect. This is the danger of discrimination. Nazareth, Bethlehem, unwed mothers, stables, shepherds—all the stuff of first-century discrimination. I wonder, would God appear with the people I am most prejudiced against? Will He continue to come to the places I and others might find offensive?

Halloween at North Fresno Church

Last Wednesday night, Halloween, was one of those moments I stood back, looked at what was happening on our campus and thought once again, I can't believe what our church has become (or is becoming, or will become, or all of the above). I don't say this out of arrogance, but rather out of amazement for what the spirit of Acts 2:42-47 is doing in our midst. The colors of the evening were wonderful. Not the colors of the costumes - I'm talking about the colors of skin.

Our church has it's messes, hypocrisies and conflicts like every other church, but I hope and pray that God can continue to make us a community that crosses social, economic and ethnic boundaries. It's the "one, but not the same" of 1 Corinthians 12. It seems we can really only be God's people (at least in our neighborhood) if we do this. People are coming to God! I'm coming to God!

Here's a short video of the evening. Thanks to Nickel Creek for "The Smoothie Song."

• Low resolution (3 mb)
• Med resolution (10 mb)
• High resolution (25 mb)

The church and Halloween

At this time of year I often receive some kind of urgent prayer warning from a Christian friend, a student in class or a well-meaning congregant. Usually the request is to fervently pray against the satanic powers on this evil day, Halloween. While there is considerable mischief done and a great amount of media attention given on this day, is it any more evil (or holy) than any other day?

My colleague and friend Pam Johnston recently wrote an article debunking many of the common myths about Halloween (most of which are propagated by overly enthusiastic Christians). As a historian she reveals that much of the folklore around Halloween comes from ancient Celtic agricultural practices. Her conclusion: "the harvest festivals celebrated by some churches as an alternative to Halloween may be a more accurate reflection of the original Celtic agricultural festival." Her husband, and my good friend, Marshall Johnston, also wrote a piece on how the media sensationalizes and distorts anything connected to the supernatural, especially around Halloween.

I've said often and repeat again, churches have two basic options when dealing with culture: isolate themselves and battle the culture or engage it and use it for a connecting point with the culture. See my post from last October 31 for a commentary on the difference between my Christian neighbor who posts anti-Halloween signs and my church which ministers to it's neighborhood. Isolationism is not an option if we are seeking to be God's people on a mission for the kingdom.

There are countless ways that Jesus and his early followers engaged and used the cultural practices of their day.

• Baptism was practiced by Jews and Pagans alike and other rituals of purification go back to prehistoric times
• The Eucharist (communion) is a type of divine meal that is found in Jewish and secular literature long before it was used in the upper room
• The first Christians had no choice but to meet in the Jewish temple and synagogue
• The Apostle Paul was able to use the Athenian's worship of multiple gods, including the "unknown god," to introduce the one true God
• Christmas was borrowed from pagan celebrations honoring the gods of the winter solstice

Since its birth the church has always engaged the culture it has resided in, often giving new and reinterpreted meaning to the practices of the day. Halloween is just such an opportunity to continue the hard work of interpreting scripture and community while inhabiting an alien culture.

Day 3 of the Allelon conference

We began the day by dwelling in Luke 10:1-13 again. Today I noticed the theme of “sharing.” There is a language of bringing, sharing and living with. What is it that is shared? Peace, shalom. Jesus actually tells the disciples (the 70) what they are to say in their fist preaching role: “Peace to this house.” The disciples become the bearers of shalom. This got me thinking about the first message that Luke recorded of Jesus. It was a message of sharing. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…” (Luke 4:18). Jesus then went on to address issues of shalom: healing, freeing, releasing, etc. Wow, Luke must be on to something. The mission of kingdom followers is to bring/share the kingdom in all of its wholeness.

Alan Roxburgh was up next. He addressed the question of the conference, “What is a missional leader?” And then he gave us his standard responses: “I don’t know,” “Does it matter?” “Who cares?” Why do we want a definition so desperately? Because we are moderns. Definitions are modern constructs. The need to define the missional church and missional leadership is a modern need to define, name, control and plan. So, if I do what I’m not supposed to do (create a definition), the best I could say is, “a missional leader is one who can change as the world changes around him/her.”

Roxburgh used this video to illustrate the task of the missional leader. What would it have been like to be the helpdesk when books were introduced in the monastery? Much grace, love and patience are needed.

Roxburgh also presented the Terry Action Wheel. Robert Terry developed six categories for assessing the question, “What’s really going on here?” As leaders we often get stuck on the issues of resources, structure and power. Our task, however, is to also ask questions of mission, meaning and existence. We took an hour at our table to readdress our case studies with these categories in mind. It was helpful to begin discovering the underlying issues of mission and meaning in particular. Roxburgh provided a relevant example: deciding to eliminate the offering and replace it with an offering box in the back of the church has different ramifications for different groups of people. For the leaders who made the decision it might just be a structural change. They simply want to change the structure of the service. For older members of the congregation there might be deep meaning and experience tied to the collection of the offering. One group changing the structure might have significant implications related to meaning for another.

After lunch Mark Lau Branson laid out a three-part framework for forming a congregation: interpretive, relational, implemental. Interpretive refers to the learning that a congregation does together in community. Relational is the work that happens interpersonally in the building of relational networks and reconciliation. Implemental concerns the management and administration of the community. This tertiary framework can be very helpful in creating a community of Christ’s followers that share leadership.

The day ended with a wonderful banquet, complete with a Mariachi band and Mama's Hot Tamales. "Mama" has worked with the poor in the MacArthur Park area (Los Angeles) to create a whole tamale enterprise. She trains, empowers and equips other immigrants to open their own tamale shops. A remarkable women and a remarkable meal. A great way to end the conference; a true example of a missional, incarnational approach to living in a community.

Other blogs on the conference:

• Allelon
• Bill Kinnon
• Ryan Bell
• David Phillips

Our church's blog on the missional journey

The North Fresno Church and Makiki Christian Church groups

Day 2 at the Allelon Summer Institute for missional church leadership.

It’s been a full day at the conference. We began with another time of dwelling in the word as is the practice for each morning. We came back to the same passage we read yesterday, Luke 10:1-13. It’s a marvelous passage that brings with it so many questions:

• Is the “harvest” language really about evangelism? It seems Jesus was sending these 70 disciples to his people, not to those who didn’t know God.
• “Peace” and “Kingdom” are near whether they are embraced or not; they are not available just to those who accept them.
• This is not door-to-door evangelism. The disciples were sent to dwell with those they were ministering to – “remain in the same house,” “do not move from house to house.” Incarnational.
• Jesus sends his disciples to the places he was intending to go. What does it mean to “prepare the way” (Luke 3:4) as Luke suggests?

The main agenda item for the day was the processing of case studies in work groups. We spent over two hours asking questions, identifying underlying issues, discussing adaptive challenges, and formulating key missional leadership questions. The NFC group has been working at this with the Makiki Christian Church from Honolulu, Hawaii (time for a field trip!). After lunch we took a fair amount of time to hear a summary of key issues from each group. I compiled a loose list of the issues that were raised. Find it here (might be helpful for those who attended and want to review the discussion).

Our new friends from Makiki Christian Church

The late afternoon session was a dialog with the Lead Team (Mark, Al, Eddie, Scott and Rick). Some wonderful thoughts from Eddie Gibbs:

• The pastor needs to ask, “Have I joined the church? Why am I here?"
• “Can I trust somebody I don’t know?”
• “Am I prepared to be known?”
• The church member asks, “Do you know my world?” (not just me, but my world)
• “You cannot have communication without community.”
• “Small groups are therapy sessions, not community” (the people have no connection with each other outside of a periodic meeting).

We ended the day hearing the narratives of several of our hosts. Walt Kallestad told us of his transformation from megachurch pastor to a missional pastor. Eddie Gibbs gave us a humorous parable of the "L" plate he had to wear while he was learning to drive a motorcycle. His challenge was to wear the "L" and be lifelong learners. Alan Roxburgh told us of his journey in pastoral ministries and recounted his success and his lack of fulfillment in that success. He distanced himself from the mainline church, relocated into a church of 30 senior citizens, and began to study why Canadian churches were simply shuffling and trading church members in a time when the church no longer had a place of significance.

Others at the conference are also blogging. See Bill Kinnon (the video producer for Allelon) and David Phillips.

Eddie Gibbs

The gathering in Payton Hall

Alan Roxburgh and Mark Lau Branson

Allelon Missional Institute, Day 1

I’m currently at a missional church leadership conference at Fuller Theological Seminary. The symposium has a host of resource speakers, all influential in the missional conversation: Alan Roxburgh, Mark Branson, Eddie Gibbs, Walt Kallestad, Scott Cormode, and others. There are six of us from North Fresno Church. The beauty of this conference is that it is not a typical set of keynote addresses from a slate of experts. Each of the hosts is committed to creating a conversation in which we resource each other rather than look to the experts for their solutions to our ministry problems.

There are two goals for the conference:

• To create a learning environment in which we discover together (a great quote from Roxburgh: “We learn best from one another, BUT, we don’t want to learn from one another” (implying we like experts to tell us what to do))
• To learn from real, lived narratives of the congregations represented (the conference is limited to 75 people and every church here brought at least one case study for discussion – case studies will be the primary tool for discovery and learning)

We had a valuable time with Walt Kallestad, senior pastor of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona, as he shared his experience of pastoring a megachurch following an attractional model. There came a point when he was broken, frustrated and confused, wondering what he was doing wrong in spite of thousands of attendees. As he said, “something was missing.” Walt told us of a time where he sat in the back of his congregation tired and weeping, knowing that he had led the church down a road of consumerism and professionalism. Everything was apparently working at it’s technical best; people were coming to Christ and growing as disciples, yet his community was not being transformed, nor was he being transformed by his community. A few memorable quotes:

• Providing spiritual goods and services is not sustainable or biblical
• Consumers will consume you (the pastor)
• I would spend more time looking for Chicken Soup for the Soul stories than letting the word of God change me

Alan Roxburgh led us in a discussion of technical vs. adaptive change. Technical challenges refer to those that are met with known, tested and predictable answers. These are situations that have been encountered numerous times and require common responses. Adaptive challenges refer to those situations that present new dilemmas; this is territory that has not been traveled before. Adaptive change requires not the predefined answers of unengaged experts, but the hard work of discernment by those who are impacted by the adaptive challenge (i.e. the congregation). The important warning that comes from this discussion: adaptive challenges cannot be met with technical solutions. One of the great mistakes of the contemporary church is trying to solve the emerging issues of a post-Christian context with the same old systems and programs (but trying to do them bigger, harder and better).

At dinner time the six of us from North Fresno Church visited the Door of Hope. This transitional residence for eight homeless families is a remarkable testimony to a holistic gospel. I’m broken every time I visit this wonderful home. This is real Christian community that many of us will never know or understand. Read a previous blog here.

Krystal (Children's Ministry), Tim (Worship), Tim Peters (Door of Hope director), James (Lead Pastor)

Ryan (Youth Ministry), Loren Dubberke (Community Ministry)