The Revolution is Love

One of the papers I am writing for the Society of Vineyard Scholars conference in 2012 is on our relational-orientation and the practices thereof.  Say what you will about the Occupy Wall St. movements...redemption and traces of the Kingdom can be found everywhere if we're looking.  I think Eisenstein is seeing the Kingdom:

A living love hurts

A living love hurts. Jesus, to prove his love for us, died on the Cross. The mother, to give birth to her child, has to suffer. If you really love one another properly, there must be sacrifice.


~ Mother Theresa of Calcutta, A Gift For God - Prayers and Meditations

NTRT Guest Post: Toward a Centered-Set....Holiness?

Today I'm guest-blogging at the Not-the-Religious-Type blog with Dave Schmelzer (Dave is also lead pastor of the Greater Boston Vineyard).

Feel free to check it out and join the conversation!

My post today explores some centered-set thoughts and perspectives as well as Stage 4 Faith trajectories regarding issues brought up in Richard Beck's book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality and Mortality.

See you there! 

I desire mercy, not sacrifice

"Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’"
         from Matthew 9



Below is Richard Beck talking about his book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality and Mortality.  I used a bunch of material from Dr. Beck's book in one of the sessions at the Justice-intensive with the HLI students a few weeks ago.  I highly recommend you read this book!  Dr. Beck will be involved in the Streaming conference at Rochester College in New York in summer 2012 along with Walter Brueggemann...it's going to kick some serious theological assonance!

I believe in the Kingdom Come...u2 edition

a once-mighty marvel

i am worn and paper-thin

a once-mighty marvel

yet such has become my skin

all the while i see

postured for indifference

they carve upon me like a tree

with a nonchalant persistence

the words stutter and stumble

sharpness like a blade

wielded with the barest tremble

sometimes in a tirade

yet how should i endure

retreat or advance

bearing a cross unsure

hence unseen at first glance

a hidden wholeness welling up therein

the once-mighty marvel

yet such has become my skin

We need to stop putting the Cart before the Horse...

I just really appreciate Donald Miller for keeping it real like this...Here are some actual characteristics of the disciples I think we can safely trust. If you resonate with any of these, you’re in a good spot and likely following Jesus:

1. You think Jesus wants to take over the government so you cut off a soldiers ear in order to get the fighting started. (The neo cons are definitely disciples!)

2. You keep pestering Jesus about who he will give more power to in heaven.

3. You have no theological training but own a small fishing business which somehow makes you qualified because you “get it.”

4. The Holy Spirit crashes into one of your mini sermons so everybody can speak different languages and outsiders think you’re drunk.

5. People ask you if you know Jesus and you freak out and say no and run away.

6. You hear they killed Jesus on a cross and you figure the whole thing was a wash and you got duped.

7. You choose other disciples by playing rock, paper scissors.

8. You teach bad theology and have to have somebody else come over and correct you.

So there you go. My guess is there’s a place in there for you. So if you’re confused about theology or power hungry or just an average idiot, take the first step. You’ll get sorted out along the way. The disciples “became” some pretty great guys in the end.

the desire grows in me simply

"More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems.

My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them."

~  Henri Nouwen

the Pitt 56: Church-Planter, Interrupted

I've been ruminating on things that have changed with me over the years, and especially after a significant struggle during a week long fast. One of the things I think God changed for me when I was fasting was my exclusion from "imagining" that I could plant a church.  You see, I was excluded from planting a church.  Now, I don't think anyone said this to me, but based on how they told me "How to Plant a Church" I was excluded, and so I just lived in this tension of feeling the call of God and not quite being empowered to embrace it.  I was interreupted...in an arrested state of development, right?  And...it sucked.  Seriously. 

And a funny thing happened to me...I began to hear voices (well ethereally One Voice, but physically a multiplicity of voices!) that told me I was included.  I could do it, and that there wasn't just one cookie-cutter for initiating a church-plant. 

Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, Leroy Barber, Jason Coker...and this is where Hugh Halter and Matt Smay's book, The Tangible Kingdom, spoke so powerfully with resonance to our little team headed to Pittsburgh.  They were all saying that there isn't just one way to plant a church, and you don't have to start with "doing church" to plant a church.    Well, that's one way, but that's not the only way...it's one way to plant the gospel so that the church grows out of the gospel being planted, but there are other ways of planting the gospel:

Can we imagine planting the gospel in maybe just 2 additional ways, and see the church grow out of that?  Then the challenge for each one is to get movement toward the overlap - the Tangible Kingdom - where Christ is more fully realized to all...

Communion: This is the typical way that most churches teach and lead church-planters to do it.  You begin by recruiting a team, especially a musician/worship person.  Then you do a good Bible study, or a good worship gathering and prayer meeting.  This is all good, foundational stuff, but it comes with it's own challenges that we all know fairly well.  Example: Most pastors of churches I know, 5-10-15 years down the road, and looking at the people who gather at their Sunday morning services, have this to say: "Can you believe that all this started in a little Bible Study in my living room!?"  Awesome, right...yes, it is awesome, and often has led to great churches being built and thriving.  Challenges: While getting people to gather for study or prayer or worship is what first formed them as a community, the challenge is always to get these gathered to "do community and do mission".  Sometimes that feels like a "Bait-and-Switch" to people.  But usually, you have to plan and advertizxe and train "Small Groups" or LifeGroups or Kinships or whatever you want to call them.  The tendency is also to have event-centric mission, which while great, can hinder actual relationships between the church and the larger community developing.  Also, most pastors tell you about the 20/80 principle, 20% of people do most of the service and outreach in churches.  But I believe this 20/80 principle is based on the church being planted in this way, out of this circle. 

Community: This is another area where we might expand our imagination for how churches might be planted and especially who might plant them with their own giftedness.  What if your gifted leadership is more towards hospitality?  The church that grows from this circle is founded in hospitality.  Example: This is the circle that Hugh Halter and Matt Smay really invested in when they moved to Denver.  Their church grew out of the gospel being planted in the incarnational community circle.  How did they do that?  They befriended people with purpose, parties and hospitality.  In fact, they set the concrete goal of making 50 new friends each when they moved to Denver.  But they had a great and particular definition of "friend".  Knowing a persons name wasn't enough.  Knowing where they lived and worked wasn't enough.  Having them over for a dinner party wasn't enough.  They decided that the relationship only counted for them as "friend" when that other person invited them into their circle of friends.  Adullam, their incarnational community church in Denver grew out of this sort of church-planting.  Challenges: While people feel really connected and family one-another and getting people to gather for food, fun and fellowship can be really life-giving, the challenges here include moving into mission and communion circles.  Too often community becomes an end in itself and they struggle to include reaching beyond themselves.  I have heard that a lot of house churches have this kind of challenge. 

Mission: This is the area that we feel God is calling us to plant the gospel in Pittsburgh (well, actually it's between this circle and the incanrational community circle).  In this circle, the gospel is planted and people are gathered through missional initiatives in your larger community/city.  This is where God's heart for the poor, the least, and the orphan and widow is found.  Example: Brandon Hatmaker is probably the best example of this I know of at-present (because I met him and heard his story back in September).  His experience is chronicled in his newly released book, The Barefoot Church.  You can read his whole story there, but what I want to highlight is that when Brandon left as pastor of a large church, he asked God what He wanted him to do to begin a new church.  God's answer?: Serve the poor.  Fine good, right?  But how do I gather people?  Serve the poor.  OK, but what about worship and prayer?  Serve the poor.  Finally, Brandon said, OK, that's what I'm going to do, and starting with just his little family, they began serving the poor and homeless on the streets and in the parks in and around Austin, Texas.  And then people got interested in what he was doing...not other churched people, but people who hadn't connected with Jesus, either ever or in a long time.  The Father led them to plant the gospel in doing mission, and the church grew out of that.  Challenges: There are challenges here, just like there are in all the circles where church can grow.  One challenge Brandon faced was, he had a lot of new believers, because they saw how great God's heart was for people.  The challenge to get people to gather for prayer or bible study or musical worship was there, because the new community of believers didn't have a grid for that, so they was challenging.  Also, in this circle, you get the "doers" but often the doers have a difficult time just "being" together.  That's another challenge, here, to get people to just be together without having to always be out serving...to not feel guilty about that, but take time to relish relationship, and get some soul care so we don't just burn out.  But what if one of the challlenges here is the opposite to the 20/80 principle under Communion?  What is the challenge here is that only 20% of the people make it to communion-type gatherings?  That's still a challenge, because we need to pastor, lead and teach everyone in our community...but secretly, I think that might be a little better challenge for me! 

Now all of these overlap (see diagram above), and almost every pastor and leader in church I know is trying to get to that center of the Tangible Kingdom, where all three overlap.  All three circles are good, and I believe churches that grow out of all three can be really healthy, but eventually we want it all...and in the meanwhile we're all moving toward the center overlap, where a fuller expression of Jesus and the Kingdom is found!

Increasingly, we feel like one of the best metaphors for what we hear God calling us to do is the Jesuits.  They were the missionaries and, I dunno, sort-of pre-church-planters of the Church back in the day.  They would go into a community and set up "The Mission to Santa Cruz" - or be-that-as-it-may Pittsburgh! - and begin doing missional initiatives and compassionate ministry among the least and the lost. 

Now, did they "do church"?  They certainly celebrated the sacraments, and they gathered for prayer and worship, right?  But really they didn't focus on "doing church", they focused on mission and fostered a faith community, and let the church grow out of that...and eventually Rome would send an official priest to set up the "doing church" stuff way after it was all ready going on there, just not the emphasis. 

So, that's where our little band of subversive missionaries to Pittsburgh is at...we think God is calling us to go do mission, plant the gospel and cultivate what grows out of that, moving toward the overlap of the Tangible Kingdom.  In fact, we don't even use the term church-planting much any longer, because we've come to know how much of a loaded term it is.

[to be continued...]

Book Recommendation: God in a Brothel

This past long weekend, the students and leaders from the Heroic Leadership Institute got to visit with Daniel Walker (author of God in a Brothel) and hear his own story and testimony firsthand.  It was a touching and hope-filled testimony full of both the darkness that we fight against, counting the cost of being involved and redemption in the midst of our lives. 

This is the true story of an undercover investigator's experiences infiltrating the multi-billion dollar global sex industry. It is a story of triumph for the children and young teens released from a life of slavery and the rescuer who freed many hundreds of victims leading to the prosecution of dozens of perpetrators. And it is a story of haunting despair for those left behind in corrupt systems of law enforcement.

It is the personal story of Daniel Walker, one man who followed a path of costly discipleship, agonizing failure and unlikely redemption.

And it is a challenge to God's people to join in the battle that all might be freed.

Check it out here!

Justice-intensive with the Heroic Leadership Institute

Consider me psyched....today 12 students from the Heroic Leadership Institute arrive to join us here at the Central Maryland Vineyard for their "Justice-intensive". HLI is a boot camp for young (aimed at 18 to 35-ish) leaders in the body of Christ. It is a 9-month full-time training program currently based in Lewiston, Maine at the Pathway Vineyard.

The dream of HLI is to create a path within the Vineyard movement for our young leaders to be trained and released into significant ministry and as life-long lovers of Jesus and people. The hope is to create a green-house affect where the students are exposed in an intense way to three strategic venues of training. The rest of this week, I get to be their main guide, faciliator and instructor...so this is going to challenge me (and hopefully them as well!).  It's going to be intense: filled with both serious hands-on justice training and experience on the street, formational prayer and soul care for a sustainable life of "Doing Justice", as well as some in-depth teaching and conversational reflection on Jesus' heart for the justice of the Kingdom!

As a way of preparation and focusing our attention on what God has given us to do, we've been meditating on this verse from Isaiah 30...why don't you join us throughout the rest of this week in praying through and meditating on this with us: “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”