Frank Pastore has a series of questions for you to guage your support of the religious left. It cautions those of us dedicated to social action to be discerning in our associations. While lockstep doctrinaire belief is not necessary, one should also be sure that we are not supporting beliefs that directly counter our own.
Lent Reflection Video
Enjoy the reflective prayers in this video. When you’re done, explore the rest of the blog as it talks about a wonderful community.
Lent Reflection: Breath Deeply
An excerpt on GodIsMyOxygen here. I will use this in my next pastor’s meeting where a disagreement erupts over translations. Be blessed.
The Church Unleashed
The second of two books that have most affected the formation of my pastoral philosophy is The Church Unleashed by Frank Tillapaugh. Long out of print but widely available used, this along with Love, Acceptance, & Forgiveness by Jerry Cook should be formative reading for anyone exploring the ideas behind the Missional Church. Tillapaugh describes in his wide-ranging chapters a variety of ministries that the Bear Valley Church explored in the 1970’s and 80’s. What is central to the development of all of the ministries is the notion that the church should focus their energies on those outside the walls of the sanctuary, to be true missional entities wherever God has planted them.
Tillapaugh emphasizes a phrase that I don’t know is original to him but has become a part of my lexicon as I work to disciple my leaders and laity. The fortress mentality is the fear of being polluted by those outside the sanctuary and therefore, the Christians must blockade themselves inside the safety of the four walls, ministering to one another. Nonsense, counters Tillapaugh, we should not be in retreat from the world but rather, we should consider our security in Christ and follow his command to be the salt and light desperately needed by the people around us.
The church he led built around the ideas in this book has lived out two fundamental ideals that remain critical to the missional churches of today. First, they have committed to maintaining minimal internal expenses in order to focus on external (outreach) ministries. I drive by the modest building every day sandwiched between apartments and small park and reflect that it could have grown much, much larger. Second, they have empowered their laity, trusting that the Holy Spirit can work through everyone. The laity are able to germinate ministries rather than waiting for seeds to be dropped from the leadership.
Long before it was a movement, the missional church was an idea. The Church Unleashed is a practical guide to the foundations of the movement. It is worth whatever effort you must expend to purchase and savor a copy of this book. But don’t stop there. Trust the Spirit’s guidance, break the fortress mentality, and expand your ministry to every corner of wherever God has placed you.
Lenten Encounter with Jesus 2
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Here our Lord calls us to lift feet that are planted firmly in this world and to place them, one at a time, on the steps up to the new kingdom. Those of the reigning religious hierarchy who caught the words of this first beatitude would certainly have failed to see how this could be. Their position and authority were given by their piety and constructed holiness and now this! This teacher who amazed the crowds and who spoke with an authority unlike their own. Now he says that humility of spirit is the key to the kingdom.
Each time we approach the teacher, our initial step is to recognize our total poverty before Him. We come to Him, helpless and dependent. As we circle in as disciples we wait, empty handed, depending on Him alone for our hope and deliverance. We must sacrifice the desire to come with our own piety and desiring the seat of the teacher.
Shall we simply give up movies for these 40 days, or shall we come to the disciples circle, hands empty and waiting?
HATE VIDEO – Valentines Day Massacre
As the message for this week has taken its final shape this morning and a new magazine article get’s its first scribbled notes, it is crushing to bear witness to the depths of hatred and violence that we so cheaply visit upon one another. I am a few days past the apogee of this story but it is so devastatingly apparent how little regard we have for others simply as human beings that you cannot help but be profoundly saddened for all of the participants in this flame out.
I won’t link to the video because it is coarse and debased and I don’t want to contribute any further to the humiliation of the two main role players. I’m sure if you are interested you can find it on YouTube. The scenario is as old as time; man and woman fall out of love, perhaps triggered by unfaithfulness on one or the other’s part, and they break up. Except the young man felt the need to gather hundreds of people in a public arena, notify film crews, hire a all female choir to add background ooh’s and ah’s, and then deceive the young woman into meeting him in the middle of this chaos to receive a ‘surprise’ that he has for her. As the singers wind down the last choruses of Not Ready to Make Nice, the young man confronts the oblivious woman with his accusation of unfaithfulness. The debasement of humanity is just beginning.
Sex and love have been so cheapened between these two people that the accusation is met with justification, supported by her needs. She then trades equally vicious accusations with him during which he admits to a tryst with a confidante of hers. Lest we forget, this entire scene is played out in the circus maximus environment created by the wall of people who are cheering this horror show on. All the while, the choir adds Michael Anthony high harmonies to the proceeding.
Is this what we’ve become? Have we so devalued one another that there is nothing that we can find worthy of our respect. Even if we subtract the misjudgment of the man and the cheap sexuality of the woman, what are we to think of everybody else involved in this. Ten or more women in the vocal group contributed to the humiliation of the unknowing coed. Not one of them said no, let’s shield her instead? Their God given talents aside, not one of them saw the indecency of their actions?
What about the circle surrounding the ‘pit’? Not one of these people turns away from the destruction of life they see before them. No one steps in and says to the man and woman that this is not appropriate. No one walks away or tries to prevent the man from carrying out his attack. No! Quite the opposite. The circle closes in and there are shouts to up the volume so that not a single crude expression is missed by the onlookers, many of who are filming and photographing the episode for posterity.
What has happened to this world? We have invented thousands of ways to kill each other, cheapened and pornified sex, and have reduced the most basic human instinct to bond with one another to the same thought that we give our choice of bathroom tissue.
If you’ve read this far you’ve probably formed one of two opinions about me. Either I’m hopelessly soft and gentle and prone to taking the ills of the world personally or that I need to get tough and put away my pollyannaish ideas that we shouldn’t treat each other this way. In reality, I hope its the former and that I continue to become more so. Maybe you can join me…
Love. Accept. Forgive.
Technorati tags: Love Acceptance & Forgiveness, Hate
Lenten Encounter with Jesus 1
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them…
As our Lenten reflection on the Sermon on the Mount begins, we are brought immediately to consider the nature of our own discipleship. Are we sitting at the feet of Jesus on a regular basis and allowing Him to teach us? Discipleship for many becomes simply a scholastic process; read-answer-listen, lather,rinse, repeat. If this is where we locate ourselves upon considering our spiritual growth, we would do well to meditate on this introductory line to the passage.
Our relationship with Him expands and matures when we are intentional about approaching Him and sitting at His feet. We must ‘go up the mountainside’ and seek out an audience with Him. Allow Jesus to sit first, assuming the position of the teacher, and then circle in close so that we miss none of His words. When we are leaning in close, the proximity amplifies the words and makes them more than that, they are active and alive and they ignite in us a passion to emulate them until the point at which they become a part of who we are.
Shall we give up chocolate, or give up our personal agendas to be formed by the Master?
Technorati tags: Jesus, Christianity, Faith, Lent, Sermon on The Mount, Religion
The Real Mary: Revelation
McKnight offers a chapter today entitled Woman of Ambivalence that encourages us to offer Mary a more charitable reading as she struggles to correlate the Jesus that is gradually being revealed to her with the Messiah of long term Jewish expectation. We often helicopter in to the scriptures in which Mary plays a role and, with our advantage of knowing how the story will play out, wonder why she is not more astute in choosing the Jesus that is present before her.
The mother Mary watches her baby grow into a child and then a man knowing that he is the child of God, the promised Messiah. What troubles her is that, as far as we can tell from the Scriptures, he is a normal child in every way. How does the mother see God in a sick child felled by the flu? How will this be the Messiah destined to restore her people when He is but a rebellious teenager struggling through adolescence? Do our own children correspond exactly to what they will be in their adult years? My own parents might give witness to the unexpected changes that come over time. Why then do we expect Mary to be able to theologically process the young man she is watching grow up.
As we process who Jesus is, do we face the same struggles that Mary does? Our devotional life is sometimes littered with expectations that He will conform to the script that we have Him following for our benefit. We do well to struggle along with Mary.
Van Halen Reunion – Jamie’s Cryin’
And just as quickly, it flames out? Like the 21 minutes of Van Halen II, they’re Outta Love Again….
Bearing Your Cross for Lent
For many, Ash Wednesday is the most public display of their faith that is seen by the world at large. The sign of cross is drawn in palm ash on the forehead, ostensibly to indicate the penitent status of the bearer. Other will observe Lent without the observance of this tradition but will focus on the sacrificial nature of the Easter event.
In the forty days that follow, how will your faith be affected? Will your sacrifice become works? Will you examine your faith in light of the public and private personae that we tend to develop? Will any injustice in the world be addressed? There are so many avenues for reflection as we approach Easter that it is an excellent avenue for personalization of your relationship to the Christ.
I’m going to meditate deeply on the Sermon on the Mount and its call to action rather than passivity this year. Perhaps you can join me.
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 