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Rain and Shine- Brightest and Darkest Moments in Church Planting

A couple of months ago, I participated in a little conference here in PDX, co-sponsored by the Ecclesia Network and North West Church Planters. It was called Rain and Shine, and the point was to draw together, for two days, a group of church planters who would talk about the brightest and darkest moments they had experienced in Church planting. Everyone got 14 minutes to speak. Here's an edited version of what I presented- my highest and lowest moments in being a church planter. 

 

 

Probably like a lot of you, I came to church planting through the route of dissatisfaction and hurt. The angry young man. I grew tired of asking the same questions, banging my head against the same walls- tired of feeling hurt by the system and tired of seeing people I loved leave because they had been “hurt.” 

So, when we planted our church here in Portland about 7 years ago- like you did or will do, we secretly, inwardly held the idea, even if we outwardly disavowed it, that we were going to be the church that got things right.

It’s not so much we thought we were better or somehow the pinnacle of ecclesiastical evolution- it was simply that we thought we could learn from the mistakes of the churches we had come from and just do it differently. Seems so easy, right?

We were going to be organic, non-programmatic, we would listen, learn, love... and though we took careful pains to warn people as they came into our community that community hurts, again, secretly, we believed- we would be the church that would never hurt people. 

The question in our talks here at Rain and Shine is this: What are the darkest and brightest moments of church planting for you? And for me, there have been plenty of both- but probably the darkest has been over the last couple of years realizing that no matter what we do, we were going to be a church that hurt people. 

I first started getting an inkling of this when I noticed that though we saw many people coming into church and coming to Christ or coming BACK to Church or back to Christ through our community, we saw just as many for whom we were the last stop on the way out. They had grown up in the evangelical church, many were even pastor’s kids, and they would come to our community as this last ditch effort. We meet in a pub, we’re not happy clappy, we’re not trying to be slick or production-oriented- for a lot of them, we were something still Christian that they thought maybe they could stomach. We even had some tell us “This is my last try- if this doesn’t work, I’m out.” I mean, no pressure, right?

And time and time again, though we saw many stick and find what they were looking for, we saw just as many turn around and walk out the door again, some with real anger towards us, or towards me. And in trying to pin down why this would happen, we’ve never come to any real conclusions, other than that some people are just going to be hurt, no matter what you do- their issues with God and with church are going to bubble up. Which church in inconsequential- it could be any. And quite often, it’s going to be yours. 

But it hasn’t always been simply that some people were setting themselves up to be hurt- sometimes it was us- our choices, our actions. In dealing with people, with couples or individuals or even staff members, we made choices with the best of intentions that ended up alienating people, confirming their worst fears about church...hurting them. 

It wasn’t what we intended, we meant well, but we stepped wrong and someone else ended up getting blown out the doors. 

There have even been times when we knew- we knew- going into a situation-  there’s potential here for great hurt, and we as elders would circle up and discuss- how can we do this with the minimum amount of pain? How can we do this right? Only to have it blow up in our faces, to have our decisions and choices hurt people we loved very much. 

So what is MY darkest moment in church planting? My darkest moment in church planting was coming to the realization that no matter what I did, I was going to contribute to the hurt, the brokenness and pain that people had around church. I just was. We just were. 

We always wanted to be a part of people’s faith stories. It’s just that we wanted to be a part of the good bits- the place where people came to Jesus- not the place where they rejected Him. The place where people found community and had their faith in followers of Jesus restored- not the place that got to drive the final nail in the coffin.

And after instance after instance of seeing people leave- angry, hurt- of trying SO HARD to bring the least amount of pain to people through some really hard situations and instead finding ourselves somehow, inexplicably bringing the maximum amount, I’ve come to the hard but good realization, that we don’t get to pick which part of people’s stories we get to play. Yes- we get to pick whether or not we will act in love, with kindness, like Jesus to the best of our ability- I get that. But I’m telling you- there are times when I have felt and when you will feel as though we were in a tragic opera- that God was using us in someone else’s life and what He happened to need at the moment was not a soft place for them to land but a hammer and a chisel. God was going to use us to get some people where HE needed them- to a place of discomfort or even crisis. There have been times when I cried out to God- really? Really? We’re trying so hard with this person and still- it seems like all we can do is screw it up further- that everything we do just seems to make it worse. REALLY?

And if that’s all there was to this thing, I think I probably would have packed it in a long time ago...

The good news is, though there have been a lot of dark moments, a lot of times when I wondered if we were going to “make it”, if what we were doing was even worth the effort it took to “make it,” there have been a lot of bright moments as well- mostly centered around the times when we stopped trying to build the Church, and just rested in the joy of being the church. 

As I think back to those moments of gathering down at the river or creek to baptize people, of dancing for hours after marrying two people who met and fell in love in our community, of sitting with people and untangling some of the knots that they had encountered in life or faith, even of walking with some couples through some really deep water and seeing marriages actually make it, I’m glad that God has allowed me to even take part in this thing. Because though we often unintentionally hurt people, though we mess up, though God uses us in hard ways at times, He also is kind enough to let us share in the up times as well. The putting back together of what is broken and the healing of what was hurt. 

And I’ve been able to see that best and brightest in seeing how the Gospel actually works in community. How rather than sitting as a lifeless proposition on a page, the Gospel is actually the tool the Holy Spirit uses most as He brings us not just to a saving place of faith in Jesus, but to maturity and Christ-likeness. 

I have loved sitting with people who are describing to me their struggles with workaholism, or anger, or money, and realizing- Oh- the real issue here isn’t money, or work or whatever- the real issue is what you are asking it to do for you. To somehow save you, give you hope, give you worth. Let me tell you about Jesus. 

I’ve loved sitting with couples in crisis- well, I haven’t loved that part, but I’ve loved being able to tell them- I know, I know the hurt seems overwhelming and forgiveness seems like an impossibility right now, but I want you to think hard, to remember, to meditate on what Jesus has done for you- how and how much He’s forgiven you, and see if that doesn’t open up new possibilities for you here.

And most of all, I have loved realizing that even for me, at my darkest moments as a pastor and in church planting, the Gospel has something to say. Those moments laying awake in bed at 2:30am on Sunday night after preaching- when attendance was low, and giving non-existent and I’m feeling like: “After that sermon it will be a miracle if anyone comes back next week.” And realizing- that in getting so tied up in the metrics, in resting so much of the weight of my soul and my identity on results, on what happened, on how I was perceived and received, I was asking those things to do for me what only Jesus could- to tell me I was worth something, make me whole, save me. 

The Good News is that my people and their attendance, their applause, their approval are not my savior. Jesus is. 

And so my brightest moment of all in church planting has been realizing that the Gospel- this good news about Jesus and His kingdom isn’t just a truth we learn at the beginning of our spiritual journey... the Good News is the transformative engine of change in the world, not just for Non-Christians, but for Christians and even for pastors. Our communities and we ourselves will never outgrow needing to hear it, and so we’ll never get past needing to preach it to them, to others... to ourselves. 

 

In church planting, and in pastoring in this broken world hurt is inevitable- both to yourself and to those you are serving and reaching. Thank God we have in the Gospel the answer to the brokenness and hurt we inevitably experience and even in our best intentions bring to other people. Thank God for Jesus. 

Amen? 

 

The Theology of Sex, Part One

"One of evangelicalism’s biggest problems is we have no compelling sexual vision which makes sense of celibacy as a fulfilling calling. We have little or no sexual ethic except the glorified desire of Hollywood lopped onto heterosexual monogamous marriage. We have no theology of desire formation. It is “lust,” and enjoy it, only while married to one person. We have no concept of the “ordering of desire.” This is why our witness is so vapid among the sexual brokenness of our day." - David Fitch

I think Fitch may be onto something here, though I will say that this is rapidly changing. I think from the twin poles of places like Mars Hill in Seattle and Mars Hill in Michigan, this topic is being, uh, fleshed out. Rob Bell's Sex God went a long way (in a cool, lots of white-space-on-the-page way).

At any rate, here's my take- part 1. This is taken from a two part sermon series we did a couple of years ago and owes much to Ben Patterson and, as always Tim Keller.

 

 

 

This Fall we are doing all we can to focus on how the Gospel shapes us, both as individuals and as a community.  And while we'll get into that topic more properly 2 weeks from now, for this Sunday and next we're going to look at a topic near and dear to my heart... and probably to yours... Sex.

How many of you have ever heard a fantastic sermon on sex- one that just blew you away? Well, I wish I could say you were going to hear that today... :)

The elders asked me this summer to do this, and I was a bit, uh, hesitant, because to be honest- it can be embarrassing and uncomfortable and the fact is, no matter how we talk about this topic, no matter what positions we stake out, in doing so we'll be drawing some lines and someone will disagree and get their knickers in a twist. But it’s important. We are all sexual beings- it’s how we were made. Single, married, young adult, middle aged, 55 and up, after a certain age, we are all sexual beings. So let me say a couple of things as we start...

I recognize that occasionally, when we get to discussions of tough topics, preaching turns into a great spectator sport. We all want to see how Bob is going to get himself out of this one. Well- the short answer is- I guess we'll see.

Actually- the real answer is- I hope I don't. I don't want to get out of anything- But I do want to recognize that there are people here who are at all different places both in their spiritual journey AND in their views on sex.

So let me be upfront with you.

We're going to approach these two weeks both unabashedly pro-sex and unabashedly pro-bible. I believe, and am going to invite you in joining me in believing, that sex is a good gift from God and that He has definite ideas about how best to use that gift.

Now when I say that, don't either get too excited or too afraid- We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about don't do this and don't do that... Why?

 

Be Careful Little Ears...

This post by Ernest Goodman over at Missions Misunderstood captures pretty well both how we at Evergreen want to view Scripture and how we DON'T want to teach it to our children...

Bible Stories

Growing up in church, kids always got special treatment. At my church, for example, there was some unwritten rule giving all adults in church “special” permission to “discipline” us as though we were their own kids. Doyle Braden was an arm-grabber, as I recall. Mr. Lettow would flick the backs of our heads. Sean’s dad pinched ears. Hard.

I digress.

Church kids didn’t have to listen to sermons. We were allowed to draw on the backs of bulletins and take naps. The sermon was for “grownups.” The kids, well, we were told “Bible stories.”

I remember my Sunday School teacher pulling out the flannelgraph and using felt-cutouts of camels, caves, and men with beards retell (okay- summarize) the stories of the Bible. Noah and the Ark. The Fiery Furnace. The Good Samaritan. Great stories, all told in kid-friendly ways. You know, like on Sesame Street.

And that was the problem. Our little kid brains had a hard time telling the difference between Bible stories (which, I presume our teachers believed to have really happened or, in the case of the Samaritan, to have really been told by Jesus) and every other story we had been told. After all, David and Goliath had a giant, but so did Jack and the Beanstalk. Jesus was resurrected by the power of God, Sleeping Beauty was revivified by the Kiss of a Prince. To us, it was all kind of the same.

To make matters worse, our teachers often oversimplified the stories, diluting them into moralistic tales that they were never meant to be. Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau, and Achan, taught us that is was bad to tell a lie. David and Jonathan showed us that sharing made us a good friend. Jonah was a lesson in obedience. Sunday morning Bible stories were like lo-tech Saturday morning cartoons. Only boring.

Looking back, I recognize that each “story” was an opportunity to share the gospel; to demonstrate our need for a savior and to recognize God’s provision in Christ. But instead, we learned that sharing and using good manners made Jesus happy. As we grew up, those stories were left behind for more practical topical Bible studies and the abstract “meat” of Pauline theology.

Of course, we eventually learned that The Three Little Pigs, The Seven Dwarfs, and all the other protagonists in our childhood stories weren’t real. How were we to know that their Bible story counterparts were?

I suppose what I’m getting at is that we need to be careful how we communicate things. The Bible isn’t God’s Cautionary Tales. Sure, there are lots of examples in the history of the Creator’s interaction with creation, but there’s more to it than that. Everything recorded in the text points to humanity’s relationship to God, made right only through the life, death, and real resurrection of Jesus. The way we talk about that history will affect how it is understood by those we tell.

Brothers And Sisters, We Kinda Sorta Are Professionals

If there’s any issue at all that pastors must wrestle with, beyond how the Gospel applies to their own lives and ministry, it’s the issue of rest and Sabbath.

Wait- Scratch that. Those are actually the same issue. 

More about that in a second, but first the question: Why is Sabbath so hard for us? 

There was a time a few years back when, while still working at a church, I was in a support staff role doing media design. It also happened to be the first year of my marriage, and as far as first-year-of-marriage jobs go, I couldn’t have asked for a better one. I came in the morning, did my work, went home and didn’t think about it again until the next day. The computers I worked on were there at the church office, I couldn’t take work home with me, and I was very, very okay with that. When I was off, I was off. 

Fast forward a couple of years and we’ve planted a church. Suddenly, that’s all I can think about. Early morning, late night- I’m working on the website, writing posts on our forum, answering emails. Always on. 

What was the difference? I was working at a church during both periods, both were “ministry”... 

Yes, both were ministry. But the difference is one was a job, and the other? 

My identity.

For many of us, ministry is viewed as a calling, and we purposefully push back against the idea of ministry as a job or a profession. Usually that thinking is helpful. But maybe the unintended side-effect has been that the natural boundaries that often come with a job simply aren’t present or present enough in our ministries, often to our own detriment and worse, the detriment of our families.

Like I said, for the last few years of church planting and pastoring, I’ve been “always on,” answering the phone when it rang, working on sermons on my weekends, packing my schedule with ministry meetings and events, and just generally being a pastor all the time. Through it all, I’ve watched with a bit of envy as friends I have go to work and come home; as they turn it off and enjoy their nights and weekends without always thinking about work. 

And as I’ve gotten more tired, less effective and increasingly frustrated with my decreasing ability to be present when and where I really need to be, I’ve realized that the issue isn’t so much time-management or getting more productive (though those help) but rather a shift in thinking and belief. 

I needed two things. 

First, as always, I need more fully to embrace the Gospel at a personal and heart level. My failure at turning off ministry and truly resting as part of my weekly rhythms reveals within me a basic disbelief of the Gospel truth that Jesus is enough and that my identity can and should be rooted in His finished work for me, not the results I get, the church I pastor and how well (or not) it’s doing, or whether I think people are approving or disapproving of me based on the amount of access I give them to myself and my time.  

The only way we pastors will ever find sustainability and longevity in ministry is if we do what we tell other people to do ALL THE TIME: Rest our souls in the finished work of Christ. Stop getting our identity from our job/ministry. Take some time to unplug, unwind and more importantly, connect with God, our families and our own souls again.

Secondly, along with leaning more and more deeply on Jesus, and understanding that my value and worth are derived from what He did, not what I do, I find the most helpful thing I can do is to regain a sense of where the job pieces of ministry start and stop. My calling is to be a full-time follower of Jesus and to serve Him with the gifts He’s given me without reservation. Right now, my profession is serving as a pastor to my community. And whereas I once saw those two things as being virtually identical and overlapping, I can now see that they aren’t. 

There are things like kindness and mercy, patience and justice, how I relate to God and relate to others, basically Christlikeness, that I need to pursue hard 24-7. But there are other pieces of what I do that are still ministry, but need to fall into the category of 9-5. And I don’t mean just the admin stuff. Writing my sermon on my day off? Answering the phone during dinner? Doing the emergency counseling session? Sure- there will be times when I need to bend a little. But I’m beginning to see that for the sake of my family, I need to recategorize much of my ministry activity. I need, like those friends of mine with their 9-5 jobs, to be able to say with equal conviction, “Now I’m at work and it’s time to get after it” AND “Now I’m off- I’m going to let that sit until Monday morning when I can give it my full attention. Right now, I’m not working, and my family needs me.”

Essential to truly resting from our work is being able, in a sense, to put that work on the shelf for a day or two, step away from it, and let go. 

Brothers and sisters, (with apologies and all due respect to John Piper) we kinda sorta are professionals. And truly finding rest and Sabbath will depend both on how you look at Jesus AND how you look at your job. Know when you are at work and on the clock and give the communities you serve the full benefit or your attention and efforts. Know when you are not at work, and when you are off, be off. And know and remember most of all where true rest is found. 

Malcolm Muggeridge on the One

"We look back upon history, and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counterrevolutions, wealth accumulated and wealth disbursed. Shakespeare has written of the rise and fall of great ones, that ebb and flow with the moon.

I look back upon my own fellow countrymen (Great Britain), once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world, most of them convinced, in the words of what is still a popular song, that ‘the God who made them mighty, shall make them mightier yet.’

I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian (Hitler) announce to the world the establishment of a Reich that would last a thousand years. I have seen an Italian clown (Mussolini) say he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin (Stalin), acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as being wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.

I have seen America wealthier and, in terms of military weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together–so that had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar, or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone! Gone with the wind!

England, now part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keeps their motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixote’s of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone! Gone with the wind!

Behind the debris of these solemn supermen, and self-styled imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of One: because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone, mankind may still have peace–the person of Jesus Christ.

I present him as the way, the truth, and the life. Do you know Him?"

- Malcolm Muggeridge (ht)

Elyse Fitzpatrick on how the Gospel can make a practical difference

Elyse Fitzpatrick was one of my high school Bible teachers. Of course, she was just "Mrs Fitz" to us then, not the well-known author writing books and getting posted on the Gospel Coalition website! Back then I was the budding 5 Point Calvinist and she my main theological sparring partner. We seem to have crossed each other though as I've very much moderated my youthful Calvin obsession ("I am a C... I am a CA... I am a CALVINIST, and I have CALVIN in my HEART...") and she's now heating up the Reformed blogoshpere. At any rate, one thing we can now wholeheartedly agree on is how the Gospel makes a real difference even in our every day life. Her example here is extremely mundane, and I doubt that I'd necessarily unpack things to this depth in the Grocery store, but it's a great rundown of how the Gospel can and should make a difference for us at some of the harder moments in life.

Briefly, here’s how the whole gospel message might impact me when I’m struggling with my own unbelief, idolatry and sin: Let’s say that I’ve got company coming over for dinner and I realize that I’m running low on table salt. I calculate the time I need to get to the store, get the salt and get home so that I can be a gracious, organized hostess (idols everywhere here). I jump in my car, race up to the store, grab the salt and run to the Quick Check Out line only to find myself stuck behind another woman who obviously didn’t read the “10 Items or Less” sign. Instantly I’m angry and then, because I know that my anger is sinful, I feel guilty and then, because I remember all the times I’ve failed like this, I despair. Now, what are my options?

Read the rest of a very cool article here

Forget everything except...

"For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified." -St Paul, 1 Cor 2:2

 For me, the last few years of thinking, praying and preaching have largely been an exercise in coming to grips with this thought: forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.

Like many who started off in evangelicalism and especially in youth ministry, the trap of seeing preaching/teaching/pastoring as largely a matter of helping pretty good people become slightly better people is one I fell into face first. For me, it was about "How God Wants Us To Live." The Bible was the Handbook for living and my job was to help people understand what God wanted them to do. 

Oh, sure- there was something about Jesus in there. It's like He was the ticket in to the dance, but it was really all about how you moved and what you did once you were IN.

And I was constantly surprised when that moralistic do-better message failed to capture anyone's heart or move anyone to anything beyond incremental change. My efforts seemed to produce not a group of people so captured by an overwhelming love for a Savior who would lay down His all for them that they would lay down their all for Him, but rather groups of (interestingly enough) slightly guilty, slightly self-satisfied religious people who always berated themselves for not doing better and salved that guilt with the thought that at least they were doing better than those people. Who "those people" were changed over the years. First it was the Catholics, then "liberals" (anyone to the left of us), then finally as this all took on a slightly emergent sheen, "evangelicals" or "fundamentalists" (anyone to the right of us).

At the peak of my frustration with all of this, I was introduced to Tim Keller. As a recovering Calvinist, I was at first a bit leery of the Presbyterian pastor from New York. But in the same way that CS Lewis speaks so well to the secular skeptic, I think Keller speaks to those skeptical of Reformed theology- those who don't want to end up like so many of the bitter Calvinist trolls who seem to populate the corners of the internet. 

At any rate, his assertion that the Bible is not about YOU, but rather about Jesus, about the story of God's redemption and Redeemer was game changing for me. 

Suddenly, my role was not to tell people how to be like various Bible heroes (who really weren't all that heroic if we're going to be honest) and how to do better/more, but to do what Scripture actually did- point them to Jesus, always and only, let their hearts and minds be moved by the Good News of what God has done for them in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to take that heart movement and alchemize it into Christ-likeness in their lives individually and communally. 

Practically speaking, this means I approach texts (even head-scratching ones from the OT) with the basic questions of "How does this point us to Jesus?" and how does the Gospel answer the questions that people will be asking around this text/issue? We always end up back where we need to be: At Jesus and what He's done for us, and though we often get to what we need to do as a response, the first thing we always need to do is see how His work on our behalf is enough- how Jesus Christ crucified is the answer that leads to all the other answers. 

So that means answering practical questions about things like self-image, success, money, sex with some variation of "Until you are freed from your need for success, a failure you will remain." That is, until we see that in Jesus and His righteous life and sacrificial death imputed to us we have what we need, we will always struggle. As long as we look to other things (in biblical language: idols) to save us and until we put our hope in the only One strong enough to bear it, we'll continue to live lives of either overt unhappiness or, even should we largely get what we are striving for, an undercurrent of "is this all there is"?  

And thus change happens, individually and communally, not when we try harder to do better, but when we are able to lay down the need to do for ourselves what God wants to do for us in Christ, all our little self-salvation projects, and lean more and more into and onto Jesus.

The challenge, on an individual level (and speaking personally, it IS a challenge) is to live this. And on a leadership level to creatively move to this through all my counseling, preaching, teaching. To find 100 different ways to say the same thing. Honestly, I think I've got maybe 5 (some who listen to me preach regularly might think that generous). I need more. 

But... I think I finally know what Paul meant when he said "I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified." My job isn't to help people understand what God wants them to do. My job is to help them see, understand and be moved by what God has already done. That's the difference between good advice and Good News. Out of that, as they follow the One who has captured their heart, God will speak and I can help them listen, process and respond appropriately- but it all flows first and foremost from the ground of how God is redeeming us and the world through the work of Jesus on our behalf. 

"I'm awful!" and "I'm awesome!" BOTH miss the point...

"Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers  are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God…Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace." -Jerry Bridges

The Gospel for Portland

I helped edit and am contributing an essay to a book which will come out this Spring from Ecclesia Press (part of the Ecclesia Network) called Viral Hope. The book is written by authors from all over, each expressing their take on the Gospel for their city. 

Here's mine- the Gospel For Portland. 

I love the city of Portland. 

It would be impossible for me to estimate how many times I’ve said that sentence over the last decade and a half of living in the Rose City. 

There’s so much to recommend it, but I honestly think one of the things I love so much are the people. At times a bit eccentric, but almost always kind and polite, they are concerned about each other and the world. If you believe in community, in caring for the environment, in taking care of others, especially those on the margins, then Portland is for you. 

And interestingly enough, those are also very same reasons I love Jesus. 

As I read the Gospel accounts of His life, and as I see the nascent church movement He left behind, I see exactly those things- a deep love for community, a care for the oppressed, the marginalized and the poor and not only a desire, but a commitment to put back together in our world that which has been ruined and spoiled. 

“Look, I am making all things new,” says Jesus. 

The man whom the religious leaders of His day despised, in part because of the company He kept and in part because He threatened their power structures came bringing what He called “Good News.”

And that was this: God has not forgotten us. He’s on the move. Though it’s hard to see, especially in the midst of tragedy and pain, God is busy. Bringing hope out of despair, bringing redemption and forgiveness, bringing life. 

The story of redemption that God is writing in history is hard to see because we live before the final conclusion, but we see the foreshadows of it all around us. We see it in the person of Jesus and His resurrection which showed- this man who dared to speak truth to power and proclaim light in darkness was no fraud or crackpot. We see it in those who follow Jesus and how with their love for each other, their love and care for the poor, their care for creation and generous, sacrificial responses to tragedy  they point to a future reality that’s both amazingly different and incomprehensibly better than our present. 

Yes, those followers of Jesus often fail to live up to and adequately picture all that Jesus taught and is doing in the world. And when they do so, they are, however inadvertently, pointing to a common truth we all share as humans: none of us, no matter how well-meaning, ever live up to even our own ideals, or those of the people around us, much less what God has envisioned for humanity- and so we all need grace, we all need forgiveness. 

Which is another reason I’m so glad for Jesus. 

The Good News is that God, in Jesus, has turned back, is turning back and will someday completely turn back evil and death and completely restore all of creation. And through Jesus He’s offering us a redeemed community, in a renewed creation, in relationship with God Himself. 

That is great Good News, Portland.

*HOW* I need my family...

That I need my family is beyond question. 

But I'm continually learning new ways of how I need them...

This week the whole family is gone. And while it initially overwhelmed me with feeling lonely without and "apart" from them, I've settled down into very much enjoying the time. 

The house is clean- the moment the kids drive out the driveway with Amy I feel an overwhelming urge to pick crap up- mostly because I know- I KNOW- that if I pick x, y or z up, x, y or z will stay picked up- at least until the kids get home again. 

Maybe you're the kind of guy who goes all feral when forced bachelorhood arrives. I'm not- In fact, I'm never as neat, as fastidious as when the family is gone. The bed has been made every morning (because when I get up now, I'm not leaving a still-sleeping wife and/or 1 or 2 kids behind, so it's easy just to pull the covers up and straighten everything). There are no dishes in the sink. The living room is straight and my office has never been tidier. 

In fact, I've had time to do a lot of things I haven't seemed to be able to get to since we moved in- closet organized, clothes gone through and culled (for Goodwill), the kids rooms are picked up... the place is looking good. 

And I'm feeling good- getting good rest, all alone in that big bed with no one to kick me awake in the middle of the night, and no one coming into our room crying about this or that at all hours. So nice- my body doesn't seem to want to wake up at 2:30 am anymore... or even 5am. The more human hour of 6:30 has been the new norm. I wake, enjoy a leisurely stroll downstairs, walk out on the back deck for a deep breath, coffee cup in hand- not worried about getting anything done before anyone wakes up, because... well, it's just me. 

Feels like the stress has melted away, the blood pressure raised by tantrums and whining and battles of will has gone down- it's like I'm a different person when the family is gone. 

I was thinking about all of that this morning as I sat in my chair, Bible open in front of me, coffee mug at the ready- I am a different person. One who feels much more in control of his surroundings (expressed by the obsessive need to clean) and, in some ways, himself. Less stressed, less anxious... less in need of God. 

Uh oh. 

As I sat, I reflected that while I have Gotten Things Done, I haven't exactly been a "prayer warrior" the past few days. WIth the stress of kids and the responsibilities of Husband and father have also gone the desperation and desire to connect to my Source that has been my life-line these past few years. 

Through this family, the Gospel gets preached to me in ways I need to hear it. 

In my wife and family I find not only great fulfillment and joy, but also a constant reminder of how much I need a Savior- of my selfishness and self-centeredness. I have in them a continual (and good) challenge to my idolatrous desire to have things my own way. The stress I feel at the tantrums and such isn't because of them- it's because of me- my reaction to them and their affront to my love for my own plans, convenience, comfort- whatever- that their understandably childish behavior is getting in the way of. 

I'm grateful that God has given me a relationship with my wife in which I am constantly called on the carpet for selfish behaviors and attitudes- without her, the idea of "laying down my life" would most likely have remained academic to me. God has used this relationship to enrich my character, my understanding of Jesus and life in His way, and through it- challenge though it is, helped me to understand just how much I need Him. 

Same thing with my kids- I generally approach parenting with a pretty simple prayer: "Help!"

That's a prayer I haven't prayed for a couple of days now... and that's a problem.

Thank You God, for my family. I need them in so many ways. 

Come home soon guys! I love and miss you...

Evergreener Aubrey Peth on... Measurements.

Love that Evergreen is full of people who process the ins and outs of life in such a Jesus-y (that's for you Anne Lamott fans...  "Gospel-Centered" for you Keller fans) way... 

Here's some:

Yesterday I had to measure myself for another wedding come November. 

I’m actually really excited for the AZ wedding of my good friends Kyle DiRoberts and Lolly Mullen. I’m also ready to brave the 20-person bridal party (huzzah! numbers unite!).

However, “taking my measurements” (bridesmaid dress) kinda felt like a 2×4 to the face.  For a few hours (yes, hours) I pondered the trials of womanhood via measuring tape/scale/pants-that-sometimes-do-not-fit after taking down my numbers. I wasn’t thrilled about how I was feeling.

I then thought, “I’m pretty sure that Jesus doesn’t care about my exact measurements.”

So, I got over it.

(slowly)

As I continue to question/live/ponder I’m gaining more of an understanding as to what “healthy” means...

Read the rest here

The Gospel is the Antidote to Everything

Love this- from blogger/pastor Jared Wilson 

The Gospel is the Antidote to Everything

Submitted by jared.wilson on Wed, 02/25/2009 - 10:20am

Once there were two brothers. You know their story, more than likely. One was wasteful, exploitative, wanton, licentious. One was rigid, moralistic, uptight, legalistic. Two brothers with two personalities and two sets of attendant sins. But their father loved them both and all that he had belonged to both of them equally.

This is how staggeringly awesome the gospel of Jesus is.

Two sisters. One is a busybody, the other kinda poky. One rarely Sabbaths; the other makes every day a Sabbath. The prescription for both is focus on Jesus.

Two Americans. One is a practicing homosexual and proud of it. The other is a practicing Baptist and proud of it. One trusts his feelings, the other trusts his actions. Both are in desperate need of Jesus for pretty much the same reason.

This is how wonderful the gospel of Jesus. It's the skeleton key for all of humanity.

Medicine doesn't work this way. You don't treat spina bifida with drugs for leukemia. (At least, I don't think you do.) You don't give a decongestant to a kid with athlete's foot. For every condition, there is a specific treatment. Different symptoms, different fixes.

But the gospel isn't like that. It fixes everything.

We all exhibit a multitude of symptoms for our conditions, running the gamut from self-indulgent immorality to self-satisfying morality. Opposite ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between. Whatever your symptoms, the gospel is the answer.

There is no problem, pain, or perniciousness outside the universe-spanning scope of the gospel.
The gospel carries with it resurrection power.

So Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, rich or poor, smart or dumb, well or sick, bad or good . . . the gospel is the power to save for all who believe.

The gospel is the antidote to everything.

(ht:cultural savage)

Jesus is the Gospel...

I was talking through a book proposal with a friend today- no, not one for me to write, though I have no doubt I'll be involved someway if it happens. It's his pitch to a publisher on the conversations of Jesus with various people in the Gospel of John.

He needed a thread and I was glad to help out: The thread is that every conversation is radically different. Jesus, Good News, comes to us in our particular context, tearing down our particular idols and answering our particular questions. I really hope it gets written- as we spoke about it, I got excited...

Then I ran across this quote: "The old paradigm of evangelism was a transactional sharing of the gospel. I would try to get people to intellectually agree with me. But the new paradigm is different, an approach in which I invite you to walk alongside me, examine my life, and see evidence of the truth, and hopefully there will be something compelling that you see. It's a no-strings-attached invitation to enter my life as I follow Jesus."
-Ken Fong, the senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

I think this is something most of us emerging church types would wholeheartedly agree with, but something I might like to adjust slightly...

I agree: the transactional get-you-to-agree-with-me (or as I like to think of it "Pin 'em down until they say 'Jesus!'") model isn't particularly effective today. But...

I think examining MY life might get someone partially where they need to be, because they could see real impact, real change, real peace brought on by a real Jesus. But it's still how Jesus saves ME. Sure- there's commonality... but there's a reason why Jesus didn't tell the woman at the well to sell everything, give it all to the poor and come follow Him. And there's a reason why He didn't tell her that she needed to be "born again." Each needed to see Him as Good News in THEIR context, and that looked slightly different, depending...

The fact that Jesus has 25 significant conversations in the Gospel of John, no two alike, should tell us something. Real evangelism looks like doing what Jesus did- showing someone how Jesus, not their idols (or even just mis-conceptions of Jesus/God) can save them... that is, how Jesus is the answer to the questions/predicaments they themselves are facing in their particular context. 

This can never happen if we 1. Don't understand the impact of the Gospel in our lives and work aggressively to tease out the implications of the Good News in progressively more and more areas of our lives, and
2. Are willing to help others go there as well.

I'm telling you, from having done this a bit over the last couple of years, it's a lot less difficult than the apologetics-heavy model of evangelism, but it takes more than simply saying "Watch me go!" to folks and hoping they intuit that it's Jesus who makes us different AND have the ability to formulate questions about "what makes us different"... and the nerve to ask them.

I hope that makes sense...

Man marries dog...

On the face of it, this is a pretty funny story:

NEW DELHI - A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

                        

Hilarious.

Sort of.

In actuality, this is no different than what many of us do. Whether it's giving to charity to make up for dissing that homeless guy way back when, or being nice to someone because they remind us of someone we mercilessly tormented back in school, or whatever... We find endless creative ways  to atone for our own sins. At least this guy is being conscious about what most of us keep unconscious.

The thing is, once you start on the atonement road, you find it's a cruel hamster-wheel indeed.
I mean, how many "nices" make up for one "cruelty"? 10-1? 20-1? Why does my conscience STILL torment me...

I read this story and instantly thought how good the good news of the Gospel would be to this man.
You don't have to atone for your own sins. In fact, you can't.

But Jesus can, and did.

And you really don't have to marry a freakin' dog...

Keller on "A whole new way to see God."

This is from a paper called the Centrality of the Gospel that I'm going to ask those considering/ being considered for eldership at evergreen to read...

"But Christians are those who have adopted a whole new system of approach to God.
They may have had both religious phases and irreligious phases in their lives. But
they have come to see that their entire reason for both their irreligion and their
religion was essentially the same and essentially wrong! Christians come to see that
both their sins and their best deeds have all really been ways of avoiding Jesus as
savior. They come to see that Christianity is not fundamentally an invitation to get
more religious.  A Christian comes to say: 'though I have often failed to obey the moral
law, the deeper problem was why I was trying to obey it! Even my efforts to obey it has
been just a way of seeking to be my own savior. In that mindset, even if I obey or ask
for forgiveness, I am really resisting the gospel and setting myself up as Savior.' To
'get the gospel' is turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus' record for a
relationship with God. The irreligious don't repent at all, and the religious only repent
of sins. But Christians also repent of their righteousness. That is the distinction
between the three groups--Christian, moralists (religious), and pragmatists
(irreligious)."