“Dear Yada, I am sending you my resume to see if yada, yada, yada… I am looking to transition to a church where there is as high a value on relationships as there is on accomplishing tasks and objectives, a church where people are not seen as fodder to accomplish corporate mission statements, a church where people are enjoyed as precious in God’s sight… I’m at a point in my life where my goal is not to find a job, but to find a community that loves God and each other and loves so naturally and so well that others are caught up in that love to want to know Jesus and to be more like Him… It just seems like it’s time to stop counting success by butts in seats and bucks in baskets. What about love and joy and peace and self control and grace and patience and gentleness and kindness? I don’t mind measuring effectiveness (I actually like good qualitative data on church ministry), but my question is “What would Jesus measure?”

I may have lost out on getting some interviews with churches, but it sure felt good to lay it on the line. At some point we need to wrestle with how committed we are to transformational ministry versus settling for transactional ministry. Are those butts in the seats becoming more like Jesus? Or are they just more like the culture around us? Are we simply making church goers or are we making disciples? And how do we assess this?

The data is in (if there has been any doubt about other studies, just look at the results from the Willow Creek Reveal study). Church going does not correlate to greater love for God and others. Church activity does not correlate to more joyful lives. And as painful as it is to acknowledge, church going doesn’t seem to correlate to growing the fruit of the Spirit of God in the people of God. Doesn’t it seem like it is time to think about doing church differently.

When we want to be like someone, eventually we will need to do the kinds of things that person does. If we want to be a great swimmer like Michael Phelps eventually we will need to stop watching him and reading about him and start to jump into some swimming pools. If we want to like Tiger Woods, we will need to swing some golf clubs eventually. If we want to be like Yo Yo Ma, eventually we will have to do the kinds of things he does with the bow. If we want to be more like Jesus, eventually don’t we need to do what Jesus did? And do you remember anything about Jesus proposing that church going was his central strategy for transformation?

If you are reading this article, you’re probably already committed to the place of community and group life for transforming discipleship. But have you considered the kind of group life to which Jesus was dedicated? If we want to be like Him and if we want our ministries to produce disciples like Him, perhaps it is time to assess the role of community in his transforming disciple-making. When I look Jesus’ life, I see he was committed to at least 6 concentric circles of friendships. Is this perhaps a model of disciple-making for today?

What were the circles of friendship in the life of Jesus?

Many of us have become more and more convinced we cannot grow like Jesus apart from committed interdependent community in a way that we share our lives together (koinonia). Jesus modeled and the Scriptures teach that we belong to one another as family in the Body of Christ (Philippians 2:3-5). We are invited to meet together and to encourage each other daily (Hebrews 10:24-25). If we want to model our disciple-making on the practices of Jesus, it seems clear that commitment to community is essential to growth in the Christian life!

Healthy growing followers of Christ can be intentional about nurturing each of the “circles of friendship” Jesus nurtured. And the reason to do so is because we see each one uniquely contributes to Christ-likeness. To miss any of these circles of friendship impoverishes a dimension of the Christ-like life. And each circle of friendship is a unique gift to the believer from the Lord.

The Circle of Communion (you and the Trinity)

This is Jesus in harmony with the Father and the Spirit. Here we meet our triune God at the very center of who we are in His presence. Commitment to friendship within the Trinity has been and will go on forever. When we came to Christ, the Trinity actually invited us to enter their circle of friendship. This is a moment by moment daily abiding commitment in the life of a Christ-follower.

The Core Circle (2-4 people)

The core friends for Jesus were Peter, James, and John. Our core circle consists of our closest spiritual friends with whom we partner for support, nurture, and accountability. Hopefully it includes our spouse and family! But it should also include prayer and accountability partners who love us enough and are bold enough to ask us anything about our lives. Where two or three gather in His name Christ is there. Core friendships experience Christ together in unique ways. I encourage every Christ follower to intentionally and prayerfully develop devoted core spiritual friendships.

The Cell Circle (5-15 people)

Jesus’ cell was his 12 disciples. Here we meet in small groups, usually in each other’s homes, for prayer and deep, profound life change. The small group circle will be the friends you will turn to in times of need, sadness, and joy. They will know your children’s names and will be the ones your children will come to see as extended “aunts” and “uncles.” They will be your friends for the rest of your life. This circle is about fun and deep friendship. And when it is healthy, it intentionally touches lives beyond itself – just like Jesus did with his disciples’ small group.

The Congregation Circle (25-75 people)

Jesus’ ‘congregation’ (mid-size) circle consisted of the 70 disciples he sent out two by two on ministry trips. In many churches this is Adult Bible Fellowships, generation groups (20 Somethings, Seniors, etc.), and sometimes men’s and women’s ministries. It also consists of seminar and ongoing teaching settings that include the element of authentic community together. This circle is about learning together the truths of our faith in ordered and sequential ways, it is about serving one another in love, it is about the ‘one anothers’ in Scripture and it is about reaching into and serving a needy world.

The Celebration Circle (usually 75+ people)

Here we gather to hear God’s Word preached, to pray, to worship, and to be inspired to be Christ-like change agents in the world. This was where Jesus gathered in the temple and synagogues. This circle is about being awed by God greatness, surrendering to Him, and being inspired to live worthy of our calling in Christ Jesus. This circle reminds us that we are part of something far bigger than us – we are part of the Kingdom of God as it marches across cultures and across centuries.

The Crowds (the unconverted)

The Scriptures also invite us to be authentic living witnesses to those who don’t yet trust Christ. We are to be models of integrity, faith, hope and love before a watching world. Jesus ministered to the unconverted crowds. To be like Him, every Christian is also invited to intentionally form redemptive relationships with those who don’t know Christ as the Forgiver and Leader of their lives. This circle is about having a Kingdom of God mindset for the unsaved across the street and around the world.

What might our lives, our disciples. and our ministries look like if we encouraged intentional devotion to not just one or two of Jesus’ circles of friendship, but to all six? And how do we do that well?

This is what we will explore in the series of sermons over the next month and a half at Park Street Church.

1. Did we lift the name of Jesus up as a centerpiece of why we gathered? (See Revelation 5:6 and 5:13-14, Colossians 3:17, and Philippians 2:9-11.)
2. Did we have a time in the Scriptures learning the story of God and humanity?  Did we invite everyone to be part of his story today in Kingdom living? (See 2 Timothy 3:14-4:4.)
3. Did we pray together and have enough time to slow down and quiet our hearts to hear God’s voice and yield to his Spirit? (See Acts 1:14 and John 4:23-24.)
4. Did we experience the joy, love, and encouragement of being together as a church? (See Hebrews 10:25 and John 13:34-35.)
5. Did we take the Lord’s Supper together as a church regularly  OR call people to an awareness of the implications of the Elements upon our gathering? (See 1 Corinthians 11:20-32.)
6. Did we somehow remind everyone of the mission of the church and why we exist? (See Matthew 28:18-20.)
7. Did we enable people to individually contribute something as part of the body of Christ? (See 1 Corinthians 12:27 and 14:26.)

July 4, 2009

(Please forgive the bland look, this blog is still under construction)

This fourth of July weekend we will celebrate our national freedom – which privdes us with a perfect launch to celebrate our personal freedom as the followers of Jesus Christ.  In working through my sermon this week on John 8 (7 Explosive Claims of Christ), I reflected on spiritual freedom and I wanted to explore it further.

Remember, freedom is the absense of retraints on our ability to act or think.  So reflect with me a bit here.  

• What do you want to be FREE FROM in your life? What is holding your life back?  What is restraining your ability to think and act as you want to think and act?  What burdens you?  Journal 3-5 things you really want to be FREE FROM in your life.  And if you want, post it here and we can share our longings for freedom together.
• But, most of us don’t want to just be FREE FROM things.  Don’t we also want to be FREE FOR other things?  FREE FROM is the negative side.  So what do you really want to be free FOR? Journal 3-5 things you want to be free FOR in life.  What do you really want to become or do?  Taking the time to reflect on this could change your life.  What are your greatest longings and hopes?  And again, if you want to share, respond here and we will continue the dialogue. You may want to rank order what you want to be free from and free for, so you know where to put your energy first.

To guide our thinnking about freedom here are some Scriptures I gathered this week on freedom in Christ.  And after that are my beginning ideas on a Christian Declaration of Freedom.

Some Scriptures on Freedom

• “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free.  The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?  The Lord is with me; he is my helper.  I will look in triumph on my enemies.” Psalm 118:5-7
• “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.”  Ps 119:32
• But the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.” Ps 129:4
• He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free.” Ps 146:7
• “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” Ps 119:45
• “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  Luke 4:17-21
• “Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Jn 8:31-32
• “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jn 8:36
• “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Gal 5:1
• “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” Ga 5:13  (See also 1Pe 2:16)
• “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” 1Cor 9:19
• “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Ro 6:18
• “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Ro 6:22
• “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Ro 8:20-21
• “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” Col 1:22-23
• “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” Rev 22:17
• “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  2Cor 3”17-18
• “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”  Eph 3:12
• “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25

Are there any Scriptures you would add?

A Christian Declaration of Freedom

Send back to me what you would add so we can have an ongoing dialogue.

FREE FROM…

• I am free from failure for “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
• I am free from always needing more and more for “my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).
• I am free from fear for “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind” (2Tim 1:7).
• I am free from the power of Satan “for greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1Jn 4:4)
• I am free from defeat “for God always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus” (2Cor 2:14)
• I am free from ignorance for “we have the mind of Christ” 1Cor 3:15)
• I am free from inferiority for I am “complete in Christ” (Col 2:9-10)
• I am free from inadequacy for “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2Pe 1:3)
• I am free from shame for “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin” (1Jn 1:7)
• I am free from worry for “I cast all my cares on him because he cares for me” (1Pe 5:7)
• I am free from bondage for “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” (2Cor 3:17)
• I am free from condemnation “for there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:1)
• I am free from fear for we know that “God works together all things for the good of those who are called in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:28)
• I am free from worry of what people think of me for “I am hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-4)

What would you add here?

FREE FOR…

• I am free to be loved for “we know and rely on the love God has for us” (1Jn 4:16) and “I have been chosen by God and adopted as his as his child (Eph 1:3-8)
• I am free from defeat for “in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Ro 8:37
• I am free from the fear of death for “death has been swallowed up in victory… But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1Cor 15:54-57
• I am free from frantic busyness for Jesus says “I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28
• I am free to dream “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)
• I am free to rejoice “in the Lord always (Phil 4:1)
• I am free to be a friend of Jesus (Jn 15:15)
• I am free to be nurtured by my Father in heaven for I am a child of God (Jn 1:12, 1Jn 3:1)
• I am free to speak with God face to face and to expect his mercy and grace (Heb 4:16)

I had less time to work on this one, what would you add here?

In the far recesses of my mind and heart, I know full well why I’m up at this hour.  My spirit is in grieving mode.  I’m not sad as much as I am reflective.  One of my heroes, Charlie Munson, passed away this past weekend.  The reality sunk in even more as I read his obituary today:

“Dr. Charles R. Munson, 90, formerly of Ashland, and Goshen, Indiana died on Sunday afternoon May 10, 2009 at Vitas House in Irving, Texas. He was born May 3, 1919 in Scalp Level, Pennsylvania. He was a 1937 graduate of Ferndale High School of Johnstown, PA; a 1947 graduate of Ashland College, in 1952 he graduated from Ashland Theological Seminary and in 1954 he graduated from Western Seminary of Pittsburgh, PA; he was also a doctoral graduate of Case Western Reserve in 1971.

“He was ordained on July 17, 1949 in the Brethren Church by the Johnstown Second Brethren Church of Johnstown, PA; he served as National Youth Director for the Church of the Brethren from 1948-1953 and as the National Moderator of the Brethren Church in 1965, he also served pastorates at Gretna Brethren Church, Williamstown Brethren Church, Johnstown Second Brethren Church, Savannah Presbyterian Church and Lexington Presbyterian Church. He had also served as Master of Ceremonies at many banquets. He was professor of Practical Theology and Academic Dean at Ashland Theological Seminary from 1954-1985. He lived in Ashland until 1996 when he moved to Goshen and in November of last year he moved to Texas.

“On August 14, 1942 he was married to Aida May Snyder, she preceded him in death on July 6, 1994. He is survived by his daughter, Deborah M. (Don) Vick of Coppell, Texas and two grandchildren, Rachel and John Vick. In addition to his parents, and wife, a daughter Bonnie Christina Munson, died on March 5, 2008 and a half sister, Ruth MacDonald Ely and two half brothers, George and Ray MacDonald all preceded him in death.

What do you say to a life like that?  How does a person my age even begin to fathom 90 years of joy, pain, reflection, gain, loss, and above all, hope in Jesus Christ?

I’m currently reading numerous books (not unusual for me).  One of them is really causing me to reflect deeply.  It is The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.  It is forcing me to examine the implications of the Sabbath on my own life.  Deep pondering of the seventh day of the Creation poem forces me to realize that rest is not something to be found when I have time for it.  Rather, rest is a presence found as the eternal manifests Himself in time.

A few quotes from the book will help illustrate what may sound like incoherence above:

“The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.  In a religious experience, for example, it is not a thing that imposes itself on [humanity] but a spiritual presence.  What is retained in the soul is the moment of insight rather than the place where the act came to pass.  A moment of insight is a fortune, transporting us beyond the confines of measured time.  Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time” (6).

“There is no equivalent for the word ‘thing’ in biblical Hebrew.  The word ‘davar,’ which in later Hebrew came to denote thing, means in biblical Hebrew: speech; word; message; report; tidings; advice; request; promise; decision; sentence; theme; story; saying, utterance; business, occupation; acts; good deeds; events; way, manner, reason, cause; but never ‘thing.’  Is this a sign of linguistic poverty, or rather an indication of an unwarped view of the world, of not equating reality (derived from the Latin word res, thing) with thinghood” (7)?

“One of the most distinguished words in the Bible is the word qadosh, holy; a word which more than any other is representative of the mystery and majesty of the divine.  Now what was the the first holy object in the history of the world?  Was it a mountain?  Was it an altar?  It is, indeed, a unique occasion at which the distinguished word qadosh is used for the first time: in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation.  How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: ‘And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.’  There is no reference in the record of creation to any object in space that would be endowed with the quality of holiness” (9).

“The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space.  Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time.  It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world” (10).

I’m haunted by the tension between what I’m reading and what I’m feeling.  I’m reading of the importance of rest.  Heschel’s words call the reader to recognize that rest is not a thing to be held but a presence to be experienced.  The Sabbath is not created by man for God, but rather out of God for the good of man.  There is a way that we experience what it means to be made in His image when we rest.

At the exact same time I’m writing this, my little brain is screaming, “Full steam ahead…more power!”  I laid in bed wondering what would be said of me if I’m fortunate to make it to 90.  How do people view me now?  What is up on my docket for tomorrow?  How will I get everything done on my to-do list that needs to be done?  And, by the way, one of the heroes of my faith passed away recently!

Today, I received a wonderful phone call.  I was asked by the family of Charles Munson to be a pall-bearer at his memorial service.  My heart sank upon the request.  The full weight of the moment hit me.  I paused.  How in the world did I get asked to participate in the memorial service of one of my heroes?

What I think I felt, though, was a collision of the two forces woven all throughout this post.  My soul grieves at the lost of Charlie.  He was a mentor, a hero, a legend, but, above all, a friend and brother in Christ.  Upon hearing of his passing I felt the happiest sadness I’ve felt in a long time.  My mind continues to race processing his death, processing my schedule, processing processes!

At the same time, I keep asking myself, where is Jesus in all this stuff?  In asking the question, an answer comes to mind.  Jesus is not to be found but to be experienced in the process of journeying.  It’s not as if He’s some cosmic Easter egg hidden just behind the divine lilac bush.  Rather, like an afternoon hike in the mountains, he is the realization when you get to the top of the mountain and realize that all along you’ve been walking in him and the ‘finding’ was just a grand vantage point He gave you as you peered from atop a cliff over a pristine valley below.

As I write this, two images from Scripture come to mind.  The first comes from the John’s gospel.  Jesus says in this passage:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

The call is to “abide” in Jesus.  To make our home in Him.  Our primary calling is intimacy with Him.  Intimacy entails time.  Time entails moments of movement and moments of rest.  Like a piece of music, we are sung along by a long string of notes and rests.  The beauty of music is that in the act of listening, we often fail to realize where movement ends and rest begins, and vice-versa.  Eliminate either rest or movement and the music fails to be.  Might Jesus be calling us to continually rest in Him?

The second image comes not so much from an exact passage of Scripture but a period of time brought forth in Scripture.  What might the world have been experiencing on the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday?  I believe that many Christians fail to understand rest and presence because we too quickly rush from Good Friday to clean it all up with Resurrection Sunday.  In the cosmic scope of things, is our world not living in a continual Saturday?  Is creation not groaning for the ultimate restoration and renewal promised at the end of the age (Rom. 8)?

Several years ago, a professor of mine prayed a powerful prayer at a chapel service.  The words he uttered to conclude that prayer have stuck with me for years.  “And now, Father,” he prayed, “may we live as the light of Resurrection Sunday in the darkness of a Good Friday world.”

Maybe that is why I grieve Charlie’s passing so much.  The world still looks so much like Good Friday.  Hope is so hard to move away from the abstractness of imagination to the concreteness of reality.  At the same time, is reality merely something to be grasped?  Merely a thing?  Or, is reality a presence!  Might the hope that Charlie and I share be just as real as the computer on which I’m typing this post?

In the tension of life and death, movement and rest, song and silence, may we find hope.  My friend, Charlie, was a shining example of a man who experienced hope not as theory but as reality.  In the mystery of Creation and Creator, Charlie basked in the love and light of Jesus Christ.  Maybe my grieving is not so much for Charlie but for all of us who wait eagerly for our hope to be fully actualized.  Maybe I’m struggling to be a Resurrection servant in a world reeling from Good Friday.  Maybe my immature spirit is trying to grasp for words to describe the tension between being happy and sad at the same time.  Or, and I believe they’re all true, maybe I just woke up at 4:00am to process with God that I’ll miss my friend and cannot wait to see him again!