1Cor.13:11-Finally, brothers rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Gal. 6:1-Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Over the course of my life with Jesus I have had the sad experience of witnessing, and sometimes, walking through chaotic fire with Christian leaders who have stumbled and fell because of sin. With many, the results were devastating to them, those they loved, and those who trusted them. The pain for a few involved can be excruciating to the degree they even leave the faith as a result.
I am doing so again these days.
Most of us are well aware, I think, that leaders in the church are held to greater standards because of the amount of trust given them to lead. They are granted unique influence and power in the lives of people who follow them. People assume integrity and feel safe under their leadership. They count on substance and strong character.
Church leaders are expected to exemplars: real people, but Christ-like to a different degree than the rest of us it seems. Nevertheless, leaders should be people we can look up to, even with feet of clay. Only Jesus is Jesus, remember.
And our expectations can be wildly unrealistic and tragically unfair. Leaders suffer when that is the case.
The harder issue, I realize, has to do with what a church and other leaders within it do when someone in their ranks, perhaps the senior leader falls. What should be our response? Unfortunately, I have not witnessed well-handled crises like this. I am sure there are good examples, but I have not been privy to them, at least as I remember.
To me, the central questions are: 1.) Should a church be the community in which this person can heal? 2.) How does a church help restore the fallen leader - assuming he or she wants it? These are complicated questions I know, but a way forward is possible.
I understand that, depending on the reason for the fall, great care needs to be taken. For instance, sexual sin involving another member of the congregation will require much wisdom, prayer, and dialogue to respond well. And no one should be put in harm's way because of the leader's sin. Forgiveness is not foolishness.
No matter the leader's type of fall, there also needs to be time given for the initial trauma wear off and to healed in the church. It may take awhile. People must be able to process their conflicted emotions over the crisis. There will be all sorts confusion and turmoil to calm. The unthinkable has happened and people need to make some sense of it to feel safe.
So, should the church be the community in which a fallen leader can heal? According to Paul the answer looks to be yes. He is writing to people in community as the church. He says that restoration is to be the goal and that people who are spiritually mature should take the lead in making that happen. Although leaders have a particular influence in the community they are also a part of it and should benefit from the grace God gives to everyone. The restoring should be done as gently as possible without glossing over the severity of the sin. The goal is living at peace with one another, a hallmark of the Kingdom of God of which the Christian community is its earthly expression.
I am firmly convinced that the Christian community is central to healing and restoring a fallen leader. In Christian community we all learn to deal with learning to accept human brokenness and sin in such a way that forgiveness and restoration are constantly practiced. We need to find ways to overcome our fears in this regard. By being together in the awkwardness of having to work our way through tough stuff is God's way. No one is to ever be shunned or treated as a pariah, including leaders who betray trust and fall.
The question remains how does the church go about restoration, especially when emotions are high, every one has been hurt and the sin was particularly egregious?
1. The leader is asked to step down into the care of elders or other spiritually mature leaders who have wisdom, gentleness, and discernment. He or she stays away from the larger community for as long as it takes for things to settle.
2. A prayer team is comissioneded with the express purpose of interceding for the fallen leader, the elders/leaders and the church. They are kept abreast of the restoration process as it unfolds and are commissioned for the entire duration.
2. A formal process is put in place by elders or leaders to let people ask questions, express their anger, confusion, hurts, and fears. It is done with both individuals and as a group. The goal is understanding and to set the stage of the fallen leader to be reintroduced into the community. This may take weeks as well.
3. The fallen leader must get into counseling and stay accountable to the elders as to his/her progress. He meets regularly with them to discuss what he is learning
4. When it seems right to the Holy Spirit and the elders/leaders (after frequent prayer), the fallen leader and the community meet to engage in a dialogue with the goals of forgiveness and healing. The ultimate goal is restoration to community worship and fellowship at this point. More than one meeting may be necessary. This process should not be interrupted until all that needs to be said and heard, is.
5. If this stage of restoration is achieved a support group of leaders and others in the community is formed with the purpose of deepening fellowship and aiding restoration. The fallen leader is a member, not the leader. It continues through the duration of the restoration process.
6. As counseling continues and healing seems to be occuring in the leader and community discussions can begin about his or her involvement in service or ministry as a member of a team.
7. If the person continues to get better and relationship with the community grows and normalizes the leader should invited to partner with another leader in ministry for a number of months both for assessment and restoration.
8. The final step is to begin an evaluation period to begin with leaders, elders and members to assess the leader's suitability for restoration to individual leadership responsibility at a level determined by this group. his assumes all are in agreement that such a leadership should be restored.
The process I outlined should take 1-2 years depending on the leadersd and community involved and the seriousness of the sin. Some leaders may never be restored to a leadership role for a number of reasons. Some should be restoreed to a leadership role. All should be give the chance to do so. The betrayed community should have the chance to learn how to work through the trauma of when leaders fall.
Lastly, the miracle of the Kingdom God is establishing in and through us as the church is that we have the chance to work through hard issues in a way unfamiliar to most people. We are to love and forgive one another . We are to aim for restoration of people who fall into sin. We are to live at peace with one another in such a way that demonstates the Kingdon have God has begun on the church and even peole of great influence have another chance when they fall from grace and hurt people who have trusted and followed them.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
When the Tears Come These Days.
I don't know if it is just because of my ripe age or because of living on this groaning planet through six sometimes anguished decades, but I have noticed tears welling up in my eyes more often over the last year. They want to spill when I see a movie, hear a story or have a conversation around the good guy actually winning, or a real hero laying it all down for a righteous cause, or an outrageous wrong actually being set to rights.
I know this kind of stuff makes most people cry every once in a while. But, I suspect it more true that as I move into the last third of my life, the longing for what God promises to do at the end of the world's turbulent exodus is settling into an insistent tugging from a very deep place in me:
In the meantime, my hope is that imagine/northampton will reflect a little of the joy-story by how it loves and serves people in this "paradise city." We will point to it in our helping and encouraging especially for those who have had no real reason to lift their heads for a long time.
At the very least, we are sure going to try over and over. And the tears will continue to well up in my eyes everytime I get a unexpected glimpse of what is to be someday.
MARANATHA!
I know this kind of stuff makes most people cry every once in a while. But, I suspect it more true that as I move into the last third of my life, the longing for what God promises to do at the end of the world's turbulent exodus is settling into an insistent tugging from a very deep place in me:
- I want the forgotten voices of the countless silent ones who lived and died as if they were never here to be heard loud and clear.
- I want all the enslaved and dehumanized over the centuries to be freed and ennobled as if someone cared for their plight.
- I want the overlooked, abused and lonely to be given their place in the sun.
- I want all the tears of pain and suffering to be wiped away forever.
- I want those who never got a chance to sparkle, to shine like stars as they were meant.
- I want the sick, deformed and mangled to healed to run and leap for joy.
- I want the music that stayed silent, the art that never knew a brush and the poetry that failed to find form to take center stage for all to see and hear.
- I want cruelty to disappear and war to find no takers.
- I want those who gave their lives for peace and justice to have life beyond their wildest imaginings.
- I want justice, grace and peace to rule the day.
- I want the good and true to fill the universe.
- I want evil to disappear and life-freeing live to engulf creation like the sun fills a morning.
In the meantime, my hope is that imagine/northampton will reflect a little of the joy-story by how it loves and serves people in this "paradise city." We will point to it in our helping and encouraging especially for those who have had no real reason to lift their heads for a long time.
At the very least, we are sure going to try over and over. And the tears will continue to well up in my eyes everytime I get a unexpected glimpse of what is to be someday.
MARANATHA!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
What My Right Knee Has Taught Me.
Recently, I have come to realize that an injury to a joint has lessons to teach about how trust is tied to strength whether we initially notice the relationship or not.
First, the back story: As many of you have been aware, I suffered a serious injury to my right knee. The injury required surgery and months of physical therapy. I continue with the PT.
Part of the therapeutic process for such a hobbling has been to strengthen the quadraceps muscle so it helps stabilize the knee and support the weight it should carry. With such strength and stability, I am able to walk normally and exert proper pressure when an activity requires pushing or climbing. At this point, I cannot really climb or descend stairs without a cane and holding onto a rail. Said quadraceps is not strong enough to stabilize the knee or support enough weight, so I don't trust it.
Remarkable to me has been the awareness that whereas before I never gave walking or climbing a second thought, I hesitated recently when therapy required I begin trying to step up onto a 4-inch box. I was even more uncertain when my Physical Therapist started me using my right leg to step onto and over a BOSU ball (a Pilates ball cut in half). It is unstable on purpose and I felt appropriately destabilized.
Obviously, I had become afraid of things I was not afraid of before such as climbing stairs or trying a physical task requiring balance and control. I was also surprised and did not like the fact that when I was on top of the BOSU ball my thigh wobbled uncontrollably because of its utter weakness. Then when I was able step over the ball, I could not get back without having to use my arms holding onto parallel bars to help lift me. My dogs weren't barking, but my hamstrings were sure letting out a yelp! It was not pretty and I felt sheepish.
Soon after the experience I got to thinking about the relationship between strength and trust. Prior to my injury, I used my right leg normally and thought nothing of it. It was strong and stable enough to to do what I needed from one day to the next. I trusted it implicitly. When my knee could not and did not do what I expected from it, I felt immediately disoriented. I expected what I was used to even though it was injured. My brain went there automatically.
Then later, my thoughts turned to what happens to trust when it is tried or injured? Such a thing happens to people when they experience something which profoundly flies in the face of their perception of God: his protection, provision or how he is supposed to help in times of trouble. Most people make assumptions about how God is supposed to be when we face one of life's upheavals or tragedies. When such assumptions are threatened, our faith becomes wounded and weakened because the unthinkable has happened and God seems nowhere to be found. What happened was just not supposed to, or for some, never seems more than a never-ending series of emergencies, setbacks or crushing disappointments. They don't ever get a break from trouble.
When we are faced with such disturbing difficulties most of us earnestly desire to trust again and to find evidence of his strength that will overturn chaos or help us get back on our feet. But I have found in order to do so, we must stretch our trust to include life's formidable struggles, even horrors if need be. We have to locate a more tenacious trust not determined by how well our life is going or how untouched we will be by the terrifying (whatever that might be to us). I know if we can open to the grace he offers to steele our trust (it can come in ways we do not immediately recognize), in trials and travails we will see trust grow stronger because it is determined not by the endless vacillation of our circumstances, but by the experienced integrity and strength of the LORD of the universe through all of them.
In sum, here is what my knee has taught me:
1. Trust must be exercised repeatedly to develop strength, otherwise it remains latent and flaccid.
2. Trust always flows from a remembered history of experienced strength on one's behalf.
3. Trust naturally believes, even assumes that strength can be counted on when needed.
4. Trust can be taken for granted until it is sorely tested.
5. Trust can be damaged when confronted with circumstances which seem to overwhelm strength or render it impotent.
6. Trust can be damaged when confronted by experience which seems to demonstrate such trust was misguided or in vain.
7. Trust can be gradually restored when what was weakened is healed through experiences which rebuild it.
8. Trust can gradually be deepened when it stretches to include the previously unforeseeable or unthinkable.
9. Faith is trust tested over time and found reliable.
10. Faith in Jesus is trust authenticated in relationship over a lifetime.
First, the back story: As many of you have been aware, I suffered a serious injury to my right knee. The injury required surgery and months of physical therapy. I continue with the PT.
Part of the therapeutic process for such a hobbling has been to strengthen the quadraceps muscle so it helps stabilize the knee and support the weight it should carry. With such strength and stability, I am able to walk normally and exert proper pressure when an activity requires pushing or climbing. At this point, I cannot really climb or descend stairs without a cane and holding onto a rail. Said quadraceps is not strong enough to stabilize the knee or support enough weight, so I don't trust it.
Remarkable to me has been the awareness that whereas before I never gave walking or climbing a second thought, I hesitated recently when therapy required I begin trying to step up onto a 4-inch box. I was even more uncertain when my Physical Therapist started me using my right leg to step onto and over a BOSU ball (a Pilates ball cut in half). It is unstable on purpose and I felt appropriately destabilized.
Obviously, I had become afraid of things I was not afraid of before such as climbing stairs or trying a physical task requiring balance and control. I was also surprised and did not like the fact that when I was on top of the BOSU ball my thigh wobbled uncontrollably because of its utter weakness. Then when I was able step over the ball, I could not get back without having to use my arms holding onto parallel bars to help lift me. My dogs weren't barking, but my hamstrings were sure letting out a yelp! It was not pretty and I felt sheepish.
Soon after the experience I got to thinking about the relationship between strength and trust. Prior to my injury, I used my right leg normally and thought nothing of it. It was strong and stable enough to to do what I needed from one day to the next. I trusted it implicitly. When my knee could not and did not do what I expected from it, I felt immediately disoriented. I expected what I was used to even though it was injured. My brain went there automatically.
Then later, my thoughts turned to what happens to trust when it is tried or injured? Such a thing happens to people when they experience something which profoundly flies in the face of their perception of God: his protection, provision or how he is supposed to help in times of trouble. Most people make assumptions about how God is supposed to be when we face one of life's upheavals or tragedies. When such assumptions are threatened, our faith becomes wounded and weakened because the unthinkable has happened and God seems nowhere to be found. What happened was just not supposed to, or for some, never seems more than a never-ending series of emergencies, setbacks or crushing disappointments. They don't ever get a break from trouble.
When we are faced with such disturbing difficulties most of us earnestly desire to trust again and to find evidence of his strength that will overturn chaos or help us get back on our feet. But I have found in order to do so, we must stretch our trust to include life's formidable struggles, even horrors if need be. We have to locate a more tenacious trust not determined by how well our life is going or how untouched we will be by the terrifying (whatever that might be to us). I know if we can open to the grace he offers to steele our trust (it can come in ways we do not immediately recognize), in trials and travails we will see trust grow stronger because it is determined not by the endless vacillation of our circumstances, but by the experienced integrity and strength of the LORD of the universe through all of them.
In sum, here is what my knee has taught me:
1. Trust must be exercised repeatedly to develop strength, otherwise it remains latent and flaccid.
2. Trust always flows from a remembered history of experienced strength on one's behalf.
3. Trust naturally believes, even assumes that strength can be counted on when needed.
4. Trust can be taken for granted until it is sorely tested.
5. Trust can be damaged when confronted with circumstances which seem to overwhelm strength or render it impotent.
6. Trust can be damaged when confronted by experience which seems to demonstrate such trust was misguided or in vain.
7. Trust can be gradually restored when what was weakened is healed through experiences which rebuild it.
8. Trust can gradually be deepened when it stretches to include the previously unforeseeable or unthinkable.
9. Faith is trust tested over time and found reliable.
10. Faith in Jesus is trust authenticated in relationship over a lifetime.
Monday, May 4, 2009
a short report on imagine's yesterday.
Yesterday, at our house in Sunderland, we began our "final approach" to imagine/northampton's launch in September. Generally, our approach (I know it has only been 10 months), has felt like that excruciatingly slow ride the Space Shuttles take from their hangar to the launching pad. It inches along and can take hours. Our "inching" will take a few more months.
16 of us were together for an afternoon of food, hanging out, and hearing about imagine's plans for the summer. Everyone seemed in a convivial spirit, ready to embark on something new even if each did not have a clear view of their part or where everything would head this summer. People just seemed happy to be together.
We began the day once everyone arrived with a sparkling lunch including Curry Chicken Salad with Green Grapes and Almonds, a Red Potato Salad with Dill, a Multi-colored Fresh Fruit Salad, an Artichoke Salad with White Beans, Pepperoni, Red Peppers and Buffalo Mozzarella, Onion Quiche, and assorted breads. We topped it off with Dark Chocolate Cake plus Honey Vanilla Ice Cream, and a Meringue Pie. I hope you get the idea that it was spectacular, because it was. We are blessed with some serious cooking chops on the team! I guarantee imagine/northampton will always have well-made and presented food as part of its culture.
We did not hurry lunch. We wanted plenty of time to sit around and catch up with everyone. Our desire was for people to talk and connect with one another, and with us in a way different from Conversations or the Strategic Prayer Huddles. Most had at least met at one of our gatherings, but not all. I knew everyone there more than anyone else on our team so I wanted them to have a chance to connect.
To that end, Karin LaMontagne put together a series of thought-provoking questions for after lunch. As we wound down with the meal, we briefly welcomed everyone formally and then turned it over to her. She explained that each person would take a question (she had rolled and tied them to look like blue scrolls), and then after some thought, answer it to the best of his or her ability in a couple of minutes. Karin had brought along a little carousel-like music box to play as a person deliberated, but after much team prayer, anguish, and a thorough search of the Scriptures for any acceptable reference to "carousel-like music boxes" we decided that it was not to be used.
After finished the experience, some of us noted how the questions, picked randomly and sight unseen, often fit the person in a very uncanny way, as if a particular question was "meant" for him or her. Also notable to me was how the experience evoked much laughter and gave people a chance to learn something personal about the others. As we moved around the circle the mood was light-hearted and warm, and people felt free to reveal a little about themselves that others did not know. It did help most there connect in a way that Conversations hadn't. Being in a home rather than a meeting place naturally added to the friendly atmosphere as well.
At end the day, Jim LaMontagne explained a bit about where we were going to head as we studied the Scriptures together through the summer. He is calling the study Living Missionally: A Study in Acts and will take us through the first 5 chapters beginning May 17th. Because we are a missional church culture by design, he will help us examine our understanding by looking at the first missional church.
After Jim spoke, I briefly explained the calendar for May highlighting the gathering at our house on May 17th and our "field trip" to the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton on May 24th. On June 6th, our graphic novelist, Matt Bayne will be part of a "convention" in NYC called MoCCA, 2009. It will be a second field trip together. We want to support, Matt, and see a bit of the comic world he inhabits, not to mention New York.
As we adjourned, I was heartened by the fact that after we concluded our scheduled time at 4, people hung around and chatted for at least another half hour. They had connected and were enjoying one another. I ended up talking to a couple of folks until after 6!
Almost felt like church . . . Hmmmmm.
As I mentioned in the last blog, we really do want folks to connect and build relationships with each other that will carry us all into the fall as we launch officially. Yesterday was a great start, and if the rest of the summer turns out like yesterday, we will be in fine shape come September!
The Lord was gracious to us.
16 of us were together for an afternoon of food, hanging out, and hearing about imagine's plans for the summer. Everyone seemed in a convivial spirit, ready to embark on something new even if each did not have a clear view of their part or where everything would head this summer. People just seemed happy to be together.
We began the day once everyone arrived with a sparkling lunch including Curry Chicken Salad with Green Grapes and Almonds, a Red Potato Salad with Dill, a Multi-colored Fresh Fruit Salad, an Artichoke Salad with White Beans, Pepperoni, Red Peppers and Buffalo Mozzarella, Onion Quiche, and assorted breads. We topped it off with Dark Chocolate Cake plus Honey Vanilla Ice Cream, and a Meringue Pie. I hope you get the idea that it was spectacular, because it was. We are blessed with some serious cooking chops on the team! I guarantee imagine/northampton will always have well-made and presented food as part of its culture.
We did not hurry lunch. We wanted plenty of time to sit around and catch up with everyone. Our desire was for people to talk and connect with one another, and with us in a way different from Conversations or the Strategic Prayer Huddles. Most had at least met at one of our gatherings, but not all. I knew everyone there more than anyone else on our team so I wanted them to have a chance to connect.
To that end, Karin LaMontagne put together a series of thought-provoking questions for after lunch. As we wound down with the meal, we briefly welcomed everyone formally and then turned it over to her. She explained that each person would take a question (she had rolled and tied them to look like blue scrolls), and then after some thought, answer it to the best of his or her ability in a couple of minutes. Karin had brought along a little carousel-like music box to play as a person deliberated, but after much team prayer, anguish, and a thorough search of the Scriptures for any acceptable reference to "carousel-like music boxes" we decided that it was not to be used.
After finished the experience, some of us noted how the questions, picked randomly and sight unseen, often fit the person in a very uncanny way, as if a particular question was "meant" for him or her. Also notable to me was how the experience evoked much laughter and gave people a chance to learn something personal about the others. As we moved around the circle the mood was light-hearted and warm, and people felt free to reveal a little about themselves that others did not know. It did help most there connect in a way that Conversations hadn't. Being in a home rather than a meeting place naturally added to the friendly atmosphere as well.
At end the day, Jim LaMontagne explained a bit about where we were going to head as we studied the Scriptures together through the summer. He is calling the study Living Missionally: A Study in Acts and will take us through the first 5 chapters beginning May 17th. Because we are a missional church culture by design, he will help us examine our understanding by looking at the first missional church.
After Jim spoke, I briefly explained the calendar for May highlighting the gathering at our house on May 17th and our "field trip" to the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton on May 24th. On June 6th, our graphic novelist, Matt Bayne will be part of a "convention" in NYC called MoCCA, 2009. It will be a second field trip together. We want to support, Matt, and see a bit of the comic world he inhabits, not to mention New York.
As we adjourned, I was heartened by the fact that after we concluded our scheduled time at 4, people hung around and chatted for at least another half hour. They had connected and were enjoying one another. I ended up talking to a couple of folks until after 6!
Almost felt like church . . . Hmmmmm.
As I mentioned in the last blog, we really do want folks to connect and build relationships with each other that will carry us all into the fall as we launch officially. Yesterday was a great start, and if the rest of the summer turns out like yesterday, we will be in fine shape come September!
The Lord was gracious to us.
Monday, April 27, 2009
So They Were Going to Launch When?
As many of you are aware, imagine/northampton has been up here in Northampton, MA since the middle of August, 2008. Prior to coming here, the Senior Leadership Team set the date for our official launch as Easter weekend, 2009. As we moved into the year we were still headed in that direction . . . then I jumped from the truck. It ended up throwing quite a wrench in our timing. After praying about it, talking and deliberating we thought April would work . . . wrong again, cowboy.
In February and March, we held the Strategic Prayer Huddles. During that time it became very apparent that we were not ready to launch. So after more work, we decided to launch the 3rd week in September -- even if it means doing so in one of our cars! No postponing this time, period.
The reality was that beyond my exquisitely timed injury, there were other reasons for the delay:
Having said that, we are in no way turning back or slinking to an easier path. We're in until we receive other orders. So, here's what we are doing to trudge forward through the rest of the spring, and through the summer until the launch:
Starting next Sunday at our house in Sunderland, we will be hosting a gathering of folks who have shown some interest in what we have been talking about through the Conversations and with them privately. Over great food and conversation we will relax together, and then fill in everyone on what we will do together before September, if they so desire to press on with us.
The plan is to have a gathering or activity together every week. The gathering will be at our house and may have a meal, but it will have a study of the Book of Acts with Jim leading including a response session. We will also have a Spiritual Formation interaction or "exercise" to help us get to know how each of us actually relates to God in real time. We want it to open all of us to one another and to what God is calling imagine/northampton toward.
Once per month we will do a fun thing together, both for families with kids or just for adults. It might be physical like hiking, having a picnic, rafting, going to a ballgame or Sumo wrestling (just seeing if you are paying attention!). Or we might do an art thing like the Paradise City Crafts Festival, or the MoCCA 2009 Festival in NYC. We might just have dinner together at a new restaurant or somebody's house.The point is to chill together and keep getting to know one another.
Then, once a month we also want to do a service project in Northampton like Habitat for Humanity or The Northampton Survival Center. Catherine is presently looking into all of that. In this simple way, we want to be serving together because imagine/northampton will be missional to the core from the git.
Our ultimate hope is that a group God is calling will coalesce by September and be ready to "incarnate" the mission as God directs.At the same time if it doesn't or is a small group we will go forward anyway.
And please tell us how you are doing so we might pray for you as well. We love you all.
In February and March, we held the Strategic Prayer Huddles. During that time it became very apparent that we were not ready to launch. So after more work, we decided to launch the 3rd week in September -- even if it means doing so in one of our cars! No postponing this time, period.
The reality was that beyond my exquisitely timed injury, there were other reasons for the delay:
- God had not given a definitive "OK for take off, yet."
- Our financial base is modest and that's inflating it a bit.
- We really do not have the depth of relationships we want with people here yet to have a Launch Team formed. My getting hurt set us back substantially there.
- We are not set on the right place for worship.
- Jim and Karin, Brad and Catherine, and Matt and Karen are not up here. Houses still need to be sold, and bought or rented, a job needs to be found for one of us.
Having said that, we are in no way turning back or slinking to an easier path. We're in until we receive other orders. So, here's what we are doing to trudge forward through the rest of the spring, and through the summer until the launch:
Starting next Sunday at our house in Sunderland, we will be hosting a gathering of folks who have shown some interest in what we have been talking about through the Conversations and with them privately. Over great food and conversation we will relax together, and then fill in everyone on what we will do together before September, if they so desire to press on with us.
The plan is to have a gathering or activity together every week. The gathering will be at our house and may have a meal, but it will have a study of the Book of Acts with Jim leading including a response session. We will also have a Spiritual Formation interaction or "exercise" to help us get to know how each of us actually relates to God in real time. We want it to open all of us to one another and to what God is calling imagine/northampton toward.
Once per month we will do a fun thing together, both for families with kids or just for adults. It might be physical like hiking, having a picnic, rafting, going to a ballgame or Sumo wrestling (just seeing if you are paying attention!). Or we might do an art thing like the Paradise City Crafts Festival, or the MoCCA 2009 Festival in NYC. We might just have dinner together at a new restaurant or somebody's house.The point is to chill together and keep getting to know one another.
Then, once a month we also want to do a service project in Northampton like Habitat for Humanity or The Northampton Survival Center. Catherine is presently looking into all of that. In this simple way, we want to be serving together because imagine/northampton will be missional to the core from the git.
Our ultimate hope is that a group God is calling will coalesce by September and be ready to "incarnate" the mission as God directs.At the same time if it doesn't or is a small group we will go forward anyway.
If you feel enticed by the Holy Spirit, we could really use your prayer:
- God will coalesce a loving community in unity around the vision he has given.
- The SLT will be sustained in strength and courage, made ready to follow as God directs.
- The Bayne's and LaMontagne's will be able to relocate up here this summer.
- Protection for Brad, Catherine, Matt and Karen's job's; Jim will find a new job that fits what they need.
- Protection for all our children from illness, injury and harrassment.
- The McDermott's counseling ministry will build in Northampton.
- We will locate the right place for worship in the city.
- God will increase donors as it fits his purposes and what we need.
- A worship team will gather; (some are already here).
- We will have everything we need to do a first worship experience that will move and captivate people with the sheer beauty and glory of Jesus. Everyone will be inspired.
- Protection and direction for 4 folks who are on board.
And please tell us how you are doing so we might pray for you as well. We love you all.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Why I Am a Redemptive Subversive: An Unfolding Manifesto of Sorts.
1. The world suffers pain and travail, always in desperate need of this God it knows dimly or not at all. People live their lives never imagining this God lives desiring to be discovered and known through what he has already revealed in Jesus and what he has made.
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Be an instrument of his redemptive revealing in the remaining days I have been given.
Reflect him in thought, attitude, word and action.
Graciously subvert people's fears and skepticism about this God without wounding or oppressing them in any way.
Free the captive so they can discover him to be a liberator beyond their imagining.
Help the poor so they can discover his care and generosity beyond their imagining.
Open the eyes of the blind so they can discover his beauty, truth and power beyond their imagining.
Heal the broken-hearted so they can discover his compassion and affection beyond their imagining.
Refresh the weary so they can discover his rest and gentle empowering beyond their imagining.
Enliven the crushed in spirit so they can discover his promise for the future that gives them meaning beyond their imagining.
Love the unlovely so they can discover his delight in them beyond their imagining.
Free the embittered so they can discover his invitation to forgiveness and peace beyond their imagining.
Encourage the humiliated so they can discover his gentle ability to "lift their heads" beyond their imagining.
Befriend the critical so they can discover his truth and find felicity beyond their imagining.
Give a voice to the voiceless so they can discover this God who helps them find their unique place beyond their imagining.
Defend the oppressed so they can discover his justice on their behalf beyond their imagining.
Live the Good News so they can discover he is the seductive joy of hope beyond their imagining.
2. This Trinitarian God is the most spectacular Being without parallel in the entire universe, utterly transcendent and fully immanent. There are no other gods before him or after him. He is breath-taking in all his attributes and deserves to be shown as so.
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Never present in my thoughts, words, actions or attitudes a God who is puny, boring, tamable or worthy of ignoring.
Point to his unfathomable power and incomparable greatness as the Creator and LORD of the universe along side his profound humility and saving graciousness in Jesus.
Guide people to the unbounded magnificence of His Being in what he has made in Creation, and how he has ennobled men and women with the ability to create culture in all its multitude of forms.
Never knowingly contribute to the "binding" of God through man-made systems of thought, tradition or innovation whether from within the Church or without.
Ignite the stunningly creative love of God which subverts hatreds of all kinds, heals severed human relationships, turns horrific wounds of the heart into the means by which others are healed, and gives true life to people who have lived blindly under the thrall of death their entire lives.
3. This wildly unfettered God who is infinitely more than we can imagine does not rule over the world as a capricious tyrant, but as the wise Creator, Servant/Savior/Redeemer and Benevolent Lord (the Good King) who voluntarily withholds his rightful power to judge and punish in favor of redemptively subverting the obdurate human heart through grace-filled love which will ultimately set everything to rights. He is under no compunction to do so beyond his own freedom and joy.
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Recognize and move toward my constant need to be redemptively subverted by God's grace-filled love so I can be free to not use or dehumanize others for my security or gain, even those who wish to do me harm.
Reflect the intention and character of God, by how I treat others, always working to subvert what wounds and demeans them (even of their own making), and turns them toward true life and relationship.
Glorify this God by being transparent toward him and real toward others such that he is discovered.
Find ways of celebrating the beauty, mystery, and dignity of all people, including those who do everything they can to destroy those qualities in themselves.
Spend my days redemptively subverting anything that turns people away from this God toward impotent idols and counterfeit gods no matter how much they seem to glitter.
Spend my days trying to open others to the Triune One who is far more more than they can imagine and wants to reveal his heart to them, each one.
POSTSCRIPT: I know none of the above is even remotely possible for me without his help every minute of every day. I am utterly dependent on him to "unlock" me. But, I can see no other way of life that makes sense or offers the kind of real joy and freedom my unruly heart has always longed for and believed was possible. In fact, I no longer look for any other option. As it is, I hope I can spend the rest of my days living as I have described. If I can, I think it will have been a life well lived for me, my wife and family, and the people God has brought across my path to receive from, give to, and work with.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Be an instrument of his redemptive revealing in the remaining days I have been given.
Reflect him in thought, attitude, word and action.
Graciously subvert people's fears and skepticism about this God without wounding or oppressing them in any way.
Free the captive so they can discover him to be a liberator beyond their imagining.
Help the poor so they can discover his care and generosity beyond their imagining.
Open the eyes of the blind so they can discover his beauty, truth and power beyond their imagining.
Heal the broken-hearted so they can discover his compassion and affection beyond their imagining.
Refresh the weary so they can discover his rest and gentle empowering beyond their imagining.
Enliven the crushed in spirit so they can discover his promise for the future that gives them meaning beyond their imagining.
Love the unlovely so they can discover his delight in them beyond their imagining.
Free the embittered so they can discover his invitation to forgiveness and peace beyond their imagining.
Encourage the humiliated so they can discover his gentle ability to "lift their heads" beyond their imagining.
Befriend the critical so they can discover his truth and find felicity beyond their imagining.
Give a voice to the voiceless so they can discover this God who helps them find their unique place beyond their imagining.
Defend the oppressed so they can discover his justice on their behalf beyond their imagining.
Live the Good News so they can discover he is the seductive joy of hope beyond their imagining.
2. This Trinitarian God is the most spectacular Being without parallel in the entire universe, utterly transcendent and fully immanent. There are no other gods before him or after him. He is breath-taking in all his attributes and deserves to be shown as so.
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Never present in my thoughts, words, actions or attitudes a God who is puny, boring, tamable or worthy of ignoring.
Point to his unfathomable power and incomparable greatness as the Creator and LORD of the universe along side his profound humility and saving graciousness in Jesus.
Guide people to the unbounded magnificence of His Being in what he has made in Creation, and how he has ennobled men and women with the ability to create culture in all its multitude of forms.
Never knowingly contribute to the "binding" of God through man-made systems of thought, tradition or innovation whether from within the Church or without.
Ignite the stunningly creative love of God which subverts hatreds of all kinds, heals severed human relationships, turns horrific wounds of the heart into the means by which others are healed, and gives true life to people who have lived blindly under the thrall of death their entire lives.
3. This wildly unfettered God who is infinitely more than we can imagine does not rule over the world as a capricious tyrant, but as the wise Creator, Servant/Savior/Redeemer and Benevolent Lord (the Good King) who voluntarily withholds his rightful power to judge and punish in favor of redemptively subverting the obdurate human heart through grace-filled love which will ultimately set everything to rights. He is under no compunction to do so beyond his own freedom and joy.
THEREFORE, BY SEEKING HIS GRACIOUS ENABLING EACH DAY, I WILL TRY TO:
Recognize and move toward my constant need to be redemptively subverted by God's grace-filled love so I can be free to not use or dehumanize others for my security or gain, even those who wish to do me harm.
Reflect the intention and character of God, by how I treat others, always working to subvert what wounds and demeans them (even of their own making), and turns them toward true life and relationship.
Glorify this God by being transparent toward him and real toward others such that he is discovered.
Find ways of celebrating the beauty, mystery, and dignity of all people, including those who do everything they can to destroy those qualities in themselves.
Spend my days redemptively subverting anything that turns people away from this God toward impotent idols and counterfeit gods no matter how much they seem to glitter.
Spend my days trying to open others to the Triune One who is far more more than they can imagine and wants to reveal his heart to them, each one.
POSTSCRIPT: I know none of the above is even remotely possible for me without his help every minute of every day. I am utterly dependent on him to "unlock" me. But, I can see no other way of life that makes sense or offers the kind of real joy and freedom my unruly heart has always longed for and believed was possible. In fact, I no longer look for any other option. As it is, I hope I can spend the rest of my days living as I have described. If I can, I think it will have been a life well lived for me, my wife and family, and the people God has brought across my path to receive from, give to, and work with.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
Monday, April 6, 2009
Re-Gifting and the Kingdom of God: Some First Thoughts.
A little over a week ago, Tricia and I helped celebrate our grandson, Conor's 4th birthday. After the birthday party at a local horse farm, we went back to Dan and Lindsay's house to open his gifts. In the course of so doing the concept of re-gifting came up. You know, receiving a gift from someone you really don't want or need, then turning around later and giving it as a gift to someone else --hoping, by the way, it is not a gift they initially gave you earlier! I've heard those moments happen and are quite awkward.
Anyway, later in the week I got to thinking about how the idea of re-gifting is actually God's idea, not in the form just described, but in terms of how the Kingdom of God is seems to operate. Here are some of my first thoughts about the matter:
1. God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit existed in pure, loving community of joy, and complete communion. However, they did not keep it to themselves because it is the very nature of love to give to the other, so they created us. Love withheld dies. We were created to share in the love and communion of the Trinity.
2. God created the world and gave it to those he also created, that they in turn would cultivate it and ultimately share its fruits with others, especially those in need or want. God gave the world and its fruits not to be hoarded but to be shared freely. Hoarding in creation creates division and inequity of resources or worse: aggression fueled by greed.
3. God gave Jesus, his son for the ransom of humankind so they in gratitude would give themselves (love and sacrificial service) in a way that others would come to know him and do the same (replication). If we live a "just Jesus and me spirituality" we become myopic, and spiritually self-absorbed.
4. God gave natural and spiritual gifts to each person desiring that they would give them in service to the world and to the benefit of others. Talents and gifts are to be given or they atrophy.
5. God gave the Church to teach revealed Truth, and create life-long, missional Christ-followers who exhibit in the world his living Presence, justice, healing and freeing love. A church that hasn't learned to do so is slowly suffocating and dying.
6. Jesus said that if we hold onto our lives we will lose them and if we give away our lives for his sake, we will find them. Re-gifting vivifies all of Creation.
Anyway, later in the week I got to thinking about how the idea of re-gifting is actually God's idea, not in the form just described, but in terms of how the Kingdom of God is seems to operate. Here are some of my first thoughts about the matter:
1. God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit existed in pure, loving community of joy, and complete communion. However, they did not keep it to themselves because it is the very nature of love to give to the other, so they created us. Love withheld dies. We were created to share in the love and communion of the Trinity.
2. God created the world and gave it to those he also created, that they in turn would cultivate it and ultimately share its fruits with others, especially those in need or want. God gave the world and its fruits not to be hoarded but to be shared freely. Hoarding in creation creates division and inequity of resources or worse: aggression fueled by greed.
3. God gave Jesus, his son for the ransom of humankind so they in gratitude would give themselves (love and sacrificial service) in a way that others would come to know him and do the same (replication). If we live a "just Jesus and me spirituality" we become myopic, and spiritually self-absorbed.
4. God gave natural and spiritual gifts to each person desiring that they would give them in service to the world and to the benefit of others. Talents and gifts are to be given or they atrophy.
5. God gave the Church to teach revealed Truth, and create life-long, missional Christ-followers who exhibit in the world his living Presence, justice, healing and freeing love. A church that hasn't learned to do so is slowly suffocating and dying.
6. Jesus said that if we hold onto our lives we will lose them and if we give away our lives for his sake, we will find them. Re-gifting vivifies all of Creation.
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