Starting last Thursday, I spent the 4 days away from all things imagine/Northampton. I don't do that very much. I don't take vacations as a rule, and since coming up this way, the task of planting has required virtually all of my time.
So these last few days have been an anomaly, I suppose.
The back story is we had two weddings to attend: Thursday was our niece's (the daughter of Tricia's brother, Steve), in Boston. Friday was a picnic in Beverly, MA for the newlyweds, their families and friends. Saturday we headed to Wickham Park in Manchester, CT for the wedding rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner in South Windsor. I was giving the Welcome, Invocation/Prayer, then Charge to the couple (young friends of ours who we'd done premarital counseling for, and hope to collaborate with in Northampton under imagine). Sunday was the wedding and Reception back at Wickham Park. All the events were lovely.
Now as some of you well know, Tricia and are are dyed-in-the-wool introverts, so gatherings of even people we know well and love much can be taxing. It can even be a bit awkward when you have not seen folks for a while. Awkward tends to be something introverts experience frequently in social settings. Awkward doesn't feel very good.
Regardless, I have a few thoughts from the last 4 days.
First, I am always reminded at weddings there is a complex mix of joyful beginnings and a bittersweet endings in play. A new filial relationship is created, melding two family histories into a new expression of them both; one which will carry the family lines forward in a unique way. On the other hand, old relationships change: the parent/child-brother/sister connection alters because a third person is brought into the dynamic. While most of the time, relatives are happy the new couple is joined, everyone knows the relationship has changed because the two have become one and must be related to accordingly. Sometimes that adjustment is just bittersweet and hard.
I'm also frequently reminded of family dynamics when extended family gathers for the celebration of a wedding. Because of personal history with one another, the time spent together can be a rich reunion of catching up, sharing memories and just enjoying the chance to be together again, even for a few hours. Or, sadly, being together can reopen old wounds and unsettled disputes which make even a few hours feel strained, or worse, re-fire into fresh conflict (liquor can open that door). Family dynamics subtly assign people to fixed roles which are hard to break, and thus, make gatherings awkward for people hurt by such assignments.
Lastly, weddings are prime events for inviting friends to celebrate in support of the happy couple or just because they are together in a festive atmosphere. Because the mood is celebratory, friends seem all smiles and conviviality. Together they are sharing one of life's greatest celebrations especially for Jesus-followers. Friendship already healthy is only solidified on such occasions.
Even though I am an introvert, I do like experiencing wedding celebrations. I always feels uplifted after such an occasion. I usually begin them a bit on edge because I'm an introvert, but I often feel refreshed after a lovely time with friends and loved ones. However, no matter how pleasant it all was, I'm also exhausted and ready to go home with Tricia.
That's just the way it is.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Suffering and Planting: A Daunting Necessity.
"Thousands of missionaries have lived difficult lives of sacrifice in relative poverty and deprivation as God expanded their work and ministries in the places where they served. God doesn't promise that all of His followers will be protected from hardship and suffering. Christians get cancer, lose loved ones, and suffer financial setbacks just like everyone else. But God can also use our tragedies to expand our territory in ways that show a skeptical world a different way to live." (Richard Stearns: The Hole in Our Gospel.)
One of the fiercest mental battles I've had to endure as a rookie church planter centers around the reality of the suffering involved in planting a church in a tough place. Mind you, I was no star-crossed "we're gonna kick some Kingdom butt," triumphalist thinking the way forward would be paved with lilacs. I knew the challenges would be many and great, and was well aware of my untested abilities in this mission.
Having that said, I have to admit the suffering we've had to go through has exposed naive assumptions about God's protection in such work. He also exposed my pride in thinking after two years we should surely have all sorts of success stories and Northampton is changing because of our work. More about that in a minute.
By God's protection I'm really referring to being kept from any hardship serious enough to impede or delay what I envisioned was reasonable progress. So God has allowed the injuries, illnesses, constant financial pressures, and lack of people joining the cause (that's in no way meant to demean the wonderful people who are with us), job losses, and long, dark nights of the soul we have all experienced in Northampton as a church plant. I have never assumed we would be protected from any trouble or hardship in this mission. But I need to say also our suffering has left a mark on us and at times been both bewildering and deflating. Par for the course, I understand.
Here is what I've realized about suffering and planting from being in Northampton almost two years:
1. Expect substantial and relentless spiritual obstruction, confusion and attack from an adversary hell-bent on derailing God's Kingdom initiatives, especially in places of long-established demonic strongholds. Planting is a fight on spiritual, emotional, relational and physical/practical fronts; sometimes all at once. Chaos will show up in surprising ways and create setbacks threatening to wear down your resolve. The pain of the fight is real.
2. Expect to have your faith tested beyond what you have experienced in the past. Church planting requires a strength of faith and trust equal to the Kingdom weight it must carry. You need to believe when the money is not there; when the people are not there, where the way is frequently blocked, problems cascade and you are spiritually, mentally and physically drained. It could all fall apart, but you must hold fast to God no matter. He will make a way where there appears no way. In the meantime, it feels like muscles being stressed and strained to be ready. Sometimes they tear.
3. Expect God to expose and work on your weaknesses through trial. Character flaws, relationship tensions, unhealed wounds and areas of spiritual immaturity will be brought to the fore so God can create a pure heart ready to produce Kingdom fruit. It will take time and is a critical part of the planting process: God plants his Kingdom more deeply in you so you're more fit to do the same in others.No one likes having to look into a mirror of sin and weakness. It hurts, but is necessary.
4. Expect the re-tooling of your expectations about what your mission is going to look like. The vision may or may not reflect where you end up. What sparkled off the page on the drawing-board may evaporate when real life takes over your days on the mission ground. Again, he's focusing your effort around his will for what he's called you to do. We see in part; he sees exactly as he desires it to be. You might experience frustration as God goes to work. No one likes having to re-do what seems a winner.
5. Expect periods of second guessing and questioning. As you run into delaying obstructions which persist, you very likely will ask questions about whether God called you to do this in the first place. You might wonder if you are the right man or woman for the task. You may question your gifts or spiritual fitness. You might feel you are disappointing God because you're not making more headway. Questioning is good if it brings you to your knees and opens you to God's wisdom. This kind of suffering can be excruciating because it calls your sense of value and competence into question. Confidence in God gets built there.
6. Expect periods of discouragement even disillusionment. There are countless stories of missionaries and planters suffering great long, dark nights of the soul where it feels all has failed, God has disappeared (or worse yet is really ticked), and its might be time to abandon ship. Sometimes it will be accompanied by excruciating stresses and strains physically, financially, relationally, emotionally and spiritually. Being overwhelmed for an extended period of time can produce disillusionment also. These periods will come. You are being tested and made durable like a marathon runner. It hurts because you feel let down or you are letting down others who put their confidence in your mission.
7. Expect training in humility where much of what you stood on in the past is removed so you have nothing to toot your spiritual horn about. If anything happens of any real import in the mission you've been summoned to it will be God's doing and his alone . . . period. Humility is prized by God. Suffering creates humility because it puts us in God's hands with only him to hold on to. Pride puffs us to blindness and missional impotence. Our initial, grand designs for God need some cutting down to size. Suffering gets the job done if we keep our eyes on him in the ordeal he fashioned for us.
I have changed because of what we've had to go through. I am more reliant on God and have few illusions about making anything of value happen unless he does it. I am trying to be faithful each day to staying the course even if I do not see what I did as having anything to do with the mission. I am still expectant, but have tempered it with the real possibility I will not see the fruits of my labors here until the Kingdom comes at the end of the Age. And what God sees as missional progress or success may have very little to do with how I think it should be. That has come to be enough . . . most days anyway.
Monday, June 14, 2010
How Intimacy With Jesus Leads to Living the Mission of the Kingdom.
For 2 years I've been fully engaged in planting imagine/Northampton. Prior to coming here, Tricia and I devoted ourselves to helping people learn to listen to God, especially through Listening in Christ and Klesis Immersion retreats. In addition, we offered inner healing and spiritual direction. Our lives were completely enmeshed in the Christian spiritual life, particularly the contemplative spiritual disciplines and matters of the heart in relation to God. For ordinary Jesus-followers like us it was an extraordinarily spiritual rich life. Living at the Center For Renewal, a retreat center in a beautiful bucolic setting in Simsbury, CT, fostered the inner disciplines and opened intimacy with God that people came to experience with us.
What we came to realize and value deeply from our experience is the necessity of spiritual intimacy with God. Love needs to grow in the heart. Jesus's followers must learn to desire him above all life's treasures. Anything less misses the heart of the Gospel leaves us to chase after trifles. Without passion for Jesus, people gradually numb spiritually and sink into a religious life of spectatorship and consuming. Religious routine supplants persistent vigor and pursuit of God's heart, mind, and will in all things. Spiritual intimacy creates and sustains hunger for the Presence of the Living God.
The truly amazing reality of learning to be in the quiet with Jesus listening for him, talking from the heart with him, and being opened to Love astonishing in its depth and generosity, is it settles in you a longing to know him so that your heart might become free to unite with his. What God cares most deeply about matters more and more to you. Listening to the still, small voice of the Spirit, and searching the Scriptures to see him as he is slowly but surely conforms your nature to his. You gradually want what he wants in who you are. It is transformation to the spiritual core. You truly become a new creation.
As with any relationship, communicating is a doorway. Listening and being listened to create understanding and identification with the other. A connection is made and people open in trust because they feel taken seriously. It's no different with relating to God. Listening and talking to God establishes a lifelong spiritual dialogue of knowing and being known. God becomes the Realest of realities to you. His nature and will frame your life and give it meaning. You find your truest self as God speaks into your life experienced from day to day - the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, victories and losses, all of it. You go through them with him because you have gotten to know his voice and heart toward you.
So how does this intimacy with Jesus lead to living the mission of the Kingdom?
1. As you experience his heart in the quiet with him, love grows and the call to "love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength" gradually becomes a way you live. You desire for him to be known because of his wondrous goodness toward you. Gratitude grows from time alone with him. Friendship takes hold.
2. Intimacy with Jesus transforms what matters most to you which means where you give your best time, effort, talent, and material resources turns toward establishing and furthering his Kingdom. It has become THE STORY giving the most meaning to your story. You want to be about his business in the world because it has become your "prime directive": family life, work life, church life and community life become "staging areas" for the redemptive Kingdom mission of your Lord and Friend. Eternity hangs in the balance for you in a way it hadn't before.
3. Because you've spent heart to heart time alone with God it has become your way of life so you no longer live a disconnect between your "normal" life and your spiritual life. Everything now has spiritual import and weight to it. Your perspective stays on "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is already being done in heaven." You have adopted a missional mindset and see all of life as spiritual opportunity for opening people to God so they can see him.
So what should you do to find intimacy with God?
1. Learn how to listen to his voice. Read Dialogue With God by Mark & Patti Virkler. Then begin this spiritual discipline and work at it daily. Read everything you can on the Christian spiritual life, including the great masters over the centuries who have left teachings about it John of the Cross, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, etc.
2. Find a wise and skillful Spiritual Director in your area and get into spiritual direction. Being able to talk with someone regularly who can help you learn and practice the contemplative spiritual disciplines is crucial. Tricia and I are available to do that, including over the phone.
3. Make a habit of going on at least one contemplative retreat each year where silence, solitude and listening are central to the retreat. Today there are more retreat centers offering such retreats. Tricia and I are available as well to lead group Listening in Christ retreats.
4. At least twice a year, take a Quiet Day where you can get away to listen, pray, reflect and journal.
5. Read everything you can on the Kingdom of God and living missionally. You might start with:
What we came to realize and value deeply from our experience is the necessity of spiritual intimacy with God. Love needs to grow in the heart. Jesus's followers must learn to desire him above all life's treasures. Anything less misses the heart of the Gospel leaves us to chase after trifles. Without passion for Jesus, people gradually numb spiritually and sink into a religious life of spectatorship and consuming. Religious routine supplants persistent vigor and pursuit of God's heart, mind, and will in all things. Spiritual intimacy creates and sustains hunger for the Presence of the Living God.
The truly amazing reality of learning to be in the quiet with Jesus listening for him, talking from the heart with him, and being opened to Love astonishing in its depth and generosity, is it settles in you a longing to know him so that your heart might become free to unite with his. What God cares most deeply about matters more and more to you. Listening to the still, small voice of the Spirit, and searching the Scriptures to see him as he is slowly but surely conforms your nature to his. You gradually want what he wants in who you are. It is transformation to the spiritual core. You truly become a new creation.
As with any relationship, communicating is a doorway. Listening and being listened to create understanding and identification with the other. A connection is made and people open in trust because they feel taken seriously. It's no different with relating to God. Listening and talking to God establishes a lifelong spiritual dialogue of knowing and being known. God becomes the Realest of realities to you. His nature and will frame your life and give it meaning. You find your truest self as God speaks into your life experienced from day to day - the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, victories and losses, all of it. You go through them with him because you have gotten to know his voice and heart toward you.
So how does this intimacy with Jesus lead to living the mission of the Kingdom?
1. As you experience his heart in the quiet with him, love grows and the call to "love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength" gradually becomes a way you live. You desire for him to be known because of his wondrous goodness toward you. Gratitude grows from time alone with him. Friendship takes hold.
2. Intimacy with Jesus transforms what matters most to you which means where you give your best time, effort, talent, and material resources turns toward establishing and furthering his Kingdom. It has become THE STORY giving the most meaning to your story. You want to be about his business in the world because it has become your "prime directive": family life, work life, church life and community life become "staging areas" for the redemptive Kingdom mission of your Lord and Friend. Eternity hangs in the balance for you in a way it hadn't before.
3. Because you've spent heart to heart time alone with God it has become your way of life so you no longer live a disconnect between your "normal" life and your spiritual life. Everything now has spiritual import and weight to it. Your perspective stays on "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is already being done in heaven." You have adopted a missional mindset and see all of life as spiritual opportunity for opening people to God so they can see him.
So what should you do to find intimacy with God?
1. Learn how to listen to his voice. Read Dialogue With God by Mark & Patti Virkler. Then begin this spiritual discipline and work at it daily. Read everything you can on the Christian spiritual life, including the great masters over the centuries who have left teachings about it John of the Cross, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, etc.
2. Find a wise and skillful Spiritual Director in your area and get into spiritual direction. Being able to talk with someone regularly who can help you learn and practice the contemplative spiritual disciplines is crucial. Tricia and I are available to do that, including over the phone.
3. Make a habit of going on at least one contemplative retreat each year where silence, solitude and listening are central to the retreat. Today there are more retreat centers offering such retreats. Tricia and I are available as well to lead group Listening in Christ retreats.
4. At least twice a year, take a Quiet Day where you can get away to listen, pray, reflect and journal.
5. Read everything you can on the Kingdom of God and living missionally. You might start with:
- The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical - Shane Claiborne
- Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God - Francis Chan.
- Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope - Brian McClaren.
- Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wisdom Says to Bet the Ranch on the Kingdom.
I grew up in New Mexico. Like every kid at that time in the Southwest, I saw plenty of cowboy movies and television shows like The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Maverick. Almost invariably in these shows there would be at least one scene where men gathered at the local saloon to play poker. Often such play would lead to the required barroom brawl or gunfight over someone who was cheating.
Sometimes it would be because someone would "be forced to "bet the ranch," thus putting all his assets and livelihood on the table. Often he would end up being swindled and mayhem would ensue.
The term "bet the ranch" came from Southwestern ranching culture. When someone said he was willing to "bet the ranch" he was saying he was putting in all his chips, betting he had the winning hand. Conversely, he was taking a huge risk which could turn out very badly resulting in losing everything. He was giving it all in hopes of winning big.
I think for church planters, betting the ranch on the Kingdom is the reason we leave hearth and kin. The motive is not for personal gain in a gamble however. A church planter is convinced the Kingdom is a treasure of inestimable value (Matthew 13:44-5). Every jot and tittle needs to be offered in time, energy, talent and resources to give this Kingdom/Treasure to others so they might taste, see it's good, and replicate the planters example in their own bailiwicks.
Church planters also know there's substantial risk involved, including the loss of life. Success isn't guaranteed and planters may never see the fruits of their labors in this lifetime. Giving everything includes the possibility of losing everything. No matter, the stakes in Creation are high. Jesus says to go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:18-20) It's not a suggestion among equally interesting options. True life holds in the balance.
For church planters the Kingdom embodies certain values which inspire and motivate them to bet the ranch:
1. The Kingdom incarnates the Gospel, the best news in the universe. Liberation has come and is coming. True freedom is on the way. Grace undermines and heals the human "sickness unto death." The sick are healed, the blind see, the lost are found, the voiceless discover their voice, and the weak are made strong. Humility wins! The Gospel-infused Kingdom begins to set to right every wrong under the sun from all time: erased, reconciled, forgotten and forgiven.
2. The Kingdom manifests the astounding love of the Trinity. Love is the limitless fountain from which all can drink and draw others to, especially people who have never tasted its sweetness. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in love and open all of us to it through the Kingdom. Heaven and earth are wed and will be joined for eternity in love and joy. Trinitarian love models for us Kingdom loving one another.
3. The Kingdom elevates human dignity and value to its redemptive zenith. Everyone matters: male-female, young-old, rich-poor, weak-powerful, extraordinary-average. Everyone has a place and something necessary to offer. Interestingly, the little, marginalized, abused, and neglected have a special place of honor in this Kingdom. They are no longer shadow people easily ignored.
4. The Kingdom invites everyone to real relationship. The family of God transcends race, country, and family of origin. It's now possible for people who have very different life experiences and cultures to engage each other around a common inheritance. All are welcome at the table.
5. The Kingdom opens us see beyond our current struggles and sufferings. Life on earth is not the end of the story. We are not trapped in a tragic cycle of birth and death, or chained to the cynical maxim: Life sucks and then you die. The Kingdom lifts our heads to the a horizon of light, the Dawn of dawns. Hope is possible because a better day will wipe away all pain and sorrow. And in the Kingdom now, we are summoned to share in sorrows and hardships until the new Day arrives.
6. The Kingdom and its redemptive values motivate wells being dug in arid lands, orphans becoming family members, urban gardens being built in blighted neighborhoods, sex slaves rescued, alcoholics and addicts recovering, literacy being achieved, micro-businesses being created, street people being fed, and on and on. The values of the Kingdom: faith, hope and charity live in the here and now, not just in the bye and bye.
7. The Kingdom is God's resounding yes to all the no's which oppress and destroy people.
Wisdom aka knowledge of what actually is, says betting the ranch on the Kingdom is cashing in all your chips on what Leanne Payne called the unseen Real which vivifies and gives substance/meaning to all of life. Doing so is never a fool's errand. Rather it's the smartest investment a person will ever make, bar none.
So, are you holding onto your chips in case it's all a sham? Is your relationship to the Kingdom hesitation and holding back, keeping the back door open in case you need to make a run for it? If so, you are missing out on life to the full where love resides and hope keeps it all real.
Think about it. You may not see this yet, but you really have nothing to lose and there is more to gain than you can possibly even dream of.
Bet the ranch on the Kingdom today and go make a difference because you did.
Sometimes it would be because someone would "be forced to "bet the ranch," thus putting all his assets and livelihood on the table. Often he would end up being swindled and mayhem would ensue.
The term "bet the ranch" came from Southwestern ranching culture. When someone said he was willing to "bet the ranch" he was saying he was putting in all his chips, betting he had the winning hand. Conversely, he was taking a huge risk which could turn out very badly resulting in losing everything. He was giving it all in hopes of winning big.
I think for church planters, betting the ranch on the Kingdom is the reason we leave hearth and kin. The motive is not for personal gain in a gamble however. A church planter is convinced the Kingdom is a treasure of inestimable value (Matthew 13:44-5). Every jot and tittle needs to be offered in time, energy, talent and resources to give this Kingdom/Treasure to others so they might taste, see it's good, and replicate the planters example in their own bailiwicks.
Church planters also know there's substantial risk involved, including the loss of life. Success isn't guaranteed and planters may never see the fruits of their labors in this lifetime. Giving everything includes the possibility of losing everything. No matter, the stakes in Creation are high. Jesus says to go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:18-20) It's not a suggestion among equally interesting options. True life holds in the balance.
For church planters the Kingdom embodies certain values which inspire and motivate them to bet the ranch:
1. The Kingdom incarnates the Gospel, the best news in the universe. Liberation has come and is coming. True freedom is on the way. Grace undermines and heals the human "sickness unto death." The sick are healed, the blind see, the lost are found, the voiceless discover their voice, and the weak are made strong. Humility wins! The Gospel-infused Kingdom begins to set to right every wrong under the sun from all time: erased, reconciled, forgotten and forgiven.
2. The Kingdom manifests the astounding love of the Trinity. Love is the limitless fountain from which all can drink and draw others to, especially people who have never tasted its sweetness. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in love and open all of us to it through the Kingdom. Heaven and earth are wed and will be joined for eternity in love and joy. Trinitarian love models for us Kingdom loving one another.
3. The Kingdom elevates human dignity and value to its redemptive zenith. Everyone matters: male-female, young-old, rich-poor, weak-powerful, extraordinary-average. Everyone has a place and something necessary to offer. Interestingly, the little, marginalized, abused, and neglected have a special place of honor in this Kingdom. They are no longer shadow people easily ignored.
4. The Kingdom invites everyone to real relationship. The family of God transcends race, country, and family of origin. It's now possible for people who have very different life experiences and cultures to engage each other around a common inheritance. All are welcome at the table.
5. The Kingdom opens us see beyond our current struggles and sufferings. Life on earth is not the end of the story. We are not trapped in a tragic cycle of birth and death, or chained to the cynical maxim: Life sucks and then you die. The Kingdom lifts our heads to the a horizon of light, the Dawn of dawns. Hope is possible because a better day will wipe away all pain and sorrow. And in the Kingdom now, we are summoned to share in sorrows and hardships until the new Day arrives.
6. The Kingdom and its redemptive values motivate wells being dug in arid lands, orphans becoming family members, urban gardens being built in blighted neighborhoods, sex slaves rescued, alcoholics and addicts recovering, literacy being achieved, micro-businesses being created, street people being fed, and on and on. The values of the Kingdom: faith, hope and charity live in the here and now, not just in the bye and bye.
7. The Kingdom is God's resounding yes to all the no's which oppress and destroy people.
Wisdom aka knowledge of what actually is, says betting the ranch on the Kingdom is cashing in all your chips on what Leanne Payne called the unseen Real which vivifies and gives substance/meaning to all of life. Doing so is never a fool's errand. Rather it's the smartest investment a person will ever make, bar none.
So, are you holding onto your chips in case it's all a sham? Is your relationship to the Kingdom hesitation and holding back, keeping the back door open in case you need to make a run for it? If so, you are missing out on life to the full where love resides and hope keeps it all real.
Think about it. You may not see this yet, but you really have nothing to lose and there is more to gain than you can possibly even dream of.
Bet the ranch on the Kingdom today and go make a difference because you did.
Friday, May 28, 2010
An Endearing Gift For Malarkey.
This morning as I was taking Tiger for his pre-dawn constitutional and toilet, I caught a glimpse of two men, one old and one young (but with an old and weary spirit), walking up Armory Street on the opposite side from me. I recognized both of them. They are alcoholics. Sadly, the younger one is one is working diligently on drinking himself to death. You can see the death in his face and feel it in his spirit. Pray for him.
Tiger abruptly halted, as is his want, to do his business so I turned toward him and away from the men. As I did, the older gentleman began to sing (from Oklahoma): "Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I have a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way." He then, as I was stooping to pick up Tiger's deposit," said, "Thank you for doing your civic duty."
He's a gentle soul with a palpable kindness in him. He's a man who likes to stand on the street corner with his well-worn guitar and sing old folk songs, New England sea shanties and Irish drinking songs. His is the gift of gab and an amazing memory for songs. If he engages in you conversation, and is lit up a little, he soon breaks into a song when something you said reminds him of one. He also likes to be a little ribald in his song selection, nothing vulgar, mind you, just naughty with a twinkle in his eye.
He reminds me of my grandfather, Lawrence James McGovern who loved to sing, recite Irish poetry and Irish table graces (always with a glass held high to the heavens). He had a twinkle in his eye and the gift of malarkey, a penchant for bunkum - all of it good-natured. He could spin a tale and was seen by everyone as a "hail fellow, well-met." He used to take me hand-in-hand for ice cream when we lived in St. Paul. He also taught me all the makes and models of the cars passing by our picture window. I loved my grandfather and enjoyed his eccentric weirdness.
I have no hesitation saying I like the kindly Irish troubadour I saw again this morning as well. He is bright and engaging. He's really full of malarkey. Who knows how much of what he says is true. Still, the way he tells his stories sparkles. He entertains and amuses people with song and story, all for free. Something's unmistakably humane about him and I suspect very lonely. He wants to connect, so I have a number of times
I appreciate his intelligent quirkiness and spirit of a quiet mirth. It lifts me.
He was grace this morning and I welcome his gift, malarkey or not.
Tiger abruptly halted, as is his want, to do his business so I turned toward him and away from the men. As I did, the older gentleman began to sing (from Oklahoma): "Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I have a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way." He then, as I was stooping to pick up Tiger's deposit," said, "Thank you for doing your civic duty."
He's a gentle soul with a palpable kindness in him. He's a man who likes to stand on the street corner with his well-worn guitar and sing old folk songs, New England sea shanties and Irish drinking songs. His is the gift of gab and an amazing memory for songs. If he engages in you conversation, and is lit up a little, he soon breaks into a song when something you said reminds him of one. He also likes to be a little ribald in his song selection, nothing vulgar, mind you, just naughty with a twinkle in his eye.
He reminds me of my grandfather, Lawrence James McGovern who loved to sing, recite Irish poetry and Irish table graces (always with a glass held high to the heavens). He had a twinkle in his eye and the gift of malarkey, a penchant for bunkum - all of it good-natured. He could spin a tale and was seen by everyone as a "hail fellow, well-met." He used to take me hand-in-hand for ice cream when we lived in St. Paul. He also taught me all the makes and models of the cars passing by our picture window. I loved my grandfather and enjoyed his eccentric weirdness.
I have no hesitation saying I like the kindly Irish troubadour I saw again this morning as well. He is bright and engaging. He's really full of malarkey. Who knows how much of what he says is true. Still, the way he tells his stories sparkles. He entertains and amuses people with song and story, all for free. Something's unmistakably humane about him and I suspect very lonely. He wants to connect, so I have a number of times
I appreciate his intelligent quirkiness and spirit of a quiet mirth. It lifts me.
He was grace this morning and I welcome his gift, malarkey or not.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Being Missional Just makes More and More Sense to Me
I got to be a part one of my favorite interactions a few days ago. I sat down at Sylvester's Restaurant for a couple of hours with long-time friends and fellow Jesus-followers from CT. I've known each for over 20 years. They are serious about Kingdom stuff. One is a highly experienced worship leader, the other a pastor with a deep heart for intimacy with God. Up until two years ago they didn't share ministry under the same roof, now they do.
They wanted to get together to have a conversation because God has been putting a dangerous fire in their hearts (first in the worship guy), for a number of months. He is summoning them to transform a conservative, traditional, denominational, "this is the way we've always done it, and we're just fine - thank you very much" New England, small town church into a missional movement with a vision to love and serve their community that they might open young and old to the Gospel. Now that's a sentence, boys and girls!
Because I left a ministry of 20 years in CT at age 59 to plant imagine/Northampton, I've some street cred with them. I took a big risk to do this and have learned a few things even though there is much still to learn. I've also studied what it means to be missional in the DNA of a church, and am in the midst of trying to make it happen here.
As I talked with them, answering their questions, offering my experience and challenging them to trust God, it became exquisitely clear I'm utterly convinced being missional is at the center of being the church. We are here for "them" as much as we are here for us already gathered. The phrase "missional church" should be recognized as a redundancy: the church is a missionary, a missional Kingdom enterprise by definition.
Here is why:
1. Since the rebellion in heaven God has been on a mission to redeem all Creation. The Spirit works through the local church to make it so, one person at a time all over the world.
2. Jesus sent the disciples out with the command to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." At the heart of the church was the mandate to go to the world.
3. The missionary impetus and movement has continued in one form or another throughout the world up to this day. The Church never just dried up and blew away, even in the bleakest of times. It will continue on its redemptive trajectory until the return of Christ at the end of the Age.
4. The will of God has never been for us to settle into a passive relationship with our communities i.e., our doors are open on Sunday. We have a sign and a website telling people we're here. If people around us want to come to church we're not stopping them. Right . . .
5. The missional mandate is: we are here as much for people outside our walls as within them. The church is not ours to keep for ourselves. Our loyalty should not be merely to our local church or pastor, but to God who puts every church in communities where "strangers and aliens" may come to know him. Yes, we are to love each other madly within the church, but because love must be given away to truly be love, we are gathered to give God's love to our communities as a result of the love God has for us and we have for one another. If we keep it to ourselves it will putrefy over time, full of self-protection and self-serving rigidity.
6. Being missional keeps the church alive and relevant to the lives of people far from it. Because the missional church learns the history, culture, values and demographics of the community in which it lives, it can speak its language and serve its people in a way that wins trust. Walls and barriers get broken down because relationships are built. The church is valued because it makes a difference adds repeatedly to the common good.
7. Being missional is prime for unleashing creativity because it is challenging to make the Gospel come alive in the larger community. There is no common language between the two so the church must find fresh ways of speaking clearly to people who have no frame of reference. Therefore, the missional church must create welcoming environments for its artists and musicians to foster exploration and innovation. Through the arts bridges are built.
8. Being missional helps us get into the mess of people's lives rather than keeping ourselves spiritually distant and "clean." Jesus went into the muck and mire of broken people's lives. He was not turned away by the vulgarity of sin. He didn't adopt an "I don't wanna know," attitude. We need to be deep in the lives of people whose language is raw, their addictions have mastered them, their values are foreign, their relationships are entangled in a cycle of using and being used, their sexual morality is unbiblical and they don't like us much. We need to humble ourselves and have our hearts broken for people who have settled for so little.
9. Being a missional church will mean we have the opportunity to break free of our cherished culture of individuality. I am free to pursue who I want to be and "ain't nobody's business if I do". The American Dream is mine for the taking. I want the good life while on earth with plenty of money, creature comforts and the freedom to come and go as I please. Oh yeah, then I want to go to heaven where the real party is. Being missional means we live in true community with one another in the church and with our neighbors. Our strongest ethic becomes giving and sharing what we have for the blessing of all, not "I got mine" and "you can have what I don't want anymore."
10, Finally being missional will send us close to Jesus who is alive and well in the world around us, and in our midst. His values and interests will gradually transform ours. We will learn to shoulder a cross for him and learn to be where he is in our communities. We will go there as a way of life. We will learn intimacy through prayer and intimacy through sacrificial service. Jesus will be our deepest longing, our enduring love and our greatest pleasure.
If all goes well it will be said of us that we "loved God with all our hearts and with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our strength. In turn, it will be said of us we also "loved our neighbors as ourselves."
Why would we not want that?
They wanted to get together to have a conversation because God has been putting a dangerous fire in their hearts (first in the worship guy), for a number of months. He is summoning them to transform a conservative, traditional, denominational, "this is the way we've always done it, and we're just fine - thank you very much" New England, small town church into a missional movement with a vision to love and serve their community that they might open young and old to the Gospel. Now that's a sentence, boys and girls!
Because I left a ministry of 20 years in CT at age 59 to plant imagine/Northampton, I've some street cred with them. I took a big risk to do this and have learned a few things even though there is much still to learn. I've also studied what it means to be missional in the DNA of a church, and am in the midst of trying to make it happen here.
As I talked with them, answering their questions, offering my experience and challenging them to trust God, it became exquisitely clear I'm utterly convinced being missional is at the center of being the church. We are here for "them" as much as we are here for us already gathered. The phrase "missional church" should be recognized as a redundancy: the church is a missionary, a missional Kingdom enterprise by definition.
Here is why:
1. Since the rebellion in heaven God has been on a mission to redeem all Creation. The Spirit works through the local church to make it so, one person at a time all over the world.
2. Jesus sent the disciples out with the command to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." At the heart of the church was the mandate to go to the world.
3. The missionary impetus and movement has continued in one form or another throughout the world up to this day. The Church never just dried up and blew away, even in the bleakest of times. It will continue on its redemptive trajectory until the return of Christ at the end of the Age.
4. The will of God has never been for us to settle into a passive relationship with our communities i.e., our doors are open on Sunday. We have a sign and a website telling people we're here. If people around us want to come to church we're not stopping them. Right . . .
5. The missional mandate is: we are here as much for people outside our walls as within them. The church is not ours to keep for ourselves. Our loyalty should not be merely to our local church or pastor, but to God who puts every church in communities where "strangers and aliens" may come to know him. Yes, we are to love each other madly within the church, but because love must be given away to truly be love, we are gathered to give God's love to our communities as a result of the love God has for us and we have for one another. If we keep it to ourselves it will putrefy over time, full of self-protection and self-serving rigidity.
6. Being missional keeps the church alive and relevant to the lives of people far from it. Because the missional church learns the history, culture, values and demographics of the community in which it lives, it can speak its language and serve its people in a way that wins trust. Walls and barriers get broken down because relationships are built. The church is valued because it makes a difference adds repeatedly to the common good.
7. Being missional is prime for unleashing creativity because it is challenging to make the Gospel come alive in the larger community. There is no common language between the two so the church must find fresh ways of speaking clearly to people who have no frame of reference. Therefore, the missional church must create welcoming environments for its artists and musicians to foster exploration and innovation. Through the arts bridges are built.
8. Being missional helps us get into the mess of people's lives rather than keeping ourselves spiritually distant and "clean." Jesus went into the muck and mire of broken people's lives. He was not turned away by the vulgarity of sin. He didn't adopt an "I don't wanna know," attitude. We need to be deep in the lives of people whose language is raw, their addictions have mastered them, their values are foreign, their relationships are entangled in a cycle of using and being used, their sexual morality is unbiblical and they don't like us much. We need to humble ourselves and have our hearts broken for people who have settled for so little.
9. Being a missional church will mean we have the opportunity to break free of our cherished culture of individuality. I am free to pursue who I want to be and "ain't nobody's business if I do". The American Dream is mine for the taking. I want the good life while on earth with plenty of money, creature comforts and the freedom to come and go as I please. Oh yeah, then I want to go to heaven where the real party is. Being missional means we live in true community with one another in the church and with our neighbors. Our strongest ethic becomes giving and sharing what we have for the blessing of all, not "I got mine" and "you can have what I don't want anymore."
10, Finally being missional will send us close to Jesus who is alive and well in the world around us, and in our midst. His values and interests will gradually transform ours. We will learn to shoulder a cross for him and learn to be where he is in our communities. We will go there as a way of life. We will learn intimacy through prayer and intimacy through sacrificial service. Jesus will be our deepest longing, our enduring love and our greatest pleasure.
If all goes well it will be said of us that we "loved God with all our hearts and with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our strength. In turn, it will be said of us we also "loved our neighbors as ourselves."
Why would we not want that?
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
An Early Morning Prayer For imagine/Northampton.
"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; establish the work of our hands." Psalm 90:17
Father,
You alone are the Lord of imagine/Northampton. You are its headwaters and its endpoint. You are its Source, Life and Purpose. Without you it is vacant of meaning. Without you it is impotent. Without you it merely is.
Let your gracious favor be upon us as we do the missional work of imagine/Northampton. Establish the work of our hands that we might see your Glory in the land of the really living.
Let us make a revolutionary difference in this small, historic, rebellious, wild hair of a New England city.
Let your redemptively subversive grace flood these streets.
Bring stunningly gifted people, young and old, to carry the work forward in creative and genuinely innovative ways. Yes, bring the Kingdom-intoxicated innovators whose spirits are full of love for you and for the people of this place.
Send the Kingdom dreamers who have "bet the ranch" on your magnificent vision for Northampton and the world, and will not turn back until it is realized by your gracious Hand.
Open the resplendent storehouses of heaven so we have all we need to settle a church of full-life and freedom, hope and healing/transforming love.
Establish our work of washing darkness with the light of truth.
Establish our work of creating music, art, dance, crafting, writing and film which show forth your majesty, setting wonder into place and opening a home for who dare to see and make what is not yet.
Bring your families and establish us as an estuary of disciple-making so young and old learn the joyous dignity of following Jesus with yielded hearts.
Send your poor, enchained, and abused; make us able to free them into hope and the simple grace of fruitfulness.
Bring your lion-hearted wondermakers who settle for nothing less than your Kingdom being now on earth as it is lived today in heaven, even if just a little bit - that will be more than enough.
LORD, establish the work of our small, weak hands and make them instruments of the truth that sets captives free and the creative love that overpowers hatred and deadening indifference.
Turn your beautiful face toward us today and smile like the sun warming the earth on a new morning, making all things alive with an abundance which cannot be stifled.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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