A Beautiful Franciscan Blessing

[A pastor read this sermon today before a large gathering of ministry leaders and I absolutely loved it. The beauty of this blessing is wonderful and its source in the Franciscan Order only adds to it for me. May it touch your heart as well]

May God bless you with discomfort at half-truths, easy answers, and superficial relationships, so that you will live deeply and from the heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those in pain, so that you will reach out your hand to them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with just enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this old world, so that you will do those things that others say cannot be done.

A definite life change

So I'm at a leadership conference at FOTW put on by WillowCreek Church because the MET was gracious enough to pay my way to go to the event. So I'm in the middle of Gary Haugen's talk on social justice and I wrote this, "Cast down your idol of hip cultural urban ministry and pursue the heart of God recklessly. No longer serve the vain statue of counter-cultural pastorship but be a lowly worker of the harvest."

It was as if I finally, in a very clear way, felt as though I was receiving an invitation by God to participate in His work of rescuing the poor and oppressed in the hurting places in the world. I don't mean to speak for God or to say definitely how this is to be worked out, all I can say is that for a growing while I cannot watch a video of starving people, dying people, hurting people somewhere in the world and not have this voice inside me say, "I need to go there. I need to help those people." All my life I have known I want to help the hurting people of the world. As if it is written on my heart. But I felt that there were hurting people in the US I could help. However, I feel as though for me this would not be truly answering my call. For me, okay, for me...I feel as though if I were to be a pastor in the US I would either be serving the capitalist, shallow, glory-seeking model of cheap suburban christianity or bowing to the idol of hip, underground, counter-cultural pastor. As if my society has placed Billy Graham and Rob Bell as the idols I am to bow to. Now this isn't to say that my brothers and sisters who are working to authentically embody the Gospel of Christ in the United States are wrong or sell-outs. It simply means for me, I cannot serve in the United States without feeling a void in my heart because I am not with the lowest of the low. I must go to the poor. I don't know what I will do, I don't know how to do it, I don't know where to go, I don't know how I'll get there...all I know is that right now I feel like God is calling me to leave the States to go to His hurting people. And I simply pray that He will continue to move in my heart and to lead me down the path of His love and endurance.

Reflections on Anarchy

[Origen, quoting Celsus:] "If everyone were to act the same as you Christians, the national government would soon be left utterly deserted and without any help, and affairs on earth would soon pass into the hands of the most savage and wretched barbarians." [Origen:] Celsus exhorts us to help the Emperor and be his fellow soldiers. To this we reply, "You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests." We do not go forth as soldiers with the Emperor even if he demands this. [Origen goes on to say that if the Romans followed the teachings of Jesus, there would be no barbarians.]

Should Christians participate in the government? It is clear from history that the first Christians believed you shouldn't, especially not as a soldier. But two thousand years of Church history has demonstrated that perhaps the temptations of secular power can be too great for Christians at times. I some times wonder how politically active Christians should be, especially in the context of modern America with its "Moral Right." The first Christians were considered anarchists and insurrectionists by the Roman government but most American Christians consider patriotism a virtue. So what of this? Perhaps the early Christians simply couldn't envision a world in which politics didn't involve compromise. Politics is about give and take, at times I have to sacrifice to get something done. But the first Christians refused to compromise. Refuse to give an inch on their values for the world.

But if we dissolved the government, we'd have chaos! Perhaps. Surely human history has demonstrated the utter chaos which can be caused by the destruction of government. But perhaps thats because government is merely an expression of the innate human desire for domination and control. Humans, desiring to imitate God, seek to bring chaos. In some ways, the desire to bring order isn't bad. Order is one of the chief foundations of society. But how is that order discovered? Through domination or through love? Perhaps this is the cornerstone to the early Christian argument. When you attempt to live without a government in a society based upon domination you have destruction. You have war. But when you organize a society without a government founded upon love...you have the early Christian community.

Christians and government, can we get along? Or are we destined to combat each other based upon our founding principles? Many would argue that government maintains order and control. But does it? Or does it simply allow us to express certain desires in greater proportion (greed, selfishness, power-hunger)? Look at American greed, exploitation, lust, etc...do we really have control? Has government really solved the problems?

Children die everyday of hunger. Mothers die of diseases cured decades ago in the Western world. Fathers die without clean drinking water. You are being suffocated by the American dream. Your children are dying of greed and lust everyday. And yet we defend government as the cure-all to life. Maybe we should give love...nay, God...a chance.

Fresh Powder

We had a meeting today at the MET for all the adult volunteers about our wednesday night service. The service, or rather the building filled with gadgets and gizmos, attracts a lot of students from the surrounding community. Coming from low income families, typically apartment housing, we usually refer to these students as "community kids." The distinction comes because most of our regular attenders or "church kids" are from middle class, white families.

The majority of the adult volunteers at the MET are parents of "church kids" and so they have the natural aversion to the community kids because they are so different. Most of our community kids are highly unchurched so they have no idea of the unspoken rules church people have about cursing, fighting, talking in service, etc. So this afternoon we had a meeting about rules and guidelines so that we can maintain order at the church, but then also spent a great deal of time talking about how to connect with the students.

It was exciting and encouraging to see some of the parents really get what we were talking about because some of our volunteers had no idea the extent to which their help was needed. To hear from the volunteers the concept:

God loves us and that's why we're here...because God loves us. As volunteers, we should be the people sharing that love with the kids who are here. They might not get that anywhere else, so we should be Jesus to them.

I was happy to hear that as opposed to: "We've tried but these kids are just difficult and we can't do it. They should just learn to shut up during service."

But to hear from the hearts of the volunteers was great. Afterwards, Jon and I really wanted to take some of the ideas and put them in the hearts of our student leaders. Our students leaders haven't really been reaching out to the community kids. It seems the segregation between the two groups that society has put in their minds has really gotten to them. But I always remember about what Paul said about in Christ there being no slave or free, Jew or Gentile, male or female. One body.

Anyways, so Andy really agreed but we both recognized the groundwork that would have to be laid beforehand. Namely, creating a leadership team. But before that, educating our students who want to be leaders what leadership is and how it will function at the MET. Andy really wanted me to bring up some of my old binders from the TSM from back in the day and my Pit Crew stuff. He wanted me to work with him on developing some cirriculum. Which completely excites me. Takes me back to high school working on Pit Crew. Actually, I got so nostalgic today just looking back at my old Pit Crew binder.

If there is one thing I love, it's training a group of students to be leaders and then building a ministry from the ground up based upon that leadership. Just like Pit Crew. So the idea of helping Andy train these kids for leadership and then get them out there absolutely excites me to no end. I love it. Which is why I am blogging, I was so excited about that I just wanted to blog. Tonight I'm going to bring a box of old binders and notebooks to Andy's and hopefully go through some of it. This next week I would really like to work on some cirriculum. Right now I'm just in a flurry of ideas and have an incredible movement of the Spirit. I just love this stuff, ministry is what I love to do. So it's like being a snowboarder and hearing there's fresh powder on the mountain. I'm just excited to hop back on the board.

The Art Gallery

So I'm grabbing coffee with a friend and we are talking about ministry and how we think church should be done. In the midst of this conversation he says, "You know, when I go to an art gallery I feel inspired. I think church should be the same way: a place that inspires people."

Beautiful.

Our gatherings of community should inspire those who come. They should experience love, grace, beauty, truth, community, etc in such a way that they leave feeling inspired. Much in the same way that God inspires us. And perhaps each of us should be a Rembrandt: a person that people encounter and leave feeling inspired. If someone has a conversation with us, do they leave feeling encouraged? Perhaps my life should be more like an art gallery.

Life Together (vol. I)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer must certainly be considered one of my personal saints. He his included in my small community consisting of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I love Bonhoeffer because his prose is so beautiful it borders on poetry. Also, he is a realist. His theology is about practice, about how Christianity functions in the daily life of people. His theology isn't something which exists in some ethereal realm, but how faith expresses itself in the day today. Finally, he's not some theologian writing from an attic he locked himself in devoid of real human contact. Bonhoeffer is writing from an underground church in Nazi Germany where he is participating in a resistance movement. Bonhoeffer spits it how he lives it and he spits it hot.

Well, currently I've read 70 pages of the book but I am still stuck on the first page of the work. Bonhoeffer writes:

"It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and movers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God" (17)

"For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God." God hung from a cross, a slave's death, being mocked and hated. The epitome of human war machine, built on domination and corrosive strength, murdered the embodiment of divine reality. With our war factories we produced the daggers to kill Love. Our made-up religions of wealth and power persecuted the author of Life. And yet, God came to bring peace to them. Hitler, Stalin, Koresh....you...me...He brought peace to all of us. How absolutely mind boggling is that when you think about it?

Love for the entirety of humanity. The good and the bad. The beautiful and the ugly. And if this is something which I truly believe, if I really affirm that Christ brought peace to all, then why do I not act this way? Why do I not seek to imitate that kind of life? Why do I not actively seek to bring peace to my enemies? "For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God." I am only beginning to wrestle with the cosmic significance of that truth. But if you aren't moved by those words, by that idea...if you aren't challenged....no matter how much more I write, you just won't get it.

What kind of prophet

So I was at lunch the other day with a friend and we were talking about my plans for the future. I told him that right now I am focusing on the next step of my journey (seminary) and letting God worry about the rest. I guess I just figure that at some point in the future I'll have developed into the person God has trained me to be and at that moment He'll reveal the path to follow for me.

All that to say, right now I feel like there are two paths I am interested in: the head pastor of a church in the inner-city somewhere or the life of a missionary. The fact of the matter is, I am drawn to the people on the margins of society. To the poor and the oppressed. Away from the haves to the have-nots.

But my friend, who was mirroring a not uncommon sentiment, was a bit uncomfortable with my life as a missionary. "Not to say that the life of a missionary wouldn't be as much of a success as the life of a pastor of a church of 5,000 writing books and doing speaking tours...but...I don't know." I dunno, it just seems like people in my life keep telling me that I'm so "talented" that I could better use my skills here in the States.

But I can't help but feel that the US doesn't need anymore Rob Bells (if I even had that potential). I mean, 90% of people called to the ministry feel called to ministry in North America. It's not that I don't like the US, but when I see all the people suffering simply to survive elsewhere in the world I can't help but want to go and help. I've grown up in white suburbia, trained in their schools, learned from their teachers, experienced the fruits of that life...but I feel like it's my duty to use all that to help other people.

I don't know what I'd be able to do in Africa. I don't have any skills to help dying people other than speaking. So maybe I could be someone who organized and mobilized churches to help God's people who are suffering. I dunno. But I am just uncomfortable with the idea of staying in the US to help people who already have. For what? To write some books and gain some kind of following as a great teacher? First, I don't even have that level of skill. Second, why? I decided to go into ministry because I wanted to be a part of what God was doing in the world. To participate in His work of rescuing mankind. Not to be Billy Graham or Rob Bell. Not to say those guys are evil, I just question whether that's really the path laid out for me. Esp for the reasons presented to me by my friends.