Nurturing a Passionate Life

Dallas Willard shares these thoughts -

"It is almost universally conceded today that you can be a Christian without being a disciple. And one who actually is an apprentice and co-laborer with Jesus in his or her daily existence is sure to be a "Christian" in every sense of the word that matters. The very term Christian was explicitly introduced in the New Testament -- where, by the way, it is used only three times -- to apply to disciples when they could no longer be called Jews, because many kinds of gentiles were now part of them."

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Lead into the Community

Charles Van Engen has been quoted in the Swedish Missiological Themes talking about this. Evangelism invites into a community sui generis with no other limits than the whole human race – a community based on a human belonging more encompassing than any existing form of political or biological connectedness. The missionary movement of the Churches claims to be relevant to women and men of all stripes and walks of life.

"By witnessing to the possibility of a common life sustained by God’s creative breaking of existing frontiers and showing that creative authority in the pattern of relation... (it fosters), the building up of
Christ-like persons... The Church’s good news is that human community is possible; the Church’s challenge is in its insistence...that the relations constituting Christ’s Body neither compete with nor vindicate others, but simply stand in their own right as the context which relativises all others... The Church's primitive and angular separateness... is meant to be a protest on behalf of a unified world, the world that holds together in and because of Jesus Christ."

Seeing our leaders willing and able to thrive in the world and in the Church is empowering and offers the opportunity for others to do the same.

 "Alan Roxburgh, (2006, 12-13) proposes a paradigm of leadership that contrasts the operating models of a typical pastor with that of a missional pastor who functions in an apostolic way. He also asserts (Roxburgh 1997, 62) that “discipling and equipping require a leadership that demonstrates encounter with the culture in action. This is the role of the apostle.” “Pastor, as apostle, is foundational to all other functions.”

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Lead with Sensitivity

Scripture references with words like patience, long-suffering and steadfastness portray a sense of quality in relationships.  As the Christian community lives out through the lives of ordinary people, leadership sensitively nurtures the diversity of such a people, both the coming and the going.

Leadership needs to discern when they can push and when they need to back-off.  They need to also discern which battles need to be fought and which ones do not.

The sensitive ministry will have a vision for long-term possibilities and will create an environment that will experience growth and depth.

Lead with your story

Don Posterski shares his own stories from what he has seen in the make up of churches as he has travelled across this country.   He does share on he likes - Future Faith Churches.  The good news is that some churches in every denomination and religious tradition have found ways to embrace faith that is both personal and social. They consistently invite people within the range of their influence to personally experience the living Christ in their lives as well as motivating them to respond compassionately and practically to people who have specific needs. They are high on soul care and high on social care churches.

Focus Group Interviewer: "How are you different because of the influence of this church? How have you changed?

Response: "What do I say? I think it is that now I have a relationship with God which I could not have said seven years ago. Or at least I'm developing a relationship. And I can say that out loud too. But I couldn't have seven years ago."

Gordon MacDonald shares these thoughts -

If you want to think through the subject of the life God blesses, go then to the soul, to the deepest parts of “inner space” where God is most likely to visit with a person, whisper His secrets, establish connections, heal spiritual wounds, generate hope and courage.

The soul is the deeper part of all of us that others cannot see. It is the quiet part where people are most apt to connect with God. In that deeper, quiet place of spiritual geography there was, in biblical times, and is today, dialogue with heaven, events of repentance, praise and worship, and the formation of intentions to life and knowledge that enable people to become what I like to call kingdom-builders.

  Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal (co-author of the classic Corporate Cultures — the 1982 book that popularized the idea of organization culture) conclude, "The signs point toward spirit and soul as the essence of leadership." 

 

It would seem that this kind of leadership style is more rooted in character development than learned technical skills.  Our inner development is focused on integrity, honest, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity.

http://youtu.be/lGajLG3s0CY
 

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Personal Tool Kit

Let's begin with this thought from Edwin Friedman - "The leader is the one who must recognize the emotional forces at play, not only in a given company, but in society at large: “Sabotage comes with the territory of leading, whether in a family or an organization.” The leader’s “capacity to recognize sabotage for what it is – that is, a systemic phenomenon connected to the shifting balances in the emotional processes of a relationship system and not to the institution’s specific issues, makeup, or goals – is the key to the kingdom. Contemporary leadership dilemmas have less to do with the specificity of given problems, the nature of a particular technique, or the makeup of a given group than with the way everyone is framing the issues.”

Then read further to what I think is his definition of well-differentiated leadership - "one who can “focus first on their own integrity and on the nature of their own presence rather than through techniques for manipulating or motivating others. By well-differentiated leader I do not mean an autocrat…although any leader who defines himself or herself clearly may be perceived that way by those who are not taking responsibility for their own emotional being and destiny. Rather, I mean someone who has clarity about his or her own life goals, and therefore, someone who is less likely to become lost in the anxious emotional processes swirling about. I mean someone who can be separate while still remaining connected, and therefore can maintain a modifying, non-anxious, and sometimes challenging presence. I mean someone who can manage his or her own reactivity to the automatic reactivity of others.”

Some more thoughts that enable a leader:

• “A leader needs the capacity not only to accept the solitariness that comes with the territory, but also to come to love it.” 
•  “in a society so reactive that it cannot choose leaders who might calm its anxiety.”
•   “The way out requires shifting our orientation to the way we think about relationships from one that focuses on techniques that motivate others to one that focuses on the leader’s own presence and being.”
• this one troubles me - but here are his thoughts -  “It has rarely been my experience that being sensitive to others will enable those others to be more self-aware, that being more understanding of others causes them to mature, or that appreciating the plight of others will make them more responsible for their being. Ultimately, societies, families, and organizations are able to evolve out of a state of regression not because their leaders ‘feel’ for or ‘understand’ their followers, but because their leaders are able, by their well-defined presence, to regulate the systemic anxiety in the relationship system they are leading.”
•  “to the extent leaders are successful in their differentiating efforts in their own family of origin, there is immediate carry-over to their functioning in the organizations (or families) which they lead.”

Gordon MacDonald adds some more characteristics in what he calls "below the waterline issues."

• 4 qualities of a leader: communicate vision, sensitive to people, immediate assessment sense and keen self knowledge.
• people will trust you only for a short while because of you college degree, ideas or dreams. Trust will be sustained only due to wisdom, keeping my word and integrity.
• charm and charisma are like a glider ... they work, but not indefinitely.
• we build trust with consistency, being dependable, being open, hard work, being impartial, longevity and seeking Jesus.
• why Jesus never experienced burnout.
• Psalm 23 is a good job description for a pastor.
•  5 stages of decline: arrogant conceit, undisciplined pursuit of more, denial of risk & peril, grasping for a silver bullet solution and becoming irrelevant.
• when you want to quit, do what the Air Force does and take a 72-hour stand down. 

My final comment will come from Eugene Peterson - "But our participation in the life of church does not bring us into an advanced level of gospel living. Faith is life at risk. Love is life at risk. Worship is life at risk. Familiarity with God and church and congregation can dull awareness of the stakes involved so that we forget to put in protection. Each “therefore” is a piton hammered into the rock to keep us connected to the granite face. Paul is liberal in supplying us with pitons. We will need every one of them."

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Diverse

The church, as a structure, is a human institiution and system.  People will become part of a church for a variety of reasons, but that will be shaped mostly by their experiences and with those experiences come complex expectations and assumptions.

Pastors must have relational skill sets, spiritual rootedness, and emotional grounding to navigate the white waters of conflict they will ensue.

Hopefully, as a Pastor, you have the ability to access the joy and life of community for without nurtured relational and social intelligence, you will observe conflict and resistance as anomalies rather than realities of life.

For if not, you will try to take on the toxic forces through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, inculcation of values, an striving for consensus, when in fact you should be taking a stand that sets limits to the invasiveness fo those who lack self-regulation.  Gary Nelson

http://youtu.be/P2RnkPkfN7Y

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The Challenge of Leading

If you are a leader in a church, you are living in a new landscape and require a new tool kit of strategies comprised of a new understanding of your role, and honest evaluation of yourself, and the ability to create a variety of secure places of relationships.  Think about your leadership in the frame of apprentice-pastor-theologian-missionary.(Gary Nelson)

Why?

With new ministry expectations sparked by consumer-driven congregational life, the shifts and pressures strip away the feelings of security that simple faithfulness might evoke.

The critical need is for you to find safe and secure places in which you can find rest and from which you can lead as leaders who are socially aware and emotionally intelligent.

We may be contributing to our own stress and burnout by buying into the illusionary idea that we are somehow "different." Conviction that the pastoral experience is unique makes us believe that our lives are busier, more complex, and more stressful than any others.

That is what brings us back to the need for deep self-awareness and honesty.  Without it we are easily deceived.

Eugene Peterson describes how this works as he reflects on religious leaders. He says, “Deception is nowhere more common than in religion. And the persons most easily and damningly deceived are the leaders. Those who deceive others are first themselves deceived, for not many, I think, begin with evil intent. The devil, after all is a spiritual being. His usual mode of temptation is not to an obvious evil but to an apparent good. The commonest forms of devil-inspired worship do not take place furtively at black masses with decapitated cats but under the bright lights of acclaim and glory, in a swirl of organ music (or in our day to the music of a worship band.)…”

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Community

Here are some comments on the role in the community for the Church....

Darrell Guder - "Seen through the lenses of the gospel, the world is desperately in need of reconciliation. Certainly
we would confirm that diagnosis—the news reported in any daily paper would document humanity’s need to be reconciled. But the human diagnosis will not identify the problem as our need to be reconciled with God. We focus upon the brutal divisions that make nations, tribes, religions, and cultures into each other’s deadly enemies. We struggle to find human resources to bring about the reconciliation for which we all long. The gospel defines creation’s distress as the result of our separation from God. It is not merely a matter of human resources but of divine intervention. So, the gospel announces that God has intervened. Our separation from God and each other has been overcome, the chasm bridged, the opposing factions brought together. Our message starts with the assurance that in Christ there already is a new creation. The work of reconciliation was accomplished at Calvary, Easter, and Ascension Day. Thus, our calling to the role of ambassadors is a consequence of what God has already done." 

Robert Webber -  "The calling of the church in every culture is to be mission. That is, the work of the church is not to be an agent or servant of the culture. The churches’ business is not to maintain freedom or to promote wealth or to help a political party or to serve as the moral guide to culture. The church’s mission is to be the presence of the kingdom. . . . The church’s mission is to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God.”

Kirsteen Kim - "Mission in the sense of missio Dei, that is commitment to God’s loving concern for the world is an antidote to relativism in theology."

Lesslie Newbigin - "the missionary task of the church to make known the gospel where it is not known must remain an indispensable aspect of the church’s mission. In a time when missionary resources are being scandalously allocated, and when the task of taking the gospel to areas where it is not known remains a vital part of the church's calling, this distinction continues to hold before us that the missionary task of the church is to the ends of the earth."

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Why does this Community exist?

The Washington Theological Consortium posted an article written by Jane Mellinger  titled, Yves Congar and Stanley Grenz on the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Church - "Yves Congar argued that the Spirit is given to the church as the Body of Christ, calling the Spirit “the personal and living principle of the communion of the church. Speaking in temporal terms, the Holy Spirit worked an initial unity among the apostles before the day of Pentecost, so that they would be morally united in preparation for his coming. At Pentecost, then, the Spirit descended upon the gathered community of apostles and disciples, inaugurating the new people of God. In addition, the Holy Spirit continues his work within the church as an organic whole, sustaining communion, continuing to build the church in the present. Congar reminded his readers that the church is not static but dynamic, not a completed edifice but a living organism that requires the Spirit both to evoke and to respond to continual epiclesis. Hence, the Holy Spirit makes the church one Body of Christ in a mystical sense."

The ministry of the church is always strengthened by a commitment to the transformational power of the Holy Spirit within its community.  It confirms the truth that witness is never complete without a community of believers who give illustration to what life is like in the shared life of love and faith.

Walter Brueggemann identifies an attitude that I see in my own neighbourhood, "Ezra is the great "new church start" leader. A new church means reformulating the faith in radical ways in the midst of a community that has to begin again. For Ezra, as for Moses, new church starts do not aim at strategies for success, but at strategies for survival of an alternative community. What must survive is not simply the physical community; what must survive is an alternative community with an alternative memory and an alternative social perspective rooted in a peculiar text that is identified by a peculiar genealogy and signed by peculiar sacraments, by peculiar people not excessively beholden to the empire and not lusting after domestication into the empire..."

  
May I say that we are a witness to the transformational nature of the gospel in both word and deed.  We offer sacrificial compassionate service.  This is the church at work, representing the reign of God among its neighbours near and far.  These thoughts, along with the power of the Holy Spirit will enable us to understand mission.



http://www.nextreformation.com/wp-admin/articles/cadences1.htm

What is this Community like?

Imagine pinpointing the poorest community in your neighbourhood and creating an incarnational presence there.

It is there, in that one act, we no longer are people who have said things, we are people who display those words and what they mean in the way we live and worship.  Of course, once displayed, they cannot be denied, only rejected or entered into.  So the persuasion if you will are living displays of truth, not rational one-on-one arguments.

The seeker-sensitive church was an interesting approach, but it was a marketing approach and did not shape itself around the church and its mission.  We can be influencers in our community as the church by being the Church.

Cardinal Avery Dulles, in his book, Models of the Church, presents some interesting thoughts along these lines.  Take a look by following this link, http://www.buildupourparish.com/home.php?page_id=62

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"Called Out"

Let me share with you some thoughts expressed by Robert Munger, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary - these are not new, but they are his...

"The time soon came for us to pray. About a dozen of us knelt in a circle. Would I share my condition? Would I admit my desperation? Did I dare pray publicly for God to give me a special anointing and infilling of the Spirit of God, even though it might mean a radical change in the direction and association of my ministry? I had covenanted in writing before God in that crisis night that I would do anything, everything, go anywhere.
   It was a kairos (crisis) moment. Finally it was my time to pray. I told the gathered Christian brothers that I needed to be filled with the Spirit and asked them to pray for me. They did — earnestly, lovingly and with warm faith. Then I prayed, reminding God from Scripture of our covenant relationship and what he had already promised to give me for his glory.

   When I finished praying, the brother next to me, a big man whom I did not know but whose loving concern I could feel, put his arm around me and said, "Lord, help Bob's unbelief!" That was a bit hard to take, but I took it! I had often told inquirers that we receive Christ not by feelings but by faith in his person and promise. Now, suddenly, my own faith came alive. With a holy boldness I told God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that I was now receiving all of him and all that was meant in John 7:37-39. I thanked God that he was doing what I had asked of him. Now I knew for certain he would glorify Jesus Christ somehow even in me."

 http://youtu.be/Jyxlo64cOCw

Tinkering and Reworking

Leonard Sweet, considered one of the church's most provocative thinkers, said the old model of church is "killing the West," at a conference at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, according to the Associated Baptist Press.  http://www.christianpost.com/news/old-church-model-killing-the-west-25670/

That is a pretty big paint brush to be painting with.

I think the early church believed that knowing Christ also meant taking on the missio dei, the redemptive mission of God to the whole world.  But I am not sure how that happened as I am sure that the cost of ones life, with Paul running around throwing everyone in prison, meant this was something everyone just "did."  Right now I am thinking about those in the church through the Middle East and North Africa and in other eras, China and Russia.  So what mission look like then and there?

According to David J. Bosch, "mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God.  Mission was understood as being derived from the very nature of God…sending the church into the world…a movement from God to the world…. There is a church because there is a mission, not vice versa.  Mission [is] understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It is thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology. The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [is] expanded to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world”

That might mean that we know our neighbours, our politicians, our local business establishments.  We share in the community activities and are recognized by the agencies that work there. So our presence is not just through our buildings but their our social networks.

The last thought comes from Samuel Escobar,  “’Mission’ means ‘sending.’”  “The mission to which God sends those he chooses is always a ‘mission impossible, possible only because God will act in order to accomplish his purpose.”

 

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Discoveries on the Journey

"The role of the church is to cultivate a people who can risk being peaceful in a violent world, risk being kind in a competitive society, risk being faithful in an age of cynicism, risk being gentle among those who admire the tough, risk love when it may not be returned, because we have the confidence that in Christ we have been reborn into a new reality."
- Darrell E. Guder, editor, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America

Found this quote on a church website and fell in love with it because these are the things that were found in the early church and what turned the world upside right - these were the things that were found in the Roman Empire that moved them from persecuting Christianity to opening the transportation system to the good news be shared to the then conquered peoples of the world.


A missional church intentionally pursues the mission of Jesus for His glory among all peoples by engaging the culture with the gospel.  Then I found another quote from the same new friend I mentioned above...

"Mission is not just a program of the church. It defines the church as God’s sent people. Either we are defined by mission, or we reduce the scope of the gospel and the mandate of the church. Thus our challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church."

The church that has been our home church over the past 11 years is right now stuck in a "come to" our church framework and it is becoming more and more painfully obvious that this is inadequate as a missional operation in the community.  Do not get me wrong, every Sunday, both day and evening services, there are calls made for decisions to be made and they are made.  Friends bringing friends is the "come to" approach, but I know what the community at large is saying about our church and it hurts.  Their perception is the view of the love of Jesus that we show them by not showing up in the community and therefore they want no part of that kind of love.

I read this blog - http://nakeddoggy.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/come-to-us-strategy/ - and did not realize that maybe the emerging church was trying to change their brand from emerging to missional - but that is not the case.  There is a very big difference between the two functions.

What we do need to realize is that the unchurched, those who have never been to church, and that might not be very much of the adult population, but it must account for a predominantly large percentage of our older teens and young adult population, would no more drop into church for a casual visit than you or I might drop into a mosque or a gay bar for a casual visit.  Either way, we wouldn't quite know how to behave and may wonder what other people are thinking.

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Crossing Over

There is a Hebrew expression for this word - abar - which defines the experience of not being able to go back to the familiar nor being able to stay where we currently find ourselves.

 " to pass over or by or through, alienate, bring, carry, do away, take, take away, transgress"

You are going places where you have not gone before.

The journey has such a decisive edge to it.

The critical point has taken place and now we find ourselves in the middle - this is where it gets hard - how do you describe to anyone who asks how you got there and where are you going?

This has become not a time to consider how to survive or a problem to solve.  It is time for God to make something new.

Read these words from Jonathan Wilson:

Choosing Life. How we live in relationship to other people and the world around us is often called “ethics” in Christian teaching. Because all of us have to make decisions every day about what we are or are not going to do, ethics is often portrayed as decision making, especially in extreme situations. We often think ethics is about whether Christians should fight in war, have sex outside of marriage, practice invitro-fertilization, or “pull the plug” when a loved one is at the end of life. These are, indeed, ethical considerations. But if we are to make these kinds of decisions “in Christ,” it is more important for us to know the peculiar way of Christ in a community of peace than it is to think hard about what we would do in an extreme case.

In this regard, actual extreme cases sometimes make the point best. In the midst of World War II, when Nazi Germany was committed both to the extermination of Jewish people and to expansion in Europe, a village in occupied France quietly harbored hundreds of Jews, sparing their lives. Given the lack of resistance in so many places—and the high cost that so many resisters paid—it was a heroic act. Yet, when asked why they did it, most of the villagers simply said, “We never thought of not doing it.” For years a priest named André Trocmé had patiently Andre Trocmetaught Jesus’ example of forgiveness and nonviolent love at the village church. Over time, these people had become a community of peace. When the extreme case happened, the way of Jesus was an unquestioned habit.

“If anyone is in Christ Jesus,” the apostle Paul wrote to the early church, “there is a new creation.” Yes, the patterns of an old and broken order continue, causing a great deal of suffering and frustration. But the advent of a whole new world is the basis of New Testament ethics. The “old nature” that Paul calls us to battle against is part of the old order that is passing away. It is the set of habits that humans developed in a world where violence had the last word. In Christ, however, we are raised to a new reality. Because this reality of new creation re-defines how we see the world, it re-frames our habits of social engagement. Disciples take up their cross and follow Jesus not because they have learned to make the hard choice in an extreme case, but because they can’t imagine acting differently in light of the good news they have heard and seen. Their habit of choosing life is one they have learned by getting to know the way of Jesus among the people who are Christ’s body. It is, for the most part, slow and undramatic work. It is also how God chooses to engage our world in love.

A sense of urgency

When facing our realities, we found ourselves describing it with words and images, but rarely do we look at them through the eyes of truth.  We do not because we do not feel the urgency to do so, and those around us do not feel any urgency at all.

Then there are those who change for the sake of changes sake.  Never, ever helpful tack to take.

Staying the course is no better.

Skillful leaders nurture a sense of urgency in their congregations.  They foster a passionate desire to see the church live out its intended purpose.

In our smaller churches and our smaller ministries, there are more people interested in making sure the pastor/leader do not get away with anything than in giving them the opportunity to lead.  As a side note - the downfall of our pastor/leader is the lack of understanding that the only person that you have direct and immediate control over is yourself - so don't worry about what you want from others, instead, think about what you can give to others.

We have a new world around us - they need us to show the love of Jesus, to make it visible.  It isn't about us attracting crowds, its about seeing lives transformed, its about constructing personal relationships, it's about providing encouragement, spiritual growth, accountability and avenues for Christian ministry - arresting the temptation that people have of shopping around, looking for diversion while avoiding commitment. (Eddie Gibbs)

If most conflicts in the church were shaped around seeking what is best for God's purpose for the church, it would be amazing how the conversations would differ.  We are part of a large purpose. God's desire is to announce Himself through a people so passionately involved in this mission that they can do nothing less than become the people of God. (Gary Nelson)

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Pages from the Song Book

Remember the songs of my childhood, which happen to be children songs from Sunday School and hymns from Church is becoming more and more meaningful to me as I become older.

We are actually encouraged to remember the amazing hymns because they are actually declarations to whom God is.  I have heard of many individuals who have heard the words of a hymn and have come to Jesus as a result.

Even so, we all need to grasp the reality that these are in fact great memories, but we need to create memories from what we do today to - that might mean a different style of worship.  However, our job is to make certain that the songs we sing are just as powerful - God's Word does not return empty - and so lets encourage our worship leaders to understand the principle of worship and not get lost in the romance of the past.

This kind of attitude will stop some of the church fights and splits we see going on today.  They seem to get going because someone has labelled their anger as righteous anger.  Righteous anger on things that should be holy and honouring is great, quite another thing to see righteous anger turning into personal attacks.

If we are going to remember anything, lets remember that our daily trip to Starbucks requires a financial transaction greater than the daily income of 40 % of the world's population.

So the song we learn today is more than a chorus or hymn, it is about attitudes and presuppositions.  It is about atmosphere where we offer genuine community and authentic relationships.  We seek to answer the question of what it means to be relevant, by that, what are the questions being asked by our current generations and how can we answer them today instead of being trapped by our memories which will not allow us to address the urgency required to initiate change today.

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"as you are going"

I think we stress ourselves out to much with planning.

Jesus words are more clearing recognized when the sense of making disciples didn't come from a planned evangelistic campaign, it came from life, from giving.

So when he was among the prostitutes, He showed them what true love was like, when He was among the religious establishment, He showed them what true love was like, when He was at work, He showed those He worked with what true love was like.

I do not think you have to "get involved" in your community to show love, you probably already involved.  While you are in your community, show the love of God because they surely think they know it, but how can one understand the emotional feelings of adoption, of finding a home, brothers and sisters, taken off the streets, hugged every day - unless we invite them to come and be adopted into the family of God.

Then you realize that the bread you are feeding them with, the water you are sharing to quench their thirst is just that, bread and water.  Life is in Jesus - as you go - give Jesus.

The link here is a advertisment, but I think it really shows what I mean by, "as you are going"
http://youtu.be/o6kresN_wBI

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Living in the Borderlands

When it comes to missions, to outreach, we often think that in order to reach the unreached, or at least those we would like to reach that are "over there," we have to actually become new beings.

But it gets worse.

We love the story of Joshua and Caleb, and the other 10 spies for the mission instinct that had in spying out the land.  They picked up the trends and cultural behaviours of the people.  They had first hand experience.  Instead of saying, "yes, lets go into the land and take it," as Joshua and Caleb proclaimed, we say, "lets learn and understand our neighbours in case they come to visit us," and staying comfortable where we are because the adventure of moving forward to far to risky and dangerous.

It still gets worse.

When they come to visit us we have language skills, psychological skills, CEO skills, strategic cell groups and programs that create, shall we say, "subversive activity" that is designed to meet human need so that the church grows and yet there is no significant change on the part of the congregation.

This we know to be true - our beloved church - they know they need to change, they would prefer that change not create any discomfort.  That is why we have so many different kinds and styles of church families, so if they "prefer to do that" let them be part of that "other" congregation that likes doing "that."

This is where I love to insert the word revival.  The church loves revival.  The Holy Spirit takes all of our fears and says, "watch and see."  We are amazed that nothing matters.  All our fears are but pieces of straw in the wind.  Lives are changed.  The only discomfort we feel is within ourselves as we realize just how much time we have wasted - being comfortable. Revival is church living in the community in the power and presence of God. 

What does Church look like?

I like to go to church on Sunday and worship, celebrate, learn, engage, participate, love the people of God and together we adore our Heavenly Father.

Every other day in the week, I say lets say good-bye to the seeker-sensitive or programs that are relevant to postmodernism and we genuinely encounter people who are not inclined to church.  We engage in their spiritual struggles and tell them/show them/tell them again how we were adopted into God's family. 

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Celebrate!

Just saying the word aloud makes me realize just how often I do not celebrate.  Celebration is just not my way of living and I think it is messing me up.  Don’t get me wrong – I am excellent at Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Anniversaries – you know that stuff everyone else is good at – but to celebrate is more than being happy, more than being appreciative or thankful, more than just being delighted in – it means celebration!  The act of doing something celebratory.
I am thinking now why I can go crazy at a ball game or hockey game and be not so crazy at church.  I am celebrating my teams achievements, but at church I am trained to be quiet, reserved, holy… no celebrations allowed.
I saw a clip from SAT-7 who filmed a 12 hour marathon church service in the Cave Church which is located in the Garbage Village of Cairo.  Yeah, you heard me, 12 hours.  At one point, the 12,000 people attending this service started shouting the name of “Jesus” for – hang on – 15 minutes!  Yeah, that’s right – compare that to my Promise Keepers event where 4,000 men could hardly keep it going for 3 minutes.
Imagine if we could come to church each Sunday to celebrate the things that God has done in our lives each week?  Imagine if I as a father could celebrate with my family during the dinner hour what God has done each day?It has got me thinking…looking forward to celebrating more individually, with family, corporately…and still take in a few ball games and some Marlies games too.