I have made a mistake

I have made a mistake. Seems I often have to say those words, in my marriage, my parenting, my life with Christ, and my life of trying to be who God created me to be. I have made a mistake. You see as I posted earlier in my very first post, I am a Pastor. I have the heart of a Pastor, the heart of a Shepard. I long to see people experience joy in Christ, find freedom in Christ, enjoy life again, or maybe just find life more than what it is for them today.
I was also a Bible college, Institutional church/traditional church trained Pastor. Because of that these last months of deconstruction from that which I was, towards what I am has caused my mistake. You see before I launched into this blog, before I accepted a nudge from God to begin to go back into ministry I was in ministry. I was strategically discipling people God had placed in my life, I was doing lunch meetings, breakfast meetings, dinner meetings and helping people in the ways I described above.
Then I said I was starting a new church and something happened. Many people began to see that as a threat to "their church". Many people saw that as an attempt like so many others before them had done to "get them in the doors" and in fact it was. I am sorry to say when my family and I decided on this path our intention was to begin to disciple families, to begin to minister to peoples needs by pouring our lives into theirs, And then my mind took over. By that I mean I began to start using opportunities to disciple as opportunities to promote "coming" to a Bible study hosted in my home, and while our intention and our heart was in the right place, my old nature of "church" just kind of took over.

So now my wife and I (well really me because she somehow lovingly helped me realize my mistake) are going back to the beginning. For those whom I have talked with about a new church I am sorry, this is about US being the church, and helping people go deeper in their faith,and become more of the people that God created them to be: as husbands/wives, and parents, and individuals, as workers and employers, and last but not least… as followers of Christ. For those of you whom God has given us to speak into your lives I say thank you. Thank you for understanding that I am human and as such am prone to mistakes, and to say thank you for giving me and Liela and our family continued opportunity to share our faith with you on an ongoing basis!

So: who's over for dinner next?

Comments? please feel free to share them here!

Lost in America

Our bookshelves are full of Christian books. We have church buildings on every major street, more paid staff in church buildings than ever before, large sunday school departments, cell systems, mega and meta church growth seminars.

We have fish on cars and bumperstickers, political action groups, huge parachurch ministries and extensive social programs. We have built huge churches, ministries, universities, and homes... and in the midst of it all we have lost every major city in North America.

Our paid church staff and major Christian leaders say were doing great things for God and for people, yet the statistics do not lie, they tell us a different story... a story of people hurt and alone, many in that very position because of the "church". We have drawn our line in the sand and said all who are like us on this side and all who are not go over there on the other side.

Our ideology of bridge building to that other side of the line is a bridge marked by the word "change". It is a label placed their by the select on "our" side for those on the otherside to do in order to make it across.

I say it is a label for the very ones who placed it there, it is a call to change in the church, it is a call to walk out of your precious building, walk out of your precious church service and walk across that bridge that divides them and us and to begin to be real, and begin to have real relationships with people. After all that is what God planned, all of the Bible, every single bit of it revolves around this story about a God who sooooooo strongly desires to be in a relationship with people. And we have reduced that to those who have "arrived".

I, and my family are crossing this bridge, we are venturing forth into real relationships with normal everyday people, is there anyone else out there doing the same? Tell us about your journey

I am a conservative, but not in the way you might think...

I am a conservative. So often we want to see a persons label, are you liberal, are you conservative, are you a Christian or are you a (insert label here)? our labels go far beyond those I just mentioned, they go into Christendom... are you a baptist or a pentecostal, lutheran or methodist, catholic or (again insert label here)



Labels are a funny thing, we buy cloths because of labels, shop in certain stores, or dont shop in certain stores because of them. And we love people, or should I say we dont love people because of them. You know what I mean, we are stereotypical because of certain bents we have toward different things; things like what area a person lives, what kind of music an individual listens to, what is the color of their skin, what school di or do they go to. Even things like what denomination they are. But the one we so easily stereotype is the one I began with, are you a liberal or a conservative, are you moderate with your views or are you radical with them.

It is funny to watch how easy it is to stereotype a liberal because of their beliefs... but you know what, the Christian conservative is stereotyped as well. Have you ever thought that that stereotype is causing us to loose our right to speak the life and words of Jesus into peoples lives? Have you ever thought that our hootin and hollerin has denied us the chance to be the very thing Jesus called us to be. We conservatives Christians boycott everything under the sun that doesnt line up with our theology. we boycott lost people being lost because we dont like how lost people act. we boycott secular business because they do what secular business' do, they sell things. we just only want them to sell to "right behaving people"

Scripture tells me that the community of faith God created and called His own was a people group that "had favor among all the people" (see Acts 2 in the Bible). how do we have favor enough to speak into anyones life the power of a Great God to transform situations and struggles... to transform the very life of those we seek to impact, when we have no favor, and we have been stereotyped with every other "non favor" weilding Christian.

I would rather have favor and the ability to speak when God give the oppertunity than I would to have my label. So I am laying down my label, I am not a conservative, I am not a part of a denomination, dont call me a Christian; call me a God lover and a God servant, call me a people servant. That didnt change my beliefs or my desires. I would still vote the same, I would still teach the same, still raise my children the same, but I would strive to change the world through touching individual lives God gives me favor with rather than lumping myself in with the stereotypical conservative Christian which our world simply disregards anyway!

So whats your label? Tell me about it.

In his book, The Monday Morning Church, Jerry Cook tells the story of a conversation with Dr. Richard Halverson, formerly the chaplain of the United States Senate and the pastor of a large Presbyterian church in Washington, D.C. After speaking in a seminary chapel service, he engaged some of the students in conversation over coffee in the cafeteria. Cook relates the following…
“We get together at a building on Fourth Street, but we don’t spend much time there. We’re mostly in the city.”One of the students asked, “Dr. Halverson, where is your church?” This seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to me, but Dr. Halverson looked quite perplexed and hesitated to answer. Then he glanced at his watch.“Well, it’s three o’clock in Washington, D.C. The church I pastor is all over the city. It’s driving buses, serving meals in restaurants, having discussions in the Pentagon, deliberating in the Congress.” He knew exactly where his church was, and he went on and on with his lengthy listing. Then he added, “Periodically, we get together at a building on Fourth Street, but we don’t spend much time there. We’re mostly in the city.”
(see the whole article at http://www.missionalchallenge.blogspot.com/)

What an interesting concept dont you think

Life is a journey and it is not Christian or non Christian, it is fellow sojourners of a faith journey. Statistics from Barna research group point to 68% of all adults are “spiritual” including 55% of people who classify themselves as “non born again” that is people who have not made a confession of faith in Christ for salvation. Research also points to 66% (2/3rds) of all adults are “searching for meaning and purpose for their lives”. In a typical week 63% of unchurched people, that is people who are not part of a faith community say they pray regularly in a typical week. Everyone is on a faith journey, and everyone is at a different place in their faith journey.

Paul Points us to the beginning of that journey in the Bible: Romans 12:3 “Everyone who is among you should not think of himself more highly than he ought to, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

As God has dealt each one a measure of faith. Paul is not talking about “Christians” this is the misconception in the church that no one has faith until they receive Christ. But that is incorrect; God has dealt to everyone a measure of faith, a beginning point of every persons faith journey was begun by God. God fired the starters pistol to your journey!

It is this measure of faith that allows all people the ability to believe their paycheck has any value to it, after all it is simply a piece of paper. It is this measure of faith that allows all people to believe what a Dr. prescribes for you will make you feel better. It is this measure of faith that starts all people on a journey of faith, it is what allows those statistics I quoted earlier to be true And it is this measure of faith that allows you and I and every person on this planet the ability to believe Jesus came to die to bring life here on the earth!

Many people have never gotten off the starting line, they never get beyond the measure of faith and they try to live on that measure alone. Then they struggle with questions like “why do bad things happen to good people” why do I keep facing trouble and trials and difficulty in my life” etc etc etc. you get the picture.

People on the starting line can be far in their journey of life, but never have really started. They can believe in God, or a higher power, a supreme being, they can pray, they can attend faith gatherings like church or bible studies, or other religious activities like attend mass or go to a mosque. All in the attempt to get off the line, yet never quite making it. Many will pursue great spirituality in their attempt to move on in their faith journey; things like astrology, their daily horoscope, the tarot reader, and many other “spiritual” practices, they might even serve in the nursery in their church… but the truth is since God designed the journey of faith the journey must at some point bring one to the starting gun, the thing which allows you to move off the starting line.

We are inviting people back to the starting line, back to just the measure of faith instilled in them from their birth, and begin this journey together with us as we walk through life together as sojourners, travelers of life.

Does anyone out there relate to such a journey? Tell us about your journey by clicking on the post a comment link!

Futbol anyone

I have found myself really busy in the last few weeks. Soccer season is in full swing and I coach three teams, well five in a sense, two are playing indoor right now, and three will be playing outdoor in just a few weeks. Last weekend my 13 year old team got it handed to them on the soccerfield. This team is a first year team, have never played together before, and my son played goalie for the first time ever. they played aainst a team that went 7-1-0 last season in A division (the highest division). we play in C division (the lowest). We lost 24 to 0 and their heads were hanging very low. I wondered if I would even be able to get them back on the field for the next game. they resorted to trash talking their own team for such a loss.

At the end of the game it is my job as coach to have a talk with the kids about the game... half my team just left and went home. But the half that stayed got to hear on of my best pep talks (sermons to the team if you will). I spoke to them about the journey, not the destination. You see their minds were on winning, but mine was on their becoming something. Becoming a team, a unit, a community if you will grant me some latitude with the word. learning their names, their skill, their weakness, their positions and most of all... a mutual respect for each other. you see when this happens the other comes, games begin to be won, friendships developed, and we shine! You see, when we learn to be a team we can compliment eachothers strengths and weaknesses for the greater good. we start thinking in terms of the team rather than "me". we start acting in such a way, and playing such a way that the team is benefited...

I think God would smile at that, if His people functioned like that. thinking of the community instead of onesself, learning to compliment each others lives, haveing ours eyes off heaven and onto becoming something... You see I think that IS what God wanted. More of the Bible's teaching is about becoming a community of faith than is found therein about heaven. And eternal life is described as beginning at the point of Christ meeting, not the point of death. We have focused on the destination rather than the journey. more on where we were going than on who we were to be. I pray my soccer team can enjoy becomeing instead of despairing the destination, and likewise I pray the church would spend less time on the destination and more time on the journey!

BTW we play again today @ 4pm, I'll get my team manager to shoot some photo's and I'll post a few! GO EXTREME!