Seekers, believers, Christians or just simply friends?

Hi William,

I like the word, "seekers" ... although some may not yet be actively seeking ... "pre-believer" or pre-follower works ...

I also like "friends" on a journey, or traveling companions. We are all on a journey, regardless of our level of faith. I view the secular people I am spending time with as simply "friends." Some are more connected to Jesus than others ... but I find self-identification as a "Christian" to be a very poor guide to the level of their faith and commitment. In other words, some who call themselves Christians (many actually) often have less faith and less true commitment to the name (character) of Christ, than many who do not call themselves Christians. God looks on the heart .... sounds like Matt 7, doesn't it? "Lord, Lord..."

I have actually stopped thinking about people in terms of "Christian" and "non- or pre-Christian" ... and I think of them as on a continuum (from -10 to +10 - Engle’s Scale) of faith and openness to God.

I recently attended a Quaker worship service (which I really liked). They call themselves the “Society of Friends” and they call anyone who visits them (even agnostics or atheists) “friends”.

One of the important (and problematic) functions of religion is to provide a sense of group identity (us versus them). A particular religion or social group will define itself against the “others” who are not part of them…hence, so much religious violence, for example in the Balkans between Catholics, Muslims and Orthodox, or the war on terror between “Christians”, Jews and Muslims … or the civil war in Iraq between Kurds, Sunni’s and Shia’s.

That’s why I believe that Jesus never intended to establish a “religion” … he came seeking a relationship, and he came to abolish the “dividing wall” between gentile and Jew, slave and free, male and female. He was severely critical of the Jews for trying to “own” God and control access to His kingdom and for viewing themselves as superior and “chosen” in distinction with the gentile “dogs.” Christians” do the same thing today. The last thing Jesus wanted was to set up another religion so that people could call themselves “Christian” and look down upon “sinners.” The highest title that Jesus gave anyone was found in John 15:15 when he called his disciples “friends.”

joseph

PS: there is a medical update from Deb on http://www.friends4thejourney.com/ and I'll be posting my most recent email reflection on "Made to Belong" from the PDL on there later today.

Deconstructing the Church Part 2

I came to the conclusion a long time ago, that my pulpit expositions were rather ineffective tools for helping followers learn. I realized that the higher goal of a spiritual “teacher” should not be only to “teach” but to facilitate learning. I found that one-on-one conversations with probing questions and challenging exhortations were far more powerful for motivating people to change behavior and character and for sparking spiritual growth. Basically, the method Jesus (and Socrates) often used.

Several years ago, I remember hearing a friend, Dr. Dow Robinson, trace the modern church “meeting” back to Greek Theater. As a pastor of a church, that shook me.

So…after leaving the Spanish church where I pastored in Kendall, we developed a model in our community where a small group of peers meet for prayer, fellowship and honest discussion (Acts 2:42). The “apostle’s teaching” for us, is reading a portion of scripture and then discussing it. The facilitator function is usually rotated among the various participants with the facilitator asking questions for discussion (like one might do in a blog) rather than giving opinions. Occasionally, someone will be inspired to give a exhortation, or “teaching.” Sometimes someone will share something they sense God wants to say. Other times, someone will ask for prayer or share an area of struggle.

Ultimate Reality

“Let us understand that to believe in the Lord himself, and to believe a formula, are actually two different motions. By the grace of God, one Christian has his eyes opened to see what kind of person he is; he therefore lays himself down and believes in the Lord, trusting the latter to do within him what he himself cannot do. As its consequence, he obtains release and is fully satisfied before God. Later on, though, another believer comes along. Upon hearing the testimony of the first person, he too asks God to enlighten him that he may know how useless a man he is. He too learns to believe in God and to humbly abandon himself. Yet it strangely turns out that he does not receive the deliverance which the first one experiences. What is the explanation for this? It is because the first brother has living faith which enables him to touch the Lord as well as believe in God, while the second brother has not faith at all but only a “copied faith formula”; and thus he does not reach God. Briefly stated, what this second brother gets is a method, not the Lord. A method has no power nor effectiveness; for not being Christ, it is simply a dead thing.”

Watchman Nee

In light of Bob Mumford's cry that "they just want to see His face", how can we bring Christ to the world in a way that they encounter Him and not a formula?

Deconstructing the “Church” -Part 1

What we have been attempting to do for about four years I will call "deconstructing" the church. Basically we have been attempting to digitize the church, that is, reduce it down to its most basic and irreducible form, where, if we remove one more thing, it will no longer be the church. There are a lot of reasons for this, one being that the replication of DNA takes place at the cellular level, rather than the most developed, complex level... another is that I am too tired to do the big church thing.... another was the influence of a book by Lamar Boshman on "Future Worship” that traced the locus of emphasis in church life from the sacraments in the middle ages.... to the pulpit in the reformation… to the platform in the electronic church.... and he predicted that in the digital age the locus of God's presence would be "in the midst of his people"....

From a missional point of view, we wanted to develop a model of church life that can easily be replicated in any social group or context with minimal scaffolding...Like catching or uploading a virus.

So, we started “deconstructing” layers of church life. The building was the first to go…then Sunday School, worship team…centralized giving and a joint financial account, then the leadership structure: the senior pastor, elders and staff.

Not surprisingly, one of the hardest things to get rid of was a weekly “meeting” for structured worship (worship meaning music and singing). This was especially hard for those who were raised in a context of weekly Sunday morning meetings. We now encourage the smaller committed groups to decide for themselves how often, when and where to meet, as we also encourage them to to give but empower them to hear from God about where to give.

We suggest Acts 2:42 as a guideline for their gathering. To truly empower the laity, and abolish the clergy-laity division will require more radical action than most leaders have been willing to take up to this point.

Jesus and personal responsability

here are some scriptures to consider as we reflect on Matt's first installment about Post Institutionalism.

PHI 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

GAL 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.

1JO 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

Any thoughts how to interpret these in the our current context? What does it mean for us to work out our salvation? Or bear own own load? Why does John say that we have no need for anyone to teach us? In what way does his anointing teach us al things?

Dr Sam

Post-Institutionalism

This article was originally published on Newsvine.com here to an audience of secularists, naturalists, hindus, etc. It is my deep feeling that what the world needs now are "post-Christian" followers of Christ.

A few years ago I really believed in the power of institutions. My experiences as a student, as an athlete, and as a church member were positive. Over time however, I have seen a rapid decline in the effectiveness of institutions with a corresponding increase in costs to manage. I began to notice that there were lots of people on the “outside” of these institutions. It would be easy to dismiss these “outsiders” as a fringe element, but the number of people who are losing out to institutionalism is growing at a rapid pace.

We often hail the greatness of our political, social, business, educational, and religious institutions. True greatness does not lie in building and protecting institutions, but in building and protecting people, families, and communities. Institutions stay “pure” by purging the “impure”. Families on the other hand, stay pure by integrating and building health and wholeness into each member.

The post-institutional era is about building organically through family and community structures with wholeness, collaboration, and good stewardship in mind.

Think about it. A political candidate thinks about issues in terms of reelection, not problem solving. A church starts a new marketing campaign to boost membership so that the budget will balance. Rather than thinking about building wholeness into individuals, they are thinking about institutional preservation. Business? Why is Google doing everything they can to avoid the institutional pitfalls that IBM and Microsoft have fallen into?

Close the Door Behind You

To demonstrate the “purge mentality” of institutions I will tell a quick story. In 2002, my family and I moved to Dallas, TX. Through the invitation of a neighbor we started attending a local church. The stated goal of the church was to provide a community for “healthy” families. I pondered that statement and wondered how many people that excluded from this community.

As time progressed I felt a need to serve in the church. I signed up to manage the parking lot before services and help seat people once they came inside. One Sunday, I was put in charge of the “overflow” section. If the front section of pews fills, a divider is pulled back and folding chairs are setup up to accommodate the “overflow”. In order to dissuade people from sitting in the overflow section prior to the front section filling, plastic tape was strung around the chairs barring entry. I was situated in front of the chairs to make sure no one sat in the overflow section until the appointed time.

I looked across the section of chairs to a young man who had jumped the tape blockade and taken a seat in the back row. This was an affront to the overflow section. Not only that… he was wearing an Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt! I walked over and sat down next to him. I said hello. He said hello in return. We talked for a while about how stupid it was to have an overflow section that was blocked off by tape. He could tell that I was “cool” and really didn’t care if he sat back there. He started telling me that he had fallen on rough times and that his parents had thrown him out of the house. I told him that sucked and it sounded very “unchristian”. He agreed. Right about that time, my neighbor (the one that invited us in the first place) came over and said, “mbrennan, what are you doing sitting in the reject section?” Nice… A couple minutes later, this older guy in a suit came over looking very embarrassed. Referring to my new Ozzy loving friend he said, “He’s probably high on God knows what!” It turns out that the old dude was Ozzy man’s dad. Nice… I said to the old guy, “Hey, we’re fine. We’re having a great conversation. Cool out.”

You see, Ozzy’s mom and dad were institutionalists. The institution had failed to reform their son so it was time to purge. They prayed to God that no one witnessed their unhealthy family. Shiny veneer with a black inside.

This was one of the great examples that showed me this truth. It bears repeating:

True greatness doesn’t lie in building and protecting institutions, but in building and protecting people, families, and communities. Institutions stay “pure” by purging the “impure”. Families stay pure by integrating and building wholeness in each member. The post-institutional era is about building organically through family and community structures with wholeness, collaboration, and good stewardship in mind.

So rather than building up Ozzy, we purged him.

Conclusions

So how will the post-institutional world impact you? Do you find yourself looking at problems that absolutely cannot be solved by the government or some other non-responsive institution? Have you noticed that the cost of health care and education are rising, but the quality is falling? There is no lack of intellectual capital, financial capital, and ingenuity to solve many of our problems. The question is are we willing to give ourselves to our own communities? Are we willing to engage our communities and bring non-institutional solutions to our most pressing problems? Many of us are stuck on the couch or by the computer decrying the failures of Washington, the UN, and the World Bank. At some point, the gross failures of institutions will lead to greater action among social entrepreneurs. Common citizens will take matters into their own hands. Some already have.