San Diego tomorrow morning (this morning technically). Pray for us. We are looking forward to seeing and being able to think, pray and talk with John and Sherri as we seek God's heart for the future!
Monday, January 24, 2005
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Party at the Cabin
Kyle, my oldest, turned twelve yesterday. So for his birthday, I took him along with Joshua (younger brother) and Kyle's two best friends up here to Grandpa and Grandma's cabin for an evening of twelve year old heaven. That's right - GameCube, all the Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper you can drink, Pizza, Chips, and Ice Cream with no curfew. It was like a twelve year old bachelor party.
The following morning (they eventually crashed around 3:30 with some encouragement from myself) we hiked to the top of Huckleberry Mountain which is just behind the cabin.
Great times were had by all, but I was ready for a nap after the hike - they were still going strong.
The following morning (they eventually crashed around 3:30 with some encouragement from myself) we hiked to the top of Huckleberry Mountain which is just behind the cabin.
Great times were had by all, but I was ready for a nap after the hike - they were still going strong.
Friday, January 21, 2005
From Religion to Incarnation
I got to take in a church planters get together at Mars Hill in Seattle this week. It was probably the most thought provoking exercise I have taken in since coming to Seattle. They dished up hot breakfast and lunch (free) so that guys could interact and then Mike Gunn of Harambee Church laid out some stuff that he has been processing. I'll share thoughts (that's what a blog is for - right?).
The church is far too known for what it stands against rather than what it stands for. Take a poll on the street and you will find people are very clear how the church feels about homosexuality and totally fuzzy about what it means to be "saved". Why? Because the church is much better at pointing fingers at people and their behaviour than it is at pointing to Jesus through demonstration of His love and grace. This is why the church has lost it's influence. Leslie Newbiggen says correctly, "The church is the hermeneutic of the gospel." In other words, the world interprets the gospel through the observation of the church. We have been an embarassment (on the whole) in this department. If we want to penetrate our communities with the gospel, it must be demonstrated in the mission of the church.
What is the function of the church? Mission - Bearing witness to bring glory to God
"The church in our culture; however, is more structured for maintenance than mission."
The Glory of God is the mission of the church, not evangelism, conversion or growth!
"Mission can no longer be thought of as simply soul saving, but must also include the creation of Christian communities, the struggle for justice, and the stewardship of creation."
Pendulum Warning: Evangelism brings glory to God and is part of mission. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. However, what we have done in the past is focus solely on Evangelism and World Missions (with an emphasis on evangelism) to the exclusion of justice and liberation from oppression. If we would lead in these areas, I believe the world would be much more willing to hear our voice and we would be much more effective as evangelists.
The church is far too known for what it stands against rather than what it stands for. Take a poll on the street and you will find people are very clear how the church feels about homosexuality and totally fuzzy about what it means to be "saved". Why? Because the church is much better at pointing fingers at people and their behaviour than it is at pointing to Jesus through demonstration of His love and grace. This is why the church has lost it's influence. Leslie Newbiggen says correctly, "The church is the hermeneutic of the gospel." In other words, the world interprets the gospel through the observation of the church. We have been an embarassment (on the whole) in this department. If we want to penetrate our communities with the gospel, it must be demonstrated in the mission of the church.
What is the function of the church? Mission - Bearing witness to bring glory to God
"The church in our culture; however, is more structured for maintenance than mission."
The Glory of God is the mission of the church, not evangelism, conversion or growth!
"Mission can no longer be thought of as simply soul saving, but must also include the creation of Christian communities, the struggle for justice, and the stewardship of creation."
Pendulum Warning: Evangelism brings glory to God and is part of mission. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. However, what we have done in the past is focus solely on Evangelism and World Missions (with an emphasis on evangelism) to the exclusion of justice and liberation from oppression. If we would lead in these areas, I believe the world would be much more willing to hear our voice and we would be much more effective as evangelists.
San Diego, CA
So the church planting organization tells me a few months ago that we need to go through "Boot Camp" soon, but they can not find one in an appropriate time frame up here in the Northwest. So they say to me, we have to send you to San Diego in January. Now I can think of a lot of places that I would NOT want to be in January, but San Diego is definitely not one of them. Someone has to do it.
On a serious note, we will be studying the "Nuts and Bolts" of church planting this upcoming week. Please keep us in your prayers. Leslie and I are really excited about this. We were even more excited when we learned that John and Sherri Chandler felt called to come work with us and the CEA offered to pay for them to come to Boot Camp with us. It will be a great time of formulating the heart of what we pray God will do through us in Seattle.
Following San Diego I get to make a four day trek back to good old Mesa, AZ. Good times.
For those of you keeping track (which might only be my children):
January 24-28 - Boot Camp in San Diego
January 28-Feb 1 - Mesa, AZ
On a serious note, we will be studying the "Nuts and Bolts" of church planting this upcoming week. Please keep us in your prayers. Leslie and I are really excited about this. We were even more excited when we learned that John and Sherri Chandler felt called to come work with us and the CEA offered to pay for them to come to Boot Camp with us. It will be a great time of formulating the heart of what we pray God will do through us in Seattle.
Following San Diego I get to make a four day trek back to good old Mesa, AZ. Good times.
For those of you keeping track (which might only be my children):
January 24-28 - Boot Camp in San Diego
January 28-Feb 1 - Mesa, AZ
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Moved by an "Evangelical turned Agnostic"
I love to backpack. I love taking my wife and boys out into the wild and living in it. I don't do it enough, but we have spent many a night along the Wonderland Trail of Mount Rainier as well as nights in the mid-summer air of Mogollon Rim of Arizona. Nearly heaven.
So, I subscribe to Backpacker magazine. The December issue came and finding myself too busy to really sit down and read it, I finally picked up the magazine during a quiet moment in a small room adjacent to my bedroom (if you get my drift). My eye was caught by an article written by Michael Perry who described himself as an "Evangelical turned Agnostic". Being a pastor, I had to read his artlice, "Running the River Righteous".
I looked online for the article, but it's still on the newsstands and you can't find it online. I wish I could type it out for all of you to read, but it would take days (the man is prolific). It describes a rafting trip that he took through the Grand Canyon with 34 other people who were all fundamentalist Christians as they "toured" the canyon for proof that the earth was created in a literal 6 days.
Let me pause here for those who may not know me well. I believe in the God of the Bible. I believe that it holds the truth and that God has used Scripture as a tool to commicate His heart with His creation. At the same time, I am not sure that I believe that the world was created in six literal days. I fully believe that the Bible can be understood very clearly as saying that the earth was created in six periods of time (See Hugh Ross). I find it disconcerting that many Christians are so militantly against anything but a literal six day creation, when there are so many more important things to discuss in Scripture. That said, let me get back to the article.
Perry says throughout the article that he comes from a great home, with a great family. He speaks of enjoying the morning and evening devotionals throughout the trip and the rousing hymns that were sung around the campfire. All throughout the article he speaks of wanting to believe. Yet, his intellectual understandings of an old earth keep him from claiming their truth. That and the sermon he heard before the trip started. Let me quote.
"After hymns and prayer, a preacher from ICR got to going, and brother, could he bring it. I like some good preaching, and this was that. He paced the riser, he found his cadence, and he worked it. He took it up, and he took it down...He mentioned Carl Sagan, and did a little billions and billions impression. Then the preacher came to a full stop, stage right, and looked out at us...then said, "By the way, ol' Carl knows what's going' on now!" The congregation bubbled with chuckles...And I'll tell you he lost me right there. You want to lure me back, brother, show some compassion. Before honor is humility, if you'll allow me a little Old Testament. Dropt o your knees and pray through tears that our fellow sinner Carl might yet be redeemed. What you had here was a jig danced on a lost soul. I'd heard those chuckles before, from peple of my own congregation, as they listened to one of our preachers recount how he turned his back on a struggling member after he caught her wearing shorts. From that day I have tried to reconcile the deep goodness of my childhood church with its poisonous little seams of petty certitude. I found myself doing a similar thing the canyon, trying to reconcile the chuckles on the rim with the sincere smiles around me.
The thing is, as we float deeper into the canyon and creationism, I want to believe...
He ends the article with a statement, The jouney of faith is constant - there is grave danger in assuming you have arrived."
I have little left to say but my heart was broken because Christians have allowed an inexact science and cinicism to allow Perry to walk away from a nine day boat trip with only good memories and a further commitment to staying clear of those who think they have arrived.
So, I subscribe to Backpacker magazine. The December issue came and finding myself too busy to really sit down and read it, I finally picked up the magazine during a quiet moment in a small room adjacent to my bedroom (if you get my drift). My eye was caught by an article written by Michael Perry who described himself as an "Evangelical turned Agnostic". Being a pastor, I had to read his artlice, "Running the River Righteous".
I looked online for the article, but it's still on the newsstands and you can't find it online. I wish I could type it out for all of you to read, but it would take days (the man is prolific). It describes a rafting trip that he took through the Grand Canyon with 34 other people who were all fundamentalist Christians as they "toured" the canyon for proof that the earth was created in a literal 6 days.
Let me pause here for those who may not know me well. I believe in the God of the Bible. I believe that it holds the truth and that God has used Scripture as a tool to commicate His heart with His creation. At the same time, I am not sure that I believe that the world was created in six literal days. I fully believe that the Bible can be understood very clearly as saying that the earth was created in six periods of time (See Hugh Ross). I find it disconcerting that many Christians are so militantly against anything but a literal six day creation, when there are so many more important things to discuss in Scripture. That said, let me get back to the article.
Perry says throughout the article that he comes from a great home, with a great family. He speaks of enjoying the morning and evening devotionals throughout the trip and the rousing hymns that were sung around the campfire. All throughout the article he speaks of wanting to believe. Yet, his intellectual understandings of an old earth keep him from claiming their truth. That and the sermon he heard before the trip started. Let me quote.
"After hymns and prayer, a preacher from ICR got to going, and brother, could he bring it. I like some good preaching, and this was that. He paced the riser, he found his cadence, and he worked it. He took it up, and he took it down...He mentioned Carl Sagan, and did a little billions and billions impression. Then the preacher came to a full stop, stage right, and looked out at us...then said, "By the way, ol' Carl knows what's going' on now!" The congregation bubbled with chuckles...And I'll tell you he lost me right there. You want to lure me back, brother, show some compassion. Before honor is humility, if you'll allow me a little Old Testament. Dropt o your knees and pray through tears that our fellow sinner Carl might yet be redeemed. What you had here was a jig danced on a lost soul. I'd heard those chuckles before, from peple of my own congregation, as they listened to one of our preachers recount how he turned his back on a struggling member after he caught her wearing shorts. From that day I have tried to reconcile the deep goodness of my childhood church with its poisonous little seams of petty certitude. I found myself doing a similar thing the canyon, trying to reconcile the chuckles on the rim with the sincere smiles around me.
The thing is, as we float deeper into the canyon and creationism, I want to believe...
He ends the article with a statement, The jouney of faith is constant - there is grave danger in assuming you have arrived."
I have little left to say but my heart was broken because Christians have allowed an inexact science and cinicism to allow Perry to walk away from a nine day boat trip with only good memories and a further commitment to staying clear of those who think they have arrived.
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