True ministry begins not with giving but with receiving. We need to be filled up before we have anything to give to others. John told us that "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" (Colossians 1:19 NIV). (p. 25)

Jesus enjoyed his solitude, but he was also at home in a crowd. He was balanced. The time that he spent alone prepared him for the times he spent with people. In the same way, his time in the crowds prepared him for the refreshment of solitude. (p.26)

- Joshua Choonmin Kang
Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Transformation
IVP, 2007

I started reading this book because I have definitely been lacking on the "filling up" side of things lately. It came highly recommended from the folks over at Renovare. It is so easy to get caught up in the "doing." It's exciting. You can see the results. But you dry up so fast.

It's so hard for me still to get to the place to be able to say that, for me, a pastor, the filling up is just as important, more important than the doing. And it's exponentially harder for people not "in the biz" to get that. I need to live it and model it.

So I am setting aside the church growth and effectiveness books for a bit and focus on sitting with Jesus. Then I'll go back into the crowds--that's my job and I really do love it. But who I am is a child of God and friend of Jesus, and that I must nurture.

I have been reading and re-reading Dallas Willard's Book The Divine Conspiracy. It is truly a masterpiece of spiritual formation and growth. Well, actually a masterpiece about life since he, more than any other Christian writer I have encountered, describes what holistic life in Christ is all about. Sometime I'll write more about my experience with the book.

He quotes an author, Clyde Reid, whom I hadn't heard of. He was the Secretary of Evangelism for the Board of Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ (we love the titles in our tribe) when he wrote the book The God Evaders in 1966. So here is Dallas Willard, a Southern Baptist and philosophy professor at The University of Southern California, quoting a UCC denominational minister. This has got to be good stuff.

Willard quotes Reid's "Law of Religious Evasion," which states that, "as a kind of principle or law of human nature: We structure our churches and maintain them so as to shield us from God and protect us from genuine religious experience." [Willard, 201 quoting Reid, 41]. Willard goes on to share this from Reid's "telling observations of church life:

The adult members of churches today rarely raise serious religious questions for fear of revealing their doubts or being thought of as strange. There is an implicit conspiracy of silence on religious matters in the churches. This conspiracy covers up the fact that the churches do not change lives or influence conduct to any appreciable degree [Willard, 202, quoting Reid, 19].

I have a copy of God Evaders on the way to me. And I am wondering why no one was listening to Reid--especially folks from his/our own denomination--when he wrote this back in 1966. It's good stuff, and it gives me hope. We can turn this thing around!

I'd love to hear responses to these ideas. Do you agree? Disagree? Do Reid's words describe your experience? How can we change it?

Post here, email me, or discuss in the forum (if it's your first visit, you'll need to register). For a lengthy, insightful discussion of the book, head to this blog.

Looking forward to hearing from you!