God Is Still Speaking, #1

Yesterday after church a group of folks gathered to discuss how we would organize our Sunday School after our Christian Education director retires at the end of October. It was mostly about mechanics and logistics, the comfortable discussions we fall into at these types of meetings: who is available to cover when, what is the procedure, etc.

But right in the middle there was a God Is Still Speaking Moment. Carol, our Christian Ed director, put in a DVD that is part of the curriculum. She told me later that it was not even the video clip that she intended to show first. It was geared for middle school students and it was a clip of a group of kids discussing Jesus' family tree. They were commenting on the variety of characters in Jesus' ancestry, how some were famous Biblical characters known for following God and how some were people that would not be considered at all "religious," or as one of the kids put it, not like he pictured "church people."

God used a Sunday school video clip to speak to me yesterday. I hope, if God was speaking to others beside me, they were listening as well. Jesus of Nazareth, the one sent to redeem and restore the world, came from a pedigree of bastards, murderers, prostitutes, and cheats.

God can use any of us to birth the Divine into the world. There is nothing we can do to disqualify ourselves. One is used by God because God chooses to use one, despite one's education level, title, station in life, social class, or criminal record. Of course, our life experience may make us more or less fit for particular ministries, but none of us are disqualified and, therefore, none of us exempt.

Prophetic Words

"From today's crisis, a church will emerge tomorrow that has lost a great deal...She will be small and, to a large extent, will have to start from the beginning. She will no longer be able to fill many of the buildings created in her period of great splendor. Because of the smaller number of her followers, she will lose many of her privileges in society. Contrary to what has happened until now, she will present herself much more as a community of volunteers...As a small community, she will demand much more from the initiative of each of her members and she will certainly also acknowledge new forms of ministry and will raise up to the priesthood proven Christians who have other jobs...It will make her poor and a church of the little people..All this will require time. The process will be slow and painful."
- Joseph Ratzinger, 1969


Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. This is a quote from an article about him in Time magazine (June 7, 2010). It was uttered forty years ago and yet is amazingly prophetic. I am getting impatient. I am weary of the conversations about how we can "save the church," meaning the institution we love and protect. I am ready for that institution to die so that it will stop impeding the movement of the Spirit in our world. I am ready for what is coming. I am ready for women and men with hearts set afire to respond to who God is calling them to be and what God is calling them to do.

The Light of God in the Prism of People

Last night, I attended the interfaith prayer circle for the National Day of Prayer in Lake Worth. It was a meaningful time for me. It is a powerful experience to gather with those of different beliefs who are willing to come together and make space for, and even engage in one another's practices.

Yes, sometimes another's ritual or practice is so different from one's own that it is a bit awkward, somewhat uncomfortable. But I see that as an opportunity for growth, expanding my understanding of God beyond what I am comfortable with.

Here is the prayer I shared, as best as I can remember it:

Our source of life, of love
We thank you for your presence with us
We thank for you for your constant, abiding presence with us always
And we thank you for this opportunity to see your light through the prism of your children gathered here
Allowing us to experience you in all of your colors and words and images and genders and sounds and silences.
Grant us your Spirit of imagination, allowing us each to see what would be possible if each of us gathered here lived fully our understanding of you, the shift that could happen in our culture, in our world
We pray especially today on this National Day of Prayer for our leaders
We start right here where we are by lifting up Renee, Cara, Suzanne, and Scott to you,
Encourage and enliven them, lift them up
Give them the courage to lead and to speak
Give them the humility to listen and make space for one another and for the voices of those they govern
Amen

Jason's Job Transition FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

On May 14th I will begin a new job as a chaplain with VITAS Innovative Hospice Care, a hospice care provider in Palm Beach County. I will be transitioning from a full time paid position with our church to a part time paid position with our church. This will be new experience for our church and it brings up some different emotions and questions in people's hearts and minds. Some of the questions I will attempt to answer here. Other questions and emotions we will seek to experience and work through as we continue our journey together.

How did you learn about the chaplain position with VITAS Innovative Hospice Care?

I have recently completed a six month internship with VITAS as a requirement for school. Clinical Pastoral Education, an educational experience composed of supervised ministry and theological reflection is a requirement of both ordination in the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ and my graduation from Florida Center for Theological Studies. Just as I was finishing my internship, a chaplain position became available on the team that services the Lake Worth/Boynton Beach area. I was invited to apply for this position and was subsequently hired.

Why did you decide to take this position now?

There are several elements that make up the answer to this question.

First, I found the work with hospice patients to be very rich and meaningful. I have the opportunity to have spiritual conversations with people who may have never had them before. As an interfaith chaplain, my role is to be a companion to them, listening for, and facilitating interpretation of, what is spiritually meaningful for them. I recognized in myself and those I worked with recognized in me some undiscovered gifts in this area which I am looking forward to developing as I continue to grow into the minister God has called me to be.

Second, our church's current financial reality (currently operating at a $70,000 a year deficit) is not suitable for supporting a full time pastor. By me becoming "bi-vocational" (a pastor with two jobs, not at all unusual for small and medium-sized churches), there is financial pressure taken off of our church and there is a little more long-term financial security for me and my family.

Third, after much prayer and consideration, I believe this is a good next-step in our ministry together. Financially, this allows us to continue our ministry together indefinitely. It takes the issue of survival off the table and creates the space for us to listen to and follow the still-speaking God into a vital and thriving ministry in our community. Eccclesiologically (Are you impressed? It's a big word that just means regarding how a church operates and functions.), it moves us another step closer to the ministry of the church being dispersed and decentralized from a few "paid professionals" to all of us together.

So now you'll just be a part-time minister?

Nope. I will still be a full-time minister, just like you are. And now, just like for you, part of that ministry will take place in another work place between Sundays. And even though my hours and salary will be reduced, I will still be the full-time pastor of our church, providing leadership and facilitating our ministry together.

What if there is an emergency that happens during the day? Will you still be able to "do my funeral?"

Yes. My hours with VITAS provide some flexibility so that if there is an emergency I can break away and attend to it, especially since my work with them will be in this general vicinity. And yes, with some negotiation, I will still be able to officiate at weekday funerals and memorial services. 

How are you going to be able to do all of this?

Well, honestly, I am going to have to get a little bit better at asking for help. There are many of you who have already graciously offered to help with whatever you can and I am busy organizing some of my responsibilities to hand-off.

What can I do to help the church?

OK, this is sort of a trick question. We often think of the church as an institution, building, or entity that needs our protection, support or help to continue to exist.You are the church.  So the question really becomes:

How can I be the church?

Ahhh, there ya go. Fix a meal for a neighbor in need, babysit the kids of the young couple you know who desperately need a night off, call the friend that you heard is going through a hard time, introduce yourself and sit with the stranger who wanders into church on Sunday morning, offer to work in the nursery once a month so that our younger adults can be in worship, tell a friend the difference Jesus has made in your life, share a song or testimony in a worship service, at lunch sit with the kid that no one else sits with. I could go on, but I think we get the idea.

How are you going to grow the church working part-time?

Just as well or as poorly as I did full-time. I can't grow the church anymore than I can grow a tomato plant. God grows a church. We, together, facilitate that growth by loving God, loving others, and serving the world. This transition gives us more time to practice!

Won't this make it look like we can't support a full time pastor? What will people think?

People that are interested in being the church, not just going to or being served by the church, will not be concerned with whether the pastor is a full-time or part-time position. In fact, there is a trend in missional churches (churches that are intent in carrying out the great commission and great commandment) to minimize the percentage of their budget spent on staff and buildings so that more money is available for loving God, loving others, and serving the world.

I look forward to continuing the conversation with you in the comments below or by email.
  

Imagine

Our conference minister, Kent Siladi, in his address to the annual meeting, invited us gathered to imagine:

+ All God's children welcomed, valued, and loved
+ Looking at our congregations and asking who is not here and ask why
+ Churches addressing  injustices in our community: education, farm labor, etc.
+ Churches attracting people, reaching out to others
+ Building bridges to one another, connections to one another
+ Seeing our churches as centers of experimentation.
+ Reaching out to other faith communities
+ Listening deeply to one another

Good stuff!

Chambers on the Power of the Gospel

"If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality."                     -Oswald Chambers



And yet, this is what happens over and over again. We make the gospel our pet, our servant. The history of the church is a history of taming the gospel. We fear it's power. 

I want people to get on board with my cause, sign up for my class, propagate my philosophy, but come in contact with the raw power of the gospel? Without me controlling it and mediating it? Are you kidding?

Forgive me God. May your fire of love purify my ministry, burning off anything that stands between me and the power of the gospel for those that I lead.

The Forty-Year-Old Box of Jell-o

A couple of weeks ago, two of our fantastic volunteers at church, Miriam and Pat, were cleaning out our food pantry in the office. Church food pantries require cleaning out periodically or else you end up with a closet full of canned beets. I don't believe anybody actually eats canned beats, so they get donated quite often. After all, the thinking goes, if the people that come to the pantry are hungry enough, they should eat what they get. At one point, Miriam asked me if Jell-O goes bad. She showed me a box of Jell-O that was in the pantry. There wasn't a date on it , but the box looked awfully old. Then we found the offer on the back. Ge $.50 if you buy 12 boxes. Must be postmarked by April 22, 1968!

Now I don't know if that box has been in our pantry for the past 40 years or if someone donated a forty-year-old box of Jell-O. I do know that I plan on keeping this box of Jell-O on my desk for as long as I stay in church ministry. It's a great reminder that we are not ministering in the 1960's anymore. It sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget, especially in a hundred-year old church that had its heydays in the 60's and 70's. We long to go back to there. Heck, I wasn't even around then and sometimes I even long for it! But what we did in the 60's does not touch people of the 21st century with the power of the gospel. 1960's strategies will not transform society and culture in 2009.

It's easy to say "We have some beets and Jell-O (it doesn't go bad does it?) Let's mix it up and serve it. If they're hungry enough, they'll take it." But we're finding out the hard way that they won't and our message of hop is being lost on those that are turning up their nose at our Jell-O and beet salad. May I always be reminded by my 1968 box of Jell-O.

From "respectable religion" to "evangelical faith"

In his farewell address after 10 years of ministry, John Thomas, the outgoing General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, the denomination to which I belong, said that he is "anxious but still hopeful" about what he describes as the transition from "respectable religion" to "evangelical faith."

It was great hearing that from a leader in a mainline denomination. The truth is that most church folk, from the most "liberal" United Church of Christer to the "conservative" Southern Baptist is a defender of respectable religion. They only differ on what respectable religion looks like. Jesus, on the other hand in his teaching and ministry, revealed respectable religion for what it is--impotent, nauseating, dangerous.

For the church to survive, for the church to be involved in what God is doing in the world, we have to do more than transition. We have to oppose respectable religion with the passion of Jesus himself because respectable religion opposes evangelical faith (something else revealed by Jesus in his death). We must choose one or the other.

A couple of days ago I was pulling up to my church. I had stuff I had to take to my office (at the south end of the campus) and to the kitchen (the north end of the campus). As I was pulling in to the parking lot I got confused as to which I wanted to do first. I ended up pulling in to the middle, resulting in me walking to one end and then the other. I was reminded that compromise rarely works.

I want to live a vitalized, evangelical faith. There are too many people hurting and confused. There is too much injustice, fighting, hunger and sorrow to allow respectable religion to have even a toe-hold.

"Is the Lenten Season Bringing More Visitors to Your Church?" Ummmm, No

Yesterday I received an email from the good folks at the publishing and supply arm of my tribe (The United Church of Christ). One of the product categories they were highlighting were tools for visitors (lanyards, name tags and such). The headline for the section was what I posted above: "Is the Lenten Season Bringing more Visitors to Your Church?"

It is a small thing, dashed out by a marketer at a church publisher and not intended as an ecclesiological or missiological statement, I know. However, it points to a bigger issue within the church: the fact that we still expect the Lenten season to bring visitors to our church. Lent is an opportunity to asses our relationship with God, a chance to correct the course of our life and remember that God loves us. It is a wonderful season for Christians in church. With the possible exception of a displaced Catholic or two (who we love!), no unchurched person showed up at church last week because it was the first Sunday of Lent ("Lent? You mean the stuff in the dryer?") Possibly, someone came because of a cool, creative Lenten worship series or event, marketed well, that spoke to a felt need in their life. But, what is much, much, much more likely is that someone came to church for the first time last Sunday because they were invited by someone with whom they have a relationship and in whose lives they have noticed a difference. People come to Christ (and to church) because of other lives that are overflowing with joy and confidence and peace as a result of their relationship with God.

I Hadn't Thought of That

A value that is very important to us as a church is the open communion table, to which anyone, no matter who they are or where they are on life's journey, is welcomed. I strive to make that clear each month as we come to the table together.


However, someone asked me an interesting question this week. How does a guest know how we take communion. You might be thinking the same thing as I was: "Well you just do it." But a guest will have no idea what it is that we "just do." If they come from a different tradition or no tradition at all they will be confused and maybe even embarrassed. In fact, the family of the person that brought this to my attention told me that they didn't come to church on communion Sundays because they didn't know what they were supposed to do!

You can bet that we will be correcting that. You see, hospitality is more than just saying that everyone is welcome. It includes making sure that we are actively ensuring that everyone is welcome by removing the obstacles that stand in the way of them becoming as involved as they want to be in the life of our church.

Of Tactics, Systems, and Beliefs

“Of Tactics, Systems, and Beliefs”
A State of the Church

OK, so the title sounds a little technical. And, honestly, this report may actually be just a little bit technical, more information than the average person might want to know. However, I expect that, in general, if you are taking the time to read this (unless you are just killing time during my sermon), you are more interested than the average person on where I perceive we are as a church.

As we look at what we are and dream of what we want to be, there are at least three tools that will get us from here to there. This past year has been a year of tactics. Tactics are relatively easy to institute, especially in a church group as encouraging and supportive as ours. This year, we tried several tactics, or projects, to enable us to love God, love others, and serve our community and world. We began our Big House service for children and families, a pretty significant undertaking which just about all of our youth and many adults are committed to each and every week. I began a (somewhat) weekly e-newsletter that many members and friends of our church are taking advantage of that keeps us up-to-date on what is going on in our midst. You have probably noticed a change in certain aspects of our worship service, both in content and style. We have had many gather in small groups over the past year from Bible studies to subject area groups. We have attempted to reach out to our community through candy and water give-aways. We began a relationship with North Grade Elementary School. We invited our community to a festival here at the church. Each and every one of these, many organized by people in our congregation who saw an opportunity, has been valuable and has nudged us closer to our goals of loving God, loving others, and serving the world.

Tactics alone, however, will not move us all the way to where I believe God wants us to be. At least two other tools are important. And they are a lot tougher to comprehend and to change than tactics.

A foundational concept is our beliefs. Do we really see our purpose as loving God, loving others, and serving the world? Stop, go back, and read the last question again. Loving God, loving others, and serving the world is what we have been required, commanded and commissioned to do (see Micah 6:8, Mark 12:28-34, Matthew 28:16-20). It is very, very easy for those of us who have been in churches the last several decades to fall into the trap of believing our purpose is to maintain and operate a church. In other words, the means have become the goal. So it is a significant intellectual leap for us to understand what our purpose is. But then we have to live it! Together as a church, we will be exploring this issue all during the month of March.

One way we begin to live and experience our beliefs corporately as a church is through the systems we have in place. There is an anonymous quote I have scrawled on my office wall: “Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results that it yields.” James expressed it well when he asked in James 3:12 “My brothers and sister, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs?” Do the systems we have in place at First Congregational Church of Lake Worth produce followers of Christ who love God, love others, and serve the world? I will suggest that we must be ruthless in answering that question. Our participation in God’s will and work depends on it.

The reason that I am at this church is that I see the potential for us to become a great church. In my short time here, I have seen adventurous people who are excited about trying different tactics. And I have experienced a willingness to examine our beliefs and systems.

May we continue to enjoy God’s blessings as we continue to respond to God’s movement in our church and community.

Are We Being Changed?

Rev. Kent Siladi, the Conference Minister of the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ, preached at our church this past Sunday. It was an excellent message, which is available to listen to here. The central idea, for me, anyway is this. He commented that to be a Christian means that we have a life transformation. The purpose of the church is to invite people into transformation. The important question for us is "Are we being changed?"

I couldn't agree more. The question is foundational. It is primary. Because nothing else can happen unless personal transformation is taking place. As personal transformation takes place, then societal transformation can take place. Then the Kingdom of God starts to emerge, right here, right now.

Faith Vs. Religion According to Godin

I'm reading an excellent book by Seth Godin, a marketing guru, that isn't really about marketing at all, but about leadership. It's tilted Tribes. You can see my reading notes here.

In it, he talks about faith versus religion:

"Religion and faith are often confused. Someone who opposes faith is called an atheist and widely reviled. But we don't have a common word for someone who opposes a particular religion. Heretic will have to do. If faith is the foundation of a belief system, then religion is the facade and the landscaping. It's easy to get caught up in the foibles of a corporate culture and the systems that have been built over time, but they have nothing at all to do with the faith that built the system in the first place. Change is made by people, by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question." (84)

I like that, "facade and landscaping." This, of course, is nowhere as obvious as it is in the church. We have so identified with our religion that the faith, for many, is almost lost. We have safely insulated ourselves from its power.

How do we as the church, as a religion, re-engage the power of our faith?

God Help Me, I Can't Help But Love This!

From over at Todd Rhoades' Monday Morning Insight:


Church Bathroom Art

Great Thoughts on Evangelicalism and Ecclesiology...

Great thoughts from Ed Stetzer on an issue that has been on the edge of my mind, but never really coalesced.

The strength of Evangelicalism-- it's mission. A possible weakness--it's mission, when it comes at the expense of a sense of ecclesiology.

You can read his post here.

You're Not Going to Believe This

OK, so this is a Guidepost story (remember that magazine?--Norman Vincent Peale's journal of miracles and angels and stuff). For my sermon on Sunday, I wanted to use Rick Warren's (at least that's where I first heard it) sermon illustration utilizing a $100 bill that I crumple up and step on to illustrate that Jesus knows our true worth, still wants us, no matter what we have been through. Simple, but effective.

BUT, I don't have a $100 bill. AND the checking account is low so I can't get a $100 bill. I'd have to skip it. As I was walking into the church Sunday morning, a woman walked up to me with a wallet that she had found in our parking lot. You've already figured it out--it had a $100 bill in it. The object lesson turned out to be very meaningful for folks.

I don't know how I feel about God being involved down to the level of the minutiae of our daily lives. But, boy, I would be a fool to say God is not!

Lately, it seems I am being asked more often about what I believe or what our church believes. Or maybe I am just noticing the question more. It is a difficult question for me, not because I do not hold strong theological beliefs, beliefs that I really enjoy discussing. It just seems the question is more often than not dogmatic in nature and I have no interest in debates of dogma. I know, I know dogma is important. It's just not my thing. I strive to live my theology. I relish discussing and even debating my ideas about God, but never in an "I'm right and you are wrong" sort of way. It probably is a result of my coming of age as a Southern Baptist during the great purge of the 1980's and 1990's.

That being said, I am realizing the importance of being able to speak to what one believes. It is what drives one and keeps one focused. The core of my theological beliefs is simply that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the potential to transform lives and those thus transformed have the opportunity and the responsibility of participating in the Kingdom of God. My "elevator explanation" of that is that we are to love God, love one another, and serve the world.

For me this is the foundation. Everything else is detail. Everything else is subject to change. When I am 82, I will sit on my porch and figure out everything else and write a book. Until then, I work with what others are thinking that to assist in fleshing out my doctrine. Here are a couple of links to organizations whose work is helpful to me:

What Matters (I mentioned these last week. They come from my denomination, the United Church of Christ.)
The Phoenix Affirmations (I love these affirmations. They are unapolegetically Christ-centered yet theologically and socially progressive.)
The Center for Progressive Christianity (Skews a little more academic and cerebral than The Phoenix Affirmations, but very helpful)

Update: In looking at their websites, I learned that Crosswalk America (which produced the Phoenix Affirmations) and The Center for Progressive Christianity have merged. I love their stuff. It just needs to drop a foot from the head to the heart.

When I tell people that I am part of the united Church of Christ I either get a quizzical look (from the many who do not know who we are) or, more often now, a startled look or raised eyebrow (from those who associate the UCC with Jeremiah Wright and his portrayal during 2008). When I get the question "Well, what does the UCC believe?" I usually either give a quick, maeanigless answer--"Oh, we're like the Methodists." Or I give a theological treatise, explaining all of what I see as the wonderful nuances of our theology and watch my listener's eyes glaze over. You see, when you are as inclusive as we are in the UCC, its hard to give a simple answer about who we are.

That's why I was happy to run across "What Matters to Us" on the UCC website. It's not a statement of beliefs, per say, but six historic emphases of our denomination and the streams that flow into it. Take a look at these. I invite you to read them, ponder them, discuss them, and then use them as you are talking about who we are with those who ask you. Let me know what you think!

“What Matters”

We are people of God’s Extravagant Welcome
Jesus didn’t turn people away, even those often rejected by others. We don’t intend to either. We are like a “company of strangers,” made family by the grace of God. God welcomes, claims, and loves all people. God also feeds our hunger, forgives our sins, and frees us from aimless wandering.

This is no idle chatter. The UCC has been bold in extending an invitation to all. For example, our historic denominations were first to ordain an African American pastor (1785), a woman (1853), and a gay or lesbian person (1972).



We Belong to Christ
Jesus Christ is central to who we are. We know God especially in Jesus, who lived, loved, died, rose from the dead, and is present today. Because we belong to Christ, we welcome, love, pray, and serve.

The God we know in Jesus is also known by many names. We share a tradition among Christians speaking of one God as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We also speak of God in ways that enrich our faith—God as mother, rock, liberator, savior, friend.

We affirm historic creeds and statements of faith, not as tests for belief, but as inspired words of faithful women and men who came before us. We discover God through the Bible, through prayer, and through engaging the world.

No single statement fully expresses who God is; but where there is justice, peace, and compassion, we see the living God at work in history. To such a God, we belong.


We Are One at Baptism and the Table
God’s grace is celebrated in baptism and Holy Communion. We call these rituals sacraments.

Through the water of baptism, God embraces you—no matter who you are—and brings you into Christ’s church. Baptism reminds us of our special covenant with God. In it, you share in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. In turn, the church promises to love, support, and care for you throughout your whole life.

At Holy Communion, we hare a simple meal of bread and juice. Here, we encounter Christ’s presence. Together, around God’s welcome table, we recall God’s loving acts in Jesus, experience oneness in God, hope for a time when all will be fed, and anticipate the fullness of God’s love and justice throughout creation.



We Are a People of Covenant, a United and Uniting Church
God invites us into a special relationship called “covenant.” The bible speaks of God’s holy covenants with people, communities of faith, nations, and all of creation.

As God covenants with us, we covenant with one another. Local churches also covenant—prayerfully acting on their own, but also relating with associations, conferences, the General Synod, and national settings of the UCC. We covenant with many other Christian denominations, and pray that all may be one (John 17:21). This prayer extends beyond the unity of all churches to the reconciliation of the whole world.



We Thank God by Working for a Just and Loving World
Jesus taught about the realm of God. This realm is one of love and justice, hope and peace. We see it in the past, particularly in the life of Christ. But we also glimpse it in the present, and look for the fulfillment of it in the future. God’s promise extends even beyond death to eternal life.

God continues to break through the barriers of sin and death in the bold witness of God’s people. In gratitude to God, we seek to root out injustice, to stand in solidarity with those who are poor and oppressed; to give with inspiring generosity; to care for the earth; and even to sometimes go against the grain of conventional norms.


We Listen for the Still-speaking God
Founded in 1957, the UCC is grounded in the ancient church of the New Testament and in historic streams of Christianity in this country, dating back to the Pilgrims and German immigrants in colonial Pennsylvania. We affirm the words of our Pilgrim forbearer, John Robinson, that God has “more light and truth to break forth…” (1621)

In our generation, we seek and serve God in innovative ways. God continues to form us through new people among us, offering a multicultural mosaic that reflects all of creation. We celebrate our common ground, while honoring our differences: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, diversity; in all things, charity.”

Through prayer, sacraments, and worship; through the arts and sciences; through compassionate and political acts; and particularly in the voices of those who suffer, God is at work in our hearts and minds, in faith communities, and in the wider world

When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Matthew 18:19-20 (The Message)

In my devotional reading I read Matthew 18:15-35. The pieces of the passage were familiar to me, but maybe I haven't read them together before. Or maybe God opened my eyes and my heart. The section is all about relationships. It begins with how to handle a situation in which we perceive someone has hurt us. It ends with forgiveness (70x7 times, Peter!) and the well-known story of the two debtors.

Tucked between those two ideas is v. 19-20. It's like Jesus is saying, "Here is why this is so important: God responds when you are together, when you are in agreement." That is so incredibly powerful. And if I were completely honest, I have a hard time believing it. But what I am going to do is practice what I preach and try it. It's huge. In my Greek class yesterday, we were talking about how the Christian faith and practice was very much thought of as communal. We are in this together. Many, many, many (I can't say most because I don't know for sure) of the "you"s in the New Testament are actually "yous"- they are plural. Maybe the key to actualizing, hmmm...spiritual effectiveness, power...for lack of better terms right now...is to join together before God in prayer.

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!