)
This morning I was driving down one of the main roads near my house in search of Shipley's Doughnuts for my wife. On one of the main corners right by my house I saw a church, and directly next to it another church. Across the street I noticed another church, with one directly next to it as well. 4 different churches on the same street corner!
For someone who feels called to church planting, the sight of four churches on the same street corner can be a little disconcerting. First off, how could I, or anyone for that matter, ever justify planting a church in a town that has multiple churches on every main intersection. Second, what is so lacking in anyone of those churches to necessitate three other ones directly next to them.
I have not been to those churches, so I do not know what is happening in them, what God is doing, whether the grace and glory of God is being preached in those churches. I hope that it is. I hope that God is using every single church on every single street corner in Dallas to further His kingdom.
But I can't help but feel like there is something wrong with this picture. Church planting can be thought of as going out and planting a tree in a barren wilderness. At least that's how I always thought of it. I always thought planting trees where trees were plentiful was kind of obnoxious. However, my gut is saying there is more going on, or I should say less going on here in the South, than meets the eye. My experience has been that, although the South is definitely bigger on religion and church being part of everyday life, being spiritually alive is not much more prevalent in the South than it is anywhere else in America.
Which makes me wonder. Could church planters also be called to plant a tree in a dense but dead forest? I have to think about it, but I feel like there's more to this. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Power of the Gospel
I never used to be a morning person. Even in high school, my normal bedtime was around 1 or 2 AM. I just worked better at night, thought better at night and didn't really want to go to sleep. There are some people who like being asleep. My wife loves sleep and works very hard to get at least 8 hours every night. I'm the opposite. I love being awake. But I never used to like getting up early.
Things have changed and I am becoming a morning person. I don't know if it's just part of growing up or if it's a result of always needing to get up early for work or other things, but I have come to love the mornings. I've developed a routine. I'm kind of like a dog in that sense. Morning routines help me to have a balanced day. I wake up early and take our dog Duma on a walk and then5 I come home and make a bowl of cereal while Duma licks my toes under the table waiting for me to feed her. I typically try and read while I eat breakfast. Reading is something I deeply enjoy and need, but it takes discipline for me to do it, so making it a part of my routine helps. This morning I was able to go the gym after that. There are a lot of husbands that get married and then just let themselves go after. I really don't want to be that husband, my wife deserves the best of me.
The great thing about this routine is that, apart from the occasional barking from my dog, the sound of the Dallas winter wind and the constant background noise of traffic, my morning is quiet. There is something to be said about God speaking to you when it's quiet and only when it's quiet. My life is often times too loud to hear anything from God.
In the quiet this morning, I read this passage: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." (Matthew 13:16-17)
As I went through the rest of this morning, I couldn't help but feel deeply convicted by this passage. I don't think I realize and remember what a privelege and blessing it is to live on our side of the gospel. I think about Jeremiah in shackles crying and lamenting the day God would save his people. I think of Simeon who refused to die until he held the Child sent to redeem him. I think of Moses wandering the wilderness longing for the fire or the manna or any sign that God's presence was near him. I think of those things and feel deeply ashamed at how I brush off and take for granted the presence of Christ in our souls and the saving power of His blood and resurrection.
The gospel in many respects has become a commodity in my life. It's a catch phrase that I tell myself when I'm down in the dumps, a bumper sticker I display on my car. I love my friend Paul's post about gospel tracts. It further denotes the commodifying of the gospel in our culture. After reading this morning Jesus tell his disciples what a blessing it was that they were living when they did and had what they had, saw what they saw, heard what they heard. I need God to convict me and remind me of the power of the gospel and the radical blessing we have in Christ's forgiveness.
The gospel is this: no matter how good or bad we are, despite God's overwhelming love for us, he can't accept us into his presence unless we're perfect. Which we are not. Some people may be better than others, but nobody is perfect. Except Christ. Instead of giving up completely on us and starting over, God decided we were worth saving, and did so by becoming a man, giving up the priveleges of being God, and suffering a sinner's execution on a cross, only to conquer that death and rise again to be our living Redeemer. Because of that, God poured all of His justice and wrath and anger on His Son, so that despite our imperfections and rebellion against God, we can believe in the saving power of His sacrifice and be saved from God's inevitable wrath for our own sins.
And now, despite my sin and imperfection, I can be saved...and that truly is powerful...and I can't believe I take it or granted.
Things have changed and I am becoming a morning person. I don't know if it's just part of growing up or if it's a result of always needing to get up early for work or other things, but I have come to love the mornings. I've developed a routine. I'm kind of like a dog in that sense. Morning routines help me to have a balanced day. I wake up early and take our dog Duma on a walk and then5 I come home and make a bowl of cereal while Duma licks my toes under the table waiting for me to feed her. I typically try and read while I eat breakfast. Reading is something I deeply enjoy and need, but it takes discipline for me to do it, so making it a part of my routine helps. This morning I was able to go the gym after that. There are a lot of husbands that get married and then just let themselves go after. I really don't want to be that husband, my wife deserves the best of me.
The great thing about this routine is that, apart from the occasional barking from my dog, the sound of the Dallas winter wind and the constant background noise of traffic, my morning is quiet. There is something to be said about God speaking to you when it's quiet and only when it's quiet. My life is often times too loud to hear anything from God.
In the quiet this morning, I read this passage: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." (Matthew 13:16-17)
As I went through the rest of this morning, I couldn't help but feel deeply convicted by this passage. I don't think I realize and remember what a privelege and blessing it is to live on our side of the gospel. I think about Jeremiah in shackles crying and lamenting the day God would save his people. I think of Simeon who refused to die until he held the Child sent to redeem him. I think of Moses wandering the wilderness longing for the fire or the manna or any sign that God's presence was near him. I think of those things and feel deeply ashamed at how I brush off and take for granted the presence of Christ in our souls and the saving power of His blood and resurrection.
The gospel in many respects has become a commodity in my life. It's a catch phrase that I tell myself when I'm down in the dumps, a bumper sticker I display on my car. I love my friend Paul's post about gospel tracts. It further denotes the commodifying of the gospel in our culture. After reading this morning Jesus tell his disciples what a blessing it was that they were living when they did and had what they had, saw what they saw, heard what they heard. I need God to convict me and remind me of the power of the gospel and the radical blessing we have in Christ's forgiveness.
The gospel is this: no matter how good or bad we are, despite God's overwhelming love for us, he can't accept us into his presence unless we're perfect. Which we are not. Some people may be better than others, but nobody is perfect. Except Christ. Instead of giving up completely on us and starting over, God decided we were worth saving, and did so by becoming a man, giving up the priveleges of being God, and suffering a sinner's execution on a cross, only to conquer that death and rise again to be our living Redeemer. Because of that, God poured all of His justice and wrath and anger on His Son, so that despite our imperfections and rebellion against God, we can believe in the saving power of His sacrifice and be saved from God's inevitable wrath for our own sins.
And now, despite my sin and imperfection, I can be saved...and that truly is powerful...and I can't believe I take it or granted.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Stuff We Keep Forgetting
I don't want to be another Christian that beats up and hates on the Church. I realize that I do it and that it is easy to be the critic standing from a distance throwing stones. But I don't want to be that guy.
Here's the truth...I really love the Church. Not in the way that you love a weird uncle, but in an extraordinary way. I think when I get frustrated with things that are going on in churches around me, I can have a tendency to be scathing and mean. I tend to forget that the Church is, and always has been, a work in progress, and getting upset at it's imperfection is often times like getting upset at a 4 yr. old's inability to do quantum physics. Needless to say, I can go too far in my judgments and criticism, which I believe I have done in the last few posts and for that I'm sorry. I really just want you, me, the Sunday church-goer, the beat poet cynic, the coffee house critic, the hypocritical and sincere Christian alike, to take a good look at ourselves, not just as individuals, but as a community and ask what needs to change for us to become the city on a hill giving hope and direction to the millions still lost in the perilous wilderness.
The pastor at a Church my wife and I attended put it well this weekend. He talked about the author of Hebrews frustration with his congregation and their lack of spiritual maturity. "For though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food." (Hebrews 5:12) He talked about how a common reason people will leave the church is because they are not being fed there. He said, "Babies get fed! It's about time we learned to put the spoon to our own mouth and feed ourselves on the meat of God's truth!"
I think much of the reason why I can be ineffectual, why we as a church are ineffectual and irrelevant to our communities, is because we haven't let ourselves mature past spiritual infancy. We are like a giant powerful body laying paralyzed on the ground because only a few of it's parts have realized that they are supposed to function.
We are a stumbling block to non-believers because of stuff we keep forgetting. We forget that God's gospel is powerful and doesn't just change where we go after we die, but it changes how we live now. We forget how powerful and ambitious God is. We forget how merciful Christ is. We forget how important the community of church is to God's plans. And on and on and on.
I want to examine those things that we keep forgetting, so that we as a Church body can continue to grow past infancy and be the force in our culture that God intended.
Here's the truth...I really love the Church. Not in the way that you love a weird uncle, but in an extraordinary way. I think when I get frustrated with things that are going on in churches around me, I can have a tendency to be scathing and mean. I tend to forget that the Church is, and always has been, a work in progress, and getting upset at it's imperfection is often times like getting upset at a 4 yr. old's inability to do quantum physics. Needless to say, I can go too far in my judgments and criticism, which I believe I have done in the last few posts and for that I'm sorry. I really just want you, me, the Sunday church-goer, the beat poet cynic, the coffee house critic, the hypocritical and sincere Christian alike, to take a good look at ourselves, not just as individuals, but as a community and ask what needs to change for us to become the city on a hill giving hope and direction to the millions still lost in the perilous wilderness.
The pastor at a Church my wife and I attended put it well this weekend. He talked about the author of Hebrews frustration with his congregation and their lack of spiritual maturity. "For though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food." (Hebrews 5:12) He talked about how a common reason people will leave the church is because they are not being fed there. He said, "Babies get fed! It's about time we learned to put the spoon to our own mouth and feed ourselves on the meat of God's truth!"
I think much of the reason why I can be ineffectual, why we as a church are ineffectual and irrelevant to our communities, is because we haven't let ourselves mature past spiritual infancy. We are like a giant powerful body laying paralyzed on the ground because only a few of it's parts have realized that they are supposed to function.
We are a stumbling block to non-believers because of stuff we keep forgetting. We forget that God's gospel is powerful and doesn't just change where we go after we die, but it changes how we live now. We forget how powerful and ambitious God is. We forget how merciful Christ is. We forget how important the community of church is to God's plans. And on and on and on.
I want to examine those things that we keep forgetting, so that we as a Church body can continue to grow past infancy and be the force in our culture that God intended.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Adding things to Jesus
Last week I got a chance to grab a beer with my friend John after work. He started the same day I did at Demand Media and over the last year and a half or so, we've grown pretty close. After about 30 minutes of talking about music and records and quitting smoking and old friends, the conversation turned to the spiritual. John knows that I'm religious, and I know that John is okay with that even if we don't agree. He has the kind of temperament that is cool with you no matter what, unless of course you make the claim that such and such band is the greatest band in the world...he has no tolerance for statements like that.
John has a desire for God, but he's just not sure about Jesus. And not because he doesn't see the importance or the attraction of Jesus. He really likes what Jesus taught and sees him as a very interesting and important person. The issue that John has with Jesus and with Christianity ultimately is that it seems you can't accept Jesus without also accepting the Christian culture. He says he doesn't want to join some social club just to be spiritual. And honestly, I don't blame him.
If it wasn't for falling in love with Jesus the way that I have, there is no way I would want anything to do with the church. I'm not saying that's how everybody would be, but that's at least true for me. And it's not because there are no good people in the church. My closest, wisest friends I've made have been in the church. I was raised in the church. Many of the values I have were developed in church. There are many wonderful things the church offers, but it unfortunately does a lot that also creeps me out.
As John was talking and sharing his own issues with Jesus and the church and spirituality, I couldn't help but feel sad. Not pity sad, but sad because of all the things that we have added to Jesus to make Him so distasteful to John. It makes me sad that people feel they must dress a certain way, vote a certain way, talk a certain way, and spend time a certain way to meet and get to know Jesus. It makes me sad to think that my friend John might miss the chance to meet Jesus and save his life because we add so many distasteful things to the process of knowing him.
Paul wrote that he wants to know only "Christ and Him crucified." If only that were true for us. Then maybe people could see through all the bullshit, the smokescreens and mirrors, the Church creates to solidify it's power in the world. They could see Jesus for who he is...the God who became man, the superman sent to die, the badass revolutionary standing up to religious and political leaders, turning over tables in the temple and fighting to his death for the salvation of His creation.
We settle for worshiping such a small god sometimes and it makes it easy for friends like John to dismiss Jesus as irrelevant and not worth the fraternal hazing required to join the Christian club. I'm just glad that despite our petty false worship, our God truly is big and his love for us is giant, more powerful than anything we can know.
John has a desire for God, but he's just not sure about Jesus. And not because he doesn't see the importance or the attraction of Jesus. He really likes what Jesus taught and sees him as a very interesting and important person. The issue that John has with Jesus and with Christianity ultimately is that it seems you can't accept Jesus without also accepting the Christian culture. He says he doesn't want to join some social club just to be spiritual. And honestly, I don't blame him.
If it wasn't for falling in love with Jesus the way that I have, there is no way I would want anything to do with the church. I'm not saying that's how everybody would be, but that's at least true for me. And it's not because there are no good people in the church. My closest, wisest friends I've made have been in the church. I was raised in the church. Many of the values I have were developed in church. There are many wonderful things the church offers, but it unfortunately does a lot that also creeps me out.
As John was talking and sharing his own issues with Jesus and the church and spirituality, I couldn't help but feel sad. Not pity sad, but sad because of all the things that we have added to Jesus to make Him so distasteful to John. It makes me sad that people feel they must dress a certain way, vote a certain way, talk a certain way, and spend time a certain way to meet and get to know Jesus. It makes me sad to think that my friend John might miss the chance to meet Jesus and save his life because we add so many distasteful things to the process of knowing him.
Paul wrote that he wants to know only "Christ and Him crucified." If only that were true for us. Then maybe people could see through all the bullshit, the smokescreens and mirrors, the Church creates to solidify it's power in the world. They could see Jesus for who he is...the God who became man, the superman sent to die, the badass revolutionary standing up to religious and political leaders, turning over tables in the temple and fighting to his death for the salvation of His creation.
We settle for worshiping such a small god sometimes and it makes it easy for friends like John to dismiss Jesus as irrelevant and not worth the fraternal hazing required to join the Christian club. I'm just glad that despite our petty false worship, our God truly is big and his love for us is giant, more powerful than anything we can know.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Celebration of Recovery
Celebrate Recovery is a nationwide ministry focused on helping people recover from addictions, depression, or any other issue one might be struggling with. This last weekend at church, members of celebrate recovery walked on stage with poster boards with their struggle on one side and the victory over that struggle on the other and displayed them in front of the church. It was very powerful.
Wouldn't it be great if church was an institution built to help celebrate our recovery? So often when I walk into church, I feel like I'm walking into a meeting of Celebrate Having it Together.
Me: "Hi my name is Cody, and I'm doing just fine."
Everyone: "Hi Cody"
Moderator: "Hello everyone, thank you for coming to Celebrate Having it Together! I want to lay a few ground rules. Please be sure and smile a lot at each other and be up to date on the newest worship songs and Beth Moore bible studies. If you've had a bad day or week, make sure you leave those feelings outside of the meeting, we don't want you bringing down our joy level. Please don't swear or use any language that might offend or surprise anyone here. Conservative politics are welcome for discussion, but liberal politics may only be discussed negatively or in a joking manner. Please do not offend anyone...ever! Appropriate struggles are not having enough quiet times or not praying without ceasing or not witnessing enough to that dear old friend of yours who is just going through the hardest time. Of course, none of us are perfect, so we can expect these appropriate struggles. Remember, the happiness of our group members is the utmost priority, so whatever we can do to maintain the status quo, the better. Thanks for being here. Punch is in the back!"
Every once in a while, someone may come in and share their gutter to glory testimony, and we would cheer like good Christians and turn to our neighbors, whispering "Praise the Lords" under our breath. But behind our pitying praise, we would all be celebrating the fact that our lives are so together we have no need to share anything.
But do we have it together? Do we really have it together? Are the addictions and struggles, the anxiousness and depression, the sinful habits and selfishness experienced by those in Church any different from the ones I saw displayed last Sunday by Celebrate Recovery? Although I'm so happy things like Celebrate Recovery and Alcoholics Anonymous exist, I desperately wish they weren't necessary. The church shouldn't need an outside program to help deal with people recovering from sin. Every church meeting, every Bible study, every morning we wake up underneath the Law of God's grace, should be a celebration in recovery. But it's not, it's a celebration in saving face.
As I learned last Sunday, the first step in CR is admitting the need for recovery. Well, we desperately need recovery. I desperately need recovery. According to their website, the fourth and fifth step is admitting the sin to myself, God, and someone else I trust. It's time we as a church confess our sins and our inability to manage those sins on our own. So here it goes...
Church: "Hello, my name is the Church, and I am desperately insecure about my own legitimacy in this world. I am a coward who hides behind it's own piety and rituals. I live a double life and am a cheap imitation of the true church Christ paid for with His blood. I am afraid of the change that will occur when I surrender to God. I am afraid of the people that I would have to spend time with if I truly followed in God's footsteps. I am afraid of people seeing me for what I am. I am helpless against religiousness. I don't want to admit that I am just as bad as everyone else, because admitting that would shatter my already fragile ego. My name is the Church, I am a sinner and am in desperate need of help."
Everyone: "Hello Church, we're glad you're here!"
Wouldn't it be great if church was an institution built to help celebrate our recovery? So often when I walk into church, I feel like I'm walking into a meeting of Celebrate Having it Together.
Me: "Hi my name is Cody, and I'm doing just fine."
Everyone: "Hi Cody"
Moderator: "Hello everyone, thank you for coming to Celebrate Having it Together! I want to lay a few ground rules. Please be sure and smile a lot at each other and be up to date on the newest worship songs and Beth Moore bible studies. If you've had a bad day or week, make sure you leave those feelings outside of the meeting, we don't want you bringing down our joy level. Please don't swear or use any language that might offend or surprise anyone here. Conservative politics are welcome for discussion, but liberal politics may only be discussed negatively or in a joking manner. Please do not offend anyone...ever! Appropriate struggles are not having enough quiet times or not praying without ceasing or not witnessing enough to that dear old friend of yours who is just going through the hardest time. Of course, none of us are perfect, so we can expect these appropriate struggles. Remember, the happiness of our group members is the utmost priority, so whatever we can do to maintain the status quo, the better. Thanks for being here. Punch is in the back!"
Every once in a while, someone may come in and share their gutter to glory testimony, and we would cheer like good Christians and turn to our neighbors, whispering "Praise the Lords" under our breath. But behind our pitying praise, we would all be celebrating the fact that our lives are so together we have no need to share anything.
But do we have it together? Do we really have it together? Are the addictions and struggles, the anxiousness and depression, the sinful habits and selfishness experienced by those in Church any different from the ones I saw displayed last Sunday by Celebrate Recovery? Although I'm so happy things like Celebrate Recovery and Alcoholics Anonymous exist, I desperately wish they weren't necessary. The church shouldn't need an outside program to help deal with people recovering from sin. Every church meeting, every Bible study, every morning we wake up underneath the Law of God's grace, should be a celebration in recovery. But it's not, it's a celebration in saving face.
As I learned last Sunday, the first step in CR is admitting the need for recovery. Well, we desperately need recovery. I desperately need recovery. According to their website, the fourth and fifth step is admitting the sin to myself, God, and someone else I trust. It's time we as a church confess our sins and our inability to manage those sins on our own. So here it goes...
Church: "Hello, my name is the Church, and I am desperately insecure about my own legitimacy in this world. I am a coward who hides behind it's own piety and rituals. I live a double life and am a cheap imitation of the true church Christ paid for with His blood. I am afraid of the change that will occur when I surrender to God. I am afraid of the people that I would have to spend time with if I truly followed in God's footsteps. I am afraid of people seeing me for what I am. I am helpless against religiousness. I don't want to admit that I am just as bad as everyone else, because admitting that would shatter my already fragile ego. My name is the Church, I am a sinner and am in desperate need of help."
Everyone: "Hello Church, we're glad you're here!"
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