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  • Lent 2010

    Today is the eve of Ash Wednesday (some traditions call it Shrove Tuesday). It is the day before Lent begins. It is the final day of preparation for a 40-day season of prayer and fasting that will lead up to Resurrection Sunday, the ultimate day of Christian celebration. This will be my third year practicing Lent. It has become a helpful practice for me. It has given me a systematic way to be disciplined in the area of prayer and fasting. And I need all the help I can get when it comes to fasting, because…well…fasting stinks. Eating is so much better than fasting. But I have come to find the value in delaying gratification, in saying “no” to natural appetites, so that I can say “yes” to a hunger for righteousness.

    This year I am reading through N.T. Wright’s book Jesus and the Victory of God during the 40 days of Lent. Wright was my companion last year during Lent as I devoted 40 days to his massive book on the resurrection. This year I am reading through his book on Jesus, a fitting focus for Lent.

    I am not observing Lent, because it has become in vogue for young, hip, contemporary, postmodern evangelical-types to take up ancient practices.

    I am observing lent because I have repented of pride and arrogance.

    For so long, I carried myself in pride, scoffing at traditional Christian churches with all of their “dead” rituals and traditions. I assumed that the traditions in my brand of Christianity were the only valid traditions because we have guitars after all; not to mention multi-media projectors and web infused technology! I have come to realize that my brothers and sisters in Christ who belong to more liturgical traditions have something to offer the greater body of Christ. Ancient traditions like Lent help us slow down and pay attention.

    I have repented of my arrogance (and ignorance). I am learning to walk down, well-worn paths like Lent, paths that have been walked by millions (billions?) of Christians before me. I have repented of my snobbery and I have welcome in the traditions of the past. Traditions are not so bad. Concerning tradition, G.K Chesterton wrote:

    “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”    –G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

    Join us on this 40 -day journey of prayer and fasting. Some people chose to give something up for Lent, which is just fine. There are no rules. My oldest son Wesley, said he wants to give up Pop-Tarts for Lent. I say, “Go for it.”

    You choose how to pray and when to fast, but use this as an opportunity to confess and repent of sin and identify with Jesus. This is the purpose of Lent: to identify with Jesus, to see Jesus, to love Jesus, to commune with Jesus, to encounter him passionately, deeply, and reverently.

    For more info and resources go to: http://www.churchyear.net/lent.html

    Here is my prayer as I go into Lent 2010. It is a song from Dustine Kensrue:

    “Consider the Ravens”
    By Dustine Kensrue

    I’ve got bills to pay
    Taxman on my tail
    Just keep prayin’ that
    the check’s in the mail

    There are times it seems
    when everything’s lost
    and I’m moaning, I’m tossed
    and I see..

    Between the river and the ravens I’m fed
    Between oblivion and the blazes I’m led
    So father give me faith, providence and grace
    Between the river and ravens I’m fed
    Sweet deliver, oh you lift up my head
    and lead me in your way

    I’ve grown sick and tired
    of trying to stand still
    I’ve learned to let the wind
    pull me where it will

    Throw myself into
    the will of the wait
    I can never be great
    ’til we’re free

    Between the river and the ravens I’m fed
    Between oblivion and the blazes I’m led
    So father give me faith, providence and grace
    Between the river and ravens I’m fed
    Sweet deliver, oh you lift up my head
    and lead me in your way

    Although I’m walking through
    the valley of the shadow of death
    evils all around
    It’s coming from the right and the left

    Trust that I will see
    the glory above
    Oh, your banner of love
    flies over me

    Between the river and the ravens I’m fed
    Between oblivion and the blazes I’m led
    So father give me faith, providence and grace
    Between the river and ravens I’m fed
    Sweet deliver, oh you lift up my head
    and lead me in your way

    Amen and Amen

    Here is a live version of Dustin Kensrue performing “Consider the Ravens”

  • A Few Days with Eugene Peterson

    Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself. — Hebrews 13:7-8 from The Message

    I consider myself lucky to have spent three days listening to Eugene Peterson (EP) for two and half days last week at Asbury Seminary’s Orlando Campus. He was the primary “speaker” at Asbury’s Kingdom Encounter Conference, and gathering of seminary students, faculty, and pastor. It was an intimate (and tightly compacted) setting with 150 of us conversing with Peterson as he shared his heart through his five most recently publications:

    Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
    Eat this Book
    The Jesus Way
    Tell It Slant
    Practice Resurrection
    (which was just released)

    These books were written to be conversations in spiritual theology and the conference followed this conversational lead. Peterson sat on a chair on the makeshift platform and told stories and shared concepts from each of these books. After his presentation, a seminary faculty member would ask questions and then question would come from the audience.

    Here are some of my take-aways:

    Day One

    “I think the pastoral ministry in America is being ruined.”

    This was one of EP’s opening remarks. This statement goes to the heart of his “shopkeeper” criticism in Working the Angles. Pastoral ministry is too concerned with success and measuring success and other, very American, concerns. Pastoral ministry is about loving people in Christ-like humility. It is about remaining local and personable and approachable. It is more about loving people through the seasons of spiritual growth, than merely being concerning with counting those who have been born into the kingdom. “Birth,” according to EP, “seems to get more attention than growth.” This misplaced attention is ruining our ministry.

    Enter his new book Practice Resurrection, an interaction with the Book of Ephesians regarding spiritual formation. The title is from “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” a poem by Wendell Berry. EP has formally introduced me to Wendell Berry’s work. I think Berry has something to say to the modern (postmodern) Evangelical Church in the United States. Berry sounds like a prophet.

    Practice Resurrection is EP’s attempt to find the form for the beauty of holiness. We pay attention to the good (ethics) and the true (doctrine), but lose sight of the beautiful (formation). Holiness – or transformation into the image of Christ – is a kind of beauty, equally important as ethics and theology. It is rooted in the resurrection of Christ. In the resurrection we see the awe, the mystery, the beauty of God’s work by the Spirit in Christ. It is an altogether mysterious and beautiful event that leads to beautiful transformations.

    Beauty, of course, is the language of artists. EP encourages us to learn from theologians and artists, because “artists help us see something we know for the first time.” Very true.

    There was much talk on day one about the contemplative life, that is a life devoted to the disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, silence, solitude, fasting, etc. I struggle with these disciplines and so I was happy to hear someone from the audience ask how we can live a contemplative life if it doesn’t fit our personality types. EP said that the contemplative life is not merely passive; it is simply paying attention to God. Sabbath is what pastors need. We need a habit of Sabbath-keeping so that we can pay attention to God.

    “The contemplative life has nothing to do with being quiet; it has to do with paying attention.”

    This phrase rolled around in my heart through the rest of the three days: “pay attention.”

    Just pay attention.

    EP referenced to enemies of God’s work: Gnosticism & moralism.
    Gnosticism (the belief that only that which is spiritual is of real value) corrupts God’s good creation.
    Moralism (the belief that salvation is accomplished by keeping the rules) is the biggest heresy regarding salvation.

    So how do we live the Christian life? He says that he has trouble with the word “discipline,” as in the phrase “spiritual disciplines,” because “discipline” refers to something we do. He prefers the phrase “the fear of the Lord.”

    I was thrilled to hear EP say “The Trinity is a great teaching point for pastors.” The rediscovery of God as a holy community of persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, has been one of the most rewarding, challenging, inspiring, transformative roads in my spiritual journey. The exploration of the Trinity reveals that God is personal and that he reveals himself in personal relationship. God is active. He is involved as he exists in the perichoresis – the “dance” shared between the members of the Trinity.

    Day Two

    “Language is not just about information.”

    EP had a lot to say about the nature of language, which led into a deeper conversation about the nature of language in the Scripture. He challenged us to not just try to “whip meaning” out of the Scripture, but to approach it with humility and faith and careful observation. He reminded us: “Don’t ask too many questions when you come to the text. Just listen. Pay attention.”

    Again his conversation with us was reverberating with the idea of paying attention. The original audience of the gospels and the letters of Paul and the other Apostles was a community steeped in an oral culture. The original writings were not read privately by individuals; they were read aloud in community. Most of those early Christians did not read the Scripture as much as they listened to. I determined to develop a habit of listening to the text being read. On my way home from the conference, I stopped into a used book store and found a 16 CD collection of the New Testament being read by the one and only, Mr. Johnny Cash. Sweet.

    In addition to reading the text for information, I realize I need to also listen to the text in order to allow my imagination to be renewed. This is a paradigm shift.

    EP said that he didn’t like the word “leadership,” because it sounded too cooperate, too business-like, too un-Jesus-like. His book The Jesus Way began as a book for Christian leaders. He wanted to compare the way of Jesus to the way of other leaders in the day of Jesus and the Apostles. He compares the way of Jesus to the way of Herod (the violent leader), the way of Caiphus (the legalistic, rule-driven leader), and the way of Joesphus (the opportunistic, unscrupulous leader).

    The Jesus way was not akin to any of these ways. It was (and is) unique and subversive.

    Day Three

    “The Jesus way is the way to be human.”

    The way of Jesus is easy and it is hard. It is easy because it is human, it is not other-worldly. It is personal, conversational and it is ordinary. The way of Jesus is hard because it is outside of our control and manipulation. It requires are participation and work. And there is no inside track, no short cut.

    So much more was said and so many more thoughts passed through my brain, but this is sufficient for now. This blog has gone on long enough.

    Eugene Peterson is a wealth of possibilities and challenges. He is an aged sage for our times. He is humble and gracious. I feel like I am only scratching the surface.

    P.S. Here is EP riding in my mini-van. I snapped this picture on my cell phone when we had stopped at a red light. I don’t think he knew I took the picture. I had asked him about his upbringing in Pentecostalism. Very cool.

  • Prayer of the Frog

    Prayer of the Frog
    by Walter Hollenweger

    Sometimes, I feel like a frog,
    Happy in the waterpond—until I run out of air and creep on land.
    Happy in the fresh air, until my skins hurts in the glaring sun and I plunge back into the water.
    O God,
    Why did you make me an in-between creature, neither fish nor fowl?
    Why am I not a flamingo, or an eagle or a mighty roaring lion?
    Just a frog?
    You did not ask me whether I wanted to be a frog,
    Nor whether I wanted to be at all,
    Nor did my parents ask me.
    So, I am, what I am, an in-between being.

    When I am with the feminists they call me “macho”
    because I want to pray “Our Father.”

    When I am with the pacifists they call me a war-monger
    because I do not believe that the abolishment of the Swiss Army serves world peace.

    When I am with the military they call me a pacifist
    because I find it a scandal how we treat the conscientious objectors.

    When I am with the Christians, they say I am not a Christian
    because I find many of their convictions superfluous.

    When I am with the Non-Christians the say I am a Christian
    because I believe in Jesus Christ.

    When I am with the progressives they say I am conservative
    because I do not know how to re-organize world trade justly.

    When I am with the rich people they say I am a leftist

    because I expect them to share their riches.

    When I am with the Catholics they say that I am a Protestant

    because I do not believe in the infallibility of the pope.

    When I am with the Protestants they say I am a Catholic

    because I like the Catholic liturgy.

    When I am with the Ecumenists they say that I am a Pentecostal
    because I would like to see more of the Spirit in the ecumenical movement.

    When I am with the Pentecostals they say I am an ecumenist
    because I am convinced that they need the ecumenical movement.

    When I am with the critical exegetes they call me “pious”
    because God sometimes speaks to me in Scripture.

    When I with the uncritical Bible readers they say that I do not believe in the Bible
    because I do not accept their facile interpretations.

    O God, you alone know what I am.
    Help me to believe that this is enough.
    You made me an in-between being so that I can be an evangelist.

    But God it is a tough job.
    Sometimes I am confused and terrified.

    Strengthen my faith so that I am
    A cheerful in-between creature, a happy frog.

    From Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide (1997)

  • Ten Things Great Church Leaders Possess

    1. A heart renewed and empowered by the Spirit

    Ministry flows out of who we are. God may choose to use a seriously flawed leader for a specific amount of time, but without a strong character foundation, the weight of ministry will crush that leader. Great leaders need to be renewed by the Leader within the leader, the Holy Spirit. This renewal includes emotional health and a balance between work and family.

    2. A mind focused on the vision and values of the local church

    Great leaders are able to work with the end in mind. They understand the unique purpose and identity of their church and are able to serve today with tomorrow in mind. Great leaders have the minds wrapped around the real vision and values of the church, not just the ones written down.

    3. An eye for potential leaders who need mentoring

    The number one job of ministry leaders is to raise up more leaders. Growth in a local church requires newness, new ministries, new venues, new strategies, and new methodology. Newness requires leadership. Jesus modeled this for us. He did not just conduct a ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, and community building; he worked to mentor leaders through whom he could accomplish his world-wide ministry.

    4. An ear to listen to others on the team, to those whom the leader is in submission to, and to those the leader serves

    Leaders who talk more and listen less run the risk of falling into the trap of ego-centric self-sufficiency. They also isolate themselves from those they are trying to serve. Leaders are communicators and the clearest communicators tend to become leaders. No doubt about it. But leaders need to be reminded that communication is about sending and receiving, speaking and listening.

    5. A hand that can guide the process of implementation

    Great ideas can inspire and motivate, but moving people towards the church’s vision and calling requires a plan that can be executed and implemented into the life of the local church. Great leaders do not do all the implementing; they guide the process. They see it through towards full implementation and they evaluate it periodically.

    6. A love for God and people

    Oh yeah, and by the way, great church leaders should have a real love for God and his people. Maybe this one should be higher up on the list? It is easy for leaders to love the spotlight and to love the thrill of success, all of which will choke the life of God out of soul of a church. Love for God and his people can be the one and only motivation for the service of leadership in the church. Any other motive leads to idolatry.

    7. A humble desire to continue to learn and grow

    Leaders who think they know it all need to come to this not-so-subtle revelation: They don’t! Great leaders recognized that the more they know about God and life in the church, the more they find that they don’t know. Great leaders learn from those around them include those from other Christian traditions…even “liberals.”

    8. A self-awareness of one’s strengths and the willingness to delegate one’s weaknesses

    Without become neurotic or self-obsessed, great leaders conduct regular (prayerful) personal inventories of their strengths and weaknesses. They continually review their heart, mind, conscience, motivations, attitudes, and actions. Great leaders understand their unique calling and pour their energies into that uniqueness while delegating their weaknesses to others more qualified.

    9. A commitment to do less and empower others to do more within a team

    A great leader emerges from a great team. A dynamic solo leader is rare and can too easily lead people into the cult of personality. Can somebody say “cult leader”? Great leaders work to empower, encourage, and equip the leaders around them by focusing more on the needs of the team rather than their individual needs.

    10. A systematic approach to leadership accountability to ensure tasks are completed

    Great leaders know their own fallibility and create specific systems of accountability to keep the team on task.

     

    One day, by God’s grace, I really want to be a great leader.

    What would you add to this list?

  • Why Can’t Walter Brueggemann Leave Me Alone?

    Why is it that Walter Brueggemann cannot leave me alone?

    Why can’t he leave me to my quiet corner of the world going about my business is the same ordinary way I have always done it?

    Probably because the professor of the Old Testament prophets is himself a prophet.

    Brueggemann is an author, scholar, speaker, and retired professor of Old Testament Theology. He spends most of his time now writing and speaking. He challenges me, frustrates me, confuses me, and at times helps me. He has helped me rethink the purpose and meaning of Old Testament prophecy and the role of the OT prophecies. For this I am thankful for Brueggemann’s voice. If you read (or listen) to Brueggemann, do so with a discerning eye (or ear), I cannot say that I always agree with him. Most of the time, I find myself wrestling with him.

    Recently he has been challenging me to think (rethink) about preaching as re-imagination. I have started a new series on Sunday morning called “Imagine,” which is an exploration of the imagery in the book of Isaiah (specifically chapters 1-9). Brueggeman has helped me see Isaiah wasn’t just forecasting the future; he was stirring the imagination of Israel in order to produce hope. Isaiah was working on God’s behalf to form and reform Israel to look like the alternative community of worship & justice that God had intended. Isaiah’s medium was poetry. This has been such a helpful paradigm shift for me to see Old Testament prophecy has poetry. In this regard, prophets are more like songwriters (and poets) than preachers, although their poetry/prophecies were often verbally proclaimed. And so Brueggemann  is challenging me to think about my own preaching/teaching in terms of reimagination.

    I read this recently from his book Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles. This is the outline from Chapter 3: Preaching as Reimagination

    1)      Ours is a changed preaching situation, because the old modes of church absolutes are no longer trusted.

    2)      Along with the failure of old modes of articulation, we now face the inadequacy of historical-critical understanding of the biblical text as it has been conventionally practiced.

    3)      A great new reality for preaching is pluralism in the interpreting community of the local congregation.

    4)      Pluralism as the perspective and orientation of the community that hears and interprets is matched by an emerging awareness of the polyvalence of the biblical text.

    5)      Reality is scripted, that is, shaped and authorized by a text.

    6)      The dominant scripting of reality in our culture is rooted in the Enlightenment enterprise best associated with Rene Descartes, John Lock, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which has issued in a notion of autonomous individualism, ending in what Philip Rieff calls “The Triumph of the Therapeutic.”

    7)      This scripting tradition of the Enlightenment exercises an incredible and pervasive hegemony among us.

    8)      We now know (or think we know) that human transformation (the way people change) does not happen through didacticism or through excessive certitude, but through the playful entertainment of another scripting of reality that may subvert the old given text and its interpretation and lead to the embrace of an alternative text and its redescription of reality.

    9)      The biblical text, in all its odd disjunctions, is an offer of an alternative script, and preaching this text is to explore how the world is, if it is imagined through this alternative script.

    10)   The proposal of this alternative script is not through large, comprehensive, universal claims, but through concrete, specific, local texts that in small ways provide alternative imagination.

    11)    The work of preaching is an act of imagination, that is, an offer of an image through which perception, experience, and finally faith can be reorganized in alternative ways.

    12)   Because old modes of certitude are no longer trusted, the preaching of these texts is not an offer of metaphysics but the enactment of a drama in which the congregation is audience but may at any point become participant.

    13)   The dramatic rendering of imagination has as its quintessential mode narrative, the telling of a story, and the subsequent living of that story.

    14)   The invitation of preaching (not unlike therapy) is to abandon the script in which one has had confidence and to enter a different script that imaginatively tells one’s life differently.

    15)   The offer of an alternative script (to which we testify and bear witness as true) invites the listener out of his or her assumed context into many alternative contexts where different scripts may have a ring of authenticity and credibility.

    16)   Finally, I believe that the great pastoral fact among us that troubles everyone, liberal or conservative, is that the old givens of white, male, Western, colonial advantage no longer hold.

    Chapter 3: “Preaching as Reimagination” from Cadences of Home: Preaching among Exiles (1997)

    Oh Brueggemann, why can’t you just leave me alone! I mutter this under my breath, because I know I need to hear what he is saying. He is right that our preaching situation is changed (#1). Authoritative, know-it-all, overly confident approaches to preaching are not trusted in our culture. Evangelicals (and indeed Christianity at large) no longer has a privileged place in society. The times, they are a-changin’. No doubt about it. So we need to rethink our modes of articulation (#2). I certainly do. I think all good craftsman work to hone their craft.

    Where I disagree with Brueggemann is in his accommodation of pluralism (#5). It is true that individual communities of faith in different cultures can find different ways to apply the Scripture in the life of the community, but application is far different than interpretation. Our application may be different; our interpretation must be in harmony with historic orthodoxy. We need to know what the biblical text meant, before we try to determine what it means. We cannot jettoson all historical-critical approaches to Scripture. There is meaning there. If we try to jump aboard the “deconstruction expressway,” we will end up destroying the text and losing the gospel, which is our alternative script.

    Brueggemann is right that our culture has been “scripted” by the enlightenment (#6). For all the good the enlightenment has brought us, one of the downsides is that it can leave us cold, dry, and numb. Preaching as reimagination, offers people an alternative script (#11), one that is filled with the hope of God. So maybe, I am happy that Brueggmann continues to pester me. It is what I need to continue to grow.

    I am not done with Brueggeman. These are just my thoughts today. I am sure he will continue to bug me in the future.

  • Why We are Not Going to Church Tomorrow

    fia_logo_low_rgbFor the first time in our church’s history we are canceling all of our normal Sunday morning activities. We are turning off the lights. We are locking the doors. Cornerstone Church at Upper River Rd. and Southland Dr. will be a ghost town from 10:30 to 12:30 tomorrow morning. We are not going to church tomorrow; we are going to practice being the church. We are going to forget about ourselves for a while and go out and see what others need.

    Tomorrow we are partnering with the Fuller Center for Housing by working on two Fuller Center projects here in Americus from 9-12. We are putting our faith in action to serve two families who have home repair needs. One home belongs to a single mom with three kids and we will be painting the outside of the house. The second home is owned by an older couple. They are both on disability. We should build the best siding available in Ottawa, Ontario. We will be hanging vinyl siding.

    So why cancel the normal worship service to work on somebody’s house?

    As a church, we are recovering from hypocrisy. We have admitted that we have been much better at hearing the word of Jesus than being doers of the word his words. Jesus made it clear that loving our neighbors means helping those in need. Both of these families have needs that we can meet in a real tangible way. We can do more than pat them on the back and say “God bless you, good luck!” We are happy that the Fuller Center is helping us get connecting with people in our town who have real needs. Serving them is a way of bringing forth fruits of repentance.

    Yeah, but why not work on a Saturday and go to church on Sunday?

    We could and I hope that this Sunday morning work day will turn into future Saturdays where we can serve our neighbors. Working on Sunday is a way of communicating the message: loving our neighbor is important. It will serve as a living sermon that we preach together with hammers and paintbrushes.

    Isn’t Sunday a day of rest? Aren’t you breaking God’s law by working on the Sabbath day?

    The Sabbath was made for man; man was not made for the Sabbath, at least that is what Jesus said. Once Jesus was healing a man on the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday) and some of the religious establishment called him out, called Jesus a sinner, because he didn’t follow the religious rules of the day. Jesus made is simple: is it right to do good on the Sabbath or not? They got the message. The greatest command is to love God and love people; to serve God and serve people, even if it goes against cultural standards. I have reminded our church to take some Sabbath rest on Saturday and to take some time with their families.

    What about the Scripture? Is there no proclamation of God’s word if you are canceling your activities?

    We are working from 9-12 and then gather in the backyard of one of the homes for a time of celebration. We will celebrate with song, giving (receiving an offering), and Scripture reading. Our work complements our trust (and belief) in and proclamation of the Scripture. These go together. The Protestant Church has made a error in bifurcating doctrinal soundness from social justice. We have labeled one “conservative” and one “liberal” and too often theological “conservatives” have neglected social justice and theological “liberals” have neglected historic, orthodox doctrine. We need to drop the labels. If we insist on using them, then we should be conservative in doctrine and liberal in love.

    Have you lost your mind? Are you the only church doing this?

    We have joined the National Faith in Action guys and hundreds (thousands?) of other churches who are doing similar things. National Faith in Action Sunday was October 11. We are about two weeks late, but we have received a lot of guidance from the FIA guys.

    So tomorrow we are not going to church; we are going to practice being the church, planting seeds of the kingdom of God on Hampton Street in Americus.

    You may say that I am a dreamer
    But I’m not the only one
    I hope someday you’ll join us
    And the
    CHURCH will be as one

  • White Paper Bible

    I am always looking for creative ways to engage in the truth of Scripture. God has given his Word to us for nourishment for living in his kingdom. We do not use the Scriptures as much as we eat them. They feed our hearts with the life of God in order to live for God as human beings who are fully alive. The challenge with regularly eating God’s book is an over-familiarity with the Scripture. I love spaghetti. We eat a lot of spaghetti in my home, for obvious reasons: it is quick, easy, and everyone in the house eats it without (much) complaint. I love spaghetti, but I don’t want to eat it every day. I need a little bit of variety. Most followers of Christ like sitting down, opening up the Scriptures and reading from a leather-bound copy of the Bible, but if we are honest, it can become such a routine that we become bored. I know I do.

    A friend of mine has just launched a new user-driven website designed to give us a creative way of entering into the Scripture— www.whitepaperbible.org.

    Here is how it works: Users register and log in and create a “page” that is added to the White Paper Bible (WPB). A page is a list of verses around a certain theme. Users give each page a title, description, and the list of verses. All verses are from the ESV. When creating a page you only need to list the Scripture verse reference. Once the page is created, the site populates the entire verse with each reference.

    You do not have to be a registered user to use the site. You can search by topic or keyword and go to a page where you can quickly find the verse that speak to the specific subject you are interested in. This is an incredible quick way to begin to meditate on the verse you need. I am looking forward to the iPhone app, which is under development. (I will download it to my iPod touch. I still do not have a iPhone, because they have not opened it up to the Verizon network. I am patiently waiting for Verzion to pick up the iPhone, but I digress…)

    WPB is a great entry point into the Scripture, a great way to enter into the text and allow it to enter into your heart, put I would offer a word of caution. There is a subtle danger in collecting together a list of Scriptures. The danger is two-fold.

    First, it is easy to misinterpret a single verse once you remove it from its context. It is possible to pull a verse of Scriptures together and make the Bible say just about anything you want. So as you are compiling a list of verses for a new page, make sure you have read each verse in context so that you are linking together verses that are speaking about the same concept. Make sure you understand the meaning of a single verse in the context of the verses around it.

    Second, when you compile a certain list of verses on a subject you are deciding NOT to list other verses. There are editorial reasons why we do that, but those editorial reasons can be caused by theological biases. We all have biases, but we should not let those biases keep us from hearing the Scripture speak to speak to us in its fullness. We all have a favorite verses of Scripture. The ones we copy and hang on our refrigerator or we highlight in our Bibles. We need to be careful not to ignore the verses that are not underlined in our Bibles. For example, if you are creating a new page on the love of God, it is easy to list the verses that speak of God’s love for us. The temptation is to ignore the verses that define God’s love as following his commands, you know, the verses that demand something from us.

    These are not arguments for why we shouldn’t compile together verses, but a friendly reminder that as we use the WPB to increase or meditation on God’s word that we allow Scripture to speak for itself. We should pursue to know God through the Scripture as he has revealed himself to be by reading Scripture verses in his context.

    Great web tools like www.whitepaperbible.org are great ways to enter into the Scripture, God’s story and so we should use them as just that, entry points into God’s great big, over-arching story, of which we play minor characters. As soon as we begin to view the Scripture as God’s catalogue of promises we miss the point. The Scripture is not a shoppers catalogue as much as it is a pilgrim’s daily bread.

  • Did You Know: The Times, They Are A-Changing

    The world around us is changing more rapidly than we realize. The times, they are a-changin’.

    Watch this:

    Here is the story about the creation of the video, at least, as far as I can piece it together. In 2006, high school teacher and Director of Technology, Karl Fisch, was asked to speak at an annual faculty meeting at the school where he teaches. He wanted to provide updates for where technology is going and how it may impact education. He created a simple PowerPoint presentation entitled “Did You Know/Shift Happens.” It contained thought-provoking and discussion-provoking statistics of the exponential growth of information and global technology. Little did he know what kind of attention his presentation would receive.

    With the help of Scot McLeod, the PowerPoint slideshow was reformatted into video form in 2007. With updated statistics, “Did You Know 2.0” has received over 3.5 million views on YouTube. An executive at Sony BMG edited and released a third version of the video, “Did You Know 3.0,” which they used at an executive meeting in 2008. This version has received 1.8 million views on YouTube.

    So what does the video reveal? The statistics are shocking. Here is the text:

    If you’re one in a million in China…there are 1,300 people just like you.

    China will soon become the NUMBER ONE English speaking country in the world.

    The 25% of India’s population with the highest IQ’s is GREATER than the total population of the United States. TRANSLATION: India has more honors kids than America has kids.

    The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

    We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

    The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.

    1 in 4 works has been with their current employer for less than a year.

    1 in 2 has been there less than five years.

    1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.

    There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace. If MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th-largest in the world (between Indonesia and Brazil).

    The #1 ranked country in Broadband Internet Penetration is Bermuda. #19 The United States. #22 Japan.

    We are living in exponential times.

    There are 31 Billion searches on Google every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 Billion. To whom were these questions addressed B.G.? (Before Google)

    The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992.

    Today, the number of text messages sent and received everyday, exceeds the total population of the planet.

    Years in took to reach a market audience of 50 million:

    Radio 38 years

    TV 13 years

    Internet 4 years

    iPod 3 years

    Facebook 2 years

    There are about 540,000 words in the English language, about 5X as many as during Shakespeare’s time.

    It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

    It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year.That is more than the previous 5,000 years.

    The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years…

    For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

    NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber. That is 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second.It is currently tripling every six months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years.

    By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. Predictions are that by 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species.

    During the course of this presentation:

    67 babies were born in the US

    274 babies were born in China

    395 babies were born in India

    And 694,000 songs were downloaded illegally.

    So what does it all mean?

    by: Karl Fisch, Scott Mcleod, Jeff Brenman

    How should Christians respond? How should local churches respond? First, we shouldn’t panic. The church has typically responded positively to technological advances. The Protestant Reformation would not have been possible without their keen use of the printing press.

    Second, we should invest time, energy, and resources into understanding and utilizing digital technology. It is naïve to assume that this technological quantum leap is only in the “big cities.” One of the characteristics of digital technology is its availability. It is nearly everywhere, even in rural areas. Local churches would be well-served to use websites, blogs, social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), podcasts, viral video, text-messaging, and email. Many of these forms of media are more inexpensive than most people think.

    Third, we should be cautious. The rapid expanse of technology will continue to increase, but there is a subtle downside to this technological revolution. While digital forms of communication allow us to share information much more rapidly, they do not move us any closer to Marshall McLuhan’s “global village.” We can quickly fabricate artificial forms of community and human relationships. We can lose a personal human touch in our desire to become more hi-tec. Technology should be used to support biblical community; it cannot replace it. It is God’s Spirit through face-to-face human encounters that creates community in our local churches. We need a more enriched experience of the Holy Spirit to preserve us as become more technologically advanced.

    Catholic writer and Priest, Raniero Cantalamessa writes,

    “Our great need today is a new openness, a new readiness to approach the Holy Spirit, a reawakened longing for the Spirit. Now that we have knowledge enough to explore the immense horizons of cosmic space in one direction and sub-atomic particles in the other direction, only the Holy Spirit can give humankind that sustenance of soul, that love which will prevent our humanity from shriveling up altogether as a result of our knowledge. Only the Holy Spirit’s help will make us able to use our technical knowledge not to destroy but to humanize our planet and improve the lot in life of every person” (Cantalamessa, Come Creator Spirit, pg. 269).

    So “if your time to you is worth savin’ then you better start swimmin’ or you will sink like a stone; for the times, they are a-changin’.” Swim in the waters of technology and pray God continues to bathe our hearts in his love.

    The video ends with a question: So what does it all mean?

    This is where the Church needs to respond with the gospel.

    Technology is good, but it can become a meaningless idol. A pursuit for the newest, the fastest, the more innovative new gadget, but meaning, purpose, and value comes from the God of the gospel. As gospel of love, provided for by love, communicated through love.

  • Life Among Losers and Perverts

    I was sadden to hear the news of Gary Lamb’s departure from ministry. He planted and pastored Revolution Church in North Georgia. He has stepped out of ministry after confessing an affair with a staff member at his church. I have prayed for Gary, his family, and his church. I have never met him, but he is my brother of Christ and a fellow church leader. I share in the sorrow of this man’s sin.

    I do not have any judgment for Gary. He is a sinner, but so am I. When I see the public sin of others, I do not see righteousness in me. The public sin of others causes me to see my own sin and it reminds me that life in Christian ministry, life in the Church that Jesus is building, is life among losers and perverts.

    We are all losers.

    We are all perverts.

    We are all sinners.

    We have all lost in the game of moral superiority.

    We are all perverted and twisted by our fallen human nature.

    We have all sinned and fallen short, way short of God’s doxa, his glory.

    Sin is the problem with humanity. And the root of human suffering, evil, and struggle is some kind of sin. There’s are a whole lot of people suffering from the disease of conceit. Whole lot of people struggling tonight from the disease of conceit. And not just conceit but greed, lust, envy, and the like. Sin twists and perverts humanity into something ugly and devoid of life. God’s creation is good. It is pristine and beautiful. Sin comes along like a silent vandal and smears the splendor of humanity with pollution and corruption.

    There was a time in my spiritual journey when I was uncomfortable calling myself a sinner, let alone a “loser” or “pervert.” I thought that if I was the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), then it would be an offensive to the cross to call myself a sinner. Didn’t Jesus die in order to forgive the unrighteousness of sin in us and make us righteous? (I am looking forward to exploring this issue soon in N.T. Wright’s new book on justification.) If I am righteous then doesn’t calling myself a “sinner” disrespect the work of Christ as he suffered and died on my behalf?

    So for a time in my spiritual journey, I would not call myself a sinner. No sir. I was the righteousness of God in Christ. I had right standing with God by grace through faith. While this was true (and is true), it was just not complete; it was not the whole story.

    Am I righteous? Yes

    Am I a sinner? Yes

    As followers of Christ, we have to live in this tension that while we have right standing with God (i.e. righteousness) we are still sinners who sin. If we only focus on the righteousness we have received by God’s grace, we can easily become proud and ignore our struggles with sin. If we admit our weakness, our frailty, our status as losers and perverts then we are in a better position to grow in grace and open ourselves up more to the Spirit’s work of transformation.

    Really, we need to see the saintliness in others and the sinneriness in ourselves. (I may have created a new word here.) And our response to a clear vision of our sinneriness shouldn’t be self-loathing. We should respond with confession and repentance.

    Confession is saying the same thing, i.e. calling sin what God calls sin.

    Repentance is telling God how, by his grace, we are going to live differently.

    A lifestyle of confession and repentance is how we do life together among losers and perverts. We do not hide our sin, ignore our sin, rationalize, spiritualize, or justify our sin. We openly confess and repent. These spiritual practices become tools in the hands of the Holy Spirit who is transforming us to reflect the image of Jesus (the only non-loser in all humanity) for the joy of God the Father.

  • Discussion on the Trinity: Video Clips

    The following clips are from a live discussion I had with Pastor Brian Zahnd at his church, Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, on Sunday morning, March 22, 2009. I do mention my book Shape Shifters a few times. The book uses the doctrine of the Trinity as a foundation for understanding spiritual transformation. In the book, I also describe why I am a Trinitiarian Christian. [More on the book here]

    Here are the clips:

    Question: What is the Trinity?

    Question: How was the the doctrine of the Trinity developed?

    Question: Why is the word “Trinity” helpful? And how important was the doctrine of the Trinity to the early church?

    Question: Why are modern Americans uninterested in theology and doctrine?

    Question: What are some of the wrong ways people think about the Trinity?

    Question: What about The Shack?

    Question: What does the Trinity say to us about community?

    Question: So how does the Trinity as a doctrine affect our daily lives?