Sinners in the hands of a confused church, Part 1.

The Modern church has made very clear that when speaking of entering the kingdom of God they want everyone to know they have it all figured out. All mystery has been revealed. The mysteries of God’s reconciling himself to man can be found in this simple ‘spiritual formula’. A (Recognize your sin) + B (say a sinners prayer) + C (get baptized) = D (heaven). In boiling down the message of Christ into this simple formula we have stripped it if the beauty that has marveled kings and paupers! We have oversimplified and somehow overcomplicated it to a point that it no longer contains the wonder that once enraptured thousands in the days of Acts.
Unfortunately, this simplified formula does not play out with the whole of scripture. Sure, we can take verses from Paul’s letter and cut and paste them together and come to this simple formula. (Four Spiritual Laws, Roman Road, FAITH) Just to give you an example of the abridged version let’s read Romans 10:9 “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. “ Now let’s take a look at the whole of Romans 10…yes, right now…seriously, go get your Bible!…now, see what I mean. How can the richness of this testimony of Christ be summarized in this one verse? It can’t. It is like VBS Kool-Aid, just a watered down version of the real deal..
I understand what many of my brothers were trying to do in these attempts. They just want to make the gospel easier to understand, easier to swallow. But that bears the question, was it meant to be easy? As you look throughout the New Testament you will see the diversity of ways people came to Christ. There was no simple pat answer, It will always be complex! Why? Because it demands we abandon everything. Everything we are and want to be. Everything we desire and hope for. And as we lose everything, we find life in Christ. I can’t explain it, but I’m okay with that.

order UP!

I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who helped me jumpstart my writing again. I have almost finished the rough draft of the next chapter and will be putting it up in a couple of days. Since It is a bit long i will be breaking the chapter up into 4-5 posts. Remember, this is a first draft. out of my brain and onto the screen. I welcome your comments and opinions.

You ARE the boss of me!

Okay guys, thus far i have been giving you stuff I had already written. It has now time to get back to writing. It has been over a year. I am feeling the itch. But I don't know where I should start. So here are some other topics I am planning on touching in the book. Please let me know which one you want to read next and I will get on it. This is your chance to boss me! take advantage! just leave your request in the comments and I will begin working on the top 2 or 3. Then I will post something soon.

• Called to obey
• Make a joyful noise
• 5 Functions in the Church
• Getting’ Lazy
• $ issues
• Obedience vs Knowledge
• Let the little Children come to me
• A king and a kingdom
• We are Pilgrims
• “Sinners in the hands of a confused Church
• Unity
• The Lords Supper
• Networking churches
• Confession as a second language
• Broken
• Tour boat or canoe analogy

Learning to trust His Spirit, part 2

When learning to worship in a simple church, one of the hardest things to do is trust the spirit and his plan for every meeting. And I mean every meeting even those on the street. For those of us who came from a legacy/traditional church, this is especially difficult because we are used to having an order of service. We like to know what is going to happen next because it brings us comfort. No one likes to be surprised by God, it is too scary. So we let him know how much we love him and that we would appreciate it if He would work within these parameters for todays service. That is NOT trusting his spirit.

The work of trusting his spirit usually comes in the form of trusting what he is speaking to you in a meeting is valid. We often hear him say things like, “I want you to sing Jesus loves me” and we fight it saying, “no, that is stupid. Its just a kids song” or “I think that is just me prompting myself.” Well, as you learn to recognize his voice, you should also realize that he never does anything without purpose. That song was important for that service. I have always been shocked at how closely intertwined our body is regarding his lessons for a season. He is almost always teaching different people different things about the same subject. We often walk away with an incomplete understanding of what God is teaching because the enemy causes us to be afraid or doubt what the spirit is prompting us to say.

In one of the most recent churches the Lord planted, we were having a meeting and it was obvious that there was something restricting us in our worship. (This is why it is important to have an experienced church planter present, to recognize these things) When we were nearing the end of our time together. I asked everyone to be honest, did they have something that the Lord had given then that they had not shared. Almost every person said that they had. When we hold back we are just having dinner together or a party. Because we ‘invited’ jesus to be with us and he was. But we just would not let him speak or even participate in our conversation. What is the point of that? In that church they realized this and now are mostly free with their participation. That was a key moment in that church.

I think we often try to understand God in our terms, which causes for lots of confusion. Though we are made in his image, his ways are not ours. He is a wild God who often does things that seem crazy in the short term but can truly only be understood through the lens of eternity. So, it is futile to try to understand his every move. Rather we should watch in wonder. Imagine the shepherds that went to see the little messiah in a barn. They could not understand but they worshiped. Knowing that he has some kind of plan that surpassed their understanding.

This often comes into play with little things in our meetings, like what he wants you to share. Or maybe in your daily life. We tend to think that if God asks us to do something that he always has some big grand plan. This gives us a glimpse as to how important we think we are. Maybe he asked you to do something just to remind you of the sound of his voice or maybe it will change everything. See, it is much too complicated for us to understand all of the time. My advice…just obey. You may understand later, or not.

Also, it is important that we not confine our trust and obedience of the spirit to the meetings. Remember we are the church. It is who we are, our identity, all of the time. So, if the lord prompts you to call someone and share a word of encouragement or even rebuke, if you recognize it to be a word from the Lord you must obey it. Leave the understanding up to him.

Learning to trust His spirit, part 1

The question is: “Do you really trust him?” or do you think he needs your help? That was my struggle. I had been trained to preach, and teach as I got my undergrad in applied theology. I preached some weekends in little country churches. During that time I got accustomed to enlightening God’s people to what he was saying to them in His word. See, I had studied. I was learned and I knew what he was saying. Problem is that my learning was influencing my understanding more than his spirit. As I look back I feel guilty for some of the things I taught. I believed them at the time. My intentions were good. But as I learned to trust him more and more some of those sermons haunted me. I had preached through a poor interpretation of scripture. And some of the things I said were just plain wrong. And in the South, whether anyone admits it or not, what is said from the pulpit is the same as truth from God. I had misrepresented him. I realized I was no good at this speaking for God thing. At least, not in my own intellect and power.

When I went to Peru to work with the Asheninka, we adopted a strategy that included Chronological Bible Storying* which is very scripture based and in its purest form does not allow much for ‘preaching’ or ‘explaining’ It requires us to give them the word, ask some questions, and let the Spirit reveal to them what he desires. I struggled with this concept from the start. Truth is I didn’t trust the spirit enough to let their understanding lie in his hands. I felt like I needed to explain so that they could understand these complex ideas in scripture. But thankfully, I had a boss who was as hard-headed as I was. He worked with me but let me know that this is what we were going to do. I thank the Lord for his leadership in this.

As hard as it was, I learned to stop explaining Gods word, like I was an authority. I just told the story, and asked them their thoughts through simple questions. I never answered those questions. As time went on we continued to evolve in our method of storying. Funny enough, it got simpler and simpler. We saw the Lord do incredible things. I learned that he had been speaking to mens hearts for a really long time. I can trust him as he reveals his message to them through scripture. I don’t think this is necessarily the only way to do things but it was a very important stage on this journey.

Missionaries have struggled for decades with baptisms and reproducing missionaries. As we trusted the Lord we found the solution for those problems, at least for that situation. It was simple, we just told them the story and we focused on the obedience of his people. The lost learned how important obedience was to God. They saw the results of both in the stories of scripture. Then when we arrived to the stories of the NT and they heard of the baptism of the Ethopian or the jailer, our jaws would drop as they said, “We need to do that too, can we be baptized?” We never suggested it, never encouraged them to “follow in obedience to our lord through baptism.” They saw how important it was through scripture and the spirit compelled them to do the same. We would teach stories of Paul and his journeys, and the people would think of other communities and tribes that they needed to go and share with. Once again we were dumbfounded at how easily the Spirit fixed this problem that had confounded missionaries in S. America for decades. Now this is how he worked with us in sharing with the lost it is often different in a mature church. But there is a lesson to be learned about how we can trust him.

What is the Law of Christ?

Bretheren, If any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also. Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]. For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.
Galations 6:1-3

What is the Law of Christ?

Galations says “Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it]. Most modern Christians have never even heard of this. But as we read in Galations it seems that Paul writes about it in such a way that implies that it was a well known concept in the early church. Yet Christianity has become so individualistic in the US that we have forgotten this corporate part of our worship. These concepts need to be reintroduced to the body if we desire to be healthy.

The concept of caring for one another in a very intimate way is so foreign to the modern church that while we are on the mission field we often introduce the concepts slowly. We begin with practical application and move into more spiritual ones as time passes.

For example as we get new missionaries we pair them up with partners. They will go into the communities and travel with this person. They live together, eat together, everything. In the jungle we have to keep a close eye on hydration. So that is the first task they are given. They must know how many liters of water their partner has drunk that day. They are supposed to drink 3 liters a day. If their partner does not drink their water and gets dehydrated the fault lies on the partner not the person. Their leaders will ask them often, “How much water has your partner drank today.” If they do not know, or have not been checking/watching there are usually push-ups involved. So we have to force this concept of caring for one another upon them at first.

The second step is caring for wounds. The jungle/mountains and missionary life in general can be rough on the body. If the injuries get ahead of you, you can get in real trouble. So we put the partners in charge of each others bodily health. If your partner has a blister or cut; you must know about it, and you are responsible for cleaning and dressing the wound when necessary. If your partner has diarrhea you are responsible for diagnosing what kind and administering treatment. If you are sick your partner is responsible for diagnosing what kind of sickness you have and how to treat it. We have found that this works significantly better than caring for oneself. If you have a cut, you usually are a little too gentle when cleaning the wound. A partner will do what is best for you and not be too concerned about the pain. If you are sick you really need an outside perspective for diagnosis. We tend to overstate our situation and misread symptoms. A partner is more objective. This gets people into the mode of admitting they need one another. This is an important step. We westerners are so accustomed to trying to go it alone, we have lost the fundamental concept of communal life and relying on one another for the health of the entire group.

The third step is teaching them to share their spiritual wounds and struggles with one another and allowing these too to be healed by their partner or more often by the body of Christ. This normally includes lots of confession and healing of wounds that have festered and hindered spiritual growth for years or more.

Why we don’t do this. Well, usually it stems from pride. We do not want help. If God and I can’t handle it I will just act like everything is okay. We are not used to sharing weaknesses and struggles in the western church because it goes against our culture. But it is central in the Culture of Christ, so it must be reintroduced to the body. The problem is that we can not carry one anothers burdens until we know what they are. We must foster an environment of transparency in order for this to begin to open up. We have to begin to ask with sincerity and respond with concern to the needs of our brothers and sisters. If someone shares a struggle or difficulty it should be one of our main focuses until that problem or issue has been resolved.

These burdens could take many different forms. They could be practical burdens: lacking money to pay bills or buy groceries, unable physically to do certain chores or responsibilities, recovering from an injury or illness, etc. They could be emotional burdens: struggling with depression or lonliness, marital problems, uncertity in direction of life, etc. They could be spiritual burdens: oppression, lacking direction, etc. If we know of these burdens we must come together and figure out ways to carry them for one another. Sometimes it is a whole church effort, and sometimes it is a personal/individual effort. But if we return to this practice we may once again be known for how we love one another.

As time goes on this begins to bleed out of the circles of the church and into the community and the world around us. And we see his church begin to fulfill our mission in this world

Lessons from Rehab: be

Okay so what does it look like to BE the church? To fall under His leadership? Well, it is scary at first. It is usually quiet, at first. I would suggest each church have a church planter (apostle) who has lived this simple/organic church life for a significant period of time to help walk you through it in the beginning.

When we get together, our goal is to edify one another and bring Him glory. This usually looks different every time. If your meetings always look the same, that is a pretty good indicator that you are telling God how he should work among you. We have short meetings and long meetings. We sometimes gather and sing, pray, share scripture, give testimonies, eat, encourage one another, and eat again. Then again we may gather just to pray, nothing else. It is funny I have learned that if we let Him, the Lord really will orchestrate the meetings. One example, we were meeting in our home in Peru. There were several tribes represented and a group of missionaries and some Peruvians. Several of our spiritual siblings were very poor and could not afford taxi fare to get to our house. So I was the jungle bus ministry. Susan stayed at the house as people arrived and I drove through town to bring people to the house. One meeting I arrived and the place was filled with instruments. There were several guitars, a charango, a dorbeke, a couple flutes, a cajone, shakers, and even a donkey’s jawbone (Peruvian percussion instrument). We sang for hours, and spent some awesome time with the Lord. Afterwrds I asked who had orchestrated this concert? We learned that no one had spoken with anyone about the meeting. Everyone said they just had a song on their hearts that day and could not wait to share it. God had done this, not men. He desired our song that night, and we gave it to him, and we all left edified.

Modern Christians are so used to experiencing one part of the body that they have learned to have low expectations for the meetings. How much can you know about a person from looking solely at their hand? You can learn a bit. You can tell if they are a laborourer if they are neat freaks, if they are male or female. But in order to know a person you need to spend time with them, watch them live, listen to them speak, work along side them. Then you will know them, after experiencing their entire being. We are the Body of Christ, if we want to know Him we have to experience how he is working in each of us. We need to hear of the struggles of Amanda, listen to the questions of wes, laugh at the funny things the lord taught teresa, join in the song on the heart of bobby, hear the teaching of joe, listen to the correction of corey and the confession of Susan, etc. It sometimes takes a while but we must learn to speak up, and obey.

If the Lord is prompting you to read a passage or confess a sin and you do not do it you are in disobedience, sin. See, the Lord gave you that thing, not just for you but for the body. Maybe that verse was meant for your sister, you constricted His ministry by withholding your verse. Get it? All of these things are given to us for the edification of the body. They must happen for us to become relevant in our world again. Why? Because it is part of being connected to the head. Realizing that you have a ministry and it is very important and necessary to the body. When you realize this you change how you think of the meetings and your part of them. If you know you are meeting on Friday. You are especially attentive in your time with the Lord listening to what he desires for you of course, but also listening for what he may have for the rest of the body. You listen to music with purpose, you live with more intentionality in your life, it really changes everything.

Then you begin to learn the depth of his character through His body. You may see His kindness in Melissa, his zeal in Jonathan, his artistic side in Chris, his silly side in Arwen, his courage in Mario, his innocence in juan, his wisdom in… You get the point. It is a beautiful thing.

Another thing I learned in rehab is that more people have the possibility to recover than actually do. What happens is most people are so shocked by their situation that they resign themselves to their current state. They do not care to give the work it takes to get better so they don’t. This is so much like some of the people I have spoken to in the church. They agree we are in a dire situation, but they have resigned themselves to this Christian half-existence. “It isn’t gonna get any better you cant change people or all of the centuries of tradition…” Believe me it was a painful and long process, but I can walk now and go anywhere because of it. If we work at it, the church can too.
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