After hosting Rich Lush from Arun Community Church (Littlehampton, England) for two weeks here with us in Azle, Texas, I find myself once again thinking about the complementary nature of the British and American psyches, especially when it comes to the Kingdom of God. If you know Rich and you read his blog, you will no doubt have read the ridiculously clueless comments that he logged from young Americans during his visit. ("You play the same guitar chords we do!"spoken with amazement, and, "Do you have sandwiches in England?" Other comments were too painful for me to type.) I ache over our American self-referencing world-view, but still it makes my point stronger: We need to link up with our fellow English-speakers (okay the original English-speakers) for the sake of gaining a broader view of the Kingdom mindset, which I believe is composed of the redemptive "bests"of every national consciousness! While the American psyche is all about (and pardon this Blue Collar Comedy tour phrase), "Gettin' 'er done," Britain seems timelessly patient, refusing to rush headlong into a mess.
In America, we know how to throw a party and raise our voice. We jump in, get wet, promote and proclaim what we feel God is doing, usually failing to check any manual on cultural relevance to the rest of the world. There are advantages to this approach, for many a dream from heaven has been sacrificed on the altar of over-analysis. It is a good thing to run with the vision and obey the command without a "plan B" and yet...perhaps this is just one part of the Kingdom picture! Perhaps the British church has a complementary strength that would supply the balancing value: the left brain to our right; the stability to our movement; the yin to our yang (oops--eastern metaphor disallowed...!)!
Recently a British friend of mine had a "big idea" involving something in his nation, which he ran by me. When it didn't seem to work out, I felt impressed to tell him to pursue the relationships involved anyway, and I said to him, "You never know what will emerge." At that moment, I realized that Britishness would help him do the Kingdom thing! As I continued to wax philosophical to my friend (unsolicited, but sincere), I wrote to him in an e-mail: "In the British church, things often arise and emerge slowly through the web of caution and hesitance, but when they do emerge, they are as strong and lasting as Stonehenge... Seeds get planted deeply and seem completely dormant, but no one seems to forget them, and they are nurtured by the patience that stems from a national consciousness that has endured invaders, wars, gain and losses, and survived--all from a tiny island that should never have been (when tallying its dimensions) a world power!"
Britain reminds me of Gamaliel in Acts 5, who basically infused into the Sanhedrin a "wait and see" attitude, saying, "If this is not God, it will die out and if it is God, we cannot stop it." That is admirable, especially as we Americans seem to dive into every spiritual pool without checking the temperature first, quite often making quite a mess. That is also vital in a day when watching to see what is emerging is probably the primary need for spiritual leadership! More than ever before, those of us who have a tendency to drive the boat without permission must learn to wait on the energies and strategies of the Kingdom. We must "let things arise" and form in our vision, rather than rushing out and simply implementing a plan engineered by human reason!
I learned this truth about Britain where every truth should be learned: in the context of relationships. More than once in my early interactions with British church leaders, I thought I had failed to make a connection. I would share in glowing terms with unbridled passion my overwhelming enthusiasm for the great heights we could rise to together, only to receive cordial e-mails in return! I would feel Kingdom destiny forming between our church and British churches and propose that we together do mighty exploits for God, sure that I was seeing the plan from heaven, only to be told we could discuss some of it on our next visit over a curry! And my friend Andy Au was the most memorable of these lessons. When I declared, "You must come to America," he basically said, "I'll think about it if you demonstrate your seriousness by following up on this in the months to come, but I will not pursue it myself."
What Andy and the curry-eaters and the polite e-mailers knew (and I was beginning to learn)was that relationships for the Kingdom's sake must emerge rather than be engineered. They must be truly powered by the energies of heaven, not mere human (American or British) enthusiasm! My British friends knew that the purposes of God, like their island and its people, would ulimately survive and thrive through soul-possessing patience and confidence in the Desire of Nations, who works all things after the counsel of his will!
We American Christians are quite proud (and I mean that in the best sense) of the seeds of Christianity in our nation. But how deeply are Kingdom seeds buried in the British consciousness! Christianity has been a shaping factor in every stage of development of Britain's long history. Where there were abuses and diversions from the true faith, a correcting voice always arose to purge the message and refuel the fires of holiness. Where is Christianity today in Britain? Is it in crisis? I believe not: I believe Christianity is buried in the ground of Britain deeper than any iron age ruin. Britain's great strength of iron-willed patience will pay off as the seeds of ancient faith begin to germinate throughout the land, as I believe they are about to do.
My friend Noel Richards illustrates my point. This July 15th, he will gather the youth of the nations in Olympic Stadium in Berlin for an unprecedented day of worship and prayer. It will be a history-making event involving worshippers from literally all over the globe. It will be unforgettable and impossible to ignore. But the story that Noel will tell in years to come will include the patient pursuit of a dream that seemed easier to abandon than carry full-term. The vision for the stadiums of the world (Wembley first, now Berlin) was planted in him decades ago and he has endured roadblocks and postponements with the confidence of one who believes in actualizing emergent realities! God help us all take a lesson from Noel and carry all of our God-dreams full-term!
Whatever you might have thought was "over"...be a bit British about it and wait and see....This Kingdom is always on the move and you never know what might emerge tomorrow!!! I'll stop now before I veer off into a full salute to the motherland, but I won't apologize for the passion about the bridge across the pond!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Make the world stretch...
The small group I lead on Wednesday nights was straggling in slowly to our little room at the church and something in my leadership rhythm just won't let me start until there is a "quorum". My hesistance to delve into our topic ("What is True Spritiuality?") only to end up repeating a personalized version of my oh-so-powerful introduction for each new arrival forced me to do that thing I am really supposed to do anyway as a small group leader: begin by letting the members each share what is on their heart. Monica, my long-time friend who has just gone back to nursing school after years of intense homemaking and motherhood, had had a particulary challenging day. As she shared her story, she struck a chord in me that is still reverberating. I'll be going on about this one for a while, I'm sure!
Monica's nursing instructor had assigned a typical group project regarding the care of a patient. Now Monica is a conscientious, bright and diligent woman and it seems that the group of younger classmates to which she was assigned had not pondered their life options or commitment to education--and particularly their tasks in this project--with the same degree of seriousness Monica had. After sitting through the less than stellar performance by her group mates, it was Monica's turn to present. She was so overwhelmed with the need to compensate, explain gaps and fill in holes (years of motherhood may have entered into this) that she, rather than focusing on the patient in question, began every sentence with "I felt..." or "I thought..." As she finished her words, she said that she realized that she had used the words, "I, me or my," probably 25 times in a presenation that should have been done in clinical third-person! She had a momentary opportunity to fall into despair, but instead, she said she drew a breath as she sat down and said to herself, "Oh well, the world with just have to stretch to accommodate me today!"
When Monica shared her coping mechanism, I knew I was hearing greatness. If Joseph Campbell had been in my small group, I felt certain he would have recorded Monica's words for a list entitled: "Things All Heroes Must Learn to Say," for, at one strategic point or another, every hero must be willing to make the world stretch to fit them! I have no idea what grade Monica received on the presenation, but I believe the grading scale of life stretched for her at the moment she made that inner determination! Monica had realized that, though it is futile to demand that the world stretch, or even force the world to stretch, there is still merit in singing along with Tom Petty: she could quietly "stand her ground," refusing to "back down" in terms of how she viewed herself.
God makes us the way we are and we, so often, spend so much time trying to re-shape ourselves to accommodate the spaces left for us by people trying to find room for themselves! Rather than dare ask someone to adjust their position, we bend ourselves into unrecognizable forms. We think we are being flexible, and sometimes this is required, but what happens after a while is that accommodating other people becomes a habit and we wonder where the Eric Liddle Chariots of Fire stuff ("When I run I feel His pleasure...") went! When the joy of presenting yourself to God in living worship has waned, it might be time to decide that the world needs to stretch to fit you! You might need to use some "I, me, and my" once again, rather than the clincial third person expression that seem less self-centered!
Like a fine mist, expectations, opinions and scruples settle in on us, dampening the joy of expression. Especially in the church world, Josephs don't hold on easily to their amazing technicolor dreamcoats! There are plenty of self-referenced brothers ready to rip the garments of individuality straight off of us. But if anyone ever made the world stretch to fit him, it was Joseph. He ultimately stood his inner ground and made all Egypt--and the known world as well as the future who would read about him--stretch to fit him!
It is easy, even for the fieriest of temperaments (and I count myself in that group), to feel stretched. Life, circumstances and even God's challenges to us often make us feel that if grace doesn't reinforce us, we will certainly meet the fate of an overtaxed rubber band! Let us not, however, become so addicted to the feelings of powerlessness that fail to remember that this is a two-way street. In God's economy, all things are reciprocal. We are stretched by relationships and requirements, but sometimes we are the stretching force on others as well.
We live in a time when God is wanting to stretch his church. We actually live in a reformation. More power to you who need to pioneer new ways to express your worship, both in and outside the church doors and both with and without the overt identification of your craft as worship! You--you army of Joseph's out there who sometimes feel more like you have landed in Egypt than home--you are the ones who will declare, "I feel...; I think...; and I see..." and the world will be a better place for it. God asked Jeremiah more than once, "What do you see?" and Jeremiah's answers played right into God's plan to make Israel stretch.
When I was a teenage hippie (back in the day), we all had posters of the cult credo Desiderata which began, "Go placidly amid the noise and haste..."hanging next to our black light posters. I remember the words of that poem as an island of peace in the midst of my existential turmoil--long before my heart found the real peace that is Jesus. Looking back now, I can see that in many ways the Desiderata (Latin for "things desired") painted a landscape--much like the one the Moody Blues sang about in "Question"(between the silence of morning and the crashing of the sea, was it?), which was frequently playing on the stereo just under the poster. It was a spiritual landscape where one could simply "be" without anxiety over performance or worry over what is "acceptable". It was a vista of grace and freedom--a freedom so secure it need not prove itself in the energies of rebellion. I now know that the promised land lies only behind the Savior who calls Himself "the Door". It is the Narnia of the Kingdom where "I" "me" and "my" exist without selfishness, and express without frowns of disapproval. I realize now that only in Christ do I have access to my "right to be here" and the knowledge that "the universe is unfolding as it should" for me. But even so, what I hear the Desiderata saying is "When faced with the pressure to mold yourself around someone else's laws or needs, decide instead to simply make the world stretch to fit you." Jesus will make room for you as you do, for that's what easy yokes and light burdens are all about...Make your world stretch to fit you.
Monica's nursing instructor had assigned a typical group project regarding the care of a patient. Now Monica is a conscientious, bright and diligent woman and it seems that the group of younger classmates to which she was assigned had not pondered their life options or commitment to education--and particularly their tasks in this project--with the same degree of seriousness Monica had. After sitting through the less than stellar performance by her group mates, it was Monica's turn to present. She was so overwhelmed with the need to compensate, explain gaps and fill in holes (years of motherhood may have entered into this) that she, rather than focusing on the patient in question, began every sentence with "I felt..." or "I thought..." As she finished her words, she said that she realized that she had used the words, "I, me or my," probably 25 times in a presenation that should have been done in clinical third-person! She had a momentary opportunity to fall into despair, but instead, she said she drew a breath as she sat down and said to herself, "Oh well, the world with just have to stretch to accommodate me today!"
When Monica shared her coping mechanism, I knew I was hearing greatness. If Joseph Campbell had been in my small group, I felt certain he would have recorded Monica's words for a list entitled: "Things All Heroes Must Learn to Say," for, at one strategic point or another, every hero must be willing to make the world stretch to fit them! I have no idea what grade Monica received on the presenation, but I believe the grading scale of life stretched for her at the moment she made that inner determination! Monica had realized that, though it is futile to demand that the world stretch, or even force the world to stretch, there is still merit in singing along with Tom Petty: she could quietly "stand her ground," refusing to "back down" in terms of how she viewed herself.
God makes us the way we are and we, so often, spend so much time trying to re-shape ourselves to accommodate the spaces left for us by people trying to find room for themselves! Rather than dare ask someone to adjust their position, we bend ourselves into unrecognizable forms. We think we are being flexible, and sometimes this is required, but what happens after a while is that accommodating other people becomes a habit and we wonder where the Eric Liddle Chariots of Fire stuff ("When I run I feel His pleasure...") went! When the joy of presenting yourself to God in living worship has waned, it might be time to decide that the world needs to stretch to fit you! You might need to use some "I, me, and my" once again, rather than the clincial third person expression that seem less self-centered!
Like a fine mist, expectations, opinions and scruples settle in on us, dampening the joy of expression. Especially in the church world, Josephs don't hold on easily to their amazing technicolor dreamcoats! There are plenty of self-referenced brothers ready to rip the garments of individuality straight off of us. But if anyone ever made the world stretch to fit him, it was Joseph. He ultimately stood his inner ground and made all Egypt--and the known world as well as the future who would read about him--stretch to fit him!
It is easy, even for the fieriest of temperaments (and I count myself in that group), to feel stretched. Life, circumstances and even God's challenges to us often make us feel that if grace doesn't reinforce us, we will certainly meet the fate of an overtaxed rubber band! Let us not, however, become so addicted to the feelings of powerlessness that fail to remember that this is a two-way street. In God's economy, all things are reciprocal. We are stretched by relationships and requirements, but sometimes we are the stretching force on others as well.
We live in a time when God is wanting to stretch his church. We actually live in a reformation. More power to you who need to pioneer new ways to express your worship, both in and outside the church doors and both with and without the overt identification of your craft as worship! You--you army of Joseph's out there who sometimes feel more like you have landed in Egypt than home--you are the ones who will declare, "I feel...; I think...; and I see..." and the world will be a better place for it. God asked Jeremiah more than once, "What do you see?" and Jeremiah's answers played right into God's plan to make Israel stretch.
When I was a teenage hippie (back in the day), we all had posters of the cult credo Desiderata which began, "Go placidly amid the noise and haste..."hanging next to our black light posters. I remember the words of that poem as an island of peace in the midst of my existential turmoil--long before my heart found the real peace that is Jesus. Looking back now, I can see that in many ways the Desiderata (Latin for "things desired") painted a landscape--much like the one the Moody Blues sang about in "Question"(between the silence of morning and the crashing of the sea, was it?), which was frequently playing on the stereo just under the poster. It was a spiritual landscape where one could simply "be" without anxiety over performance or worry over what is "acceptable". It was a vista of grace and freedom--a freedom so secure it need not prove itself in the energies of rebellion. I now know that the promised land lies only behind the Savior who calls Himself "the Door". It is the Narnia of the Kingdom where "I" "me" and "my" exist without selfishness, and express without frowns of disapproval. I realize now that only in Christ do I have access to my "right to be here" and the knowledge that "the universe is unfolding as it should" for me. But even so, what I hear the Desiderata saying is "When faced with the pressure to mold yourself around someone else's laws or needs, decide instead to simply make the world stretch to fit you." Jesus will make room for you as you do, for that's what easy yokes and light burdens are all about...Make your world stretch to fit you.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Emerge...emerging...emergent... the anatomy of a buzzword
THE FOLLOWING is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-published little book, Engaging the Culture:
Recently, while sharing with a group of young leaders from another church, I put up a slide with containing a diagram that, with two simple lines, showed how the church engages (or fails to engage) culture. As I introduced it, I referred to it as a “model”. The word had barely left my mouth when my listeners all began to moan with one accord and one of them burst out: “That’s not very postmodern!” I was baffled. What I was about to describe to them was a whole new view of church and culture which I had captured in some simple lines. How could that not be postmodern? They only laughed as I tried to defend myself, red-faced and mumbling words like “deconstruct” and “meta-narrative.” I finally just went on, careful not to use the word “model” again.
Later in my time with them, however, as we discussed the implications of quantum physics as I have done here in this book, I had an insight. Their context for the word “model” originated in the church world. They had started their own church (which would be described by some as alternative but, to them, was simply authentic) and they had been asked by many skeptical voices, “Well, which model are you using?” They heard the word “model” as the modern tendency to plan it all, institute it all and force it all into manifestation (or simply to copy someone else’s success rather than letting God grow up in your context). I use the word model in a scientific sense: an approximation that simplifies a complicated reality; a view of the systems in place that allows us to interact with them. Yes, I meant model in the quantum sense, and that brings me to the buzzword “emerging”.
The word “emerging” (or “emergent”) has been creeping onto the covers of Christian periodicals for a couple of years now in America (and longer in the U.K.). Most people probably associate it with an age group of leaders and followers who are just now coming into their own in the church—emerging from obscurity. This group will tend to have a different style and different preferences and therefore generate controversy and require magazine article-length explanations! But there is so much more to understanding “emerging” than simply making room for something that isn’t your style or stepping aside for the young guys to have a chance.
God’s truth, by nature, always waits at the next horizon of church life. Just as soon as we think we have finished the manual on how to do church, God allows everything to change and then waits until we again start running after Him. The nature of the invisible plan of God—whether you invoke quantum physics to explain it or simply read the Bible—is that it wants to manifest! Truth is not just an idea; it has within it a drive toward incarnation. Every bit of God’s huge plan for his church waits invisibly to be discovered, cooperated with, and to emerge!
What I call a model is a fleeting glimpse of the way things are, not yet manifest, and the way God wants them to be on earth. That is so much more than a plan or blueprint. In fact, the myriad workbooks and seminars that the church has generated containing steps and programs for growth in the Christian life are, at best, just models of the emergent! Having seen something of the invisible potential of the Kingdom, we are desperate to cooperate and find ways to actualize its possibilities. We must have some kind of tools to do so because the spirit is a world that operates quite differently than the natural one and we tend to lose our bearings easily without some type of construct in our mind. In the spirit, you give to receive; die to live; humble yourself to be exalted. Let’s face it: the Kingdom is counter-intuitive! We need a model when we are in the middle of the deep sacrifice, death of the flesh, or otherwise humbling experience, so that we can remember to cooperate! We need a few steps; a couple of arrows and just a few alliterative catchphrases. (I’m not being sarcastic: we really do. But we can keep it to a few.)
If we understand that, like the models we have of the atom, these constructs are just helpful tools at understanding emergent realities, we will not abuse them and camp out on them. We will allow them to breathe, flex and flow. We will not worship the models instead of the invisible God who can be contained in nothing, but who does bless us with all the handles we need to cooperate with Him! The “cheesy” and superficial only show up when we have forgotten the big invisible picture (or, when we have never seen it to begin with, God forbid!) Things only get trite and stale when we have begun worshipping the creation, in this case the model, instead of being blinded again and again by the light of the all-encompassing Creator!
Our local church does have a model. It is a diagram with circles and arrows and flow and explanation. The criticism might be raised by someone that it is not “emergent” because we are planning it. I say nothing could be farther from the truth. Too many people are claiming to be the emerging church simply because they have thrown away the plan! The emerging church, however, is one who has seen the invisible and is doing their best to help it manifest. They have seen truth beckoning on the next horizon and made the commitment to pursue. The models God gives us may flow and flux as all living things do, but as long as our eyes are fixed on the invisible (I am reminded of Abraham, Moses and all the Hebrews 11 endurance laureates), we will be allowing God’s next move to “emerge” into manifestation through us! We are all a part of the emerging church—for there is no other kind.
Recently, while sharing with a group of young leaders from another church, I put up a slide with containing a diagram that, with two simple lines, showed how the church engages (or fails to engage) culture. As I introduced it, I referred to it as a “model”. The word had barely left my mouth when my listeners all began to moan with one accord and one of them burst out: “That’s not very postmodern!” I was baffled. What I was about to describe to them was a whole new view of church and culture which I had captured in some simple lines. How could that not be postmodern? They only laughed as I tried to defend myself, red-faced and mumbling words like “deconstruct” and “meta-narrative.” I finally just went on, careful not to use the word “model” again.
Later in my time with them, however, as we discussed the implications of quantum physics as I have done here in this book, I had an insight. Their context for the word “model” originated in the church world. They had started their own church (which would be described by some as alternative but, to them, was simply authentic) and they had been asked by many skeptical voices, “Well, which model are you using?” They heard the word “model” as the modern tendency to plan it all, institute it all and force it all into manifestation (or simply to copy someone else’s success rather than letting God grow up in your context). I use the word model in a scientific sense: an approximation that simplifies a complicated reality; a view of the systems in place that allows us to interact with them. Yes, I meant model in the quantum sense, and that brings me to the buzzword “emerging”.
The word “emerging” (or “emergent”) has been creeping onto the covers of Christian periodicals for a couple of years now in America (and longer in the U.K.). Most people probably associate it with an age group of leaders and followers who are just now coming into their own in the church—emerging from obscurity. This group will tend to have a different style and different preferences and therefore generate controversy and require magazine article-length explanations! But there is so much more to understanding “emerging” than simply making room for something that isn’t your style or stepping aside for the young guys to have a chance.
God’s truth, by nature, always waits at the next horizon of church life. Just as soon as we think we have finished the manual on how to do church, God allows everything to change and then waits until we again start running after Him. The nature of the invisible plan of God—whether you invoke quantum physics to explain it or simply read the Bible—is that it wants to manifest! Truth is not just an idea; it has within it a drive toward incarnation. Every bit of God’s huge plan for his church waits invisibly to be discovered, cooperated with, and to emerge!
What I call a model is a fleeting glimpse of the way things are, not yet manifest, and the way God wants them to be on earth. That is so much more than a plan or blueprint. In fact, the myriad workbooks and seminars that the church has generated containing steps and programs for growth in the Christian life are, at best, just models of the emergent! Having seen something of the invisible potential of the Kingdom, we are desperate to cooperate and find ways to actualize its possibilities. We must have some kind of tools to do so because the spirit is a world that operates quite differently than the natural one and we tend to lose our bearings easily without some type of construct in our mind. In the spirit, you give to receive; die to live; humble yourself to be exalted. Let’s face it: the Kingdom is counter-intuitive! We need a model when we are in the middle of the deep sacrifice, death of the flesh, or otherwise humbling experience, so that we can remember to cooperate! We need a few steps; a couple of arrows and just a few alliterative catchphrases. (I’m not being sarcastic: we really do. But we can keep it to a few.)
If we understand that, like the models we have of the atom, these constructs are just helpful tools at understanding emergent realities, we will not abuse them and camp out on them. We will allow them to breathe, flex and flow. We will not worship the models instead of the invisible God who can be contained in nothing, but who does bless us with all the handles we need to cooperate with Him! The “cheesy” and superficial only show up when we have forgotten the big invisible picture (or, when we have never seen it to begin with, God forbid!) Things only get trite and stale when we have begun worshipping the creation, in this case the model, instead of being blinded again and again by the light of the all-encompassing Creator!
Our local church does have a model. It is a diagram with circles and arrows and flow and explanation. The criticism might be raised by someone that it is not “emergent” because we are planning it. I say nothing could be farther from the truth. Too many people are claiming to be the emerging church simply because they have thrown away the plan! The emerging church, however, is one who has seen the invisible and is doing their best to help it manifest. They have seen truth beckoning on the next horizon and made the commitment to pursue. The models God gives us may flow and flux as all living things do, but as long as our eyes are fixed on the invisible (I am reminded of Abraham, Moses and all the Hebrews 11 endurance laureates), we will be allowing God’s next move to “emerge” into manifestation through us! We are all a part of the emerging church—for there is no other kind.
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