Ever had one of those moments? It may have been a stunning sunset, or the view from a mountaintop, or the cry of a newborn baby. Something about that moment took your breath away. You were caught up in wonder at the sheer beauty of whatever it was that had captivated your attention.
Right now for me it's watching God at work in our lives and in Emmaus Road, our new church. When I simply sit back and consider what it going on all around us--things way beyond ourselves or our ability to create--I have to shake my head. Wha? How? Can it be?
When we were looking for a house in Toledo, we were praying for and seeking an area that fit with our experiences and giftedness in ministry. So we focused on an area near the University of Toledo and in an older and more heavily populated part of town. We're simply not suburban folk. And more than that, we feel like much of the church has abandoned the city in favor of the everyone's-the-same McSuburbs. We believe God cares about lost people in the city as much as He cares about the folks in the burbs.
In the end, God blessed us with an awesome house complete with avocado green 40-year-old appliances and orange shag carpet (don't worry, we're replacing the appliances and pulling up the carpet). The house is great, but what's beyond belief is the neighborhood. While it's not nearly as diverse as our Longfellow neighborhood in Kansas City, we continue to sense God affirming that it was the right place through a variety of circumstances.
First, I've never lived somewhere where so many people go for walks in the evening. We've met literally dozens of people already just out walking. Many of them have actually come up to us and introduced themselves while we're out in the yard with the kids.
Second, Barb is already starting a playgroup for mothers with young children. Many of the people living in this area are young families with young children. Already, one of the lady's has expressed a lot of interest in Emmaus Road.
Third, just last week, we found out that our neighbor across the street is the director of the International Ministries branch of Campus Crusade at UT (Uni. of Toledo)! Turned out that there just happened to be a dinner coming up later in the week at which all the directors would be in attendance. And just like that she got us in to it with a seat at her table and a personal introduction to the directors of Campus Crusade and Athletes in Action. What I had figured would take a lot of running around and making phone calls to do (getting to know some of these leaders on campus) happened at one dinner through this lady that God brought across our path. Now we have an instant connection to all that's going on in those ministries on campus.
There's so much more I could describe, like the connection I made with another youth pastor who happens to do web design for non-profits, or the electrician we met who is doing a little updating at our house for free, or the worship arts pastor at a local mega church who I had coffee with who offered to help us out with any resources they have available, or the treasurer from a large church on our district who wants to help us be sure we get everything set up right from the beginning, or the another pastor who wants to donate Alpha Course materials and videos to us. Each encounter, each connection, looks more and more like the hand of God.
I've sung in a lot of choirs in my life. Every once in a while you have that feeling that you're part of something bigger than just a collection of individuals who happen to be singing the same song. Something larger is happening--there's a collective harmony that is created that cannot happen in isolation from one another. All the elements come together: the composer's vision and creation, the conductor's guidance, melody and counter melody, the harmony, the acoustics, the aesthetics, the audience--each join forces to create something much larger than any single part. It's sometimes during those moments that you find yourself caught up in it all, simply watching it take place around you and boggling at its beauty.
That's like the feeling I get working in concert with God starting Emmaus Road here in Toledo. It's like a work of art, like a brilliant sunset.
And right now, I'm loving the view.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Active Waiting
How do you "Wait on God"?
Is it like waiting on a train? Does it imply sitting around listening for a heavenly phone to ring with God on the other line telling us what to do? Are we to wait patiently or impatiently? Are we allowed to be frustrated in the waiting process? And while we're at it, how do we know we're not missing the very thing we've been waiting for?
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said, "the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (30:18).
The enitre context of chapter 30 is a declaration of suffering which has come upon the Israelites, God's own people, for their disobedience in forging their own path. "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!' (vv. 10-11). As one reads through the implacations against them in Isaiah, it becomes apparent that they concerned themselves more with short term prosperity than with longterm integrity. They demonstrated the antithesis of waiting on God.
The Hebrew word for "wait" most often used in the scriptures has an active meaning. It typically connotes endurance: "In waiting for God the Hebrew was in tense anticipation, full of hope, and willing to endure till God should come" (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 796). One waits in trouble. One waits through suffering. One waits even in prosperity. But all the while, one waits actively.
How then should we wait?
This question weighs on my mind these days. I'm in a position where there is a lot of freedom, a lot of free time with which I can do what I want. Planting a new church that is a month along and as of yet has no gathering body, means that there are few immediate or pressing tasks which require my time. If I wanted, I could likely spend my days sitting here at my desk reading the news, organizing things, or doing any number of trivialities, and I could blame it on the fact that I'm "waiting on God" to build His church here through us.
But if I take the Biblical meaning of waiting on God, that is I wait actively, then I can't just sit in my office and do nothing and expect a church to miraculously appear. No, I must be involved in doing.
Now that doing doesn't mean I do my own thing, which is precisely what the Israelites were guilty of. Instead, I get busy doing God's work--reaching out to people with love and hope, meeting them where they are, utilizing the resources and gifts God's given me and my family for His purposes and Kingdom here on earth.
Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait for Him in Jerusalem. Had they chosen to wait like the Israelites or like I often do, they probably would have just returned to Jerusalem, returned to their jobs and families and tucked Jesus' command away in the corner of their minds. That's not what they did.
"Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God" (Luke 24:53). It is likely that this is the place where they were when the Holy Spirit descended upon them with power 50 days later during Pentecost. They were actively waiting on God. Had they not waited in this way, how might things have been different?
And so I'm trying to learn how to wait on God by doing what I sense He's leading me to do. As I read His word and pray, as I listen throughout the day, as I keep my spiritual antenna tuned to His voice and leading, I'm trying simply to follow what I believe He's saying. I'm using my best judgment in discerning what He'd have me to do. Some of these efforts may be met with little success. Others may produce outward fruit. All of them lead to a heart willing to do whatever it is He asks of me.
It's not easy. It's not always clear or simple. In fact, sometimes I may not much feel like waiting on God at all. I certainly don't profess to be perfect at this waiting thing. But by I believe that waiting is the only faithful response to what God has shown us through His word and through the accumulative experiences of Christians throughout history.
So, I'll wait.
Is it like waiting on a train? Does it imply sitting around listening for a heavenly phone to ring with God on the other line telling us what to do? Are we to wait patiently or impatiently? Are we allowed to be frustrated in the waiting process? And while we're at it, how do we know we're not missing the very thing we've been waiting for?
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said, "the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" (30:18).
The enitre context of chapter 30 is a declaration of suffering which has come upon the Israelites, God's own people, for their disobedience in forging their own path. "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!' (vv. 10-11). As one reads through the implacations against them in Isaiah, it becomes apparent that they concerned themselves more with short term prosperity than with longterm integrity. They demonstrated the antithesis of waiting on God.
The Hebrew word for "wait" most often used in the scriptures has an active meaning. It typically connotes endurance: "In waiting for God the Hebrew was in tense anticipation, full of hope, and willing to endure till God should come" (The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 796). One waits in trouble. One waits through suffering. One waits even in prosperity. But all the while, one waits actively.
How then should we wait?
This question weighs on my mind these days. I'm in a position where there is a lot of freedom, a lot of free time with which I can do what I want. Planting a new church that is a month along and as of yet has no gathering body, means that there are few immediate or pressing tasks which require my time. If I wanted, I could likely spend my days sitting here at my desk reading the news, organizing things, or doing any number of trivialities, and I could blame it on the fact that I'm "waiting on God" to build His church here through us.
But if I take the Biblical meaning of waiting on God, that is I wait actively, then I can't just sit in my office and do nothing and expect a church to miraculously appear. No, I must be involved in doing.
Now that doing doesn't mean I do my own thing, which is precisely what the Israelites were guilty of. Instead, I get busy doing God's work--reaching out to people with love and hope, meeting them where they are, utilizing the resources and gifts God's given me and my family for His purposes and Kingdom here on earth.
Just before He ascended to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait for Him in Jerusalem. Had they chosen to wait like the Israelites or like I often do, they probably would have just returned to Jerusalem, returned to their jobs and families and tucked Jesus' command away in the corner of their minds. That's not what they did.
"Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God" (Luke 24:53). It is likely that this is the place where they were when the Holy Spirit descended upon them with power 50 days later during Pentecost. They were actively waiting on God. Had they not waited in this way, how might things have been different?
And so I'm trying to learn how to wait on God by doing what I sense He's leading me to do. As I read His word and pray, as I listen throughout the day, as I keep my spiritual antenna tuned to His voice and leading, I'm trying simply to follow what I believe He's saying. I'm using my best judgment in discerning what He'd have me to do. Some of these efforts may be met with little success. Others may produce outward fruit. All of them lead to a heart willing to do whatever it is He asks of me.
It's not easy. It's not always clear or simple. In fact, sometimes I may not much feel like waiting on God at all. I certainly don't profess to be perfect at this waiting thing. But by I believe that waiting is the only faithful response to what God has shown us through His word and through the accumulative experiences of Christians throughout history.
So, I'll wait.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Can you hear me now?
So, I'm in my office the other day(at my house, of course) , and I hear the kids down the hall asking Barb where I am. They're looking all around, but fail to check in here for some reason. Nothing too unusual.
But then I got to thinking about it. All they had to do was call my name, and I would have answered them.
How much is that like our God? How often do we run all over looking for Him, trying to find Him or His will, and all the while, He's just waiting for us to call His name? Jesus said that unless we become like little children in our faith, we can't enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:13-16).
I've spent some time considering this, especially now that I have children of my own and I learn so much from them. My kids are completely dependent and trusting of me and my wife. Everything they have and need comes from us. They inherently come to us if and when they need anything--or even, rather especially, if they WANT something. They don't even stop to consider whether they should be asking for these things or not. They simply come and ask, trusting we will answer. We are their providers; they know to whom to come for everything.
What's more, they never question our love. Even when they've been disciplined for something, they recognize they're still completely and wholly loved. We love them, and there's nothing they can do to change that. We work hard at being sure they know that we love them beyond any shadow of a doubt.
When it comes to our faith, I'm wrestling with how we apply Christ's words. For one I think it must mean what I said above. When we need Him, when we're looking for Him--He's waiting to be found. We simply need to call out His name--He will answer.
It also means His love for us is infinite and all encompassing. Psalm 139 says there's no place we can go to escape it.
But it also must mean that we accept what comes our way as a child accepts what a parent sends its way. We must embrace God's law, His will, His ways without question. Not that we don't struggle mightily to make sense of it all, or even act like we have it, any of it, figured out at all. Never-the-less, we recognize that we're the created ones, and He's the Creator.
I heard a pastor recently preaching about the story of Job. What he said at the end caught my attention. (Forgive me ahead of time for having to leave so much out.) He said that Job suffered precisely because He did the right thing. His pain was the result of his being a righteous and good person. Had he not been faithful, he wouldn't have suffered.
And so the preacher concluded this: Job suffered because He was good. But Job was blessed because God is good.
Simply because we're good, or faithful, or honest, or righteous--or whatever adjective you want to use to describe it--doesn't mean we'll never experience pain, personal loss, confusion, sickness, mental illness, or any myriad of calamities. In fact, if Job's story teaches anything it's that we're more likely than not to experience them simply because we are good and faithful.
Yet, whenever we do experience something good, or blessed, or lovely, we, like children, must recognize it as coming from the hand of a good God. Blessing and God's goodness are inextricably bound together.
In starting out in this new endeavor, I've had a lot of questions. There's so much uncertainty with planting a new church from scratch. But this is the place I want to be--right in the place where my very life and future depend on the blessing and direction that comes from the hand of God.
I hope that I'm learning more and more each day to call on God's name, to depend on Him for everything, and to accept what He sends my way--in essence, to become like a child in my faith and trust in Him.
I hope you are too.
But then I got to thinking about it. All they had to do was call my name, and I would have answered them.
How much is that like our God? How often do we run all over looking for Him, trying to find Him or His will, and all the while, He's just waiting for us to call His name? Jesus said that unless we become like little children in our faith, we can't enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:13-16).
I've spent some time considering this, especially now that I have children of my own and I learn so much from them. My kids are completely dependent and trusting of me and my wife. Everything they have and need comes from us. They inherently come to us if and when they need anything--or even, rather especially, if they WANT something. They don't even stop to consider whether they should be asking for these things or not. They simply come and ask, trusting we will answer. We are their providers; they know to whom to come for everything.
What's more, they never question our love. Even when they've been disciplined for something, they recognize they're still completely and wholly loved. We love them, and there's nothing they can do to change that. We work hard at being sure they know that we love them beyond any shadow of a doubt.
When it comes to our faith, I'm wrestling with how we apply Christ's words. For one I think it must mean what I said above. When we need Him, when we're looking for Him--He's waiting to be found. We simply need to call out His name--He will answer.
It also means His love for us is infinite and all encompassing. Psalm 139 says there's no place we can go to escape it.
But it also must mean that we accept what comes our way as a child accepts what a parent sends its way. We must embrace God's law, His will, His ways without question. Not that we don't struggle mightily to make sense of it all, or even act like we have it, any of it, figured out at all. Never-the-less, we recognize that we're the created ones, and He's the Creator.
I heard a pastor recently preaching about the story of Job. What he said at the end caught my attention. (Forgive me ahead of time for having to leave so much out.) He said that Job suffered precisely because He did the right thing. His pain was the result of his being a righteous and good person. Had he not been faithful, he wouldn't have suffered.
And so the preacher concluded this: Job suffered because He was good. But Job was blessed because God is good.
Simply because we're good, or faithful, or honest, or righteous--or whatever adjective you want to use to describe it--doesn't mean we'll never experience pain, personal loss, confusion, sickness, mental illness, or any myriad of calamities. In fact, if Job's story teaches anything it's that we're more likely than not to experience them simply because we are good and faithful.
Yet, whenever we do experience something good, or blessed, or lovely, we, like children, must recognize it as coming from the hand of a good God. Blessing and God's goodness are inextricably bound together.
In starting out in this new endeavor, I've had a lot of questions. There's so much uncertainty with planting a new church from scratch. But this is the place I want to be--right in the place where my very life and future depend on the blessing and direction that comes from the hand of God.
I hope that I'm learning more and more each day to call on God's name, to depend on Him for everything, and to accept what He sends my way--in essence, to become like a child in my faith and trust in Him.
I hope you are too.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Meeting People
Today I met a man named Ernie in the McDonalds not far from my home. Barb and I took the kids there because it had a playplace and they needed to burn off some energy. Since it was raining and cold, they couldn't do it outside (and I might have had a hankering for a Big Mac).
When I walked in the playplace, there was a man sitting there watching a young boy scampering through the mazes and down the slide. I don't do real well at just starting up conversations with people unless I'm in an unusual mood. Just my personality. But I figured I would anyway. Soon we were talking about raising young children, our jobs (he's a mechanic), and the like. When we left, we gave him our contact information.
I've never done a good job of just reaching out to people unless I have a conducive environment for talking to them. I mean, unless I'm in a situation that lends itself naturally to engaging another person, I'm more inclined just to smile (maybe) and move on.
But I was talking to Barb the other day and saying that if we're going to see God use us to grow this church from scratch, we're going to have to step out of that coccoon and talk to people. Engage them. Enter into their life and experience a bit.
The problem is, it's not me to a great extent. I don't just naturally go up to people and start talking to them. So the dilemma: Do I put on my game face and become something I'm not, or do I just sit back and wait for those elusive, natural connections?
Talking to Ernie this morning got me thinking. For one, in looking back, I find that almost without fail, when I do reach out and connect to people, strangers, that I leave that encounter sensing something right about it. There's something profound about connecting with another human being--even if it is a stranger and perhaps because it IS a stranger. My horizon is expanded, my understanding of the world and of people grows with each contact.
Second, maybe my reticence is no more part of my personality than selfishness is. Rather, my restraint or fear or apathy in connecting with others might just be a vestige of the Fall on my personality. In other words, God didn't create me to be reclusive and reticent toward my fellow human beings. Instead, it is much more likely (indeed Biblical) that He created me for community with others. The Fall and the consequent sinfulness we inherit, drives wedges between us, sometimes through the very excuses we make such as when we say, "It's just my personality." No. My real, God intended, personality is one that is expansive and welcoming of the stranger and the foreigner (and friend).
When I meet someone like Ernie, or Isaiah the county tax assessor (another story for another day), I'm living into the reality for which God created me. Sure it's taking me outside of a level of comfort I'm used to, but in truth, that comfort level is most likely a wall I've built around myself--one that God never intended me to build in the first place.
Here's to meeting more people.
When I walked in the playplace, there was a man sitting there watching a young boy scampering through the mazes and down the slide. I don't do real well at just starting up conversations with people unless I'm in an unusual mood. Just my personality. But I figured I would anyway. Soon we were talking about raising young children, our jobs (he's a mechanic), and the like. When we left, we gave him our contact information.
I've never done a good job of just reaching out to people unless I have a conducive environment for talking to them. I mean, unless I'm in a situation that lends itself naturally to engaging another person, I'm more inclined just to smile (maybe) and move on.
But I was talking to Barb the other day and saying that if we're going to see God use us to grow this church from scratch, we're going to have to step out of that coccoon and talk to people. Engage them. Enter into their life and experience a bit.
The problem is, it's not me to a great extent. I don't just naturally go up to people and start talking to them. So the dilemma: Do I put on my game face and become something I'm not, or do I just sit back and wait for those elusive, natural connections?
Talking to Ernie this morning got me thinking. For one, in looking back, I find that almost without fail, when I do reach out and connect to people, strangers, that I leave that encounter sensing something right about it. There's something profound about connecting with another human being--even if it is a stranger and perhaps because it IS a stranger. My horizon is expanded, my understanding of the world and of people grows with each contact.
Second, maybe my reticence is no more part of my personality than selfishness is. Rather, my restraint or fear or apathy in connecting with others might just be a vestige of the Fall on my personality. In other words, God didn't create me to be reclusive and reticent toward my fellow human beings. Instead, it is much more likely (indeed Biblical) that He created me for community with others. The Fall and the consequent sinfulness we inherit, drives wedges between us, sometimes through the very excuses we make such as when we say, "It's just my personality." No. My real, God intended, personality is one that is expansive and welcoming of the stranger and the foreigner (and friend).
When I meet someone like Ernie, or Isaiah the county tax assessor (another story for another day), I'm living into the reality for which God created me. Sure it's taking me outside of a level of comfort I'm used to, but in truth, that comfort level is most likely a wall I've built around myself--one that God never intended me to build in the first place.
Here's to meeting more people.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Emmaus Road Toledo
A lot has happened since my last entry. Briefly . . .
We had been looking to plant a church in South Bend, Indiana. We explored that option for about 10 months, but even though there were many promising developments, things never came completely together the way we felt they should if that was where God was leading us.
Then, last November (2007) I received an e-mail from a pastor near Toledo, OH telling me that he had gotten my name from another youth pastor who said I was looking for a new position since mine had been eliminated through our senior pastor leaving Lafayette First. I responded telling him that I was not looking to continue in youth ministry but was instead looking to plant a church. He wrote back and said that I should contact the his district because they were looking to plant a new church.
To make a long story short, within a couple of weeks we met with the person spearheading the new plant on their district. And now, 4 months later, we're now living in Toledo, OH and laying the groundwork for this new work of God.
The hand of God has been evident all the way through this, and we believe firmly that God promises to build His church--all we need to do is get on board with Him and let Him do His work through us.
He will.
We had been looking to plant a church in South Bend, Indiana. We explored that option for about 10 months, but even though there were many promising developments, things never came completely together the way we felt they should if that was where God was leading us.
Then, last November (2007) I received an e-mail from a pastor near Toledo, OH telling me that he had gotten my name from another youth pastor who said I was looking for a new position since mine had been eliminated through our senior pastor leaving Lafayette First. I responded telling him that I was not looking to continue in youth ministry but was instead looking to plant a church. He wrote back and said that I should contact the his district because they were looking to plant a new church.
To make a long story short, within a couple of weeks we met with the person spearheading the new plant on their district. And now, 4 months later, we're now living in Toledo, OH and laying the groundwork for this new work of God.
The hand of God has been evident all the way through this, and we believe firmly that God promises to build His church--all we need to do is get on board with Him and let Him do His work through us.
He will.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Reflections on Emmaus Road
Over a year and a half ago now, I wrote about a desire to begin a ministry here which came to be called "Emmaus Road: A Postmodern Worship Gathering." And ten months ago, we held our first gathering in the Upper Room at Lafayette First Nazarene. Since then, the number of those gathering with us has averaged in the low thirties.
This last Sunday, May 20, was probably our last gathering together. There are several reasons for this that I won't detail here. Still, I wanted to reflect on all that God has done during the 10 months we journeyed together on the Emmaus Road.
(To see and hear some of the specifics of what has occured over the last year, you can click on the link attached to this post. It will take you to the website we created--with our limited web knowledge.)
As far as the responses I've heard from those who participated, Emmaus Road held great meaning for many of them. And judging from the prayers and letters to God written in the community journal and through the written prayer responses from various gatherings, people were connecting with God on a profound level. All of this encourages me to know that what was taking place was being led by God as we were open to what He wanted to do and as we sought to be real and honest before Him
Perhaps what stood out the most from the gatherings was the general sense in which there was time and space to speak to and hear from God. For me, after each service, a special sense of stillness before God prevailed in me so much so that I didn't want to leave that sacred space where God had visited with us. Those who had gathered shared openly the concerns and praises of their hearts in a way that doesn't often happen in more traditional worship gatherings.
If I were to say what I think it was that drew people to Emmaus Road and kept many of them there, I would say it had a to be hunger for more of God, for more from a worship gathering than empty, hollow, and shallow liturgy. They desired to really connect with God, to lay bare their hearts, desires, dreams, and fears, and to be challenged to do so--to have their assumptions about how God's Spirit works and move shaken to the core. They desired to go through a refining fire and to come out purified.
I don't know that all of that happened, or if it did that it happened with great frequency. But I think it happened enough, and to a great enough extent that people kept coming back month after month.
I hope and trust that God will lead us to a place of ministry, whether in Lafayette or another city, where this can happend on a regular basis, where there is freedom for the Spirit to roam and move and draw and correct and convict and to do all the things God wants to do in us through Christ by His Spirit.
I certainly don't claim to know what that will look like exactly. I don't even know what it does or will mean for me and my family . . . but I know I don't want to live without it anymore.
This last Sunday, May 20, was probably our last gathering together. There are several reasons for this that I won't detail here. Still, I wanted to reflect on all that God has done during the 10 months we journeyed together on the Emmaus Road.
(To see and hear some of the specifics of what has occured over the last year, you can click on the link attached to this post. It will take you to the website we created--with our limited web knowledge.)
As far as the responses I've heard from those who participated, Emmaus Road held great meaning for many of them. And judging from the prayers and letters to God written in the community journal and through the written prayer responses from various gatherings, people were connecting with God on a profound level. All of this encourages me to know that what was taking place was being led by God as we were open to what He wanted to do and as we sought to be real and honest before Him
Perhaps what stood out the most from the gatherings was the general sense in which there was time and space to speak to and hear from God. For me, after each service, a special sense of stillness before God prevailed in me so much so that I didn't want to leave that sacred space where God had visited with us. Those who had gathered shared openly the concerns and praises of their hearts in a way that doesn't often happen in more traditional worship gatherings.
If I were to say what I think it was that drew people to Emmaus Road and kept many of them there, I would say it had a to be hunger for more of God, for more from a worship gathering than empty, hollow, and shallow liturgy. They desired to really connect with God, to lay bare their hearts, desires, dreams, and fears, and to be challenged to do so--to have their assumptions about how God's Spirit works and move shaken to the core. They desired to go through a refining fire and to come out purified.
I don't know that all of that happened, or if it did that it happened with great frequency. But I think it happened enough, and to a great enough extent that people kept coming back month after month.
I hope and trust that God will lead us to a place of ministry, whether in Lafayette or another city, where this can happend on a regular basis, where there is freedom for the Spirit to roam and move and draw and correct and convict and to do all the things God wants to do in us through Christ by His Spirit.
I certainly don't claim to know what that will look like exactly. I don't even know what it does or will mean for me and my family . . . but I know I don't want to live without it anymore.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Looking For A Church
So, I'm looking for a church. Really. I'm looking to move on to a real church. One that tastes, and sounds, and looks, and feels, and even smells like Jesus. One that resembles the early group of believers who joined together and "devoted themsleves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord's Supper and in prayer" (Acts 2:42, NLT).
I'm currently in a ministry setting that I somewhat enjoy--I mean I love pastoring people and getting together and doing life in Christ together. But I really dislike the "this is how we do church because we've always done church this way" kind of feel. I keep asking myself "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" and "What is it really accomplishing for God's kingdom?" My answers leave me somewhat wanting.
I want to find a place of ministry where when I finish preaching on a Sunday a.m. or finish leading worship or finish teaching discipleship or . . . whatever, that I KNOW that this is what Christ died for! This is all (at least for this time) that we were created and meant for. That when we spend our lives together in worship, in serving, in praying, in fellowship, that it's all real--as real as it can possibly get. Maybe not every time--but at least more often than it happens now.
I've been wrestling with this for months now. I'm think I'm stuck in a Robert Frost poem where two roads divide: I've got to decide which one to take.
So I'm looking for a church--any suggestions?
I'm currently in a ministry setting that I somewhat enjoy--I mean I love pastoring people and getting together and doing life in Christ together. But I really dislike the "this is how we do church because we've always done church this way" kind of feel. I keep asking myself "Why am I doing what I'm doing?" and "What is it really accomplishing for God's kingdom?" My answers leave me somewhat wanting.
I want to find a place of ministry where when I finish preaching on a Sunday a.m. or finish leading worship or finish teaching discipleship or . . . whatever, that I KNOW that this is what Christ died for! This is all (at least for this time) that we were created and meant for. That when we spend our lives together in worship, in serving, in praying, in fellowship, that it's all real--as real as it can possibly get. Maybe not every time--but at least more often than it happens now.
I've been wrestling with this for months now. I'm think I'm stuck in a Robert Frost poem where two roads divide: I've got to decide which one to take.
So I'm looking for a church--any suggestions?
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Dr. Lee Woolery's District Assembly Report
Dr. Lee Woolery, the District Superintendant on my district gave the following report at our district assembly last weekend. I think it's worth a read. I thank God for being on a district with a D.S. with his vision and passion.
Here's the link: http://www.nwinazarene.org/page.aspx?id=189228
Here's the link: http://www.nwinazarene.org/page.aspx?id=189228
Christians and Profanity
Can I complain for a minute? Swearing does NOT make a Christian any cooler, free-er, more liberated, closer to Christ, more relevant, more right, etc., etc., etc., than does farting in public!
I'm sick of reading blog after interview after magazine article where Christians, especially emerging ones, use profanity in a sad attempt to earn some street cred or show that they're liberated from the constraints of their legalistic forefathers.
I'll admit, there may be times when the stray profane utterance is appropriate, like say when one is about to drive off a cliff, but since when does being an authentic Christian require, or even simply smile upon, the use of vulgarities to make it seem genuine? When will my Christian sisters and brothers get over their infantile infatuation with cussing?
To quote my sixth grade teacher: "We're not in elementary school any more boys and girls."
If being an authentic Christian means I have to sit around drinking beer, smoking a cigar, watching porn, and saying "shit" at opportune times, then I don't want to be an authentic Christian anymore.
I'm sick of reading blog after interview after magazine article where Christians, especially emerging ones, use profanity in a sad attempt to earn some street cred or show that they're liberated from the constraints of their legalistic forefathers.
I'll admit, there may be times when the stray profane utterance is appropriate, like say when one is about to drive off a cliff, but since when does being an authentic Christian require, or even simply smile upon, the use of vulgarities to make it seem genuine? When will my Christian sisters and brothers get over their infantile infatuation with cussing?
To quote my sixth grade teacher: "We're not in elementary school any more boys and girls."
If being an authentic Christian means I have to sit around drinking beer, smoking a cigar, watching porn, and saying "shit" at opportune times, then I don't want to be an authentic Christian anymore.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Emerging arrogance
Why does it seem like too often those in the Emerging Church movement are full of themselves and disdain for all others?
Today I was browsing articles at www.theooze.com and came across one titled "A Passionate Speech to Emerging Christians Everywhere" (found at http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1420). You can see my response to the author of the article under "Andy" on 7/18/2006 at 1:17pm.
What ticked me off so much about it was the superior, condescending, proud to be antinomian, anti-establishment, anti-everything, tone to it. I've encountered the author's ilk before:
In the spring of 2002 I was invited to participate in the Nazarene Global Theology conference held in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I experienced the awesome privilege of discussing the theology and future of the Nazarene Church with sisters- and brothers-in-Christ from all around the globe. In general it was an amazing, life-marking experience for me and many others.
However, there was one element which left me saddened and troubled. I was only 28 at the time, and there was a contingent of younger-aged people like myself there from many educational institutions around the world. As the week progressed, many, though certainly not all, began to become overly confident that they had the right answers and that anyone else at the conference, primarily those older than ourselves, were stuck in the past and were ignorant of the "truth." Some of them wouldn't have stated it that directly (although some would have), but many of them felt that way and expressed it to varying degrees.
John Brickley, Chris Branstetter, and myself, and perhaps a few others, balked at such nonsense. The problem is that those who feel such, are often the ones who are ignorant of the real issues. They fail to realize they stand on the shoulders of giants, (pardon the overused expression), and that those who've walked in the faith before us deserve our love, admiration, and respect. While we don't have to agree with everything our forebearer's thought, we certainly must remember that every new generation which comes along tends to think itself closer to the truth than those preceding it. It's only foolish arrogance that can hold such a contention.
The simply solution is humility. Yes, sometimes idealism expresses itself rather brashly, and sometimes hyperbole can be used to good effect. But when grace and humility are lacking in our responses and relationships with others, we've gone off the path that Christ paves for us.
Today I was browsing articles at www.theooze.com and came across one titled "A Passionate Speech to Emerging Christians Everywhere" (found at http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1420). You can see my response to the author of the article under "Andy" on 7/18/2006 at 1:17pm.
What ticked me off so much about it was the superior, condescending, proud to be antinomian, anti-establishment, anti-everything, tone to it. I've encountered the author's ilk before:
In the spring of 2002 I was invited to participate in the Nazarene Global Theology conference held in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I experienced the awesome privilege of discussing the theology and future of the Nazarene Church with sisters- and brothers-in-Christ from all around the globe. In general it was an amazing, life-marking experience for me and many others.
However, there was one element which left me saddened and troubled. I was only 28 at the time, and there was a contingent of younger-aged people like myself there from many educational institutions around the world. As the week progressed, many, though certainly not all, began to become overly confident that they had the right answers and that anyone else at the conference, primarily those older than ourselves, were stuck in the past and were ignorant of the "truth." Some of them wouldn't have stated it that directly (although some would have), but many of them felt that way and expressed it to varying degrees.
John Brickley, Chris Branstetter, and myself, and perhaps a few others, balked at such nonsense. The problem is that those who feel such, are often the ones who are ignorant of the real issues. They fail to realize they stand on the shoulders of giants, (pardon the overused expression), and that those who've walked in the faith before us deserve our love, admiration, and respect. While we don't have to agree with everything our forebearer's thought, we certainly must remember that every new generation which comes along tends to think itself closer to the truth than those preceding it. It's only foolish arrogance that can hold such a contention.
The simply solution is humility. Yes, sometimes idealism expresses itself rather brashly, and sometimes hyperbole can be used to good effect. But when grace and humility are lacking in our responses and relationships with others, we've gone off the path that Christ paves for us.
Monday, July 17, 2006
So it begins
Two Sundays ago was the first night of Emmaus Road. Although it's been a while since I last posted, I thought I'd write an update, since things have moved ahead, and chronicle a little of what's happened along the way.
Throughout the winter and spring, the vision team continued to meet, although somewhat sporadically. We mainly attempted to get on sort of the same page in our understanding of what's going on in our culutre and how we might be Jesus to it.
On June 12th, I had an informational meeting at which I laid out the entire vision for Emmaus Road. We even set up the Upper Room (our meeting place) in the way that we envision it looking for the worship gatherings. During that time, fourteen people spent time listening and offering ideas.
Fast forward to July 9th. The first worship gathering consisted of a basic word and table service, with as much of a participatory element to it as we could reasonably provide without lapsing into gimmick. Here's what it looked like (on paper anyway):
Prior to the gathering, we had a "Prayer Room" set up with dimmed lights, couches, and some artwork by a contemporary Christian artist (http://no1underground.com/). We also had a "Community Journal" set up in a corner of the room where people could write prayers to God, encourage one another, or just express their thoughts.
6:45 contemplative music "Chant"; Powerpoint slide show "the journey" images of streets and paths
7:05 All Creatures of Our God and King
Welcome--Pass the Peace of Christ to each other
Reading of Psalm 23 as Communion elements are brought to the table
Collect for Purity
How Great Is Our God
Gospel Reading (Luke 24:13-34)
Word Spoken
Response to Word
Communion
Jude 24
Benediction/Blessing
Music: U2: Where the Streets Have No Name
Afterward we had the Emmaus Road Coffee House (David Gray "The White Ladder" was playing). It's a time for people to gather and just be together since there's not enough of that in our world today. We drank freshly ground coffee out of real ceramic mugs (no styrofoam please), ate homemade desserts, chatted, and played games together.
The amazing thing about it is that I was expecting 20 people, hoping for 30, and 41 showed up. What I've been hearing since then is that God really used it to speak to a lot of people. I have no idea what the future holds for Emmaus Road, whether it will grow and who it will reach, but obviously it's in God's hands as we faithfully reflect His love to those around us.
Throughout the winter and spring, the vision team continued to meet, although somewhat sporadically. We mainly attempted to get on sort of the same page in our understanding of what's going on in our culutre and how we might be Jesus to it.
On June 12th, I had an informational meeting at which I laid out the entire vision for Emmaus Road. We even set up the Upper Room (our meeting place) in the way that we envision it looking for the worship gatherings. During that time, fourteen people spent time listening and offering ideas.
Fast forward to July 9th. The first worship gathering consisted of a basic word and table service, with as much of a participatory element to it as we could reasonably provide without lapsing into gimmick. Here's what it looked like (on paper anyway):
Prior to the gathering, we had a "Prayer Room" set up with dimmed lights, couches, and some artwork by a contemporary Christian artist (http://no1underground.com/). We also had a "Community Journal" set up in a corner of the room where people could write prayers to God, encourage one another, or just express their thoughts.
6:45 contemplative music "Chant"; Powerpoint slide show "the journey" images of streets and paths
7:05 All Creatures of Our God and King
Welcome--Pass the Peace of Christ to each other
Reading of Psalm 23 as Communion elements are brought to the table
Collect for Purity
How Great Is Our God
Gospel Reading (Luke 24:13-34)
Word Spoken
Response to Word
Communion
Jude 24
Benediction/Blessing
Music: U2: Where the Streets Have No Name
Afterward we had the Emmaus Road Coffee House (David Gray "The White Ladder" was playing). It's a time for people to gather and just be together since there's not enough of that in our world today. We drank freshly ground coffee out of real ceramic mugs (no styrofoam please), ate homemade desserts, chatted, and played games together.
The amazing thing about it is that I was expecting 20 people, hoping for 30, and 41 showed up. What I've been hearing since then is that God really used it to speak to a lot of people. I have no idea what the future holds for Emmaus Road, whether it will grow and who it will reach, but obviously it's in God's hands as we faithfully reflect His love to those around us.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Two Heresies . . . and Some More Thoughts on Emmaus Road
I came across this statement the other day in F.W. Boreham's "A Casket of Cameos", (Epworth Press London, 1926).
"In the development of Church history there have been scores of heresy hunts; but there have only been two heresies. Adam started the first, and Cain inaugurated the second. The first was the heresy of Thereness: the second was the heresy of Hereness. Adam believed that God was there, but not here. So he hid. Cain believed that God was here, but not there; so he went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod."
That's something to think on.
On a different chord . . . As I'm beginning to draw together the early elements of Emmaus Road, I've decided to form a "Vision Team" (for lack of a better term at the present). I've invited six people, plus Barb and me, to be a part of a conversation about what the incarnation of Emmaus Road here in Lafayette. I've felt it was important to keep the group small in order to aid us in remaining focused. I've also tried to choose a good representative of male and female, mature and young, long-time and new Christians, those with theological backgrounds and those without.
My hope is that early on this group will begin to catch a vision of the need for something like Emmaus Road and also for what God can do here in Lafayette through an incarnation like Emmaus Road. After that initial vision takes hold, then my hope is that this group will begin to imagine and cast a more well-orbed vision of what it will look like. As we begin to solidfy some concepts in our minds, then we will begin to share it with others who express an interest in or desire for something like this who would like to spend themselves on fufilling God's calling for Emmaus Road.
Well, I'm going on a pastoral staff retreat the next couple of days and will be away from a computer, so this blog won't probably be updated until next Monday. I'm looking forward to some time to be refreshed physically and spiritually, and to reflect on all that has happened since we've moved here to Lafayette.
Dona nobis pacem,
Andy
"In the development of Church history there have been scores of heresy hunts; but there have only been two heresies. Adam started the first, and Cain inaugurated the second. The first was the heresy of Thereness: the second was the heresy of Hereness. Adam believed that God was there, but not here. So he hid. Cain believed that God was here, but not there; so he went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod."
That's something to think on.
On a different chord . . . As I'm beginning to draw together the early elements of Emmaus Road, I've decided to form a "Vision Team" (for lack of a better term at the present). I've invited six people, plus Barb and me, to be a part of a conversation about what the incarnation of Emmaus Road here in Lafayette. I've felt it was important to keep the group small in order to aid us in remaining focused. I've also tried to choose a good representative of male and female, mature and young, long-time and new Christians, those with theological backgrounds and those without.
My hope is that early on this group will begin to catch a vision of the need for something like Emmaus Road and also for what God can do here in Lafayette through an incarnation like Emmaus Road. After that initial vision takes hold, then my hope is that this group will begin to imagine and cast a more well-orbed vision of what it will look like. As we begin to solidfy some concepts in our minds, then we will begin to share it with others who express an interest in or desire for something like this who would like to spend themselves on fufilling God's calling for Emmaus Road.
Well, I'm going on a pastoral staff retreat the next couple of days and will be away from a computer, so this blog won't probably be updated until next Monday. I'm looking forward to some time to be refreshed physically and spiritually, and to reflect on all that has happened since we've moved here to Lafayette.
Dona nobis pacem,
Andy
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Reflections on Nascency
Over the weekend, I did a lot of thinking about the nascency, or birthing, of Emmaus Road. In all honesty, it's a bit intimidating thinking about beginning this "new" thing. It's intimidating because I feel like it's resting on my shoulders to a certain extent. Now obviously, God is the One who grows His Church, but being one of His agents in a task whose path is unclear and whose outcome is certainly even more unclear, can fill one with a bit of trepidation.
Because, by its nature, postmodernism doesn't lean toward pragmatism, there aren't a whole lot of books out there that give step-by-step details about how to start an "emergent" church or worship service (not that I would want to create a copy of some church in southern California or something, that's been done enough by the church growth movement). In fact the more I think about it, the whole idea of being a culturally relevant "church" never really has had a proven plan book (other than the Bible). When one does a cursory look at Christian history, it's obvious that those who led new liturgical, ecclisiological, and even theological movements didn't really have a pattern to follow. Certainly their movements didn't spring up in a vacuum, but they were often the ones to provide the synthesis from the polyphony of ideas ringing in their recent histories and cultures.
I don't see myself as one of them, writ on some grand scale. Still somehow, venturing out into new territory, be it merely a heretofore unvisited spot in one's own backyard, can lead to some uncertain experiences. By that I mean that although what we're attempting is taking place here in little ol' Lafayette, Indiana at a little ol' church of 240, it's still a little scary. In fact, although Barb and I have been a part of something like this before, each instance of the Church incarnating Christ in a particular area means that it must needs be particlar to that area.
The question is always both new and old at the same time: What does it mean to faithfully be the Church, the Spirit infused body of Christ, in any given, particular area? For that matter, what did it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah in His given, particular time (aka: the Scandal of Particularity)? The wisdom of God meant that came as one who was first of all human, so He could relate to and, more importantly, redeem human kind. It also meant that He came as a 1st century, Aramaic speaking Jewish carpenter and not a 21st century mega-church pastor. It simply wouldn't work.
So, then, to be the Church faithfully, we must do so in a way that incarnates Christ in an particular location in a manner consistent with the character of that particular area. To wit, what does it mean for Emmaus Road to be the Church in the particular setting of Lafayette, Indiana?
Because, by its nature, postmodernism doesn't lean toward pragmatism, there aren't a whole lot of books out there that give step-by-step details about how to start an "emergent" church or worship service (not that I would want to create a copy of some church in southern California or something, that's been done enough by the church growth movement). In fact the more I think about it, the whole idea of being a culturally relevant "church" never really has had a proven plan book (other than the Bible). When one does a cursory look at Christian history, it's obvious that those who led new liturgical, ecclisiological, and even theological movements didn't really have a pattern to follow. Certainly their movements didn't spring up in a vacuum, but they were often the ones to provide the synthesis from the polyphony of ideas ringing in their recent histories and cultures.
I don't see myself as one of them, writ on some grand scale. Still somehow, venturing out into new territory, be it merely a heretofore unvisited spot in one's own backyard, can lead to some uncertain experiences. By that I mean that although what we're attempting is taking place here in little ol' Lafayette, Indiana at a little ol' church of 240, it's still a little scary. In fact, although Barb and I have been a part of something like this before, each instance of the Church incarnating Christ in a particular area means that it must needs be particlar to that area.
The question is always both new and old at the same time: What does it mean to faithfully be the Church, the Spirit infused body of Christ, in any given, particular area? For that matter, what did it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah in His given, particular time (aka: the Scandal of Particularity)? The wisdom of God meant that came as one who was first of all human, so He could relate to and, more importantly, redeem human kind. It also meant that He came as a 1st century, Aramaic speaking Jewish carpenter and not a 21st century mega-church pastor. It simply wouldn't work.
So, then, to be the Church faithfully, we must do so in a way that incarnates Christ in an particular location in a manner consistent with the character of that particular area. To wit, what does it mean for Emmaus Road to be the Church in the particular setting of Lafayette, Indiana?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
What Is Emmaus Road?
So what is Emmaus Road?
Let's start with the Biblical text from which the name is derived:
Luke 24:13-34 (New Living Translation)
The Walk to Emmaus
13That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him.
17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?"
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
19"What things?" Jesus asked.
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. 22Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."
25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?" 27Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.
28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. 31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" 33And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus were gathered. When they arrived, they were greeted with the report, 34"The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!"
I love this story. When Barb first suggested it as a name for this new worshiping community, I immediately liked it. There are several reason, a few of which I'll try to include here:
To begin, there is the metaphor of the "road." All of us, since the moment that God spoke creation into existence, are on a journey. We were created to walk toward God, to walk with Him, to journey through eternity with Him hand-in-hand, and heart-in-heart. That is made possible through the work of the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit. However, the fact that we were created to walk with God, that within us is a "God-shaped hole," often results in the reckless pursuit of anything and everything else to fill the void. The postmodern is desperately seeking spirituality in an attempt to connect with the numinous. There is a hunger and a thirst for the Holy that only God can satiate. How else does one explain the rise in interest in all sorts of religions and quasi-religions? People cannot deny the need within them to connect with something larger than and beyond themselves.
Not only this, but the fact that the journey metaphor is relevant is as obvious as the television programs so popular in our culture. On any given day, myriad adventures and journeys are played out for our vicarious enjoyment. Some people even go beyond vicarious adventures to actually participating in them. Things like extreme sports and adventures taking them to mountain tops, ocean depths, and even to the edge of death itself. Why? Because we're all on a journey seeking to find the pith of life, the very marrow that give us our life's blood. We're seeking to squeeze every last dropth of breath out of this short vapor of life.
The metaphor of the journey also applies to our lives as Christians, as Christ-followers. Rather than simply being a series of isolated and compartmentalized decisions, the Christian life is something that is lived out in myriad, infinite, moment-by-moment decisions. We simply don't make one decision for God this year, and one next year, and so on. Rather we are in a constant state of affirming and reaffirming our allegiance to Him in everything we do. There is no room for a static Christian faith. Instead following God is a dynamic, ever-changing, experience that results from the constant interplay between God's Spirit and ours. And so it is a journey.
Even more powerful and more poignant than the metaphor of "road" itself is the metaphor of "epiphany"--the realization that on this journey we are not alone. As the two disciples walked along the road to Emmaus, another man came along side them and joined them on their journey. It reminds me of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in the Old Testament. As they were in the fiery furnace, a fourth man appeared with them who looked like a "divine being" (Daniel 3:25). We know in this story that the man with the disciples on the road was Jesus. This metaphor of "epiphany," this revelatory manifestation of a divine being, is a perfect metaphor to communicate the hope of the gospel to our postmodern world--Emmauel, God is with us.
What we so often fail to realize is that all along this journey of life God is right there with us--seeking, calling, guiding us toward Him. But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. Our focus is on religion itself, or on certain practices or methods, so much so that we don't recognize the real, living, breathing person of Christ walking right beside us. Or perhaps we're simply not seeking Him. Or perhaps He's keeping the blinders on our eyes until just the right moment in time to reveal himself. Whatever the case, the powerful image of epiphany speaks to postmoderns the message that wherever they are on the journey, Christ is there walking right beside them. He's been there all along. They are not alone.
Another element I like about this story is the confession of the disciples, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road?" (Luke 24:32). (This of course brings to mind John Wesley's famous "Aldersgate Experience.") I like the force of the KJV here, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?" and The Message, "Didn't we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road?" When people encounter the living, resurrected Christ, a flame is kindled within them for God. A passion, a fire, grows up inside as they discover the hope that on Christ can offer them.
Finally, having witnessed an epiphany of Christ, and having had their hearts strangely warmed, they turned around on the road and rushed back to Jerusalem where, "just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. He said, 'Peace be with you.'" (24:36). When people encounter the living God and their hearts burn within for Him, they will tell others. And when they do, Jesus will appear among them.
If ever the world needed a hope like that, it is now.
That is my hope for Emmaus Road.
Let's start with the Biblical text from which the name is derived:
Luke 24:13-34 (New Living Translation)
The Walk to Emmaus
13That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him.
17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?"
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
19"What things?" Jesus asked.
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. 22Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."
25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?" 27Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.
28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. 31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" 33And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus were gathered. When they arrived, they were greeted with the report, 34"The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!"
I love this story. When Barb first suggested it as a name for this new worshiping community, I immediately liked it. There are several reason, a few of which I'll try to include here:
To begin, there is the metaphor of the "road." All of us, since the moment that God spoke creation into existence, are on a journey. We were created to walk toward God, to walk with Him, to journey through eternity with Him hand-in-hand, and heart-in-heart. That is made possible through the work of the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit. However, the fact that we were created to walk with God, that within us is a "God-shaped hole," often results in the reckless pursuit of anything and everything else to fill the void. The postmodern is desperately seeking spirituality in an attempt to connect with the numinous. There is a hunger and a thirst for the Holy that only God can satiate. How else does one explain the rise in interest in all sorts of religions and quasi-religions? People cannot deny the need within them to connect with something larger than and beyond themselves.
Not only this, but the fact that the journey metaphor is relevant is as obvious as the television programs so popular in our culture. On any given day, myriad adventures and journeys are played out for our vicarious enjoyment. Some people even go beyond vicarious adventures to actually participating in them. Things like extreme sports and adventures taking them to mountain tops, ocean depths, and even to the edge of death itself. Why? Because we're all on a journey seeking to find the pith of life, the very marrow that give us our life's blood. We're seeking to squeeze every last dropth of breath out of this short vapor of life.
The metaphor of the journey also applies to our lives as Christians, as Christ-followers. Rather than simply being a series of isolated and compartmentalized decisions, the Christian life is something that is lived out in myriad, infinite, moment-by-moment decisions. We simply don't make one decision for God this year, and one next year, and so on. Rather we are in a constant state of affirming and reaffirming our allegiance to Him in everything we do. There is no room for a static Christian faith. Instead following God is a dynamic, ever-changing, experience that results from the constant interplay between God's Spirit and ours. And so it is a journey.
Even more powerful and more poignant than the metaphor of "road" itself is the metaphor of "epiphany"--the realization that on this journey we are not alone. As the two disciples walked along the road to Emmaus, another man came along side them and joined them on their journey. It reminds me of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in the Old Testament. As they were in the fiery furnace, a fourth man appeared with them who looked like a "divine being" (Daniel 3:25). We know in this story that the man with the disciples on the road was Jesus. This metaphor of "epiphany," this revelatory manifestation of a divine being, is a perfect metaphor to communicate the hope of the gospel to our postmodern world--Emmauel, God is with us.
What we so often fail to realize is that all along this journey of life God is right there with us--seeking, calling, guiding us toward Him. But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. Our focus is on religion itself, or on certain practices or methods, so much so that we don't recognize the real, living, breathing person of Christ walking right beside us. Or perhaps we're simply not seeking Him. Or perhaps He's keeping the blinders on our eyes until just the right moment in time to reveal himself. Whatever the case, the powerful image of epiphany speaks to postmoderns the message that wherever they are on the journey, Christ is there walking right beside them. He's been there all along. They are not alone.
Another element I like about this story is the confession of the disciples, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road?" (Luke 24:32). (This of course brings to mind John Wesley's famous "Aldersgate Experience.") I like the force of the KJV here, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?" and The Message, "Didn't we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road?" When people encounter the living, resurrected Christ, a flame is kindled within them for God. A passion, a fire, grows up inside as they discover the hope that on Christ can offer them.
Finally, having witnessed an epiphany of Christ, and having had their hearts strangely warmed, they turned around on the road and rushed back to Jerusalem where, "just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. He said, 'Peace be with you.'" (24:36). When people encounter the living God and their hearts burn within for Him, they will tell others. And when they do, Jesus will appear among them.
If ever the world needed a hope like that, it is now.
That is my hope for Emmaus Road.
Monday, October 24, 2005
The Vision . . .
My desire for this blog is that it will chronicle my pastoral journey as well as be a place to both share with and receive from others in that journey.
It begins with a vision that I believe God placed in my life as far back as my college days. I remember distinctly feeling that God was going to do something special with my generation, that things which had been status quo would be challenged and transformed.
Myself along with many of my friends from largley evangelical, more specifically Wesleyan-Holiness backgrounds, had long desired something deeper in our spirituality than what we discovered on a weekly basis in the seeker-sensitive style churches we attended. Thus we experimented with house churches in our dorms, we attended churches characterized as having high liturgy, we explored philosophy and theology to fill the void, and sadly, some of us stopped attending church altogether.
My journey took me to a Nazarene seminary in Kansas City. There I grew more convinced of the importance of the symbols and liturgical elements of the Christian tradition and their ability to give us handles, guideposts, in our relationship with God. However, looking back I believe I threw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. I couldn't see that perhaps there might be some elements and forms of contemporary worship that held significant value. In spite of my increasing knowledge of and love for God and the Church, my life was a desert. (That's not to say there weren't oases, and large ones at that--just that my life was characterized by a general spiritual drynness.) That is, until my wife and I moved to Manchester, England.
In England, Barb and I came in contact with some of the leaders of the Alpha Course created by Nicky Gumble et al, from Holy Trinity Brompton in London. Through them, and through a professor at the university I was attending at the time, we began to realize that there was a distinct lack of appreciation or appropriate emphasis on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. My evaluation, rightly or wrongly, of my denominational tradition was that it had become so focused on the conversion experience, that it had failed to recognized the importance of the Third Person of the Trinity--the Spirit of Christ. This had led to a church that was largely devoid of openness to the breath of the life-giving Spirit. Myself and many of my peers were suffering from an anemic life of the Spirit. What my professor and Anglican friends taught Barb and I was that the Spirit of God must be present in our lives and our churches in order for them to be vibrant and whole.
Looking back, I can see now that part of what my friends and I were experiencing in college was what is now called "postmodernism"--a disillusionment with the prepackaged and santized version of the Church and reality given to us by those who worshipped too long at the idols of rationalism, reason, and pragmatism. Gutted of any sense of the reality of the "otherness" of God, of the spiritual coexisting with the physical, of the magnum mysterium, we had reached a point of spiritual dehydration. What we needed was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Of course the Spirit bloweth where He listeth. We moved back to Kansas City after a year in England and rejoined the church we had left. Only this time, we attempted to be more open to the movements and voice of the Holy Spirit. What I discovered was that when we give up our preconceptions of how God works, He can do great things. That's not to say that the journey and search at Kansas City Trinity Church of the Nazarene were all without bumps in the road, but that it was, in my estimation, an honest and genuine search for the life of the Trinity to take root in our lives.
Three years later and here I am in Lafayette, Indiana. Before we even came here, Barb and I felt like God had given us a vision and wanted to use us to reach this post-modern world. We considered planting an emergent-style church in an urban area, but nothing seemed to open up. Then we came to the First Church of the Nazarene here and really sensed that God wanted us here. Not because we're anything great, but perhaps because we're open to Him and what He might want to do here.
Just last week, a vision began to resurface in our minds in relation to this local body of Christ. A vision for a new kind of community. Not one that guts another church and takes all of it's members away (like the consumer-driven Church Growth movement has tended to do, knowingly or not), but one which sprouts up within an existing congregation and becomes yet another form of expression of the life of the Spirit of Christ among us.
That vision is Emmaus Road.
It begins with a vision that I believe God placed in my life as far back as my college days. I remember distinctly feeling that God was going to do something special with my generation, that things which had been status quo would be challenged and transformed.
Myself along with many of my friends from largley evangelical, more specifically Wesleyan-Holiness backgrounds, had long desired something deeper in our spirituality than what we discovered on a weekly basis in the seeker-sensitive style churches we attended. Thus we experimented with house churches in our dorms, we attended churches characterized as having high liturgy, we explored philosophy and theology to fill the void, and sadly, some of us stopped attending church altogether.
My journey took me to a Nazarene seminary in Kansas City. There I grew more convinced of the importance of the symbols and liturgical elements of the Christian tradition and their ability to give us handles, guideposts, in our relationship with God. However, looking back I believe I threw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. I couldn't see that perhaps there might be some elements and forms of contemporary worship that held significant value. In spite of my increasing knowledge of and love for God and the Church, my life was a desert. (That's not to say there weren't oases, and large ones at that--just that my life was characterized by a general spiritual drynness.) That is, until my wife and I moved to Manchester, England.
In England, Barb and I came in contact with some of the leaders of the Alpha Course created by Nicky Gumble et al, from Holy Trinity Brompton in London. Through them, and through a professor at the university I was attending at the time, we began to realize that there was a distinct lack of appreciation or appropriate emphasis on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. My evaluation, rightly or wrongly, of my denominational tradition was that it had become so focused on the conversion experience, that it had failed to recognized the importance of the Third Person of the Trinity--the Spirit of Christ. This had led to a church that was largely devoid of openness to the breath of the life-giving Spirit. Myself and many of my peers were suffering from an anemic life of the Spirit. What my professor and Anglican friends taught Barb and I was that the Spirit of God must be present in our lives and our churches in order for them to be vibrant and whole.
Looking back, I can see now that part of what my friends and I were experiencing in college was what is now called "postmodernism"--a disillusionment with the prepackaged and santized version of the Church and reality given to us by those who worshipped too long at the idols of rationalism, reason, and pragmatism. Gutted of any sense of the reality of the "otherness" of God, of the spiritual coexisting with the physical, of the magnum mysterium, we had reached a point of spiritual dehydration. What we needed was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Of course the Spirit bloweth where He listeth. We moved back to Kansas City after a year in England and rejoined the church we had left. Only this time, we attempted to be more open to the movements and voice of the Holy Spirit. What I discovered was that when we give up our preconceptions of how God works, He can do great things. That's not to say that the journey and search at Kansas City Trinity Church of the Nazarene were all without bumps in the road, but that it was, in my estimation, an honest and genuine search for the life of the Trinity to take root in our lives.
Three years later and here I am in Lafayette, Indiana. Before we even came here, Barb and I felt like God had given us a vision and wanted to use us to reach this post-modern world. We considered planting an emergent-style church in an urban area, but nothing seemed to open up. Then we came to the First Church of the Nazarene here and really sensed that God wanted us here. Not because we're anything great, but perhaps because we're open to Him and what He might want to do here.
Just last week, a vision began to resurface in our minds in relation to this local body of Christ. A vision for a new kind of community. Not one that guts another church and takes all of it's members away (like the consumer-driven Church Growth movement has tended to do, knowingly or not), but one which sprouts up within an existing congregation and becomes yet another form of expression of the life of the Spirit of Christ among us.
That vision is Emmaus Road.
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