which Jesus are we talking about?

Recently, I've been reading Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch's book, REJESUS: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church and some of what they write I've heard before in their talks but I love the following quote on 111: "we need to go back to the daring, radical, strange, wonderful, inexplicable, unstoppable, marvelous, unsettling, disturbing, caring, God-Man."

This morning I was speaking on a story that Jesus tells (Matthew 21.28-32) and Jesus tells it in the midst of a crazy series of events...Jesus enters Jerusalem and the people hail him as King, they are excited and the people are asking, 'Who is this?'

Jesus answers their question in an intriguing way…by entering the temple and driving out the money changers and sellers of high priced animals for sacrifice. Next, he heals the blind and lame in the temple courts. He leaves the city and the next morning, he curses a fig tree and it withers. It is plain to the reader or hearer through these experiences that Jesus is demonstrating who his power comes from…his Father in heaven. Later in the day, he enters the temple courts again and teaches the people. The chief priests and elders challenge his authority. They doubt who he serves and how he serves.

In response to their questions about his authority, he says this, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven (God), or of human origins?”

They don’t know how to answer his question honestly and answer “We don’t know.”

So it is after Jesus stumps the leaders about the origin of John the Baptist’s authority that he tells this story about two sons.

This is one baffling Jesus. I wonder if this is the Jesus we have become familiar with.

not sleeping in the closet

I need to preface this story by saying I should be finishing my sermon for tomorrow morning. I have a few tweaks to make to it but one of my take away points is that children (and others we overlook) are not a burden to our lives. And so my son helped me take to heart this point tonight as I was putting him to bed.

Our oldest son Brighton talks a long time to go to bed...I mean a long time. Every night is another adventure and I'm sure Super Nanny could break him of his tireless habits but we have not been able to.

As it was, I tucked him into bed after he took every last second to go to the bathroom and get a sip of water, then I told him a story.

After this it was back and forth a number of times until I gave him an ultimatum.

I told Brighton, who was sleeping with a stuffed Shamu for comfort, one final time, "If you get out of bed one more time, Shamu is mine and he is going to sleep in the closet."

Brighton replied, "Daddy, you don't sleep in the closet."

Trying not to laugh, I walked out of the room and started writing again.

love you good or bad

The post below is from my wife Amy. Since this blog is dedicated to encountering God in the everyday reality of life and we frequently talk about what God is teaching us through parenting, she will be a regular guest writer on my blog.

A good friend of mine told me about a grocery shopping trip with her little girl, Janie. It was truly a revolutionary story for me, one that changed my whole parenting tone and communication strategy with my kids. Sweet Janie is one of my favorite kids – she was born over a year before our oldest, so she was one of the first babies with whom I had ‘hands on’ time. She also has a very strong and determined personality – so one day when she was in Trader Joe’s with her mama and didn’t get her way, started to throw an EPIC fit. And kept throwing the fit, while my friend (who had her other two kids with them as well) walked up to the front to pay for her groceries firmly holding Janie’s hand. Janie kept trying to throw herself on the ground, wailing and screaming for the entire store to hear. If you are a parent, you’ve probably had those moments before too. If you are not a parent, you’ve probably judged parents having those moments – at least, I know I did before it was my turn.

At the front of the store, my friend got more looks and glares from fellow shoppers and felt herself very, very near the end of the rope. Seriously, what we do in these small moments as parents is so defining! And it’s not always pretty, but what my friend did is one of the reasons I will always look up to her as a mom full of grace. She picked Janie up, hugged her as close as she could, and began to whisper to her, ‘Mama loves you when you’re good and Mama loves you when you’re bad. Mama loves you when you’re good and Mama loves you when you’re bad.’ Over and over, just like that. Janie went limp in her mama’s arms for a minute or two while they paid, silent, contemplating. When they got outside she was back to herself – she cheerfully apologized to her mom and they went home without any more drama.

It’s been months since my friend told me this story and it comes into my head at least once a day. I’ve started saying these words to Brighton when I am feeling frustrated with his behavior – Mama loves you when you’re good and Mama loves you when you’re bad. Some of his behavior is simply not what I would choose (asking me to buy him something over and over after I’ve said ‘no’ ) and some is truly bad (knocking his baby brother’s head into the wall). But either way I repeat these words to him, hoping that he’ll know this unconditional love before he knows my frustration.

And then there are the moments when I have my own temper tantrums – usually over something small, but always something that made me feel small and insignificant. In those moments I have begun to hear God whispering to me that he loves me when I’m good and loves me when I’m bad. I’ve had some of my lowest lows since becoming a parent. The struggle with post partum depression and balancing the needs of small people with my own needs has found me wanting over and over – and at times things have been very out of balance. And in spite of myself, actually even because of myself, God reminds me of his love.

So the story comes full circle. This morning my younger son, Everett, was overly hungry for breakfast and was throwing all of his brother’s toys around, and generally making himself a nuisance. Brighton’s response? He looked his brother in the eye and said, ‘Everett I love you when you’re good and I love you when you’re bad. Let’s get you some breakfast.’ Amen.

seeing God's Kingdom

Jesus spoke and taught a great deal about God's Kingdom. In fact, I would argue that this is what Jesus cared about more than anything else. He described God's Kingdom through story and metaphor and it seems like his followers had a difficult time grasping what it was and how this related to the religious institutions and factions in the first century. I'm not so certain we understand any better than they did what God's Kingdom exactly is and I'm not so sure this was Jesus' point.

I had an incredible opportunity last week to experience something of God's Kingdom; it was not something I exepected. I was invited by a friend to participate in a Leadership Development Program through the Center for Creative Leadership. It was held here at the San Diego office of CCL and people from all over the country joined me in my home town to participate. So 13 strangers from all different walks of life and work engaged in a week long experiment with 2 faculty members.

Before I entered the experience, I had heard from my friend that it would be an incredible experience and I had heard from another former participant to hold my breathe as I received feedback from my boss, co-workers, reports and people from our community of faith. So, I went in open handedly with little expectation of what would transpire. Would this be the best week and exerience of my life? Would it be difficult for me to hear constructive criticism of how people perceive me?

What I encountered in this course were people, as well as myself, who discovered that developing as a leader is not by simply making a few little tweaks but by looking deep at the core of who we are. By looking at the core of who we are, I think I witnessed God's Kingdom breaking into our lives and world whether we recognize it or not. I would love to share the stories of others but I don't yet have permission to do that. Let me share a few pieces of my story.

By looking at the core of who I am, I was reminded that God has created me uniquely and creatively. I am formed in his image and being conformed to his likeness. I realized that I am often living up to other people's expectations of an ET (Extroverted-Thinker) world but I am an NF (Intuitive Feeler). I encountered the question, how do I live with an open heart? Daily, I have opportunities to engage all sorts of people, become more aware of my surroundings, suspend judgement, ask open questions and offer who I am to others from the core of who I am. This, I see as God's Kingdom breaking into my life and world.

On Saturday, I officiated a wedding at Sunset Cliffs (what an incredible scene to get married). As I began leading the wedding ceremony, I realized that what I had written to share with the couple was not enough. It was a script I wrote and adapted for them in advance but these words were actually not what my heart would say to them. So, I threw out the script and spoke from my heart. I shared with them what my gut was saying (and I don't think it was indigestion).

While I don't think I need to speak off the cuff to live with an open heart, I feel that in this situation, on the cliffs, with this couple and their family and friends gathered around, they needed to hear from my heart. I actually had a difficult time holding it together as I looked into the eyes of the bride and groom and saw the tears of joy welling up in their corners.

God's Kingdom had broken into my life and onto the scene of this wedding. They knew God was there and I saw him at work. We experienced God's Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Where have you seen God's Kingdom breaking into your life?

engaging the world we live in

Yesterday, I caught up with a friend from Seminary named Shane Hipps who has published a few books both focusing on how media influence and affect our lives and perspectives of lives.

I admit that I haven't read either of his books yet but would love a free moment to do so at some point in the near future. What I find engaging in my conversations with Shane is that he has a remarkable way to engage personally and think deeply. It is always refreshing to engage with him and I remember this back to conversations in seminary. There are just some people that give and bring life to my life and Shane is one of them. Although I haven't read his books, I imagine they are deeply personal and get underneath our assumptions about life and faith. Hope to read one or both in the coming months.

already pondering Christmas

For whatever reason, I don't like Christmas.

I think it has something to do with the over commercialism of Christmas and the reality that I feel like I have to buy things from shopping malls. In the past, I would have pushed back my emotions, stuck my head in the sand and kept going on with the season at full pace but this year is different...I am already preparing myself for something different. I want to fully engage Advent Conspiracy as our community of faith engages it. I have desires to worship God more fully, spend less on things that will eventually be garbage, give more money away to people who need it and love all by contributing to God's work. I want to be creative with the gifts that I give. I want to spend more time with family. I want to make memories. This is my wish list for Christmas.

As I was reading today about Jesus' birth, I encountered some great quotes by Frederick Buechner in The Faces of Jesus that give me hope around the season of Advent and Christmas:

“At Christmas time it is hard even for the unbeliever not to believe in something, if not in everything. Peace on earth, good will to men; a dream of innocence that is good to hold onto even if it is only a dream; the mystery of being a child; the possibility of hope—not even the canned carols piped out over the shopping center parking plaza from Thanksgiving on can drown it out entirely.” (14-15)

“…when the child was born the whole course of human history was changed. That is a truth as unassailable as any truth. Art, music, literature, Western culture itself with all its institutions and Western man’s whole understanding of himself and his world—it is impossible to conceive how differently things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did. And there is a truth beyond that: For millions of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it." (17)

“For better or worse, it is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold numbers of ways, have been so grasped by the child who was born, so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived, that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him. And they have gone on proclaiming as the writers of the Gospels proclaimed before them, that through the birth of Jesus a life-giving power was released into the world which to their minds could have been no less than the power of God himself.” (17)

“Like any baby, Jesus as a baby does not judge or exhort or puzzle the world with his teaching. He makes no demands, threatens no punishment, offers no rewards. The world is free to take him or leave him. He does not rule the world from his mother’s lap but, like any child, is himself at the mercy of the world.” (20)

“In trying to say too much, piety always runs the risk of saying too little or saying it wrong, and the great pitfall of Christian art, especially when it tries to portray the birth of Christ, is sentimentalism. The stable becomes a painted backdrop, the floor a carpeted stage, the manger a prop lined with artificial straw. Neither the holiness nor the humanness of the moment is rendered so much as the schmaltz, and the Incarnation becomes merely a Christmas card with all the scandal taken out of it instead of what St. Paul called “a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles,” instead of the proclamation that the Creator of the end of the earth came among us in diapers.” (20-21)

“As long as he stays the babe in the manger, he asks us nothing harder than to love him and accept his love, and the temptation is thus to keep him a babe forever, for our sakes and for his sake too." (23)

If you are like me and don't like Christmas, I hope these reflections by Buechner might lead you to rethink and reenact Christmas differently this year.

Tom Wright with Stephen Colbert

Got to love this clip of two greats.

the myth of a Christian nation

Last year, I bought a book The Myth of A Christian Nation by Greg Boyd and I brought it on a trip to Londrina, Brazil to visit a mission partner. I love Greg and I was planning on reading it while there. The book is based on a six-week sermon series titled "Cross and the Sword" he did with his church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 1000 people left his church as a result of the viewpoint of this sermon series. He explains in his notes to his book that approximately 700 hundred people left during the sermon series and another 300 left in the fall of 2004 near that time of the election. Boyd is an incredibly gifted speaker and a gutsy (or stupid depending on how you see the situation) pastor.

While in Londrina, Brazil, I found myself in the midst of a conversation with the president of South American Theological Seminary and I discovered that he would enjoy reading this book and would have difficulty finding it, so I gave it to him.

I bought another copy later that year and I just picked it up as I think about our upcoming election. I may write a bit about in the coming weeks...I have only just begun but I thought you might like to wrestle with your view of the church and politics. If you want to see how you approach the interaction of the church with politics, take this quiz. You might just be surprised.

the missional question

Question: How does a person live missionally?

Here is a practical look at this question that was in the Neue Weekly e-newsletter today. After reading it, what do you think:

By Ashley Wolpert

In a culture that feeds off a vast array of social justice causes, it seems that the term missional living is being bandied about increasingly in our churches. But what does this really look like? Recently Dr. Ed Stetzer, co-author of Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living, spoke with Neue about what exactly “missional living” means, how church leaders can encourage their community live missionally and what some major barriers are. Philip Nation, Stetzer’s co-author, follows with a list of practical tips to help communities engage in missional living.

How would you define “missional living”?
Missional living is essentially living with our primary perspective as that of an ambassador for the Kingdom of God. It means making our lives not about us, but about Jesus and His Kingdom.
In an alliterated sense, missional living is an incarnational (being the presence of Christ in community), indigenous (of the people and culture) and intentional (planning our lives around God’s agenda) focus on the power of the Gospel to bring the reign of God into people’s lives.

When did you first arrive at this idea of “missional living?”
I think I first read missional ideas in The Missional Church (1998), edited (primarily) by Darrell Guder. I believe the subtitle of the first chapter is a great summation for the entire work: “From Sending to Being Sent.” After that, I was most impacted by Francis Dubose’s God Who Sends, which I read during my Ph.D. in Missiology.
Through their writings, and those of many others, the late 21st-century Church was again reflecting a local missiology for churches that moved from “pay for others to go” to “pay the price for me to go.”
Working through these ideas for nearly a decade as a church leader and missiologist, I arrived at the conclusion that the vast majority of missional literature and conferences were solely for the benefit of church leaders. So, I asked Philip to co-write with me to address that. Compelled by Love is a remedy for the average believer who is looking for a theological and practical bridge to move their lives in a missional direction.

What would you say is the greatest example of “missional living” in the Bible?
Without hesitation—it is Jesus Christ. He is sent by the Father. He is the incarnation of God. He sets aside His privileges (and rights) to live in our neighborhood. He communicates the Gospel in a way that is understandable to us. And, He is supremely sacrificial in the manner of His life and death.
Choosing one such example from mortal humanity is tough. However, for today, I’ll choose Moses. Without his knowledge, God was preparing him to participate in God’s work of deliverance. After he had failed miserably because of his sin, God still chose to use him—an imperfect vessel for God’s great work. In his old age, Moses served as God’s emissary to declare the glory of the one true God, awaken hope in the people of God and shake a society.

How can church leaders encourage their community to live missionally?
Missional living must be motivated with the truth and from the heart. Without the truth of Scripture and the Gospel, there is no reason to live any particular way. Since God has revealed the truth of His character and will, we should teach it to the Body of Christ as what we should do. Church leaders leading people boldly to understand God and His Kingdom should influence our manner of living.
We are blessed that God also desires for the truth to affect us. So through such heart motivations as love, hope, urgency and compassion, believers can be shown how missional living must be a compelled portion of life. Obviously, that was the point of Compelled by Love, as we used 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 as the central theme of the book. Because they are learning the greatness of God and His truth, believers must exhibit a deep desire to share such with the world.

What keeps people from missional living? Would you say there are any unique barriers for twenty- and thirtysomethings?
Believers do not live missionally for two primary reasons: a) because they believe someone else is doing it; or worse, b) they are selfish.
Too many Christians assume or deceive themselves into believing that someone else has explained the Gospel to our neighbors, co-workers and friends. Beyond that, believers choose their traditions over the mission. Entire congregations have decided that “the way we do things” is superior to the mission to go, be and tell the Gospel in understandable ways to the culture surrounding them.
The unique barriers for twenty- and thirtysomethings are also twofold. First, many are trying to await the renewal of the Church. Their hope is to show up one Sunday and it will suddenly be different—more missional, more externally focused, more compassionate. The problem: It won’t, unless they are willing to lead the way by serving in the church to which they are committed.
The second barrier is that the culture they face is farther from the Gospel than any other in American history. The young adults and families today have grown up without a mooring to biblical truth, and young Christians now have to begin at the beginning. They were raised to present five-point Gospel outlines, and it is not working very often. Instead, they must describe God in Genesis 1 and then Colossians 1. They will need to share about the freedom God offers first from Ecclesiastes and then Galatians. What I am trying to say is that twenty- and thirtysomethings must recognize the distance their culture is away from the cross and be prepared to work in soil that is dry and parched.

Ten Tips for Missional Living

1. Understand the Gospel. The mission of God is consumed with the person and work of Christ. As you understand Christ, you can accurately participate in God’s work of redemption. So read the Gospels—a lot.

2. Take an eternal view of people. The friends, neighbors and co-workers around you have an eternity in front of them. We need to see them as God does and care for them accordingly.

3. Be friendly. A Christian should be the most trustworthy confidant another person has in the world. Believers should be the kind of people everyone else wants to be around.

4. Watch for a chance to serve. People use up all of their energy on family, work and menial chores. Look for ways you can care for your neighbors—even if it is just cooking a simple dinner for them.

5. Be truthful. Missional believers contend for the faith while speaking in a way understandable to the hearer. No matter what, be ready to talk about the truths in Scripture.

6. Love like Jesus. He lived a robust life of caring for the lost. In elevating sacrificial love far beyond any previous thinking, He gave an example for us.

7. Be on guard. As you work alongside the King to extend His Kingdom, our spiritual enemy will immediately attack. Guard your heart in holiness.

8. Live missionally at home. Family is the first place for the mission of God in your life. When people see the impact it has on your home, they will be more willing to trust its veracity for their own lives.

9. Show patience. People are farther away from understanding the Gospel than in previous generations. Do not hesitate to invite them to submit to Christ, but know that they have plenty of questions that might need answering first.10. Do it for one reason—the glory of God. The only reason to be missional is to make Christ more widely known. God is worthy of being honored by all of creation, and it should be the main reason why we participate in His mission.

The Inside-Out Conference

Here's a post that I wrote quickly tonight for the Inside-Out Conference in Long Beach.

Community and Sentness

After almost 2 months it is time to get back on the horse of blogging (I have a couple blogs that are partly written in drafts).

Last week, as I found myself in conversation with a friend and then later reading a book, I was reminded that I need people in my life. It wasn't simply that reality that I need others to survive (a created need for community) but I need others to thrive (to understand my place in this world...to be sent into the world. I need others to regularly reflect on my experience of God's world in order to engage God's world and others in more whole ways.

Trevor Hudson in his book A Mile in My Shoes relays a message that one of his mentors told him, "We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflection upon experience." I read this book last summer as Amy and I traveled to Londrina, Brazil with a group of Young Adults to visit a mission partner. It was a solid book and we had a little time to reflect on it together in Brazil but I realize that further reflection on this book and our experience would be helpful.

One of the spiritual disciplines I desire to engage in over the course of the next few months is writing/reflecting on being sent into the world that God has placed me in. This is one of five communal practices (rules of faith) that smallboatbigsea community in Australia practices. What I want to do over the next few weeks/months, is identify a handful of men to journey with me in this practice. I know I need others to not only ask me about my writing/reflecting but actually actively reflect with on a weekly basis. We need each other. How do you suppose we reflect on our experiences together?

getting dirty

It is hard to imagine how yesterday, I was building a house with a group of people from our community of faith and Amor ministries for a family in need of a safe, dry place to lay their heads at night. It was an amazing experience as within two and a half days, we built relationships with each other and the family we were building for and put up a house that is significantly better than the structure that was on the property already.

One of the images that I can't get out of my head is of 2 boys playing outside in the sand with my tool belt. As I sat in the house we just put up for Josephina and her family and ate my delicious lunch, I watched Jesus (age 2) and Jorge (age 1) play in the sand, pull out my tape measure from my tool belt and pull it out a few feet, take my hammer out and swing it a few times, pull out my dirty, sweaty gloves and start boxing with each other. After they put a couple handfuls of sand back in my belt, they reluctantly returned the gloves to their pocket after their grandmother told them to stop messing around in spanish (I think that is what she said). This image left me thinking about 2 realities of my life.

First, this experience made me reflect that I did not travel outside of the western United States until I was 18 years old and a senior in high school. When I started to travel and see the world, nothing could hold me back. Travel around the world and mission gave me a new experience of what God was doing in the world and how I might join him in his mission. I long for a day when my 2 boys will experience the wideness and vastness of the world and God's creation. I hope they get to fully engage with our world before they are 18 years old.

Second, this experience made me reflect on my own two boys and how I thought they would love to cross the border and share in this type of play with 2 boys that speak a different language and live in a different culture...they just might discover that they have more in common than first assumed. Playing in a pile of sand with a tool belt is a beautiful image of how I would like to introduce them to a culture that is so different than the world they live in . I can see myself telling my boys to stop playing with the tool belt and to put the gloves back where they belong like Jesus' and Jorge's grandmother.

a new road of accountability

Over the last 2 weeks, our small group hosted two dessert and awareness nights in order in two different locations with friends outside our small group invited.

We focused our efforts to support Opportunity International who works with people in developing countries to give microfinance loans. They give loans to people who are not typically good investments by banking institutions. The microloans are given to trust groups or villages where there is already a sense of community and accountability to one another. One person or family in the community uses the loan, repays it with interest to their trust group and then another uses it, repays it with a interest until the entire trust group benefits from the mircroloan. Because of an internal sense of accountability and commitment, there is over a 98% repayment rate of these microloans. This is in incredible repayment rate for people without identification and without equity. There is no institution or single person keeping the people accountable, they are accountable to one another.

Chris Crane, president and CEO of Opportunity International, says this about the trust group of their 1 millionth client, "Once a week they come together and they make their weekly loan payment, they pray together, they sing together, they have training together which could be on business, it could be on personal issues. And they hold each other accountable that each of their lives are being productive and fruitful every week."

Something clicked for me last weekend as I was reflecting on this quote. For the last year, I have been wrestling with the topic of accountability and commitment in the context of our community of faith.

How do we recreate this sense of accountability and commitment to one another in the North American church? I think as we grapple with the reality that we have a sent God and as a result, we are sent people into our world, we need accountability to live with and pray for people outside the church. This sense of accountability found in developing countries and in communal cultures needs to be recreated in our urban/suburban middle to high income setting(s). What will we do to create this sense of accountability?

movement

Last night, I had the opportunity to anoint with oil half of our 545 Gathering and I found myself honored as people from our community moved forward toward me, allowed and even welcomed me to put my finger on their foreheads and make the sign of the cross as I said this simple phrase, "I anoint you with oil but be filled with the Holy Spirit."

There are certain tangible acts (the Lord's table, baptism, laying on with hands and anointing with oil) that our community participates in that transcend basic acts of worship. When I engage in these acts, I am consistently left contemplating how amazing God is to work through people like me (frail, despicable, sinful and at the same time holy). As I connected with people through this simple act, I looked people in the eye, put a small amount of oil on my finger and then when I could, I would address them by name and say the phrase above. It was a unique and special night for me.

There were many people there last night that are special in my transition to Solana Beach PC. At one point in the process of anointing, I realized that there was a young couple that was moving forward for me to anoint them who would be moving this week to work in another church in Champaign, Illinois. As they made their way closer and closer to me, I felt emotion that I did not expect.

I had mixed emotions as they moved closer to me. There was a longing inside of me that said, "Stay! Please, stay and join with us in our movement to become a missional church. We need your help. I need your help." And at the same time, I wanted to celebrate with them as God will use them in incredible ways as they move to Illinois and use their gifts for his movement in our world.

As I anointed them with oil, I had tears in my eyes at what God was doing in our community of faith as they move on and what God is doing in their lives as they move. I will miss you Kamin's. I hope we keep in touch and if it doesn't work out in Illinois, I hope and pray that God would lead you back to our community.

This story is just one of many stories of movement in and out of our community of faith in the past year and a half. These stories of movement make me think about the transitory state of young adults and what a moving target we are. This movement of people to and from our community, makes me realize how out of control much of life is.

My primary role in our community of faith is to cultivate an environment where young adults (18-35 year olds) find life in Jesus Christ and his community of faith. In the last year, I have experienced highs and lows of this role and call to cultivate this kind of space for young adults. In our transitory cultural setting of North County San Diego, how do we create this space where young adults intentionally put down roots, use their gifts and invest in our community? Yes, I want the gifts of young adults recognized, used and sent out across the world (even Illinois) but I also long for people to settle in and make a home in our larger community. At this point in my life, I have more questions than answers.

the bigness and smallness of the Kingdom

Tonight I found myself talking with my oldest son in our kitchen about the reality of the Kingdom of God. I want him to understand at an early age how big God's Kingdom is and how he gets to participate in God's work wherever God is present. So here I was talking with a little boy about this huge idea that many brillant theologians, let alone me, have a difficult time explaining in a clear and brief explanation. In fact, Jesus only tells stories about the Kingdom because it is so hard to explain and understand. Stories help illustrate the beautiful mess that the Kingdom is.

I tried to explain how big God's Kingdom is by raising my arms as high as I could and said, "The Kingdom of God is bigger than Daddy." I didn't see it click in his eyes, so I pointed at our house (or the walls of our kitchen) and raised my voice (slightly) and said, "It's bigger than our house!" Again, I didn't see it click so I stretched my arms out as far as I could stretch, raised my voice again and said, "It's bigger than Legoland!!" By the way, he had just gone to his favorite place on earth (atleast for the moment). His eyes got real big and he had a huge smile on his face like he understood.

May we be people that learn to communicate the Kingdom of God through story...our story, God's story and even stories that little boys can understand.

What is the purpose?

I've had a number of conversations this past week that speak to the purpose of the church, programs and even small groups. If the goal of our church is to reorient everything around the hub of mission (we are becoming missional) then we must engage this challenge and reimagine why and how we exist. Who do we exist for?

I've got a few ideas about how a small group can be intentionally organized around mission, but would love to hear other thoughts.

How can small groups of a community be reoriented around mission?

Opportunities to Change Our World

Tonight, Amy and I had so much fun together as we dreamed and wrote about a challenge that someone put forward in our faith community for different community groups. We sent out an email and facebook notes that pointed people to a great opportunity, which I mention below.

When a group of people make a little time, dream together, think creatively about how to use limited resources and finally make a community decision (at times there are too many options), I believe this imaginative community is what the community of faith is all about. See, God desires to change the world through a ragamuffin group of people who are able to take a little risk and trust that God will bring life from death. He will turn our limited resources into his unlimited resources.

If you are interested, this is what we sent out to friends and family around the country:

Someone in our faith community gave $100 to a number of groups of people and challenged us to make an impact in our world. Our community group decided to raise awareness and money for Opportunity International by having a dessert night and inviting friends to learn more.

We hope there's no pressure to donate, we will simply share about this organization whose work we genuinely respect. Amy and I realize that a number our friends and family live outside of the San Diego area but there is still a way that you can help. You can still make a difference!

There are other ways that you can contribute to the challenge than attending to our dessert nights this coming month. (1) For every person who signs up for the bi-monthly eNewsletter, Opportunity International gets $10 from a Matching Challenge. Please send us a quick email and let us know if you sign up.(2) If you are a parent OR if you would are looking for a unique gift for a family of children, we would like to let you know about a book called One Hen: How One Small Loan Made A Big Difference. If you purchase the book through http://www.amazon.com/One-Hen-Small-Loan-Difference/dp/1554530288/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204302752&sr=1-1, they will contribute 4% of revenue to Opportunity International. We just got a couple copies in the mail today and are excited to share the story and vision with Brighton and Everett.

Here is the story: "Inspired by true events, One Hen tells the story of Kojo, a boy from Ghana who turns a small loan into a thriving farm and a livelihood for many. After his father died, Kojo had to quit school to help his mother collect firewood to sell at the market. When his mother receives a loan from some village families, she gives a little money to her son. With this tiny loan, Kojo buys a hen. A year later, Kojo has built up a flock of 25 hens. With his earnings Kojo is able to return to school. Soon Kojo's farm grows to become the largest in the region. Kojo's story is inspired by the life of Kwabena Darko, who as a boy started a tiny poultry farm just like Kojo's, which later grew to be the largest in east Africa. Kwabena also started a trust that gives out small loans to people who cannot get a loan from a bank. One Hen shows what happens when a little help makes a big difference. This help comes in the form of a microloan, a lending system for people in developing countries who have no collateral and no access to conventional banking. Microloans have begun to receive more media attention in recent years. In 2006 Muhammad Yunus, a Bangledeshi economist who pioneered microloan banking, won the Nobel Peace Prize. The final pages of One Hen explain the microloan system and include a list of relevant organizations for children to explore."

No pressure but these are a few easy ways to change a small part of our world.

Orbiting the Church (a.k.a. "a giant hairball")

Last Monday, I found myself reading a book called Making a Meal of It by Ben Witherington III that examines the history of communion.

Ben writes this about a section out of one of Paul's letters, “‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (I Cor 11:1). This may indeed allude to Jesus’ practice of eating with anyone, even notorious sinners, and perhaps to his ruling (see Mark 7) about no food being unclean. It may also refer to Christ’s servanthood example, giving up all his rights and privileges for the sake of saving others.” (47)

This seemed to be a tangential thought for Witherington but it was significant for me as I reflected on the meals that I share with people. In the last year, I have been challenged in my role to spend more time with people outside the church, who are not followers of Jesus. I have this growing desire to pray for them, spend time with them and engage them in common activities. I want to share a meal (including bread and beverage of choice) and hear their story. But the energy and activities of the church seem at times to be all consuming. The world of the church and the Christian sub-culture suck all of life out of me.

Last year, I read a fascinating book called Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie. In this book, MacKenzie tells stories that illustrate how even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball" – a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past – that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Many times during a week, I am faced with the reality that the church is a massive hairball with hair after hair being stuck to one another and my one goal is to somehow creatively and imaginatively fight to stay orbiting the organization.

WWW: Wrestling With Worship

Yesterday, in a message I shared a quote from Mark Labberton's book The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God's Call to Justice, "Jesus was and is awake. He came to make a world of those who are awake - awake to God, to each other and to the world. Waking up is the dangerous act of worship because worship is meant to produce lives fully attentive to reality as God sees it, and that's more than most of us want to deal with. Yes, true worship always questions the dominant paradigms, even those within the church. It asks whether we are bowing before reality or falsehood, before God or idols." (19-20)

I continue to wrestle with worship in light of how we minimize it and put God in our boxes.

Life.

My compassionate wife found this video on one of our friend's blogs. Take a look...

When we were at Fuller Seminary, we experienced something we had never experienced before...a 100 day birthday. In Korean culture it is customary to not bring a baby out of the house until their 100 day birthday. While this may or may not be the case for Korean families...to us, we felt a sense of detachment for these children. They are not exposed to the beauty of this world that God created or the sense of a loving community or people to surround their family. After having 2 boys and immediately inviting community inot our family, I can't imagine not including our community in the process of loving our children.

But this couple in "99 Balloons" did not let their son's health condition stand between them and loving him as much as they did. As I reflect on the experience of this family, I am reminded of an experience five years ago when we miscarried a child after just 13 weeks. Within a time frame of a few weeks, I had begun to love that child more than I knew and it was very difficult to let go of that child when he died. Then again, I am reminded of how God gives and takes away life through our experience of losing a child just at this video describes at the end.