Whip you with Scorpions!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by shel

A while ago I made this reference in a couple of conversions, it’s not like they “whipped them with scorpions!” This was a biblical allusion. I was surrounded by christians in both instances and no one knew it. I thought (another easy literally allusion), “what DO they teach kids in church (school) these days?”

Do you know the major characters and stories of the Bible? The plot-line: creation, fall, (foreshadow/promise), redemption? Do you know the kings of the pre-split kingdom of ancient Israel (hint the scorpions line is a major political fail).

The Bible gives a common “push-back” language and has been woven into much of Western thought (good and bad). Here’s a story to illustrate when we have a common practice of worship and scripture:

But if Not: The Miracle of Dunkirk – Dr. Robert B. Sloan

Did you know that a Bible verse once helped save the British army?

Up until the 20th century, nearly the entire English speaking world used the King James translation of the Bible. We all shared a common text. People were also more Biblically literate than most are today, so if you quoted a Bible verse people would usually recognize the reference. Bible stories like those in the book of Daniel were very familiar.

I wrote about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in my last two posts. These young men were given a choice: they could bow to a pagan idol, or they could be thrown into a fiery furnace. They courageously chose to face the furnace rather than disobey God’s commandments.

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, let it be known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3:17-18)

In the summer of 1940, more than 350,000 soldiers—most of them British—were trapped at Dunkirk. The German forces were on their way, and they had the capacity to wipe out the British Expeditionary Force. When it seemed certain that the allied forces at Dunkirk were about to be massacred, a British naval officer cabled just three words back to London: “But if not.”

“But if not.” These words were instantly recognizable to the people who were accustomed to hearing the scriptures read in church. They knew the story told in the book of Daniel. The message in those three little words was clear: The situation was desperate. The allied forces were trapped. It would take a miracle to save them, but they were determined not to give in. One simple three word phrase communicated all that.

For some reason, people are still not sure why, the Axis powers hesitated. They backed off, briefly, and what’s known as the Miracle of Dunkirk took place. British families and fishermen heard about the poignant telegraphed cry for help, and they answered. They answered with merchant marine boats, with pleasure cruisers, and even with small fishing boats. By a miracle, they evacuated more than 338,000 soldiers and took them to safety.

John Ortberg recently joined me on The Exchange for a conversation about importance and impact of Jesus from his latest book, Who Is This Man? Join me every Tuesday at 3:00 PM Eastern for The Exchange web show.

Tom Wright Skewers the New Marcionism

Posted on May 31, 2013 by shel

Shel – I can’t wait to see how Greg Boyd (similiar I suspect to Wright here) reconciles the violence of the OT with the Cross. As I understand the argument – God has always spoken and worked through our brokenness – and in the OT that is foreshadowing the violence being absorbed, taken up in the Cross.

Tom Wright Skewers the New Marcionism by Andrew Wilson | Publication Date. 29/05/2013 http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/tom_wright_skewers_the_new_marcionism

Of all the things I was looking forward to about spending the day with Tom Wright last week, the thing I was looking forward to the most was interviewing him, and asking him about all sorts of biblical-theological stuff that I’ve never heard him talk about. I wanted to ask about whether he believed in a historical Adam, how he held together being complementarian in marriage and egalitarian in ministry, how his personal experience of the Holy Spirit worked, and so on. But the biggest question, for me, was how he responded to what I call the New Marcionism (a loaded phrase, of course, but then they all are).

Marcion, of course, was a second century bishop who taught that the Old Testament God, a jealous and retributive tribal deity, was incompatible with the God revealed in and through Jesus, who is an entirely benevolent God of love and compassion. Almost nobody today is saying that they believe this – at least, not in so many words. But a number of postconservative evangelicals in the US (I’m thinking of people like Peter Enns, Karl Giberson and various others), seeing a radical discontinuity between the God of parts of (say) Joshua and the God revealed in Jesus, are arguing that the picture of God in various Old Testament texts is not the real God at all. Perhaps the real God, understood christocentrically, did not in fact threaten Moses with death for failing to be circumcised, nor tell the Levites to kill people after the golden calf, nor order Achan to be stoned, nor command the destruction of Canaanite cities – since if he did, it would be irreconcilable with the example and teaching of Jesus – and therefore we should regard the narratives here as primitive theologising that seriously misunderstands the true nature of Israel’s God.

I was keen to find out what Tom thought about all that. His answer was my personal highlight of the day, and is to be treasured for its wisdom and insight (not to mention quotability):

“AW: I wondered if we could start with the continuity and discontinuity thing, which you were talking about before. Obviously there’s a sense in what you’re writing, and a sense in Paul, that something brand new has happened in Christ, and also a sense that the ongoing story of Israel has continued. How does that play out when it comes to who you think God is, and how he is perceived? I’m asking this in the face of (what I call) a New Marcionism in some circles in the US, where you have a bit more of an angry God who smites people in the Old Testament, but that’s not who Christ is, so we have to deconstruct the Old Testament God and say that’s not who we’re dealing with now. How have you handled that retributive side of the Old Testament God, in the light of what Jesus demonstrates at the cross?”

“NTW: There’s two different questions there, so let me deal with the “retributive versus merciful” one first. It’s a common answer, and I’m sure many of you pastors use this in your congregations, that actually the fiercest statements of warnings about judgment are on the lips of Jesus. And some of the most dramatically, spectacularly, extraordinary statements about overflowing mercy are in bits of the Old Testament, like Isaiah and the Psalms and so on. So there’s much more of a rich mixture, and you can only sustain the either/or of the Marcionite vision by blinding yourselves to quite a lot of what is there in the gospels. And of course some scholars will say, “The gospels were written by the early church, and the early church put back a lot of the angry stuff that Jesus didn’t have”, but this looks like a put-up job, to be honest.

“I think the reality of the world, and the reality of Scripture, go interestingly together. When people are talking about science and religion they often talk about the two books that God has written (the book of nature and the book of Scripture), but it’s true of the book of human life as well: human life is full of all kinds of things which are just gloriously, wonderfully celebratory, and other things which are just terrifyingly, awfully horrible – and we shouldn’t be surprised when we meet them in Scripture as well. And then you say, what does God think about, or do with, the stuff which is horrible? And the answer is, if he’s a good God, he must utterly reject it, and must hate it, and must ultimately destroy it … If God is a good God, he must react extremely strongly against that which destroys, corrupts or defaces human life. So the whole thing about the one versus the other is ill-conceived …

“The thing which it all comes back to, of course, is Romans 9-11. There, the whole question is, “Has God changed his mind?” And the answer is, “Emphatically not!” What has happened is what God always intended to happen. Holding onto this idea – that what has happened in Christ is what God always intended to happen – is very difficult; one of my graduate students summed it up brilliantly when he said, “God has acted shockingly, surprisingly, startlingly, as he always said he would.” You’ve got to have both halves together …

“I hold this within the framework I articulated this morning, which is to say: from the call of Abraham onwards, what God is committing himself to do is to act to bring about the restoration of the world, but to act through deeply flawed human beings, who constantly need to be reminded that they’re deeply flawed. That then produces all kinds of (to our mind) ambiguities. And I see all of it coming together in the cross. The cross is the moment when I see Israel’s God performing the salvific event, which is simultaneously the worst and most blasphemous act of judicial, theocidal murder than one can ever imagine. And somehow the cross itself says: these things are now reconciled.”

“AW: So when faced with the everyday, street-level challenge – that God seems to do these big bad things – you wouldn’t deny that God does those things? You’d say that that’s all part of a plan that God is moving forward?”

“NTW: There are many many things that God does, has done or will do which are not waiting for my approval or sanction before he does them. You know that line, “Many people want to serve God, but usually only in an advisory capacity.” Bonhoeffer said that putting the knowledge of good and evil before the knowledge of God is the primary sin in Genesis 3. They go for the knowledge of good and evil rather than what God says. Now that could just be an escape; it could just be throwing up our hands and saying we don’t know anything about God (when the whole point of the gospel is that we do know who God is, because of Jesus). However, if it’s the crucified Jesus, and if the cross means what it means in the light of the whole history of Israel, which is focused onto that, then … these narratives are the way in which all of those horrible, puzzling ambiguities, and all the awful things that happen – like Jesus saying, “what about those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell?” – there’s a sense that the cross gathers up all those puzzling, tragic horrible fragments of life, and says swoosh this is where it’s all going. The one thing you can’t do about all that is theorise about it. To theorise about it is to say, “We’re standing back as good enlightenment people, and we’re going to say whether it was appropriate or not.” The only thing when faced with a narrative like that is get down on your knees.”

Trinity

Posted on May 30, 2013 by shel

Help OK Tornado Victims: CAMA and MDS

Posted on May 23, 2013 by shel

The Christian & Missionary Alliance’s Compassion & Mercy Associates and the Mennonite Disaster Relief Services are looking for donations and help.

Oklahoma Tornado Relief

MDS investigates tornado damage in Oklahoma

Updated May 22, 2013

MDS Disaster Response Coordinator, Jeff Koller, and MDS OK Unit Chair, Jay Blough, along with former OK Unit Chair, Bill Mast and volunteer Roger Claassen spent Tuesday assessing the damage of the Sunday (May 19) tornados around Shawnee, OK. A crew with chainsaws and skid steers from the OK MDS Unit is on the ground today cleaning up debris. They are working in the small communities of Shawnee (Tecumseh, Pecan Valley and Bethel Acres).

“There is plenty of tree work,” says Bill. “Many of the other agencies went to Moore since that is where the focus is, so it makes sense to stay in this small community until things open up in Moore.” Local authorities are limiting access to Moore, OK, until first responder efforts are completed.

Mast said the MDS OK Unit chair, Jay Blough, will be calling in local crews and assets as needed.

This morning the group delivered a large generator to the Immanuel Baptist Church of Shawnee to power the church’s volunteer feeding efforts. After this task is complete, Koller and crew will continue to Moore, OK, for assessment.

Search and Rescue efforts are still under way, and according to Oklahoma VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster), relief groups are urged “not to self-deploy.”

MDS enjoys a long standing partnership with the Oklahoma VOAD and anticipates working with partner agencies within the VOAD to respond to this disaster as needed.

MDS accepts monetary donations to support the clean up work in Oklahoma and other areas hit by disaster. MDS does not accept donations of food and other items.

Monetary donations can be made on the MDS website,mds.mennonite.net, in the US by phone (717) 735-3536, or by mailing a check to MDS, 583 Airport Road, Lititz, PA 17543. In Canada, call (866) 261-1274 or mail cheques to MDS, 6A-1325 Markham Rd, Winnipeg, MB R3T 4J6 Canada. To designate the donation for Oklahoma, write “Oklahoma Tornados 2013″ in the memo line of the check.

MDS will be accepting funds for the cleanup and recovery efforts of the Oklahoma Tornados.

MDS featured on NBC Nightly News! MDS was featured on the NBC Nightly News on March 29, 2011. To see the story that features our Diamond, La. project, click on the link below: MDS on the News

Oklahoma City area

U.S. Soldiers and Airmen with the Oklahoma National Guard participate in recovery efforts after a tornado moved through Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families in Oklahoma who have lost loved ones and property. CAMA has contacted the District Superintendent of the Southwestern District, Dr. Mark Searing, who informs us that no Alliance churches have been directly impacted. However, district churches near the impacted areas are making plans to respond appropriately. CAMA will provide project funding from its Disaster Relief Fund to assist district churches which develop outreach plans. Please be in prayer for the tornado survivors.

CAMA has been in touch with Alliance Pastor Paul Haworth of Lifeline Community Church in Oklahoma City. We will be assisting this church with funds for outreach in the heavily devastated Moore area. Please be in prayer for the tornado survivors.

An Alliance church in OK City is already looking for ways to respond to the needs of people in Moore, OK. If you would like to help, CAMA has a new text to give option: Text CAMA to 50555 to give $10 to CAMA Disaster Relief out of which we will assist OK tornado survivors. Terms: mgive.org/t

CAMA assists those devastated by natural disasters through the CAMA Disaster Relief Fund.donate now»

The Single Defining Characteristic of a Manipulator

Posted on May 23, 2013 by shel

What an amazingly timely post. I think one of the most common manipulations used by often well-meaning christians is “The Lord said…” often twisting scripture or the Holy Spirit to simply try to get their way. The Lord does indeed ‘say’ and tells us to submit to one another – INCLUDING discerning ANY words we feel He is saying to us. We are to discern the Scriptures and the Spirit in mutual submission and humility in the local church god has placed us in. When we refuse this we are simply putting our feelings on God’s throne in our hearts and minds. This also makes us consumers of churches and our own “Jesus-lite” who, OH WOW!, almost always agrees with what we want to do. Welcome to idolatry 101. -Shel

The Single Defining Characteristic of a Manipulator Read Orginal here: http://storylineblog.com/2013/05/23/the-single-defining-characteristic-of-a-manipulator/

Donald Miller

So I’ve been studying manipulative people lately. And I’ve been studying them after having been completely taken in over the last several years by a few of them. You just assume all people are good and honest and it’s a shock and borderline offensive to think they aren’t, but the truth is some people are a lot more manipulative than others.

The bottom line is manipulative people try to trick you into siding with them or submitting to their will without directly asking you to do so. They like to trick people into things. Whether it’s a business deal or romantic relationship, manipulative people will use guilt, shame, lies and trickery to get what they want.

I’ve been trying to identify the kinds of manipulators I see in the world, for my own personal protection. There are false victims, dramatics, bullies and so on. But there’s one common denominator. And it’s important and it’s this: Manipulators have a very difficult time admitting they are wrong.

If I have one piece of advice it’s this: Never work, fall in love with or for that matter walk a dog for anybody who has a hard time articulating their faults or mistakes.

People who cannot articulate their faults or mistakes see life as a game. They are keeping score and they intend to win. They want you to submit but have no intention of submitting themselves. Theirs is not a world where we are supposed to create intimacy and trust through grace, but a world where we are supposed to accumulate power and security by tricking the people around us.

The best book I’ve read about manipulators is a book called “Who’s Pulling Your Strings” by Harriet Braiker.

I would never have agreed with the idea that some people should be avoided because they’re manipulators ten years ago. But I live by that idea now. And I’m happier.

I have a friend at the Department of Justice who once said to me “Don, 90% of people’s problems could be solved if they just chose the right people to work with or to love.”

It took me awhile, but I agree with him.

Stay away from manipulators. If they can’t articulate their mistakes or faults, they’re pretending to be superhuman and they’re playing a game. And you can be sure, you’ll lose.

Donald Miller is the founding Director of Storyline, an organization that helps people live better stories. Get regular updates from Donald on Twitter (@donaldmiller) and read over some of his life ambitions on MySubplot.

From reknew

Posted on May 21, 2013 by shel

Ben Witherington posted this heartfelt reflection on the sudden death of his young daughter. Theology can sometimes be a relatively benign part of your life until something like this strikes without warning. That’s where things really begin to matter. This reminded us of Jessica Kelley’s reflections on the death of her son Henry. These are the voices that ring with authority on the topic of theodicy and suffering and the picture of God that you hold.

From Ben’s blog:

One of the primary reasons I am not a Calvinist and do not believe in such predestinings from the hand of God is (1) because I find it impossible to believe that I am more merciful or compassionate than God. Also, (2) the Biblical portrait of God is that God is pure light and holy love; in him there is no darkness, nothing other than light and love. (3) The words “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away,” from the lips of Job, are not good theology. They’re bad theology. According to Job 1, it was not God, but the Devil who took away Job’s children, health and wealth. God allowed it to happen, but when Job said these words, as the rest of the story shows, he was not yet enlightened about the true nature of where his calamity came from and what God’s will actually was for his life — which was for good, and not for harm.

Are you in a life-giving church or a religious club?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by shel

If you’re church does not preach the parts of Jesus’ message that cause you to be upset or scandalized from time to time (See Luke 7:23) you’re not in a Christian church – but a religious club whose highest purpose is your butt in a seat and dollars in their business. It may be anesthetizing you against the beautiful call and kingdom of god in Jesus. It’s time to go deeper dear friends! Jesus is calling. I probably shouldn’t speak the truth…

‘we are aware that the (Biblical) text is in fact more radical and more offensive and more dangerous than any of us, liberal or conservative…the Biblical conversation in the church could be very different if pastors were able to begin with the awareness that the text is too offensive for the people, but it also too offensive for the pastor, because it is the living Word of God, and it pushes always beyond where we want to go or be.” -W.B. Pg 37 “The Word Militant: Preaching a Decentering Word.”

Worship – Getting it Right

Posted on May 6, 2013 by shel

Shel – I’m sure I posted this before from James KA Smith – but I am reposting below with the new additions he has added.

Oh well we are nice in SD but a little behind the curve - particularly in the church world. To avoid the 90s mistakes and crash I recommend Jamie’s book, Desiring the Kingdom and also Renovation of the Church by Ken Carlson and Mike Lueken (or simply the Book of Acts and 1 Corinthians ). If you go to a church “to simply take in the show” you are indeed “going” to church – but not becoming “church.” The level of actual engagement of the church in worship and prayer is VERY low in the show-model. This is BECAUSE the attractional 90s liturgy doesn’t aim to engage – just give a short emo-fix to get you there, social-media buzz then, and come back with enough friends that when you reject this faith the show can still go on. None of this is making you a mature, worshipping, jesus-centered disciple. This should put the fear of god in any leader of such a thing. This creates people who leave church forever after a few years of being formed into a consumer of a religious show.

Jamie nails it:

An Open Letter to Praise Bands

Dear Praise Band,

I so appreciate your willingness and desire to offer up your gifts to God in worship. I appreciate your devotion and celebrate your faithfulness–schlepping to church early, Sunday after Sunday, making time for practice mid-week, learning and writing new songs, and so much more. Like those skilled artists and artisans that God used to create the tabernacle (Exodus 36), you are willing to put your artistic gifts in service to the Triune God.

So please receive this little missive in the spirit it is meant: as an encouragement to reflect on the practice of “leading worship.” It seems to me that you are often simply co-opted into a practice without being encouraged to reflect on its rationale, its “reason why.” In other words, it seems to me that you are often recruited to “lead worship” without much opportunity to pause and reflect on the nature of “worship” and what it would mean to “lead.”

In particular, my concern is that we, the church, have unwittingly encouraged you to simply import musical practices into Christian worship that–while they might be appropriate elsewhere–are detrimental to congregational worship. More pointedly, using language I first employed in Desiring the Kingdom, I sometimes worry that we’ve unwittingly encouraged you to import certain forms of performance that are, in effect, “secular liturgies” and not just neutral “methods.” Without us realizing it, the dominant practices of performance train us to relate to music (and musicians) in a certain way: as something for our pleasure, as entertainment, as a largely passive experience. The function and goal of music in these “secular liturgies” is quite different from the function and goal of music in Christian worship.

So let me offer just a few brief axioms with the hope of encouraging new reflection on the practice of “leading worship”:

1. If we, the congregation, can’t hear ourselves, it’s not worship. Christian worship is not a concert. In a concert (a particular “form of performance”), we often expect to be overwhelmed by sound, particularly in certain styles of music. In a concert, we come to expect that weird sort of sensory deprivation that happens from sensory overload, when the pounding of the bass on our chest and the wash of music over the crowd leaves us with the rush of a certain aural vertigo. And there’s nothing wrong with concerts! It’s just that Christian worship is not a concert. Christian worship is a collective, communal, congregational practice–and the gathered sound and harmony of a congregation singing as one is integral to the practice of worship. It is a way of “performing” the reality that, in Christ, we are one body. But that requires that we actually be able to hear ourselves, and hear our sisters and brothers singing alongside us. When the amped sound of the praise band overwhelms congregational voices, we can’t hear ourselves sing–so we lose that communal aspect of the congregation and are encouraged to effectively become “private,” passive worshipers. (Shel – On the other hand if those leading the worship are SO low volume that also discourages the church to join their voices – a good middle is vital.)

2. If we, the congregation, can’t sing along, it’s not worship. In other forms of musical performance, musicians and bands will want to improvise and “be creative,” offering new renditions and exhibiting their virtuosity with all sorts of different trills and pauses and improvisations on the received tune. Again, that can be a delightful aspect of a concert, but in Christian worship it just means that we, the congregation, can’t sing along. And so your virtuosity gives rise to our passivity; your creativity simply encourages our silence. And whileyou may be worshiping with your creativity, the same creativity actually shuts down congregational song.

3. If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it’s not worship. I know it’s generally not your fault that we’ve put you at the front of the church. And I know you want to model worship for us to imitate. But because we’ve encouraged you to basically import forms of performance from the concert venue into the sanctuary, we might not realize that we’ve also unwittingly encouraged a sense that you are the center of attention. And when your performance becomes a display of your virtuosity–even with the best of intentions–it’s difficult to counter the temptation to make the praise band the focus of our attention. When the praise band goes into long riffs that you might intend as “offerings to God,” we the congregation become utterly passive, and because we’ve adopted habits of relating to music from the Grammys and the concert venue, we unwittingly make you the center of attention. I wonder if there might be some intentional reflection on placement (to the side? leading from behind?) and performance that might help us counter these habits we bring with us to worship.

Please consider these points carefully and recognize what I am not saying. This isn’t just some plea for “traditional” worship and a critique of “contemporary” worship. Don’t mistake this as a defense of pipe organs and a critique of guitars and drums (or banjos and mandolins). My concern isn’t with style, but with form: What are we trying to do when we “lead worship?” If we are intentional about worship as a communal, congregational practice that brings us into a dialogical encounter with the living God–that worship is not merely expressive but also formative–then we can do that with cellos or steel guitars, pipe organs or African drums.

–

Postscript to “An Open Letter to Praise Bands”

So, I guess my little “Open Letter to Praise Bands” generated some interest. I’m glad that it could be a catalyst or foil for some intentional reflection on thehow of Christian worship. I won’t even attempt to address the array of responses it has generated. I’m content to let some misreadings spin themselves out. So I’m not out to police the ways I’ve been misunderstood.

However, I do think it’s important to name an issue in the background that affects how we can have this conversation: not all Christians share the same theology of worship. Indeed, my concern is that some sectors of North American Christianity don’t have much of a theology of worship at all. Many of us–including many congregations–have only an implicit understanding of what worship is, and we have not always made that explicit, nor have we subjected our assumptions to rigorous biblical and theological evaluation.

It is my passion for theological intentionality about worship that generated my book Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. It’s not fair to ask those who read a blog post to read an entire book, but I would invite those who both agreed and those who disagreed with my “Open Letter” to consider Desiring the Kingdom as a fuller articulation of the theology of worship behind my criticisms.

Many of the negative reactions to my missive stem from a fundamentally different understanding of what worship is. That means we are working from fundamentally different starting points. So when someone thinks that I “misunderstand” what’s happening in worship, actually I just disagree with the assumptions behind such worship.

I think this is why some have missed two crucial points in my “Open Letter”–points that were admittedly touched on just briefly. Let me reiterate them here:

1. Worship is not only expressive, it is also formative. It is not only how we express our devotion to God, it is also how the Spirit shapes and forms us to bear God’s image to the world. This is why the form of worship needs to be intentional: worship isn’t just something that we do; it does something to us. And this is why worship in a congregational setting is a communal practice of a congregation by which the Spirit grabs hold of us. How we worship shapes us, and how we worship collectively is an important way of learning to be the body of Christ. (For a helpful account of how our congregational practice of singing embodies theoneness of the body of Christ, see Steve Guthrie’s marvelous chapter, “The Wisdom of Song.”)

2. Because worship is formative, and not merely expressive, that means other cultural practices actually function as “competing” liturgies, rivals to Christian worship. In Desiring the Kingdom, I analyze examples of such “secular liturgies,” including the mall, the stadium, and the university. The point is that such loaded cultural practices are actually shaping our loves and desires by the very form of the practice, not merely by the “content” they offer. If we aren’t aware of this, we can unwittingly adopt what seem to be “neutral” or benign practices without recognizing that they are liturgies that come loaded with a rival vision of “the good life.” If we adopt such practices uncritically, it won’t matter what “content” we convey by them, the practices themselves are ordered to another kingdom. And insofar as we are immersed in them, we are unwittingly mis-shaped by the practices.

Again, there’s much more to be said about this, and a blog isn’t the venue. I do invite those who have been prompted to think about these matters to consider Desiring the Kingdom as a way to continue the conversation.

Much, much more could be said. But let me stop here, and please receive this as the encouragement it’s meant to be. I would love to see you continue to offer your artistic gifts in worship to the Triune God who is teaching us a new song.

Most sincerely,

Jamie

2007-2008 the Years That Almost Killed Me (or did but He raises the dead)

Posted on May 3, 2013 by shel

Mercy Church was started in a dream, a vision, to be a church – committed to orthodoxy and yet ok with questions and debate on secondary theology and lifestyle issues (hence the blend of: broadly evangelical, spirit-filled, and anabaptist).

We started from a small group of about 15 adults meeting in 2004, went public the fall of 2005, then merger it with an older traditional church through 2007 and January 1 of 2008 it was a legal marriage.

The challenges of planting with out a mother church in a city MSA population of 230,000 were and are huge. Getting over 50 people was an amazing breakthrough, growing in a healthy way over 100 was a work of god and many leaders being raised up. Now in the 150 with over 230 people has been a lot of work, trial and error, trying to discern being faithful to our non-attractional vision of Jesus – while reaching truly unchurched folks.

Church leadership has a high burn-out rate – church planters – even higher. No one signs up for this knowingly without a strong sense of motivation and call. There is very little margin from the word “go”.

I hit a personal wall in 2007 just burned out by all the constant lifting, work, and very little time to recover. Thankfully we are part of larger spiritual family and there were enough leaders to allow me to take a renewal sabbatical (not to be confused with a study sabbatical). This was so important to refocus on freedom in Jesus. Confronting lies I was believing about myself (sometimes fostered by destructive people in my life at the time – which I did not totally understand) and God’s work.

I am still a person who prefers driven -ness over lack of motivation in leaders -it’s easier to learn to slow down than it is to get someone moving from a state of no momentum. However, the gift of God that Mercy Church has become since 2009-10 and onward is priceless.

We are a place that is marked by Holy Spirit power and Christ’s life through those who can admit they need the mercy of God.

It is the ones who cling to outward power, show (to be seen and see), and numbers alone without a truly Jesus-centered self-critical mindset that give rise to the nones (those who drop out of the fakery after some years and then asking FINALLY – what on earth am I doing in this?!). It’s those who forget the beauty of the Gospel of the Kingdom in the marginal people and marginal places in our own lives – who miss the presence and power of the Spirit.

I love how Paul gets more real and honest about his weaknesses and sin struggles throughout his ministry. He digs into the presence of God.

In the letter 2 Corinthians Paul is defending himself by responding to the church’s captivation by the so-called “super-apostles” (today it would comparable to the personality cults of pastors or lay-leaders in a local church) who are also leading away from the centrality of Jesus (while claiming to be following Jesus!). There are some wonderful verses here that make be think of the whole point of Mercy Church

2 Cor. 12 ⁶ If I did want to brag, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself because I’d tell the truth. I’m holding back from bragging so that no one will give me any more credit than what anyone sees or hears about me. ⁷ I was given a thorn in my body because of the outstanding revelations I’ve received so that I wouldn’t be conceited. It’s a messenger from Satan sent to torment me so that I wouldn’t be conceited.

⁸ I pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me alone. ⁹ He said to me, “ My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness. ” So I’ll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power can rest on me. ¹⁰ Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I’m weak, then I’m strong.

¹¹ I’ve become a fool! You made me do it. Actually, I should have been commended by you. I’m not inferior to the super-apostles in any way, even though I’m a nonentity…

It is a place that admits and person that admits they only exist because of the Mercy of Jesus – where you can actually experience deep growth and change. Mercy is a place of depth. It’s not about what you do, what you make, who you hob-nob with out in the world of SIoux Falls that we care about – it’s what are you building your very center of your heart on?

Jesus and His Spirit working in the messy, weak, foolish, and beautiful body of Mercy Church – this is why I am here. It is this kind of church I am called to be an “under-shepherd” to.

Getting your identity from judgement by the world’s standard will leave in the dark in the depth of your soul. Getting it through Jesus – well that’s life.

I’m a weak fool for Christ, who’s fool are you?

+Pastor Shel, Chief of Sinners

Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry

Posted on May 2, 2013 by shel

There is an epidemic occurring right under the nose of church middle judicatories and no one seems to notice. Young pastors (less than five years in the ministry) are leaving in droves. The Lilly Foundation has poured millions of dollars into “Sustaining Pastoral Ministry” initiatives and it’s too soon to tell whether or not their approach is working. Aside from the obvious reasons pastors leave the ministry (sexual impropriety, financial mismanagement, and marital dissolution) here are the top ten reasons why young pastors call it quits:

1. The discontinuity between what they imagined ministry to be and what it actually is is too great.

2. A life without weekends sucks.

3. The pay is too low (most pastors in my denomination make less money than a school teacher with five years experience).

4. They are tired of driving ten year old cars while their congregations trade in their cars every two years.

5. Many young pastors are called into difficult congregations that chew pastors up and spit them out because experienced pastors know better.

6. Even though the search committee told them they wanted to reach young people, they didn’t really mean it.

7. When the pastor asked the search committee if they were an “emergent church”, the members of the search committee thought he said “divergent church” and agreed.

8. Nobody told the young pastor that cleaning the toilets was part of the job description.

9. The young pastor’s student loans came due and the amount of money he/she owes on a monthly basis exceeds his/her income.

10. Working at McDonalds has alot less stress.

Why do you think young pastors are leaving in the ministry in droves?

This post comes from the NakedReligion blog… I find the ten reasons that he came up with to be quite intriguing. See what you think… (Sorry, but this post is no longer available at its original source)

Todd

The post Why Young Pastors Leave the Ministry appeared first on ToddRhoades.com.

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