October 11, 2010

A God Who Suffers With Us?

There are times in life when communities experience a time of great suffering. Why suffering seems to happen all at once, I do not know. Maybe once someone we love is suffering, we become more aware of the suffering around us? Or, maybe suffering really does come in threes and that is just the way that God made it?

Honestly, I really don’t think there is an answer. Within the last couple weeks my community went through a great time of suffering. When those around you experience suffering in such a great way it brings up all-to-familiar questions. Why does a loving God allow suffering? Why can’t God just take of this suffering away? Why me? Why now?

Recently I was reading a chapter from Jesus Christ for Today’s World by Jürgen Moltmann, entitled, “The Passion of Christ and the Pain of God.” (Do not worry; this has nothing to do with Moltmann’s panentheistic views of God, creation, or redemption. Throughout the chapter Moltmann perfectly outlines a view of God that allows how we have a God who loves us so much that he suffers with Son and his people. Moltmann writes, “The history of Christ is the history of a great passion, a passionate love. And just because of that, it became at the same time the history of a deadly agony.” (1)

Within the passion of Christ, from Gethsemane to Golgotha, we see a Christ who does not struggle with himself, but who struggles with God. Jesus asks many of the same questions and makes many of the same pleas that we ask in times of pain and suffering, including “take this cup of suffering from me” and “why my God have you forsaken me?”

It is with the passion that not only Christ suffers, but God also suffers. In order for Christ to take on the shame and sin of the world, God had to turn his back from the Son, so that Christ could take on the sins of the world As Paul states in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all…” In Christ’s death, “God suffers the death of his Son.” (2)

The book of Hebrews paints a beautiful picture of this reality stating, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). If we in fact have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, I ask what other time in our life are we weaker than when we are experiencing suffering and pain?

Some are uncomfortable with a God who suffers in this way, yet, as Moltmann clearly points out, if we do not believe in a God who suffers, then the passion can only be viewed as a human reality, not a divine one.

Moltmann then progresses to a place in his theology of suffering where some are uncomfortable with; he states that God so loves us that he enters into our suffering with us and suffers as we do. Some believe that suffering is not “appropriate for God,” as if God is supposed to fit into our modernistic ontological framework.
However, Moltmann approaches this theology through the framework of love and apathy. He believes that if God is a God of love, then he has to be able to empathize with those whom he loves, even in the midst of their suffering.

I am not yet sure if my theology allows for all that Moltmann’s theology might entail, but I have to admit that there is a small part of me who longs for a God who suffers with me, who feels what I feel, who experiences what I experience.

One thing that I do know, we have a God who comprehends what it is to suffer. God has gone through the pain of losing a loved one, had a child turn their back on him, and felt the pain of being alone.

I don’t know about you, but that is a God who I want to worship; a God who is also a high priest who can sympathize with me, especially in times where I am suffering.

(1) Moltmann, Jürgen, Jesus Christ for Today’s World, (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1994), pg. 31
(2) Moltmann, pg. 37

September 27, 2010

It is Like Breathing

Creating space needs to be like breathing. I know what you are thinking; this does not make sense at all. And as of now, I am not sure it is really supposed to, but bear with me.

The other day I was talking to a student about life, family, and school. As the conversation went on I became aware that there was something that was not being said. Going with my gut I asked, “Is everything okay?”

It was as if I had opened a box to something that someone had tried to keep hidden. The student started to tell me how overwhelmed s/he was feeling, about school, family life, sports teams, and even church.

As the student stood there in the middle of an outdoor mall, holding a sugar-filled drink, I could see that s/he was holding back the tears that were trying to force their way out of his/her closed heart.

Fast-forward to four days later, I am setting up what can only be explained as a preschool room by day, turned youth room by night, which will soon be bustling with high school students. As one student after another enters the room, I feel as if each step that each one takes is heavy-laden with something unspoken.

I am still not sure if this feeling was some divine reality that God’s Spirit was speaking to me, or if my emotions from four days earlier were being stirred.
Then it hit me, what have we done to our students? In youth ministry we constantly talk about “creating the space for students.” Yet today I realized, maybe all of that space we had attempted to create was on our terms, not God’s.

These thoughts continued clouding my mind as I left a meeting with a couple of youth pastors and para-church leaders in the city that I do ministry in. As I was walking out I asked a friend, “Where was Nick* today?” His response was quite telling, “some people just can’t fit this into their schedule.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all about schedules. In fact, I try to religiously keep to my routine on a daily basis, but I began to wonder, what if God doesn’t keep to our schedules?

In Acts 2 the followers of the resurrected Jesus were sitting in a room, simply waiting for God to move. They were just waiting, nothing else.

As much as I joke with my wife about being a “friendly person,” because she was raised within the Friends denomination, I think the Mennonites might have been on to something. You see, a practice of the early Friends churches was to enter into the church building and sit, waiting to hear from God. Once someone was moved to speak they spoke, and then the silence continued.

As a Lutheran I have heard over and over again about how “high church” is too ritualistic, but I ask, what church is not? Do we not all have our rituals, whether it involves the Lord’s Prayer and weekly confession or not.

Now back to my interaction with that student: it turns out that somewhere down the line this student’s life had become so scheduled and planned that s/he no longer felt that s/he could be a teen. S/he did not have the time to have fun, to laugh with friends, to sit and watch TV, to sit and do nothing, or even sleep. It is no wonder so many students live out their relationships with others over text message and Facebook. These are the only modes in which they can communicate with their friends since schoolwork, sports, clubs, activities, the expectations of adults in their life, and might I even say “church,” have robbed them of their time to just “be."

I have no idea what it might look like to create space for teens to experience God. In reality there are probably very qualified people to comment on that, but something I do know; allowing time and space for teens to be teens is just as important as breathing, because without it, our teens will die.

*The name has been changed for the protection of the individual.

Back and Running

A lot has changed in my personal and professional life over the last couple of months. With change comes the need to evaluate and step away from things that are not necessary. For a while this blog was that for me, but now, because of the promoting of friend, this blog is back up and running.

Weekly I will be posting thoughts in order to hopefully plant thoughts, create conversation, and encourage you to find how God might be calling you to manifest his Kingdom. Blessings friends.

July 12, 2010

Music of 2010, so far.

I have been gone for a while. There are many reasons for that, but the greatest of them would have to be because of life transition. But...I will be back soon.

To start here are some CD's that some of my students have been listening too a lot lately.

Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
Eminen: Recovery
Drake: Thank Me Later
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Local Natives: Gorilla Manor
Mumfor & Suns: Sign no More
She & Him: Volume 2
Band of Horses: Infinite Arms
Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Big Boi: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
30H!3: Streets of Gold

What have your students been listening to lately?

March 30, 2010

Discipleship: What Identity has to do with it.

I do not remember everything that I have ever heard from the pulpit, but for some reason some stuff just sticks. One statement I heard when I was visiting a church while I was in college sticks in my mind. The preacher with conviction yelled from the pulpit, “the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is about love!” Even then, as a sophomore in college, something did not sit right within me regarding this statement, but at that moment in life I could not really put my finger on it. Throughout my life the Old Testament was always talked about in reference to “the law,” the “sacrificial system,” or the “old covenant” and how Jesus came and did away with “all of that.” Yet, I always wondered if it was that simple, or if something was being overlooked. I always asked, why is there such a difference between the Old and New Testaments?

My transition of thinking all started in seminary while sitting in an exegesis class focusing on the book of James and 1 Peter. In both books I continued to read about how the Church was a “chosen people” (1 Peter 2:4, 9). Years later it finally came together while I was doing my devotional in the book of Jeremiah.

In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 12, God says, “I said, Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God…The LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey me…’ They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors” (context is from 12:1-17).

What hit me at that moment was that once someone comes to faith in God it has been, is, and always will be about one’s identity being changed. From the time that God brought Israel out of Egypt and they worshiped him, they became “God’s people.” The identity given never had anything to do with what the people did; it was about what God did for his people. The people of Israel were “God’s people” because they where in covenant with God and worshiped him. It was only when they worshiped, followed, and served other gods that the covenant was broken and Israel was no longer God’s people.

In what has been deemed “the church age,” meaning the time post-resurrection, this reality still has not changed; we are God’s people because of what he has done. God acted and we believe and follow him. In that belief our identity changes, we become sons and daughters of God, the people of God. Just as Henri Nouwen so eloquently points out in In the Name of Jesus, just as when Christ was baptized and a voice came from heaven saying, “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” The same thing happens when a new believer comes to faith, a voice calls out from heaven, “this is my son or daughter in whom I am well pleased.” While the voice might not be audible as it was in the gospel accounts, this does not change the fact that God sees a person this way once they come to faith. Paul confesses this same reality in a different way when he states in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” The new is here is not to come, but it is here now. That is the beauty of conversion, at the point of the confession of faith people are made new, they take on a new identity.

Looking at Simon’s confession of Christ as the Christ in Matthew 16 one can see that Simon’s confession results not just a spiritual rebirth, but a full identity shift. It is after Simon states “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), that Jesus looks at him and saying, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter…” (Matthew 16:17-18a). Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter showing a change in Simon’s identity from who he was before to who he now is. In the Hebraic mindset the name held within it one’s identity. When Jesus changes Simon’s name, he changes Simon’s identity. He is no longer Simon, he is now Peter.

Now this is where reality meets the lie of dualism. In a dualistic understanding our faith, or spiritual reality, is separate from our bodily, or non-spiritual reality; yet, this is a false understanding of faith. If it is true that in conversion identity changes, it is not only the spirit that changes, but also the body, the day-to-day life, and everything that changes. Within conversion someone becomes a new person, both physically and spiritually, both outward and inward, both at church and in the routine of your day to day. As Dallas Willard points “…if we understand that the ‘inward positive reality’ and the ‘external positive manifestations’ are not two separate things, but one unified process in which those who are alive in God are caught up in their embodied, socialized totality” (The Spirit of The Disciples, Dallas Willard, pg. 78).

Becoming a follower of Christ changes everything, not only our spiritual relate to relationship with God, but our identity and everything we do, are, and will be. May you find hope that in Christ you are new, that in Christ you are a son or daughter of God, and may you live out that reality in all you do.

(Next week we will turn to discuss our consumer culture and how it fights against our identity.)

March 9, 2010

A Break...

There are times in life where breaks are required because other things in life that are more important come up. This is one of those times. For that reason I am taking a break from the blog world for a little while. I do not know how long it will be, but I have some people in my life that need my energy more than this blog does right now. Hopefully the break will not be to long, only two weeks or so. Until then my friends...

March 2, 2010

Discipleship: Why Dualism is Not so Good

Last night I was sitting with my future wife talking about what we had both read in our last personal devotionals, when she looked at me and said, “I don’t think faith and works in the Bible have ever really been separated.” To be honest I sat there for a while and amazed at my future wife’s proclamation I begrudgingly said, “I think you’re right.” The reason I was so apprehensive to agree with what my fiancé had just said was because I realized not for the first time, but yet again, how messed up my own life was. How I had somehow fell fallen victim to that which I hated, separation.

In the long process, in which I am just one person among many who continues to seek to discover why the church in the United States lacks so many disciples, I have come to two conclusions. The first is the dualism separating the spiritual from the physical, which despite what some might believe has plagued the church rather than helped the church. I do not say this to start some debate about the separation or lack there of between the body, spirit, and/or soul, but just to discuss what duality taken to the fullest extent has done to our church community. Secondly, there is a lack of individual understanding among people today, which is directly related to dualism. Thirdly, consumerism has been allowed to breed because of both the first and second issues, but is not necessarily a result of them.

In the simplest terms dualism is the separation of two different parts, one from another. In a Biblical spiritual mindset, dualism did not exist when it came to how the spiritual affects the physical. This is why when Jesus came he did not just speak and work in spiritual terms, but worked to heal and restore the physical. In the world of Jesus, the spiritual and physical where directly related, which is why in Jesus’ world someone was not “mentally-ill,” but possessed by a demon. Take the story of the mute man in Matthew 9:27-34, who was thought to be demon possessed, not just mute for physical reasons (I am not saying that a demon did not cause this man’s muteness, I just using this story for the sake of proving my point). In today’s word things are interpreted differently, mute persons are mute because of physical reasons, not spiritual reasons, thereby separating the physical and the spiritual from each other.

This dualism plays itself out in more practical terms as well; for many across the country, what happens on Sunday morning at church has little to no affect on their life outside of the building they meet in on Sunday. As one mom recently said to me, “it is hard trying to balance religion, school, and sports.” In a first century mindset this sentence would have never been said; in fact, if someone said it they would be labeled philosophically crazy. Religion was not something to be balanced amongst the rest of one’s life; religion directly affected one’s entire life. Take what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13-16,

“13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

As Peter sees it, once someone has been given grace and become a child of God, one is no longer to “conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” The grace of God literally changes the reality of that person who was not, but now is a child of God, and now they are to “be holy, because I (God) am holy.” Peter does not give a suggestion from the pulpit, but outlines an expectation of the reality that he expects followers of Jesus to live like. Think of Saul before he became Paul, when Jesus showed himself to Saul on the road to Damascus; this event changed everything in Paul’s life, even his name. Throughout scripture, name changing is a sign of a spiritual transformation that has taken place. Think of Jacob in the desert before he meet his brother Esau; after Jacob wrestled with a man and declared that he “saw God face to face,” his name was changed from Jacob to Israel (Gen 32). These experiences with God changed the identities of both Saul and Jacob, just as our spiritual experiences with God should change our identities; yet for many it does not.

The reason for this is because somewhere down the line people begin to separate different aspects of their life from one another. Even marketers have picked up on this reality, which is why the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” makes so much sense to people. As sad as it is, most people are already practicing this type of separation out in some aspect of their life. Whether it is who one is at work vs. at hour or who one is at school vs. at church. At times, it might not even be very apparent. A person looking at porn usual employsthe ability to separate the reality they create in their minds from their everyday life in order to escape into a new world for a little while. Duality allows us to separate different aspects of our life in order to allow ourselves to become comfortable with the reality we have created for ourselves. The issue with dualism is that it disconnects aspects of one person’s life from other aspects of that same life, allowing a person to almost operate as different individuals in different instances. This can create, and has created, a scary reality for many in today’s world. Yet for our purposes, dualism allows people to disconnect what happens in a worship service from the rest of their life outside of their worshipping community.

Next week we will see how dualism also interacts with identity and consumerism, in order to finally see over the next couples weeks, how the church in the United States might work to create a discipleship culture.

February 23, 2010

"Go Forth and make Disciples..."

No matter how many times I try to envision the scene, I feel like my imagination and empathy always falls short in some way to bring the moment of the great commission to life. After what must have felt like days after Jesus had resurrected from the dead, Jesus departed from his disciples of three years once again. I can only imagine that this moment, right before he is about to ascent to heaven had played out in Jesus’ mind for years before it happened. I am sure that he planned the timing and emotion behind every word that he would say to his disciples before he would ascent on that faithful day. I think that is why these words must have had such a powerfully affect on the life’s and hearts of the men and women who heard them, because they is no doubt that they took every word with the utmost seriousness.

In the gospel of Matthew it this scene unfolds like this, Jesus standing with his disciples and followers realizes that the time has come, he must depart from his friends and mentorees of the past 3 years. As he walks to the prefect place he speaks, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28: 19-20). What the disciples of Jesus did next is assumed by the gospel, they went forth and made disciples just as Jesus told them to do. The command behind Jesus’ words must have been profound. In fact, what is interesting about the Greek in this text is that just looking at the English translation of the text one would assume that this passage in Greek would be littered with imperatives, yet it is not. The only imperative in the whole text is found in the world matheteusate, which translated means “make disciples!” Because of where this word falls within the text, the best way to imagine Jesus saying this is to think back to when you were a kid playing in your room with a toy. Just as you are about to cast your newest toy airborne across your room toward the window, your mom who has just been talking to you in a normal tone quickly raises her voice, “No, don’t do that!” The writer of Matthew wants a majority of our attention to be drawn to this word. He wants us to see that the most important thing that Jesus has just said is to go and make disciples. Jesus realized that without the process of making disciples the church could not grow, the gospel of the Kingdom of God would not be spread.

In the book of Acts, the follow up to the gospel of Luke, the scene unfolds a little differently. Jesus has risen from the dead and is about to ascend to heaven, but first he commands his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). While there are no imperatives in this text, the emphasis is on “you will be my witness…” There is a future expectation of what Jesus’ disciples will be. There is no vagueness, or the invitation to be a witness; it is expected. In fact, the throughout the rest of Acts, the writer shows how a small band of fishermen, merchants, a tax collector or two, and others went forth and were witness of Jesus’ gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In fact, the author puts emphasis on each point where the gospel reaches toward the next epoch as Jesus followers spread across the global and share the gospel as witness to the Kingdom of God.

The question I have to ask is why this has all changed? What has lead great spiritual thinkers like Dallas Willard to conclude, “We believe in our hearts that we should be Christlike, closely following our Lord. However, few of us, if any, can see this a real possibility for ourselves or other we know well” (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, pg. 12). Or we think to ourselves, “Jesus could not have imposed anything that hard upon us. And beside, we’re in a period of grace—we are saved by grace, not by anything we do—so obedience to Christ is actually not necessary. And it is so hard, anyway; it cannot be expect of us, much less enjoyed by us” (Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, pg. 2-3). How did it become like this? Why are there so many in the church in the United States that have not been discipled? Why are so many failing to be Christ’s witnesses to the ends of the Earth?

Let me first say, I do not have all of the answers to these questions, but I hope that you will join me over the next few weeks as I hope to provide some answers to why the church in the United States is failing to create a discipleship culture in youth ministry and the church and what some steps might be to change that.

February 16, 2010

Slowing Down: A final Thought

It has always been my dream to drive the coast from Morrow Bay, California to Seattle, Washington over a two to three week period. This dream took root when I was in high school, while sitting in a car on the open road with my closet friends. Starting my junior year, two of my closest friends and I would take off from somewhere in Southern California and just drive up the coast for a long weekend, surfing were we decided the surf was good enough to stop. While we spent most of our time driving from surf spot to surf spot, these are still some of the most pleasurable times in my life to this day. I have thought about why these trips where so enjoyable many times, and over the last three weeks, ten years after these trips started, I came to a conclusion.

Three weeks ago, while sitting in my office before submitting myself to the craziness that comes with Junior High Youth Group, I was reading one of my new favorite magazines, Good. The quarterly winter 2010 issue is entitled “The Slow Issue.” Throughout the issue writers from all walks of life discuss the beauty of slowing down. It was this issue that first inspired my idea to slow down and as I read through the magazine over the last three weeks, the piece that stood out the most in this issue was an art piece. In left center of the page, multiple images of the coast of California were displayed, with a small paragraph below stating,

There was a time, not that long ago, when traveling through the United States meant pleasant days on the blue highways, smelling the air, seeing the scenery, and stopping at the nearest watering hole for a freshly cooked meal of the local specialty. Then came the interstate highways, and many-horse powered engines, and an ever-increasing speed limit. Now, we get places much faster. But what if you took a slowed-down version of a trip, at a pleasant crusing speed, with rest stops that offered more choice than simply McDonald’s or Burger King? We took just such a journey by meandering north from Los Angels along the coast. What we found can be seen over the next few pages. (Good Magazine The Slow Issue, Winter 2010, pg. 54)

As I started to look over the many pictures that littered the page, my mind drifted back to my high school years on “Highway 1”. I realized the reason why I enjoyed that time in my life so much was because during those long weekends I allowed myself to hang out, relax, and just slow down.

Over the last three months, previous to taking three weeks to slow down, I had been held victim to running through life from here to there, from one thing to the next, not allowing myself the time to slow down. I thought to myself, how did I get here? I knew all of the right answers and the way life was suppose to be lived, but putting my knowledge into practice was another issue. After much reflection I realized that I thought I could get away with running at full speed. Over the last three weeks I have realized that I was wrong. Even Jesus, who was God on earth, took time to slow down, and I a mere man was in ministry running like I was in some marathon and I am pretty sure that there was no way this is what Paul meant when he talked about running a good race in Galatians 5:7.

After this realization I sought to try to discover ways I could apply my three-week journey into a realistic lifestyle of slowing down. Over the last three weeks, while I did not post much I sought to help a little by posting some “food-for-thought.” I encouraged you to carve out a specific time to slow down, but no I urge you to make slowing down a normal part of your life. When the art of slowing down permeates throughout your entire life, the time you spend doing mundane things, like work, become more fruitful.

After much thought I want to over you some ideas in how you might try to make slowing down a normal part of your life.

Eliminate something:
Every person has stuff in his/her life that needs to be stepped away from; even if just for a short time. It is so much easier to add stuff to our life before we cut things from our life. Never add something without first cutting something first. Even if yo are not adding something new to your life, it might be helpful to think about what God might be calling you to stop to make more time for your own spirituality. You might ask yourself what is causing you more hurt than it is helping you, or if at this point in your life you might want to strongly consider taking a temporary or indefinite sabbatical from one commitment.

Unplug yourself from your gadgets:
While blackberries and iphones can be a blessing, they can also be one of the biggest curses in life. Try to block out a significant amount of time where you turn off your phone, do not check your email, are not on your favorite social networking site, or do not watch television, and just be. Sometimes slowing down means not allowing your self to become slaves to your own gadgets.

Make a meal with loved ones, and then share the meal together: It is no secret that fast-food is not good for you. One, because of what makes up the usual fast-food meal, and two, because when someone grabs fast-food, they are usually rushing from one place to the next with little time to spare. Taking the time to make a meal with loved ones not only slows you down, but it allows you to spend quality time with people who love and refresh you.

Stay in bed, or at least at home, all day:
At times slowing down means doing nothing, and I mean nothing. Well okay, eating, going to the bathroom, and getting up to grab the impromptu board game or deck of cards is okay. If you are married, this is even amazing to do with your loved one or family.

Clean up your living space, and rearrange if needed:
While this might feel like work, cleaning can also be therapeutic for some out there. In fact, having a clean space can help reduce your anxiety, and rearranging some things might make your life easier.

Go outside and do something active: It is a fact that the sun’s rays provide much-needed vitamins to our bodies. On top of that, being active helps to reduce stress levels and makes you a lot healthier holistically.
Create a place where you feel you can escape: Everyone needs time by themselves to just be alone with their thoughts and their God, even if you are married. Find a place where you can be alone and relax in order to recover from what life brings your way.

Read a book: Turn off everything—your phone, television, computer, or whatever else might distract you—and pick up a book and get lost for a little while.

Drive until you get lost: As I stated in the being of the blog, getting away can be one of the best ways to slow down. Not only are you getting away from everything that usually causes you to run at marathon speed, but it also helps you to mentally detach from reality. (Just make sure you have enough gas before you head out and maybe a GPS.)

Sit in silence with God:
Sitting in silence allows your mind to process information. In the quiet of your own minds, you might even begin to recognize some things about yourself that you never knew before. Before beginning a time of silence, ask God to guide your mind. You could also pick out a passage of scripture and spend some time meditating. (Remember this is not prayer time, this is silent time)

Pray: Even as someone in full-time ministry, I have noticed that my prayer life sometimes becomes too quick and to the point with God. Try to view your time in prayer with God more like spending time with a loved one or mentor, this might help you to see prayer as a conversation between you and your creator, rather than just voicing a list of requests to a far-off being.

Spend some time in God’s word:
Everyone spends time in scripture differently; some read, study, and journal for their quiet times, while others just read and pray. To be honest, I am not sure whether one is more spiritually beneficial than another one is. Find out how you best receive from God’s word and spend some extra time doing whatever that might be. Maybe that means reading a little more? Maybe that means doing a little more reflection? Maybe it means journaling a little longer? Or just maybe that means reading a little less, and focusing your reading on just one verse? Whatever it means for you to be in scripture, just be.

To end, I truly hope you spend some time and slow down this week, the next, and for the rest of your life.

February 12, 2010

Slowing Down (A Three Week Experement)

Silence continuing till Tuesday 2/16/10 because I was away at a spiritual retreat this last week. But here is a quote that might give you a clue to where we will be going in the weeks to come.

"Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stand firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil." - Dallaw Willard, "The Spirit of The Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, pg. 261

February 4, 2010

Slowing Down (A Two Week Experement)

Rest as a part of creation.

26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

January 28, 2010

Slowing Down (A Two Week Experement)

Slowing down can be hard at times, but without having a heart of solitude can we really be present as we minister or serve others in our community?

"Without the solitude of heart, the intimacy of friendship, marriage and community life cannot be creative. Without the solitude of heart, our relationship with other easily become needy and greedy, sticky and clinging, dependent and sentimental, exploitative and parasitic, because without the solitude of heart we cannot experience the others as different from ourselves but only as people who can be used for the fulfillment of our own, often hidden needs." ( Henri J. M. Nouwen "Reaching Out: The Three Movements of The Spiritual Life", pg. 43)

January 26, 2010

Slowing Down (A Two Week Experement)

In response to Good Magainze's latest issues entitled, "The Slow Issue," and how it revealed some things to me about Christian spiritual disciplines; we are slowing down the process of this blog over the next two weeks. Instead of being one large blog entry post on every Tuesday, over the next two weeks there will be multiple blog entries building up to one large culminating entry.

I encourage you to reflect on what you read, meditate on the scripture passages that will be posted, try to apply it as you see fit, and enjoying living a little slower over the next two weeks.

"One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:" (Luke 6:12-13)

January 19, 2010

Urban Tribes: A Communal Culture Shift (#3)

In the previous two weeks we have discussed a working definition for urban tribes, as well as what the Bible and church history believe about topics those in urban tribes are concerned with. During this week, we will look further at the last two steps of Gordon’s Lynch’s model by entering into a “mutually exclusive conversation,” asking questions of both perspectives and looking to see what new insights might be gained through our theological reflection of Urban Tribes.
Mutually Critical Conversation

Single Life

Urban tribes are made up solely of single individuals. By existing in their current form, urban tribes reinforce that it is okay to for an individual to be single for a majority of their life, if not for their whole life. Within current society, this is not something that many in the Church are willing to be okay with. But singleness should not be viewed as a middle ground between what was and what is to come, as both urban tribes and those in the Church view singleness. The Church, as well as urban tribes, needs to understand, as Paul did, that singleness is just as much of a call on someone’s life as marriage is. A life of singleness is a viable option, and should be respected within our current culture.

Within urban tribes, singleness has become a way to serve self-interests through the purchasing of material objects and/or participating in a self-gratifying community. Rather, Saint Paul argues that one is called to singleness in order to better serve Christ. The apostle even takes it as far as to state that an unmarried person can be concerned about the Lord’s affairs, or how to please the Lord, but a married person is concerned about the affairs of this world, or how to please their mate, meaning that their interests are divided (1 Cor. 7:32-34). Therefore singleness is not to be taken advantage of for one’s personal gain, but instead for the gain of the Kingdom, in the same way all people have been called.

Family

Urban tribes are calling the Church to redefine families based on a tribal idea, rather than a traditional view of family, such as the nuclear family. Single people cannot gravitate toward this definition of family because they do not fit into its constraints and usually their experience with the nuclear family was not good. Urban tribe members have made an important statement, that family is not limited to those in your bloodline, it also includes those who care for you, who you care for, and those who help to define you. In fact, this definition is very similar to the examples of family provided in the Bible. The main thing lacking from an urban tribe member’s definition of family is that it rarely includes any who are non-single people. Within the Biblical view of family all members of culture are included: single people, as well as those in couples, mothers, fathers, children, teens, and the elderly.

The Community

Urban Tribes challenge the current definition of family, crying out, community can no longer be defined as it is within American Christian Churches, as a group of individuals who gather in a church building once a week. The institutional Church needs to hear what urban tribes are saying and redefine community as a group of friends and/or family who live in community together. Within urban tribes one’s community supports who a person is and what they are about in order to help them find their own calling or meaning in life. Community is not about the roles that a person plays, but about how individuals work together to love and support each other. It is a persons community that connects them to the city they are living in. Single individuals are important to communities and should not be shunned away from them.

However, the Church can challenge urban tribes to be a part of heterogeneous and homogenous groups. Scripturally and theologically speaking, singles should be allowed to participate within a community where they are able to connect with others who are going through similar experiences, as well as be a vital part of communities that are not only made up of other singles. It is important that singles, families, the elderly, children, and teens dwell together in community, just as they did in the early Church. Families and the elderly can provide support that singles need in order to mature in life, while singles can help to provide mentoring to children and teens, as well as to provide support and encouragement to the elderly and those who are married. The Church can help communities such as urban tribes see that God should be the binding force between all who dwell in community together. As this binding force, God brings people together as a representative community, exemplifying love that God brings together a community in such a way that they become a representation of who God is.

Dating and Marriage

One mantra heard within the urban tribe community is that it is important to be careful about who one marries. Many urban tribe members have seen their parents’ marriages fail and are very cautious when considering giving themselves away in marriage. This might raise the question for Christians; to whether or not they need to become more cautious about whom they marry. Those in Urban Tribes might wonder why the divorce rate of Christians is the same as those who do not identify themselves as Christians, especially when the Bible views marriage as a lifetime commitment between two people. At the same time this conversation could be reversed, the Biblical view of marriage as a commitment between two people can also serve as a conversation piece within urban tribes, directing members toward the covenantal relationship between Christ and his Church. This type of relationship can also point urban tribe members toward the covenantal relationship between Christ and his Church. With this covenant in mind, one could pointing out that divorce exists because it is a part of the sin and depravity that exists within the world, further bringing clarity to why this has become such a cultural phenomenon within current society.

New Insights for the Church

The church in America can no longer look down on singleness if it wants to survive in today’s culture. Due to the rise of “never-marrieds” and single families, the church must open its doors to singles in a different way. Singleness needs to be viewed in light of Paul’s theology, as a calling given by God to individuals, much in the same way that marriage is. Single and college bible studies are no longer enough, and we cannot afford to separate singles from families and families from singles; the church must find a way to incorporate singles into the larger body.

The topic of community is much of the basis of discussion between urban tribes and the Church. For many, the America Christian Church community is understood as a group of individuals who meet in a building once a week, while within urban tribes community is defined as groups of singles who live together in an urban city during a time of transition between what was and what will come. Neither of these definitions of community are sufficient; community should be defined as the family of God. We can no longer allow ourselves to be defined as only individuals but should allow ourselves to be defined first and foremost by God, and then by our relationship with others. This type of community should reflect our identity in Christ; with singles, traditional families, and children united under God.

Challenging the “traditional” definition of family is essential due to the rise of broken marriages and families. Urban tribes, as well as early Church definitions of family, call today’s Church to see that blood is not the only thing that makes people family; rather any in need may be called family. At the same time, the church cannot afford to completely do away with our traditional views of family because they still play a part in our community and self-awareness; for instance, a child without a father may continue to desire a “father-figure.” Instead, there needs to be a redefinition of family that allows for traditional typology, with a broader working definition, allowing others to fulfill needed typologies, while also allowing singleness to be a viable option. (Notice I did not use the word “roles,” as to assume that traditional gender roles are in need of protection, but that is a conversation for another time).

Christian communities should mirror urban tribes in providing family-like guidance in dating relationships, as well as approving of dating partners. At the same time, churches should find ways to support singles if they do not decide to marry or date. Marriage should not just be viewed as something to be achieved, like a promotion to the next step in life. Marriage should be seen as a calling in life, just as singleness is a calling. Marriage is more than just the start of a new family, it is a representation of the relationship that Christ shares with his Church; like Christ and his Church, the two individuals become one.

Conclusion

On a personal note, as I approach my wedding date, I will be leaving behind a community of single friends who have supported me thus far and joining the leagues of the marrieds. As I move closer to this date I cannot help but think about what I have learned over the past few years of single life that has and will continue to benefit the Church. I have been in a world that many in the Church view as foreign, and I am a part of a generation and a culture that is changing the sociological make-up of our country; if the Church does not open their eyes to the change that is going on in current culture, thousands of singles will be left behind. Cultural items, such as urban tribes, have much to bring to the table of theological dialogues; urban tribes show us much about community, single life, families, dating, and marriage that the Church needs to learn from. At the same time, the Church also has much to offer to those who live in the urban tribe community. The Church holds the keys to the Kingdom of God, and to a life where people are called to find their true identities within something greater than their communities, or their selves, rather in God.

January 12, 2010

Urban Tribes: A Communal Culture Shift (#2)

When looking at urban tribes through a cultural theological lens, it is important to provide a working definition of theology, which is the process of the community of God seeking truth about God and his relationship with creation through revelation within a cultural context. Theology is first a normative discipline; as Peter Hodgson states the primary focus of theology is “Theos” or “God,” making God the subject of knowing, or the absolute reference point. Theology does not exist in a vacuum; it must be a contextual discipline, which focuses on the universal questions of creation. Theological reflection is necessary in order to apply theology in real life situations, contexts, or in cultural reflection because we are not provided with a set of “ready-made” answers that can be imposed on all “peoples, contexts, and societies. Therefore, we must understand that the answers theology provides are shaped by our cultural “language, symbols, concepts, and concerns.”

Since theology involves answering questions to issues in our current cultural context, it should also involve asking questions about “how true, good, or constructive” a culture’s particular “values, beliefs, practices, and experiences” are. Cultural theologian, Gordan Lynch, proposes that to do this one must ask the following three questions: Does culture reflect a true picture of God, suffering, evil and redemption in light of revelation? Does culture manifest , “just relationships between people,” allowing communities to live authentically and promote the well being of humanity? To what extent does culture offer “constructive experience of pleasure, beauty, and transcendence?”

The revised correlational approach recognizes that Common Grace exists within creation and that truth and goodness exist outside a particular tradition or worldview by critically approaching a cultural item and identifying the positive aspects, while challenging what is damaging about the said item. The first step of Lynch’s model requires one to examine the cultural issues, idea, or material in order to understand the meaning of this aspect of culture “on its own terms without bring in any religious judgments.” That is the practice I underwent last week in my review of the book Urban Tribes. The second step of Lynn’s (should this be Lynch’s) model focuses on looking at the Christian tradition to identify similar concerns and issues that Urban Tribes addresses. In order to do this I have broken up concerns and issues into four main topics: singleness, family life, community, and dating/marriage.

Singleness

Over the history of the Church the single person has played an important role within the Church community. Jesus heralded that marriage is no longer a duty in the community of the kingdom of God, a radical new understanding during Jesus’ time for some (Matthew 19:10-12). From the beginning of the Church Paul advocated for the role of the single person as one whose attention is undivided, one who can focus on the affairs of the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). As the Church community grew under the Catholic Church, singleness was made mandatory for priests, bishops, and popes in service to the Lord. Celibacy became respected by communities when single members of the community as Church members held high power. During the Reformation many of Reformers denied the Catholic ordinances of mandatory singleness for priests, bishops, and others members of church leadership. For unknown reasons this concept soon spread and singleness quickly became taboo in the post-reformation church community. In fact, Rodney Clapp argues in his book Families at the Crossroads that this belief is still continued today in many denominational communities. Therefore, today in the church there are many of singles who find themselves ostracized from faith communities because of the family focus of many church programs and leadership, as well as the overall church community.

Family

The family has taken many shapes over the course of the life of the Church. At the time of the birth of the Church, the family looked more like a tribal family unit then today’s nuclear family. When studying the gospels it appears that Jesus believed that his family was not primarily his blood relatives, but his family was composed of those who share his obedience to the will of God (Matthew 12:49-50). In fact, Jesus warns his followers that he did not come to bring the family unit together, but instead to divide it, “father against son,” or “daughter against mother” (Luke 12: 52-54). Taking these two verses together, Clapp has argued that Jesus calls his church to be a family of families, made up of those who follow Jesus as Lord. Peter in his epistle also continues Jesus’ message of redefining the family unit when he uses the phrases “Universal Church” and “Family of God” to refer to the church community (1 Peter 4:17). Paul also uses this family imagery when he calls believers “children of God” or “heirs of God,” something everyone in the first century would have associated with the Hebrew or Greek family unit (Romans 8:16-17, 9:8; Phil. 2:15). The writer of Hebrews even continues this new understanding of families, when he or she states that if disciples are not disciplined, they become illegitimate children of God (Hebrews 12:8). The Church understood that the promises of God transformed individuals into God’s literal sons and daughters, thus creating a new family. The Church understood that the family of God is more important than the cultural family. When the Church became a part of the Roman Empire under Constantine, the Christian idea of family began to look more like the current cultural understanding of family one found themselves in. The Church somehow lost its understand of itself as a family of God, and understood itself more as a religious organization. Today the Christian idea of family is the nuclear family, which consists of a heterosexual couple and their children, in which the husband maintains authority within the household and the mother manages the home and children. It is interesting to note that even in today’s society our family unit looks a lot like our own culture, which is shaped by capitalism and nationalism as Clapp argues.

The Community

The members early Church referred to themselves as the ekklesia, which is translated “church” in English. Early in Christianity the Church extracted their understanding of who they were to be from the fact that they believed that they now existed in a new age, during the reign of the Kingdom of God. The use of this Greek word suggests that the early Christian community saw themselves as a people brought together by the Holy Spirit, bound to one another through Christ in covenant as God’s people. This type of community did not just contain one current demographic of people, but rather a mosaic of individuals such as singles, families, elderly, and slaves. In the New Testament we find three names authors use to refer to the ekklesia, which all relate to each member of the Trinitarian God: the nation of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Spirit. Theologians have suggested that the ekklesia is a representation of God, who dwells in community bound together through the Spirit. As time went on, the Church declared that its essence is contained in four marks—apostolicity, catholicity, unity, and holiness. The Catholic, Orthodox, and other high church denominations raise apostolicity as the highest of the marks. During the Reformation, some theologians shifted the focus of “the essence of the church” towards the Word and sacrament, where the more radical reformers developed an ecclesiology that became known as congregationalism, asserting that the true church is made up of those who stand within a voluntary covenant with God. This movement toward covenantalism shifted the church toward a local understanding of church, instead of a universally understood reality. It is this covenantal ideology that has greatly affected American churches today. Today many church members understand the church to a building more than a group of people who find the identity within a universal metanarrative. Some Christian movements, including the Emergent Church, are currently challenging congregationalism ideals of church, but it is yet too early to see what affects these challenges might bring.

Dating and Marriage

The Bible does not speak directly about dating, and throughout Church history the Church has usually followed the marriage/dating structure of whatever culture it exists in. In fact, dating is a rather new invention of society as it moved towards a more consumer-driven culture. In centuries past marriages were arranged by parents, mostly for the economic benefits for both families. In the United States, even in the church, individuals are allowed to date others in order to find a suitable mate. Once one finds a desired mate of one’s choosing like one finds a new car or house, one makes a covenant to be married with that person “till death do they part.” In the New Testament marriage was viewed as a reflection of Christ’s union with the Church; (Ephesians 5: 31-32) it is in this holy communion that the two are bound together as “one” (Gen 2:24). It is this view of married is still widely held by many church denominations today.

Next week we shall look at the final two steps of Lynch’s cultural theological model in hopes of finding out what urban tribes can teach the church and what the church can teach those who find themselves in urban tribes. Until next Tuesday.

January 5, 2010

Urban Tribes: A Communal Culture Shift

As I sat at a Christmas party with some of my closest friends and loved ones I could not help but feel at home. The feeling was not because I was in a current town I had once known as home or because the smell or song reminded me of a pastime, instead I felt at home because of the people I was with, my friends. In the book Urban Tribes: Are Friends The New Family?, author Ethan Watters discusses a social trend that emerged sometime around the early 1990s, one he has experienced, as well as studied, and refers to as “Urban Tribes.” While this phenomenon has gone almost unidentified by anyone within the Institutional Church, it has been well recognized by the rest of our culture. In fact, the church has done little to nothing to respond to it, so much as that many within urban tribes who will call themselves Christians, do not want to be in anything that looks like an Institutional Church because they feel their needs go unmet by the church community. Instead, “church” for many of them is within their tribal community because they believe this type of community looks a lot more like the New Testament Church than any Institutional Church they have been to. This is because it is in urban tribes, not in the church, that individuals are finding acceptance, meaning, and community.

So what is an urban tribe and what does this trend mean for the Church in the coming decade? (As a side note: anyone who is in ministry of any kind, especially youth and adult ministry needs to pick up this book, read it, and ponder how this social trend might affect his or her own ministry) urban tribes as Watters describes them are communities of “single-friends” who live in different urban communities around the world. How urban tribes form is unknown, their beginning seems to be more like a game of connecting the dots where friends connect with friends, who connect with even more friends, until a core group of friends is constructed. While some friends connect through work, others connect through college or living together. Not all members of one tribe are defined by one activity or trait, but many tribe members are living between post-college life and pre-family life, delaying marriage into their late twenties, thirties, and forties. It is impossible to simplify what urban tribes are, since their size, composition, rules and rituals vary radically. Tribe members seem to live in a constant pursuit of the future, living without an identity, stuck between childhood and marriage. Members of urban tribes are asking many of life’s big questions, as well as living unsure of or even without their own metanarrative while wanting to know there are others in similar circumstances.

As it relates to marriage and family, members of urban tribes do not have strong enough ties to their families to continue living within proximity to relatives. Instead, they are waiting to start families of their own having lived outside the home for six to seven years by the time they are 25. Members cannot point to one reason why they have chosen to postpone family life, and neither can Watters. Some people believe that many have postponed family life because they have seen how their parents’ generation fell apart, setting records in divorces rates, drugs use, adultery, and other forms of self-destructive behavior. Therefore, urban tribe members distrust the adult community and are trying to create a new adult self, distant from their parents’ generation. Others point to the fact that individuals have more free time now, that some have found themselves divorced at an unexpectedly early age, or even that women are freer to work in whatever field they choose, instead of being limited to working in the home. A more reasonable catalyst would be a combination of all of the above, almost as a type of stained glass mirror that individually brings different colors to the picture, yet when assembled together presents a larger piece of art.

Community and friendship rule all for those in urban tribes. Watters argues that the moral values of urban tribes are contained within the friendships and support groups that members create around them. He noticed that urban tribes have high clustering coefficients, which are found by dividing the number of people who know each other by the total number of people who could possibly know each other. A high clustering coefficient allows for reciprocal, positive relationships, which are entered freely. This high bond allows each member to support every other member of their tribe, as well as give each member of the tribe their own freedom to accomplish whatever they wish. Watters believes urban tribes are most like families in their expression of love during activities that carry meaning. It is a tribe’s friendship history that helps the group maintain a group identity; this history also helps the tribe to introduce new members into the tribe, as over time a new member becomes a part of the history of the tribe. Friendship in tribes may be broken down into friendship or personality roles such as the advice giver, the comedian, the deal negotiator, the ones in need, the mother like figure, and the social director yet, all friends are on a level playing field and bring an equal amount of importance to the group. During group functions individuals will separate off into smaller clusters of three to four people and gossip about their lives. Watters believes that these small groups of gossiping clusters allow for group members not only to pass along important information, which allows members to get to know each other, but that gossip is an act of expressing alliance to the membership of the group.

In urban tribes friendship plays an essential role in defining an individual. They see their selves in their friends and they see themselves in each other. Watters argues that friends do not necessarily reflect one’s true self, but an idealized notion of who a person is; therefore, friends are good at encouraging one another, but not as helpful at promoting needed change. Unlike many peoples' experiences within their family lives, tribes provide a positive environment for members at their current juncture in life by challenging one's self-loathing and providing the support necessary for a person to further discover who they are. For instance, while mom and/or dad might be asking why one is not married at 30, urban tribes do not ask this question, but care for the individual and support them for where they are in life. urban tribes bring something to the table that many families do not, acceptance. Therefore instead of traditional family relationships, it is through their tribe friendships that members learn to be comfortable in their own skin. The devotion that tribe members show one another helps teach members the devotion they want or believe they should give to their future significant other, if they even chose to marry.

Urban tribe communities help to connect tribes to their city through social responsibilities. Unlike the traditional “American way” of belonging to one organization, such as the Boy Scouts or the local PTA, urban tribes participate in social action through a “society of friendship.” Through the a society of friendship tribe members connect to one another spreading the word of need through existing networks and are then motivated to participate in social action through their strong friendship ties.

Many members of urban tribes are in a constant cycle of dating, moving from one person to the next, yet always staying true to their tribes. While many members find value in the institution of marriage, not many are moving quickly to get there. Tribe members are no longer idealistic about marriage, but have started questioning the marriage practices of the generation before them, feeling that many of their parents jumped into marriage too quickly. Many members are therefore looking for their “soul mates,” or at least someone that will provide as much support to them as their tribe has. If a member is dating someone, the approval of tribe members holds greater value than that of their family. Once a member marries s/he will then leave the tribe for their new mate. Even though it was not intentional, most tribes realize that a married person’s attention turns from the tribe to their new mate and their free time is spent with their significant other, rather than with the tribe. Even if tribes last for decades, they eventually will significantly change or break apart as members get married. Sociologists as well as many people still believe that many of these “never-marrieds” will one day be married. There has been a recent shift in tribal communities where marrieds are trying to extend tribal relationships into married life. Marrieds have also begun to form married urban tribes where majorities of people within the tribes are married. Now the larger destroyer of urban tribes seems to be location and children instead of marriage.

Next week we will explore Urban Tribes through a cultural theological lens in order to see what the Church can learn from these communities, as well as bring to these communities. Until next week.