06.30.10
Posted in ekklesia, formation, leadership, mission at 5:00 am by len
I was sitting with a brother who mentors church planters, both in Canada and in Europe. He was concerned that too many groups have continued to clone American models rather than allowing the new works to be shaped uniquely by the Holy Spirit. The first question church planting agencies often want to discuss is governance. Who is in control? How does leadership function? What structures are in place? Of course, when you are throwing denominational money at something accountability is important. But sometimes — and often, in the case of complex systems — centralized control is counter-productive. Particularly when centralized control is driven by corporate measures: attendance, buildings, cash.
I was reminded of the “wine and wineskin” analogy in Matthew and Luke. It seems like we want to give priority to the wineskin – perhaps familiarity gives us a sense of security. Sometimes perhaps we don’t genuinely trust God or the people he anoints for the work, so we want control. Maybe it gives us a sense of usefulness, or justifies our position, to maintain that level of input from a centralized office. Cynical perhaps?
The diagrams that follow are borrowed and reproduced with slight changes from Mike Breen and Bob Hopkins, “Clusters.” Clusters are mid-sized missional communities, usually 25-75 persons. They function as both sodality and modality – as community, and missionary band. And they correspond roughly to the “social space,” one of the four distinct and necessary social groupings identified in the research of Joseph Myers. Mike and Bob argue that cluster size communities are the missing piece in the life of the local church. Groups this size are best at developing leadership and significant connections and grow more rapidly than any other size group. Read the rest of this entry »
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06.29.10
Posted in community, ekklesia, mission, theology at 5:05 am by len
I was looking at a diagram for the rhythm of missional community the other day, the old sodalic/modalic rhythm. It hit me that this was really an ontology – it was a reflection of the inner life of the Trinity.
God is a perfect community of being. And the overflow of that loving relatedness is mission. The church, reflecting the inner life of the Trinity, exists in the rhythm of inward, and outward life.
I made a small set of diagrams to represent this. And I was reflecting on the typical three circle diagram most of us have used for years. Three overlapping circles picture mission, community, and worship. But really this is still the same rhythm of mission and community, inward and outward life, and then the third circle adds the upward dimension.
Reading in Clusters, and looking over the LifeShapes material, Mike Breen and crew add a fourth circle – Of. “Of” represents the connections between communities, the wider “catholicity” without which we run into trouble. So the original two circle picture becomes four circles, or a circle overlaid with a cross — arrows moving four ways. But personally I like the original two circle rhythm and then two arrows added – Up and Of.
In “Clusters” another diagram is added. Watch this — I like it. Read the rest of this entry »
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06.28.10
Posted in life happens at 7:12 pm by len
I love Chai tea: the tea spiced with cardamom, creamy and sweet. There aren’t many drinks that I don’t enjoy if they are creamy and sweet. I limit myself to a small size — not daily, but almost.
The David Rio natural ingredients Chai mix is excellent, though I don’t care for the artificially sweetened one. Not long ago my wife came home with a blend made in Vancouver by the Chai Company: an organic, fair trade, decaf version that is sweetened with organic cane sugar. Interesting.. it’s made with Red Tea (Rooibos). This is not nearly as sweet as the David Rio brand, but great flavor. And wow – you can order online for $8.25 a litre.
Earlier in the spring a friend introduced me to the London Fog. This is a drink made with Earl Grey tea, and.. yes, milk and honey. Near enough to the Promised land.
Ok, bad pun, but it’s quite good. Not as good as a good Chai, but a nice change. I mixed equal parts 2% milk with water, got it up to a simmer, and then threw in an organic tea bag. My wife found an organic Earl Grey tea around Christmas, and it is hands down the best Earl Grey I’ve ever had.
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Posted in ekklesia, hermeneutics, mission at 8:00 am by len
I picked up this phrase from William Stringfellow many years ago, likely in “AN Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens…” And recently, thinking about the reign of God and his creation of us as a kingdom of priests, I’ve been connecting some thoughts about what it means to live in the in-breaking of the kingdom in this world.
There has been some good conversation about the missional implications of the gifts listed in Ro.12 and Eph.4. These gifts are not meant only for the inward life of the community, but for its outward life, and for the equipping of the saints for daily life in the world. But more yet — our daily life is creative and cultural life. We are “namers” and extenders of God’s kingdom purpose, just as Adam named the animals – partnering with God in the creation project.
But what does all this mean in terms of the secular polis? What does all this mean in this post-secular space?
Other threads we could follow along that connect to the same tapestry would be Jeremiah 29, “Seek the peace of the city,” and the meaning of ecclesia as a wise gathering of community leaders. As Frost and Hirsch point out in ReJesus, Paul could have used any number of words to denote a gathering, and probably would have chosen “synagoge” if all he meant was “called out ones.” Similar to the work William Cavanaugh has been doing in this area (in particular his article “The Church as God’s Body Language”) Frost and Hirsch here hit at the political meaning. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in audio, formation at 6:00 am by len
Yesterday I spoke on “Spiritual perfection: what it is and how to attain it.”
Well – it’s a stretch to say I addressed the latter part. It really requires a follow up message. Following is a link to my sermon in a WORD doc or MP3. You will see some reliance on NT Wright here. I would have liked also to talk about the formation of a self, with reference to some of Parker Palmer’s work and then moved into something like Willard, Renovation of the Heart. Can’t do everything in 30 minutes.
I made some nice slides for this one, including a “Spiritual Richter Scale” … The image above didn’t really fit, and actually would have connoted something opposed to the point I was making – but I like it. I opened with Bruce Cockburn singing “Burden of the Angel Beast.” Here are the words-
From the lying mirror to the movement of stars
Everybody’s looking for who they are
Those who know don’t have the words to tell
And the ones with the words don’t know too well
Could be the famine
Could be the feast
Could be the pusher
Could be the priest
Always ourselves we love the least
That’s the burden of the angel/beast
We go crying, we come laughing
Never understand the time we’re passing
Kill for money, die for love
Whatever was God thinking of?
Sp Perfection: WORD orMP3
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06.27.10
Posted in poetry/prose at 5:00 am by len
love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
e.e. cummings
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06.26.10
Posted in learning, poetry/prose at 9:26 am by len
It takes most men five years to recover from a college education, and to learn that poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge. Brooks Atkinson, Once Around the Sun, 1951
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. e.e. cummings, 1955
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. Edmund Hillary
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Posted in formation, life happens at 5:01 am by len
Boy, some interesting things happening in and around my life these days. I can’t talk about all of them yet.
But I can say that my book is with the publisher and I should have hard copies in a few weeks. I’ll try to get some excerpts up this week. I’ve had some generous “blurbs” supplied by people like David Fitch and Paul Fromont. I have another book with IVP (Growing the Missional Church – A Fieldbook), and a third, collaborative project that is about 80% complete – the proposal currently in review with IVP.
We had the FORGE Executive team meetings in Vancouver this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Those were good days. I always come away with fresh energy and vision; working with men who are passionate for Christ and his kingdom is a great gift. There are a lot of things popping with FORGE and a sense of building momentum – the church in Canada is waking up to her need, and we are tooling up to partner in bringing change.
Much of my time yesterday and half of my time today was in prepping a sermon for METRO this Sunday. It is Scripture like this in Rev. 1 that has been gripping me the past few weeks:
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—
to him be glory
and power
forever and ever!
The implications for life TODAY are stunning. I appreciated NT Wright’s take on this, starting around page 73 in After You Believe. The Empire would have us believe we are simply consumers. The anthropology of most of the world, and even much within the church, comes across as “I am what I do; I am what I have; I am what others say about me.”
I am making the strong connection to God’s reign, and the conflict between the coming kingdom and this present evil age. And then I am saying, “how do we become what we are — priests and kings?” And that really becomes a separate series, or more precisely, a life curriculum. My wife will come up for the last five minutes and sketch out some implications in terms of what we are doing working with men and women seeking wholeness. (One of the best curriculums we have found is the Genesis Project. But we’ve discovered some great resources in Beth Moore’s workbooks also).
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06.25.10
Posted in ekklesia, health/recovery at 5:00 am by len
Steven Covey writes,
“You can be active in a church but in active in the Gospel.
I have found that attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meetings.
In the church-centered life, image or appearance can become a substitute for reality, leading to hypocrisy that undermines personal security and intrinsic worth.
Because the church is a formal organization made up of policies, programs, practices, and people, it cannot by itself give a person .. worth. Church-centered people tend to live in compartments. Seeing the church as an end rather than a means leads to .. imbalance.”
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, 117
Shades of Richard Rohr who opines, “The church is supposed to be the dating service. Sometimes she thinks she is the date.”
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06.24.10
Posted in poetry/prose at 12:15 pm by len
All listening is local,
the rhythms of place persuade.
One King ascends
and gifts grant polis,
until habit becomes habitus,
while people process change.
“Seek the peace of the city,”
neighbors and networks,
limb and leaf,
each to grow where each one dwells,
faithful and fruitful,
until lion and lamb lay together.
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