Meeting with Ben and Susan Cheek, Hugo Monroy, and Chadd Schrader was such a blessing yesterday! They are working on a Pathways project together with Kent which looks like is turning into a book of sorts. It follows the life of Christ, and asks how he brought seekers along to become servants and finally “sons” of God. In the meantime, Jesus was proclaiming his identity to the crowds, and really God was proclaiming that through Jesus’ righteousness (not his deeds) he was God’s Son, and he was very pleased with him. Jesus then heads to the desert to be tempted; this begins the formation phase of Jesus’ ministry, where he is disseminating information, teachings, wisdom, discipline for those who rejected God, etc – kind of creating a beginning place for those who want to follow after him. Finally his impartation stage: he puts his mind to the Cross, and begins to step down as a “leader”, letting others then lead instead.

The result is that within three years, Jesus pours all his time and energy into 12 fishermen, who then become disciples, who finally become world church leaders. Their experience is what church planters are looking for today: how do we bring common people to faith in Christ, then to grow in their discipleship, and finally to become church planters on their own who can train more disciples? Your work is not truly done until you have seen your ministry replicated to the third and fourth generation. I anticipate that with all I have within me as a follower of Christ. The buck doesn’t stop here – I pass it on to others who will do the same.

This morning I read about Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. This is the move I think from being a teacher who leads his followers to a servant who moves to the background. Jesus is empowering his disciples to take over as leaders – but to be servants in this leadership role. Servant leadership is not just a catch phrase, doing your work as a leader with a flashy-looking smile on your face; it is doing the background grunt work so that others can step up and try their hand at doing what you have been showing them. It is allowing the curtain to close in front of you so that you can begin to work the lights for other’s center stage moments. Leadership starts with teaching and discovering, but it reaches its fulfillment with a basin and a towel.

One day through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell-wether sheep
Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day o'er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed -do not laugh-
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.

The forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsepts of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowded throughoufare;
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked jouney went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and caled to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,

And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along with all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! Many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.
- Sam Walter Foss

What does it take to see someone move from a non-committed relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, to a committed relationship with him? What does it take to see that person then continue in the process of transformation to becoming a lifelong believer and Lord-listener? What does it take to see that person then raise a community up around him/her and start the process over again?

Our evangelistic efforts traditionally have taken people to an intital point of commitment. We have virtually no healthy skills or history with the lifelong, arduous process of "discipling" (in fact that word more often than not incites suspicion and doubt on account of the only people who have even attempted forms of discipleship have been "cults"). And we are really treading on new turf when we start to think that the average Christian (if with the Holy Spirit there is such a thing as "average") could begin guiding a community him/herself.

However, if we do not have answers to these questions, then we are doomed to repeat the mistakes we have made for much of Christendom: "WE will help THEM know the Lord."…*time passes*… "WE have done so much! Look at what we're doing for THEM!"…*more time passes*… "WE are in way over our heads! WE need to bring more 'stable' Christians into our midst to help with the instable converts who are floating out and back into the fallen world."

We will never see spiritual healing as long as we think we are the doctors.

I am learning to pray daily that the Lord of the Harvest would "raise up workers for his harvest field". I believe now that it is through the lifelong art of following God, and showing others the way is the basic process of discipling. It's about being in a community in pursuit of God, and in time, calling new communities to follow down new paths so that they in turn can begin their own communities of Godly-pursuit.

How do we see a continent touched by vibrant communities in desperate pursuit of the Lord? If the process is not self-sustainable, and replicatable, we are wasting our time with foolish methods that will be lost in the translation.

Simply follow God, and invite others to follow with you, and teaching them to invite still more.

Simple church: It's as simple as that.

Simple church: It's as messy as that.

Have our churches given up on the Spirit?

I just finished a paper on Paul's idea of community and church leadership in the book of Ephesians.  Writing that paper has totally blown me away to my understandings of how Paul hoped his churches would function.  If you were to break it all down, Paul hoped that the Spirit would ultimately lead the church.   Just look at 1Cor 12:4 - "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all."  Check out Eph. 4:7, "But each of us was given grace as Christ apportioned it." And later on in that chapter, "Now these are the gifts he gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  There responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ."

Facinating!  So if every person who has been given the gift from the Spirit has a responsibility to help equip the rest of the church to build it up into a mature body of Christ!  Every believing person that I come into contact with is someone I should deeply respect, as someone I could learn the eternal mysteries of God from, because they hold within them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Maybe they have the pastoral gift, or an evangelistic one…or something else entirely.  I am learning that even and especially those who seem least likely to teach me something about God have the most to say - they are gifts from God to his people. 

What do I do to myself when I hole myself up in a seminary that pens me in with people who look/act/think just like me?  'Course, we have our differences, but I don't normally come across people with wildly different backgrounds, polarized opinions on major theological or political issues, or simply someone who just became a Christian days earlier.  They have more to teach me in many ways than I have to teach them.  

These are exciting times for me.  I'm finally moving away from ALL education, and starting to really live into the sloppy, messy world of life with God.  Where will he take me?  Who will be his teachers in my life?  All believers have been given God's Spirit, and have something to contribute.  I'm listening…

Happy (late) Easter everyone!  He is RISEN!

Yesterday morning we had the chance to experience our first "network gathering", where both house church networks in Abilene(Abilene Mission Church and Jesus Family Network) came together for food and for praising our resurrected Lord.  It was a really great experience; we met many for the first time, and yet there was already a deep connection of love and appreciation we all had for each other because we were connected through a network of friends and prayer.  

Isn't this much of what every Christian gathering should be like?  I think there were a few things that made yesterday very special for Katrina and I.  1. This was a new thing.  While for many they had been meeting regularly in house churches and celebrating occasionally in larger gatherings, this was a first for us.  I know that the newness of anything can rub off eventually, no matter how sweet it is!  2. Perhaps the deeper cause for all the the intentional love, hugs, loyalty etc. came from the true web of relationships that are born from natural connections throughout the network, rather than a crowd of people gathered around a preacher because they like his Power Point outlines.  3. We all had stories to tell of resurrection life, because we have truly been on a journey to see God change us.  Of course, this is happening all over the Christian world, but where are the conversations where we share openly about it all?  Confession of past sin and celebration of new life…I can't think of a better way to spend my Easter morning!  4. It was at one of my favorite parks in Abilene, outdoors under a few trees with some great food…what more could you ask for? 

While growing up in my family, Easter didn't exactly have the same focus we put on it today.  For one thing, I was younger and didn't appreciate Christ's Passion as the "reason for the season".  But the reality was, my Christian tradition as a child specifically didn't recognize Easter because it wasn't celebrated in the New Testament.  Its true that much of Easter is today is simply pagan transference, (see a good book by Frank Viola for more on pagan influences in our faith) but is it wrong to abandon the worldwide/church wide remembrance of Christ's death, burial and resurrection just because they didn't think to celebrate each year the resurrection before the close of the Canon?  Today, any chance I get to intentionally and communally embrace my Lord's story of Good News I take it.  

Right now Katrina and I are creatively thinking through the Christian holidays and trying to find fun, Christ-centered ways of celebrating.  Purposely inviting a poor family we've built relationships with into our home for Thanksgiving, reading the story of St. Nicolaus and celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, tossing out the Easter Bunny lie and remembering Christ's new life in a fun way with games and friends.  We're trying to sort all this out - and we welcome all ideas…we don't want to fall into the trap of just "enjoying" our holy-days the way we enjoy a hamburger or a good praise team - we want to savor the Christian calendar, and share a distinctive message of grace with our friends that surround us.